1st December

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For anyone that was wondering what happened to all the curry that was obviously left from Sunday nights dinner, I add more rice to it, then make curry and rice rolls, and freeze them for week day meals when I just can’t be bothered thinking. It’s easier some nights to just open the freezer and put 3 or 4 rolls into the little oven to cook, while I start catching up on the day.

I can get spring roll pastry sheets for $19.50 per pkt of 20, which is enough to clear up the left over curry or stirfry each week, although I did go a bit overboard with the curry this week, and I ran out of pastry, and still have enough for another 12 or so rolls. I don’t usually deep fry them, unless I have one of those grease needed urgently cravings. Then afterwards I remember why I put off having grease or fried food. And I go all holy and sanctimonious and swear off grease/fat/fried food, for about another month.

I’m at the stage with the nursery irrigation system that I really miss civilisation. I’ve got downloads, printouts, a huge folder filled with stuff on the laptop, the only thing I can’t get is prices for anything other than the pipe work. Island Enterprises is great to deal with. “Add a nought” (Phil) really does try to get stuff for you, but it does take time, I’ve still got a bit of western thinking that will have to go. Hoping that he could get stuff for me soon is probably not the best attitude to take into any conversation.

He got called “Add a nought” years back, when he first started Island Enterprises, and was importing everything, as he still does. Then the exchange rate, customs duties, import duties, all the other various charges on goods resulted in everything having a Solomon Dollar price equivalent to just adding a 0 to the overseas price, regardless of country of origin. So whenever anyone wanted to know what something would cost to have imported, Phil would tell them to find out the price overseas and add a nought. And the name stuck. It isn’t quite as bad as that now, although sometimes you have to wonder, but Phil is still known throughout the Solomons as “Add a nought”

But that diversion into Solomon Island naming practise doesn’t help me at the moment. I have a long list of irrigation equipment to price hopefully by Thursday so Tiff and I, well, Tiff mostly, can enter it into the German Embassy Proposal, and get it to them on Friday. I’ve also got the rubbish bins to price, the timber seating, and the pavers for Commonwealth Ave to price, I’m running classes every morning this week, till midday, we’ve lost 2 more staff who have found 5 day week jobs, so the work crew is really down to minimum, only 4 girls left to do the town gardens, and 5 guys to do the median strip and road sweeping, and there is still talking about cutting the staff back further.

Then we have the Post Office revamp starting in 2 weeks, a major cleanup through town the same fortnight the Post Office is being done to get ready for Christmas, and people wonder why Tiff and I are getting a bit touchy lately.

The good bit for the day is that we have 300 Archontophoenix (Alexandra Palms) and some Cycad seed finally in a seed bed. I had Hendry and Josephine learning how to make compost and seed beds this morning with the mulcher, feeding wood chip and stored chicken manure through, and making a seed bed. We’ve had the chicken manure in black rubbish bags for a couple of weeks now, so the initial ammonia burst is gone from it, and it smelt quite nice today, well, ok, you have to be really into horticulture to describe chicken manure as smelling nice, but it didn’t climb up your nostrils and attack your sinus tissues.

Hopefully in a few weeks we should have some palms coming through the bed, which will be a first for SEB, and hopefully it will continue, instead of just going into the bush and digging out plants.

The Cycad seed we cracked open slightly, so it could get water into the seed itself, instead of waiting a few months for the shell to let water permeate through. The Archontophoenix I’ve had soaking since Friday, and with a bit of luck they will have got some moisture through to start the seed. I’ve read about using sulphuric acid to scarify the seed coats, thought about getting some battery acid and trying it, then thought about the staff and the work practises, and decided it would not be a good thing to have around. It is still very much touch and learn society, you can tell people this will kill/maim/wound/turn your toes green, and they will try just to see if it does.

David is still off work, he’s really sick, lung infection, plus ulcers breaking out all over his body now. Trying to get him to go to Hospital, # 9, is a lesson in futility, so I don’t even bother now. Adrian still keeps trying, but as only Adrian can, he starts in at Tiff about not feeding David properly, without considering that he gets as much in a week as she does a month, and his money is just for him. He can be so blind to stuff at times, and if you point it out to him he gets all defensive, or starts in at me for getting my allowance. We don’t tell him about the baking and other stuff that Tiff and I organise between ourselves, it would be another thing he couldn’t understand.

