FINN(COM) DAILY RECORD: MONDAY, 28 MARCH 2005

 

 

NEW BENEFITS FOR FINN(COM) USERS

 

By J. Brock (FINN)

 

Finn(Com) subscribers will soon be able to benefit from expanded service in the form of a CD that contains photos, PDF Files and video clips of events recently attended by FINN.

 

Subscribers will not have to pay to download larger files as they will all be included on CD and sent to them each month.

 

The first CD will be sent out in the first week of April.  There is scope for the benefit to be extended for subscribers to twice a month or once a week.  However, if this is the case, then the cost per month will be reviewed in light of this.

 

There is no extra charge for the once a month CD as it is an attempt to give value for money to the subscribers, who have been loyal since the service began.

 

 

TONY GREEN’S SCHEDULE

 

By J. Brock (FINN)

 

Tony Green, who has been in the Falklands for the past week holding public meetings for St. Helenians about the proposed new constitution, will be in the Parish Hall tonight at 1930 and his final meeting will be held at MPA on Tuesday evening at 28 Facility at 1930.

 

Thus far, the turn-out has been low and Tony puts it down to the constitution not being a “sexy” subject.  Hopefully numbers will increase tonight as well as at MPA tomorrow.

 

 

SWAN INLET OPEN DAY INFORMATIVE AND ENJOYABLE

 

By J. Brock (FINN)

 

Though the subject matter will be hashed out in great detail on SARTMA and FINN websites, with a full report given to subscribers, a brief article about the open day at Swan Inlet is in order for readers. 

 

A group of approximately 20 farmers and Agricultural Department Officers made their way to the Abattoir, where there was an exercise, lead by Doug Martin, in guessing which sheep would produce the best carcasses.  Farmers estimated live weight, dressed weight and approximate value of sheep that were pre-selected in pens.  Both John Ferguson and Damian O’Sullivan were on hand to answer questions.

 

After the exercise was over, the entourage left for Swan Inlet, where Andreas Short was conducting grass trials and pasture improvement on his 900-acre farm.  There were five areas on interest at the farm: An area that was slashed and drilled, another that was mown and hand scattered, one that was hand scattered and now mown, an area that was completely ploughed and sewn and another area that had been slashed and drilled and was now producing adequate fodder for Dohne Marino sheep.  On hand to answer questions at this stage was Andrew Pollard and Neil Judd.  It appeared that the slashing and drilling was the best method for the lotus, which Andreas was using as his fodder of choice for the new breed of sheep he was hoping to use as a stud flock.

 

Mr. Short explained that he now ran double the amount of sheep on his land that a normal farm of that size would have and this was all due to the improved pasture that he cultivated.  An experimental Swede plantation did not work so well due to dry conditions.

 

After the paddock tour there was a BBQ held at the sheering shed.  Later the group returned to the abattoir to see how well everyone guessed live weight, dressed weight and value of the carcass.  John Ferguson was on hand to tell the farmers what he was looking for in carcass quality. Rather than take people through the chillers, he showed photographs of the sheep that had been killed that day and compared them with photos of recent kills where the carcass quality was not up to standard.

 

The whole day was enjoyable and an excellent learning experience.  Thanks to Mandy McLeod, Damian O’Sullivan and Neil Judd for the invite and the transport and the Department of Agriculture for the programme, which looks like a winner to me.

 

A full report follows.

 

DOG DOSING DAY

 

The next Dog Dosing Day is Wednesday, 30 March 2005.  Stanley dog owners must bring them to the Veterinary Office for Hydatid Treatment from 0800 to 1700.

 

SUN OUTAGES

 

Cable and Wireless wish to advise customers that there will be sun outages causing disruptions to international telephone calls.  Expect sun outages of the following days:

 

Tuesday, 05 April 2005, 0859 to 0903, Wednesday, 06 April 2005, 0957 to 1004, Thursday, 07 April 2005, 0856 to 0904, Friday, 08 April 2005, 0856 to 0904, Saturday, 09 April 2005, 0856 to 0902, Sunday, 10 April 2005, 0858 to 0900.

 

ALBATROSS SHIELD

 

Due to poor weather, the Albatross Shield competition has been postponed until Saturday, 02 April 2005.  Tee off at 1300.  The raffle will also be drawn on the day.

 

 

 

8.7 Earthquake located off the western coast of Sumatra has not yet caused a tsunami.  Waves further South may cause problems.  Any waves happening are expected to head toward Mauritius

 

 

 

FIBS NEWS DIRECT: 28 MARCH 2005

 

 

LAN STOP IN USHUAIA:

 

Saturday’s LAN flight stopping in Ushuaia was not part of a future trend was purely an operational decision, according to FIDC General Manager, Julian Morris.  He says that due to the Easter weekend.  He says that due to low utilisation, it was decided to combine two flights.  He added that this has nothing to do with politics or air access but purely because of low traffic on the day, with LAN not wanting to run two aircraft when they had the chance to use only one.  He says that this is definitely a one-off, which had been planned some weeks in advance.  No passengers planning to visit here were allowed to get on at Ushuaia and none from here were able to leave the flight there.  Stanley Growers owner, Tim Miller, says his company was hit by the route change, as they had to cut the amount of freight they brought in by 2000 kilos, with mainly eggs, bananas and mushrooms being left behind.  He says that although they had a couple of days’ warning, they still had to leave fishing boat supplies off, which isn’t good news for those companies.

 

WIRELESS FOR THE BLIND NETS £15,000.00

 

The 2005 Wireless for the Blind fund raiser took place on Saturday. I spoke to the co-ordinator, BFBS presenter, Hermina Graham (HG) and asked her how much money was raised on the day.

