Diary of a Lagos working housewife - Part 11

I have a meeting/training for 8:30am and here I am still ‘toasting’ my daughter to get up at 6:30am. Sometimes I wonder if my life would have been different if I were a full time housewife.  Definitely!!!! Who am I kidding?  Although at the moment, it seems to me that all I would need  will be a constant supply of gossip and some money to keep body and soul together.

 There was no power supply too, the inverter gave up around 5am and I was really hoping and praying that PHCN will be nice enough to restore the power supply. If only they (PHCN) realize how depressing and annoying it is to move about with no power supply. Sighs!   I staggered down the stairs and proceeded to switch on the generator.  However, the kick start refused to come up – how perfect!!!.  I willed the generator to come up and even made a couple of promises to God, if the generator would just work for about 30mins.  After a couple of attempts to jump start the generator to no avail, I gave up and resorted to using the torchlight on my mobile phone to move about.  One would have thought that with all the noise in the media about the proposed generation of 40000MW since 2005 and the on-going privatization of the electricity sector, there would be constant electricity supply now.  I made a mental note to call the generator mechanic as I cannot rely on PHCN to perform their duties.

Diary of a Lagos working housewife - Part 10

Sometimes I wonder whether all the trainings we were given as young kids was to prepare us for this rat race. I look back to my childhood with so much joy, we did have fun growing up. Ironically, We were also very excited at the thought of becoming adults. If only we knew it was all about the rat race!!!!

I remember my first job when I was fresh out of school. For one, I had always day-dreamed about having a whole office to myself. You know like the ones we see in most movies. To my chagrin, I was put in the office pool alongside my peers and senior colleagues. It took me a while to get over the heartbreak. I think no one really prepares our mind for the professional world. The policies on resumption time, overtime without allowances, vacation and even sick policy. It is just assumed that when we find out, we will adapt.  I remember asking one of my senior colleagues at the time when I just got employed:

Me: how long have you been working here

Bola (not real name): about 5 years now

Me: you mean you have been coming here every day for the past five years and seeing the same people every day of your life (I literally screamed)

Bola: Yes, and I kind of don’t mind.

Me: oh dear......