Falklands blog for Thursday March 14 2013
Walking
Walking is good. Why are lots of people in their cars? A 10 min walk to work with a slight stopover to tuft a nice big moggie; friendly and very fluffy. Lots of nice cats around. Only seen 2 dogs – all under restraint. The cats have the run of the place here.

Widdershins
Whoa! Beautiful morning with the sun already high at 07.50, rising in the East. To my right is the harbour, heading west. Nearly at the top of the rise, with most of the houses downhill, or north. A bit of a start, with the sun in the Southern Hemisphere going the ‘wrong’ way around ie anticlockwise. Now, before clocks, the name was and continues to be widdershins

Is the pope an Argentinian?
It seems that he is. Perhaps he does not like Ms Kirchner?
Stupid question of the day from the Sky reporter – will the pope be welcome in the Falklands and would you roll out the red carpet for him.
— yes, and I’m afraid that I don’t think we have a red carpet

The road from Stanley to Mount Pleasant Airport is a poor road. It seems to have got worse since I last travelled this way many years ago. It has a mix of metalled cover and loose gravel. The loose gravel or unsurfaced part is in the ascendent in length and teeth rattling awfulness. Ridges, enormous potholes and increasing wear render this a nightmare for vehicles, and their occupants; imagine being a patient with abdominal pain or a fracture, enduring this journey. Have I said enough?

4 seasons in a day. Cold this am, so it was a cold dry walk down the hill to the bread shop for a tasty brown whole meal loaf. Working in a bakery in this weather has its benefits. I will order a spelt loaf for later in the week. It will make a nice change from white sliced supermarket bread.
At lunchtime, mild with no wind but we now have snow from the South. I suppose that the hail that came and went first thing this am during breakfast, completes the seasons.

Wind with lashings of rain overnight. My house is cosy and quiet though with double glazing and insulation. I do miss the noise of the weather outside – more in touch with nature, at a cost of a colder house.
The RAF rescue helicopter arrived on the school playing field with the fire engine and ambulance in attendance.

The election continues. A queue to vote – you don’t often see that in the UK. Lots of journalists including South American ones, shivering in the cold. A Colombian female journalist needed more layers and confided in me that this was not like S America at all. Too cold, windswept and ‘British’.
The hail returned…

Oh how Stanley has changed. Supermarkets off the bypass (under construction when I was here last). More cars than before and busy. New houses aplenty, but enough of the weather distressed wriggly tin roofed wooden houses still stand.
Playgrounds full of kids on play boats, swings and slides.

The red, white and the blue. Election fever has struck Stanley. Cars are festooned with union flags and the Falklands standard. Flags hang from every lamppost along the waterfront, stream from cranes and fill shop windows. I deeply suspect that the result will be a Yes to continue with the UK.

Landing in the cloud. Good landings are those when you can walk away and use the plane again afterwards. That was a good landing.
Into a minibus after my luggage was the last off the carousel – last by a long time. Minibus in the rain to Stanley jammed in with journalists from NBC and the Telegraph– there were others too, but sardines can’t move to look around.
The Malvina hotel has changed and grown. Most stopped there.

My abode, just off Dean Street was welcoming and cosy.
Set up computers and wifi and I now realise how limiting a capped bandwidth is. The Gold Account is 3.2GB per month. Facetime would eat that up in a moment.
I did however find out that there is free bandwidth with no limit from midnight to 6am. This blog will therefore be uploaded after midnight.

Thu 7th March 2013
Good flight from Ascension, but the usual 3 hour arrival before the flight – so that the 2 passengers could be processed.
On plane, watched ParaNorman, (fun and I laughed out loud), The Expendables 2 (a waste of time), and Premium Rush – really really good
And all watched on a complimentary loan of an ipad. Clever app; only worked when headphones plugged into ipad. Great screen, able to place ipad for best viewing angle. This is the future

Wed 6th March 2013

Well, up at 06.00 and off to Long Beach once I could see my hand in front of my face.

Lots of photos of turtles heading back to the ocean having laid their eggs in the night.