A life in the day of....

So, it’s Friday night, it’s 9 o’clock and I’m sitting o my bed in my pyjama’s (although I'm obviously not in this picture.....). Lifestyles of the young and the glamorous, eh? Well I suppose I’m not either of the afore mentioned.

Well when I look back on this week it’s a blur and I’m going to have to concentrate really hard to think of something to write about…..

At least two people have asked me what I do every day so I could start with that – I’m not sure how exciting I can make it though.

On weekdays I get up at 6.45. I’m finding it remarkably easy to do. I have a cup of tea. I have discovered a very nice brand called Glen (originally I thought it was called Glee, which I think is a very good name for a tea brand). Glen is good and strong; I think the tea lovers in my life (that’s you Monkey and Bert) would love it. I also have bran flakes or toast. Spar branflakes taste salty, I can’t decide if that’s good or not.

I don’t feed any goats or chickens or light any fires before I go to work.

I have a shower (some of you have seen pics of the impressive mirror that it has in it)

I watch the news. BBC world service was on when I first got here. I really liked the idea of knowing what English weather was like before any of you lot woke up. That’s stopped now, so I watch depressing South African news. To liven it up I can watch it in Afrikans or Xhosa.

I leave home at about 7.45. I don’t have a car at the moment. If I time it right I meet with my colleague dropping her son off at nursery around the corner and get a lift. If I’m too early or late I walk. It takes no more that 10 mins. I was very scared of walking at first, but I’ve done it a few times and it’s fine. White South Africans (from my experience) don’t walk anywhere and don’t recommend it to anyone who asks for advice.

So, I walk to work and it’s quite a pleasant experience. I literally walk straight down one road past some houses, past a park and then I’m at work.

I don’t see any cows on my way to work.

Work is in an eighties style office block. I think it may have been quite swishy in Transkei’s heydey but it definitely isn’t now (although it is nicer than either of the Big Issue offices that I’ve worked in). Our office is on the second floor. Monday to Friday it’s usually the administrator, the manager and me in the office. The trainers that I work with are usually “in the field” unless they pop in to do some photocopying.

We have 3 computers, a phone, broadband internet access and a fax machine.
I can see a convent from my office window! Great nun spotting potential!


For the past couple of weeks I’ve been in the office everyday. This means I sit and work on my laptop, wreak havoc with the photocopier every once in a while and try to stop myself from eating my lunch before 10 am. I don’t like spending lots of time in the office.

My job is to co-ordinate a training programme. I’ve put together a couple of spreadsheets for monitoring purposes. I’m actually quite impressed with what I’ve done. I don’t like spreadsheets much.

I have report on what the trainers have been up to (how many people they’ve trained, when and where). That’s ok.

I’ve been quite excited about improving the training programme. I inflicted a “training designing” workshop on my colleagues last week. There were some hairy moments during it but people were positive afterwards.

I like going out and observing the training, although most of it is done in Xhosa, so I don’t understand much. Xhosa lessons start in April. Whoop! I’ll be clicking like a native before you know it!

Back to my day……. Officially lunch is between 1 and 2pm. I try and avoid going out of the office then because the rest of Mthatha is taking their break aswell. I bring lunch with me because I’m tight and because the lunch options aren’t that exciting. There are several fried chicken places – “Grab a chick”, “Rampant Rooster” and good old “KFC” to name but a few, or you can buy mutton or chicken with samp and beans and veg. I quite like the chicken, samp and beans option but it gets dull after a while.

At some point during the day I like to have a walk around town. It’s not scenic (think old Birmingham bullring shortly before it was demolished, without the subways). There’s plenty to look at though. There are lots of women sitting on the pavement selling fruit. They shout something that sounds quite similar to what the Evening Mail vendors in Brum shout. There are also more formal stalls selling fantastic ruffled aprons that form part of women’s traditional dress (prepare yourselves for some grot- tastic presents girls!).

My favourite stands are the ones with a little plastic table with a phone and some sweets on it. I don’t know if you get a free sweet when you make a call or you have to pay separately.

Barbers and hair braiders are often in tents on the pavement. Must keep their overheads low – a ha ha ha!

Work finishes at 4.30. I get a lift home usually. I then dump my stuff and go to the golf course to stretch my legs.

After that I eat a lot and watch tv (which is awful), read, do sudoku or mess around with my laptop. I am also trying to make biscuits in my very basic oven. I keep on burning them!

That’s my life!