A FABULOUS MOTHER'S WORLD!!

Happy Anniversary to me!

2010-12-08T06:00:00.000+01:00

Today is our wedding Anniversary!!!! yep!!!

Actually, today is the continuation of our wedding Anniversary since the Traditional Marriage was on the 7th so technically yesterday was it (or the beginning of it as i like to call it)

So it's been an interesting year in our lives..so much has happened. it's amazing what God has led us through and how he always seems to come through for us even at unexpected moments.

It's not been a bed of roses without thorns, no marriage is..just that with the right person, the thorns are easy to conquer and the smell of the roses are sweeter..lol

So yesterday was mega busy but today?....we got plans(humming ****gonna make this a night to rememeber..tonight, tonight****)....lol!!

Happy Hoildays, people!

2010-11-17T11:12:00.000+01:00

I don't know what blogger has done to me o!!! i just disappear like that ..i can't understand it. Much of that urge just doesn't seem to be there anymore. i do not have a reason. I have 24/7 internet connection yet....well, i guess it's that mojo thing people talk about.. so i just do not bother to beat myself up over it.

So what's been good!! a lot's been going on over here, gist about mistresses and men who cant do without them, funny colleagues, funnier lil ones and more..i'l get down to it all in a bit(hopefully, it won't take another 4weeks).

I just wanna wish our Muslim brothers a wonderful Eid celebration! Holidays are always welcome, you know, it's always gr8 to have a day you can afford to sleep till 6am..

I'm always here...i'm sure you see me around!
take care of yourself, everyone
xoxo

To every woman who desires motherhood

2010-10-20T01:31:00.000+01:00

picture me on my knees, my hands put together while i say with a low contrite voice, 'forgive me bloggers for i have sinned, it's been five weeks (or one month, seven days-yep, that sounds better) since my last blog post and i have quite a lot to confess to..

or maybe, i should just quietly clean the cobwebs dangling from every corner of the blog and proceed..

yep. that'll work..though i can't still believe blogger and i have gotten to that point where we can effectively survive without each other..oh well!

So i'm up at this time of the day with a heavy heart, thinking about a friend of mine whose marriage is on the brink of collapse -because they don't have a child..

i can't help thinking ..'Lord, all they need is one, just one, Lord. why can't they just have one?'..
i can't help thinking..'i thought they were stronger than this', you know, one of those marriages where the man always comes across as supportive and caring and true -like, he's stand behind her in all things..

so when i open my fb and see her page with a name change back to her maiden name,at first, i thought, it was just one of those for fun changes or maybe my heart just wanted to believe so..it was easire to believe so..

and then we spoke briefly and she said...'hmmm, my sister, so that somebody will not die and they can have their child, we are apart now..

my heart broke into pieces for her, i couldn't even imagine what she's going through, i mean, she's doing so well in all aspects of her life except she doesn't have the one she desperately desires..

My sadness for her deepend even more when the pregnancy test of one of my colleagues came back positive, she was angry, depressed and certainly not ready for another child (her second child will be one by monthend) -

She went to family planning clinic and as is required, had to do the test before any other thing only for it to come back +ve, we spent the whole day trying to assure her that it's all for the best and since she wants 3 kids, she might as well have this one and get it out of the way..

But i couldn't help but see the irony of it all..
one person wants, needs, desires just one child and another is crying that the last thing she needs in her life right now is another child!
it would be funny, if it wasn't so sad...

please remember to say a word of prayer for my friend... and every woman you know who could be in this situation

As i always say, it is not possible for your desire to be a grand-ma, grand-pa, aunt, uncle etc to be greater than that woman's desire to hold her own child so back off, if you cannot be supportive, just leave her alone..what she is going through, you can only imagine..

and who even says the fault is hers..eh?

Stuff

2010-09-13T14:14:00.003+01:00

So i've not been here in like what, 2 weeks?

well, a lot's been going on..

for one, i found a school for the little ones..quite new though ( which is advantageous in some ways and disadvantageous too!

but i decided to go with it cos of some awesome features it has..

well, we pray it works as much as it professes it works..

they started last week and the kids seem to like it - a lot

so it's been so busy, school runs and all.

Also, my neighbour which i have written about here and here had taken things to a whole new level, incessantly fighting and publicly harrassing the man (who by the way had move out) at work, exhibiting a level of agression that ultimately landed her in the Psych ward.

so i had my work cut out for me..she's home now though and we all hope that what a thousand pieces of advice could not achieve, a stint in the Psych ward would.

We had a great weekend..it was loooooong and sweeeet! lol

one of advantages of staying in Naija, the thousand holidays in a year..lol

hope you guys have been good...

have a gr8 week ahead, people!

much love!!!!

September!

2010-09-01T13:07:00.000+01:00

May the Favour of the Lord our God be upon you, establish the works of your hands, yes, establish the works of your hands - Psa 90:17

Happy New Month, people!
I'm a mega busy bee over here but i'l soon be back.

Shalom!

PHCN 24hrs blackout + Naija cash flow!

2010-08-26T15:54:00.000+01:00

Naija is trending on the net - twitter and everywhere.
And you know we always trend when something is amiss somewhere (and something is always amiss - lmho.
So the nationwide blackout is trending Naija right now -talk about notoriety..

Now, the salary slash is also gonna cause wahala, soon!
sometimes i wonder how they think or wh thinks for them..

who decided that in a country where the president did not blink before signing a 3oo billion contract fr presidential jets..
where NASS members go home with almost 1.7million dollars..
where about 7billion is slated for Anniversary 'celebration'
and the president just signed 72billion naira for INEC
that it is okay and even acceptable to tell workers that government is reverting to their old pay since it does not have the cash to pay them the new salary they've been collecting in the past 2months..

i ask the question, is Naija broke

And a more pertinent question -who makes these decisions?

p:s - i didn't even know NEPA was on strike, i thought it was their usual no-light kini..unless people started calling from all-over to ask if we had light..heard they've called off the strike but light has still not come....yet!

mek i no worry una wit naija wahala anymo..so how are y'all doing

Oyo State of Nigeria - i hope all state governments are not like this.

2010-08-24T15:59:00.000+01:00

I know, infact, everybody knows that governance in Nigeria is not about service.. and people have seemed to accept their fate while they pray that years should run so one set could replace themselves with another..

But they still hope that it wouldn't be this bad..

And this is bad..i do not think i have ever seen a state degenerate into this near statelessness (if i may say so myself).

And there is a head, a governor..and every month there is a specific amount designated for use in this state...yet...

teachers have been on strike for almost 3 months now..(i read that he asked if they want him t break the bank to pay them..well, it desn't look like he broke the bank to do owambe for his wife birthday or the extravagance that was his daughter's wedding two weeks later)

doctors at the state hospitals are on strike...

judicial workers are on strike...

lecturers at the state University are on strike, students are home..

transport workers (NURTW) are fighting (thank God for Ramadan, they've shielded their swords, for now)

the governor is fighting with a neighbouring state's governor over a University ...so the school is closed..

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but then as they say, the state is a microcosm of the whole..is it the case here? or should i even ask that?

all i know is that, this state needs some good governance ..and fast too!!

and why do i care? you may ask... i live here, that's why! and like it or not, bad governance affects everyone!

the man in charge - Otunba Alao-Akala

***sidenote - can the PDP-led Fededral governance call him to order? it may not be constitutional but wouldn't that be a political solution?

(and the man is seeking second term. imagine!!!)

