[DanaC]

God what a fucking week. Some of you may recall I mentioned a while ago that my dad, who is seriously ill, has been living in a house with no water supply for the past couple of years....the house I grew up in and which I haven't set foot inside since i was in my teens on account of dad not letting anybody past his front door.

Welll.....apparently it burned to the ground about two weeks ago. I found out last night from my mum after she'd had a telephone conversation with dad. She wasn't supposed to tell me, he'd asked her not to tell 'the kids'. How on earth he expected her not to tell us about this I don't know, but hey, that's dad for you.

So....now he's in temporary accomodation and awaiting sheltered housing, which is a good thing. However, everything he owned and all the antiques from India, memoribilia, family photos, letters, Grandfather's unpublished memoirs and a host of other stuff I thought I might one day get to see have gone up in smoke.....and his insurance lapsed two years ago.

Funny old world ain't it?