Black Board Art

My kid, noting his displeasure at me for going to work for one quick meeting and only getting out of the office four hours later. I must say his patience were good and he did amuse the team.

Dam Wall Breaking

As of today we can officially count all the major mining houses in South Africa on our client list.

We have outgrown the 250 square meter offices we moved into during March this year.

A major industry magazine in SADEC have become our media partners

We are hosting the first ever Transformation Indaba in November, with support from print media, television and our major clients

Our brand is recognised as representing the leading Transformation Specialists in the Industry

Goose Egg Rescue

At the bottom of our property we have a dam, with two resident wild geese. They have decided to nest on our island a couple of meters of shore. Yesterday Puppies chased them all over the dam, swimming in the freezing cold water, determined to once an for all get rid of these intruders on her property. I noticed that instead of leaving all together they kept her away from the island and thought that there must be more to this than the obvious, but in the middle of winter? that dam has a layer of ice on early in the mornings it is so cold at the moment.

Alas, not long and I noticed Puppies coming out of the water with something in her mouth. Yip, a goose egg and even though she picked it up and swam with it across the dam, it was not damaged at all. So I could not do anything else, but swim across to the island the return the poor eggnapped baby. I hope they dont abandon the nest now.

Love is

Kira-Marie, E's little sweetheart. It started to bloom round about valentines this year, when her mom stopped me one morning to tell me that her daughter has a crush on my son. About a week later E told me he has a serious secret, just to spill all the beans about five seconds later. That he really likes Kira......so fast forward a couple of months and this is the conversation on the way back from school.

Mom, guess what? no, what my boy.....I have a secret. Really? can you tell me your secret....a little guessing game is played and out he comes with 'I love Kira-Marie, I dont just like her, I love her'. So I had to ask how he knows he loves her. Because she is so beautifull. Oh, I said, and what about the other beautiful girls in your class? No, he says, when you love somebody, they are beautiful from inside your eyes........so simple, but now I understand love too.

The volatile face of poverty

(Photo: Beeld)

Yesterday our team could not go on site to a client as members from their host community and retrenched workers had a violent protest in which they stopped the mine bus, rolled it over and set it on fire with nine people seated inside. Fortunately the commuters all escaped the fire, however, one of the men that has been working in a senior position at the mine for two years tried to calm the crowd down and got stoned to death as a result.

Our team was right there, on their way to the mine to have a meeting with the senior management on sustainable development principles. We had a recent audit on site in which we indicated to management that there were work to be done in respect of their approach to the host community. This incident however has highlighted to me the dire position communities are in and the need for transparent relationships between corporate, government and communities. We have a lot of work to do and I believe we have run out of time.

I never applied for this job

Don't get me wrong, i am very proud of what we have achieved in such a short period of time.......however, sometimes I cannot help but ask myself - what have you done?

One of our newest and arguably most professional team members referred to me as a hippie the other day. I could not argue with her at all. I am a bit of an idealist and tree hugger and sometimes all of these Corporate Governance issues just don't make any sense to me at all. I understand that a company like ours will go through growth phases and during those it is important to make sure that we get our house in order to balance between growth and stability. And that is a difficult balance to obtain and maintain continously.

So far we have done really well and I salute the team

Upholding the cross

Democracy in our country is still a fairly young experience and today, as I was standing in the line to cast my vote, I could not help but remember the first election I participated in. In 1994, when the lines snaked around the suburb I lived in. A party atmosphere in the air as all the citizens of this beautiful country waited together to choose a new future.

The line today was much shorter, more organised, people were more blase about the right to choose. Families making use of the public holiday to have another long weekend with trips planned across the country. My current suburb is mostly made up of more affluent families...mixing in line with their domestic workers, grooms and other support personel. A couple of people ahead of me a mature gentleman was standing, serenity edged on his face, dressed in his Sunday best. He was remembering the road we travelled to get here as a country, to arrive here at a space where we can share this priviledge to each mark their own choice, without coercion or fear.

We must, at all cost, protect this, as it was indeed, dearly won

Autumn is here

The season has changed and winter is on our doorstep. I feel it in my bum that just does not want to warm up at all - John is convinced that it is my cold feet that steals the heat from the derrier. I have to be honest, winter is not my strong season. All I want to do is cuddle up in bed and drink hot chocolate. Suppose the best thing about winter is the scarves and big jackets. I love dressing up in winter with bold scarves and funky jackets.

And this year - winter means soccer, and what a family of fierce players we are! In E's first soccer game the other day he got an injury (cut lip), scored a goal and got send of the field to cool down. I cannot tell a lie, my kid lives with a passion and determination that frequently lands him either in trouble or the hospital. Like last week, when he had five lacerations to the cornea and walk around for two days with an eye patch. Everyone at school is asking whether we have 'frequent user' cards at the local hospital. I am starting to think that it will be a very good idea.

And here we are

The dream of living on our little piece (peace??) of land eventually realised. From offer to purchase to registered owners took, almost to the day, a full year. But we somehow managed to convince the powers that be that two self employed entrepreneurs will be responsible land owners.

I could never have guessed that throwing two adults in the midst of a neglected property in the heart of mink and manure country could result in such a kaleidoscope of emotional experiences. It has opened rusted emotional doors, send us way back to childhood dreams and horrors, through psychedelic adult memories right back to the reality of flooded fences and washed away roads. We have learned about ourselves and each other through anger and tears but we have also studied our local African bullfrogs in wonder, delighted in the fascination of our children with the crabs down at the dam and stared in unbelieve as the waters from our local little stream rose to a power full river racing through the bottom of our property.

Despite the dream of becoming more sustainable and building a veggie patch and chicken coop to proof the commitment, we have not had much success in any of these endeavours. I am starting to dread full colour pictures of fat round organic veggies and promises of a greener future – my tomatoes started with enthusiasm and then turned white and rotted on the stem. The only joy I had from my beautiful pumpkin flowers was the flower dolmades that was lovingly made by Nana when she came to visit from Crete (a whole new story), then the leaves all turned brown and died. Okra has provided some confidence, we have had two good Cretan meals from that hardy little plant and the brinjals have also kept hunger from the door. Month-end the business will be moving from our little country flat to a very corporate office park and the two chickens that currently entertain us there will be relocated home – their little spot has been ready and waiting for about six weeks.

We have truly settled in here now, our candles are on standby to help us cope with all the electrical outages, we have come to enjoy the shocking experience accompanying the opening of taps when you are in the shower and the call of the peacocks don’t wake us at night anymore. John has turned into a DYI guru that can fix electrical fences, build outbuildings and even understand the mysteries of washing dishes.

We are slowly building a fun loving and emotionally safe future.