The University of Ibadan religious 'crisis'

2010-08-15T14:24:00.000+01:00

I heard this today and i was utterly stumped..
i mean what was this girl thinking?

is she totally oblivious of the society in which she lives, of the rules that apply in each religion, okay, let's not even say religious rules..let's even say respect for another person's belief; the same argument we adduce against Islamic extremists, that is to say, while you think what you believe is the best, i also reserve the inherent right to believe whatever i want to, and while you may try to persuade me otherwise, it has to be done in an unoffensive manner.

So the story has it that this chic, a 4th year Law student of the University of Ibadan, thought that it is ultimate wisdom to go to the Campus Mosque during last Friday prayers to preach..telling them to come to Jesus, believe in Jesus, how their prayers are in vain cos they're sinners etc..GOD!!!!

She probably thought 'yes, it's time to convert all them Allah believing, prophet Mohammed touting, christian hating moslems, even if she dies doing so'. And she almost did. Die, i mean.

i couldn't believe it?
i kept asking the question; is she okay?
does she have some sort of mental problem hidden under that guise of religion? maybe 'matyr complex'?

She survived only because the University environment where this took place is a controlled environment and the Chief Imam, IMO, not an extremist like so many of his contemporaries.. i heard though, that she was really beaten up before the man could even get her away from the mob.

I mean this is a religion where the men do not even pray with the women, the women do not even enter some parts of that mosque..to make it worse, this is the Ramadan month, where so many other rules are in place regarding separation between the sexes.. And she decided to go a-fishing there...and if you have been in a place like Ibadan for any length of time, you get to know these things, even if you come from the South/South or East where there are just a handful of moslems.

Pardon me if this sounds harsh but i think it was pure madness..it's like going out in Dubai with hotpants and a see-through top or engaging in PDA cos you think it's silly to restrict yourself. it's the rules, respect it!

what did she seek to achieve? how would she feel if, for instance, she was about to take Holy communion and someone comes into her place of worship to denounce her faith and tell her she was on the way to hell?

it would, at the very least, be annoying and of course, ineffective..

Now there is tension everywhere on campus..and in town.

When will people learn wisdom?

Choosing a school for your kids - how difficult can that be?

2010-08-07T05:53:00.000+01:00

It's been quite busy around here so much that even when i get on here, i only just come to visit y'all cos the very idea of writing sounded about as appealing as eating a Mr Biggs' doughnut, well, don't hit me if you are a fan.

Well, If you've been on this blog for any lil length of time, you'd noticed that i'm mom to a 3 year and a 2 year old, yeah, well, cos i always never fail to mention it...lol.

My son attended playgroup and pre-nursery at the school in our estate and was quite ok for a bit but for so many reasons, i want to change their school.

the first being that there are too many children in one class, IMO and as my kids are really getting t learn now, i feel they need a more personalised care.

then the actual nursery and primary section is in town so if they convenience part of it is out, why not just get another school, we'd still be going to town anyways.

Who knew having to find a school could be such hard work?

it really is!

I was about to settle then realised that i have a list in my mind, 80% of that met and i'l pick that school straight-out.there are quite a few issues to consider.

First, among other things, is the fact that i'm not willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money just so they can go to a 'certain' school or just so i can prove i can.

really, some fees are just outrageous and while i was tempted for a bit, i had to really sit down and reason it out, i came to the conclusion that it's not worth it, it cannot be. i really don't have t spend that amount of money to get the best..

and this is nursery/primary education, for God's sakes.

not to mention the possibility of them feeling 'priviledged', you know, those kids that you see and pray your kids never turn out that way(though parenting is a big factor here,still...or am i the only person that worries about such things

and then there's the issue of status..people choosing schools for their kids so they could say, 'my son goes to so and so school..

back that up with the fact that i don't want to have to change their school again after this, God willing.

making choices is never easy especially when you feel the need to make the best choice once and for all, you can see that it's not just school i'm talking about here..it is quite a challenge so it's OK to take your time.

for me, there's always one feature or the other missing..i wish i could just put all the wonderful features from each of them together and have a dream school...yeah, dreamer!

but i have to make a choice soon..another school year starts next month..and i would love for them to have a few weeks of summer program in the new school before the term starts.

@downtheaisle..hope you're enjoying the book, didn't get your number but will be opening my mail in a bit and shall call you later in the day!..Congrats again!

P:S - 100th post coming right up, are congratulations in order or what? another giveaway might be on the way..see what i did there?

e don do, mek i carry my boring self de go jare, hapi wkend!

Blog giveaway -the day is here!

2010-07-24T03:16:00.006+01:00

So the d-day is here!!

This post is really about the awesomeness of this handsome bloke that God dashed me - with whom i have shared some truly wonderful experiences with.

You know, sometimes feelings overwhelm you and you find it difficult to express what's inside..

so all i'm gonna say is i thank God for placing you here on earth, to await my arrival and to love me the way i was made to be loved.

On the giveaway...
i did the random.org thingy as indicated below...

And...

this is what came up...

I checked that out and comment number 27 was made by....

((((((((((((((Drumroll)))))))))))))))))

Gengen..........(like Nollywood peeps)

-------Downtheaisle--------------

so we've got a winner..thanks to all who participated and for the good wishes..

P:S - downtheaisle, pls send ur contact details to sazzyprincess@gmail.com..Congratulations!!

Happy weekend y'all..
and a wonderful new year to the love of my life..

Blogoversary + Fabulous Giveaway!!!

2010-07-19T10:32:00.000+01:00

So this month is special!

And not only because the first post on this here blog was posted in this month(5th July, actually) but also because my special someone was birthed in this month too!!

so i'd always wanted to do a giveaway to commemorate the wonderful experience i had so far here in blogosphere, the virtual and real friendships formed, the ability to connect and empathise with others even without seeing them, the beauties of stories told and enjoyed, the joy of the realisation that ' babe, it's not just you' dealing with tantrums and tears and sickness and post-partum fat and struggles of marriage and happiness and so much more...

Blogsville has been home, i've gone around the world and back, i've been in your lives and cried with you, rejoiced with you, missed you when real life takes you away and you don't get to post for days, disagreed with you, yet loved you still...

Thanks, my people, for being here..for reading me and dropping a line, sharing your thoughts, letting me know you have been here..

i love you guys really and so i want you to have this!!

yay!! Uwem Akpan's "SAY YOU ARE ONE OF THEM"

if you haven't read this yet, you're on a looooong ting but 'course, i'm here to the rescue (jst had to say that-lol)

all you need to do is comment on this post !

yep, i'm that uncomplicated!!

you might want to comment more than once, tho, to increase your chance!

i'l use the popular random.org to reveal the winner on that special day...

so here's wishing you a lovely week

P:S - Did you watch the BBA All Stars launch..let's hope it'll be worth the hype!! ..

They removed her uterus and didn't tell her?

2010-07-15T09:11:00.000+01:00

Seriously?

I don't want to believe this cos that doctor will be in lorry load of crap!!

So my colleague was complaining of lower abdominal pain and had to go to the clinic where she was to do a USS.

facts -

she just had a baby 9 months prior...

this is her second baby..

she had her through Caesarian Section..

Aunt flo hasn't come to town since (though before now when we talked about this - yeah, just as gist, don't u do that too? - she said she doesn't see it until she stops breastfeeding)

She's still breastfeeding...

She went for the scan only to come back with the story that they said they couldn't find her uterus?

we were like - WHAT?????

two other doctors were called and said the same thing..

they then told her to wait, drink more water and repeat..

they repeated..

same story!!

