Typhoon Season

While Tropical Storm/Hurricane Katrina meanders treacherously through Florida, spare a thought (if you will) for my old school buddy Dan Tickner, aka Fat Knuckles.

The first time I met knuckles was in the school choir 20 years ago, and I hated him. His singing was so bad that I never wanted to hear from him again. Weird how friendships can develop out of pure loathing; he stopped singing (he's actually a highly accomplished musician) and we became close friends.

Now he's visiting Japan for some teaching (I almost wrote "cheating" - a Freudian typo) and tourism with his wife, Kerrie. I started to worry about him when I received an e-mail on August 16th:

'Hi there everybody,

As you may have heard on BBC news or CNN, there was a big earthquake in Japan. It was about 6.8 on Japanese levels but 7.2 according to the good old Beeb.'

Earthquake = bad vacation. But then Dan went on to say:

'Me and Kerrie are quite OK. We were on the seventh floor of the Hotel at the time. It was like the room was going backwards and forwards horizontaly. Quite a weird but strangely pleasent feeling at the same time.'

From Tokyo, Knuckles & Kerrie went on to Takamtsu, where they learned that a tornado was on its way.

'The school we are teaching at has said it will be shut if this happens (very reassuring!) and that we will all be staying at the hotel on that day (that is me and Kerrie and not the whole school!).'

He's a funny guy, that Dan.

Last I heard, it was early for Typhoon season and the tornado may miss our heroes. As long as they stay indoors, they'll be okay. My personal experiences of school lead me to believe that teachers deserve all the catastrophe they can get, but to Dan and Kerrie I say: stay safe, and please learn the Japanese for "Help!"