Cold
Nooo, we are coming up to having a trip back home
and I am coming down with a cold. Why
now? Yes, and if I get this cold I will not be happy. I
have had one too many chest infections!
I will put in my apologies early and say sorry now,
and in the meantime hope I get rid of it before we get home.
The good thing is Denise has cold tablets. What a thoughtful wife she is. See, I knew her wedding vows were what she
wanted - to love, honour and obey her darling husband. I
really don’t know why he keeps banging on about the obey bit, cause we all know it
would NEVER happen!
Trees
I have noticed many trees that have either fallen
over unassisted or lost branches. Not
being an arborist, I can only guess the cause/s. Some are quite obviously knocked over
intentionally, but others appear to have some sort of disease. I haven't heard anybody else concerned about
it so maybe it's just me.
Attempted
break in
The other morning, I went out to the car and
noticed it looked different. I realised
it was missing the weather shields on each of the four doors. On closer inspection I saw that it was a case
of attempted break in. I unlocked the
car and checked the contents and all was still in place, but there were obvious
signs of where somebody had attempted to gain access. The result is wrecked seals on the doors (and
yes, it now leaks), missing weather shields, scratches around most doors and
broken bits around two windows.
The thing that upset me the most was how inept they
were at getting in. There were even
marks around the rear door hinges and not the latch, so they didn't really know
what they were doing.
Why didn’t they just break a window, or better
still knock on my door and ask for the keys?
I have reported it to the police and Denise has
lodged an insurance claim. I am not
confident that either will result in anything, but let's wait and see. Four day later, I received an email from the
insurance people to say they have tried unsuccessfully to contact the
investigating officer. I forwarded that
email on to our landlord to see what he can do.
We will wait and see.
I would have liked to get it repaired while we are
away, but that doesn’t look like it will happen. The preferred option is that they write the
car off. That way we just dump it with
the rest of the dumped cars around South Tarawa when we leave. No seriously, if it were written off we could
just about give it to somebody that can afford to run and maintain it. That is the caring procurement person in me
coming out. I don’t want to give it to
somebody that cannot afford to maintain a car or it will be dumped.
Whatever happens, without repairs, it has devalued
the resale value of the car and just when we are starting to look for buyers
for when we leave. Even though we don't
leave until the end of August, I doubt it will be repaired before then. All up I estimate over $2,000 in damage.
Basketball
I have been running rules discussions with some of
the referees and scoretable officials twice weekly and that started out with
good attendances, but soon lost impetus.
I am now working with three "senior" officials who have said
they will educate the other officials. I
am not convinced that will happen.
I was told that the locals felt uncomfortable with an
Imatang (me) running the sessions, were worried I might ask them questions that
they couldn’t answer, or that they didn’t want to be seen knowing or not
knowing things in front of others.
I explained to the senior officials that they
actually needed to read the rules and interpretations to ensure they were
providing quality education.
All I can do is keep trying.
Communications
Once again I was reminded that email is not the best
communication medium around. At least
this time there were no implications as it was me reading and misinterpreting
the email.
It was actually an email from one of you blog
readers and I initially read it and thought, you rude person, then I thought I
had upset you and wondered for a while about the response. See, I'm hiding your identity.
Luckily, work intervened and I completely forgot
about the email until the next day when I was going through deleting
emails. I saw it and read it in a
completely different context. It was me
reading it while dealing with other work related issues. No, not as bad as what I used to deal with in
my paid job.
I must be learning tolerance and forgiveness...or
maybe not. I doubt it!
Now there's a subject for somebody to study. Good luck trying to stop people reading
things into the written word where there is no emotion, body language or
understanding of the reason/s why the author chose those words.
Work
I finally issued the tender that I had planned to
issue in March, only two months late.
Now we wait for the questions and responses, then the real work begins
to determine the outcome. Then it's a
quick justification, approval and award...I hope. I did get a bit of a surprise when during a
tender briefing to potential tenderers, my counterpart at work questioned two
items that are in the tender. It was
good that I was able to answer both questions there and then. I told you, expect the unexpected.
