The Good Life!

The summer holidays came crashing to a halt at the beginning of the month as the new school year begun in earnest once again. Gone, at least for a couple of months, are the lazy days of not having to do anything. Back to the daily spinning of plates that is the reality of primary school teaching. The first two weeks have gone pretty well so far, despite the feeling I am only just about keeping my head above the water in terms of what needs to be done. The list of things to do and set in place is looming over me like towering building and I feel that I am taking the stairs to the top rather than the express elevator. I have been getting to know my new class. They are generally a lovely lot although I have a few characters, which typically permeates most classrooms, and I will have a well exercised 'thumb' by the end of the year in my attempts to persuade them that an education really is the best thing for them in the long run. Thankfully, Olivia and Evie have settled in fantastically well. Olivia has been awarded 'Student of the Week' already and both have started to create a good social network. In fact at the end of last week Evie was apparently going to a friend's house over the weekend. She couldn't remember her name or where she lived, but she did know that the house had a red roof…

Over the short time we have been here it is quickly becoming apparent that this move is going to be beneficial in at least one thing – family resourcefulness! The remote nature of the Falklands means 'things' are simply not so easy to get and when they are available, they are usually quite a bit more expensive. Food is a prime example of this. It's one of the basic requirements for life (along with water and the need to eliminate bodily waste), so not something we can simply avoid. Yes, eating less food is an answer and probably most of the developed world could do more of. However, a family of 4 is a pretty ravenous consumer and there is great potential for a very high food bill.

So we have started to introduce small money saving practices to help feed this hungry beast. Caz has donned the white apron and taken to baking in a big way, producing on almost a daily basis, a considerable variety of loaves and cakes. We are also making our own yogurt now (albeit in a very simple yogurt maker using packet mixes), which has reduced the weekly yogurt bill by half! The next stage in our morphosis will be the procurement of some chickens for the back garden. The imported eggs are expensive and to be honest not good quality. Falkland Islands' eggs are cheaper and much superior in quality, however they are not nearly so available – especially in winter. The solution… lay our own! Caz has sorted delivery of a wooden shipping crate, which will be transformed into a chicken coop and run (a test of my currently limited carpentry skills), and the chickens should be easy to get as lots of people have them here. In fact half a dozen are in an incubator in Olivia's year 5 classroom as I write (and you read!). We will not be stopping at small scale chicken farming either. The green finger muscles will shortly be flexed with a number of grow bags in the front porch. Fresh fruit and vegetables are ludicrously expensive here, so we are lessening the blow by having a go at growing tomatoes, cucumbers and anything else that will work in a green house.

As in Cornwall, the sea is an extremely influential part of life here. The rich south Atlantic fishing grounds around the Falklands are partly the cause of the dispute between the Argentine and UK governments. We have started to reap the benefits ourselves with a huge bag of giant muscles. Not having eaten muscles for a long time and having never actually cooked them, they actually tasted pretty good – cooked in white wine and stock. Being honest however, I did go to bed slightly nervous of seeing them again later! Thankfully my fears did not materialize so I will definitely be repeating this experiment. The mullet and trout season has also just started, which promises more in the way of free marine delights. A more daunting prospect, but one that I definitely plan on taking advantage of, is the promise of learning how to carve up a whole sheep. Apparently the local farmers will sell a whole mutton extremely cheaply. I will just have to cut it up and stock the freezer!