Sunday 20th September

Friday was the usual Zoo Day at the Gardens. By the time I left it was full of really drunken teenagers, I saw 2 fights happening as I drove out, one group of girls having a real hair pulling knock down punch up, and a few boys having a tussle, more wrestling than throwing punches. Misi said it got worse when I saw him Saturday morning, he was about to ring the police by the evening, but things settled down when it started raining. I know it’s not a good look for the Gardens, but if we throw them out, they’ll be in town, and really get into trouble, at least this way they are off the streets, there’s no real damage done apart from a few sore heads that will be forgotten about by the end of the weekend.

Adrian called in on Friday morning, as I said on Thursday, he had no memory of being in the BJS Office Wednesday and Thursday, nor any memory about trying to get the files. It’s sad watching him deteriorate like he is. And it can get frustrating trying to deal with him when he is having a fixation on something, he can’t understand what we give him to read. He can be looking at something and not recognise what it is, or what use it may be. Then he’ll have a day of being completely lucid and everything runs smoothly. He’s losing a lot of weight lately as well, he forgets to eat, or thinks he’s eaten and goes out for the day. I wish he wouldn’t drive, he gets lost at times, and doesn’t recognise where he is, and Honiara isn’t that big, 1 main road, and 1 loop side street.

The Bulk Shop finally had some Papua New Guinea Expresso Paradiso coffee back in stock Saturday, they always have the blue pack, it’s not often they have the full range. The black pack Expresso is the best of them, well, in my opinion, but I like coffee that you almost have to chew anyway. The Blue Mountain blend they do is good, it’s quite smooth, but a bit bland for me. And it’s $20 cheaper than Wings and AusMart per pack as well.

I was so bored with the week, or frustrated, whatever, I went shopping in town Saturday morning, walked around all the shops, then realised I didn’t have any intention of buying anything. I’m a bit low on money anyway, I had to take out $7,000 last week for the crews wages because the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development are short of funds and the cheque we have been waiting on from them has been held up till they could get approval to issue it. So we had a bit of a crisis over the wages. Hopefully I’ll get it back when we finally get the payment.

We had a clean up Honiara day last week, October is going to be a busy month here and Solomon Tourism is trying to clean Honiara up as much as possible. We have 400 Buddhist Monks arriving the first week of October for atonement ceremonies for all the Japanese soldiers killed here in WW2, plus the Pacific Islands Public Service Annual Conference, then a Half Marathon, and a few other things. Needless to say, by Saturday all the effort had been totally lost and the town was back to looking untidy, with rubbish everywhere again.

Barbara from NZ Aid had a small dinner party Saturday night, 6 of us from various Aid Agencies. It was good, very little shop talk, although everyone wanted to know what was happening with the Botanic Gardens, then we spent the evening swapping horror stories about our dealings with various Govt Departments. The best comment from the evening was about the lack of honesty from the politicians here, when you buy someone, you expect them to stay bought, but not here. They go with the next higher offer.

Jim and Angie from AusAid were there, I’ve nearly forgotten just how much like a buzz saw going through tin Sydney accents are. As soon as Angie started talking it was like living there all over again. Nice couple though, just the accent really grates. They couldn’t place me, for a while they thought I was English, horror of horrors.

I took the little truck to Barbaras’, we’ve just had a new battery, alternator repaired etc. You can see where this is going. The truck is still there, it had a flat battery when I went to leave, Barbara drove me home, 1 am isn’t the best time to be walking from Panatina to Kukum along the main road. I walked back this morning to try the truck again, but it’s dead. It’s probably related to us hotwiring the main fuse, but until we can get another set of main fuses it’s going to be a continual pita. I must be getting used to walking everywhere, it only took an hour to walk to Panatina Ridge this morning, and I shopped on the way back at Kukum Market.

Kukum Market is getting a lot more different fruit and veg now the dry season is bringing everything on. Mangoes are everywhere at the moment. The trees around my house are laden with fruit, they drop onto the roof all night, still a bit green, but good to eat if I get to them before the fruit bats find them. Pineapples are dropping in price, $10 to $20 now, watermelons have dropped to $5 - $50, depending on size. Lots of bok choy and watercress, kumara, and pumpkins. Coconuts are still $1 each.