 

HG:  It was just over £15,800.00 and there is money coming in all the time.  We had people actually doing events on the day raising money.  I know a crewman from HMS Dumbarton Castle walked from Mare Harbour to BFBS Studios before we had even gone on air and he raised in the region of £400.00.

 

SF:  how do you feel the day actually went?

 

HG:  We had a great response. People phoned into my show this morning and those we saw over the weekend and in the office debrief - it just couldn’t have gone any better.  We put the emphasis on fun this year because there had been a lot of fund raising at Mount Pleasant - the Tsunami appeal, Comic relief and various other things and we were overwhelmed by the amount of items that were donated.  The money went towards the items was fantastic.  It surpassed all our expectations.

 

SF:  What was the bit you actually enjoyed the most?

 

HG:  Getting on air and auctioning off the items.  All of the team were together and we had FIBS up.  It was great to join forces.  We had volunteers come in.  It was nice to know the support was out there and we had a lot of fun with it.  It was very well organised on the day.

 

SF:  How much time did it take to organise the whole event?

 

HG:  We had anticipated doing the auction in December so planned for it in November.  It then got postponed and picked up things back in January and then through the last few weeks.  So it all got quite exciting in the last couple of weeks.

 

SF:  When do you think you will have the money total?

 

HG:  This year, BFBS are going to do things slightly differently.  Come December, which we have the appeal anyway, we will be joining forces with all the other stations around the world for one day where we will be broadcasting and finding out how every station overseas has been doing with their fund raising for Wireless for the Blind.  There will be a date in December were we will be going live.  We won’t be auctioning but we will be going live and in December, we will announce the total sometime in December.  Thank you to everybody that supported us.

 

TAHITI CONFERENCE:

 

Two Councillors will be representing us at the overseas countries and territories EU meeting in Tahiti this week.  Ian Hansen and Mike Summers left the Islands on Saturday.  Preparatory meetings will take place on Tuesday and on Wednesday the OCT Ministerial Conference is being held.  On Thursday, there will be sessions focusing on economy and development and future relations between OCTs and the EU.  On Friday, some specific issues will be covered, including introducing the Euro in overseas countries and territories and a debate on EC tax measures.

 

DOUG CLARK’S CHARITY EVENT:

 

£250.00 has been raised for the Wireless for the Blind appeal by Stanley man, Doug Clark. On Sunday, he rode to Long Island Farm and back on a push-bike.  He also raised around £500.00 for the Football Club. The Club will be attending the Island Games.  Doug rode the 76.5 km with Mark Brennon, Dominic Watson and Ali Liddle and the support team Chris Gilbert, Ben Watson and Wayne Clement.  Gardner Fiddes also walked the course.

 

NORMAN CLARK:

 

After 15 years’ trading at Mount Pleasant and little more than a year in Stanley, the Islands’ only Photo Developing Business, Falkland Printz, closed down recently.  I asked owner, Norman Clark (NC) why he decided to shut up shop.

 

NC:  Purely because the business wasn’t earning any money.  The actual start of that was when another photo system was introduced in the UK.  It used APS film, which requires an APS camera.  A large majority of the MPA customers coming in were buying these and my machinery couldn’t process that particular type of film.  As that was progressed, we then had the beginning of digital imagery.  That further reduced the customer base.

 

CB:  Would you describe yourself, then, a victim of technology?

 

NC:  No.  I have been run over by progress.

 

CB:  What will you do now?

 

NC:  I am going to do more photography in the form of landscapes and wildlife.  Hopefully I will do the occasional horse.  Also, baby photographs, school photos and the May Ball.

 

CB:  Over the last 15 years, you have also covered numerous political and royal visits.

 

NC:  In all, I covered 5 visits, which included the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Anne, Princess Alexandra, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, and then there was Margaret Thatcher, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Douglas Hurd, All of those visits were thoroughly enjoyable.  And, can keep you at the sharper end of producing goods within a specified time limit.  There was always an album before that visitor got back on the plane.  Along with everything else, I managed to travel 350,000 miles on the Mount Pleasant Road, which was an experience.  I will also be restoring old photographs and producing prints from slides.  Most of all, I would like to thank all of my customers for their support over that period of time.  I would also like to thank the FIC mechanics for keeping me going on that road for that amount of time and for the technical people - Adrian at BFBS and for Michael Smallwood in Stanley.  Without those people, things would have come to a grinding halt much sooner.

 

POLICE NEWS:

 

At 1320 on Saturday a report was received that a suspicious item had been discovered in the vicinity of the “Frying Pan.”   The matter was handed over to the EOD.  Just before 1600 on Saturday, the police received a report of a stolen purse from the Globe Tavern.  A person is assisting the Police with their enquiries.  In the early hours of Sunday morning, Officers came across a disturbance outside the Globe Tavern.  The two men were separated and sent on their way.  At 2020 on Sunday evening, the Police received a report of a disturbance outside the Victory Bar.  Officers attended the scene to find that the matter had resolved itself.

 

HARBOUR, SHIPPING AND FISHING NEWS:

 

On Saturday, the Sil came in to tranship and left in the evening.  Reefer, Frio Antarctica also came in on Saturday to tranship in Berkley Sound.  The 601 Chan Ying came in to tranship and left in the evening.  Sigon 11 came in with a medical on Saturday and left on Sunday morning to fish.  Puerto Gatt left FIPASS on Saturday.  On Sunday, the Sao Georgidos came into Berkley Sound for bunkers and the Frio Adriatic left on Sunday morning for Vigo.  On Monday morning, the Insung 66 came into Berkley Sound for bunkers and to tranship.

 

(100X Transcription Service)