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.