About Frankie Two Socks.

An Outline of Frankie Two Socks #frankie2socks

My name is Frank Gainsford, and I have become known  by friends and enemies alike, as Frankie Two Socks.  I do prefer to walk barefoot at all times, how ever society has some rather strange quirks, which show themselves to me in quite humorous ways.  

 

When I do wear shoes,  usually to conform to certain community standards,  such as when attending formal meetings, or  when I step out and go to an upmarket restaurant,  then I wear odds socks, hence the name Frankie Two Socks.

I recently started using the hashtag #FRANKIE2SOCKS and the email address frankie2socks@info4u.co.za, because I own the domain info4u.co.za, and the hashtag suits me and my current objectives quite well.      

 

My social media profiles all in one place  

 

I must also say, that summer time here in St. Lucia can bring its supersizes, like when one can cook an egg on the sidewalk.... so on those certain days I do make sure to wear shoes, else one would need to visit the emergency room at the local  clinic for slightly well toasted feet.

When ever I get the chance, I am at the beach fishing, or relaxing in the bush, and enjoying the great outdoors.  My time spent away from work, which is far too much to run a profitable business, has also allowed me to appreciate the fact that leisure time should be QUALITY TIME , and thus come to understand the tourism potential of the Mtubatuba Municipality and the surrounding rural areas as well as the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.  But before we go off on a tangent and discuss all my ideas ( See Project work 4u) and intended projects, just a little back ground about me.

I was born in Durban KZN South Africa, on 25 June 1960, and have an older sister, a younger sister, and an older brother.  We are four siblings, and our parents have passed over to the other side, both in their old age, my Dad passing on in his late 80's and my Mom in here late 70's

My first years were spent on the BLUFF in Durban, and my dad worked in the Sugar Industry, so as he got transferred from one mill to the next, we moved around the countryside.

Fortunately my Dad only worked at three different establishments .  the first was based in Mobeni in Durban, when we lived on the bluff. Next was Sezela, along the South Coast of KZN South Africa,  where I went through junior school,  Next was Pongola, against the Swaziland Border where KZN (old Natal Province of South Africa) and Mpumalanga (old Transvaal Province of South Africa) meet. While we lived in Pongola, I went to Boarding School in Vryheid , where I matriculated in 1978.   some years after that My dad went on pension, and moved to  in Durban, then to Mtubatuba where he took up a new pensioners job.

I did compulsory  military service from July 1979 to june 1981 and acquired a Propatria Medal for the time I spent with the two Special Services battalion. Much of this time within South West Africa, (now Namibia)  and Angola, was spent chasing them so called freedom fighters, or were they actually terrorists, around the bush, trying to prevent the African Resistance Movements from acquiring arms, ammunition and bombs.

During my two years in the military, I had managed to save some danger pay, and related bonuses for  being out of the country on military duty, so I studied industrial instrumentation and electrical engineering at Technician natal from July 1981 to December 1982.

In 1984 I started work for the SAR&H as a communication technician, and went through an apprenticeship, writing my trade test exam in July 1987 at Olifonts Fontain trade test center just outside Pretoria.

In 1988 I started my own business doing woodwork, from my dads garage where he was living in Mtubatuba. I also supplemented this with making and selling Chilli Paste and pickles.

Durring 1989 and 1990 I helped my Brother start an electrical contracting business in Phutaditchaba  QwaQwa, and once functional I returned to Mtubatuba and carried on with my chilli paste and pickle business.

In 1998 I helped an old school  friend of  mine, Henry Stoffberg, to start an IT company called POLWEB,.  Unfortunately we chose a bad business partner in the accounting side of things who kind of robbed us.  The left me penniless, and I returned to Mtubatuba, where My folks were now living.  During my stint in Pietersburg in the Old Transvaal, now called Polakwane, I became invloved with web site design, online marketing and dial-up modems. Today I am still kind of involved in web site stuff, but purely from a consulting perspective, as this field has become very competitive, and extremely demanding on the technical staff who design and maintain websites.

In 2000 myself and Henry parted ways on good terms, as we both called it a day, because we were not in a position to compete with telecom when it came to supplying our customers with adequate band width at reasonable prices.

Since I left school  I have done quite a few different things, some successfully others not so successfully.  All these business failures, and my past experience,have put me in a position to use this information and my interpretation of leisure time to develop tourism related businesses within the Mtubatuba Municipality, and surrounding rural area. this is a very basic list of the more important experience that I have gained.

•  mechanical  and rigging assistant at Pongola Sugar Mill
• two years compulsory military service,  
• studying at Technikon Natal,
• internship at Pongola Sugar mill
• doing an apprenticeship in the telecommunications idustry
• working as a communication technician for SAR&H, (South African Railways and Harbour)
• setting up a wood work shop, 
• setting up an electrical contractors business, 
• working in the IT industry 
• doing the odd home improvement or office renovations
• built a pub at sun downer hotel, Mtubatuba
• built extensions and renovated houses

to day I consult on FUFISM based online marketing, offering advice on best practice, when it comes to web design, and the use of technical in page Search engine Optimization, where extreme knowledge of coding is required, as well as the interaction of your online content at blogs and webs with the social media .   I blog about some of this at 4ubrand.blogspot.com

I am also busy with  a project, which  we have called PROJECT WORK 4U . This project is in place to facilitate tourism development within the Mtubatuba local municipality and the iSimangaliso Wetland park. Project work 4U will initiate many initiatives focusing on practical training and acquiring practical skills, so that people may either choose to work for others, or open their own businesses.

I will be blogging about these here in my personal blog, as I have become the brand FRANKIE2SOCKS, as well as in many other places, such as the blog put in place specifically for Project Work 4U

Just for them ladies who always ask me about my love life... I have never been married, though I have lived with a few different women over the years, with none of these relationships producing any children.    Much of my life has been kind of secretive, and I have not had a very large friendship circle.  I know many folks, and many folks know me pretty well, but real friends are few and far between.  This I discovered with a rather nasty shock, when I became one of the more than 20 000 folks who lost their economic opportunities when the 4x4 ban was put in place along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa.