Work: breweries (J2)

So I suppose one of the things we should put in here is information about the kind of jobs we're doing.

Well, at the moment we're doing a lot of Environmental Impact Assessment for various developments around BW. Today, for example, they just sent in a rough draft of a scoping study for a local brewery. As our methodology goes: ".... aim to provide practical recommendations to the proponent in order to minimise waste production (including managing by-products) and all potential impacts caused by the proposed activity."

interesting, no?

So now, what I'll do is review the compilation that he sent me, add or edit what's needed, send it back, and then he'll submit it to the client for review, and then on to the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA).

Probably the most exciting gig we're up for at the moment (hope to hear back soon as to whether we got it or not), is the landscape design for a new Lion Park outside of town. Fingers crossed.

more later...

worldcup sadness (by J1)

Hello,

A very sad day today, my country thrown out of this worldcup with an awful game against Portugal last night. Not really interested in watching soccer tonight, so a good time to leave something here.

First of all time to look forward of course. In 4 years the worldcup will be on our doorstep, in South Africa. Lets just hope that USA and Oranje both qualify, which means we could have loads of fun. I can already picture having a whole bunch of friends over, barbecuing and following the soccer, our garden all orange and stuff. Keep this in mind for your holiday plans in 4 years from now.

As for our moving plans, we have received the forms from the Botswana vet office for bringing our dogs, it all seems very simple compared to bringing dogs to the UK or Ireland. Just wish this one shipping company in Ireland would get back to us (this would be much easier then UK company).

Also: I got my first reply back on a job application. Unfortunately no vacancies at the moment, but this does not really bother me too much. At least they are getting there, and people actually read them and take the time to reply. This good be a very good sign.

I am really feeling ready for this whole thing, am losing my motivation to do much work for my current job, am annoyed about many things, but can not be bothered changing them anymore, because 'it will last my time'. And then I feel bad having such an attitude. Maybe it is just the setback from the worldcup.

J1

First Real Entry. (by J1 & J2)

Hello friends and family.

We're not really sure how to start this, so we're just going to dive right in.

Here we are, sitting at our computer on a rainy Saturday in summer, in Ireland. 6 and a half months away from D-day. Or rather, our "intended D-day". We thought this would be as good a time to start, as any. Since J2 types faster, she's in charge of typing. But since this is our first entry, we're doing sort of a dual-post -thing.

Last week when we were in Romania, a strange thing happened. Dan (J2's friend from the South Africa days, whose wedding we had traveled there to witness) made some outrageous claim about never having heard of our plans for Botswana. Ever! Now, we all know this was just bogus, and must have been the stress of the wedding which had given him temporary amnesia. Because surely we told DAN of all people. But it made us realize, that yes, sometimes we are bad at updating/explaining/translating/informing the people we care about. Actually that would be pretty typical for us. We have 10000 friends and family, and we're not really that good at emailing them ALL. Much less remembering who knows what, to what extent, and at what time they were last updated! So, what better way to avoid situations like this, than have somewhere where we can write things down, and then these alledgedly uninformed people can take it upon themselves to check in every once in awhile, and everyone wins!

The way we're hoping to do this, is that both of us will write stuff about our impending move, and how we're going about it, and what we're doing. Obviously since there's an issue with language, we've included links on the right-hand-side of this blog, for translations. Nederlanders can click one, and Anglophiles can click the other, whenever there's an entry you find yourself unable to understand.

So how do things stand so far? Let's start with the updates.

We had a big milestone last month, when J2 received her work permit from the Botswanan authorities. Residents permits are still being processed, but will be ready for us when we get there.

The way the work permits operate, is they keep giving you 3-to-6-month permits over and over and over again, which you renew over and over and over again. Eventually you will get a permanent permit, or in our case, permanent residency. Eventually. It isn't something to worry about.

What else? Well, here are some things we've done so far. Our "To-Do" list.... preparing for evacuation:

1. Contact with Botswanan State Vet Office for import papers for Reggie, Reilly, and Billy. (Obviously we're not leaving them behind!) Done.
2. Contact with various companies who organize shipping of our stuff. (and puppies). Getting quotes, talking about time periods, international ports, door-to-door vs. Ireland to Durban (South Africa), etc. Work in Progress.
3. Job applications for J1. We try to do a few of these each weekend. Cover letters and resumes.... good times. Work in Progress.
4. Getting our house ready for sale. It was painted this week. Renovations which we've chosen as being worthy of doing before sale, such as the bathroom, are all winding down. Nearly there. Soon the real estate agents will be coming through, talking about good prices we should be asking. Work in Progress.
5. Selling cars--- later.
6. Booking tickets--- later.
7. Quitting jobs--- later.
8. Trying to see as much of Europe before we leave. . . Work in Progress.

Well, it's nearly 1 am now and we can't really decide what else to write at present, so we'll leave it now and post again later. Thinking of writing a little more about the business next time. Lots of people seem to have lots of questions about just exactly what it is we'll be doing.

After all this whole blog thing is just one big work-in-progress, so there's plenty of time to explain all.

There's some handy links on the right side, about Botswana, and about Gaborone, so maybe everyone can learn something? We've even put our own photo site there, just for fun. We want to save our life in pictures for posterity, of course. After all, our time in Ireland won't ever happen again, so why not at least keep a photographic record that we can always have at our fingertips with one click!?

Right, so here we go. Enjoy, and we'll try not to bore you with the lame details.... no wait, maybe we will.... it always seems to be the lame details that we get accused of not sharing with people! :-)

J&J