Friday 21st September.

81 Days to go.

Well, today it rained for the first time. I was sort of expecting it to pour down for ages and then the air would be swwet and cool. What an idiot! It just made it twice as hot. Drudged through work, the power outages are getting worse. We lost maybe 3 hours during the day. Not all at once though.

We have a generator, however it is a bit old and no-one knows what to do with it. It is supposed to come on within a minute of the power going off. Sometimes a button has to be pressed. Other times it runs out of fuel and nobody replaces it.

We have another generator, it is almost new. The Ministry of Finance gave it to us. They got a brand new one and this one was playing up. So they gave it to us with all the inherant problems. We installed it, but are not allowed to start it up as the exhaust does not have a rain catcher on it, this is to replace the upturned plastic soft drink bottle that sits on the pipe to stop water entering. One day something will happen.

Tweety and I have moved hotels. We were told that a room would be available in another hotel with a kitchenette, we went and had a look, it was OK so we have moved in. We will be sharing until a second one becomes available. I will only be there until Thursday and I head off somewhere else until the following Friday. The other room will be available then. So it is now the “KING SOLOMON HOTEL” for me!

This evening the whole work team, seven of us, as Baby Nemo is not really one of us, she is an external consultant, and she has taken a week off, go up to the Honiara Hotel for pre dinner drinks and dinner.

It was horrendous. It is very hot and very humid, they have air conditioners, but prefer to keep the doors open and ceiling fans on. The others want to watch the AFL. We go down to the restaurant and have dinner. After arriving in the hotel and getting a drink, then going down and ordering the meal it took about an hour inbetween the ordering and receiving. Then upstairs for drinks and to watch the football.The humidity and temperature has not dropped. To me it feels like I am hovering over a bain marie. I am not taking it well and am relieved when Tweety said he was ready to head home!