The Daily Monthly

Wednesday mawnin…….usual bland middle working week day that somehow always manages to live up to my expectation of it been bland /laborious, anyway my bosses are out of the office today-one on site and the other examining at UCT.

Settling in back at the office was a bit of a task and ofcourse my Autocad gave me hassles. Not much to really do since I have a pile of work waiting to be checked by my boss Simone who’s been out the office more……….site visits and meetings.

So my choice of productivity is getting my essay part 4 started and doing blog entries of the St. Michael’s School design-build.

Here goes………..

Block 3

Block’s kinda scare me initially ‘ços I don’t exactly have an idea of what’s gonna happen, well there is a programme but in terms of anything that requires me to step out the box a lil……a lil more shall I say.

Greenpoint Biodiversity park wow, participated more than I observed. Something to do with those awesome play areas. Feedback afterwards was interesting, as much as I don’t speak up ( working on that ug) I did notice how much more the lecturers noted in the design in terms of things that were an afterthought both aesthetically and technically.

Day 1

7am I made it! Coffee in the morning and green says go. I think if we had to go work in mines for two weeks I wouldn’t have minded at that point, a break from the office is always welcomed especially when things ‘grow’ on you namely projects that almost never seem to end and so comes with it tedious tasks.  The design-build project was a reminder that continuous office CAD based work is definitely not for me!

Work contribution

Varnishing timber beams. Not exactly what I thought I’d start out doing but in the end it worked out considering how unfit I am phew! Ok the real reason is that the guys in particular made a run for the tech tools, cranes and tractors (mild exaggeration). Either excitement or something to do with macho-ness I dunnnooo.

Day 2

Work contribution

Removal of plants/trees along elevated walkway for the commencement of the deck construction. Back to the ‘factory’ as we coined it, this would be the hall, at this point it became apparent to me that certain committee members are taking their roles a bit too seriously! Perhaps they had a graduation back at the cottage and are now qualified architects or project managers???  All that aside for the greater good by just ignoring the obnoxious breed, that been said I would not tolerate been treated in a condescending manner.

Day 3

At this point I thought my calling would be varnishing lol Not that it’s a bad thing! There’s always ways to make things fun so I guess joking and laughing about helps, the vibe with the other students and been in a school environment made me more observant, which |I can be by default……….a natural disposition shall we say.

By now we were in the swing of things so once we got on to site we pretty much knew what to do and if there wasn’t much to do where you were then go fill in gaps. The morning briefing sessions made a huge difference with some guidance from Rudolph which creates some kind of structure which I need almost always lol. It’s just the bottom line, direction, order or perhaps my ‘perfectionist’ tendencies which is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to organization....me thinks. Seriously though it made a difference in terms of daily goals and reflections and more importantly, to me anyway, some authority on the project. Today’s Westcape site meeting was a good example of the importance of organization!

Day 4

Saturday that is………….cleaning the metal roof sheeting was a breeze whilst having a music session outside with Tbos, Staci and Phiwe. Desperately trying to get some sunshine D! So after cleaning the sheets we had to put the flashing on over the holes and once that was all done filed in some gaps and went to check the site out…..upstairs we would say.

Day 5

Today I tried to do something a ‘lil different, breaking rocks with Noel seemed to be outta my comfort zone down in the factory. Generally I’m not inclined to do DIY projects because of the process, case and point is a construction site-don’t like the mess! Lol something I’m almost over haha. Anyway on to the next……….. Sunday break

Day 6

Tuesday’s child has no work to do….in the factory atleast. Clearing up random stuff and handing tools around was order of the day, the usual site politics which turned out to be a collective concerning a few class members who-the express graduates lol. Ironically things that bug one become a laughing matter, I suppose that’s been mature or maybe just getting over it.  I can’t remember what day we painted the roof sheetings…..hmm prob a paint high…..but we did indeed.

Day 7

Break……..movies and my warm bed ah! Ok I took a day-off, honesty to my detriment? I hope not! The main roof structure was to be erected and there wasn’t much to be done so hence the reason to keep off site. Having nothing to do makes the day seem 50 hours long.

Day 8

Busy day and quite interesting……interesting because the compost guy’s here and wataloigot (smarties) I’m a chocolate junkie if ya didn’t know. Alotta info and it was fun again.  Got to paint a wall on the inside of the new fireplace/braai area. The school’s caretaker decided to take the lead and instruct me to change the colour lol 

I also managed to help paint the stripes on the hand-over wall, I thought the stripes alone was a bit bland but the added hand marks made it better. I guess symbolically it’s quite cool!

Day 9 the end

Quite sadly it had to end and the ‘lil ceremony was quite nice. I do feel that there needs to be a more social impact on the school kids in terms ok skills/knowledge, not necessarily from our department which helps with the physical environment, but some kind of mind shift or exposure……………I dunno just something that broadens the mind!

Monday morning back at the office was terrible! Terrible! Dramatic yes but I just had the feeling that I should be on a bus heading to site lol. 2012 I guess……………………..