{"id":376,"date":"2008-07-18T23:44:27","date_gmt":"2008-07-18T22:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/?p=376"},"modified":"2008-07-18T23:44:27","modified_gmt":"2008-07-18T22:44:27","slug":"thursday-its-wet-its-the-falklands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/getting-my-life-back\/thursday-its-wet-its-the-falklands\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday… It’s wet \u2013 it’s the Falklands!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AtI had a good flight down, although he aircraft was late taking off – delayed by about 40 minutes because of a problem with some ground handling equipment. Much to my surprise, I found myself sitting up at the sharp end, instead of down in the back where indulgence passengers usually go. (Indulgence being the term for \"Aircraft\"passengers taking available seats for a nominal fee). I’m not sure it was an upgrade – but it felt like one!<\/p>\n

The trip down to the halfway point at Ascension was uneventful, and I managed to get about 3 hours sleep. ound for the aircraft to be refuelled for the next leg. Ascension was its usual self – a walm balmy early morning breeze as we waited in the compound. \"Bougainvillea\"Would that the Bourgainvillea at home had been like this one!<\/p>\n

I was met on arrival by my friend Angela, who is working down here and arranged my flight and is looking after me! I did have a bit more sleep on the final leg, but while there is only one hour difference between Ascension and the UK, there is 4 between Ascension and the Falklands. I slept for a couple of hours on arrival, and felt pretty much OK after that, so by this morning I felt I had caught up up on the time zone change.\"Falklands\"<\/p>\n

After breakfast I went over to the main complex on the base to revisit a few haunts. This visit is a bit like \u201crecherche du temps perdu\u201d in that it is all familiar, but I am in it, not of it. There have been a few changes \u2013 there is more housing \u2013 the road where I used to live is now block paved (it was a very muddy track!) but otherwise it is much this same. The weather is drizzly, not particularly cold, but very grey and with a low cloud base. There a few Upland Geese around \u2013 one of my memories of the Islands – and almost an icon!\"Upland<\/p>\n

In the afternoon I went for a long walk \u2013 unfortunately I don’t have transport \u2013 to see how the infrastructure for one of the projects had been implemented. I had forgotten how far it was on foot \u2013 I suppose I walked for about 3 miles, mostly on road, a bit on grass, where I disturbed a couple of hares \u2013 too fast for me to get a photograph! <\/p>\n

I was pleased that I didn’t find the walk to tiring (a walk I would have done without second thoughts when I was really physically fit) t it did represent a bit more ‘getting my life’ back. I was pleased to see that it looked as if everything had gone to plan on the project too! The weather starting turning even murkier at that point, but I hitched a lift back in a passing Landrover, so I didn’t get too wet.\"Murky<\/p>\n

The real thing that struck me once again was the silence and the freshness of the air. There is very little pollution and a great the sense of space and wildness – things I rhad only half emembered.<\/p>\n

I am going to do a bit more walking around tomorrow morning, before we go to Stanley (the capital) for the weekend – about 30 miles away.<\/p>\n

The photos here are a small selection – the others, as usual, are (or will be!) in the gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Onwards and upwards!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a good flight down, although he aircraft was late taking off – delayed by about 40 minutes because of a problem with some ground handling equipment. Much to my surprise, I found myself sitting up at the sharp end, instead of down in the back where indulgence passengers usually go. (Indulgence being the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19,22],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-getting-my-life-back","tag-falklands","tag-holiday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boraston.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}