Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Turned the Corner...
First, thanks to everyone for taking the time to check out the blog and for the comments...always nice to know someone is listening! I miss everyone!
So life seems to be settling in. I have not had anymore injuries nor lost any more bank cards. I did have a fight with the guy at the new gym I want to join though. For some reason, no matter what you do here you must use a personal ID number or for foreigners, a Passport. Okay--throwback to apartheid regime policies of certain races not allowed to be in certain places etc and ID books were the verification of that. I get that, but why does Virgin Active care about my passport? Does it go into some computer where they check if I'm an illegal and then deport me because I wanted to exercise? Oh well...I'm used to taking my passport everywhere. No, the argument happened over phone numbers. Apparently it is Virgin Active policy that you *must* have a work number and a different home number. Not sure what happens if you work from home as I do and don't have two numbers. Oh wait, yes I do know...you can't join. I'm not sure why I didn't just give a Canadian work number--that usually will suffice but I decided to question the reason they needed it and what would happen if you couldn't comply. Keep in mind that this is a new gym not even open yet trying to recruit new members. So the guy said I had to have it and had no solution so I left--mad of course. What the heck does it matter what my phone number is? They never actually call it so I could have made one up. The thing is, that here there are tons of rules like that for really stupid reasons, and no one ever questions the real reason for them. process improvement is not even a thought here. For a very entrepreneurial country, it is stunning how rules centric and unimaginiative and lacking initiative it is. There is one way to do it and that's the end. unreal.
On a brighter note, I did make it to Durban for meetings yesterday. Absolutely beautiful. Similar to Florida except for the lack of old people and the huge presence of township shacks.
Here's a picture of Durban. Everyone in SA should live on the coast. I asked and the reason Johannesburg became the main city is gold and diamond mining was near here. I can see there will be many many trips to Durban in the future!
So life seems to be settling in. I have not had anymore injuries nor lost any more bank cards. I did have a fight with the guy at the new gym I want to join though. For some reason, no matter what you do here you must use a personal ID number or for foreigners, a Passport. Okay--throwback to apartheid regime policies of certain races not allowed to be in certain places etc and ID books were the verification of that. I get that, but why does Virgin Active care about my passport? Does it go into some computer where they check if I'm an illegal and then deport me because I wanted to exercise? Oh well...I'm used to taking my passport everywhere. No, the argument happened over phone numbers. Apparently it is Virgin Active policy that you *must* have a work number and a different home number. Not sure what happens if you work from home as I do and don't have two numbers. Oh wait, yes I do know...you can't join. I'm not sure why I didn't just give a Canadian work number--that usually will suffice but I decided to question the reason they needed it and what would happen if you couldn't comply. Keep in mind that this is a new gym not even open yet trying to recruit new members. So the guy said I had to have it and had no solution so I left--mad of course. What the heck does it matter what my phone number is? They never actually call it so I could have made one up. The thing is, that here there are tons of rules like that for really stupid reasons, and no one ever questions the real reason for them. process improvement is not even a thought here. For a very entrepreneurial country, it is stunning how rules centric and unimaginiative and lacking initiative it is. There is one way to do it and that's the end. unreal.
On a brighter note, I did make it to Durban for meetings yesterday. Absolutely beautiful. Similar to Florida except for the lack of old people and the huge presence of township shacks.
Here's a picture of Durban. Everyone in SA should live on the coast. I asked and the reason Johannesburg became the main city is gold and diamond mining was near here. I can see there will be many many trips to Durban in the future!
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