Blog: Yesterday started badly, writes Jon Simcock in Portugal. Sharon barely slept and was clearly upset when the children woke up at 7am. She had been awake since 3am and was worried sick about when we might get home.

Now, our situation is much better than most. Our holiday company has put us up in the same villa we were in last week and we already have flights booked for Saturday should flying resume.

But the fact that everything is out of our hands is highly unsettling and it is this which has undermined Sharon’s usually sunny disposition.

Fortunately, as the day unfolded things took a number of turns for the better.

Firstly we reassessed our situation. A couple of phone calls soon made us realise that waiting for Saturday’s flight – however impotent that made us feel – was still our best option.

First call was to the car rental firm to see how much it might cost us to hire a car to get to either the Spanish or French car ferry ports. The answer? A whopping 1,500 Euros to take a car to Santender to catch the boat to Portsmouth (not including ferry tickets) and a simply obscene 3,000 Euros to get to any French port. Hang your head in shame Mr Hertz, your profiteering is a disgrace.

With that option ruled out, the next call was to our insurance company to see what we were covered for on our policy. Guess what? Nothing.

Zilch. Zero. Apparently volcanoes erupting do not form any part of the compehensive cover we have taken out. Silly us for not thinking to ask in advance, eh?

A low point reached, things at last began to pick up. The next call was from our travel company, the excellent James’ Villas, just to check we were ok and to let us know that they were still working to get things moving. They could not tell us a lot we didn’t already know, but the phone call alone raised our spirits.

Then came a call to the news desk at the Shropshire Star, which, if nothing else, confirmed that other people were as powerless as we were and that we had probably chosen the best option.

Finally came a call from Sharon’s work to let us know that some flights looked likely to resume today, and some of the restrictions were being eased. Add to that our first day without rain for a week and suddenly everything is looking a lot more positive.

Let’s just hope it stays that way.

No offence to Portugal, but we just want to come home.