A Happy New Year to everybody!
As you may have gathered, I didn’t send out a weekly news last week, partly because I didn’t get around to it and partly because I knew that there’d be a lot of WhatsApp or Skype conversations anyway. Actually talking always beats emails, texts or other forms of messaging.
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We had some particularly sad news just after Christmas. The daughter, Vicki (née Butler), of the MAF General Manager who was here when we first arrived, Gil Butler, died in childbirth. It’s strange that having lived in PNG where the risks of childbirth, and maternal and baby deaths are so common, when the same thing happens in a developed country with excellent medical facilities, it is much more of a shock.
Vicki taught Peter and Philip piano, and somewhere at home I have some video of her singing a duet with Nicki at one of our staff conferences. Our thoughts and prayers are with Gil and Elaine, her brother Cameron, and of course her husband and family whom we’ve never met.
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I find that I could easily get accustomed to three day working weeks. Maybe I’m getting lazy, though I never want for things to do. The largest flower bed in the garden is looking as good as it has ever looked after the weeding, replanting and cutting back that I’ve done over the last couple of months. Yesterday saw me working at the back of the bed trying to reduce the amount of a large, deeply rooted grass that loves growing in the middle of other plants where it’s hard to get at.
One job I didn’t get around to yesterday, or over the Christmas holiday, is doing some more crate construction. I did buy some more battens yesterday, only to find I’d chosen a slightly smaller size than I intended. I don’t think it will matter providing I use them on the ends and lids of the crates, and being smaller it will make the crates lighter, which is always an advantage.
Cutting these battens to length and screwing the first crates together is on the agenda for tomorrow, when I’m also looking forward to using my new cordless drill for the first time.
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Today, 31st December 2017, is officially my last day as Flight Operations Manager. Tomorrow Brad Venter officially takes over, though for the time being I remain the official Senior Person accountable to CASA PNG. This is because I’ll cover for Brad when he’s on leave during the middle and second half of the year. As I said to him, he has the authority and I take the blame.
For the next couple of months there are some FOM projects I remain responsible for, some long-outstanding tasks to deal with from my other job as Twin Otter Fleet Training Captain, and obviously providing backup for Brad as and when he needs it. Then, ten weeks from today, we arrive back in the UK. I have no doubt that 2018 will go more quickly than 2017 has, but I hope that by this time next year we will have at least some idea of what we’ll be doing in 2019!
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I was hoping to clock my total flying hours over 11,000 before year’s end, but as of today I’m 0.5 hour short. Never mind, instead of rolling over on the last flight of 2017, I’ll do it on the first flight of 2018, which is scheduled for next Thursday.
December has been a lean month for me flying-wise. There’s been quite a lot of aircraft maintenance, as well as other things I’ve been involved in, that have reduced my opportunities or availability. Plus, of course, the holiday itself which has taken a couple of flying days out of the month. Maybe now I’m handing over the FOM role, I might, just might, have a bit more availability to fly.
***********
There has been the usual plethora of home-made firecrackers producing regular bangs through both day and evening (fortunately not too much during the night). I’m told they’re made out of match heads, though the particular method and formula I don’t know. Whether there are any consequential burns, eye injuries or similar I have no idea.
The drinking club up the road has also been noisy again, and even as I write, 15:50 on a Sunday afternoon, there is a thumping beat emanating from it. It’s not so loud at the moment that it would disturb sleep, though most nights recently we’ve used ear plugs, but the incessant noise makes us yearn for peace and quiet.
Very often there’s a lot of noise at midnight on New Year’s Eve, with firecrackers, sometimes fireworks, and banging on fences or anything else that’s noisy and to hand. Since neither Nicki or I see very much difference between this night and any other (what a pair of old bores!) we hope to sleep through it all.
Whether you see the New Year in, or sleep it in, may 2018 bring increasing faith, joy, encouragement and interest.
As you may have gathered, I didn’t send out a weekly news last week, partly because I didn’t get around to it and partly because I knew that there’d be a lot of WhatsApp or Skype conversations anyway. Actually talking always beats emails, texts or other forms of messaging.
***********
We had some particularly sad news just after Christmas. The daughter, Vicki (née Butler), of the MAF General Manager who was here when we first arrived, Gil Butler, died in childbirth. It’s strange that having lived in PNG where the risks of childbirth, and maternal and baby deaths are so common, when the same thing happens in a developed country with excellent medical facilities, it is much more of a shock.
Vicki taught Peter and Philip piano, and somewhere at home I have some video of her singing a duet with Nicki at one of our staff conferences. Our thoughts and prayers are with Gil and Elaine, her brother Cameron, and of course her husband and family whom we’ve never met.
***********
I find that I could easily get accustomed to three day working weeks. Maybe I’m getting lazy, though I never want for things to do. The largest flower bed in the garden is looking as good as it has ever looked after the weeding, replanting and cutting back that I’ve done over the last couple of months. Yesterday saw me working at the back of the bed trying to reduce the amount of a large, deeply rooted grass that loves growing in the middle of other plants where it’s hard to get at.
One job I didn’t get around to yesterday, or over the Christmas holiday, is doing some more crate construction. I did buy some more battens yesterday, only to find I’d chosen a slightly smaller size than I intended. I don’t think it will matter providing I use them on the ends and lids of the crates, and being smaller it will make the crates lighter, which is always an advantage.
Cutting these battens to length and screwing the first crates together is on the agenda for tomorrow, when I’m also looking forward to using my new cordless drill for the first time.
***********
Today, 31st December 2017, is officially my last day as Flight Operations Manager. Tomorrow Brad Venter officially takes over, though for the time being I remain the official Senior Person accountable to CASA PNG. This is because I’ll cover for Brad when he’s on leave during the middle and second half of the year. As I said to him, he has the authority and I take the blame.
For the next couple of months there are some FOM projects I remain responsible for, some long-outstanding tasks to deal with from my other job as Twin Otter Fleet Training Captain, and obviously providing backup for Brad as and when he needs it. Then, ten weeks from today, we arrive back in the UK. I have no doubt that 2018 will go more quickly than 2017 has, but I hope that by this time next year we will have at least some idea of what we’ll be doing in 2019!
***********
I was hoping to clock my total flying hours over 11,000 before year’s end, but as of today I’m 0.5 hour short. Never mind, instead of rolling over on the last flight of 2017, I’ll do it on the first flight of 2018, which is scheduled for next Thursday.
December has been a lean month for me flying-wise. There’s been quite a lot of aircraft maintenance, as well as other things I’ve been involved in, that have reduced my opportunities or availability. Plus, of course, the holiday itself which has taken a couple of flying days out of the month. Maybe now I’m handing over the FOM role, I might, just might, have a bit more availability to fly.
***********
There has been the usual plethora of home-made firecrackers producing regular bangs through both day and evening (fortunately not too much during the night). I’m told they’re made out of match heads, though the particular method and formula I don’t know. Whether there are any consequential burns, eye injuries or similar I have no idea.
The drinking club up the road has also been noisy again, and even as I write, 15:50 on a Sunday afternoon, there is a thumping beat emanating from it. It’s not so loud at the moment that it would disturb sleep, though most nights recently we’ve used ear plugs, but the incessant noise makes us yearn for peace and quiet.
Very often there’s a lot of noise at midnight on New Year’s Eve, with firecrackers, sometimes fireworks, and banging on fences or anything else that’s noisy and to hand. Since neither Nicki or I see very much difference between this night and any other (what a pair of old bores!) we hope to sleep through it all.
Whether you see the New Year in, or sleep it in, may 2018 bring increasing faith, joy, encouragement and interest.
