Festival of Running

It’s now 20h23, and I’ve only just finished my day’s housework and chores! I’ve discovered that if one really applies oneself to housework, it can be a full-time job. School in the morning; lunch was the usual sandwiches, and then while Nick was busy outside painting, I made the dough for a batch of passion fruit cookies. The dough had to chill for half an hour, so while that was in the fridge I sorted out some money to go into the bank and my grocery list. Rolled out the cookie dough and shaped them as per the instructions, although they ended up all running into one another anyway. Pretty tasty though. As soon as those were out of the oven, I went to town to get some grocery shopping done. I can’t really do it all in one go and have given up trying, rather doing the most urgent things first and then getting more things as I go. I did the bulk of it today though, but could only find a parking right down outside Castle Gardens. There was no way I was carrying three heavy bags of groceries all the way there, so left the bags in Spar, walked up to Thorpes for a few more things, brought those packets down to Spar, went to Solomon’s for some paint and putty, left them in Solomon’s, then went to fetch the car, as by this time quite a few parking spots had opened up in the central parking, close to where I needed to be. Much better that way! Got home at about 3.15, then decided that the pantry should really be sorted out. Stopped to get supper in the oven, which was a chicken dish, and I put carrots and potatoes in the oven too, then carried on for another hour while that cooked. I threw away a lot of old stuff that was literally gathering dust, then vacuumed out the whole floor, right to the back where the stairs meet the floor. There was a lot of dirt! Then I moved the filing cabinet to the opposite wall, and have managed to put the urn and all the boxes of cups under the lowest shelf, so they are neatly tucked away and don’t have dirt constantly falling on them. There is a lot more floor space, which is really only advantageous for Aaron who likes to go in there with a torch and amuse himself. Lots more hiding spots for him now. Overall, it’s very much neater. Then finally I could unpack the groceries which I bought earlier, after cleaning all the shelves and rearranging.

The island is presently hosting a “Festival of Running”. Several athletes have just arrived on the ship who will be participating. The first event happened this morning, with a Jacob’s Ladder Challenge. It was very interesting, actually, as they had a live radio link-up to a person at the top and the bottom who were giving commentary on what was happening. So Nick and I sat on Aaron’s bed looking out the window where we could just make out the people on the ladder, and listened to what was happening. We only watched the first ten or so minutes, and the first contestant up did it in 5 minutes 17 seconds. That’s pretty darn fast!! There were about 20 participants in all, but I don’t know any of the other results. They sent them up the ladder one at a time with about a 1½ to 2 minute interval between each. I think the next event is a 10km run on Wednesday, starting at Francis Plain.

Of Mice and Melon

We finally killed our little pet mouse. It was a messy death although instantaneous – lots of blood on the trap. We’ve been growing melons in the back garden for a couple of months, and finally we saw a little one growing. The boys saw it too, and picked it to show me. Grr! We expressed our disappointment, but I guess they didn’t know it wasn’t ready and wouldn’t continue growing off the vine! It was perfect too – no goggos had infected it. We had an evening out with some South African friends, visiting at their place for supper. We hardly saw the kids, as they just got on with playing and games and fun. Our boys and their girls really get on well.

The ship came in at 8 am this morning, with some friends on board who were back from holidays. I wanted to see them all, so the boys and I walked down to the docks after breakfast, and waited and waited and waited. Saw them all briefly, just to welcome them back and say hello, and then we walked home again, stopping at Thorpes on the way up for fortifications – they are open one Sunday morning a month.

Old Mother Hubbard

We did a science experiment in school about the tongue and taste buds, which was quite fun. The boys had to put sugar on the back, sides and front of their tongue, and also black coffee. Caleb didn’t want to try the coffee, but Aaron did, and then they both had lemon juice too. It’s interesting to see where the taste buds for different tastes are located. Try this if you don’t believe me – put sugar on the back of your tongue, and then the front, and tell me where you taste it the most! We’ve had all weathers today and yesterday – half hour bursts of rain and wind, then clear and sunny. But mostly it’s been drizzly and windy. A bit miserable, but okay. I got myself busy in the kitchen, firstly with making a batch of date squares, and then a double batch of fishcakes. I had just finished those and washed up when it was time to start the regular Friday night pizza.

Being month-end, and Nick not yet having been paid, we’ve run out of things. This morning we had only enough cereal left for the boys, and no bread for toast. Nick and I subjected ourselves to tea and banana bread for breakfast!! Then for tenzees we had tea and banana bread. For threezees we had…you guessed – tea and the last of the banana bread! But don’t feel too sorry for us – we got paid later in the afternoon, and I have bought cereal now.

