Good News at Last

I had a phone call (well Skype call actually) from my eldest son. I think despite all the bravado he might actually be missing me. To be fair, probably not me per se, but my cooking, cleaning, laundering facilities…

He wants to come out and visit! I am really pleased – he had been quite adamant that he wouldn’t come – partly because of the time required to travel to the Island, so to hear that he would actually like to visit is a revelation! I’ve already looked at the possibilities and am waiting for him to decide on dates.

The internet is flaky and inconsistent here – despite paying an arm and a leg for a substandard service, monopolised by one provider. There’s no mobile network either, although rumour has it, one might arrive next year!

I pay £110 a month for a ‘not always on, no notice of outage!’ 1Mb link to the outside world, with a 5500Mb up/download limit per month! I have regular issues with Skype, but voice Skyping is doable, but I am often disconnected randomly. In the last week the internet has been off on at least 4 occasions, mostly without warning (and mostly at the weekends too!) I rang the fault line on Saturday (again!) to be told there was a major problem and I would get a phone call when it came back on - I am still waiting for the phone call although the internet did come back for a while – it’s off again today. Still, looking on the bright side, it means I can’t use up my allowance – if you go over your allowance the financial penalties are huge – You don’t get ‘disconnected’ until you have reached double your allowance and if you get to that the penalty is £500 per month – ouch. If you use a lot of data, which I am likely to be doing once Henry and Andy arrive on Island (Henry is doing his A’Level’s via distance learning) I have been advised by other ex-pats to upgrade my ‘top’ package (or so I thought), by paying 2 lots of ‘Gold’ subscription – effectively upping it to £220 per month, but much less likely to go over the limit and incur outrageous penalties!

On an even happier note, in less than 3 weeks Andy and Henry will begin the journey to join me on St Helena. I have been crossing off the days and there have been moments when I thought I’d never get this close to being re-united.

But I love the Island, the life, the people and can’t wait for us to all be together again (albeit minus eldest for a while longer)

I do just need to mention Rachel, the young ex-pat working in the office. She must have been out of the office when I took photos early on and has commented that she is missing from my Blog, but she refuses to allow me to take her photo! There will be a picture up here soon, I am sure. I’ll get you Rachel, when you least expect it!!

Like now - Rachel is in a navy jacket at the back looking like she has 2 wings emerging from her head - Promise I'll take a better one soon Rach