Oh I do like it here!!

Continuing the missive from down South:

The new responsibilities on the work front have managed to foil my plan to leave at 1pm each day. As my replacement has not been found as of today’s date, I am now doing two jobs. It is month end….

However!

I will start studying on Tuesday (promise) so I can write my first exam on the 9th with a clear head. All I have to do is find out exactly WHERE I am writing as I have not received any mail from Unisa on that score.

Couple that with client meetings on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday…. Study will be limited to 4 hours a day.

It is quite funny having unlimited access to the news and views. The Star gets devoured each night and good old faithful 702 is providing me with loads of commentary on what’s happening in the world. I am happy to be an updated fellow.

Our mate Jacob’s rape trial is drawing to a close – and I must admit it is going to be interesting when the verdict is announced. My prediction is – “Not Guilty”

Security Guards have apparently been on strike for over a month. – no-one noticed until they started killing each other and trashing the streets during their protest marches. Cops have no control.

The most interesting march is today – on the Minister of Labour – who refuses to intervene in the dispute. Wise Minister – bloody foolish Union.

The other strike is the Telkom strike. Once again no-one notices as their service was so bad before, the fact that no-one answers the phone is considered normal. I understand part of the grievances relate to profit bonus allocation and compression of grades. Job Security is also an issue. Telkom is privatized. Job Security is something your father had in my book.

The price of fuel goes up a whack next month. One thing that does piss me off is the fact that garages put the price of diesel up anytime they want. This is due to the fact that the pump price of diesel is not controlled. One day Garages who price gouge should be outed. The best part is I pay anything from R5.55 to R6.05 depending on what garage I go to. I am snoep enough to travel the extra 8km for the R5.55 price.

Oh yes – I am still having great sex!


I do like been in South Africa !!!

Change is a fun thing

Missive is down South and fun continues to be had.

My bout of malaria has almost left me, and joyfully I am a whole 5kg lighter. Which in turn means I can indulge a little bit more while I am down south.

The only problem however continues to be the nausea which somewhat limits my indulging. Sigh.

The flight back was uneventful, and a full flight meant the service left a lot to be desired. Fortunately I was still sick enough to take a sleeping tablet and an “on again – off again” sleep for the entire flight.

Nessers was at the airport, and the second thing I did when I got home was put my bags down.

At least the malaria is not affecting my nookie!!

Twas Lisa’s 21st this weekend – am I getting old? - and it was a nice day. We even got to see her “rent a granny” who looked after her when she was young. Colleen, true to form never stopped talking and has an amazing memory for what happened a long time ago.

Lisa’s mum gave her a wonderful montage of all Lisa’s Olympic memorabilia – I did tell you my daughter swam in the 2000 Sydney Olympics did I not – hehe.

I sprung for a new laptop and a portable DVD player.

Have being getting loads of Nookie – have a smile on my face!!

LOOK ;-0


Of course R&R does not quite mean leave, and I am in the office.

Now for the change.

The project manager at Bogoso has resigned.

I am now the new Project Manager for Bogoso.

They are looking for my replacement at small works. Damn – and just as everything was going so well at Small Works and I was looking forward to a chilled 6 months.

Could be an interesting time over the next 8 months. Wish me luck!!

Be careful what you wish for!

Well the day has arrived. Ekyaha!

Before then…. Well in a lot of good families there resides a warning that normally comes from your mother. “BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR”

A while back we were discussing our expanding waist lines and I glibly stated “all I need is a dose of Malaria and that should be good for 5kg”

Well. The fate gods – and 1 monster fucking mozzie who loves Captains and Garlic – laughed and gave me what I wished for.

Now you can go back in this blog and see that in the almost two years I have been in this wonderful jungle I have had malaria but once. I LIED! I have not had malaria before this past Saturday.

OH MY FUCK! If death was an option I would have welcomed it with open arms and paid for the joy.

I woke up at around 2am on Saturday morning after what I call “you have a high temperature “ series of dreams. You know those dreams that are pretty weird and warped and redefine life as it could be if you took acid when you were young. Those dreams.

