Higher ground

I think it’s a measure of how punch drunk we’ve become that a tsunami warning for the east coast of Australia seemed par for the course on Saturday night.

After all, it followed a mini tornado ripping through Narrabeen last month ..: as I was attempting to get a COVID test … as half of Sydney succumbed to COVID … followed by me and the kids joining them by getting COVID and narrowly escaping spending 10 days quarantined in Fiji.

Had we been isolating in our beachside bure on Malolo Island I might have been a bit more freaked out about a tsunami … depending on whether the wifi at the resort was working to alert us, which it usually wasn’t.

Mind you, reports say the eruption was heard in Fiji, so maybe I wouldn’t have needed wifi to know it was time to head to higher ground.

Villages also reported strong currents, high waves and surges.

As for the poor Tongans, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said there were no official reports of deaths or injuries in Tonga yet, but communications remained limited.

The nation was hit by a metre-high tsunami after the eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apa, with witnesses saying it shook the earth for several minutes.

The underwater volcano has been very volatile in recent years – it breached sea level during a 2009 eruption, while in 2015 it spewed so many large rocks and ash into the air that when they settled a new island had formed that is two kilometres long by one kilometre wide and 100 metres high.

Relief efforts are currently under way for Tonga and hopefully there will be news soon about the extent of the damage.

I was heading home from my family’s very belated Christmas celebration when I heard the tsunami news.

Mum and Dad decided to take their chances and head to my sister’s house for dinner, after a year bereft of contact with their grandchildren.

Everyone except the grandkids and I – who’ve all recently had COVID – used precious rapid tests before entering the house to risk manage the situation.

We sat down to a magnificent feast of salads, prawns, glazed ham and roast chicken … washed down with French champers.

On Sunday I trekked to DD’s in the hope of having a post-tsunami swim, after lying limply on his sofa for a few hours. The beaches were closed, but there were reports they might reopen at 4pm.

The waves were very big, so we finally ended up at a sheltered spot called Kiddie Corner for a brief dip under the watchful eye of lifesavers, before I wobbled back home to lie on my own sofa.

I am still a fair way off feeling well, more than 18 days after catching COVID.

Fingers crossed that this week sees an improvement in my health, as there is fun booked into my diary that I am eager to have.

Hope you managed to snatch some moments of fun over the weekend, despite these crazy times.

PS The main pic is a “cloud tsunami” that captivated Sydney a few years ago – amazing.

Song of the day: Blondie “The tide is high”