Saturday 22nd May Late evening.

We had a little bit of excitement at work on Friday. 2 of the crew were cutting the overgrowth away from the back fence where the Nursery is eventually, possibly, may be going, and they found a thriving colony of Giant African Snails. Achatina fulica for those of a botanical bent. The last colony of them found here was late last year near Chinatown, by the Mataniko Bridge, and caused SI Quarantine to have a bit of a panic. They aren’t something we want here, if they do spread, and it appears they are, they will wipe out most of the agriculture around Honiara, where all our food comes from. They are large, the cigarette lighter in the pic is 80mm, (3 ½ inches) I found an empty shell later on that is slightly larger than the one in the pic.



I rang SI Quarantine, and had a hilarious conversation that went
“ Hello? SI Quarantine?”
“Yes”
“Warren from Honiara Beautification here, African Snails, do you want some?”
“Where are you?”
“Ranadi, on the Tip Road”
“We’ll send a team around now”

They arrived about 30 minutes later, 4 of them, and we or rather I, had an interesting conversation with them about the snails. No one knows how they arrived here, possibly on a trading ship, is the most likely explanation, but how they get to the places where they are found is unknown so far. They like long lank vegetation to shelter in, if it is cool and damp even better, the eggs, about ½ match head size are laid in the ground, and a colony can grow to 500 – 1000 individual snails in 6 months. Each adult snail can lay 500 or more eggs, they commence egg laying at about 1 year of age. Or so the man from SI Quarantine thinks, no one is sure how quickly they become fertile here. And they are like all snails and hermaphrodites, so a single snail is quite capable of forming a huge colony very quickly. So there has been a copious amount of snail bait scattered around, we are cutting back all the vegetation along the fence line on Tuesday, and then having a burnoff once it dries.

Other than that, Friday passed in a bit of a drug induced haze, I’m still taking paracetamol to keep my fever down, it seems to be passing finally, although being nearly midnight on Saturday with the fans going may have something to do with feeling cooler. All my joints still ache though, walking isn’t something I’m trying to do at the moment, I never knew my toes could ache, nor my fingers. Well ok, I knew my fingers could, I’ve damaged most of the knuckles, but this is all the joints, not just the damaged bits. Tiff is sure I’ve got a touch of malaria, and keeps trying to take me to the clinic, but all they will do is tell me to keep taking Doxycline and it will clear. Which I’m doing anyway. Probably causing a doxy resistant strain here as well.

I don’t know if I can be bothered waiting another month to find out if the nursery is going ahead or not. After nearly 17 months, and still no further ahead, and only 8 months to the end of my contract there is no way I am going to be able to achieve anything. If it gets knocked back again next month I’m giving up, if I haven’t walked out by then. The only reasons left for it to be turned down are political or personalities, so no matter how long I stayed here, the answer will always be the same.

If anyone has read “Salmon Fishing in Yemen”, that sums up fairly well the whole thing here.

It’s a pity, there are so many avenues to open up here with recycling the brewery waste into compost, the wheat husks from Delite Flour Mill, all future income producing things, plus the nursery. But Island politics is always about personalities, not benefits.

My letter last week must have had some effect, I was in town early today and wondered what was different, then I realised that there wasn’t the usual amount of rubbish everywhere, even in the rubbish garden by City Centre. I’ll check with Jacinta on Tuesday and see if the number of bags has fallen the last week. The boys with the market shop at the bottom of my road were out with the local witches brooms when I came back, sweeping around their stall, even Paul has cleaned up his market stall area as well. I don’t know if it will last, but something is happening finally.

Heritage Hotel, who I don’t have a lot of time for to start with after last years effort with them, are in the news all week. The 3 Indian Managers are being accused of trading sex with the hotel staff for promotion and pay increases, it is becoming more and more sordid with every day, from the original single accusation, there are now staff that have been fired for not acquiescing coming forward and confirming the accusations, plus security guards telling of seeing hotel cleaners/restaurant staff going into vacant rooms with the managers on several occasions. Denials are flowing, but I get the impression from the Solomon Star articles, that there is enough mud sticking to make a case.