Old Mother Hubbard

We did a science experiment in school about the tongue and taste buds, which was quite fun. The boys had to put sugar on the back, sides and front of their tongue, and also black coffee. Caleb didn’t want to try the coffee, but Aaron did, and then they both had lemon juice too. It’s interesting to see where the taste buds for different tastes are located. Try this if you don’t believe me – put sugar on the back of your tongue, and then the front, and tell me where you taste it the most! We’ve had all weathers today and yesterday – half hour bursts of rain and wind, then clear and sunny. But mostly it’s been drizzly and windy. A bit miserable, but okay. I got myself busy in the kitchen, firstly with making a batch of date squares, and then a double batch of fishcakes. I had just finished those and washed up when it was time to start the regular Friday night pizza.

Being month-end, and Nick not yet having been paid, we’ve run out of things. This morning we had only enough cereal left for the boys, and no bread for toast. Nick and I subjected ourselves to tea and banana bread for breakfast!! Then for tenzees we had tea and banana bread. For threezees we had…you guessed – tea and the last of the banana bread! But don’t feel too sorry for us – we got paid later in the afternoon, and I have bought cereal now.

Windy windy day

It’s very windy here at present. Wind speeds have been measured at 25mph. Apparently something happened to the power supply for some part of the island, but it was too windy to fix the problem, so they couldn’t restore power for quite some time. Sorry, a bit vague on the details. We had a bit of rain today, and I would say it’s been really cold, but I checked the thermometer and it was 20. Felt cold though with the wind. Very difficult to hang up a load of washing where you have legs of jeans flapping back into your face, and long hair being blown over your eyes. But tally ho, this is the life of an islander.

Jesus' Disciples

We had an excellent church service last night. Nick preached such a challenging and convicting message from John 17:13-19, which is part of Jesus’ prayer for his disciples (and us). Essentially, that we will be hated by the world and must not try to conform, and that we have been sent into the world – what are we doing about it?

I'm a lumberjack...

Sunday afternoon, and I’m sitting in the car at Knollcombes, while Nick and the boys are chopping wood! The reason we’re here is a long story – an old couple in our church, a brother and sister, have been battling with the winter cold, as their stove broke down some time ago. They were using a wood burner to heat the house. Nick found out about this, and set the ball rolling, along with one of our church men who works for social services, to get a new stove with the government’s help. A sponsor came forward from our congregation who funded half the cost of the stove, with social services paying the remainder. The stove has now been bought and installed, and they have just a little bit of wood to keep them going. Nick is therefore trying to chop down dead trees here. The boys are trying to help, although it seems Caleb wasn’t watching what he was doing with the axe and took a blow to the leg – no blood, no crying, so I guess he’s okay. Aaron’s given up already, so must be wandering around over there. I can just see them.

Good News Club yesterday was okay, although the numbers are dwindling. Last week I got really upset with the way they are behaving during the singing, which should be a time of worship, so yesterday Nick told them that if they misbehaved during the singing, there would be no games afterwards. This helped some! Nick is still on the “Our Father” prayer, and it’s going well. After the teaching we have a bit more singing, and then offer the options to the kids of football, twister, foursquare and drawing. They can do whichever of those they want, and usually the same kids do the same activities each week. I played some twister with the girls, and because I’m taller than they are, I usually win – it’s tricky though, but loads of fun! After the club I ran Keisha home, just up to the top of Ladder Hill, then I went out for a spot of shopping, taking Aaron with me as he begged to come. Nick wanted to stay home to do some things on the computer, so we didn’t do our usual “let’s all go to town and choose a DVD” Saturday thing. I bought some baking goodies – a new baking tray, a loaf tin, cookie cutters, and then some ingredients too, as well as some kitchen towels. All part of the kitchen project. After lunch we watched my delightful choice of DVD with the boys, “Back to the Secret Garden”, which Nick rolled his eyes at but watched anyway. It was very slow and quite boring, but a sweet story nonetheless. When Nick left for Tammy, I baked…and I baked…I finally made a banana bread, which Nick keeps begging me to make, and then a batch of peanut butter and cherry cookies. It’s really satisfying to finally be baking again, and the efforts are very much appreciated, although Aaron doesn’t like the oaty biscuits so much. I finished off making paper poppies for the windowsill and those are all in their bottles, looking really colourful. I made a stunning effort with supper, producing slightly burned fish fingers and chips.
Today’s lunch was fish (grouper) with savoury rice. Aaron’s comment during lunch was “We’re actually eating flesh – eeeuurgh!! What’s flesh?”

