Decades: Chunks of Time

This week, starting from the beginning (Sunday of course), till the end (Thanksgiving Service on Sabbath - Saturday). It started off with Busayo Ola's wedding on Sunday, and ends with Biola Kolade's wedding thanksgiving service on Saturday. I actually attended both weddings. I use the word actually because, for the first, it was a painful sacrifice, and for the second, I went out of my way to attend it.The first wedding day dawned with my head being pounded continually by a sledge hammer (Literarily, I woke up with a blasting headache). I was shivering and I had body pains all over. These were my usual Malaria symptoms, but I wasn't going to allow anything to hold me down that day, not even the sledge hammer.I had to go to the bride's house to get my attire, and it turned out to fit me like a second skin - too tight. I had actually visited the house twice to get the dress, which was sown for me by the Bride's tailor. I had sent my measurements via text to the Bride&

I got many reactions when I got home on Sunday. My mum practically lifted me off the floor. With tears in her eyes, she could not believe that she had survived without seeing me for three whole months. I was just happy - then surprised at the nice and gentlemanly way my brother (who's now a handsome young man, by the way) was behaving. I got served breakfast in Dad's room, and a bottle of wine was popped in my honour. I was touched. Then I entered my room, and found out that the clothes I left behind were two sizes bigger, and baggier. I had to start picking what to wear. God help me! I like feeling trim, but I have to keep on reminding myself that I am in my father's house, and it has this power to make one really fat, even if you spend jut two weeks. Honestly. Its a tried and tested statement. So I am watching it. Big time.

Man proposes but God disposes. At least it was so in my case. I had great plans to carry out when I got to Lagos, but here I am with less than half carried out. And time is running out - its so fast! I wonder where the day goes everyday. The weddings are so close now, its like its tomorrow. I cant wait! I still have to get my dress for the first one, but I hope it wont need adjustments. I seem to have lost so much weight - my mum screamed when she saw me. My whole family still cant believe that I could be this slim - and I am still complaining that I seem to stop at size 12! Don't mind me. I'll fill you in with each detail!

I was a virgin until recently. A virgin flyer that is (what was running through your mind?). I had never travelled by air prior to the 12th of August, 2007. This was due solely to the fact that I was an obedient child, and we were forbidden to fly because of the terrible state of most of the aircrafts in Nigeria (before). But since the multiple plane crashes, things have indeed gotten better in the airport system, only that my father didn't want to hear that. NO FLYING. Period. Then I got my chance, last week, when my Mum flew to Kaduna, and Dad was stiff-lipped angry. (So angry he was silent for a while). She told me, and added directions on how to leave the airport when I arrived in Lagos, if I chose to fly. Of course I chose to fly! And it was a lovely experience. Compared to the 10 hour journey by road (My Dad doesnt just insist on you travelling by road, he also selects which bus you travel in. Very thorough man), it was a fantastically short journey for me. In less than one h

It looks like everyone that I knew ten years ago will be in Nigeria this August. It brings back the title of this blog: Chunks of time. Ten years have gone by - more likely flown by and everyone has become someone else. I wonder how we will all relate to each other. Some of us have kept the communication going all this while, but some have not. The question will always come up: "So what are you doing now? Where are you based?". Thank God I have an answer. It'll not be funny if I didn't. Ten years have gone by, what have you been doing with your life? Have you been living in the past? Or dreaming about the future? What plans have you brought to fruition? Are you what you wanted to be ten years ago? All these questions keep going through my head. Weddings are events of joy and happiness. They are avenues that God created for us to see that love does exist. And they are constant reminders that no one, absolutely nobody, stays in the same spot. Everyone [should] moves for

