Asa's Concert

Hello everyone! Hope you've been having a great week so far. Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy belated birthday, much appreciated! My weekend was good, the weather was perfect for barbecues, going on a picnic and reading in the garden. And I got to do just that.

My week also started on a great note. On Monday evening, I went to see Asa play at the Carling Academy in London. Her gig was amazing! I knew I would enjoy her show because I love all the songs on her album, but she definitely exceeded my expectations.

I went with two of my friends, one of them had only heard three of her songs and he was so captured by her that he wanted to see her play live. And we were not disappointed. We got to the venue early and since I had bought our tickets ages ago, so we didn't have to join the long queue. We got in at 7.30pm and got a space right at the front of the venue (it was standing only) and we waited for the show to begin. The hall filled up quickly, most of the people in the audience were Nigerians, but there were also some French people and other nationalities there.

The show began with the opening act, Ben Onono. He sang four songs, one of them called Badagry Beach, another called Blue Moon, and he also played the piano brilliantly. After he finished, the audience clapped and cheered, and we waited expectantly for the main performer to come on.

Ben Onono

Some people in the audience started chanting "Asa, Asa, Asa". One by one, her band members came on the stage, took a bow and began playing their instruments. The crowd started cheering and then her back-up singer came on, smiling at us like she knew we were waiting for Asa herself to come on. Then we heard the beginnings of her song "360" and the crowd went wild. Asa came on stage singing the song and the audience joined in, singing all the words and screaming.

She was brilliant - in one word. She was dressed simply with minimum fuss and make up, but she had amazing stage presence and we were all mesmerized. She interacted with the audience, performed like the star she is, and brought all her songs to life. During a performance by the band, she danced and the girl can move! For most of the show, the audience sang along and she seemed pleased by the response she got. At some point, her back-up singer was staring at the crowd in surprise and amusement because we had taken over her job!

After the first song, she sang "Subway" and then before she started singing "Bibanke" she told us the gist about the song. It was deep. Next came a new song that is not on her album, something like "Iro Ko Da". She then asked a member of the audience to come and join her to sing on stage. So many people screamed and jostled for her attention, it was funny. She called two girls up to the stage and they sang beautifully. "Fire on the Mountain" followed and of course we sang along, cheered, clapped and whooped when the song came to an end.

She chatted a bit and then started telling us the story behind the "Awe" song, teasing us with the enticing bits about the young man, his aunt and his lover. I enjoyed that and I thought it was really good, because I love the song and I know what the words mean, but I hadn't really gotten the gist of it before. When she sang it all the words came to life and you could almost imagine the people that were in the situation she described.

The next song she performed was "Peace" which we all enjoyed. When she started "Jailer" and invited the audience to sing along with her, we all went crazy, jumping up and down, waving our arms, screaming the song at the top of our lungs, and it was great! We definitely rocked that venue!

Then she sang "Beautiful", but before then, she told us that the song was dedicated to all beautiful ladies in the crowd, and she tried to engage us to "sing" along with her, teasing us by saying we should sing very softly so that the guys in the audience would "feel" it. We cleared our throats and tried our best to copy her but most of us just descended into giggles. Then she sang the song and gave it so much depth and meaning, doing a nice dance in the middle, to the beat of the drums.

She said the next song "No One Knows Tomorrow" was going to be the last song. So we savoured it and when the song came to an end, she thanked the audience, took a bow and went off stage. Some people started to leave, but most people in the audience decided to hang around and started chanting "Asa! More, More!" Then she and the band came back on stage! She said they stopped the music because she is shy and when she mentioned her name, we did not encourage her. So we screamed ourselves hoarse and then she decided to perform a few more songs for us.

She sang "Eye Adaba" wonderfully well, then she also performed two songs: one by Nina Simone and another by Bob Marley. Lastly, she did a mixed medley of three of her songs and then the show came to an end. We cheered, clapped and screamed and she said we were making her miss home, so when next she comes to London she would love to see us again, and stop by our house for some egusi soup :-) She introduced us to her excellent band: there was Janet, her back-up singer, Jeff played the drums, Nicola played the Guitar, Rodi played Bass and Didier played the key boards. They all took a bow, while we all clapped and cheered for them.

