Settlement to Tai Jin

 

An Ultra-wide photo showing Settlement , the phosphate loading wharfs (with ship loading),  Flying Fish cove,  and Tai-Jin

Monday night at Rumah Tinggi and the carpart party afterwards

We decided to got out as a family on Monday night with nobody else accompanying us, as every time we have eaten out so far has been with lots of other people. With the Chinese New Year rapidly approaching and the shortage of food only two places where available. We choose to go to Rumah Tinggi (The Tall house, Chris Freeman had told me, and tall house it is in fact)

We had an amazing night eating beautiful food, under the tropical night, that was cooked perfectly, it was as good as the food we eat at home. The photo to the right shows the lawn below us, and the the palm trees, you can not see, there is a extremely large cliff down the the sea.

Chris and I discussed with the kids, what the favorite parts of the trip had been, and got really interesting answers.
Both kids, loved the jumping off the piers, seeing the crabs, exploring the caves, snorkeling off the coast.
Chris loved the walk to the Golf course look out, the people she got to meet, and the friendliness of both the locals, who love their island, and the imported workers who are here for just a short period of time, and yet are willing to open up and be friendly.
I loved the openness of the island, the amazing friendliness of the locals,  and the fantastic beauty of this island.



After we returned home, we interrupted a car-park party with the interpreters who had all decided to have a cook-a-thon, and then dance the night away, so the special night was extended as we talked to people from all round the world, who at this time and place had been brought together because of a job, and yet took the time to share their culture with everybody else.

I was full from Rumah Tinggi, and despite the smells from the food being overpowering, I was unable to cram anything else into my stomach, so we just danced


We had a great time, before we retired to bed.

Food on the Island

Well to partially confirm the story on the ABC, the island has not yet run out of food, however its starting to get "Dire", most of the restaurants are starting to close due to lack of ingredients, and they have run out of wholemeal flour for the bread.

The fabled ship with all the food and other stuff is currently sitting in the lea of the island, awaiting a part for its engine. It seems it can run the engines for a short period of time, but then it has to turn it off. A spare part is being flown from Germany and will arrive on island on Tuesday and will be fitted by Thursday. Until the part is fitted the ship is not allowed to dock.
Looks like it will not be until the weekend at the earliest, after we have left.

Meanwhile we have the calmest seas we have had for a month and perfect summer weather, just right for unloading ships, probably blow up a storm by the weekend.

To make up for the lack of a ship, a 737 cargo plan arrived on Saturday, and unloaded tons and tons of food. Most of it was for the detention center (3000 people is a lot of food each week), but the local shops were there picking up fresh fruit, veggies and eggs. Apart from the basic foods that come in on the plane, the shelves are getting very empty in the shops, especially the supermarket.

The locals are now saying an air-force refueling plan may arrive next week if the ship has not docked, as the SEIV221 incident used up a lot of jet fuel undertaking emergency flights, refueling military flights, etc.

Luckily we leave in 4 days, and we should be able to hold out with our supplies at home, although the red wine is starting to run a bit low :-(

Sunday / Golf Course lookout

On Sunday, Chris finally had a day when she wasn't working (Its been busy out here).

So for breakfast back to the Malay club for the last Sunday breakfast with the Doctors (and not just for us, they have run out of food, so they will be closing from next week until the ship docks)

After Chris and the kids went for a swim at the Rec center, while I had some kid free time.

In the Afternoon, we went for a walk to the Golf course lookout, it was an amazingly steep walk through the rain-forest past a cemetery in the middle of the jungle, halfway down a cliff (I have no idea how they actually carried the coffins in there).

When we got to the end of the track, the view was well worth it.
Below us we could see the golf course, and there where birds everywhere flying around us. It felt like Jurassic park, the birds where surprisingly large, we have only seen them from the ground, and its hard to judge the size from that distance. The big ones where had a very large wingspan, (looking it up on Google, the say up to 1.5m and that's big in a bird flying just over your head)

In any case this photo was taken facing North West Australia, which is just 1600Km away.

Saturday night at the Movies

The one thing we hadn't done so far was get to the cinema, to a see a movie.

Tonight was the night, as it is only on Saturday nights that the Movie is run (unless it rains, then they show it on Wednesdays), and this is our last Saturday on the island.

So Nath, Zach and myself trooped off to the cinema (Chris was on call, and had been called back to the detention center).

