St Helena Thursday 7th January 2016
Well all my moaning and groaning about life on shore these last few weeks, I now take it all back. Well except for the Internet that is.
Today was a good day on shore, if we can forgive getting on and off the ferry that is, oh man was it rough and scary but we survived it shaking and wet but we are still alive.
Early in the morning I got out on deck and did my final coat of painting the anti skid sections and I have to say they look good and the off white was just perfect, they look so clean and new, I know it won't be long until they are dirty looking again but at least I can enjoy it for a little while.
As per usual we went to shore with a list of groceries, mainly of course fresh stuff and low and behold we got everything on the list and almost in one shop.
Because the RMS had came in and by the way is now gone to Ascension Island and will be back in a few days time, but this trip they unload all the fresh produce and bits and pieces.
You can't help getting into the vibe with all the locals as you see their excited faces unloading shipping containers and getting their long awaited stuff.
As we were walking up past the wharf we wanted to stop in and see Brian in port control, as we had given him a hard drive that had stopped working, a long story cut short, I had given our hard drives to the guys on Ondine to copy some movies and such and when I got them back, one was not working, was so not happy, two terabytes of movies lost.
But we remembered Brian's son was into all computer stuff so we asked Brian if he could have a look at it.
We had little hope of it working again but hey it was worth a try at least.
So we go looking for Brian and he is out on the forklift unloading shipping containers, crazy, they sure are a jack of all trades here, he informed us that his son had got it working again, he is now our new best friend...haha
We actually ran into his son walking up the street and asked what we could pay him, he just said nothing, we offered our hard drives for him to copy, he was not interested in movies but any TV series he would love to copy, I so love these people.
And you guys on Ondine well you are now forgiven...haha
As we were walking up we passed one little shop and they were just unloading all their produce from the back of a tip top little van/ truck, serious nothing in cartons or anything just all thrown in together, it was quite funny.
So we get to Star grocery and wait for it they had, lettuce, tomatoes, capsicum, cucumbers, lemons, potatoes, onions, pumpkins, baby squash, and yes Avo's I ended up getting a whole bag of these little mamas. I was so so happy.
We wanted to get some cheese as well, they have a really nice one here that they call Vintage Cheese, actually you can only get 4 types of cheese, they have cheddar, mature, Vintage and mozzarella, but they actually write on the packet Mozzarelly it cracks me up every time I see it.
The grocery store called The Victoria is the only one that sells the Vintage cheese and of course it's the one right at the top of the hill.
So while The Captain waited in line to buy our groceries, I decided to walk up to The Victoria, I knew he would be awhile as it seemed like everyone on the island was in The Star buying fresh produce.
I decided to look in one of the other shops called Thorpe's to see if they had anything different in there, I get to the doorway and they have a shopping trolley out front, with animal cracker biscuits in it and a sign for free, man who does that these days.
I know they were most likely almost out of date but still, there are not many places in the world these days that would give it away for nothing.
I managed to get our cheese and they actually had Mushrooms here as well, oh man my day was complete, I was one happy little Chappy, we will dine well once again.
Well tomorrow is another day.