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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
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Indian Ocean Invasion - 15. IOI Chapter 15

When I did some more searching online, I also found a jet boat, that is 18 metres long, with seating for 38 passengers with a bottom glass viewing area, bathroom and kitchen which I thought would be perfect for tourists.

Mindful that the federal government or the local government wouldn’t want to fork out 395 thousand dollars. Instead, I used all of what I had saved up and convinced my half-brother – Jeremy, to come in partnership, with a 2/3’s share, and we boat the boat, and had it shipped from Greece.

This boat could be used as a backup ferry boat, as it can have a cruising speed of 36 km’s per hour, when the other boat is having maintenance, or is not working. I am hoping that with these boats, it would allow the Chagos community to travel between the islands to keep in touch with one another, as one big community.

I hoped to be able to get together regularly, once it was agreed by the chief’s council to celebrate a total of 23 holidays, 6 Australian Public Holidays, 7 Christian, 7 Hindi and 3 Buddhist religious holidays.

It was also agreed that on St Patricks day in mid – March, that it would also be Chagos Day, to celebrate the return to their homelands. Once of the other jobs I was negotiating, is to have a twice weekly commercial flight to come to the Chagos Archipelago, to promote tourism but in the meantime, the Chagos Council administration was completing setting up a Website to promote sailors to visit the islands.

Although it was agreed by the chiefs to accept Australian law, as the form of Law and order, it also recognised that being a remote location, it also had to insist on some very strict environmental laws to protect the islands nature and income from fishing.

With the Maldives being just 600 km’s to the north, as its nearest neighbour, it was decided by the Chiefs that a 100 km economic exclusion zone be established to protect the waters of the Chagos Archipelago, especially from over fishing of the area. With one Australian Naval patrol boat based at Diego Garcia, it was up to them to patrol this area, to make sure that these rules were being enforced.

With a 2 ½ hour time difference with Perth Western Australia, and 4 ½ hours with Canberra, I had to have three clocks put in the reception area of my administration building, to keep track of the different time zones. One day in mid-July, just past four months since moving to the islands, and just two weeks after the arrival of the jet boat and the other boats, I received a call from Jeremy.

“When you spoke to me, and asked help to buy a jet boat to promote better tourism options on the island last month, I thought you were talking about the Cocos Keeling Islands, but now I have an invoice to say that the Jet boat was delivered to Diego Garcia, the new Indian Ocean Territory of Australia, what the hell bro?” Jeremy said in an annoyed and angry tone, when I answered the call.

“Yeah about that, I was almost on my way back to the mainland, when I was called to take up a very important position on the Chagos Archipelago, as it is known. Diego Garcia is just the largest island on the chain of islands” I responded.

“Ok, so what the hell is this job that is so important, that has taken you another 2000 kilometres away from the mainland, in the middle of nowhere” Jeremy asked still sounding angry.

“Do you have a computer in front of you, and turned on?” I asked, “Yeah, why do you ask?” Jeremy replied cautiously, “Just humour me for a moment, enter this web address, www.aph.gov.au then click on ‘About Parliament’, then click on ‘Work of the Parliament’, have you got that so far?” I said.

“Yeah, yeah, but what is this leading to, it is all stupid politics as far as I am concerned” Jeremy snapped, and I chuckled softly, “Patients bro, be patient, right now click on ‘Forming and Governing a Nation, and on that page, you will see 6 dot points, click on the one that says ‘State Governors and Administrators’, then tell me what you read under the heading of Chagos Archipelago Islands” I said.

Bloody hell is this correct, it says that you are the Administrator of the new Territory?” Jeremy said to me, “As I said before, I was asked to take up an important position, and that is why I am here” I responded. “It says here, ‘The Honourable Commander Lewis Shaw CVO, VC, DSC, what are all the letters about? Plus, I thought you were a Lt Commander?” Jeremy said to me.

“Well when I was given this job, I was promoted to a full Commander, transferred to Navy Reserves for the time I am here, and the rest are honours that I have received” I replied.

