Sailing Weekend

Had a great time out sailing on Sunday :-)

Had the chance and great privilege to be invited by Ann aboard a 4 sail yacht. 4 of us went including my great friends Ron and Alan who are also working on the island and who I met on Ascension and travelled to St Helena with on the RMS.

At 10am we sailed out 5 miles from the island and then turned back, arriving back at Lemon Valley for lunch.





The Dive Club was having an event and there was food and drink laid on.

We anchored in the bay and swam over to the shore.







After lunch we sailed back out to see for a little while and then headed back to Jamestown, arriving back around 6pm.



What a lovely day. No Dolphins though.

Presentation

Had a lovely day today. It was my final day at Solomans after 10 days of crystal reports training, helping write new reports and amend existing reports.

Today was spent workshopping on asset manager and helping write a final report.

It's lovely to be able to visibly see that your efforts are not wasted and actually help move a company forward and save people lots of time and duplicated work. It's very rewarding.

The work culminated in presenting the course attendees with their certificates for successfully completing the course.

What caught me off-guard was being presented with a thankyou gift for my efforts, a lovely glass st helenian beer mug and some other bits which are nice and a great momento of my trip and time spent at Solomans.

Thank you all :-) !!

Week 3.....

3 weeks already, blimey !!

Things are still going well, this week involved stress testing the system, visiting all departments on the island (well most of them) and getting them all to log in at a certain time and post transactions and do enquiries. The tests went well with no reported delays or major amounts of time either saving transactions or doing enquiries.

Also helped a company called solomans write some new crystal reports to save time with ordering and stock management, and trained another 4 to write their own reports.

Friday night I went up to the local police club for a fish fry. The police club is situated in Half Tree Hollow which is at the top of Jacobs Ladder on the top of the hill. Very nice indeed and got to meet more people and make some more friends. Everyone is so friendly :-)

After the fish fry it was back down to donnys nightclub. I actually wasn't feeling too well so left about 1ish.

On Saturday I had the chance to see more of the island in a proper 4x4 this time so we could get to places I couldn't get to in the hire car.

The island and it's scenery is breathtaking !

Sunday (today) is a quiet day, have 4 hours prep work to do for Monday so just a lazy/work day and catch up on some zzzzzzz's

So.... 3 weeks and I'm still alive, not gone stir crazy and have made loads of new friends (some who will be lifelong friends and I intend to try and stay in touch with).

What an experience so far :-) :-) :-)

The Island

Hi All

Had a hire car today so decided to see some of the island. Pretty amazing !

Driving here is extreme ! The roads are very narrow, uneven and with blind corners and hairpins everywhere. It is actually very tiring to drive due to having to concentrate so much.

I think I got into 3rd gear twice ! That's how hilly it really is. It was an experience just to drive, let alone see some of the places.



I drove up to ladder hill fort and the top of Jacobs ladder (700 steps and around 650 metres above sea level straight up) the view from the top is breathtaking.


Then onto plantation house, where the governor of the island lives. It is open to the public but only if you book, so will need to plan ahead. But was able to walk the grounds and see the giant tortoises.

Next stop was St Pauls Cathedral. Well I wouldn't call it a cathedral ! Enough said !!

Then on towards sandy bay, some amazing scenery.

The final stop was longwood house, the devils paintpot and napoleons tomb. Again longwood house (which was where napoleon spent most of his time and has a museum and the tomb were closed up and need to book visits to see them.





Then back down the other side of the mountain to Jamestown and to the b&b.

The round trip took about 3hrs but only travelled 11miles. It seemed alot further but solely due to the twisty roads and being in 1st or 2nd gear all the time.

I now know the island a bit more, where to go back and visit and navigating the hairpins !

It was all good :-)

Giles

The Party Bus !

OMG !!

Just got in at 2am off the party bus. I was dragged on it at around 9pm from donnys nightclub and actually made some good friends and found it quite a laugh.

Pretty drunk now tho !!

Week 2....

Hi All,

Blimey, nearing the end of my second week here !

Get to hire a car this Sunday so will get to see the island, napoleons tomb, plantation house and all the other wonders of the island. Expect to see some nice photos early next week on here !

Work is going well, after 3 days of report training at a company called Solomans and helping them with their management reporting requirements, helping them become more efficient and finding ways to save them time, I am now back at the castle and have two days with the government and their project. Everything is on track and all going well.

