I arrived in Jo’burg on Sunday (3rd June) had a hell of a check in, complete nightmare, had to pay £330 excess and throw away 2kg worth of stuff, I seriously over packed! But plus side is the experience made me a stronger women (seriously it did), I had a lump in my throat throughout this whole time but I didn’t breakdown, I even thought I’d miss my plan but I made it.
Got to my hotel at 10am on Sunday morning and it’s a nice Hotel. My room is pretty big with a huge bathroom which is fab. I just plonked my stuff in my room and headed straight to the gym, came back had a shower. I wasn’t feeling great, I already had a cold and I was freezing and ha a temp, so got in a blanket and ordered room service – grilled salmon with veg and potatoes – was nice but the salmon wasn’t cooked properly so had them take it back and they bought me back a bottle of red wine and now that’s just sitting in my room.
I took a wonder to see my office its literally a 2 minute walk and then went into the nearby shopping centre which is tiny, the huge one is in the city which is just a shuttle bus away. Went back to my hotel and slept till 8pm then woke up and watched a film on tv and then made tea and ironed some clothes for work and went to bed.
Monday I woke up at 7, got ready for work and headed for breakfast at about 8.15am. Its got a good selection of food, lots and lots and lots of fruit, which I took a bowl of and some fruit yoghurt. The tea here tastes funny, I might have a wonder later to see if I can get any PG tips they use a brand called Robust here – very funny tasting and so is the milk.
I was walking up the steps to the building which has really nice entrance and this huge rat ran past me – er yuk! Anyway got my passes and everything and met Nick the guy I’m working with and went to the 2nd floor, its a small room about 15 people and very quiet. I’m given docs to read first of all.
Theres this wierd guy who sits behind me and he is freaking me out, he just stares all the time and is just weird, haven’t really spoken to anyone else apart from a few hi’s here and there. Everyone so far is old with kids so not really any chance of making any lunch buddies anytime soon.
At lunch I take a wonder to the small shopping mall again, go into the supermarket an buy some fruit and take a trip to Subway as they really aren’t any type of sandwich places around. I hate Subway but order a tuna sandwich as I’m starving. I get to finish at 4.30pm as theres nothing else for me to do as everyone has work and plus a lot of people have gone home at 3pm!
Head back to the hotel go gym then head own to the restaurant and order a Thai mushroom curry which is very very nice but it supposed to be low calorie I don’t think it is!
Head back to my room and there is nothing on tv at all!! So I get my only DVD out – Love Actually and watch that with a cup of yukky tea and then bed at 11.30pm – fantastic.
On Tuesday its actually the same and I again leave at 4pm and head to gym, do a 13 miler which makes me happy as I’m finding it so difficult to eat the food here, theres no sainsburys or tescos or boots. Only a few things have nutrition labels on them which is crap. I find out that the hotel does halal meat so I have a grilled chicken breast with rice and veg for dinner. If they didn’t I was going to order beans on toast which is awful but it’s the only thing I woul have wanted. I thenhead up to bed and watch 24.
On Wednesday I have a longer day till 7pm and then I go and meet my 2 managers in a bar over the road, one of my managers – Andrew invites me to join his family and Nick for some Off road car action which sounds good at least I’ll be doing something this weekend.
For dinner I have grille tuna with rice and veg and then I manage to lock myself out of my hotel room, lucky I’m wearing clothes so I have to head to reception to get any key card. This guy in the lift starts talking to me about where I’m from. I haven’t met anyone from the UK yet.
Apparently next Tuesday there is a work social in the same bar we were in tonight. This bar is a hotel bar and its boring and small and is smokey. But at least there is something going on next week after work. I need to make friends fast so I lat least have a life out here.
My plans for the weekend are check out the city, check out the restaurants – yes I have to eat alone in them which is going to be very strange, I have to buy some books. Get some serious gym time. I got told by Andrew that I’ll have to work some weekends too as next few weeks are going to be so jam packed – fantastic but I suppose it will keep me occupied.
I need to also make plans to check out Cape Town, but I read you’re not supposed to go up the mountain on your own which is crap. How on earth am I supposed to explore if I can’t do anything on my own?!