Thank you, Iceland volcano

My friend Shirley gave me the biggest gift today ... she informed me that she will be coming to France with me. When I told her a last month that I was going she said: "Why didn't you tell me sooner? You should not be alone on this kind of trip". And I thought (after kicking myself) "she's right, I should have told her".

She has a lot on the go this summer, but when my trip went up in smoke I let her know that if she could see her way to coming with me I would really appreciate it. Today she told me that we're on.

This changes everything. It will be now a blast, because we have the same way of looking at the world. For instance, we do not do line-ups (when we went to Expo 86 in Vancouver we saw all the obscure pavillions because the big ones had line-ups. Schedules are merely guidelines, and subject to change without notice. Most importantly, things that are troublesome and scary when you are alone are merely inconvenient or quite funny when you are with a friend.

So, thank you volcano and thank you Shirl.