Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Baby Overload

I don't know if it's because he's had a nanny change plus my being away after our intense week together in Portugal, but Kitan has become extremely clingy. Uncomfortably so. He's always wanting to be carried and when I'm sat down, he's on me. I can't leave the room he's in and if I'm with him, he won't go with anyone else, not even Daddy.

Tiny bits of this is cute... I feel all loved and wanted but now we've crossed the line and instead I'm feeling suffocated... and guilty for feeling suffocated.

The weekend was spent with friends and family - Saturday was with my pregnant friend who arrived a few weeks ago to have her baby (see post Friend in Deed), she just found out she was going to be having a son. She has 2 other boys. On Sunday, my sister and her family came round for lunch. Kitan was over the moon to have his beloved cousins visiting. He hadn't seen them since we all got back from Portugal.

I also spent the weekend seriously considering what impact another child will on me and the family. You see, I'd had a pregnancy scare. That's the best way to describe it. I'm usually never late, my cycle is the bog-standard 28 days. I not very careful with noting my dates but by last Thursday, I felt I should have had a period already but I did not have a clue when the last one was. Thank God for my blog (see post 12 weeks gone - almost halfway), I was able to calculate that I was 4 days late. Wow! That had never happened before. I sent text to my friend and she suggested I got a pregnancy test (duh!). The last time I bought one of those was Kitan's lifetime + 37 weeks ago - or thereabouts. Anyway, Friday morning, I popped into Sainsbury's on my way to work and picked one up. I did not have the chance to use it until nearer lunchtime but I had to put myself out of my misery. It was negative. I felt Phew! and Drats! - at the same time.

So why was my period late? My friend suggested the stress of the nanny issues (see post Bombshell) etc... sort of held it off. Possible I guess.

Anyway, 2 nights of passionate 'you know what' with hubby over the weekend meant my period arrived in full force on Sunday. So it was official, definitely not pregnant.

Still, it did make me seriously wonder what having another baby - another clingy Kitan - would be like. Mmmmm.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Where is everyone???

Bored this evening, I checked out my fav blogs: 'crazy surburbanaijamom', 'trendy funky bluntremi', 'me myself and I' - even my new pal 'Chioma - Proud Naija Wife and Mother' and nobody has updated in ages! How boring. Surely it can't take that long to recover from Valentines?!

I've lost track of what week I'm in right now but I've got my eye firmly on the finish line - end of June. What will happen to this blog?

Tuesday morning after much discussion, delibration and some prayer, we decided to go with Diane (mum of 7) as opposed to Wendy (mum of 14 + bad reference). I took all the various bits of advice I got on board (thanks y'all) but at the end of the day, I could not get away from the fact that some how God had made it possible for us to know about Wendy instead of falling for her outward homely appearance. The other lady arriving at the weekend will be 'passed on' to a friend.

I picked up Diane from the station at 11am and began settling her in at home. Dominique had spoilt me and it was hard to explain about Kitan, his routine, his meals, the house cleaning etc... Kitan ofcourse observed her for the first few hours from behind my legs but slowly and surely he began to get a bit more comfortable with her around. At one point I was going through the family album with her, more to get Kitan close to her because he loves going through the album. At first he was leaning on me, looking at the pictures and calling out the names of people he knew and the next thing he was leaning on her with out realising.

On Wednesday, he went to nursery but I'd decided to stay out of sight so when Diane and my cousin went to pick him up from nursery, Diane fed him when he got home and played with him. From my hiding place upstairs in bed, I did not hear any crying... just laughter and sounds of playing. By the time I came down hours later, he clung to me like 'white on rice' but I knew he would be okay with her. Thank God.

Work as well were surprisingly supportive. I was due to train on Thursday morning, so I sent an email to SN asking to work the afternoon from home (and so get paid) and for him to email me the slides for the courses I'd be training so I could prepare. He was very compliant, again dispatching his minions to send me the files I needed. Infact when I drove in this morning (Thursday), he was very friendly and helpful. Abeg! I'm not fooled jare. Whatever.

