South Africa question

[Zanza]

Sounds like a good trip. I've been at Pilanesburg. Good safari for how close it is to Pretoria.

[Zanza]

I was talking about black South Africans Jacob.

White South Africans can be screaming hott.

Ah... where are the prettiest Black women from, in your opinion?

Ethiopia

[Admiral Yi]

Ethiopian chicks have very pretty faces but are usually mushy in the back in my experience.

[Savonarola]

They consider English soldiers and South Africans of British descent to be rednecks

I was wondering if that was the reason so many of the technicians and engineers were white ("The people wearing cover-alls" in my story.)  In the United States a large portion of engineers are immigrants or second generation Americans.  Engineering is viewed as a way to make it to America by many immigrants and a way to achieve "The American Dream."  Maybe that's viewed as the ticket for rednecks to enter the middle class in South Africa.

[Savonarola]

Thanks for the update Sav.  Haven't seen you in a while 

Europeans are usually surprised that our credit cards have no PIN as well, so I am used to that. 

My solution to the long flight problem is to bring a laptop loaded with anime. 

I never get how people can charm strangers on a flight.  I think my body language makes it quite clear that I am not interested in any conversation beyond 'I want chicken, thank you.'

Heh, well there's a reason why your an accountant, not a salesman, Mono.   

[Savonarola]

Sounds like a good trip. I've been at Pilanesburg. Good safari for how close it is to Pretoria.

So long as Transnet does actually get the contract it was a good trip.

For a day trip I don't think you can beat Pilanesburg.  The locals recommended Kruger or Hwange in Zimbabwe; but we didn't have the time for either of those.

[Savonarola]

Bill started going into old war stories with Transnet when we were down there.  Their lawyer was genuinely disturbed when Bill told them that some of our sub-contractors employees were thrown in jail for cutting down trees.  You could tell they were wondering what they had gotten themselves into.

Later, though, some of their engineers had worked in other parts of Africa and had even more amazing stories.  My favorite was from one guy who worked in Uganda.  Usually the weight of trains is carefully calculated to make sure they can travel up grade, make curves without derailing and brake in sufficient time from receiving a stop signal.  Even in Colombia they had detailed track maps, braking curves and carriage weight long before we started our project.  Uganda, on the other hand, dispenses with all of that.  There they started up the locomotive and try to move the train.  If it doesn't go forward they decouple the last four cars and try again.  If that doesn't work they repeat the process until they could go forward.

[HVC]

Heh, well there's a reason why your an accountant, not a salesman, Mono.   

Hey! Accountants can be personable... most aren't, but still

[Monoriu]

I am not even an accountant 

[Savonarola]

I am not even an accountant 

Could you change your career?  The joke works better accountant than bureaucrat.



Sorry, Mono