Tuesday 11th December.

-1 days to go.

I finished all the packing and getting rid of anything excess this morning. I took all my stuff across to Tweetys room. We decided to end the way we started, we all had breakfast at the Lime Lounge.

I am still decidedly unwell. I have a temperature and feel a little nauseous. I have to last another 5 hours to catch the plane.

The political situation enters the High Court to argue if the GG needs the PMs permission to recall Parliament.

I returned my laptop and mobile phone to the company who provide our admin. Tweety and I went out for lunch and then back to the Office. I then picked up all my luggage and off to the airport we go.

Of all the time I spent in the Solomons, today was the only day with tropical thunderstorms at 1700. Every other storm has been after 1900 until today. There was a delay because the ground crew could not refuel the aircraft until the lightning abated.

We were later still because of people who did not board the flight. The last passenger got on the aircraft at 1720. The last group, I saw in the terminal when I was checking in. People who treat airline travel like a bus trip should be left off the flight. Why do they think they get people to checkin 90 - 120 minutes prior to the flight? The departure times of aircraft are the times they are supposed to lift off, not the time you get on board.

Can we please go back to the days where they closed off the flight and tell people who turn up late to re-book a later flight?

The flight into Brisbane was quite smooth, except for the final 20 minutes into Brisbane.

Well this adventure is nearly over. I will possibly only have 1 or 2 posts left. In the last one I will try to provide a link to photos I have not been able to post. I will also do an update on the political scene in the Solomons to round everything off.

Monday 10th December.

0 days to go.

Well, here it is my last full day at work. It starts off on shaky grounds. I am feeling a little weak and not 100%. It is obviously a left over from my stomach bug. A light lunch is in order to help restore the balance.

Today is an admin day. I have cleaned up my laptop. Most of it has just been deleting files and emails mainly. I have also transferred photos to a flash drive for transport home. I have been doing the same to the shared hard drive at work. Once all the stuff has gone it will free up some needed space.

The afternoon was as exciting as the morning. I did a bit of driving around, went to the airport, on business! I was not checking it was still there.

Other than the above, the most exciting it got was in the SS it says the PM has decided that Parliament should meet on the 24th December. The Speaker of the Hose has said it will be the 13th as far as he is concerned. He will only change the date if the GG tells him otherwise.

If the PM and Cabinet do not show up and the Opposition do have the numbers they will get rid of the Government in a 26 – 0 vote. I presume that then it will all kick off in the Court as to the legality of the GG being able to recall Parliament.

After work Tweety and I went to the pool for our last evening swim. We picked up Duke afterwards and set off for the Mendana for dinner. Afterwards, it was back to the King Sol to finish packing.

Sunday 9th December.

1 day to go.

It was another slow start to the day. It is a nice lead in to a quiet Sunday. I went outside and into town to take some photos of the buildings, the shops and other premises without a lot of people wandering around. I forgot to mention that Saturday was the final of the Solomon Cup. It was played between East Honiara Lions v Central Honiara Eels. Central Honiara went into the final without 4 starting level players, they are Seventh Day Adventists and will not play.


Well the above was what I intended to do, but I had some sort of stomach bug. I stayed in my room all day and ate about 5 pieces of toast and drank 1 cup of tea.


A real anti climax for a final Sunday!

Saturday 8th December.

2 days to go.

I was up at the crack of 0730 this morning. A nice leisurely breakfast was consumed and I watched a bit of telly, none of your “day time TV” here. This was a show about the rise of Islamic Terrorism in Europe.

At about 0930 Tweety and I headed for the market. In a veritable shopping frenzy we bought souvenir after souvenir. The market has not seen such a hit and run raid since the last time someone did it.

We took my washing out to Nemos place and threw it in her washing machine. We returned to town where I took Tweety in hunt of some more purchases. After this ended I dropped him off and returned to pick up my washing and then back to the King Sol to hang it up and then in to work.

By the time this happened it was 1200. I occupied myself with some emails and a little internet surfing. I also started to sort out some photographs. The laptop and mobile phone go back on Tuesday so I have started to tidy things up and get ready for a major erase of files and return the machines to “factory setting”.

The SS has a story that the Parliament will meet, as requested by the Governor General, next Thursday. The High Court has dismissed the Opposition case against the AGs claims. The case of the AG v GG and others will start next week. It will not finish before the appointed recall of Parliament. It will be interesting to see what will happen. Parliament needs a quorum of 24. Each side claim to have the majority, 25. So if the PM and his supporters boycott the proceedings and the Opposition all attend with their 25 the PM will be ousted. Stay tuned folks to the same bat channel at the same bat time for another thrilling episode.

The afternoon consists of some reading and relaxing and then some swimming. I am going out to dinner again tonight and again tomorrow night, although tonight is with Tweety, Duke and a mate of Duke. We went to the restaurant in the Pacific Hotel / Casino, it has re opened after 20 months. It was one of the places burnt out after the riots last year.

Quiet end to the evening, watching telly then off to bed. I am eagerly awaiting a final Sunday.

Friday 7th December.

3 days to go.

The former Prime Minister Sir Allen Kamekeza was sentenced to; surprise surprise, 5 months in jail. He was also fined $7000. Here in the Solomons, if you are sentenced to more than 6 months in jail, you cannot enter Parliament. Sir Allen is the person who holds the balance of power. The PM and the Opposition each have 25 votes. Sir Allen is the remaining non aligned Member of Parliament. He must serve 2 months as 3 months was suspended. He has also appealed the sentence.

I have been trying all day to confirm my flight. Solomon Airlines do not want to confirm it. I just get handed around from phone to phone. Maybe I will have to alter the “days to go” number.

We had a farewell get together this afternoon. Tweety and I have only been here 3 months, Duke, will be leaving after 18 months on the same flight as me.

We had plenty of food and drink; beer, wine and soft drink accompanied with rice, curries and stews as well as vegetables and trays of banana, watermelon and pineapple. All functions like this have strict planning. An agenda was printed and passed around.

The MC organised everything, we then have Grace. This is followed by eating which is led by the guests of honour then the important people!. After that is complete we have a couple of speeches. This is followed by the presentation of gifts to the outgoing advisors. The final speeches are from the outgoing advisors.

After the speeches the locals sing traditional farewell songs. We then have the closing prayer and everyone stays until the drinks have finished.

It was a great ceremony. Most of the local staff made sure they came up to the three of us and thanked us individually, not only for our efforts, but for coming along as a friend of the Solomon Islands.

After this came to an end, Tweety and I had a dinner engagement with one of our friends we made here. She is a nurse from the Medical Centre. We headed off to the Iron Sounding Bum, in the middle of the biggest storm we have had since we arrived. It was just like a typical Tropical thunderstorm. I wonder why that was? We got soaked in seconds even with an umbrella. The water was about calf length when we got out of the car. After dinner there was no standing water and it was just a wet looking parking area.

Thursday 6th December

4 days to go.

The papers are reporting the court proceedings of the High Court challenge by the AG. He gets his chance to respond to the allegations of vexatious and self interest in the action. A new Deputy PM has been announced. Patterson Oti. He was most prominent recently for a statement he made at the UN accusing Australia of invading the Solomon Islands by sending RAMSI in to help.

At work, Duke is being kicked out of his accommodation. He has the day off to oversee the uplift of his possessions. After 18 months here he is leaving on the same plane as I. Tweety and I went out to his house to pick up a couple of tables to take to Nemos place.

Duke will be joining Tweety and I in the King Sol until Tuesday.

All things yellow seem to attract Tweetys’ attention. Today at lunch he got really excited by the sight of corn. Just because we have been eating lunch at the same place for the majority of our time here and they have always had the corn sitting in the bain marie.

He raced up to the counter and bought a cob. For $6.00SBD or 0.92cents, when you consider that his toasted cheese and onion sandwich cost him $24.00SBD he said “shoulda bought 4 of theses! Another meeting is arranged with a Lawyer at 1610 today; I am trying to get some information from the Lawyer to help one of the guys here do his job. I think it is handy for him to know what parts of a prosecution case a defence Lawyer looks at.

More pool tonight, the temperature has risen from 31 to 32deg C and the minimum is equally rocketing up to 24 deg C. Tweety said the week long forecast indicates these temperatures up until Sunday where the maximum is tipped to be 26 with heavy showers and Thunderstorms. It looks as though the rainy season has arrived. I will be happy if there are clear skies from Honiara to Brisbane in between 1700 and 1900 on the 11th and the same between Perth and Brisbane on the 12th.

Wednesday 5th December.

5 days to go.

Remember me saying no new projects yesterday?

Well, I did start something and had 44 pages of it by lunch time. Not the most exciting of documents, but it filled in the morning and how!

I went to a Planning Meeting for lunch and stayed for a short time afterwards. I did a small information session on a change to process for about 15 minutes.

I then listened in on the meeting while one of the Managers gave an update on progress towards the Corporate plan etc for 2008. It is the same process we use, if this continues our permanent advisors will have done a great job. They really are taking big strides.

Politically there is some posturing and positioning going on. New Ministers being sworn in and the PM is appearing more confident that he has the numbers required to defeat the No Confidence motion next Thursday.

A case that was hastily presented against the Opposition Leader has been thrown out of Court. The decision was that it should not have been heard in the Court, but similar to the failed case against the Former MoF.

