Living dangerously!

I had some very queer dreams this morning, something about reporting to a tyrant and living in squalor while my whole life is on hold because a document wasn’t processed on time. Notice the real-life elements which crept into my dream there?

Quick cup of coffee, with Mips watching in dismay as they hear me say ‘I have to go to work today’ again. They want cuddles and reassurance that I still love them, and I want to get going ... naturally, I compromise. I had to distract them with a sachet, though, so I could sneak out. Ziva came to see me off, as she always likes to do. For a long time I didn’t recognise her showing up when I’m leaving as her seeing me off – now that I know, it no longer worries me. On the contrary, it’s such a sweet gesture, I appreciate it.

At work, first thing: call to remind about the work permit I need. Today! Site manager comes in grinning and hands me the permit! Yay! So, I call the crew to come around noon – we’ll get to work taking the containers apart.

I shoot off the next mail, requesting a pass to remove the empty container – as soon as I have that pass, I can set that in motion. Our own crew is starting to take the container apart – and also removing the stairway up to the office! It’s now down to bare essentials, stairs are left, one side still has a handrail – but otherwise it is wide open! Dangerously open! We’re not meeting safety requirements on this in between phase, for sure – lets just hope nobody sees this!

I have a special relationship with heights – if I look down from any height, I feel myself falling forward. So this wide-open platform and stairway are ... exciting. And not in a fun way!

Follow-up on the gate pass – no reply. Follow up on the rigging crew – ‘I was waiting for you to call to give me the go-ahead’ ... Huh? I gave you the go-ahead this morning! We agreed you’d be here by noon. Yeah, I didn’t say that ... I was told the truck is on it’s way, and he’ll check where they are and let me know right away. That was half an hour ago. So far, no truck and no ‘right away’ return call.

We’re now sitting, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for them to show up. Once they do, we can remove the stairway completely and get the containers on the ground. Then our crew will have to put them back together again – I, on the other hand, will be useless (no office, no PC, no electricity) so I’ll be going home early today.

I’ll have to stop at Spar to get some cat food, since – with the extra mouth I call Romeo to feed – we’ve practically run out of the adult cat food. I still have 1 ½ bags of kitten food, though. And with Friday a public holiday, I better get some groceries. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but I do know I won’t want to have to go shopping after work tomorrow.

Right, it’s an hour later, and I’m following up everything – once again. I’m told the truck should be here any minute now, and the gate pass for the empty container will be ready in a few minutes. Sent of mail to ask the company to collect tomorrow. Hopefully I will have a reply before they have to cut the electricity so they can move the office.

Living dangerously indeed!

Well, by one the crew showed up to move the office and by half past, I was on my merry way. I stopped at Spar for groceries, so I should be fine till Saturday. Back at home, Ziva welcomed me – but today I had a shopping bag in each hand, so no chance for tummy rubs along the way.

I was still busy unpacking when my phone rang: Problem! Apparently, when they tried to close up the containers, they realized that the sub-contractor, where we had stored them all this time, had brought only one panel. Sigh. Also, they lost some sort of clamps. Double sigh. Can’t rely on anyone to do anything right the first time – always have to check everything, then either get it done right, or do it yourself.

And we’re getting pressure from our Head Office asking “how on earth can this simple job take such a long time? What do you do all day?” Erm … half the day I’m following up on promises made – but never kept (just never, ever, ever point out that this means their word is worthless!) and the other half I have to re-instruct and supervise to make sure that what finally does get done gets done right. Try to explain that to anyone who has not experienced this – and good luck to you!

I had just resolved the one crisis, when the phone rings again. I had set my e-mail to auto-reply that we’re relocating the office & I should be back online tomorrow morning, giving my cell no for emergencies. The call was regarding the Carnet container they collected yesterday – the agent needs a letter of authority. I explained that I am not authorized to issue one and they need to contact the Head of the Export Department in Germany. So she asks me to e-mail her the contact details! Sigh. Which part of ‘relocating office, not online’ is so difficult to understand? Well, I told her that whichever e-mail she had gotten my contact details from, the Head of Export was CC’d, so she already has the contact details.

Poor Mippies! Mommy is home but not paying any attention to her adorable, loving Mippies! Romeo had rushed past me three times already for a good chomp, and my Mippies went out to explore the garden. Ziva also went outside, seeing she’s not getting any of the deserved attention from me. Sigh again.

It’s too cold for real comfort outside, even this early – but Rose braved the weather and brought her chair for a chat. And a blanket to wrap herself in. We didn’t chat for too long, though. The wind was quite chilly and it was rather humid – almost clammy. We watched the Mips exploring and enjoying themselves. Lady Jane is eager to be a grown-up, she tried to jump onto Rose’s car since Ziva was sitting on the roof – but she isn’t quite strong enough, yet. She got surprisingly far, though! She also gave us a couple of laughs when she jumped onto my back while I was bent forward picking seeds!

Back upstairs, the phone rings again. No problem, though – this time! Just the company asking whether I’m happy with their service today. I didn’t say “thanks for giving me half a nervous breakdown by a) delaying the simple data sending, which meant I had to hope that the next person will NOT delay at all and b) lying to me about the availability of the equipment, leaving me to fear that unless everything goes right tomorrow, I’m screwed! If he hadn’t done both, I wouldn’t have had that stress yesterday afternoon, and wouldn’t have had to write to the project manager – hoping he could be my Plan B – plus, I could have gone home on time yesterday. And let’s not forget the uneasy night worrying what else will go wrong. But it was five in the evening (it gets dark early now) and I just wanted to eat. So I just said everything’s fine and thanks.

I had treated myself to a Sushi take-away. It was fine from the Spar last time, so I was willing to risk it again. This time I selected a full meal. Unfortunately the Wasabi had gotten on some of the Sushi – I don’t mind it so much, as my insides react unfavourably to it. I was half way through my meal when our gardener showed up – just to be sure it’s okay for him to come work on Monday. I told him that I’d be at work, but he is welcome, if he wants to. The choice is his.

Still trying to enjoy dinner when the phone rings again. Another problem on site. They want to lock the container, and the key is locked in my desk. Sigh. Well, there’s nothing valuable in THAT container, so they’ll risk leaving it unlocked. All the valuable stuff is in the other half, to which the site manager has a key. They’ll re-connect the electricity tomorrow and we can get everything working again. The nightmare part of the job is over – so we can take our time. Someone apparently came out and brought some of those clamps they needed. So let us hope that was the last call for the day.

I finally finished my meal – having to discourage curious Mips from trying some as well. So I sit down and spend some play time with my Mippies. They play only halfheartedly with the flying fish (well, it doesn’t fly – it’s a wand toy, I make it fly). But they get immediately excited with I pull out one of the simple sticks I used to play rat-race when they were tiny. I used to have four little mippies running after the stick! Lady Jane always took a short cut across my lap – digging her nails into my thigh when she’d leap off to go after the stick. She hasn’t lost that habit. And with the two of them now being three times the size the four of them were then – it’s a little tricky.

Ziva came in early again, making sad eyes at me and mewing to please be let out again. I go and fuss over her for a while. Again and again. Eventually I give up and give her some nippies. Of course, Mewthos and Lady Jane want their share as well. Now she’s retreated into the bedroom again.

I took a bath – under close Mip supervision. Even Ziva came to see whether it’s true – I really put my whole body under water, voluntarily! She settled down under the towel rack until Mewthos tried to advance. She left in a huff.

After the bath, Lady Jane demanded an intensive shoulder-sitting cuddle session. Now, they’ve all curled up in their separate spots: Ziva on the chair next to me, Lady Jane on the box behind me and Mewthos in the other chair. Well, with the worst of the work behind me, I shouldn’t have nightmares tonight!