I haven't had internet access so far this week, my 3G has been acting up, i swapped an MTN card for a VODACOM one instead, and now...nothing... it's pretty frustrating, I'm at the office now and decided to take advantage of the MTN card again before heading home to figure out the VODACOM settings...
I somehow lost my number plate from the back of my bike, so this morning was spent gettting prices and such for a new one, it took 5 minutes to make and attach, and cost only R110! not bad...
Today and yesterday have been pretty quiet for me, i'm getting together more info for our websites and myself and Lana have to meet asap so we can finish the Makarapa project presentation.. It's taken too long already and we both just want to move on from it! So, hopefully all that will be done b y Friday! The next few projects we have to complete also involve web work, we just need Stefan's software so we can continue with that! Slowly but surely the projects are getting wrapped up, Happiness!
I'm still busy with the Newsletter plan, it's coming along, but i really want it finished now!
On that note...

Lana came round on Wednesday, we decided to use it as a chance to complete as much as possible for Friday. We mapped out the basic idea for the Lepharo website, which is going to be great once completed, and got all the info we need for the Tangerine presentation, Gordons info was easy to find on the web, we just Googled him! I managed to sort out all the relevant statistics, it took a while, but wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. The plan for the newsletter is also finished, hopefully it goes well tomorrow! Today was spent just neatening and retyping most of Wednesdays work, tomorrow I'm going with Sharon to Springs to get some pictures, i'm up early and riding through meet at her house tomorrow morning...Can't wait to wake up and ride my bike!
On that note...

Fridays meeting went on easily enough, no bad news, which is always good!
We went through the weeks actions, and set up new ones, unfortunately, the meeting went on a little while and there was no time left to fetch my bike.... So i headed home a little less buoyant than i'd hoped...
Yesterday i worked from home, fetching the bike was the last thing on my mind as i tried to wrap myself around these statistical reports... I'm getting the hang of it but it's slow work... I wanted to go through to Springs to gather info for the Lepharo website we are busy with, but that was put on hold... Today, however, i went through to Hanolets place in Pretoria to meet with Lana so we could revise our Site Plan for Lepharo, she's coming around tomorrow so we can put together the final working plan... I finished up with the Statisics, a job i think i'm going to dislike quite a bit, and at two O'clock myself and Cherese left to go to the Honda Dealership in Eastrand.
On arriving, helmet in hand, i was met by Gino, the sales guy i have been dealing with, Quicker than i thought possible i had the keys in my hand and was ready to meet the open road...
Not knowing the areas too well just yet, i followed Sharon home, i was nervous at first-what with all the traffic, but soon left that behind me, smiling from ear to ear behind the helmets visor.
I arrived home safely, my pulse racing, and stood outside to admire my machine for a while. She is finally home!
Today has been fantastic, think i'm going to smile in my sleep!
I need to shoot out to the shop, I'm sure there's something i need....
On that note...

I was hoping to go through to Ratanda today with Cherese to get some feedback from the intakes that side, however, Cherese cancelled at the last minute saying she wasn't going through to Ratanda at all... our lines must have gotten crossed at some point! So i ended up working from home, not really my idea of fun, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I have managed to get quiet a bit done today, our meeting on Friday requires some feedback on projects we are handling and today was the perfect opportunity to get al that information together in a presentable form. There's still some rough edges and we are still waiting to hear from Gordon, but it's definitely all coming together! I spoke to Gino from Honda today and he confirmed the time that i can go fetch my bike!! 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon! Just in time for the weekend, lets hope it doesn't rain!
Tomorrow I'm meeting with Lana and we are going through to Lepharo, She needs to get some work done there so I'll just tag along and see what i can see, Tomorrow night we'll be meeting with Stefan so we can discuss the software that we'll be using! Excited to see how it's going to work out!!
So, plans have changed slightly, but flexibility is king in these situations, we will just have to see what tomorrow brings!
On that note...

Lepharo

Back into Springs today! It's been a decent day, we arrived just in time to see the guys at Lepharo offloading a small fork-lift, the fork-lift was brought in to remove the wooden stands the machinery had been delivered on. Among other things that went on today, the Spin-casters from yesterday have made progress on their molds. Though they haven't produced anything just yet, they have moved far forward in their understanding of the machinery used. Figuring out exactly what you are working with is half the job, i reckon... they cut out the mold shapes into the vulcanized rubber and cut channels for the molten metal to pour through, it's a pretty precise job and rather intricate as i eventually realized. By the end of the day i till hadn't seen a finished cast, but i'll hopefully be able to see the results on Thursday.
The bike has been payed for, now i'm just waiting for the registration and licensing to go through..then voila! Getting excited now, and increasingly nervous.. performance anxiety. The guy who sold us the bike recently came off of his bike, crushing the bones in both of his arms. Excellent sales strategy? i think not.
I've arranged to meet with Stefan Janse Van Rensburg, he's the guy that will be providing us with the new software and necessary training, this Thursday evening, all going well myself and Lana will be able to move ahead with the new websites for Lepharo and Neosho sooner than later!
We still haven't heard from Gordon, we have until Friday to get the information from him regarding his involvement in the Makarapa project...Hopefully we come right...
On that note...

