The office is slowly finally coming back to life after the holidays. Thankfully, the CEO is yet to return to the office and so I am using this time to complete some of the pending assignments. I am hoping that he will not come back with a new list of things to do and throw my plans for the year into disarray. Speaking of plans, Shiro and I had a rather interesting joint life coaching session on the last day of last year.
It all started with our family trip to the Coast. Since I enjoyed myself so much last year, I decided to go along with Shiro’s suggestion that we join her chama (investment club) families in going to the coast. In fact, I have been hooking up with some of the husbands to watch football and we even have a rather vibrant Whatsapp group.
To make things interesting for the children and for everyone, Shiro suggested that we take the SGR to and from the coast. I really like the SGR option since it translated to huge savings of about 60 percent plus I wanted to get a taste of the famous SGR.
The actual trip was rather uneventful and somewhat boring especially since I had to give up some good whisky, which I had carried for the trip since I was informed that we were not supposed to bring own drinks. I could not stand the thought of surrendering the drink to the attendants, so I gave the bottle to our cab driver who seemed very pleased with life.
I must say that I felt that I was back in geography and history class as the train snaked its way to the coast. Once again, I was thankful for Shiro’s organisational skills for she had arranged a fairly large-sized house for us as well as having a maid and chef to make sure we had a good time.
Our living arrangements meant that while the children enjoyed their time in the pool, we had time to sit down eat and drink and have conversations. Of all the members in the group, I like a couple Ian and Janet who always seem to have interesting views on life. I admire the fact that they have made it from scratch and now own several clothing shops in the city. It was during one afternoon drink up that Ian asked me, “Josphat, how do you and your wife set your annual goals on what you plan to achieve?” I really do not like those kinds of questions since they leave me feeling like I am not doing a good job with my life.
I was planning to evade the question but Shiro jumped in and said, “we make our individual plans and share only the top line details.” This opened a whole conversation where Ian gave me a lecture on how they plan as a family and how they have enlisted the services of a family life coach. I was groaning inwardly when I heard Shiro say, “this sounds like just what we need, we should meet this life coach.” One of the things I have learnt over time is to avoid any public debates with Shiro especially on things she seems to like so I opted to stay mute on this issue.
The rest of the holiday went off in a blur - lots of drinking, eating and endless discussions on politics and the economy. I did not think much of the couples’ life coach thing until a few days after our return to the city when Shiro told me, “you need to avail yourself on Saturday morning for breakfast with our life coach.” I said, “I thought we would discuss it further.” She giggled and said, “I know you are the king of procrastination, so I decided to take matters in my own hands.” She then proceeded to give me a booklet and say, “ you need to complete this pre-work ahead of our session.” Why oh why?
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