My Tema

For almost three weeks we've been staying in Tema, and will probably be there for another couple of months whilst some issues are sorted out on our house. Of course the days before we were moving here, I continuously told Virgo of the virtues of living in Tema (as I have told you guys many times in this blog): The lack of traffic, constantly flowing water, good internet access and general organisation of the city.

Naturally, the forces that be decided to mess with me as soon as we got here. On the Sunday, whilst we were packing, I called the caretaker of the house and asked whether there have been power or water shortages since he moved in (six months ago). 'No, nothing' was his answer which I smugly conveyed to Virgo, then ordered for our water tanks and generator to go to storage.

We arrived Monday night around 7pm. I thought the water pressure seemed low and laughed, 'this means that they've turned off the water in some other community, don't worry, this is as bad as it gets'. An hour later the taps were dry. Bone dry. And we didn't have water for another 25 hours!

Friday night, the electricity went out and was off for four hours. In between that, we suffered with traffic sometimes almost half an hour just to get to the Ashiaman interchange toll booth. Needless to say, Virgo was enjoying mocking me, 'My Tema, my Tema' he'd squeak in a falsetto voice (it sounds nothing like me) any time we'd spend more time in traffic here than in Accra.

Still, all that was probably just to put me in my place for being so smug, because for the past week there's been no traffic any time we're heading out, water, internet and electricity are constantly working and this morning the mocker himself turned to me and said:
'You know what? Tema is actually a great place to live in. Once you pass Tetteh Quarshie, you just zoom down the motorway and you're home to everything you need'.

What can I say? Mission accomplished.

James Bond hits Accra

Yesterday I did what would have been impossible a few months ago. I had almost given up hope it would ever happen as it happened months after the promised opening. I went to see a movie at Silverbird Cinemas at the Accra mall!

Virgo and I went to see the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, believe it or not, it's the first Bond movie I have ever seen, don't ask me why. As we got into the mall I said if we follow the popcorn scent surely it would take us to the cinema, and so it did. Once we'd gotten up the stairs, it was like any other movie theatre in the world. The AC was on such a low temperature that it actually felt like we were in a wintry November land.

The whole experience was great, cosy seats, good movie and a perfect, relaxed way of digesting a feast of fufu and groundnut soup! When we left the mall at a few minutes to midnight, we looked out across Tetteh Quarshie and Airport area and realised it looked like any metropolitan city in the world.

Accra (and Ghana) is definitely moving forward (for want of a better, non-political phrase...)!

Convoy of Idiots

On my journey from the client's office in Tema to the office this afternoon, I was stuck behind a convoy of idiots on the motorway. Seriously, it was a convoy, about nine or ten cars with their hazard lights on, driving at 95km/h...in the fast lane. They perfectly blocked us all so nobody would be able to pass.

But it was actually worse when we got to Tetteh Quarshie. I suspect one car was on the verge of breaking down, or maybe he just needed to sneeze, so naturally, as you do, he just braked. From 80km/h to 0. Of course his fellow idiots did the same thing and halted to a stop, leaving the rest of us screeching, trying to also stop in time.

When he realised there was nothing wrong with his car, he and his friends joined the road (in the curve that leads us to join the Legon cars), as you do, without looking or checking if anyone else was actually already on the road, forcing about five sensible drivers to swerve off the road to avoid an accident.

There is something about Fridays, weekends and national holidays. For some reason the driving is so much more reckless. If only it were because people were drunk, at least we'd have an explanation, but I suspect their stone sober. Is it that, when leaving the office for a few days off, people leave their brains behind, to be able to get in to that extra relaxed mood?

Before I even get started on the things that went on in traffic around Christmas (u-turns on the motorway, anyone?), let me just make a general plea: as you're about to leave the office for the week, make sure your thinking machine is with you, just like your bag, phone and keys and let's all have a great weekend starting...now!