Monday 1st June

Spent the weekend playing with the camera again. Mostly pics of the lilies in the pond, working out what all the settings do. It’s got RAW setting, same as the little nikon did, I’ve never tried using it till now. Huge files from it, 5.8MB pics, it’s meant to be good for publications with all sorts of programmes able to use it for colour/tone adjustment. Thankfully it has a convert programme for RAW to JPEG, even so, I’m still getting 4MB files which are brilliant. Run them through Pixresizer and get them down to a manageable size for emailing and posting.

We had the Anglican Arch Bishop for Melanesia annointed (?) yesterday here, whatever it is they do when a new one is appointed anyway. The Church of St Barnabus was overflowing, tents on the lawn, people everywhere. I was stuck in traffic, being moved on along Mendana Ave, it was as bad today with the Football Final on at Lawson Tama Stadium. Uncles FC vs Kossa FC, there was a long procession from the stadium about 5.30pm with all the Uncles supporters carrying banners and waving flags, Uncles won, 1/0. Football has a huge following here, there are usually 20,000 people at Lawson Tama for a game, the last week as the finals have been on, it’s been nearly full.

I’ll have to stop playing with the camera and get down to taking some actual pictures with it, instead of ones that might be good for screen savers, but of no use to VSA for publicity about what I’m doing here. I’ve had a couple of emails from Wellington asking “So where are the pictures then? I’m more used to being behind the camera, not in front of it, and who wants to see pics of some fat old fart when the scenery and people are a lot better to look at.

Steve is insisting on pics of the work at Rove Prison, I know it will be good publicity for VSA, so just to shut him up I’ll get some tomorrow.

I’ve had water and power all day here, so I’m on the last rinse for the washing, it’s 7.45 pm, the floor has been swept, mopped, I’ve got the starter for this weekends bread put away, everything is back to normal finally, and only a 4 day work week. I’ve booked to go to Savo Island on the weekend of the 12th this time. Friday is a holiday, so I’ll go Thursday afternoon, come back Monday with orchids, and maybe some fish if I can get a good ice box for them.
I’ll fill this with pics of the lilies in the pond, oh, and one of my local betel nut seller Paul. He’s got the stand at the end of the road by the corner shop, does a thriving business.

Saturday 30th May/Sunday 31st

A wet day, it’s drizzle, not rain, enough to make being outside wet, but not to the stage were you get soaked instantly, more a slow creeping dampness. You don’t really notice how wet you are with the temperature, till you do as I did this afternoon, go for a long walk, then take the t-shirt off when I got home, and had water dripping out of it. It didn’t feel all that wet while I was out, it’s still in the high 20’s low 30’s, quite pleasant actually.

I went into work this morning, hoping to get an internet connection. I have 14 emails sitting there that I haven’t been able to get to since Thursday, make that 17 from today. I spent 4 hours trying to get email to open, it timed out frequently, so I gave up. I’ll have another try tomorrow while everyone is at Church in the morning. I managed to get a speedtest on the connection, 0.11mbps download, and 0.02mbps upload. And Telekom have the nerve to call it broadband.

David and I are getting so *annoyed* with some of the people living in Honiara. The 2 trees we replaced in the main street last week have been hacked with a bush knife already, the tops have been cut off so all that is left is the trunk. If they’d been just small trees it may not have been so bad, but these were 5 yr old 2.5m tall delonix, with a good spread of branches from the crown. $2,500 worth of work gone again by some idiot with a bushknife. And it’s not something we get any income from doing, its part of the free work we do, dependant on donations to cover.

Steve found me wandering along the roadside earlier, I was taking pics of the rubbish that gets thrown into the gardens and median strip we have to clean up. I’ve got a few concerns about the viability of the project I’m meant to be running, it isn’t at the stage VSA were told before I arrived, and I am doubting the long term prospects for it. So long as I can get this year in, and get Andrew and Emery, and hopefully Jennifer and Imelda, away to NZ for training I’ll be happy.

I’m becoming more aware of where and how the Aid money gets skimmed off before it gets to where it is meant to be going. Steve had a good suggestion for the Japanese Grass Roots Funding. The Japanese Consul retains it, and pays it out on invoice, which will stop the management and consultant deductions from the overall amount. It’s close to $2 million Solomon Dollars in funding, and with the usual 15% deductions, someone is just making money for doing nothing more than letting us use a bank account. I’ve seen scams from Nigeria that aren’t as blatant.