Say what!!

You needed to see her, she was in some state i can't explain.

we tried to allay her fears and all but mehn, deep inside me, i'm like ' dem no de search for uterus o, it should be right there'...

asked her if she's sure her husband wasn't told anything

she said no..he would've told her..

i just asked my husband- ' is it possible to remove someone's womb during CS and not tell her?'

and his reply was a loud -' mehn, dat doctor is in deeeeep shit!!, it's done if it's necessary to save her life at that point but she definitely should be told afterwards.'

she's supposed to re-scan today..and we are really hoping that the machine malfunctioned!!

Paul, the Octopus - Waiting to see the end!!

2010-07-11T14:57:00.001+01:00

It's a sensation!! I'm sure you've all heard about it by now..

So apparently the 'psychic' octopus got it right yesterday when it predicted Germany's 'difficult' win...

Read the whole story here

Waiting to see what becomes of its pick of Spain as a favourite to win today..

i'm just fascinated!!

What love is not supposed to be + Mr president and facebook

2010-07-07T15:23:00.000+01:00

Sometimes, you try your best but a person just wont see it..what else but deep seated masochism would make a woman endure a totally painful, denigrating relationship all in the name of love..

really, i don't understand why you would say it is love that binds you to a man who puts you down every chance he gets and even batters you..

No, i'll never talk about this with you again because all you do is make excuses for him and say he will stop and 3 years down the line, he hasn't yet, you cannot see that he never will...you also cannot see that the 'love' is on your part not his..

i have tried to support you thinking your eyes will open but you have persistently decided not to see..i'm just tired of the drama, you say it's love so stay and play your version of love.. don't get angry or surprised that i said nothing but 'sorry' the last time you called to complain about him again, i just couldn't give you the validation you needed..

stay and endure whatever you see or leave and get your life together,it's that simple!!!

Now all i will do is pray that God brings love your way, true love...so you realise what love is not supposed to be....

On a lighter note: you guys probably heard by now that Jonathan(yep, Mr President) said facebook (i personaaly have not joined the bandwagon of fbkers that 'like' him yet) influenced his decision to reverse the football ban...i say, yeah right, like he didn't see the uproar the 10b anniversary budget caused..how come that one has not been reversed?

somborri tel am make we hear word jare as if we no hear of the FIFA threat...lmho

A sick child can get you down more than anything else..

2010-06-29T11:50:00.000+01:00

Last night i got scared.
Sometime during the night i was so scared for my little girl, i didn't know what to do..
for a moment there, with her lying there on my body, i had to close my eyes and tell myself that she'll be fine..

The last few days we've been through a lot over here..
during the day, we wait for when the fever breaks so she can play a little..
and during the night, we pray for the whimpering to stop so she can sleep a little..
and then when it stops, i check out her heartbeat like every five minutes to be sure she's breathing (crazy, i know)

It's been so overwhelming, much so cos the brother just got well..
i'm stressed, mentally, physically, emotionally..
and when i get a little respite, i just come here and read you guys a little
though i didn't have much luck trying to write here..

I know, i am positive that she'll be fine..
God is already working
and all will be fine

Fb Statuses - Fall out of the Nigerian fall-out from the World cup..

2010-06-24T11:18:00.005+01:00

From funny creative definitions to frustrating anecdotes down to outright threats, Nigerians have shown their feelings on the dismal performance of the National team.. if you are on facebook, you know what i mean..have a look at a few of the status updates that i've seen since then..
.......................
- A new word has been added to the dictionary - kAITA- (pronounced Kai'ta) - A man who single handedly dashes the hope of a country for reasons beat known to him. "Kaita" can be used in place of words like hinder, jeopardy, sabotage, disrupt, antagonist, fool. E.g, Don't kaita what we've been building for 11 years now..
it can also form other words like - kaitaistic, kaitatrophy(ic)
...................

- The US government last night released Mutallab to attend the send-off party of the Super Eagles in SA. He will be accompanying them home..let's all hope he gets it right this time.
............................

- YAKUBU (Ya-ku-bu) -A situation where the ghastly performanceof one individual trigger large scale incidences of hypertension, screaming,collapsing, sighing and sometimes loss of appetite among other members of the society. pls note- the perpetrator remains absolutely healthy. E.g - the stage clown made a yakubu of the long awaited event.
...................................

- Yakubu (Etymology-Nigerian vs Korea Match) - a situation where family demons travel long distance(no visa required) wait for the person's moment of glory and strike with a decided and persistent case of lack of common sense.
....................................

- A new disease has just been discovered, Kaitanaijakolosis.it is said to be deadlier than AIDS..lol
..................................

-if you want to check if ur heart is healthy, watch Nigeria play at the world cup..i watched just a few minutes and Baba God had to kick-start my heart..lol, na their talisman de make dem kick left left?
..........................

- goodbye eagles, goodbye friends, goodbye eagles u have to leave us now, tomorrow u shall go back home, go back home, go back home, tomorrow you shall go back home, u have to leave us now (if you did nursery/primary in naija way back when, u shd remember this song)
.................................

-New colognes in Naija - Barely 13 by yerima, desperate by IBB, catastrophe by kaita, Missing by yakubu, Blackout by Nepa, Thuggery by House of Reps.. all products are 100% Nigerian. to order call - 080naija4life.
..................................

- And then this note .. http://www.facebook.com/notes/ekerette-alvin-ikpe/oxford-dictionary-updated-2/412468774172

crazy crazy...how r u guys doing?

Birthdays and interview and what generally went down..

2010-06-22T14:02:00.000+01:00

Hello, people!! how una dey? i have not abandoned this here blog, mba..not at all..life just took over, in a great way and time became an issue.

Anyway, what's been gwan? i've been trying to keep up with your blogs as much as i have been able to, on the flip side though, updating mine has been a real drag.

Well, a lot's been going on around here since my last post..espaecially noteworthy is the fact that not quite long after my son turned 3..it was a gr8 day.we didn't have a party but mehn, when i counted the cost after all the hullabaloo, i should've kukumma just 'tagged' it a 'parry' jare..really.. but we thank God still, His grace has made it all possible.

And then i had an interview.. for the job i started two months ago.. (don't hate me!! i'm favored like that) and i really wanted to prove myself so i really prepared hard for it..cos you know, some people go just look you say 'dis one na lawyer, i go drill am today' .
We thank the Good Lord, it turned out gr8..

And i still got a big reason to celebrate again this month..see, my sweetie little girl will turn 2 before the month is over..we are already singing the 'happy birthday' song every morning.

Congratulations to all the maamas and paapas this month..mehn,d way people de born this month eh!! may all ur labours not be in vain..

Infact,i was just going through my monthly birhday organiser and i noticed that i have more friends born in June than in any other month of the year..and when i thought it was just me,a colleague here mentioned how she's got at least 2 friends a day on her fb birthday reminder since the month started.. na wa o june people..

have a lovely week, still..and start working on those plans, the year is half gone already!!

p:s- noticed the new template? just felt like it testing blogger's new handiwork.

Happenings - Deji of Akureland, Mandela's grand-daughter, world cup

2010-06-11T00:14:00.001+01:00

So the infamous Deji of Akure, wife batterer and tout extraordinaire has been deposed. I cannot be happier, i fact, the news has made my day.

i have patiently followed the story and i'm pleased to see that, for once, Naija government has taken the right step at the right time and i must commend THE FEDERATION OF WOMEN LAWYERS(FIDA) for taking the fight to the National Assembly and the journalists for putting this story out there for the whole world to hear.