We turned up, and paid our $9, ($2 for kids, and $5 for Adults, its movies at 1970 prices) to the lady with the red bucket, lined up at the kiosk, got our $3 Chock-tops (Home made, with lots of Chocolate), some $2.50 microwave popcorn, and sat down on our wet bench (Did I mention it is in the open air, with no roof.)

As I sat there I noticed a large number of people with waterproof ponchos on, hmm mental note, next time bring ponchos.

The pre-movie music blared out of the surround speakers, which I noticed all had special canvas covers that could be dropped down from the projection booth, I assume in case of rain, hmm mental note, next time bring ponchos.

The 7:30 start time came, and went, the music continued, Zach mentioned there were no clouds in the sky, I pointed out there where no stars either, hmm mental note, next time bring ponchos.

Then it started, with an announcement that the projector didn't seem to be working, and there would be no movie tonight, and that to see the lady with the red bucket, and she would refund the ticket admissions.

So we came home with the popcorn, and watched "The Fugitive" on TV, not quite the same, but a good movie in any-case.

Satuday

Woke up this morning and decided to go and have breakfast with Marnie and David (Their last morning)
Went to the Barracks Cafe (Run by Captain Don O'Donnell, whose previous job was Harbor master at Port of Portland in the last 80's early 90's, gee its a small world), and ordered breakfast, only to be told,
Oh, by the way there are no eggs on the island, so all breakfasts will be with out eggs, the breakfast was nice, but no eggs is a bit hard.


Then we took Marnie and David  to check in Marnie's luggage, and Dave put in the "I need to get off the island with my girl friend, are there any free seats" story, and was told, "no not yet, we will give you a call."

So Marnie checked in her luggage and we went for a drive with the kids.

Went down the to Ella beach and took a walk we hadn't done for about 1km along a boardwalk, came out with a small viewing platform on the clifftop from where we could see heaps of fish swimming around in the sea. Was very nice.

After that we took the kids up to the swimming center, so they could have a swim while I dropped Marnie off at the Airport.

On the way, David got a phone call and was told, "yep we can fit you on," so that made everybody very happy.

Turns out they couldn't fill the plane up with people due to the lack of fuel at Christmas Island, but the pilot had radioed that they had used less fuel than expected, so they could take extra people back.

While we where there a cargo plan from Perth arrived, and we noticed heaps of vegies and stuff being unloaded, so as soon as the boarding call was made, I high tailed it down to the local shops and got there just after the delivery truck from the airport.

Picked up a lettuce, some tomatoes, cherry tomatoes,  strawberries and eggs. Only cost $38 for all that!!!! The lettuce was $12 !! We won't know ourselves once we get home. (Although not sure how much lettuces cost on the mainland ,after the floods)

Anyhow, we are off to the movies tonight, provided it doesn't rain (its outdoors on the side of a hill)

The day after chaos at the airport

Well, we learnt a few things yesterday.

1. If your flight is canceled, ring the airline as soon as the final attempt has failed, and book for the next day or you may be stuck here for quite a while.
2. If a flight is canceled, the next flight will carry nothing  but passengers and their luggage, hence no fresh food delivered, and as the last flight didn't arrive either, its two flights of missing food.
3. Eggs are the most important ingredient on the island (lets just say there are no eggs left on the island).

As it turns out, Marnee (Marnee is one of Chris's fellow doctors) is now flying out on Saturday (which is fine, as she will get home in time to start her new job), her partner Dave, on the other hand is flying out next Tuesday, which is a bit of a problem, as he needs to find accommodation from Saturday to Tuesday somewhere as Marnee's flat will have a new tenant as soon as she leaves, I'm sure we will all work it out, but not something I'd like to occur next week, when we need to leave and return home.

Further more, the ship has yet to dock and the shops now have entire shelves that are empty, ( I'll try and get some photos, but it is a bit suss, to have somebody walk in and take photos of the empty shelves.)

The locals are telling me that the ship has been told its not to leave until it has unloaded, as there are a lot of things on the containers that are needed to keep the island running. It will be interesting to see if it actually docks, as the weather is not looking good for the next week.

Finally the food issue, the island is running out of food and Chinese new year is approaching, what does this mean on an island that ships and planes can not deliver to ?

1. No eggs, if what you order requires eggs, then you will be getting it with out eggs, which for somethings is fine and for others can be an issue.
2. All the Chinese based food outlets closed yesterday (about 80% of all the food outlets), as they all needed to fly out today on the Kuala Lumpur flight so they could be with family for Chinese New Year.
3. The other 20% of food outlets all have limited food options due to using up all their supplies and the ship and planes not landing.

Oh well, six more days and we return to normality (what ever that is)