Sunday 9th May

Happy Mothers Day Mum. The phone lines here aren’t the best as we found out when you called. Good to hear from you though.

We’ve had a couple of nights of rain, not a great deal, last night was the most, a bit of thunder back in the hills, and a fair bit of rain for an hour or so throughout the night. Still no water to the house, I’m going back to SIWA tomorrow to have a few “words” again about it. So far it’s been 14 months with sporadic water supply, an almost none since December. Using buckets all the time has gone past the “how quaint” to the “bloody annoying” stage now. If I was out in the provinces or the rural areas I could put up with it, there is nothing else there, but in a city? And especially when SIWA are still charging us for the lines. If it rains again tonight I’m going outside to stand in it for a while.

The Bulk Shop finally had bread improver, and bakers flour, so I’m back to the usual weekend baking. A couple of plain loaves and some rolls to get me through the week. Everything has been in short supply lately, Adrian was complaining about the lack of Watties Baked Beans in Wings, he almost had a fit when I suggested he buy the Black and Gold branded ones. Watties are $28 a 425gm tin (about 1lb) Black and Gold are $15, and I can’t taste the difference whenever I have a splurge and buy a tin. Ok, I add garlic, chilli, onions to it, I still can’t see the point in paying another $13 just for a brand.

It has been hot sticky and humid the last few weeks, I’m drinking 3 – 4 litres of liquid a day, and 99% isn’t making it through the system. Looking back at the entries for last year, I’m about the same. They have finally got Coke Zero here, no calories, no sugar, no fats, but the taste is still the same. The cans are $6 - $7, depending on where, the 2 litre imported Australian bottles are $29. Which works out better, but knowing me, I’d drink a 2 litre bottle a day, and having just written that, I remember I’m drinking 4 – 5 cans a day anyway, so the bottle still works out better value. I may stock up next weekend at Wings, although I just spent $539 there yesterday stocking up on bits and pieces, soap, shampoo, coffee, 2 tins baked beans. No wonder I go a bit crazy in New Zealand when I see the prices there.

We find out this week on Wednesday if we have Planning Permission, for the Nursery. If it gets knocked back again I think I’ll just go out to the airport and catch the first flight out. Nearly 18 months of frustration, plans, meetings.

I’ve got my Nursery staff picked, we’ll start having discussion meeting this week to go over the things I expect them to learn and do, having them with us while we build it is good, they’ll know where everything fits, how to repair it, what to do. Once Andrew finds out about his thumb for certain, I’ll bring him back to work so he can see what we’re doing, until he is able to start actual work again. It’ll be a couple of months till he will be bale to use his hand, so he may as well be with us studying as sitting at home in a hammock under the trees.

Thursday 6th May

I’m almost looking forward to the weekend. The little aircon unit we have in the container has just about died, we’ve been promised another bigger unit, the talk was having it installed yesterday, but I think that got mixed up with “Tomorrow” and “soon”. I’ve got a bet with Tiff about when it will be in place, so far I am well ahead and looking safe for late next week. The problem happens with the laptops and computers, they really don’t like running in 35*C temperatures, we’ve been shutting them off between 11 and 3 lately, to try and stop the overheating problems till we get the aircon sorted out.

Vincents Mother died last night, over on Malaita. He’s pulled his holidays early so he can get home on the ferry tomorrow to be with his wantok. Which leaves us considerably short of workcrew at the moment. Jepthah left last week, and has a job at GPOL, the palm oil farm. Imelda is in New Zealand, Andrew is sitting in the hammock at home with his thumb all bandaged up, we could do with another 5 staff immediately.

I keep looking at the sky lately wishing for rain, but all we get is a lot of clouds that never reach peak height or capacity and they fade away as the evening progresses. We had a fair bit of rain the other night, more would be good. The el nino is showing some signs of weakening, but not fast enough to let the trade winds through with the rain.

Tiff and I met up with Hendry at the timber yard behind us, and he is happy for us to use their driveway for access to our plot, so that is another almost problem dealt with. I’ll put a 5 metre double gateway in to allow the truck with the chipper attached room to swing in.

We’ve got 4 crew without workboots now, all “borrowed” by their wantok. We charge them now for replacements that go missing, I’m not intending to supply every village in the Solomons with work boots for everyone. It’s a constant problem though, their wantok don’t realise that the money coming in will stop if the guys don’t have workboots, we send them home till they come with them now. And they lose the days pay etc.

