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.

Free Time

So what is it like to be an ex-pat on a remote South Atlantic Island, cut off from the outside world for most of the time? And what do we get up to? Here's a snap shot of last weekend!
It's Friday night (well 4.30 in any case!) We all went to Donny’s on the seafront for a beer after work – followed by Pizza from one of the few eateries open - Get Carter's – it’s not always Pizza – it varies weekly. On Saturday morning Henry and Andy went scuba diving, whilst I went ‘shopping’ in Town – just a walk up and down Main Street really – we all met up later at the Coffee Shop with some other ex-pats for coffee and lunch.
In the evening one of our neighbours (Andy at No 2) hosted ‘Piccolobury’ (Take on Glastonbury!) He had hired a local band to play on the veranda, lots of beer and wine and Thai food all in aid of his 'closer to 60 than 50' birthday party. The band, Blue Magic, were fab.The event was well supported by ex-pats and locals alike - I really prefer and enjoy evenings where we are out-numbered by Saints! The party went on into the early hours although we left before midnight as we had an early start on Sunday morning!

Now normally on a Sunday morning the boys are up early to play a round of golf with friends – a group of them tee off at 9am across the road (literally) at St Helena Golf Club - membership is very reasonable and to be recommended – It means I get to relax, maybe go for a walk or go to a friends for coffee – me time! But this week a ‘Round the Island’ boat trip had been arranged by Dave Higgins – apparently not for the feint hearted or weak traveller!

So a group of around 30 met at the wharf steps at 9.30 full of Stugeron and light breakfast for a trip of a lifetime – they rarely go all the way around as it is very rough on the ‘other side and previous trips had run into difficulty! Andy and Henry chose to stand up on the bow for the duration – I secured myself a little cubby hole where I could hang on! I don’t particularly like being out in vast open water at the best of times, but when there’s little between you and hundreds of miles of Ocean, it is even more daunting for those of us who find the concept less of a pleasure. However, unperturbed, I wasn’t going to miss the trip because of a little unfounded fear! We had been warned that on the last trip round the Island out of 40, 36 were sick so it was with some trepidation that we set off!
It was fantastic and although a couple of people were unwell the vast majority (including several children) were fine – it took 4 hours to go right around and cost just £10 a head. Exceptional value!

We were lucky enough to pass between Shore Island and George Island on the south east corner, close up.

The views of St Helena Island from the south side were stunning: sheer rock faces and some familiar places that we have walked to, like Shark’s Valley, Cox’s Battery and Sugarloaf, now viewed from a completely different perspective.

The sea birds were amazing too, swooping low over the boat, following the wake for most of the trip. In addition we were lucky enough to see three of the remaining Whale Sharks too. The season is coming to an end and so they are not quite as easy to find in the waters! Once Speery Island had been negotiated, it was a calm and smooth trip back to James Bay.

When we returned home we found a note from Andy inviting us to a ‘finish up last night’s food party, so I didn’t even have to think about cooking, just wandered over to Andy’s for wine, beer and more lovely Thai food.

This is a good example of life here - over the next few weeks we have our own party - Andy and I will have been married for 25 years next week and Deanna Woosey will be 18. There is also a afternoon tea and drinks organised by Dave Higgins to celebrate Mother's Day - Full on indeed!!!!!!!