The horrendous events in America have, of course, overshadowed the last week.

On the day of the plane crashes we spent a worrying few hours trying to discover if a friend of ours, Annette, who works just a block away from the World Trade Centre, was all right.

Finally we managed to contact her mother-in-law in Haywards Heath to discover that although Annette had witnessed the attacks she had managed to make it home to Brooklyn safely.

I was able to get through on the phone and speak to her husband Dave the next morning.

He sounded stunned and disbelieving of events that were happening outside his windows.

He described his shock at the death toll and his fear at how there were soldiers with rifles at every street corner as well as the choking cloud of dust that was blowing across the river towards them.

I guess we will all remain stunned by these atrocities for a long time.

It is hard to comprehend how any individual can believe it is justifiable to kill and maim so many innocent people in such a horrendous manner.

I do not believe religion can be blamed but rather individuals who use religion as an expression of their own personal power and abuse others beliefs by taking such a fanatical stance.

Daughter has, of course, been full of questions about how and why such things can happen.

We have tried to answer them as honestly as we can, while at the same time worrying about how any escalation of events could affect us all in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, life goes on much as normal although the usual petty problems and difficulties have been given a proper perspective and have ceased to be the major problems they were a week ago.

Daughter has settled back in school and has resumed her usual routine of school, dog walking and homework.

She has been practising her hill walking while exercising the dog in preparation for her school trip to Wales to an outdoor centre next month.

Her class is staying there to enjoy abseiling and hiking and canoeing and things.

I have, of course, not got any of her stuff sorted out yet and have yet to find the kit list they were given last term. I'm sure I put it somewhere safe in July. I just can't remember where.

Daughter has also managed to acquire yet another new pet, this time a baby snake.

The snake is called Chilli Pepper and is very small and cute.

I quite like snakes and Daughter's new slithery friend is interesting enough, although I am not entirely sure about the feeding bit.

He or she, no one is quite sure yet, eats mice.

These are humanely killed and frozen but it still feels cruel and I think I would prefer a vegetarian snake.

The house seems to have spent the last 12 years becoming a small zoo.

So far we have played host to two rabbits, four guinea pigs, a number of cats (two of whom have remained and keep the dog in his place), three lizards, a praying mantis and now a snake.

Daughter's ambition is to be a vet like Trude when she grows up.

I think she feels experience of keeping just about every species under the sun will help her prepare for this.

Her many pets seem to tolerate one another's differences and live in comparative harmony.

In the meantime, we will hope that mankind can learn to do the same.