I’ve still got one rat somewhere in the house, Tony sent the repair guys out today to fix the broken screen, so hopefully that stops anymore getting in, all I have to do now is catch the last one that is still in here somewhere. It isn’t as if the house is big, 3 rooms plus bathroom, and not a great deal of cupboards. I suspect it hides behind the stove, and hangs on when I shake it up and down, or behind the fridge. I’ve turned all the clothes over on the shelves, gone through the chair cushions, and not a trace of it, till the morning when I find the droppings on the bench, or stove top. I’m going through a bottle of bleach a week lately, cleaning everything all the time. Plus disinfectant.

I had water last night, I’d got to the stage of getting all my washing out and just about to start scrubbing, when the water went off again. I’ll be outside at the weekend again I think, hand scrubbing shirts sheets etc. And I’m putting in for an extension to my contract??? I must be mad. Although there aren’t many alternatives, at least I feel as though I’m achieving something here, as frustrating as it can be at times.

Wednesday 5th May

You would think any car salesman worth his while would be helpful when someone phones and says “ I have $180,000 to spend, we want a truck with a Hiab or crane, 2 ½ tonne, what have you got available?” I’ve been trying to get the local car/truck importers interested for the past 3 months. I spend more time chasing him than he has contacted us. I gave up tonight and went to the Toyota Dealer and asked what they could come up with. I’ll have whatever they can find by Monday at the latest. If they can find something within our budget that is suitable, I’ll be ringing the original person and telling them they missed out.

It’s been the same with all the Nursery equipment, I’ve been waiting for a quote from Island Enterprises since October, despite several emails, phone calls, it is always, “soon”. So we’ve ordered everything from Brisbane and IE have missed out on several thousand dollars worth of sales. I’ve not seen Phil, I am tempted to let him know, but I doubt it would change anything.

I’m applying for an extension to my contract, for an extra 2 years, very optimistic, I may get an extra year, but I’m going for 2 on the basis that I’ve wasted last year due to the political conflict with us at the Botanic Gardens, then this year will be gone just setting up the Nursery before we can be were I was meant to be at the start. Plus with the EU Funding, I have a lot more to set up and have established, again, none of it can start till the Nursery is established, so I’ll be one year into the EU Proposal before it even starts. I’d like to leave here knowing everything was finished to the walk away stage, I’ve been so frustrated by everything so far.

I had 2 journalism students over today from King George IV School, they are doing an assignment about the Childrens Park and the problems associated with it. I think I gave them enough for a series of articles about Honiara and attitudes, changing perceptions, environmental issues, anyway, they’ve promised to send me a copy of their assignment when they get it written.

Finally caught up with Andrew, he still has his thumb attached, but it is still a bit problematic. They took one of the stainless wires out, and left 2 still wound around the bone. He goes back on the 11th for another x-ray, and tests. He’s a lot happier knowing his job is secure, well for as long as SEB is operating anyway. I’ve got him, Jennifer, Rose earmarked for the Nursery, if Imelda comes back from New Zealand I’ll take her into the Nursery as well. We’re still trying to find a small motors course for Andrew to go on. I want him permanently in the Nursery as general staff, and to be the maintenance person for the equipment and repairs. If he is back to work in a month or so he’ll be able to see how everything fits together, where the pipes, wires run, and I can be showing him where the problems will arise, and how to fix them when they do.

We had rain finally last night, I’m hoping for another burst tonight, but it seems to have blown over. It’s been a really dry period lately, the el nino has been central over the Pacific for the past few months, and it is stopping the usual monsoonal rains reaching the Solomons. But when it does rain, it makes up for the dry spells in a hurry, as the washed out bridges and roads of February and March testify.

My hobby site, 419Eater.com has a few people winding me up as usual, about mixing Islay Malt with coca cola and other mixes. Heathens they all are. Similar to the people that take a perfectly well seasoned coffee pot and scrub it out, or give my 15 year old cast iron frypan a wash with soap or detergent, or cleaning powder, then wonder why everything sticks to it. There should be a Hell reserved for people like that. I have some thoughts, but not bad enough yet.

The little truck is back, with the back brake shoes adjusted so they actually touch the brake drums. I’m not holding my breath over it. Still no pedal pressure, just straight to the floor then the brakes hit, but at least it isn’t nose diving again. They still haven’t found our original battery. I’ll have to send another email about it I think.

Rose said Mum is fading noticeably now, she is down to jigsaws, and is sleeping a lot more, and has no energy for much. I’m at the most 4 days away from there, depending on when I need to go. I can get direct flights Tuesdays or Thursdays, the other days depend on transfer flights, and nothing on weekends.

