I haven't managed to post for a long time and, thanks to all the family having flu after having a stomach bug, I look like someone who is likely to have people spraying disinfectant in their wake. I feel like I am riding a horse that refuses to go at a speed I can manage, but at the same time there is great calm below the surface paddling because Ruskin is home. His arrival though, as many of you know, contained no calm at all.

Ville heroically volunteered to go alone to the airport to collect him with all of the other kiddos to give me a chance to sleep. It took well over an hour for Ruskin to emerge and so they were all getting a bit vocal about being tired and hungry as they headed for the Seabus from Bakirköy to Bostancı (on the Asian side of Istanbul and the closest part to us). The boat was so full that Ruskin, with his oversized red suitcase crammed full of Easter goodies, was waved down to the back entrance, so he was separated from the others. When Ville disembarked he realised that Ruskin had got off at  the only other stop: Kadiköy. He called Kadiköy ferry terminal and described a teenager with a red suitcase and was told that no-one of that description had got off the boat. Just after Ville told me about this strange circumstance his phone ran out of charge. The next news I had was when Ville arrived by horse and cart to unload the little ones and charge his phone. We phoned all the boat terminals and alerted the police but three hours after he got off the boat there was still no sign. Despite having great trust in Ruskin my mind started to wander down the path of what if, so when some friends offered to start searching in Kadiköy I gratefully took them up on the offer. When Ville met up with them after searching at Bostancı the mistake at the heart of this mystery revealed itself. When asked face to face the staff at Kadiköy said that there hadn't been a teenager in a red jacket only one with a very large red suitcase! A few minutes later (6 hours after he got off the boat) Ruskin knocked on the door having got on the last vapur and dragged the big red suitcase home.

Ruskin had done exactly what we tell the kids to do and sat still and waited for us. He was in full view of the staff we were in contact with, they just couldn't 'see' him. Ville speaks Turkish like a native so there was no real explanation for the fixation on a jacket rather than a suitcase of red. By the time Nemo and Ayse were walking around Kadiköy shouting Ruskin's name (and the police were looking for a Justin Box), Ruskin had gone in search of free wireless. When nothing worked and it looked like he was going to sit there all night he blagged his way on the last boat home.

At 1 am Ruskin and I cracked open some Cadbury's chocolate and I opened the red suitcase and took out the beautiful Easter tablecloth inside and laid it out. I made baskets lined with shredded paper and filled with treats. I put the tin containing fresh hot cross buns and my Mum's famous Swiss Roll on the table ready for breakfast. I felt so close to my Mum who 2000 kilometres away had prepared everything to make Easter special. At 2 am Ville got home, thanks to an expensive ride on a sea taxi, and our entire family were finally within the same walls.

One of the great things about doing the Documenting Delight photography project is that when I get a chance to look over what I shot (even through a flu haze) I see how many moments of near perfection there are for every near miss. Here there are moments of relaxed happiness between the kids while the drama of the Istanbul shoreline builds outside our boat. There is a museum visit with Finnish cousins which included a train to 'drive'. There is Ruskin baby-wearing Neve and looking handsome in Heybeliada's little fishing harbour. There is the kids, theatrically framed, playing on the day bed I made for myself in the hope of getting some rest (I hear parents laughing!). I took a picture of Anton doing what he likes best: making mixtures and my friend Suzie (you can read her beautiful writing at http://anotsoturkishlife.com/) displaying her inspiring mama-skills in Taksim's Gezi Park. And there is Ville, the person who makes all of this possible and beautiful, smiling. Good times. Now I just need to get enough sleep to properly enjoy it!

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