By 4am I had a headache to rival all headaches. I was sweating, shivering and generally feeling like death. I still like a fool went to work.

I lasted the sum total of 15 minutes at work. I went home and slept the sleep of the dead, after popping pain pills to allow the headache to recede behind a ring of fire.

As sure as god made lil apples, crises time and it appears that our major client had a small mishap with a stacker conveyor crashing down onto its side. We were called in – flashing lights and all – to please assist.

I managed 2pm. You have to believe I was so bloody cold – in Ghana 38 degree heat - that I climbed into the car, closed the windows and lay in the sun until Albert decided it would look bad on his resume if his GM died in the car outside the office. He told me to go home and “chill”

I slept the rest of the day and night.

Sunday morning I woke and again had to go to work to price this stacker collapse. Again I made around one hour, before staggering home. A phone call at 12 reminded me I had a meeting with a guy who drove through from Accra.

Back in the car and 20 mins with said guy before I begged off. At this stage I was sweating so much my shirt was literally sticking to me.

Carlos decided I needed to see a Doctor.

(Oh yes – up until this stage I had been self medicating with Chinese Malarial Remedy and Panado)

There is a reason why I do not care much for the medical fraternity as a whole and Ghana quacks in particular. They are all subject to guess work and errors are rife.

The good doctor I had the pleasure of seeing was a case in point.

Doc: Whats wrong
Me Maleria
Doc how do you know
Me Cause I am sweating, sore, nausea, headache, etc
Doc Yes that sounds like malaria.

(No shit Sherlock)

Doc My lab people are off, so I cannot do a blood test
Me I have been taking (name of muti)
Doc Oh well, then I cannot do a blood test as the medication will mask the parasites
Me Good thing you do not have a lab person in then.

The doc proceeds to take my blood pressure. 90/60

Aha - that’s where the headache and nausea is coming from I think

Doc Good to see you have avoided all the stresses of life
Me erm I think my blood pressure is normally higher that what it is now
Doc Oh – must be the malaria then.

(no shit Sherlock)

Doc then starts preparing injections.

Me hopefully no penicillin in that
Doc No
Me Good cause if you had asked – I am allergic
Doc To all sorts?
Me There is more than one sort?
Doc Well there is synthetic penicillin
Me Ah – but that’s synthetic
Doc yes

Now: again

Remember when your doc takes out a vial that has dried powder in it, mixes the powder with STERILE water and makes up the muti mix. Well the pharmaceutical companies have made it easier since my days of jabbing people. The make a nice little glass vial with two compartments. One with the water, one with the dry powder. Simple logic says you stick the needle into compartment “water” – draw up the water – pierce from compartment water to compartment powder. – Squirt – shake – draw

Not my paragon of wisdom

He comes back with a small plastic vial of water. You know those cheap plastic bottles that you use for erm…. No idea what you use them for but I can lay odds that the manufacturers did not envision it been used for a replacement of sterile water.

When I pointed this out to said doctor, his response was a glib “it is distilled water”

I gave up at this point.

Received 3 injections in my arse.

My headache vanished!

The only reason why my headache vanished was my arse was so fucking sore from the injections my pain receptacles were over ridden.

I swore – volumes of sailor type words and went home.


I slept the sleep of the dead - sore arse and all.

Well today is Wednesday. My headache is gone; I retch continuously and sweat buckets.

You know you are really sick when you smoke 3 ciggies a day instead of 40. I cannot handle a smoke. Tis sad.

All this and I go home in two days.

Say after me – FUCK!!

Another more worrying factor is my basic knowledge that the color of ones urine is an important indicator as to ones health. My pee is the color of tea. Black Tea.

Do you think I can find some pee sticks to see what interesting things I am secreting? Not a fuck in this place.

So one of the things I am doing when I get home is toddling off for a urine test to see what funny stuff is coming out of my body.

Am I unhappy

You damn right I am unhappy.

(and Bubs – when you read this – do NOT tell the old man. I will never hear the end of it!)

