Allen Lockington is a self-employed customs agent and business consultant who has regular articles published in www.connectme.com.fj/news/opinion. I thank Allen and Connect for permission to reprint some of them in this political blog. They remind us that life goes on, whatever the political situation. And it's good to know that.

Living in Paradise

It’s so wonderful to walk along the seawall on Marine Drive in Lautoka and see the islands of the Yasawa Group in the distance. The Island of Vio just of Queens Wharf looks so beautiful on a sunny day that I only wish I could live on one of those islands.

If I could, I will buy me a boat and snorkeling gear. I will try and see if the yaqona plant will grow there. Have a desalination plant and a “fiber” (as it's called here) and a home that runs on solar energy. I will have a short wave radio, a satellite dish, a TV. I will take my gramophone and leave all my phones behind. I will tune to overseas radio stations so I don’t have to hear “Text Mai”. I will eat fish every day, it will be bliss. I have about 600 long play records of the Beatles, Bill Haley and the Comets, Jim Reeves, The Ink Spots, Patsy Cline and many more country and western singers. I will listen to them and drink my grog.

I have tonnes of books in my private library. I will read, fish, swim and snorkel and when I am tired I will hang my hammock between two trees and sleep underneath the stars. And I will write a book about Paradise.

And yes I have a vivid mind. I can dream.