WHEN the Rev Paul Sweeting decided to take up a new post 8,000 miles away in the Falkland Islands, he said he would struggle without a good curry and pint of bitter.

He need not have worried. For Paul, who will leave St Gabriel's, Blackburn, on March 9 to take up a post as rector at Christ Church Cathedral, Port Stanley, and wife Maxine have just returned from a visit to check out his future work surroundings.

And the curate said: "On one of the first days I was in a hotel just up from the deanery where we were staying and I had a beef curry and a pint of John Smiths! In fact I had three curries while I was out there."

The 34-year-old saw the job advertised in the church press and, as lovers of wild places, they decided to go for it and start a new life for them and their sons Adam, four, and Jonathan, six.

He said: "We're really looking forward to getting out there now. It's a wonderful place.

"It has everything you would expect only in a smaller version -- a mini-taxi fleet, power station, police force and all the things you associate with government.

"The people were very friendly indeed.

The family will live in the Deanery on the island which is a modern bungalow with marvellous sea views.

Paul said: "The only drawback I can see is the isolation involved."

Part of Paul's work will involve travelling by light aircraft to visit parishioners on the diffe rent islands.

Part of his parish takes in British territory in Antarctica.