I had a bad dream last night. I dreamt I was stuck on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere and the only way off was to wait for a ship which went backwards and forwards between Cape Town and, for some reason, Scotland (I think it must have been Ullapool).
I woke up and for a moment couldn't remember where I was. Then, thank goodness - I'm not stuck on a tiny island, I'm on St Helena.
Phew.
Panic over.
Monday 26 November 2012
Sunday 25 November 2012
What a day to forget the camera
It looked a bit like the photo here: http://www.animalspot.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Hawksbill-Sea-Turtle-Photos.jpg
I know someone will ask what sort of Turtle (the photo is a Hawksbill, apparently). Well it was a big one.
What, you want more detail on what sort of turtle? Well the latin name is biggus turtleus.
Sunday 18 November 2012
Dive and Whales
Went Diving yesterday, good dive. but most spectacular was we saw 2 humpback whales really quite close.
Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but Anthony did. Check out
you don't have to be on facebook to look at the photos!
Thursday 15 November 2012
If all goes well
I'll be back in the UK in a month, virtually to the hour the plane should be in UK airspace, if not touching down.
Looking forward to seeing snow again :)
Looking forward to seeing snow again :)
Wednesday 14 November 2012
Dave and Roads in the Press
If you pretend it's Sunday at 91:30 then I'm still in the weekend, sort of...
Over the last few months we've been in the papers a bit, check out the Sentinel:
http://www.shbc.sh/L2_sentinel_about.html
25th October, page 9; 6th September page 5
and the Independant:
http://www.saint.fm/Independent/index.htm
7th September, page 3; 2nd November, page 6
I'm also hoping both papers will carry something this week, and the Sentinel have promised another short video about our traffic lights.
I don't seem to have received anything for the score of 94% dissatisfaction with the Roads. I really do wonder who the 5 people who are satisfied are. The roads are in a state and it's pointless pretending their not.
So what are we doing. Well I did start drafting this post last Friday and called it 'a Good Week' well it was, but now it's very very late on Sunday (so late I've been to work 3 times since dinner and it's nearly next weekend) I can't quite say the same.
Last week we were gearing up to start a Summer program this week. We had a reasonably positive works meeting to explain the new teams and the reasons behind us doing what we're doing. We setup the signals as a test, we had things ready for a start this week, and our JCB driver passed his test (well done Lynton). In short I went home on Friday thinking we were ready, Monday morning we'd be able to proceed with the plan and we were ready.
Now it's Wednesday (ok, I'll admit it, it's not Sunday) and things haven't quite gone to plan, but there are no disasters. One of the biggest problems is that the Chip Spreader works (and that's a problem???), this means that instead of 3-400m2 a day, we can do 4 times that, and suddenly the 200m range on our signals isn't enough. With the chip spreader we could have done with a closure, which we don't have.
Anyway, things are looking up. I think we're going to get there, and with the Chip Spreader working we may need to massively revise our ambitions (suddenly the ambitious programme doesn't look so ambitious). Another Bitumen tanker arrived on the RMS yesterday, and hopefully will come ashore tomorrow so we can start using it early next week. My GIS system is up and running (see www.qgis.org), I attended EXCO (think Cabinet) yesterday morning and they were supportive of the proposals, although I now have extra pressure to deliver on the publicity side (hence hoping something makes the papers this week, and then next week, and the week after). So busy busy, but good.
p.s. I found this photo online, I don't think I'm in any of the others, but maybe I will be soon... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=526436100704686&set=a.526435927371370.135931.258607090820923&type=3&theater
Over the last few months we've been in the papers a bit, check out the Sentinel:
http://www.shbc.sh/L2_sentinel_about.html
25th October, page 9; 6th September page 5
and the Independant:
http://www.saint.fm/Independent/index.htm
7th September, page 3; 2nd November, page 6
I'm also hoping both papers will carry something this week, and the Sentinel have promised another short video about our traffic lights.
I don't seem to have received anything for the score of 94% dissatisfaction with the Roads. I really do wonder who the 5 people who are satisfied are. The roads are in a state and it's pointless pretending their not.
So what are we doing. Well I did start drafting this post last Friday and called it 'a Good Week' well it was, but now it's very very late on Sunday (so late I've been to work 3 times since dinner and it's nearly next weekend) I can't quite say the same.
Last week we were gearing up to start a Summer program this week. We had a reasonably positive works meeting to explain the new teams and the reasons behind us doing what we're doing. We setup the signals as a test, we had things ready for a start this week, and our JCB driver passed his test (well done Lynton). In short I went home on Friday thinking we were ready, Monday morning we'd be able to proceed with the plan and we were ready.
Now it's Wednesday (ok, I'll admit it, it's not Sunday) and things haven't quite gone to plan, but there are no disasters. One of the biggest problems is that the Chip Spreader works (and that's a problem???), this means that instead of 3-400m2 a day, we can do 4 times that, and suddenly the 200m range on our signals isn't enough. With the chip spreader we could have done with a closure, which we don't have.
Anyway, things are looking up. I think we're going to get there, and with the Chip Spreader working we may need to massively revise our ambitions (suddenly the ambitious programme doesn't look so ambitious). Another Bitumen tanker arrived on the RMS yesterday, and hopefully will come ashore tomorrow so we can start using it early next week. My GIS system is up and running (see www.qgis.org), I attended EXCO (think Cabinet) yesterday morning and they were supportive of the proposals, although I now have extra pressure to deliver on the publicity side (hence hoping something makes the papers this week, and then next week, and the week after). So busy busy, but good.
p.s. I found this photo online, I don't think I'm in any of the others, but maybe I will be soon... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=526436100704686&set=a.526435927371370.135931.258607090820923&type=3&theater
Friday 9 November 2012
TV and Lights
I haven't posted much recently as not a lot has happened, although i probably should have posted a bit more this last week as things are starting to happen.
It's too late for me to do a full update now, but the Traffic Signals we got working earlier in the year were out on the road today. For the First Time in History traffic on St Helena was under signal control. I liken that to the first time a plane lands (sometime in 2015-16).
I'll leave you with a link to a TV webcast, which is actually pretty good, if inaccurate in a few places (most journalism is inaccurate somewhere) http://www.shbc.sh/L3_video_121101_roads_programme.html and a promise to give another update over the weekend.
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