I’m meant to be writing something for VSA NZ to have published in the Herald, but as usual, I can write about anything other than myself, so I can’t see it happening. They can use the pics I’ve sent and the couple of newspaper articles that the Solomon Star and the Island Sun have put about me.

It’s a hard place to write about, there’s a lot of stuff that is really bad about Honiara, the lack of rubbish disposal, cleaning, sewage systems, water supply, then you meet the people and it’s as if all that other stuff isn’t really all that important. It will all happen, but at their pace, not just because some white fella flys in and says make it happen now. And I think everyone is still battle shocked and inured to what happens after the 10 years of political corruption and ethnic fighting.

I’m working more on attitudes at work, not that it is easier, but if I can get everyone looking forward, we stand a good chance of getting some improvements. My goals now are fairly simple, one practical thing a month, or project, and keeping everyone in work.

It’s been a damp warm afternoon, ideal for spending the evening with Van Morrison on continuous play, I’ve got 15 cds to work through, from Moondance to Keep it Simple, about halfway there now. Inarticulate Speech of the Heart playing now.

NZ Aid has been restructured in the past month, hopefully it won’t be just providing money for projects that have no real depth or long term benefit. I’m using the restructure as part of my argument for the long term view of the Nursery expansion, and the long term training that we could set in place for the provinces. I really think this project has never been thought through, it’s been a case of apply for the money, produce 2,000 trees, then move on to another Aid agency for more money for something else. There are going to be some problems soon, if I can’t see any long term benefits accruing to the Solomons from this, I’ll notify VSA with my misgivings, and either move to another project, or work out some method of making this a long term education project. There will be people upset, if we go to a proper training centre it will be moving away from their control, which won’t be such a bad thing as far as I’m concerned. If it means we can train more locals to run and organise, the less Aid money will be needed, it’s like weaning kids off a bottle and onto solid food. The only ones who will miss out will be the consultants and others who have milked the Aid agencies for so long for glamour projects that have no real sustainability or long term benefit.

The Solomon Islands got royally screwed by Malaysia/Korea/China with their forests. Forestry account for 60% of Government income, and what is happening now that the forests have been nearly exhausted by clear felling, the companies are declaring bankruptcy, and folding so they don’t have to pay for the restoration of the land. The same thing happened with one of the oil palm plantations, They clear felled and sold all the trees, left the land a total wasteland, then closed the company leaving everyone out of work, and with a huge deforested area that is now polluting the rivers and local villages. All of the agreements date back to the earlier government that was deposed in the civil war, but were held as being legal. So now the trees are gone, and the villagers are left with a desecrated land, no income, and no way of sustaining a living with the land so badly ruined.

It’s been much the same with the fishing rights. Tuna, marlin, mackerel, well, any fish really, all gets taken and shipped to Japan or Korea, then we buy it back in cans, but never the good bits. It’s all the shredded stuff packed in cheap oil. There is talk again of opening a canning and processing fishery in Western Province, but it’s a lot of talk at the moment. Whatever happens, I doubt that the Solomons will see any real benefit come from it.

If we really got the tourist sector right, and increased the quality, it would give a huge boost to all the provinces. And stay away from the eco-living type of accommodation. It’s easy enough to build low impact, good quality tourist accommodation without going to bush houses in the forest type of loopy green ideal.

Solomon $ is now worth NZ $5.86, AUD$6.38, it makes it hard on everyone here. Everything is imported, and the only people making money here are the Chinese importers, and the people with the import/export companies.

Gold Ridge mine is nearing production finally. They have an assay of 50 billion ounces of gold in the prospect area, I’m not sure how accurate that is, but it’s the most common quoted figure. They have a 50/50 agreement with the villages so in a couple of years there will be some extremely wealthy villages in the highlands on Guadacanal. For anyone thinking of heading into the highlands with a pan, all the land is custom owned, and the villages take great offence at people wandering around taking things out. You might be lucky and be able to strike a deal with them, but it would be a minimum of 50/50 agreement now.

