It's been a busy time of late...

so I haven't posted anything for a while. As it is, I've thought "fuckit" and am breaking into my work schedule to vent a little blog (makes it sound like I've gone for a dump). Cuzzin Ross will be glad to hear I got rid of the old "donkey" I was driving and have now replaced it with a new pickup. I couldn't resist it...I'd actually gone to a dealer expecting to view a nice Isuzu, but when I got there I noticed that it was an automatic...something the Americans and old people like to drive, but not me (Ow..ow..ow...okay, I'm sorry). But just two cars away was a 2004 Ford Ranger 2.5l SuperCab, and only just under 13,000km on the clock. And all this for just ten grand more than I bought my Toyota. Sounded like the very thing for me. The lady dealer, a young, sweet, naive Afrikaans "bokkie" (a nickname the Afrikaners give their light-headed girlfriends) fluttered her eyes at me and asked "How can I do you in?" Not quite what you'd ask a prospective client, but friendly at least. We sat and chatted about the Ford for a while, then I got her to give me a trade-in estimate on my car, and said "Okay, let's go for a test drive." To say I was impressed, not because of what I was driving until that point, but by the mere fact that I could be in 5th gear with the airconditioner on, got me hooked. I said to the dealer that I think we should "do the deed", from which it was my turn to get a strange look ("Like, is he serious? What did he actually mean?") and we ended up swapping signatures on pieces of paper. I am now the proud owner of a new Ford (reminds me of an old SA joke... the trailer-trash of SA used to be known as 1-2-3 folk, which meant 1 litre brandy, 2 litre coke, and a 3 litre Ford). Last night, on the way back from Action Cricket and copious amounts of beverage of all types and colours, I decided to see what my new car could do. And it impressed me again...it's marked to 180km on the clock and that's exactly what I took it up to. Fuckin' brilliant... On the house scene, building is progressing slower than desired (which is nothing unusual for the building trade worldwide) and I estimate we are about a week and a half behind schedule. The project manager's project management skills are, to say the least, sucky. He had a copy of the plans two weeks in advance of the start of the build, so one would imagine he would start ordering things like door and window frames, bricks, sand, and so on.........not. Things come to a grinding halt while the bricklayers are waiting for deliveries, and it's just dragging things out. So I gave him a piece of my mind yesterday...funny how that got things happening again. All of a sudden, we have a half dozen bricklayers, door and window frames, and enough sand piled on the pavement for the arabs to want some of it back. And today, for the first real time this season, it's started raining...so I guess the build is going to be delayed...again. Take care, y'all...