First Date

For your viewing pleasure, a photo of our finished bedroom is here. We bought two cute paintings at Queen Mary’s, £6.36 each which is good considering they are nicely framed and actually original works of art - you can see the texture of the paint, and they are all unique though similar. I had to rush Nick out to the shops during a 20 minute gap he had for him to okay them!

Mom wanted to go out for tea yesterday morning (I think they are missing Wimpy), so we took ourselves to Ann’s Place in Castle Gardens. I’m not sure whether they are actually open for tea, or if they only do lunches and dinners, but there were no patrons in the restaurant and the only staff member was on the telephone and ignored us, so we left and went to St Helena Coffee Co instead. It was pleasant as always although quite windy outside.

This morning we drove to Prosperous Bay Plain on the eastern side of the island, past Longwood, where the airport will eventually be built. It is always an interesting drive, and dad was quite taken aback with the trees which are so windswept that they now grow at an angle. We drove around for a long time after that looking for a suitable picnic spot since it was drizzling and cold at Longwood. We ended up halfway home before stopping! Lunch at Ardees in the Market after that, and then dad accompanied Nick to his prison ministry.

Nick and I had a long awaited ‘date’ at Ann’s Place for dinner, which had been prebooked. We were the only people there for the first hour, after which two other gentlemen came in. Supper was three huge tuna steaks each, an enormous bowl of chips, and salad, with apple crumble and ice-cream to follow. We surely do miss being able to go to a proper restaurant, without booking in advance, and ordering something off the menu! But it was a good evening nonetheless.

Miss St Helena 2006 took place last night at the Consulate Hotel. 14 young ladies entered, and the winner received £500, with all the runners up receiving consolation prizes.