Hello again, well after my brief updates from Ascension I journeyed on the RMS and arrived on St Helena on the 11th - there will be more posts about that when I sort my photo's and remember what I've done!
Since the 11th I have been busy, one of 3 reasons for not updating my blog more quickly (although I only got internet at home on the 16th). The second reason is that I was waiting until I had my PC setup with a proper keyboard and screens, finally this happened yesterday. The third reason is that I was too lazy.
So I've been busy - again more posts to follow with Photo's etc - to give a brief rundown of what's happened since the 7th:
8th - lazy day on Ascension, saw more Turtles and hopefully better photos
9th - Joined the RMS and slowly sailed away from Ascension
10th - my only full day on the RMS, by this stage I was getting pretty worried as everyone on the RMS new I was the new Roads Manager for St Helena and most of them were laughing at me.
11th - Arrived and St Helena and WOW. To be a bit more descriptive: WOW, WOW, WOW! It is simply the most incredible (as in not credible) place I've ever seen geographically. The change in climate, scenery, gradient is massive.
11th still - met Clare (HR), met David (my boss), met the people who look after my house, found a hire car, found my house, found my office (in the Castle), was taken for a drive, Dinner at the boss's and finally home. Seemed strange going 'home'.
12th - got to work about 8:15 and straight into emails. 8:30 David whisked me off to meet the Roads Maintenance Manager, Chris, at the depot. Chris is a Saint and a great guy - he really seems to have the knack of fixing roads in the middle of nowhere, but is happy for me to deal with the Strategy, Politics, Policy and Planning - we seem an ideal team. Chris then drops me at the next depot where I meet Steve who runs the rehabilitation project. Another great guy who has had a tough time in his 18 month stint getting things up and running the best he can. David then picks me back up and a quick lunch, before all the boring things in the afternoon like sorting insurance, internet access, arranging to find my container and buying food. Eventually home for a rest.
13th - Friday (I've only just realised that) - again an early start, looking at various things David gave me to read. In the afternoon I meet customs and open my container - no damage, nothing missing phew! Mike from toursim is there to help load a truck to take everything to my house, the Landy (a 2001 Freelander) starts fine, but a wheel brake is siezed. After dragging the wheel the length of the container it unsticks and all is ok. On the way to the house we drop the keys at the garage who'll do the MOT.
After unloading Mike drops me back at customs to pay my duty. Annoyingly the cost of importing all my Cider :) is about what it cost me to buy!
13th Evening - at the boss's house again for a BBQ to meet people, too many names! I decide to walk down (easy) and walk home in case any Police are invited (only the chief of police and 2 or 3 others attended) but walking back, tipsy, in the dark was not a good move. It was very dark and the hill was very steep! Still I got home ok.
14th - Saturday - went into town to do shopping, bumped into a few people I knew, and about 3 times as many people who new me (and I think I'd even been introduced to them)! At least now starvation was off the agenda as there were many more shops and much more choice of food than I had been led to believe. Sat evening I went to the Panto, Alli Baba, where David, my boss, played the female lead?, the chief of police played the evil chief of police and apparently I knew some of the others... Invited to town for a drink afterwards, but too late for me.
15th - Sunday - played 'What's in the box?' Basically I started unpacking.
16th-17th - Work, nothing too interesting to report.
18th - I got my Car! :) passed it's MOT with new number plates.
19th - Lots of driving in the evening - Sandy Bay, Blue Hill and a whole host of other places.
20th - Friday - wow, that came quickly! Work in the day and in the evening I was invited to a fish fry at the Godfathers Rock Club. As I had no idea where I'm going I offer David and Sarah a lift - more laughing at my face... the club is not what you think. Still the food was excellent for £4 and the entertainment was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
21st Saturday - Shopping again now I'm more organised and I can buy proper food. have to fill up with diesel as the tank's nearly empty - I'm sure it came out the container with half a tank, and I've only done about 30 miles?... It's amazing, paying for diesel in cash, it feels so expensive - even though it's cheaper than the UK.
22nd - Early start for my 9am Dolphin Watching trip (booked the day before at the tourist office on recommendation of the head of tourism). Definitely more photo's to come on that one - loads of dolphins. Loads. (see www.malpas.cwi.sh/041.html)
23rd - back at work, and today it feels like work, day 1 of a 2-day course in Financial Management.
Well that's a very brief run down of what's happened to me. As I say, more photo's and reports to come. At present I'm just trying to move my life from my netbook to my PC. It's been running since this time yesterday and currently says 23 hours to go. I don't think this cable and wirless network modem is the best...
Bye for now.
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