It won’t have escaped notice that the weather has been a bit cold round here of late. Some (including one who works in the same building as me) think we should take it in our stride, and to an extent I agree that one should try and be slightly Zen about it. But sometimes this is not easy.

Thursday night was a bad night. I was rather enjoying myself at a Bosnian embassy reception when I bit awkwardly on a (really yummy) piece of Baklava and my tooth, re-filled only that morning, began hurting like the blazes. I made my excuses to the ambassadors (the one I was talking to at the time, and the one hosting the party) and hurried as fast as I could to the tram and the Gare du Midi / Zuidstation. Less than 40 minutes later I had reached Leuven station, only 7 km from home. But Leuven was snowbound; the rest of the journey took over two hours, as buses failed to show up and trains were cancelled; eventually I trudged to the warmth of the Novotel and called a cab from there, jaw still aching.

Since then it’s been OK here, but we were really alarmed to hear of the Channel Tunnel being closed – and 2000 passengers stuck inside it! – since we were due to head over to the in-laws’ tomorrow for a couple of days before Christmas. There is no reliable information available on the Eurostar / Eurotunnel site; but in the Twitter era, you cannot escape instant and public consumer feedback. It is clear that traffic is backed up for hours around Calais and Dover / Folkestone, and there are worrying reports of chaos at the loading ramps. There is no way we can take the risk of travelling with a severely autistic child (who will turn seven on Monday) and being stuck in traffic for hours, so we are not going tomorrow – particularly since the forecast is for more heavy snow precisely in western Belgium and the Pas-de Calais overnight – and quite likely will not go on Monday either. Alas, no pantomime for F, and no reunion with Anne’s cousins either. But sometimes you have to accept force majeure.