Welcoming 2015

Well Christmas has flashed by! George duly arrived early on Sunday 21st December! We were of course waiting on the Wharf for him to clear immigration and customs, along with Roy and Jill (Chief Secretary and his wife) who were also welcoming their son William to the Island for a second time. George and William were shipmates and would also be on their return trip in January.
Henry was delighted to have his big brother on the Island and straight away George and Henry decided to climb Jacobs Ladder (699 steps). I was far more sensible and jumped in the car to meet them at the top. They made it although I think George found it harder than he thought it would be!

On arrival at Spring Knoll, Smudge was beside herself on seeing George. She spent most of the next two weeks close by his side. Having introduced George to the Jamestown shops and our regular Plantation Forest dog walk, we spent the next couple of days preparing for Xmas, although we did also manage to get in a trip to Sandy Bay! Christmas Eve was spent at Donny’s.

We had some friends over for Xmas lunch and another turned up in the evening, so it was a very relaxed affair, pretty much stress free. On Boxing Day we visited friends and after a pleasant time we returned to feed and water the doggies.
We’d booked a trip to Lemon Valley with water sports for the Sunday. In the end we had around 30 people come along and we had a lovely day courtesy of Keith, Kyle and Craig Yon.

I even ventured onto the doughnut water ride, although I did remind Keith that I was yet to pay him for the day and I may choose not to if I was ‘dunked’! There were lots of tired nut happy faces leaving the Valley late afternoon. The day was not yet over though as Henry, along with Sophie and Laura O’Keefe had to perform at the fourth and final Carol Concert – luckily at St Paul’s Cathedral, so close to our home at 6pm! So a quick shower and change, then on to the next event. We all slept very well that night, exhausted from the day’s activities.
The next few days brought of course New Year’s Eve (or Old Year’s Night as they say here) where once again we celebrated with friends in various locations. We also took George to ‘Ball Alley’ where the landscape is akin to Mars, well at least what I imagine Mars to look like!
New Year’s Day was spent at the ‘seaside’ where George and Henry swam to the wreck of the Papanui in James Bay.
The last couple of days included completing the St Helena ‘Three Peak Challenge’ and a farewell barbeque on the veranda.
It’s a sad day when you bid farewell to loved ones, so it was with a heavy heart (and a sulking Smudge) that we saw George off on his return trip via Ascension.

Moving House

It’s been a long time coming. We have been looking for somewhere quiet and suitable for two dogs, including a blind one, for a while. Most ex-pats with animals tend to stay in Chief Secretary Housing (owned and operated by SHG) as they allow pets. Unfortunately there are very few private landlords that permit animals and those that do; the property is not always suitable for disabled ones!


We had pretty much decided to stay at Piccolo Hill where we are settled, have an uninterrupted view of the Barn and Flagstaff and a safe garden for the dogs, but literally a couple of days after our return to the Island in September, the local person in the ‘know’ AKA as ‘Small Change’ got in touch to say he had the perfect place for us. No harm in going to look, we decided and the next day we were introduced to ‘Spring Knoll’, a fairly large imposing house on the opposite side of the Island, located in Scotland! Luckily it’s not as cold as the UK counterpart, but it does rain more than in Longwood. The difference is it rains properly. Longwood spends more of the winter month in cloud, making it damper in that respect.


We love the house and the location and it’s relatively dog friendly (and the landlord is happy with our dogs) Nothing in our world is ever that simple though. The house is pretty much unfurnished – not even a cooker, so having just left our furniture in storage in the UK, we now need it out here. We’d shipped some items from the UK during our holiday, arriving at the end of October, but nothing like we’ll need at the house!
A shopping frenzy ensued with items now en-route from the UK including a 4 piece lounge suite, bedroom and dining furniture, not to mention a cooker, washing machine and curtains! Expensive, but worth it we hope.
I wasn’t going to write about our move yet, but the car-share drive in this morning made me laugh out loud! We often have some hilarious moments on the drive in, recounting events and stories. This time it came from Martin. We were discussing using parental controls on the set-top box (I use that phrase with caution – it’s nothing like TV anywhere else and is very limited)
‘I’ve tried that’ he declared ‘Did you not here about my problems?’ He then started to tell us how he was trying to access the parental control menu, when he accidentally press the wrong button and ended up with Arabic subtitles! That wouldn’t have been too bad, but because he didn’t know how he’d done it, he couldn’t undo it! Having already had to recently call ‘Sure’ out for another TV related issue, he was reluctant to do so again. It took almost a week to remove the subtitles!
This for some strange reason, reminded me of a conversation Andy and I had had the previous evening.
He had been at Spring Knoll, building my new utility room and had been clearing the gutters of debris with Small Change. He brushed against the plumbing waste pipes on the exterior wall, serving the bathroom and toilet. The pipes were not actually fixed to anything – not even each other, so they collapsed like a pack of cards! (Luckily Andy is one of the people who can only see how to make good, so was actually pleased to find it, so it can be sorted!) It makes us laugh how such bodged things actually work quite well until you touch them.
Following Small Change’s inspection of Andy’s plumbing work, both in the utility room and externally, he has declared Andy ‘a qualified St Helenian plumber’

A Change in the Weather

This time last year in my first week on St Helena, it felt positively boiling hot! A year on and having just spent several months basking in temperatures in excess of thirty degrees, there’s definitely a chill in the air (that’s a 22 degree chill!) Typical autumn weather, I guess – bit of a nip in the air first thing in the morning and from late afternoon. During the day, the sun has been out most days and the temperature rises rapidly.

