Fishing, sort of

Church last night was good – Nick touched on God allowing certain things to happen to us, and that nothing happens without His approval. He also reminded us that God will never tempt us beyond our endurance. Such an encouraging thought, and also leaves no room for excuses to sin! Not very many people in church, and only about 8 stayed for tea afterwards.

First day of school holidays today - Nick took the boys fishing this morning as promised, with Paul. They went to Ruperts, and the most detail I could get was that they fished, catching one green thing which didn’t make it home, and they played in the water which was quite deep in the little ‘swimming pool’. Seems that they enjoyed it though. I had two hours to myself, during which time I simply pottered – tidying up the house a bit and that sort of thing. It was just good to be on my own.

We spent the evening with some ex-pats, having dinner and a very pleasant chat. They have three boys, but one is in the UK. The second one has guitar lessons with Nick, and the youngest is about 8 and quite a lively boy. Nick took his guitar, and had a great time playing and throwing around a few tips. My boys played with their youngest and all his myriad toys, although they started getting quite tired. Aaron informed me that he was ready to go home because he needed the toilet – he doesn’t know that most houses are equipped with toilets these days. Their rental house is a very strange set up – it’s built in three entirely separate blocks, with the kitchen and bathroom in one, two bedrooms in the other, and a third bedroom and the lounge in the other. You have to go outside if you want to go to the toilet or kitchen, or from the bedrooms to the living area. A bit weird - St Helena architecture from about 100 years ago.

The Emporium is having a sale on curtaining, 99p per metre. I bought some blue material, everything that was left on the roll, which is just enough to make curtains for the boys’ room.

Airport news is not so good – of the three consortia that were in the tendering process, all three have pulled out! They are concerned about the many factors making it difficult to give an accurate financial report beforehand, so they are still interested in the project but have withdrawn from the current process. So it’s back to the drawing board for the air access team who have to redraft the tender requirements or something like that. It’s a bit discouraging, but the general feeling is that the airport will be functional by 2010 despite these setbacks.