I have the November report to write this week as well, which I’m sure will go down really well, like last months report did, but at least we have some positive things to put into it this time, Post Office, Commonwealth Ave, which Tiff has been responsible for without Keithie. Also ANZ have agreed to the increase, and picked up the corner gardens around the roundabout, so that is now worth $4,000 a month from January. Ok, there is a lot of work needed, MID want us to trim one of the corners down, the Hibiscus have grown well over head height and cars turning into the Chinatown Road can’t see pedestrians coming through, so there are a few interesting moments there. But it means a lot more cuttings for Jennifer and Imelda to propagate from, so by the time we get the new Nursery started it will be nearly full. Well, ok, not full, I’ve got a huge area now to play with, 3 x 50 metre layout beds, 8 metres, 6 metres and 5 metres wide, with another 1/3 of the area to develop as needed in stage 3.

The rains are still delayed, it has been the driest November for a while now, which if past weather patterns mean anything, December through to March are going to be floods and landslide time again. I read back through this to February and March when I arrived, and the amount of rain we had then compared to now is really apparent. And half the bridges and roads that were washed away then still haven’t been repaired yet.

The Honiara City Council have increased the fines for littering to $1,000 up to $10,000, for shopkeepers, but they don’t have any staff to police it, so the gardens by the Chemist at City Centre are still turning into a rubbish tip every day. The girls picked up 37 bags of rubbish out of the Childrens Playground yesterday, Jacinta was there today on her own, and still collected another 28 bags. This is with rubbish bins in the park and outside the gates and fence. The average from each roundabout is 12 bags of rubbish a day, I’m always amazed at how much people can dispose of just by throwing stuff out the car windows as they are driving through the roundabouts.

We collect over 200 bags of rubbish a week just from the gardens we maintain, the betel nut stalls everywhere are a major cess pit through town, but as most of them have wantok working for the Council or Police Force, they don’t get moved on. So the spitting, betel nut shells, and assorted rubbish collect around those areas. I’m past the horrified stage about it, it’s something that you have to learn to live with here, it will change, but slowly, which is what we’re working towards with SEB, and the Commonwealth Ave upgrade. I’m tempted to do what Steve told me about Port Moresby, where they hire gangs of Rascals to patrol the streets, and they keep the fines they impose on people for littering. Not that you or anyone is likely to argue with a dreadlocked kanak holding a bushknife in your face and telling you there is a $20 fine for dropping that coke can, or bit of paper. There are enough young guys looking for something to do in the Central Markets, I’d be giving 4 or 6 of them a stretch of street or road, and telling them it has to be kept clean, and they can keep whatever they earn from fining people for littering. I’d even supply the bush knives.

Kiwibank rang me today, they finally got through and all I need now is to remember to have my passport with me tomorrow in the office, and hopefully my account will get unlocked. After nearly 6 months. And several emails, letters and visits from my sister. I know I could have rung them, but at $15 per minute or $25 on mobile, from the time the connection starts ringing, and knowing how slow help centres are, I didn’t feel like wasting money to be ringing several times, as I know the connection gets broken from here for overseas calls roughly every 3 minutes, so you have to ring again, and again, and again. And the first minute has all the charges on it, the next ones are just flat rate.

We have the phone connected at Ranandi, it rang today, now all we need is for SIEA to find a meter for the board and we’re shifting back.

A Wok and a Pot Sunday 29th November

Sunday 29th November A Wok and a Pot

Ok, I’ve had a few requests for recipes, well, ok, one, but I’m sure everyone else wants to know but are too shy to ask. And also do I really just have a Wok and one pot to cook with? Yes to that question, and the following is how I manage.

Dinner for tonight is going to be Garlic and Chilli Pita Bread, with a Kumara (Sweet Potato) and chilli curry, with rice.

Garlic and Chilli Pita Bread + 2 plain Bread Loaves.

This started on Friday night when I made up a sponge batter of 2 cups of flour, 1 packet of dried yeast, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 1 good teaspoon of salt and 1½ cups of water. Stirred till smooth and left on the bench till Saturday night. It did get very active, it’s been over 30*C all week here, and high humidity.

Saturday night I put 6 cups of flour, a good tablespoon of salt, about ½ cup of Olive oil into the Wok, and stirred it about till blended. Then tipped the yeast batter into the Wok and added 1 cup more of water, then mixed it all together. I needed another ½ cup of water to get it right, no dry bits, and a slightly sticky consistency. Put the lid on the Wok and worked on the irrigation plan for the Nursery till 11pm out in the porch.

