21 June 2017

Of course I would wake up early on the shortest day of the year! When I opened the curtains I was greeted by this breath-taking view:

Morning Star, Moon and sunrise - all in one!

At work, today, I asked people “If you had one word to describe me, which is the first word that comes to mind? It doesn’t have to be a nice word.” The responses (published in the ‘about me’ profile) have been really interesting – personally I was rather surprised to hear how many people responded with ‘friendly’ – I expected more ‘bitch’ reactions! Or maybe they were just afraid, hehe.  A lot of them realised I asked the question for a bio and wanted to know what it was about – and I told them about this blog. It felt a bit like ‘coming out’ – sharing something private, and to be perfectly honest I am a bit apprehensive. On the one hand, I see the page-views counter going up and up every day – which encourages me to continue writing; but on the other hand ... well, I feel a bit exposed, vulnerable even. It’s a feeling – and feeling isn’t reality; my mind is shouting ‘you have nothing to hide, nothing to fear’. I guess it’s the anonymity of readers that has me feeling on display, not know who you are. How about a comment? Maybe I should add a polling gadget, where readers can just click how they feel about what I wrote? I may look into that tonight.

The subject of ‘where to after this project’ came up numerous times today, as well. We’re all in the same boat, none of us know how much longer we’ll be here, where we’ll be sent to next. In my case, at least I know for sure that I will be in South Africa – the guys could end up almost anywhere in the world! The people I have worked with in the past are spread across the globe: Poland, Germany, USA, Spain, China and I know no where else! Some update their location on Facebook – but many, of course, don’t. Ideally, we’d all like to keep working here until the big project in East London starts and then move on to that. But none of us know how much longer we’ll be required on this project – and if we’re let go sooner rather than later, the gap until East London’s project starts, is too big and we’ll most likely end up elsewhere. It’s like that for most of us here. We could end up spread all over the world – or we could also end up all back together on the East London project.

My boss was here a short while ago, and we discussed this topic. He knows that I would rather stay in the Eastern Cape than go back to Pretoria, Gauteng.

I’ve been talking about establishing myself here ever since the first Pretoria project came to an end. Initially, I thought of setting myself up in East London, leave the company and freelance again. The market in East London, however, is meagre and I gave in and returned to Pretoria. Bad move! I wasn’t back two weeks when I received the GP welcome! GP ist the car-registration denoting Gauteng Province – but locally it’s known as the Gangster Province, since crime is 10 times higher in Gauteng than elsewhere. In other words GP welcome = armed robbery! As I said before, attempts at outdoor-activities was a disappointment. Mostly I spent my free time photographing the lightning storms and recording my DVDs in mkv format. Work at my company was equally disappointing: there was nothing for me to actually do, yet I was instructed to be at work every day. Remember that rant about the worst site manager I ever worked for? Yeah – deja vu!

My boss was relieved to hear me say that I was willing to come back to Pretoria after this project, but I stated one non-negotiable condition: I will never EVER be office decoration again! If there is no work for me, I will not come in to sit at a desk like a pot plant! I know that I could truly be of great value ... IF I’m allowed to do so. I was going to say ‘office politics’ but the correct word is Ego. I had a long discussion with a colleague about that last night, and another one with another colleague today. I’m absolutely convinced that THIS is where all my skills, qualifications and years of experience could be of immense value! But if all my efforts are overruled by ignorant, authorative Ego – I’d be farting against thunder ... again!

Anyway, that’s only going to be an option, if I’m let go in the near future. For now, that doesn’t seem likely.

Another option is that I establish myself on a freelance basis here in Port Elizabeth. Continue to be employed by the same company, but rather than decorate the office, I get work for myself here. I have a multitude of skills, ranging from Administration to Planning, Health & Safety to Efficiency Audits. There is definitely a need for these skills – what’s missing is awareness! And that would, once again, require a lot of writing to create awareness. And that’s a job all on its own! Professional writing for a CEO / Management audience is hard work. And then you still have to generate a means to reach that target audience! I should know, I did that … oh, about 18 years ago. And that left no room for anything else in my life, no hobbies, no garden, no social life. Been there, done that, thank you very much, but NO! I would much rather put that kind of time and effort into writing something more fun – like this blog!

And that’s exactly what I’m exploring now: earning extra income from writing! Not with this blog – I don’t want ads & stuff on here. This is for pleasure – with a hint of writing-practice thrown in at most.

So, ideally I’d like to stay here on this project as long as possible, and hope that I’ll be one of those chosen to join the project in East London once that’s starting – there’s never any guarantee, since there’s no guarantee the site manager on that project knows me, or has heard of me. Or he may not like me. Or have someone else in mind already. That uncertainty is the biggest down-side to this work! But the biggest up-side is: every site is a new job! Different tasks, different people, different cultures. I think that may be the reason why this is the longest I’ve ever been in one job.

Back home I discovered another new flower had started to bloom today! This garden has given me so much joy and pleasure, so many new flowers, plants and discoveries! It’s just a pity that it gets dark so soon after I get home, so there’s not much time to walk around, explore and photograph on weekdays!

My patch of daily joy!

Todays new discovery! Also Dianthum, I think

Captivating colour on this Nasturtium!

A lone Linaria growing in my patch

So beautiful, I had to share this second photo

Ok, so it's a bit unclear, but these are just so unique!

Rays of the sunset reaching the East

The sunset produced some fiery colours - which did not reproduce in the photo, I'm afraid

As I was about to give up, trying to capture the colour on film, the reflection in the window caught my eye. Still not quite, but nearer the colouring seen by the eye

This reflection of a reflection of the sunset finally captures the fiery red colouring seen by the eye