I am sure I have lost most of whatever following I had cultivated. Its not that I didnt hae anything to say, just that I had not been able to log onto the net. Over. So, I am getting ready to fly down to Lagos to attend the two weddings of the century - for those of us that attended ASHS anyway! And I can't wait! But I have to finish the work in front of me before I go. Arrrrgh! ASHS stands for Adventist Seminary High School, which is now Babcock University High School. One of the weddings coming up has both of them - bride and groom as alumni, from the days the school was started, and to think they started their relationship just after they entered college. It makes me wonder who the cynic was that said love does not last. Cos if I back date it, the relationship started in 1998 or thereabout. Its almost 10 years now, and they are not only still together, getting married! Who said love cannot stand the test of time? They have also been separated for long periods of time - about 5 y

Its amazing how quickly the body system weakens once there is illness. Within two hours, I felt like I didn't own my body anymore. I had to leave the office immediately.... God is in control. Will fill you in with the details later... Vicky isnt in town, by the way - he went to Lagos, and ended up staying over at my house, and winning everybody's heart anew. In fact, I was duly informed that I was not needed in Lagos as long as he was staying on - by my own mother. Imagine that. Meanwhile, his folks think its because he's not in town that I fell sick. hmm......God knows. :D. Have a lovely day to you - whoever you are!

There was a Christian program at my host's church, from the first to the seventh of July, and I missed the first day cos I was tired. I attended the second and everything started working out right. Some might say its my faith, others might say its 'pure coincidence', but I have been thanking God. On the Friday, the week before the program, all I had was two thousand naira in my account. I had money tied up elsewhere - especially in LAgos, but there was no way I could access it from here, so I was broke, and looking lovely (did my hair after two months of no activitiy for the poor thing) but I was praying. By the middle of the week, I got not one, not two, but three website contracts. By Friday my bank account was really smiling at me, and I was really smiling up at God. I finished the program - it ended on 07/07/2007. And here I am today with two more site jobs gotten yesterday. I danced and praised God, then I was humbled by it all. It takes the grace of God to move forwar

Its oozing out of the house right now. Its amazing how quickly death can snatch a person away from you, in the blink of an eye. We just lost a very good man, a man who, in four weeks would have become a father, a hardworking individual who struggled through life to reach where he got to - until yesterday. The man traveled to Ibadan, then stopped over to pick up his very pregnant wife, and maid, to take them home, when he was stopped by police men and asked to step out of the car. He did as he was told, and was shot to death the second he closed the car door. For apparently no reason. Upon reporting to the police, the grief-stricken wife was told that the men that killed her husband were not policemen, but thieves dressed in police clothes. But these men took nothing from them. Nothing at all. And he still spoke to his boss in the afternoon yesterday, giving him progress report on his duties, and postponing explanation till later in the night. He didn't know he would not see the ni

Saturday is going to be the seventh day of the seventh month of the two thousand and seventh year. Very significant, to Christianity here in Nigeria, at least. Churches are holding programs on that very day, but we Seventh day Adventists hold all Saturdays sacred. Sacred as in we worship on that day and try to keep it holy. Now I am not going to enter the nitty- grtty of religion, or sect or the Bible. All I just want to say is that wherever we are, let's try to do some good on that day. Let us reach out to someone on that day. Let us bless someone in some way on that day. Let us go out of our way to put a genuine, heartfelt smile on somebody's face on that day. Let us assume the role of an angel to someone on that day. We will never know how far a little bit of kindness can reach, but we will always know that we did some good in the world, this millenium. The next time we'll get a day like this again is 07-07-3007. If you know you'll be around then, no problem. You can

1. Wifey 2. Baby Girl 3. Side Piece 4. Jump Off 1) Wifey is the sexiest, most successful and most respected of all the women. She is loved, needed and wanted by her man...she is VIRTUALLY IRREPLACEABLE. She is the girl that the guy loves and will always love, he never wants to see her with another man....BUT he will cheat on her with Baby Girl until he is mature enough to realize that if he gets caught or fucks up in any way and loses Wifey, he would be screwed, and NEVER be happy again. Wifey gets along with mom, is independent, never nags, loves to dress sexy for her man, can cook and loves to keep a clean house. Wifey gets called 5 or 6 times a day. Drawback of Wifey, she loves public displays of affection...which might interfere with the acquisition of a Side Piece. 2) Baby Girl is ALWAYS just as hot as wifey and usually has a very active social life...she IS replaceable, thinks she's the next Wifey, but will only be Wifey if an extreme disaster takes place. Baby Girl gets some

