Post 8 Build it Journey

BLOG POST 8

After another warmly received stay and mouth-watering country style breakfast from our gracious hosts, the Clarks, we left Howick for Mooi River. Speeding along the N3 to our destination one of the decals/advertising stickers on the car door came adrift so I pulled over on the side of the road and dodging traffic like Keanu Reeves’ film character Neo in the movie ‘The Matrix’ dodged bullets I managed to retrieve it undamaged. However, one of the decals has blown off without us seeing it and we can only hope that someone with a metallic gate or wall or something like that will display it proudly for all to see. It was a super decal! I will have to speak to the good guys at TWBA to make something that will stick more readily to my car door. After narrowly surviving Operation Certain Death we headed for the Mooi River Build It store to drop off posters with the ever friendly and always smiling Avril. What an asset she is to her store.

Thereafter I turned onto the Estcourt road and we wound our way through some interesting (very stark and wide open which has its own particular beauty) scenery to the picturesque town of Estcourt - home to Escourt Pork sausages and bacon and located the Build It store in a busy part of town. I met with Rashid who was very friendly but quickly handed me over to his just as friendly son Muhamed who listened patiently and was a very good guy as we went through his listing. It was a real pleasure to also meet his lovely wife Faatima J

This meeting successfully concluded Greg then drove us on to the sizable town of Ladysmith. On the way it became noticeable that the drought had affected this part of KZN and the vegetation was very dry and we said a silent prayer for more rain. We arrived in Ladysmith and went to the large Build It store owned by John Fourie.

I was very sad to miss the John who gave such a great speech at the Build It conference in May this year (I was incredibly privileged to have been invited by Rob Lister (The King) and the unbelievably generous Build It group. I found John’s talk to be very inspirational as he told us about his journey about how he built his store into one of the biggest and most successful Build It stores in the country. Those are my words not his as although we could all see what a success story the Ladysmith Build It store is John was extremely humble. John’s talk made me feel that all things are possible if you work hard, work smart and put your mind to something. As I say, I found every word to be very inspiring.

I also happened to go to the same school as John so it would have also been great to chat about those wonderfully carefree and happy boarding school days of yesteryear. I will try and pop in some time when I am going past again. Thanks Paul for a great visit and also for introducing me to your cousin (who has a great Air Conditioning company called 4FS Air Conditioning).

Another pleasant and successful meeting concluded we headed for Dundee to stay with Greg Laing, an old friend of Greg’s who is a game ranger on a local game reserve. The magnificent large reserve, teeming with animal life, took our breath away and we enjoyed watching the sun sink over a nearby mountain with buck in the foreground as we entered the camping area after a very long but great day. Our kind and amusing host made a bonfire and we shared old war stories before collapsing exhausted into our beds.