who has got family stranded by the volcanic ash?

[MrsShu]

me ! easy jet have cancelled return flight

Yes MMeLindt - am in Dublin.

Your fault is it??? Fine by me!

There are 2 Vapianos in Budapest btw!

Oh, I have always wanted to visit Budapest. Now I know they have Vapianos...

Whose sis was stranded in Geneva? I have forgotten. Give me a shout if she needs anything, have nothing to do this weekend.

Annnnd. They have closed several German airports, might be that Munich will be next. Which means that DH might not get there on Sunday.

Norkily - I wasn't saying you shouldn't feel sad about it. It is dreadful - just not the worst thing that could ever happen.

Anyway - you alone with those bairns - what ages are they? Any particular flashpoints in the day you need strategies to cope with?

DH is stuck in the USA.
DD is inconsolable she wanted him home at the time specified...

Right - all those of you with upset children - how about making your own volcano? That should distract and inform them

Lol at own volcano - I can imagine they would love it but they are 23 months and 3.2 so I'm not willing to brave the mess! I'm just a wimp at parenting alone (with all necessary caveats that obviously I realise some people have more children/no partner/etc) and was so proud to have managed 5 days

I don't think anyone was saying that it's the worst thing that could ever happen, were they? I think we do all have it in perspective but it doesn't mean we're not disappointed, that's all I was trying to say

DD1 is fascinated with volcanos now and has been looking at picture out of one of our books and looking at pictures on the BBC site She's happier now she realises DP isn't anywhere near the actual volcano too.

Oh bless her - I suppose 'Daddy can't come home because of a volcano' does sound jolly scary!

Respect to you with 2 toddlers on your hands as well

If you haven't done this already how about a trip to a farm/fields to look at lambs - lots of cute ones around at the moment. I think the key to managing is to get out of the house as much as possible! Have you got any mates you can rope in for a bit of support - you must be exhausted!

Smugness here - I was in Paris yesterday with DH.

We met a very nice person in an information queque, got talking, and ended up sharing a hire car to Calais. Just made the 15.25 ferry, picked up a another hire car the other end and got home by 10pm. Very smooth journey with hardly any problems, even the traffic round the M25 was OK.

On the negative side, we were about 6 hours late and it cost us around £500 between the three of us... there goes my birthday party next month

Has anyone heard anything about the likelyhood of getting refunds?

All the airports in northern Germany are closed, so my flight to Mannheim has been zapped. Not a disaster, grand total lost is 65 euros for a non-refundable hotel room, but still massively annoying. It must be so much worse for those people who can't make it to life-saving operations or to see dying relatives one last time (to take some extreme examples).

What did peeve me was the lack of coordination with the airport hotline and website. On the radio this morning we heard the press spokesman saying the airport was definitely shut until midday (looking likely to be all day now), but when we phoned the airport info - because our airline wasn't answering the phone - we were told the flight hadn't officially been cancelled and we had to turn up anyway. What a waste of time that was. No option of going by train - the news from the station was 'don't even try turning up if you don't have a ticket already'

I suggest a group action against Iceland for failing to keep its natural catastrophe under control within national borders. Now that would really bankrupt them...

Thinking of all of you who have relatives stranded in weird places, hoping they all get home soon.

Just a thought, but we paid for that non-refundable hotel room by Visa. Is there any chance the Visa insurance will kick in, or are acts of god excluded?

Well done Delilah! I rather suspect that the hire cars etc will be harder to get hold of now people know they're not just going to hop on another flight today.

Norkily - if you have a sandpit, some sand, water and a bowl you can make a volcano in that. No mess indoors then.

Do either of them have any toy planes? Maybe make an airport.

I called Eurostar and although the automated line says all trains booked, I spoke to someone and managed to get tickets from Lille to London this afternoon if that helps anyone?

Spooky picture of the craters.

But no-one can seriously blame the Icelanders for a natural phenomenom like this. I am hoping that those that have are just joking.

Well prettybird we have to blame someone! (Yes of COURSE they were joking!)

Flight def cancelled now and have rebooked for Monday. DS very happy to be missing school!

Have out a load of washing on and made plans with my sister to take children to park this afternoon.

someone emailed in to five live yesterday saying "Iceland, we said send cash, not ash." I had to at that.

There's been very little mention of whether insurance companies etc will cover this, probably because this is so unprecedented, but also because I imagine none of the companies wants to be the first to publically say that they won't.

I have a locum stranded who was flying out from UK to do a biopsy on my breast on Sunday!

My friend's 14 yo is stuck in the Gambia with her classmates! Supposed to fly back today but looking v unlikely that they'll make it back before Sunday at the earliest...

I have our au pair's parents and sister staying with us me for at least a week as they can't get back to Germany today. The B&B they were in is fully booked out.

My brother is stuck in France. Was supposed to be taking both ds's to visit him in Brighton today. But has had to be re-arranged. Hope he gets home o.k. Got a text to say he is still there !!

oh, DS's godmother is stuck in Moscow airport on her way back from china - it was only supposed to be a transfer so she doesn't have a visa for Russia and so can't even leave air side of the airport.

Looks like she's going to have to stay another night...

My Parents in law are stuck here in HK with me and dh. I was so looking forward to them leaving today- they've been with us for 2 and a half weeks already and I've had enough.

yip my dh is stuck in athens cause frankfurt airport is closed now!! i'm sure he's not really complaining - a nice weekend in athens!! its me thats complaining - i'm home alone with 3 kids!! (grrr!!)