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TheTome /
YetiBesOldStuffYou are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. This be an archive.For newer old stuff see YetiBesNewerOldStuff and YetiBeThePHPYears. 26/01/04 dang, I didn't realise how long it has been since my last update. Here is the news in brief. I finished playing foreman foreman about 2 weeks ago and am very pleased about it. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun and besides the incident that led to my previous post it went smoothly, but it is good to be back into tourist mode... although it does mean I'm going back underground tomorrow. In other news I have moved out of my single roomed excuse for accommodation into a fairly nice two bedroom place on the other side of town (about 5 minutes walk). Major advantages include a goodly amount of space, a lawn on which to sit and really cool neighbours. Disadvantages include the fact that it is a prefab flat, yes I live in Boxburg, and it has no telephone line. To make things worse there are currently "politics" with Eskom so I might be waiting a while. This means that I am without internet and have to go to some lengths to talk to Kim. sigh. Well the other day I was sitting on my lawn deciding how to arrange my space when one of my neighbours joined me and we had the following conversation: As with all cricket matches there were a number of people who walked away with assorted bruises. The most notable of these was not caused by a cricket ball. The field was not the best in the world and apart from having an athletics track that cut across the middle and an out field with grass so long that the ball got lost on occasions it was also blessed with a pair of rugby posts. It was one of these that stopped one poor fielder in his tracks. He was sprinting after a ball that had been struck sweetly for a conversion. Fortunately for him he noticed the poll when he was about a meter away and managed to fall on his side collecting the post firmly across his chest... Its amasing what interesting colours skin can turn. Well the vac students that we have been baby sitting have their final presentation in 20 minutes so I must get moving. Should be fun... well, at least we get a free lunch. 17/12/03 Well, this foreman thing seems to have some disadvantages as well. It is currently 22:00 (ish) and I am back at work on a call out. Some crane thing broke and they need it for night shift or something. Oh well, all thats left to do now is hope they give me overtime. ....... Okay, I have some good news and some better news. 15/12/03 Seasons greetings and all that. This is officially going to be the shortest Christmas break that I have ever had. Since I can remember I have had at least a month of holiday over December. Now work comes along and you have to take something they call leave , something they dont let you take in your first year. I basically get the public holidays off. This aside I really cant wait for my long weekend. Work is pretty cool at the moment. I am playing foreman foreman in the plant electrical workshop and it is pretty hectic. I am basically the first line supervisor for a bunch of electricians and it is my responsibility to make sure that the entire plant always has power and that all the motors/welding machine/cranes etc are working properly. I dont do any real work, but spend the whole day arranging other peoples work, talking on the phone, organising supplies and fighting with contractors. Im loving it. The best part is I only have to do it for a month, so just as I start to get sick of it Ill be back into my regular routine. On the monitor front I decided to go a little more conservative and get a 19 CRT. Not quite as spanky, but still very cool. I dont know how I ever survived with a 14 28/11/03 Just watched Lord of the Rings 1 & 2 on DVD (again) and I must say... sucks to be Frodo 25/11/03 Well, my time in JHB is up and I am back on the mine... a week before initially intended. My final week of courses was canned due to budget cuts. Oh well, the holiday had to end some time. So JHB was fantastic, home cooking, civilisation, bloodbowl (shut up Andy), friends and of course little brothers to wrestle with. Okay, so when I say little I mean not so little. It is a sad sad day when you realise your 17 year old brother is actually stronger than you are (don't tell him I said that). If ever there was a good reason to start gyming again, that's it. Now that I am back on the mine I am back to work and it being the festive season this means acting for people who are on leave. It has just been arranged that I am going to be playing foreman foreman for the next month or so. This is actually quite a daunting task. I will be responsible for the entire plant and have about 15 people working underneath me. Its going to be quite a change from my regular tourist attitude. :) On the plus side foremen are better paid than I am and so I will probably get an acting bonus. On the not-so-plus side chances are I won't be able to take any leave... thank wasname I get the official holidays off. I am also particularly pleased because I just received my 13th check. I am looking to buy myself