The weekend looms and I am at peace as calm descends on my home. Cleaning done, baby taken care off, crisis over.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Back To Work and Nannymania

After confirming and re-confirming with Diane that she was happy to start on Tuesday, I left for Leicester on Sunday night.

I had training on Monday so I squeezed myself (all those Portugese catalanas and creme caramel desserts did not help) into a skirt suit and made my way to the office.

I was early so no one was in when I got there but SN, my manager soon arrived. He was falling over himself to be pleasant, saying it was nice to have me back, asking of my holiday etc etc... internally, I could not figure why I was not more receptive when I remembered that it was the first time I'd seen him since his stupid email to me. "Idiot" I thought as I sweetly answered his questions, smiling. He scurried to help me carry the manuals I needed to the training room and dispatched one of his minions to help me sort out the projector and any other stuff I might need. When I relayed my childcare problems, he was sooooo sympathetic and was happy to grant me the Tues and Wed off I requested to return home to settle my new nanny in.

Was this SN I thought? No, it was God. It could only be. Anyway, at this rate, with 6 days off for holiday and another 2 days back in London, plus February is the shortest month, there'll probably be no need to bill them at the end of the month as I'd hardly have done any time at all!

Everybody was really pleasant, even Fran the main boss guy... I thought I had stumbled into a parallel world version of my office but where everyone was nice.

I left after training and headed off home. I had arranged another interview that evening with another potential nanny even though I had sealed the deal with Diane. My eyes were now 'hard', no room for sentiment, if I liked this one better, I'd ask Diane (or rather get my sister to call her pretending to be me) not to bother starting.

I also had another potential arriving on Saturday or Tuesday next week and if I liked her, then I'd get whoever was in the house at the moment to leave. Hee hee hee

I had nannies trooping in from every corner. Tunji ofcourse thought I was crazy and warned "you better know what you are doing".

Anyway, I met up with the second potential, Wendy, and she looked more like you'd expect a nanny to look. When I asked her how many children she had, she said "a lot". Well, a lot to me is the number of children Diane has which is 7, so I said "7?" Wendy said "No, 14" I said "Sorry? Do you mean you have 14 children?" She nodded her head with a weary look on her face like she'd woken up each time and found another addition to her family. "Any twins?" "No" she said. "Wow!"

We got home from the station where I'd picked her up and Kitan ran to me at the door. The first thing Wendy said was "he looks familiar, I've seen this baby before". I was like "Which baby? You can't mean my son. Where?" Then Tunji came out to meet us in the hallway and she said "I know this man from somewhere" - this was getting crazy. I asked her what was the name of the family she was working with before. She had already told me the 'madam' kicked her out when she had a bad flu recently and could not work for a few days. It turns out that husband is Tunji's very good friend and Tunji had gone there recently with Kitan. This is why she recognised them. To cut a long story short, when we called them for a reference on her, they were falling over themselves to list all the issues they'd had with her resulting in them asking her to leave. Yikes!

While Tunji was on the phone with his pal, I had been showing her round the house, explaining the chores, eventually offering her the job and asking her to start the next day, same as Diane. Tunji asked me to tell her we could not take her, but I did not have the heart to as I dropped her off at the station.

So now tomorrow, I have Diane starting at 11am and Wendy starting at 1pm not to mention Jenny arriving within a week to start.

Even with the bad report, I still prefer Wendy, most of the issues against her can be put down to clash of personalities. My sister says go with Wendy as she's been recommended by her own nanny and Diane is a total stranger. My friend Kemi says go with Diane as my being away from home will give Wendy liberty to take licence if she already has the tendency to be lazy and overuse the phone calling her 14 children everyday.

I'm going to wait till the morning and see how I feel.

p.s A new phrase that tripped me as I was reading a blog: "What the hell ever"

Nature strikes back

I've always wondered how people stick on videos in their blogs (see BellaNaija) so this is my attempt at doing same...

I've titled this video "Nature Strikes Back" and if you can bear to watch all 56 seconds of it, you'll see why.

