Mild panic

Three of the past 4 weekends have seen severe weather warnings in the district. Some communities were cut off, while many farms and orchards have been completely washed away.

This weather was accompanied on a couple of the weekends by power cuts, mobile and land line cuts. Not even the emergency call system worked at times.

So, when the Met Service forecast the same again for this week, overlapping with our holiday flights, we got more than a little nervous. Sometimes you can’t get 20kms down the road because of flooding. Other times the Takaka Hill is closed because the road has washed out and getting to Nelson airport is but a dream.

Two years ago we left home a day early and holed up in a Nelson hotel to avoid a severe weather warning! Should we do the same again?

As I write it’s pouring down and early this morning we lost power. But the forecast has changed, tomorrow looks okay for travel.

Another panic involved our flights. Sharon’s Canada eTA came through within seconds yesterday. (We’re transiting via Vancouver.) Pete’s was tagged for further review, accompanied by a note stating that no attempt should be made to fly via Canada. A second application was similarly sidelined.

With flying via the USA not an option, Pete spent the late hours checking alternative flights to London via Singapore.

Fortunately the eTA approval came through this morning. Problem, if not panic, averted.

Yesterday was also fraught because Pete couldn’t seem to engage with WordPress, the very successful blogging software. Having not used it for a couple of years, Pete was all fingers and thumbs with it. Sharon just rolls with the expletives (FFS) and dark mood at such times.

Fortunately, a couple of test posts were picked up by Simon Goode, an old chum and colleague from London days.

He was able to offer some feedback and Pete now thinks he’s got this blogging malarkey mastered again. Time will tell.

(Talking of Will Tell…Did an anyone see the recent William Tell movie? Accurate, but dreadful. In the words of the editor of the Shinbone Star, ‘when the legend becomes fact, print the legend’.)