Office Gossip

Wow how this year is flying .......... So its true what "they " say , Time flies when your having fun . August , the windy month is around the corner, which will bring the rains and summer , ive so had enough of this winter , which feels longer than usual . Anyway , back to my title ... and the purpose of this blog ... Office gossip  .....

 I have been an Architect for 21 years and have mainly worked for small private practises . I have been in my current position , for the best part of 5 years now , and for the first time in my entire career , ive been the victim of "Office Gossip" ........ from my staff nogal ... !! Iam writing this as , its actually got to me ........ I mean wow , the very staff I employ  , fight for within our large organisation , has turned against me , and spreading rather malicious untruths about me ! Oh, what to do  ?? Oh and the reason I know is , is because Iam lucky enough to have an assistant , who remains faithful to me. This as a whole makes things difficult as she is my eyes and ears whilst iam away ... you know the saying ... When the cats away ... I dont know how many of you have worked in a Architectural office , but things can get a little tense sometimes , dead lines etc  ... and heres why .... Take 9 different personalities / creeds / religions and beliefs , add the emotions of the talented "arty type person " and viola , what do u get ...... well firstly , some amazing stuff being churned out in terms of design etc ... but also a cauldron of gossip , bitchyness and of course some well orchastrated shenanigans. Anyway .... after a long chat with the culprits .... issue resolved. Iam rapidly hitting burn out here , so this upcoming long weekend could come quick enough . I am off to Kwa Zulu Natal , to go and dive with Ragged tooth sharks... cant wait , 5 days of pure bliss . I will let you all know ... with pics upon my return . 

On the movie side, in my last blog , i intimated that i would "Review" the latest Arthur movie . Well, if like me , you've seen the original Arthur with Dudley Moore and his butler , the late John Gielgud. 

You will be very dissapointed with the latest Arthur played by Russell Brand , whom , by the way I dont rate as an actor. The movie has a very thin , watery plot about Arthur loseing his inheritance if he doesnt marry his mothers choice of women . I laboured through the movie in the hope that SOMETHING of interest would happen , sadly not ! So in short , that movie got a 2 / 10 on the "polarscale" 

I have however watched a few other movies ... Beastley , Source Code and Hanna , but my movie of the week has to be RED . Starring Bruce Willis , Morgan Freeman , Helen Mirren and John Malkovich , who adds a certain amount of humour to a easy to  watch thriller . A must see if you a Bruce Willis fan ....... on the "polarscale " it scores a 7/10 ...

World cup Rugby is almost upon us , and of course Tri-Nations kicked off last weekend with a massive loss from our boys in the green and gold to the wallabies , who I might add are looking quite threatning.

 The All Blacks , although trouncing Fuji last weekend , didnt quite look as convincing , as they should have run a few more tries past the islanders. This weekend , i have gone with my head as opposed to my heart apropos the All Black vs Bok game ...... my superbru points are looking a little miserable . 
In our local derby , the currie cup , iam looking a little better on te superbru side of things , but the season has just started .......

well , thats it from me for another week , so wrap up warmly and stay safe !!!
 

 ADIOS AMIGOS ..... !

Smash ,Grab & Hijackings

Yesterday  ( 05 jul 11 ), I had a bad day. It wasnt the cold ... cos i like the cold and wet conditions , it was , yip , you guessed it ... a "Smash , Grab and attempted hijacking " in Bree street JHB , CBD.  There I was sitting in my bakkie , the rain had started , so i put on the window wipers , something told me to look left ........ I saw him coming , BANG !!! There goes my window and he was in ..... with my foot still on the clutch , and the other on the brake , i still managed to fight him ...... i was totally lucid. i wrestled with him , he flapped about like a fishout of water , and eventually broke free , he dropped everything , with exception of my beloved Blackberry ...... Think about this , as now , ive thought about it ... How much of your life is on your blackberry ? I know theres info on my phone , like my home address for instance , so my wife has been living in fear ever since , not cool . I did block my sim and phone immediatly , so hopefully the device rendered useless. 
One should'nt take an incident like this lighty , as it does play on ones mind , especially when driving down Bree street , which I do on a daily basis. So off i went , to Glasfit , and had the anti smash and grab film fitted to my bakkie, and I have to say , the Glasfit team on Beyers Naude were nothing short of excellent. Their service was perfect in every way , so big Thank you to Robbie and his team . Another BIG thank you goes to a very special friend , you know who you are , you are the Torch in my darkness !! 

