ooooooooo Dolphins

Hi All,

Finally got to see some dolphins. About 300+ !

Below are some photos I took while on the boat trip. It was a nice trip, stopping for a bit of swimming and they also put a couple of rods out the back of the boat and we caught some tuna to take home :-)

There is also a large tall ship in the bay which we had to go past, so I have some great photos of it too.....

Leaving on Thursday on the boat to Ascension so I will post some more photos and updates when I arrive and have internet access. I have hired a car for a few days on Ascension so will explore a bit :-)

Giles











I will write something here very soon :-)

Time is running short.....

Hi All,

Time is now running short, only 12 days to go before the RMS leaves on the 19th May for Ascension Island. It was due to leave on the 18th but has been delayed due to someone from the commonwealth office requiring to stay on St Helena for 3 days not 2.

The RMS will be able to make up the time though, although for me there is no rush. My flight is not due to leave Ascension until the 27th May, so I will be kicking my heals on Ascension Island for 7 days before the flight leaves at 10pm for the UK.

It's a real shame to be sat around on Ascension when I could have been touring Cape Town, but needs be and the customer is happy I have been able to stay on a further 2 weeks so thats all that matters, as long as the client is happy, then I am too.

I may be able to get to see the green turtle hatchlings make a dash for the sea while I am there although I believe I have missed that now.

So, what have I been up to since my last post on the blog ? Hmmmmmm

Well, a mixture of work and pleasure....

Camping, Royal Wedding, Dolphin Boat, Silver Wedding Party, Saying goodbye to another good friend, bits and pieces really.

Here are some photos from all the above....

Protest Day.......

Hi all,

Sorry for not posting something sooner but have been pretty busy and not had much time to spare.

Today is the day of the protest march. The islanders are protesting about the rise in import duty and the hike in electricity and water prices. It started at around 11am at the top of the town and is due to reach the castle and courthouse around 12pm when a number of speeches and a petition will be handed to the governor of the island.

Out of the 12 councillors, only 1 voted against the duty increases and I am sure will be at the front of the march.

I predict around 500 people could march if not more. The duty increases effect everyone on the island and so a lot of islanders are upset.

I think it's the first major event like this to happen in this peaceful island.








Time is now running very short for me on the island, only 8 days of work left, 2 of which are report writing training on monday and tuesday. The available days are effected by a number of bank holidays.

The project is still running smoothly though which is a good sign and more or less on track.

Next week (Thursday - Queens Birthday - Bank Holiday) I have an invite to plantation house (where the governor lives) for a garden party. Should be nice if the weather behaves itself.






This weekend has so far involved the usual Friday night at donnys, dinner at the pink flamingo and a few drinks with my colleagues from the finance department here. Very pleasant evening indeed.

Then this morning at 5.30 I had to get up to watch the Chinese grand prix qualifying, and try to retrieve my laptop from the castle as left it there overnight running a routine, but the castle is all locked up due to the march.

Tomorrow is the main chinese grand prix race at 6am, then sailing with Ann on her yacht and dinner out at a place called farm lodge with all the guys I have been working with at the government. So quite a full day tomorrow.








On a sad note, a 10 year old islander died on the RMS on his way to south Africa for treatment this week. When the island hospital cannot offer any more in terms of treatment or specialist doctors and equipment, patients are sent over to cape town by boat for special medical care. He was the nephew of someone I have been working with. Very sad indeed :-(

Giles

Scottish Dancing

Ahhhh so that's what a Ceilidh is !

Wasn't quite sure what I was letting myself in for but was pleasently surprised. Had a lovely evening and learnt a few new dance moves !

John Travolta better watch out !!

There is a video too, but 4hrs to upload it causes a problem. It will have to wait until I get home to the UK and then I can upload it to YouTube :-)

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