Dear blog,

For those of you who don’t already know I’m stranded in Pisa. My flight was cancelled again today and now I’m booked on a new flight on Saturday. Fingers crossed… It’s very difficult to know what to do but the train will take three days (Pisa to Milan, Milan to Paris, Paris to London (or Paris to Calais then Dover then London) and then London to Manchester) and there are no available tickets online till Sunday. Of course if my Saturday flight is cancelled there will be no available train tickets till mid week next week so it was a tough decision trying to work out whether it was best to sit tight and try (again) for a flight or to start the long journey back.

One reason for deciding to stay in Pisa and go for the Saturday flight is that the University of Pisa’s English Deparment (thank you Prof Carla Dente!) have very kindly set me up with a computer and internet access. In fact I’ve been merrily working here since Saturday so that’s all good. I’ve even been able to buy English-language versions of the two books that I need to read for teaching (Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and the Portrait of Dorian Gray) because this is a great University town with a good English dept.

I have though missed a couple of important things now – one was the paper that I was due to give on Friday to the Council for College and University English AGM in Oxford (http://www.ccue.ac.uk/). I feel very sorry about that but it has been rearranged now for their December meeting.

As the days go by more important things will be missed, but there’s not much that I can do. It’s heartening though that the University system works to the extent that colleagues in different countries have helped me and I really am very grateful for that.

All best,

Sharon