This meant the shops in Oudtshoorn, George, PE and Uitenhage. This was a great time for me but then Tony Ashton who was running the East London shops resigned and I had this region added to mine. I think that I botched up some of my decisions and Arthur Flemix (my GM at the time) changed my job title to Regional Credit Manager and Johan Claassen become the RM in my place. Botha DuPlessis was the Regional Personnel manager but under Johan this did not go well and he resigned and took up a contract position with both the University and the CCMA. For a short while I was appointed to the postion of PM but when to opportunity came I moved back to Retail Regional. Justin Strydom became our PM. And then after Justin resigned some years later to join the RMI (Retail Motor Industry) as a HR consultant we had Lynne Vogel join as PM. Our division became part of the Western Division under Johan Sadie and I moved back to RM when Johan Claassen moved to JHB for a promotion.
Again I had a bit of a tough time operating under a elderly man (Norman Daniels) but when he left I did exceptionally well working for Joahn Sadie. For a short while this changed and I worked under Glen Phillips but when JDG took over Morkels he resigned to open a Bottle Store in Port Shepstone. And I moved back to work under Johan Sadie. In 2007 JDG decided to split finance from Retail and I became the Regional Finance Manager once more. I had to do a lot more travel as the Border Transkei was once more part of my region. Around this time Johan Sadie took a Regional Position and Martin Labuschane became my GM with Belinda Deyzel operating as Divisional Credit Manager and my immediate superior. Early in 2008 Joahn Sadie resigned and opened a Pie Shop. we saw him in the middle of the year when we had a super with him and his wife Poppie. He was having all kinds of trouble in the business. Early in 2009 Johan became extemely depressed and was booked into hospital for sleep therapy and I hear that they will sell of fhte pie business.
My position as Regional Finance lasted for a year from September 2007 to October 2008. JDG decided to completely split Retail and Finance and I applied for the position of GM in the Eastern Cape. I was interviewed by Corrie Neven who would become my new senior.
In the position of GM Finance I was asked to attend a meeting in Johannesburg from 22 to 24 January 2009.
Nicci and Stefan were also in Joahnnesburg as they had launched the Little Pink Book (Gauteng) on Tuesday 21st January and had a big function at the Indaba conference hotel. Susanne Braatvedt went to see what was going on and reported to me that it looked like a very fancy party. Some important Celebrity people were there including TV people, the top make up artist in SA & the "You" magazine. Nicci and Stefan had stayed with Keith when they were first in Joahnnesburg to set the whole function up.
Nicci has a way of attracting people as she tells me she asks people: "Would you like to become involved in the Little Pink Book" rather than asking them to sign up for advertising. She had good response and the whole function was sponsored and all they had to pay for were the flight tickets. Unfortunately while they were there they discovered that a "Friend" from Knysna / George area was trying to copy their idea by producing something similar there but without consulting them. I spoke to Nicci after she returned to Cape Town and by all accounts this was a huge success and now she has a tight deadline for the publishing of the final product.
I was also able to stay with Keith and Susanne rather than staying in an hotel. After work, Susanne picked me up from the Randburg Contact Centre and took me to their home in Bryanston where I have stayed before. I met up with their long time maid, Ellen. Nils was off at a camp in Sterkspruit. He completed his Matric at St Peters in 2008 and had enrolled at Rhodes for this year. Julia has two more years to go at St Peters and is in Grade 11 this year. Edmund has four years of school left and is currently in Grade 9. He is three years ahead of Ally who is in Grade 6 this year. Edmund was also off at a camp somewhere.
Julia had to go off to Waterpolo training. Julia loves the sport and plays for her school, for Gauteng province and even was in Trials for the South African team. The pool "Wahoo" is located at her school and is a huge commercial aquatic centre. Susanne & I dropped Julia at the pool and then after a short stop off at the Spar went home where I met their friend Claire who was also staying with them for a while. Claire had been in a car accident and in a coma as a result. while she was in a coma a curator sold off her house and left her destitute. she took then Curator to court and won but lost on appeal. Keith is assisting Claire to appeal to the Constitutional Court.
Susanne made the supper and Keith & I went to fetch Julia from her Waterpolo training. Susanne made us a delicious supper of lamb, potato, butternut and gem squash. Keith showed me his album of his climb up Mount Mera with his friend Peter Hey. It was a three week trip taking two weeks to climb up and then just four days for the (short cut) climb down. Mt Mera is within striking distance of Mt Everest which is in the background of many of the photo's.