I go now!

Another Mid Week update

Another day in the life of your temporary Ghanaian comes to a close.

What has happened you ask yourself…. Well!

1.

Our brand new Tata Bakkie purchased for the contract survived all of two months on the road before meeting a truck heading in the opposite direction. The Bakkie did not survive. The driver, fortunately, did with nary more than a headache from a wonderful 8 inch laceration cause by the cab roof moving down at a rate of knots, and a cut on his arm. His guardian angel came good. The poor lad was in tears and ensuring he told everyone who walked into his hospital room that “it was not his fault”. I did not believe that was the right time to suggest that if his car is on the incorrect side of the road, it generally tends to be accepted that fault lies there. This caused by the fact ANOTHER truck was broken down on the top of a blind curve. *sigh*

2.

Business continues to roll in and everyone is really chipper at the moment. All we have to do is deliver. That is proving challenging due to missed ships and generally apathetic service from our suppliers in SA. I am off home in a WEEK!! So will happily leave my team doing what they do best.

3.

Did you know that adultery is illegal in Uganda? Fark – I did not. Uganda is off my visit list. *chuckle*

4.

Our (SA) former Deputy Pres. continues to amaze me with his revelations. “She was wearing a knee length skirt” “She was ready and in my culture we cannot leave a woman in that state” etc etc. I still maintain the whole deal is a tad fishy, but he is doing himself no favors in the witness box. There was an article a while back that Jacobs formal education is a bit short. It is showing Jacob, it is showing.

5.

A while back I wrote on Nigeria and Current President Obasanjo rumored to be standing for a third term. (after a constitution change of course). After steadfastly denying this for over a year, poof! The spokesman for the Pres confirms the rumor. Methinks there is going to be some fun in that country soon. Best our lads finish the contract there ASAP.


Other than that:

Life goes on. We have a new lady doing our food. Nice Boeremeisie and it shows. The quality of food has improved dramatically and has the taste. We also had choccie cake for pudding last night. *pat of ever expanding waist line*

My GPRS is working intermittently and to be honest, while being another arrow in the quiver, it definitely is not something that one can rely on for communication. But hey. It is cheap and you get what you pay for huh.

That fun people is my week so far. Uneventful, making sure everything is in place for my vanishing act next week, as well as recognizing that on Monday I will be in Obuasi, Tuesday at Kenyasi, Wednesday Tarkwa, Thursday, Accra and finally Friday Johannesburg.

Not one night next week spent in the same bed!

GPRS Works!!

Another weekend bites the dust!

Sunday was a quiet and chilled day – as it should be – and “half Pig” made us very happy.

The roast was an unqualified success and the Ghana Old Boys tucked into the ribs that evening. The JHB newbies could not understand how we could eat pork three meals in a row and went out last night for Pizza.

Eric came over, and together with Carlos we all ate well, supped the odd minister and the odd captains and chatted about all and sundry.

I still have no internet connectivity at home, so spending time on Yahoo chatting is not an option. I am reasonably cheesed off that dial up connectivity is such a bloody problem. I am further cheesed off that no-one in the back water of Tarkwa offers any wireless solution al la Accra. Just because we are a backwater, does that mean life cannot exist as we know it?

But hey! 11 days until home time! I can handle that.

I also have an economics tutorial due on the 10th April 2006, which so happens to be in 7 days time. *sigh* That means I am going to have to allocate some time this week to knock it out.

Has anyone who is reading this done a “macroeconomic comment on the Fiscal Budget of 2006 – with graphs” that I can nick?

It appears South African Airways is up to its tricks again. On Sunday am Gerick was meant to board a 02h35 GMT flight to SA – still a bloody stupid time for a plane to leave in my book. After going through the entire check in process, it was then determined the plane “had a technical problem”

The technical problem in question was explained to me by Gerick thus.

On landing from the Washington leg, the plane’s engines apparently failed to engage reverse thrust as required to slow 190 tons of kit down. Instead of engaging said reverse thrust, all engines failed and so did all the lights etc. Apparently the plane did manage to stop before it reached the Airport Residential Area, as nothing was in today’s newspapers referring to new accommodation been available.