a 19" plasma screen as a dear bevan from bevan. One down side is the tax column on my pay slip... more than twice what I normally pay! Scarey In other news I have finally watched some buffy and I must say yes, it is pretty cool. Of course it's cool - why do you think people like me watch it ? ;) - ArchAngel Mmm 19" plasma 02/11/03 Ah, its been a good weekend. For those of you that don't know I am currently in JHB and will be for the next 4 weeks on paid vacation cough I mean training courses. I always enjoy an opportunity to get away from the mine and of course just a little closer to Durban. :) On Friday I went to Robyn's halloween party. It was very cool. I haven't been to a party with conversation more intellectual than rugby discussion in a very long time. Robyn was very proud there were 5 claw members (Robyn, Andy, Richard, Dylan and myself) at a non-icon JHB party. All in all a go I put together a costume at very short notice and it actually went down really well. I wore my overalls, gumboots, hard hat, lamp belt and pseudo cap lamp. I went with a rock on my head (well a sign saying 'a rock') and a guitar over my shoulder. I was A flat minor; It got a good many laughs and more than its fair share of puzzled and worried looks. Unfortunately I had to leave the party early (12) but that was for very good reason. I was up again at 4 and at the bus station by 5. You guessed it, Kim came up to visit. This of course pushed the week end from good to great. Just put her on the bus again now, but hopefully she'll be back again in 2 weeks time. This week I have the privilege of going down a coal mine. I have been there once before and if I remember correctly it wasn't pleasant. Apparently after this particular visit I will be extremely glad to be working on a diamond mine; I let you know when I get back from Witbank. In other news I can't believe it is November already. The year has really flown by. I should probably think about Cristmas shopping. This will be my last chance at anything otehr than Pep stores. You know you have to start shopping when people (Robyn) start using carols as their ring tones! Bah, I've had that ringtone since early September, a co-worker put it on as a joke and I haven't changed it - for whatever reason, it irritates me far less than Waltzing Matilda ever did. Although, you're right, I probably should change it now that we're heading for 'the season'. - LothrielPixie 14/10/03 - 05:11 Bah! I am at work already 04/10/03 Arg! Models Should come with undo buttons 03/10/03 Well well well, Long time no post. Time has more or less been ticking past as normal for the last little while. Work is work and I am still driving far to far most weekends. Although with Kim all the way out in Durban it is a little more difficult. Of course it is still worth the drive, but when travelling time is 2/3 of the time you get to spend there... We decided to compromise, so next week end will by spent in Bethlehem, or on a farm near by. I'm not 100% sure of the details yet, but it should be pretty groovy. Why Bethlehem? I hear you cry. Well, it is roughly half way between us. It isn't far from the Northern portion of the Drakensburg and there are several game farms in that area so we should be able to find something to do ;) It isn't exactly a bubbling hub of activity and the Eastern Freestate isn't my first choice of holiday destinations but, well the location really isn't the point is it. In other news I have taken up painting again... finally. I don't know why exactly I didn't start earlier, I mean its not exactly as if I have a lot of commitments. The actual subject of the painting is a new High Elf blood bowl team... damn they are gay. I mean we all know it, just look at them, but you can't truly appreciate the gayness until you have tried to paint them. One dude has a manly lion skin delicately draped over his shoulder... to make it worse the bloody thing is tied on with a bow and ribbon. I guess this is a good time to get in touch with my effeminate side. Actually the acquisition of this team is a story on its own and a long one at that. Games Workshop has some odd policy which basically says that games classified as "specialist games" i.e. blood bowl, necromunda, etc. will only be available through mail order and not be sold by GW or any supplier. I'm not sure why they have done this, but still. I wanted to get the boxed set and a couple of teams for my brothers. So I thought: I R now working man, I now have credit card, I do mail order thing (note the i before the l and lack of e). So I did. I thought up an ingenious scheme to get them to deliver to my mother while she was on holiday in England and then she could bring it to SA for me. This means postage is about R300 cheaper, I get it within a week (instead of 4 weeks) and I don't have to pay customs (shhhhh!). To cut a long story short they fucked up, then they fucked up again... and again... and again. After 5 weeks the bloody package finally arrived, sent via UPS. Now as AndieMoore says GW mess up GW make better and so they did. I got the R2000 package free, gratis and with no charge. Though I did have to pay customs. Still I'm happy :) Actually I was quite surprised by the service I got from GW. In the past they have always been very friendly and helpful. This time I sent about 20 emails that they simply didn't reply to. Has anyone else had problems like this with them? Okay, that's about all for now (its lunch). I'll probably post a little more regularly for a while... well, I'll try anyway. 