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.