The High Court case against the GG by the PM and AG started also. The GG and Opposition are saying that the case should be dismissed for 2 reasons, it is vexatious and has only been filed to delay Parliament re sitting on the 13th and that the PM and AG both have a conflict of interest in this case. The suggestion is that the time to question this aspect of the Constitution is when Parliament is sitting.

pool is getting better, we can almost see the bottom again. My legs now only look a light green when they are under the water.

Tuesday 4th December.

6 days to go.

Stats went home today. I shall not see him for a while, if ever. If I get to come back here it will be after his project is completed. I hope to run into him on either his or my travels in the future.

I ran into a guy I met at fatboys too. He is a med student. He is doing some work here as part of his study. He is Swiss. He is in the Solomons with another med student. They were working at the Gizo Hospital, helping to look after victims of the tsunami.

Now they are doing their final bit at the hospital in Honiara. It is titled the National Referral Hospital. Many people refer to it as Number 9. It was originally set up during the War by the US. It was the 9th MASH unit. It is now staffed by Taiwanese, Cuban and local Doctors, along with European med students I suppose.

Nothing too drastic is going on here. I am not starting any new projects as I will most likely not have time to finish them.

I found out today that the court case I was to appear in is not happening, well not for me anyway.

The Lawyer rang me to tell me that the Defendant did not turn up on Monday. He is defending himself in the Supreme Court, which I must admit is gutsy. His Lawyer didn’t show up either.

I had to then hurriedly cancel the video conference I had arranged. I know it was not the Prosecutors fault, but the things I had to go through I mean!!!

The pool was nice tonight. It still had the sign up advising not to swim, but it was almost clear. The staff said it was OK. It has been off limits for about a week.

Monday 3rd December.

7 days to go.

I have forgotten to explain the daily entertainment Tweety and I have provided by the King Sol. As close as we can calculate, there is a device in the Hotel containing all the numbers of the room. They use this device as a Random Room Number Generator. They set the device off, which ever room number comes up wins a gift of the day. Don’t be ridiculous I can hear you say dear reader. However we can not come up with any other explanation as to the arrival and disappearances that occur in our rooms. Let me tell you some of the experiences.

Both Tweety and I have at times had a vase and flower arrangement placed in the room. They may stay for any length of time, I have had some for 1 day, 2 days and 3 weeks before they disappear. The space without flowers is also as random. Sometimes the empty vase stays on the table some times it doesn’t. On one occasion the milk in the room, (UHT longlife milk sits on the bench until opened, then it goes in the fridge) was on the bench when I went to work. When I got back it was gone, the 500ml carton was replaced with a 1 litre carton of UHT whipping cream.

Cooking equipment disappears and reappears with regularity. Some days I have 2 frypans, 2 small saucepans and 2 large saucepans. Other days I have 1 of each. The combination of cutlery and glassware fluctuates too. The best effort however was my front veranda. Went to work all was fine, returned in the evening and I had to balance on 2 beams to get the key in the door and get in. The ground was about 10 feet below the veranda. It was replaced over a few days. Tweety got home to find people removing and replacing his flyscreens. There were no holes in them, they were just being replaced.

I received a new inner spring mattress and a new shower curtain last week, Thursday I think it was. On any day I have between 1 and 7 towels. Now this is not a complaint, just the sequences etc give us something to look forward to. When we both get home we look in all the rooms and cupboards. We then get changed and go to the pool. If either of us have a particularly good find, or loss, we sit there with a stupid smile on our face until the other asks “what did you get?” or “what did you lose?”

Nothing too exciting is happening in the world of Solomon Island politics. Bubbling away beneath the surface no doubt.

Sunday 2nd December.

8 days to go.


After 3 previous attempts we finally made the “End of the Road” trip to Lambie. The 4 of us set off, Tweety, Stats, Nemo and I at about 1200. We had an uneventful trip until we got to the river crossing. The crossing is about 5km from our previous best attempt.
Tweety was in command, last time we crossed the river we had a laugh at the bow wave from the vehicle and the height of the splash. It started out that way this time, for about 1 second. Then when we saw the water coming over the bonnet and we had to put on the windscreen wipers our expressions changed. I laughed, but I was in the back seat, Stats and Tweety had other things to say!!


Another couple of kms along we came to a section of the track that was mud. This whole section was maybe 500 metres long and a metre deep. We made progress through it, being pulled from side to side and we bottomed out a couple of times. I think Tweety was as relieved as anyone that we made it. Even though we were all happy, we knew one thing, we had to come back through it, there is only 1 road! The next section of the road was heavily and deeply rutted.


I think it was just like the previous section only dried out. We spent the next few minutes being thrown about the interior of the green machine. We had to negotiate another river, then a sharp turning high rising section of track then down the other side. As we crested the hill we saw our objective. It was a beautiful sight. There were several bays of azure blue water framed by golden yellow sand, if there had been grass skirted natives on the beach I would have thought I was in a Hollywood movie set. It is really a beautiful place. The village was large and clean, people waved and said hello. We thought that this was heaven on earth, until we came to a large area under some trees. This is where things changed.


Some of the locals had been drinking, we arrived at about 1330, we had no idea how long this had been going on. There were some family groups, not many, the majority were males and nearly all had cans of beer. Again, it was a small minority, some defiantly stood in our way, others tried to pull them out of our way for us to go through. Some started becoming agitated we thought we should get out of there. We were sworn at and a couple banged their hand on the side of the green machine. Once we were away from this area everyone was waving and smiling.

It was only a small proportion, maybe 6 people in a large village, but it made us more reserved in our outlook. The people are outwardly friendly, as their culture clashes with the 21st Century it is repeating the errors of the past. We read of similar decay caused by a rapid modernisation, in Canada, USA and Australia the indigenous people all went down this path, I hope this can be stopped here.


On a similar note, RAMSI had to step in and assist the local Police as a riot broke out at the National Soccer Stadium, Lawson Tama. It is the Solomons Cup, the national u23 competition. Malaita were playing a team from Honiara. Honiara scored what is said to be a controversial goal. This ended up being the final score. The Malaitan fans then set about on a rampage. They smashed the Offices of the SIFF Solomon Islands Football Federation. Windows were broken, stones thrown at cars, fights broke out and the crowd moved towards Chinatown. This was the scene of the last riots in March 2006. The previous riots were caused by fighting between Malaitans and Honiarans. It all blew over quickly, well a couple of hours anyway.


That was my excitement for the weekend over. I think the following week may be an anti climax!

Saturday 1st December.

9 days to go.

Here we are again, back to one of the dead days. I woke up this morning, bwaaa, bwaaaa, bwaaaaaaa, sorry, this is not a blues song! I was expecting a hangover after last night. I did not drink that much, maybe the equivalent of a bottle of wine, but I have not consumed that amount of alcohol for quite a while. Luckily I just feel a little off, no headache or the normal trappings of hangover.

Today is a landmark day in the Solomon Islands. I can successfully dine out in years to come, on the story “I was in the Solomon Islands the day their first Saturday paper was released.” Yesterday we did not get our SS. It was apparently delivered late. As good conspirator theory we were again convinced it was a Government ploy to censor the news. After lunch Duke returned with a copy. This morning, however my copy of the Saturday edition arrived.
The price of the new Minister of Aviation was announced. He was given a portable saw mill that was to be delivered to a member of the Opposition. I shall have to read it more carefully over the weekend.

Today was to be the day that Stats, Tweety and I travel to the mythical village of Lambie. We have tried 3 times so far, on each occasion the drivers, Nemo, Tweety and then Guru gave up. I am not sure of the real reasons, Nemo was put off by a river crossing, Tweety thought we must have passed it and not seen it and Guru got scared when the mud on the tracks reached the hubs of the 4WD. For whatever reason, we have calculated that we got to within 3 kms of the village.

Seeing today is the day that New Guy returns to Oz, he came out for a pre posting briefing and a look at the place, Tweety is taking Stats and New Guy up to the mine site. I believe we set off for the trip to Xanadu tomorrow.

Today is a Christmas party for the work Football team, so I popped in for a short time. I am still a little under the weather and do not stay long. It is a little bit of lounging around the pool then up to the room to prepare dinner and do some reading.

The pool is currently closed for maintenance, in typical Sol style they could not tell us when it will be back in use. I suppose I shall just have to stay at work longer each afternoon.

Its an exciting life I lead, but if not for people like me the papers would not have anyone to write about will they.

Friday 30th November.

10 days to go.

This morning Tweety and I came into work and picked up one of the local guys and then headed off to the only Gold mine in the village er Solomons. It was about an hours drive from work, 25 minutes East then 35 minutes South. We saw the open cut area of the previous operators and where the new holes were being drilled. From the observation point we went to the processing area.

The site has been trashed by the locals who live around the mine. Everything that was not bolted down was removed. They then started on the bolted down stuff. They took all the power lines from the main road to the mine. They took the cladding off all the buildings and left the skeleton. The laboratory area, the sheds and the accommodation as well as the offices were stripped. The insides were removed and anything they could move was taken.

In the power plant, they had 11 50KVA generators. All the wiring was removed and gauges, filters starter motors were taken too. In general they have to decide which parts of the equipment and buildings they can repair and what they have to destroy and replace. Which ever they decode they plan to be in production shortly after June 2009.

After returning to Honiara at 1100, work was, well, work. At 1700 we returned to the King Sol to get ready to go out to a Christmas function courtesy of GRM. GRM do several things in the Solomons, but for us they are our Admin area. They supply our office equipment, arrange the lease of our vehicles etcetera. It starts at 1730 and ends at 2000. Well this is one version we have heard.

