Made it - 10 November 2020 - No9

 It’s my first day at 23 Rick Jolly Way.  Surprisingly, after a long day travelling yesterday - and doing a significant amount of unpacking when I got in last night - I go up early this morning. 

Looking left from the front steps
As most of you already know - I made it to the Falkland Islands yesterday.  It took a while to get out of Mount Pleasant airport and about an hour to be driven from the airport to my new home.  By the time I was largely unpacked it was the early hours of the morning in the UK and I hadn’t set up the internet.  I decided to sleep first.


I’m pleased to say that from this morningI have both my mobile and landline internet working - although I’m instinctively very wary of connecting all my devices given the cost and limitations of satellite based internet services.  So, until I’m confident that I can throttle my internet usage effectively, I’m using one device at a time.  


Leaving aside the inevitable niggles 23 Rick Jolly Way is a wonderful large three-bedroom semi-detached bungalow.  It is new, spacious, warm, quiet, well insulated and in the most part specified to a high standard.  The appliances are all new and from well known manufacturers such as Bosch.  The bedrooms are so large much of the furniture was laid diagonally across the room corners.  I had to move them flat against the wall as I couldn’t stand the floor space being wasted!


The house is on Sapper Hill on the extreme western edge of Stanley and my house is one of the ones higher up on the hillside.  The lounge has a favourable northern aspect (don’t forget I’m in the Southern Hemisphere) and looks over the other properties towards Wireless Ridge and the hills beyond.  From the kitchen window I have a clear view south to the masts on the summit of Sapper Hill and to the aptly named Mount Tumbledown (the top of it looks like it will tumble-down) 

The back yard area













Looking to the summit of Sapper Hill


Today is a beautifully clear day.  The sky is cloudless.  There is a little ‘nip’ in the air - but nothing overly dramatic.  The sunlight is very much brighter than I’m used to.  I was warned to bring sunglasses and sun cream and I now understand why.


The only frustration today is that I’ve just been told by the hospital that someone on the 5th November flight (the return trip to Brazil) has tested positive for Covid-19.  They couldn’t tell me where this individual was sitting.  On that flight I was immediately in front of the toilets - so quite possibly in an area of little air circulation.  That could be good or bad depending on where the ‘positive-person’ was.   Now my official quarantine period is 14 days.  We’re it not for my potential exposure to Covid I would have been free on 24 November.  Because of the exposure I now have to remain in quarantine until released by the hospital.  They’ve already scheduled three Covid tests for me - on 11, 16 and 22 November.  Fingers crossed.

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