Thursday 28th May

The gardens were crowded today. We had Woodford International School Cross Country, The Holy Cross Ladies with their Flower arranging class, then Honiara College arrived to practise their school play and theatrics. At a rough count I’d say close to 250 teenagers parents and teachers, really good day. No accidents with the cross country, other than a few going for an unexpected swim slipping over crossing the river.

We found the little python, tucked up into a tree trunk, hiding in the bark. It’s looking well fed, it must be catching either the tree lizards and geckos, or the hundreds of small frogs in the lawn. I’m hoping no one kills it, it’s relatively harmless, it could give a nasty bite probably, but it’s only 15 inches or so long.

The dry weather is playing havoc with the power supply this week, it must be all the airconditioners in the offices and hotels all going at once. The power is now going off at 10am, till 12, then from 1.30pm till 3.30pm or a bit later. It’s very frustrating to put it mildly. And knowing I’ll come home to a defrosted fridge again really makes my day. Although there isn’t much in the fridge now, I’m learning not to stock too much to lose in it.

We are putting bamboo stakes into the bougainvillea in the tubs down the street tomorrow, then let the bougainvillea grow taller and tie the stems to the stakes, provided the stakes aren’t just stolen each night. I’m trying to get tall spires of flowers in the tubs, rather than the short hard trimmed bushes, we’ll be taking out the crotons, and duranta as well, as we get more bougainvillea ready in the nursery. And the variegated pineapple as well, too many spikes and sharp bits on them.

Flogging Molly on the playlist tonight, Rebels of the Sacred Heart, Drunken lullabies etc. Thanks to Sandy in St Louis for putting me onto them a couple of years ago. And Al for the Screaming Orphans, and the Young Dubliners. And Mary for the Bothy Band. Fairly wide mix of styles in there, plus my usual Gary Moore, Jonny Lang, Paul Butterfield, trance, techno, Bob Dylan etc, and Mary Coughlan

It’s 4.30am Friday, we had another mild rock and roll event, for about 5 minutes, several little house shaking episodes, then it’s been peaceful since. So I may as well stay up and have breakfast, get ready for work and hope there isn’t another shake.

Wednesday 27th May

Maelaen and Jack

Swimming hole

Finally I have power at home, water may be a little while yet, hopefully later tonight. We’ve had major power cuts since Sunday, usually it comes back at night, but since Monday it’s been a few hours in the daytime, then off for most of the residential area all night. Tonight is the first time I’ve had it in the evenings, hopefully I’ll have water as well soon, the rainwater tank is good, but it’s not the place to have a shower under.

The Rove Prison job is progressing really well, I’ll be getting some pictures tomorrow, permission to photograph inside has to be approved first, and the guys have to agree as well, they are quite happy about it, I’ll do prints for them, but we still have to follow procedures. I think I’ve said this, but I really would employ any of them if I had a landscape company here, they work hard, think, solve problems amongst themselves, all I actually do there is arrive, have a look, tell them everything is good, and the work is excellent, make a few suggestions or comments and go away again till the next day.

I’ve managed to get 3 of the guys on day release to come up to the Nursery and feed our compost through the mulcher, some for the garden at the prison, and a lot for Jennifer and Imelda to use for potting up. David (advisor) at the prison said when he asked for volunteers, he had nearly all the inmates to choose from, but I’m guessing it will be a few of the guys we have outside already that get the job. Not that it’s a nice job, it’s hot, dusty, not very heavy, but constant shovelling compost through and bagging the mulch up as it heaps up. Still, as the guys there say, it sure beats sitting in a cell all day looking at the walls.

We’re up to the planting stage, or close, so a couple of palms at each end, duranta borders, and hibiscus fill. The height restrictions for security are fairly specific, they don’t want anything people can get behind and not be seen from the sentry box, which means about 2 – 3 foot maximum.

We had Woodford International School Junior class come through the Gardens this morning, about 40 5-7 year olds, we went along the river track, with me having to give brief talks every so often about the ecology and tree species in the Gardens, which has been good for me, I’m getting to know most of the tree species now from reading up about them in preparation for the different school groups that use the Gardens. Had the usual questions, how old are the trees, where are all the birds etc, then one little lad asked if there were any snakes. When I said yes, I had 40 pair of big round eyes looking horrified, and not one kid walking off the track the whole way around. I’ll have to remember that and mention it first for the next school party.

