Guest blog for Thursday May 2 2013

When we landed at Mount Pleasant I felt apprehensive but also so excited to finally arrive. A bit more form filling was required. I had entered and left Chile in one day with nothing to declare but still had to pass Customs one more time. Such a ‘pleasant’ experience.
My troubles were however not at an end. My bag was last onto the conveyor .. I spent my first quarter hour in the Falklands apprehensively checking the belt for my bag. Then, my booked pickup driver left me and others stranded at the airport. She eventually came back after being told that there were passengers to be picked up as well as those to be dropped off.

It is hard to describe the journey into Stanley …such a beautiful sky and unusual and dramatic scenery. I was so engrossed with chatting to my two interesting companions that I forgot to take one single photo. This mistake will not be repeated on the return journey.
Of my fellow passengers, one was a local who works at Seal Island and lives, while in Stanley, in a very traditional FI house (photo below). The other, a nursery teacher, has been here for a few years. By the end of the journey she was asking me to come in and help with the preschool outing to the Fire Station.

More mixups re address but finally arrived at my destination. Ian really is here and living in this ‘traditional style’ house and working at the hospital (blue roof)

More to follow … Diddle-dee berries and lighthouses.

Falklands blog for Thursday May 2 2013
Down to Gypsy Cove as the sun was setting. Perhaps there was a straggler still there, enjoying the Indian Summer that is blessing the Falklands. All the burrows we looked in were empty but just then, halfway down the beach stood a Jackass penguin – he looked at the pair of Upland geese next to us and was not bothered, but he did not like the look of us. His passage down the beach was precipitate.  He scooted in his belly with his flipper wings digging into the white sand like sabres. Hitting the water at speed, he then accelerated out into,the crystal clear light green waters of the bay and was gone.
The beach was empty.

Moulting finished, the rest of the Magellanic penguins have headed off to South America and will only return next year to breed on these islands. The Rockhoppers have also left, leaving the Kings and Gentoos behind.

Some birds have stayed behind. I have a new favourite – the Military Starling. What is not to like?

Guest Falklands blog for Tuesday April 30 2013
I don’t normally grant privileges on this site, but when faced with force majeure, what can you do?

My trip to the Falklands had been planned for a long time and the day had finally arrived. It was an awfully big adventure and an experience of a lifetime involving five flights over two days. One very short change over in Sao Paulo saw me running around getting directions over and over again and finally joining the queue to board just in time.
The views out of the window on the flight into Santiago were spectacular and it is not everyday you get told to fasten your seat belt and to expect some turbulence because you are flying over the Andes!
I was still smiling about that when I was waiting and waiting for my bag.
It however was not so smart and decided to miss that flight.
My suitcase joined me the following morning at 01:30; after being presented to a fellow passenger in the hotel who was also really missing his luggage. My experience was not unusual (hence the luggage display in Arturo Merino Benitez Airport) – I met 3 friendly Falkland Islanders who reassured me that this was normal on this route. So far from home, yet on chatting, we had so much in common even though they live over 7000 miles from the UK.
So with bag now in tow I headed off for the last leg.
The view from the plane made me forget my troubles;it was straight out of a
David Attenborough programme … Mountains for nearly 3 hours … impossible to explain.

More tomorrow .…

Falklands blog for Tuesday April 30 2013
Even the gnomes have gone inside for winter

Falklands blog for Tuesday April 30 2013
There are many different birds in Stanley. Domesticated ducks are one of my favourites. Is it the eggs? Is it “Duck a la Orange”?
No, it is the quack.
Nothing like it for raising the spirits. Sitting on the sofa – well to be honest, lying down on the sofa and enjoying the ambient noises drifting in through the partly open window. Every now and again, my neighbour’s ducks quacking floats through the window as a laughing quack. It makes me smile, relax and I know all is fine in this small corner of the world

Falklands blog for Sunday April 28 2013
Driving past the house with the whale bones in the garden from beachings around the shores, I noticed that the wraps were going up and masking the skeletons from view. The bones, though enormous, are porous and some are light and fragile. They have been varnished against the elements, but frost and ice are their enemies. I lag my Tasmanian ferns for winter and take down porous pottery from the walls – much the same thing I suppose. Sometimes, we get caught out in the UK with a severe winter. Cordylines died in their hundreds at home over the winter of 2010 – 11. I know that this is not Winterfell but the nights are drawing in here. Frost dappled the grass this morning and the sun takes his time in warming up the streets. Out on Cape Pembroke, tea berries are still present but more scattered.
Winter is coming

Falklands blog for Monday April 22 2013

A holiday here for the Queen’s birthday. Would you you like to join us for a ‘Treasure Hunt’? More of a scramble around Stanley to photograph street signs from anagram clues and decide which of the local landmarks best suited the question sheet.
Some were easy – the ‘dark birds roosting’ were turkey vultures nesting in the trees around Government House. The Great War referred to the Cross of Sacrifice by the Cemetery, and not the memorial to the naval battle of the Falklands in WWI.
What was ‘The Holy of Holies’: the best we could think of was Stanley Golf Course – perhaps not the answer that was sought.
Berries, pebbles and feathers were gathered and ticked off the list. What did the Wizard of Oz mean?
The conversation in the car raised facts such as Dorothy, Toto, the Lion, the Tin Man, Ruby Slippers, The Emerald city, Kansas and even the Wicked Witch. No one had the courage to mention the Munchkins.
Ah ha – as this was a guides event, Rainbows appeared in our thoughts, not in the sky, but on the side of the guide hut. Our answer was where we had started on our quest.

