Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Day 7. Mondy 29th September


It is now week 2.  The plan for this week is to finish a classroom each day. We have five classrooms left to do and with the team now working like an assembly line we should be able to achieve our target. Chilly is now looking a little more relaxed as the work progresses, and his constant checking of the budget and our progress tend to allow him to feel confident we can pull this task off in budget and on time. Both key outcomes for a project management guru like Chilly.

The day progressed much like any other day in paradise !!  We have decided this week we will start on site by 8am which means breakfast at 7am and in the bus and on the road by 7.30am. Yes we achieved this and were all on site at 8am and unpacking our tools and getting into the swing of things. The principal of the school has been kind enough to let us have all the remaining five classrooms to do our progressive work.

What was neat this week is that the kids are back at school so we had quite a few spectators. A bit of a laugh also to start the day as someone (who will remain nameless to protect the reputation of Goulbourn) apparently left a pain of glass out of one of the louvres.  3 pigeons exploited this omission and were found in classroom one when the kids entered to enjoy their new classroom.  Chilly and Paul (Roger) were on hand to chase the pigeons out.  But one proved a little stubborn and Paul had to climb up into the rafters and catch it by hand. The thirty odd kids in the classroom thought it was great fun and were able to pat the last pigeon before Paul released it to fly away.

From a work perspective, Bill and Paul (Roger) worked all day on classroom 2, putting in the new louvre windows and then adding the security screen mesh. Andrew (aka Andy, aka Mitch) and Grant, known collectively as the Goulbourn boys continue on doors and wood related things. Paul (Robey) and Geoff continue to finish off the upper security mesh (above the windows in the six classrooms).  That is why every picture of Paul tends to show his legs while he is up a ladder. By the way, Paul’s arm is healing well under the care of medic Geoff. The rest of the crew were deployed across prepping duties, with Gavin proving to be an expert ‘grinder’ of old paint and Vicki proving to be a good ‘stripper’ of paper , while Tony, Juanita, Sandra and Sue showed ongoing skills in the painting department.  Terry was around doing QC work, and also the no-more-gaps applications in between prepping and painting. Pam got the runner job, as we seem to constantly need something from somewhere in the way of materials, and Chilly got into the work as well helping to strip one of the classrooms.

The day went well, only interrupted by yet another huge lunch. The target was achieved with classroom 2 being completed and handed back to the school by 5pm. Significant progress was also made on the remaining four classrooms indicating we will make it by Friday.

For our Monday evening we visited the Tonga catering school ‘Pot Luck Restaurant’ where we enjoyed a three course meal cooked and served by trainees in the hospitality business.  We also enjoyed some local entertainment and cultural dances.

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