More
Road Incidents
The bus driver slammed on the brakes the other day,
jumped out and ran back about 10mtrs. I
thought he had hit somebody, as did many others on the bus. I knew it wasn't something like a dog, pig,
cat or chicken as they don't slow down, let alone stop, for anything other than
people. It turned out a kid had given
the driver the bird (stuck up their middle finger). I thought, get over it. I have no idea what the driver thought he was
going to achieve, but I guess he scared the kid by his actions.
In another incident, the day before, we were
driving to tennis and out from behind a container ran a child. We only saw the child when they were two to
three meters from the car. I slammed on
the brakes, Denise screamed and the child veered off to run along the
footpath. We were both sure we were
going to hit the child and it took a while to get over the fright and close
call. I don't know what scared me the
most, the child or Denise's scream. This
is when you are glad the speed limit is 40 and the speed humps keep your speed
under 30. Even then, if they hadn't veered
away we would have hit them and that is the thing that scared us both the most.
I saw a classic Tarawa road move. Three cars were traveling behind a bus coming
towards me when one car passed the bus and then stopped (on the road) to drop
somebody off, stopping everyone else behind.
Just as they started to move another car overtook them all and then
stopped to do the same thing. When there
was no oncoming traffic the bus passed them all and then it stopped to pick up
someone. None of them made any attempt
to get off the road and just stopped in the middle of the lane. This all happened in a space of 200mtrs and
there was no abuse, no horns and no rude gestures. Everybody just puts up with this behaviour. No wonder they get into trouble on our roads.
I am now positive that many cars in Kiribati only
have power for their music systems, oh, and their horns. Things like lights (including brake lights)
and indicators appear to be optional extras.
Even starter motors appear to be an optional extra with the number of
vehicles (from motorbikes to trucks and buses) I have seen being push started.
Hey All,
23rd May! What a day! I had
lots to do and anyone who knows me well, knows that I like to be super
organised. Well it doesn’t always work that way!
Before I had even walked out the house, I
had made yoghurt, made the bed, washed up, fed the cat, who I believe has had
her kittens, emailed a couple of people, moved photos from the iPad to the
laptop, resized and sent an email to the insurance people and managed not to
forget anything.
The one thing I am known for, is not
being late. Mind you, I was 5 minutes late this morning but late is late. From
there it was all go. I picked up my namesake, I dropped her to Kiribati
Institute of Technology, hurled friendly banter at a gentleman named Simon, who
felt the need to beep at me then I headed back to the bank. I really don’t know
what time security work on, but it was after 9.30am by everyone’s watch but
his. So bustle your way to the ticket post and get a number to wait. After a
little rest I was called only to find out that the signatures I had on the
banking slip weren’t enough and that I required them to s be signed on the back
(Business Banking). Why, I don’t know!
So out I shot to see if I could find the
first person and for the first time since I have been here, he wasn’t where I
wanted him to be. So after tracking him down (he was chuffed that I was chasing
him) I got my signature and tried to find the other person for his signature.
This signature was more elusive, so the decision was made to go back and help
my namesake in the Library.
After the running around most of the
morning I needed lunch. We trolled for the celery and the RED capsicum and were
looking for the frozen veg that didn’t cost $17.00 for a packet of McCann Farm
Vegetables. No luck! In my infinite wisdom I decided I needed to make sure I
had another presentation for Days for Girls, that done we headed for home. I dropped
off my namesake and continued to the Mormon School at Eita (8kms) to find my
man (No not Pete). OK, not my man, but my signature man! I had gone to the
office looking for him and of course no one knows what I am talking about. I
see him drive by and start running after him. I run for no one but on this
occasion I was desperate. Thank goodness he was in school grounds; he was
driving slow enough for me to catch up. When I did he laughed long and loud
because he had seen someone running behind him and thought it was someone else.
I then went home for a little rest!
Please, everybody, don’t make me run! I
might collapse next time!
Oops almost forgot! I went to pay our
power bill. I generally have it paid in advance so when the lady said to me it
was 161, I almost had a heart attack! What!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bill was $1.61 that
I owed. Everyone had a good laugh over it which was great!
The thing here is that everyone remembers
you! Don’t think for a moment you can do something without the whole of
Kiribati knowing what you are up too.
Well I think we are done for this
exciting chapter, next time it will be all about what food we have been eating
since getting home. I already have the order from the girls on what to cook!
Hugs and kisses everyone
