The Plague and the Cyclone (or what Australians would call “stomach flu and a bit of wind”).

Population:  7

The whole family has come down with a nasty stomach bug.  It is one of those mean belly aches that makes you unable to get out of bed for several days (I am taking poetic license when I call it “the plague“).  I am still 100% healthy but watching them one by one fall victim to the dreaded belly bug.  The nearest town 20 nautical miles across the water has a medical clinic once a week, otherwise there are no doctors within 400kms.  All six of my fellow islanders are laid low and ensconced in the family home with the torment of their knotted guts and I’m rattling around the guest house watching the cyclone approach. 

Cyclone Bianca is on it’s way.  It is currently a category 3 and about 400kms north of us hovering near the local town that has recently been devastated by two major flooding events.  The sea in the bay outside the door is in a crazy lather.  The king tide is so high almost all the sand is underwater right up to the lawn. The pontoon (pictured below) is on the brink of running aground.  Random things are starting to become airborne and mysteriously clanging to earth.  It might be time to batten down the hatches (so to speak).

The local radio calmly labels the fire danger brought on by the fierce winds as “extreme to catastrophic”.   The locals don’t seem too worried but that might be because they are all down with the plague and beyond caring. The cyclone is supposed to mostly miss us and hit Perth on Sunday. 

The guest house was built cyclone proof so I’m in no danger (except maybe for the plague).   I’m just bouncing off the walls with no-one to talk to.  Where is Wilson when I need him?!  Maybe I can rig something up from the kids’ soccer ball and some paints from the schoolroom.