Hi all,

I write a diary of my experiences and email it to quite a few people - thought some of you might find some of it interesting so I have attached my latest offering

And if you did find that interesting here's one that details how funerals are held in Tonga

That's good stuff, Andy.

Thanks for sharing those with us.

Feel free to post any more you might have!

Meanwhile, my own (old) car is available for viewing on Google Maps. All you need is the Post Code.

Thanks Geoff,

perhaps this may also interest you - Nauru where they used to mine the fertiliser

H'mmm. Tropical paradise, indeed.

We still have WWII "pill boxes" strategically arranged all over England, by the way. They have proven to be indestructible. It's amazing what could be done (and to such quality) in such a short time. "Needs must" yet again.

And (just like for everything else these days) there is a wealth of information about them on line.

I'm currently at Rarotonga Hospital in the Cook Islands

hers a little taste of the Cooks - I am sorry as I am aware its getting on to winter there soon.

Looks like some of those places could do with some scrap metal merchants (might even be able to employ a few more of the locals that way, too).

I wonder what became of the Model-T's (still there)?

Pity about the [censored] holiday makers as well. Yet another modern disease spread by "Westerners".

Apart from all that - I wish I was there. Looking at those pictures, I was trying to imagine the smell that places like that generally have. Aromas are very evocative, I reckon. Pity that you can't save them, just as you can with photographs and recordings.

Another Cooks one interesting pics of the Lagoon at Aitutaki

Thanks Geoff,

That's why I posted about sending junk before.

As for Nauru - the funny thing is because they don't readily accept tourists and even though on the equator and blazing hot its not humid so things don't rust away or get graffitied .That field piece, for example, still has the grey paint on it - its hard to believe it was left there nearly sixty two years ago by the Japaneese

Interesting about the ukuleles ... they're popular in Hawaii as well, apparently.

There ... and with fans of George Formby, of course (those were the days)!

"Famous people passing through"? Amelia Earhart?

Gee that's well before my time I am not sure if she made it here but the mutiny on the Bounty film with Marlon shot locations here and lots of pictures of Hollywood stars in the old days at the refuelling station exist (Flying boats were discontinued in '65 so these were THE Stars and this was the famous coral route across the South Pacific to the US).

I have been told, take as you like as to accuracy, that this is what inspired Brando to buy his own Island in Tahiti - you can't buy here or Tonga.

Everyone takes a ukelele home as a momento - the prison has a workshop that churns them out quite cheaply and is very popular.

Ah, the prison. No new identities afterwards out there, I guess.

Flying boats? Oh yes, those were the days. No "bucket shop holidays" back then! That must have been real adventure. Britain still had an Empire don't ya know!

No but actually its interesting - in Tonga the prison has no walls!

Tonga is very much an extended family culture and if you get sent to jail you have disgraced your family - no one tries to escape normally as what your family would do to you is much worse than what the police will do once they catch you - true fact

I also got to know the inside of the jail in Samoa - met a very attractive girl there last December - was going great guns until she took me to meet the family - turns out Daddy is the biggest crime gang boss on the island - she took me to the prison to meet them! she'd told me if I ever left her shed castrate (sic) me - I started to think that was maybe true!

however, managed to find an excuse to break it off thank goodness without being able to audition as a soprano.

Yes ... I'd heard that before. A bit like St.Helena, I should imagine. As in, where would you go?

Unless you were Steve McQueen (in Papillon), of course.

no crocodiles here but pretty hungry sharks though - the nearest place you could drift to is Fiji probably three weeks away so if the sharks didn't get you first....

I guess you would have plenty of time to carry out a Risk Assessment.

Myself (assuming that the grub's OK), I think I'd just carry on making the ukuleles.

PS: (and in a whisper):- if I were you I would leave those island girls well alone!

Sigh - my father was at the Royal Coronation and like most people was entranced by Queen Salote of Tonga - for those that dont know the story she was a big Majestic Queen Victoria kind of a woman and on the way to Westminister Abbey it was raining - all the invited dignitaries rode in closed carriages except for Salote who got drenched along with everyone as she beamed and waved at them - they even wrote a briefly popular song about her. It inspired my father to read everything he could about the region and so much later when I was a lad he would talk about what he had learned. I sort of lived his dream - especially as I married Queen Salote's great granddaughter (we are separated now) and had three wonderful Polynesian children. He died before he ever got here but I wonder what he would think of my role in the region.
Anyhow the love for the region was fostered by him and it applies to the women - very hard to leave them alone!

I will attach one more diary entry - apologise for the horrible verse at the start but I was ill! (in the head I hear people mutter). This is about Samoa which is my favourite place
I want to go back there really soon.

Currently at a technical directions conference at the Sheraton Resort and Spa Denarau Island Fiji for a week - back to Tonga on Saturday. Will be back for the stakeholder group meeting in five weeks time at the same venue - sigh I really hate my job I will post another diary entry once I have thinned it down to an acceptable size.

You must be a Saint to put up with all that...

Bloody tough Ill tell you Huw but someone has to do it

Part 17 I had to cut it down as its a bit long but I kept the interesting part

might be a problem Andy, keeps coming up with "file damaged" when I try to download (or perhaps it's just me)

Yes, that's definitely a corrupted file.

ok guys they are supposed to be getting me a dedicated internet line tomorrow so i will try again

In the meantime how about this for South Pacific Style - just lost $100k from my maintenance budget - its been allocated to foreshore reconstruction in the island where the health minister comes from - sigh

Sounds like the "same old, same old" to me. Nepotism and corruption are nothing new, after all.

If they don't supply the resources then they can't expect the results, can they? That is, if they indeed care at all.

Just be thankful that it wasn't your own money ... and carry on enjoying the location(s).