Goat's Meat Curry

No problems with school this morning, other than waiting for 10.30 to listen to the radio. It was the final elimination round today, taking the contestants down to the top three. Guess what? Nick is in the top three! The other two are a country song about “walking with my grandson” in a real American drawl, and a song about “walking a little more instead of jumping in your car.” But on the island, where you have smash hits about goat’s meat curry, any lyrics go! Nick’s lyrics are more poetic. After three years of hearing the song off and on, and now a week of hearing it three times a day on radio, and after actually asking Nick, I finally have the first line of the verse figured out: “Walking under winter’s lighter skies I delight in the mellow blues, cloudless skies and expanse touching textured fields of golden hues” – this to a very complicated tune that you can barely hum along to, let alone sing. I still can’t sing it. Its downfall might be that it’s not catchy, although you can easily listen to it over and over again without getting sick of it. Well, we just have to wait for Friday now!

Aaron is trying to read a lot now (writing on bottles and boxes, that sort of thing), and spelling things out to himself all the time. It’s exciting to see that he’s taken such an interest in literacy! Caleb has become a terrible mumbler, but it’s actually not just a mumble as much as it is picking up the Saint accent. Both boys say things like “hee-ya” and “fowa” instead of “here” and “for” every so often. I don’t know how they have managed to pick up this accent as they are mostly around Nick and me; I suppose from their friends and the radio. There are a couple of dreadful radio personalities who don’t pronounce their words, they sort of skip over them and the words run into each other in a very indistinct way, which is exactly what Caleb is doing. Caleb is sick again, with his usual chesty cold. Shame, it really knocks him hard every time. He coughed a lot today, and we decided to nebulize him – I popped up to the hospital to ask for some medicine for our own nebulizer, and after explaining the situation with Caleb, they were very happy to hand over the plastic vials, 10 each of the two kinds I need to use. No forms to fill in, nothing to sign, no wait, nothing to pay – so easy!

HBC prep and Idols

Nick and I started painting the backdrop for next week’s Holiday Bible Club this afternoon, but it wasn’t long before he remembered he had a deacons’ meeting tonight, so he had to go and prepare for it – not much painting was done today! Pop Idols this morning – another elimination day, and Nick is still in. We are down to four contestants now, and another one to go tomorrow. It’s quite exciting sitting listening to the radio, waiting to hear who stays and who goes! He doesn’t think he will win, and I don’t either, based on what the islanders like and their biases, but he still is the best of them and should win! It will be nice if he places in the top three though.

Winter Sun

The boys went to Callum’s birthday party this afternoon, a lunch-time affair. After dropping them off we came home to get lunch ready for ourselves. But since the boys weren’t with us, there was no particular rush to have lunch, so instead we had coffee and wedding cake (Sharon gave a piece of boxed cake to Nick this morning at church) and chatted outside, and then made ham rolls which we took to Castle Gardens. The weather in town this afternoon has been perfect – a mild breeze, the sun comfortably warm, the sky blue with a few clouds. We took the picnic blanket to the Gardens, and the doves wanted to share our lunch, so we broke off bits of roll for them. They are obviously very accustomed to people, as we got them taking crumbs from our fingers. Nick brought his guitar out and I read a book, and then we chatted, and it was so nice. I haven’t had so much vitamin D in a long time – one either avoids the summer sun, or the winter rain. Not much winter sun. Funny though, because Nick’s song is called “Winter Sun” – written from a South African perspective! The doves continued pecking at crumbs – one brave little one even walked right over my legs. We had a good talk about the state of the church on the island, and what needs to happen. The conclusion is that a revival is needed! In 20 years the Baptist witness could be dead on the island, as the church consists of people mostly over 50, with the handful of younger people who would be the next generation of “the church” not being very serious about their attendance.

There was a tragedy on the island yesterday morning, when a parked car rolled over the edge of the ladder hill mountain, bounced a bit and fell into the sea. Two young people were killed. There is much speculation as to what happened and why, but since it was a boy and a girl in the car, people are drawing the obvious conclusion. We don’t know the identity of the people, but apparently it was a difficult identification for the police to make, as the bodies were badly battered in the fall.

Dinner Guests

Nick is still in the running for Pop Idols – one more contestant was eliminated yesterday, but it was not Nick. The next elimination is on Monday. Last night we made a start to the backdrop for the Holiday Bible Club, which is running from 18th to 23rd June, putting together big sheets of paper, getting it up on the wall, and then outlining our picture from OHP. We started painting this afternoon, and made a big dent in about two hours, so it looks like we will easily finish that with not too much stress.
We had John and Cindy to dinner this evening. She brought a cremora tart for pudding, but she used a different recipe, and to her embarrassment it didn’t set. We’re one-for-one with flopped puddings now (my trifle didn’t set when we had dinner at their house!). The kids ate at their table, so the grown ups could have a decent conversation, and it really was nice. We chatted about all sorts of things and laughed a lot in between. Cindy had a tension headache, so after giving her two Comprals, I suggested we pop out to the Emporium where I had seen heating pads (the automatic type where it heats instantly, and then afterwards you reset it by boiling it) quite inexpensively. Unfortunately we got there at 8, just as they were closing, so no luck. We wandered about town a bit after that, looking at the clothes in Warrens, where I remarked that “die klere is lelik en duur”. Nice to talk in our ‘private language’!

Dentistry

I started off the morning with a trip to the dentist, as a temporary filling she had done a few months ago has come out, and I was finding myself in pain by the end of the day. I phoned for an appointment, but the earliest I could get was in July, so the receptionist said I could just come in between 8.30 and 9.30 which is when they have emergency appointments, for her to reapply the filling. It was very quick and virtually painless, other than when she blew air onto the tooth which was very sensitive. For this dubious service I was charged no money, so I guess you get what you pay for. She also had an x-ray taken to see what needs to happen next. Unfortunately, she can’t do crowns or inlays on the island, so the only options are to either keep redoing the temporary filling, or pulling the tooth. Of course the latter is not to be seriously considered. I was home again before 9, so school kicked off at the usual time after the news.

Nick still in the running

Pop Idols continues, and today was the first elimination day, where two contestants were voted off. Nick was not one of those. There are now 6 left standing, and the next elimination will be on Friday. It’s quite exciting – we wonder how far Nick will go! There is a country song among the bunch, which, although not very well sung, is a country song after all and may well get the winning vote.

School stuff

It has been raining and cold today, I’m sure it might even have hit 20. I felt really cold this morning and my hands were purplish, but did I put on another jersey? No! I thought that sooner or later the sun would come out and I would warm up, but it happened later rather than sooner. Anyway. School was a bit bumpy this morning with the Maths, as we are now learning to count in 5s. Aaron struggled with it somewhat, but we’ll keep on revising it. I am doing spot tests where I get them to write a number I say, as they both don’t have their teen numbers under the belt. It’s quite fun and they enjoy it. We’ve got a new game called ‘Silly Simon’ – Simon says “put your hand on your head”; “Simon says wave your feet in the air”; “Simon says walk on the ceiling” – to which they will reply “Silly Simon” if it’s something impossible to do. It’s so funny the way they reply in unison with harmonised intonations and a lilt at the end.

Pop Idols

St Helena is running its very own version of Pop Idols. Nick has been very involved with the project, writing some music for the songs, and playing guitar for most of the recordings. He submitted one of his own songs too, which he recorded in SA, but we weren’t sure if it had been accepted. The competition officially started today, with the 8 contestants’ songs being played on the radio. We sat glued to the radio for the half hour the programme ran, and were very excited when Nick’s song came up as “Contestant Number 2”. Of course his is the best of the lot – and I say that with only a slight bias, because really, the other contestants are not too good. Nick’s guitaring can be heard on all the other songs too. He entered it just for fun, so whether he wins or loses is not that important to him. The competition will run until next Friday, with a contestant being eliminated every few days until there are three left in the final.

The weather today has been on the chilly side – I forgot to look early in the morning at the thermometer, but it was right down to 21 (J) when I checked later in the day, with intermittent showers. I’ve been wearing a jersey most of the day, and Nick’s had on two layers of long sleeves! Still some sun in the afternoon though, for which we are grateful.