Guess what? The person in question read my blog (Yes! He found it and read it! Imagine this small world, and that he actually knew it was him. Hmm...The conscience is a powerful thing). So to clear the air, he took the time to send me some off lines. Let's just say, the air is cleared, but it doesn't mean I'm deleting or editing the first Karma . Its stays kaput! As for NYSC camp, that is a really hot topic. The stuff that goes on in camp - just three weeks o, hmm.... Its amazing how loose they say people get, having sex everywhere - the matching field, the bush, everywhere! And they do it like there's no tomorrow - even married women. There is even one tale I heard of a married woman answering a call from her husband and asking about the kids while another guy was suckling at her breasts. Imagine that. Well I wont say much more than that, cos I havent gone to camp yet myself! So, come September, I will definitely try to notice everything (NOT PARTICIPATE O!) so that

Are there any more Good Samaritans in this world? Something happened to me today - I got to the office and remembered that I had to buy airtime onto the phone I use to browse. I dropped all, took some money, and practically ran to the store that sells the cards. I got there, placed an order, and then dipped my hands into my pocket, and drew empty. I traced my path back to the office, and noticed some oddities. There is a phone kiosk on the way to the store, and while I was hurrying past, there were a lot of guys standing by it. When I passed, they hushed up, and I was thinking it was because of my hair do (yeah I had my hair done on Friday, didn't want to enter the new month looking that raggedy). As I retraced my steps, I noticed that they were not there - only seconds later. Even the guard that I had greeted five seconds earlier had disappeared. It didn't take all of five seconds, all of it. And the money was gone. Thinking I had left it in my hurry in the office, I went stra

Remember that old hit song that we were banned as kids, from even humming back in the day? "Lets talk about sex baby"? Well, I was thinking about things last night before I slept off and I realized that we, as an emerging, more educated older generation still have a lot of work to do concerning sex education of the younger ones. But the vital question is, How much do we ourselves, know ? Its amazing how low I scored in the Quizz on www.itsyoursexlife.com just now. There are so many things to learn about it, and some of us are so ignorant, that some teenagers in public schools in Lagos would feel on top of the world if they knew. We need to empower ourselves, not only to help ourselves, but to help the younger generation, who are browsing the Net at the tender age of 12 (Yes its tender here in Naija, and yes, give a child 100 naira and she'll be heading to a cyber cafe in the next five minutes). They are exposed to a lot of things like porn, and other terrible stuff. Do I

Turns out karma does exist. I had a case of the ex this morning. My ex calls from Holland and after all the 'hello's and 'how's the weather over there's, he surprises me by hashing up our history. See this guy and I had a relationship until he went for NYSC (that's Nigerian Youth Service Corps to those that do not know, and it is compulsory for every graduate). During the three weeks camp, I heard from reliable sources that he went haywire and decided to make sure those that donated condoms to the corpers didn't waste their money....now there is a chance he might read this so i will cut it short. NYSC Three weeks camp is another issue for another day - someone please remind me, ok? He broke up in the nastiest way - he just cut communication. Just like that. I cried twice over him, before brushing away the tears and moving on. Now we are good friends - online. And he calls me today to apologize for all the wrong he did me, saying that the person he became dur

Someone just asked: how do you define chunks? No dictionary definitions o! Give heartful ones abeg! :D

When is it ok to finally say yes to a guy? When do reach the maximum fronting level for a guy, before saying, 'ok, I will date you'? Cos someone is fronting for my brother and its starting to itch me big time.....

