Photo's

While I sit here and wait for JDE to get "fixed" I created a Flickr link for all my pics. Sooo Go to htp ref = and browse the pics. And nope - I will not put any nekked pics up!!

The conveyor

The conveyor
Originally uploaded by Hop.

I love the sun setting, coupled with the view of the angle :)

Installing

Installing
Originally uploaded by Hop.

Have a look at the rigger in the man cage. Any wonder why there is a new safety officer on site.....

My new lounge

My new lounge
Originally uploaded by Hop.

My new room

My new room
Originally uploaded by Hop.

Quite large - ensuite bathroom (although the shower is down the passage) and the aircon has a fan option which I use to keep the air circulating at night.

2004 as it was

As the year draws to a close – Early for me as I am home next week and will not be spending much time on the internet, one allows one’s mind to drift back over the past 12 months and see if I ended the year a better person then when I started. This is generally my objective.

So, in précis the year has given me the following:

1. Most momentous of course was leaving the paper industry (after 14 odd years) and getting involved in the construction industry. The made all the more interesting by simultaneously moving to Ghana. The move was a good one, and one that I needed to make and I am learning new things everyday, which makes the roll out of bed (refer below) that much more interesting every day.

2. The realization that I *do* have the ability to wake up at 5 odd am in the morning and start work between 6 and 7am. This after the aforementioned 14 odd years – and even before then of starting at 8:30 – 9:30am. The upside is not immediately apparent, but the downside is I am unable to party until late and going to bed at 9.30pm now seems to be a norm. In the old days if I was asleep before 12 it was rare. The upside is – been in Ghana, there is not much party time at all, and therefore retiring for the evening at the early hour is quite simple.

3. For the first time in my life, I lost a parent. Mum passing away in October, which when it is considered that I planned my R&R around her birthday and ended up attending her funeral instead, leaves me rather numb, even 2 months after the fact. She was a cantankerous old girl for the last few years and did make life somewhat difficult for most around her, but every one of my mates loved her to bits, because she still knew how to join in on a party and loved having young people around her. A few years back, when I got Nessers a male stripper for her birthday, the look on mums face as the lad gyrated in front of her was something that will live with me forever. So mum, wherever you are and what ever mischief you are getting up to, I miss you!

4. Getting used to my dad realizing his own mortality with the death of mum, and realizing that even after been divorced for 25 years, he still loved the old biddy and now has no-one to fight with every Thursday and Sunday. They still used to go on holiday together, visit my sister together and reminisce as only old people could do. All I can say is I am happy that given the fact I abuse my body so well, I will not live to see my 80’s and would not have to put up with everyone dying around me.

5. Seeing my sister again after two years, and realizing she does not change, just thickens around the middle. I do love her loads, and I know that you read the blog Bubble but I am not just saying that. Given the circumstances, the time spent with you this year was great.

6. Realising the difference between friends and acquaintances once again, and smiling lots when I realize there are people out there who do care what happens to me in darkest Africa.

7. Looking back on how my kids have grown up over the last year, and realizing that they are both almost out of their teens and have grown up to be great, if sometimes maladjusted kids. Lisa’s few months in England was interesting and showed how headstrong she could be when she wants to, and how that trait came from me, because I remember the “balls to the wall” attitude I had when I was 19. Robbie’s life never ceases to amaze me, and again he has a work ethic that I would be proud of. It is interesting when your son comes home from an all nighter and it has been at work finishing off an urgent order as opposed to been on the piss with his mates. Both are untidy buggers – again one of my not so good traits – and I love them both more then they will ever know.

8. Going back on a Swaziland website and smiling because my daughter still holds 11 swimming records even though she gave up swimming after the 2000 Olympics.

9. Shock that Nessers is still sticking around *wicked chuckle* after my move to Ghana, and the fact that she really has been an absolute wonder for me over the last few months. Thank you young Nessers!!! (and I love you lots)

10. No shock that Esther still does not listen to a word of advice that I give her. One day you will surprise me E-lady, but I am defiantly not holding my breath.

11. Doing some really fun stuff with Keith and Sam, and knowing that they are two special people that mean a lot to me. When I feel down, I have a whole series of pictures taken at a party we had at their place before I went up north and just flipping through them cheers me up no end.

12. I have a whole lot of other photo’s that cheer me up as well. *sweet smile*

13. I have learnt that I CAN actually go without sex with another person for three months. I have also learnt that sex with another person after three months is fantastic and it started before we left the airport parking. We also learnt that the airport parking is quite busy on a Thursday morning at 7:30 am.