The dress standard is neat casual. I have spent the previous week informing Tweety that he must improve on his normal standard and make a concerted effort to meet the required standard. He did not disappoint me.

He selected his blue shoes that ideally matched the blue in his shirt, he also selected a shirt with a great yellow colour which matched his shorts. I will post a photo, although it may have to wait until I return to Australia as the speed of the internet has prevented me in posting photos for a while. I chose the elegant combination of a checked blue shirt, with highlights of white and black, a contrasting pair of shorts and the extremely elegant black crocs. Stats, although not directly involved was made a special guest for the occasion, was resplendent in his choice of trousers and shirt and a fetching pair of sandals, with socks. New Guy was nearly as colourful as Tweety, his chosen ensemble included a polo top similar in colour to a Harlequins Rugby shirt, although the colours were more restrained.

All in all it was a great event. A band appeared at about 2100 and played on til 2300. A mixture of reggae and 80s pop hits as well as some Beatles ensured the crowd with a wide age gap enjoyed themselves. I drank a little more than I normally do, I have been used to maybe 1 with a maximum of 2 for the last 3 months. This night I had a bit more. Not too much, but enough to feel I might regret it in the morning.

Thursday 29th November.

11 days to go.

There was some more in the paper about the new Minister and how he will continue to stand for truth and integrity. This is after changing parties 3 times in a month!

Another person has crossed back to the Government. He too gets a position as a Minister, in this case Aviation. The numbers are stacking up with the PM now and I think he is about even. We will have to see what the Opposition claims it has cost the PM to get those people back.

The new MoF has cancelled a tender that was approved by the former, former Minister of Finance. (Remember the former MoF was the one charged under the wrong section, the former former MoF was the one trying to clean up the Airline etc). The Tender was in the home Province of the FFMof. It has not been awarded to anyone else, so the people are being punished.

This punishment is harsh though. The cleaning up of the Province and the supply of food, water and housing is pretty important. They lost a lot in the tsunami recently. There is still a large area of Gizo without homes and are in temporary shelters.

We had a team dinner at the King Sol last night, it was a buffet. The hotel puts on some traditional Island singers and dancers on Thursday nights too. I did notice that one of the waiting staff is the guy who does the weather on the local TV news. The one who reads the same forecast nine times, but changes the name of the Province.

I have heard that some extra troops are coming in with this changeover. All the Defence Force appears to be changing. Some new Kiwis have arrived, the Aussie replacements are here too. The Tongans have been replaced by PNG troops. The numbers are higher though, not by much but maybe 50 – 100 more.

That is about it for Thursday. Things are starting to wind down.

Wednesday 28th November.

12 days to go.

We had an earthquake last night. It was around 2250. I was sitting up reading. I was just about to get up and go to bed. I noticed that the room started to sway. This is not an unusual occurrence. (I will dispute that it is isolated to my room only and caused by any action on my behalf.)

Most nights while I am sitting reading, I am aware of swaying in the room. At first I thought it may have been caused by a storm as it coincided with heavy showers. Later that week I noticed the same phenomenon and there was no wind and rain.

Last night the swaying was unusually noticeable and lasted for a lot longer. I got up and walked from my room to an open area. There is another level of units above mine in the hotel. After a minute or so I returned to the room. No drama, no destruction and the people responsible for tsunami warnings could not make up their minds as to if they should make one or not.

The Government has another Minister. He was part of the Opposition. He left the Solomons for a holiday in Australia. He returned on Tuesday and was whisked from the airport in a Government car and sworn in as the new Minister of Finance. That is 3 Ministers of Finance we have had here in 4 weeks.

The new Minister is an Australian with SI citizenship. The speculation in the paper about him is that as the new MoF he will need time to prepare the Budget. In this case the PM can present a case that the GGs recall date of 13th December will be too soon for the Budget submission to be made. A hat and braces approach in case the AGs High Court challenge is turned down.

Stats returned to work here too. He is here for a week as part of the programme from NZ Aid to get the computer system up and running. Tweety, Stats, New Guy and I went out for dinner at the Iron Sounding Bum. We were not the only ones, the entire ASPEN team were there (Medical Facility) and also Justice Department advisors too. We were just going to go to the restaurant, but it was booked for a private function by Solomon Island Tobacco, a division of Pall Mall, a division of British American Tobacco. So we just had to make do with the buffet.
I got home late so I did not read and wait up for another session of shake rattle and roll.

Tuesday 27th November.

13 days to go.

The extra large and bold type face headline in the SS today is “MOTI FILES CASE”. The Attorney General has filed, with the High Court, a challenge to the calling for Parliament to sit on 13th December by the Governor General.

It is now a race against time to see what will happen. Can the High Court sit and hear the case prior to the13th and make a decision?

If the decision of the High Court is against the PM will they take it to Appeal? Will it have to go all the way to the House of Lords?

Will it all be settled by the 31st December? If not, what will happen if there will be no budget approval? If it is not settled soon will it become violent?

Who actually has the numbers? I have to say, that with the stalling tactics being used, that it appears that the PM does not currently have a majority.

OOOOh this is getting exciting.

Well, Tweety and I arranged for our trusty vehicle, the Green Machine, in for a service. Other jobs we required to be completed were to replace 2 tyres and fix the spare which has a puncture. We duly dropped the vehicle off at 0800 for the day.

When I went to pick it up we had the puncture repaired, some of the service had been done, oil replaced and brakes adjusted. We could not see any change to the engine bay. It has to be said the engine bay had a nice coating of dried mud. This was all to do with Tweety, not me. I am a safe and secure driver and at no time was I driving off road at high speed through mud and puddles!

On top of this the green machine was washed too.

Not bad by local standards. I will ask our admin people for a copy of the invoice to check off what they claimed to have done.

Monday 26th November.

14 days to go.

The political situation takes another twist in the morning paper. The Government is challenging the Constitution. They are also indicating that they want to sit on the 31st of December. Now this leads to an interesting point. If they hear the “No Confidence” motion prior to the Budget, a new Government has to be sworn in. If this is the case there will not be enough time to pass the budget.

If they hear the budget and pass it, the PM will dissolve Parliament without hearing other business and if that happens, he will still be in power until the next sitting. Even if the Parliament sits on December 13 the Opposition are saying that they will not have enough time to form a Government and pass the Budget prior to the end of the month.

This to me indicates how shaky the Opposition are. If I were the leader I would form my Government and tell the GG to be ready on the afternoon of the 13th to swear in the new PM and Ministers. That would give them a lot of time to accept the “Budget”. Even if they had to create a new Budget they could pass it then make amendments if necessary. In their ranks they have a man who was the Minister of Finance for all but the last few weeks.
It may be that the Opposition does not want to name Ministers before they overturn the PM because they may then lose some that they promised things to. I am sure more will unfold in the next week.

At work today I have to push through and get a couple of my projects started and hopefully well and truly finished by the 10th December. I know one will be fine, I just hope the second will not fall apart.

The New Guy came in to work for his first day. He has been looking at what Duke has been doing and just trying to get a feel for the place. We have booked our vehicle in for a service and 2 new tyres to be fitted.

We will probably get a seat cover and the car washed in place of the work we want doing. It happens here like that!

Sunday 25th November.

15 days to go.

The election in Oz is over. I have a new boss. I suppose it is now a case of wait and see what the new Government want to do. I hope it is not another change for change sake.
Tweety and I met a Librarian from LA at the pool last night. He was on his last day in Honiara today; he had to be at the airport by 1300. He travels the world and gets to look at a lot of interesting places. He made the mistake of only coming to Honiara though. The beauty of the Solomons is not in Honiara.

We took him on a tour as much as we could this morning. We showed him some of the historic war sights and took him to places where there were great views. I am pretty sure he enjoyed the morning.

I met some Fijians at the King Sol at lunchtime. Some guys from Telecom and some Police Officers. They were both setting up some bi-lateral agreements with the Solomon counterparts. They leave on Tuesday. They were sitting on the veranda drinking Kava. As I passed them they said hello and invited me to join them. They were sitting around the bowl and invited me to a drink. Part of the training I have received is to join in and become a part of the community. With this in mind I did not want to insult anyone so I accepted a bowl.

They showed me the correct etiquette in drinking the kava and I had a bowl. It was not as bad as I had expected, although my lips started to tingle after the first swallow. I went back to the room to get some of my stuff for work and I had to go back past them to get to work. They offered me some more, so to be polite and not offend I stayed a while and had a chat and another couple of bowls.

I arrived at work to do a bit of internetting and a bit of work. I suddenly became very degydrated and my lips were tingling. I quickly drank 2 litres of water. I went back to the King Sol then drove down to the Yacht Club. Nemo, Tweety and Dave, the “New Guy” who will be taking over from Duke was there. New Guy has flown in for a week to see what he is getting himself into.

James from the BBC camera crew also turned up with one of the producers who had flown in from Fiji came over and sat with us. James is off to Australia tomorrow morning and a couple of days holiday before he returns to the UK. Another Sunday finished.

Saturday 24th November.

16 days to go.

Election Day back in Oz! Hopefully I will not have to put up with election crap on telly all night. The telly here is bad enough here as it is. In the King Sol we have about 6 channels. The local one broadcasts “Australia Network”, mainly ABC stuff from NSW, and some local content. We have EM TV from New Guinea, again some OZ stuff (They had the Sri Lankan test on over the last couple of weeks) and some NG stuff. BBCworld is also shown. Now these 3 are consistent.

The same shows each day and time etc.

