and the hamster keeps on going

Has this week slowed down I ask myself (with tears in my spotted brown eyes).

Nope. Not even close.

Monday started with an email war
Tuesday started with a day of meetings which ended after 7:30
Wednesday was a repeat of Tuesday
And Thursday is a repeat of Wednesday.

I now write my blogs piece meal while the meeting has broken up for a while so participants can do some real work.

Good news about a lad coming up to assist me. He arrives next week Wednesday. I am praying this lad is quick on the take. *chuckle*

I did get a phone call from my erstwhile HR lady asking very nicely “Please do not be too hard on this man” “Give him a chance”. Considering my feeble attempt at a phone interview, I am overcome with waves of confidence.

I must admit my Small Works lads will welcome someone of Henry - or is it Harry’s – ilk as being stuck in meetings as I have since I arrived back, there is no-one available to fuss about the small stuff. When I am available, I am resorting to “Make a decision and just make sure if it goes wrong you can Justify that decision”.

Can someone slow the bloody hamster down please

Come back from leave, spend the first day wandering around site, chatting to the lads, finding out what has happened while you were away, a few drinks at the pub telling everyone about what is happening down south……….

That was the plan!

As everyone knows…… plan and you will be sure to have something change.

Let’s see. It is easier to actually say which part did NOT change.

Come back from leave – did not change.

The rest….. did!

I came back to:

Drive to Obuasi, work out that the job that was given to us 5 weeks ago has not started yet, throw toys out of cot, put a detailed plan in place….. leave.

Drive to next job in Obuasi. Get totally shocked and stunned as to how far they have actually got in the time that I was away. Pat Site Manager on the back. Notice that my crane looks as if it was in an accident. Find out it was not in an accident, rather no-one has even considered maintenance on the poor thing for a long time. See plant lad, throw toys out of cot. Leave.

Get to Bogoso. Have a full day with the client. Come out shattered. Have the next day with the client, come out even more shattered and happily spend the next day with the client – come out shattered.

It is now Saturday – Lunch time. This is the first time in 6 days that I have actually had to look at the “non critical emails” (and realise that at least three of them WERE critical when they arrived) and get my stuff together.

It is the first time since I arrived that I managed to drink three cups of warm tea before lunch. Previously I was chasing around so much that I was lucky if I managed half a warm cup and the remainder cold at the end of the day.

Site has progressed well and I was suitably chuffed when I did my walk around with the client yesterday. There are some issues, but most of them are minor or purely cosmetic.

Everyone on site is working like demons and this shows with my lads all coming down with “malaria”.

We need to relook at the number of hours that have been worked over the last few weeks!!

On a more happy note:

I came back from SA with nice food goodies – including tastic rice – and some stunning bottles of Red. Roodekop is a good wine! Slowly getting used to Ghana food again, but liberal coatings of Nando’s Extra Hot will make anything palatable.

Communications have been less than desirable, and once again this will take a bit of getting used to.

My car is still not fixed. Two months after “we need to replace the water pump” they still have not found the actual cause of the overheating. Once again – I am a peeved lil lad. Two months to fix an overheating problem is – in my view – a tad excessive.

That’s my week in a nutshell

And boy – has that nut been a busy legume

Hope everyone else is having a quieter time

Friday Missive - Quickly Taken

Johannesburg:

*happy sigh*

Oh wait – it should be Joburg

Well I remain in JHB (that’s maybe easier), eating lots and having to pull my tummy in when I put on my pants in the morning.

The R&R was not well planned – but this can be expected when after almost 5 months all I wanted to do was to get the fuck out of Ghana for a while. I have spent the last week at work, completing contract recons for month end as well as sorting out the “cannot wait while you are away” issues.

Managed to hire a Plant Superintendent, managed not to hire a Financial body, got offered a job, turned down the job (as it was in Ghana), had nookie, had sushi, swore that JHB traffic is almost as bad as Accra traffic and generally reveled in the fact that I am in civilization.

Dogs at home are a pain, thanks to a daughter who evidently learnt her parenting skills from me. The in and out of the house, chew everything and shit on my newly cleaned carpets.
Today my boots had teeth marks on them

Today I threw my collective toys out of their collective cots.

Word to the wise. Never buy the Zodiac pool cleaner. It is fundamentally flawed as it quite happily sucks up stones and chokes.

Pain in the arse in my view. What is also a pain is I do believe I will finally get my pool blue just in time to go back to Ghana.

Right. I am off to a “site visit”. Apparently you can hire clubs at this site.

Have fun fine people

Ahhh - Sunday Lunch

One can pat one's full tummy as I have just tucked into some wonderful Roast Lamb, Roast Pork, Roast Tatties, PROPER Salad and decent tasting coke.

Can you see the smile on my face?

Spent Friday assisting Nessers move to her new place. Fark! I should have stayed at work. I am not built for lugging stuff around.

On friday night we were both in bed at 7.30. Buggered!

The place is nice! Has some wierd concepts like a loo leading off the lounge, but it is an entertainers paradise. The loft room could be a place of many a party.

The pool is nice as well. Small and hopefully a lot warmer than mine at the house. It did however require some TLC as the previous owner had obviously given up on keeping it blue.

But the house has been christened :)

Had a braai at Greg's place yesterday which was quite fun.

Other than that a quite start to the R&R

Working next week, have an interview or two, meeting with the Larnie at Rivonia and of course the dreaded contract recons. There are now three operational recons which should take most of Thursday and Friday.

But yeah! It is good to be home for a while. I should put on a Kg or two.

*wicked chuckle*

Hope you are all having fun whereever you are.

:))