Monday 10th May

You may recall a post I did here late last year about the E-coli count on fish at Central market, somewhere in the region of 2,500+ E-coli count, and the problems the Health Dept and the Council had in trying to stop the fish sellers from selling contaminated fish. That is still ongoing, the fish is still being sold, and we now have an added problem with the salt fish that some of the vendors are selling. It is the damaged fish from the fishing boats, that is salted down on the boats, and during the time on the boats becomes contaminated with E-coli, Salmonella, and other strange and exotic bacillus. The Council banned the sale of it some time back, which had zero effect, I recall a young man a little while back being rushed to #9 after eating some, I’ll try and find the reference tomorrow. The Police and Council Staff went through Central Market late last week, and tried to stop the vendors selling it once more. After a rather noisy and angry meeting, the Police and Council left, and the fish is still being sold, on the grounds that the vendors have no other source of income.

There was a small article in todays Solomon Star about it, emphasising the health issues, but I can’t see it being stopped without a lot of education and police enforcement. Do I eat fish here? Not likely. Even in the restaurants. Especially in the restaurants.

2 days to go till the Planning meeting, everything depends now on getting building permission, if we don’t get it, I may as well go home. It will be a political decision, not one based on benefits to the locals unfortunately. So getting refused this time will mean that any future application will also fail.

The current el nino persists in the central Pacific, we’ve lost 50% of our plants in the nursery now, there is insufficient water from SIWA to allow us to hand water, and the rains haven’t been coming. I intended to put 2 x 5,000 gallon tanks in, I may up that to 4 tanks, so we do collect as much rainwater as possible whenever it does rain. Wet Earth in Victoria have sent the quote for the irrigation system, I’m very pleased with it. Sprinklers, pipework, solenoid valves, ball valves, 7 stage controller expandable to 32, wiring, comes to AUD$3,800, SBD$26,600, well within our budget for it. I still have shade cloth, windbreak and the leaf house propagation house to build from the budget, but on the figures we have more than enough to go ahead with everything.

I priced a truck to be imported from Japan, 1996 Mitsubishi 3 tonne, with a 3 tonne crane mounted, delivered to Honiara freight included for US$23,700, SBD$187,000, slightly over our budget, but we can arrange for some transfers of funds to cover the difference. All done by email, till today when the agent in Tokyo phoned to confirm. We needed the mileage reading to check, it’s done 88,000 km, on a 7.5 litre diesel engine, barely run in hopefully. I have to get back to the agent tomorrow to confirm once a few other people have had a say in it as well. We need it as soon as possible, there are several tubs in town that need replacing, and some large poles etc to install in the nursery that the crane will come in handy for.

We have finally got a new air con for the container, they were still installing it when I left this afternoon, so tomorrow will hopefully be the test day. I’ve had to shut the laptop off between 10 and 3 due to the heat inside, and even then starting up again later in the day still isn’t the best thing to do. I’ve got shade cloth draped over the container, I may have to be out there painting it white next. Another 3 months is all hopefully.

I had a bit of a dvd weekend, 6 dvds in 2 days. Mash, again for the umpteenth time, I can watch it frequently and still enjoy it, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher in the best performances of their careers, Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, another frequently watched and never bored with movie, Casablanca, I don’t play it often, but when I do it is still one of the greats, and one I’ve had for a while and never watched, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, George Clooney, which turned out to be the funniest movie I’ve seen in a long time, Peter Sellers excepted. I’ve still got a few more to go for another time, 4 of Peter Sellers, I had To Kill a Mocking Bird the other weekend, and The 39 Steps, which I remember seeing a long long time ago, and not remembering most of. Frankenstein and Dracula I still have for a really boring weekend. A lot I got from the Sunday papers in Ireland as free giveaways as well, still not as good as books though. I’m not a person that can sit and watch a tv screen without something else as well, usually a book for when as is inevitable, there is a boring passage in a film.

I’m at the stage where I think I could quote page number, chapter and verse out of Hartman Kester Davies Plant Propagation Manual, the Yates Gardening Book has had a severe going through, all my course notes, folders have been re-read and edited so often they are in danger of becoming so complicated even I will have trouble understanding them.

My pet rat colony appears to have died out finally, I haven’t caught anymore since Saturday night. Tony suggested using wire wool scrub pads around the pipe entry holes to stop them coming back in. The damaged screen has been repaired, now if SIWA ever get around to letting me have some water one weekend, I may go through and wash all the louvre windows again.

Tiff gave up working in the container this afternoon, here is her outdoor office.