Ok , enough doom and gloom, 

On the box this weekend , yet another plethora of sport .... rugby finals , grand prix , tour de france ....

Movie of the week ........ its an oldie , but a real beaut . I just love Sandra Bullock , in this movie especially . Ryan Renolds is such a lucky bloke lol ..... and the scene in the bedroom , where he jumps into bed beside her , before his folks bring breakfast is just hilarious ... "Morning Glory " ........ no , thats not the title , Its of course , yip you guessed it ...". The Proposal "      

And that my friends is that for another week , can you believe its almost mid July ?? before we know it , it will be christmas again ..... looking forward to a well deserved rest ..... but thats is another story alltogether.
oh btw , next week i will be reviewing Arthur ....... I remember watching the original with Dudley Moore some 25 years ago , so should be interesting  

so from me .................................... ADIOS AMIGOS

Writers Block

Although I have an interest for writing , hence my blogs , its certainly not something to sneeze at . And when writers block sets in ... well , the blank page just becomes an abyss of nothingness...... so , here goes nothing.

Some of you may have noticed , Iam a Polar bear chum , I love those creatures , hence my nickname ... "Bear" It all originated some 23 years ago , whilst doing my national service , in those days I had a thick white mop of hair , and always wore a short sleeve shirt, and so my trusted troops named my KPL Ys beer , and well the name has kinda stuck , but the english version shortned to "just Bear".

Beacause of my "writers Block " , I thought id write about something I know all to well .... and thats the whole rejuvination of JHB cbd . I have been involved now for 5 years, and let me tell you , working in the heart of jozi has its moments. I have witness some bizaar things from the slaughtering of a cow on the pavement , wheel barrows full of cows and sheeps heads ( smileys ) .... to the toy toying of the masses complaing about something or other. My office is 16 floors up , and trust me sound travels , most days the sounds of gun shot fire rings out... one would think iam in mogadisho , anyway , fatalaties are an everyday occurance here , along with the mob justice suystem we have in the city , its "fun" Its not all doom and gloom , my function really , is to design and build famlies respectable homes. Take 120 End street for instance .....  

  

Its the biggest comercial / residential conversion in the world , a total of 48000 sqm bulk, which interpretes to 924 residential units over 26 floors. that in turn , houses 924 families , multiply by 3 and voila , 2772 people living comfortably . As a result , iam now busy developing the ground floor , with 10 000 sqm of retail , including shoprite as an anchor tenant ... , and 54 line shops , ok its not gonna be Sandton City , but I pride myself in giving the public some serious retail therapy when they enter 120 End street shopping centre. Across the road to the west of the building we have just revamped and finished the park for the kids . On the other end of town , west side , iam busy with yet another shopping centre , where we will house Cambridge , as the anchor tenant , and for those of you that dont know the brand , it forms part of the "Wallmart" stable. Other than that , I have another 5 other buildings iam converting to residential , including a Heritage building , built in 1896 , guessed which one yet ... and no Christo , you dont count lol. 

yip its Stuttafords , we are aiming in completely retoring the building to bring it back to its iconic self .

    

Ok from Architecture to movies ......... Iam typing against the clock here , so sweet and simple , my movie of the week is .... ( drum roll )

DRIVE ANGRY .......... Nicolas Cage , brilliant , if you like semi sci fi with plenty action , be sure to catch this on

And with that its

ADIOS AMIGOS .... until next time