Sunday morning I added another cup of flour to the Wok, mixed it in, then went to Kukum Fish Market. When I got back the dough was rising well, tipped it out onto a floured bench top, then started kneading, adding a handful of flour as needed to keep it soft and smooth without being sticky.

Split the dough into 3, made 2 loaves and put them into the tin and covered till they rose.

The other 1/3 piece I added chopped chilli and chopped garlic to, then put into the fridge for an hour while I baked the bread. Out of the fridge and split into small balls, a bit bigger than a golf ball, I don’t have scales so it’s all by guess, let them sit for a while then rolled them out to small circles about 10mm thick and 6” across. Cleaned the Wok and got ready for part 2.

Put the Wok onto low heat, I know Joe at www.joepastry.com recommends high heat, I haven’t got a wood fired oven, cast iron skillet, or baking stone for the oven, and the Wok is thin metal, so I use a lower heat.

Dropped each pita bread into the Wok, turned them over when they puffed up, and were still a bit soft, I’m using them for pocket bread so they need to be a bit softer than a crisp hot bake would give. I found if you drop them into the wok with the dryer side down, they puff up better, the side that has been sitting on the bench top or whatever will be softer and damper, and has more elasticity, so it will rise more.




I ended up with 24 Pita Breads, I’ll freeze most, and have a few with dinner.

Kumara and Chilli Curry

I cheat with this, I can’t get the ingredients to make my own curry, so I use the Solomon Islands generic Punjas Hot Curry Powder. If anyone wants a good reference book and a lot of recipes, Charmaine Solomons Asian Cookbook is the only one you’ll ever need.

Ingredients.
Kumara (Sweet potato)
Pineapple
Chillies
Onion
Garlic
Split yellow peas
Split Green peas
Red kidney beans
Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans)
Curry powder if using, or your own mix.

Ok, we’ve only got a Wok and a pot, so preparation and a bit of thought now. The Pita bread is made, the Wok is cleaned up again.

½ cup yellow peas, same of green peas, red kidney beans and chickpeas into the pot to soak, I did this early this morning before I went to the Market. Covered with water and sat on the bench.

Bought a pineapple, more chillies, and some kumara at the market, so we’ll start with the pineapple, follow the photos and you can’t go wrong. Top and tail, trim the outside off, cut the eyes out, then slice and cube, into a bowl, cover and put in fridge.



Kumara, you can peel if you like, I just rub with a scourer and then chop into cubes, cover with water, it will stain black otherwise.

Onion, chillies, garlic, peel onions, chop into slices/small bits, however, chillies need care, do not use bare hands if you get a reaction, do not touch your face, eyes, nose, until you have repeatedly washed your hands after handling and chopping. Crush the garlic, no need to chop, it is going to have a long cooking time and you don’t want all the flavour to evaporate away.



Drain the dried beans, peas and refill the pot and put onto boil, once boiling turn to simmer and leave to cook, about 45 minutes if the beans have had a good long soak, slightly longer without soaking. Drain when cooked and set aside.

Allow 1 – 1 ½ hours to cook the curry, long and slow is always best for this, quick and fast has it’s place but not with this.

Put the jug/kettle on to boil.

Tip the onions, garlic, chillies into the Wok, with about a tablespoon of butter/olive oil based margarine/vegetable oil, and cook gently till the onions are soft, add as much curry powder as you like, I use about 2 tablespoons. Once the onions are soft and the curry powder is starting to darken, add boiling water slowly and stir to mix, then add about 2 – 3 cups of boiling water and bring the mix to a boil.

Add the drained beans/peas/chickpeas, kumara, top up with more boiling water, to cover, bring to the boil and turn down to simmer.



Wash the pot out, and put 1 cup of rice, and 1½ cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt in. Bring to a rolling boil, then turn off the heat, and cover the pot, set aside on the stove top till needed. It will cook very well, without any further heat, do not feel tempted to lift the lid and check every 5 minutes, it will be perfectly fine.

Stir the curry every now and then to make sure it doesn’t stick, slow heat and long cooking is all it needs now, about an hour, or a bit longer is good.

About 30 minutes before serving add as much pineapple as you like, keep the rest to make fruit salad with.

There, that was nice and simple, it’s probably taken me longer to write it up, and take photos as I went than it has to cook everything.

