After a four day break, the Easter has come and gone once again. I can now eat my fried chicken and chips (well I actually broke the chips deal so had to go without for an extra three days) and getting ready for work. It was pretty manic over the past week due to me doing two jobs for one salary. There has also been a few eruptions. Horse teeth guy not content with running me ragged this month with the french lady going on leave he has said that I should then back up for a guy who is going on leave next month like he is content with me doing people’s jobs when they go on leave because I don’t do enough? It all came to a head when I let rip telling him that I know he doesn’t like me I’m content with that but at least he could have some empathy for the fact that I am drowning in work. We had a chat, where we went back to the argument we had over me being sick and he saying he had seen me the day before and I was perfectly fine. He tried to lie his way out of it, but he forgets that he is dealing with a lady who has been in the legal profession for a while and armed with my facts and picking holes in every lie he said (each lie didn’t back up the previous statement) he finally admitted that he had said that. All what he said after that was zero because shortly after that he took the piss once again by making me back up for this other guy. I have not said a word to him since, and I will not say anything until after he leaves for Indonesia. I hope his trip outside of Africa makes him realize how much of a twat he is.

Four days with smother, it wasn’t easy, but I made it. I’ve been her driver, her nurse maid and her counsellor. Some family issue that has come up, another death and a sister who claims when she calls she never manages to get through managed to get through to tell her that she needs money for an uncle that has died. This has led smother to not only go through the details of the phonecall verbatim, but also recall every single incident that has happened with this particular sister from their childhood to date. This sister is her half sister, my grandfather had 8 wives and 45 children last count, so there was obviously a lot of sibling rivalry. This particular sister was the only child of her mother and quite spoilt, married a rich older man, but would still take your one cedi if she could then tell you she’s broke even though she has countless homes, businesses and bank accounts. I got lost somewhere around 1972 came back at 1998 and lost again before we got to 2007, but she kept talking.

I thought I would cook us a nice meal today, I do go on about her a lot and thought it was time to give back. Won’t be making that mistake again. Did I get a thanks for lunch. No. Well I didn’t mind about that if only she had just kept quiet and ate. She cleaned her plate alright, but not before telling me that I had been cheated at the butchers and there’s hardly any meat on the lamp chop. Next time I should ask for lamb steak. When I told her that’s all they had, she then started on about potatoes. They are not filling enough for her, she didn’t say anything when I went out to get the potatoes because she is not a rice person, but instead of a thank you or nevertheless it was nice (I found it delicious by the way and went for seconds), I just had to take the criticism like that, afterall she ate everything and didn’t complain about the taste.

My uncle came to visit us today also, I love my uncle he’s down from london and he’s always been fun to hang around with. He’s a bit of an outcast in the family, married a Caribbean woman people said it wouldn’t last but they’ve made it over 20 years, he’s a bit of a jack the lad and not your typical Ghanaian, doesn’t have a Ghanaian girlfriend on the side, doesn’t involve himself in all the societies and doesn’t run to the elders with every bit of his life. He has done a bit of unsavoury things, a bit of ducking and diving, and so he’s labelled as the bad one. However his first born is studying medicine at St Andrew’s University and his second born is also on his way to a red brick university. He must have done something right, and well in so far as he hasn’t stolen from me or ever said a bad word he gets my vote. Smother took this visit however to add to the criticisms she started this morning (there was way more than just the food thing). I need a trap door. I should fix my door bell. My teeth look like someone who has been smoking ganja (honestly they are not that bad). She hopes if I go out, I would clean up (like I was thinking of going out in my pj’s and headscarf). I could go on and on, but what would have been a lovely day just made me want to flee out of the house screaming.

Uncle left and I told her I was going to meet Paa K at the junction. I did that last night too when it all got too much. I am quite sad, most people use their friends as a decoy to go and meet somebody else who probably mum wouldn’t approve of. I use mine to sit at a spot alone. Last night after having just one drink I thought I would go and sit with her for a while as I had felt guilty for leaving her. What did she say. “This pub, do they smoke a lot there, and you are blowing fuse like that too. How much did you drink.” I took my food and went into my room, watching vampires kill each other was way more fun.

Today I will learn from yesterday’s lesson.

She also registered to vote yesterday. Although she may not be here around election time at least she could use it for ID. I will get mine tomorrow morning if the queue is a bit down. Unfortunately for her though (and she didn’t notice it before they laminated the flimsy bit of card), they put her sex down as: male. Only in Ghana.