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Roger Short is a Radio 3 producer specialising in the network's World Music output; the Icelandic ash cloud crisis finds him stranded several thousand miles from home, and a Ö÷²¥´óÐã studio. But in the great showbiz tradition ...

I was booked on the BA flight from Toronto to London on Sunday night, and due to go to a meeting with a colleague, Carlos from London University, on Monday morning.Ìý By Sunday afternoon it was clear I wasn't going to make it.Ìý I texted Carlos to let him know I was stranded in Canada.Ìý 'Don't worry', he texted back, 'I'm stuck in Mexico'.
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It was Thursday lunchtime when my Canadian mother-in-law told me excitedly about the news of the volcano, and that all flights were to going to be grounded.Ìý I assumed it was my mother-in-law's usual over-dramatics.Ìý No way would they ground all flights, surely, and if they did, it would certainly all be over by Saturday.Ìý
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So there I was, and here I am, stranded like so many others, far from base, with a busy week's work to get done, including two programmes, two-and-three-quarter hours of transmission time, to be ready by the weekend.Ìý My trip to see the in-laws was actually tacked on to the end of a work trip to , a small town in the Canadian Arctic Circle - I was working with an Inuit throat singer, , on a soundscape of Arctic life and culture.Ìý And that was fortunate, because that means I have a suitcase full of Ö÷²¥´óÐã recording equipment with me, including a full portable SADiE editing system ('And why do you need THREE laptops, Sir?' I was asked by the fourth security man...)
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So, thanks to the wonders of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's remote desktop system, I am able to do a fairly good impression of being back at my desk, sending emails, compiling Radio Times listings information, filling in compliance forms.Ìý And thanks toÌýa proxy file transfer siteÌýand some very understanding colleagues back at Broadcasting House (Question: 'Why is a recording of Indian classical music in London called "Watford T58?" Answer: 'Well that wasÌýwhere the OB van was before our concert, and we didn't get round to changing the filenames...' ), I am able to receive the sound files for the weekend's edition of World Routes, edit them, and send back a finished programme, complete with full paperwork.Ìý All from my mother-in-law's sewing room.ÌýÌý
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Our hearts go out to those who have missed births, marriages and deaths in the past few days, and indeed to third-world farmers who can't export their perishable produce. There are certainly far worse places to be stranded than my mother-in-law's sewing room.Ìý But there are probably better places too...Ìý Mexico, perhaps!

• In response to an editorial question as toÌýwhether Roger's canine companion is a Portuguese Water Dog, he replies: 'She's a Black Russian Terrier, a fairly new breed that's got PWD in it, but is mostly Giant Schnauzer - she is only a puppy, will grow much bigger...'