Doom! Doom, I tell you!

I have this overwhelming end of days feel. Japan, Libya, Christchurch, terrorist attacks all over the place. Earthquakes, tsunamis, civil war, misery. You know, the usual news these days.

I'm sure I'm not the only one, as revealed in this most helpful question put to me by my cleaning lady, Diana: "Do you think it's the end of the world?" I assured her I did not. I am after all the elder of the two of us, and arguably in a position of authority (although my unending gratitude to her combined with my cluelessness in household matters probably do much to undermine that by now rather theoretical position), so I duly made the required reassuring noises and told her that our end is most likely not nigh.

What I didn't tell her is that I'm half expecting a plague of locusts, followed by the rising of the dead. You know, next week or something. I then spoiled my pretense at a cool demeanour by telling her she should go and get her free iodine tablets as recommended yesterday by the government, just in case the local nuclear power plant blows up. Just in case. But I'm sure it won't.

I got my own boxes of iodine tablets today as well, and it felt pretty surreal standing there being told by the pharmacist that in case of a nuclear accident I am to wait for the go-ahead from the government (on TV, if it still works) before administering the medicine to my family and what exactly is the right dose for a baby. The talk at the school gates turned towards the same topic. Apparently, we're not to collect the children from school. We have to lock ourselves into our houses and the schools will keep the children inside until help arrives. I don't like that idea at all. I also half-heard something on TV about having to breathe a certain way for minimal damage to your system, but I can't remember if it was "breathe only through your mouth" or "don't breathe through your mouth." Very useful information, really.

You have to wonder at a world in which it's considered acceptable to build nuclear plants which no one is quite sure won't cause serious death and destruction to the population around it at some point in the future, just so we can keep our billboards lit up all night and produce more packaging for our food that we will throw out uneaten anyway. At least our plant isn't built on a faultline, like those in California. I heard a middle aged male scientist convince himself on TV yesterday that they are completely safe and can resist any earthquake. And middle aged male scientists are always right and know everything. That is a very well known fact.

Strangely the gorgeous weather is not helping me get rid of this feeling. It's all sunny and you can feel Spring in the air. When I took the children to the park after school, they played with their coats off in the sunshine. To me, it looked just like one of these idyllic scenes in a disaster movie in which everyone is going about their rosy lives not knowing that an asteroid is flying their way and all that they know is about to be blown to pieces.

Look, I know it's not the end of time, or I sincerely hope it's not in any case. I heard that the end of days is not scheduled until next year anyway so even if it is, it's not for tomorrow. It's just that all the chaos and destruction in the world is really getting to me just now. I am half considering turning the TV off and not buying a newspaper for a few weeks so I just don't have to know any of it any more. On the other hand, we did just get a very pretty flatscreen and how would I know when to take my brand new iodine tablets if there was a nuclear disaster if I didn't have the TV on?