Saturday, January 1

Day 3 of our quarantine, and we continue cleaning, dusting, washing, wiping, and moving things from one place to another (and often on to a third).

After a late breakfast I look around the back garden and find a plant on a plinth. Coconut trees surround it and over the wall a vacant plot of land sits waiting for someone to build something. A glance at the half–completed or abandoned buildings behind and to the right of it suggest it may have to wait a long time.

We will have three separate rainfalls today, the last one after dark. Each will start and stop with the suddenness of someone switching a tap on or off. None of them will last longer than twenty minutes and the ground will dry within minutes of someone switching the rain off.