14. I still phone Esme and Lindy to chat and have a laugh, cause office time with them was really good and made a lot of boring days not boring at all. I miss working with them.

15. It is the first time I am going on an ACTUAL holiday with Nessers in 4 years. Not that we have not been away before, but this is not the odd long weekend, but a real 10 day holiday at the coast. Gawd – does this mean our relationship is getting serious? *wicked chuckle*

16. I have also learnt that Nessers does have a kinky side. All it takes is time and patience. *extra wicked chuckle*

17. All acts in different countries are basically the same. But the subtle differences are the ones that cause the most headaches.

18. I am now starting to get used to the locals wanting to rip me off, and find that once in a while a good temper tantrum works wonders.


That was the year that was. I am sure I have missed out on a few things, but these have been the most memorable.

More soon……

Manic Monday!!!

I had a prior blog detailing an uneventful week, which after recapping what had happened, turned out as a reasonably eventful week after all.

This week however, as I sit down and do my Monday update (on a Saturday), I have no doubt that this week was an eventful one.

My last update had me doing a marketing trip up country. Off to Obuasi on Wednesday for a 2.30 meeting, which was very interesting and dealt with some reverse engineering, which based on my last job was something I was very used to, and managed to set up our Obuasi operation for February. I have written about Obuasi before, but it is really a 100 year old mining town, with good (new) roads and the squatter camp view. Larger than Tarkwa, it could be called “quant”. As I will be spending a fair amount of time there next year, it made sense for me to make sure I paid attention on how to get where.

85km away is a City called Kumasi. You will note I said city – cause quite honestly that it what it is. The largest place I have been to since Accra, and once again a sprawling city with abject poverty interspersed by opulence that would not be out of place at Dainfern. The Unilever Guest House is a sight to behold. We checked into a hotel called “Roses” which at GHC270.000 per night (ZAR180.00, USD30.00) reminded me of the Boksburg North Hotel. The pub defiantly reminded me of the Boksburg North and they redeemed themselves by serving Captains! The room was basic, TV did not work (which was fortunate cause I missed Man United’s 3-0 hammering in Turkey) and had a shower that was quite nice. The highlight of the evening? NANDOS!!!. Zak told me there was a Nando’s in the town, and of course that was what was on the dinner menu. The problem? We did not know where Nando’s was. Zak got some directions and all things considered he listens to directions the same way I do. We did the scenic tour of Kumasi. At night!. We passed the stadium, the abattoir, the palace and every Mobil Garage in Town. Why Mobil you asked? Well the Nando’s was apparently at a Mobil garage. We even asked for directions. Which for two guys in a car is quite an achievement. We got all sorts of directions, but for some reason could not find the bloody garage. Finally, one of the locals we asked directions from decided these two brunies need a lot more help then “left at the traffic circle” and accompanied us to the required garage, where to my joy and happiness – a hot ½ chicken and chips with a coke was had. (GHC 56.000. ZAR 38.00). I was smiling.

The ride to Nando’s – 65 minutes. The drive back to the hotel – 10 minutes. One had to chuckle. Two captains after dinner at the hotel and sleep. Breakfast was early, and early to us seemed to be before the kitchen opened. Bacon and Eggs and off we toddled to Ahafo where Newmont are setting up a new mine. 20 minute meeting introducing ourselves (oh yes – after a 2 hour trip), we reversed course to Bibiani (subject of many a blog), New mine at Chirano (10 minutes) and the Bauxite Mine. (30 minutes – Zak has old friends there and they needed to catch up). 4 hours back home and we arrived back, knackered, at 7pm.

I continue to be amazed at the following:

• The amount of really old (and unroadworthy) trucks on the road and the consequent amount of trucks broken down on the side of the road.
• The fact that certain roads are fantastic, but the majority of the roads border on impassable.
• The time taken to visit people here. We traveled 600km’s over the two days for a total of 11 hours traveling time, for a total of 4 hours spent meeting people.
• The fact that everyone still drives in the middle of the road.
• That there is very little cell coverage
• That new mines do not have electrical connections and they are required to build their own electrical supply lines.
• Railways is effectively bankrupt
• There are loads of Aussies here
• And loads of yanks
• And loads of South Africans.
• Not too many poms *g*

I slept well on Thursday night!

