Making preparations for family visits. Gaza diary entry.

Today has been running-around-busily day. We await the arrival of the southern branch of the family. Last heard from about an hour ago they were just passing Milton Keynes, so I think they have quite a long way to go yet. Granddaughter Number One has taken to referring to them as the Sackville  Adamses, referring back I suppose to the Sackville Bagginses in the Lord of the Rings. But the southern branch of our family is not snooty, they just don’t have a northern accent. Mind you, the youngest of the southern branch, Granddaughter Number Three, will occasionally decide to “talk like daddy” and shorten the “a” in words like “bath” and “castle”. So it goes. 

Granddaughter Number Two came round early, with the idea that she might work on her university assignments. She has wrapped some presents but I fear that little academic work has been done. 

It was very dull when I ran round the village this morning - meeting Granddaughter Number Two in the village centre so that she would not ring our doorbell and wake her sleeping grandfather. Later the day brightened and for a short time we had brilliant blue sky and sunshine. A perfect day for a long walk if we hadn’t been busy wrapping presents and organising things. Now it’s just dull again and the sun is going down.

We’re hoping for fine weather tomorrow so that we can maybe have breakfast out at her favourite cafe and then do a family visit to the market in Uppermill.

The madness continues in Gaza. Here is the latest edition of Ziad’s Gaza Diary. He describes a friend’s seven year old’s horror at finding the toilet dirty and without loo-roll in the middle the night. These children who are being moved around from place to place have been used to the same trappings of civilisation as the rest of us and need that security of normality. Will it ever be restored to them. 

I am amazed at how people continue to make life as normal as possible: adopting a stray kitten even when their own situation is so precarious, seeking cat litter and cat food while they have insufficient food for themselves. The cat has been named Hope. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!