It’s the first day back at work from my trip to Nigeria, it feels like I went on leave, although I was working, just being away from my office was relaxing in itself. It took me a while to get up this morning, so used to getting up an hour before the time to get up, having a shower, breakfast awaiting on the table and the short walk to the factory. Maybe I would have found it boring after a while but for those couple of days it was great not to be stuck in traffic listening to country and western music on Atlantis or the morning politics on every other radio station. There are a lot of radio stations nowadays some speak Akan some in English some are pro NPP (the currrent opposition) and some pro NDC (the ruling party), only a few give an objective view of the state of the nation, but most just are a mouthpiece to bash each others party. I don’t like to listen to these stations because you have grown so called educated people just speaking from their belly which gets me riled up and I start shouting at the radio as if anyone can hear me. So I usually plug in my Ipod but kind of getting bored of the same old songs, but hopefully my parcel should be here from my dear friend E with lots of new tunes, hopefully it should have arrived by now, but not pinning my hopes on the postal system. Like everything else it is slow, which is why most people just find someone who is travelling to Ghana to send something to their loved ones.

Some people however take the piss on other people’s kindness. There is a certain lady who is a friend of my dads, if I am travelling to and from Ghana I try to avoid her. She is the type of person who always has something to send to her relatives, and they are not one or two items either. She always has a suitcase full of clothes and stuff, wrapped up tight in a black bag with lots of brown tape. My cousin brought her things to Ghana, I was quite afraid for him as I didn’t know if he was unwittingly being used as a drug mule. What do you say when they ask if you packed your own bag, “yes I did although I don’t know exactly what I put in it Mr Officer”, jeez.

These people who send such parcels, they also just dump, smile and say goodbye, safe journey in Akan they would say “wo ne nyame nko” which literally means go with God. What they don’t say is, “I know I have given you almost half your travel allowance so take this in case you have excess luggage to pay. What happens between you and your airline, well they leave it to God to help you out. Someone like my Dad would often just pay and then bitch about it on arrival, not to the person but to me, who he didn’t bring a thing except a smile and a “daddy’s home”, these days he ships a lot of things over so travels light in anticipation for the last minute request for luggage space. My sister, she would just remove said package if they were to cause an excess luggage fee. But the best is my Uncle T, he only gives a few people something to take things to Ghana for him and that is usually a letter or some cash, and will only take things for those people which would be something that would fit in his hand luggage so basically a letter or cash. If you dare ask him to carry more than that or if you are not on his list he will tell you point blank that there is no space in his case. Then there’s my mum, well once she gets to the airport she is usually having to take things out of her suitcases to try and fit it in an already bulging hand luggage bag so there is no point even asking her. But the best thing to do if you are travelling is not to tell anyone in the first place, call relatives when you arrive and then make the excuse that everything was so last minute that you didn’t have a chance to call before you left.

Well anyway, time to go, there is a small army of ants circling around my toes and they are the biting kind so have forced me to put my feet up on the chair in front of me and have now got feet cramp.

Time to go face the music. I was supposed to send out a report last week, normally when I am out of the country I am usually the first to send it out but with my schedule last week it couldn’t be done. This was a big topic of discussion however, instigated by horse teeth guy, he really has it in for me, he’s not even trying to hide it now. I spend a lot of my time having to defend myself these days, well at least I’m putting my law to good use. On Friday I sent him an email laying down the facts and reasons why I couldn’t send it last week. It is all documented so that if he even dares to make a case, the evidence is clear. I thank my tort law teacher for that piece of advice. Never put something in an email that you don’t want to be used against you. The reverse piece of advice is also true if you want to make sure that there is evidence to back you.

Tomorrow is the 55th anniversary of Ghana’s independence, exactly 20 years and 19 days before I came to being (just to add). Just need to get through today and then enjoy a well earned rest. Hopefully.