Okay then, let me give you a little run down on week 2 at work.

Still no car, which is starting to get annoying. Apparently we are now waiting for the bank, which I fail to believe, but whatever…

I’m slowly getting settled at work and have started looking at stuff I’m comfortable with, i.e. the PMS (Property Management System) and POS (Point of Sale) systems of a hotel.

As I told you last time, the hotel has just changed PMS and there are a few things to work through. I get going on that and manage to save the hotel about $17,000 in taxes in about two days. Breakfast revenues of one restaurant had been mapped incorrectly and the hotel was going to pay it all to the government in taxes. Wolfmeister to the rescue.

Well, that made my boss happy as well as putting me in the good book with the F&B guys as it gave them $17K more sales in one go. We’ll see if it remains that way next week after Month End.

I also finally get my bank card. It turns out that for my bank I’m Wolfgang Benodl, which is a variation I haven’t come across before…

On Thursday we get visited by the Area Director of Finance who’s come to look at our Balance Sheet and bank reconciliations. I get to have lunch with him and he sort of tells me his life story and what a great boss I have and in general what a great region I’m now in. He tells me to take it easy a lot and wishes me the best of luck on a couple of occasions which somehow makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Well, he’s French, but this time I’m not sure if that explains anything….

On Friday a couple of important things happen. I get paid for my traveling and relocation expenses and it’s also Payday. So suddenly I have lots of money to spend! This is another story in itself though…

I also go and pick up my boxes from the airport which got shipped here a week ago.

I first borrow a car from a guy in Engineering who has a nice big van. However, there is something wrong with the clutch and the car’s engine always dies as soon as you step of the gas.

Apparently he has a way of braking and staying on the gas at the same time but I have not yet mastered that skill, so after the first 2 traffic lights when the engine dies and only very reluctantly comes back alive I decide to go back to hotel.

I then borrow another car which is a black (d’oh) coupe and not really suited for transporting luggage. It is also slightly dirty (massive understatement!!!!!!!!) and the air-condition does not work, but it does drive without problems.

So, apart from the fact I’m already drenched in sweat by the time I make it to the airport, I get there just fine.

Then it’s visiting the Cargo company and the Customs people a couple of times back and forth until everybody agrees I need to see at least another 5 people till somebody will first inspect my boxes and then actually allow me to take them away.

Here is some advice for you:

When moving to a Caribbean country and trying to pick up your stuff, bring lots of time, patience, humor (even though you do not want to try that humor on the Customs people; the same applies to any form of irony or sarcasm by the way), and if at all possible somebody who speaks the local language.

Coming back to the car, it is also advisable to bring a car into which you’ll be able to fit your boxes.

Now I sweat very quickly even in the best of conditions.

But just imagine me standing in direct sunlight (and we are talking 33’ Celsius in the shade, so no idea how hot that would be without shade) and trying to wrestle 30kg boxes into some sort of tiny trunk.

I would like to be able to say that I was sweating profusely, but that would just not do it any justice.

Water was cascading down my face to an extent that I could not see through those streams anymore.

It was ridiculous. Once I had somehow stuffed it all in, it was back into the oven that is a black car without air condition in this weather.

It must have been a glorious sight for the guys in the hotel lobby when we pulled up: Some completely wet guy close to madness trying to pry some boxes out of a car.

For some strange reason that I guess has something to do with a sense of duty I went back to the office which immediately had everyone in hysterics when they saw me. They probably thought I had fallen into the pool.

Anyway, I now have a DVD player which of course I can’t plug in anywhere and other bits and pieces, so I guess I’m glad.

And because writing all this makes me tired, I’ll tell you how I spent my weekend and my money some other time.

Take care

Wolfi