The smaller boy in the blue t-shirt is my baby and this is from our recent holiday to Portugal

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Bombshell!

Where do I start...

We left for Portugal on Friday, 8 of us in total, so it was a large party and with 3 children under 5, it was a challenge getting us all on the flight and off on holiday.

It was lovely there, we went to the Algarve and rented 2 self-catering apartments at the Rocha Brava resort, one for each family. They were really really nice. I've never gone self-catering before but because this time we had a much older Kitan, I wanted the flexibility of setting my own meal times and not having to deal with feeding an unwilling toddler in a restaurant every single day. I'm not sure I be going half-board in a hurry.

The weather was super! I'd left England with snow on the roof tops and Portugal was definitely t-shirt and shorts weather. The evenings got chillier but still only needed a pashmina to wrap over my top.

We'd also rented 2 cars for getting about and discovering the area.

We got there Friday evening, so all we did was unpack and sort out some food. The next day was a very hot day, the hottest day predicted for the time we were there, so we went off to the beach and spent most of the day there. The next day we ventured further afield to Portimao, the children and the husbands went to Zoomarine, a 'Seaworld-type' place, while us ladies went to the discount shopping mall nearby.

I did mention to Tunji that it was so bad of us not to have called home yet and by our 3rd day, we still had not phoned home.

On Tuesday evening, we finally called and I spoke with my cousin. She said everything was fine. I had given both her and Dominique a long spring-cleaning list of chores to do while we were away. Just before I rounded up the call (it was costing 55p a minute) she said "Aunty, I think Dominique is looking for another job" - I was like - "What?!!!" My cousin said she had overheard her on the phone and just wanted to let me know.

When I got off the phone, I told Tunji. I wanted to call Dominque immediately, but he said to leave it till we got back and then discussed it with her. I said "Okay" but was uneasy.

We spent the rest of our time in Portugal visiting little villages and day dreaming about buying a rundown house to do up and use as a holiday bolthole. Property prices were as low as 10,000 Euros - barely £7000! We went to Lagos - we thought it'll be cool to visit our sister 'home town' and see what the differences were with the real Naija Lagos. There was a tourist attraction of a building where slaves were brought to from Africa, stored and auctioned off. We could'nt go in as it was a private art gallery now, but I could not help thinking that did those slaves ever ever ever believe that sometime in the future 'black people like them' will be at this same spot, holidaying and generally living a 'free life'? It really is amazing how temporary any situation can be, even the Slave trade era. When I was little, after being picked up from school by my Dad, he used to entertain us in the car by singing "No condition is permanent in this world..."

How true... as I soon found out on Thursday! We were visiting Silves, another little town, not a lot to see but very picturesque and peaceful when I noticed a couple of texts on my mobile. They were from Dominique telling me that she'd left. Gone! Packed out with no forwarding address, no explanation and no sign that this was in the offing.

Can you imagine that! I was angry, hurt, betrayed, confused..... aaargh! I wanted to scream. I looked at Kitan playing by the fountain and thought "Oh my God, what am I going to do". How could she be so cruel, so callous, so fake, so... words fail me. How could she do this? I was due back at work on Monday! Kitan only goes to nursery 2 days a week. What do I do? Was God sending me a sign? Would I have to quit Leicester. I was in turmoil. Not so much losing her - that was hurtful enough - but more the confusion and disturuption that was now unfolding.

I then remembered how she came to me. When I interviewed her, she told me how wicked the family she was working for were and how they would never let her leave, she said they never paid her. I told her to write them a letter explaining and then sneak out. I would meet her at the end of the road and pick her up. That was how she left them and she'd done it to me too. How ironic! I never expected it but then again, I guess I did.

We left Silves immediately. Kitan was staring into my face as if to say "What is wrong Mummy?" He really loved Dominique, how was he going to cope? I had to make a superhuman effort to be cheerful for his sake but Tunji knew I was very very upset.

