there and back again

so tired. have had the longest week in the world, and its barely begun. jesus help me for the rest for the time, as think i may drown myself in a bucket before then. im sounding melodramatic. dammit. but its been bad i tell you.

'brief' explanation: had a meeting for work in paulpietersburg yesterday, which is almost in mpumalanga its so far from durbs- roughly a 4.5 hour drive. my boss and i had to go and meet our clients, discuss future plans, problems and issues. oh joyous rapture i hear you say.. exactly. we left at 5 in the morning. i haven't been awake or proactive at that hour of the morning in, oh god AWHILE, never mind getting ready for work at 4am, and preparing for the day. i was driving up with my boss, a nice enough, but ever so slightly odd man. joyous factor number 2. it wouldn't actually have been half bad had i been driving my own car, listening to rad tunes etc, but no, was forced to listen to random comments and information snippets about the areas we were passing through, or about the meeting, or information we needed for the project. the problem with this was that he kept starting to talk as i was falling asleep, or zoning out or about to grab my book. fortunately he drove fucking fast (slightly disturbing at over 140 lm p/h), and i was able to fall asleep for a decent period. otherwise the meeting was never ending, i was starving hungry so drank too many cups of coffee, and was borderline asleep all day. it was a painful time; most of the people in the meeting were like my boss- middle aged, white, afrikaans men. ones who kept breaking into afrikaans throughout the meeting, despite the rest of us being english or zulu speakers!? bloody manly bonding. i drove on the way home (his car, hah), and luckily the guy fell asleep for most of the way which allowed me to finally relax and zone out.. despite the constant struggle of not falling asleep. the funny thing was that his breaks are way stronger than mine, as is the power steering (my little golf dont have fancy features, sniff) so in the beginning i nearly sent him flying into the windscreen when i had to stop behind a car. i had to laugh real quietly.

one problem: the travel bloat hits me hard in situations like these. i sound like dooce, without wanting/ aiming to do so, but its a true and horrid affliction. the worry of not being able to make it to the loo when i want to freaks me out, as does spending hours upon hours in a car with my boss (without the joy of ipod, book, or the ability to fart whenever i want to). problems i tell you. needless to say, today i feel like shit, and my stomach is so unbelievably sore. i also keep spontaneously falling asleep in strange positions around the house where i am trying to work. oh that the other joy- he (the boss) decides to inform me yesterday that one of my reports needs to be finished by wednesday, thus giving me oh, all of ONE AND HALF DAYS to finish the fucking thing. due to the sporadic sleeping sessions, this deadline may not be as achievable as my boss thinks. dammit. so i bought some bioplus this afternoon to keep me going this evening while i attempt to get this shit thing done.

ha, we'll believe it | when we see it || right.

oh the not so funny side to all of this: that im going back to paulpietersburg in two weeks time, to stay for THREE days there doing workshops with the main stakeholders in the area. let me repeat: THREE DAYS STAYING THERE. oh im a lucky, lucky girl. hell, at least i'll be driving by myself!