Like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland - I am late
With Friday – now Saturday - upon us, it remains for me to think back as to what the hell happened to the last week.
Friday crack of dawn saw a trip to Accra to meet with two potential clients and say thanks but no thanks to another.
Normal Accra traffic saw me 15 minutes late for the first meeting and a rush throughout the remainder of the day. I did finish in time to go food shopping and dinner was a wondrous chicken dish with a very nice salad. Cooked by me and yum yum yum.
Zack was in Accra as well and we ended up at da pub having a few and socializing on the work front. Saturday was once again a shopping day – this time for the new contract that we are starting up.
One thing I did learn is that “proper” office furniture costs the earth plus extras. A standard desk costs GHC 4m which is some ZAR3,000. Chairs are costly and filing cabinets even more so. A phone call to the contract manager advised him that hiring a carpenter and buying the wood would be a cheaper (lots cheaper) option. Quality is an issue, but there is something sad about buying a standard secretary’s chair for over R1500.
I did however buy some nice HP color lasers and a black and white laser. One was for my office so at least we move to be a little more professional in our quotes.
I also took time off to get my tyres balanced and wheels aligned. I get immediately pissed off when as I pull in, I am surrounded by “agents” all telling me I need new tyres and chrome valve stems. I mean fark!! I growled at them and that did not bode well for the remainder of the exercise.
It appears that someone dinged my rim when I was away. I noted I had one new tyre but thought a puncture caused the replacement. Of course when I asked – no one knew what happened. I must reevaluate where my vehicle sits when I am on leave.
That meant the wheel could not be balanced until they “machined” the rim. I decided the spare wheel would have to do as I did not have an hour to hang around in the middle of Accra waiting for some guy to do his thing on a machine that was invented before mag wheels.
The most interesting thing that happened however, was when I drove onto the ramp for the alignment to be done. Almost immediately the lad decided my tracking was out. That decision made in 10 seconds. When I asked him how he knew his response was the classic “it is my job boss”
His job turned out to be “rip the Brunie off GHC 300,000” as he toyed around at the back and that part of the transaction was not supported by a VAT invoice – just a receipt.
The wheel alignment was done the old way – with a graduated stick – as the computer alignment tool was not wekking. The whole reason why I chose the lads was because of the equipment, and it did not bloody work!!
Needless to say my steering wheel vibrates at 120kmph and needless to say again that I only discovered this when I left Accra for Obuasi on Monday. Was I pissed off? Damn Right I was!
Sunday – I went flying ultralights. Photos will be posted.
The wind was howling and it was as hot as hell which made the flight very interesting. A small plane gets bounced around a lot in conditions like that. The pilot showed me the effect a thermal has on the plane – much like a very fast lift that carried you up 100 meters in a few seconds. I had to ask him to go down and fetch my stomach.
The best part? I flew the plane for around 10 mins. I managed to keep the plane between 900m and 1100m and the heading between 240 and 270. I also managed a turn to 340 without losing height and crashing. The pilot was most complimentary – but then again the fact he did not have to rescue us from a spin was most positive.
The worst part? I was concentrating so hard on keeping it all together, I did not have a farking clue where the airfield was. Stopping and asking for directions did not seem like a viable option. (not that I ever do stop and ask for directions of course). Fortunately there was a real pilot in the left seat. *chuckle*
Landing was interesting in a 15 knot cross wind. The pilot (foolishly) offered me the chance to land which was politely declined with a “You must be fucking joking!” I think he was.
All in all an interesting experience which will be repeated.
We then toddled off to a beach house some 30 mins out of Tema where we had a nice braai and I sampled (copious) quantities of bad French wine. I do think that the Frogs export all their kak wine and keep the best for themselves as I have yet to sample a nice drinkable French wine.
(and I managed to finish my HR tut around midnight)
Well that was the weekend.
Given the fact that this update is a week late – you have an idea as to the week I have had. Obuasi Monday – Kenyasi Tuesday – Tarkwa Wednesday and then the realization that I had buggered up my month end schedule courtesy of February having 2 less days then most months.
Email JHB – request them to reopen the books so I can actually process some entries and a mad rush to complete month end.
A positive aspect is we smashed our previous turnover record for the month by 200%. We are all happy!
More soon
(oh yes – and the pics will be posted)
Friday crack of dawn saw a trip to Accra to meet with two potential clients and say thanks but no thanks to another.