Another article today as well about the salt fish being sold in Central Market, and the health risks from eating it. Apart from the E-coli count, it is also high in histamine which will cause a major reaction and possibly death from eating it. And still the Health Dept, Honiara City Council, and the Police can’t stop it. It will take a few deaths and a cholera epidemic I think before anyone takes notice. When you see the fish being sold, all good fish, from tuna, to reef fish, and know that all of them have probably got E-coli counts over 2,400 ppm, it is a bloody waste. All it would take is an icebox on board, and for the fish to be kept on ice till sold, instead of out in the sun, on an unwashed table, I don’t need to go on about it. I don’t buy or eat fish here.

Thursday 20th May

Woke up this morning running a slight fever, headache threatening to turn into a migraine, so decided to have a mental health day, rang Tiff, went back to bed for the day. I woke up about midday, but it’s been a long slow drag all afternoon. I know I’m just getting depressed with the continual delays, the constant politics that get involved with everything here, from wantok to people with personal agendas.

We still haven’t heard from Planning about the building permission. I’m starting to think it is all a waste of time trying to do anything here with all the petty feuds, jealousies, personalities involved with everything.

We’ve had a fair bit of rain this afternoon, it’s clear skies now at 8.30 pm, but a lot of lightning south of us over the mountains. It lights the sky up brilliantly, all black sky with the stars showing, then huge flashes of light from one side of the horizon to the other. It must be a fair way back, I can’t hear any thunder from it.

I know I’m at the stage where I could easily walk away from all this, the sheer frustration of trying to get anything done, seeing everything the work crew do get trashed every weekend, as per last weekends episode with the palms and roundabout. I keep hoping for a tsunami or earthquake to clear fell everything here so we can start fresh.

I’ve been getting some reaction to my letter, everyone here that I know, around Ba’hai, think it was good, and about time someone said it. There are some upset, I have to deal with that next week, I’m past caring about it now. Paul with the Betel Nut Market said it was about time everyone realised they have to stop trashing Honiara all the time, I’ve noticed he cleans up around his market stall more often lately, even the young guys with the mini shop/market keep their area clean all the time.

The 2012 South Pacific Arts Festival is going to be held here in Honiara, Tiff has been chasing the organisers about getting things in place for it, but as usual here, no one is taking any notice about the length of time we need to get things done here. If we are going to do a major replant through Honiara, upgrade Commonwealth Avenue, the Wharf area, we need to be starting now, not in 18 months time. I want to get at least 2,000 trees and palms started in the next few months plus filler shrubs for all the gardens, and median strips, but until we can get some indication of what is going to be done we’re just producing stock that may not be for any purpose. I keep thinking 2 years ahead, normal nursery thinking, but everyone here thinks about 1 week ahead. Any further ahead than that gets put in worri abaot hem sumtaem laeta ia?

I really noticed that yesterday, with the Archontophoenix palms we have started. I was asked how long before we could be planting them out, they have only just thrown up the first leaves, and on hearing about 2 years, I was told that was too long to wait. I slowly explained that if we’d started producing them from seed 2 years ago, and continued to do so each year when seed became available, we’d have more than enough by now. It’s easier to go into the bush and dig out from there, no matter about ruining the forests or the ecology. Patience isn’t something anyone here seems to have in any amount. Waiting for seeds to grow is a foreign concept at the moment.

Samesame with the nursery at present, I keep being asked when we are going to start doing more cuttings, propagating, with the losses we’ve had the last month due to the lack of water we are down to bare bones for plants. I just ask where is the water to keep the cuttings alive? If we are losing established plants due to the lack of water, what is the point in doing cuttings which are highly water dependent? The reply was that they hadn’t thought of that, they just wanted to see some cuttings being done.

I would like to work out the evapo-transpiration rate for plants here, especially cuttings. The temperature is rarely below 30*C in the daytime, maybe as low as 25*C at night, humidity about 80% up to 97%, so long as we can keep water onto the root systems the cuttings do take quickly, but without water, we are just wasting time and resources in trying any propagation.