After we put Kitan to bed, we went over our options - Get my Mum over? Tunji said "No". Put him in full time nursery? I said "No". Quit my job in Leicester? We both said "No" - Can you imagine saying I have to quit due to childcare issues? How bad is that for us Mums out there? What will that do to the next Mum they interview or even the general perceptions of Mums?

So what do we do?

Many of my friends use me as an un official nanny agent and a friend had recently asked me to help her out. I'd asked another friend Emma who then sent me the number of a lady she knew was available. I just passed the number on but for some reason never deleted it from my phone. I searched for the text and called the lady, Diane. She was still available for work. It seems my friend never followed up my lead. I asked her to come and meet us at home on Saturday for an interview.

I felt a bit better having at least made a little headway into resolving the situation. But still I worried. What if she did not come? What if we did not like her? What if she did not like us? Would my desperation show?

This bombshell messed up the last 2 days of my holiday. On our last full day, Thursday, we went back to the mall shopping again, then on to Alvor, another small fishing village which on closer inspection seemed to have been invaded by the Irish. There were at least 20 Irish bars in the village center alone, not to mention other dotted about. We'd planned a BBQ on the last night. It was really nice, I was finally becoming able to ignore the ensuing 'wahala' at home and concentrate on enjoying and relaxing this last night in Portugal.

------------------------------------

Back in London

We arrived safely at Gatwick airport thank God after a much better flight than we had going out. This time we had the good sense to sit the children separately, they slept and it turned out to be a pleasant journey home.

On driving home, I thought maybe this whole Dominique leaving thing was an early April-fool joke. Tunji thought that would be a very expensive joke if it was. Alas! It was not a joke. We arrived to a spotlessly clean house but no Dominique. Her room was stripped bare of all her things. I interrogated my cousin, getting angrier and angrier as I did so. In the end she was in tears and I was fuming. Tunji had to step in, asking us to calm down. What's done is done.

I called Diane, the potential replacement and she confirmed that she will be in my house tomorrow (Saturday) at 10am.

9:30am on Saturday, my phone rings, it's Diane. She's at my local train station waiting to be picked up as agreed. Tunji went to pick her.

When I came down to meet her, she was this tall, fair skinned woman. She was wearing tight jeans, high boots with her hair in shaggy blonde streaked style. "Oh my God" I thought to myself inside. A total opposite to demure butter-won't-melt-in-her-mouth Dominique. Still we pressed on with the interview. Kitan had not seemed to miss Dominique so far but did not take full heartedly to this new woman. She's 41 in May she told us. She has 7 children that she raised her self back home in Trinidad.

The interview seemed to go well, she was happy with her responsibilities and I'd stressed that we were having a trial period of 4 months - until my contract in Leicester was over, after which we can review the situation and choose whether or not to continue. My sister's nanny Viola is also from Trinidad, so I called her and she chatted with Diane, then told me later on the phone that she seemed okay.

Anyway, I was desperate and she seemed fine. My cousin would be around to oversee whenever she was not in school and it was only for 4 months at the worst.

We offered her the job and she accepted to start on Tuesday Feb. 20th.

By God's grace, getting a replacement was arranged within a week of Dominique leaving. Diane has not started yet and I don't know how it will work out but still, I thank God. We are fasting this month and know that God has removed anyone from our lives who is not supposed to be there. He is purging us all the time and we have to be willing to let go of things that have outstayed their usefulness for fear of them becoming harmful. He has minimised the disruption to nil and I can only continue to trust Him going forward.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Cute guy list

I'm sort of 'stuck' in Leicester with all the snowing. I'm due to be travelling to Portugal tomorrow on holiday and I am beginning to get worried as to how I can get back home to London in one piece. Thankfully I'm not training today and apart from one meeting scheduled for 10am there's no real reason to hang about here.

So while I'm still chilling here waiting for the snow to let up, I thought I'd compile a list of my top cutest guys... (not in any order) Obviously I've created fantasy personalities for all of them.

----------------------



Usherrrrrrr!: So brown, so cute with his boyish soft face. I like!





