Robbed!!

It took two years, but it has finally happened. I wuz robbed!!

It appears as if some little fucker took advantage of the fact that there is no-one in the house from around 5 to around 7 when I get home and decided to do some affirmative shopping.

My wonderful camera that has traveled around Africa with me is for sale somewhere in Ghana. So is my “wegloop geld” as well as a few Cedi’s I had on my desk. The lil bugger also snarfled my “You have $20,00 for emergency” note that resides in my Cheque Book cover. My Cheque Book is however safe and sound.

I am pissed off. I am also pissed off that I noticed the loss at 5am this morning, lying quietly in bed pondering the vagaries of life. My camera normally resides on my tripod. I gazed blankly at the tripod. You know what it is like when you know something is missing and you cannot place what it is. That was exactly what was going through my sleep befuddled brain.

As soon as I realised the camera was gone, my brain kicked in and thought “fark, I hope my money is still here”. In retrospect that was a foolish thought. But hey – it was early and I was not in top form.

I have reported the incident to Mine Security and I am safe with the knowledge that they will do what they are capable of.

That said – it appears the God Fearing Ghanians are less god fearing when there is a project around. Three times our Gang Boxes have been broken into and tools stolen. Each time we increase security.

One security Guard – one gang box broken into
Two Security Guards – two gang boxes
(you seeing the pattern here?)
Three security guards - Three gang boxes broken and items snarfled.

We finally pointed out this mathematical equation to the Mine Security, and lo and behold two arrests were made. (the third guy is on the run). The two arrested were – the night security guards: Who polices the policemen.

Mind you – pay the lads GHC 700.000 (R500.00) a month and expect them to guard R200.000 worth of tools.

Life in Africa! - you gotta love it!

I do

Things I have learnt from Site

1.
That “chunk of steel” sitting where it should not be is called a beam. You need to know this to make the technical people understand what the hell you are talking about.

2.
I learnt how to shoot levels with a Dumpy. A measuring tape on the stick makes it so much simpler. I was taught by people who do not use a dumpy level to do their job.

3.
You have to weld thin steel differently to thick steel otherwise it bends

4.
There is a difference between an AC welder and a DC welder. Although no-one can quite tell me what it is.

5.
You cannot weld pipes with a AC welder

6.
When someone says he can do something – do not believe him unless you can see it yourself.

7.
You can get fit quickly – who needs a gym subscription. Walking around site 3 times a day is more than a game of golf.

8.
Workers can break the unbreakable. Even steel punch’s

9.
Workers believe you never have enough transport, cranes, tools, money

10.
Never rely on technical people to do something right

11.
It never pays to fight with the client – you may be right, but it still does not pay.

12.
Something that should be done in 20 minutes takes 2 hours

13.
Something that should be done in 2 hours will take the day

14.
Estimators smoke something really weird when they estimate

15.
Clients smoke weird stuff when they award the contract as well

16.
The only problem is they are not smoking the same stuff

17.
Technical people do not think when they do paperwork

18.
Non technical people do not think when they do technical stuff

19.
Most people do not think at all

20.
There is no sex on site – but fark you get screwed often!

Sunday Update - another one :0

Well here we are. Carl and Jeri have vanished on their R&R and it is left to me to keep the ship on an even keel TECHNICALLY!! Now when God made people, he made technical people and he made thinking people.

I could never crack Meccano when I was young. I also remember my old man buying me a “build your own model home” kit. Complete with Mini Bricks, Tiles and even its own “cement”. My house, needless to say, was never built to any acceptable standards.

Jerome is the lad who has now taken the bulk of the pressure, but I am comfortable I can wander around site, and use logic to resolve 90% of what happens. I even noted all by myself that a modification the lads were doing was not as per drawing. *beam*

We have a client who decided 2 hours after Carl left to send an email commenting on my “technical in-experience”. I happily replied “It would be more appropriate to comment on my technical in-experience a few days after Carl left, as opposed to two hours”. Needless to say there was no response.

However I can walk around nekked in the house!

We now seem to be beset by early airplane Christmas. For the past two weeks it has been difficult to get our lads confirmed on a flight home. Lyle who was due to travel out on the Friday, had to wait until the Monday to get confirmed on a flight, and the four bodies who I tried to confirm on Monday were told that bookings “had closed”. Having prior experience with “closed bookings” two Christmas’s ago, my advise to the four was pitch up at the airport with $100 and you will see that seats will magically appear.

I was pleased to be informed today that they pitched up at the airport, dropped $100 into the “Book a ticket home fund” and were confirmed. By now they should be happily camped in SA.

This is something that revved my button then, and continues to do so now. I have taken some 12 flights to Ghana over the period I have been here and I have yet to see the plane full. There have always been empty seats. I must admit December was a mission, but as mentioned previously $100 got me a seat, so it was not full.

No wonder the British Activists chose the UK for their alleged planned deeds. They could at least take advantage of the fact they were assured a seat on the flight.

On fighting issues. One day all these army/navy/air force people with loads of bird goo on their shoulders are going to realise that conventional methods of fighting non conventional people is an exercise in futility. The poor buggers in Israel have thrown a huge amount of manpower and equipment at some guys with cheap rockets, who move around in a Bakkie. 5 weeks down the track, they are no better off and they have a huge amount of their guys in hospital or buried.

My solution? Carpet bomb the place – with cheap big bombs instead of the $1 million each “precision” bombs. Leave nothing standing that people can use. But then again – that’s the reason why they would not allow me anywhere near an armed force.

This week has been a heavy “anti malaria medication week”. Wednesday I was in Tarkwa to try and get some stuff out of the bloody workshop and do a mini riot act reading. Ended up in the local pub with my Regional Manager having a heart to heart. The drive home was over in seconds. Thursday Night was “departure tax” night and I got suitably roasty toasty and ended up munching some unidentifiable food at 11pm.

The best way to start additional work is with a hangover  I also spent a huge amount of time on Friday walking around site, sweating and earning stiff tendons for my effort. With access being what it is, there is a lot of climbing ladders and swing legs over scaffold and the like. With my love of heights, it was a mission of note.

Sunday today. (You know you busy when you start a missive on a Saturday and only finish on a Sunday). We are working ½ day – ie: until 5pm. We have a deadline for Wednesday on one of the circuits and we will make damn sure that we will meet that deadline. The fact that there will be no power to actually run the stuff we installing is a moot point. We going to use the best excuse in the world. “we finished – why are you not finished – please remember this the next time you decide on a deadline”

On that note: I am off to site

Have a fun one people. I know I am!

Another long overdue update.....

*yawn*

There is nothing like a lazy Sunday afternoon, grand prix and the ubiquitous Sunday afternoon nap to wind up the week.

The week has been a hectic one, with a requirement for us to work some of our lads’ on night shift for commissioning. This has been an organizational nightmare given the fact some of our supervisors are on R&R. The start of the week was a tad rough until we had got our acts together and scheduled people to do the dreaded night shift.

It was also recon week, which is loads of time spent waiting for our accounting system to print out what you need. I cannot believe they still have not resolved the fact that at month end recon week, it can take over two hours to get a print job done. Frustration is the key word over this week.

I also managed to cock up my one recon, more so by some changes the client wanted to a certificate earlier in the week. I changed the one page, printed it out and gave it to him without realizing that my change on the one page doubled up my charge on the front page.

I them used Excels wonderful refer system and *poof* income overstated. I happily sent the file to da boss, who in around 7 seconds scratched his head, asking “WTF did all this income come from”

Never the less, all corrected and 3 recons down the line, I have not got one right. Maybe next month. I am a numbers lad – sheesh – I should be able to get the numbers right!!

Socially, I was in a drinking mood on Monday and ended up in the pub for a while. Pub was quiet and I managed to be reasonably noisy while I happily dosed myself with anti-malarial Captain Morgan.

Friday night was one of the Wade Walker peoples birthday. We were invited to the pool for some drinks and food. I did the drinks part, no Captains was available, so of course I decided to drink some Vodka and Apple Juice. Do NOT mix apple juice with Vodka. All that healthy apple is bad for you.

I walked home – taking the car was not an option – and decided I was hungry. I managed to put my food in the micro to warm it up. Without even waiting for the 45 seconds to pass, I went to bed, lay down on my back, breathed deeply and happily awoke in exactly the same position at 6am the following morning.

Needless to say Saturday was a “paperwork” day.

Carl and Jeri go out on R&R this Friday, so it will be left to the accountant to try and work out how to bring this job to heel. With the PITA client, this is made more interesting.

Oh yes. I have purchased a 50% share in a townhouse with Nessers. I have some money I want to invest - thanks to my car payments biting the dust – and Nessers needed a 3 bedroom place. True to form, she did not even come close to making it easier and waiting for me to be there in September, but toddled off, found a nice place in Constantia Kloof, and sold her place for cash.

Given the Power of Attorney I signed to enable her to complete all the paperwork, she now has more power over my affairs than even my ex wife has when she was my wife. *chuckle*

My replacement at Small Works did not cut it. I put him on a plane back home after lasting less than two months in the Jungle. All that means for me is my decision making ability on people has taken a knock, and as a penalty I am left trying to do two jobs at the same time while we find a replacement.

Accordingly I am up and down between Obuasi, Tarkwa and Bogoso almost every other day and, as is normal in these kinds of situations, not doing any one job properly.

So yeah fun people.

No Ghana news as I still have not seen a newspaper for ages.

Until my next update – keep yourselves warm:

And more nekked pics please!