11/08/03 And now I'm back in LA... sigh 08/08/03 Well, here I am sitting at the airport... waiting... and I will be for a while. My mother is flying to England this evening at 20:00 (8 on the 8th of the 8th, she's so proud). So why am I here now? well I was on a course this side of town and decided that the prospect of spending 3 hours at the airport was conciderably more appealing than driving all the way home and back again... you have to love JHB traffic. Anyway, my courses are over and I am on my way back to LA this weekend. Much fun! I was just getting used to home cooked meals and the concept of up to date movies. Oh well, just 2 years left :) 28/07/03 Wow! That was a tiring weekend. Saturday was spent running, organising all sorts of rubbish and generally being busy. It eventually ended at 12:30 pm when Kim and I arrived back at my parents place (JHB) from Pretoria. Thus far no problem, a nice quiet Sunday and back to work on Monday... I wish. We woke up the following morning at 6:00, packed Kim's car and set off for Durban. For those of you who don't know, Kim recently got a car, 1988(ish) baby blue Nissan Sentra... a little old but in excellent condition. Anyway with one thing and another we arrived in Durban at about 2:00. Unpacked, had tea and left for the airport (Okay there may have been a couple of hours in between). The reason that we went to the airport is so that I could catch my plane to JHB at 6:10, which of course took off an hour and a half late, but thats a nother story. At this point I would hope most of you are going "eh?", well let me explain. On Thursday last week Kim was informed that she was being transferred from Pretoria to Durban. Fine so far, now here's the catch. She was needed there urgently and would have to start on Monday, i.e. today! Yes you heard me, thats right, 4 days notice to move 600km. There is a bit of a back story and a lot of politics, but two weeks earlier it was confirmed that she not be moving. Now moving is never fun, least of all at such short notice, but Kim handled it pretty well. The company is being very good about relocation allowances and is paying for more or less everything, including 2 months rent on her Pretoria flat and my plane ticket to JHB which was good of them. All in all Kim isnt pleased, it is probably very good for her career, but she was just getting settled in Pretoria and she doesnt particularly want to work in Durban. From my side it bites. LA is 700km from Pretoria, which is bad enough, but still close enough for a weekend visit. If you don't believe me lets just say I'm averaging over 4000km per month in my car. LA to Durban is closer to 1100km, which is just slightly out of my weekend range. I guess well get to know the Eastern Freestate very well. To make matters worst I am at the beginning of the second of three weeks on course in JHB... Needless to say, we are not amused! 30/06/03 Cape Town was awesome, just far too short and far too far away. Traveled down on wed night/thur morning and back up on son, left at 4:00 and arrived at home at 21:30... That's one damn long drive! The problem with going to a place you used to live for a holiday (however short) is that it is too normal. I mean that is how a weekend should be spent (just without the days of driving). I even turned down Hornzy to go to FirleighFlats on my way to Sed's (my loving host) from varsity. On that note apologies to those currently at Firleigh, I intended to stop past but just had no time. Think I saw Rosey (my old car) driving around Bloem yesterday. Cant be sure, but I think I saw some of her distinctive marks. Pretty cool to see her back on the road. Her damage wasn't too severe, even if my insurance was to cheap to fork out for it. My bed is calling. I haven't had a decent night's sleep since monday last week (its like being back in varsity) 24/06/03 I hate pants... yes, you heard me. I HATE PANTS! Shirts? shirts are acceptable, tea shirts are wonderful things. But pants! Have you ever tried to iron a pair of pants? I have, just now, 5 pairs! The joys of living by oneself. Of course coupled with the 5 pairs of pants were numerous shirts and tea shirts but as I mentioned these are delightful creatures (by comparison). The reason for this marathon ironing session is two fold. Firstly I am too lazy to wash at sensible intervals and so when I do the pile is huge. Secondly I am going to Cape Town tomorrow and, well, need stuff to wear. I really cant wait to get down. Its going to be awesome. I will leave LA around 11pm and pick Kim up from the bus in Kimberly at 12:30. We are arriving in CT mid morning thur and then leaving early morning sun. Unfortunately it isn't as long as I would like, but still. I hope to see as many of you as possible while I am down there. By the way if you have 12 grand you dont know what to do