“Wait, the VC, isn’t the…” Jeremy started to say and I interrupted him, “Yes the Victoria Cross, I received it when I was in Afghanistan, when I was injured and helping the others out of the vehicle after we hit an IED, the other one is the Distinguished Service Cross, for what I did on Christmas Island, and the CVO, is the Commander of the Victorian Order” I responded.

“Wait you mean like a knighthood?” Jeremy asked sounding shocked, and I chuckled, “Not quite, one level down from a knighthood” I replied, “Bloody hell” Jeremy responded, and I gave a short laugh at his reaction. “I guess you can say I work in Public Service now, not that I wanted too” I said, as I thought back at how quickly everything happened.

“So how do I get there, so Mitchell and I can come and visit?” Jeremy asked, “that is something that I have been working on for the past month, to try and encourage tourism to the islands, but because it is so remote, Virgin Airways don’t want to know about it, there are flights from Columbo, Sri Lanka and from Kula Lumpur, Malaysia to the Maldives Island, which is about 600 km’s north of Chagos Archipelago” I replied.

“Oh, so how do you get supplies to you?” Jeremy asked, “By ship mostly which is a 12-day journey from Perth, the Federal Government has a cargo contract with a Western Australian shipping company, to deliver supplies once every six weeks. Anything urgent, is flown in by the RAAF, which must stop to refuel at the Cocos Keeling Islands” I replied, just as I thought of a brilliant idea.

“Well I don’t have time to sail on a ship to see you, so I guess we will have to wait till something better comes up, I will talk again soon bro” Jeremy said, “Ok mate, and say hello to Mitchell for me, bye” I said and ended the call, and I went online to find the Corporate Head office of Qantas, which I found to be is Mascot, Sydney.

“Hello, this is Lewis Shaw, administrator of the Chagos Archipelago Territory of Australia, I wish to speak to someone, regarding a proposal for a different stop over on European flights” I said when the call was answered, “Is this is a prank call or something, because I am not amused” came a response on the other end of the line.

“No this is not a crank call, if you like you can, check the Australian government website, where it lists who the current State Governors and Territory Administrators are, then call me back” I responded and hung up the phone annoyed at the attitude of the lady at Qantas.

A good ten minutes later, the telephone rang, and my assistant answered the call, “Good afternoon, Chagos Archipelago Administrators office, how may I assist you today… one moment please, I will put you through” I heard my assistant say, and the phone on my desk rang.

“Administrator Lewis Shaw speaking” I said when I picked up the phone, “Sir… Mr Shaw, I am terribly sorry at how you were treated with your call earlier, I have already spoken to the young lady concerned, and it won’t happen again. My name is Rachel Yates, assistant director of Corporate business, how may I help you today” the caller said to me.

“Thank you for your return call Ms Yates, now the reason I have called is in regard to the Territory that I reside in, unlike the Administrator of the Cocos Keeling Island and Christmas Island, I do actually reside where I work, you may also be aware that it has been just four months since I began my appointment, soon after the transfer of ownership took place” I began.

“Yes sir, I have been following the news stories with interest, although there is not much about it, apart from official information from the Federal government in Canberra” Ms Yates replied.

“Well I can tell you that the main island of Diego Garcia, which is now only part defence base, and the remainder is Community land, compared to when the Americans were running it, we are 5255 kilometres from Perth, which if there was a direct flight to here, would take 7 hours, and 8,530 km’s from Sydney, which would take 11 hours.

Now we have no commercial flights to the island, only an occasional RAAF flight when need be, what we don’t have is easy access to the outside world. What I am proposing, is that Qantas consider, Diego Garcia as a stopping point for your flights to Europe, with London being 9,455 kilometres from Diego Garcia” I suggested.

“Well that is a very interesting proposal, I will definitely suggest this to the board at their next meeting, and let you know the outcome” Ms Yates replied, “Direct, Polite and honest, I like that. I look forward to our next conversation, goodbye till then Ms Yates” I said before ending the call.

The rest of the week went smoothly for me, with two community meetings, one in the main town of Diego Garcia, and the other on Boddam Island, and I would be travelling on the jet boat for the first time, which will take 4 hours to reach the most northern islands of the Archipelago, in open ocean waters, and we towed four of the fishing boats with us, to drop off there. The journey north was a little rough, but it was worth the trip.

