Start of Stint Three
Well here I am, in a hotel room in transit on my way back to Tarkwa for another 11 week stint.
Did I enjoy my time in SA? You bet I did! It was wonderful to indulge myself a tad, spend time with the family (and my extended one) as well as see friends. Was most restful, and my loins are well girded for getting 2005 off to a good start.
The flight was uneventful, and empty! Although even with a spare seat next to me, I was still unable to sleep. The movie was not quiet something I would watch (Thunderbirds), so I delved into my book for the entire flight and killed off the latest Clive Cussler. Food was airline “chicken or Lamb” (I had the chicken) and was the usual bland fare, with the exception of the choccie.
We were picked up by John – who was the same lad who took me down in December – and I was to meet up with Zak for a series of meetings tomorrow, before doing the “road of hell” back to Tarkwa. It appears however that Zak (and the entire team in Tarkwa) has been afflicted by the Ghana Lurgy and are sick. Seems like they lowered their defences after been down south. The arrangement that we had to stay in the Civils house in Accra fell through, ergo my opening statement about the hotel room.
A new hotel experience for me. Hotel Ado-do in Accra is a – very – basic hotel on the outskirts of town, where you are unable to open the bathroom door to the full width as it bumps against the bath. Getting to the toilet required an interesting shuffle comprising of open door until it bangs against the bath – squeeze in – close door – move to toilet. I have not quite worked out how the hot water comes out of the tap, but will do some CSI investigative stuff once I have finished penning the missive.
TV is a single channel, but on the positive side it has an aircon, and a little table next to a plug that I can plug my laptop in.
For some reason they also decided I was hungry and a knock on the door bought forth ½ a chicken and loads of chips. They were most disappointed when I indicated I was not hungry at all, and did not order any food. However I did place an order for an ash tray, as it appears these are not standard in the room. *chuckle*
Tomorrow is a 5am start in order to miss the traffic and get back to the office, and given the time difference it is the SA equivalent of 11pm here (9pm local time) and I am feeling the pinch. The one positive is 5am local time is 7am SA time, and should not be a major mission as regards the wake up. There are positive aspects to time differences of this nature.
Chatted to Nessers this evening – SMS’s are not working – and we both agreed we miss each other, but hey, only another 11 weeks to go which is not that bad. With me it is a lot easier, as I am quite capable of immersing myself in work and hopefully time will fly. Future missives will indicate if this is actually the case or not.
One of the more interesting aspects is our deadlines for this month are fairly tight, and I was having a gander at them before starting the missive. Given that everything has to be completed by Friday this week, I have an entire months work to complete in effectively two days!! Couple this with the fact we have new people starting and I have an office to open before the 1st of Feb, this promises to be a very! Very interesting first week.
Methinks it is time to chomp a choccie and enter the land of nod…. Let the work begin.
Oh yes, as an aside, 1 liter of Captains at the airport was R59.00, which when compared to the R89 that I paid for 750ml over xmas, means that a bargain of this nature could not be turned down. (that and a thousand ciggies will make sure that my vices are well catered for)
Come back soon you hear!
Did I enjoy my time in SA? You bet I did! It was wonderful to indulge myself a tad, spend time with the family (and my extended one) as well as see friends. Was most restful, and my loins are well girded for getting 2005 off to a good start.
The flight was uneventful, and empty! Although even with a spare seat next to me, I was still unable to sleep. The movie was not quiet something I would watch (Thunderbirds), so I delved into my book for the entire flight and killed off the latest Clive Cussler. Food was airline “chicken or Lamb” (I had the chicken) and was the usual bland fare, with the exception of the choccie.
We were picked up by John – who was the same lad who took me down in December – and I was to meet up with Zak for a series of meetings tomorrow, before doing the “road of hell” back to Tarkwa. It appears however that Zak (and the entire team in Tarkwa) has been afflicted by the Ghana Lurgy and are sick. Seems like they lowered their defences after been down south. The arrangement that we had to stay in the Civils house in Accra fell through, ergo my opening statement about the hotel room.
A new hotel experience for me. Hotel Ado-do in Accra is a – very – basic hotel on the outskirts of town, where you are unable to open the bathroom door to the full width as it bumps against the bath. Getting to the toilet required an interesting shuffle comprising of open door until it bangs against the bath – squeeze in – close door – move to toilet. I have not quite worked out how the hot water comes out of the tap, but will do some CSI investigative stuff once I have finished penning the missive.
TV is a single channel, but on the positive side it has an aircon, and a little table next to a plug that I can plug my laptop in.
For some reason they also decided I was hungry and a knock on the door bought forth ½ a chicken and loads of chips. They were most disappointed when I indicated I was not hungry at all, and did not order any food. However I did place an order for an ash tray, as it appears these are not standard in the room. *chuckle*
Tomorrow is a 5am start in order to miss the traffic and get back to the office, and given the time difference it is the SA equivalent of 11pm here (9pm local time) and I am feeling the pinch. The one positive is 5am local time is 7am SA time, and should not be a major mission as regards the wake up. There are positive aspects to time differences of this nature.
Chatted to Nessers this evening – SMS’s are not working – and we both agreed we miss each other, but hey, only another 11 weeks to go which is not that bad. With me it is a lot easier, as I am quite capable of immersing myself in work and hopefully time will fly. Future missives will indicate if this is actually the case or not.
One of the more interesting aspects is our deadlines for this month are fairly tight, and I was having a gander at them before starting the missive. Given that everything has to be completed by Friday this week, I have an entire months work to complete in effectively two days!! Couple this with the fact we have new people starting and I have an office to open before the 1st of Feb, this promises to be a very! Very interesting first week.
Methinks it is time to chomp a choccie and enter the land of nod…. Let the work begin.
Oh yes, as an aside, 1 liter of Captains at the airport was R59.00, which when compared to the R89 that I paid for 750ml over xmas, means that a bargain of this nature could not be turned down. (that and a thousand ciggies will make sure that my vices are well catered for)
Come back soon you hear!
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