A Night

We were burning the midnight oil last night preparing for the OxFam Australia financial audit for today. By we, I mean they, because I don’t have anything to do with the finances. Unfortunately, midnight comes at around 6.15pm because the groundskeeper kicked us all out – he wanted to go home and had no audit in the morning.

To square away all the paperwork, we needed to get an invoice from the producer of the album. We got about 100m from the building and the car stopped. Oops, no gas. Everton and I decided to walk to the nearest gas station. It seemed awful dark, as in no street lights. When we arrived at the station, no power. So, Everton called a friend. They said they’d come bring us gas.

About an hour and a half later, they arrived. Great! They went to pour the gas into the tank and it was black. Oops! They filled up an old oil canister with the clean petrol. Power was still out in the area, so the crew had to go drive around to find another pumping station. The first one they went to – on the second trip – said they wouldn’t fill a plastic gas canister. They learned that only after about 20 minutes in the queue.

To make a long story short, it took an additional one and a half hours to get clean gas. With 6L of gas – maybe 50km of driving – we head to get the receipt. It’s about 8.30pm-ish now. When we arrive, well … no power, so he can’t print the invoice. The producer didn’t even have enough petrol to get home.

We left there around 9.45pm-ish. No visit is ever short in Zim, hence the half hour visit. From there, we had to drive Winnet home, which was about 20 to 30 minutes from the producer’s studio. Everton lives on the other side of town. Another 30 or so minutes home. When we arrive 10.30pm-ish – no power.

OK, we’ll just get up early in the morning. Next day – 6am, I’m up. We leave to get the invoice and arrive at the office by 7am. Well, we need gas. The 24hr station near Everton’s is closed – of course. We had to drive into town through a smog of exhaust to find a pumping station with gas and no queue. That took us through the crazy part of town – people and commuter mini buses everywhere. Did I mention I was driving?

After getting gas, we headed to the studio, got the invoice and made it to the office by 8am. Perfect.

Except, OxFam Australia cancelled the meeting and rescheduled for Tuesday.