The other 3 however are anyones guess. One is a movie channel, and I must say, at all times. They have short breaks where they may show a 15 minute piece on an actor or the making of a movie in between actual movies, this is fine. The second of the 3 channels can be either “The History Channel” “Discovery Channel” or “Channel V” depending on who is in charge of the set top box in the office I suppose. The third channel is a mixture of TV shows, they have Friends, Sienfeld, The Simpsons and some Sitcoms I have not heard of. Occasionally this channel becomes a sport channel or a music channel too. Now the swapping of content is not a major problem, whit is though is that they get switched off, or I should say “Signal Scrambled” as the message says on the screen. Now this does not happen in between shows, I think it just happens in blocks. You know like you get a trial to see if you like it. I have been sitting and watching a movie, say 120 minutes long. The screen stops and then the Signal Scrambled sign comes on, with 10 minutes left of the movie!

Why do these insignificant things annoy us? For me I guess it is the fact that if you say you are going to do something, or that you supply something, you then have an obligation to do it right, not half arsed like this. I believe the local attitude is “well you got that much, it is better than nothing, why are you complaining.”

On the news today it said that the GG has announced that Parliament must sit on December 13th. Now we wait and see what happens. Unfortunately for me it is just after I leave. I might ask to stay another week, or at least until the next flight after the 13th, which by my calculation will be the 15th December.

Friday 23rd November.

17 days to go.

It was an unusual start to the day today; we did not get our free SS from the hotel. We started our own speculation and in the best tradition of conspiracy theory decided that it was a case of censorship by the Government. The things that Government will do to stay in power sometimes are beyond belief!! Then Duke turned up with his copy.

The Opposition and the GG have realised that the Attorney General is attempting to have some matters placed in the High Court to “question” the Constitution. This was done last time there was a no confidence motion raised. This will mean that the motion cannot be discussed until the matter is settled by the High Court. They have announced that this stalling will only prolong matters and not solve them.

The GG has told the PM to convene Parliament. He has quoted in the paper his relevant powers under the Constitution. I hope this all happens peacefully, but I also hope it happens when I am here. I really would like to see it.

It is another good day health wise. After lunch we went over to a training facility to listen to the Local Management present their projects they have been working on as part of their training course. It is about Managing Change. This fills in Friday afternoon for Nemo, Duke, Tweety, Baby Nemo and I. We all head back to the office to tidy up for the weekend.

Tweety and I have pre-ordered pizza for dinner at the Raintree Café. We stressed we wanted the pizza ready for 1900. We duly arrive at 1900. At 1930 we get our pizza, cold. They do things a little different here, the base with cheese and tomato is cooked as a pizza. They then cook the other toppings as required and then place it on the pizza. I had the “Gourmet”. It was a combination of vegetarian delight, spiced grilled eggplant, herbs, tomato and to be honest I have forgotten the rest except for the crumbed fetta. It was delicious, the crust was really thin and crispy too.

We headed back to the car and set off for the ultra dangerous drive home. The café is just on the “other” side of White River. We have been told not to venture into White River after dark. Personally I see that more of a challenge than a warning. We arrived home safe and sound, was it another case of over reaction by the Security Advisor?

Thursday 22nd November.

18 days to go.

Well, whatever it was that had me feeling unwell is back. I think it may be some sort of tummy bug. The most likely thing is that it is being kept under control by the doxycycline I am taking for malaria. I wonder what it would have been like if I had stopped taking the Doxy? Others who come here for a while say they have side effects from the doxy and so they stop taking it. They prefer to get treatment if they contract malaria. One of the side effects is being unable to focus and concentrate and repeating yourself.

Others who come here for a while say they have side effects from the doxy and so they stop taking it. They prefer to get treatment if they contract malaria. One of the side effects is being unable to focus and concentrate and repeating yourself. Luckily I have not seen any evidence of these effects and I will continue to take the Doxy.

All the former MPs who left the Government to join the Opposition have had to return their Government vehicles. They did this yesterday. Further allegations have also been made about who is corrupt and what they have been doing. It is interesting to see the polarisation of the power brokers in the Solomons. The GG announced in this mornings SS that he does not have the power to recall Parliament. It seems to me to be something lacking in the Constitution. If the GG cannot take action, either to dissolve or recall Parliament why is he there? I wonder if anyone has thought to see if he can sack the Government and invite someone to form another, do a Kerr, in fact.

If my reader is too young to recall Kerr, he was the GG of Australia who sacked the Whitlam Government. The SICA, which is the Religious group who represent Christianity in the Solomons, went to see the GG and to call for his intervention, has been attacked by the PM for interfering in Politics and for not being neutral. This is being rebuffed by SICA who explained that they went to see the GG, so why is the PM calling them biased? How could they be seen to be taking sides by calling for the GG to end the current situation by recalling Parliament? SICA said they just want the situation to end quickly so the Solomons can return to their other problems and to avoid the violence of the past.

Looks like the PM has set his stall, if you are not with me you are agin me! No neutrals allowed.
The weather has changed, it has rained on and off over the last couple of days. No violent storms, just non stop rain.

I voted today. We have been able to vote from last Monday, 13th November, but I waited until today as that gave me almost 2 weeks to look forward to something, how sad is that? When I went swimming after work it was during a heavy shower. It was still 30 degrees though.

Wednesday 21st November.

19 days to go.

After I enjoyed an uninterrupted nights’ sleep I seem to have shaken off whatever it was that caused me to feel unwell. It must have been 24 hour malaria. (One of the lesser known Malarias)

The SS contained in about half of its 16 pages, stories relating to the political situation. More claim and counter claim, it is getting nastier though. Accusations in the paper of lying and deception are now the norm, rather than the polite innuendo of the previous days. Maybe this is the start of the real battles.

One thing that is troubling me about the Solomons is not the political situation, but a football one. Football is the national sport. They have a Football Federation and a development system. They only have one football ground where the teams of the national league, The DJ League can play. That is the national stadium, Lawson Tama.

Recently there was an Oceania Champions League match played here, the week before all DJ League matches were postponed to let the ground recover and be at its best. This week is the start of the Solomon Cup, played by under 23 teams from all the provinces of the Solomons.

Again Lawson Tama was closed for 2 weeks prior to start, this weekend, to allow the ground to be at its best for the competition. It will be allowed to rest after the competition so there will be no more DJ League games this year.

I would have thought that there would be at least another ground available for the DJ League. Even the Football Academy could be used. There are other football pitches, none are good enough for the games, but to develop them would not be a stretch, particularly for the “national sport”.

So that is the excitement, sorry it is like this, but, I am a boring old fart. I could tell you about the combined Army and Police patrols passing by the office every hour or so. Maybe do a piece about the Helicopter flying over every day on patrol. If I did that, however, you might all think that this was an exciting and dangerous place to live and work.

Tuesday 20th November.

20 days to go.

Well the lurgy, whatever it is has remained. I woke up at about 0400, I was feeling unwell and with a headache. I still got out of bed at the normal time and had breakfast, then went to work.
I hung on until about 1000 and had a cup of tea, but alas, no improvement. I have only had about 500ml of water today, and 2 cups of tea, but that is not the cause. I just have this urge to throw up, but not, if you know what I mean.

A full 2 page spread in the SS (Solomon Star) this morning on why the Finance Minister was sacked, then a full page one stating the same thing. This could be subliminal training from the Government, if they keep on printing this maybe they will believe it themselves.
The opposition sticks to their single page of “Why the PM needs to go.”

In the letters to the editor and the vox pop the paper holds the majority of the people want the motion to go ahead. There are not too many comments by people taking sides, but everyone wants to find out who has the numbers and then they can get on with their lives.

I am down to a book and a half left. 3 weeks to go, will I make it? If I can last until Sunday 9th December, I can read the Gourmet Traveller on the Monday night before I fly out.

Its back to the King Sol and the pool after work, our BBC photography team have finished their work here on Guadalcanal and are heading to the other islands for some background footage.

Monday 19th November.

21 days to go

Back to work today after another weekend in Paradise. I have finally hit the wall today. I am becoming lethargic; I have a bit of a headache and just have a rundown, unwell feeling. Maybe it is malaria; still, there should be more symptoms than this.

I think it may be an accumulation of what has been happening in the last 10 weeks, being away from home and loved ones. The stress of the news of 2 people I know passing, the change in diet, the humidity and 1001 other things.

Does this happen to everyone? Am I finally becoming shudder “normal”? I hope not. If this is how normal people get on I am glad I have not been one of them for 50+ years.

Before “Angry of Manchester” starts complaining, I do not think I am better than anyone, just different. I have been marching to a different drum all of my life. I have not had a time in my life when I have been depressed or unhappy for more than a day, unless I have been ill. Is anyone happy when they are ill? I know some people are happy when others are ill.

So, enough of my troubles, people here are in a far worse state than I will ever be. Tweety, for example, a lovely bloke, but if there is a disease around he will catch it! He is always sick, but he does not let it interfere with his work though. He has stayed in bed a bit late and I have picked him up later in the morning.

Today was one of those days where you do a lot of running around doing work stuff, but when you look back you do not seem to have done much. There is a course on at the moment and a lot of the SI Management Team is there. If some documents need signatures from certain delegates it is backing up. Some clients will be complaining, but it cannot be helped, a lot of this training has to be done.

There is still posturing and arguing going on in Parliament over who has the biggest willy. Nothing is going on but a lot of pressure from other groups is being placed on the GG to recall Parliament. The Budget session has to be held prior to 31 December, otherwise the Government cannot spend any money. The Opposition has lodged a formal “No Confidence” motion with the Parliamentary Secretary so when they are recalled the motion must be heard.