It’s been a mixed week, as they all seem to be lately. We’re slowly getting closer to moving to Ranandi, I was overly optimistic about Telekom and SIEA, it may be next week for Telekom, and as for SIEA it is up to the various Gods that live around here I think.

Tiffany managed to get most of the Japanese application done, I’ve been reworking the irrigation and other stuff to suit the German Embassy Funding. It’s been a few years since I did major irrigation plans, so it has been another steep learning curve. Plus not having anywhere here that stocks irrigation supplies I’ve had to rely on internet sites for information, and prices. All the stuff I am used to is still available, NaanDan rotating sprinklers, and the dripper trickle systems, so it has been a matter of starting with them and working backwards to sort out pump and pipe sizes to get the correct working pressures and delivery rates. As I noted up above, I was still working on it at 11pm last night and finally thinking I can do this!

I’m a lot behind in other stuff I have promised a couple of people, one in particular will be thinking I’m never going to finish what I’ve started for them. Does feeling guilty about it get me any brownie points?

It is going to be a panic in a week or so when we start the Post Office job, as well as do a major clean up through the gardens before Christmas, I still have prices to get for Commonwealth Ave, classes every morning this week, prices and sources for the irrigation, mark out the nursery on the ground, and all I wanted to do was come here and go fishing.

I’m trying to concentrate on getting one thing done at a time, but working out of the office in town makes that almost impossible, both of us keep getting given other stuff that is “more important” to do, then we have to explain why the other “important” stuff hasn’t been completed yet. It’s no wonder I’m drinking more and more coffee at work lately, samesame with Tiffany.

Wednesday 25th November.

It’s been a busy week, I’ve got the drawings done for Commonwealth Ave, Tiffany and I have a meeting with MID tomorrow to go over the concept plan, and hopefully get an idea of how much they are going to put towards the budget, we’ll probably have to canvass the businesses along Commonwealth Ave, I can’t see the Chinese owned ones paying anything though.




It’s finally raining. Steady rain that should last the night out by the looks of the clouds.



We had the bush pigs visit town last night, 14 Alexandra Palms along Ranandi Highway near work were chopped down, all 7 year old palms, just starting to get good solid trunks and that grey colour to them. I wrote a short piece and sent photos to the Solomon Star again. I wanted Tiffany to write it, but she said I use stronger words than she would, so it would be better if I did it. It's in todays Solomon Star in the Letters section. www.solomonstarnews.com

I’ve got 350 seeds from one of the Alexandra Palms in town to start, by the ANZ. I was in there with Tiffany and we saw the crew outside so I sent Jack up the trees to shake the seeds off the bunch. Spent last night washing the pulp off and then nicking the seeds so they start faster without having to wait for the shell to split. Huge amount of non fertile seeds from them, only half the seeds were fertile, I floated all of them in the sink, then doubting what was happening I split some of the floaters open. All hollow, so I didn’t bother checking any others, just kept the ones that sank.

We’ve got a lot of stuff done this week, it’s one of the things that happens. I’ve got pricing to do for Commonwealth Ave, the Post Office is costed and agreed, we start there soon. I’m trying to get more compost made before then, the girls have run out again for the Nursery, plus we have orders for about 3 truckloads to go to private gardens. It is turning into a good earner provided we can keep the supply up. Moving out of the Botanic Gardens has mucked the process up a bit, and I’m reluctant to start large scale processing until we have the lease and agreement signed on the area at Hasting Deering.

The drawings and costing have to be into the Japanese Consul on Friday, I still haven’t heard back from NZ Aid about the scholarships for Andrew and Emory, another thing to chase up tomorrow, I only have till Monday to have them registered in Dunedin Polytech so I can see it is going to be a last minute rush. Like everything here turns into.

Sunday 22nd November

I know I was a few days early with Birthday wishes, I’m never sure if I’m going to be online, especially with us being in the office in town. Better early than miss entirely though.

My chilli and pepper trader at Kukum Fish Market was back again this week, I have to go look for him, he hides over the back off the main part, he’d bought more Thai birdseye chillies, so I bought most of what he had, $20 worth, he gets a laugh from me because I always try one or two first, and I really have to struggle not to gasp and breathe fire with them. Think of a lit match being put on your tongue. I’ve got another couple of jars salted down, with ginger as well this time, in a few months I’ll have a really spicy hot chilli sauce to use. They’re small, barely ½ an inch long, but my hands are still tingling from handling them over 10 hours ago. Meant to be good for arthritis, I’ll find out if my finger knuckles work better tomorrow. Also found out, well, just once more, never touch your face, or other body parts after handling chillies, you have to really like stinging pain to do it repeatedly.