I'm sure he is regretting his actions by now but it goes without saying that a person that can exhibit such act publicly without shame has no moral/legal standing to rule over others.

World cup starts today...the excitement is gathering momentum..are you excited for Nigeria? me, i'm anxious for them cos, mehn, that Argentina match no go easy ra ra. But eh, i no put my mind at all, i only hope they prove me wrong by moving to the next round.

But eh, my heart cuts for Mandela, so sad..he was at the pre-opening ceremony concert last night and me, i was just admiring him, thinking about how blessed he is --with long life and such iconic status - only to hear the news of his grand-daughter's death today...

So sad! hope the man's health doesn't deteriorate further..

Anyway, this weekend is gonna be fun...mehn, i'm too too excited and i'l tell you why later!!

have a groovy weekend, people..xoxo

The divorce gist

2010-06-04T21:00:00.001+01:00

Before we yarn anytin, una don vote for me? u see eh, dat our catikori get veterans o..FF , SSD and Aloted wey don de full ground since and then new mama Andrea(i hope say una don go tell am congratolubia) but i still trust una sha say, this my little here blog de kampe for the award somtin.

Anyway sha..this is kinda complicated and i do not in any way, by this post exempt this man from culpability in the disintegration of his home cos obviously, things have been bad a loong time.
from accounts, more like the day after the wedding and they have both been miserable ever since..
the man, in so many ways, unforgiving and the woman, not willing to get go.

Put it also at the back of your mind, especially if you have read the other post, that this divorce thing is not new, though the woman probably thought at the beginning that it was a joke, the man had said severally, even when she made efforts to stop fighting, asking him for money and all that, that he would divorce her even if it takes him 20 years, that she's just delaying the evil day.

Now to what happened..
so i was jejely in the little corner of the world that evening when i heard her call my name from downstairs, i answered..she insisted i come down to meet here, i did..i met here red-eyed holding out some papers

turned out they were divorce papers.Apparently, her husband had them delivered to her at work. so we sat down there where i attempted to flip thru it while she told me how she was going to burn the man's certificates and all documents (which he always carried around in his car). i scoffed and told that was going to far, i don't want her crossing the line into criminality and all, then i told her i'd go in and go thru everything well then we can talk about the next line of action.

So imagine my surprise when i saw her, minutes later in my sitting room with a sack bag and a briefcase, she said her lights blow and she needed to see what she was doing. she then proceeded to remoe the documents from the briefcase to the sack, i stood up and stopped her. i told her i cannot stop by and let her do that. that she wasn't thinking straight and i don't want her regretting her actions later with no way to reverse it. etc etc

i called on hubby who came out and together we stopped her..

Fast forward two days later(Sunday evening) : we are in my living, she's browsing on my system, then she started talking about the divorce but that she still wants the marriage and wants to give it a chance. I asked her if she'd given the stuff back, she said no and that she wont. I advised her to, that she cant say she wants peace while she takes actions like that.

Then she said, if she was my sister, would i have advised her thus? i told her, if she was my sister i would've taken the stuff back to the guy myself, that she has to show 'good faith' if, as she said, she wants reconciliation..that even in court, such actions are counter-productive, no one would show you sympathy and that is such an irreversible act that even if she regrets it later, the harm would've already been done.

Oh boy, see as this babe jump me o..she just vex scatter begin yarn rubbish - say ' eh, you are not a good friend..a good friend would not advice me to give it back, after everything this man has done, what will i have to show for all the pain ..it is today i know that you are conniving with my husband bla,bla, bla..

Na so i shock, open mouth de look the babe blab..i said, ok am not a good friend because i'm not telling you what you want to hear, i'm sorry, ehh, sorry that i ever answered your question or put my mouth in your affairs.. i was so pissed..

Na so d babe, carry her pikin, de blab de go o..i just de look am i no fit shout..
she has tried to talk to me and such ever since but i'm just not feeeling her, i still pick her kid from school, let her stay with my kids till she'd back but that was such an OMG moment for me, i don't think we can recover from it
..like i told her, if after everything, you had the mind to say i am conniving with your husband, then i have nothing to say to you and really, i dont.
it's just that i don't like strained environments and she's my neighbour!!

Now - be honest, did i say something wrong..though in hindsight, i blame myself for even trying to stop her cos it dawned on me that that's what she wanted when she brought those things into my house, if i'd just kept watching tv,like i didn't see what she was on about, could she really have done it?..though hubby thinks she would've , saying the classic words ' Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!!'

Divorce + Baby died + Blog Award!!!

2010-05-31T14:48:00.000+01:00

A lot has been happening over here..The baby is dead..she suddenly went bad yesterday, it was a bad night and she passed in the early hours of this morning.. Read the earlier posts here and here)

It's not been easy..the pain, a mother's pain..i cannot even try to explain, really, my heart breaks the more as i write this..apparently,since the hydrocephalous was congenital and had been left without medical intervention for so long, the child was brain damaged (infact, the CT scan showed that she very little brain tissue) so when she developed brain infection yesterday, it quickly got bad!!

So it's a sad day over here..

You see, i had planned to write a witty campaign post for the Nigeria Blog Awards where yours truly was nominated for the BEST PARENTING BLOG!! But words have failed me so all i'll just say is Voting has commenced, i rely on you all who nominated me to help me clinch this..i know i'm new at the mothering thingy and parenting in naija no be beans but it is a lovely, joyous sometimes frustrating ride and you all have shared it with me on this blog..So let's go there!!!

Now the divorce drama i seem to have unwittingly embroiled myself , hmmmm, i no fit shout o..i cant even get into the details now..you remember this post here, well, tory full ground o and i will tell you all of it..my heart is just not in it now..

Just join me in praying that God comforts this poor woman!!

Happy Children's Day!

2010-05-27T11:41:00.000+01:00

Today is children's day!!
So the kids are home. It turns out their mid-term is here so school's out tomorrow too and Monday is public holiday(Democracy day) so it's a looong weekend for them.
I remember 27th May..oh, i always remember 27th May. If you grew up in naija in the 80s and 90s then you gotta know how important 27th May is in the life of a child. That is the day you go to the stadium, meet with your friends, eat all sorts of things.

I remember tha for a long time, my parents did not allow us to attend, said we were too little to start going for those kind of things, they'll be too many people and of course, there was always news of a missing child..But by the time we entered primary 4, it was a must o, we cried until they relented.

Since the day is never work-free for parents(unless it fell on a Saturday), we usually ended up going with one of the numerous aunties that stayed with us so it really was easy to get what you want.

But the trademark of the day was 'RAIN'..(infact, if a 27th May passes and it doen't rain then it will be different-lol)
if you were born or grew up in the Niger-Delta, you would re-call that May/June are months you don't joke with when it comes to rainfall...But who cares..your mother will entreat, talk about how you could catch a cold if the rain started and all..for where..dat one no concern you, your own is to show face for stadium o and do shakara. it doesn't matter that you'd be drenched in the rain.

i won't even talk about the fights in the days leading up to it - who stands in front, who holds the flag and which school will win in the march-past,dance and all that..mehn, drama..lol

Anyway, i plan to celebrate the day with my munchkins when work is over, i got the evening planned out..will even try to get home earlier than usual.

So celebrate today with a child..it doesn't have to be your own. call up a little niece, nephew or cousin, take alittle one near you out to someplace nice, do something no matter how little..touch a child's life today!