I was given a warm welcome from the whole community, and the boats were greatly received, before I attended the community meeting, to discuss any issues, and to attend a formal dinner, before staying overnight with one of the local families, and returning to the main island the following day.

I will be doing similar trips to the Egmont Islands, and again to the Three Brothers and Eagle Islands, for community meetings and a formal dinner, with plans to do these trips every three months, to keep in touch with what is happening in each area.

When I was invited to attend the next Chief Council meeting, I was informed that my visit to the northern Islands was appreciated, and that I would be welcome to return at any time, which I was glad to hear.

I was also informed that a name had been chosen for the main town on Diego Garcia, which will become the capital of the Archipelago, and the name chosen is Catalina, after a Catalina flying boat, that was destroyed during a cyclone in September 1944.

Back at my office, I wrote a report on my visit to the northern islands, and what was discussed at the community meeting, plus a briefing on what was discussed at the recent Chief Council meeting, including the selected name for the capital of the Chagos Archipelago, and I emailed it to Canberra.

Over the next two months, I worked hard with the community, to get all the necessary community facilities and more housing built to accommodate the expected total of 3500 permanent residents on the island, along with several cafes, plus two hotels with 40 rooms each, on Diego Garcia, and one other hotel located on Egmont Island with just 12 rooms, to accommodate tourists, that are starting to flow into the region.

Although I was not successful with getting any Australian Airlines to have flights stop at Diego Garcia, I did manage to get a regional Airline from India, to extend its usual flights from Columbo, Sri Lanka, to Male, Maldives Islands, which is a 1 ½ hour flight and travel a further 2 hours, south to Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Islands.

The only flights to Columbo, from Australia are with a stopover in Singapore, which means 4 individual flights from Perth taking nearly two days including the stop overs in Singapore, Columbo and the Maldives. We are also getting a lot of yachts visiting the islands, which is an extra bonus.

With all the pressures of working in this job, I often found it very overwhelming, and for the past few weeks, I had been considering my future, and now had made the decision to hand in my resignation, with 6-weeks-notice. A few days later, I received a return email from Canberra.

“We regretfully accept your resignation, although we are disappointed that you have decided to leave the post as Administrator of Chagos Archipelago, we thank you for all of your hard work in the past 15 months that you have been there.

We have received feedback from recent tourist visitors, who have visited the islands, and they informed us, that they had a wonderful time on the island, and that the Chagos Islanders are very warm and friendly people, and we think that, this is mainly because of the work you have done to build a friendly community. We will arrange for a replacement as soon as possible, and have them arrive there two weeks before your departure date of late March".

With that out of the way, and with one more-round of community visit to complete before I leave, I decided to organise for them to take place, as soon as the new replacement has arrived, so they can meet the Chagos Islanders personally, before I leave.

I sent an email to Margaret, Jeremy and to Kylie to let them know that I was leaving my job on the Chagos Islands at the end of November, and that I would be heading directly to the Mediterranean to have a well-deserved holiday, for an undecided period.

Copyright August 2018, Preston Wigglesworth, All rights are reserved.
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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6 months isn't very long on this job - an important one at that.  However, the danger of burnout was indicated so Lewis has to think of his health first.  Kudo's to him for doing that.

 

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33 minutes ago, Terry P said:

6 months isn't very long on this job - an important one at that.  However, the danger of burnout was indicated so Lewis has to think of his health first.  Kudo's to him for doing that.

 

Sorry, it was suppose to read 15 months not 6

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Great story so far!  What surprises me is that as a young, healthy man there has been no interest from Lewis in finding a mate.   I know being in the service would make it difficult, but I would assume Lewis is terribly lonely.  All work and no play.....as they say.

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Even fifteen months s not that like long time n the scheme of things especially when you think about how long administrators and Governors usually hold the jobs for. However in this situation he has been flat out getting everything up and running from scratch to a point where in can function well without his continued input all the time to keep things running.

 Another great chapter.I wonder what mischief the government and the navy can find for him now. Am I correct in thinking that where you mention the administrators of Coco and Keeling Group  and Christmas Island group that Christmas is again in Australia's hands or is that just wishful thinking?