In all, it was a great show and a really good performance by Asa. I think I'm now her biggest fan! Her band was great too, so the quality of the music was excellent. I wish she could do another show in London before the end of the year, I'll definitely be there. The only downside was that it started late and it was a Monday so most people had to leave immediately the show ended to get home.

Here are some of my amateur photos of the gig:

My Birthday, Appreciating Life and Writing

It was my birthday last weekend. At the beginning of the year, I kept on remembering that I would soon hit the "quarter of a century" mark and I thought it was so scary. I kept thinking: "What have I been doing since I was born? Have I made my mark on the world around me? Am I accomplishing my goals? If I was to review my life thus far, is there a legacy I can leave? Is my life and inspiration to others? Am I really fulfilling my purpose?" and so on. I was discussing these questions with my sister one day and she said, "You have to look at the things you have achieved so far and count them as blessings, then figure out the next set of goals you want to aim for". That cheered me up and inspired me, so as my birthday approached, instead of having a panic attack, I was able to relax and celebrate the totality of my few years of existence on the planet. And I look forward to many more! I get that feeling of "make time count" now, because every second adds up so quickly that I know I must utilise the rest of my life well. Well, because I don't know how much of it I have left you see. Funny enough, I actually feel good about growing older every year now, but maybe you should ask me again in ten years.

Putting all these sober reflections aside, I planned to let my hair down and have a good time so I had a party! It's not everyday one gets to reach a milestone in life is it? So I invited hubby, a few old friends (and some new ones too!) to celebrate with me, including two of my favourite girl bloggers: Mimi and Aloted. It was my first time meeting Aloted because we narrowly missed each other in Nigeria during the Christmas/New Year period last year. We all had fun at the bar on Saturday, eating, drinking, dancing, taking photos and generally having a great time. I got loads of presents too and I can truly say I had a fabulous birthday party. (I have a wishlist if anyone still wants to get me a present .. lol).

I don't know if this is a sign of growing older, but I've noticed that I'm now appreciating the people around me a lot more than I used to. It's not as if I've ever taken my family and friends for granted, but there is definitely something different. I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently and afterwards, I felt so blessed to have her in my life. She's one of the people that I know will give me the last clothes off her back if I needed it. Then my mum came to visit as well and I have also started appreciating her more. Then my sisters... they are like God-sent angels and they have been so supportive lately. Then there's my hubby, it seems I now look at him through different eyes. He truly is an amazing person and I'm blessed to be his wife. I hope I never forget that in all things, it is the people that love me and the people I love that have the most impact in my life.

I'm still working on my writing and it's so slow! I'm now appreciating all those books I see on the shelves in stores. I can now imagine the writer, taking time everyday to write each word down one by one. I can visualise how many times they wrote something and tore it up because it didn't sound right. I can picture them editing and re-editing their work before they got to the final draft. I can see them adding or taking out a character or sub-plot. Gosh I now know that writing a good story is not as easy as it looks! Sometimes I wish it were easier and I could just transpose all the thoughts in my head somehow and it would make sense to anyone that comes across it. But I can't. I have to physically write it out and read it out to myself until I get it right. And even then, I should be open to criticism.

Anyway let me not bore you off my blog with my rants, who sent me eh? It's getting warmer in England now (finally!), the sun is out and so are the miniskirts and shorts, ice-cream and lunches in the park. I'm out of here to enjoy the rest of the daylight. Who am I kidding, I'm off to my class! Hope you enjoy the rest of your week and you have a lovely weekend!

Next Trip, Stress and Stuff

I can't believe it's been a month since I last updated my blog. Time has flown by so quickly. It's not that I've had nothing to say or nothing has been going on in my life, quite the opposite in fact. I actually came to my blog determined to update it last week, I had so many things running through my mind. But after staring blankly at the screen for ages, I thought I'll give it a rest until I can bring myself to write.
The last month has been a particularly busy one. When I wasn't busy with work, I was travelling, and when I wasn't travelling, I was stressed out with my writing career. And upon all, I have been feeling ill with all kinds of unusual symptoms! I feel a lot better now health wise, I didn't go to work today so tat I could go and see the doctor. But I'm still stressing over some decisions that I have to make, and the answers seem to be eluding me. I guess I have to pray harder. Anyway on to the gist:

I've heard that once you get bitten by the travel bug, there is no cure! I've found that to be very true. It's like once you go on one trip, you want to go on more! So it is with this in mind, that soon after hubby and I came back from Belgium, we planned two short trips when we both had a break from work. We went to Sweden first, then Italy.
I'm getting used to Passport Control officers scrutinising my passport more closely when I arrive at airports. When we arrived in Sweden, we were in front of a queue that was moving quickly until we got to the desk. The lady stamping the passports spent less than 30 seconds looking at the red British and European passports, but when shown a green one, she checked on a list beside her desk and asked us many questions, before she was satisfied that we were okay to enter her country. Hubby and I just smiled when we finally got to the other side. It seems like when it comes to immigration matters, Nigeria is always on some dodgy list or the other so immigration officials have to ask us more questions.
We found our way from the airport into the main city centre by taking one of those airport transit coaches, that dropped us right in the Central Station. We walked around for a while, comparing the city of Stockholm with cities in UK and Belgium. I thought it looked quite different as the architecture of the old buildings were slightly different in Scandinavia compared to Western Europe. Again, we were glad to find that a lot of people speak English quite well. It was interesting to hear English spoken in a Swedish accent. I liked the language because it's somewhere between English and German so it was quite easy to guess what the signs and words on display meant. When we started getting tired and cold, we had lunch and then set off to find our hotel.
Either we suddenly became bad at reading maps or we were reading Swedish maps upside down, but it took us ages to find our hotel. We got lost a few times, but in the end we managed to find it. For the rest of the evening, I was too cold and tired to go looking for any more excitement so we just chilled indoors eating dinner and watching Swedish television until the next day.
The next morning we headed out to the town centre again, first we wanted to go to the Tourist Information Centre to get maps and guides to the city. But we couldn't find the office anywhere! So we decided to just wing it, and wander around on our own. What's the worst that could happen? We didn't get lost in the end, we managed to find a lot of interesting sights around Stockholm by following other tourists and checking the Street Maps in the city centre. Eventually we found the Old Town, the museums, Old Royal Palace, shopping area and a few other interesting sights. We stopped to have lunch at the Central Station and chilled out for a bit. We resumed our exploration of the city till evening, strolling through the city centre when we noticed a group of people of all races coming out of a church. Out of curiosity, we decided to pop in. It seemed like the Sunday evening service had just ended and people were meeting and greeting each other. It felt exactly like a church back in England, except that they were speaking a different language. A few people smiled at us, some people just looked at us with curiosity. We didn't stay long, we just strolled in and strolled out. It was a bit silly, but fun actually. On our way back to our hotel when it was nightfall, we finally found the tourist information office. Typical! After we had navigated our own way around the town. In any case, we noted the spot and decided it was still worth a visit the next day.
The next morning, we checked out of our hotel because we were flying out that night. We decided to make the most of our limited time in Stockholm. I wanted to browse the shops while hubby wanted to do other things, so in the end we split up and went separate ways. I went to the main shopping areas and noticed that there were a lot of H&M shops around, then it dawned on me that H&M is a Swedish company, so it made sense. I had fun wandering around, window shopping and mentally converting all the prices from SEK to pounds in my head. Eventually I bought a lovely scarf and a top and went to the tourist info centre to pick up a list of more attractions. But there didn't seem to be anything else I could do in a few hours so I met up with hubby for lunch, again in the main central station. We swapped gists of our adventures and while we relaxed, we were people-watching and noticed a difference between Stockholm and London. The people seemed to be a lot more laid back and chilled out compared to Londoners. Even at 5.00pm when we were expecting the hustle and bustle of rush hour, most people still strolled around casually. We took one last stroll around, but soon it was time for us to head back to the airport, so we said our goodbyes to Stockholm and got on the coach back to the airport. The next day we headed off to Venice... but that is another post for another day.

Here are some photos from Stockholm:





I'm excited at the moment though. I've got a birthday coming up soon and it's a milestone! I'm excited to be reaching another milestone in my life, but I'm thinking it's almost unbelievable! When was I a 9-year old running around and getting excited about reaching double figures? Now I'm a big girl! I'm planning to have a get-together with my friends next weekend. I'll let you know how it goes! Hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

PS: Thanks to the "update police" for checking up on me!