with here is an idea... I like! 19/06/03 Bah! Weekend work is not fun... especially on a long weekend! yes all three days. The mine was upgrading the brakes on the cage and the senior engineers thought that it would be a good idea for the EITs? to go along and see what happens at these major work sessions. Well it was quite interesting, but certainly not worth an entire long weekend of not being in JHB. Spent most of the time standing around watching other people work... not quite as fun as it sounds. I did add some value though, and pissed a whole lot of people off in the process. While I was looking at the hydraulic piping diagram and trying to work out how much more they had to do before we could bloody go home I noticed that they had made a piping error. This added value because... lets just say it would not have been pretty if they had turned it on like that. It pissed them off because it took them 2 hours to fix it :). Am currently in the workshop that fixes all the front line drilling equipment on the mine. They have a lot of fascinating things... if you are an Engineer. But the also fix what is called a dust plant, and let me assure you that it lives up to its name. The idea is that it sucks dusty air in, filters it and lets clean air out. The filters are self cleaning, but still need replacing from time to time. This was the job I was given yesterday (the acting foreman is another EIT and I'm sure she was involved). The inside of the dust plant is not huge and standing up is a luxury. Everything is nicely settled but the second you touch anything it all comes down. To cut a long story short I climbed in wearing a blue overall and white hard hat, I climbed out wearing a grey overall and grey hard hat. At least they had the good grace to give me a dust mask! On a plus note I got to operate a rock breaker (read massive robotic arm with fuckoff hammer in the front). I want one for my car :) I know that the Matrix is old news and even though I am in h (the middle of nowhere) I saw it in its first weekend, but if you enjoyed the SmithS? fighting scene then I have a game for you: crimson land http://crimsonland.10tons.org. Those of you who have played it will know what I am talking about, those of you that haven't check it out. The score to beat is 97 000, obtained by both Sed and myself. Going to JHB this week, much happy 15/06/03 Okay I'm back again. After two months of bliss (snicker) in the bright lights of Kimberly (chortle) with the big hole. (At this point I prove that I am a mining geek and tell you (again) that there are in fact 5 such holes in Kimberly and the 'big' hole is the smallest). All that aside it was actually quite fun, people around when I want company, social things to do... even if the movie house is 4 months behind and the most popular night spot is Daans Kraal... I shit you not. Aside from the normal social things I did one very cool thing while I was there. I went on a ghost tour. It was hosted by a creepy old British dude with a doctorate in Engineering. He wore a black pinstripe suit complete with waistcoat, tie pin and pocket watch... very creepy. We started off at the honored dead memorial (built by uncle Cecil (Rhodes) for all the brits that died in the siege of Kimberly, some of their bodies are even buried in the walls. Anyway, we started with sherry at the honored dead memorial at 7:00 (As usual the more sherry you enjoyed the more likely you were of see a ghost). Here the doctor described to us his theories on ghosts, all explained in terms of thermo dynamics and almost scientifically sound! We then spent the next few hours touring the various haunted sights of Kimberly. At each the doctor would give us some history and tell us some ghost stories... which are too numerous to relate here, very cool though. We finished the tour at midnight in an old graveyard next to Frankenstein's grave, literally. Sadly we didn't see any ghosts. So I spent two months in Kimberly and, while I wasn't watching movies that came on while I was still in Cape Town, chasing ghosts and (successfully) avoiding dans kraal, I was on course. They were pretty interesting, everything from welding to PLC's to asset management, but damn... lets just say they weren't aimed at qualified engineers. I long for a little mental stimulation and here's the scary bit: I miss exams! Yes you heard me right, I miss exams. It is the oddest feeling. I'm putting it down to: a) exams being associated with varsity and varsity being associated with Cape Town b) my mind being so unlubricated that it forgot they were the bad part of Cape Town. On that note I'm going back to ct in couple of weeks, for Barbara's 21st. I'm really looking forward to it, but trust her to put it during holidays so I cant come up to campus. Anyway I hope to see most of you while I'm down there. Damn I've got to stop doing that. I'll be in the middle of doing something (like typing a wiki entry for instance) and for no reason I'll look at my phone or pick it up. Next thing beep beep! it happens almost every time. I think I must be picking up the signal with my teeth or something. Actually on the note of traveling to Cape Town I've just realised how much