A lesson on fish and deep thoughts

This morning Lloyd and Njori arrived just after 8 for their lift to Sandy Bay, bringing with them six or seven bullseyes for us. Nick brought them back from church shortly after ten, and after a cup of tea, Lloyd very kindly filleted the bullseyes for me, outside. He showed me how to do it, so if I ever have a whole fresh fish again, I’ll know what to do. His method did not involve chopping heads off with axes! I didn’t have to prepare lunch today, as we had been invited to Anthony and Elaine for lunch. We ate a hearty lunch of veggies, cauliflower in cheese sauce, gammon and drumsticks. Pudding was chocolate peppermint stuff and a peach flan, all very delicious. The conversation flowed around church topics mostly, and Anthony is very keen to improve the worship. They also have an idea to open a coffee bar in the schoolroom. A discussion of the role of the Pastor’s Wife always seems to come up, as in years gone by the PW was very active in the community, church life, and various ministries. I always maintain that the PW is not employed by the church, and there should be no expectations put upon her, other than the expectations of any normal church member to be involved in ministries. It bothers me that there is this undefined and unsaid rule that she is a Super Member and should be doing more than the Regular Member. But then I always have to wonder if I should be doing more, and what I should be doing, and where I will find the emotional energy after a morning of homeschooling! My role as a PW is to look after and help the Pastor, which I am doing (the Pastor concurs). If anyone has any thoughts on this, drop a comment on the blog!

Last night we had chicken burgers for supper, and did one of our favourite things, which is to take our supper to the docks and eat while we watch the sun set. It was great, definitely something we’ll miss one day. We sat on top of a big flat wall next to the cannons, with our feet dangling over the edge. Caleb climbed onto the wrong wall, so I instructed him to climb down and climb up again on ours, cautioning him “not to even think about jumping across”. “I’m thinking about it,” says he, “but I won’t do it.” Our supper finished, we walked further around the docks and threw some bread out for the fish, but the sea was very rough and we didn’t see fish. Then Nick and the boys clambered over some rocks while I sat watching the sea. It’s intriguing how the waves keep on breaking over the rocks with such force, and have been doing so for centuries, and will continue to do so as long as the earth remains. Not quite an infinite cycle, but very long anyway. As I was sitting there, watching, I realized that I had been staring mindlessly at the sea for some time, just enjoying it, and not getting bored, and then I thought about heaven. The fact of its infinity is a scary thought, but probably because we’ll be enjoying it so much, we won’t think about how long it’s lasting.

Work party

This afternoon we have been at the Boer Cemetery and Baptist Cemetery since about 11.30 with a work party, chopping out roots, cutting down tree branches, and replacing fence posts. The work party was smaller than we anticipated, with only Vincent, Nick, Nick, Stan and Mervyn (pictured) and me working. My job was with a machete, hacking down small overhanging branches which were obscuring the path a bit (which I interspersed with lying down, in typical Saint fashion – work a bit, rest a lot). Unfortunately my axing technique wasn’t correct, so although it got the job done, it’s left me with a sore elbow and paining muscles! Nick was tasked with chopping roots out of the path which he tackled with vigour, leaving him quite tender afterwards too.

Gone fishin'

I am pleased to say that I can add “fishing off a yacht in the Atlantic Ocean” to my list of life’s experiences. We made contact with a New Zealander and his wife who have come to be on the island via yacht, who are Baptists and wanted to know about our Sunday services. This morning, these Kiwis, Lloyd and Njori called by the house briefly to invite us to dinner on their yacht!! We didn’t need any persuasion. We caught the ‘taxi service’ from the docks to their yacht, for ₤1, and boarded their beautiful vessel at about 5.30 pm. Wow, what a stunning boat. It has a covered deck at the back (I’m sure I should call it aft or starboard or something) and a trampoline at the front, and then a lounge/kitchen area with comfortable seating and a big table, and then on either side of that section there are stairs leading down towards the cabins, of which there are 4, all en-suite. Very luxurious and still very new. On board were Lloyd and Njori and their daughter Tania, 34, and another Kiwi couple who are actually the sailors, Keith and Bianca. It was a very relaxed evening of conversation, indoors or outdoors, and dinner was a delicious chicken curry. We watched the sun set and admired the vivid reds in the sky. After supper, we tried to spot some fish, throwing some breadcrumbs and left-over rice overboard, but there wasn’t much action near the surface, although we could see the occasional silvery glint of a mackerel. Since this wasn’t very fruitful, Lloyd and co got some fishing rods out, baited up the hooks, and let them in. Njori tried for a while, then handed the rod to Nick, who had been holding the torch, while I was sitting watching. Nick had a few tugs but didn’t catch anything, and then handed the rod to me. I’ve never held a baited rod in water before, and it was pretty exciting letting the weighted gut run down to the seabed, and then slowly clicking the handle back to pull up a bit. Keith showed me what to do, and said that as soon as I felt a tug I was to pull up and reel in. I felt the bite, and quickly zinged the line in as fast as I could, although it was surprisingly hard work as the fish was putting a lot of tension on the line trying to get away! Eventually it broke the surface, and I think it was a mackerel, probably about 30cm long (and that’s not a fisherman’s lie). I was so excited about catching my first fish!! I was screaming and laughing, but at the same time wondering what to do next as I didn’t want this writhing thing touching me. Thankfully Keith caught hold of it and took it off the hook, but we decided to throw it back in as I didn’t want to take it home, and I guess they can catch bigger fish themselves. Sadly, by that time the taxi was back to relay us ashore at 7.30, so we said our goodbyes and left. (Nick later confessed that he gave the fishing rod to me before risking catching anything himself, as he doesn’t have the stomach to take a live fish off the hook with its mouth gasping for water around his fingers, and it wouldn’t have been as appropriate for him to scream “don’t bring it near me” as it was for me.)

Another year, another birthday

This morning, the boys woke up early as usual, and then I heard them discussing that they must get my presents and hide them, which they duly did, creeping quietly down the stairs and then coming back up to tell me I could come and look. With all the help, I found all the presents easily. Nick gave me a beautiful Swatch, which he had commissioned friends in SA to buy for him. He also bought me a CD-card – the CD has music from the 1970s, and the card is a “1974” history card with events that took place in that year, for example UN excluding SA because of apartheid, and things like that. The boys went shopping with Nick yesterday, and Caleb chose the present which was a little ceramic bath ornament with some bath pearls in it, and they each gave me a card with a hand-written greeting. It’s so gratifying looking at their “from Caleb” and “From Aaron”, knowing that I’ve taught them how to do that! After lunch, and after getting my watch strap adjusted at the home of a man who does that kind of thing, we went to the Coffee Shop at the docks for coffees and milkshakes. Caleb took the photo of us. It’s handy having a child who can take pictures!

A new Wedel is born

The collective Salzwedel family, my brother Alan and his wife Kate specifically, are very excited at the safe arrival of Zoë Talitha, born this morning at 07h50 GMT. Zoë is the first female of her generation, so the grandparents are definitely celebrating a girl after four boys.

We’ve had another public holiday today, which caught me by surprise. Had I known on Saturday that the shops would be closed today, I would have done some grocery shopping, or at least some menu planning for this evening’s meal with the Johnsons. But as it happened, I didn’t know, so I didn’t shop. That left me with only the month-end groceries in the cupboard, which were very sparse. Fortunately I had a lot of mince still, and I found a packet of pasta sauce, and I had onions and spaghetti, so it was spaghetti bolognaise for supper. It worked out pretty well, and I even baked a simple sponge cake for pudding as I had no tinned fruit, no jelly, no ice-cream, no nothing! And only just enough custard powder left to make 500 ml custard. All in all, the dinner was good. We had a super evening with the Js in conversation, with no lack of topics to discuss. After the meal, Caleb came and took all our plates away and put them in the sink.

