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.