The long goodbye

“The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right. To say goodbye is to die a little.”
  – The Long Goodbye

Life on the Falkland Islands depends on the Islands attracting a sizeable number of contractors down to do various jobs usually on 2 or 3 year contracts.  The Islands do, after all, have to operate as a small country and it is difficult for a small population to generate amongst themselves all the skills needed not only for daily life but for government as well.  The contract job is how we have come to be spending time here and how a large number of our friends here have also come to be on the Islands.  On first arriving, you meet various people who are already here and they give you various tips and tricks about life here – for example, get to Stanley Growers on Sunday afternoon as you’ll get the freshest fruit and veg both that’s just been harvested and that’s just come in from the plane from Punta that landed Saturday afternoon.  Your initial conversations revolve around a standard pattern, typically starting with what your job/your partner/spouse’s job is, followed by how long you’ve been here for/how long you have left to go. Social invites follow soon after and within a short space of time you have a group of friends and are established in your life here.

“She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket”
– Farewell, My Lovely

The nature of the contractor’s life though is that it is not permanent.  We are all here for short periods only and when you meet people they are at various stages of their contract.  You are naturally aware of the people who have started on the Islands around the same time as you, but you will invariably have friends who are much further through their contracts that you.  This leads to the natural situation that at least some of your friends will be leaving the Islands before you, quite often several months before you.

 “It could have been a beautiful friendship,” Beifus said with a sigh. “Except for the ice pick, of course.”
– The Little Sister

So relatively soon your time on the Islands ceases to be the experience of the newbie finding everything out and turns into a protracted goodbye session.  This week we’ve had our first leaving dinner for good friends who are flying back to the UK near the end of February.  We’ve had great evenings with them, they’ve been a great support to Richard before the boys and I joined him in August, and they’ve also been happy to babysit for us, giving us more nights out than we’ve known since becoming parents.  From late night chatting over a glass of wine, to the loan of an oven when our gas ran out and I was due to bake a cake for Chat n Chew the next day, life here is going to be very different without Tony and Lorraine.  They are, however, only the first of several friends to be leaving before I have to take the boys back to the UK and before the end of Richard’s contract.

It would be all too easy to spend the rest of our time here focussed on when friends are leaving.  There are however many sides to this situation.  Through coming here we have made many good new friends who we will try and keep up with when back in the UK.  Our paths would never have crossed had we not all ended up on the Falkland Islands and hopefully we’ll have evenings/weekends back in the UK reminiscing to look forward to. 

“I’m an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard.”
– Philip Marlowe’s Guide To Life

Also, whilst we naturally focus at the moment on friends who are leaving us (and returning to a land of extensive internet and fresh fruit and vegetables, not that I’m jealous or anything…), we shouldn’t forget that we’ll be leaving before many other friends.  We’ll also be leaving friends amongst the permanent residents who won’t be over in the UK to reminisce and who have to go through constantly meeting people who then leave a short time afterwards.

So after the above musings (and quotes), I’ll end on some of the more random elements of life here.  It was Ptolemy’s birthday last week, so the obligatory cake photo is below.  Ptolemy wanted a birthday party and we duly provided a party, opting for the standard Falklands children’s birthday party.  This involves hiring the FIDF Hall (Falkland Islands Defence Force Hall) and hiring anywhere from 1-3 of the bouncy castles available on the Islands.  We opted for two castles.  Set up tables with assorted items of party food, and let children run riot for a couple of hours.  The children are invariably delighted and Ptolemy didn’t seem at all fazed when after his party on Saturday, he was back in the hall on Sunday for a friend’s party involving exactly the same bouncy castles in exactly the same positions as he had had the day before.

Today, whilst doing my best to recover from a flu type bug which I had been attempting to avoid, I had the chance to catch up on local news via both the community pages on Facebook and the FIG press releases.  From this I have gleaned that a Taiwanese jigger (a type of fishing boat) caught fire 60 miles off the coast from Stanley and support was being rendered to them.  More locally the penguins are moulting (the Magellanic ones) and should not be approached in case they are scared into the sea, which could harm them.  We’re off to see more penguins next weekend, but have made a mental note to pop off to Gypsy cove at some point soon when the weather improves to see penguins at a another stage in their life-cycle (though not to approach them!)