My steamer died on Friday night, another thing to put on the list of things to bring back, as well as a steamer, a voltage rectifier. I found out at work that SIEA voltage can vary from 250v to 220v at any time, depending on how many generators are working and what the load is. So it does play havoc with electrical equipment. Which explains why the laptop transformer can run really hot at times. I’ve decided to get a dehydrator as well, there is just too much cheap fruit to eat, I waste a bit, bananas, pawpaw, sometimes pineapple, it all gets too much for me to eat in a week, even when I cut down on the amount of fruit I buy. The size of the banana hands is always a trap, 15 – 25 bananas in a hand, for $10- $15, even the $10 pineapples I buy are enough to last a week made into fruit salad with pawpaw and banana.

I was asked the other day if I missed having meat, I could be all virtuous and holistic, lentil munching looney left wing bleeding heart cuddling kittens and puppies and say no, but truthfully I wake up dreaming about leg of lamb roasts, thick cuts of steak marinated in soy sauce and covered with black pepper cooked almost rare on a hot plate, chilli stir fried squid, so I guess being a vegetarian isn’t something I’m meant to be. Roast pork with apple and clove sauce, crackling, venison quick fried with garlic, liver and bacon for breakfast with mushrooms, oh stop it.

There are local chicken producers, but looking at the cuts or whole chickens in the shop is a bit of a let down, it is probably perfectly good, but it always looks scrawny, and at $30 for a 1kg bag of soup cuts, neck/ribs/bones I don’t think so. Whole chickens are between $85 and $130, which is more than I spend on food a week anyway. Leg of lamb is $450, sausages $50 (pkt of 6), beef mince (hamburger) $50 for 500gm (1 lb), 4n’20 Australian frozen meat pies are $18 each, whole duck $380, it’s no wonder the locals don’t eat meat often. Or have their own pig that never seems to grow old. And the chickens that run loose everywhere but never seem to overrun the place.

I’m still wary of the fish, even if it hasn’t killed anyone here, well, not that the newspapers have reported anyway. There was some really nice red snapper at Kukum today, but after the last episode with buying fish I gave it a miss.

I’ll plug my favourite blog site again, www.joepastry.com, I use a lot of Joes bread recipes, and ideas, as anyone reading this should know by now. The latest batch of bread from the weekend is probably the best I’ve made so far, for plain bread anyway, the garlic and black pepper loaves I made a couple of weeks back are going to be hard to beat. I made a sponge up Friday night, 2 teaspoons yeast, 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon salt and 1 ½ cups water, and left it to work till Saturday night, then poured it into 8 cups of flour, a bit more salt, and ½ cup of oil, a couple of cups more water and mixed, then left till Sunday morning to shape and bake.



Pic is of one of the loaves, it has a strong sourdough aroma when opened, slightly vinegary, but with a strong yeast aroma that comes through. I’ll find out tomorrow morning how it tastes as toast. I’ve got a copy of Elizabeth Davids Bread Book back in NZ, one of the things she constantly reiterates is how the flavour of bread is enhanced by long proving times, and less yeast. I know Joe is more commercially orientated, and even when I was working in the bakery in Schull we never gave a long proving time, the bread still tasted better than the commercial mechanical loaves though. I worked for Donaghues Bakery in Tullamore for a few months, that was a real contrast to Schull, all machines, it was just tip 10 bags of flour in, turn the tap on for water, throw a couple of packets of yeast into the vat, and set the blades going. Even the shaping was done by machines. It tasted ok in a fashion, but nowhere as good as small batch made product.

I got rid of all the left over bananas as well, and baked 2 banana cakes, with 8 bananas in each. The first one was a bit of a disaster, I forgot to turn the oven down when I put the tin in, so it formed a crust before the centre had a chance to rise, then split open along one side as the centre burst out. The second one is a lot more presentable, I need deeper tins though, another thing to go on the list, the tin I have is only 40mm high, so everything tends to rise in the centre and spill sideways without keeping a nice even shape.


