Carrier finally on bike and first cycling trials + new iron + a load of cash + circuit classes + an old friend visits town + first training course for staff

Week ending 3^rd October 2012

It’s finally finished! Chris and I attached the three metal blocks to the bike frame after using a tap to re-thread two of the four holes in the frame. A bit difficult to explain, but very smart and robust in the result, as now I can use one or both clip-on Ortlieb pannier bags.

The Saturday morning cycle up to Dare was done 5 minutes faster than usual and the Hera loop run, next day was also faster by about 10minutes. Partially because I didn’t lug a back pack, but used the pannier and also because I raised the seat a bit, to get full leg use and put the ball of each foot on the pedal, rather than my old habit of using the instep.   

My existing iron is a travelling one that is really too light. A solution was found at the new Timor Plaza, in the Kamanek store. It was a nice chunky unit made in China and weighing a couple of kilos. Good value for only $14. Testing proved interesting; it only works when the lever is held over at maximum, so this weekend I shall return it for another one that hopefully works properly. Mind you, it is a nice beige colour.

On Monday night I was working late, about 6:30pm when two staff from the finance area appeared at my door with a bag of cash, over $2,000(!) and asked me to sign for it. Turns out that a late arrival of money from a district had missed getting into the safe, so I was deemed next best for safe-keeping (that’s nice, I think) I signed, adding an extra bit that ‘I hadn’t counted it all’ and hid it in the office before leaving. Next morning I visited the finance area and left them to do a count-up and lockup.

After hearing about the circuit classes, run every Tuesday from 6-7pm, I decided to go. We did shuttle runs, sit ups, abdominal crunches and boxing routines for 90 second ‘bursts’. After over 18 months of not doing that sort of thing, I faded rather quickly and two days later, my muscles are really suffering. Maybe next week will be easier?

An old friend from my last trip here has been visiting Dili and we had dinner at ‘Wasabi’ and then lunch today at the ‘Discovery’ with a couple more friends from that era. After Dili he may be off to Zimbabwe, but the big rule about these international roles is that nothing is certain until the papers are finally signed, so we’ll how it goes.

Today I and the Transformation manager setup and ran a course on what MIS will do to migrate the mix of spreadsheets and hand-written documents into ‘Abacus’. After being given the ‘Go’ yesterday I managed to find an old switch (turns one LAN connection into many), order & receive five Ethernet cables and then setup and get everything going, including projector, in 50 minutes this morning. Hmmm, self-pat on the back. The good news was how Mina, Americo, Tomas and Awad took onboard what needed to be done. I have been encouraging them to discuss and contribute ideas and ask questions, as this project will not work with people waiting to be told what to do. The result was much looking, asking and discussion between them on what should/could be done. A two hour session became a successful four hour one.