Friday saw all our remaining expats depart on a chartered flight to Accra (courtesy of the Client who was really happy that they got the mill up and running in 7 days instead of the 14 days that was mooted at the start), and a not so nice email from my other site, with a very frustrated client. Wishing everyone good fortune and relishing their happy smiles as they looked forward to home time and Xmas with the family.

Off to the 90 minute drive site (which I now have down to 60 mins), and sympathized with the clients frustration. I was part of a team that installed a new belt on the Conveyor (and I am getting better walking to the top – handrails do help). Installing the belt took two hours, having battled through the following:

• Spindle that was too thick to fit in the unwind hole of the belt
• Use of a spindle that was too weak and bent as soon as load was applied.
• Having to supply the client a new light pole as we bent one of their light poles *sigh*
• Almost beheading one of the workers as yet another pole bent and the belt slipped off the frame. (At this point I lost my temper for the first time with our safety officer)
• The rope snapping three times. (the first time it broke I lost my temper with the safety officer for the second time as he was quite happily standing next to the rope as it was under tension)
• Wondering what the hell would happen when the belt reached 51% of the total length and what the hell was going to stop it running away in the same direction as we were pulling. Evidently not a problem as it was looped in full and did not run away at all.
• Smiling with everyone when the belt was complete at 6.30pm.

I must have sweated away 2kg’s over that afternoon, as although I was in shorts, my shirt was a heavy type and the sun beat down on me, reminding me that the last time I spent this amount of time “on the floor” was a hell of a long time ago running a paper mill while after firing 1400 people for partaking in an illegal strike. I loved it! It was an immense sense of achievement to get the job done and although I did not quite get my hand dirty, it was good to be part of it.

We celebrated with two beers (the client was once again happy there was progress), before taking the bush road drive home at night. (that was the reason why it was only two beers). It was challenging to say the least, and when I got home, the first thing I did was climb into a shower. It was wonderful!

I woke up this morning somewhat stiff. Morning at the workshop, meeting with local client over a crane installation, and once again back to site to check up on the progress. I arrived during lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon sweating in the sun getting stuff done. Once again I enjoyed it. And I learnt stuff which was what it is all about.

Back home at around 4.30 and ……… into my new house. I have officially moved and have a desk to type on and am a lot more relaxed. Tomorrow I am back to site and hopefully will take pictures of the stacker spewing ore off the end. Clients Milestone!!! So best it not be missed.

*ponder*

What else?

Dear Readers.. that’s about it! Seems like a lot of work, work, work, but to be dead honest as you may have picked up that is pretty much all we do here. It must be said though I am having fun, have had my rough days where I quite honestly wonder what the fark I am doing up here, and nights when I lie in bed and smile happily as the day was a good one. Pretty normal I guess.

The office closes next week Friday (JHB office closes on Wednesday – lucky buggers), and all our lads are really looking forward to toddling off down south. We will have two teams working over xmas and spent a fair amount of timing today making sure everything is in place. Hourly paid people want to work. That is evident as when I spoke to the guys about working over Xmas, they were really happy to oblige.

Just over a week before I too head down south, for R&R, Xmas with the family, Boxing day with mates, Durban with Nessers – wicked grin – and Robbies 21st. I have also got training on JDE which effectively extends my stay in JHB much to my happiness. Going to enjoy all of it!!!

9.30 on a Saturday night, and I need sleep.

So let me do it

Have a great one!

Second Monday of the week!

Elections are officially over and once again it amazes me that the day was not made a public holiday. On arriving at work yesterday, there was not one local here. I had made arrangements to go over to Site (the 90 min trip), and departed at my normal 9.30 am.

As an aside, my accountant’s blood makes me a man of routine. My routine consists of the following:

1. Arrive at work and have a meeting with all my supervisors
2. Once I am up to speed with what’s happening, I toddle into the office and kick start the old computer. (that is assuming the Genset is turned on, the sat system is turned on and the server booted up and recognizes that it spose to be a DHCP server as well), download email and respond to the fact that SA is 2 hours ahead of us.
3. Paperwork until 9.30 – then off to site. (this happens once every second day now).
4. Back from site anywhere from 12:30 – 3:30.
5. By that time, every mother and his dog wants to see me, and I spend the next hour sorting out issues, signing petty cash slips, finding out about stuff ordered that has not arrived etc etc.
6. Do my costing sheets for the previous day
7. 4.30 – 5.30 is set aside for accounting stuff – unless it is month end and punching needs to be done. (I am slowly getting the staff to do the punching, and that is starting to work quite well)
8. Then sit down with the supervisors off site and get quotes done, discuss their costings from the previous day and any problems that are apparent, and generally work out what they have done for the day.
9. Finally clear up paperwork. Catch up on my reading for the day – if that has not been done in the quiet times.
10. Go home and watch TV.