I’ve been promised the little truck will be ready tomorrow, I doubt it very much, or if I do get it, it will have something else wrong with it and I will have to take it back in on Tuesday again. The brake drums are away being turned out now, I asked if the slave cylinders were being done as well, but was told they were done a few months ago, which probably explains why they are seized up now. They think it is an electrical fault that is causing the starting problems now, we’ve had new injectors, new glow plugs, a new alternator, new fuel filter and pump, so far.
I’m not holding my breath over it. I picked July in the unofficial office sweepstakes for when it would be roadworthy, but I may be a bit optimistic. All this from taking it in last June to have 2 suspension joints tightened.

PS. Just in at work, the Architect hadn’t signed a page in the submission for planning approval, so it has been put off for another month. I’m slowly counting to 999,999,999,999,999,999 in single figures.

Tuesday 18th May

The Solomon Star printed my letter, centre of the page in the Letters section including a photo, and a large headline “Stop Destroying Our City”

http://www.solomonstarnews.com/viewpoint/letters-to-the-editor/5861-stop-destroying-our-city

If you can’t get the page to open this is the letter I sent

“Saturday 15th May 2010

Dear Sir, once again we have people determined to turn Honiara into some pigpig village like their own must be.

On Thursday night a person who was probably drunk and driving, drove through the BSP Roundabout, causing a lot of damage to the bougainvillea shrubs. This has now been repaired by SEB Work Crew on Friday morning.

On Friday night either the same drunken person, or a close wantok, broke down two 6 year old palms near the Ba’Hai centre on Mendana Ave. These will not be as easy to replace as the bougainvillea on the BSP Roundabout.

SEB are continuosly replacing trees, palms and shrubs through Honiara that have been damaged deliberately, either by shopkeepers setting rubbish fires around the trees, pigpig villagers who come to Honiara and cut down the palms, or drunken drivers who should not be in charge of a vehicle.

Is it any wonder that the Japanese Consul feels their Aid money is being wasted in the Solomon Islands as pointed out in the Saturday edition of the Solomon Star? Japan has generously funded SEB in the past to help beautify Honiara, and are continuing to fund SEBs efforts to propagate and produce trees and shrubs for Honiara City gardens and roadsides. How long will they continue to do this when we have pigpigs cutting down and destroying what the Japanese Aid money has provided? This is another example of the lack of respect for the efforts SEB have done and continue to do through Honiara to make it a city that showcases Solomon Island Culture.

If the pigpigs that come to Honiara and wish to turn it into what their pigpig village is like, then my suggestion is that they go back to their pigpig village where ever it is, and stay there. Live like a pigpig in your own place, do not come to Honiara and turn it into a pigpig mess. Stop cutting down our palms, trees, damaging our gardens. Stop throwing your rubbish in our gardens, on our streets, stop using our gardens as your toilets, go back home and do it there. We don’t want pigpigs making Honiara the worst city in the Pacific.

Warren Nash
SEB Honiara.”


It must have got some attention, I had SIBC (Solomon Island Broadcasting Corporation) ring me this morning asking for an interview, which we did late this afternoon. I have no idea when it will be broadcast, I don’t have a radio so it is not of any concern to me, but I gather from what the interviewer said that they expect to get a few phone calls once it is broadcast.

All the work crew read it this morning, and feel I was far too polite. The girls especially, they want to make all the people that drop rubbish be made to spend a week with them picking it all up out of the gardens and parks, as part of the punishment.

I’m waiting now for tomorrows edition of the Sol Star for the comments. I’m sure there will be a few over the next few days, hopefully not too many negative.

Apart from that bit of excitement, there hasn’t been much happening with anything so far this week. We still haven’t heard from Planning about the Nursery. I’m tempted to just go ahead and start preparing the ground, but that could open up another can of worms and arguments. We started 5 new young guys this week, all keen so far, we’ll see if they last the 2 months trial period and actually start to like it. Although just getting paid is enough incentive for everyone here. The wages are laughable, I have no idea how anyone is expected to live on what we pay them, and then looking at the obscene salaries and incomes that the “consultants” and RAMSI people are paid. All of which is reflected in what the shops and hotels, restaurants charge. You won’t see any locals in the restaurants or hotels, and if you do, it is certain they are Govt people.

