Archery and the Guernsey Games

Happy end of June to you all! I hope you are all well.

The highlight of June for me was escaping to Guernsey for some sunshine, archery and to meet up with Hengameh and my mum and dad.

From June 16th to 22nd the Bowmen of Guernsey hosted an archery competition for small islands. This was the first international archery competition that the Falklands has taken part in since the archery club started 18 months ago. So early on the morning of Tuesday the 11th June the six archers going to compete sat in Mount Pleasant Airport waiting to start a 36 hour journey to get to Guernsey,

 The journey involved an 19 hour flight to the UK then a three hour taxi ride to Poole in Dorset then a 4 hour ferry crossing on Condor's fast catamaran (which was quite rough and locally known as the 'vomit comet') with lots of waiting at various points. On arrival in Guernsey we were met by Steve from Guernsey bowmen in what was quickly christened 'the special bus!'. Suits us doesn't it.

 Before the competition started we had a couple of days to practice and pose in our Falkland Islands kit. Very smart don't you think? As you can see we had lovely weather (whilst it was snowing down south).

 Mum and dad came for a short break to Guernsey and came to watch us practice for a while. They got to meet the team and it was great to spend time with them. I spent the mornings practicing and then in afternoon we went out sight-seeing together. Sadly their break ended before the competition started but I think they had a good holiday.

 So Monday saw the start of the competitions the first one being a FITA which for the men was 144 arrows - 36 each at 90m, 70m, 50m and then 30m. For the ladies the distances were 70m, 60m, 50m and 30m. Amazingly Team Falklands came third and got bronze just behind Orkney. Guernsey won. I came 4th out of the gents recurve archers.

 More competition on Tuesday and then a rest day on Wednesday. We were taken on a tour of Guernsey in the special bus. A lovely fish and chips lunch and some spectacular scenery.

 Thursday was the day of the outdoor imperial shoots and whilst I shot averagely - Jo in the team got a ladies bronze medal. Friday was the last day of competition and we moved to the leisure centre for the indoor FITA rounds. 60 arrows at 25m shooting at a 3 spot 60cm target and then 60 arrows at 18m shooting at a 3 spot 40cm target. The hall was warm and stuffy and we were all a bit tired so lots of concentration required. Completely surprising myself I won gold! So I am very proud of myself and proud to have represented the Falklands in their first international archery competition!

So I enjoyed my taste of summer. I hope you are enjoying it now - as i now sit out the rest of a South Atlantic winter.

Love to you all - stay well and I hope to hear from you soon.

Mark

South Georgia

Happy end of March to you all.

Its significant for me because I have now been working in the Falklands for two years - so one year to go! So if any one wants to offer me a job in a few months time - please feel free!

Also March was significant because I visited South Georgia courtesy of the Royal Navy when I went there on HMS Clyde. Clyde is a River Class patrol ship - so quite small and the South Atlantic seas are quite big so we had a bumpy ride with 5-6 metre waves on the way down to SG.

On the way down I shared the cabin shown below with 4 others and on the way back with 5. Mine was the bottom bunk on the left.

SG hasbeen described as being like the Alps sliced off and placed in the South Atlantic. Below is the view from Clyde as we approached - the man in the bow is looking out for small icebergs called 'growlers' which are hard to spot and mainly under the surface - but can still put a hole in a ship.

I saw some wildlife I haven't seen before on SG including fur seals - which are aggressive seals that will chase you and bite you and you haveto scare them off. In the briefing before landing we were shown gruesome pictures of peoples hands and feet thathad been bitten and were infected. However the seals themselves looked very cute.

We also saw Chinstrap Penguins - see if you can guess why they are called that? Apparently they are quite rare.

HMS Clyde moored at anchor for the first night and then the next morning berthed alongside King Edward Point - which is where the British Antartic Survey have a base  - as does the SG government.

I went for a lovely long walk up a hill called Brown Mountain and got some spectacular views into SG and back to where the Clyde was moored. It was a rare sunny warm day and I was able to walk in a T-shirt. (Obviously had warm and waterproof clothing with me as the weather can change rapidly.)

Near KEP is an old whaling station called Grytviken which is quietly rusting away.Below is a picture of one of the boats that was used to spot and harpoon the whales. You can see the harpoon at the bow and the lookout would be in the crows nest on the top of the mast. These boats are quite small and must have been very scarey to sail in the big seas around SG.

