As usual the Man from over the road woke us with his Islamic chanting at five, and the chickens crowing, we got up and had bread and cheese with juice and coffee for breakfast. John then tried downloading the photos from previous days, it takes so long. Finally we decided to go back to Osu where we noticed they have an Oxford Street. We leapt in a taxi and agreed on 8 cedis.

The taxi took us to the main shopping street, named after London's Oxford Street as soon as we got out of the taxi, and finished with the cash machine, people were there in your face, one lad showing us pictures he'd painted, another in a wheel chair with piles of bracelets, another asking our names, it was manic, but finally John brought a painting influenced no doubt by the way they gave him a Ghanian name , John the Baptist Quame, don't think it will catch on! we were walking up the street, when John found a barber's, so while he had a haircut, I took in some more rays, when I felt someone touching my arm, it was one of the boys from before who had asked our names, he had woven us each a black green and gold book mark, mine with "Mandy" alongside a Ghanaian flag on and Johns with "Mr John in Ghana", so I paid them. When John had finished we wandered up the road to get a cool drink, they don't do coffee shops .M

This road may be called Oxford Street and it may be a major shopping street but there the similarity ends. Firstly it was twice as busy as Oxford street ever gets and secondly, and these two things don't go well together, there were open drains down the middle of the pavement on each side. The stalls lining the pavement in front of the established lockup shops were the usual fascinating mix of "chop" or fast food, souvenirs, car parts, belts and just about everything else you could think of. There was a third tier of retailers on Oxford Street as well, the mobile traders, in their hundreds these people walked up and down the pavements carrying their wares on their heads. Some had huge foam blocks, about 3 ft by 2 ft with hundreds of pairs of sunglasses mounted on them in an instant display, others had ice buckets containing dozens of bottles of mineral water, others had wooden display cases full of loaves of bread or pastries, the variety and ingenuity was endless and impressive and never did we see any of them drop anything, not even nearly.

I was well pleased with my new hair cut although I think I wuz dun! I agreed 8 cedis but then the guy in front of me only paid two. Any way I can console myself that I'm putting a little money into a needy economy although Mandy just thinks I'm a mug! After strutting about a bit enjoying the breeze on my newly shorn head we chose a street café to sit in the shade and watch the world go by. I'm quite surprised that it seems very difficult to get a coffee anywhere. At best you will get a pot of hot water and a Nescafe sachet with a drop of carnation! We settled for a Fanta and sat in the shade for a while watching the world go by. Even here we were not safe from people invading our bubble and the chap sitting at the next table told me that I reminded him of his deceased father's business partner and wondered if I could help him with some money or a business opportunity. Sorry Samuel, I can't! We sat a little longer then wandered down the street to find somewhere to eat. Our trusty guide book suggested that we try Frankies for a burger or hotdog. "The best burger this side of the Atlantic!" claimed one American subscriber. Well sorry guys. We didn't rate it….and it was expensive. However the air conditioned first floor restaurant did provide a comfortable vantage point for some more people watching and soon it was beer o'clock. We wandered through the throngs to the Penta Hotel where we had arranged to meet Kojo, our Ghanaian friend and ex colleague and sat in the pavement side bar to wait with a beer and do some more people watching whilst waiting for Kojo. At one point a chicken wandered into the bar, a photo of which would have made for a wonderful caption competition. Unfortunately before we could get the camera out the barman chased it out. It was also obvious from the looks and comments that Obruni in a bar were much rarer than poultry!

Kojo texted us to let us know that he would be late (well he is Ghaniaian) so we took the opportunity to visit the Koala supermarket a few yards down the road and stock up on supplies. There were security guards in the carpark and on both doors and a completely different class of people populating the air conditioned corridors, wearing expensive fabrics and jewelry. The quality of the food on the shelves however I would put somewhere between Spar and Quicksave. Mandy noticed that they had some very peculiar looking mushrooms and I was disappointed to find that there was no milk at all!

We returned to the Penta Hotel Bar and fairly soon were joined by Kojo who let us down by not knowing anywhere to eat in Accra, so we took him to the Buka restaurant where we had eaten yesterday and a jolly good time was had by all! We got him drunk (It only takes a couple) and got him a taxi and soon we were in our own taxi winding through the traffic back to Darkuman and our last night in the Crystal Hostel.