Merry Xmas week!
What do you call 3 good looking loose moral women in a fancy bar in Africa? Ho Ho Ho!
This is the week I take my fate and destiny in my own hands and make a charge for what I want. I want to stay right here. I will stay right here! I will run the IT infrastructure for this entire dog and pony show!
Watch this space! 
Merry Xmas again everyone. Hope you having some awesome holidays!
It’s been an incredible week in Zeroville. Extremely busy but equally satisfying. I have met so many great people who are all fighting for the same project goal and pulling in the same direction (mostly). That really does make it a pleasant place to be.
Most times in my previous “lives” I would have said that every day was a learning curve. In this place every hour is a learning curve. After my 2 year siesta from the working world I have come back with pace! I have hit the ground running faster than ever before. I thought it would be a bit of a struggle getting back into the technical aspect of everything as things change so fast in this industry but actually I still feel ahead of the game. Sure things have changed but technically quite similar. Mostly the names or versions have changed. It feels like I never left.
So it’s Saturday now and I’m working my ass off getting things together for a technical showdown come Monday which I’m looking forward to. I am prepped. Hell, I’m the one planning the showdown.
Again, 7 days down. I feel like I have been here months. I want to stay longer. I am going to stay longer! Watch this space!
I asked for it. Employment. Now I have it, I love it, but gawd damn I don’t remember it being this tough. Everywhere I go all I see is sharp knives being wielded by frustrated users all wanting their pound of flesh. Its nice to be wanted but not so nice to to lynched on arrival. There is of course the wonderful feeling of satisfaction when I can actually solve their problems and see a smile on their previously acid face.
What an awesome week. This is a great project and wonderful prospects ahead. Although I’m sad to say, it seems that my time here is going to be short lived. There is apparently a permanent replacement being interviewed this week to come and take my place. How disappointing. Just when I found a place where I actually fit in and enjoy. I guess you are simply not allowed to appreciate where you are. Oh well shit happens. Will see what the next few weeks have in store for me.
After a crazy but satisfyingly interesting first day in Zeroville, my focus had to return to my missing bag and it’s associated concerns of non-arrival. With the help of a colleague we tried calling the airport and the airline in search of information but as expected, nothing. The airline, SAAssholes, didn’t even answer the phone. The airport baggage people answered but said I should wait until Tuesday.
I decided to take back control of the situation and worked out a way to return to the airport and just look for myself. When we got there it was very quiet and no one to be seen so we snuck in through the passenger exit, past customs and back to the baggage area. Sorted. Except there was no one there. I did however see my bag through the window. All that was left to do was wait for the next flight to arrive which fortunately wasn’t too long a wait.
At the end of the day my lost luggage story had a very happy ending and therefore making Option A of the previous post the reality. This also goes to show that only SAA can lose a bag on a direct flight with no transfers en route. Assholes!
A quick shower and change into clothes that I have been reunited with, and we were off to a club to be fashionably late for a number of birthday parties.
Celebrations all round!
Travel in and around Africa only seems really awesome when listening to some crazy anecdotes told by some poor bastard that has gone through it but has a way of describing even the crappiest days as an adventure.
Here is my recent “adventure”:
Don’t ever deal with South African Airways. They are bastards and once they have their claws in you, you are screwed. Any deviation from the original agreement and you get smashed in the gob with change, rebooking and excessive reissue fees. To add a local domestic sector onto my existing international ticket, it was going to cost 50% of the original international ticket. That’s like 4 or 5 times the cost of their already expensive domestic ticket. They got the bird and BA/Comair got the business.
SAA Check-in – I swear to God these morons do not know their ass from their elbow. Admittedly I screwed up for starters going to the International Terminal for an international flight. Turns out I was stupid. I should have gone to the domestic terminal for a South African Airways international flight. Go figure. Just so happens that every queue I stand in (that has been advised on an overhead board) is a domestic only check-in counter and I get told to go to another counter which upon arrival there I’m told is yet another domestic only check-in counter. Patience is running on near empty now. I eventually get to an international counter only to be told “Noo sorreee, thees eez beezness klass, nort ekonomeee. Yoo maaast go tooo cownta feefti wuunn”. I threw my bag down and insisted that I check in there. In hind sight, maybe not such a smart move. See Arrival and Bag further down.
Forex – It’s a pain in the ass. South Arica is the only ridiculous country I have ever been in that requires you to show a proof of residence with your passport when exchanging currency. Who in their right mind travels with a water bill when they go overseas? Well, not me! Fortunately there was some other poor bastard who had that exact same fight an hour before me but he managed to sort his address out so I gave all my cash to him and he exchanged it for me. Cos THATS ok according to SA forex laws!
South Africa only has an illusion (delusion) of being a world class country.