My cousin John took his Dad (mums younger brother) to see her on his 82nd birthday, and got some really nice photos of Mum and Des, thanks John. One of the good things about Facebook. I hate Farmville. I have to block people off my list that fill the pages with Farmville. Given the crap internet connection we have here, I’d rather catch up with people than wade through page after page of junk games on facebook.

Monday 3rd May

I need an air pistol, about a .22 would be nice. My “pet” rat is getting annoying, it bit my foot the other night in bed, woke me up, as it would. I’ve been bathing it (my foot, not the rat) in disinfectant, and putting anti-bacterial cream on. Small bite, barely worth seeing, but it looked a bit red and angry during the day after. I would have gone to the Health Clinic if the bloody truck had started, but that wasn’t going to happen, again.

We’re putting the truck back into the garage again this week. The brakes, which have now been fully renewed from the brake shoes to the master cylinder, are still grabbing and pulling to the right quite viciously, and there is no feel to the pedal, it is nothing then suddenly you are banging your head on the windscreen. I’m past caring about it, I’d like to take it to a proper garage, but we have to use the company one.

I keep trying to stay enthused about the nursery, but after a year so far, and all we have is a drawing and a tentative lease, until we get the building permit we are stuck again. It is going to be another month of waiting now till the Planning Dept decide. Still it gives me time to mark out on the site, and we should have everything from Brisbane arriving by the end of this month as well.

We (Tiff mostly) have rearranged the office to make room for Kim to fit in, she’s Tiffs assistant for a while till things settle down. I was in at work yesterday emptying the cartons of folders, files etc, sorting stuff out. Today we moved the drop file cabinet in, I sort of put the files back in order, more along the lines of “Oh look an empty drawer, now it’s full” style of sorting. We need a better aircon, or two. I’m sure we could cook lunch on the container roof by midafternoon. I may paint them white, or get a hose spraying on them all day.

Pineapple, banana and pawpaw with fresh chillies chopped in is nice! Well, it’s sweet, spicy and nice, if you like chilli, I may go overboard with them. 1 pineapple, 1 pawpaw, 8 small bananas, the little round sweet ones, and about 30 little chillies. The juice is enough to peel the skin off your tongue, but it still has the sweetness from the pineapple. Good for breakfast, or so I’ve found this week so far.

Tony gave me a tin of Rat Glue to try, as they won’t eat the $500 poison. It looks like grey bondafil/bodyfiller and stays sticky forever. It is spread on a piece of cardboard at the moment, with the bench oven on one side, the wall the other, and a banana placed in the corner as bait. Joel tried it at his place opposite me on Saturday, and caught 2 rats Saturday night, and another on Sunday night. They get stuck, and can’t get off it. I wonder if I could do Rat onna Stick with Sauce barbque? They are plump bloody things, similar to the NZ Kiorie. Pale brown fur, not like the Norwegian ship rats.

If the glue doesn’t work, I know the poison doesn’t, I’ll get the crew to keep a look out for a smallish boa to put loose in the house for a while. With the bedroom door well closed at night.

The RCDF (Rural Constituency Development Fund) has been put on hold till after the election now. While it has been allocated, it is now being held so the MPs can’t spend it till the new parliament is formed in August. I think the outcry in the Solomon Star may have had something to do with Sikua making the decision over the weekend, and announcing it in this mornings Sol Star. I can’t see most of the current lot of MPs being voted back in, but this is the Solomons, and bribery is a way of life here. Buying votes seems to be the only way to get elected, if you don’t throw money around the wantok, you’ll never get a single vote. They receive a huge amount of money for development in each constituency, but it all seems to get wasted in dribs and drabs, instead of one or two major developments, it goes on small stuff scattered all over the provinces. It may keep the people happy in the short term, but there is never anything permanent done with it, vote buying seems to be the main use. $10 million a year from Taiwan just vanishes. Like the $8 million Cattle fund. I could go on, but it gets too depressing when you consider what all that money could have done.

Thursday 29th April. (Actually 4am Friday morning)

I’m pleased tomorrow/today is Friday, it makes Monday that much closer.

My pet rat that won’t eat rat poison is fast becoming a nuisance. It hasn’t the grace to look startled when I catch it at 3am eating the bananas on the bench, it sits there, looks at me, then casually waddles over the bench top, drops to the floor and walks behind the fridge. After which it becomes a lot of banging, shifting furniture, opening and closing back doors, front doors, verandah doors, moving chairs, cushions, trying to chase the damn thing out of the house.