Sunday 18th November.

22 days to go.

As normal, Sundays are the “dead” days. In varying combinations I have travelled the road to the East as far as it can be travelled. The road to the West has also been covered in the same manner. This weekend we were planning to drive the roads that radiate out from the main street. We have done a few of these, but more remain to be explored. Unfortunately we have been restricted to town. No trips down isolated roads or to unfamiliar places.

This is, of course related to the current political situation. The situation is currently at a standstill. It appears that nothing more will be happening other than media releases etc, until Parliament has its next sitting and then the two sides will face off.
So, Sunday will have to consist of a few hours at work, 1000 – 1330 appears to be the norm. A return to the King Sol to watch the 2nd Test between the Aussies and Sri Lanka, followed by a meeting in the pool and a return to the room for dinner to round out the day.

As Tweety and I say, “are we getting paid for this?” “We should be getting a hardship allowance.”

The final instalment on the Solomons……

Even though there are well over ½ a million people in the Solomons, everybody either knows , or are related to, everyone else. It does not take long for information to spread. In general the people are the same as anywhere else in the world. Most are friendly and will smile and speak to you. There is no form of benefit for the unemployed or sick. They have what they call the Wantok. Wantok is pidgin and literally means One Talk. It refers to your people or clan who speak the same language. A tribe may have several clans and they will all come from the same geographic locale. You are expected to share what you have with your Wantok and look after those who need it. You may need it yourself one day.

The downside to this is that you are also expected to look after your Wantok in other ways. You hire them over anyone else, you serve them first and you break the rules to help them in business or whatever. Wantok comes first.

All other services are available, if at first they appear hard to find. Doctors, dentists, hire cars etc.

So that is a little picture of the Solomon Islands. Let me know if you wish me to expand on anything.

Saturday 17th November.

23 days to go.

When Spud Cod, Squeaky and Plunger were here I joined them on a tour of the Eastern Battlefields. Today I went on the tour that I wanted to go on. The person taking the tour was not in the Solomons at the time and we were unsure of the date of return. So rather than miss out we went on the previous tour. The first tour was more expensive and less informative than this one.

John Iley(unsure of surname) is an amateur historian, with a passion for WW2. (His description, not mine). He knows the Guadalcanal battle in detail, including all the Units and names of many individuals who were involved in some action. It was absolutely brilliant. It may seem to my reader that I am into war. This cannot be further from the truth. While I cannot claim to be a pacifist, I am more interested in the personal story. The outstanding acts of individuals and how they came to take that action is more where my interest lies. Part of that is in understanding the situation. I would recommend anyone take this tour. Tweety and Nemo were both on the tour.
We were accompanied by some Kiwis and other people here with RAMSI.If my reader would like to hear more, (By the way the earlier information I supplied in the blog is about 95% correct) I will accept invitations to expand on the information and also supply photos. When I return to a proper broadband connection I will place all the photographs on Photobucket.

The only down side was the Kiwis forgot to lock their car at one point and lost some items to some thieves.

More on the Solomons....

The pedestrians have the same spatial dysfunction as the drivers. They will see you coming and just walk out in front of you. They make no allowance for the speed you are travelling. They do not plan that far ahead. In Honiara there are 2 pedestrian under passes and 1 bridge. They are located near popular bus stops, they are hardly used. You have to climb either up or down steps to use them you see. Much quicker and easier to run out in front of the moving vehicle, they will stop or at least slow down to let you cross!

Local food includes rice and fish. Many villages rear chickens and pigs as well. There are several types of vegetables available. There are leafy greens, taro, yams and pumpkins and squash. Coconut, mango, banana and pawpaw (papaya) make up the most common fruits. There are stalls set up on the side of the road. They are more commonly used to sell produce, such as the fruit and vegetables. Some more enterprising ones sell cooked food. Freshly caught and cooked fish is popular. There are also fast food shops. They mainly sell combinations of local and “western” food. One popular dish is a roti. A flat bread wrap with a curry flavoured filling. The most common being lamb, tuna or vegetarian. Also popular are Chinese style stir fry meals with rice for lunch.

Friday 16th November.

24 days to go.

In the Solomon Star today there was a full page advertisement by the Opposition group. This is a very good move by them. The PM placed his full page early in the week. There are no papers over the weekend, the Friday edition also has a “weekend magazine” insert. It is kept over the 3 days until the Monday paper comes out.

There are all sorts of reasons listed why the PM should either stand down or recall Parliament for a vote. Amongst them one is that he is now “mentally unstable”. We come to this decision because of his actions over the past week. It is riveting and entertaining reading.

There are claims and counter claims in every edition of the paper and on the television and radio news. “X has rejoined the Government” “No I haven’t says X in exclusive interview” It is unfolding like an episode of TV soapy.

We have a late meeting about one of the things I am helping with. After the meeting it is home and a quick shower and change. Tweety and I then go to a barbeque at the RAMSI headquarters. A nice meal, some drinks and a catch up with the other people who are working here with RAMSI.

More on the Solomons......

The seasons are typically tropical, dry and wet. Temperature does not vary much from 23 deg C minimum to 30 deg C maximum this is accompanied by humidity in the high 80% range.

The national sport of the Solomons is Football. A local team is in the Oceania Champions League and a Solomons teams were the Oceania representatives in the World Beach Football championships held in Brazil over the first 2 weeks of November 2007.

There are several categories of popular vehicles over here. Most people walk. I have only seen about 20 bicycles. Motorbikes are even rarer than bicycles. I think I have seen 4 motorbikes.
The car of choice is a Toyota Corolla station wagon, (estate to the English). If you have a car in the Solomons you have a taxi. There are not many privately owned vehicles here that are not used as a taxi. There are bus services. The vehicle of choice for a bus is a Toyota Hi Ace minibus/people mover. They are all diesel powered. They seat about 10, subtract a driver and conductor, so they seat 8 passengers. I cannot recall seeing one with less than 20 people in it. In the 4 wheel drive stakes the 2 most popular are the Toyota Hi Lux utility vehicle or the Toyota Landcruiser. There are an increasing number of smaller 4WD vehicles such as Toyota RAV 4s.

The speed limit through the town is 40kph, in the suburbs it is 50kph and everywhere else it is 60kph. The Solomon Islanders cannot drive very well. They have very little spatial awareness. They see a piece of open space so they pull into it. I think the belief is if they can fit in the space then everyone else must adjust. They weave all over the road and generally have trouble staying in lanes. You also have to be aware of a vehicle slowing down for no reason or a sudden change of direction. If you see a door open as the vehicle is travelling, do not be concerned, it is just someone spitting out a wad of bright red betel nut. This is the local drug of choice. Any vehicle with a tray, a Hi-Lux or small truck (lorry) is an invitation for as many people as possible to stand on the back. This is the preferred travelling location. It is far better to sit or stand on the back rather than be seated inside the vehicle.

Thursday 15th November.

25 days to go.

Today is football day. The intrepid work team have repeatedly struggled to 3-2 defeats in consecutive games. They have been the better team on both occasions and also on both occasions have been sitting at 2-2 until the last few minutes of the game. Seeking to find the winner rather than settle for the draw, they have been beaten on the break both times.

Unfortunately there was no ground for us to play on. It is Solomon Cup time. All the local Provinces play off for a trophy. They have claimed all, well when I say all, I mean 3 of the grounds to train on. The other pitches that are used would not pass inspection in Oz.

More info on the Solomons

The economy is currently supported by the fishing and logging industries. There are also developing mineral industries, particularly gold and nickel. Palm Oil and copra are also exported. Recently the Solomons began to export live dolphins. Handicrafts are also produced ranging from woven baskets to carved bowls inlaid with shell. Jewellery is also made from shell.
There are over 550,000 people inhabiting the Solomons. The official language is English, however a combination of English, Pidgin and local dialects are heard. 97% of the population are Christian. The area is subject to earthquakes, volcanic eruption and tsunamis.

Tourism is on the rise in the Solomons. There is not much infrastructure and it is reminiscent of Asia in the 1970s. I went to one, called “fatboys”. They are working hard to make it a destination to enjoy. They are self contained, you can eat, sleep, swim, kayak and snorkle at fatboys. They will organise boats to take you diving and surfing. There are several other resorts to enjoy also. The land is beautiful, rugged and most commonly jungle. On arrival it looks as if some of the trees have been cleared on some hills. This is not so, for whatever reason, nature decided to include some hills that were only grass covered. There are some dangers, such as crocodiles, sea snakes, stone fish and sharks in the waters of the Solomons. If in doubt, as the locals, they will let you know if any are present in the area. There is great opportunity to snorkel and dive. Besides the wrecks from WW2 there are many reefs with many life forms. Turtles, starfish, many types of fish, coral, anemone, sea cucumbers etc are all abound in the Solomons.

There are many different bird species, several species of parrots including the Red Eclectus, to thrushes to megapodes and even hornbills. There are turtles, snakes, both pythons and poisonous types, lizards, scorpions and frogs. Some are poisonous, but they are rare and very seldom seen. There are also bats rats and a marsupial cuscus. There are coconut and mangrove trees grasses and moss. After harvesting the abundant and naturally growing Coconut, the colonists organised a genetically modified Coconut tree. This was shorter than the local one making it easier to climb and harvest. The fruit was also smaller and not as sweet. The locals referred to them as Colonial Coconuts. The indigenous ones are slowly reclaiming the land. It is now unusual to see many of the introduced trees. Cocoa trees were also planted under the coconut trees. Some of the plantations have failed and a lot of the production wasted, or farmed by small producers.

