Easter and More

We’ve just finished a wonderful Easter break. Four days off with friends and family. Unlike Saints, I am not used to working almost an entire year without a break nor had I realised how much I needed a few days off! Due to the traveling logistics of getting away from St Helena, most Saints save their leave and it is not uncommon for some to have up to 100 days carried forward, although this is being addressed now with the advent of the airport construction. Currently to get to the UK, it is pretty much a week’s travel each way. Once the airport is functional, that should reduce to a day or two maximum. There will also (hopefully) be more than one opportunity to leave every few weeks!

Picture courtesy of the French Navy

So as leave is generally not taken, apart from the Christmas break, I have not had any leave, so it came as somewhat of a shock when I realised how much I needed to stop, if only for a few days – and had we been in the UK there would have been at least one holiday somewhere during the last 12 months. In fact the last short break we had was a couple of weeks before I left the UK in early May – France with Mandy and Dave.

On the Island a high proportion of Saints go camping for the 4 day Easter break and luckily for them, the weather was just right for camping. Henry had arranged to meet some friends at the Wharf steps on Good Friday and they were going to swim in the sea, before returning to our house in Piccolo Hill for a BBQ. I drove Henry down into Jamestown and although I knew most places closed on Good Friday, I wasn’t prepared for the total closure of the town. Not one business was open and a cruise ship was due in later – Main Street was like tumbleweed.
Although Henry had arranged to meet friends at 12, they all run on St Helena time, meaning the first of his friends didn’t arrive until after 12:30! Another arrived a few minutes later and after exchanging pleasantries with the other parents, I returned to Longwood for an afternoon of reading (something I haven’t done in a long time) I had arranged to pick Henry up at 15:30 and on arriving at the Wharf, the cruise ship was disembarking some of its passengers, although you have to question what exactly they were going to do in a deserted town.
Henry and friends duly deposited home and soon the house was filled with teenagers, music and the smell of BBQ’d food. It’s odd isn’t it that teenagers tell all their friends that they are having a BBQ, but it was Andy and I doing all the cooking then struggling to make out the sound on the TV above the loud bass music being played on the balcony. Everyone had a good time dancing, singing and eating during the evening, as well as a bit of dart playing.

Saturday is usually diving day for Andy and Henry, but as Anthony who owns Sub-Tropic Adventures was away camping with his young family, it was an opportunity to venture into town to do a spot of shopping! Luckily I didn’t need anything in particular as not much had opened and neither was there much to buy.
Monday started out a little drizzly, but cleared up quite quickly and a walk in Plantation Forest was needed, so we headed over with two very excited dogs for a lovely time walking in the forest under the cool canopy of trees and bamboo. The perfect end to a lovely Easter Weekend

Only on St Helena!!

This is a phrase that you will often hear ex-pats muttering. The most recent events causing this reaction are:
· Nursery School field trip to the local abattoir
· Restaurants that close at the weekend
· Everyone finishing work at 4pm
· Hiring the local Golf Club for a party - £25


It was our 25th (Silver) Wedding Anniversary this week – I contacted the local radio station and asked them to play a request for Andy.

There was a big build up – several early mentions of Andy at Piccolo’s 25th – I contacted them to remind them it was 25 years of marriage, not his birthday! Although I am sure he would have been very happy to be 25 again. He waited for the ‘special request’. The song dedicated to our anniversary had the following opening lyrics:

‘As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and realize there's nothin' left’

Our actual anniversary was a few days before the party and my lovely husband had gone to the trouble of designing a necklace to incorporate all three of our sons, Lee (who is sadly no longer with us), George (who is in the UK) and Henry (who lives with us on St Helena) It was had crafted by Giselle Richards who has a small jewelry business on the island. I was delighted.

But on a lighter note

· Nobody seems to pay upfront for stuff. My Christmas tree had well and truly dropped all its needles and was long gone before I received the invoice to pay..
· Nothing is too much trouble
· The Saints are amazingly kind, trusting and friendly
· The views and scenery are like nowhere else on earth
· I can’t use a mobile phone in the way it was intended (it’s a very expensive alarm clock!)
· I can walk for miles without seeing another person
· The weather changes every few minutes
· The MOT consists of brakes, lights and tyres
· Children have incredible freedom and safety
· People I don’t know stop me for a chat in the street and are genuinely interested
· I had more than 6 people interested in buying my Jeep less than 24 hours after it arrived on Island
· The local Rock Band – The ‘Big Easy’ performed at our party...

And so to the party. Quite soon after arriving here we discovered that it was our Piccolo neighbours daughter -Deanna's - 18th birthday the same week as our 25th Anniversary so we started to plan a big party. One evening we were entertained at the Mule Yard by a local band - The Big Easy. They were fabulous, so I tracked down the 'leader' Johnny Dillon. He was quite surprised that I wanted to 'book the band', but after some persuasion, he agreed. We decided on hiring the St Helena Golf Club as the venue and enlisted the help of Kayla and Leroy Fowler (owners of waterfront cafe 'Ocean Wave' to provide the catering.
Friends at work, Annie and Tessa provided the cake and artistic decorating of the venue respectively.

When the day came Piccolo guests met at the Woosey's house for Champagne and 'Taste the Rainbow' vodka, before walking over to the club shortly before 7. We had rigged up a 'disco' with the help of Henry's Peavey Amp and a laptop. 70's and 80's music started playing early on as did the dancing. The Big Easy arrived on cue and started playing. We had been worried about the constraints of the club house, but everyone commented on how marvelous they sounded.

Mark and Tamara Capes (AKA the Governor and his wife) were in attendance as were Sean and Marina Burns (Deputy Governor and his wife)so we were delighted to be able to welcome them to our celebrations. Many, many other friends were also in attendance and the band enjoyed it so much they played right through (apart from a short break!)to the very end. WE had the best time and thank everyone who made it a truly memorable occasion! I was particularly pleased to note that our Saint friends far outweighed our ex-pat ones.