It certainly does feel like it, especially after this weekend, when a cloud of ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano disrupted flight schedules of European airports located downwind, sending flight cancellation numbers into the thousands, some are still affected today (visit BCN airport's website if you happen to be among the unfortunate stranded passengers).

As Barcelona's hotels and restaurants are bursting with grounded vacationers, surviving on the last centimes of their holiday spending money, unbelievable stories are told and re-told about this incredible environmental event. The most unbelievable one I heard was about a wedding taking place in London over the weekend, that had to do without the best man (stuck in Canada) and about 3/4 of the attendees because of the nasty ash cloud. More shocking than not being able to attend the wedding, I thought would be the now Mr and Mrs recounting the story to future generations, 20 years form now saying, "yes, only 10 of the 150 guests could attend the wedding because of a giant cloud of volcanic ash" (it just sounds too sci fi for me). But, as another friend pointed out, there might not even be future generations to tell this story (and others) to, which is a very sobering thought. With all the recent natural disasters happening: earthquakes, the Earth slightly tilting on its axis, tsunamis, it is easy to slip into the world-is-ending mindset.

Which brings up another point. IF the world if going to end (soon, say by 2012 as some have predicted), it would be nice to get a definitive answer. That way, we could check the items off our individual bucket lists, then welcome the end with a bottle of cava....