Tuesday 8th December 5.30am

I’ve mentioned about Adrian getting fixations on things for a week or so, this week it is the big truck. He’s been trying to find it since last Thursday, going around to David and Tiffanys Thursday/Friday, over the weekend, and he was quite agitated about it by Monday, to the extent that he’d gone to Keithie about the truck being missing. Unfortunately having the radiator develop a leak on Friday and the truck being in at the local White River fix it man didn’t help when he found out.

I get a headache just thinking about him now, Tiff and I try to have everything organised before he arrives at work, we never know when he is going to turn up though. We might not see him for a week or more, then he’s like a bad rash and all over us for a few days.

I thought I was over my weekend stomach upset, why is only weekends I get ill anyway? Going to work yesterday may not have been the smartest thing, another day sleeping would have been preferable but there is the class to take, Tiff and I have stuff to get done this week, so I’ll persevere with catching up with everything till Thursday or Friday then possibly have a long weekend in bed. Although I’ll feel ok by then and not bother.

I’ve got a phone that works again. It’s been my week for everything, Kiwibank, ANZ Bank, telephone, a small private garden to do for the Charge D’Affaires at the UN Office, well, not so small, but it will give 3 or 4 of the crew something to do for a few days, mostly replanting and tidy up.

Telekom had fun trying to get the phone to work. I went in last week and they managed to unlock it, but trying to use it got a recorded “You are not allowed to make this call” message. So back there yesterday. 2 hours later and after a lot of head scratching it now works. I have no idea what they did, the poor guy behind the desk was on the phone to their tech person, pulling up stuff on screen, dialling in various sets of numbers, till it finally burst into life. I got the feeling he wasn’t all that sure about what he’d done either, but it was working.

It is still trying to rain, the sky is all clouds and angry looking thunder heads, with a few low grumbles back in the hills, but that is all at the moment. Eventually the wet will arrive and by the end of it we’ll all be hoping for sunshine. Perverse bloody lot that we are.

8.45pm.

Ok I tried taking the day off, by 7am I wasn’t feeling as though I could drive, light headed, flashes of light and sparkly bits in my vision, coppery metallic taste in my mouth, migraine symptoms, so a day in bed with the curtains pulled and the ceiling fan going overtime was what I was hoping for.

Rang Tiffany about 8am, told her I was having a mental health day, rolled over and went back to sleep for 30 min, when she rang back with the news Adrian was out there causing problems. He doesn’t know how lucky he is at times, If I’d been able to drive I would probably have driven right over him out there.
Finally went into work about 10am, and found Adrian there telling everyone about the radiator having a leak, the work crew driving all over the place without anyone knowing where they are, how it’s all disorganised. Tiff was nearly in tears, Keithie was in her indignant mode, giving forth with more rules and regulations based on what Adrian was saying. If he’d bother to have asked first he would have found out the truck was in town Thursday and Friday, Tiff used it to get to work, and we’d hired it out Saturday to get a load of house timber for one of the work crew girls, after we had the radiator fixed, and we’d been organised till he arrived and sent the crew off to the wrong gardens and work places. I should have stayed in bed.

I’ve got all the pictures printed for the Forum on Wednesday/Thursday, I thought it was just Wednesday, Tiff told me today it’s actually 2 days, so we should get a good response for the courses next year.

Still waiting for the rains, everything is looking dry, well, for the tropics it is looking dry, Honiara itself always looks dusty and grubby, all the side streets are just crushed coral that dries out quickly and the dust gets everywhere.

Trying to get irrigation equipment here, solenoid valves, proper irrigation pvc pipe, rotator sprinkler heads is fun. I spent another bit of time at Island Enterprises, they should be able to get everything from Australia, but will let me know for sure Friday.

I need 580m of timber for the seats in Commonwealth Ave, plus 273 steel frames to be made for them, I need prices first though so MID can decide how much they want to spend. Pavers are another problem, they have to be imported, and they weigh heavy so the import costs are high. Everything else we have, I have the palms sorted out, and the palms and hibiscus for the Post Office are sorted.

I’ll have to catch up with the news from Copenhagen soon, I’ll try and read online tomorrow at some stage.