Blogs from Atlantic, Oceans and Seas - page 68

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

Wednesday 27th July Have you ever noticed that some places have a musical backdrop? Well, here in St Helena it is country and western music of the 1970’s. True there are some discs on the juke box and on their interesting radio channel that date from the 1950’s but most of it is from that ‘twang’ era that hasn’t been touched by Gram Parsons and his new-country (for those not acquainted with him, he was a member of the Byrds (remember them?) and the Flying Burrito Brothers who transformed the sound of C&W music before he was found dead at Joshua Tree). I know, that’s too much trivia information when all you want to know is ‘where is this going?’ Well, because of this intense St Helenian love of C&W music of a certain era I ... read more

Geo: 42.6299, 24.3443Some quick observations/tidbits on Bulgaria discovered during the first few days:Bulgarian music videos appear to be of only two types - either cheesy, traditional folk-music, featuring homely Bulgarian women, or Eurotrashy and blinged-up ones, with scantily-clad Bulgarian beauties bouncing around. When it comes to the latter, I'm not complaining.The Bulgarian version of "Just For Laughs: Gags" is much like the original Canadian version, except that all the jokes involve half-naked Bulgarian beauties bouncing around. Once again, I'm not complaining.The Bulgarian version of "The Voice" - judges seem to only choose performers who sing in English, no matter how badly. Case in point, a dude starting belting out a horrific version of &... read more

Friday July 22nd The end of an interesting work-week. The people I have been working with are absolutely charming and seem extremely interested in what I am recommending. It would be interesting to return next year and see what impact the project is having. It seems typical to me – five colleagues working in the secondary schools and me, working on my own, in the three primary schools. One of my tasks today was to lead a professional development day for all the staff who work in primary schools – one of the topics was the Early Years Framework – in other words what and how to teach the very youngest children. I couldn’t but help think about a song written and performed by the wonderful Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn who sang ‘Woke up thinking about ... read more

Sunday July 16th Well there’s a thing. Climbing ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ was harder than I thought. I had been advised to take my camera in hand, turn round at appropriate times and snap away at the glorious views of Jamestown. Some hope! I certainly stopped enough times but couldn’t loosen my grip on either the handrail or the camera strap. Serious breathing difficulties suggested that I ought to give up but two people at the top kept waving me on. I couldn’t let down the folk of Much Wenlock by giving up. After several stops I eventually got to the top – in exactly 19minutes. Not too bad really – unless my watch failed through altitude and stress pressures! Well worth going to the top. Fascinating buildings and military paraphernalia looking high over the sea. And there, ... read more