cool timing

I should never have come here to Sydney to visit Spud's mum. The radio has just announced there's a cyclone building off the coast, and Sydney folk are advised to batten down the hatches.


The Meteorological Service web site says:

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING

Widespread Damaging and Locally Destructive Winds, Flash Flooding and Damaging Surf.

Emergency services advise you to keep clear of fallen power lines, stay indoors away from windows and keep children indoors.

Satellite radar-imaging shows
the dense carpet of cloud over Sydney.


I'll be spending this afternoon clearing her garden of anything that could move, before the gales hit tonight. Looking on the bright side, at least we won't need seasick pills, like poor Cap'n Kev, moored in Sydney Harbour at the moment.

In another recent piece of bad timing, I allowed myself to be persuaded, against my better judgement, to book a sun-filled vacation on Hamilton Island near the Great Barrier Reef. Now, as our departure date approaches, it turns out that Hamilton Island is currently freezing and virtually underwater with rain, due to El Nino or the lack of El Nino or something. And the storm hitting Sydney is expected to move to Hamilton Island just in time for our flight there.



Satellite image over Hamilton Island
after last week's storm.

It will bring back memories of all the sub-aqua holidays I have endured in Scotland.




I once spent New Year on Malta. They had snow for the first time in half a century. I think it's the coldest I have ever felt.

Another Christmas/New Year, I spent two weeks in Lanzarote, most of the time listening to amazing African radio in the hotel room, while huddled around an electric toaster, the only source of warmth. Still, pushing the lever down every couple of minutes gave me something to do.

And the only time I ever agreed to go to Majorca, we were washed out.

In normally-warm places, you find that the houses are designed to keep you cool, so in cold weather you have to sit around in a draught, wrapped in blankets, with nothing to do but meditate. Who would want to do that? Dearie dearie me!