Back at Work Day 1

Work Day One Twenty Eleven has commenced. My contract has been extended for three months while the powers that be sort out my employment status, uhmmm! Anyway Refiloe, shown above, was in and out this morning completing her move to the regional help desk housed at head office.

Now Norman this won’t hurt a bit

What a busy Monday, no wonder many hate Mondays. At least we have fun while we are busy as Refiloe tries to do some sort of medical examination on Norman.

Right Parting

Refiloe arrived at work today sporting a new hairstyle. Wow African women spend so much time and money on hair pieces and extensions, just to look more westernized. I suppose it is all for the sake of looking good for us men.

New Series

It was much quieter at Metrorail today with all the Managers in Pretoria. I actually managed to get some work done. Today I decided to start a series of close ups. The couple of previous ones inspired me so here is Refiloe.

LOL

Steven King once wrote that you can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favourite chair and stays as long as it wants. While Refiloe's son shows us in today's photo that it is not a laugh but merely a loud smile.

Something in the air

Last year it was pregnancies, this year it looks like getting married is the in thing in the ICT Department of Metrorail. Refiloe, shown here got married last weekend without telling us, well today it slipped out of the bag. Congratulations Refiloe, some lucky man made an honest woman out of you.

Irritating Buzz

No I am not talking about Google Buzz that was launched last Wednesday but by the alarm that was endlessly buzzing outside the server room ALL DAY. My left ear was aching so much that I still hear the sound three hours after I left the office. Here are Refiloe, Helen and Motloli in an animated discussion, what about I could not hear as my ears were ringing.

Initiation

Still no papers signed and the brokers for FNB phoned today about a post that has come up. In the meanwhile it was initiation time for Norman to be finally accepted in the elite group of Metrorail ICT. Refiloe and Ellen were keen to perform the initiation process.

Safety Dance

We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine
I say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind
And we can dance
My, this "Men without hats" song is bringing back memories. Here is Refiloe showing the students (Lerato) her dance moves (with high heels nogal).

Aids Fiasco

Being Aids Day, Gauteng Metrorail arranged in October for a sports day. At first it was to be held at the Pretoria Showgrounds but due to finances was shifted to Manalodi. So this morning I went to my email to print the directions only to find out that it was cancelled at 5:22 this morning. What happened if I didn't go and check, I would have driven 2 hours to get there? This made me very upset. When I finally arrived back at Metrorail I found out that it was cancelled due to political reasons. I think some PRASA noses were put out of joint as they had organised an event at Park Station at short notice. Because of the fiasco not many Metrorail employees turned up. Here is Refiloe all kitted up for some soccer action but nowhere to go.

Mrs Midas by Carol Ann Duffy

It was late September. I'd just poured a glass of wine, begun

to unwind, while the vegetables cooked. The kitchen

filled with the smell of itself, relaxed, its steamy breath

gently blanching the windows. So I opened one,

then with my fingers wiped the other's glass like a brow.

He was standing under the pear tree snapping a twig.

Now the garden was long and the visibility poor, the way

the dark of the ground seems to drink the light of the sky,

but that twig in his hand was gold. And then he plucked

a pear from a branch - we grew Fondante d'Automne -

and it sat in his palm like a light bulb. On.

I thought to myself, Is he putting fairy lights in the tree?

He came into the house. The doorknobs gleamed.

He drew the blinds. You know the mind; I thought of

the Field of the Cloth of Gold and of Miss Macready.

He sat in that chair like a king on a burnished throne.

The look on his face was strange, wild, vain. I said,

What in the name of God is going on? He started to laugh.

I served up the meal. For starters, corn on the cob.

Within seconds he was spitting out the teeth of the rich.

He toyed with his spoon, then mine, then with the knives, the forks.

He asked where was the wine. I poured with shaking hand,

a fragrent, bone-dry white from Italy, then watched

as he picked up the glass, goblet, golden chalice, drank.

It was then that I started to scream. He sank to his knees.

After we had both calmed down, I finished the wine

on my own, hearing him out. I made him sit

on the other side of the room and keep his hands to himself.

I locked the cat in the cellar. I moved the phone.

The toilet I didn't mind. I couldn't believe my ears:

how he'd had a wish. Look, we all have wishes; granted.

But who has wishes granted? Him. Do you know about gold?

It feeds no one; aurum, soft, untarnishable; slakes

no thirst. He tried to light a cigarette; I gazed, entranced,

as the blue flame played on its luteous stem. At least,

I said, you'll be able to give up smoking for good.

Seperate beds. In fact, I put a chair against my door,

near petrified. He was below, turning the spare room

into the tomb of Tutankhamun. You see, we were passionate then,

in those halcyon days; unwrapping each other, rapidly,

like presents, fast food. But now I feared his honeyed embrace,

the kiss that would turn my lips to a work of art.

And who, when it comes to the crunch, can live

with a heart of gold? That night, I dreamt I bore

his child, its perfect ore limbs, its little tongue

like a precious latch, its amber eyes

holding their pupils like flies. My dream-milk

burned in my breasts. I woke to the streaming sun.

So he had to move out. We'd a caravan

in the wilds, in a glade of its own. I drove him up

under cover of dark. He sat in the back.

And then I came home, the women who married the fool

who wished for gold. At first I visited, odd times,

parking the car a good way off, then walking.

You knew you were getting close. Golden trout

on the grass. One day, a hare hung from a larch,

a beautiful lemon mistake. And then his footprints,

glistening next to the river's path. He was thin,

delirious; hearing, he said, the music of Pan

from the woods. Listen. That was the last straw.

What gets me now is not the idiocy or greed

but lack of thought for me. Pure selfishness. I sold

the contents of the house and came down here.

I think of him in certain lights, dawn, late afternoon,

and once a bowl of apples stopped me dead. I miss most,

even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch.

1,000 Post

Wow, I have finally reached my 1,000 post by posting one photograph every day since the 1st January 2007. It has been fun but tough at times. Thank you all who keep coming back to see what has been happening in the life of Jerome. Many people had taken today off and turned yesterday’s public holiday into a long weekend. Here is Steven (obvious he doesn't know how to pick a soccer team), Jimmy and Refiloe (in a tradition dress as yesterday was Heritage Day). You wouldn't believe me if I told you that they are discussing a clip found online of one of Michael Jackson's weird but spectacular dance movements.

No touching sides

Today I was rushed off my feet and at the same time anxious about a number of things. Well it is out of my hands and I must live one day at a time. At Metrorail I could not focus at all and my mind was back home. Here is Refiloe with Michelle from Metrorail’s Human Resources department.

Come up for Air

Today and up to the end of Monday there is so much to do I don’t know when I will resurface for a breather. I will take this opportunity by posting my daily photograph as my break from the busy schedule. So today I give you Refiloe.

First ICT Meeting

We started today with Metrorail’s ICT’s first departmental meeting of the year now that everyone is back from their summer break. Not everyone is in the photo but here is half of the department in one photo. Round the table from the left is Refiloe, Daleen, José, Kevin (behind the hands), Ayanda (standing), Motloli, Masilo,Ellen and Thembinkosi. Behind them against the back glass are Mokgosi and Theophylus.

Farm girl and Anna

Finally I managed to get a photograph of Anna smiling although only a part of her. She is a very bashful person here at Metrorail. I had to pretend to take a photo of Refiloe in her farm girl outfit and sneak the camera to the right to include Anna.

Metrorail’s Help Desk

Refiloe runs the Metrorail Help Desk. Listening to some of the requests from the users are comical. My main developing computer is standing. Kaspersky has not found anything.