By then it’s 4am, I’m wide awake, and going to be in a slightly tired frame of mind for the rest of the day.

Tiff got back Wednesday. She had a fairly good time in Brisbane, despite having no money for the week due to a miscalculation. She never told me in her emails, I could have sent some WU if I’d known, but too late afterwards. She got to our suppliers in Brisbane, and bought back a thick folder of pamphlets, catalogues etc, full of stuff I’d love to have in the nursery but in practical terms it is too far above what we are doing to need yet.

Her laptop shrunk, from the big Toshiba we actually need, to an Acer with just enough to be useful, but not enough to be practical.

The elections, whenever they are, July/August is the closest guess so far, will be interesting. The $20 million RCDF (Rural Constituency Development Fund) annual allowance, has been fully paid out to the departing MPs, so they will have bribe money to pay their wantok for votes, instead of using it to fix roads, develop business, agriculture etc. The Solomon Star is printing editorials that are slightly irate in tone about it, and the letter section is disapproving to say the least. Still, it isn’t as though it is something new here.

There aren’t fixed political parties or groupings here, the Governments are a loose coalition of 10 – 20 various appellations, single members, 3 – 5 people with a slogan and name, all jostling for first place at the money trough. If they get elected it then becomes a matter of paying off the people that voted for them, and keeping the money flowing to get re-elected next time, without upsetting too many people who miss out on the slush funds.

There is still no movement on the Cattle Fund, I doubt it will ever go ahead, it looks good on paper, the practicalities of it seem doomed to failure with the lack of accounting, responsibility, knowledge.

Our office/classroom building is finally on paper and has been submitted to Planning for approval. No, we didn’t attaché a CASH cheque for an undisclosed sum to it, although that may not be a bad idea.

With the extra area we gain by squaring off the back of H-D, we gain a lot of space to consolidate the non-productive buildings, storage, office etc, and have more space for actual nursery production. And it simplifies the water lines as well. We can run the lines around the perimeter of the block, instead of across the traffic areas, it may mean a bit more pipework, but it simplifies the system. Here is the revision 4 drawing so far, I think it will be the final design, any ideas please send.



The little truck is back to its usual refusal to start in the mornings behaviour. We tow started it this morning, well, more Joel towed me to the top of the road, and I coasted down the hill for a bit before throwing it into gear and finally getting some noise from the engine. It starts with no trouble for the rest of the day after that, it may be a fuel problem again with the fuel pump, or electrical with the glow plugs, I’ve given up trying to work it out. If I could find a tin of QuickStart, or ether, or something to spray into the air cleaner first that might help.

It’s been considerably drier this year than last, looking back to what I wrote last year at this time, we have had less rain and heavy storms than then. Some due to the el Nino that lingers on, and some due to the slightly cooler temperature. Less evaporation, less clouds, less rain. Since reading Willis Eschenbachs Thermostat Hypothesis, I’ve been taking more notice of the daily cloud buildup, and it has been later and later in the day until the accumulated heat over a few days creates enough backlog to really lift the water up high enough to cool and fall. It’s going to be a long dry summer I think if the el Nino persists.

Thursday 22nd April

Adrian and I went back to Tsaghe Ridge today to have a look at the landscape job. To say I am disappointed in what has been done is an understatement. David has had 9 people there for 4 days, and has completed barely half the work. It’s no wonder I received an irate phone call on Wednesday asking when we were going to finish. The grass has been cut, the 2 garden beds of Helliconia have been weeded and mulched, but the palms have barely been touched. The ones that have been pruned, have been done in such a way that the whole shape is unbalanced, with fronds still horizontal on one side, or just 2 or 3 left, and the rest trimmed. The two trees we were meant to be removing, have been left as they were when Andrew cut his thumb, all in all, it looks untidy, unfinished, and unprofessional.

Adrian is going back on Monday with Hudson, Vincent, Jephtah and Misi to get it finished, there’s about 4 hours in it, including cleaning up if organised. I’m stuck now with the Government House project coming up soon, and I’m not willing to let David near any part of it. Tomorrow is going to be toktok day I think, I’ve been postponing it till I’d had a chance to get to Tsaghe and see for myself. I’m more than disappointed, past annoyed, and moving into angry. Adrian was way past me, he tends to fire up quickly, so I’ve got a promise from him that he is not going to get involved, other than run the work crew for us till we can get a satisfactory conclusion with David.

