Wednesday 19^th September

Every year the Australian publishes a list of the best made-up words.  They are always very clever and I, of course, can’t remember any of them.  Except for weathernesia because I seem to be afflicted with this every single day…

Weathernesia is a curse.  It happens when you listen to the weather forecast very intently but… just at the moment when they tell you the weather for the exact place you happen to need to know about…your mind clicks off and you go lalala in your head and miss the vital bit of info.  This morning I really did want to know about the weather in Hobart and when they started the forecast for Hobart I put my brain into gear and…nothing!  Lalalalala!!!

(And yes as it turned out I really DID need to know.  It was very cold in the morning them very warm at lunchtime when I stepped outside then sleety and windy when I walked back to the office then sunny but cold when I walked up to South Hobart…I needed all sorts of anti-weather items: sunglasses, warm coat, umbrella, lighter clothes in layers.)

Weather forecasts are of vital importance on the boat and whenever we managed to get our (very fallible) radio system to work Pete would station me at the table with The Notebook and a pen with instructions to write it all down… Oh the battle with weathernesia!  This combined with cracklecrackle and mumblemumble…some of my most stressful moments at sea occurred at the table with The Notebook and a pen…Even worse when we were in bilingual territory and the only audible bits were in French with a strong South Pacific twist to the language…