Hello everyone for a while this blog and my other blog had the same stuff on them but that is going to change sometimes both blogs will have the same stuff on them but not always.

Yesterday while driving Leo to school we saw a rainbow and Leo was talking about how he wish there was a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and how he would love to find a pot of gold and if he did he would give me some gold and some to papa but most would go to his mummy.

Than we had this conversation:

Leo: What’s at the end of rainbow

Me: A pot of gold

Leo: No

Me: What then

Leo: W

He than said I didn’t say what is at the end of a rainbow, but what is at the end of rainbow meaning the word not the thing. He didn’t have to explain it to me as I got it but it was cute the way he explained it to me.

Today I am going to tell you a bit about Rabaul in Papua New Guinea this is a pretty large place the harbour is Simpson Harbour with a lot of history. During the Second World War up to a 100 Japanese ships including battleships, heavy cruisers, destroyers and merchant vessels were anchored in these waters.

It was from this harbour that the famous “Tokyo Express” raced south to re-supply Guadalcanal and other embattled Japanese bases in the Solomon Islands during WW11.

These waters have seen the worst violence man and nature can produce, man during WW11 and nature due to the active volcanoes in the area.

The Rabaul area was originally a German possession, however, in September of 1914 a small Australian force defeated the Germans near Kokopo ending German control of the area. In 1921 the League of Nations granted Australia a mandate to administer New Guinea as a trust territory and Rabaul became the capitol.

On the 23rs January 1942 the Japanese overwhelmed a small Australian garrison and realising the strategic value of the area established their most powerful base in the South-West Pacific at Rabaul. At its peak the fortress of Rabaul included 5 airfields, a seaplane and submarine base plus a huge naval anchorage with support facilities.

The Japanese garrison numbered around 200,000 personal at its peak, as the allied offensive surged towards Rabaul the installations came under relentless attacks and the Japanese decided to move underground, honeycombing the hills around Rabaul with hundreds of kilometres of tunnels these included hospitals, repair facilities and barracks.

Many allied POW’s and local inhabitants experienced extreme deprivations while digging these tunnels, you can visit the Japanese barge tunnel at Karavia Bay and the Kokopo War Museum and Bitapaka War Cemetery which I would have loved to have done but Tim didn’t like the cost.

The locals are Melanesian people with dark skin and fuzzy hair and are suppose to be very friendly they were so isolated from western influence for so long that the very first wheel ever seen was the propeller of an aircraft.

Everywhere you can hear the locals calling “ha-lo” to you which is “hello” there are no taxis in Rabaul there are a number of street vendors selling souvenirs but they are limited.

Hello Monday, how has everyone been, well and happy I hope, it is a lovely day here in Newie not too cold nor too hot well not hot at all a bit warm in the sun but that’s all.

I am home alone this afternoon and tonight as Jessica is finished with Tafe till after the school holidays which means no Leo here at night during the week, we will still have him on Friday night though.

Anyway my weekend was ok it rained pretty much the whole weekend, yesterday at 3.30am I woke with a headache what I call a mini migraine meaning a really bad headache, so bad that I spent most of the morning in bed. I did get up for a couple of hours and had breakfast but felt that bad I went back to bed and slept for three hours, then when I got up I felt fine no headache.

While I was laying down Kathy-Lee and Tim cleaned out the laundry cupboard and it does look a lot better and a lot tidier. Kathy has also moved a lot of stuff out of a kitchen cupboard into the laundry cupboard, not sure how I feel about that yet.

Anyway it is Monday so it is did you know day………………………..

So did you know that the longest running animated TV series is The Simpsons you must know that every man and his dog knows that.

How about the fact that the door to 10 Downing Street only opens from the inside, you know the home of the British Prime Minister.

Or that adult humans breathe about 23,000 times a day, do human children breathe more or less I wonder or about the same, if you know tell me because I am clueless.

Hello Friday, how is everyone this Friday?

I have been up since 4.30am and did an hour 26 minutes of exercise before getting dressed to go shopping also had to go and get Leo from his mum so I could take him to school as per usual.

So here I am doing this weeks five things for Friday

Cold Feet

Headache

Back ache

Warm socks

Slippers

Ok today I am telling you about Luganville, this is a small town situated around 50 kilometres south of Champagne Bay on Espiritu Santo’s south-eastern coast.

Espiritu Santo is Vanautu’s largest island and is part of the New Hebrides’ archipelago, Luganville is the provincial capital of Vanautu as well as its second largest town, it is part of over 300 islands scattered throughout Melanesia.

It has a population of around 14,000, the climate is suppose to be characterised by comfortably mild temperatures all year round with relatively little to no extremes so no snow or stinking hot days.

The inhabitants of Vanautu’s northern islands commonly refer to Luganville as “Santo”, Espiritu Santo’s rural inhabitants call Luganville “Kanal” which is derived from the French Segond Canal.

Most of the roads around Luganville have not been tar sealed and in fact most of the island’s roads are dirt roads or old cement paths that date back to the Second World War when the Americans laid the cement.

Many people walk around the town due to its small size and most of the town is suppose to be pretty flat thus easy for walking around, I do not know since I didn’t get off the ship but Tim did and he found the walk into town easy to do.

During the Second World War the U.S.S. San Juan cruiser sunk two Japanese patrol boats in October 1942 and the surviving Japanese crew became prisoner of war under the command of Luganville juggernauts and were forced to remain in a small jail facility which tourists can still visit.

In 1942 when the Americans arrived in Luganville the found no real structures existed to support the troops, so the Americans erected the BP Wharf as the most monumental wharf of its time. This wharf is still there.

After the war large amounts of American weaponry and gear was dumped into the sea and is still there resting at a depth of 40 meters beneath the surface, there are bulldozers, trucks, forklifts and containers.

Near the sunken S S President Coolidge there is an memorial to an American Army Captain Elwood J Euart who died while rescuing men from the sinking ship, the memorial was constructed at the end of the war a a tribute to his selfless heroism.

Ok just realised it is Monday and I haven’t done a post so here is this weeks did you know………….

William Shakespeare was 46 years old at the time that the King James version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46 the 46^th word from the beginning is “shake” and the 46^th word from the end is “spear”

Interesting………….or not………………

Ok it is still Friday here so here are today’s five things

Cold

Wet

Hot bath

34 years

Still in love

I have written before about convicts and such but yesterday I was watching a show called Convict Women and Orphan Girls which has made me want to write a little about them again. Between 1787-1868 over 166,000 people were transported as convicts to this great country, 25,000 of them were female and over half of those were Irish.

Some convict women brought their children with them but I wonder if they knew what type of life these children would have here would they still have wanted them to come with them. Children under the age of 3yrs could stay with their mothers but once they reached the age of 3 they were sent to the Orphan Schools where they stayed till the age of 12-14 when they were apprenticed out.

These so called schools gave little education and treated the children so bad that they had a high mortality rate twice what was normal for the times.

Convict women were regarded as breeding stock and generally thought of as prostitutes many were not prostitutes before they arrived here and only turned to it as a way of surviving. These women were transported for such minor crimes such as stealing a potato or a pot lid, some women during the Irish Famine would set fires in order to be arrested and transported as a way of getting food and surviving.

There was also over 4,000 Irish orphan girls sent to Australia because the ratio was 9 or 10 men to every female and more females were needed, these orphan girls were free migrants and most married within 2 years of arriving and raised families.

Interesting 90% of the females transported here stayed and married and raised families in Australia compared to only 25% of males transported, I don’t know what the other 75% of the males did maybe they returned to England or Ireland I just don’t know the show didn’t say.