Normal Accra traffic saw me 15 minutes late for the first meeting and a rush throughout the remainder of the day. I did finish in time to go food shopping and dinner was a wondrous chicken dish with a very nice salad. Cooked by me and yum yum yum.
Zack was in Accra as well and we ended up at da pub having a few and socializing on the work front. Saturday was once again a shopping day – this time for the new contract that we are starting up.
One thing I did learn is that “proper” office furniture costs the earth plus extras. A standard desk costs GHC 4m which is some ZAR3,000. Chairs are costly and filing cabinets even more so. A phone call to the contract manager advised him that hiring a carpenter and buying the wood would be a cheaper (lots cheaper) option. Quality is an issue, but there is something sad about buying a standard secretary’s chair for over R1500.
I did however buy some nice HP color lasers and a black and white laser. One was for my office so at least we move to be a little more professional in our quotes.
I also took time off to get my tyres balanced and wheels aligned. I get immediately pissed off when as I pull in, I am surrounded by “agents” all telling me I need new tyres and chrome valve stems. I mean fark!! I growled at them and that did not bode well for the remainder of the exercise.
It appears that someone dinged my rim when I was away. I noted I had one new tyre but thought a puncture caused the replacement. Of course when I asked – no one knew what happened. I must reevaluate where my vehicle sits when I am on leave.
That meant the wheel could not be balanced until they “machined” the rim. I decided the spare wheel would have to do as I did not have an hour to hang around in the middle of Accra waiting for some guy to do his thing on a machine that was invented before mag wheels.
The most interesting thing that happened however, was when I drove onto the ramp for the alignment to be done. Almost immediately the lad decided my tracking was out. That decision made in 10 seconds. When I asked him how he knew his response was the classic “it is my job boss”
His job turned out to be “rip the Brunie off GHC 300,000” as he toyed around at the back and that part of the transaction was not supported by a VAT invoice – just a receipt.
The wheel alignment was done the old way – with a graduated stick – as the computer alignment tool was not wekking. The whole reason why I chose the lads was because of the equipment, and it did not bloody work!!
Needless to say my steering wheel vibrates at 120kmph and needless to say again that I only discovered this when I left Accra for Obuasi on Monday. Was I pissed off? Damn Right I was!
Sunday – I went flying ultralights. Photos will be posted.
The wind was howling and it was as hot as hell which made the flight very interesting. A small plane gets bounced around a lot in conditions like that. The pilot showed me the effect a thermal has on the plane – much like a very fast lift that carried you up 100 meters in a few seconds. I had to ask him to go down and fetch my stomach.
The best part? I flew the plane for around 10 mins. I managed to keep the plane between 900m and 1100m and the heading between 240 and 270. I also managed a turn to 340 without losing height and crashing. The pilot was most complimentary – but then again the fact he did not have to rescue us from a spin was most positive.
The worst part? I was concentrating so hard on keeping it all together, I did not have a farking clue where the airfield was. Stopping and asking for directions did not seem like a viable option. (not that I ever do stop and ask for directions of course). Fortunately there was a real pilot in the left seat. *chuckle*
Landing was interesting in a 15 knot cross wind. The pilot (foolishly) offered me the chance to land which was politely declined with a “You must be fucking joking!” I think he was.
All in all an interesting experience which will be repeated.
We then toddled off to a beach house some 30 mins out of Tema where we had a nice braai and I sampled (copious) quantities of bad French wine. I do think that the Frogs export all their kak wine and keep the best for themselves as I have yet to sample a nice drinkable French wine.
(and I managed to finish my HR tut around midnight)
Well that was the weekend.
Given the fact that this update is a week late – you have an idea as to the week I have had. Obuasi Monday – Kenyasi Tuesday – Tarkwa Wednesday and then the realization that I had buggered up my month end schedule courtesy of February having 2 less days then most months.
Email JHB – request them to reopen the books so I can actually process some entries and a mad rush to complete month end.
A positive aspect is we smashed our previous turnover record for the month by 200%. We are all happy!
More soon
(oh yes – and the pics will be posted)
1 Comments:
ahum, proper office furniture is just as expensive here. I am of course talking of stuff that has a cherry wood finish ;)
Thank goodness there isn't a right/wrong side of airspace. :)
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