King George IV School rang today, they want someone from SEB to run a 4 week 5 x ½ days per week landscaping/gardening/soil/environment course for their 6th form students. I’ve put them off till Tiff gets back and we can organise it, I have no doubt it will be me going and running it, until we get the supervisor issue sorted I’m not willing to let things go as they are, while I’m away from the nursery.

Everything is all coming together, the nursery site, more work contracts and short one off jobs, equipment etc is ordered and in the delivery process, so we need the actual work processes to be working properly and efficiently to really get it all together now.

There is, or rather, was, a large Averrhoa carambola (5 corner, Star Fruit) tree between me and next door, that when I looked last weekend was absolutely laden with young fruit, it looked like more fruit than leaves. The branches were actually bowed down with the weight, and it shaded the sun from here in the late afternoon. Got home tonight, unpacking the laptop, when sunlight flooded into the room, and there was a large crack from next door. I popped out and the tree is now mostly a straight stalk, with a few branches left, but it looked too clean to have broken, then one of the daughters started dragging the branches away so I asked if the tree had broken, I got a huge wide grin, and “ I cuttem down!” as she waved her bushknife. I can’t get over the propensity for everyone here to cut things down, pruning, trimming etc, aren’t in their vocabulary, it is either standing or level, there are no inbetween measures.

If you are interested, the fruit from it are not anything I would recommend, I know people that think they are the most exquisite thing for a salad, but in my opinion if you want to know what they taste like here it is.

Take one good paraffin wax candle, not scented or coloured, just plain white, and with a vegetable peeler shave off about ½ cup of fine paraffin wax. Put aside in the fridge.

Fill a glass with the ice that forms in your freezer, or off the inside of the fridge when it is not working properly, and set in the fridge to thaw, you need it to thaw, but still be cold. Do not use tap or filtered water to make the ice, nor use water and chill it, it will not taste the same.

Mix the paraffin shavings with the cold water, and drink. You should end up with chewy bits of paraffin stuck in your teeth, and a terrible flat insipid taste from the thawed fridge ice. That is what the fruit of the Averrhoa carambola taste like.

I may be biased.

I’ve got so many things going on at the moment, I keep trying to focus on one part of what we are doing, and get it completed, but it doesn’t work out that way. I’m very much a big picture person, once it gets down to the fine details, I get lost in the detail, or bored with the process, which is where Tiff is brilliant. She has big picture ideas, but is really good with the detail work, I break it into sections, give her the section detail stuff to do and it is done so quickly and correct I’m always amazed with what she accomplishes. I get the ideas, like the Post Office, Government House, Commonwealth Ave, and can sketch in the broad view, Tiff can come along and fill in the detail and she knows all the right people for us to go to and sell the ideas to. No wonder I don’t want her to leave, or if she does, I’m going with her.

The King George IV School one sounds interesting, I’m not sure how my views on AGW will go, but if I can get them to start thinking instead of just believing what they are told, I’ll be happy with that. And get them to start thinking about pollution, preserving their environment, saving the reef structures. It’ll be good to get back teaching again, I know I’m just going to use it as an excuse to run away from the problems at work with David, but hopefully that will be resolved or under some sort of management before then.

Mum is still managing, Rose said she has 2 ballet tutus to finish, a ballet costume, a dress, a woollen sweater for me, a few more jigsaw puzzles to complete, once those are all done, then she might be ready to go. If she hasn’t started something else by then. Mum has always been kind of indestructible, I don’t know how I’d act if I had the same news. Just give up or try to get more things done in whatever time I had left.

I got another spider bite at work today, small wolf spider, now deceased. It stung like hell for a while, large blister type swelling that has now settled to an angry red circle, but fading. Another reason for me to have a strong dislike of spiders. On the subject of wildlife, there is a small rip in the insect screen on the window above the stove by the back door and steps. I’ve never worried too much about it, I’ve not had flies or mosquitos inside since I’ve been here so it didn’t look like being a problem. Till last night about 11pm, I went get a cold drink, and there was a large plump rat sitting on the window ledge looking at me as if I was meant to leave food out for it. By the time I found a knife it had decided I might not be friendly and was reasonably calmly climbing back out through the hole in the insect screen and down the back steps. I’ve got the louvres shut with rodent pellets in the window frame now for it to nibble on when it comes back, as I have no doubt it will. I’ll let Tony know and get the screen fixed. The louvres here are on the inside of the window frame, the frame is about 6” deep, with insect mesh then burglar bar frame outside that. So shutting the louvres makes a space in the frame.

