Relative costs

Today I was going to go up to the Game Reserve with Di. I met her for lunch in Richards Bay, then we were going to go on to the Reserve. We eventually decided to window shop after lunch in a really quiet restaurant in Woolworths. We had tried a seat at the nearby Mugg and Bean, but there the month end crowds passing by, were way too noisy! Since I usually use half a tank of fuel in my Landy V8, so by not going up, I effectively saved R 500 in fuel. Whilst we were window shopping, we stopped in at a sgop that sells imported rugs. The shop has had a closing down sale ever since it was opened, so I wonder? In any event, I had bought a wool Persian carpet YEARS ago. That cost me then, about R 900.

Anyway, today I bought 2 silk weave rugs (look stunning in my lounge) and they cost R 199 and some minor change each! I had turfed the rug that came with my home, out, and wanted to replace it anyway. The rugs I was looking at were R 1 300 and some change, so I have bought silk Persians for my lounge, for way less than half of that! The owner of the shop assured that - as per the certificate on each rug - they are hand made!

I rather like some luxuries - Persian rugs (silk), cut crystal glassware, and cutlery from a boxed set! Is this wrong? Maybe, but I hardly care! Goes with owning 2 Landrovers, 1 Renault and 1 Porsche - all of these are imports, not locally built!

My Diesel Freelander has a current "problem" in that the (month old) new battery has decided to give up the ghost. It will not kick the motor over, and in fact was on charge for a full day, and is as flat as it ever was! It will be replaced on monday, and hopefully the new "new" one will work properly! I had bought a jump start box of tricks, but even this will not do the trick. Hopefully a new battery will sort out the niggle!

I have been losing sleep over the District and Branch audits! I was roped in to finalise the audits for Esikhawini and Port Durnford, and managed today to get the signature required from the Branch President out at Port Durnford! Now I need the audit papers reviewed by the Audit Comittee, probably on Wednesday! Then they can be Emailed to the Area Office and that concludes our responsibility for at least another 6 months! The audit was easy - time consuming but easy - but tying down the Branch Presidents for their signature is a headache! I even wondered if it will not be better to do an interim audit come November, then in January, all you need do is to audit 2 months, not a whole year! That will take only a fraction of time and can easily be done by February at the latest! I also question if we are not overauditing? When we were a single ward, we did one selection a month. Now we are a District, we are looking at EVERY transaction and ending up doing 6 times as much work - a load for EACH of 5 branches and 1 for the District! When I was working as an auditor, we used to do substantive tests on the year to the interim, then review the controls were working for the final month or so! If that works in the REAL world beyond the Church, why not in the Church? All I can do is to suggest this, and see if it works! I am not a qualified Chartered Accountant (CASA - auditor) for nothing! Then we need never be late - ever again - or pressured into cutting things really fine!