Well it has been a long time hasn't it?

After such a hiatus and such a twisty year, not only am I in a new home, it's time for a new blog home. So please jump over to ant.webwontok.com and I'll have all this old stuff and something new soon.

Cheers from Honiara.

An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.

Seemed relevant. And I like;

Born to be wild - live to outgrow it.

Perhaps this sums things up at the moment?

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Lao Tzu

Labels: Quotes

Hello!

Christmas in Honiara, from Late 06 - Ear...

Welkam to 2007! Most of you were probably already there but some things happen slow here in the Sols...

Maree came back with me after my half way break. We had a manic road trip from Sydney (where we spent out time buying video cameras....), up to Blackwater (central Queensland) and then back to Brissie. 3000km is not the most relaxing way to spend two weeks, but it was ok and great to see the rels.

With my niece Esther, Late 06 - Ear...

Maree in Blackwater Late 06 - Ear...

Back in Honiara, we got on with improving our pijin, Maree learned an island dance (you've got to see the video below) and I worked. At work I got all obsessed with fixing (?breaking?) the computer network and building an intranet site (in Joomla!) for the hospital.

From Late 06 - Ear...

Maree's friend Late 06 - Ear...

Xmas long Solomons Late 06 - Ear...

In the line of duty Late 06 - Ear...

Time has flown and it is sadly time to leave the Sols. We have made stakka stakka friends here and it will be sad to not see them for a while. Happily Aspen has sorted out my year which will be approximately as follows:
Feb 19 back to Australia
Early April - East Timor to work in Dili for 3 months
Then back to Oz before returning to the Solomons in August for 6 months (if RAMSI don't get kicked out altogether...)

You can keep track of all of this on this calendar... "What country is Ant in?"

Honiara Late 06 - Ear...

Tomorrow Maree and I are off on an adventure with out friend Willy.

Willy Late 06 - Ear...

Willy is a wood carver who happens to have one arm. He is from Morovo Lagoon. We set sail at 7am to travel there and stay a few days in his village. Then we should be back to Brisbane on the 19th. Wish us luck!

I have often used coffee to kick-start myself...
And I learned about the 'high-bridge' experiment at uni.

Now someone has put 2 and 2 together and gotten:

"How to get started on anything."

I love it, a 'trick played upon a trick.'

So while a newsy post is way overdue (and coming, honest!) here's the latest in Ant's geek bag of tricks;


The other day internet browsing from work was shaky - google.com wouldn't work but google.com.sb would... Now I am pretty sure that Google's servers have a high uptime, so this makes me suspect the domain name server belonging to the ISP - Solomon Telekom.

Then today I chanced across a more reliable solution - openDNS. Nothing to download, just change a couple of numbers in the network settings and bingo, better browsing.

Wanna 'backup' DVDs? - try the following:


Combines a few free programs so you can rip, shrink(if necessary) and burn DVD's.
Or try this solution from Lifehacker.


Skype is great, but.... it has become almost unusuable here in the Solomon Islands. Internet is a scarce resource due to high latency (satelite connections only out the country) and generally poor infrastructure. But whenever I compare it to Google Talk, GT wins hands down.

Google talk is better because:

1. Lower latency ie no six-second delay.
2. Has level meters in the interface so you can see your mic and speaker levels. This removes my worst Skype error - the one where the mic isn't fully plugged in.
3. Cool voicemail. If the receiver isn't there, they receive an MP3 of your voicemail in their Gmail account.
4. It integrates with chat in gmail.

Skype is better because;

1. It has computer-to-landline ability. This is still to come in GT - in 2007.
2. It has video. But I don't use that anyway.

So try it out by downloading here.

Labels: Geek

And since our last update...
(Click on pix for full size...)

Interesting times in Honiara.

It was all going nicely. The best way to accidentally find time for a beach swim is to be on a helicopter run to an outpost in a tropical idyl....







Work ticking over nicely. Enough patients to keep us from complete boredom. A really good team of people. The odd party, the odd pleasant restaurant meal.

Then the political temperature headed north like the fever of our malaria patients.

The history of recent politics in the Solomons is long and complicated. Unfortunately, due to a variety of often hidden reasons, the relationship between the Solomon Islands government and Australia deteriorated drastically, also raising tensions between the opposition and government.

Then a month ago, the opposition raised a motion of no-confidence in the government. Fearing a repeat of riots in April which destroyed a large section of the capital, the RAMSI police and army mounted a large operation to ensure any unrest was nipped in the bud quickly. We established first-response teams to wait at the parliament, just in case... Here’s me and the boys guarding the building...



The motion was well defeated, but the level of unrest rose. Gang violence, some targetted at foreigners resulted in out staff now being on movement restrictions and curfew. This limits the dining-out possibilities just a bit! While the overwhelming majority of the population seems to support the stability RAMSI has bought, Prime-minister Sogavare continues to threaten to expel the Australian contingent, which makes up the bulk of the 700-personnel contingent.

