Letters from the Falkland Islands. Friday 11th December. 20.26.

 Letters from the Falkland Islands 

Early on in this period of quarantine, during my first allocated outside slot, I made a quite wonderful discovery. If you stand in one particular spot in the sheep pen, if you stand on tiptoes and crane your neck; it is possible to make out two red phone boxes and the unmistakable top of a red pillar box. Every time I’ve been out since I always make sure I get a glimpse of it. I’m not entirely sure why I love post boxes so much, nor why a week’s holiday in Scotland turned into a bit of a post box quest. I suppose it’s the magic that surrounds it all, the magic of letter writing. It’s about connection and communication, it’s about taking whoever you are in the moment of writing and giving that part of you to someone else. There’s an honesty and thoughtfulness to it all that seems to have been lost in the instantaneous world we’ve come to inhabit.

A few days later, or it might have just been the next day, I realised I was encountering a coffee shortage. Now, although we are in quarantine here, in a different country, we have not just been left to fend for ourselves. The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have two logistics coordinators based in the Falklands; Liz and Brad. Now, the only extra coffee the hotel could seem to provide was decaff (which is not really coffee at all), so I messaged Brad and he was able to sort me out a jar of Nescafe. Brad also said that if there was anything else at all just to let him know. What followed was probably not the usual kind of request he receives. I asked, if it wasn’t too much trouble, would he be able to take a photo of something for me. I explained about the post box, explained it in a way that would have left him in no doubt that I was either a little bit of a geek or someone who wasn’t taking to quarantine too well! I even had to ask him to go back and take a second photo, because the first one he sent me was just of the royal cypher and not the box in its entirety. Thanks Brad! Christmas really does come early sometimes.