I have been fighting to keep my eyes open today, it is now 1pm and I am waiting for lunchtime. I’m not so hungry, but I need to stretch my feet and be out of this room. The workshop started at 9, a representative from 8 countries are presenting last years achievements and we are on the 4th country. Every slide seems to take 30 minutes to get through as my boss tries to impress everyone on his system and process knowledge. He just comes across as a smug bastard if you ask me, but who am I to talk. We have been told to switch off our phones and turn off our laptops. Only fair as it takes a lot to stand up and present. However with every slide the boss interrupts so that we can enjoy the sound of his voice as much as he does, the more I need a distraction to stop me from falling asleep.

So rewind slightly to Saturday evening, where I left you to go to the movies. The little girl who had been serving me gave me the bill of 1.50. This little girl must me know more than 8 years old, not sure I would want my little one serving alcohol at that age but she did a very good job so I dashed her the 50p change. You would have thought it was a 100ghs tip, the way her mother kept saying thank you and god bless you, can you imagine if it had been 1ghs, I would have had a plaque on the wall. There really was no thanks needed, I get a decent drink or two for less than 2ghs and I am treated like royalty when I arrive (the owner lady really is lovely), really I should be thanking her.

So went home and got changed to go to the movies. Went to see Underworld. I’m not usually the action type, pow pow movie goer, I like the kind of movies that when you come out your ribs have hurt from laughing so much, or the ones u feel or gushy inside, or both, but I actually enjoyed it. Storyline was good, it didn’t go on for too long, action scenes were very kick-ass but it didn’t get to the point where you are (well me anyway) thinking, how much more kicking ass can you do, finish already.

We watched the last movie, the mall was unbelievably quiet considering it was a Saturday night. I suppose people were in morning over the 2-0 loss to Mali which meant Ghana didn’t even take the bronze. It was way past my bedtime but we decided to stop off at Jerrys for a quick one. Jerrys as usual was packed although not as packed as it normally is. The Azonto boys and girls made quiet, quite a sober night for some, as I said, in mourning. We decided to have a few shots of Atemuda (judgement day). The ginger was quite a lot and I could feel myself getting rather tipsy and what meant to be a quick drink turned into a drunken night singing 80s and 90s break up songs on the way home (I wasn’t the one driving though).

The following morning I was woken up by smother, she had a nark on as she was going to pay her condolences to a family member, she had been up since 6.30 but the car didn’t actually come and get her until just before 9. I don’t know why she doesn’t get the ETA when she is going somewhere but instead chooses to complain about the time. She said she had been woken up at 3 by the sound of loud music. Was it me, I sheepishly said no, didn’t know the singing was that loud, the neighbours must be hating on me. The alcohol was still in the system and I’m sure I was blowing fumes. I tried to talk as little as possible for as long as I could while she kept throwing the complaints. All I wanted really was to go back and sleep it off.

When she finally did leave, I took the trash out and tried watching episode 1 of my new collection of gossip girl. It took a number of attempts as I kept dozing off. I finally gave up at around 2 when I finally went into a deep slumber. The body can’t take the wild nights it used to.

I went out to my spot to get me some lucozade when I finally got up, to restore the missing blood cells, the lady thanked me once again, bless.

At 8 we sat down to watch the match, well I was watching it in intervals, smother was screaming every so often as if she had money riding on Cote d’Ivoire. Football is a funny game, just when you think you can predict the way it will go, a surprise comes up. They had not conceded one goal throughout the tournament yet a missed penalty from Drogba and the whole dynamics of the game changed and the team never managed to recover. Zambia finally walked off with the title, unbelievable. I went back to bed when smother asked if I would keep her company. But the body just wanted to shut down until the morning. It didn’t take long before I was in the land of nod.

The alarm went off at it’s usual time, I wondered if an extra hour in bed would make the difference, for a second I thought about it but the truth remained. Whether it be now or an hour from now, I still had to get up and go to the office.

So here I am. We have just finished lunch and I am stuffed. I do love Fiesta’s buffets, I think of all the hotel’s we have had a workshop in, their’s is the best although I have not tried Movenpick.

I am hoping that we leave as close to 5 as possible, but it’s looking more like 7. So I sit and listen to the boss relishing his position of leader and wonder when he is going to do more about the actual leading part. I also laugh in my head as my French colleagues look intensely at him wondering what he’s saying. He does talk fast, even for me.

Only 4 more days of this and I can go back to my corner of the office.