Again about wildlife, while typing the above, I’ve had a small gecko climbing up and down my back, and in general being a right bloody nuisance. I’ve caught it 3 times now and put it down, but it keeps climbing back up the chair.

Sunday 25th April

Dawn Service here was good this morning. For those not of New Zealand or Australian backgrounds, 25th April is ANZAC Day (Australian New Zealand Army Corp), commemorating the landing of the Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli in 1915. While New Zealand and Australian troops had served together before, in the Boer War in South Africa in the 1890’s, this was the first time the term ANZAC came to be used to describe the combined troops.

So every April 25th, Dawn Service is held to commemorate all the service men and women who have died, at Gallipoli, and also those killed or lost in other conflicts that both New Zealand and Australia have served together in.

The only places I’ve missed Dawn Service in has been Ireland, I think there is a service held in Dublin, or was, when the NZ High Commission were there. Melbourne has the best I’ve been to, ok, Sydney is close, NZ seems to have downgraded it a lot over the years of the Labour left wing nanny state, hopefully John Key might give it some more emphasis if pushed hard enough. The Cenotaph at the Museum Grounds in Auckland is always crowded, but we need the street parade as Melbourne does. Even if it was only along Karangahape Road, then across Grafton to the Memorial. And a fly past of whatever is left of the NZ Airforce. Probably 5 remote controlled Airfix models.

I’ve made a few cosmetic changes in here, I was probably pushing things a bit with starting this, but ok, I’ve been caught, so I’ve had to do a bit of editing.

Friday was a mixed bag as usual for here. I left David with a couple of the crew chipping branches at Ranadi, and Adrian drove me around collecting the wages, checking in on Andrew at #9, buying a few more tools to replace the ones that have “gone”, bush knives, pruning saws and tree loppers, and got back to Ranadi to find Jephtah putting the covers back onto the motor on the chipper. I’d started it before I left, and it was running, so there were the usual questions, followed by the usual sheepish looks and guilty expressions, David wasn’t there, so Jepthah had to try to explain that it had stopped and David had done his usual “outtem hem” and pulled the motor apart, or as much as he could. It’s a 7.5hp, twin cylinder, petrol motor, barely used, I think about 180 hours use in 2 years, that has never faulted on us yet. Anyway, after I said a few words, Adrian said a lot more, we left it for the time being till we caught up with David to find out what had gone wrong, and why etc?

David hadn’t returned by the time we left, I had to be at the Post Office for a meeting by 3.30, so we probably missed him by leaving early.

Adrian and I went out to Ranadi yesterday, put the battery into the chipper, turned the key and it started without any trouble. Fed a few branches through, we couldn’t find any problems with it. Adrian told me this morning at the Dawn Service that David had called around yesterday afternoon, and said he had a person coming out on Monday to fix the chipper, so Adrian had great pleasure in telling David there wasn’t a Bl***y thing wrong with it, and for him to stop pulling things apart all the time. Which I’ve got to agree with. They have stripped all the heads on the Philips screws using the sparkplug spanner star drive, lost most of the spring washers off the covers, so the screws now vibrate out and the covers fall off, the list goes on.

I think I’ve found out the problem? misconception is better, with David and the one off jobs. Adrian had some words with him about the length of time for the landscape job, David said that I’d quoted $1600, so what was the problem with 4 or 5 days? I’ll have to explain our daily costs/income to David again I think. We need $1400 per day income to cover our fixed outgoings, that will go up soon with the extra in rent for the expanded nursery, but at the moment, $1400 covers everything with no cream to go on top. So far the job that Adrian, Tiff and I all agree should have been done in one day, has cost us $6,600. And put us behind in our contracted work for MID, the Roundabouts etc. Add in the half day Adrian and the 4 crew will be doing Monday, just to finish what we contracted for, Adrian thinks I have the patience of a saint to cope with this all the time. It’s all stuff we need to have settled before we start with the actual nursery proper, I can’t see it going ahead with that sort of attitude from the supervisors, or failure to understand how much it costs us to run SEB on a daily basis. I feel like suspending David for 3 months without pay so we can recover the cost from his wages.