I’m sure the crew think I’m some doddery old palangi that has to be helped do anything. I got a refill gas bottle yesterday, well, David picked it up with the truck while they were in Honiara, and when they dropped me at home last night Hudson jumps off the truck and starts carrying the gas bottle down to my house. I told him to leave it, it is only smallfala, bottle I can manage and swung it up onto my shoulder and walked off. I could hear the girls giving Hudson a hard time as they drove out, about letting an oldfala like me carry the bottle. It’s only 9kg, about 22lb, easy enough to carry, I don’t need help.

Considering I’m used to carrying oxy and acetylene cylinders on construction sites, 9kg is less than my toolbox weighs.

Andrew came into work yesterday and I went over the Nursery plans and we walked the site out with the measure wheel so he could get an idea of how large and where everything is going. His thumb is slowly healing, it will be a few months till he is back working though but he can be my offsider while we are putting it all together so he knows where and how it all fits. I think he grew about another 3 inches taller when I told him I want him to be the person responsible for keeping everything working once I leave. Jennifer will be in overall charge of the Nursery, and Andrew will be the maintenance and fixit person. I’d like more people like him.

Weekend 14th –16th May

I’m happy again. Found my hearing aid, not in the best of condition, and it probably should be autoclaved for 24 hours, but as I don’t have an autoclave, alcohol wipes will have to do. The battery and part of the ear piece were in the nest under the stove, the rest of it was in the nest in the back of the fridge. I can’t afford to be fussy, so it has had a good wipedown with the swabs, and with the battery and earpiece replaced it works. The soft plastic ear insert was chewed off, but I have replacement parts for that. I need a shotgun.

I keep forgetting just how frustrating life can be for other people when I can’t hear. It doesn’t worry me, but Tiff and Kim found out just how frustrating it can be. They were trying to talk to me most of the morning about budgets, orders etc, and if they weren’t directly in front of me, it was an exercise in futility. Add in the noise of the fan, the airconditioner, in the end they just asked me to go outside for a cigarette whenever they needed to ask/tell me anything. I didn’t mind, but it cost me nearly half my daily ration of cigarettes just to get to 11am.

There is another party going next door. About 8 guys, a fair bit of SolBrew, and a guitar. It sounded quite good earlier, 9.45 pm now and it is starting to disintegrate rapidly. 2 of them are trying to sing falsetto, the guitarist is the soberest one, one of the others seems to have forgotten the words so there is a loud voice going la lalalalalelelelala alal alllalllllaaaaaa over everyone else, and a considerable amount of laughter.

I’m hopeful of getting the little truck back tomorrow, we checked today, about midday. “ia, hemi ready, hemi going good” till I tried to start it, and it didn’t. Add in the brake pedal now hitting the floor without any pressure and I’m really being optimistic about tomorrow. I’ll walk into town early, if it isn’t ready I still have Adrian I’m taking shopping in Chinatown to get a lift from. He tends to stay with the shops he knows, mainly because he has very little short term memory, and he’s been paying well over the odds for rice and tinned tuna for his security guards meals. Yes, I still get frustrated with him at times, if I can keep him away from work life isn’t too bad though, and he does have a good sense of humour. For an Australian.

10.15 pm and it is raining finally. Nice and steady too, hopefully it will last for a few hours. Everything in town is dry, the tubs that were watered on Wednesday night were dry again today.

We have several boxes sitting in the container on the wharf, from Brisbane, just waiting for customs to clear them Monday or Tuesday. It will be like Christmas here opening them and checking everything against the order. Weedmat in several rolls as well.

The noise level from next door just went up a few notches to counter the sound of the rain. At least they are all singing the same song this time.

I’ve turned the house upside down tonight and still not found where the last rat is hiding. Or where it is getting into the house from if it is not inside. It may be well up in the stove wall, I can’t move it much due to the copper gas line, but it has had a good shaking and ½ a tin of cockroach spray to give it a good dose of breathing difficulties. The fridge is the only other place, I’ve turned all the cushions over, checked the mattress, cupboards, and still nothing.

