Monday 21st September/Tuesday 22nd

I know I shouldn’t be like this, but I’ve given up any semblence now of actually working. It’s just too frustrating to be making plans, not knowing if we are going to be in the Gardens, or where we can go. I’m meant to be running the final Level 2 course for the year starting this week, that hasn’t happened with the uncertainty over the whole tenure thing. Plus the lack of funds, and the length of 12 weeks for the course for which I’d like to be in one place for that time.

I’m taking tomorrow off, if I can get hold of Steve we’ll go to Solcane Furniture, they make cane and rattan furniture but don’t have any formal training or qualification system set up for it here. The owner is after the Govt or SICHE to provide the training, but I know I could write up a training programme for them up to whatever level we can work out for the trade. I’ll end up knowing as much as the staff by the end of it, which isn’t a bad thing to have tucked away in the memory banks. It’ll mean assessment schedules, assessments, training modules, all reasonably easy to write up once I get back into it.

Anyway, it’s just one of a few possibilities, the other being the rural development programmes which are probably more in line with what I’m here for. Small scale horticulture and sustainable food crops. So long as they are near a beach preferably.


Terry from the South Pacific Development Council called out today. I met him on Saturday night at Barbaras, he has met Tiffany last year when he was here. Anyway, he has $30,000 available for landscaping work in Honiara if we can come up with some ideas for it to be spent on. Tiffany and I would like to put flower beds around the trees in the main street, in an effort to stop people just piling rubbish around them then burning it. I know the rubbish will just get dumped into the gardens anyway, like all the other ones we have in town, but it is a start I suppose. It will certainly look better than just the bare tree trunks coming out of the dirt.

I’ve finally made a start on a sci-fi story I’ve had kicking around for years in my mind. I must be past the bored stage. And into the just do something before you go mad stage. I’ve set a goal of 500 words minimum a day, which is just over a page in word, or close to it. So far it runs to 2,500 words and I can see where it is going, which is a good thing when you’re writing I suppose, putting thoughts into words isn’t quite as easy as it appears though, and I keep going back and having to alter stuff as I realise the incongruity in some of the earlier facts. But it’s keeping me sane, or whatever passes for sanity with me.

If this one works out, well, I get it finished anyway enough to satisfy me, I’ve had the Story of Job in my mind for years, as a cross between JC Superstar, and drama play. I’m not sure about the musical side, but the technological side is what appeals to me for it. All I need to start is a 10’ hologram of dice, and a good sound system, plus some method of lifting people off the stage into the air over the audience. And some good speaking voices, preferably if they can sound like Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole. And a high resolution screen backdrop, and.....and......and

Plus my half finished version of The Famous Five go on Safari, which is a scam based Famous Five version. I know Marianne had a giggle over the first few chapters, I’ll have to keep at it and get it finished.

As I said earlier, I’m going spare here doing very little with my time.

Tuesday 22nd September

Well I guess it’s all over bar the shouting now. Fred from Forestry called down today, I was having a mental health day and hadn’t gone in. Tiffany ended up sending a car for me so I could be there for the meeting.

Fred got there about 11, spoke about what a great job SEB have done with the Botanic Gardens, how we should all be working together, and could we please get out by the end of next week as Forestry are moving all their office equipment down.

Right out, he meant, Forestry refuse to work with us now, in the future, at any time etc.

Then to make an insane day even more spectacular, Honiara City Mayor rang up to tell Tiffany that we are not allowed use Honiara Beautification Committee name any longer, as Council are going to form their own Parks and Gardens team and call themselves that. Which is going to go down really well with Keithie when she gets the email later today. 10 years we’ve been called that since the HBC was formed, so I think the Mayor is going to have a few problems.

I’ve been here just over 6 months now, and not achieved a single bloody thing I’m meant to be doing.

It’s no wonder Aid agencies fill up with people with a really good sense of the absurd and a slightly off beat sense of humour. You’d go crazy if you let all the personalities, the tribal infighting, the sheer bloody mindedness of the people get to you. A bit like it’s affecting me at the moment actually, but I know by tomorrow it’ll be past, and I’ll either have something else to do, or somewhere else to go.
What really annoys me most is all the work the work crew have put into everything in Honiara, and now they’re being cast aside over some tribal wantok obligation.

You may recall a few months back I had a landscape plan that Heritage Hotel wanted drawn up, and I wanted to put a waterfall, and local tribal sculptures around the main entrance. And Heritage knocked it back due to the expense, and how it wasn’t quite what they wanted.

I’ll get some pics later this week, they hired Frank Haiku, the sculptor I was talking with over my original idea, and he’s now got 7 huge statues exactly like we drew up in place there. And the landscaper at Heritage is claiming all the credit for coming up with the idea, and how it is a showcase for Solomon Island art and custom. I could almost spit sometimes. They took my design, dropped the waterfall and kept and used everything else. Bastards. I hope they have an outbreak of food poisoning in the restaurant.

Good for Frank to get his work in there though.

I have given up trying to figure out how things work here.