It’s the Annual School Cross Country race tomorrow, 120 teenage schoolkids competing around the tracks, through the river, and across the lawn area, so that is going to be an interesting time. I’ve been marking out routes this afternoon, the tracks are fine, it’s just where they leave and go down to the river I’ve had to make clear, otherwise I’ll have broken trees, palms, shrubs as they trample through everything.
It’s still dry and sunny, I’m appreciating it now, less humidity, so you don’t feel like you are in a sauna all day, but the sun burns very quickly as well. I may get a tan on me at this rate.

There are a lot more birds coming out in the Gardens, yesterday I finally saw the little humming birds, I think they are honeyeaters, about sparrow size, bright yellow with a small red patch , as soon as I get my camera out they fly to the top of the trees and vanish. Very frustrating. Lorikeets, parrots, lorys, and swallows are all through there in the mornings as well now, feeding on the flowers and fruit, insects, and presumably making nests.

Our eagle hasn’t been back for a week or so, I’m hoping it does come back with a mate, they are beautiful birds in flight.

7pm and joy! The water finally came back on, I can get the last few days dishes properly washed finally, and then I’m headed for a loooooooooooong shower. Swimming in the river is good, but I’m trying to discourage people from using soaps in the river above the swimming hole because it kills the fish between the bridge and swimming hole. I’m having partial success, trying to break life long habits here takes a while as everyone has been using the river by the bridge to wash their clothes since the troubles or before. We’re slowly turning the place into a real Botanic Garden, but it’s a few years away from being up to minimum standard yet.

The swimming hole is full of water, our dam is holding so far, and the kids are having great fun there, jumping off the tires into the pool.

There are a lot more shops opening up in Chinatown now, as the rebuilding gets finished, but as someone wrote into the Solomon Star today, why are they all selling the same cheap rubbish like every other shop is already? I can see the same thing happening with the 64 shops going into the Town Ground Stadium, they will all be filled with the stuff even the Indians don’t want, and even the $2 or €2 or £1 shop would reject. Absolute cheap shoddy rubbish and high prices. And a captive market because there is nowhere else to buy anything from, no shops selling china plates, glasses, cooking ware, even good quality clothing. Kaleko Korporation is the main clothing shop in Honiara, and they import used clothing in bales from Australia, presumably the clothes people donate through the blue bins or where ever, sort it out and sell it on.

Kaleko is toktok pijin for clothing, a derivation of calico cloth.

One thing you get used to here, having to go to several shops to buy the weekly groceries, and the markets for fresh fruit. Each shop will have something cheaper than the rest, it may be tinned sardines at Wings, then around the block to Ausmart for milk, along to the Bulk Bin for flour/sugar/onions/rice, down to Kukum Fish Market for fruit and veg. There are a few “supermarkets” in town, Wings, Ausmart, Longs, but the prices there are usually higher than you find in the corner shops. You could go to Central Market, but the times I’ve been there, the prices have been higher than Kukum, and it really isn’t the place I like going through. Dark, dingy, always rubbish everywhere by midday, and full of kids and teenagers trying to steal stuff out of your bags and pockets. Plus the Kwaso and marijuana sellers tucked into the darker corners, and the drunks having an argument or fight there. It’s a pity, the council spent a lot of money putting the roof over the market, but never put enough windows or skylights into it, so underneath is dark and gloomy all the time, with the tables crammed together in long rows. If I feel brave this weekend, I’ll wander through with the camera and get some pics, although any whitefalla going through there with a camera is fair game for the pickpockets and petty thieves. It’s a huge contrast to Kukum, which as I posted the other day, is out in the open on the roadside.

I managed to do a speedtest on the internet link at work today, the best time and download/upload result was 0.11kbs download, and 0.4kbs upload, and that is for a $500 per month business adsl broadband link, I’ve had dial up internet that was 10 times faster. And more reliable. Telekom here control the satellite link, and they cut the bandwidth during the week so everyone can get some sort of connection, never mind the amount of time you lose waiting for pages or email to open. My longest time so far has been 2 ½ hours waiting for email account to open, without counting the time it then took to open each separate email. It’s usually close to 11am by then, and we get the usual power cut just as I’m halfway through answering, no wonder I go in at 6am to get stuff done. And get caught uttering comments under my breath very loudly.

