24^th of November 2023

Lord, shine a little light on me

The Falklands, have you ever been there ? hmmm maybe not, but if you like things a little English, well you have come to the right place.

The Falklands is more English than England in many ways, but that is slowly changing in the years that I have been visiting. Back in 2003 there were a few Saint Helenian’s living here with the Falklanders, and then slowly over the years the nationality pool is becoming certainly diverse, lots of Chilean, African, Filipino’s and the list goes on an on. Even to the point here in 2023 that its becoming quite difficult to find a worker who is actually a Falkland islander.

A word that seems to be regularly popping up in my vocabulary quite regularly since I arrived here 10 days ago is ‘Quirky” and that goes for so many aspects of life here in Falklands.

The many quirky things that you encounter and experience here are not always easy to put your finger on, like the fact that you can park a car on whichever side of the road, and in any direction you feel like. Or in the many pub’s that you may visit in the evening they always cover and close every window, so you never actually know whether there’re open or not until the door knob turns and you find that its packed with 60 people jammed into a tiny space (probably where the breeding often happens)

The Falklands may be close to the end of the world but the technology here is astounding, there are Wifi hotspots at the visitor center, coffee shop and even the supermarket ! all you need is a £5 or 10 pound Sure Spot phone card and you get incredible line speed which equates to a Tortoise climbing Mount Everest, but it gets better, every time your half way through sending a message the line drops out for a minute or two, so your laptop has to start all over again, brilliant I say.

But the really impressive thing is the Islands gave a 12 year communications monopoly to Cable and Wireless and its illegal to import any other type of communications system to the island for you to use. I spoke with a local last night and they said that on a normal month they spend £200 to 250 Pounds per month just with their normal life of phone and internet.

As a Tasmanian it is regularly said that you can experience 4 seasons in one day in the “Apple Isle”, Bah Humbug !! come to the Falklands and you get 20 seasons and that’s just in 12 hours, and if you get a bad spell then they throw in heaven and hell just to spice up your reflexes a bit for no extra charge.

But there are so many great things that you can get here which can never be bought in nearby South America, like; Cheddar cheese, Chocolate Hob Nobs, Pickled onions, Warm English beer and a right royal pain in the ass if your not polite.

Great to be back, but please lord could we have a little more sunshine.

Stephen