Something to do

This morning Aaron asked me if there was going to be anything happening today – i.e. anything interesting or exciting to look forward to. I said no, but felt sorry for him because I know how he feels – there’s nothing to anticipate except for the holiday, which is too far away to be of any use to keep our spirits up!! I passed this observation on to Nick as well, and had in mind to take the boys somewhere or do something. So when Nick came wandering downstairs at 10 and told me he had finished his sermon prep, and suggested going out, I jumped at the chance. We put the rest of school on hold, had our tenzees at home and I hung up the washing, and then we headed off to Longwood. It was a pretty gloomy day in town, and Longwood was far worse – really, really cold, and windy. We took the kite and it practically flew itself, but didn’t get up high enough to stay up, so we gave up after a while. The boys played on the playground, although most of the equipment is now broken. A few of the swings are still operational, as well as the roundabout and slide. Nick and I browsed the shop while the boys were playing, and it’s interesting to see what they have on their shelves that we don’t have in town. We bought some old-stock Smarties on special.

House mouse

We have mice in the house again, and one in particular is quite friendly. It has the run of the whole house, and when Nick was in the bathroom yesterday the mouse joined him. He somehow managed to capture it in his hand, so put a t-shirt over it and brought it out to show us all, although couldn’t just reveal it otherwise it would have jumped off his hand and run away. Instead, we emptied the boys’ big toy box and put it in there. It was a cute little thing, quite small, although I think they all are. It was as long as Nick’s thumb, excluding the tail. It kept trying to jump out of the box and almost managed – we were surprised at how high it could jump. We quickly got some food from downstairs to feed it, just to see what would happen, and it soon became accustomed to Nick’s hand in the box, even climbing onto his fingers. The boys were thrilled of course, and loved the idea of having a pet mouse. The box wasn’t suitable though, so Caleb found an old dustbin in the workshop and we got it comfortable in there, still assuring the boys that we would have to kill it eventually. The episode was short-lived though, because Aaron wanted to get a better look and so lifted out the superwipe that it was nestled in, causing the mouse to run up the cloth and jump out the dustbin, to take cover somewhere in their room. And that was the end of their pet mouse story.
I had to go to town for bread, and to my amazement, the bread is now sold pre-sliced, and the bread slicing machine has been removed from public view. What can I say – it’s the best thing since sliced …! Caleb spent the afternoon playing a game of gypsy gypsy, but got himself highly frustrated and tearful at not being able to fold up the tent on his own, and not being able to do what he wanted to do. Shame. Aaron just wandered around, ate an apple, looked for the mouse, offered his mug-finding services to me while I was washing up, and shut himself in the pantry with a torch. The things you can amuse yourself with when you’re four are quite limitless.

On a mission

After giving the matter much though, I think that the reason why I don’t like cooking or baking is because I don’t like being in the kitchen, which is because it is so unattractive. It’s not a bad-looking kitchen to start with, but has very little “Lynniness” in it. So I am on a Lynnifying mission now. Surely making it a nice place will encourage me to spend more time in it!

Ah-ah-a-a-a-a-ah

Nick left at 7.30 this morning to be at Head o’Wain to start the painting of the chapel’s roof. It was a hive of activity to get him going, as I had to pack juice, coffee, sandwiches, snacks, apples etc for him, and he had to get the ladder and paintbrushes and all sorts of things into the car. He left on time though, and so the boys and I carried on with our morning as usual. It was strange not to have Nick around though and I missed him! I’m so used to him making me a cup of tea while I’m busy with the first session of school, and just generally being around. I couldn’t miss him for long though as he was home before 10 am. The paint they had was not right; they needed a primer or something, and it was raining out that way too, so in any case they couldn’t have gotten started. Shame, after all that preparation. Anyway, we shared his flasked coffee in the diningroom while Aaron did a worksheet and Caleb drew a picture, and then Nick went to get started on some reading and things. He also used his time today to paint a section of the house where he’s cemented, and it’s coming along well. He says the old paint work has deteriorated so much that it’s difficult to paint over, so took a long time. After tenzees and hanging up washing, we continued with school, and we’ve started a new book for Geography called “Wild Places”, with the section on Jungles. It’s a great book and the boys are going to enjoy it. Since we are now doing jungles, Caleb wanted to make a jungle, so after all the reading, we created a paper jungle, and Caleb even added string vines, which we learned are creepers which hang off trees and have thick rope-like roots, and are called lianas. Thus it was that there were lianas strung about the trees, such that Tarzan would have been right at home!

Island happenings

There are all kinds of shortages on the island – potatoes, cheese, 2% milk – I don’t even know what else. The ship has just come from the Cape, but didn’t bring many things it should have, and there was some mix-up with potatoes. I haven’t had good potatoes for such a long time that I was disappointed not to have any, so when one of our church ladies offered some to me, I accepted very happily!

There was a smash’n’grab in town recently, the first one we’ve heard of since being here. Someone broke two windows of a shop in town, and took out whatever merchandise they could reach. Although it’s a petty and non-violent crime, it’s still a huge news event, and almost makes one want to lock doors.

