What a month!

Apologies for not checking in during May, but it was a very busy one for myself and Shelly, I'll tell you more about that a bit later.

There is big COVID-19 news on the island. We spent the whole of May at Level Orange on the island’s COVID-19 threat scale, meaning there were positive cases on the island but contained in isolation. I believe there were two cases onboard the runway project aggregate vessel and then there were two more that arrived on one of the military flights. The real news, however, that has raised alarm bells for a large proportion of the population is that Ascension is transitioning to 'Living with COVID-19' from the 1st of August. New arrivals will no longer have to isolate on arrival and will only have to test themselves before their flight to the island if the airline they are travelling on requires it. If you are not feeling well when you arrive you will have to notify the island's medical services who will provide you with a Lateral Flow Test, if you are then tested positive you would be asked to isolate until you return a negative test. Although if you are seen as a key worker for your employer and feel well enough to work, they will have measures in place for you to continue working safely. The initial guidelines are for a 6-8 week period where it is expected that most of the population would have caught and recovered from the virus. 1st of August was chosen as the date for 'opening' the island as there will be almost a third of the island's population leaving for school holidays which would make the outbreak more manageable. Islanders will be advised to follow good hygiene and wear masks but it will not be enforced by law. The fine details are still being worked on but the island government will provide guidelines for the employers to interpret to suit them and their business needs. The hope is that the island will have another round of boosters before the 1st of August to try and keep the symptoms of the virus as mild as possible. The Senior Medical Officer has started to hold meetings with the different organisations so their staff are kept informed of the plans, I'll keep you updated with what is being planned as and when the public is informed.

I've not managed to get much info regarding the runway project for a few weeks. I am hoping for another tour as I believe they have started asphalting. Unloading of the aggregate vessels is still taking place, they are now coming to the end of this part of the project with only a few more vessels to arrive.

Today is a Public Holiday and the island is recovering from 4 days of Platinum Jubilee celebrations, with the finale being a Street Party in the town square with a brilliant firework display in the evening.

Thursday, there was the lighting of the Jubilee Beacon up at what is now known as Jubilee View, to you older readers you will probably know it as the Governor's Lodge or Scouts Lodge.

Friday, the Chuch held a Thanksgiving service. There was an Art and Craft exhibition at the Saint's Club Hall (Georgetown Cinema) and then a Float Parade around the island, the effort that was put into making the floats was amazing and looked even better during the night when they were all lit up.

Saturday, the Administrator held a reception at the Residency for the Queen's Birthday and then Sunday we saw the Street Party rounding off an amazing long weekend.

Keep an eye on our social media platforms, we'll have pics up soon.

The last of the news we have to share before finishing this post is to tell you why we have been quiet on all of our platforms. Well, we have welcomed into the world, Ascension's newest and youngest islander. Mum and baby are doing great, he is just over a week old now and is everything we could have asked for. So keep an eye out, sometime shortly you will start seeing the newest member of the Into The Big World team make his official appearance on our posts :)

Thunderstorm - Take 2

Happy Easter everyone, keeping with tradition the weather is a little overcast and wet at times, keeping things interesting for all those Easter campers.

A few weeks ago it finally happened, after weeks of thunderstorm warnings from the MET Office the skies opened and we had almost a day of non-stop heavy rain, strangely Two Boats Village wasn't hit as bad as Georgetown. In Georgetown, there were rivers of water running to Long Beach and out to sea, a massive deep pool of water formed near the Georgetown Swimming Pool (Exiles Swimming Pool) and the main road through Georgetown was under water. I've uploaded a few videos on our Youtube Channel if you would like to see them. The result of the rain meant Needles road has been closed for about 2 weeks and only reopened today.

COVID is well and truly a part of daily life on the island now, although our strict isolation protocols mean it has never escaped into the general population, there are very few flights where there isn't someone who tests positive either on arrival or during their isolation period. I believe there are talks at a higher level on the island to decide if we should stop the isolation period. An unpopular idea in the Saint Helenian community on the island as it would mean isolation on the now shorter holiday trips to St Helena. As it stands there is a travel corridor between the islands with no isolation, providing certain criteria are met, one of them being the flight crew tests negative.

The sound of conveyor belts at the bottom of Georgetown, trucks rumbling along the roads means one thing, the Runway Project aggregate ship is finally back. The sea did its best to delay things by getting a little choppy when the jack-up barge was being docked which meant it took a few days longer before the unloading could start but once they did it has been running really well.

The Island's Conservation Department hosted the island's first-ever Marine Festival at the Turtle Ponds, a successful day with stalls, games, food and live music.

There's a new buzz around the island at the moment, as part of the Jubilee celebrations, there is a new competition for the newly created Jubilee Cup. A competition between all the companies on the island, which will see them compete in Darts, Skittles, Pool, Golf, a Quiz Night and finishing with Tug-o-War during the Jubilee Celebrations, collecting points along the way, the company scoring the most points will be crowned Champions.

On that note, it's bedtime, Easter eggs in the morning :)