Had to attend a council meeting this morning which was sprung on me and had only a few moments to prepare, but all went well. I was brought in to help update them all on the progress of the project and what I had been doing in my first 2 weeks.

Also had a chance to speak to Pascale today back in the office in the UK which was nice. Nice to hear a familiar voice and from someone who knows what I am up to over here, and the challenges that come with it.

It's Friday tomorrow, and this involves the obligatory sundowners at donnys on the waterfront and to watch the sunset. Then a quick bite to eat at the pink flamingo and back to donnys for the evenings activities :-)

I hope all is well back in the UK. More island pictures to come over the next few days.

Giles

Personal Email : gilestkeen@hotmail.com
Blog : http://gilesinsthelena.blogspot.com
Work Email : giles.keen@theaccessgroup.com

Yuk, man flu !!

Thought I had escaped the obligatory dose of the flu when I travel but nope, here it is !!!

Just great !!

Dosed up with night and day capsules, strepsils and vitamin c tablets. The shop has plenty if medicine for colds so no problem there !

Just could be better timing as start classroom training tomorrow for 3 days !

Good result for Liverpool !

Watched the game up at The Standard pub before heading back to the b&b by 3pm.

Liverpool did well, good on em for stuffing man utd !!!

Then went with the lady who runs the b&b (Irene) to meet her 92 year old mother who lives up in the hills of st Helena.

Will put some photos on here of her view over the sea when I get a chance.

The weekend....

The weekend starts here at 4pm on a Friday !

Everyone heads for donnys, the local nightclub on the harbourfront for sundowners and to watch the sun set.

Then there is a normal nightclub or karaoke or something on. I got there about 7pm to find everyone down there. Stayed till around 10.30ish.

Saturday has been interesting, went to register my driving licence with the police so I can hire a car next weekend, help a friend from the boat sort out his Internet and then sat in the balcony with a few beers.

After lunch we headed down to donnys, which was shut so ended up in the consulate hotel for a few more drinks.

After dinner I relaxed at the b&b the rest of the evening, didn't venture back down to the nightclub.

Not sure what Sunday holds yet ! There is a big football match on so may try and find a venue to watch it (Liverpool v Man Utd).

On St Helena.....

Blimey it's Hot !!

It is a little cooler than Ascension and the offices I am working in are fine as I am in an old Castle near the docks.

I arrived on the island with no one to meet me off the boat :-( had to find my own way initially. I arrived at the castle and within 30mins I was sat in the middle of a department meeting. No rest for the wicked eh !!

Picked up my bags around 10ish and checked in at the B&B I am staying in. Then went over to meet someone else I will be working with while on the island and then back to the castle after a shower and freshening up.

It's been a great experience so far, hopefully going to be able to get to see the island on saturday which should be fantastic.

I am finding it hard to sleep at the moment due to the heat at night (although it may also be down to the beers we have out on the town each evening !)

I feel quite settled and just getting on with my work, crossing lots off the list already :-) The project is quite large and there is alot of work to do, but I have it well in hand at the moment.

The Crossing....

Hi All,

Well, I wasn't ill at all travelling over on the boat from Ascension to St Helena :-)

We left Ascension on Friday 25th at around 5pm and got under steam.

The crossing was smooth, and was actually very pleasent. It was so nice to get on the boat with a nice breeze which made a change from the 28 degree heat on Ascension.

There were plenty of activities to partake in on the boat such as Quoits and Shuffleboard out on the deck, bingo, Quizes, and Pub Games (of which myself and Charlie won 2 out of the 4 activities and a prize of 8 drinks for our fellow group of travellers).

Found it very easy to make friends and we had a great group on the boat which made things really nice and enjoyable.

The Cabin was very nice and gave me the opportunity to do some work in readiness for the Island. Plenty of room.

There seemed to be lots of opportunities to eat, with breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner etc.... I didnt feel the need for afternoon tea and sandwiches, but the rest was nice. The main dinner was 5 courses and cooked to perfection.

The staff on the boat were very friendly too.

We arrived at St Helena at 7am on Monday 28th.

The crossing to St Helena from the boat when it arrived was a little choppy and it took a while to get off the launch onto the Quay, but could have been alot worse !