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 The Tongans have been replaced by PNG troops.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.