I am writing again – cause I have a huge amount of time, and on my normal book, I have just over 200 pages under the belt. On my Erotica, that is proving to be a tad difficult and I find myself writing and deleting often. I am running through blogs at the moment in an attempt to get a decent story line, as most of the stuff that I am writing on that side is turning into a bad porn script.

Back to where I was!

The drive to site yesterday was a little more challenging then most days. As people were generally not at work or school, there was an amazing amount of people on the road. Road sense for pedestrians is non existent and due to my abject fear of knocking someone over, one finds oneself trundling through the villages at 20kmph. Little kids run from the side of the road with no regard for vehicles and people wander in the middle of the road and it takes concerted blasts of the hooter to get them to move out of the way.

Resolved all outstanding issues on site with the project manager and once again had a sedate drive back, to find everything locked up and the “holiday” in full swing.

Home, slept, watched TV, read my book and slept until the “imam clock” went off at 4.30am.

Today I travel on a two day trip to Obuasi, Ahafo, Bibiani, Chirano and Bauxite. I leave at 11.30 after chasing money down, we sleep at Kumasi tonight (at least Zak knows the decent places to sleep and there is a NANDO”S there) and do the remainder of the trip tomorrow, hopefully back by around 9pm tomorrow night.

I have the camera with me – so again I could get some pics of the country for you all (3 of you) to enjoy.

Lemme get at it

Have a good one peoples

Pre Election Monday

Tis a Monday just prior to a country’s elections and all conversation turns towards whom shall come into power. There are a couple of facts relating to the elections which I find rather interesting.

• You vote in your home town. As opposed to the place that you are working. For most of the guys in the mining towns, they are migrants, therefore are required to travel to funny sounding places in order to vote.
• Having an election day on a Tuesday is bad planning. Effectively everyone wants to knock off early as they have to travel in order to vote. This means there are a lot of people absent from work today, and even though tomorrow is not a public holiday, we will have maybe 10% of our workforce at work – after they have voted. (which could be anything from 10 am – 5pm depending on the queues.)
• Voting is carried out at a polling station by placing your thumb print in a box next to the party/candidate you wish to vote for. In my book this does away with each vote been secret, given the fact that a thumb print is uniquely identified to the person who places it. Whatever happened to the good old fashioned X.
• African democracy is such that if you are a member of party X and you “stumble” on to a rally been carried out by party Y, you will get beaten up by the supporters of party X. This been the headlines in today’s newspaper. Not to different from the early SA elections (except then you stood a good chance of been killed). Things have changed!
• Ghana has only been a democracy since 1992.
• Presidents can only hold office for 8 years
• News has the current president winning the race. Speak to the people on the ground here and it seems they all think it is going to be close.
• There are stunning debates happening as to weather Ghana is better off now then when Rawlings was president. (for those that do not know, Rawlings took power by way of a coup and in 1992 decided to have democratic elections, for which he won two terms) Rawlings was also quite a butcher apparently with a huge amount of unexplained deaths and corruption during his “non democratic” years.
• Business leaders are watching the election results with interest. Apparently there are huge mutterings about the Anglo Gold / Ashanti Gold merger and who benefited from it. All the mutterings are about the mineral resources and who gets what when.
• There is general consensus that all the politicians are corrupt. It just remains to be seen by the voters who is less corrupt then the other.

And so it continues.

One thing that will not happen it appears, is the election will be marred by violence. Everyone seems fairly relaxed about the election and it is very much, whoever wins, wins.

I continue to fight the flu, and have to be losing weight given the amount of sweat that I generate over the day. Albert and Piet have malaria and are popping tabs, and I did suggest to Albert that he should go home, as he quite honestly looks like death warmed up! Dedicated as the lad is, he decided to stay but I do not think he will last much past lunch time.