Yeah, yeah, country music

It’s been a good day – quite unusual actually, because Nick has been at home with us all day. Being a lay preacher’s Sunday, he wasn’t obliged to go to the country services, as Vincent was able to lead the worship at the chapels he was preaching at. We will therefore go to church tonight here in Jamestown to listen to Nick W preach. We had a very relaxed day, just pottering about, spending time together, and nothing more! After afternoon tea we took a drive to Rosemary Plain, where there were some locals playing soccer, so we walked down the road to Farm Lodge and then back up the road again. Caleb had taken a bionicle with him and was very disappointed that we didn’t stop anywhere for him to settle into a game, so we went home via Plantation House so he could play on the field, but we didn’t stay there long either as it was getting a bit cold in the country. They had the most dreadful selection of country music on the radio which we endured because Nick was wanting to listen for a particular frequent-play song about death by whisky, but it didn’t come on. We were even mistreated to a couple of local artists, one about how much she loves country music and Johnny is dead and gone, but there’s always a good country song playing for you and for me.

Party

I spoke on self-control in Good News Club this morning, the last in my series of the Fruits of the Spirit. The kids were very distracted and I really battled to keep their attention! After that I went out to town for a bit, just by myself, and then in the afternoon we had a birthday party to go to, for Sarah – John and Cindy’s four-year-old. It was at the mule yard in town, and they had a jumping castle and plenty of sweeties, so the kids all had a wild afternoon. I stayed for the duration, but Nick had to get to Tammy for a band practice, so when the party was finished at 5, we started walking home. We hadn’t gone far when Caleb said that it would be so nice if someone we knew would stop and offer us a lift, and about half a minute later Jane did just that. Probably a good thing we didn’t have to walk all the way up town, because the boys were tired from the afternoon’s activities!

Suitcase Day

We declared today “Suitcase Day” and took a holiday from school, in honour of the arrival of a suitcase of gifts. It’s been a busy and exciting day! We were all ready and waiting from about 8 am, so that when the foghorn sounded at about 8.30 we could leave straight away. Even so, there was a long wait until the passengers started coming through. Dave and Colleen were on the second busload, coming out of customs at about 9.30. We recognized them from the photo, and Nick remembered Dave from Honeyridge. We stood at the customs gate chatting while we waited for the luggage to be offloaded. After a long wait and no luggage, they decided to let their host take them to town to get the car insurance and drivers’ licence sorted out, and by the time they were back the suitcases were ready. They took their two and we took ours. It was Christmas in May again, second year running, for us! The boys are well set up for clothing now for this winter and next, as it’s so difficult buying clothes for them here. For lunch we decided to go to Sally’s and then Castle Gardens with our take-aways, and then went to the post office on the way back, where we collected a box from my parents. The contents of the box was so exciting, with all manner of scrapbooking goodies and bits and pieces of things requested and things which were surprises.

I can see clearly now...

Nick picked up Caleb’s new spectacles from the hospital today. Caleb was very excited to finally have them, and they are working so well, although will take some getting used to as they seem to be making his eyes water with prolonged use. He’s just wearing them for half an hour at a time for now, more or less. He tells me that now he can see there are shells in a bottle where before it was just a white blur, or that he can read the writing on something which was previously a yellow blur. Shame, he must have lived in a world of blur. We’ve given him some training on the correct use, handling and storage of the spectacles, and I think he is the sort of child who will be able to look after them. Nick also bought him on of those glasses-strap things so that the glasses have no risk of falling off his head. He looks super with them on, much older and quite intelligent!

Happy Birthday St Helena

It is the 505th birthday of the island today…discovered on 21st May 1502 by the Portuguese explorer. In honour of the event, today was a public holiday, and there were festivities planned at Francis Plain (Prince Andrews High School). During the morning, Nick and I got some house painting done, after a very late morning though and a late start, only getting to the painting at 10.30. We worked for about two hours, and did the lower half of the house wall, a good accomplishment we thought. It’s looking really lovely, although the windows (not the glass) and pipes look so conspicuous now and need a fresh coat of paint too. The colour we are using, the peppermint, is working so well, giving a fresh appearance, like minty toothpaste. The boys were playing outside with a very long pipe which Nick found for them, which they decided to sand and clean, so that occupied them for some time. We headed off to the Plain after a small lunch. There was a good attendance! I’m sure at least a third of the island turned out for the occasion, it was really quite festive and lively. Some activities had been planned, like tug-of-war and custard-eating, but the teams were made up of government departments, not a free-for-all. There was a marquee set up with a BBQ going, and a jumping castle, but we were disappointed that there were no boot sales going – you can usually pick up some good bargains! We stood in a very long queue for chips, sausage, burger and ribs, then sat on the field on our picnic blanket and enjoyed the meal. The boys had already had a good jump on the castle, so after that there wasn’t much left to do. We were out for a good hour at least, maybe more. The weather is changing though – yesterday we had heavy rains during the night, for which we are grateful as it hasn’t rained in a long time, and there’s been a very slight chill in the air, particularly in the country.

Lekker dinner

We had a combined service today, which was excellent. Nick preached on the Holy Spirit and His ministry in the world (conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment). Nick felt that people were mostly not interested. We need prayer! The lunch following the service was the same as always. Most people avoid eye contact, even with friends, while some people (mostly the Jamestown people) talk and laugh heartily together.

For the first time on the island, we went out to dinner on a Sunday night - at John and Cindy, some South African friends. The kids played up a storm, and we had a good chat and laughter over dinner, which was a tuna mince and pasta dish, very tasty. We were due to leave their place at 7 pm, giving Nick time to get home and to the radio station, as he has had to go in tonight to do some recordings, as this is the only time another person has available.

Our first Saint wedding

After many preparations, arrangements, and last minute details, we were ready for the wedding at last, and by 2.30 pm we were seated. The chapel started filling up slowly, and by 3 pm there was standing room only (not quite, but it was very full). We had a mixed bag of guests – I don’t think the Baptist Chapel has ever housed two Bishops, a few JWs, one Bahai (and a partridge in a pear tree). The bridal party arrived about 25 minutes late, by which time the guests and particularly the groom were becoming a little anxious. But, eventually they appeared and proceeded down the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon played on the organ. Sharon looked extremely lovely, and Nigel couldn’t keep his eyes off her, soaking in every detail. While Sharon was walking down the aisle, Nick dashed around through the schoolroom, so he was standing in the front when the couple reached the stage – a little trick he learned from Leigh, who married us! The service and ceremony all went off smoothly, and our song item was applauded. After the church part, Nigel and Sharon stood outside the chapel, and all the guests greeted them (no confetti or anything), milling about on the street. Fortunately, being a Saturday afternoon, there weren’t too many cars going by! Then there were photos at Castle Gardens, while the guests made their way to Kingshurst Community Centre. We went home for a while, got the boys organised and took them to Elza and Sarel, chatted a while, and then went to the reception – I was worrying that we would be late in arriving, but actually we had to sit around for quite a while before everyone else arrived. The reception was a bit strange. Not a nice venue, and no hors d’ouvres while we waited. But the food was plentiful and tasty, the usual Saint array of chicken legs, roast beef, pork and gammon, roast potatoes, vegetables, rice and curry, and salads. Very good! Nick and I were seated at a table with a cousin and uncle of Sharon’s, neither of whom were talkative, so Nick and I mostly made our own conversation, or walked around a bit. Pudding was another feast in itself with a variety of dishes. By 7.45 we were feeling inclined to leave, as we still had to get the boys into bed. We left before the cutting of the cake and speeches. The other guests, the ones not invited to the dinner, were starting to arrive just then for the party which was only starting at 8. On the whole, a very good wedding.

Roman delight

For tenzees we made some revolting Roman food – in the history book that we are working through, there are often things to make, and yesterday’s was this little bread snack. Since we didn’t have time to do it yesterday, we did it today. We had to first soak bread in milk, and then fry it up until it was crispy. They weren’t undelicious, just very oily and quite messy as the oil started popping and shooting, causing the boys to scatter like sheep in a hailstorm. Nick finished his sermon prep this morning, leaving him free to concentrate on the wedding messages and arrangements for Saturday. I helped with the decoration of the chapel after Nick left for bible study in the late afternoon, and it looks so beautiful, very ‘weddingy’!

