Napoleon's Tomb

The first big thing that happened today was not a nice way to start the day. One of the workmen working on the schoolroom roof misjudged his position on the roof, stepped onto the asbestos and fell through the roof onto the floor below. It must have been about a six or seven meter drop, onto concrete. He broke both arms very badly, and we don’t know what else. His two shaken coworkers came to the manse to use the phone for an ambulance, which arrived in less than five minutes. The fire station also responded, and it wasn’t long before the St Helena Media van was also out front. The poor guy was rushed off to hospital and they would have operated on him today after stabilizing him. Nick was appalled at the way the emergency services handled him. After about three or four attempts to secure his neck with a brace, they gave up because they couldn’t get it on. Nick had to tell them what to do and how to do it, to warn them not to let his arms flop over the edge of the stretcher and things like that. Very worrying. I think the surgeon will be more skilled.

Apparently the government building committee was going to meet this morning in connection with the skylights, but we haven’t heard the result yet.

We cut Nick’s hair today. All of it, all off. It had been growing since before leaving SA, and I had only trimmed it once, so it was really getting quite long. I wanted to see how it would look longer, and this was an ideal opportunity, but we decided that it wasn’t really working anymore, so today was the day for it to go. I think people are going to be quite surprised to see his new hair-do! We shaved it on a #4 all over, so it’s really short.

I took the boys to Napoleon’s Tomb this afternoon. I hadn’t been before at all, so wasn’t entirely sure of the procedure, so when I got to the entrance off the road, I drove the car all the way down on the grassed driveway, but ended up getting into trouble for it because no “machines” are permitted down there. Well how was I supposed to know? The man who keeps the gardens in Sane Valley (the tomb’s site) was the one to rebuke me. I asked if I could just go and take some photos quickly, and then we’d be out of there, to which he agreed. He really wasn’t very happy. But wow, the setting of the tomb is so beautiful. It’s in a green valley with very well kept gardens.