The other highlight of the trip was getting up close to icebergs on the Clyde's rigid raider. These little boats are designed to land 8 marines at high speed. They can do about 40 knots! So we donned our survival suits and flew over the water to see the icebergs in Cumberland Bay. Apparently without a suit - you have less than 10 minutes...

After a final dinner of reindeer we left SG the following morning for the three and a half day sail back. On the way we sailed under some high pressure and the sea became like glass. So the crew decided to play 'bucket ball' on the flight deck. It was described as a non-contact game - so I joined in - it turned out to be a combination between net ball and rugby. I got taken out by a senior rating and managed to chip a bone in my ankle and tear the ligaments - it is slowly getting better!

Any way - enoughfrom me for now. I hope all is well with you all and hope to hear from some of you.

Love Mark.

Christmas 2012 Family Visit

A very belated happy new year to you all and my apologies for not posting for a while. Its all been very busy and continues to be so with the run up to the referendum - which I am sure you must have heard about. Lots of preparation work to do along with the projects to update the criminal law and application of English law and a two week inquest about a death in South Georgia - along with all the normal work!

But I did have a lovely break over Christmas when first of all jade came down and then for three whole days I had Hengameh, Jade & Jimmy and then Jade went and I had Hengameh and Jim for a while.

I took the famliy to Kidney Island which is a small island about 40 minutes from Stanley by boat. It is packed with wildlife.

I took Jade on one trip before H & Jimmy arrived for a up close encounter with sealions, rockhopper penguins, macaroni penguins, elephant seal, sooty shearwaters and lots of tussac grass. I think she enjoyed it.
 Then everyone was here and we had a traditional christmas with turkey and all the trimings. The weather was a bit rubbish over Christmas but we all managed to stay cosy. We went to a friends house near Darwin and played pitch and putt and had a BBQ which made a lovely afternoon.

We also saw some other strange animals in the Falklands - I think this one might be a rare breed as I had never seen one before. It had strange eating habits and seemed to like taking chocolates off the Christmas tree.

Then once Jade had gone I then took Hengameh and Jim to Kidney Island as well. Hengameh really likes Rockhopper Penguins and there are loads of them on the island many with chicks. I still think that they look slightly sinister and I still don't want to meet one in a dark alley.

The islands also have a good number of king cormorants and blue eyed shags which like the rockhoppers allow you to get really close - so you can get some great pictures.

The stars on Kidney Island are the sealions which are noisy, and constantly playing and fighting and playing king of the castle on the rocks on the shore. I have some great video and so does Hengameh. The bull on the right probably weighed a metric tonne or two and was definately top dog!

However for me the cutest are still the elephant seal pups - they have such lovely eyes!

We played lots of board games - the famliy gave me the 'Settlers of Catan' game and the seafarers expansion pack and we spent a lot of time playing this game and eating good food and just being together. It was lovely and I really loved having them down and miss them now they are gone. Hopefully I will see H & Jimmy at the end of March. I am still keeping my fingers crossed to get down to South Georgia and if I do get there I should have some lovely photos to share with you.

Keep safe and well and love to you all.

Bermuda!

Happy November to you all. I hope you are all well and enjoying the english winter as we move from Spring into summer. It's not especially warm yet but its good to have the light evenings and mornings.

However for this blog entry I thought I would tell you about my trip to Bermuda to particpate in a conference with the Attorney's General from all the UKoverseas territories. So my counterparts were there from places like Antigua, Anguilla,Cayman, Pitcairn Islands, St Helena as well as from the Crown Dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey. It was the most worthwhile conference I have been to, really useful and very good to make contacts in these different places. I left the Falklands on a Saturday afternoon and flew to Bermuda via, Santiago, Panama and Miami arriving late Sunday night. Bermuda is very beautiful but also quite expensive. The hotel was nice but expensive for what you got and you had to pay extra for everything (even the internet). The view from my bedroom was nice though....

I didn't have much spare time. On my first day I went to visit the AG's chambers in Bermuda to find out how they do their law revision and consolidation. Very interesting but I won't bore you with the detail. Their offices compared quite favourably with my shed back on the Islands...

In the afternoon I had time for a bit of sight seeing so I took the ferry to the old naval dockyard. You get quite a good view of the front of Hamilton from the ferry...

 and the hotel that the conference was held in....

 then came back to Hamilton (the main town) on the bus and stopped at the beach on the way...

