Nothing to report on the Palm house (sadly).

CrV and Fortuner are alternating turns in the shop for clear-coating and rust protection .... takes 2 days each ... both will be done by Thursday/Friday ... costs for the 2 is about $700-800 ... that will come out of the "car purchase contingency funds".  Should release the rental car on Friday ... and just be operating with the two new cars and two new drivers .... OURS !!! YEAH.

I am now getting involved in recruiting and interviewing here in Indonesia.  I did a lot of the same while in Angola.  This is a bit of a challenge as you can appreciate - first, I have to look past any language barriers to carefully understand skills, strengths/weaknesses, yadi yadi yadi.  Second, is trying to find a "baseline".  What is a "good candidate" in Indonesia may not be a "good candidate" in Angola ... may be better ... may not be.  Right now, I can only judge candidates against the few Indonesians I've met that I consider "strong".  Ah well, nobody ever said this job was easy or boring or straightforward.

Also, getting very involved in the preliminary stages of the the installation of a new SAP reporting-accounting-purchasing-warehousing system.  Its a BIG deal and costs gazillions of dollars.  I was closely associated with the SAP installation in Angola.  It nearly killed me as I was responsible for bringing up the accounting and payroll sections ... it set the pace for my working 80-100 weeks for ~1.5 yrs ... then I had to implement the financial reporting system ... which was another set of 80-100 weeks for another 1.5 years ... those 3 years were a near blur.

Good news on SAP - this thing won't grow to a full head of steam until 2008 & 2009 ... and I won't be directly responsible for the implementation.

Bad news on SAP - I will probably still be around to help implement it, and folks will look to be for "guidance" b'coz of my experience.

Current assessment on this assignment - barring severe social unrest and insecurity ... or Avian flu issues .. it is likely this assignment will go more than 3 years.

Overall, that doesn't bother me too much ... as (a) I am spending a ton of money buying cars (and soon furniture) ... and don't want to have to sell everything at a loss in a couple of years ..... and (b) working here (say) 4-5 years puts me in perfect position to work 1 or 2 more assignments and then retiring early ..... yahoo !!!! what a wonderful goal.

ciao ciao ....