Andrew is doing well, we caught up with him at #9, the infection has been cleared, there are 3 strands of stainless wire holding the bone in his thumb together, he was going home for the weekend under strict instructions to keep it all dry and clean, then go back Wednesday for further x-rays to make sure the bone was knitting. If he can keep any infection out, he will keep his thumb, and be back at work in a couple of months. I told him his position at work was not in doubt, he had been worried that he was going to lose his job entirely over it. Even if they’d amputated his thumb, I’d have made sure he had a job at SEB for as long as he wanted anyway.

Another update on the wildlife here. 4.30am on a Sunday morning is not the time to be finding a shirt on the shelves in the bedroom and have a large rat jump out of the shelf. I have no idea where it ran to, I opened both outside doors, then spent some time going through the 3 rooms tipping everything up to chase it out, but never saw it again. I saw Tony at the Dawn Service, and he is going to have the guys come around Monday and lay traps and sticky rodent tape inside and out. Next to spiders, rats are second on my list. I have poison scattered around inside again, and done the cupboard cleaning and washing the floors, bench top scrubbing and oven cleaning stuff again. I may bring an air rifle back with me, BSA .22 Airsporter would be good, although quickly aiming a rifle is a bit awkward in a small room. Chip will disagree with me I know.

I finally got to Kukum Fish Market this morning, oh, the little truck is back too, and going, and wandered around looking at prices from everyone first. My usual people that have chillies have changed the marketing presentation, and are now doing picked chillies in 300ml bottles, which look really good, and at $5 are a better bargain than the branches they were selling. So being me, I opened one bottle, pulled a couple of chillies out and munched them, to the horrified look of the vendor. They were absolutely delightful, really hot chilli flavour, so I bought the bottle. By which time I had about 6 or 7 people gathered around looking at me as though I’d just stepped off the spacecraft. I didn’t carry on eating anymore, to be honest, they were bloody hot, 1 or 2 were more than enough to try, anymore and I would have been a basket case. It took about an hour for my mouth to stop burning.

Still, it was good fun, and I’m sure he will remember me next week.

I’ve got a litre of coconut oil in my water tank now to try and kill the mosquito larvae. Once that has had a bit of time to work, I’ll wait for a wet weekend with lots of rain and wash the tank out, then hopefully I’ll be back to reasonably clean water in the tank again. The coconut oil is to stop the larvae from breathing, it forms a skin over the surface of the water, and when the larvae come up to breathe, they can’t penetrate the oil layer.

For some reason I had water flowing most of the weekend, so the clothes, sheets, have all been washed, the floors have been scrubbed and disinfected, all the dishes have been really well cleaned, then tonight, just as I decide to start cooking, the water vanishes. Well, ok, it isn’t that big a worry, I have a full water tank, but the convenience of just standing at the sink and turning a tap on has ruined me for the rest of the week. As well as the long shower I had this morning.

I’ve got Peter Tosh playing at the moment, reggae with a hard edge is how I’ve always felt about him. Great music, the message needs a bit of conciliation at times, but ok, that is how he sees it. Doesn’t stop me agreeing with him and how he sees life.

Mum rang earlier. She was going to see Swan Lake, with Rose this afternoon there. So I guess she is still managing ok. She’s stopped taking the morphine/paracetamol and is back on her favourite aspirin again. I think she’d rather be lucid and in a bit of pain than how the morphine made her all fuzzy and wandering. She is considering donating her body to the Auckland Med School, as she said, the specialists at Auckland said she was too far gone with cancer for an operation or treatment, so she feels that maybe if they have her body to open up, they may find a way to operate on someone else in time. Or at a later stage like she is.

Mum never ceases to amaze me with stuff.

Given my aversion to people touching me, I’d go for a Viking style, open boat cast out to sea, either on fire or not, to drift wherever it takes my body. A bit like crossing the River Styx, Charon steering the boat to the land of the dead. I remember when I was really young, and reading all the Arthur Mees Encyclopedias that were around then, with all the different sections and the Greek and Roman mythology, and wondering how those legends started. What was the basis for them? Apollo, Zeus, Athena, Dianna I could understand, even the Norse gods, Frig, Lokki, Thor, but where does Charon arise from? Crossing the River Styx to the Land of the Dead is so far away from a seasonal/sky being, birth and rebirth gods are common to everyone, how did a boatman arise? Answers on the back of a postcard please.

I’ve been thinking, a boat full of pyrotechnics, set for a few hours delay, time to get way out to sea, I’m sure Damian would oblige me with that.