Goopy fun

School was fun today. One of the suggested activities for the language section was to write letters in cornflour mixed with water (ie goop), which we did. Caleb didn’t want to touch it, but Aaron couldn’t wait to get his hands into it. He and I both played with it for about 15 minutes as it was just so much fun and intriguing the way it solidifies and liquefies so instantly.

BIG news!!

We’ve booked a holiday! Yeah!!!! DV, we will arrive Cape Town on 25th November, and leave Cape Town on 3rd January. That is a six week holiday, and 8 weeks off the island for us. Our ship leaves here on the 18th of November.

Let's twist again!

Yesterday afternoon Nick had to attend a funeral where he was accompanying Tammy on one of their songs (this song will be going on to Tammy’s next album, which they are hard at work on with weekly practices). The Bishop led the service and apparently it was shockingly awful. He quoted from the Book of Wisdom, which is an apocryphal book (that means it didn’t get into the Bible), quoting it as the Word of God, and then he even misapplied the text, as well as stating that people become Christians when they are baptized (which is not what the Bible teaches).

Last night we had dinner at the house of two of our members. The hostess considers herself a poor cook, but we had a very good meal of cottage pie, peas, chicken wings, rice, and chow-chows, which we thought were glassy potatoes at first, but they had a pear-like texture and had a subtle pear flavour. Very good. After supper we pulled out the instruments, and I was given some pointers on the mandolin which will greatly improve my playing if I practice them. It was fun to jam all together – two guitars and two mandolins, then our host took up his banjo, and his wife switched to piano accordion, after which he changed to the fiddle.

At Good News Club this morning, there were about four kids at 10 am, but more came in just after 10. Not many kids have started coming after the Holiday Club, we still just have the regular core plus maybe two others. Nick did the lesson – he is doing a series on the Lord’s Prayer, so will be doing the talks for the next six weeks still. Yesterday was the first part, “Our Father in heaven”, and he pointed out that God isn’t everyone’s Father, and that if He’s not your Father, then your father is the devil! I think this was quite startling to the children. For the games, we had some twister going, soccer outside, and drawing for the less-energetic. The girls just love playing twister. We played it again later in the lounge, for the boys’ benefit. Nick wrote L and R on the their hands and feet!

History made real

We’ve nearly finished reading Doctor Dolittle which the boys have loved, but tomorrow is the last chapter. In History we’ve been reading about Adoniram and Ann Judson, the first American overseas missionaries. Ann died quite young, and Adoniram remarried, and was widowed again, and then married Sarah, who died at the St Helena port en route to the US in 1845 and was buried on the island. Her tombstone is in front of our Jamestown Baptist Chapel! The inscription was composed by Adoniram himself. Adoniram died five years later, at sea.

Frosty the Snowfridge

Today we accomplished a great and marvellous thing. We defrosted the fridge! I say we, although I should technically say ‘Nick’, because he actually did all the hard work of chipping ice away, bit by bit, grazing his knuckles in the process. He diligently sat in front of the open fridge most of the morning to do this. Our fridge has some serious frosting issues – we had glacial conditions going on as a mammoth ice-growth at the back was enveloping sauces and jams. Of course fridges aren’t supposed to get iced up at all, but ours is old.

Breaking the ice

We had a combined service today with fellowship lunch following. We did the lunch slightly differently today, by including an ice-breaker. We thought it was time to shake the people up a bit and train them in the art of conversation. For the ice-breaker, we had five tables set out with chairs and benches, and each table numbered. Everyone had to pick a number out of a bowl, and then sit at the corresponding table. That was step #1 to get them mixed up and separated. On each table, there was an envelope containing some questions, like “what is your favourite place in your house” and “what goal do you want to accomplish this year” and “who are your parents, who do they do, and what would you change about them” and so. We asked that people ask one another the questions, just to help get the conversation going. I think it worked fairly well. There was certainly more conversation than the usual downcast eyes and wall flowery stuff affords. We were disappointed at the poor turnout – only about 40 people turned up, and no new faces – none of the parents or kids from Holiday Club, which is what we were hoping for.

Winter's rain setting in

It’s been raining most of the day, although there have been a few patches of weak sun. We went to the docks with our chicken burgers for supper, as we deemed it to have cleared enough. On the way, we stopped off at Thorpes for some Liqui-Fruits, and when we came out, it was raining again! The boys had been instructed to wait in the car, but they decided to get out and stand in the rain instead. I don’t know why they did that, but there you go. Anyway, by the time we got to the docks proper, the rain had stopped. We sat on a bench under a very big tree, so were sheltered from the weather. After eating, we stood at the seaside rails to watch the waves, some of which were very big – Aaron got himself pretty wet when one biggie splashed over the edge. He couldn’t have been more pleased though!

I wrote an article about our holiday club for the St Helena Herald, which was published in yesterday’s edition (although on the 3rd page this year instead of front page like last year). The article was completely unedited, so all the good gospel bits are still there.