Then the conference proper started with updates from all the territories and subject based discussions with contributions from law officers from Canada and USA. It included dinner with the Governor of Bermuda and time in the evenings to get to know my colleagues better. Also I got to try ' Dark and stormy' which is black rum with ginger ale - very nice. It was a really good event. Still all good things come to an end and the conference ended on Thursday evening...

Back on the plane first thing Friday morning and back on the Islands on Saturday afternoon. I admit to coming back and being re-motivated with all the things that need doing. Hopefully I can keep it up. Bermuda is a tropical bit of England and well worth a visit - if you can afford it! Lots of history and friendly people.

November here sees a royal visit from Rememberance Sunday and lots of work.

Have a good month and I hope to hear from some of you from time to time.

Visit to Ascension

It's been a while since I published a blog entry but I have been on holiday and wanted to put on a few pics from our break in Ascension Island.

Hengameh, Jimmy and I stopped off at Ascension following their visit to me in the Falklands. Ascension is a small island almost midway between the UK and the Falklands and between Africa and South America. It has no native population but has a British and US base, a BBC relay station, the European Space Agency has a tracking station, and a small government. It has a small police force, a magistrates court, museum and conservation body.

We stayed in the only hotel on the Island - the Obsidian Hotel.

It is fair to say that three to four days on Ascension and you can jsut about see all the highlights. But it is warm - about 28C every day and the waters are rich with life.

Interestingly the magistrates court is decorated by two bombs positioned either side of the entrance. I am not sure what message theyare trying to convey to those who attend. Apparently they are very hot on speeding. We saw two police cars and two policemen.

While we were there we saw several volcanic rock formations, went up green Mountain and visited the rough NE coast and looked at the crabs and blowholes.

A unique thing about Ascension is that it has land crabs that live up on the mountain and come down to the sea to breed. They loiter in small burrows on the mountain.

All in all it was a relaxing break in journey back to the UK. A very good break in an 18 hour flight.

We then went home to the UK for a few days before going on a famliy holiday - a whistle stop tour of Italy with 3 days in Rome, 2 days in Florence, a day in Pisa, a day in Venice, a day in Verona anda day in Bergamo.We saw the Colesseum, Pantheon, Vatican, Museums, art galleries, towers and churches, opera and ate lots of pasta and pizza.

I am now back in the Falklands, have caught my first trout of the season and should hopefully be heading off to Bermuda for a conference of all the Attorney General's from the British overseas territories next week. In my next blog I hope to have some pics from there for you.Work is very busy. Missing Hengameh and Jimmy and Jade. I should see tem next at Christmas.

I hope all is well with you all and that life is good. I hope to hear from you.

Mid-Winter

Happy FICsmas everyone. Its midwinter here in the Falklands, we have just had the shortest day and last weekend I celebrated Ficsmas with some friends. We put the Ficsmas tree up, had a secret santa and had a roast dinner with all the trimmings and mince pies and mulled wine. I got a tie for my ficsmas present!

Last weekend was also the weekend of the mid winter swim. Last year I watched all the mad people plunge into the  waters of the South Atlantic and laughed as they came out freezing cold and shivering. This year I decided to be a mad person myself and found my self on a beach where the sand was frozen together with ice and the water was around 3-4 degrees. It was cold. The worse bit is standing on the beach waiting for the time to run into the sea - once that happens its all over very quickly. Below are the before and after photos.

Afew weeks before this we celebrated Liberation day. Always a big event here but this year even more so it being the 30th anniversary. I think we have been on the news a lot and we have had some ministers and politicians from various places visiting. The most interesting bit though was the attempt by the school to get in a world record for the largest cake scale model of an aircraft carrier!

We had the usual government paid for free bar and buffet and a dance in the evening. Its ani mportant date but its good to be the other side of it.

As you know at the beginning of June, Jade was still here with me and we went out for a lovely walk where jade decided she needed to commune with nature!

We also had the Queen's jubilee celebrations while Jade was here. We had a big beacon on the beach at Surf bay. It was constructed by the prisoners from Stanley Prison (but described in the world's press as community workers!) Still it burnt just fine and we had a good evening with mulled wine and some good music.

Jade and I also went to a Queen Night. A meal and a dance. See if you can spot the reall queen?

Any way- that's all for now. keep safe and well. By the time I do my next blog - Jimmy and Hengameh will be with me.
Take care and best wishes.

Mark

Greetings and happy end of May to you all.

