You see most people would have started blogging at the start of the year they were working away from home. Me, I've always enjoyed being contrary! Here I sit, on the edge of a beautiful island, with the sun shining and what am I doing? Sitting in front of a laptop trying to think of things to say to you all! Actually I'm not supposed
to be saying anything at all to anyone. This might just turn out to be the shortest blog that you ever read; or not, (I have laryngitis not writers block!)
News from the islands this week: Apparently, we have the fastest broadband speeds of the whole of the UK. News to me: today is a good day, I'm on line. Whereas, from Sunday lunchtime through until yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, I was unable to get a connection, despite being very much in credit with my provider and despite there being the strongest of signals according to my dongle. So what is the problem? It's beyond my ken, but to live here is to realise that you have taken a step back in time. There are old values at work here and life remains, for the moment, untouched by the more stressful aspects of ‘progress’.
There are many quirky things I love about Guernsey. If the bus is late, a quick call will result in the operator ‘patching through’ to the driver of said bus to find out exactly where it might be at that moment in time and the driver will often estimate his time of arrival for the benefit of the would-be traveller. On one occasion, road works having forced a diversion from the particular route, but potential and unknowing travellers having nevertheless, waited for its arrival at a particular stop, a quick and impromptu re-routing was agreed upon, so that said travellers could in fact be picked up despite the diversion! Every day here the radio runs a missing pet call. It’s not uncommon to hear something along the lines of: ‘stray chickens are on the school playground, could their owner please come to collect?’ Indeed, during my first term at school here, the sight of chickens wandering around the playground gave me a new understanding of the term ‘free range’. However, the strangest things to me are the sound of the harbour fog horn in unclear weather and the sight of tractors pulling, not trailers laden with bales of hay, but a trailer loaded with a boat and headed coast-wards!
Ah, heaven on earth and an enforced rest from work during which to enjoy the peace and quiet.....
