Wednesday 16th Evening

It is turning into one of those chaotic periods. MID have come forth with the last 3 months payments, and also said that we will be doing Commonwealth Avenue next year, so can we please submit a budget. Which Tiff and I have had on the slow burner while we have been doing the other funding proposals.

The EU grant is approved, as I mentioned, we have the German Embassy proposal nearly finished, trying to get the figures right when no one has accurate ones to start with, everything is approximate, so we copied East Anglia CRU and fudged the data to make it fit. Speaking of which did anyone else see the twit that is the Head of the IPCC say that just because the data was altered and changed to fit the assumption, it didn’t change the facts? You have to wonder what planet some of these people are living on. And that idiot Al Gore claiming the North Pole will be ice free in 5 years? I hope I should live so long as to be able to see that happen. Well, not happen is more likely, he really is a complete idiot.

We have so many different Funding Proposals going on, I lose track of what we are applying for in each one, I was working on the Nursery basics, irrigation and pumps, thinking it was the same one Tiff was working on, and getting prices and figures, she was asking me for bits and pieces to enter into the spreadsheet she was doing, and it wasn’t for a couple of hours till we both realised we were working on different things. Hopefully we can get it all sorted tomorrow without any interruptions.

Tiffany took a phone call late this afternoon, afterwards she asked me when I was taking my break next year, I’m working on a couple of weeks in February, then told me we now have the Governor Generals Residence to do a complete landscape design and installation for starting in January. Big area, about 6 acres, swimming pool, formal gardens, I was there earlier in the year doing the basic courses for the gardeners, and it is going to be a really good job to get. As soon as Tiff told me I began picturing the main driveway down, I’m going to need hundreds of palms, trees and shrubs, screening hedges for private areas, formal gardens, they have a few defunct fountains and water features, so they’ll be upgraded, and I’ll get hold of Kennedy as well and get sculptures mixed in as well.

I wish I was getting paid for this stuff.

I just want all of this to start, at the moment Tiff and I are stuck in the BJS office with all the conflict that happens there, and shuffling paper around doing proposals, and I’m getting totally frustrated with not actually doing anything.
Ok, next year I’m going to be crying for a break at some stage, but it will be because we’re working, not from sheer frustration. It’s taken nearly a year to get to this stage, I feel that this year has been to all intents and purposes wasted with the fracas over the Botanic Gardens, but the good thing about it all is we are now setting up on our own, no other people involved, and we’re actually going to be a lot better off once SEB gets settled.

We’ll be planting at the Post Office on Monday, it is all dug out, the crew will be making compost and mulch for the beds tomorrow and shifting soil on Friday, then I’ll send the girls down Monday to plant everything. So much for 2 weeks work, it’s taken 3 days so far, and if we’d had compost ready it would have been finished tomorrow. I’m hoping Solomon Telekom and the Bank South Pacific decide to upgrade as well, the whole strip will look a lot better all uniform. Fixed price as well, so the faster it gets done the more we make, even with finding makework for the crew so they still get the 5 days a week I promised them. We can get the town gardens done properly next week in time for the Christmas period now as well.

Everyone has worked really well on the job, knowing they have 2 weeks work coming up to Christmas helps, and with the work coming for next year it will be a lot better for everyone.

I’ve finally got water to the house. Henry the Plumber and I were out playing this evening, putting a new ballcock into the water tank, changing lines over. It took a couple of hours to fill the hot water solar roof tank, but it is full and working now. I may change the line over later if it isn’t enough, but it is just a matter of changing a T joint around, so my line feeds straight out, instead of off the branch. Plus having the tank actually full for once helps with the pressure.

I’ll be able to catch up on all the washing tomorrow night, it was close to 8pm when we finished tonight, I waited till the hot water began to run and had a long shower finally with hot water.

My head is full of ideas for the Governor Generals Residence, I’ll have to go back up there and have a long walk around and start thinking and planning, then break it all into separate areas to work on in stages. And get hold of Kennedy, he is so good to work with, so many ideas and inspiration flow out of him once he grasps an idea or concept. I hope they have a big budget for this, and a reasonable time frame, it isn’t going to be a quick patch up job. It’ll help the gardeners employed there as well, they need something to learn from, instead of just wandering around weeding and hacking.