The physiological aspect of malaria is interesting. It is a parasite, carried by the (female) mosquito, that once gets into your blood, happily sets about killing off the red blood cells. As we all know from biology 101, red blood cells carry oxygen to all the lil places in the body that needs it. Less red blood cells, means less oxygen and the symptoms of soreness, tiredness and other flu like issues. Eventually if left untreated, you will have not enough red cells to sustain life and will effectively suffocate. This obviously excludes cerebral malaria, which attacks the brain and can kill you in three days. There must be a case for the use of DDT I would think, as with the amount of rain we have here and the consequent amount of standing water, mosquito’s breed like wildfire!

On the personal note side, everyone who knows me well, knows that I value my privacy and am happy with my own company. That was why I was so chuffed when I got my own house. I now have a supervisor from SA staying with me, as we do not have enough rooms at the main house. The man is a constant chatterbox. Quiet time is limited to me escaping to my room and reading. I know the guys entire life history, and of his family. More than I need to know methinks. *sigh*

The one positive aspect is he will move out on the weekend when a room becomes available in the small works house. Peace will reign once again.

People and peoplesses – have a great day – and may the smiles be really really big!!

Sickly Friday!

A Friday. A public holiday. Apparently today is “Farmers Day” and has been declared a National Holiday. Interesting concept this. As we are not farmers (coupled with the fact we are on breakdown work and thus working 24 hours a day), all our lads are here. The only bonus is they earn double time, over and above the massive overtime they earn by working 18 hours a day.

I have for some reason come down with Ghana General Flu. This was heralded by a sore throat a few days ago, which has become full blow cough – light headedness, sore bones and the whole shebang. I am defiantly an uphoppy lad!!!

Was up on top of the bloody stacker conveyor again yesterday, in 34 degree heat and still with no handrails (this time to check the size of motor, gearboxes and pulleys). I must admit that I could have sent someone else up, but some mutation in my psyche made me do it myself. I did learn that I still defiantly do not do heights well.

I have had 1 day’s water over the last 4 and am now getting very adept in the bucket shower. I am however using a bigger bucket – and boiling the kettle to take the chill off the bucket water. Last night however I decided the local council was not going to get it right and phoned the fire department. They duly delivered 5000l of water for the princely sum of GHC 440.000 ($50.00). That should last 3- 5 days and hopefully by that time the normal water mains will be up and running.

I (finally) got my box from SA, complete with decent ciggies, rum, magazines, red knickers (thanks Nessers) and a tummy exercise machine. I managed 40 mins on the tummy machine while watching TV last night. Maybe that’s why I feel so kak today *chuckle*

The week so far has been hectic, what with everyone working 24 hours and running around a tad sourcing materials and other such things. Some of the lads are walking around like Zombies, so one hopes that all will be complete by Sunday and they can take the day off. Thank goodness it is almost xmas shut down!.

There are certain things that continue to amaze me in Ghana. We were requested to reassemble a 1.000.000 liter fuel tank, which had been previously cut up and stored in a field. Our guys went to have a look at it, and after much head shaking decided that no-one knew what was there and what was not, what piece fitted with what and could not get drawings from either the client or the supplier. If the tank bursts after reassembling all hell will be let loose. (besides 1,000,000 liters of Diesel). We respectfully declined the job and offered to build a new one which we would know was sound. We now have the tank been rebuilt by another local engineering company next to the side of the road with a crane and a welder as the only equipment I can see. I cannot believe that people can be so irresponsible!

Other amazing things. There are four parties contesting the presidential elections next week Tuesday with a new party that had never made the press suddenly popping up. It also appears that at some stage in the history books, each one of the parties have run the country. What really gave me a huge chuckle was the ruling party waxing lyrical in a full page advert how many kilometers of road they have built in the last four years. Bar the fact all the roads I have traveled on are in shocking condition, the tables used to show how “good” they are did not even add up. Very very different.

I may have mentioned before radio stations are not very English friendly here with most of the stations been in the local dialect. We get BBC world Service at 6am for Africa news and Ghana Radio doing their news in “English” as well. Therefore we listen to tapes. (no cars have a CD player that most have access to). The tapes are Highveld Stereo recordings of the morning show and afternoon show. However when u have listed to the traffic joke and news reports for the 100th time it really gets a little annoying. Ergo I have started singing in the car. The positive side about that (for those that have seen me break into song at parties, they will nod vigorously) my voice is bad enough to ensure all the locals and sheep that walk along the road, either run like hell or turn around to see where that noise is coming from, which means I do not have to worry about knocking anyone over. I exaggerate – but not by much!

The sweat is pouring from me. I feel shite – so let me go!!

Have a fun weekend everyone
And

19 days till home time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1