Daniel Craig (the new James Bond): What's to say here? Is this a man or is this a man?












Michael Scofield from Prison Break: This guy is too cute for words! Where do I start? His cause (saving his brother), his boyish looks, the eyes aaaaarrh!



Sawyer from Lost: I think it's the blond looks, bad boy character and hidden softy inside that does it for me.




LL Cool J: It's the 'really cute boy next door' look isnt it? And check out that body?!





Danny from Without a Trace: He's so sweet, so real with the most gorgeous smile.






















Keanu Reeves: Fresh is an understatement. So clean, yummy.






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I have to go to work now... what a fun project for the morning. Travel reports say the roads are rather okay and no problems on the motorway. Yippee!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Email from my boss

Tunji fell ill on Saturday with a bad sore throat, headache and tiredness. On Sunday he was not feeling much better and so I decided to stay till Monday despite the fact I had training starting on Monday and did not want to be late into work.

I did not leave home until 7am that morning because Kitan woke up just as I was leaving and since I do not usually see him on Mondays before I leave, it was an opportunity to have a quick cuddle before I left.

As I was hitting the motorway, I sent text to SN my manager and AC the other manger that I was just leaving London and could they have someone on standby just to do registrations and icebreaker before I arrived.

I drove like mad and got into Leicester at 8:45am, training starts at 9am. I rushed about trying to get my materials ready: the delegates manuals, the evaluation forms and all the other stuff. I had not used that training room before and so was not sure how to set up the projector. In all my rushing about SN did not even ask how my journey was, he did not say "thank God you made it, what happened?" he did not even have the decency to ask "do you have all you need, how can I help?" I ran back to the trainers room where he was having a conversation with another trainer Emilio. I know Emilio had trained in that room before and I asked "Emilio have you trained in training room 3 before?" Emilio did not even look at me talkless of stopping his conversation with SN. I thought he did not hear me and repeated my question. Same response. Neither of them stopped talking to answer me. It was now 5 mins to 9 and I raced out of the room back to my training room, totally pissed. On my way, another colleague Riz noticed I was 'not smiling' found out what the matter was and sorted out the projector for me.

During a break, I went back to the trainer room to get something and Emilio was in there. He said "Omara, I was talking to SN about..." I put my hand up and said "Emilio, please, no need. I don't normally interrupt people. I had training starting in 5 mins and it was an emergency" He then said "Yes, but I was talking to SN about.." I interrupted him again saying "Nothing you were talking about could have been as important as me starting training in 5 mins" He said "Well I guess, what was it you wanted?" I looked at him eye to eye and said "Don't worry about it, I'm sorted now".

Anyway, a short while later, whilst still training... I get this email from my manager, SN

------------------Original Email --------------------


-----Original Message-----
From: ######, Sanjay
Sent: 05 February 2007 12:04
To: Omara
Cc: ######, Angela
Subject: FW: This Morning


Omara,

This morning I felt your attitude and behaviour was unacceptable when you came and tried speaking to Emilio, whilst we were in the middle of a conversation. Emilio was checking the Environment, which would benefit everybody and your actions made him feel uncomfortable. It was totally unnecessary for you to storm out of the room.

I appreciate you were stressed and had a lot to sort out, but you left early on Friday and said you were travelling up on Sunday to ensure you were in and ready to go for 9:00. I will have to review this in the future especially after our chat on Thursday regarding your travel time/working from home.

We can discuss this further if you wish.

Sanjay



-----------------------------------------------------

Can you believe this???

Please guys help me out here. Especially those of you that know me personally. Is it me? I'm thinking it has to be. Would have been better for me not to come than to arrive 15mins to training? I know I am here to learn, but the sacrifice is already hard enough, Tunji is sick, my baby was crying for me and I need someone to cut me some slack.

I have chosen not to respond to his email or bring it up in anyway. He is a coward. If 'them born am well make e say am to my face'.

This morning my New Living Translation Bible says in Proverbs 12 verse 1 "To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction."

We live and learn.

