"Well at least someone will get to see Madrid this year," Aileen remarked on hearing of next week's assignment in Madrid.

I'd completely forgotten. Aileen had been due to go to Madrid for a weekend break on the day I was evacuated out of Iraq. The friends she'd been planning to travel with came down from Birmingham the night before the flight, completely unaware of what had happened.

Oops! Of all the destinations to hold a conference on Iraq's reconstruction. To be going to Madrid six months after I was reconstructed is a spooky coincidence, to say the least.