Once on the plane, all was pretty much ok with the standard exception of some unpunctual asswipes who think they are special enough to hold back en entire flight and not have the decency to board along with everyone else. There was also the token screaming child and the noisy passenger who showed little respect for anyone around him. Once we were going it was pretty much as to be expected, when flying into deepest darkest Africa. I say no more. A few well timed bottles of wine did the trick to take the edge off. Oh yeah, I don’t drink on planes! HIC!
Arrival – Chaos! “Visa on arrival” sounds like a smashingly easy plan but this is only true when arriving into a 1st world country. Not here in the Zero zone. Here you have a completely different system of who you know and what you can get away with. People at the back of the queue were being attended to by some official who grabs a handful of passports and walked them up to the front of the line. Corruption or some kind of VIP meet and greet treatment? I wonder.
Bag – Nothing to say here. I don’t have it! Out of the two possibilities,
or
, Im still holding out hope for option A and it could be delivered in a couple of days or so.
But I guess when all is said and done, I’m here now and I am happy about that. As soon as I have my bag I can put all this crap behind me and just get on with my being here. Even after all this, I still had a good night. I met a whole bunch of people from the project and went out for some drinks and dinner.
Another big plus, I think I have the most comfortable bed in the entire world! What a good night’s sleep. Felt so good waking up this morning that I didn’t even mind getting back into the clothes that I travelled in all day yesterday!
Lets be perfectly honest, money is really what makes the world go round. It is run by capitalist bastards so I figure, why not join them. The days of standing by my morals and being the nice guy are over. It’s all about the cash and how I can get my hands on it. Ok that’s not completely true, yet. I’m not about to go and break any laws to advance in a quick rich scheme but I’m certainly not going to stand by and be the nice guy that gets taken advantage of.
I quit the IT and construction industries as I was once faced with a bit of a twisted moral dilemma while I was in a pretty shitty place mentally and literally and after long deliberation I pulled the pin and got the hell out. I thought the world of aviation was a much nicer place to hang out in. I couldn’t have been more wrong. There is so much more backstabbing and bullshit politics there it’s dumbfounding. Only thing is in aviation, when something goes wrong as a result of this, the potential is there for people to die, and then the dead guy takes the blame posthumously.
Anyway, I’m now officially back in the IT game and back in the construction industry, a world that I understand and can make sense of, and I’m here to make a good fistful of money. And I’m going to laugh my ass off all the way to the bank. Just get the job done and get the hell out, safely. Feelings? Fuck it. Just sign and save!
So here’s the deal. I have decided that every day from now on I will write a personal email to a major money player who I believe may love my “Save the world” concept.
Day 1 – Done
Day 2 – Done
Day 3 – Who to email? Gates/Buffett? Al Gore? Hmmm. Maybe both!
Speaking of communication, for some reason I have been getting more and more links and articles to sign up for writing jobs from home. “Make $5000 a month working from home writing articles and reviewing websites”. Is this the new scam or is it an old one that I had just been oblivious to? You know it’s a scam when they say Click Here To Join and show you today’s low low rate and a spot to enter your credit card.
It would be really nice if this were a possibility. Would be great to earn a bit a money doing something I don’t consider work.
Anyway, all that aside. It’s back to the real communication now. Writing the big emails that will pay off bigger than a measly $5000 per month!
BOOYA!
Ok so I have been really crap. I’m sorry. I have been doing the most homework I have ever done in my entire life. I am working on a project that will create so much work and adventure over the next 2 to 3 years. I think it’s finally nailed down after a couple of months.
Either way it has been sent off. I hit the big SEND on the email this afternoon and am expecting a reply within the next couple of days. When that happens, this blog is going to go mad. So when that happens you can say you were here from the very beginning.
Here’s to saving the world! All I need to do this is $636,000 to get it up and running. Not a big ask for the planet I would think. Well let’s see what the big guns have to say. Fingers crossed, brain fried and time to get some sleep!
Hasta la vista… Baby!
Later!
I am so damn sick and tired of dealing with employment agents. If I had my way they would all instantly spontaneously combust on my command. They are friendlier than a hooker on a Friday night on a busy street corner if they think they can get a buck out of you. All the promises and long stories. “Me I love you loooonnng time”. Then a couple of days later when they don’t write and don’t call you realise you have been left standing with your dick in your hand!
The latest “Hoox with his dick in his hand” story is pretty classic. I had a long, very promising call from the agent telling me I’m perfect for the position (in Indonesia) and he has such a fantastic relationship and great communication with the client. After nearly a week of no replies to emails etc I end up calling him and he says, “Oh yeah, ummmmm, they told me last week that they are actually looking for a local Indonesian hire”. That’s a MASSIVE difference and something that he could have, in fact SHOULD have, checked up on with the client before wasting my time and his.
Wankers!!! And to quote an old fellow blogger, GO DIE IN A FIRE!
It’s not all sour news though. My good mate Willie G successfully got a contract on the very same project by sheer coincidence. Well done WG! At least you can keep your pecker up and not in your hand! Bon voyage and happy mobbing!