Fishy Tail

In school this morning we finished a dolphin book, a true story about a diver who helped a baby dolphin who had caught a fishing hook near its dorsal fin. We should only have done two chapters, but we were all enjoying it so much that when I offered to read the next two chapters, the final ones, the boys jumped at the chance. Quite an amazing story, really, which in fact only took about ten minutes in real life but was definitely worthy of a book about it. After gaining the dolphin family’s trust, the diver helped the baby, removing the hook, and a few weeks later he saw the little dolphin with the scarred tail swimming in the ocean, so he was happy to know it had survived and no sharks had followed the trail of blood. Actually two sharks had tracked it down while the hook was being removed, but the mother and father were so aggressive in their defense that the sharks swam away bleeding.

The Bird Lady

I went to visit my old lady, Caroline, this afternoon. She had another visitor with her, a cousin she said, but the cousin, Sylvia, is 44. We had a good time together, and I stayed longer than my usual 10 minutes – with Sylvia there, we could all chat. I was in hysterics about Caroline and her birds. She encourages the little doves to come into her room, where she feeds them with rice sprinkled on the floor. The doves are quite used to her, and apparently one sat on her head and the other slept on her pillow quite recently. Anyway, when two doves came in, she got up to give them the rice, then spent the next five minutes talking so lovingly to them, Christopher and Mark, she calls them. I was nearly crying I was laughing so hard, though not out loud, but it was just so funny: “Here you go Marky Marky Mark, there’s a goooooooood boy, come on Christopher, oh yes, oh yes.” And so on. When I got back home the boys were sitting outside waiting for me, and Caleb had managed to get a few thorns in his foot, which after much performance on his part I removed with tweezers.

Sunday Lunch and The Wall

We lunched at Jean today which was very nice. We thought that perhaps Steve and Maureen would be there, but it was just us, Jean and Joe, and another couple Raymond (Rusty) and Joyce. Rusty was very easy to talk to, he works at Solomon’s DIY and can chat about anything. Lunch was the usual array of delicious things, and pudding was also intended to fill. We could see the RMS coming from Ascension for about 45 minutes before she actually reached the anchorage, starting as a tiny grey speck on the horizon. Got home just after 3, I think, and then I had such a delicious quick snooze while the boys watched X-Men again. Then it was a bit of pottering, and at 5 Nick decided that it would be a good time to paint the wall some more, so that’s what we both did, and finished it just after 6. Church was very good, with Nick’s message on persecution. Makes me feel like I want to go out and boldly declare the name of Jesus so that I might perhaps be persecuted!

Out and about

We just needed a hint of an excuse to drive somewhere far in the car, so went all the way to Redhill, which is just past Bluehill, for a picnic lunch after Good News Club. There we ate, and then took photos of the car because we need to send one to CPBC and thank them again, now that the car is actually here. It was hilarious getting the photo done, because Nick had to balance the camera on the cooler box across the road, set it to self-timer, and then dash quickly across the road, up some stairs, and along the bank, then seat himself and strike a pose which made him look as if he’d been sitting there for hours. He usually made it only with seconds to spare every time, then ran back to see if the picture was any good. He took about six photos in this manner, all in very good humour. Because it was so hot and bright outside, none of the photos was very good, but this is the best and it will suffice.

Off the island again

We had perfect weather today – perfect for our boat outing! Elza and Sarel have a small boat, and we’ve been trying to find a time to get out there together, so when they phoned earlier in the week to ask if we could do Friday, we jumped at the chance. The wind of the past week had died down to a breeze, and there was not a cloud in the sky. It was hot out there, but with the breeze and a slight ocean spray we hardly noticed it. We met up with them at the docks at 10 am. Because of the depth of the water there are no piers at James’ Bay, so all the boats are moored along ropes, and you have to get a ferry to the boat you need to be on. So our boating day started with a short ferry ride to Lady Sarah. Sarel and Elza have bought a small rubber dinghy, which they just received this week from the Cape, and today was its first test run. Sarel was very excited about his new toy, which means that they can anchor their boat somewhere around the island and go ashore, using the dinghy to get right to the shoreline. He took the dinghy out to the boat, and once we were all on board and comfortable, we set off into the seas. The day turned out to be a comedy of errors. The first thing to happen was that the boat’s engine cut out, but Sarel managed to get it going after just a short time – he suspected an air bubble in the fuel tank. We sailed to Lemon Valley, where we anchored and then Sarel first took Nick and the boys ashore, and came back for Elza and me. Nick and the boys were already swimming when we got back. We took our lunch ashore, so after a bit of exploratory walking around, we came back and enjoyed our sun-warmed ham, tomato and cheese rolls, dangling our feet in the water. Because both Sarel and Nick had afternoon engagements, we didn’t tarry for too long. Elza and I were taken back first, but Sarel soon realized that in the excitement of testing out his new toy, he had only put in enough petrol to test it, and that quickly ran out. We were but a stone’s throw away from the shore when the little engine cut out and that was that. Sarel had to “row, row, row his boat” all the way back to Lady Sarah, and it was quite some distance. We decided to take Lady Sarah closer to the shore and anchored her again, so that it wasn’t so far for Sarel to row to collect Nick and the boys. While they were gone, Elza realized that the anchor had somehow become disconnected from the rope which was tying it to the boat, so all that was anchoring us and preventing us from drifting into a nearby outcrop was a piece of blue rope floating on the water, which was hardly effective. Fortunately Sarel came rowing along before Comedy Error #3 became Tragedy #1. With the dinghy secured to the back of the boat, we put out in the direction of James’ Bay. It was a refreshing ride back, enjoying the spray, sea breezes, the smell of the ocean, smell of diesel smoke…uh oh, too much diesel smoke smell…and the engine sputtered out again, this time refusing any efforts at resuscitation. We simply had to drift a bit and radio for help. Since we were quite close to the moorings at James’ Bay, it didn’t take long for someone to come and tow us back to where we should be – the blue line between two white buoys is their boat’s address. And in all that time we didn’t see even a single fin of a dolphin…but it was a very enjoyable day, and certainly memorable!

942 gets a fresh look!

Today is a red-letter day in the history of the Baptist Church, and about 15 years since the last big day of this nature. Today marks the start of a journey with our new car! Our brand new Ford Fiesta 1.4, in a metallic blue, was delivered to us this afternoon. After our several fruitless trips to the docks to see if it was there we were feeling a little discouraged by this morning. Then Nick received a phone call from Colin, the garage owner who has been instrumental in getting the car here, to say that the car was indeed on the island, and actually busy being “MOT’d” (road-worthied), and that once the insurance had been sorted out, we would be able to take ownership of it this afternoon. Wow! Nick then went to town with Vincent to get the insurance done (all very simple, no waiting), and saw Ian in town (Colin’s son who was taking it for the MOT) who said that he would be bringing the car shortly. After lunch we all hung around, supposedly getting on with whatever we were doing, but actually anxiously waiting on tenterhooks, and the boys even managed to get Nick and me dashing downstairs by ringing the doorbell! After some time, Nick yelled to look out the window, where we saw a new blue Fiesta, registration 942, driving up the road. Assuming that Ian was taking the car up the road to turn around, we all stood glued to the window, eagerly watching for the car, such that when Ian pulled up next to the house we were practically breathlessly crowding around the front door. We stood around the car gaping and grinning like a young groom on his wedding night for a while before actually getting into the car and going for a test drive, just to town and back. After the Golf, anything would be a smooth ride, but the Fiesta is truly a dream. Being the latest model, it’s a really stunning design and looks nothing like the old Fiesta shape. It has a very dark grey interior with blue and grey seats, and even came fitted with a CD-player, per some arrangement made by Colin. It has air-con and power steering and is very comfortable, and doesn’t feel like a small car. A nice touch is that on the number plates, the word “Baptist” has been included just below the number 4. Of course the car’s not ours, it officially belongs to the church, but we have exclusive drivership privileges. We are so thankful to God for His provision of the car, as it is only in answer to prayer that we have it. He has graciously given us more than we dreamed of or hoped for!