Saturday.
Adrian picked me up this morning and I took him into Chinatown to show him where Fangs are, then on the way into Honiara, he said he had something to show me, and we did a detour back to Mendana Ave, and 2 large palms in the median strip have been deliberately toppled. Big palms too, about 6 – 8 years old. The tyre marks are on the grass where whoever deliberately drove at the palms, so it wasn’t accidental. You really have to wonder sometimes. I’ll get some pics today, and write it up for the Solomon Star again. Sure we can replace the palms, and wait for them to grow again, but that takes the crew, and the replacement palms away from what they should have been doing or being planted in another area. It is the most frustrating part of it all, trying to make Honiara look better, and people still want to live like bush pigs.

I may have to sit down quietly for a bit before I write it up for the Solomon Star, although they print it as written, one of the many good things about it.



I won’t clutter this up with the letter, suffice to say I did do a few revisions before phoning Tiff and asking for a lift to the Solomon Star office. They are going to put it in for Mondays edition, and if they feel inclined, I may have to expand it for an article instead of a letter. I’ll find out tomorrow when they are doing the edit for the Monday edition. If it is printed I’ll put the link here before posting.

As for the little truck. It is still stationary in the garage. The battery didn’t go onto the charger till this morning, they have now decided it needs the back brake drums skimmed out to remove any gouges or ridges, so possibly another week or two before that is done.

Adrian has huge difficulty with my patience over it all. He’s almost flying off into space over it, jumping up and down, shouting etc, I figure it isn’t going to get done any faster even if I shout, so why bother getting upset. It will happen when it happens, if at all, and there is nothing I can do to speed the process up.

The party from last night at my neighbours continues on today. It has now become a gambling group, playing the same card game I mentioned a few months back. I’m still trying to work it out, but from what I can see, the odds are heavily stacked in the houses favour. About 8 guys playing, the SolBrew is still being consumed, they had lunch bought out a while back, which barely interrupted the card game.

SIWA tell lies too. Their claim that we would be getting water on alternate days from Tuesday is out by 5 days now, I’m still waiting. I had water on Wednesday night for a couple of hours, but nothing since. So it is still the bucket brigade for everything. The oil in the rain water tank seems to be working, I’ve had no more mosquito larvae come through this week, although I might just be lucky. Having them come out the town supply tap was more than enough thank you.

A few people have asked how the Post office Garden is looking now, the original planting and the fix up after someone tried burning the woodchip mulch. Here are a couple of pics, the hibiscus has had 2 trims so far, and they are starting to bush up nicely now. It doesn’t look too bad for 5 months, even the palms are sprouting fresh growth.




Sunday

My pet rat still persists in antagonising me. I found more droppings this morning on the countertop, and the table where I have the laptop so I’ve resorted once more to chemicals. Peanut butter, cooked rice, and crushed bromodiolone poison mixed together and placed around the house. It turns the rice a nice greenish tint, and the peanut butter hides any other scent. Hopefully it will work.

I was intending to walk down to Kukum Fish Market this morning, but it has been totally humid this morning, the sort that makes starched shirts go limp in 30 seconds, and it feels as though you are breathing thick steam. It started raining a bit this afternoon about 3pm, and by the looks of it will continue on and off through the night now. It does help make bread dough rise though, 30* C heat and high humidity and my bread dough had more than doubled in a couple of hours. Last weekend was the opposite, dry and hot, and it took nearly all day for it to rise. I’ve got one garlic loaf and a herb loaf in the tins starting on their final rise. My gas cylinder was feeling a bit low yesterday, I’m hoping I have enough to get the bread baked tonight.

The louvre windows in the kitchen and lounge finally annoyed me today. I resorted to the Island way of washing them, leave them in the frame, and just wash them as they are, it gets the frames washed at the same time, and does away with taking all 400 louvres out and washing them in the sink. A lot quicker as well. And a final rinse with bleach gets the detergent streaks off and you can see through them again. Better than the thick layer of dust that accumulates all the time.

