And so it begins...

That sounds rather doom laden, but far from it. My baby girl arrives today, we have been watching a little plane representing her flight making its way millimetre by millimetre across Greenland and the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the storm that is Laurence has been raging. Well, technically it has been raging in Portsmouth on its way back from his grandfather's home on the Isle-of-Wight, and moving ominously and slowly back up to Woking. In exactly seven weeks today, if he can keep himself out of trouble and his father doesn't throw him out, Hurricane Laurence will arrive at Vancouver airport.

Last time he arrived, we waited and waited and it became clear that his entire flight had gone through and in fact another flight from London had cleared as well. The cell phone rang and it was immigration who had detained him on the basis that...well, to be honest, when I finally saw him, anyone would have detained him. He had decided to see what his hair was like when he allowed it to grow - good timing Laurence - he was wearing a Parka on a warm day and sweatpants with holes in them. His whole appearance screamed 'dope!' Eventually they let him in. This time he will have his immigration documents with him, so I hope to god that the ancestors are guiding him that day. Hmmm.....a grown up child of a lesser god.

SO...today Alex, next weekend two of Alex's friends, Hazel and Lou and then on the 19th, four days before the girls leave, Ben, truly my Benjamin, arrives for almost two months. Full house.

I have a backlog of news stories that have been simmering away on my back burner, but today I'm counting the hours until Alex is here - and since she will have to clear immigration today, there is an element of the unknown about that.