Another pic of dinner, well, dinner ingredients, the bowl has pineapple, onion, garlic, chillies, grated ginger, a bowl of chopped up green stuff, I never know what it is, but it tastes good, egg noodles, also on show, the bread, unchopped habanero and birdseye chillies. It all got tossed into the ever faithful wok, tossed around over high heat for a few minutes, a splash of fish sauce, and dinner was ready. And yes, the chillies were still hot.

Friday 20th November

Happy Birthday Stef.

Tiffany and I had another meeting with the Post Office this afternoon, and they have agreed to pay for the upgrade along Mendana Ave, outside the Post Office, we start on it about the 14th December, or maybe the week before depending on when they give us the 25% initial payment. Kennedy is there doing artwork inside, so I’ve got his carving ability to use for statues in the PO Gardens after we finish the road frontage. All up, we have nearly 4 months work full time there now once we start. It’s going to be a complete rip out and redesign and plant, which I’ve been dying to do since I arrived here.

Which means our compost making has got to increase, I’m going to need 8 truckloads just for the outside gardens, and at least 10 – 15 truckloads for inside the boundary fence, plus the carpark areas and border gardens. I have a letter to go to the ROC Trial farm, Tiff is taking it on Monday, and hopefully we can get a constant supply of rice husks and chaff, to add to the woodchip and chicken manure. Thankfully it rots quickly here, 2 weeks is more than enough time to go from raw to finished compost in the heat and humidity. I may need to find more chicken farms though, up till now it’s been bags at a time, we need truckloads now. It’s getting to be a bit like the King of the Golden River, we’ll take anyones waste and turn it into something useful.

To say I’m happy about getting the Post Office job is a bit of an understatement. It’s the first bit of good news Tiffany and I have had in a long while, and for it to be all Tiffanys work, without anyone else taking it over because it is far to complicated for her means a lot. I finally got her to do the 10% discount method, put a price, but add a 10% contingency price for unforseen expenditure, and offer to deduct it if they guarantee payment, in this case we got a 25% initial payment on commencement, and a final payment within 5 days of completion, so it’s a nice little earner for us. 2 weeks work and a good payment.

There’s going to be a few changes at work now though, I’ve been working on time sheets, job numbers or names, mileage recording on the trucks, so we can keep track of how much each job costs and also to some extent, where we can cut waste expenditure. Now we know we can get the work, the systems are ready to track everything finally. It is going to annoy someone who thinks it can’t be done by the natives, but I’m not here to be nice to the colonials. No matter who they are.

I’ve got drawings to do for the Japanese Consul, and the German Embassy, for the Nursery, before Monday, working plans for Commonwealth Ave to have done so we can get the costings completed for Ministry of Infrastructure and Development by Friday, so my weekend is looking rather full for once.

The accountant came back today and said he’d made a mistake, like we cared enough to worry, but he’d totalled everything wrong, and instead of losing $6,000 per month for the past 5 months, we’d lost $6,000 over the 5 months. So from $35,000 a month to just over $1,000 by cutting out all the community work is working, and once the new pricing Tiffany has done for all the jobs starts in January, we should be showing break even or a profit by March. It’s been a battle though, we’re still being told that we have to do the community work, and I’m still ignoring it. I’m tired of trying to explain that if we don’t get paid for doing something, the money has to come from somewhere to cover all the expenses, and if we have to do it, then there is no point in getting upset at running a loss every month if we aren’t allowed to charge for our time and expenses.

Tuesday 17th November

I should really get out more at the weekend. The football match between the Gualie team and the Malaitan team at Lawson Tama on Saturday had a bit of an upset over a referees decision, which went against the Malaitan team. The ensuing dispute led to the Solomon Island Football Federation Building at Lawson Tama being burnt down, the grandstand was a bit damaged, and everyone went home happy. I haven’t heard of anyone being seriously injured, you don’t see bushknives at the football usually, although that may change. SIFF lost all the trophies, memorabilia, records etc, and the building.

Work remains the same. Although Tiff and I are making headway over the budget issues. We’ve gone from $35,000 a month loss prior to June to $6,000 per month, measured over the past 5 months income/expenditure, and the slope is dropping. It still isn’t perfect, but we are turning it around. On the figures Tiff and I worked on, we should be breaking even by March next year when the new pricing starts being reflected in the income, and the other sources of income like landscaping, plant sales and compost sales are included.