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1 hour ago, Bushman60 said:

Even fifteen months s not that like long time n the scheme of things especially when you think about how long administrators and Governors usually hold the jobs for. However in this situation he has been flat out getting everything up and running from scratch to a point where in can function well without his continued input all the time to keep things running.

 Another great chapter.I wonder what mischief the government and the navy can find for him now. Am I correct in thinking that where you mention the administrators of Coco and Keeling Group  and Christmas Island group that Christmas is again in Australia's hands or is that just wishful thinking?

Just have to wait and see! Bushy

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You have to appreciate the logistical problems here. Christmas Island is a long way from the Australian mainland. You would need to both interdict planes and shipping to assault the island and have a reasonable confidence of success. To interdict planes you need fighter jets. Where would they come from? Unless you have someone like the British come in with their only aircraft carrier, you won't have a way. A naval blockade presents a similar problem. The Indian Ocean is a big place. When the U.S. blockaded Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the much smaller Gulf of Mexico, it used an aircraft carrier, two heavy cruisers, 22 destroyers, and 2 guided missile frigates. Compare that to the RAN's 8 frigates and one destroyer and you can see the difficulty. You'd need some help. You could reduce the distance of the interdiction line to the island and use fewer ships, but this could bring you in range of any defenses installed since the invasion. They've had plenty of time to prepare.

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56 minutes ago, drpaladin said:

You have to appreciate the logistical problems here. Christmas Island is a long way from the Australian mainland. You would need to both interdict planes and shipping to assault the island and have a reasonable confidence of success. To interdict planes you need fighter jets. Where would they come from? Unless you have someone like the British come in with their only aircraft carrier, you won't have a way. A naval blockade presents a similar problem. The Indian Ocean is a big place. When the U.S. blockaded Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the much smaller Gulf of Mexico, it used an aircraft carrier, two heavy cruisers, 22 destroyers, and 2 guided missile frigates. Compare that to the RAN's 8 frigates and one destroyer and you can see the difficulty. You'd need some help. You could reduce the distance of the interdiction line to the island and use fewer ships, but this could bring you in range of any defenses installed since the invasion. They've had plenty of time to prepare.

True, but because of the shallow reefs and islands. Scattered around Diego Garcia, the job is made easier.

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5 minutes ago, quokka said:

True, but because of the shallow reefs and islands. Scattered around Diego Garcia, the job is made easier.

 

We're talking Christmas Island here. Diego Garcia was a totally different situation. There was no truly hostile force and support was further away. I'm not sure why you would think I was talking about that now. Christmas Island is only 220mi from reinforcements. It's easily in range of fighter aircraft. As far as Indonesian Naval support, they have 8 frigates, 24 corvettes, and 74 patrol boats. All of those would have the range to the island.

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1 hour ago, drpaladin said:

 

We're talking Christmas Island here. Diego Garcia was a totally different situation. There was no truly hostile force and support was further away. I'm not sure why you would think I was talking about that now. Christmas Island is only 220mi from reinforcements. It's easily in range of fighter aircraft. As far as Indonesian Naval support, they have 8 frigates, 24 corvettes, and 74 patrol boats. All of those would have the range to the island.

Oops

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I am not familiar with time zone differences of 1/2 hours.  Every time zone I am familiar with is in one-hour intervals. The purchase of the glass-bottom boat seems odd for transport.  Better for tourist uses.  Seems like an imposition on a brother he has only known briefly.  The story is good.  The language - especially in conversations - is stilted at times.  

Patience is the virtue; Patients are people...

 

Just minor observations.  I do await the next adventure.

Tony

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20 minutes ago, pvtguy said:

I am not familiar with time zone differences of 1/2 hours.  Every time zone I am familiar with is in one-hour intervals. The purchase of the glass-bottom boat seems odd for transport.  Better for tourist uses.  Seems like an imposition on a brother he has only known briefly.  The story is good.  The language - especially in conversations - is stilted at times.  

Patience is the virtue; Patients are people...

 

Just minor observations.  I do await the next adventure.

Tony

Patience to Authors who use the Queen's English....