It’s 8.39 pm, I’ve been trying to phone out to Rose, but no go, and now the dogs that didn’t eat the poison have started the nightly howl session. It starts way back behind me, then gets progressively nearer and nearer, till the local ones join in, which is when I go outside and throw stones towards the noise, it is too dark to see anything. From the yelps and general silence I figure I may hit one or two each time.

Wednesday 21st April

I’m at a loss to explain David. I was under the impression that the landscape job was completed, when I asked him Tuesday night if it was all cleaned up, and all done, the answer was yes. Ok, 3 days over time, but finished.

This afternoon I get a phone call from an irate lady wanting to know when the crew are going to finish and clean up her yard. Including cutting the palms and finishing off mowing the grass down.

I’m going there tomorrow with Adrian, I have a Signage Publicity thing with the Childrens Park at 10.30, HKL are having their sponsorship sign unveiled, and with Tiff in Brisbane one of us has to be there. After that I’ll go to Tsaghe and see what is the problem, then after Adrian has driven me around enough to calm down, I’ll have to have a discussion with David.

He seems determined at times to undermine everything that Tiff and I do to get SEB functioning, I don’t know whether it is some Solomon Male Macho thing because his wife is the manager and is decidedly brilliant, and he struggles, but I know he isn’t that incapable of doing what is required, so I’m left with the opinion that he is just doing what he told me last year when I arrived, that all these whitefala advaesa come, change everyting, when they go, we go back to how we did it before. If that is the case, then David won’t be part of where Tiff wants SEB to be by the end of next year.

Adrian and I measured out properly the area we are going to take at Hasting-Deering today. I’ve mentioned before about Adrians lapses of memory, and forgetfulness, so I’m well aware of the problems now. The H-D block isn’t square, one side is 22 metres longer, with the resulting angle being the rear fence, which is our boundary. I’m all for gaining as much as possible, I’ve never worked for a nursery anywhere that had enough space, so we took the measurements from the front road fence, back to the 25 metre mark on the short side of the boundary, then measured out the same distance on the other side. We gain a triangular piece 120 metres by 22 metres to the apex at the short side. So I’m happy with that. It is on the entrance side of the block, which gives me more room for the admin and school side, as well more room for the retail space without compromising more nursery space.
I asked Jason to come and have a look and check that he was happy with the area, H-D have future plans for more factory space at some stage, but he was happy to see the block squared off how we marked it, ok, we’ll be paying for the extra land area, in rent, but as above, you always need space.

I have an appointment with the Head Gardener at Government House on Friday, taking David is still debateable, but I will, as well as Adrian. That way they both know what we are contracting for, the time frame they require for completion at GH, and Adrian and I can alternate managing it. I’m not letting David run any more contracts for a while. Government House will be a big job, I’ve put in for concrete edging down the driveway where the tarseal is breaking away, completely digging out and replacing most of the gardens, and a different layout for the courtyard garden. After that, we then have the grounds and produce gardens to renovate, or install.
It comes to a few hundred thousand, but not a lot spare for people with attitudes to stuff up. I may just hire a workcrew on contract, and leave David running the road and park stuff that isn’t that time/cost critical.

I’ll have to stop mentioning David anymore, this is liable to turn into a long screed of frustration and venting otherwise.

The weather, a nice safe subject if we stay away from AGW, continues sunny, hot and lacking rain. We’ve lost over half our plants so far from the lack of water, SIWA aren’t helping in that regard with water cuts, and lack of supply. I’ve been watching the clouds form each day, I intend getting a full day sequence of it when I remember. Today started off completely cloudless at 7am, by 9am the first cumulus were forming over Malaita, and Savo, and West Guadacanal. At 1pm the cumulus had started exploding upwards, with a large flat top spreading across the sky. Unfortunately, this hasn’t bought rain yet, although we could see it falling on the mountains at West Guadacanal, and on East Malaita. We watched one small cumulus over the Florida Islands reach breaking point, and shoot a long spire up to what looked about 25,000 feet, which must have sucked all the heat out of the base, it slowly lost the funnel, and then the top dissipated over an hour or so.

I’ve got a few pics, this is what the afternoon skies look like most days here.





ANZAC Day Sunday, Adrian and I are going to the Dawn Service, it’s held down by the waterfront at Rove, in front of the SI Police Headquarters. I’m wondering if they have any planes do a fly over as well. I used to go to the Dawn Service in Geelong, and at Torbay, both had either vintage tiger moths, or in Geelongs case, slightly more modern aircraft do a fly past, with one aircraft flying straight out to sea instead of returning. Hearing the Last Post at dawn is always an eerie feeling.