After two long months the resuce tunnel should break through today.  Once checked and possibly lined for strength, evacuation will begin in an order determined by perceived health and strength.

How must those men, and their families, be feeling?  Hope and anticipation mixed with apprehension and terror.

Will rescue be successful?  Or even at this late hour what might go wrong?  As each man is lifted out and fewer remain, how will it feel to be next, to be waiting patiently or impatiently?  How will the last one feel?

And once they are out and their eyes blink despite the special goggles; as the media circus descends upon them; as they and their loved ones discover who they have all been changed by this, how then will it feel?

May God's peace and love surround them in these hours and days and beyond once we've all forgotten them once more.

The specialist nurse told me to eat "lovely homemade soup" (good job I cook then) and drink smoothies on the days immediately following treatment; she also told me to avoid all things citrus and highly acidic.  Clearly she hasn't read many smoothie labels.  I found one in the Innocent range and one in Sainsbury's own label that met the brief.  So I opted to make my own.

This one was an experiment using a bag of frozen forest fruits (JS Basics, other brands and levels of poshness are available).  I used them frozen, but you could thaw them first.  Chuck into your favourite blitzing device with at least half a pint of grape juice (presumably red is best for antioxidants) apple juice, kiddies juice drink (check the labels first!!) or even plain old-fashioned water and blitz until, well, smooth.  You may need to add more liquid to make it flow as a drink.

With the frozen fruit you can get a pretty good frappacino (slush puppie for grown-ups).

For the smoothie you may need to sweeten with your favourite brand of fairly traded sugar or honey (apologies to vegan readers) as it's quite tart; if you object to pips you'll need to strain it.

Worth trying and experimenting to find what works for you.

Happy to receive other yogurt*/citrus/pineapple-free smoothie recipes in return :-)

*yogurt is on the banned list as it is 'live'