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I’m really loving this story. I wonder what prompted Lewis’s decision to resign after only 15 months. I can understand that he is wanting to relax more but he has always stuck by his responsibilities no matter what he was doing. I thought it was funny that he had Jeremy doing a search for the new government of Diego Garcia, then when he found what Lewis told him about he just about flipped. I hope that Lewis will make a surprise visit to see his family especially since he hasn’t seen any of them since he put Mitch on the plane for Perth after they got away from Christmas Island. That was a year and a half ago. This is a great bunch of characters in this story and it all just flows well with the way the story is going at the time.

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IT is my understanding that corvettes like patrol boats are for costal waters only and not deep sea vessels. I'm not Sir how many Indonesia has but I would be reasonably confident in ruling them out is being in the invasion fleet. And while they have eight frigates  I believe only three are ever in service at the same time. So they would be stretching themselves very thin especially as they are very old and mostly don't have the Modern Up grades that Australia, Japan ,UK and USA use. One thing I'm not sure is if they have sub's. My feeling is they don't or if they do they are of a much older very noisy and unreliable type possiblely like Argentina has.   They kicked up a stink about the Collins class when we built them . They thought we were being to agressive . IT WAS MUCH WORSE  every time  we bought or decided to build  something new for the military  and they definitely didn't like it when we let the Us marine build a permanent training base near Darwin. This is also what makes me think it would be very unlikely for us ever to try and dispossess the Chagoes in any way but I don't think think we would allow the Indonesian incursion to go unanswered either  especially in light of what initiated and did to get them out of Timor Leste. While  we do have our occasional tiffs by and large they are happy neighbours .They get billions in aid from us. We are usually the first there in an inmergancy and stump up more aid in those situations.  And we have a genuine free trade agreement that works well . If they need it it often becomes part of an aid package. So in practice I doubt it would happen. However the south China sea could be something else entirely. As I said earlier it is all in the realm of make believe and hypothetical .I think there are worse scenarios that would happen before that.

I am also of the opinion that like naru the phosphate deposit is pretty much exhausted.

Edited by Bushman60
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54 minutes ago, Bushman60 said:

IT is my understanding that corvettes like patrol boats are for costal waters only and not deep sea vessels. I'm not Sir how many Indonesia has but I would be reasonably confident in ruling them out is being in the invasion fleet. And while they have eight frigates  I believe only three are ever in service at the same time. So they would be stretching themselves very thin especially as they are very old and mostly don't have the Modern Up grades that Australia, Japan ,UK and USA use. One thing I'm not sure is if they have sub's. My feeling is they don't or if they do they are of a much older very noisy and unreliable type possiblely like Argentina has.   They kicked up a stink about the Collins class when we built them . They thought we were being to agressive . IT WAS MUCH WORSE  every time  we bought or decided to build  something new for the military  and they definitely didn't like it when we let the Us marine build a permanent training base near Darwin. This is also what makes me think it would be very unlikely for us ever to try and dispossess the Chagoes in any way but I don't think think we would allow the Indonesian incursion to go unanswered either  especially in light of what initiated and did to get them out of Timor Leste. While  we do have our occasional tiffs by and large they are happy neighbours .They get billions in aid from us. We are usually the first there in an inmergancy and stump up more aid in those situations.  And we have a genuine free trade agreement that works well . If they need it it often becomes part of an aid package. So in practice I doubt it would happen. However the south China sea could be something else entirely. As I said earlier it is all in the realm of make believe and hypothetical .I think there are worse scenarios that would happen before that.

I am also of the opinion that like naru the phosphate deposit is pretty much exhausted.

