Luncheon, darling

I bought a thermometer today, I have been curious as to what the island’s temperatures are. This afternoon it was 29 in the shade and 31 in the sun. Nick and I have spent some time this evening, from about 8 pm, sitting outside drinking tea and chatting, and it was 26 degrees. I bought a very basic thermometer – not that I had much choice, it was the only one the Emporium had – and doesn’t give the day’s highs and lows and that sort of thing. Serves the purpose though. The problem with the heat here is the humidity. Today there was no rain and it was a dry, blistery heat, but usually it is a suffocating sticky heat.

Now let me tell you about lunch today. It was at 12, and I arrived at Ann’s Place (a restaurant in Castle Gardens) promptly, along with some other lunch ladies. I was relieved to see there were quite a few ladies I knew, and I sat next to Alison, the Public Solicitor’s wife, who we met on the ship coming over. Lindsay was opposite Alison, and then next to them were Elsa and Estelle, two South African Afrikaans ladies. Elsa is the lady I met at the coffee shop a while ago, who I spoke to in Afrikaans. On my other side was a Saint I had not met before, and on her other side was Claire, the Governor’s wife. Opposite me was Margaret, a British lady who leaves the island tomorrow, whose husband works for DfiD (government thingie). The wives all seem to go by their husband’s profession, so when I introduced myself as Lynn, Claire looked at me for a further explanation so I had to say “The Baptist Minister’s Wife”. We’ve all lost our own identity! She said she had heard very good reports about the “bible holiday school”, so I spoke about that for a while, and how happy we were about how many kids had turned up, and how excited we were to see kids responding to the teachings which was the whole point, and that sort of thing. I alternated conversions between the five ladies on my left (Alison and co) and the four on my immediate right. There were about 25 ladies altogether, and a complete mix of islanders – some ex-pats, some locals, all professions and walks. Very nice. The food was good, we had tuna salad, cold meats, baked tuna, chicken drumsticks, salad, peas, carrots, roast potatoes, rice and curry. Pudding was fruit salad and ice-cream, yum!

Nick had a guitar lesson from 3-4 at Prince Andrew School, and we went swimming after he got home. The pool was quite busy, but it’s really fun – you see all your friends at the pool so it’s this big social thing. Emma and Guy were there with the girls, and some girls from holiday club, and some other people we know. Aaron has still been running a slight temperature today, but we thought a swim would cool him down nicely. The ship came back from Ascension today, and although it only docked at 6 pm, we could see it on the horizon from about 5:10. Ascension is north of us, and since Jamestown faces North, we can see the ship coming in. When my parents come, they will approach the island from the South East, and sail all around it until they come around the top corner and see Jamestown, so unfortunately we won’t see the ship coming from a distance. Tomorrow we will collect our parcel from the customs hall. We’ve seen pictures of Ascension, and it looks much the same as here except that they have white beaches. Apparently not a very nice place to live though because there’s nothing to do there, and the people who live there are only there for work. I don’t think anyone is allowed to own land (there’s been a whole big thing about it in the news – right of abode). Their shops are probably not too much better than ours, although they do have air access so would have regular supplies.

Poor Nick is sleeping on the bed in my craft room now, he’s so tired. I know he’s sleeping because his foot keeps twitching. It’s only 21h07 now.