A day in the life of…

Tuesday lunchtime: Get notification I have to be up in Johannesburg for a 9am meeting at customer site.

Tuesday afternoon: Book flight, arrange trip, organize things at home

Tuesday night: Ask Marko if he would sleep next to Adam so that I can get some sleep

 

9:30pm  Go to sleep on my own

12:30am  Wake to hear Adam crying for me. Go into his room, tell Marko I will sleep next to Adam, its fine.

02:00am Adam wakes to check I am still there. We both go back to sleep easily. Thank goodness!

03:30am Wake up, stare at clock

03:44am Get up, shower

04:30am Leave the house for the airport

04:50am Take photo of dashboard so can share woeful situation with blog readers

05:00am Check in for the flight

08:00am Arrive in Jhb

08:20am Collect rental car, leave for meeting. Should take 40 minutes to drive there.

08:45am Call colleague, tell him there is no way in hell I will make it by 9am. Joburg traffic is HORRENDOUS!!!

09:45am Arrive at meeting, flustered, irritated and embarrassed that I have kept the customer waiting.

11:00am Finish one meeting, start the next

02:00pm Drive back to airport. Plan to take an hour.

02:30pm WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH JOBURG TRAFFIC!!! I can’t believe these people do this every day of their lives. Start stressing that will miss flight and wont get to see babies before they go to sleep. Get a little anxious. Tell self to calm down.

02:50pm Arrive at airport, hand back rental car. Run to go through security etc.

03:00pm Notice all SAA flight delayed. Want to cry. Don’t.

6:00pm Arrive at Cape Town airport, pay for parking, head for home

6:45pm Arrive home to a joyous welcome.

7:30pm Kids to bed, glass of wine for me. So glad I didn’t sleep over.

9:30pm Go to sleep next to Adam. Let’s hope it’s a peaceful night

..... And around we go again.

(not all days are as bad as these, thank goodness or I would look older than my 98 years)

Comments

[Veronica]

Wow, busy day.

I have no idea how people can cope with terrible traffic. It drives me insane.

[Addie]

Silly question ... do you drive a Renault? You dash looks familiar, except on mine the radio dial is 702.

I know that Joburg traffic all too well. I travelled the Joburg-Pretoria-Joburg for ten years until I decided to call it quits at the end of last year!!!

[Maritza]

The dreaded day from hell!

At least you made it home on time. Joburg traffic is the pits and getting worse by the day!

[Julie]

Jhb traffic is hell on earth. Thank goodness for The Rude Awakening...
(Altho after 7 years of living on a little lump of sand called Bahrain, I am soooo spoiled - anything longer than a 20 minute drive is a schlepp, and waiting for more than one change of the robots is a traffic jam!)

[Marcia]

You poor thing!

I live in Jhb and still get stressed by all the traffic. I also don't know how people do the 1-hour commute each way, EVERY DAY.

[tanz]

I do that pta to jhb and back to pta. I think that is the worst traffic. day i sat in traffic for almost 3hrs.Sometimes you just have to do what you gotta do so that's all i know.

[Geohde]

I'm guessing that one must get used to never sleeping again?

I'm a 10 hours a night girl, and it clashes with my chosen career terribly.

Good thing that I can't seem to fall pregnant come clomid, IUI OR IVF thus far, or where would I be?

J

[Kim]

Wow, superwoman. You definitely deserved that glass of wine or two. Reminds me of the stress I used to feel when I had to get somewhere by a certain time and had to cope with London transport, tube strikes etc - nightmare.

[Belinda]

Somehow I think every working mom can relate to a couple of situations in your article in some way or another. The total feeling of helplessness when situations are out of your control, and you just need to "go with the flow" and face the consequences and making the right noises when you need to explain yourself, not just at work, but also at home - especially with the kids. This has happened a couple of times with me, making promises/suggestions to my eldest (7 years), and then something happens beyond my control and you have to go back and try to make him understand why he can't do it anymore. Usually I feel so guilty and try to over compensate for being a "horrible" mom and work interfering with my personal life. On the other hand I also feel that they must also learn and accept that things do not always work out as planned. Still, the guilt!

[Nicola]

Jo'burg traffic is INSANE. Was there last week and was nearly loosing my mind. No wonder there is so much road rage, terrible roads, too many cars! So glad to be home in CT. x

[amy]

If my average day was anything like that I would look 105 and be pushing up the daisies to prove it!

Glad to hear this is not your average day either, crimey the stress!

[Andrea]

Glad you made it through the day, and glad that not every day is like that!

[angel]

whew... ok now i'm tired all over again!

[Bernice]

You picked a winner week for Johannesburg traffic ... I spent 90 minutes on a 10km trip TWICE this week.