Received my first email today from the family who will be acting as my hosts in the Falklands. I wasn't expecting it and it came as a bolt out of the blue just as I was about to go get my sandwich for lunch.

It certainly gave me something to think about. With all the stresses and strains of the last 3 months the fact that I am now talking to people directly and that the flight is on Saturday is really bringing it all home to me as to just what a huge deal this is to me.

I feel so grateful to the islanders for showing that they care enough to look after us. We live in a world nowadays where teenagers kill each other on the streets of our cities and the news is constantly ramming negative image after negative image down our throats all in the name of news and public interest. Yet the vast majority of us are law abiding citizens going about our lives and trying to do the best for our friends and family.

The Islanders themselves are stopping everything for our return. I am told almost every 4x4 in the Falklands will be used to ferry the vets around the various battlefields. Almost everybody who can accomodate somebody is having a veteran stay at their home. Almost all the islanders, who are self employed, will be taking the week off to look after us. They are all doing this with a smile on their face and grattitude in their hearts which is something I doubt many of us are really used to outside our own family and friends.

I even got to look up the name of the person I am staying with and found her included in a report about feral cats in the 1950's on one of the islands. Nobody can escape Google it seems :)