FINALLY!!! We have communications on Site
Tis more than a week since I have updated my blog which will tell you that I have not had internet access for that period of time. I am currently doing all my email offline, sending my laptop to Tarkwa with a driver, he waits while my mail is sent and brings back all the new mail for me to action and respond.
Net effect – my response time on emails is two – three days.
HOWEVER!
The guys from Africa on line have been here for the last two days puttering around trying to get the sat system on site up and running. Loads of phone calls to some funny American lady, wires been pulled through the office and promises, promises, promises.
I am not holding my breath at all
What has happened over the last week?
Well besides knocking up 15 hour days we managed to meet our first small milestone – albeit a day late – and I lost my temper on site only once. Not bad considering.
Carl and Jeri toddled off to the beach for a few days in leau of R&R and yours truly was left alone to sink or swim. I do believe I have managed to keep my head above water and even managed to generate paperwork all by myself – that made sense to the lad who was reading it.
I managed to score some meat from Accra so on Thursday night happily instructed Nicolas – the chef/house boy to take out some fillet and marinade it in olive oil, garlic, black pepper and Nandos Extra Hot. He did it to a tee and I had a happy smile on my face as I tucked into meat that did not taste like cardboard.
I have a nice leg of lamb which is going to make a wonderful Slovakia tonight. Hehehe.
Neville came from down south – he is our QS – and he is sharing the house for a week.
It is world cup time. We miss most of the games courtesy of the hours we work, but are happy to watch the odd game here and there. The guys from Minproc have come up with a wonderful pool for the event which works as follows.
There are 64 matches. Each match you put down a winner and the goal difference (or a draw as the case may be). If you get the winner right, you get one point. Get the goal difference right, you get three points in total. Each match costs you GHC5.000. The person at the end of the cup who has the most cumulative points does a winner take all.
I have the sum total of 5 points after 5 games. I mean who would have thought Sweden would be held to a draw demmet. I did get the England score right as I was confident they would win and know they only have the capacity to score one goal. *chuckle*
Phones have been sporadic over the last week - what else is new – and the GPRS system seems to have thrown its toys out the cot and left Ghana. Considering that Areeba is now owned by MTN, courtesy of their take over of the Lebanese company, I can now start directing my snotty emails to MTN. I will not get a response of course - but hey – at least I will feel better.
My large cup has made the 36km journey to site and I do think the lady who makes the tea is a lot more comfortable that she only has to make 3 cups a day instead of the 3 cups an hour.
In two odd weeks, I will happily be able to say I finally have had sex in Ghana! (well with another person). Nessers will be winging her way up here and well…… You know the rest.
What else…..
I have not been able to access any news and only picked up yesterday that interest rates went up in SA by 0.5%. I laugh at the change of tack by the reserve bank where it now becomes obvious that they wish to protect the rand and current account and have decided that inflation targeting is not their only worry.
The weakening of the rand benefits us here as we get more bang for our USD. Gold price remains above $600/oz so the mines are still willing to spend. We have a nice full order book for the next three months and can afford to pick and choose a bit.
A lot of large company’s – mine included – subscribe to ISO 9000 et al. The job we are doing is required to conform to ISO 9001. I have never been a fan of formal quality control systems, but do recognize their worth.
What I do not recognize or agree with is how they hold up a job. Take a conveyor. Lots of lil chunks of steel you bolt up like a meccano set and eventually add a belt to take stone from one end of the plant to the other end.
One piece of steel is missing a hole for a bolt. Scratch head and ask site engineer to write a TQN (Technical Query note) which will say “Bolt hole on member 20149 missing”. One would also recommend “Drill bolt hole”. Said TQN goes to consultants, who sit on it for 3 days and send it on to fabricator. He then sits on it for a further 3 days and eventually confirms that “A Bolt Hole needs to be drilled”. He sends it back to consultant, further 3 days delay and eventually you get the piece of paper back that confirms you can drill a hole.
If the lad doing the structure had any sense, he would have drilled the hole. BUT no. He would have been fired as he is not qualified to make the decision if a hole should be drilled there or not. And so it goes on.
I am thus amazed that anything gets done at all. But construction people are a resourceful lot and they manage despite some ponytail thinking up new ways to delay doing things.
At small works we were spoilt. We said we would put up a structure and we put it up. Finish, Klaar. No TQN’s no waiting – just doing. That’s maybe why our clients like us so much.
So – quality has its place. Paperwork does not. Unless it affects the structural integrity of the bloody thing. But then again – it is assumed – correctly – that we are not structural engineers so we do not know what makes a difference.
Cover your ass syndrome if you ask me.
And that dear reader is my gripe for the week.
Well besides internet, phones, non smoking house etc etc.
It is Sunday
No-one else is working besides yours truly and the Sat people
I am off to play golf and hopefully after 9 holes the ether will be accepting my signal to the outside world.