Imagine what happened yesterday as I was going home. Due to the fuel hike, there were no kabukabus (for those of you that don't know, kabukabu is usually a small car that the owner uses like a sort of general taxi and picks passengers within a route) so I took a bus halfway. I alighted, and took another bus (that doesn't sound right somehow). Then the alarm for my medication started ringing. I quickly signaled an ice cream vendor and bought the first one I could see - strawberry yogurt. He cut it and handed it to me, and i threw my pills down my throat (For those battling with malaria regularly, try artesunat. Its very effective - this is the first time I got it back this year). I look down at the yogurt in my hand and my eyes fell on the expiry date: 24/06/07. I was pissed. Not because I had been duped, but because the vendor was actually aware that it had expired. People, if I was not in Nigeria, I would have gone to the pains of reporting the guy to the Consumers Satisfactio

Time does fly by... It feels like yesterday when we made our first 'best friends forever' vow. Mine took place in high school. There are so many people that we come across everyday, that leave marks forever on the tapestry we call life. Some marks are scars, some are ugly, some cool. But there is no way anyone can live in isolation for a decade - no absolute way! The past decade for me has held a lot of things - joys, sorrows, deaths, births, happiness, graduations, meeting new people, and parting ways with a lot more. Its amazing how much we have contributed to other people's lives. Chunks of time - each one very valuable, are what life is made up of. The past is gone, but the future is there for us to fill, with a lot of things. Most times we let time just pass by, we do not make use of our chunks. Some people just sit in one place everyday, doing nothing. Some just go to work, and do the same monotonous thing everyday. Then when a decade has passed, they wake up and ask,

Its when you feel you are in a place where no one knows who you are that you meet the most unlikely person. Like just now. I have been ill, and everyone that knows me know that I dress according to how I feel. I am still very weak, so I was wearing baggy clothes and my hair was done in a 1960's weave - trust me, the do BELONGS to that era. I go to the bank to pay in some money into someone's account, only for me to meet one of my hip hop 'sistaz' from Unilag (that's university of Lagos, for those that don't know). She was all dolled up and looking good, and she actually had to glance back twice before my face clicked. I felt like disappearing into thin air! My major problem is that my body weight flunctuates. Today I'm 60, if I travel and/or go to the school dorm and move about more, I'll reduce to 55 or 56. 55 is actually my most recent slimmest. Its really annoying because the clothes I take to my destination usually end up being a big baggy after thr

You should have seen me on Sunday. I was shivering like a jellyfish. It was not funny o. Those of you that have encountered malaria know how it can pull you down so fast, you would think you were drowning. I had to brace myself and look for a way to get medication. Then again, most malaria drugs do not work for me, and the most effective one - those that end with 'quine', I cannot take. Why? Because i react to quine. I start to itch all over, and cry, you wouldn't want to watch. Its crazy, but I once used a scrubbing brush to scratch my whole body - my Mum cried as she watched. This is why I avoid all quines. Then there is resistant malaria now. God help us all o. There is also cerebral malaria. And to make matters worse, I have been told that those with blood type, AA often get malaria. I wish I had more information about cerebral malaria - can anybody help out?

I am tired of these pranksters. The latest trick is to plan with other people to convince you to drop some money. Its annoying. Imagine this scenario: you enter a general cab car, containing other passengers, and before you get to the next bus stop, someone opts to alight, requesting that the driver assist in dropping his luggage in the boot. The driver begins questioning the contents of the passenger's bag, insisting that it contains a lot of dollars and he would report to the police if the person does not confess. Sounds like a good l Samaritan who wants to know if the money is stolen, right? Wrong! If you fall into their trap, you are doomed. The sequence always starts from there, then they talk about sharing the money, or the culprit 'settling' them so they keep quiet. Then before you know it, you are also dropping some money and that's where the duping is. Someone - a friend of a friend, dropped thirty thousand naira, and he never saw them again. I got picked up

