Walk to work

My usual form of exercise is to walk to work. This takes between 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how hard I push it, and I carry a 7-10 kilo pack. I start before dawn and walk to the Palacio. I usually go past it, down to a local café, where I meet a few work friends and discuss the day’s issues before heading off to begin the actual business of sitting down and producing.

I decided, despite my poor camera skills, to actually record this. With my normal good timing I must have picked one of the haziest days I have ever seen to do this. The smoke on the air largely smelled of wood, rather than plastic, which was nice.

I started at my front door (the photo is the view looking out from there), then I basically stopped every 5 minutes and took a photo and then moved on.

However, the camera work slowed me down to the extent that I’m unlikely to do it again, so here’s the walk on Flickr.

Good news, bad news.

The good news was that like most of my work area, I was excused from ‘Limpeza’ (the Dili emu parade) this week.  The bad news was that, unlike the rest who were on a training course, I had worked till late the previous night.  I then worked early through to late on Friday, and was going to have to work all Saturday. 

 

However, the good news was that my first boss said the Saturday work would just be facilitating meetings.  The bad news was that it was Ministers of Government who were meeting and I don’t speak the language that well. 

 

However, the good news was that one of my co-workers will be there to translate, assist and for me to help her as well.  She’s sharp, well qualified and a subject expert on much of the material.  The bad news is that she doesn’t want to be there and may not turn up.

 

However, the good news is that my other boss says that I’m not facilitating the meetings anyway.  The bad news is that my first boss doesn’t know this. 

 

However, the good news is that I’m not being forced to take a position, just agree with whoever spoke last.  The bad news is that the situation is a bit like two dogs with one bone, and I’m the bone. 

 

However, the good news is that the meeting will define a lot of our strategy for us and help us aim things in the direction that the Government wants.  The bad news is that this will involve a shed load of high pressure, tight deadline work.  Which will inevitably fall on the shoulders of malae advisors.

 

However, the good news is that I am alive, healthy and happy.  After that, there can be no bad news.

I work in a palace, part 2.

I told you so....

I am, as Three Strokes will assure you, nobody's photographer. This is not art, but it is proof. It is also my workplace.

Read the silver lettering on the centre of the building. If you can't then double-click the photo itself and a full sized version will appear in a new window. Generally speaking, from this point on I will lower the resolution and/or set up a Flickr page and provide a link. But just for now, I wanted to do this.

I work in a palace

The Palacio do Governu is a literal palace, white walls, columns and arches, tiled floors and modern furniture. And I work in it. It’s a far cry from Honiara’s asbestos hut with the bodgy aircon, toilets in another building etc. I’m told Budget Directorate has only just moved in, and that accommodation used to be less salubrious, but I don’t really care. It’s lovely.

It isn’t Canberra, of course. The grounds are littered with prefab ‘kobe houses’ (pronounced almost like cubby houses, and sharing some of that atmosphere), the IT infrastructure is unreliable at best and the wood pattern lino, laid in the last month or two, is already lifting. It’s still lovely as far as I’m concerned.

For a variety of technical reasons, the cleaners couldn’t get to the windows in Honiara, and they had 2 years worth of grime obscuring the outside. There are guards all over the place, but they seem pretty relaxed and they carry nightsticks, not AK-47s. They apparently sometimes give you a bit of grief if you don’t have a pass, but that didn’t happen to me, and now my pass has been issued.

The Palacio fronts the Ocean and is really worth a photo or two. I guess I should get a camera if I’m going to take this seriously. For now though, you’ll have to deal with word pictures.

Start up enterprise

My first day in the office was, like all first days, a bit of a mixed bag. Along with all the things I did expect, there were also those I didn’t, such as where were my passport photos for ID cards (hadn’t been asked), my passport to get a telephone (hadn’t thought of that) and my computer (they were supposed to provide one but the new ones will probably be here in September. Maybe.)

The tour of Dili confirmed some impressions – it will be a lot easier to buy most things that we found hard to get in the Solomons, fresh milk is unavailable, and you don’t drink the water, but you don’t have to. The ups and downs continued that day and into the next. Up: Fully Loaded, my co-worker is a lot of fun and sharp. Down: my UPS, carefully packed was somehow smashed by Air North – a couple of hundred bucks and 8 kg of baggage and excess baggage fees shot. Up: At least I can get a replacement here. Down: Things move as slowly as one might expect. Up: I should have a kitchenette apartment in a couple of days – hooray!