The company I work for still has the old boys network attitude. There are a lot of females at the lower end, you get to middle management and there are still a few but there is a total of one at the top. It will take a lot to smash that glass ceiling unfortunately, we have come so far in the Regional Head office (they have 3 women at the top) but in the countries its a struggle. We had a meeting with the Ghana Regional sales managers. There were 9 managers in all and they were all guys. There is still that attitude that you have to have balls to do a sales job, and those balls are in the literal sense.

It wasn’t all bad that the group was full of guys, for me anyway. I had to present for my brand and the brand that was dumped onto me, and to say I didn’t know squat is an understatement. I had spent the whole night doing this presentation and didn’t have a chance to really absorb the information. So I put on a very fitted dress and I “slanged” my way through the presentation. They said I did well for my first presentation (if not for the crazy Gabonese guy interupting me every 2 seconds to get his point across).

Is it sexist and does it go against the feminist movement and what women have long fought long and hard for. I say you look at your circumstances and work with what you got.

As I said, working in the company is not all bad and especially when you travel out of Accra, the best and most productive times I have had is when I travelled to the likes of Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal. In this new capacity even though it is only Takoradi, Kumasi and Tamale, it has given me the chance to travel to places within my country that I probably wouldn’t adventure.

My first visit into the region was the western. My criteria for picking which region I go to is based on sales, but I picked this region because the sales manager is easy on the eye (it’s been a while since I have even been on a date so had to get some form of pleasure from the business).

Takoradi is beautiful. It has a lot of green, beautiful beaches and it is one of those towns where everybody knows each other. It is also rich in oil and with oil comes expats and with expats comes a high cost of living. The hotel I was staying in was 331GHS a night which is like £150. I wouldn’t call it anywhere near 5* although I don’t think any hotel in Ghana deserves that rating. Raybow hotel, its been there for years and one thing I will give to the guy is that he maintains the place well and has kept it up to date. I wouldn’t say it was worth the money though, but that’s Ghana for you, if you want to stay in a decent hotel you will pay through the nose.

I moved from Takoradi to Takwa, here is where the gold is and more oil money. Here you will find someone who lives I a modest brick structure which hasn’t been maintained in years, but everyone has a satellite on its roof. Takwa is about an hours drive and really the drive is so relaxing. No traffic, the roads are good and there is so much greenery on either side, not much to see if your a tourist but it if your interested in touring Ghana I would recommend the visit.

So to the nightlife. I arrived on the Wednesday and left on Sunday. Friday was a holiday so my work ended on Thursday around 6pm. That’s when I changed out of my jeans and T-shirt and into a little pink number. I think it is then that the sales manager realized that there was a girl underneath all the baggy clothes I had been wearing. We went to Vienna Beach, a nice little place by the beach, it wasn’t very busy that night so had a few drinks and went to Vienna City.

Vienna City started off in Accra and has now become a franchise with spots in Kumasi and now Takoradi. This is the place where all the cool kids hang out. On Thursday night it wasn’t really packed but for a few prostitutes and some fake Americans. The DJ was playing the house music a bit too much for my liking so I was in bed by midnight.

On the Friday my cousins came to get me, for lunch it was a couple of gins before eating fufu in Amanze (I think that’s what the area was called). Good fufu and goat meat soup. The kind that the scent sticks to your hands for days no matter how many times you wash it. Very good that was.

Went back to my hotel to sleep of the gin and fufu and then went back to Vienna. I was with my cousin, his wife and his friend, I was wearing a halter neck top and a pair of skinny jeans, I wasn’t even wearing heels but instead wore flats. I tell you all this because I don’t know how I looked like a prostitute that a white guy in the club asked me if I was “sure” I was not one.

It all happened when I was coming out the washroom. Some white guy with shaggy hair underneath a baseball cap was waving his arms around in an attempt to dance and whacked me in the face as I walked by. So I tapped him on the shoulder and informed him that he had whacked me in the face. He apologised and then started chatting to me, the usual what is your name, what do you do. He then said, “your the prettiest girl I have seen here” or something along those lines. Taylor I think his name was. Now no offence but I am really not into white guys neither do I chase expats in an atempt to find financial gain. So I was very, very offended when this boy asked me if I was a prositute, he asked me the first time and honestly I thought I was hearing things. So I stared at him like “you what” and he apologised. It was a while later when he asked me if I was sure that I walked off.

So I take this opportunity to “advise”, any obroni that is reading. I will allow you to buy me a drink, I would even take time out to listen to your mind-numbing, boring monologue, because that’s me I do same for my black brothers. I am one of those nice people who finds it hard to say f*** off. Although I complain about little money, I manage my mortgage, food and even take a trip to the salon in a month. Not all black women are looking for a white man to sweep them off their feet. Finally, I come from Britain for goodness sakes if I wanted to do Ashawo why the hell jump on a plane for that.

In a way I couldn’t blame him, as I looked around there were women throwing themselves at the white guys who knew what degrading acts they were willing to go through for what, $50. There was one lady with amazingly bright yellow hair who was trying aggressively to put the hard sell on one skinny white guy (who I thought was gay until we got talking to him later, as I said my cousin is a jovial person who seems to know everyone).
There was another fat balding guy dancing with two women. I find it quite pathetic on both parts but it is a simple case of demand and supply so what can I say.

What offended me was that the idiot didn’t know class if it were to shit on his face. For this reason I did not have a go at him, I told him that he had obviously never met a lady before. That’s when he said “I’m off to the bathroom if I don’t see you then goodbye”, and that’s when I went back to sit with my cousin and his wife before another brainless white guy thought I was turning tricks.

But all in all it was a good night, it must have been as I rolled into bed at 3am. Pretty much did nothing the following day except eat my Vienna burger I had got before we left the club and watched dstv. I did go for a little walk, and sat by the pool for a while but yeah that was it.

If you travel to Takoradi you should also visit Sekondi it’s the neighbouring town, my uncle has a house there which looks out to the beach. If your a towny person then you will probably find it dull but if like the peace, it is the perfect place for solace by the ocean.

So back in Accra, it’s Wednesday and it feels like the week is never going to end. Back to reality then.