About 7 years ago,Tim gave me a plant. It was n’t very big and was in a tiny pot. It has gone through phases of prosperity and collapse that correspond to my presence or absence from Okinawa. When I got back from San Francisco in March, I found that the plant had fallen over and had spent months without water nor care. It looked like a bunch of dried sticks – very dead.

Nonetheless, I stood her up, watered and fed her: miraculously she is now thriving. This makes me very happy.

And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. Typhoons and rumours of typhoons. Great excitement on the island as a typhoon is approaching. We love typhoons but have been badly deprived for 2 years. Luckily safety culture has not penetrated here. The folks are used to typhoons and wars. They are calm. The expat community however, is in a tizzy.

Typhoons are tricky, as those that are broadcast as deadly turn out to be feeble whereas those that are broadcast as feeble turn out deadly.

The great year for typhoons was 2012 when in 2 weeks we had 3 that drove the barograph off scale.

The barograph is the best measure of typhoon malevolence.

I go to the marina to shore up boat typhoon defences.

The greatest risk for the boat is that the strength of the wind blows off the cockpit cover. The diluvian rains fill up the cockpit, the engine compartment and the boat sinks. I do what I can to reinforce the attachment of the cover with plastic cable ties.

Another potential disaster is the wind getting into the rolling jib, unrolling it and destroying the new sail with much thrashing. I tie up the jib with three lashings.

A delightful indicator of there being something up is the presence of Roseate Terns in the marina. They normally stay further out and indeed it is early in the year to see them at all.

Que sera, sera. I will keep you informed.