No comment

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19 minutes ago, Bushman60 said:

IT is my understanding that corvettes like patrol boats are for costal waters only and not deep sea vessels. I'm not Sir how many Indonesia has but I would be reasonably confident in ruling them out is being in the invasion fleet. And while they have eight frigates  I believe only three are ever in service at the same time. So they would be stretching themselves very thin especially as they are very old and mostly don't have the Modern Up grades that Australia, Japan ,UK and USA use. One thing I'm not sure is if they have sub's. My feeling is they don't or if they do they are of a much older very noisy and unreliable type possiblely like Argentina has.   They kicked up a stink about the Collins class when we built them . They thought we were being to agressive . IT WAS MUCH WORSE  every time  we bought or decided to build  something new for the military  and they definitely didn't like it when we let the Us marine build a permanent training base near Darwin. This is also what makes me think it would be very unlikely for us ever to try and dispossess the Chagoes in any way but I don't think think we would allow the Indonesian incursion to go unanswered either  especially in light of what initiated and did to get them out of Timor Leste. While  we do have our occasional tiffs by and large they are happy neighbours .They get billions in aid from us. We are usually the first there in an inmergancy and stump up more aid in those situations.  And we have a genuine free trade agreement that works well . If they need it it often becomes part of an aid package. So in practice I doubt it would happen. However the south China sea could be something else entirely. As I said earlier it is all in the realm of make believe and hypothetical .I think there are worse scenarios that would happen before that.

I am also of the opinion that like naru the phosphate deposit is pretty much exhausted.

 

The Indonesian Navy is quite modern and well equipped. They spend 4% of GDP on defense.  It's roughly equivalent to the dollar amount Australia spends, but the intend to increase it by 20%. They have the largest navy in Southeast Asia. The frigates are all in service. Corvettes are larger (up to 128m) than patrol boats and either could be used at that range. Their patrol boats aren't exactly tiny and they aren't lightly armed. They have 35 KRI classed craft which are heavily armed. This is with 76mm guns, torpedoes, and anti-ship missiles. The models used by the IN exclusively range between 40 to 63 meters long.  They have four attack submarines in service with an additional four to be built. Although the subs are not as large or modern as the Collins class.  However, the biggest threat is always air superiority and at that range, they have it..

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23 hours ago, pvtguy said:

I am not familiar with time zone differences of 1/2 hours.  Every time zone I am familiar with is in one-hour intervals. The purchase of the glass-bottom boat seems odd for transport.  Better for tourist uses.  Seems like an imposition on a brother he has only known briefly.  The story is good.  The language - especially in conversations - is stilted at times.  

Patience is the virtue; Patients are people...

 

Just minor observations.  I do await the next adventure.

Tony

Yes there are some 1/2 hour time zones in the Australia region.

Sydney on the East coast is 9 hours behind London,  while Darwin in the centre north is 8.5 hours behind, and Perth on the West Coast is 7 hours behind.

This is mainly because the Northern Territory and South Australia, want to be close to Eastern states times for business reasons.

Mind you it gets more complicated when it comes to Daylight savings during the summer, when instead of three time zones, we have 5...

Edited by quokka
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II am not familiar with time zone differences of 1/2 hours.  Every time zone I am familiar with is in one-hour intervals. The purchase of the glass-bottom boat seems odd for transport.  Better for tourist uses.  Seems like an imposition on a brother he has only known briefly.  The story is good.  The language - especially in conversations - is stilted at times.  

Patience is the virtue; Patients are people...

 

Just minor observations.  I do await the next adventure.

Tony

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Thanks. I love learning about Australia and environs through your writing.  It has opened a wonderful new world to me.  I am extremely grateful for this knowledge.

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As a yank, I had no concept of the immense distances and time required for transport and communication in the Indian Ocean and southwest Pacific areas. This story is a real learning experience for me. Some of the tenures of Lewis in one position or another, seem to be short, but he seems very able to do the job of administration quite well, of course his ability with languages is of great benefit there.

It is rewarding that those in top administrative positions have recognized his administrative abilities and rewarded him with nearly the entire lexicon of medals available. Am I off base in feeling that there are some financial aspects to the award of one medal or another?

In spite of the gratitude of his superiors in government, it seems that Lewis has been forced to lead a very lonely life. I am looking forward to his meeting a life companion at some interval in the story, he needs human companionship, just like any other man -- can we at least get him a dog? LOL.

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I am sorry for not reading lately but my mother passed away Christmas Eve. And I haven't been wanting to read much but I will try and get back to it!

This was a very enjoyable chapter; 7 hours is how long it take to fly from San Francisco to Boston. You're so good at writing this kind of story! I am loving this story thanks for sharing it!

Edited by Albert1434
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