Saturday 25 February 2017

Salford and South Africa

I'm in South Africa for the next few weeks on business. Land of the chilli sauces.
2017-02-20 12.52.13
I lined them up with no heat sauce on the left and up to 15 on the right.  I'm an 8 type of woman. The Revenge on the right hand side of the photo is for real surveyors.

This week has been spent in Johannesburg seeing clients, staff and working on an MSc assignment.  I was promised sun and heat but Tropical Storm Dineo put pay to that.
2017-02-23 15.46.45
Martin and I visited clients in Pretoria on Thursday and broke down on our return journey. In the rain. Fortunately we were able to make a controlled halt and sat in Steers quaffing coffee whilst awaiting our rescue team of Bandile and Sipho. Anyway, it was good to meet up with them although poor Sipho is still in much pain from a snake bite from 10 days ago.
2017-02-23 20.46.53
We spent Friday working with a data storage provider (it's a lot more interesting than it sounds). Martin ran out of lemon for our cokes so improvised.  It's actually really nice!
2017-02-24 10.25.38
The car is still not fixed so we'll be on the road next week in the team's bakkie. Fortunately it didn't get wedged in this spot (note the clearance above the roof bars - or not) and we've cleaned off the Swazi mud ready for the off on Monday.
2017-02-24 18.41.59
The constant theme of the week (apart from grumbling it's cold and wearing my fleece far more than I ever thought I would) has been my latest MSc assignment. Both Bandile and Martin have assisted with some ArcGIS advice and, ta da, a land use map of Salford is created. It's taken hours and hours of work. I've spent over 20 hours per week on this for the last month. Just about to submit.
Salford Land Use Map
Perhaps I should celebrate by upping a notch on the chilli strength...