Monday 25th May

Solomon Island Giant Frogs

Water lily

Red Heliconia

Pink water lily

Orange Heliconia

I think I’ve been here too long. Things that should get me upset, or mildly annoyed don’t anymore, and life carries on.

I didn’t get to Savo, it was either the driver forgot about picking me up, or the weather there was too rough for the boat to come over, or a combination of the two, I still haven’t found out. I’ll go into town later in the week and rebook for another weekend next month. I don’t know whether to be pleased, or annoyed. It’s saved me $1000 anyway, which I don’t mind, but I could have done with the break away doing something different.

Spent the weekend cleaning up the house, not that that took long, the few bits of washing, then went into the Gardens and got a few pictures around the place. 2 pics I really like, one of the lilies, and one of two Solomon Giant Frogs cuddling. A few others, as you can see which make good desktop or screen savers, I’m alternating them around at the moment trying to find which one I prefer, so far it’s the pink lily one up most often.

The Nautilis Souvenir shop and second hand book dealer has a good deal going. I took the books from last week back, 4 of them, took another 6 out, got 4 free, and only paid for 2, so that kept me quiet Saturday night and Sunday night with something to read finally. I’ll have to start rationing them out a bit better, but after nearly 4 months with only Bill Brysons “Made in America” to read since I got here, I’m devouring books at a great rate.

Davids Aunt died Thursday night, he’s been at work, but not really with us in some sense. He takes his position really seriously, if he’s not there it all falls apart quickly, so he’s been coming in for the mornings, getting everyone organised, then going back to his family for the rest of the day and night. He’s had very little sleep since Friday, I took him home at lunchtime today, he was looking like death warmed up, he’s the oldest male member of his family here, so it has all fallen on him to organise, and take care of everyone till they can get his Aunt back to Ren/Bel for the funeral later this week.

We’ve been having a bit of trouble with some of the taxi drivers using the Gardens as a rest and recreation area during the day. They drive up with a few friends, drink a few cans of beer, throw the empty cans out the car windows onto the lawns or gardens, then drive off. Shirleyta and I are now taking their cab numbers, and phoning the cab company and the police when we see them. Eventually they’ll stop coming when they figure out we’re reporting them everytime they come down. It may take a while.

The police do charge anyone drink driving, but it’s not a high priority thing here, they spend more time chasing the kwaso and marijuana sellers in town at the moment, trying to cut down on the assaults and petty thieving. Still, that’s better than New Zealand, where the Police seem to spend more time pulling cars over than actually catching people for criminal offences.

The work at Rove Prison is going well, it’s a pity most of the guys doing it are long term inmates, I’d employ all of them for their work ethic and attitudes. Always smiling, always keen to work. A couple are inside because of things from the troubles, 10 – 15 year sentences, 2 are in for murder, which means 25 years minimum, and a couple for growing marijuana, 6 – 10 years. All nice guys to work with, and with a good sense of humour.

The dry season has really started now, very little rain for a week now, and the air feels a lot drier. We had thunder and lightning Saturday night, but it never turned into anything more than a light shower for an hour or so. The plants in the gardens along the street are throwing up a lot more new growth, I’ll have to get used to the seasons here, it’s coming into winter in NZ, and I keep thinking everything will be slowing down. Most of the bougainvillea we have planted out is in flower, and all the hibiscus is well into bud and some flowers. It’s going to look good in another couple of weeks.


I’m posting reduced size prints here, if anyone wants a full size, 3mb copy, let me know and I’ll email them to you.

Gatto, I like your website, really well done, and interesting, http://www.gatto999.com/ , it’s well worth a look and the translate this link works well.

Another week ahead here, still working on the Japanese Grass Roots Funding proposal, I’m almost ready to throw it away and just go ahead and get the nursery going with what we have, instead of all the bother of trying to get someone else to pay for everything. I’m not very good at diplomacy or dealing with a lot of paperwork lately. And the EU Funding has so many strings attached to it, it’s going to be another nightmare to write up. Although I can see more benefit from the EU one than anything else, we can use the Nursery as a provincial training and education centre, for all the small farmers in the provinces, doing coffee/cocao/vanilla, and also the produce growers.