Next weekend will be the bedrooms and verandah windows.

I’ve not heard from Mum this week, and Telekom are up to their usual standard of service and trying to phone New Zealand is an exercise in futility again. We may catch up with the rest of the world, I just don’t know when.

Thursday 13th May

I’ve got the definitive book title finally. Anyone who looks at the header in here will see it.

I spent a frantic hour this morning trying to find one of my hearing aids, the left one which gives me nearly 90% hearing. I have suspicions one of the pet rats has taken umbrage at my removing any food items from the benchtop, making sure the cupboard doors are securely shut, and putting more poison out for them, by removing one of my hearing aids. To say I am annoyed is possibly a bit mild. I’ve got 60% / 80% hearing in my right ear with hearing aids, depending on background noise, without the left one I have huge problems understanding anyone. Plus it affects my balance as well for some reason, it could be from the different noise levels I hear, or whatever. So I’m back to 40% hearing for a while. The neighbours will have to get used to LOUD music coming from my place for a while.

Emailed Steve to see if the insurance will cover it, once he stopped laughing he said it should do, unless I was deliberately feeding the rats with them because I’d run out of other food.

Then later in the day, adjusting the throttle cable on one of the grasscutters, I dropped my glasses case, no worry, I had my reading glasses on to see what I was doing, then once finished I stepped back to look for the case and promptly stood on my normal glasses that had fallen out of the case. The frames are not too badly bent, but the screws holding them together had popped out, in amongst the grass and leaf litter. Did I mention that I was already a bit annoyed? I managed to find some screws at home tonight, one of the things I had actually stocked up on prior to coming, so I have distance/driving glasses again.

Thank whoever tomorrow is Friday, another day like today would be a bit too much.

Did I mention my usual disagreement with Solomon Telekom and their version of Broadband? And how the local gateway and DNS keep failing? And how it takes 30 – 90 minutes to open hotmail? White pages appearing with DONE in the bottom corner?

I’m not in a pleasant mood at the moment. You have to laugh at it all, if I ever took any of this seriously I’d be a prime candidate for those jackets with the buckles and sleeves that do up at the back.

Rose is talking of putting Mum into a care home for a week, from what she said I gather Mum isn’t all that happy about it, which is understandable. It isn’t as if Mum is senile or helpless. She’s in the last stages of cancer, can’t eat, is losing strength all the time rapidly, but I think she’d rather die in her own home, than anywhere else. The Hospice still have people calling in, it’s one of those situations where Rose is right there, I’m a long way away, so I can’t say what is right or wrong about it. If it was me, I’d be fighting tooth and nail to stay home, so what if I fell, died or whatever, in the same situation as Mum, where I’d be dying anyway, I’d rather it was where I felt comfortable, not somewhere different.

I finally found Andrew this morning, he has another week to go before he sees the surgeon again. The bone in his thumb has started to knit, but only at the bottom. There are still the 2 stainless wires holding it together, but there is no infection and his thumb apparently looks normal on the outside. It is still heavily bandaged. He has had his head shaved, so he looks about 10 years old now, or younger, I’ll get a photo next time. He is coming into work next week to go over the nursery plans with me, so he will understand what and why we are doing when we start building.

I’ve just spent an hour going through the house trying to find my hearing aid, all I’ve found so far is a rat nest in the bottom of the stove, another in the bottom of the fridge, both of which I had cleaned out when I got back from New Zealand. And still can’t find any entry points for the bloody things. I know there is still one at least in here, but I haven’t found it yet tonight. I haven’t found any more pieces of the missing aid yet, I may have to pull the 2 nests apart and check.

I was talking to Tiff about my pets today, and said they are similar to the Kiorie in New Zealand, and she mentioned that was the old name for them on Bellona, which is understandable given that Rennel/Bellona were settled by Polynesians several hundred years ago. They still speak Polynesian there, almost the same dialect as the Cook Islands, and Maori, a group from New Zealand that came here a couple of years ago looking for ancestors were able to be understood fairly easily. There are some words that have become altered with Melanesian over time, but it is still predominately Polynesian language. We have some strange conversations at times, over a wide range of subjects. Even the myths and legends on Bellona are the same as Cook Island and Maori, up to Maui, they have similar fire stealing stories, there are enough volcanoes here to work out where they come from, the migration stories, and they know the general direction of Hawaiikii from the arrival legends when they came here.