Meanwhile, do share - how was children's day for you while growing up?

My girl's black (more like brownish) lustrous natural hair

2010-05-25T12:40:00.001+01:00

One of the things i looked forward to when i got pregnant was having a baby girl...oh, i love baby girls.Infact hubs actually prayed for a baby girl as a first.Well, God thought differently(i digress) so it was a great joy when the second addition was a baby girl.

Now one of the amazing things about having a baby girl is 'the hair', what you get to do with it, the different styles and what-not.i wont even talk about girls' clothes..OMG, they are simply amazing, you just feel like buying up all you see and to add to that, dressing her up is fun (when you are not late for work and chasing her all over the place, that is, though she'll still think that is fun).

So i cut my babygirl's hair when she turned one year..i had to. friends wondered how i could do such a thing but that hair just wasn't it.
First off, the texture was still babyish and secondly, the hair just didn't grow at the back, at first, i had thought it was just the standard baby's hair but when she was about 9 months and the hair was still stunted at the back, i realised, to my dismay that this baby has decided to abandon her daddy's family trait of lustrous black-gold looking hair and pick, of all persons, MINE~~

So when she turned one, i decided i had to do something and give her another chance by giving her an almost 'skull' barb. i shaved off every...and we started afresh.

Now, making my baby's hair is hard work. She screams her head off whenever anyone makes an attempt to touch her head. it is not even an issue of any pain she might feel.she just hates for you to touch it and so getting her to make her hair is torture, for me and whoever is going to do it since she will so cry that someone passing might think she's being abused.

So i was told of a woman (hardresser) in the neighbourhood whose specialty is children's hair, people drop their kids and pick them up later and all that.hmmm, the first day i went there, she cried until she fell asleep, i felt so guilty(this was last year)

For some time, a friend used to come home to help us with it...still it wasnt easy but at least we could gauge when she starts to feel sleepy then we'll start as she falls asleep.then that friend got a job and moved away..and i was stuck..

the hairdresser option was not favourable cos of the crying and there are always other people waiting so she just has to finish it once she has started. Most time, it ont even last and i have to re-do by weekend.

So one day, i decided to take a bold step and do her hair myself..

Note: prior to this time, i had never braided any hair..yep. i'm one of those people who have no idea how to do some thimgs -braid hair, sew clothes, crotchet(or knit)etc.

But i did it. I used wool to thread it. I was so proud of myself, it doesnt matter that it took me almost four hours but it felt good.Oko mi even helped me hold her while i labored away. it might not have been professional looking but she carried it for a week.

And so my hair-making skills manifested itself out of necessity..and i have done some interesting things on the poor girl's head. i use black wool then decorate with her coloured bands..

Since her hair is natural ( i have no intentions of stretching or relaxing it ofr a while to come), i have found that her hair sticks out of the attachments easily(in braids).. thankfully, i can barely hold together a braid so the threading(with wool) works for me..

It's funny cos i have never really liked threading( at all, at all, it just looks soooo well, not nice) but it looks so different ( and if i may say so myself, beautiful) on her that i have stuck to it.

Interestingly, i have found that the threading has softened her previously very coarse hair and given it a silken feel..
It's also making the hair grow faster, from my observations.

Furthermore, i have stopped the incessant washing. i used to wash every weekend or every time i undo the threads but the coarseness was worse after washing so now i wash once a month but i moisturise with hair cream, pink oil and cocoa-butter every weekendor anytime i undo the threads.

last weekend, i decided to add a little colour and this is what i did...

i have to confess the hair is better now, the back is still shorter than other parts but that's her cross for carrying my genes

Update on the Surgery!

2010-05-15T00:13:00.000+01:00

We just came in like an hour ago..I really want to thank you all for your prayers and good wishes..it was a rough day. very rough!

I developed a fever somewhere in between the waiting and the running around..

But God is faithful.
Though they couldn't put in the shunt today cos the situation was more complicated that we, laymen, knew but they removed the obstruction in the brain and started draining the fluid.

Another surgery will be scheduled to put in the shunt, later..we are praying this one heals well with no side effects so that the next one will be sooner rather than later.

keep the prayers coming..i gotta go lay my head..

Nanite!

HYDROCEPHALUS - some things just break your heart!!

2010-05-13T15:30:00.000+01:00

If you are an expectant mother, or a mother, sister brother or close relation of an expectant mother, you will know that one emotion that might unseat all others during the final days of your pregnancy is Anxiety.

Towards the end, from the 34th week you begin to dwell on how the baby will look when he/she comes out.
Will she be ok?
Will the finger/toes be complete?
Will there be breathing problems?
Skin problems?
health issues?

You think all these and more..
and then the baby arrives, and we all rejoice and our glad, mostly!

For a small fraction, in this case 1 in 500 (according to WIkipaedia), issues might arise that involve the swelling of the baby's head(called hydrocephalus)

Most of us, have at some point in our lives met someone with this abnormally big head, remember that child everyone picked on, taunted about his big head, laughed at

Why am i writing abt this today?

A friend of mine called me on Saturday, someone i haven't heard from in a long while and after gushing about some fb photos proceeded to tell me that his brother was in my town.
he had brought someone for surgery.
i didnt particularly give it mind since the person in question didn't call, i assumed he was comfortable and probabbly came with some big man or something.

i had no idea....it was a little angel with hydrocephalus.

The mother is semi-literate and was totally thrown when the whole swelling thing began.
And you know our Naija people, first stop is to pray and fast for healing and all that..
So this young man who had just come back from a trip, heard about her (they attend the same church) and decided to do whatever he can to help, he became her benefactor and they began their journey down here.

OMG!!! it is a pitiful sight..and this baby is soooo beautiful, her skin is so clear, it's almost translucent, all that lovely baby fat but then you lift your face up and it hits you... the head.
it has to be held, cradled in a particular position - even when lying down,a special foam trough is used here at the hospital for the head.. You can feel her discomfort, her eyes are unsteady,rolling from side to side, as her forehead has been stretched taut by the fluid filling up the head.

it is just so sad!

So oko mi rallied around and tried to help them as the baby is 4 months old now and something has to be done rather fast, luckily, he was able to get them to schedule her for surgery tomorrow..

So pls join us in praying for a good outcome tomorrow cos the doctors have already expressed some reservations to hubby..

-(i could not bring myself to post a pic cos it seemed like that would've been gross exploitation of the poor angel on my part, you can see some pics on hrdrocephalus online)

-and remember to say a prayer for an expectant mother you know, it's never easy!

Our very own Voltron..

2010-05-11T11:34:00.003+01:00

Being a mother of an almost 3 year old and an almost 2 year old is amazing..oh, it is not all fun, believe it..it is sometimes frustrating and full of anxieties, sometimes even the idea of a day off gives you a measure of peace (you know you aren't gonna have the day off but dreaming about a day without screams, fights, cries, dirty bums and all sorts kinda gives you the strength to make it through).

One of the amazing points of it all is watching the relationship between my two luvlies..he feeds her, plays with her, lulls her to sleep, teaches her - all these whether she likes to or not!

Infact she has no choice, he cries his eye out if she dares refuse.. he also fights her.

But dont you dare try to fight her and in some cases even touch her..

Nope, he wont agree!!

My neighbour's daughter is their playmate, now she cant stay without my son. Infact, her mom has been telling her that she's igbo o and can't marry an Akwa Ibom man, imagine.still, her love for my son grows.. but all that comes to an abrupt end the minute the young girl tries to engage his sister in a scuffle, take her toy or food or make her cry, then my son becomes Voltron.