Take care, have a good week where ever you are.

Thurday 21st May

Memorial plaque on the road junction to the Gifu
Memorial on the Gifu summit

View from the Gifu Summit looking west, North Guadacanl to the left, Savo Island, the Florida Group, and in the distance, Malaita on the right

View from Mt Austin, Henderson Field is approximately centre in the distance.

Hi to my cousin John, and Sylvia, thanks for dropping in, also, Gatto in Italy, and if that is Polly calling in from Bantry, drop me an email when you get the chance please.

David and I went for a drive this morning to the Gifu, and Mt Austin. Kakabono Community have gardens around the Gifu, and wanted a bit of advice about what to do with the Gifu site.

The Gifu was the last Japanese stronghold here in WW2, it took the US Marines a few months to finally overcome it, with a horrendous loss of life on both sides. You can still see the Japanese foxholes, and fortifications on the hillside. They could control the whole northern side of Guadacanal from there, the view goes from the Ngella Islands in the northwest, east past the Florida group, to Malaita and Makira.

Last month we had the last Japanese survivor from the battle for the Gifu visit, he’s 91 now, very frail, and he was overcome in revisiting the scene of the battle. His foxhole is still visible, with the large rock over it. The local village has a good selection of WW2 memorabilia, helmets, machine guns, airplane parts etc, and they still find live ammunition and grenades through the area.

Very interesting trip, the road is more suited to 4wd, the little truck was bouncing around a fair bit, and with 13” wheels, you tend to get into the ruts and holes, rather than go over them.

Mt Austin was the controlling hill for Henderson field, you can look straight down the island to the airfield, and the sea around it. It was one of the first hills the US Marines took in the initial landings on Guadacanal.

I’ve spent the evening rigging up lines and traces, and lures for the weekend. I was going to take the surfcaster as well, but am going to settle for the 2 boat rods, the 6’ Silstar with the Silstar EF70 reel, and the full roller 6’ Titan Supreme with the Penn Commander reel. A good selection of hooks, swivels and sinkers, coral can be hard on lines, and a spare reel, the Jarvis Walker GX 7000
Ooooops, I ‘m actually going for orchids, not fishing. And if anyone believes that they don’t know me very well.

Writing up the Japanese Funding Proposal took another giant leap backwards again. While they think the 2 storey classroom/store etc is a good idea, we now have to itemise everything needed for the construction, how many kg’s of nails, lengths of timber, number of concrete blocks etc etc. There goes another week hunting up 3 different suppliers for pro forma invoices, and Keithie wanting it all done yesterday, and in the morning as well.

Tiffany is about ready to just walk away from the whole thing, this is the second time we’ve approached Japan for funding for the same proposal. It was all approved last year, then Keithie decided we had to have a truck included, and the proposal got dropped so fast over that.

We’ve cut out everything that Keithie wants that isn’t Nursery related from the latest proposal, and so far the lady we are dealing with in the Japanese Consul office is happy with it.

Consumer Warning! Coca Cola™, Coke™ are introducing a Bicarbonate reduced cola here. It’s like drinking flat Coca Cola™. Resist it when you see it appear in your local shop. It’s disgusting, flat, and insipid. I got caught tonight with a 2litre bottle of it, I thought the bottle had a leak, till I read around the label, and found Minuman Berperisa Berkarbonat on the label. It’s made in Papua New Guinea. It’s disgusting, vile, and deserves to be relegated to the same place New Coke went to. Why the hell CocaCola™ keeps on trying to fiddle with a good formula is beyond me, everything they’ve tried has been a dismal and disgusting failure.

I’ll be back Monday night, have a good weekend.

One of the orchids flowering in the orchid House

Wednesday 20th May

It’s been a quiet week in Honiara so far. Only 2 murders, one in Cenral Market, idiots drunk on kwaso having a fight with bushknives, and one in East Honiara same cause. Plus one serious wounding in Chinatown Friday night, young teacher from Western Province stabbed 18 times while walking over the bridge in the early evening. Same cause in that one as well, idiots drunk on kwaso.