Asa (Nigerian Singer)

I've mentioned this talented lady before but I don't think I did her enough justice. I've been listening to her album over and over again and I still can't get enough of it. It's so so cool. I first heard it when I was in Lagos over the Christmas period and I fell in love with it instantly. So much so that I went and bought two copies of her CD immediately, one for me and one for a friend. I played it non-stop until I got back to the UK. When I gave my friend her own copy, she fell in love with it instantly too. Last Sunday, I played it in the car and another guy heard the first three songs and wanted the album. Then he played it at work and his boss wanted it too! There's just something about her music that captures you and blows you away. The album has now been released in the UK (you can get it from Amazon ) and it's getting great reviews!

I'm such a big fan of hers, so you can imagine my excitement when I found that she will be playing a gig in the UK soon, London in May. (For more details see her page at MySpace ). So if you are an Asa fan in the UK, don't miss a chance to see her in concert. I plan to go and I can't wait to see her perform her songs live. My favourite songs from the album are "Bibanke", it's so soulful with a hint of sadness but the music lifts you up and "Fire on the Mountain", the music is simple, but lyrics are deep and they make you think.

Here's a video of her first single "Fire on The Mountain":

Belgium Trip

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a nice time at Easter and didn't scoff too many Easter eggs. I usually like the Easter weekend because it cuts down two of my working weeks to four-day weeks! I had a good Easter break different from the norm, hubby and I went off to explore three cities in Belgium and we had a really nice time.

We arrived in Brussels on Friday and walked around a bit before going off to find our hotel. Unfortunately we didn't really get to explore it much because it was snowing most of Friday. It's quite a big city, very similar to London, and was quite easy to navigate around. We did notice that there were a lot less CCTV cameras in the Metro and the city centres than you would find in the UK. The people we met were quite nice and friendly. Initially, I had been worried about how we would get on since neither of us speaks French or Dutch, but it turned out most people also speak English there too, if you ask politely. When we first arrived, a man came up to meet us and said something in Dutch. Hubby and I shook our heads, then he spoke some rapid French, and we still shook our heads. Finally he spoke to us in English and then we could have a conversation! Experiencing that makes me want to rekindle my desire to learn a new language though! It would have been lovely to understand what people around us were saying. Maybe that should be on my to-do list for the later part of the year.

On Saturday we took the train for a day return trip to Brugge, which is a lovely tourist town just about an hour from Brussels. I preferred Brugge to Brussels, because it had a nice small town feel to it and there were more interesting things to see and do. It has a canal going through the main streets, and we went on a boat trip on it. There was also a bus tour and a horse-drawn carriage trip around the city, but hubby and I decided to walk around instead as advised by our guidebook. We discovered lots of interesting independent shops with the things that Belgium is known for: beer, lace shops, antique outlets and of course, not forgetting the famous Belgian chocolate shops. There were huge Easter eggs in the chocolate shops, all looking so tempting. I could stay in the chocolate shops for ages. Eventually when we got tired of walking around, we went to have a meal and chilled out for a bit before we continued our exploring. In the evening, we hopped on the train and headed back to Brussels. For dinner I tried the local dish "Mussels in Brussels" which is mussels cooked in a white wine and garlic sauce served in a huge pot with fries. It was different, but I enjoyed it, well I love seafood.

On Sunday morning, we took another train to Antwerp and that was nice too. It's also a big city with it's own Metro system and lots of interesting architecture from previous centuries. We explored the city centre as much as we could, walking around, mingling with lots of other tourists, taking photographs and noting down all the places of interest in our tourist guide. Our travel guide had said that it would not be possible to see all that Antwerp has to offer in one day though. And it was true because we wanted to go to the zoo and I wanted to see the fashion museum but we didn't have enough time. Before we left though, we got some souvenirs (Belgian chocolates!) from the shops to bring back home, and we had dinner, finished off perfectly with tasty Belgian waffles and ice cream! On Monday we had a little time to see Brussels before heading back to England. It was a short trip but it was fun and I would love to visit Belgium again in the not so distant future. For now though, I'm back in the UK, back to the real world – of more work and less fun, lol. I'm already looking forward to my next trip.
Here are a few photos from the trip:

I'm celebrating today: it's my mum's birthday and I just want to thank God for keeping her alive to see another year. The past year came up with unexpected things, but I'm just grateful that she is alive. I spoke to her this morning and she was really joyful too. I know she will live for many many more years... Amen. I'm rounding off my gist at this point; hope you have a lovely weekend!

