actually our house has several LARGE holes... as you can guess. But I think that's good, the water can flow in and flow back out again....

All those things you said (lack of power, insecure buildings, water off, can't travel anywhere by foot or by car) are all the reasons why we have learnt never to leave the island when a storm is on it's way. GB spent cyclone Gene and the 3 days after stuck in a hotel on the mainland which had a generator just big enough to power the tills; while out here we had power, water, food and even... gasp! sky TV and internet! Cat 4 may cause an interesting storm surge tho. Mick was a cat 3 when it hit here and it was damp and uncomfortable and trees fell and boats on the beach (large ones) flipped (also our comms tower blew away -they came and replaced it the next day which I can only surmise was because town had no water or power and we did!), but our biggest danger was boredom as we sat in the shuttered restaurant...luckily... Hopefully by the time we wake sun am it will have changed course and left the group without harming us...

been there... they are very efficient. I also had to pay a fee for driving the vehicle myself to the impound lot...

the terrible irony here Jonathan is that the one shop that has always refunded or replaced faulty merchandise for us IS the pirate DVD place...

ah yes banking lately beggars belief. I won't even start to share the range of recent experiences I have had with your poor readers. Suffice it to say the bank staff cringe when they see me walking up... (between tt's, a bank cheque for immigration charged for twice, and what should have been a simple issue of a card when the old one expired they've seen a bit of me lately)

Good post. but when I saw the title I thought it would might have been more like what to do when there's a coup looming: or what not to do eg: get a big wad of money out in case of coup to have a reserve of food/petrol/gas/cash and then accidentally spend it all on who knows what...(I'm not joking, it happened to several Mum's at the school the kids were at prior to Dec 2006)... coup shopping we called it... (oh scrubs jumped the shark? we've been really enjoying Fringe. Divx is wonderful....)

You did a bloody good job Jon, I mean at least you stopped! so many people would have just driven by. well done for stopping and getting out and yelling (Mark I think the guy ran off because he though Jonathan was about the get the ninja moves out). I was coming out the driveway in Rotorua one time and I saw a known p-addict just out of prison roaring up and down the road in his souped up subaru, then pulling right up behind another local lady. She sat there in her car terrified. He sat in his car inches away from her bumper glaring at her. I sat in the driveway in my discovery, I had an idea if he got out of the car and went for her I was going to mash him into the side of her car with my landrovers bull bars. Then suddenly he drove off into the distance. I was told later I was stupid and should have phoned the police watch house, but you do what you think of and if it's instinctively doing something right (and not just pretending nothing's happening or that it's not your business) then that has to be worth something huh? LOL about the Dick Cheney comment. This could lead to a series of cartoons: what would Dick Cheney have done in Jonathan's situation? What would George Bush done in Jonathan's situation? etc etc...

Ronald McDonald came to T's birthday party at Mc Donalds in Nadi. He was Fijian...