long distance driving I do. I have had my new car for a months and a half and have already done 8000km! Thats over 3000 a month. I'm loving the car though. It goes beautifully and gets very good consumption, but I think the biggest upgrade from my previous car is it has a radio... well more specifically a tape deck. We do get a radio station out here, it is called OFM and is the Northern Cape equivalent of KFM. Its not bad most of the time but it has some rather spectacular returns to form. Today on the way back from the mine (bloody weekend work) I decided to have a change from the tapes I've heard a hundred times. I heard the words "my oom drink koffee en my tanie tea", that was enough. I'm learning to speak the language (school doesn't teach you squat), but I draw the line at listening to the music! Thats too far. Dang this has gone on a bit longer than I intended. I think I'll take a break, maybe cook myself some food... well 2 minute noodles anyway. 06/04/03 Well, this is the last time I'm likely to be on the internet for a while... a long while! I am off to Kimberly in the next hour or so. Yup, thats right, off to civilisation (and I said that with a straight face). Its actually pretty cool, I will be on course there for about 2 months. I'll be doing hydraulics, PLC's, instrumentation and all sorts of fascinating things. The best part is that all the EIT's (Engineer In Training) from DeBeers? will be there. We all know each other pretty well so it should be cool. Of course the other major advantage is that I will be about 2 hours closer to JHB... big plus! 23/03/03 BAH! BAH! and POTATO! As of tomorrow I have to be at work in time to get changed (into overalls, safety boots, hard hat and cap lamp) in time to take the 6:30 cage down! I only have to be down at 7:30, but 6:30 is the only cage that goes to my level (shortly to be discontinued). Of course I still only leave at 16:00 so that makes for a long day. The plus side is I get off on Friday at 13:00... so I can finally go to the bank. Actually I just realised something, I live 2 minutes from work and can get changed in 10 minutes... I think I leave at the same time as some of you trying to get to first. That makes me feel better. :) 09/03/03 I would like to call for a moment of silence for the recently departed rosey (aka 'the skank mobile'). She was more than a car... she was a friend (cue gushy music). Her time with us was ended on Friday 14th at 13h00 when a white polo tried to climb into her boot while travelling at 80km/h (in a 40km/h zone). Rosey was stationary at the time, about to turn right on the way home for lunch. Rosey end was confirmed on Monday 17th when two independent auto clinics recommended a write off. Rosey's place in my heart will never be filled, but her place under my butt is already taken. I am now the proud owner of a white Toyota Corola 1.6i GLE 2000 model. THE CAR IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE CAR! I've spent the last couple of days playing with tyres that are taller than I am. Dang! They are actually pretty cool, or maybe I am just bored, but either way a big tyre is basicaly a great big pressure vestle... i.e. something you dont want to go boom! All tyres must be inflated with a staunch cage! When one of the big ones pops it oftens levels the cage and throws anything close to it across the workshop. The dude told me about a worker who got on the wrong side (i.e. above) a small, front tractor tyre as he over inflated it...stupid It threw him 25m in the air, through the workshop roof! Needless to say, I have a whole new respect for tyres. Mutter Mutter, bloody microsoft. The link should be woking soon. Sorry about the inactivity, I'll do a decent update sometime soon. My life is complete I have found a group of gamers in the IT department. They dont play Quake, but it is a start! :) It seems like only yesterday that the claw room was draining the life from my body and keeping me occupied through many a missed lecture& Okay I finished in four years so it wasnt too many lectures, but still! Things have changed so much since those days of bliss and Duncan. I am now an Engineer In Training at Finsch mine in the Northern Cape. Nearby is a cute little town where I now live, it is called Lime Acres. Let me tell you a little about Lime Acres: it is 160km West of Kimberly and 170km South of Hotazel (say it out loud). It is about 2km by 2km with about 2000 people. Thats right, it could easily fit inside UCT! Well, the idea of computer gaming seems foreign to those 2000 so Im not even going to ask about wargaming and roll playing. There is a Friendly Supermarket, a standard bank, a butchery, a hardware shop, and of course a liquor shop and 6 bars (that I have been shown). Actually all in all Im quite enjoying it. The people are friendly, even if they are Afrikans. Work is interesting and all that jazz. I am getting some quality time with my computer and miniature collection and I have taken up skipping& of all things! (dont ask). That being said I would love to hear from the people down there. As always you can get me at btimm@bigfoot.com Cheers p.s. check out the new improved (and thoughrally shawn) Bevan! |
