Management Lessons

 I found this on a website - Bloody true!

Lesson No.1

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?"
The crow answered: " Sure, why not."
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Management Lesson: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson No.2

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fortnight, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree.
Soon he was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.

Management Lesson: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Lesson No.3

When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss. The brain said, "I should be Boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions." The feet said, " We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go." The hands said, "We should be the Boss because we do all the work and earn all the money." And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs and the eyes until finally the asshole spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the asshole being the Boss. So the asshole went on strike, blocked itself up and refused to work. Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered. Eventually they all decided that the asshole should be the Boss.

Management Lesson: You don't need brains to be a Boss - any asshole will do.

& Another 2 bite the dust!

Worcester - Fairy Glen. 9 Year old bull & 6 year old pregnant cow - darted with morphine & then dehorned with a panga! Mebbe I'm sick but I don't see that the legal execution of a tik mule in China rates more headline space than this. 

We are heading for the extinction of a species on the basis that less than 0,001% of the body weight of the animal is harvested for dubious medicinal properties! Oh, & the cow will have to be aborted. WTF is the 'Government' doing about this? Basically SFA!

Have a look at the Cape Times front page of this morning (12th December 2011) for ome really lovely pics to help the breakfast go down! :o(

Shoot a poacher a day!

 I just watched a fairly long news item about rhino poaching - centring mainly around a particular black rhino called Phila. This poor thing was shot a number of times (more than likely with an AK, either 7,62 or 5,56) & went down. The poachers were scared off before they were able to cut off the horns & the rhino survived. It was taken to a 'secure' boma within a vet compound where it recovered under treatment. It was finally decided by the owner that, to try & preserve it's life, they would dehorn Phila. With only stubs of horns remaining it was thought that the animal was now fairly safe. The bastards broke into the boma area & shot the animal from the enclosure fence (I think another 6 or 8 times). Why? To take the stubs of what was left of the horns? Or maybe just to prove a point to the owner? She still did not die but was eventually transferred to the Johannesburg Zoo, maybe death would have been preferable?
 Are people so enamoured with money or the status that wealth can bring that they are prepared to annihilate a specie of animal - possibly a link with the dinosaurs - that they will go to these lengths? That they will not only kill a pregnant cow but also a calf with no more than a stub for a horn?
 Now, presume that the sale of both Elephant ivory & Rhino horn were made legal. The horn could be harvested by darting the animals & removing the horn under anaesthetic & then placed on the market. Horns & tusks removed from animals dead from natural causes could also be marketed. Many Parks Boards have been forced to destroy tons of horn & ivory by burning. CITES insistence. The monies accrued from the sale could have gone to furthering education & combating poaching. By 'flooding' the market, the price would have dropped considerably thereby reducing the expected income for the poachers & making it less attractive for them.
 Then you have the idea of adding a poison to the horn under pressure. Now you get the civil rights bung heads going that it would not be right to poison unsuspecting 'users' & maybe (hopefully) killing a few! Sod that! I reckon the last is a much better idea, at least the poor bloody rhino get to keep their horns! And make the poison terminal to 'humans'! Doesn't help the elephant much tho'......

...And at the End.

I guess it's time to close off now - I have to talk about something that I have been putting off, the reason for this blog & also the reason for why it hit me so hard. You see, I have this thing that although many people will only see a 'pet' or a 'dog' I have always been very close to my friends - not pets! The loyalty that is shown by these animals is just too great to be brushed off & requires a greater return from us. Well, that's the way I feel, anyway. Responsibilty to them & for them. So that is why, when the last deed has to be done for pity's sake, then I must be with them at the end.
So this is what happened that day, that Sunday. As I said, he was already pretty far gone & I thought that, after talking to the vet, it would have to happen that morning. I had to carry him to the car as he could'nt walk at that stage. Took him for a bit of a ride through the country for the last time & then on to the vets. Again, I had to carry him out to the table in the operating room. Thing is - the vet hit him with 30ml of the stuff....... and it didn't work! He actually pushed himself up, looked me straight in the eyes & gave a deep throated howl/groan that basically said to me "You Bastard!! I trusted you!". The vet had to hit him with another 10 or 15ml - I'm not sure how much any more 'cos that's when I cracked totally! He then subsided & threw up a load of grass green gunge - no idea where it came from 'cos he hadn't eaten or drunk anything for 3 days - & then it was over & so was I. I ran from that room saying, I don't know what to the vet over my shoulder & then drove home. He was taken to be buried in Cape Town 'cos we, apparently, are not allowed to bury dogs in our yards anymore. Load of bollocks if you ask me!
The reason for the stuff not working immediately was, according to a vet friend of mine, was that his kidneys were too far gone - still doesn't make me feel any better!
So that's it then, no more on this blog I don't think - no reason really.

