The nights go so far, my eyes opened at 3.30, I had left the A-C on and my insides were starting to feel cold, my nose was blocked up and my head hurt. What felt like 5 minutes later but was in fact an hour, the alarm went off. I would wait for the 6 o’clock alarm I thought to myself, another day of powerpoint slides means that I would be dozing off already, but at least let me start dozing after lunch and not before the mid-morning break.

Yesterday, as I drove to work, I tried to find one station that wasn’t imposing love songs down my earhole, although I do love “lost without you” by Robin Thicke so listened to that before scrolling through the radio stations. I also stopped to listen to the valentines day debate, the guys were complaining that they were compelled to spend a shit load of money with little benefit at the end. One woman was complaining that her husband said he was working late (as usual) and couldn’t he make time on this one day to spend it with her. There were a few dedications. Another radio station had a “knowing me, knowing you” a bit like that Mr and Mrs show that used to come on in the 80s the aim was to see how well you know your partner. I didn’t really stay long to listen to that one. I did find an anti-vals station eventually, but it was all that f**! you nig*** and smack the bitch up, not really what I wanted to hear especially on the way to work. Normally at this time they have discussions about politics or current affairs but that morning it was filled with amour. So I turned the radio off, thankfully there wasn’t much traffic so got to work in about 35 minutes, slightly late for the workshop but when I looked at the blank faces of the participants I knew that I really hadn’t missed that much.

There are two gentleman in the group which I am concerned about. There english is not that good and they communicate only in French. However, the majority of the presentations and demonstrations are done in english, as the days go by I am wondering if they are just here for the nice hotel and per diem, because most of the time you ask them a question and it looks like they are away with the fairies. I guess we’ll see when they go back to their home countries next week.

I have to tell you about our lunch, it was provided by sunshine cafe in Osu. The food on offer was quite limited but I know that is due the fault of school prefect in her bid to cut cost. I know their menu is quite varied, good for lunchtime if you don’t want the usual heavy foods that are on offer. We had a tuna salad with a herb vinaigrette, garlic bread fried rice, a chicken in white sauce and fried rice for those who preferred local it was banku and tilapia. I went for the lighter option and have to say it was so good that I went for seconds even though I was stuffed. I have picked up a salad from them once in a while, they usually have a selection at shoprite which is about 6ghs for a very large portion. Highly recommended I would say, not overly expensive and very filling. I could have just had the garlic bread with salad alone had it not been for gluttony. Although if you do get the garlic bread, carry strong mints with you, I had to keep my distance when I was talking to anyone afterwards.

It was 6 and the workshop was still going on, it became apparent day 1 that this workshop is solely for the country people, although there are a few points that concern us all. The last task of the day though was not for us regional guys so one by one we snuck out home. My Nigerian colleague said he will ride with me, I told him that I was going to my poolside bar first and he said fine. He ordered a beer and I took my usual water and my jot while the old man chatted. My intention was to stay 30 minutes, we ended up leaving 2 hours later. Why, because my colleague was permanently on his BB. I asked why he was taking so long and he said that we were speaking our language and he didn’t get the conversation. Firstly, the old guy is a Ga and I am ashanti, our common language is english, secondly if he wasn’t chatting on his BB, he would have got to follow what we were talking about. He’s a good friend, but I will not take him to my hideout again. Even though I have my BB, when I’m in the midst of people, I put it away, I think its kinda anti-social and wouldn’t do that to anyone so it pains me when somebody does it to me.

I decided to stop off at my spot on the way home, my intention was to update my blog and grab a 2-1 before bedtime. I got to the spot and 3 cars had blocked my space, 3 cars that looked very familiar. I looked left at the table outside and there I saw my two cousins and their friend junior. Of all the bars on all the days. My older cousin K had been winding me up the whole day about vals day knowing how annoyed I would be and now he had the evening too. They boys have a vals day tradition, the day is for the ladies, but the evening is for them to get drunk. I asked K how his vals day was and he said it was cancelled this year. I know that this is a lie as his wife has me on every type of mobile communication and I would have heard about it by now. I’m sure a bouquet from jandel made its way to her.

I got quite a few vals day messages, I got a message from J, the guy I met over the christmas, I was quite surprised, although I do get the odd message on occasion. I said thanks, what can you say, the person took the time to think of you even though they are thousands of miles away. I’m not completely heartless.

After the one drink, my bed was calling, I started watching gossip girl but 5 minutes later gossip girl was watching me. Closed the laptop and dreamt the day away.