I couldn’t wait. Found some gloves and pulled one of the nests apart, from under the stove, and found the battery from the hearing aid, and the soft plastic insert, which has been chewed. No sign of the rest of it though. I have no idea what a rat would want with a hearing aid, unless it was partially deaf?

The little truck. I really shouldn’t mention it anymore, it has gone past the ludicrous stage and is reaching total farce now. Having spent nearly 12 months now being more in the garage than out of it, it still won’t start in the morning, despite having new glow plugs, a new alternator, a new battery, new fuel filters, a reconditioned fuel pump, reconditioned injectors. And the brakes still don’t, even with new shoes, new slave cylinders, new master cylinder, reconditioned power cylinder. I’m beginning to have doubts about the mechanic.

It’s due for a road worthy certificate next month, which is why we took it in originally last year. After 12 months it still isn’t road worthy. Did I mention I am having doubts about the mechanic?

All the irrigation system will be on its way shortly, the payment should be going through tomorrow, to make the May container coming up from Brisbane. Then it will be all go for a while setting everything up, another reason to have Andrew with me, even if he can’t do anything for a while. I’m going to mark out the area on Monday with him, so he can get an idea of the scale and size, and where everything will be fitting in. Our other stuff is only a week away, the planter bags, propagation trays and tubes, weedmat, but it will be the irrigation lines we need initially. It’s just taken a while to get it all sourced and sent.

I still have a few things to pick up in New Zealand that I haven’t found in Australia, well, not easily available from the people I’ve been dealing with. Tying gun and tape, elastrator handpiece for clipping the plant stakes together, all small stuff that I know where to obtain in New Zealand.

Wednesday 12th May

I’ve confirmed the truck from Japan, RamaDBK Ltd, the money gets transferred up tomorrow, then we have a couple of months wait for it to be shipped down to here. Wet Earth in Melbourne have been excellent to deal with, I’ve changed the specs for the Nursery twice on them now, plus we had it expanded, and they haven’t got visibly upset with me yet, or at least not in the emails anyway. I have no doubt that there have been comments in their office, but they have been unfailingly helpful and great to deal with.

Their price is good, and hopefully that will get paid tomorrow as well, in time to make the next container from Brisbane at the end of May.

Only 2 of the outgoing MPs have handed their cars back into Govt Services so far, they were all meant to be handed back by last Friday. If they intend purchasing them that opens another can of worms, it is meant to go through the Government Tender Board for pricing, and the cars are meant to be handed back until paid for. Which I gather never happens anyway, unless the car is involved in an accident, or written off. It’s a crazy system, totally dysfunctional, the Solomon Star is having a field day with everything now. From the RCDF, the Cattle Fund, the EU Millenium Fund, various other funding agencies. And despite all the money thrown around, there is still nothing to show for it that reflects the amounts. Oh, apart from the bloody rugby stadium at Town Ground for a country that has about 60 rugby players, all on Rennel/Bellona. If you think I’m a bit jaundiced over the stadium you are right. Total waste of money, total misuse of the last bit of public open ground in Honiara.

Our new aircon is struggling to cope, it does make a difference though, just not enough. By midday I’m resorting to shutting the laptop off because it is overheating. It costs us $120 a day for electricity, to last Friday, Tiff bought another $1000 yesterday to top the meter up and I’m curious to see how long that will last us with the new aircon going. I may have to put some poles up and shade cloth over the container to break the heat buildup.

We haven’t heard from Planning, the Board meeting was scheduled for today, Tiff is going to phone her uncle in the Planning Dept to find out tomorrow. I need to know before we can start anything. Even clearing the ground is on hold till we find out.

