Uncertain times

The world feels unusually unsettled of late with crises and disasters of both personal and professional impact for me. The horrendous earthquake in Haiti in January was only 3 months ago yet it seems longer and of course, is now lost from media coverage. Last month came the Islandic volcano eruption - the ash crisis shut European skies for an unprecedented 6 days and left 10 million passengers without flights. Fortunately I'd recently returned from a short break in Poland so wasn't stuck in Eastern Europe but several colleagues and friends were forced to battle their way home from holidays or business trips or were frustratingly stuck in London, missing work deadlines and family commitments. Then, just a week after returning from Poland, came the tragic air crash which killed the Polish president and over 90 of his fellow countrymen and women. Having just visited the stunning beautiful St Mary's Basilica in Krakow, I felt terribly sad watching scenes there from the funeral ceremony on TV.

This week now another disaster - 4000 square miles of oil slick spilling across the Gulf of Mexico - with potentially catastophic environmental and commercial impact. No-one yet knows how bad this will be. And just today, a car bomb discovered though made safe, in Times Square, New York. And the financial melt-down in Greece looks likely to result in more strikes and unrest. What further jitters will follow in the travel and tourism industry now, I wonder?

And all this as we approach the general election, generating a seemingly endless stream of surprises and disasters, especially for a Labour party member like me. As a regular news junkie, life has never been quite so stimulating but I look forward to more settled times - my nerves can't take much more.......