Where to now? For the Solomons, I’m not sure and nor is anyone else. A very interesting description was in the Sydney Morning Herald here. I really hope things cool down and this wonderful country can keep improving the lives of its wonderful people.

But for me, come Tuesday I am flying to Aus for a two week break where at last I get to see my beautiful Maree again! We’ll meet in Sydney and have an ipod-fuelled road trip to visit all the family in Sydney, Newcastle, Ballina, Brisbane and especially my new niece in Blackwater.


Then we’ll come back to the Hapi Isles for another three months, which will be even better with Maree here.

Welkam to Honiara!

One month in and time for an update.

[Click on any photos for a bigger version :) ]

As you know, I’m working here for Aspen Medical, a subcontractor providing medical services to RAMSI.

Work is going well. The operation seems to be running more smoothly than twelve months ago and the current crew is great. We have nurses, paramedics, dental, radiographer, various support staff. Oh and some doctors. It is all set up to handle everything from a soldier with a sore tooth to a mass casualty event requring helicopter retrieval, surgery and medical repatriation. We now have a new manager who is very shy and retiring. OK that was obviously wrong – gday Mark (aka Captain Darling).


The millieu at the base is a bit different with the addition of a lot of soldiers who have big guns glued to their sides. These poor guys and girls appear very young and make me feel very old. You have to be young maybe to live in a tent in this weather.

Honiara has not changed that much in a year, except for the desolation of Chinatown and the casino in April’s riots. Both these locations are still bare, awaiting decisions on redevelopment.

Chinatown now


Lost the gamble - casino after the riots


Honiara by night

They have also had their second new prime minister in a year. The political situation is difficult to grasp. Their seems a general disatisfaction with leadership but systemic change creaks slowly. The fear is that disatisfaction will build and erupt violently again, as in April, but from my limited perspective things seem fairly stable at the moment.

And my perspective is limited. I have been trying to learn pijin, but progress is slow! It is such a fun language. My best phrase currently is Mi no save enisamting – I don’t know anything.

We mostly stay at the good old King Solomon Hotel. It’s pretty good (the locals call it the palace).

Currently however I’m temporarily at one of two houses rented by Aspen – originally titled the Pink House. I have renamed the I.N.K.P. HQ in the hopes of keeping some cred. It is pretty funny, reminding me of a transformer toy – we just keep waiting for the roof to lift off and the thing to emit lasers.


We have free-standing deck and an adjacent leaf-haus.

INK-P HQ


The Deck


Old Mate - Our Guard

And it’s all cyclone fenced with security guards. Very bizarre, but great for a party! We even chip in for a cleaner who makes the place spookily clean – even irons the undies! I’ll only be here for a nother couple of weeks though.


What else is new? The currency has devalued a little, so settling up at dinner is more colourful.


Sol-brew, the local lager, now comes in cans instead of bottles.


The traffic is getting worse.


The Taiwan vs China debate is always in the paper. (Solomon Islands is one of few countries that give diplomatic recognition to ROC; the PROC would like to change that).


The Honiara Hotel has a nice new pool to visit.


Another big change – I was only supposed to be here for 10 weeks, but I’ll now be here until February!! We were really hoping to visit Rami for a white christmas, but instead Maree will join me in November and we’ll be having a white-hot christmas instead. We’ll then go travelling and see where the year takes us. It’ll be my 35th so I would like it to be an interesting one! Poor Maree is stuck currently in London packing up our flat while working – to those who are helping her out:

Tanggio tumas fo eversamting iufala duim fo mifala.


Looking out to Savo - the dormant volcano.



So please come and visit... You might just love this place as much as I do.

	No anger inside means no enemy outside.
–Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Oh not much.


Sit in the front row at Wimbledon and be on the telly!


Visit Prague


And Barcelona

And fly across the world


Catch up with family

Then jet back to tropical Honiara.

What the...?

The chance to work in the Solomons came up again and was too good to turn down. So currently I am here until early Ocotber but sadly I am here by myself. Maree is currently working on a TV production in London and Newcastle, so painfully we are apart for a too-long period. Parting in the romantic surrounds of Heathrow Terminal 3 is not an ordeal I recommend to anyone. It was tempered though by the unexpected joy arising of knowing how much you love and are loved by someone. It was like the atmosphere on a mountain, where the altitude and atomsphere make for a vivid perspective and breathing difficulty!

Wimbledon
Maree took me to Wimbledon and I got hooked, even returning two days later. We got up at four thirty and trekked to Wimbledon. There you join the most organised queue you've ever seen, complete with stewards, catering and a printed “Guide to Queueing.” Its all very civilised, and Wimbledon is the most civilised sporting event I can imagine (except polo – but that's probably not my scene...).

I was a nice surprise on the second visit to score front row seats to watch Sharapova v Pennetta. A super match that let us wave to you all via the television camera that was admittedly trained on Sharapova right in front of us. And in the afternoon – how impressive to see Navratalova getting round the court in the open ladies doubles, totally revising my expectations of what we should all be doing at age 49!

