18th February 2012
A few of these curious plants grew in the fire-breaks after the fire
It took a while to get some order in my life again after the fire. Both the cabin and the workshop were of course in a shambles and would have to stay that way, since I had to leave on Tuesday morning to spend the rest of the week in Cape Town. Christa was flying down to do more auditions and Call backs which had to be processed immediately. The Producers were not present, so each day’s auditions had to be rendered to DVD overnight so that they could begin to choose call-backs while we pressed on. Meetings in the early evening meant that I could only start work later, so I never got to sleep before 03h00 until Friday night, before the Call backs on Saturday morning. Christa’s stress levels were not at all helped by having to arrange for the replacement of a burst geyser at our Johannesburg studio via telephone during the few lulls in our schedule. She had to get back to Johannesburg on Friday to deal with a crisis on another production, so I was on my own for the Saturday session.
...a week later they had sprouted what I assume are stamens
After breakfast on Friday I at last collected my stamped and approved plans from Heritage! Round One completed, so now I would able to submit them to TWK Municipality in Caledon…
Saturday’s Call back session lasted a little longer than planned, so of course the two-hour commute back to Tesselaarsdal only began in the late afternoon. The UK Production Office would be expecting to see the call backs on Sunday, so I had to start work as soon as I got home to the cabin. Thankfully the list of uploads was short, because I was dead-tired and making heavy weather of simple things. Eventually I gave up, relying on the fact that I had two-hour lead on the UK, so I could complete the upload on Sunday morning. I awoke surprisingly early, completed the upload and tried to do some Invoicing and online banking, but my head was swimming, so I gave up and slept away the afternoon.
Luckily, Jeffrey was available for an extra day on Tuesday, so I set him to finding out where the Eskom cable entered the nominal “yard” around the house. We knew it crossed diagonally over the proposed bedroom and bathroom area, but experience had shown that the path to the box on the power-line was not necessarily a straight line, since many of these trenches had been dug by the landowners under a “self-help scheme”. I was hoping that I could persuade Eskom to let me move the cable with the minimum of fuss, but since I had not received responses to my emails I would have to visit their offices in Caledon.
Armed with the Heritage Permit, I also wanted to check with TWK Council that I had everything I needed to submit the building plans. While in Cape Town, I had received a Text notification that my new Passport and Identity Documents were ready for collection, so on Tuesday I girded my loins for another day of Bureaucracy.
Collecting my documents from Home Affairs was astonishingly slow and inefficient compared to making the applications. There is no system to deal with quick In/Out procedures like collections separately from complicated applications, so I waited for over an hour with several other people whilst two others clogged up the system ahead of us. When it came to our turn, the hand-over of our documents happened relatively quickly – considering that everything is first pecked studiously into the computer, then also laboriously written in an A4 scribbler!
The visit to TWK was less than satisfying. The Architect had neglected to fill in a professional Association form which was required in duplicate. They also required copies of his Degree and Membership of the Association! This was ridiculous, because all the required information was contained in the twenty-eight pages of Council forms AND he is registered with the Council as an “approved Practitioner”. On a positive note though, the clerk ripped two pages out of the stack, since I would at least not be required to pay the “pavement deposit!”
The customer services chap at Eskom Caledon is very pleasant and helpful, but close to retirement. He has been in poor health recently and also clearly doesn’t cope with these newfangled email dinguses (thingies) very well. He introduced me to a younger man, Tyrone, who is new at the job but is clearly being groomed to take over the department. I explained that I had already located the existing cable route, partially uncovered the trench, and had started digging the new trench, since I would like to get the cable out of the way of a mini-bulldozer I planned to hire to level the site. After some discussion of his print-outs of the site plan I had emailed, Tyrone was able to make a few suggestions which allowed me to keep the main switchboard where I wanted it without incurring the expense of lengthening the existing cable. The alternative would be to place the distribution board in the wardrobe of the bedroom, but, Johann said, according to regulations I would then have to mount a bright red, regulation-size notice to the effect on the cupboard door. From an interior decorating point of view I didn’t think Christa would appreciate a bright red skull and crossbones on her wardrobe door! It was decided that a site-visit in the company of “Barrie” would be advisable anyway. I was given permission to expose the cable so that when we were ready to move it, Barrie could also switch off the power while we did so. Tyrone undertook to do his best to get Barrie out to Tesselaarsdal on Friday, but probably only on Monday, because Barrie was very busy. I was beginning to get the idea that “Barrie” was “The Go-To Guy” in this neck of the blue-gum woods…
The architect nearly suffered an aneurysm when I phoned him with the news about the extra forms. He agreed however to leave the forms at a coffee shop in Stanford for me to collect – it was simply less stressful than possibly prejudicing my case by jousting with petty officialdom “lacking in Capacity,” as current Government spin-speak would have it. I couldn’t help thinking to myself that this is the way, little by little, we are subjugating ourselves to incompetence. That’s another essay, another battle though…
With several months of bureaucracy behind me I am eager to start focusing on practicalities such as site-levelling, or preparing for winter by making compost bins and digging water-channels, but I have to leave again for a complex mix of reasons.
My neglected MG sports car leaves home, in the care of a third owner in the Film industry!
Amongst others, I have finally sold my once-beloved MG B GT Coupe to an enthusiast, so there are legalities to take care of. We also want to be in a position to sell our home, when the time comes, with minimal “Moving Trauma”, so the process of trimming down the detritus of two lives also needs to be moved forward. Christa and I had earlier agreed that I would return to Johannesburg in time for her birthday on the 22nd of February, which is now looming. Of course I miss her too and want to be there. I have a lot to do before I board an aircraft on Monday, so I shall have to catch up on this Blog from Johannesburg.
Our section of the mountain after the fire