This is my post for the week. We're off to Portugal for a well-needed break with my sister and her hubby and Kitan's 2 and 4 year old cousins (my sister's children).

My next post will be after we're back.

Part-time Mummy

Following on from last Thursday at work when my manager refused to let me leave, I ended up going in on Friday and working till 3pm.

I got home in great time - only one and a half hours. 90 miles in 90 minutes. Not bad.

My baby heard the key in the door and was already waiting expectantly for his Daddy to walk in and was so excited to see it was me. He ran from the hallway, into his play room then into the kitchen before running back to me.

I carried him and walked into the kitchen where Dominique was making a lasagna. I stood by the cooker talking to her with Kitan in my arms when he held my face in his little hands and kissed me on the lips, on my left cheek, then right cheek, then forehead and finally on my chin.

I don't kiss him in this way, no body does so I'm not sure where he learnt it from but I touched to tears. My sweet baby!

I wanted to be especially observant this weekend to see what effects my being a part-time Mummy has had on Kitan.

1. I'd actually noticed this before but this weekend it was more apparent that he calls everyone Mummy - i.e. my cousin and Dominique - even though he can call their names perfectly. When my sister visited during the week, he called her mummy too and when she asked why, Dominique explained to her that he calls everyone mummy but the mummy he calls me is slightly different. That is no consolation and I could'nt notice the difference. I kept answering "Yes baby" when he was infact referring to Dominique. I was pained but did not show it. I tried for 4 years to have this baby and to be called Mummy. He actually called 'Daddy' first and called both Tunji and I Daddy for a long time. When he finally got the hang of 'Mummy' it has now become a general name.

2. Kitan refuses to talk to me on the phone for most of the week I'm away. For some reason he chooses not to. Often times, I might excuse myself from my colleagues to go call my baby and I'll hear him in the background saying a loud emphatic "No" when Dominique says to him "Kitan come and talk to your mummy", she'll be chasing him round the house trying to give the phone to him. Sometimes he'll take the phone and just disconnect it. When I get back to my colleagues and they ask how he was, I usually lie. How can I say my child did not want to talk to me. When I'm home at the weekends, I'll get the phone and show it to him explaining that "mummy will call you on the phone, ok?" We'll role play for a little bit and usually when I get back to Leicester, he's happy to talk for a few days then he changes his mind and stops again.

3. He usually doesn't want me and Dominique in the room at the same time. If he's with Dominique and I come in or if we're together and she comes in, he wants her to leave, pushing her out and shutting the door. I think he believes that if she's there then I'll go since that is usually how it works during the week.

Those have been my 3 main observations and I'm not quite sure what they mean of if they are having any negative impact on him. I'm also concerned about how super-excited he is on Fridays when I get back compared to how he is usually during the week.

This weekend, I was shattered and did absolutely nothing on Saturday. I had great plans to go shopping during the day for our up-coming holiday to Portugal and then go to the cinema with friends. All I ended up doing was sleep, wake, eat, sleep - not even taking a bath. Sunday was better, went to church and then went to a non-Naija Naija party for a friends 2 year old son (See Me Myself & I's Post).

I'm training first thing Monday and planned to leave on Sunday but changed my mind. I'll leave on Monday.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Grrrrrrrr - end of week 13

I'm really upset.... and just like you should'nt go shopping when hungry, one should not post to blog when upset.

But I'd better update now or else that will be another thing bugging me...."need to update my blog".

Anyway, the week had gone okay so far. Got in on Monday, drove straight to work. I only had 3 hours training scheduled again this week so I knew 'no stress'. I'd left my house with only a banana, some stale brown bread and 1 egg left in the fridge. I'd made some stew and there was a bit of rice left but in all, no food. So as I was kinda free, I decided to do my online Tesco shopping. Dominique had given me a long list as I left home so food shopping took the better part of the afternoon. I kept going in and adding more stuff till I had a £120 bill the end. Not bad actually as I have a house of 4 adults and 1 baby to feed. I'm not there most of the week obviously and Dominique eats so little. It's just Tunji and my 'just-come-from-Naija' cousin who is a size 8 (that's size 4 to you guys in the States) but eats like a horse. Don't you just hate that?! I love her to bits really.