It is sooo funny to watch and i dare say sweet..

Now he has extended t to anybody that's not familiar, you cannot carry or even touch his sister o.

A friend of mine stopped by the house n my absence and seeing my daughter with a dripping nose brought out a tissue to clean her but whosai...my son just ran to her screaming -'no, no'

according to her, she just said..'ok, oga sorry o' and handed him the tissue which he then proceeded to clean her nose. telling her 'blow, blow'..(thats what mummy says).

He protects her fiercely..still they fight a lot with one not giving any sort of allowance to the other.. yet everyone who has met them say, ' this boy so loves his sister so much'

see the way he grabs her in d pic?..lol

it always makes me smile, see, my very own Voltron!!

Yar'adua Gone!!

2010-05-06T10:53:00.000+01:00

They have finally allowed the poor man to rest in peace..And so all the drama ends..

And we have a work free day*****sorry couldn't resist that!

Am here...

2010-04-27T13:24:00.000+01:00

So what's happening, people?
well, i've been blog crawling since yesterday like it's going out of fashion..

it's funny, i had thought the first thing i would do when i get back access would be to update my blog. woosai..i just started with one blog and then progressively spent the whole day reading what you've all been up to for the past week or two..
and it's been interesting,really, there aren't many activities as insightful and interesting as blog crawling....
it's even more interesting to me that i survived a whole week away from internet access and i did not drop dead..seriously, some days i went 'ahhhh... can i do this?' but i held on especially as i had no time to enter a cafe so i relly had no choice.

well, i'll be putting up a proper post..something in my mind about the perceived unhappy state of marriages but for now, i gotta go attend some meeting..i hope it won't take all day.

later. people!

Almost Wordless Sunday..Teachers see the darnest things

2010-04-11T00:05:00.002+01:00

IMO, when teachers ask some questions, they deserve whatever's coming to them, no matter how weird the answers may seem..lol..Enjoy and have a blessed Sunday!

Some more sunshine - NEW JOB!!

2010-03-31T10:10:00.000+01:00

Life can be funny..you know what they say, when it rains, it pours..and when the sun shines down on you, it illuminates..well, here's the gist..

So i've been working in a law firm for a bit, working long hours for miserable pay, for real, if you are a lawyer in Naija esp in any place other than Lagos and Abuja, you'd understand..
that's cos, you basically have to hustle, for clients and cash while hoping for that one client (mainly corporate and/or indiviual -politician, most likely) who would give you that brief that would change your life.

It's been fun, i got back into the game - the words and wits game..and i realised how much i'd missed it..and was actually surprised at how much i remembered..lol..and how easy it was to get back into it!

Well, things got better, i got a NEW JOB..YAY!!! actually, it was an application that i'd put in since last year that came through..it was quite a surprise, infact they told me to start immediately (that was on Monday).

So it's the position of a legal officer in an organisation..i'm looking forward to the experience and i'm starting tomorrow..talk about a HAPPY NEW MONTH!!

Yay to me..an aunt twice in a month!!

2010-03-26T23:59:00.003+01:00

Life can be overwhelming at times and still, within those turns life throws at us, some are pretty amazing..some moments when we just have to take a breathe, look around us and know that we are blessed indeed.

So last month, my elder sister gave birth to a bouncing baby boy..beautiful and full of life. it was a wonderful day!!

fast forward four week later,my younger sister has also been delivered of a beautiful baby girl..i'm an aunt again..it's pretty amazing, innit?

my parents are just grinning from ear to ear, infact, cos of my elder sister i got to see my mom whom i hadn't seen in two years(she had to come to lagos and so came to Ib to see us) but then she had to go back cos the other one was due..

i say eh, life is beautiful..we all pray that may all their lives continues to be a delight to us all..
can't wait for easter hols so i can visit Lag...'twill be awesome!!!

have a great weekend people..xoxo

the curious case of the fog in march..and the Acid Rain

2010-03-23T19:52:00.000+01:00

So last Friday, we awoke to quite some fog/cold/dust..it really was surprising, i mean, after a four-day harmattan period in December, no one really expected this now..if anything it's the rain that should soak us all up, though it has - more than a couple of times already..rain that came like a gale, blowing off roofs and uprooting trees..

And so the harmattan was the llast thing anyone could've expected,at first, we thought it was just
in Ibadan,until i realised (on FB)it really was everywhere,Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port-Harcourt, Uyo etc..

An while we were still trying to understand the fog,we got a text that went exactly thus :
"Be careful from the 20th to 28th of this month, there is possibility of an ACID RAIN. The dark circle appeared around the moon on the 17th of last month and this is an indication of Acid Rain. Apparently, this happens once in 750 years. it rains normally but it may cause skin cancer if you expose yourself to it.So alert your dear ones. this information is from NASA in the USA. Do not neglect. pls, forward this to all your friends. Better to be cautious than sorry'.

And i was like seriously? NASA?

Last week i got the one where i'm not supposed to eat suya, carrot, tomatoes, apples etc as the Northerners were planning to poison these items..

You know, sometimes i feel it's the creative/ sales departments of these telecom companies that dream up these texts and get people to text their asses off(excuse my french)..and their airtime, of course!

Somethings we just can't understand..

2010-03-21T19:22:00.001+01:00

Sometimes things happen that we just can't explain..so i'l just tell it how it happened.
Mr Me has been away for a course but since it was close by (in Lagos), he always came home every Friday and return Monday morning.We never even gave it too much thought to the fact that he was on the road quite some.

So the course finished on friday, he returned home but had a meeting in Ekiti on Saturday and was to return today.
As usual, we tried to do our usual schedule without him, today, of course, was worship service.

So there i was, it wasn't quite noon, when i had this strange feeling overwhelm me..i couldn't understand it,all that took over my mind was a feeling of me trying to take care of two kids alone, sympathizers,mourners, things i couldn't understand.

tears ran down my face right there....
and then i began to pray, in my mind...
for quite a few minutes, i sat there, singing and praying in my mind..
infact, at a point i started talking to him, telling him that was not the agreement o, he's not going anyway..lol..it sounds funny now, it so wasn't

and i told no one,
not his cousin nor my bro who came for hols..

so when we left church, i tried his number, it was unavailable..my heart was truly in my mouth..i kept trying and getting the same reply then after some time, it rang but he didn't pick..
i didn't know what to think.

bottomline is..he finally called and said they were at a scene of an accident that happend just before their vehicle..serious accident..someone died, others sustained serious injury..i didn't tell him anything, i just said - 'Father, i thank You'.

And then he reached home, i just looked and him and smiled, i was just smiling at him, he didn't know why..i was so happy to see him and my mind was totally at rest.. and then i slept the whole afternoon away(that's how heavy my mind was)..

i cannot claim to understand what happened but all i can say is Someone is truly watching over us.
it's an amazing feeling!!

hope you all have a splendid week.

xoxo

happy mothers' day..have u said it today?

2010-03-14T14:32:00.000+01:00

I think of my mother and all the women who have been there for me in one way or the other, leading me to this moment where i can look back and realise that i too, have become a mother in every consideration of the word.

words are not enough to express my feelings on a day like this.. really, it's a priviledge that challenges me to continually better myself, so i can offer this love in all manners possible.

i appreciate my mother better now that i am one too. she really is the epitome of motherhood, adored by her husband and loved by all, when it comes to her family, she sacrifices all the way just so we can get where we want to be, she knows how to calm me down, even now, she knows just the right words to say..or maybe, it's the tone of her voice that's soothing and takes away all the anger, anxiety or tear.

i have also been surrounded by other wonderful women,my mother-in-law who believes so much in me and my sister's mother-in-law who has had cause to be there for me even when she didn't have to.