Come take off time, the engines “failed to start”

The Ghana boarding lads were lucky. They were told to go home and come back later. The poor yanks had to hang around Accra International for 8 odd hours while someone tinkered with whatever part of the motor was unhappy. I understand there were some really unhappy people on that flight. The yanks are loud enough when they are happy. I can only imagine what it is like when they are peeved.

This is the third time SAA has had engine issues on the Washington – Accra – Johannesburg leg. I do believe it has something to do with the fact even after stating glibly that they have invested millions – and lost millions – in the airbus deal, the continue to use leased/aged 747’s.

SAA also have no technical staff in Accra, so every technical problem requires said technical staff to fly up from SA to resolve issues. The last engine problem had the plane sitting in Accra for 3 days while a new engine was flown up from SA, together with people qualified enough to install said new engine.

I continue to have issues connecting my cell phone to my PC to take full advantage of the new GPRS connectivity offered by Areeba. For GHC 450.000 per month (ZAR 300.00) you can have unlimited GPRS connectivity. Hellishly cheap when you consider that SA charge some R20.00 per MB. Bloody expensive when you cannot get the damn thing to work. *chuckle*

It appears Areeba has but one person allocated to “how it all works” and he is firmly camped in Accra. A P910i appears to be beyond his scope of understanding. I will however visit said “guru” when I make my trip to Accra in 10 days time and try and get some resolution to the matter.

Once again – anyone knows how to set up the P910i – much appreciated.

**update**

When you actually install the modem on the COMPUTER and not assume that cable is a “network” the stuff actually works
Hehehe

Fark – and I used to be able to do IT when I was young a lot easier than this!!


**end update**

Posted using the GPRS Connection
*grin*

Weekend - News -

I think the person who monitors my internet usage is gonna shit himself this weekend.

The week as noted in previous posts has not been uneventful, what with month end stuff, eclipses, Albert on leave, demanding clients and the fun we having with getting a Sat system.

Friday evening, Augustine and yours truly sat back in our respective chairs, I lit my countless ciggy of the day and we smiled at each other. Another month end bites the dust.

All that remained was for me to complete the recon, print the reports for Gerick – who is PM on the Bogoso Project and has to do his recons as well – and all was done.

One issue: We are working this weekend and I have to be here.

Saturday
Twenty minutes to knock out the recon and then…..

I started reading blogs: I have mentioned it once and I will say it again – There are some AMAZING writers out there. As everyone knows I tend to gravitate to erotica – cos I am a pervert and proud of it – but goodness!

Prettydumbthings! Talking about woman in one blog she glibly states “they may not have their cherry, but they still have the box that it came in”
Salacity – quotes on her blog: Writing is like prostitution; first you do it for love, then for a few close friends, and then for money. ~Moliere

I quite happily toddled through a years worth of writing by both of them.

Prettydumbthing uses words that beg for a dictionary to be placed close by. But that’s what you would expect from a PhD – (who stripped for six years, has declared bankruptcy over a huge student loan and has enhanced boobs).

That said: Carlos came back from Accra with some 8kg of Boerewors and 8kg of well cut pork chops yesterday. The cottage pie which was Saturday dinner (third time we have had cottage pie this week) was promptly put aside in favor of a braai. I tried to braai but for some reason no-one took to my pink meat and between Carlos and Carl they managed to cook the meat to biltong status. Next time: I will braai mine separately.

A quiet night with only a few captains to keep me in good humour, I retired to bed to read and sleep.

Carlos also tackled “half pig” last night and showed off his butcher skills by taking “half pig” and producing two roasts and ribs, stuffing same with Olives and Garlic and making said culinary feast available for lunch today. I managed to catch the cook this morning before I left and placed an order for Potato Salad and Green Goodies for a green Salad.

Lunch will be nice!

On that note: It is time for a final walk around and home to chill before the new week demands its chunk from me.

Hope the weekend was a stunner!