Yesterday The Beaver sent Vicky to get me in the office, telling me to close early. It turns out he wanted Vicky to drive Lily to pick his niece in distant Nassarawa state (she's in boarding school there). Everytime he wants to use Vicky, he insists I be there. When we got home we met Vicky's parents. Mum wanted to check somethings online. When I opted out of going with Lily, The Beaver insisted I go. Like I'm some bait to use Vicky (this is not the umpteenth time) to do his bidding. When we got back and everyone was taken care of, Vicky and I sat back in the car for about two hours and cleared all the cobwebs that had began to accumulate between us since the last time we were together - alone. The Parliamentary session was closed eventually with a kiss. Closeness: means being intimate with someone else. There are varying degrees of closeness, between siblings, between parents and their offspring, between friends and between lovers. The last one is the most intense, and the

The second candidate for the interview came really late. She was tall, and elegant looking, and she claimed to have a National Diploma in Law, but she could not do ordinary arithmetic - addition, and multiplication. She was asked by my colleague to multiply 1500 by 20. Imagine, she asked for biro and paper, and after 10 minutes, came up with the answer. She was also asked to calculate 5% of 100, and she had no answer to that. And she is a graduate - God help Nigeria!

What exactly is the meaning of enjoyment? Last night, The Beaver asked me to come along as he wanted to drop off a visitor - with Lily and Cub of course. Then we went to Grand Square, to buy Ice cream, and to a big bakery to buy lovely bread, before going to drop her off at her Dad's house. Now if it was the other people in the house that came with him, they would have said, "That was fun! Solid enjoyment!" But I was just ok. Still feeling down, but I am getting better emotionally. Physically is a different case. Anyone ready to answer my question?

The Labour Congress has refused to back down until their demands are met. The difference of #5 on the petrol price is really important to them. I guess they are fighting for the Nigerian people, and telling us all to go on strike is a welcome idea to Nigerians. You know we love holidays, especially impromptu ones. My bone of contention right now is the ASUU strike that is keeping youngsters idle. I just heard of another rush wedding. As usual the girl got pregnant, and they didn't plan it but it happened so they have to get married in a rush so that people wont know (when the whole world already knows). Is there any remedy to the state of Education in Nigeria? Can anybody think up something that will halt the rottenness in that sector?

Just this morning I conducted an interview - well two of us actually. The lady that came in first looked docile, until she began to speak. She was quite alright, except that the salary she was demanding for was ridiculous considering the post she was to take. Anyway, I felt shaky last night, thinking about it. Now that its over, I think I conducted myself rather well. In fact, I thank God I didn't actually create the bogus form I was tempted to, yesterday.

Its 11pm, and I am still sad beyond comprehension - I say this because I really do no know why I am sad. Lily questioned me and I thank God that I could use Tommy's call as the perfect excuse. Youth Call was sufficient enough. When Vicky showed up, one glance at me told him I was not ok. Youth Call was sufficient as well. I think it really started from Sunday evening, when Butterfly's father asked me in a snide tone, "What exactly are you doing in Arkhan? Are you searching for a job, serving (Youth Call) or working?" It wasnt the question but the way he asked it that got me angry. I politely turned down any of the snacks they offered. Vicky eventually came to join us but I was not interested - I buried my face behind a magazine and immersed my mind there. I didn't care what Butterfly's mother and Aunt were saying, I just wanted to get out of there. But wait a minute. I need to do a five - line summary to get you abreast of things. I'm dating Vicky. Lily is

WETIN DEY HAPPEN? I just heard that a governor that had been voted and sworn in by the masses in the East was removed and the former governor was re-instated. I don't know the full details but I have this to say - Can't we just feel shame a bit? Its enough that the whole world is staring at the country in disdain (there is practically nothing you can tell them that will convince them that we did not rig the elections). Now add this. Where is Nigeria going to?