Simba - 24. Simba Ch 24

“What kind of nick knacks do you suggest?” Will ask me. “I would like to include some artwork from our local indigenous groups, if that is possible to arrange, Jack?” I responded, “You bet, and I am very pleased that you have suggested that, I will get onto our group to organise it,” Jack replied happily.

Aaron, can you lookup what some of the promotional companies in the state have available, and make some recommendations before our next meeting?” I asked my cousin, who nodded that he understood. “Maybe include some gift sets that we could sell, to help cover the costs of the giveaways,” Chris suggested, “Yes, go with that plan too, we don’t want to be broke before the first year of operation,” I added.

With our first public even being in just two weeks time, at the Whyalla Show, when not attending University or college, we were all at the Project base helping jack with preparations.

We had been confirmed to have a large area reserved for us at the bottom right end of the athletics oval, at the very end of the trades stalls, which meant that we could take our portable Project lab and set it up as our trade display.

Uncle Nat had arranged for the delivery of promotional material for Kilimanjaro Distributions of Ten Fold Engineering products, which we could include in our inside display. We decided to take our swags with us and camp in the upper level of the building, which will be off limits to the public.

Until some of us get truck licences, we have arranged for a trucking company based in Port Augusta, to travel down to Flagstaff Hill to collect the furniture container plus the Ten Fold Building on Thursday, and transport it back to Port Augusta, then on Friday morning, transport it down to Whyalla.

With most of us having lectures on Friday morning, Jack had arranged flights for the four of us, from Adelaide to Whyalla on Friday afternoon, arriving shortly before 5 pm. With Jack being the only one that is currently based at the office, he would follow the truck in the project vehicle on Thursday.

Camping with family overnight, and following the truck down to Whyalla the next morning, to supervise the unloading of the two containers, with the furniture container at the back, well clear of the area needed for the Ten Fold building to open up, before coming to the airport to collect us when we arrive.

On the Sunday afternoon, we would have to close our display at 2pm, to have time to pack away the furniture, and for jack to drive us to the airport, for our flight back to Adelaide. Once he returns to town the truck should have arrived to come and collect the two containers, to transport them to our northern base at Marion, where they will be stored until the next country show, to be held in Port Lincoln the following weekend.

Jack had arranged for the trucking company to do regular transport jobs for us over the next four months, to transport our display containers to the country shows, as well as the Nature Festival, and we decided not to use the containers for the Royal Show because of the limited space available.

By the time that we had all arrived in Whyalla, there was a bit of a crowd gathered around our two containers, and from the back of the vehicle, Jack pulled out some star pickets and a short handled heavy hammer. “There is more in the back, and I have got some safety barrier netting too,” Jack announced, as he began to pace the distance from the corner of the display container, stopping and panging in the first picket.

Soon, all of us were pacing out or banging in pickets, while I was tying off the wire at one of the two pickets that are only two metres apart. Once done, I began to feed the wire through the holes of each picket, all the way around the container, before tying it off at the other end, and cutting off the remainder, while Jack started securing the safety barrier netting to the wire.

With a staff member at each corner of the barrier, I called out “All Clear,” and I received four replies of “All Clear, before I pressed the button on the remote, and there were sounds of amazement from those watching, as the container began to unfold into a 36-metre diameter display unit.

The barrier fence was just one metre beyond the building, a perfect distance, and we walked around to the back of the building and I unlocked the second container, which at the project base, we had unloaded, and loaded just what we needed for the weekend, with all the rest being stored in the hall.

With a front and back entry to the display building, I secured all of the safety bolts into place, before allowing anyone go inside, and from the smaller container, we collected all of the display tables, gazebos and feather flags first.

The feather flags are to be installed, around the front of the building, while two gazebos will go in each of the bedroom spaces, with a lounge suite and two chairs in each, with a table and a large flat screen television at each end, so there are four separate screening rooms, showing video footage of our scuba diving trips.