This morning was school as usual, and it was all fine. Our crazy activity for “Cc” was to cook corn, so I thought of cooking popcorn. That was fun – I let the boys put the kernels into the hot oil (carefully monitored of course) and then we all stood around the stove listening to it popping. I showed them what would happen if I took the lid off, and a couple of popcorn pieces popped right out of the pot. Aaron ran out the kitchen terrified, but I think because one piece shot at him and it was very hot. He was nervous around the pot after that, even though I was holding the lid on. We ate our popcorn for tenzees.

Weather, wall, and where's our car?

The weather seems to have changed here…it’s been relentlessly windy, day and night, and I mean really windy, not just a fresh tropical breeze. This afternoon I was out in town, and as I was walking across the road I was nearly blown over as I took a step…I needed to have both feet firmly planted on the ground to stay put! With all the wind, the house is a mess. It’s not just dust that lines the windowsills, it’s actually black sea-sand. You can imagine how delightful that becomes after even a few days – if I collected it all we could probably build a small sandpit in the backyard. This afternoon I got stuck in with vacuuming, and it was so exciting to see the sand whisked away, and things looking fresh again. I get stressed when the house is messy, and psychotic when it’s actually dirty, so am feeling a whole bunch better now, even though I only got as far as the lounge and diningroom. At least I know those two rooms are done (but for how long?!).

Nick has finished pointing up the boundary wall, so yesterday we started painting it. He did the top, standing on the wall while painting with white enamel, and I did the side with the peppermint masonry acrylic. Nick continued this afternoon with the peppermint, and probably will be finished with it tomorrow. It’s looking grand! Once that’s done, he can bring some scaffolding around from the schoolyard, and fix up the house walls, so that we can then paint that too. I think we’re both pretty excited about getting the house itself painted (although just the back at this stage) because it really looks so terrible!

Still no car yet…we’re starting to wonder if it’s even on the ship. I keep reassuring Nick that it’s probably in one of the containers, and will be driven out as soon as enough boxes have been unpacked…but the possibility always remains that it didn’t get on the ship at all. He’s been to the docks about three times today, just to see if it’s there. Shame, he’s quite disappointed. At present we’re driving around in an earlier-model Fiesta, a white one, which is lovely, although there is something wrong with the brakes (they work, but shudder). The golf started losing its water again yesterday; it was gushing out onto the driveway after Nick put in about six litres…this directly after the garage had attended to it after it broke down on Sunday and deemed it all fixed up! So we had to explain about twenty times at bible study last night that this Fiesta is not the new one…

Aargh, Golf is back!

Nick phoned just as I was leaving Lorna to say that the garage phoned, needing the loan car back immediately, so I had to take the car to the garage and walk home. Our golf is back, sad to say! It was parked in its usual spot in the driveway when I got home from Lorna…but at least now we can give it a clean before we hand it over to Colin. After supper, we drove to the docks, just to see if there was any action with offloading stuff, but because the ship arrived in the evening, nothing was happening. It was nice to be there though, in time for the sunset (about 6.20?), and we chatted with a couple of people.

The premature end of the Golf

Today, being Mother’s Day, was a lovely day. I was really spoiled by Nick, via the boys. Nick hid my presents around the lounge, and the boys were so excited for me to find them this morning. I was given a pair of slippers (pink satin, mmm, pretty and shiny), a lovely top which I had hinted at (pretty), a beautiful bone china vase with pink and green flowers with a mother’s day message, and a coaster, also made for moms. Oh, also a box of chocolates, and most importantly, a hand-made card each from the boys with their own hand-written messages of love. I was really made to feel special!

Nick came home for a quick cup of tea between services. When it was time to leave for Knollcombes, the Golf didn’t want to start. Nick eventually got it going and left, but phoned about ten minutes later to say that it had broken down on the way, so he couldn’t get to church. I phoned Colin who looks after the car, and he quickly sorted Nick out with a loan car, such that Nick made it to church just in time to preach – Vincent had continued with the worship and was just starting on a sermon which I think he was making up as he went along (how wonderful that he so quickly filled the gap though), so it wasn’t a disaster. But now we have a loan car, with the Golf still sitting on the side of the road in Half Tree Hollow. Our new car becomes more and more desperately needed! In our easy-drive loaner, we went out for lunch with our sandwiches to Rosemary Plain. We don’t usually have just plain sandwiches on Sunday, but since it was a Special Day, it was acceptable. As it was so hot in town, I didn’t see any need for a jersey, but it was quite cool at the Plain, and I started feeling chilly. My chivalrous husband took the very shirt off his back and gave it to me! He played some cricket with the boys, but we didn’t stay for too long before going home to spend the afternoon mucking about.

I started thinking about the next scrapbook page, and decided on a photo of an old canon overlooking Ruperts Bay, so am going to do a page of island relics and history. That set off an interest in finding old stuff, so after rummaging through the workshop and finding some rusty bolts and a few buttons, Nick suggested having a look on the mountain, as there is an old rubbish dump behind the schoolroom. So the four of us climbed up the back wall and wandered over the rocks, looking for rusty bits of metal and anything flat enough to use in the scrapbook. It was an interesting treasure hunt! We also collected a bunch of empty, bleached snail shells. I’m sure they must be quite old. Picked up some seashells too, which was a surprise – perhaps someone had a shell collection and threw it out, and that’s where it ended up. So we came home with a stash of old bits and pieces.

Monster Mom

During school this morning, I got up to put fabric softener in the washing machine while the boys were busy with writing practice, and found a foam monster mask we had made a few weeks ago sitting on top of the tumble dryer. I put it on and went roaring into the diningroom. The boys screamed and looked so terrified, that I nearly fell on the floor laughing.

Our water is finally running clear again, after a long time of brown water. It’s not very appealing stepping into a bath filled with off-coloured water, much better to have it smelling of chlorine. Unfortunately, there have been chlorine shortages, so the pool has not been supplied with its needed quota, and is completely green. It’s actually been closed for over a month now. A pity, because going to the pool was one of the few family activities we could do together! But we are thankful that we can drink the water from the taps, anyhow.

No back-to-school blues or tomatoes

On Monday we started school again, and although I always slightly dread the first-day-back, it was absolutely fine. We’re back into the swing of it like we never had a break. The boys haven’t forgotten anything over the two week break! We’re reading a book called “Ten and Twenty”, about some French schoolchildren who have to hide some Jewish children during WWII. The children would have been around ten years old, in 1945…so we compared them with my dad, who would have been only slightly younger. What was really interesting is that one little boy’s name is Philip!

I went to Thorpes late afternoon today to see if I could find tomatoes, because they bring their fresh veggies in on a Wednesday afternoon. Because the truck was a bit late today, there was quite a gathering in the courtyard when they offloaded the produce, rather like a flock of birds around fresh elephant dung (we witnessed this once at a zoo). I would be lying to say that all that remained after the flock departed was a couple of cabbage leaves and half a carrot, but it was quite a frenzy anyway! No tomatoes for me, I’m afraid. Looking forward to the ship’s return from the Cape with lots of lovely produce for us.

Fishy tales

We decided to go out for a picnic tea this afternoon, as the weather was quite nice after a lot of wind and an overcast day yesterday, so we took ourselves to Rupert’s Beach for a change. A number of other people had had the same idea, and actually there were a couple of swimmers in the bay. We wandered over to the pier, where some kids from GNC and their parents were fishing a bit, and had our afternoon repast seated there. A couple of fish were caught – we got a good look at a rock fish which had just been pulled out of the water, which apparently is poisonous. It was really gross, with blood dripping from its mouth, and still alive, thrashing about. I was trying to get a good close-up photo, but the fish chose that particular moment to exert a particularly strong wriggle and nearly escaped the hand that was clutching it, so I screamed and jumped in the air, to everyone’s amusement. After enough of staring at the dying fish, we took a walk over the rocks to explore, and found a long-dead crab. All that was left was the exoskeleton, which we’ve brought home with us, beautifully preserved (although a leg fell off later in the kitchen).

Nick had an amazing revelation the other day, that you don’t ever find products that are egg-flavoured. Have you ever seen egg-flavoured chips or egg-flavoured latte, or egg essence for baking? The closest we could think of was mayonnaise, which has a strong egg taste but only because it’s made with egg. We’ve spent the last few days pondering this fact.

