We have been back to school now for two weeks, and as seems to be the norm; a lot has happened. We now have five hens with a very impressive hen house made entirely from pallets Chris managed to source from around the town. The girls spent most of the first day just sitting in the pen with them watching them. Unfortunately, there are LOADS of cats around Stanley, and now we have had a few visitors, just hoping that as the hens get bigger they manage to see the cats off – two of them definitely seem bolchy enough!
Last Sunday we joined many people in Stanley at the cross of remembrance, which is situated at the foot of Stanley cemetery, overlooking the water. The girls took part in the parade alongside the other brownies, guides, scouts etc. There was also a significant military presence too to add gravitas to the ceremony. It was very poignant that we were able to come together so easily as a community to complete our remembrance observance unlike so many communities across the world who are in the grips of the covid pandemic. We have unfortunately had a couple of confirmed positive cases this week from the track and trace system of incoming people to the island; thankfully they are all obeying the quarantine rules and so we should be able to continue to enjoy relative safety from the disease. It does however highlight how vulnerable this island can suddenly become – resources are so much more finite here that should covid reach the town the potential devastation it could wreak would be huge. We obviously weren’t here for the first UK lockdown, however the impact was apparently still felt in Stanley; the panic buying in the shops undoubtedly has a knock on effect regarding the availability of our produce in the shops (albeit 6 weeks or so late due to the boat trip here) but I’m told a lot of the warehouses were able to minimise most of the effects of the UK lockdown; only yeast and milk apparently were scarce.
This week the fun was the arrival of our dog Cookie. Due to the uncertainty of our departure for so long with the UK lockdown, we were late getting her name down on the list for travel. Animals travel on the MOD boat and there are limited (5) spaces on board for pets and so it is quite competitive. So Cookie enjoyed a few (10) weeks staying with my parents until she was able to board the boat in Southampton (after the most ridiculous amount of paperwork and timings of vet visits). True to what I have come to expect over here, the date for her departure was brought forward unexpectedly by about a week, and I only became aware of this when I had asked for clarification of details of dropping her off for my dad. This caused a frantic morning of trying to ensure all the correct paperwork could be released earlier – as everything had to be checked over and completed 48 hours before she got on the boat – nothing like a bit of drama!
Cookie finally boarded the boat on the 8th October and I was able to track her progress across the Ocean (stopping in Ascension Island for a bit) online. We also received a couple of update emails from the ‘master’ of the ship with a couple of pictures which confirmed she was being really well looked after. This Wednesday the boat came into the port near MPC – the military base that we flew into in August and so I was asked to go and collect her once she had been checked over by the vet. I was so excited to go and get her, it had been a really strange adjustment to not having her with us and we had all missed her loads. When we arrived, she was completely nonplussed at me being there – far from the reunion I had envisaged where she would go mental spinning around, wagging her tail etc – it was more of a cursory nod of acknowledgement! She did however greet any of the soldiers going past just to rub it in!
An hour or so later, Cookie was finally home, a bit quiet and unsure of her surroundings, I think it was quite an adjustment for her to be back on dry land, that within 20 minutes she was lying down asleep. She was really pleased to see the kids and Chris, but just seemed to want to sleep mainly. I was out in the evening, and came back to half an oven glove in the kitchen; she was happily upto some of her old tricks whilst also nearly making me worried that we would have to visit the vet sooner than we anticipated! Its now day 4 of her arrival and after a quiet 24 hours I’m happy to report that she’s much more herself and is enthusiastically greeting us in the morning – and the other oven glove is still in one piece! She has completed her quarantine and so now we can start to take her out and explore the area!
Our car, Ferdinand was also on the MOD boat – in fact we saw it as we collected Cookie. However the transport company are bringing it over to Stanley for us so I wasn’t able to collect it at the same time. As I saw it there and then on Wednesday we were eagerly awaiting its arrival, believing it to be nearer the end of the week. The paperwork for cars, as always here isn’t a straightforward process, you have to first register it with the police station to gain a falklands registration licence (west of town) then you have to insure it with the only company on the island that does car insurance (on the east of town) and then you have to go back to the police station to pay for the tax and get a tax disc (!). Oh and someone else prints the registration plates for you. All this has to be completed (walking from place to place) before you get it but also like most places in Stanley, the offices are only open during working hours, and everywhere seems to close for at least an hour at lunch; meaning it is actually quite difficult to get any admin completed during the day if you work! Frustrating to try and get it all completed in the time frame, even more so when I email the transport company on Friday for an update and they tell me that they’re not delivering cars until early next week – and it may not even be Monday that ours arrives. I sort of hit a wall after that (metaphorically of course!) its been a long 14 weeks of trawling around Stanley – one week I managed over 60km just from walking to and from school etc. Whilst people have been overwhelmingly helpful in offering lifts and even cars to borrow, it’s a long time to feel like you are burdening people and to keep on asking for favours. I had really hoped that last week was my final week of borrowing someone’s car to do the supermarket shop, and so felt quite deflated at the thought of having to again either ask for a lift or get on my bike. So yesterday, with a 40mph wind against me I cycled to the shop for essentials to fit in my rucksack and fuelled by fury at still not having my car, made it home with the eggs intact!
So next week fingers crossed the stars align and we finally have delivery of the car, the ASDA shop we ordered back in September is also due to arrive, so things are looking up – I’ll be able to drive around scoffing the celebrations chocolate (and any mince pies mum?!) that were ordered 8 weeks ago…. shopping is definitely an adjustment here – no idea what we are going to do if there is a toilet roll shortage in the UK this lockdown again, maybe an SOS package of 9 Andrex rolls will be required…?!
Family life in the Falklands 