Wednesday 14th November.

26 days to go.

There has been no change on the political front. Each group are gathering support and announcing numbers on the news bulletins. The paper is adding to the heat too.

The letters today include accusations against the Governor General that he is just a mouthpiece for the PM. The letters are also suggesting that he will not recall Parliament and that he should pray for assistance.

Work for me is just spreadsheet after spreadsheet after….. you get the picture.

More on the Solomons.

There has been a lot of inter island rivalry resulting in fighting, but in 1976 they gained self rule and full independence was achieved in 1978. Governments did not generally improve things in the Islands. After the elections in 1997 the rise of “The Tensions” began. Dissatisfaction was voiced more vigorously and inter-Island rivalry mounted. The two main Islands Malaita and Guadalcanal fought each other, with each gaining the upper hand at times. This continued until 2003 when the then PM Sir Allan Kemakeza invited Australia and NZ to assist. RAMSI was a result of this invitation. Regional Assistance Mission Solomon Islands was formed with the inclusion of other Pacific countries such as Tonga, Fiji New Guinea and others first came to the Solomons as a peace keeping force. A combination of Army and Police came to stop the fighting and restore order. They went from village to village and the locals handed over their weapons. Things settled down and civilian members of RAMSI arrived to help the country get back on its feet.

All aspects of government were looked at, Finance, Development, Justice etc. Advisors were brought in with the intention of setting up workable solutions and to capacity build the locals to a level where all aspects of governance could be performed by the Solomon Islanders. Things remained on an even keel until April 2006, further outbreaks of trouble occurred after an election took place. The Islanders believed the newly elected Government, particularly the new PM, Snyder Rini was bought into power by Chinese business. The resultant riots, which were much less disruptive than the previous “Tensions” achieved what they set out to do, the Government fell and a new PM Manasseh Sogavare was put in place.

This precipitated the situation that we are in now, another group, unhappy with the performance of the Government is testing its strength.

Tuesday 13th November.

27 days to go.

I have missed out on providing a couple of pieces of activity due to the local political situation.
Baby Nemo returned from 2 weeks holiday in Oz yesterday. Today Guru departs after 4 weeks here. The team at Aspen, the medical facility for RAMSI staff, are on best behaviour as they have their boss visiting at the moment. I know that my dear reader has been waiting for these riveting pieces of information.

Work is still rushing headlong into tedium. A lot of time is being spent at the computer, with only short breaks to speak to people. On one of these short breaks I met a cameraman for the BBC Wildlife section. He is here with another couple of cameramen preparing for a documentary series on the Pacific. They are chasing some wildlife that is unique to this part of the world. One of which is a skink. This lizard is large for a skink and lives in the Mt Austen area of Guadalcanal. The team has been in various areas of the Solomons doing similar shoots on other creatures. According to James they will be here for about 3 more days. I shall ask him when they think the program will go to air.

As promised here is some information on the Solomons.

The Solomons are believed to have been populated for 30,000 years. Over 990 Islands make up the Solomons covering almost 29,000 sq kms. They were “discovered” by Alvaro de Mendana in 1568 and named by him. As his name suggests he was Spanish and sailed from Peru. When he arrived, legend has it that he was given an egg made of gold. The local tribe thought it was a special egg of their tribe’s totem, the eagle. Mendana thought it was a sample of the riches of the Island and that he had discovered the mythical King Solomons Mine. He subsequently named the Islands.

Missionaries started to visit the Islands in the mid 19th century. Locals were taken to New Zealand and Australia to work in the fields. The Islands became part of the Empire, no NOT the Star Wars one, the British Empire, in the early 1890s. They passed into German hands but were again returned to British rule after WW1. I have told you about the action here in WW2. Just after this the Capital was moved to Honiara to utilise the infrastructure left behind after the war.

Monday 12th November.

28 days to go.

Well a couple of Government members defected to the Opposition today. Later in the day some defected back. They were rewarded with Cabinet Posts. I do not think this strategy will work. The PM needs to find a few more Ministries. There will be no more rewards for those returning to the Government.

The Governor General did not recall Parliament. This keeps the PM happy as he has time to collect some numbers. The letters page and public comment page of the paper has been full of complaints about the Governor General lately. He called in a spokeswoman for one of the womens groups to his Office a couple of weeks ago. Depending on which version you like, he either spoke to her in a fatherly manner to explain his role, or he and the Parliamentary Secretary and another aide intimidated her to stop her organisation from criticising the Government and PM.

Several days of to-ing and fro-ing with explaining the situation have occured. There was an article informing the Governor General that his role is supposed to be Apolitical and that in a Democracy you are allowed to have different views to the views of the Government and you are allowed to express them. So based on the story, is it a surprise that the GG did not recall Parliament?

The other thing mentioned in the article was that the GG is taking Legal advice from the Attorney General. The same Attorney General who is a friend of the PM, who is avoiding extradition to Australia and the same Atorney General the new Opposition group have said they will extradite to Australia within days of them winning power. Needless to say, the Opposition is posturing towards legal action against the GG.

Another organisation has been given instructions to drive to work in convoy. They have been told to stay in the King Sol until things settle down. There are no signs of any public unrest and other than the Polititians no one is hot under the collar. The Opposition are the only ones to ask for calm and let the Parliament fight out the situation. In the meantime we just get on with work as normal.

Sunday 11th November.

29 days to go.

Rememberance Day. Went in to work and completed my administration. As per ususal for no apparent reason there was no internet connection. The link was up the computer was working and my laptop was in contact.

In the evening there was a new bulletin that interupted normal programmes.

A group of polititians made up of Ministers, Backbenchers and the Opposition leaders had petitioned the Governor General to recall Parliament for a vote of no confidence in the PM. The 28 petitioners were a majority of the Parliament. This means that the PM is ruling by minority.

The PM held a press conference and said that only Parliament can dismiss him and he was not resigning. He is collecting numbers for a fight. He also included in his statement that the former Minister of Finance was removed from his position because of irregularities in the Portfolio relating to disbursement of funds. He also went on accusing other members of a raft of accusations.

In answer to this the former Finance Minister held his own conference. He stated that everyone was fed up with the style of the PM and his demeanor. He accused the PM of using his staff, in this case his nephew, who holds some status as Office manager of the PM or some such, of interfering in the Ministries. (This is the person who was dispatched by the PM to get Moti out of New Guinea) The claim is that the nephew would visit and place pressure on Ministers and Senior Public Servants to make certain decisions. (Reflections of Delores Umbridge here I think!)

Further counter allegations were also made. Nothing to do now until we can read about things in the Solomon Star tomorrow. Luckily the cricket was on so I could watch that.

I have bought some large quantities of water, tinned food, fruit and other supplies. We are sure to be confined to our rooms until the situation is sorted out. I would prefer to be at Parliament House to see the action. I have been told it would be too dangerous. Still, I will try to see if I can find out!

Saturday 10th November.

30 days to go.

Well, this is the worst Saturday that I have had since I have been here.

After breakfast, Tweety and I went to the Market and bought some fruit. We then went in to work at around 0930. Pottered about doing the same crap sort of work that needs doing, but you do not want to do it during the normal work day.

Sorting out forms and processes, typing up letters etc etc etc. We have had enough by 1230 and go back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch, I turned on the telly. There in front of my eyes in glorious colour from the New Guinea TV station EM TV, is the cricket. The Test match between Oz and Sri Lanka. I change all my plans for the rest of the day. This took a lot of organising, I placed my book back on the table and my swimmers and towel went back too.

So I sat and watched the cricket. No guilt, no wife to ask if that is all I am going to do, do I not want to go out for a walk, or come shopping, didn't I say I was going to wash the cat or build an Ark this weekend? As the Aussies wrap up the first innings I resume my former plan.

On with the togs and down to the pool for a 30 minute swim and a bit of a relax. Well it is hard work watching the cricket. OK, so maybe not, but it is hard work not reaching for the G & T until 1800! After the cricket has finished I go for a drive, just to get out of the place.

Returning to the King Sol, I make some dinner, have a drink and finish off my book. I then start to read another. I also remember to ring Mrs gotg, I have a very important request, I ask her to record the game between Sunderland and Newcastle. Another day ends in Paradise. I do not know why the Islamic extremists blow themselves up to get to Paradise. It is probably better to send them all to the Solomons. Maybe it is the lack of virgins?

Friday 9th November.

31 days to go.

Well, today we received the news we have a new boss. There is a new Minister of Finance. The previous one has been demoted to a junior portfolio and the new Minister is promoted from that Portfolio.

The timing is unusual. Parliament sits in November for the budget session. The Financial Year here is the same as the Calendar Year. Now there will be several theories on this. The paper here the Solomon Star, has its own. I am not allowed to make public comment on the situation here and I would not venture into that area. I will however paraphrase the article, mainly because for me to transcribe it would take hours.

The newspaper seems to think that the former Finance Minister was removed because he set up a new board for the National Airline. This board appointed a new Financial Officer, I referred to in a previous post. The new FO has uncovered all sorts of "irregularities". He was sacked, but the person doing it had no power to, however it appears that there are 2 Boards, one of whom has sacked the FO. The Chairman of the other Board who appointed the FO is now also under threat.

