Though summer has passed, the warmth and sticky humidity have remained in Sydney. Finally a decent storm arrived, but it had the temerity to wait until we began the tennis lesson to unleash its wrath.

While Alex escaped to our car, where B was waiting, and the coach returned to his, I was trapped at the other end of the court, waiting in the picnic and bathroom shelter with some of the other kids. A couple of lightning strikes hit close, thunder booming, especially scary thank to the quantity of metal around.

Fortunately, the deluge quickly eased and I could return to the car and home. Return to the online meeting where my team mates launched their new website, though my involvement was minimal. Outside my window, further flashes from the menacing grey skies.

It was very tropical weather and the tropics have been on my mind a lot lately. I hope that we shall not experience such storms when we fly into or out of Darwin at Easter, assuming that a further pandemic outbreak or a cyclone does not defeat our plans.

They will be our first flights in a year and a half, after border closures scuppered our Queensland flights in January. I am nervous about how I will cope after so long, but I miss flying, miss escaping from the mundane routine of life working from home.

(I have actually started returning to the office a couple of times a week, keeping an IT presence on site)

I’ve never really been to Darwin, apart from a transit through the airport, so I don’t know exactly what to expect.

I discovered that I had booked the wrong dates for the apartment, out by over a month. It was the booking system’s fault for being unwieldy and mine for not checking.

Accommodation is still available elsewhere, but looking through the options I have a sense of disappointment.

Darwin is a tropical city, but so much of the accommodation seems bland, sparsely furnished working rooms like so many across Australia. I realise that what I feel like is an Asian tropical resort or funky modern hotel. Something exotic with breezy lobbies and breakfasts of tropical fruits.

We don’t often stay in such places. But trapped within the borders of Australia it would be nice to pretend you were somewhere different.

No doubt the most precious aspect of wherever we stay will be the air-conditioning. And there are many authentic Asian eateries to dine at, supposedly plenty of bowls of laksa to enjoy.

I look forward also to exploring museums and nature, to Indigenous culture and markets. To tropical sunsets and lightning shows.

I look forward to a holiday.