I was reading a collection of thillers and went to bed after a coffee and choc chip biscuit that Julia made. Julia gave me this recipe as a swap for my crunchie recipe.
Julia Braatvedt's choc chip biscuits.
- 300 ml Cape Flour
- 1 Mil bicarb
- 2 mil salt
- 125grams of butter
- 50 ml firmly packed brown sugar
- 125 mil white sugar
- 1 X Egg beaten
- 5ml vanilla
- 100 mil cooking choc chopped
- Mix flour, salt and Bicarb
- Cream the butter and sugars until light & fluffy
- Add Egg and Vanilla
- Beat well
- Stir in the dry ingredients and chopped chocolate.
- Drop tea spoons onto the greased baking tray
- leave room for spreading
- Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 Degrees
- Cool....Makes about 30 biscuits.
And this is the Recipe for Cruchies which I gave to Julia
Mix together
Two cups oats, One cup sugar, one cup flour and one cup coconut
125g (half a small block) of BAKE margerine, melted together with two table spoons of syrup and put in one tea spoon of Bicarb when it is nearly melted.
Mix into the dry ingrdients and press the mic\xture firmly into a glass baking tray.
Put this into an oven at about 140 Degrees for about 45 minutes.
Take it out and while it is still fairly warm cut into biscuit size and then leave to cool. Should make about 5 X 8 or 5X 9 = 40 to 45 biscuits.
Thursday at the JDG Contact centre was a real bore. We looked at how the follow up , trace, granting of credit etc was done and hung around for the day. I tried to get an earlier flight but it looks like I will be spending a day at the airport.This evening Claire told us about her efforts to sort out the debt that had piled up while she was trying to sort out her court case. Road Accident Fund seemed okay, Vodacom were reasonable, Netstar refunded her but Nedbank did not even grant her the time of day. I advised Claire to see the National Credit Regulator 0860 627 627 or the Ombudsman 0861 662 837 to apply for Debt Review or for Debt Counselling.
Susanne made us a delicious supper of stewed beef, rice and vegetables cooked in a special dutch sauce. Julia showed me her scrap booking that she had taken time to create showing pictures of her family and various activities since she was a baby. Keith showed me a number of pictures of his Game farm in Clarens in the Free State. He leases some of the land for cultivation to a neighbour and has Game on the farm for their own pleasure. They employ a manager to run the day to day activities.
While I was in Johannesburg, Barbara was opening her school. The first day was Wednesday 21st Jan 2009. today Barbara brings in the New Mom's and has a tea and introduces the children to the school. Benita Barton and Michelle Elfic were two moms who are also running friends. Then Thursday was the first day of school. Barbara now takes the Bigger children. One Mom arrived without confirming her booking for the year. She had not completed an application form. Barbara decided to not turn her away but this means that she has 29 children alltogether with Suzanne Gendall taking the Littlies and Barbara and Gloria with 20 children in her class.
Friday 23rd: Susanne & I dropped Julia at school and then took me to the Randburg office where we met Corne who took a small group of us to the Airport. I spent the entire day at the airport as BA refused up change my booking. I felt like Tom Hanks who acted in a movie about a man who spent a year in an airport. I alternated between coffe, reading, walking around with my bags over my shoulder, sleeping on a bench and staring out the windows at the comings and goings of airplanes.
Saturday morning I met up with Ben Carver for a run. We were joined for a short while by Adrienne, Susan, Gerald & Maryna. They all turned around at the Engen next to the beachfront spar. Ben and I continued up Walmer Boulevard, up to the airport and back via Strandfontein road. IN Admiralty Road we heard a voice behind us. It was a young lady (Martie) from Pretoria who had met Adrienne. Adrienne had suggested that she join us. So we Ran together as far as the Summies Club where we also met up with Elmarie and ran back together. As we approached Hobie beach we found two women with Champagne and muffins. It was a celebration of one of their Birthday (Caroline). we wished he the best and went off for a swim.
As we came in from the swim, Ben elected himself as guardian of the Muffins while the girls had a dip. I had to leave as I had a bit of a rush. After a shower and change I headed back to the beach for a Nippers Level Test. There were 6 U10's and 2U12s there. We took them through their theory and then Paul Lynch tested them. The two U12's really struggled with the swim. So we took both of them out for a second swim and they passed their test.
I had to spend some time in the office to try to catch up on some work. Later that afternoon Michael & I went to Kings beach where we teamed up with some parents to set out the Arena's for Sunday's Carnival.
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