Easter Time

It's almost the Easter weekend - yay!! Easter has come earlier than usual this year. Until yesterday I couldn't get into the holiday mood much. I had been feeling a bit down last week since Sunday the 9th. I wasn't coughing or sneezing, but I had headaches and absolutely no energy so I was lethargic and fatigued. I had to take a few days off work to see the GP and he just said the usual stuff: you should eat healthy, take exercise and have lots of rest etc etc. So I rested at home for a while doing nothing. I didn't even have the energy to do anything useful with my time. But I started getting bored, so on Thursday I finally dragged myself to work but it wasn't until Sunday before I finally started to feel better.

The weather in England hasn't exactly been cheerful either in the last few days. Even though it's Easter and spring is supposed to be here, it still feels very much like winter, which doesn't help. There are lots of nice spring and summer clothes in the shops now, but as the temperature stubbornly refuses to go up and weather forecasts are predicting snow and other woes over the Easter weekend, everyone is still wrapped up in their winter jumpers, scarves and gloves. I'm tired of wearing black, brown and grey already! I can't wait for the warmer weather so that we can all start to wear nice spring and summer colours like green, yellow, white, pink, orange, blue etc.

With Easter almost here, it means Lent is almost over too! I think I've benefited a lot from giving up Facebook in the last month. I suddenly found that I have more time to do other important stuff when I am at my computer (lol). I needed to get it out of my system for a while, so I've proved that I can survive without checking it 10 times a day! Now I hope I can have a healthy relationship with Facebook because I've realised it's a useful tool, but I should never let it control my time.

Hubby and I are hopping over to Belgium to spend the Easter break. I haven't been there before so I'm looking forward to it. Travelling has always been one of my hobbies but I had left it dormant for so long to pursue other things. So this year I have decided to revive my interest in seeing the world, broadening my mind and learning about other people and places. I think travelling is a great way of getting an education outside of classrooms, films and books: you are actually there in the adventure, experiencing things for yourself. I have been daydreaming for years about travelling all over the world and I don't want to postpone doing it anymore. So now is a good time to start, one city at a time.

I hope you are planning to enjoy the holidays too. Let's not forget that it's not all about chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies though. It's about reminding ourselves that Jesus came to earth to make the ultimate sacrifice of love: He gave His life for us! So He is the reason for the season. Hope you have a great Easter break!

"Phone-versation"

I've been quite busy in the last week, hardly doing anything apart from going to work, attending my classes and a bit of writing here and there. I'm looking forward to something to break the monotony. Maybe a party, a holiday or some great news. Fingers crossed...

I was in a taxi the other day and the driver received a call on his mobile. He's not allowed to put the phone to his ear whilst driving, so he put the call on speakerphone and the following conversation ensued:

Cab Driver: Hello?

(There was this very excited female voice on the other end)

Excited Voice: Hi Rob! Guess what night it is!

Cab Driver: It's Friday night. Does that mean it's my turn to buy the coffee and donuts?

Excited Voice: No! It's Donald's turn. But that's not why I'm calling!

Cab Driver: Ok, so what's the reason for your call?

Excited Voice: I asked you to guess what night it is!

Cab Driver: I don't know, you tell me.

Excited Voice: It's Traffic Light Night!!!!!

(At this point I was curious too and I listened with interest)

Cab driver: What's that then?

Excited Voice: You know, Red, Amber, Green!

Cab Driver: That's good, so you know your traffic lights.

Excited Voice: No, it's for the party tonight!

Cab Driver: Oh the party?

Excited Voice: Yeah, it's the dress code! You wear Green if you are on the pull and you are hoping to meet someone, Amber is if you are not sure but you are open to offers and Red is a definite No, No, No!

(I'm thinking this is fascinating)

Cab Driver: Oh right, so what time does the party start?

Excited Voice: It starts at 10 o'clock. All of us are going, so are you coming?