Lepharo

Myself and Lana were supposed to go through to Hillbrow today and meet with Gordon Froud at his studio, unfortunately he is quite ill and had to postpone. It’s all good though, we can get some info from him over e-mail! The joys of technology.

Sharon picked me up this morning to go through to Springs, we were going to the Lepharo grouds. The place is a hive of activity! Everyone seems busy with something, the spincasters started their first practical today, it looked really interesting to me, but I didn’t have a clue what they were doing. They lost me at ‘vulcanized’. I got some cool pictures of them preparing everything, but the finished product I’ll see tomorrow as it needed a few hours to heat and then a few to cool..i wasn’t going to be there so late…Once we left Lepharo we headed to the Eastrand Honda dealership to see Gino about my bike! Papers were signed, i.d’s copied and licences checked. I saw the new 2010 model of the CBX250, the one I saw was in white, she was shining! Love at first sight? Close enough. All going well, I’ll be the legal, licensed owner of a stunning bike by latest Friday afternoon. Here’s to hoping… Springs again tomorrow, Here’s a pic of the guys starting out, tomorrow we might see what comes out of it…

On that note..

Friday 7 May 2010

Today was the day of our second meeting, it was held in Pretoria this week. Myself and Cherese met up with Karl, the guy responsible for sorting out all of our technical problems..He's a genius!
Lana arrived shortly after we did to get her email and other programs sorted out. At karls place we are called the 'kids' and Cherese Burger quickly became Cheese Burger. Thats an idea... We left our laptops there and headed through to Hanolet to start the meeting.

The meeting went well, quicker than expected and simple, we gave feedback on the tasks from the week, and everyone was either complete or had made definite progress! good news all round! our new tasks were discussed and a few arrangements made for the next week.
Hopefully either Saturday or Monday i get my bike! that way i can get myself around...by myself!

After the meeting myself and lana drove through to Tembisa to meet Gordon and get some pictures of him and his 'team' working on the Makarapas, We stayed a while and made arrangements to meet him on Monday in Hillbrow..Yes, a voluntary mission to Hillbrow...

I still have to send some things through to Hanolet and Sharon..
On that note...

Thursday 6 May 2010

Today i went through to Sharpeville, haven't been there in a while, it was good to see some of the old faces.. We were interviewing people for the second intake from the area.
Not all of the people expected actually turned up, but we managed to interview over thirty entrepreneurs, of which about seven probably wont qualify, but we still have to go over all the interviews and compare notes.

I received a call today from Gino, the guy I've been dealing with at Honda, he phoned to let me know the bikes have arrived early and mine is sitting waiting for me.. Yes!! The invoices and all that stuff should be sorted out by tomorrow morning and i can hopefully fetch Her tomorrow sometime!! Hope it works out that way...!

We have a meeting tomorrow with Hanolet in Pretoria, and afterward I'm going to see Gordon with Lana, he's at a workshop in Tembisa, should be very interesting!!
On that note...

Wednesday 5 May 2010

Yesterday i was back in springs, having worked at home on Monday it was good to get out the house. There wasn't much i could do there, the intakes were in a meeting, i was hoping to get some pictures of them working the new machinery, but they haven't been able to practice just yet...

It was decided that i should go and check the Honda bike shop out myself, as i hadn't received any news on the CBX, so myself and Lana drove through to the Eastrand branch, armed with a 6 year old map book... It was easy enough to find though, and after looking (almost drooling) over all the bikes there, I found the CBX! Very cool bike... I spoke with the Branch Manager and got a written quote on the bike with the extra options of a small screen or a box..a box? I was confused about that until i saw the 'delivery' style box strapped to the back of a bike.. I wont be delivering pizzas, but thanks for the offer. The quote went though to Sharon today, and the bikes are all being delivered to the shop on Friday.. So holding thumbs!

Today i'm working from home again, i was hoping to meet up with either Hanolet or Cherese but it's not happening... I need to get a whole lot of different statistical info from Hanolet... On the other hand, Lana is getting in touch with Gordon Froud today and hopefully we can see him this week and get some more information from him on the Makarapa story, i just hope we don't have to go back into Hillbrow...
On that note

Friday 30th April 2010

Today Sharon held a meeting at her house in Edenvale, it's the first meeting we're having with everyone at the same time, in a short while Neosho has grown from 2 to 6 people! Lana, Cherese, Jenny, Myself, Hanolet and Sharon. We basically just introduced everyone to everyone, and got straight down to what each persons job was and some background on Neosho and the current projects! Sharon, who operates mainly on the corporate side, is busy with a few projects-such as the White River Water project and Lepharo, There's also talk of starting an E-Commerce platform within the company. Hanolet, who works in the creative/individual side of Neosho, finds the intakes for the induction process into courses such as the Vuka Mentorship programme, which can be a long and tiring process!

They set work that needs to be done by next friday, so we all have a few projects to work on!!
I've got to get together the statistics that we work with, for example, the amount of women to men, or age differences in the intakes.. Should be interesting as i've never tried doing anything like this before!

Still waiting to hear from Honda about the bike situation..Really excited, but getting impatient here! Hopefully will have heard something by Monday!

On that note...