It’s no wonder I don’t or can’t be bothered going out of an evening. Too many people with bushkinives wandering around and you never know just what is happening in their heads at any time.

Had lunch today with Peter and Steve. Peter has had a good visit, caught up with all the VSA people in country, and is happy with what is happening so far.

It’s surprising how every occupation has it’s own in-house jokes, that in any other group would have people being shocked/horrified/disgusted. I’m happy to say VSA staff have a really good sense of the ridiculous, I’m not too sure about the people in the office back in Wellington, but the field staff certainly have a slightly off beat twist to the humour.

Our little Rover Mulcher is back working again, I’m picking it will a be monthly maintenance job replacing the shafts, if I could get hold of a mig welder I could modify the design a little to stop the problem, we’re looking for one here now. I’ve written to Rover Industries again with a query on how long the shafts should last, but if their last reply was anything to go by, I’m not expecting anything back. Great machine, crap customer relations. And I think 40 hours use isn’t a great deal of time to be paying out $750 for 3 shafts to get it running again. As I said, it’s a slight design problem with the cutter blades spinning hard on fixed shafts, I’m going to try welding the blades to the spacers so there is a wider surface in contact with the shaft.

Peter has been in contact with Wellington Botanic Gardens, well, they contacted him the week before he left, wondering if VSA had any people that would be interested in working at the Wellington Gardens for a month as exchange students, all expenses paid. It’s part of their outreach programme for the South Pacific, and they are after local people working in similar situations to be part of the training there.

I’ll have to wait for Peter to get back to NZ in the next week, and he is going to follow up, and pass my contact details to WBG. It is looking good for Jennifer and Imelda to get a month in NZ, although I don’t think they’ll be thanking me for the weather in Wellington when they get there. Ok, I know Wellington can be absolutely fabulous at times, but also bloody wet and windy at other times. Plus my son lives there, so it can’t all be bad.

We’ve got Andrew and Emorys applications to be filled out and put in, for them to hopefully get a place in Otago Polytech for the Aboriculture course next year. I had a look at the forms, and decided that while the words may be English, the way they are put together made toktok look simple to understand. Tiffany is going to fill them out, all I have to do is write the recommendation letters.

The beach football (futsal, like soccer) competitions are on in Honiara this week. So far one team has been banned, and 2 players banned for life for attacking the referee and breaking his arm after a match they lost. It seems to be quite common here, one team was banned for life last year, all the players, for a similar occurrence.

As for the rugby Stadium, I found out that all the rugby players come from Rennel/Bellona Province, mostly Polynesians, and they tend to end up in New Zealand or Australia if they are reasonably good. Steve thinks the Solomon Govt should put in for the Rugby World Cup for whenever once the stadium is built. It’s probably the only time it’ll be used.

It can be extremely frustrating dealing in toktok with shopkeepers when you want something technical. I’m after a ring compressor for the stihl weedeater and chainsaw motors, so we can do a complete service, replace the rings bearings etc. Toktok doesn’t have words for “ringcompressor” so it’s a lot of “small fella hem move updown and hem need small fella ring around hem stop hem oil blong hem come out. To puttem back we need hem small fella long tube tight around ring blong small fella go updown” Or words to that effect. Needless to say, I’m still looking. They don’t use them in the repair shops here, the usual method is to tie a tin can around with string, and drive the piston through that into the cylinder. I’m just being fussy I suppose in wanting the right tools.

A word of caution. Our Telekom here charge you for incoming calls on a mobile as well as outgoing. Rose rang on Mothers Day so I could talk to Mum, it ate all of the $50 I’d just put on the phone the week before. Very frustrating and expensive. If I’d known before hand, I’d have rung Mum from the public phone box, it would have been cheaper at $10 a minute.

I’m wondering if the Calling cards will work here, I’ve not seen them on sale anywhere, but it’s possible they will work. I’ll have to stock up on a couple when I get a break at the 12month mark. As well as all the other stuff I’m getting a list of.

Go out with an empty suitcase, come back over weight with tools, cigarette lighters, bic pens, Champion fruit juicer.

One more day to go, then another weekend on Savo, orchids and fishing, I’ll be in heaven.