Tulagi Island

What a great weekend. 2 hour boat ride across some pretty choppy water to a beautiful island called Tulagi. Went with Bex from NZAID and her friend Anna who was over from Melbourne... good fun, girly weekend. The accommodation was pretty basic but clean and the people were, as ever, very friendly and welcoming. Food was good although they have a problem with getting it to the table hot!

Had 2 fantastic snorkelling trips - indescribable abundance of soft corals and fishes. Isaw a sea snake for the first time and a bright yellow needlefish. I even saw a squid and managed not to scream!

We took a walk around the island and these lads wanted their photo taken. The flowers and gardens are amazing. You guys must sign up for Flickr then you'll be able to see my photos.

The boat ride home was a bit rough ... we all got completely soaked from the spray and I'm still feeling Moby :-(

Sad homecoming and due respect

I am sitting in my little apartment in Honiara listening to BBC World News which is on in the other room and my ears prick up when I hear Wootton Bassett mentioned. This is the town we lived in when Laurence was born and a place I kind of think of as 'home'.

Why was it on the news? WB is about 5 miles from RAF Lyneham which is where they fly the bodies of the British servicemen killed in the Afganistan war. The hearses have to drive through the town for the soldiers to be returned to their families. About 2 years ago, the townspeople began to stop going about their business as the hearse passed through. Now it has become an act of civic pride and hundreds and sometimes thousands of people come to line the High Street to pay their respects to those young men who give up their lives for all of us. Businesses close, children come from school, veterans slaute. Yesterday there were more than 4,000 people there because of the 8 young men killed in Afganistan last Friday.

On the TV I see the young, smiling faces of the soldiers who have been killed and think of Laurence and the pain and suffering that their parents and families must be going through. I say - well done Wootton Bassett. You've shown the rest of Britain - and now the world - that people do take the time to show that they care.

Return to Honiara

It's pretty good to be back in Honiara. I've got a nice little self contained unit not far from centre of town ... about 500m from my friend Katie's new house. The place has got a small kitche/living space, separate bedroom and bathroom and an office area - biggest problem is no wi-fi but the owner is trying to sort that out for me - so difficult to skype people yet.

I was at college yesterday and had some good meetings - and managed to stay awake which was impressive. Last night I went for a swim with a consultant from NZ who I met last time and just happened to be here again. Sadly he left today cos he was good fun. Today I went to the market to get fruit and veggies at 7am and then met Katie and her friend at the Lime Lounge ... local ex-pat coffee shop. Quick trip to the craft shop - except I'm not allowed to buy any more stuff - as John is busy selling everything at home.

Currently sitting in King Solomon hotel, listening to some nice music and eating crayfish. I only cmae down here to use the internet. Just met a consultant from World Bank so I've been telling him all about 'Confessions of an Economic Hitman'. I must finish listening to it.

what's that smell?

The first time I came to Joburg, (like 12 years ago) I was driving along the highway away from the airport and could smell a strange, fairly unpleasant, smell. Mindful of the smell of the Euro-fizz beer factory near the M4, I asked John what the smell was ... thinking it was some factory or other. He said - that's Joburg!

We'd been living in the clear, sweet air of Namibia for about a year then and I really noticed the pollution.

Flying in today on a little Beechcraft twin prop (HATE those aircraft!) I could not believe the brown layer of gaseous sludge that was hanging over the whole of Gauteng. It looked horrible - mucky and thick and it must have had lumps in because the descent was very bumpy.

It's official - Joburg sucks :-(

I LOVE gadgets

OK ... you know that! So now you will find yet another new gadget on this blog ... my Twitter feed. I started it before Christmas and I have just made only the 4th "tweet" ... so don't expect too much information.

If you want to send your own tweets - go here http://twitter.com

Basically, how it works is that you can send in a short (140 character) message saying what you are doing at any given moment in time. People (who think you are interesting - like, maybe your mother) become 'followers' and can set the system to send them an sms on their mobile phone everytime you 'tweet'. Cool huh? And maybe now my mum won't have to send me plaintive emails saying "where ARE you?"

What's the time in ...

I hope you like the new gadget on the blog. Those of you reading by email will have to visit
alison-botswana-news.blogger.com to see what I am talking about.

With this funky world clock, you can see what time it is where I am (except I'm in Francistown and I've set the clock for Honiara!) But I will be in Honiara for the next 6 weeks so ... So Jem - you can stop saying 'you're up early' to me on skype when I am about to go to bed :-)