Cab Driver: I'm still on the beat, but I'll finish in an hour.

Excited Voice: Great! We'll be at the bar. So what will you be wearing?

Cab Driver: I don't know yet, but I'll go home and get changed and meet you there. Just make sure there's coffee and donuts.

Excited Voice: Okay!! Byeeee!!

LOL! I thought that dress code is a brilliant idea. I repeated the conversation to hubby and after we had a laugh over it, he said if he got an invitation to that party, he would wear green just to confuse people. I said I would turn up in Amber. I think some guys would go for the girls wearing Red just for the challenge....

Hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

Wrong Blogger Connection

Her blog was one of the first blogs I came across soon after I joined blogspot in 2006. She came to my blog to leave a "Welcome to Blogville!" comment, so I decided to pay her blog a visit. I enjoyed reading her archives so much that I immediately bookmarked the link. She came across as a very down-to-earth, fun-loving and intelligent person, with a great sense of humour. I started visiting her blog regularly, leaving comments and urging her to update.

From her posts, I got to know more about her. We seemed to have a lot of things in common. We were about the same age, she was a Christian like me, we had similar hobbies and interests. I found out that she lived in Lagos, had just finished her service year and was working in one of the new banks. She was single and looking to meet Mr Right. Her many tales of disastrous dates she went on kept her readers hooked. Sometimes though, she wrote inspiring and encouraging posts that everyone could identify with. Her blog became very popular in blogville and I even forwarded her link to some of my friends who were not bloggers to read.

One day I wrote a sad post and she sent me an email after reading it to cheer me up. I was very grateful and soon we started corresponding by email and we became blog-pals. Then one day I got a Facebook friend request from a name I didn't recognise. I ignored it, until the same person sent me a message, and it was my blog pal! Somehow she had tracked me down and discovered my identity. I didn't mind at all, and I was actually flattered that she took the trouble to search for me on Facebook, and that she was willing to reveal her own identity too. I accepted her friend request at once, and we became Facebook pals as well. I went through her albums and I saw that she was really pretty. It turned out we even had a mutual friend who had gone to the same university as she did. We kept in touch regularly, writing on each other's walls and leaving comments on each other's photos and stuff.
Then towards the end of last year, I sent her an email:

"Hey girl, guess what? I'll be coming to Lagos for the Christmas and New Year break! I should be around for three weeks. Do you want to meet up?"

I got a reply a few hours later. She sounded excited and her reply was:

"Wow girl that's great! We must definitely see o. Let me know exactly when you'll be landing. I can't believe I'll soon meet you, gosh it feels like I've known you for ages already. My number is xxxxxxx. Give me a call when you land in my town"

I looked forward to meeting her, as I thought it would be one of the highlights of my trip.

I arrived in Lagos one Wednesday morning and was met by my aunt and uncle I would be staying with. Immediately I could, I got a sim card and bought credit to inform my friends, including blog-pal that I was in town. I had so many people to see, places to go and things to do in the three weeks I would be staying for. My aunt was also planning to celebrate her 50th birthday party on Boxing Day. She wanted it to be a grand affair so I joined her and my cousins with the running around and preparations.

After a few days, I noticed that my aunt and her husband were not on very good terms. They seemed to be either snapping at each other half the time, or ignoring each other completely. I asked my cousin about it, one afternoon, when we were in the car together.
"Kemi, what's going on with your mum and dad?"
She looked at me and I could see she wasn't keen to explain. "Well they are having some problems"
"I noticed. What kind of problems?"
She concentrated on the road ahead of us. "I can't explain right now" she said. "I'll give you the full gist later".
I was curious but I could sense her reluctance and I decided to let it go, hoping that my aunt and uncle would work their problems out.

Meanwhile I had been speaking to my blog-pal regularly and we finally arranged a time and place to hook up. We decided to meet at the Silverbird Galleria. I was so excited to meet her that I got my cousin to drop me there an hour early. While I waited for her to arrive, I browsed the media store, bought some books and a magazine. Then I went to the top floor, bought some popcorn and browsed the mag to while away the time. Soon I got a text from her and I texted back, telling her to meet me at the top.