I went into SIWA on Tuesday, my pijin can’t be too bad now, whenever I use it, the girl behind the counter understood me anyway. The main water problem is that the pumps are old, and constantly breaking down, no replacements are ordered, the lines have hundreds of illegal connections made into them, and people constantly climb the fence and turn the main line taps off so the water only goes to their area. Living here is always a lesson in self reliance, and how far we have to go to catch up with the rest of the world. Steve sent me a fwd email as well, Ba’Hai Centre had been on to SIWA as well.

The upshot was that my area has water allocated on alternate days starting from Tuesday, between 6pm and 6am, unless there is a breakdown, or lack of water, or any one of the other 548 reasons, in which case it will be from 6pm to perhaps midnight. Or not at all. But we have the Water Engineers phone number to call if it doesn’t happen. Poor sod, I feel sorry for him, being dropped in it like that. I’d be turning the phone off, and blaming Telekom for the failure. I had 2 hours of water Tuesday night, from about 8pm till 10pm, it is surprising how much you can get done in 2 hours. I had 2 loads of washing done, had a shower, cleaned the dishes, washed the bench and sink out, just put the last bit of washing on and the water went off. I’ve got water again tonight, I don’t know why or how, but I’m not going to worry about it. It might be from the tank though, the first few minutes of it were full of mosquito larvae, I’m well past the fussy stage with them, just wait till they stop coming out, or just strain the water. Ok, I do boil it before drinking, or cooking, but I figure I must be used to it by now.

Andrew must be feeling ok, he has been extremely hard to catch up with this week. No bad news that we have heard, so that is one good thing, I’d still like to find him and get him to come into work and help with the nursery plans so he understands where everything is going. Next thing on the list to do, once I know what the Planning decision is, is to go back to SI Quarantine and get approval for a shipment of plant stock from New Zealand. Allowing a couple of months for approval and shipping, plus a month in SI Quarantine, gives me till the end of August to have the Nursery set up, beds, shade cloth etc, so we can start to look like a real nursery finally. Then the classroom and office block completion about September and we’re away.

Mum continues to battle on against cancer, but is slowly losing the battle. My sister is bearing the brunt of it all, I’m 2 days away in the Solomons, she’s right there. Mum still manages to get out into the garden weeding and planting bulbs, and looking after herself reasonably well, with home help from the Hospice as well 3 or 4 days a week. But she can’t swallow now, and even liquids are a lot of trouble to get down. I think I’ll be back there soon, for the last time to be with Mum.

The current el nino is still stationary in the Central Pacific, pulling heat out of the ocean and stopping the trade winds reaching us. Ocean temperatures have dropped 1*C this year, for March/April, which is a big drop for the equatorial and tropical regions. It needs a lot more heat going in now to create the rain clouds, which aren’t forming at all here. Or at least, not as regularly as normal. It could be a long cold few years to come if the 30/60 year cycle enters the down turn part of the cycle. Which it looks like it is at present.

I’m totally convinced Willis Eschenbach is correct with his hypothesis about the natural thermostat effect of tropical thunderstorms, cloud formation and heat transfer. Google “Willis Eschenbach + The Thermostat Hypothesis”, it makes a simple and convincing explanation, without needing computer models, fudging data, or making things up. I thoroughly recommend www.wattsupwiththat.com for reading, Anthony has excellent articles posted on a continuing basis, and the comments are in some instances more in depth than the articles.

The Russian weather data, which hasn’t been altered, fudged, or lost, unlike the IPCC, CRU and GISS, is predicting a long cold period peaking about 2042, similar to the Dalton Minimum of the 17th/18th Century, it will be interesting to see which is correct, the political agenda of the IPCC, or actual meteorologists. Or however it is spelt. I’m more on the side of the Russians, they haven’t bought the doom laden CO2 is poison philosophies that Greenpeace, the WWF and the IPCC keep espousing all the time. As well as the fact that practically every doom laden announcement gets shot down almost as soon as it is published.

I don’t know where that will leave all the people in New Zealand that have put vineyards, or dairy farms further south than ever before. Any return to the 1950’s weather pattern in New Zealand will see them wiped out. But it will make the glaciers grow again. Which keeps the tourists happy.

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.