We are all the product of a woman's training, be that woman our biological mother or not,our character, behaviours and values are mostly shaped by women..yes, she determines what is acceptable or not, what we should believe, how we should behave.

Truly, the power the woman wields is absolutely more than one can understand at a glance..

So, to all women, grandmothers, new mothers, would-be mothers...you are all celebrated today..may your children bring you joy and be a source of delight to your souls, may the fruits of your wombs be blessed, favored, filled with grace, may your children delight in you..HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!!

The hands that rock the cradle..

2010-03-14T08:07:00.001+01:00

who?

Almost Wordless Sunday..creative, crazy&truly absurd rooms & furniture

2010-02-28T03:10:00.002+01:00

we haven't done this in a while(bad internet, uploading pics can be such a drag) but when i got this in the mail..mehn, i had to stay up to share..enjoyMassimiliano Della Monaca's Shoe Tub is something fashionistas dream off. This design has been further accentuated with exquisite mosaic tiles. Carrie Bradshaw will approve!

(how else would you show women's love for shoes than to get us to bath in it..absolutely beautiful though i keep thinking of the old nursery poem..u remember?)

A smoking room (with a ceiling painting obviously designed by an anti-smoking campaigner)...gives a whole new meaning to the maxim; "Smokers are liable to die young"...

(Ashes to ashes...dust to dust..hehehe)

The Human Furniture Range: Book shelves that give a whole new meaning to the term "book-ends"..

(would've had more aesthetics had they used female but i guess, women wouldn't have been 'strong' enough.hehehe)

Floating off to dreamland has never been more literal, thanks to the introduction of the floating bed you see here. Dubbed “Falling Up” by its designer, Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars, the floating bed prototype debuted in June 2006 at the Millionaire Fair in Belgium.

Made of permanent magnetic material, the bed levitates through the power of opposing magnets. No electricity or other forms of energy have to be added in order to keep it floating. Magnets placed in the bed push away from magnets placed beneath the floor, thus causing the bed to “float” in the air. Thin cables attached to the four corners anchor the bed motionless in its horizontal and vertical position, and the bed can be installed both indoors and outdoors.

(Oyibo winch!!..now i actually wonder how i'l get on the bed)

The Human Furniture Range: "I'll be right over, darling..as soon as I get this wrinkle out of the shoulder"...

The Human Furniture Range: Letting his light shine..for a second, I wondered where that power-cord was coming from...

The Human Furniture Range : Dinner for 6..or is that 12..??

The cloth table (or is that table cloth)...an acrylic illusion re-creating the folds of a bistro table cloth...

Go Green and store your precious trinkets and other stuff in style. Tejo Remy's Chest Of Drawers has been entirely made from waste materials and we love and admire his "recycled to immortal" approach

(But really..I could do this by using duct tape and my moms old chest of drawers!!)

Sleep your troubles away by getting some shut eye on the Dylan Bed from Cattelan Italia. The bed gives an illusion of floating.

(not sure this is recommended for honeymooners)

With the "Hi-Can" or High Fidelity Canopy Bed, DETA DESIGN and Hi-Interiors have managed to create an inner sanctum where you can escape the drudgery of life and just chill. Surround sound, reading lights, a computer, a gaming console and a full size screen and home theater projector is just the icing on the cake.

(will yu get round to the actual act of sleep in here?)

Karim Rashid knows a thing or two about design, and his "TV Tub" from liquid acrylic resin is to die of! Designed for Saturn (the furniture house), the tub may make the race of couch potatoes extinct and give birth to the breed of tub potatoes!

(I think they should make that tv a computer monitor so we can all blog and facebook while we bathe)

Bookworms can now be uber cool and hip thanks to the Console Bookshelf from Katz. The in-built bench is the highlight of the bookshelf.

This is a picture of a public toilet in Houston. The picture on the left shows the exterior..and the right shows the interior...it's made entirely of one-way glass! No one can see you from the outside, but when you are inside it's like sitting in a clear glass box!

think abt handling your "business" in "full view" of the whole city...???

Life's happening..

2010-02-25T23:59:00.000+01:00

i'm still here, people..i know it seems otherwise but if you look closely at your blogs, you'll see i'm still here, abi? yep..so i never just got round to making a post, infact, almost everytime i come online, i would open the 'create post' page but would just end up reading and commenting on all your blogs..then before i know it,someone would scream 'mommy' and the stolen time would be up..

besides, reading and commenting is fun..innit?

so a lot has been happening since my last post, from tending to two kids who are by no means twins (they're a WHOLE year apart) but seem to have an uncanny and inexplicable trait of falling sick at the same time to having to attend my boy's 'open day' (read:parent-teacher conference day)at school and a whole lot more in-between

life surely isn't dull, what with all the drama in Naija (read:Aso rock speculations and counter-speculations), Nigér Republic (see us o, we no fit solve our own problem, we wan go play Voltron -tyical Naija sense) to the Terry-Bridge saga, all of which we go just de intently siddon look..

see? i didn't even mention Tiger..

so for those of us in Naija, it's a long weekend,i fully intend to rock it, i hope you do too but if you aren't here, well, pele, just another day of work and/or school and then the weekend unravels for you too..

hopefully, i won't be gone for this long anymore..

xoxo

Happy Valentine's day people

2010-02-14T00:13:00.001+01:00

My sweet lovely people of blogsville, the essence of the month of February is here..again!! Love, yes..Love is the reason for the day..so people, enjoy the day of love..

show love to all around, reach out to the underpriviledge, to that someone to whom you've never spoken a word or spared a smile, to that disgruntled friend -do a lil special thing, to your kids and/or siblings, mom & dad and to that special someone whom you hold most dear, above all - to yourself.. for you cannot give what you do not have!!

Happy Valentine everyone..you are a special part of my life and i love and appreciate you more than you know..enjoy the day

- i love you more with each passing day..and though i hold a million pieces of my heart in my hands,each is yours..my heart will always be yours!

Been out a bit..and Togo's banned

2010-02-03T14:51:00.000+01:00

So my internet connection just went out, just like that...unexpectedly.

And it's been frustrating yet i seem not to have had enough time to stop by a cafe to browse..well, i just couldn't find the time to do so..so much to do, so much to do..

and i missed you so so much, i really did. i would think of all that's going on and wonder what you were all up to..then on Saturday night, it came on and we all shouted Hallelujah but before we knew it, it was gone ...again.. like say na 'film trick'.

So when they texted us yesterday that it was back on, i just couldn't be bothered not to talk of the fact that i was bone tired.. so it looks like it's back here for real.

now, i need to come check you guys out...oh, i'm sure i've missed all the giveaways(solomonseydelle, Myne Whitman and Verastic Vera), i'll come get you guys o, you beta package my own down here sharp sharp..
ah, i've missed..now, i need to start blog crawling ASAP.

by the way, it's stale news by now that Togo's been sanctioned by CAF for pulling out of the African Cup of Nations..how do you feel abt that?
Not mincing words, i totally think whoever made such a crazy decision needs to get a conscience inserted in his 'mind'or wherever it is consciences exist..
for real? i mean these guys just lost 2 people, had 1 person's life hanging on the balance and otheres with various degrees of injury and they should have stayed back in Angola to play ball? seriously? that two-year ban was so over the top..outrageous..