The usually calmness of James Bay, has been replaced by ‘rollers’ and large swells. The waves have been crashing over the waterfront, bringing large stones with them – not the place to park the car at the moment!

Picture by Mark Stevenson - winner of picture competition 2013

The RMS St Helena was in from Cape Town last week and for the first time since I arrived, there was some difficulty disembarking passengers due to the swell. The normally slick and speedy process was delayed by several hours as the highly skilled coxswain fought against the waves and swell to bring passengers safely to shore.

Passengers alighted and attention was turned to the cargo and containers. Usually the RMS ways anchor on the right side of the bay, closest to the wharf and cranes. This visit was no different, but it soon became clear that the swell was forcing the ship to list precariously from side to side. For the first time since I arrived, the RMS had to be moved to the opposite side of James Bay where the Ocean was a little calmer. This resulted in it taking much longer to crane cargo off the ship onto the waiting pontoons and the pontoons still had to ‘run the gauntlet’ of waves to get the containers/vehicles etc safely onto the wharf.
All of this meant that when the RMS departed for Georgetown, Ascension Island a couple of days later, cargo that should have been offloaded was still on board.
Andy Crowe – Piccolo neighbour and Housing advisor here, is returning from oversea leave on the RMS when it returns from Ascension Island. Our cat sitting duties will cease – Jo will be pleased to see Andy, I am sure. Andy will be arriving with the new Chief Secretary Roy Burke and his wife, Jill.

Let’s hope it is nice and calm later today when the RMS arrives! The current voyage is V209. We will be leaving the Island for overseas leave on V212 – so close now
It also means that our dog sitting duties are also nearly up. The Governor, Mark Capes, will be on the RMS when it returns from Cape Town on 17th June. Wellington will return to his much more up-market residence of Plantation House, but I know he will miss playing with our two dogs. Housing status isn’t everything after all, for Sir Wellington Capes LOL

A Year On

I left the UK on Sunday 26th May 2013. The time has gone by really quickly. By the time I get back to the UK in early August for my ‘mid-term leave’ I will have been away for just over 14 months – It’s also a long time to go without a holiday, so really looking forward to the break – 6 weeks! A chance to catch up with my Mum, my eldest (George) as well as Andy’s family and our friends. It’s our eldest nephew’s 21st too so will be looking forward to the fabulous party that I know Jill will deliver.

So to Island life…

We spent a lovely late afternoon and evening on Friday after work just chilling at Donny’s Bar. There were people wake boarding in the Bay and it was great to spend some time just people watching. Henry had taken one of his AS papers in the morning – 2 down, 2 to go. As usual the boys went diving on Saturday and in the afternoon Henry debuted as Crystal Rangers goal-keeper. He had a great time and for the first time in ages Crystal Rangers only lost by one goal (it’s usually double figures – LOL)

The Jeep Wrangler is finally up and running – new clutch fitted and tested – although had to wait for various parts to arrive from the UK. Andy often sends me into the shops to ask for different car parts – I swear he’s just having a laugh!
The sales assistants look at me like I am mad, then suggest a different shop to go to. So to anyone who is bringing a car = also bring brake pads, service parts (filters etc) don’t expect to find the ‘right’ part for your car here – generic things like oil are available and we did get wiper blades, but I asked for copper grease and there was silence.. ‘Won’t get that here’ was the response. BUT we did get it after much foraging around! I also wanted a trolley jack – I didn’t get a trolley jack, but did get a bottle jack – not quite what I was looking for, but it will do

We woke up on Sunday morning to a very low water pressure, then a short while later, no water at all. No 1 Piccolo Hill had sprung a leak! Fortunately due to the eagle eyes of John at No 4, the fault was reported and fixing within a few hours. So by lunchtime, we had brown water. A short time later we had white foaming water – it looked like milk it was that dense! Figured if I boiled it, it would be ok..
We’ve taken to walking the Muppies down at Millennium Forest/Horse Point – overlooking the airport site. It’s quiet and Pippy seems to like it – Smudge can go off the lead so long as she keeps away from the edge. Like pretty much everywhere on the Island, the views are spectacular.

We had a bank holiday on Wednesday last week – in aid of St Helena Day (anniversary of the Island’s discovery in 1502) And again, unlike the UK we have 2 bank holidays in June, on the 9th and the 16th, so looking forward to that