I've got 2 puppies at work now, both the 2 Asian girls (HR & AR), if you recall, HR is 21 and getting engaged in March, she got me the sari. AR is 24 and is flirting with our 23yr old manager SN. So my puppies and I just chilled, gisting and doing bits of work in between. AR was training that evening 6pm - 9pm and I was sitting in with her for support.

I went in normal time on Tuesday and spent another day doing a bit of work every now and again. So far the organisation of the training has been chaotic. I'm past caring now. The level of incompetence is beyond any I have seen anywhere else. The schedule is crazy. They've recruited me as an experienced SAP Trainer contractor but are only using me for 3 hours a week. The more inexperienced trainers are under so much pressure training 24 - 36 hours a week. I felt bad in the beginning but "hey, whazmyown?" The training manuals for the delegates are in a shambles, no one is clued up enough to put together a manual that makes sense not to talk about the slides we present. Errors upon errors. Is anyone taking responsibility? No.

Don't get me wrong, I do try to do my bit - but they've put everyone in boxes - if you are a trainer, you train - trying to do more is perceived with suspicion, like you want to steal their £22k ($40K) per annum job. Yeah right!

The other trainers are dropping like flies and pulling sickies like no man's busines. Everyday this week, at least 4 of the 15 trainers have called in sick. I can't really do the same because the downside of this cushy job is "no work, no pay".

My training went well on Wednesday night, AR was training again that night and I offered to drop her off home when we finished at 9pm. The poor girl who only 2 weeks ago was threatening to quit because she could not bear the pressure had been scheduled to train everyday this week totalling almost 30hrs. Anyway, my lack of knowledge of Leicester came back to bite me as found myself driving 40 mins in the opposite direction to my home to drop her off. I was starving and wanted to stop off for some Chinese but she insisted that she would get me some food from her house. Anyway we got home and I was really looking to meeting this bully of a father she had. Some weeks ago, I had overheard her telling her friend HR how he beats her and screams at her all the time. While she was packing the food, I sat with him and her witch stepmother (all stepmothers are witches) in the living room. During the small talk, it came out that he was a seaman before and had spent a lot of time in Lagos, Portharcourt and other coastal parts of Nigeria. He remembered so much and I spent a good 10 mins happily gisting away with him. I got my food (a very nice prawn curry with basmati rice and chapatis) and headed off home.

Now why am I upset? It's Thursday today and I'm not scheduled to train tomorrow so while talking to Tunji he says "why don't you come and work from home tomorrow?" I thought "great idea" and sent an email off to my manager SN. Can you believe he said NO! Infact remembering now that I'm back at my lodgings is riling me up again. I asked him why and he said with so many trainers off sick (and many more planning to be) he can't afford to be short staffed. There are only 5 classes running on Friday, even if 5 trainers called in sick, he still had 5 spare. I did not think that was a valid excuse. He then said if he allowed me work from home then everyone would want to. "What's my business with that?" I told him at the point of my recruitment, his boss, told me that my family situation would be taken into consideration. He said "Well, we've been doing so" and I said "the baby is still there, it's not a case of doing it for a bit, it's got to be done for the duration of my employment here." It's a matter of terms and conditions. "If anyone else was employed under other terms and conditions, that's their business, mine are what they are."

Anyway, I agreed to stay until tomorrow and then leave if I was not needed but I was very angry. Only an apple crumble and vanilla icecream could pacify me, so that's what I'm having for dinner.

I know the job has been a doddle so far and they have let me off early on Friday as well as allowed me work from home - but still!

Grrrrrr!

Anyway, I'm writing this blog Thursday night to wrap up this week. Have a good weekend y'all!

p.s. I loooove getting comments!

France, Italy, Spain - here we come!

Omara's Weight loss progress (started diet 17th March 2007)