We had an interesting day today. I quickly went out to the shops at 9.15 to get bread and draw money to pay the telephone bill (£27.48 – too much internet again!) and buy baking cups and a sieve. The bread hadn’t arrived at Spar yet, so instead I bought a ridiculously overpriced garlic baguette for 57p. Also needed mince from Spar, but they didn’t have any. The freezer is looking quite empty and it’s only the 9th – all I have is three big tuna fillets, some bacon, mixed diced frozen peppers, golden smacaroos, mini pizzas and four beef burgers. I didn’t buy mince at the time of my monthly shop, probably because either they didn’t have, or because I didn’t feel like adding more stuff to the packets I had to carry across the road to the car. Anyway. Picked the boys up from the house, and left for Knollcombes to visit Sharon. Found the farm no problems – her entrance is right next to the Boer Cemetery official entrance. Had to stop the car, unchain the gate, drive in, close and chain the gate again, then drive along the long driveway past the cows to the house.
I did some German recording on the laptop while Aaron slept, and Caleb asked lots of questions about letters and what does “c h” say in German and in English, and then he wanted to record stuff as well. Caleb is really gathering momentum with the reading and writing and drawing. He is constantly drawing or writing, and there are pictures all over the house of birds, skeletons, cows, houses, people and robots. He wrote “mirror” today – he asked me how to write it, but I suggested he spell it out for himself by sounding it out. I wanted to see what he would come up with – it’s not that I didn’t want to help him. He wrote “m r y”. If you sound out the letters (mmmrrr juh) it is quite close. I thought it was an excellent attempt, and showed him afterwards how it’s actually spelt. We started on the “magic e” today – I showed him how mad becomes made, and rid becomes ride and so on. He understands it. Oh, yesterday I was beading, and he came in and said I am playing with my beads. I said I’m not playing with them, I’m working with them. He said I’m playing because I’m God’s child, and children play.
Aaron has had a sniffly nose today. He managed to flip his plate of supper up in the air and land it all over the floor and chair. He must have leaned on the rim of the plate as he was climbing on to his chair, and just caught it at the wrong place. Unfortunately, being Pizza Pasta Mince Mate, it really made a mess. I had to take the chair outside and hose it off and wash the fabric. Caleb said, “God already knew from when we were borned that Aaron was going to do that.”
The lawnmower is still away for repairs, and the car is also still out. It was wonderful driving the Ford all the way to Knollcombes today, it’s so smooth and the hooter even works. We haven’t heard anything about the golf, but you can understand that we are not anxiously phoning every day to enquire after it. The lawnmower, however, is something we’d really really like to have back. We don’t fancy cutting the grass again with the shears! The milk situation actually isn’t too bad. There is powdered milk in the shops, and there is also out of date 500ml full cream on sale in Thorpes. People seem to be finding hidden stocks, so it’s not a complete crisis. We are still doing well with our supply but will be very happy when the skim milk is finished and there is full cream in the shops again.
Political wrangling goes on in our little country too. The government newspaper is the St Helena Herald, but there is another newspaper on the island, the St Helena Independent, which is not government controlled, and is highly critical of the government. It’s interesting reading, although somewhat gossipy and nit-picking, but does give a different slant on what’s really going on here. I suppose that all countries have these political hoohas, and the newspapers serve the government’s agenda or they are just neutral, or they are openly slanderous, but here, in such a small country, you really notice what’s going on more acutely. There is a lot of speculation as to whether the airport is really going to go ahead, and what will happen, and if it really is feasible. For example, do we have enough water to support a 5-star hotel with a swimming pool and how ever many baths and showers and toilets, not to mention adequate water supplies for the construction and the construction workers, for the airport and the hotel to be built, when there are already water shortages? One gets the feeling that St Helena is really a crumbling society, because people want to hold on to the old ways, and the pillars of society are leaving for greener pastures. A recent restaurant issue, where a couple were denied the necessary permits to start an Oriental establishment, is another thing that had people up in arms. The one thing that tourists always complain about is that there are not enough eating places. Yesterday, when the cruise ship was in and there were so many extra people about, the few restaurants that were open (remember, it was Wednesday yesterday) ran out of food before long. So why does the government want to squash an enterprise that is necessary and would be well patronized? Many people here say that it would be so nice to be able to pop out for a meal in the evening, and it would be especially nice to have something Chinese since there is nothing like that. Ah well.
No comments:
Post a Comment