The new Minister, well, he was recently acquitted of Corruption charges, well not acquitted, the charges were withdrawn. He was charged under an Offence for stealing as a public servant, this is only for people employed in the Public Service. He should have been charged under an offence relating to Parliamentarians. Strangely he has not been charged, which, he can be as the actions so far do not implicate any "Double Jeopardy" being involved. This offence attracts a fine of $2000. From what was written, he admitted he had done it, but as the charges were wrongly laid, he doesn't care. (What happens if you steal $10,000?, this is not a comment on the situation, just a question. The paper did not mention anything about repaying any money taken!)

Anyway, the new Minister is one of the people who did all the leg work for the PM when he was elected. Now he is Minister of Finance. He is expected to sack the new board at the airline next week.

So that is what the Solomon Star thinks. As the paper is only out Monday to Friday, we have to wait to see what happens next. This is exciting to be in the middle of such political intrigue. Last time this happened they had riots and all sorts. I am not expecting anything like that this time though. RAMSI took all the guns last time.

Thursday 8th November.

32 days to go.

For the second day since I have been in the Solomons I have received distressing news.

After the passing of a friend last month, this morning I received news that my friends wife has passed away after a battle with cancer.

Our heartfelt sympathy and condolences go out to Pat and family.

R.I.P. Gina.

Wednesday 7th November.

33 days to go.

Well, go away for a few days and work seems so “normal”. Still, it could be worse, it could be normal work. I got back into the drudgery of writing, changes of practice, risk matrix, instructions to staff and other bits and pieces.

I made an enquiry into promotions for two positions and was laughed at. The Government wastes millions of dollars by giving import exemptions and cannot find an extra couple of thousand dollars a year to place in staff. Still, that is their choice.

Work has dragged on today as I have said goodbye to my wife and I was just getting used to her being around again. Still only five weeks to go until I see her again. I wonder where I can go to next time? Another posting in the pacific I suppose.

There is another political storm brewing here. The Government and RAMSI are always news; however overtaking all of this is the internal wrangling at Solomon Airlines. Two groups want to run the Airline. I don’t know if there is a bad group and a good group, or which group is which. A new board has appointed a new Financial Controller. He is the highest paid employee in the Solomons. He keeps reporting about the cost cutting he is doing, so if all reports are true the Airline is becoming healthy.

The other group are announcing things in the paper and the CEO has sacked the new Financial Controller, only to be told that the Board of Directors are the only ones with that power. The Board sacked the CEO and gave him 3 months notice. The CEO has just grounded all domestic flights on safety grounds. The Civil Aviation Authority say that is news to them. They only wanted some clarification on spare parts availability. Instead of reading thrillers, we only have to read the local newspaper.

Over the next few days I will dig up some info on the Solomons themselves, what’s going on here and stuff like that.

Tuesday 6th November.

34 days to go.

Today is Melbourne Cup day. I front up at the Office at the usual time with Tweety. Go through my emails and make sure everything is up to date. When I return to the King Sol, Mrs gotg is sorting through all her gear ready to pack. We then get in our bathers and head down to the pool. The pool is closed. They are trimming back some trees and have just placed chlorine in it. Come back in about an hour we are told. We go back to the room and get changed. We go down to a local handicraft shop and then to the local market. Mrs gotg gets the chance to buy a coconut to drink too.

The pool is ready by this time and we have a swim for about an hour. Go back to the room and head off to the Lime Lounge for lunch. I then need to do some shopping as my cupboard is bare. We head out to Panatina, do some shopping and then drop it off. All the packing is complete and it is off to the Airport to hand over the luggage and pay the departure tax.

There is 45 minutes to go until boarding. To stay in the air-conditioning We go for a drive along the road to the East of the airport. This area is flatter and they have market gardens etc, it is quite different to the hills in the West. We return to go through to departures.
There is the inevitable hold up at x-ray. We venture into the Duty Free shop, they have some reasonable carvings if you like that sort of thing. As we wander through the shop they start boarding. We walk out to the plane. It is an Air Vanuatu lease. It is a more modern version of the OzJet 737. Mrs gotg is aboard at 1655, the door closes at 1700 and the flight is in the air at 1705.

I hope she enjoyed her short stay, the time here in Honiara and the time at fatboys, even if she did have to spend it with me.

So it is back to the room to do this update and a lonely night for me again. Still it is only 5 weeks to go.

Monday 5th November.

36 days to go.

The airport terminal at Gizo and Mrs gotg.

Well that was our last night here. We are definitely flying out at 1620. We can leave our gear in the room until we leave, the new occupant will be arriving on the plane that takes us out. At about 0600 I hurt my back, no stop that! Grant yells out my name from just outside, he asks if we are on the early flight. In sitting up to answer him I do something to my back. The young couple are leaving on the early flight. When we really get up, we head in for breakfast and some more toast and fruit.

The divers head out and we head for the snorkelling gear, another couple of hours of floating around looking at things within easy distance of the bar, I could take up diving after this experience. We hang around and have lunch. We sit and have a chat with the Austrian doctors over lunch and into the afternoon. We go for a final snorkel and swim and then back to the room to shower and change for the flight back.

We settle up the final bits of the account, it all turns out to be about $1000 Australian. That is the return flight from Honiara, 3 nights’ accommodation and all our meals and hire of the snorkelling gear and transfers. That is a pretty good deal for 2 people. We are dropped off at the airport and we report to the terminal. Our luggage is weighed prior to the flight and as we were at Honiara, we too are weighed. The plane lands at about 1605. A few people get off and leave the terminal and some people get off and wait around, we guess that the flight has stopped prior to landing here. We then see the crew start to take seats out of the plane.

It is now 1620, time to take off, however we find out we are waiting for a medical case that is to transfer to the hospital in Honiara. The patient arrives being carried on a stretcher. The stretcher is then slid into the plane, an accompanying doctor affixes a drip, we all file on board, avoiding the prone body on the floor and we take off for an uneventful flight back. When we arrive, one of our fellow passengers explains that the man was hit with an axe. He was innocently working when he was attacked. His mistake was to be working in a logging operation where 2 clans are claiming the rights to the trees on the land. One wants logging, the other does not. Tweety picks us up and we drop him at the French restaurant at the Honiara Hotel. We are eating there, but come back to the King Sol to freshen up.

When we return to the restaurant, Mrs gotg and I are joined by Tweety, Guru, Nemo and the Duke. They have all come along for a dinner in honour of Mrs gotg! We enjoy some wine and some great food Seafood Skewers, Seafood Gratin, Lobster, Lamb, Eye Steak and Beef Medallions with 3 different sauces were the main courses of choice. Several desserts were eaten too; there was Crepes, Iced Coffee with Chantilly Cream, Chocolate Mousse and Profiteroles. I as per my enforced Spartan regime looked on as they were consumed. We all head off to our respected places for the night.

Sunday 4th November.

37 days to go.

Our Duplex, we are in the right hand side as we view the photo.

After a couple of fruit plates for breakfast, (1 each!) this consists of 3 slices of toast with butter and choice of vegemite, marmalade and honey along with pineapple, bananas, watermelon, star-fruit and others, we return to our room and pack. We still do not know if we will be staying the extra night. Grant, the owner and his wife tell us to stay until late and use the facilities. They are expecting a guest to arrive at 1800, but they are not listed as arriving on the passenger list. If they do not arrive we can stay.

We settle down for a swim and then some lunch. We are joined by some people from Gizo, a couple of Policemen, and a party from the Gizo Hotel. Some local friends of the owners also turn up for lunch. Just as we thought we were as busy as we could get, the surfers who were picked up by the dive boat, also have decided to pop in. We meet them and have a chat about surfing and what they lost when the boat capsized. They arrived towing the boat, complete with its wrecked outboard. A couple of the guys managed to pick up some belongings like a camera and a wallet.

After lunch we go snorkelling. This is the first time I have ever done this. I am to water sports what Donald Trump is to good hairdressing. The range of marine life just around the resort is amazing. There is coral, both dead and living, sea cucumbers, anemone, urchins, starfish and heaps of fish, small, medium and large. All sorts of shapes and colours abound, all this within 50 feet of the bar too. The young couple paddled over to Kennedy Island today, when they set off the sea was flat. After they had departed, maybe an hour later the waves came from nowhere, it was choppy and some white tops. We watched them as they returned and the boat was on standby in case they had some trouble. They made it safely and I helped drag them onto the jetty.

We hatch a plan to travel with our things in the boat. If the guest arrives, we will be dropped off in Gizo, if the guest does not arrive we will return in the boat. The enigma is solved by Grant calling the terminal at Gizo just after the flight arrives. We finally find out that the person who had booked is not coming so we can stay another night. We go back to the room and get ready for dinner. We are having an all you can eat buffet, mixed seafood dishes and some chicken dishes along with vegetables and rice. We have a chat to one of the visitors who tells me he is related to half of the bosses as work! The night starts to deteriorate into a karaoke session and some of the singing is not good.

We take the easy way out and head for bed. Similar to last night, a storm comes in, but not as bad.

Saturday 3rd November.

38 days to go.

Kennedy Island in the fore ground, the Islands he swam to after this are to the right. If you enlarge the photo (by clicking on it) you may be able to see why Kolombangera gets it alternative name. (Hint, the face is in the middle of the photo).

Before I tell you all about the days, let me tell you about fatboys. They have 3 bungalows, 2 of them are for couples the other is a duplex, each of the two sections have a queen size bed and a rear room with 3 single beds. The most people that it can hold are 14 at a time. Each of the bungalows is within 5 metres of the beach. They all have a toilet and bathroom, although the water is rainwater, it only comes in cold. The common room is over the water, you reach it by a jetty about 20 metres long. It contains a landing at each side, a bar, kitchen, toilets and dining room.

