Blogs from Saint Helena, Atlantic, Oceans and Seas - page 4

Friday April 13th A fine night on the harbour front! It’s no surprise that so many people congregate at Donny’s Bar late afternoon on a Friday. No English ale I’m afraid – Iain, perhaps we should open our micro-brewery here! – but G&Ts or a beer whilst the sun sinks into the Atlantic is a spectacular way to end the working week. Grilled Yahoo (fish) and chips is good to – but a serious absence of mushy peas. Twilight is very brief here as the sun drops very quickly and sinks out of sight (I know it doesn’t really) after a very brief explosion of colour over the sea. Is that because St. Helena is so close to the equator – I have a sense that we are travelling much quicker here than we would further ... read more

Tuesday March 27th – Cape Town On the way to Heathrow Airport, Di asked whether I was feeling excited about the prospect of being away on St Helena for a year. My answer was that, at this moment, it feels just like going to the hospital for an operation. Farewells are difficult and painful, particularly if one is used to being part of a family and part of a couple. Once through the departure gate I felt things lighten up and I began to feel more positive about the (ad)venture ahead. The flight to Cape Town was, thankfully, uneventful – except somewhere hidden on my ticket must have been placed the instruction ‘Place this passenger in the nursery section’! Within a child’s plastic toy’s throw from where I was sitting there were 6 mewling infants who ... read more

Saturday 14th August A very warm send-off this afternoon. Awash with gifts and generous farewells we boarded RMS St Helena and left the island with very mixed feelings. Of course, I am looking forward to being back home and have missed Di and family very much. However, the visit has been a real adventure and most probably a trip of a lifetime. Professionally the visit has been an enormous success and I am very pleased with the quality of the work carried out – as I informed the Governor yesterday. We had a most interesting meeting. First and foremost you call him ‘Governor’ but without the intonation used by Dennis Waterman when addressing his superior (John Thaw) in the ‘Sweeney’. He was visibly shocked by the content of our report and he has apparently (as we ... read more

Friday 5th August Greetings from a wet and windy St Helena! I have just returned from Donny’s bar on the seafront after a very busy and productive professional week. Not many opportunities have been taken to enjoy the specialness of the island. At Donny’s there was a music and video display and that made me reflect on ‘Top Threes’ – a most important but sometimes misunderstood notion. Whatever is most important to you – music, events, books – is crystalised into the top three – this isn’t a commitment for life – it’s as it is at that/this particular time. The only rule is that you must not laugh at another person’s choice – unless top three songs includes Dancing Queen by Abba – which, unfortunately featured in Mike Laycock from Homer’s selection one evening. We ... read more

Just as in the spy novels, a gentleman sidled up to me at the Curry Night and passed on to me, as agreed, a well secured package. On opening I found it contained a pot of genuine St Helena honey - an increasingly uncommon product. Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by a group of envious on-lookers. One of them, Lauren, suggested that I must have sold my soul to acquire such a precious commodity! As she is the wife of the senior immigration officer I am anticipating an incident at customs when I leave the island - this will result in the opening of cases and the confiscation of said item - leading to wife finding that there is honey still for tea and your correspondent's case leaving the island a few ounces lighter - I'm ... read more