Friday, July 13, 2007

7 weeks to go.

It looks like all is going to be ready for an opening of The Park on Wednesday - it just goes to show how much can be done in a month!! I am beginning to dread this opening, because even though it will give us something to do, I fear that we (the band) will be hopelessly mis-managed. Again. A perfect example of this mis-management was yesterday. We were told the previous evening that the power would be off from early in the morning until the evening. We then find out that almost all the rest of the staff have the day off. At about 2:00, after having been asked "Why are you not down the mountain on your day off?" by someone who would know that we had the day off, Wayne (our pipe-major) goes to see Richard (our interpreter, and chief mis-manager) to find out what's going on. "Oh yes, day off, day off" was his reply - fat lot good that does us now.
Also, being the 12th of the month, it was payday. Now, Wang Fang (who gives us our money, but doesn't live at The Park [even though she has a room here - a story for another time perhaps]), was seen the previous evening with a great wad of bills in her handbag, but of course, she won't give us our money until the 12th. That morning, she's still at The Park, but doesn't come around to pay us. Wayne rings her up to find out what's going on. Apparently, she'd gone back to her house (a 2-hour drive away) 'to change her clothes'. At least, that was the excuse that she gave. She then told us that she'd be back at 4:00 with our money. 4:00 comes, and goes. 5:00 comes and goes. 6:00 comes, and , you'll never guess what, goes, all without our money. Finally, she shows up at 6:30, with some crappy excuse about heavy traffic or being very busy that day or some bulshit like that.
So, instead of having a plesant day in town with money to burn, we have an unplesant day stuck up on the mountain with no air-conditioning (it was rather warm yesterday), while we waited to get paid.
I wanna go home!
Owen.

2 comments:

Tim Trudgian said...

Owie,

Ah yes, the incongruencies of payment can make the best of us long for the homeland. I have 4 pounds in my wallet to last 2 weeks, before my next Red Cross Care Package comes through.
When do you go back to Australia?

Xavier said...

Tim,
I would guess that the answer to your question is (using my almighty powers of deduction) approximately 7 weeks from the date of Owen's latest posting.

Owen,
Sounds like you're having a ball! Keep up the good times.