Woke up last Thursday to be told flight to Birmingham was cancelled. Because of a strike, I assumed. No, volcanic ash. Erhm, we've had April's Fool already.... Nope. It was no joke.

It's exhausting to think of all the natural occurrences of recent months. Blizzards and snowdrifts beyond living memory, earthquakes on three continents, now volcanic eruptions in Iceland. Seems relentless. Yet each time, we find ways to cope. The fighting human spirit, the dogged determination to get through, to get by, to get up and out.

Oh the effort of it! And for what. Make way for the next natural disaster.

But what if we bring all that good training, that instinct for survival, to bear on the un-natural economic 'crunch'. I suspect the seismic debt could succumb under sheer human will.

It seems to easy a 'way'.