Radio Station

Yesterday I joined Maureen and Elza at the coffee shop for a milkshake, and the boys again shared a chocolate milkshake and then climbed trees and fences. It was a lovely morning. Before we went out though, I quickly finished off the page I was scrapping, and then sent it off with a letter to the “Scrapbook Inspirations” magazine I bought here last week. It’s wishful thinking, but maybe I can win another prize!

Today Nick had to do recordings for the prologue for the radio, and because Colin was due to be coming, Nick had advised me yesterday that he would like us to accompany him to the radio station so I wouldn’t be alone here with Colin. I was happy to do that, to let the boys see something new and exciting! (Colin didn’t come, incidentally – today’s reason was back pain). While Nick was busy recording, the chaps working there let us have a look at the other studio, where the DJ was actually live on air. When we went in she had a track playing, but then had to do the intro to the next song. We kept very quiet while she did that, and then Caleb donned headphones and looked at the sound desk, very interested. Aaron was too shy to go any closer than behind my legs, can you believe it! I don’t know where he gets his occasional shyness. It’s not like his mother used to hide behind rubber plants and strip the leaves off when cousins visited or anything like that. We didn’t stay in the studio long, but waited for Nick at the St Paul’s school just next door. It was so incredibly windy though that I took the boys back to the car, where we snacked on breadsticks and smarties (you have to always be prepared!). On the way home we went to town, ostensibly for bread, but then one of the Sandy Bay ladies was in town and gave the boys ₤2 each, so we went to Queen Mary’s to spend it on guns and knives. Bought some chips on special (old stock, of course), and finally went home after our shopping spree for lunch of snackwiches.

All painted out and lunch at Donny's

Yesterday I spent the whole day painting. It took a bit of time to get the room prepared, with moving furniture, masking taping the ceiling and skirtings and poly-filling, but I started painting eventually at about 10.30, this after two trips to town, once for a new roller, and once for another tin of paint, otherwise I would have run out. I got quite a lot done before lunch, then changed quickly and scrubbed my face and arms and went to Lorna. This was Liz’s last session, as she has left for holiday today. Back home before 3, and carried on with painting until about 5.15. In that time I finished all the painting work. Nick kindly agreed to wash the brushes so I could cook dinner, which was quick fried rice. The effect of the clouding with the blue and beige looks really good, and ties in nicely with the carpet and woodwork. I’m really pleased with the result, and the blue on the other walls looks clean and cool.

We heard on the radio yesterday that the water in Jamestown is now safe to drink without boiling or using any other chemical treatments. It’s nice to know that we can drink it again. It’s just a pity that we didn’t know we shouldn’t have been drinking it untreated – no wonder I had stomach ailments!

Nick finished his bible study prep yesterday, and this morning he completed his sermon prep, as he’s doing a sermon he’s preached before in SA. It’s a broadcast service on Sunday, so he’s not doing his John series. Since he had finished so quickly, we went out to Donny’s for lunch. This was well-timed, because it meant we could watch the RMS puff her way into James’ Bay at 12.30. Nick and I agreed that it was most excellent to be sitting right at the coast, watching our ship coming in, enjoying the weather from the shade of our table, and smelling the sea air. Right on time (actually about five seconds early on my watch), the RMS blew her horn to announce her arrival. It was awesome to hear the great and terrible clanking of metal as the anchor was let down, something we don’t often experience.

Party time!

We had Caleb’s birthday party today. Pretty exhausting, but fun. It was the first party we’ve hosted where the parents’ attendance was optional and unpreferable, so we only had two ladies who are the ‘nannies’ of two of the kids. For the rest, we only had to entertain and cater for 12 children. I made what is going to become the traditional birthday cake – a chocolate cake decorated with Smarties! It’s about the only baking thing I’m good at. The kids had a good time – there seemed to be two factions of kids, the running-around ones, and the other ones, who we kept busy with colouring in and drawing, and then a DVD. Pretty much a free-for-all afternoon, really, although Nick kept a lot of them occupied with ball games, both in the backyard and the schoolroom.

Restful day...needed

Today was hot again, although a bit of drizzle here and there. I joined Elza and Maureen for their regular Thursday coffee-morning, since we’re on holiday, and the boys came too. They climbed the trees and gates and fences while I chatted. It was fun. The rest of the day was pretty low-key. I received an e-mail last night to say that the letter I sent to the Woman’s Value Ideas magazine has been published – look out for it in the May issue. It’s a worthwhile magazine to buy and read cover-to-cover – lots of good stuff in there.

Birthday and Outing

Today, being Caleb’s 6th birthday, we had an early morning opening presents. As is customary, we hid the wrapped presents around the lounge. His favourite present was a little model aeroplane, ranking above remote controlled cars and Lego!

We had our Good News Club outing today, at the Sandy Bay Community Centre. A bus had been organized, and picked us up at Pilling’s School just after 10 am. We had a super day out, although it rained off and on all day and even got quite cold in the afternoon, what with us being in a cloud and all. But the kids didn’t mind their shoes, socks and pants being soaking wet, and carried on running in the puddles and long grass gleefully. We had a time of worship, some indoor games, a story, lunch, more games…it was a good day.

Crossed off the list

I spent the whole day today painting, and finished Nick’s office. That’s a day and a half from start to finish. This morning Nick put his office back to how it was, moving the furniture back, while I vacuumed and dusted. It’s looking very clean and fresh (and good) now, and is definitely light blue. The window frames are glaringly ugly now, more noticeable against the toothpasty blue. I might only get around to those after I’ve painted the boys’ room, but we’ll see how it goes. Meanwhile, Teddy and Nick finished constructing the carport in the schoolyard, so when the car comes it will have a nice place to spend its nights. They have been working very hard at it.

Walking the Run

This morning, being the first day of school holidays, I got around to something really fun and exciting – painting Nick’s office! It’s been pending for a year and a half, and now seemed like the right time to do it. Also the fact that we found paint on special at the hardware expedited the project. I only had about three hours to start this morning, so Nick and I got the furniture moved, charts off the walls, polyfiling done etc, and a very small section painted. After lunch I had my beading time, and on the way home from Lorna, I picked Elza up, and then came home to quickly change and collect the boys. Then we walked all the way up to New Bridge (behind the back of the hospital, where the road would take you up Constitution Hill) to get on to the start of The Run. I think that’s the start – at least that’s where the date stone is located. We walked along the Run as far as we could go, although it was a slightly dangerous walk, until the way was inaccessible with trees. Then we cut through the back of a house (with the owner’s permission – he had to hold the dog) back onto the road, and walk down the road a bit until we could get back to the Run at a safer spot. The next section was easy going, and we stopped for our threezies in the shade of a few banana trees. Elza had bought chips and juices, and I took a packet of biscuits. Sebastian came riding along on his bicycle, so the boys went off with him to see where he lives. The lower section of the Run was a bit dangerous again, but we went all the way down to where it meets the back of The Standard, a pub in town. From there I quickly went to hire a DVD, although had to take it on credit as I had taken no money, and then we all walked back up home again.

Baptismal Service

We had a combined service today, a baptismal service. There were four candidates to be baptized. Nick preached a very clear, simple message about obedience and baptism – about the whys and wherefores of not baptising babies, and that believer’s baptism is a command. I was glad to know that the boys were listening to some parts of the sermon. Aaron whispered to me that he couldn’t get baptized, because he’ll always be my baby. The four people shared their testimonies, and it was all very moving and wonderful. Look at the colour of the water – straight from the tap! Directly after the service, after about a 15-minute break, we had our AGM. The meeting didn’t last for more than 35 minutes, even though it’s the big annual meeting!