A superb birthday card for ‘Mrs Queen’ made up of driftwood, shells, leaves and berries clinched the outcome. The ‘Billy Franchise’ had triumphed again (I was even forgiven by the rest of the team for foolishly giving away 1 point in my excitement). Chocolates all round after tea, cakes and medals. Time for us to go home and for the other box of chocolates to be taken to the hospital, but alas never to return from its visit to the ward.

Can ‘Billy and His Chums’ go on to higher things? Only the next instalment can reveal the answer.

Falklands blog for Sunday April 21 2013
As my nephew used to say: a bit gingy (windy) today, but a gusty warm north east wind; sounds like an oxymoron, but here, when the south wind does blow, we shall have snow.

A parade for the Queen’s birthday, and a severe test for the headdress of those on parade; peaked caps were worn with the chin strap applied, but berets did not fare too well. I was most impressed with the Governor’s cocked hat with feathers, that proved superbly aerodynamic and that did not budge an inch.

The band of 150(Y) Tpt Regt RLC played bravely, the music coming and going with the gusts of wind. They had put on a concert to raise money for the guides at the Town Hall on Friday. They are a TA band from the RLC with a slight leavening of RAMC bandsmen and played well at the Cathedral for the Memorial service on Wednesday.

Above the parade, the turkey vultures soared and wheeled. No effort at all to keep these large birds aloft – just sheer enjoyment of the warm gusts and up drafts.

Falklands blog for Thursday April 18 2013
We had our memorial service today. Many people were up early for the service on UK TV – 05.00 here to catch the start of Sky’s coverage. Our service in the cathedral started at 14.00 local ie 4 hours behind BST.
I haven’t found anyone here with a bad thing to say about Lady Thatcher. All Falkland Islanders really appreciate what she did for them and for being the one person in that government to make the crucial decision. Many of those in the cabinet would have just wrung their hands and done nothing.

A thoughful service with a very good address by the minister. Then out into the warm sunshine to mingle and observe the news crews. The last time they were here was during the referendum, when horizontal sleet dismayed the S American reporters.
This time, warmer than London. A good cup of joe for us (latte and cappuchino) in the West Store cafe (most shops were closed for the holiday) and then a brisk climb up Dean Street.

Back to watch the coverage on tv .. a chance for 5 minutes of fame perhaps?

Measles
An absolute disgrace, the return of a severe illness that should have been consigned to history. Who to blame?
Certainly .. the disgraced and now struck off charlatan Andrew Wakefield. He lied, made up his ‘findings’ and suppressed any science that did not fit in with his crusade. Oh and by the way, he put his experimental subjects (children) health and lives at risk by invasive tests – endoscopies and biopsies that have a recorded perforation rate. This is why he was struck off by the GMC and is no longer a practicing doctor
So has he said he is sorry? – guess what .. not one whit.

The parents? Heeding alarmist and cod science from pundits, anti establishment doctors – who were oh so keen to provide a private individual vaccination service for money, and of course the 3rd estate.

Why won’t people believe proper real science? Homeopathy still flourishes as does crystal healing and other weird beliefs. This would be laughable if it were not for the fact that people get harmed by omission of proven therapy.
Rant over for the moment.

Falklands blog for Tuesday April 16 2013

I could have titled this, raining cats and dogs. Rotten weather with thunder and lightning and stair-rod rain and the MPA road closed to MOD personnel. Still wait a wee while and different weather will come along – it did. It is now spitting, but no need to “run for your lives”.

Back to the cats. All curious and friendly. Whistle and they will come up to you and be friends. Leave the front door open, and they will settle down in your house. They have the rule of the roost here and the dogs don’t like it. I never seem to see dogs being taken on a lead for a walk, though I did see a sheep taking a boy for a walk along my street the other night.

The dogs are mostly working dogs and are tied up in gardens and are very territorial. I presume that they do not socialise as much with people while being taken for “walkies” as dogs in the UK do. Back home, meeting fellow dog owners and their pets is a chance to natter and to create a complex knot of dogs and leads; the dogs get to meet others of their kind, to be “clapped” by friendly doggie people and if they are lucky (they usually are) to be given a treat or two.

Cats don’t seem partial to treats, but they enjoy the attention and a tuft or two or three. I will never forget watching a young boy climb the street on his way home in Stanley. His cat trotted down the street (in that elastic bouncing way that cats do), circled him a couple of times and then walked back home with him again. Nature abhors a vacuum and cats now occupy the evolutionary niche that elsewhere is full of dogs.

 Gizmo from next door