I recognised her immediately I saw her from her facebook profile. She was even prettier in person. We greeted each other like we were long-lost friends, which in a funny way, we were. Soon we were chatting away about this and that over lunch . We got on so well that no one observing us would guess that we were just meeting each other for the first time. I took some photos with my camera and I promised to put them on Facebook later. After the meal, we saw a movie and afterwards, she had to leave as she had a long journey back home. I wanted to meet her again if it was possible.
As we walked down the stairs, I asked her, "Are you free on Boxing Day?"
"Uhm, let me see, I've got a wedding, one of my colleagues from work. Why?"
"My aunt is celebrating her 50th birthday that day"
"Oh I see, whereabouts is the party happeneing?"
I told her the venue of the hall we were using.
"Oh that's not too far from the reception venue. I'll see if I can leave the reception early to come for the party, but I'll let you know"
"It would be great if you could make it" I said.
Outside the galleria, we hugged each other goodbye and then she got into a cab, while I waited for my cousin to come and pick me up.

On the day of my aunt's party, my cousins and I were so busy helping to set up everything and attending to guests, that I almost forgot my blog-pal sid she might come. I did notice that my aunt and uncle seemed to have put their problems aside, at least for the benefit of the guests. They were smiling and posing for the cameras throughout the party and my uncle didn't leave his wife's side for one minute. They even looked the part, when they were on the dance floor together.
While I was busy serving a particularly fussy woman, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and I saw my blog-pal smiling at me. I was so glad she could make it.
"Hi girl!" I said. "Please take a seat, I'll join you shortly"
But then she said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't stay. I have to go"
I was surprised and I said "Ah ah, you've just come now. Wait for me I'm coming"
She shook her head and took my arm. "I can't stay, I'm in a hurry. I just came to see you"
I asked a steward to attend to the woman I was serving and walked outside the hall with her. She looked uncomfortable as we made our way out of the hall. I was slightly disappointed that she couldn't stay, but I said okay and I saw her off to the exit . She waved at me and promised "I'll call you tomorrow!"
So I hugged her and waved goodbye.
I turned back to go into the hall and as I was taking the stairs at the entrance, I saw my cousin walking towards me as fast as her tight Ankara skirt and high heels would let her. She had a very angry and disgusted look on her face.
"What are you doing with that girl?" she demanded. "Where do you know her from?"
I told her that blog-pal was a good friend and a very nice girl.
My cousin looked as if she was about to slap my face.
"That girl is my dad's girlfriend!" she shouted. "She's the one causing problems in their marriage! How dare you invite her to my mum's party?"
I stared at her in shock. I could not reconcile the words she was saying with the lovely person I had just said goodbye to.
"Wh-what do you mean?" I managed to stammer.
"I said she's my dad's mistress! And you're telling me she's your friend?"
"I'm so sorry, I-I didn't know", I croaked.
"You better hope my mum didn't see both of you together" my cousin hissed and turned her back to me, walking away.
I stood there, still reeling from the information I had just heard. It just didn't make sense. I couldn't believe that the girl I had been reading her blog for months, become virtual friends with, and hung out with a few days ago, was the same person dating my uncle and threatening my aunt's marriage.

I had the feeling that I wouldn't be hearing from her again.

Disclaimer: This story is not completely true. It's a mixture of real events and some of my over-active imagination.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to you! Hope you have a nice day, perhaps with an unexpected gesture from a secret admirer or your partner. I'm having a lovely one with my permanent valentine. Hubby tricked me this morning and at the end of it I discovered a bunch of roses, chocolates and a card, which was really sweet! Unfortunately though, the rest of my day is going to be somewhat dry. I'm at work all day and I have a class to attend this evening so I won't be back home until very late. But we've got some groovy plans for tomorrow and the weekend. I love celebrating valentine's day although I don't think we need one day in the whole year to remind us to love or appreciate each other. We should do that at every opportunity shouldn't we?

Today reminds me of how we used to mark valentine's day in secondary school. Then it was fun to anticipate getting a card and presents from your "secret admirer" or your boyfriend. Well for most girls it was fun especially the pretty and popular girls back in school. Meanwhile for the guys, it was a competition to see who would get the most impressive things for the girls. Guys would save up for months to buy the cutest teddy bear, the biggest box-card, the odd bottle of wine, chocolates and tinned cookies. And if a girl was lucky, her admirer would be a rich guy that could afford to get her picture frames and personalised jewellery. There were often touching love letters to go with the gifts which the lucky recipient and her friends would laugh over and dissect every single word.