Travel
With the Solomons calling we decided to squeeze in some travel; so first off to Prague.

Prague was amazing. Thanks to hotel mismangement, we managed to use three different rooms (in two hotels) in three nights. But what a magical city. It felt like a dramatic saint peered at you from every roof. The Charles Bridge is like an open air scultpure gallery and we certainly rubbed the statue that will apparently ensure we return to Prague.

Then we flew to Barcelona and met up with the wonderful Lan and Lewis for three days in the sun.


Getting aquainted with the work of architect Gaudi was seriously inspirational, and the Barcelonans sure know how to conduct a beach.

Solomons
So here I am again! Arrived in Honiara on Saturday afternoon. Humid but temps are currently relatively cool. Back to the old King Solomon hotel which has had a bit of a spruce up in parts so is looking pretty nice. My room is fantastic – balcony and a real mattress! And the staff are friendly as always.

Honiara looks relatively the same as a year ago, with the exception of Chinatown which has been relatively flattened. Only a few shops there remain standing, There seem to be a surprising number of new shops scattered around town. Plus there is a new ATM!

The hospital I work in supports the personal for RAMSI. The only changes in the hospital seem to be improvements, so that's good. There are a few familiar faces in the team. Only negatives are that I can't plug my laptop in at work now, though we still have a computer with Skype we can use there. Might be getting to know the internet cafes well!

Did the earth move for you too?

And just to trouble the worriers amongst you, I felt my first ever earth tremor the other night! All that happened was the sensation of the bed rocking a bit. I stuck my head out the door and no one else seemed worried, so I wasn't able to be sure it had even been one until the next morning. I must say it was a humourous feeling!

Just in case anyone wants to visit, I hear dolphin island is still operational! And here is some tempting food:

Chilli Mud Crab

To understand this:

and this


You better read this

I was a bit worried about this:

We've just enjoyed a lovely weekend in Switzerland.


(Just click on any photo to see it full size or click on the slideshow link at the bottom of the page.)

Thanks to winning flights from the nice people at London City Airport, we were able to catch the DLR straight to the terminal and fly off. (Best bit is they only require check-in half an hour before takeoff - very good when your partner is running late!!)

Flying over the chanel I was amazed how narrow it is.

And so to Switerzerland, also known as Confoederatio Helvetica, and so the abbreviation CH.



At least, that's what they say, I believe the brchure which says it stands for CHocolate, CHeese and CHarm.

We started in the old town of Zurich whith a Swiss meal of cheese fondue and raclette. I've never eaten so much cheese, let alone survived. It has a digestively intimidating experience. But lovely!

After our meal, Zurich came alive as Switzerland had just qualified to move to the next round of the world cup. Let's just say people were a little excited.


Retreating to the hotel room to shelter from cheering and cheese, we were stoked to dicover Perfect Match still showing on a German speaking chanel.

Yes, the centre contestant is wearing lederhosen. No, I don't know why.

After a lovely breakfast that did indeed include some cheese, we explored Zurich, wandering down to the lake, which Maree investigated from beside, upon and under.










We also visited Sprungli, the famous chocolate shop. Luckily, my levels of vitamin CH were still quite high and I couldn't manage much chocolate.

The waters of Zurich (and most of the rivers we saw) were clean and a fantastic colour. Even Zurich tap water tasted good.

Hilariously enough, I was suddenly asked if I was a nurse from Brisbane... It was a friend of a doctor I worked with at home - so it was nice to bump into Dr Darren again, currenly researching something in Munich. Small world.

Soon it was time to take a train through very scenic landscapes to Lugano in the South. Stunning scenery, clear waters, and a quick change from German to Italian.




I really liked the Swiss, who seem relaxed and very polite. Two women in our carriage placed plastic on the opposite seats so they could rest their feet on them.

Of course almost everyone spoke English in addition to their own languages. We felt quite shamed of our linguistic ability by the end.

Lugano


Descending the hill from the stazione at Lugano, you immediately appreciate the mediterranean feel. Not that I've ever been there either. We had a really comfortable hotel (padded walls!), and with the temperature in the thirties, the air-con was welcome. A while after we wandered through the piazzas and sought out an Italian dinner. This turned out to be typically Italian in some of the less celebrated ways.

But if our holidays revolve around food, breakfast was a new high. You won't believe it, but there was lots of cheese. And cold meats, pastries, etc etc but astoundingly enough, cups of melted chocolate. Not chocolate milk, just straight chocolate, with bowls of Swiss choc to dip in it... Yet we survived.

It was best we repent of our gluttony, so we visited an historic church featuring a fresco by a student of da Vinci.




And what to do then but swim? The lido was packed with sunbathers basking in 35 degrees.


Our train journey home took us again through the scenic Swiss countryside, and soon enough we were back in London, which was a little less grumpy than normal having also just won a World Cup match.

Next time I'm in Switzerland I'll visit the countryside and ski in the mountains, but until then... I'll eat more cheese.

View our Switzerland album (more photos than above) here. Or watch the slideshow here.