Minor improvement

This afternoon we finished the extensive work we started in the front on Monday. I was cutting the bougainvillea down on Monday, but had had enough of doing this loathsome task every month or two, so I asked Nick if I could take it out, as he had been wanting to chop it down for some time. He came and helped right away, sawing all the branches off, and then dragging it out the garden and up the road to the school yard, where Public Works collected it a few days later. Unfortunately the wall where the b/v had been wasn’t in great shape, so Nick did some pointing up on the wall, and then it needed painting. I tried to start painting on Tuesday or Wednesday with a very light (almost white) enamel, but it was pretty hopeless going on. The stones are still being held together with mud in some places, so the paint didn’t stick to it at all, and in other places the old paint came away with the paintbrush. Yesterday we got hold of some acrylic paint in a closer shade to the house colour, and it went on much better. Still, it was like trying to ice a 3-week old cake, which tends to crumble and flake as you apply the icing, so in places the paint had to be thrown into the holes, almost literally. I got most of the painting done yesterday afternoon while Nick was out at Tammy for a band practice, but when he got home he helped with the really big holes and patches, while I dabbed at it with a smaller brush.

Poor man's lunch

So, we’re on holiday again. School went fine this morning, but I think we were all happy when school ended with a final story. I suggested that we go out for a “poor man’s lunch”, being chip rolls at Castle Gardens, to kick off the holidays. Nick had finished his sermon prep early (despite his late start yesterday!) and was in the school yard helping Teddy with the carport construction for our new car, so I had to go and find him there. I had a hard time persuading Caleb that it really was a good idea to go out, as he had just started setting up a game of being a Roman in his home office (this from today’s history bit). I can never understand why more people don’t take advantage of the wonderful garden – it’s shady and breezy, with benches to sit on, and beautifully maintained. You find the occasional office workers luncheoning there, but it’s not really very common. We had our rolls and juices, and the boys finished off with a chocolate each. Thanks are to Caleb for the photo!

It's the new-look Barbie

Last night I thought it would be fun to highlight my hair again, but instead of just highlighting, rather to go blonde all over. It didn’t work as I had anticipated, and today my orange-white hair really didn’t look so good in the cold light of day, so I decided to take it closer to its natural colour, which I suspect is a dark mousy blonde. Unfortunately no shops sell “Dark Mousy Blonde” as a colour anyone would want to buy, so I settled for light brown instead.

Public Works and other Business

We had a disaster this morning after some rain in the night – the drains all blocked up again! At first it wasn’t too bad, but we noticed that the back yard was getting more and more flooded, despite the rain having stopped some time before. Then we saw that water was actually pumping out of the drain instead of running into it. We phoned the drainage section of Public Works and they were pretty quick in getting to us. By then the water had subsided, but another quick downpour filled us up again, this time with sewerage. Nick had the quick presence of mind to put something over the bigger drain, to disallow the really big pieces from getting out, but not before toilet paper bits and cigarette butts had distributed themselves across the cement and bricks. The drainage chaps took a long time to find the actual problem – they opened up our drain in the alley, where the cockroaches were delighting in the sudden influx of edibles, but the problem wasn’t there. Eventually they tracked it down to a blockage a bit further up the road, forcing everything to come into our drain. The sewerage lines in St Helena weren’t really designed with high usage in mind. The blockage was big blobs of congealed grease – people don’t realise that pouring fat and oil down the sink is not a good idea. Nick spent the entire morning sweeping water off the bricks, helping the drainage people, and cleaning up the mess. This didn’t help his sermon prep any!

George came for his German lesson as usual this afternoon, and I simply read from a book called “Max und Moritz”, about two very naughty boys and the pranks they pull. Caleb and Aaron sat on the couch and listened too. Then I let all the boys play, until Svetlana came for Georgie at 4.

Different venue for bible study

Bible Study was held at Steve and Maureen’s house tonight, both so that people could see their new house, and to simply have it at a different venue as we like to occasionally do. The study was good. Nick is continuing in 2 Samuel, and tonight’s chapter had a lot of forgiveness – David forgives many who have wronged him. Nick spoke about how he showed them grace, and how we should do likewise. There weren’t as many people there tonight as there usually would be, because I think some people couldn’t or didn’t organize lifts. But it was nice to be there, and meant that I didn’t have a frantic last-minute tidy-up!

We let Mr Twitchyfeather go today. We decided that he could fly well enough to get around, as he seemed to have improved while we had him, and we thought that he had a better chance of survival among his own kind than with us, as he wasn’t eating anything. Nick put him on the school wall across the road, and later he (the bird) flew into the big tree.

Another bird in the hand

Our day has been really good. It’s been an excellent stay-at-home-and-get-lots-done kind of public holiday. Nick and I made an early start with some extensive work in the front garden directly after breakfast, while it was still cool and shady. It was a good day to do front-work, because otherwise there is a procession of cars and pedestrians which need to be waved at or greeted. But today the street was pretty empty. While we were busy outside, Nick found a baby dove on the road, along with the mother, who was frantically trying to get the bird to fly back up to its perch from which it had fallen, or flown (I can only imagine it would have tried to fly away at that tender age if the conditions at home were unbearable, which I’m sure they weren’t – so let’s assume it fell). We didn’t think it would be able to fly back up, since it isn’t much of a flier, so Nick picked it up and handed it to me. I took it to the back and tried to get it into a big cardboard box, as we did with Reepicheep, but when I opened my hands it was happy to sit on my fingers, and I could walk around with it. It was probably quite scared, so rather than trying to get away, I suppose it was sitting still and hoping we wouldn’t notice it, but rather like a cancerous growth on one’s face, it was hard to miss. Nick later concocted a very cute nest/perch, made from an old church candle holder, strung up on a hook, so it’s away from any prying cats. We gave it a bit of mashed pear during the day, but other than that, it didn’t eat much. At least we don’t have to source mackerel and other disgusting stuff! We tried sesame seeds and bread crumbs too. Maybe tomorrow it will eat better. It’s a tiny little thing, much smaller than Reepi, with a head about half its size. It has all its adult feathers, but still some downy strands too, and has a compulsion to preen itself. Seems to have some serious dandruff issues. We’ve named it “Mr Twitchyfeather”. We had it out in the back most of the day, and it had a few practice flights. Nearly flew away at one point, but sat on the top of the wall for a long time, giving me chance to retrieve it. We just don’t think it can fly well enough yet to fend for itself. For the night, I’ve settled it on a potted plant in the diningroom. Incidentally, we recorded a temperature of 29.5 degrees Celcius, possibly the hottest that we’ve experienced since being here.

Millennium Forest

Christ is risen – hallelujah! Our Easter Sunday has been a pretty regular Sunday, with the exception that it started early, 6.30, to go downstairs for an Easter-egg hunt. We wrapped some little candy-covered chocolate eggs up in foil (I bought these at Thorpes yesterday, on ½ price sale because it was so close to Easter) last night and scattered them around the lounge. The boys didn’t take long to find them and were very excited to have them. Then it was breakfast, folding bulletins, typing out a song as Nick realized he didn’t really have any suitable resurrection songs for Sandy Bay, so I did “Christ the Lord is risen today”, etc, and time for Nick to leave. We had a relaxed morning – I did Sunday School with the boys, going over the resurrection story, and then they drew pictures of tombs and angels, and people running with their hair flying in the air to show how fast they were running (Caleb’s picture). This afternoon we went for a drive, all the way to Millennium Forest and Prosperous Bay Plain on the eastern side of the island. The great rocky feature pictured here is known as "The Barn". We drove about as far as we could, to the rubbish tip, and then back to the M/Forest, which is basically some barren ground with rows and rows of little trees, which is “a project aimed at rehabilitating the degraded wasteland through the re-establishment of the native woodland to be a recreational, educational and spiritual resource for all and a legacy of the island’s spirit of community and conservation in the new millennium”. Seems like a good idea. There is a little wooden construction there, a gatehouse, if you will, where we had our afternoon repast. There was a lot of space for the boys to run around and explore, which Caleb did with his usual enthusiasm. Aaron preferred to sit in the shelter with me and enjoy his juice and chips! We came home via Longwood, spending some time at the playground there.