Unfortunately for the guys there were no guarantees. I remember one poor chap who tried to impress a girl with a card and chocolates, but she sent it back to him because he was too 'razz' in her opinion. Then there was another guy who had spent all his money on expensive stuff for a girl. He went all out to impress her with dozens of stuff, but we later heard that she slapped him the next day! And who can forget about the guys that would suddenly stop talking to you at the beginning of February and resume the friendship three days after the 14th? Classic moves!

Anyway back to the present, when I went out for my lunch break this afternoon, there were long queues at all the supermarkets, full of guys clutching cards, chocolates and roses. It was all very amusing. And a guy in my office is cracking me up now, saying valentine's day has turned into nothing more than a con by retailers to charge extra for flowers, cards and dinner in restaurants. While I agree with him to some extent, I still think it's up to individuals and couples to make of it what they want to. Funny enough, I read somewhere that couples are more likely to have a big row and break up around this time. That's probably due to dashed hopes and unreasonable expectations.

Well that's about it for my ramblings today. I hope you enjoy the day and the rest of your week.

February, Lent and Other Gists

Hey everyone! I hope you are having a great week. It's February and not just that, it's the fifth day already! Time is really flying by. This year, February has 29 days so make the most of the extra one! I trust that you had a great time in the last month and are looking forward to the rest of the year. Even if January wasn't so great, well there is the rest of the year to look forward to.

Usually about this time, a lot of New Year resolutions have been forgotten or discarded. If you made any resolutions at the beginning of the year, are you still keeping them? Or have your resolutions been swept under the carpet, in the busyness of day-to-day life? Filed somewhere between "I'll come to that later" and "I don't have time"? Or perhaps you've just simply forgotten about it and gone back to business as usual. It is really hard to make changes in life and procrastinating is one of the main stumbling blocks to progress. Sometimes I've made resolutions with all seriousness and before I know it, I've found myself slipping back to my old ways. It takes time and concerted effort to change or break a familiar pattern or habits. So if you really want to change something, keep at it and if you fail once or twice, don't give up. Pick yourself up and start again.

Speaking of resolutions, the period of Lent is upon us again. It seems to have come earlier this year hasn't it? Anyway, this afternoon my friend and I were talking about what we could give up for 40 days. At first I thought my life is pretty boring - I don't watch much TV, don't drink, don't smoke, don't eat too much chocolate, etc - so what could I give up? Then I thought, well I do spend too much time on Facebook. So that's what I'll be doing, no Facebook for me for the next 40 days. I'm actually looking forward to it. I think I will find that not going on facebook for a while will free up my time to do more productive things! I'll let you all know how it goes.

Update on my last post: I'm back at work! Yeah I decided to take up my previous employer's offer and I started again yesterday. When I walked into the reception yesterday morning, everyone was like, "Hey, welcome back!" "Did you have a good time off?" "How come you're back?" etc etc. It feels funny and yet familiar to be back at my old job, seeing my old colleagues and getting familiar with the things I used to do a few months ago. It's only till August though, so I'm not planning to put down any firm roots. There's no way I would stay in the job permanently, knowing what I now know. I would never be fulfilled in my career being an accountant again so I have to keep up with my writing. Someone said to me "Now you are back and soon it will feel like you never left". I smiled when she said that, but in my mind I knew it will never be the same. I've tasted what it feels to be free of the "dead-end job" trap and I know that I never want to be stuck in it for the rest of my life. Life is too short to be wasting my time in an unfulfilling job! That's what will motivate me to continue pursuing my other career goals because my dreams, goals, passion and skills are not in this profession. I'm doing this because I need some liquidity! I had actually forgotten about the journey to work aspect, so it's been funny getting back into the rush hour commuting malarkey again. That's the one part I definitely won't miss when I leave in the summer.

As Lent begins tomorrow, it's Pancake Day today! I'm making some, and I plan to eat them with bananas and whipped cream, absolutely delicious. Have fun eating yours and enjoy the rest of the week. Stay blessed.