Have fun all!!
Net effect – my response time on emails is two – three days.
HOWEVER!
The guys from Africa on line have been here for the last two days puttering around trying to get the sat system on site up and running. Loads of phone calls to some funny American lady, wires been pulled through the office and promises, promises, promises.
I am not holding my breath at all
What has happened over the last week?
Well besides knocking up 15 hour days we managed to meet our first small milestone – albeit a day late – and I lost my temper on site only once. Not bad considering.
Carl and Jeri toddled off to the beach for a few days in leau of R&R and yours truly was left alone to sink or swim. I do believe I have managed to keep my head above water and even managed to generate paperwork all by myself – that made sense to the lad who was reading it.
I managed to score some meat from Accra so on Thursday night happily instructed Nicolas – the chef/house boy to take out some fillet and marinade it in olive oil, garlic, black pepper and Nandos Extra Hot. He did it to a tee and I had a happy smile on my face as I tucked into meat that did not taste like cardboard.
I have a nice leg of lamb which is going to make a wonderful Slovakia tonight. Hehehe.
Neville came from down south – he is our QS – and he is sharing the house for a week.
It is world cup time. We miss most of the games courtesy of the hours we work, but are happy to watch the odd game here and there. The guys from Minproc have come up with a wonderful pool for the event which works as follows.
There are 64 matches. Each match you put down a winner and the goal difference (or a draw as the case may be). If you get the winner right, you get one point. Get the goal difference right, you get three points in total. Each match costs you GHC5.000. The person at the end of the cup who has the most cumulative points does a winner take all.
I have the sum total of 5 points after 5 games. I mean who would have thought Sweden would be held to a draw demmet. I did get the England score right as I was confident they would win and know they only have the capacity to score one goal. *chuckle*
Phones have been sporadic over the last week - what else is new – and the GPRS system seems to have thrown its toys out the cot and left Ghana. Considering that Areeba is now owned by MTN, courtesy of their take over of the Lebanese company, I can now start directing my snotty emails to MTN. I will not get a response of course - but hey – at least I will feel better.
My large cup has made the 36km journey to site and I do think the lady who makes the tea is a lot more comfortable that she only has to make 3 cups a day instead of the 3 cups an hour.
In two odd weeks, I will happily be able to say I finally have had sex in Ghana! (well with another person). Nessers will be winging her way up here and well…… You know the rest.
What else…..
I have not been able to access any news and only picked up yesterday that interest rates went up in SA by 0.5%. I laugh at the change of tack by the reserve bank where it now becomes obvious that they wish to protect the rand and current account and have decided that inflation targeting is not their only worry.
The weakening of the rand benefits us here as we get more bang for our USD. Gold price remains above $600/oz so the mines are still willing to spend. We have a nice full order book for the next three months and can afford to pick and choose a bit.
A lot of large company’s – mine included – subscribe to ISO 9000 et al. The job we are doing is required to conform to ISO 9001. I have never been a fan of formal quality control systems, but do recognize their worth.
What I do not recognize or agree with is how they hold up a job. Take a conveyor. Lots of lil chunks of steel you bolt up like a meccano set and eventually add a belt to take stone from one end of the plant to the other end.
One piece of steel is missing a hole for a bolt. Scratch head and ask site engineer to write a TQN (Technical Query note) which will say “Bolt hole on member 20149 missing”. One would also recommend “Drill bolt hole”. Said TQN goes to consultants, who sit on it for 3 days and send it on to fabricator. He then sits on it for a further 3 days and eventually confirms that “A Bolt Hole needs to be drilled”. He sends it back to consultant, further 3 days delay and eventually you get the piece of paper back that confirms you can drill a hole.
If the lad doing the structure had any sense, he would have drilled the hole. BUT no. He would have been fired as he is not qualified to make the decision if a hole should be drilled there or not. And so it goes on.
I am thus amazed that anything gets done at all. But construction people are a resourceful lot and they manage despite some ponytail thinking up new ways to delay doing things.
At small works we were spoilt. We said we would put up a structure and we put it up. Finish, Klaar. No TQN’s no waiting – just doing. That’s maybe why our clients like us so much.
So – quality has its place. Paperwork does not. Unless it affects the structural integrity of the bloody thing. But then again – it is assumed – correctly – that we are not structural engineers so we do not know what makes a difference.
Cover your ass syndrome if you ask me.
And that dear reader is my gripe for the week.
Well besides internet, phones, non smoking house etc etc.
It is Sunday
No-one else is working besides yours truly and the Sat people
I am off to play golf and hopefully after 9 holes the ether will be accepting my signal to the outside world.
Have fun all!!
1 Comments:
and there was a time when they said email was non-essential ;)
how'd the golf go? you finished the course this time? ;)
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