A plastic Chain with a large sign hanging on it, was placed across the foot of the stairs to the upper level, with the sign saying “Restricted area, No Entry,” on it. Across the space, which is usually a dining and lounge area, we will have the large posters of photos taken on the islands during our surveys, showing us at work taking measurements and recording information about the animals that we are surveying.

On the kitchen bench, in the middle of the room, with be the display area for Kilimanjaro Distributers, with some posters of the different designs of buildings that can be built by Ten Fold Engineering. Once we had all of the display set up, we brought in our swags, and took them upstairs, along with a couple of tables and some fold up chairs, to use for work over the weekend, as we still have to finalise our report on our latest survey on Grantham Island.

With everything ready to go for the start of the show in the morning, we locked up and headed into town to get some dinner. While we were eating, I received a text notification, and looking at it, I saw a message from Mum and Dad, and I frown.

“Hello Son, we are both well and enjoying life here in Canada. A work colleague of Mum’s spotted something online, that we thought you had better have a look at if you don’t already know. Here is a link to video clip, which has gone viral. Pardon the pun, LOL. Love, Mum and Dad.”

“What is it? You are frowning,” Aaron asked me, “Not sure yet, parents have just texted to say to check out this video clip,” I replied, as I clicked on the link and placed my phone in the middle of the table so we could all see. Much to our surprise, it was a video clip of the Ten Fold Building unfolding this afternoon here at Whyalla, and we watched the whole four minutes of the video clip, which even zoomed in on our project logo.

Chris checked his watch to see what the time was, and retrieving his I-Pad from his bag, he clicked on the News App, and pressed play. “…Good evening, coming up on tonight’s news, we have a video clip that was taken in Whyalla this afternoon which has gone viral…” we heard the news reporter announce and I groaned.

“Looks like we have got some free advertising boss,” Jack commented smiling, “Yes, I guess we do, ok I suggest that you direct all media enquiries to me, and I had better shut off my phone before I start getting calls,” I commented, just as my phone rang, and everyone laughed, “Too late mate,” Chris said.

I checked the screen and it was Uncle Nat calling. “Good evening Uncle Nat, yes we have seen the video and also the news,” I said when I answered the call… “Yes, I was about to do that when you called, I received a text message from Mum and Dad, they alerted me to the video clip, and Chris has his pad with him so we have just sent he start of the news,” I said after Uncle Nat suggested shutting off my phone.

After the call, I shut off my phone, so as too not get any more calls, “We better monitor the emails over the weekend, as I have a feeling that we will have a very full inbox, by the end of the weekend,” I commented, as Chris did just that.

“We already have one, it is from Ten Fold in the UK, the subject line is Video Clip online,” Chris announced. “You better open that one and read it out, then flag it so we don’t loose that email,” I suggested. “Dear Jacob, congratulations on the launch of your distribution business in Australia. The board of directors has seen the viral video footage, and although I am guessing it was not intentional, you appear to have stirred up a lot of interest, not just there but here in the UK as well. Well Done.”

“Well that is a good comment, we will have to save that one, as our first excellent comment, Will commented. “Already done mate, now lets see what the weather is going to be like here for the weekend,” Chris said, as he changed to the Weather App.

“It says, we have a 60 percent chance of rain over both days, with most of it being just light showers or drizzle,” Chris announced, “Just as well that our display is all indoors then, we better get a few door mats to keep most of the water and sand out of the building,” Jack suggested.

“Can you and Will do that first thing tomorrow, there should be a hardware store around town somewhere that sells those big rubber ones with the hexagon shapes, get two for each doorway, and maybe some cleaning gear to sweep and mop the floors,” I asked.

Not long after we had settled into our swags, we heard the rain begin outside, and it continued for most of the night, with Will’s snoring keeping waking me a number of times. When I woke the next morning, I went outside for a bit of a walk, around the show grounds, which was fairly well soaked, with puddles of water everywhere.

