It’s another relaxing day. No hangover this morning amazingly as I just fell into bed into a brandy induced sleep. But for a little headache, I managed to get up at 6 and proceeded to watch my 90210 DVD, nearly through season 1. Two more to go. I won’t be going anywhere this morning except to take smother to the haidressers. Little sister is taking out smother’s braids so I guess she is having her hair done for the christmas.

This evening I have a date with my colleagues, a french restaurant in Cantoments, not sure what it’s called but will let you know when I get there with a full review of the food. The dinner is for one of the ladies in my office who has completed her mission to Ghana and is going back to Senegal. It will be sad to see her go, she is one of my good friends in the office, and she has the same dry sense of humour I have and a lot of sarcastic wit. There is no replacement for her however and the boy child boss has tried everything he can to extend her stay. He even offered her a local contract to stay on, but she has stood her ground and said she is going back. I don’t blame her, a local contract would mean going back to me 3 years ago, but without any family to unburden herself on, no car and paying for her ticket to go home (ticket prices to Senegal is almost expensive as to UK, madness). This country is also very anglophone and mainly christian whereas she is francophone and a muslim, adjusting to life here and not being here on expatriation (whereby the company will pay for her visits home) is not interesting. The management has tried to guilt trip her into staying by saying we don’t have adequate cover, but really, management knew that this day would come like 18 months ago and as my Chilean boss says: why should one be penalized by another persons poor planning. It will be sad to see her go from a purely selfish point of view, but I’m happy for her. I get the feeling she will not be in the company too long in any event. The whole point of coming to the regional office is that there is a better opportunity when you go back to your home country. She will be going back to the same position she was in when she came. Our Senegal office isn’t the most profitable subsidiary either so really where is the benefit. She can now put on her CV that she managed the demand and supply activities for the whole Central and West Africa, and she can now boast that she speaks French and English. If our company doesn’t see the benefit, someone else will. Afterall, when we make that decision to get on the ladder we all want to climb up not go up one step then back down again. Once management reach the top, they tend to forget that there are people beneath them also requiring them to assist in bringing them up in the same way they were helped to the top. Then they are surprised when the person gets off and choses another ladder. It happened to a guy in the marketing department. He was brought to the region, he worked hard, management came and management went, he was still in the same position. He is now working as a country manager for a competitor brand. Another guy was looked over for promotion even though he was in the acting position for a few years. He is now head of marketing for another company. There is now a gap which needs to be filled anyway so why not promote the local staff if they have the competence rather than keep them down and bring someone in from outside. Management is thinking of the cost. But really, your bringing in a so called “expert” from outside, with that you pay their housing, inconvenience allowance, car, fuel, household staff. Why not train the people inside to fill those positions, bring in younger people (at a lesser cost) to fill in the roles at the bottom, and life goes on, the bottom line is protected and everyone is happy. We have a big issue in the African countries already, there is a high rate of graduate unemployment. These so called multinationals are supposed to be here to help the locals as well as profit from the resources. However, there is no difference from when they were taking our gold and jewels but at least before they didn’t disguise their greed in the guise of “helping the people”.

This morning I got a salute from the security guy who opened the gate. Well I did give him a christmas package yesterday so I’m in his good books. We got our yearly package from work, milk, Nescafe coffee mix, Cerevita, Cerelac, Nido and a couple of boxes of Maggi tablets. I don’t consume any of it apart from the maggi so I have made little packages for the security guys and the milk will go out to family members. In 2009 I had a minimal amount of extended family so they were given a crate of milk each, but with more of them coming back from babylon (the colloquial term for the western countries), I have had to split the packs. The main thing is they all get some, how much milk can one drink in any event…lol

This christmas is going to be especially loaded my aunt and uncle are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, I hear it is going to be a grand affair, they are holding it in a hotel, $2,000 per head she says. I’m not sure if I will be invited though, I hardly go to see her (she is smother no 2 and amazingly they have the same first name, so I try and see her a few times a year and on days when I can make an excuse to duck out early). Like my mum I love smother2 but she is a nightmare. You go there for a visit and you will not sit down for a second, she will just keep sending you to fetch things. Then the way she talks to her house help, put it this way, the person you meet at the beginning of the year will not be the same one you meet at the end. They get fed up and leave. If smother is bad, its because she learnt her lesson from smother2.

I met her niece yesterday who asked me if I am going, I said I didn’t get the invite. She said auntie told her the party on 25th is for “grown folk” but she will be doing something in the house on 31st. That’s smother2 for you. I will not hold my breath on an invite. I don’t mind, 25th is for turkey, wine and sleep, why break the tradition with a sit down dinner with “grown folk”