Rebuilding cont......

So, finally all the old stuff is off & new fill has been put in & compacted (correctly!). Hopefully the builder has got all his levels right & we won't end up with water in the front room! Never saw a dumpy level at any stage so....
However, here we go, plastic sheeting down & steel reinforcing laid & tied together.

 Then came the 'fun' part. The concrete went down fairly well, although the lawn did not do as well! There was like more stone & concrete on the lawn than in the wheel-barrows at times. Sounds like a bit of a whinge, doesn't it? Well we had just come out of one of the worst droughts in about 30 years so I was a bit sensitive about my lawn. ;)

Concrete 45% down now - I think Jan was trying to get a shot of a 'Builders crack'. There was the warning of a large cold front looming offshore but it didn't materialise. Next step after all down, keep damp for 48 hours & then the screed. All in all not too bad a job considering. Total cost about R14000 (that's about £1400 Ditch) I dunno what a job like this would cost over there but we used 42 bags of cement, 6 cubes of sand (fill as well) & 3 cubes of stone. The re-inforcing matting was 6*2.4m*6m & 70sq m of plastic sheeting. The rest was for labour & transport

Finished. Well, except for the stain & sealer - but that can bloody well wait a bit! My back & my credit card need to get back into shape!

Rebuilding.......

Been a while but maybe the time was needed. Started ripping our front patio apart 'cos the damn thing was sunken in places. You can put it down to piss-poor workmanship really. People are always quick to blame the labourers but "the rot starts at the top"! If the owner of the building company doesn't give a monkeys as long as he gets his money then why should the labourer who gets paid next to bugger-all? The problem is that the house was built on a slope & there was a fair amount of fill needed. So, they just dump enough stuff in to fill it & THEN they compact instead of doing it the right way - fill 6" to a foot, dampen & compact & so on until the right depth is reached. Result of doing it the easy way? As the soil settles the concrete slab cracks & follows it 'cos they don't put reinforcing steel in either. Mebbe not a bad thing or I would be having a suspended concrete floor.
The surface was also covered with 'Slasto' - not too sure what other people call it but it's basically coloured slate. That had to be removed first.

That's 'ol Rossi keeping an eye on me! As you can see the main  slab has collapsed completely in places. Bloody hard concrete in places - other areas as soft as butter! I started off on my Pat but decided a couple of extra hands would be a good idea. The back is NOT as strong as it used to be!

This is Willem & Flippy, 2 local piss-cats that agreed to forgo their daily piss-up to help me - for a fee, of course! They had been on the rip the night before so I got a few free tots just breathing! The work ethic improved after a few cups of strong coffee tho'.

This is as far as I got after 2 1/2 days work. As you can see, Ross was not overly impressed! This was on the Tuesday of his last week. Funny how it gets easier to talk about, isn't it? We have talked about getting another Ridgeback but - we are not sure. For a start we would always be comparing the new one to him & that would not be fair - not on the new one anyway! He was really something special.

This is just some of the crap we had to remove. The stuff at the back is the Slasto.
This is gonna be a loooong one so I guess I had better stop now before I bore the hell out of myself as well! Next installment later.....

Old DNA...

Cleaned the car out today. About 3 weeks of mud & stuff but I have been putting it off. The reason being that there is still a lot of 'him' in there. As in hair & smell & dog snot on the windows. Don't know why but cleaning off the dog snot was the hardest thing - it was like, getting rid of the last vestiges of something very close to me. Bugger, here I go again! It is getting easier to talk about him tho'. Mebbe I should have had cats - cats seem to sort of sod off & do there own thing, come back to eat, sleep & then sod off again. No real connection with you except from the feeding thing. Old saying " If you want to see who loves you the most, lock your dog & your wife in the boot (trunk) of your car for one hour. When you let them out you will see who is happiest to see you!"

22 Year- old views on life etc....

Just found a bloody good blog - this is turning out to be more fun than I thought! She is a 22 year old student & writes with a maturity that one would expect in a much older person. Don't know why I said the last bit but it seemed to fit! Have a look if you want a good laugh or if you want to ponder on the meaning of Liffe or whatever. I enjoyed a good hour on this blog. Well done Hannah.  http://scornfulprose.blogspot.com

Cry, the beloved country

Bloody hell! Reading NEWS24.COM is a real downer! Articles like 'Man watches while girl is cut open' is enough to make one puke! The guy's statment contains stuff like "When Jan cut her open, she did not scream.
"... I did not see the other parts. I only saw the internal organs. When she was cut open I looked so I could see what it is inside a woman's body. "Jan continued to cut open the child. When they were removing the organs I vomited," he said.
The bastard is a states witness & will therefore have been given a deal. Bollocks! Good old hang, draw & quartering should be brought back so that we can see 'what is inside his & his fellow perps bodies'! Shit like this makes one think that what happened at Vlakplaas was a kiddies party. Just by-the-by she was 10 years old!