When I returned to the complex, the others were just coming down the stairs, “What is it like outside?” Will asked, “Not raining, but plenty of muddy puddles around. Once you have had breakfast can you go to the hardware, and see if you can find if they have some long mats, that protect the floors, oh and I am sorry to say this, but Will you are to sleep downstairs tonight, as I had very sleep last night,” I replied.

“I am sorry about that boss, I should have thought of that myself, and I am happy to camp downstairs tonight,” Will responded sadly. “Thanks mate, it is appreciated, even if it does separate you from us, maybe we can come up with a solution later down the track,” I replied.

By 8 am, we were ready for the start of the country show, with the gates now officially opening to the public, and we were swamped with people coming into the building to see what we are about. Will was the first to catch a teenager try to sneak up the stairs.

After telling the girl to stay on the ground floor, Will grabbed his I-Pad and sat a quarter of the way up the stairs to keep anyone from coming upstairs, and we ended up taking it in turns to sit on the stairs, so all team members participated in informing the public about the Kuishi Project.

After a very long day, which included a few hours of drizzle rain, with many using our display base as a shelter from the rain, we were all very tired and looking forward to an evening of relaxation and sleep.

I had a group of media people that wanted to interview me in regards to the project and this amazing building, which was held upstairs away from the busy activities downstairs. After and early dinner, we retired for the night as we had a busy day ahead of us tomorrow, which includes packing up and rushing to the airport to catch a flight back to Adelaide.

By the end of the second day, we were quite tired after a weekend of promoting the project, and as soon as we had cleared the Adelaide terminal, I contacted Jack, to see how he was going with the loading of the two containers and heading back to Adelaide by road.

When I was preparing for bed that Sunday evening, I called Jack one last time to check on him, and he reported that both containers are now at the Marion vacant property, and that he was spending the night in the house next door.

He informed me that all went well with the transporting the containers, and that he would make the last part of the trip home in the morning.

With the next country show to be held in Port Lincoln, the following weekend, I was beginning to realise that maybe we had taken on too much to promote the project, and I decided to have a chat with Jack about it tomorrow afternoon, after I have finished my day at University.

Jack was working on his computer when I walked into the project, “Afternoon boss. How was your day at Uni?’ Jack said to me, “Long and tiring, how about you, how are you feeling after so much road travels?” I asked in response.

“I am fine, looking forward to getting back to my own bed tonight,” Jack replied. “Mate, I need to run an idea by you, after our full on week end, I am a bit concerned that we will burn out before we even get to the Royal Show and the Nature Festival.

So I wanted to ask what you thought about cutting every second show after we have completed the show at Port Lincoln,” I said. After a few moments of thought, Jack smiled, “I am in full agreement with you on that Jacob, I wondered that after I had finalised the list of shows.

I will get onto the phone in the morning to cancel some of them, and… I will start with Gawler and Wilmington,” Jack replied, after looking at his copy of the list of shows. “Does that give us a break before and after the Royal Show and the Nature Festival?” I asked.

“Yes it does, so we will have more time to plane the nature show, which will be our biggest event, especially if we get the third Ten Fold building before then,” Jack replied. As we had decided, Jack cancelled attending five shows, which means we would not be stretching ourselves, especially when most of the team is attending university and college.

With the Royal show having limited space available, we would be just using a gazebo and a number of tables to promote the project. It will be the Nature Festival, that will allow us to put most of our containers into operation, with two remote locations, and as suggested by Jack, have a third display in the main hall of the project.

During the week, Will and Chris informed me that they both had way too much study, to be able to spend the weekend in Port Lincoln, so I asked Jack to contact the Port Lincoln show people to let them know that we would not be attending.

This was good in a way, as it gave us over two weeks to prepare for the Royal Show, and the Nature Festival a fortnight later. When not at Uni, Aaron and I were at the project with Jack, working on making improvements to our display material, and Jack took us to the reserve behind the project in the evening, to see what animals that reside in the area.