I’ve got all the measurements for the Post Office, I should have been finishing the Commonwealth Street designs today, but I got distracted in the morning, and started the Level 2 class anyway, then by the time we got into town Tiff had another meeting with MID over the payment, I got totally sidetracked with another small job for one of the BJS staff, David came in to tell us about 3 of the crew deciding to wander off and do a couple of private houses lawn cutting instead of the Childrens Park and Rove Police Memorial park, so I’ve written warning letters for them for tomorrow morning, about 2pm I picked up my bag and camera and went out to take photos of the Post Office gardens instead. Add in the usual Telekom internet connection faults, so emails that should have gone to people this morning about quotes/contracts/jobs weren’t sent, and it wasn’t till the afternoon we could get back online to check, it isn’t doing my patience much good.




Post office gardens, it's a bit of a jungle as you can see, bits of everything all thrown in together, I'm clearing it back to bare ground, then Alexandra or Royal palms, with Hibiscus and a few of Kennedys statues with a boulder surround.


No rain for 5 days so far, but there is thunder again in the hills, although the wind is northerly again so it is holding the clouds back away from Honiara. I never thought I’d be welcoming rain, this month has been drier than last year so far, the la nina pattern is settling and holding off the monsoons right across the area, which could make the period after December very interesting, more floods and washouts probably, as the rain finally arrives.

In case I don’t catch up, have a safe trip Libby, and I’ll catch up when you get to Hawaii and settled back in.

Added in, my article got published full page in the Solomon Star Wednesday morning, now I'll wait for Al's Apostles to start abusing me.

Monday 16th November

Spent the weekend caching up on things. Saw Steve Saturday afternoon and told him to expect another “the man is impossible to deal with” email. I’ve really got to learn how to say “Yes Ma’am” more often, but somehow I don’t think that is going to happen.

There are a couple of ladies from Malaita who sell shell money necklaces in town by Wings Supermarket that I’ve been talking to the past while, and the prices are slowly dropping each time I go past. Beautiful shell banded collar like necklace, I know there is a word for them but I can’t think of it as yet, that started a month ago at $1,000, I can now buy 2 for $800 each, and the usual single strand necklace similar to the ones I already have from Imelda and Suzzie are down to $20. So that took care of Hayden and Damians Christmas presents.

I’m going in again Saturday with photos of everyone, Jesse, Kahu, Tarsha, and I should get a good deal on things for them as well. The only problem is that it takes a while to get away from there once I start talking, which is good, I’m learning more all the time about life and things here.

One of my market traders at Kukum finally brought chilli peppers in for sale, he’s been telling me for ages he has some, so I bought half his stock. I’ve now got several jars of salted chilli sitting on the window sill fermenting. He has the usual long cayenne type, as well as the small Thai birdseye and some that look like a small habanero. He was most impressed when I asked to try them before buying, and managed to eat a whole habanero and a couple of Thai ones without going into fits of screaming for water or writhing in agony. They are hot though, I don’t think I could have eaten too many more like that without a bit of trouble.

I’m meant to be starting classes this week, it is turning into a bit of a shambles though with only a few people enrolled so far. I’ve got 3 of the crew doing Level 2, and one outside person so far. I’ll have to start anyway, so that it finishes before February, I can always cram it down to 10 weeks, and do a few all day sessions to cover everything.

I never thought I’d actually be looking forward to going on a break, but the last month has really got to me. Trying to teach people how to read an income/expenditure or profit/loss spreadsheet, knowing full well it won’t make any difference and we’ll still be arguing over doing unpaid community work with the ensuing argument over wages and expenditure because of it is becoming a pointless exercise in futility.

I’ve not lost hope, but it’s sort of sitting quietly in a corner and waiting I think. It is going to be interesting when the funding comes through, Tiffany and I want to set it up in separate accounts so we can keep a good watch over the spending, and also because it makes an easier audit trail, from what we were told last week someone else has a different idea and thinks it is all going to go into the general slush fund account and be used to cover any charity work. There may be “words”.

I finally gave into temptation over the weekend, and spent a fair bit of time going through all the files and writing an article for the Solomon Star about AGW Hysteria. They have had items all week in the paper about Copenhagen, and bits and pieces from various schools doing AGW projects. I know I should have ignored it all, but when it gets to the stage where natural weather patterns are used as examples of AGW, I gave in to the temptation.

I’ve got 4 ½ pages done, and I need a lot more to cover it better, but the main points are there, so I’ll send that in today, and will do more if the response is forthcoming.