Easter weekend

Thursday night’s Maundy service was excellent. Nick’s points were the three prayers of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. He drew out the fact that Christ’s sorrow in the garden wasn’t simply because he was facing death – many martyrs have faced death joyfully – but that that he was facing the full wrath of the Father. Being God himself, he knew the horror and the anger he faced. Nick also noted that in the garden, Jesus opens his prayers with his customary “Abba, Father” – but on the cross, during the period of darkness, he prays “My God, my God”…the father-son relationship had been severed at that point as God the Father poured out His judgement. Yesterday, Good Friday, instead of focusing on the suffering, he looked at Jesus’ compassion on the cross, how he prayed for his persecutors. It was really another good service. We had it at Sandy Bay at 10 am, a combined service, and the little chapel was packed. It was a blessing to hear the congregation singing together so heartily in the little building. The Jamestown group sang an item, and the Sandy Bay group did one too. After the service, we joined Elza and Sarel, Dot and Iva at Steve and Maureen’s house for a cup of tea and jaffa cakes. It was so nice to be invited out for tea afterwards! We came home at about 12.30, and then had lunch of hamburgers at about 1.30 – quite a late lunch for us. It was such a hot day, even in the country, that we didn’t actually feel that we wanted to go anywhere, preferring the relative coolth of our own home. I sat outside crocheting while Nick played cricket with the boys, and then Nick did some more work on the wall while I rested and the boys played outside. Supper was pizza, which we took to the docks, and watched the sun set. It was a rare privilege to see it actually dip into the sea, because the sunsets are often obscured by a cloud bank. Sunset is now at 6.21 pm. We thought about the fact that on Good Friday, Jesus’ body would have been taken down from the cross before sunset, so for the disciples and followers all those years ago, it was all over (so they thought). It’s difficult to imagine their intense grief, as not only did they lose a beloved friend, but because they didn’t fully understand what Jesus had been prophesying about his death and resurrection, their hopes for a Messiah had died too.

RMS finally underway

Today was hot, for lack of a better description. Very, very hot. Clear skies all day – Nick said there was a haze over the valley it was so hot. Must have been at least 28! School was much better this morning than the past few days, I actually even enjoyed it again. We had a bit of extra work to cover, but even with that I was finished before 12. No horrible time-consuming worksheets to get through this time – I guess that must have been the time saver. After school I went to town for bread, which has to see us through until Tuesday, and also quickly went to Victoria’s for wool, to get started on a winter crocheted hat. It’s not exactly like we need hats and scarves – simply for fun!

The RMS has finally left the UK, yesterday at 5 pm. It is due to arrive here on 18th April, 11 days behind schedule. I didn’t catch the full news broadcast where they announced the new forward schedule for the next few weeks, so I’m not sure what exactly they’re doing yet, whether they’re cancelling a voyage, or trying to make up lost time (which I think is possible, but over a few months), or simply rearranging the whole schedule, which doesn’t seem very likely.

More DIY, assembly, beans and ship

I’m feeling quite proud of myself after fixing the doorbell this afternoon! I had a look at it on Saturday, and discovered that a fuse was blown, so tried to find the right fuse on Saturday, but without success. Bought a few more today at different shops. Tried an unmarked one first, and lo and behold, the doorbell made a ding noise, but no dong. After some thought, I realized that the current was too strong…it works on some kind of electromagnetism, pulling a dinger from one metal bar to another to produce the noise. Too much current was causing the dinger to get stuck on one side and not released. I tried a different fuse, and hey presto, it all worked. Also on Saturday, we changed the lock on the glass front door, because we’ve never had a key for it. Kind of annoying when you go out and shut that door, and can’t get back in, and have to ring the doorbell for someone to open up (or bang on the glass if the doorbell is broken!). So now we can both ring the doorbell and open the door ourselves.

This morning Nick had to take the assembly at Pillings Primary, across the road. He drafted me to help with some singing, so at 9 am we walked across to the school, with the boys, and joined the assembly. The kids all sit on the floor in a very colourful small hall, grouped in their classes, so Caleb and Aaron sat right in the front with the other kids, looking quite like part of them. I sat on a chair in front with the teachers, and Nick pretty much launched into his talk as soon as assembly began. He shared the gospel, although left out quite an important part of having to accept the gift of salvation! We knew a lot of the kids from GNC, and were pleased that a couple of our GNC kids knew the answers to questions about salvation and forgiveness. After Nick had finished his presentation, we sang two items, and then got them to sing a song, which was great. One of our songs was almost a disaster, because I didn’t quite get my note coming in, but I just asked Nick to start again, which we did. No problem. After assembly the kids all filed out, and Caleb and Aaron would have gone right to class with the kids their age if we hadn’t stopped them!! I must say that I did feel a little sad for them that all their friends were there, in school, and we came home to have school on our own. But they didn’t express any kind of longing to attend that school, being under the impression from the kids there that it’s a “stupid dumb” school.

We harvested beans this afternoon, picking enough for supper. I was hoping that the novelty of having home grown veggies might entice the boys to be more open-minded about them, but it was the same story at suppertime…the teeth were VERY long!

I didn’t catch the news today, but I understand that the RMS is still in Portland, waiting for a part. Still no one knows what’s happening with the schedule, but it’s been rumoured that a Cape Town voyage may be cancelled. You can imagine what kinds of problems this is creating with hotel bookings and airline bookings and so on for people booked on the ship in the near future. It should have been back here this coming Saturday, leaving for Ascension on Monday, so now people who were on that voyage with connecting flights are being put on a cruise ship which arrived today, leaving tomorrow, at Andrew Weir’s expense. Hotel bookings on Ascension are also at their expense. It’s a complete and utter gemors!!

Regte, egte braaivleis!

Today was a lay preacher’s Sunday again, which relieved Nick of his duties for the day. He left at the normal time to get to Sandy Bay, because Teddy was preaching there and needed a musician. He was home by 10.30 though, and then we launched into our plan for the day which was to have a braai. By 11 he had the fire going, and I sat outside crocheting while Nick did some chipping away at some plaster, to uncover the red stones underneath, by the kitchen window. I advised him that he should not really be undertaking such work on a Sunday, but he said he enjoys it so it’s not work – it was relaxing for him. We had our BBQ with potato salad, pineapple, tossed salad (with actual fresh tomato, lettuce and feta), t-bone steaks, and boerewors. It was such a great experience having a braai for a Sunday lunch! I don’t think we’ve had it that way since being here, where it used to be almost a weekly occurrence in SA, with friends or family. I have to share the potato salad story with you though. You see, the local potatoes tend to be wormy. When I’m peeling them raw, I have to bore in quite deep to get rid of the worms, but after boiling the potatoes in their jackets as one does for potato salad, the worms come out quite easily. You can actually pull them out in one piece, although of course they are cooked. One particular potato had a whole worm family, including grandparents and second cousins twice-removed. We only got about one or two usuable cubes from that one. I didn’t tell Nick until afterwards, so he and the boys didn’t think anything was unusual.

After the braai and cleaning up, we mucked about the house for a while until it was time to go to Jane’s house for Zara’s party. I could kick myself for not taking the camera! There were about 20 or more kids, and although Jane had hired a jumping castle, it was raining for a large part of the afternoon, so the kids were in and out the house, utter pandemonium and noise. A lot of the parents stayed, so there were those extra bodies milling about too. Fortunately Jane has a huge house, with two reception rooms downstairs, and a large covered veranda around the front and side. She had loads of food prepared, so it was actually very nice. The kids did eventually get a chance to jump on the castle during a break in the weather which was super fun for them.

The RMS is now about 9 days behind schedule, still in the UK, something to do with the turbo blowers giving out in the Bay of Biscay. It seems they might have to actually cancel one of the voyages, because it doesn’t seem possible that they will be able to make up the time. No one really knows at this point what’s going to happen. Apparently it was out of commission for three months once for repairs!! Let’s hope that this doesn’t repeat itself.

Caleb reaches new heights

Caleb went all the way up Jacob’s Ladder earlier this evening. We all went together after supper, and Aaron and I got to about a third of the way up, where the path meets the ladder. Caleb was really going for it though, and he and Nick went together all the way. Nick carried him down on his back some of the way though, but he did jolly well for a five-year-old. Nick said that because his little body is so light, he could go quite quickly, and although he took many breaks, Nick had to actually try to keep up with Caleb!