And then you get to 'Wildlife trafficking trail leads to SA safari man' - can you believe that this type of person, who is closely involved with wildlife, runs a successful safari business will get himself involved in the senseless slaughter of rhino to satisfy some sick oriental's lust for a bigger erection? The worst is that this is not the first white man to be lumbered with this. A couple of vets have been fingered as well. Lock the bastards up & throw away the key but make sure their cell mates are large buggers!
Aaargh! I am going to have a whisky & a cigar!!!

2011 - Annus Horribilus

Nearly wrote that as Anus . Would have fitted tho', wouldn't it?
This year started off so good really. My first grand-daughter turned 1 & another one arrived on the scene. Both of them lovely little ladies. Gained another daughter as well - well nearly anyway! Welcome to the family, Jen, I hope you survive the trip! Started my REAL retirement this year as well. Then this month arrived with a bang. Apart from Rossi, Johan from the Bistro Blues had another prang - apparently T-boned by  another vehicle & sounds like he may be a bit paralysed. Still don't know the full story but, hey that family has had enough shit to last them a while! Then I hear old Soeties, a local drunk & beggar & a real PITA (pain in the ass) when he is pissed, fell in a dam the other night & drowned. Shit way to go for anybody. Hell, this is starting to sound like a real agony column! So, let's change! :o)
Beer! Corripe Cervisiam, I am told means "Seize the Beer!" I can live with that. Busy with a new effort at the moment as I said in the previous blog. It could be "Boil in a Bag" or "Partial Mash". Whatever, I am trying something new. Got the grains, mashed 'em, boiled the wort, chucked in some hops, coffee & molasses & a bit of medium liquid malt extract. Dropped some cold pass water into the fermentor & then the still hot wort into that via a filter. Did it like this 'cos I don't have a chiller - yet. Bunged in the dried malt extract & coopers brewing sugar, topped up to about 22 liters, chucked in the fish-tank heater (thanks Lawrence) set on 24'C & sat back. Still another 8 days to go before bottling & then another 2 weeks before the first taste (bummer). They say one should only taste after about four weeks - sod that! I've only waited, at the most, two weeks before tasting. The first one I did was within a few days.That was maybe the wrong choice - it tasted a bit like something you would not like to taste. Did get better tho'. I've done about 3 different stouts 'till now & they have all been pretty good. Here's a Real Ale that was a bit too potent & had a bit of a flowery taste cos I dry hopped with East Kent Goldings for 10 days in the secondary fermentor.

And then there was the stout!

 

And then you have the view to sit & look at while you sup that back!

And one last one of Rossi & the missus having a Sunday afternoon kip!

In the beginning......

Where to start? New to this type of shit so I will just ramble for a bit. The picture? Oh, that's Rossi - a Rhodesian Ridgeback - or was should I say. The main reason for starting this blog I guess. Named after Valentino Rossi because this bugger could run! I have been following Ditch Shitters Blog http://ditchshitter.blogspot.com/?zx=897782d959ca1a74 for a bit & see that he gets quite a bit off his chest - thought I'd try it out as well. You see, Rossi was 8 years old last week & I had to have him put down on Sunday because of Kidney failure. I mean, shit, Monday last week he was galloping along his favourite track in front of the Landy, doing about 40Kays & Tuesday he was already going downhill bloody fast. Three or four visits to two different vets & much murdering of the credit card & by Saturday night he was basically lost. Staggering, twitching, unable to focus properly & not responding to voice very often. On top of the kidney thing he was also infected by some bastard tick which, according to them that know, had started affecting his brain. Not your normal run-of-the-mill tick that dispenses biliary but some other bugger I have never heard of. Also only coming to the fore on the same day.
Anyway, he was my constant companion, friend & shadow. Couldn't move without him following, even if it was just off to bed or the toilet - sick dog!
So, Life in Africa really sucks at the moment. I am trying to keep myself busy with my other pastime - brewing beer. Tried my first batch of Brew-In-A-Bag & so far, so good. I have done about 8 or 9 Coopers Kits before but this is my first foray into this form of brewing. Should be a mind blower tho' - the ABV looks to be about 7,5%. More about that later.
Must admit, I am feeling a lot better.
Oh yeah, have a look at Ditch's site, the man is quite original. Nature lover, Bird Ringer &, I think, a total Piss-artist! Makes me feel at home! This is where that is, just by the way