May has been a busy month with lots going on for the 30th Anniversary of the Falklands war. Lots of journalists, lots of TV coverage and still a very significant and emotional event for the Islands. The main event comes in June when on the 14th we celebrate liberation day. We have lots of important visitors coming down from the UK and I have a few official functions to go to. However we did have a very important visitor who came down in May.

This is Jade's official visit to the police station in Stanley. Jade arrived almost two weeks ago and is doing two weeks work experience with the community mental health nurse and social services. She has been to jail and had some really good experiences so far. She also viewed the police force's high speed pursuit vehicle.

Just before Jade came down the archery club held its first ever field shoot on a wet and windy day. Considering how bad the weather was we had a good turnout and kept going with supplies of hot chocolate and home made cakes. We shot at animal paper targets set out at ranges between 10and 50 metres - with targets ranging from little squirrels to big bears. It was great fun although we all finished soaked through and cold.

While here Jade has witnessed one of the Stanley's worst road accident. A few days ago we had a three car pile up on Ross Road and the police and fire service turned out to clear up and manage the traffic. No one was hurt and for those who know or can guess how busy the roads are - its a bit of a surprise that three vehicles were close enough together to hit each other.

Jade has also become the official photographer of the hens and has decided that one of the new bantams should be called 'Onyx' - though I must admit I prefer 'Tikka and Masala'. Any more suggestions are welcome - have a look and see what you think.

Finally we have had some snow that stuck around for a bit. Winter is definately here and it has been cold. the weather going in to winter has been worse than it was this time last year. We have had gales and snow and hail and rain and sleet and just a couple of still clear crisp winter days.

I hope all ofyou are well. I have a busy month ahead with all the events for the anniversary. I am playing trumpet at the Queen's jubilee church service and helping at a beach party on the 4th June (it sounds daft having a beach party in the middle of winter - but there will be a big bonfire and dance music - so it coudl be fun. Also on Saturday Jade and I are off to a Queen night in fancy dress - so that should be fun. We also have FICsmas on the 25th June (apparently its what contract workers celebrate in the middle of winter so the tree will go up and we may have a secret santa and a special meal. So happy FICsmas to you all and have a good June.

Hengameh &Jim go and Winter arrives!

Hi All, I hope all is well with you.

April saw Jim and Hengameh visit me and then go back to the UK and has definately seen the begining of Winter as the mornings are now dark until almost 8am and the evenings draw in and the weather has changed dramatically with strong winds, cold nights and the first snow on the hills. As I write this blog it is blowing a gale outside and I can hear the house rattling!

While Hengameh and Jim were here we tried to do some things that were interesting for both of them. I arranged for us to go whale watching and we saw a pair of Sei whales, Very difficult to take photos as you don't know when or where they are going to surface- but if you get lucky you can follow the whale's 'footprint' on the surface of the water. Hengameh got some good video and I did manage to get some decent pictures....

On the way back the boat popped into Gypsy Cove where we were lucky enough to see some Comerson dolphins - they seemed to enjoy playing in the backwash of the boat.

Also while Hengameh anbd Jim were here we made our first trip to West Falkland and stayed at Port Stephens - which is about as far west as you can go on West Falkland. we travelled on the government air service FIGAS in a twin prop Islander plane. It was about an hours flight and on the way we saw some whales again from the air. Port Stephens is very pretty as you can see.

We went on a long walk to what is known locally as the 'Indian Village'which is an area with interesting rock formations that look a little like wigwams.

It was a long walk  - about4 hours in total and we got mobbed by Johnny Rooks on the way back - they are a very bold bird of prey that knows no fear. They hovered feet above us as we made our way down Mount Stephens and if we are honest they were quite scary.

I hope Jim and Hengameh had a good time here - I certainly enjoyed having them here and the house has been very quiet since they left.

I was so distraught when they left that I forced myself to go the the sheep and ram show at Fitzroy! I can honestly say that never in my life have I seen such good looking sheep.

And I found out what makes a good ram - see if you can guess!

Well April is almost over and May is upon us and on the 22nd May Jade arrives on the Falklands to stay with me for a few weeks and hopefully get some work experience. I am really looking forward to her arrival - only three weeks to go!

Work is fine, oil exploration continues despite the best efforts of our neighbours and the government's finances continue to do well. I love hearing from you so emails and comments are welcome.

Oh and I almost forgot - I have got two bantams to keep Dora company so we will see how they get on - so far - so good - but no eggs yet....

Love to you all.

Mark