All the buildings face a small island called Kennedy Island. This is the first Island Lt John Kennedy reached after his PT boat sank. Behind this small island is the volcanic island of Kolombangara. Kolombangara is known as The Sleeping or Reclining Lady, depending on who is doing the translation. If you look closely at the photo above, possibly you can see why.

There is limited electricity at times; there are some 12v down lights and small 12v fans which are all battery powered during the day. In the evening and night, the generator comes on and the power is normal. There are only openings in the bungalows, not windows. Each of the openings has a bamboo blind which can be raised and lowered as required. With the ceiling or small fans blowing or a breeze coming through the openings it is still cool enough to sleep at night. All of the beds have mosquito nets. I unreservedly recommend a visit to fatboys if ever you visit the Solomons.

After breakfast, (I must warn you that the scrambled egg is 3 pieces of toast piled with scrambled egg) we go for a swim, the water is almost body temperature. We also walk through the trees to a secluded beach at the rear of the resort.

We meet some of our fellow guests, in the other half of the duplex is a couple from Gooloogong in central NSW; they are here for some diving. In one of the other unit are a couple of doctors from Vienna. They too are here for the diving. The last unit is filled today by a young couple from Australia doing the same as us, having a weekend together as part of a reunion weekend. The 4 divers return on the boat for lunch, they have more people than they left with. A group of surfers lost their boat on a reef and were sitting on their boards so they picked them up and brought them in.

Lunch is again as generous as breakfast was, that is why they call it fatboys I guess! We just sit around reading and chatting to the others over some drinks, then look at the dinner menu and eat. Another huge meal is provided. Will my weight loss be able to continue to grow?During the night we have a tremendous storm. I t was raining non-stop for hours and it was heavy.

Friday 2nd November.

39 days to go.

This is the bar/dining room at fatboys.

Well, after picking up Mrs gusonthego yesterday and now, things keep happening in that simple Solomons style. We went out to the prison for dinner. After a very long day of travel an early night is required. We have our accommodation at fatboys in Gizo for Friday and Saturday. We are unsure as to the Sunday night prior to returning home on Monday afternoon.

At 0930 I received a phone call from work to tell me that the flight at 1200 had been cancelled and the next flight will be at 1630. So we just had to sit around the pool and fill in some time. We had some lunch and went out for a drive to Visale. We returned to the King Sol to pick up our gear for the weekend. The King Sol also own the Gizo Hotel so we have booked into the Gizo hotel for Sunday night, at least we now have accommodation.

We then drove into work and pick up Tweety who will drive us to the airport. We arrived as instructed, 1 hour prior to the flights departure. We saw a couple of familiar faces, a couple of women from the King Sol who came in on the same flight as Mrs gotg. We also shared the flight with 17 boxes of cheeping chicks. We were told that the flight will also have another stop prior to Gizo. It is about 32 deg C. there is no breeze. Despite warnings Mrs gotg needs to go to the toilet. The toilet has never been flushed she tells me, it is not hard to believe; I can smell it and I have not been within 20 metres of it.

As the plane is small, there is no toilet on board, but DO NOT USE THE TOILETS AT THE DOMESTIC TERMINAL AT HONIARA AIRPORT.

I cannot make any other suggestion than to reduce liquid intake. We make it past the take off time. Another 30 minutes standing around in the heat and it is time to go. The flight is full. We depart at 1700 and once in the air the air condition kicks in and we get some relief. After 90 minutes in the air, we land at Gizo. We are met by Grant, the owner of fatboys. We walk down to the jetty and hop on the boat for a 15 minute trip to the resort. It turns out that Grants parents live in the next suburb to us in Perth. We go to our bungalow and quickly unpack, have a shower and get to the bar for a couple of Gin and Tonics and a great, but very large, evening meal.

Thursday 1st November.

40 days to go.

Well, I arrived at work to find an email from the resort I had booked for Mrs gus and I to go to over the weekend. I sent them an email as I had not heard from the travel agent confirming my accommodation. It turns out that the resort had confirmed the accommodation was available last week, but the travel agent had not confirmed it. The resort then let out the booking. So I have flights confirmed to the resort and home from the resort, but no accommodation.

The resort has said they can accommodate me on Friday and Saturday. I had booked for the Sunday as well. I will now see if I can either change my return flight to the Sunday or look for other accommodation for the Sunday night. Still unclear as to accommodation on Sunday, but will head off anyway.

I worked through this morning, doing various stuff, along with the person my decisions annoyed last week. He was involved with a job I did and actually joined in supporting the recommendations I was making. Things are looking up on this front.
Picked Mrs gus up. I then gave her the 10 minute tour of Honiara, it should only take 5 minutes, but I drove slowly. We then went in to work and I introduced her around. By the time this is over we return to the hotel. I am greeted with the news that I am changing my room. So we leave her stuff in the new room and take 4 trips to move mine. It is a nicer room though and quieter, finally a win for me!

We then go down to the pool for a while and just relax. We go out for a meal and then back to the hotel. She left home at about 2330 our time and arrived here at 1400 so she has been travelling 14 hours. Add to this the fact she got up on the morning at about 0800 and she has been on the go another 16 hours making it 30 hours.

The resort is called called Fatboys so I hope we can just relax for the weekend. So there will be no updates for my dedicated reader until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Wednesday 31st October.

41 days to go.

Well another interesting day at work. A couple of meetings postponed, Solomons style. One meeting completed. My initiatives seem to be paying off, although progress is slow.
I have also had a couple of meetings with disgruntled clients over the sudden increase in charges and delays. I explained that the information they are giving us is deficient in so many ways it is impossible for us to make decisions. I pointed out the major deficiencies and explained that we can work together to sort this out.

It will take time, it will cost them some money too, but if they do the correct thing and their paperwork is correct then it will eventually result in quicker and efficient delivery and price for them.

I now have to get some of the staff up to speed on several areas. The hardest part is getting consistency. They all have in their head the way things should be done. Each of them has a different process. Convincing them that each of them is slightly wrong and they should all follow the same process is a bit like converting religions. The major problem I have is that I am not allowed to use beads in true Missionary fashion!
After work I went down to watch the work soccer (Football) team. I was given a hand drawn map of how to get to the ground. I was very wary in case it was a trap or was I really joining some form of Cult?

When I arrived my fears were allayed for about 10 minutes. It was a football pitch with goals and everything. No nets or lines, but it was a social work team. The side could only muster 7 players by kick off time. I was drafted in to make 8 and we got another 3 locals who were kicking the ball around to fill in. The other 3 players eventually turned up.

We ended up losing 3-2, but it was enjoyable. There was not a referee, but the game was played in good spirit and when the defence of both sides claimed offside, there was no argument same for hand balls or who touched the ball last before it went out. This impressed me, the sense of fair play was high for everyone.

Back home for dinner. Mrs gusonthego arrives tomorrow. She is here for 6 days. I have planned a couple of days on a resort. That should be sorted out tomorrow.

Tuesday 30th October.

42 days to go.

I had a very bad nights sleep last night. My air conditioner is so noisy I have to have the TV volume on about 60, but last night the generators that are placed next to the hotel were running all night. They run to power the decompression chamber that is at the site. I could also hear the compressor hissing too. The Solomons is a popular place for diving, but I am concerned at the use the decompression chamber gets, not just because it keeps me awake. Either the divers or instructors out here are irresponsible.

I went out today to sample some gold. A 10kg lump to be precise. I am sending 4 samples back to the University of Western Australia. A very clever chap there has set up a data base which identifies where gold is from. It is sort of a DNA fingerprint. This should help identify stolen gold and identify where it was mined.

The Coastwatchers rescued 75 prisoners of war, 321 downed Allied airmen, 280 sailors, 190 missionaries and civilians, and hundreds of native people and others who had risked their lives for the Allies. All of this came at a cost of course. 43 European and 60 local Coast Watchers lost their lives during this time.

None of the Coast Watchers were paid. They were all volunteers. The organisation was set up before Pearl Harbour. They were to be used as an advanced warning for the defence of Australia. They were selected Plantation Owners, Missionaries and Government Officials; they were not expected to be operating behind enemy lines. They were given training in radio technique and using code. They were also briefed on what action to take if key targets fell into enemy hands. All of this, although not clearly planned for occurred due to the rapid advances of the Japanese forces. They then endured the removal from luxuries they were used to, forced to eat cold meals during the day, an unsure supply chain and on more occasions that not sleeping in trees or under logs.

Other contributions included the identification of safe harbours, the maps were not of a high standard and both Admiralty and Japanese maps were incomplete. In one instance a Coast Watcher who had lived in the Solomons since 1925 informed the Allies of a safe harbour that did not exist on maps. From this base attacks were launched, the Japanese did not send patrols to the location as their maps showed that the area was not navigable. Some Coast Watchers served the entire War without contributing directly to the War effort. However, their presence alone meant that they added to the safety and well being of Allied Forces.

It was the killing of several of the Coast Watchers that prompted the granting of Rank. This offered some protection as they were then regarded as serving Officers; it also enabled the payment of pensions to surviving relatives. Prior to this they were instructed to cease operation when the area they were operating in fell into enemy hands. This instruction was however, ignored by the Coast Watchers. They continued to perform behind enemy lines, putting themselves and others at risk.