Jos again!!

2010-01-18T21:23:00.006+01:00

the picturesque city of Jos is aflame once again..yes, barely two months after the last crises, some people have once again exhibited a high level of intolerance and resorted to violence and wanton destruction of lives and property..

it's so sad cos this is one town i absolutely love..the weather, the food, the people.. but since they seemed to have shed their once peaceful demeanor for the 'violence frock', i no carry my two left legs enter there o..

Nowadays, everyone is one edge, nobody knows when the next one will happen..imagine, another crises while a panel of inquiry is trying to determine the cause of the November wahala..

some say it's a failure of leadership

some say it shows a drift to anarchy

some say Jos is a microcosm of our beloved country Nigeria

what sayeth thou?

something close to an update!!

2010-01-12T03:40:00.006+01:00

Oh no, you are not making a mistake..yeah,come in.. it's the blog you know, yes? the same same..it's looking different? good difference, i hope..

so seriously, my dearies, i have been MIA, i know but that gist is too long abeg.Anyways, the long and short of it is that i had to take my lappy for a total change of keyboard and i'm stil awaiting its return..

so how's everyone settling into 2010? sure you're doing great..i pray all our plans come to fruition this year and even more..

so to start off a new decade/year/quarter/month..i decided to revamp the blog a lil, ok..a lot..hope y'all like it.there's so much we've got to talk about..really, a lot's on my mind and i shall not disappear like that again..did i hear an Amen?

it's 3:40 and i need to wake up by 6 latest and prep my crew for school, in a minute i shall be going to bed but not before i say 'thank you' my fabulous girl Myne for the award..you are a darling..such a thoughtful, caring person and it comes through..keep on being you girl cos you rock..

and cos i promised..here's a lil peek into the celebration of 01-01 but ehmm, the second pic will be coming down soon cos i'm anon, remember?

love you

Happy Birthday + Happy New Year!!!

2010-01-01T00:11:00.005+01:00

yeah,it's true...it is my birthday..i was a new year baby..yeah, that special baby ..still am, infact.. roll your eyes all you want, i'm doing shakara, today is my birthday!!

everyone celebrates my birthday..like my brother-in-law would say 'whether you like it or "yes"'.so when you lift that glass to toast, you really are saying 'happy birthday' to me..well, you might not know it but hey, it's my birthday and i like to think so..

infact while growing up, momsy and popsy might decide that there wouldn't be any birthday parties for anyone but when it comes to mine, they really won't have a choice cos they'd be a lot of cooking and all on the first of every year, friends and family will drop by and at the end of the day, we would have something going on..

so dears, while you are lifting that glass up and having a blast, be sure to say a prayer for yours truly cos i am not just celebrating a birthday, i'm crossing a threshold.

yes!! it's the big O... my thirtieth birthday..i'm all grownup now..confirmed..

now as an aside, i've missed you guys so much this end of the year, i really planned to be on top of my game...i know alot must have been going on here, people with their last posts of the year and giveaways and memes..but eh, una sista eye see sometin.my babygirl do me strong thing on 25th eh and rendered me incommunicado and i no get chance do cyber café.

yep..poured wine into on my lappy and we had to get it to repairs but today, hubs was able to get home on time so i'm able to do this.

well, i couldnt do the whole last post of the year thingy but i really need to say this.. it was great being here this past year, you guys are awesome and a sure delight..what i got from on here this past year, i cannot quantify so i'll just say..i love you all and may this new year bring even greater togetherness among us and may all your deams come true!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR Y'ALL, HAVE A DELIGHTFUL 2010!!

it's been crazy around here..

2009-12-24T12:26:00.000+01:00

been almost a week since my last update and i've been mega busy..mehn..crazy.. first of all, my health was still in relapse mood all through the weekend..on and off like a switch ..but i'm all good now..yay!! so i especially want to appreciate y'all for you love and affection..yeah, all the wonderful get well wishes did me a lot of good.

And then on Monday, a good friend of mine was delivered of a baby. .unexpectedly..she'd been having high blood pressure from the onset of the pregnancy but it was well controlled, she was on weekly appointments ..
well,when she came on Monday, her bp was through the roof, she was all swollen and had 4 pluses of protein in her urine..immediately, she was prepped for an emergency CS and out came this beautiful boy..at 34 weeks,weighing 2.4kg

We are more thankful to God that the baby is doing well, didn't even need to be taken to Special Care Baby Unit,no incubator..nothing..he's doing beautifully..

the mother is doing good too, her bp is getting better, the swellings are beginning to come down and she's even started breastfeeding.since they don't have family here, i, who have experienced how difficult it can be when you have no help, try to be there with her, take her food and whatever she needs..

Now over at the home front, i got holidaymakers..two kids whose mom had died giving birth to the second child..i havae them around for the holidays ..so now i have four kids between the ages of 5 and 1.5 years..(the first girl is 5, my boy is 2.5, the second girl is 2, my girl is 1.5) oh, i haven't added my neighbours child who practically lives with us(she's 2).. the kids are having a ball but the stress is all on moi so yeah, it's crazy here..the fights, tantrums, playing, cryings have increased tenfold.. but the happiness too..it so reminds me of how my father's house was..infact still is, we always have people around for the holidays..cousins, friends, children of godsons and goddaughters..it's greaaat feeling... but at the end of the day,yours truly is so tired that going online is the last thing on my mind..it's unbelievable... who's been saying i need another child? please,eh..thank you..i see how u love me reach..maybe you should stop by the house and see what i'm seeing here

when malaria strikes..

2009-12-18T23:05:00.000+01:00

I woke up this morning feeling alive..fresh, sexy, beautiful and confident. it was great feeling especially given what i'd been through the past three days and boy, did i revel in it.!!

Since last weekend, id been complaining of headaches..everyone around me said..'ah, it must be malaria, take something before it takes you down'.

but me being me, i just couldn't..i hate pills,medication of any kind even if it's vitamins,of course i didn't. As at Tuesday morning when i wrote my last post, the headache was still there but i was fine.

Six hours later,i was on my way to hell..literally..i was having migraine headaches,couldn't bear to look at a screen or bright light of any sort...i have peptic ulcer,so i felt like my body was halved with my chest upwards on one hand and my stomach downwards on another..my whole body was aching, i couldn't eat or sleep.

in just six hours..it was crazy..i was almost in a state of delirium..you know, when you start feeling like the house maybe falling in on you.

i didn't need a seer to tell me to start the medication, i called hubs and he came home with them..of course you know how malaria drugs can get you down..mine is especially bad,infact, it's one of the things that turn me off them..i was listless, restless, weak with that horrible taste in my mouth that only malaria or early pregnancy can give..

when people say Genotype AA people are prone to malaria attacks i just shake my head cos it doesn't happen to me, as in i go for months..long months..but sometimes when it comes,it just overwhelms me and those around me..

thankfully though, i awoke today..almost brand new..(i was kinda surprised, the drug worked in a short enough time) so i just rushed off to do all the stuff i had piled up.. now who say malaria cannot kill children of 5 years of age and below..believe it..it's real!!

so i'll be checking out all you lovely people soonest..just do me a favor.. rock this weekend, yeah, you can start the holidays early!!

Decisions make men II

2009-12-15T13:35:00.004+01:00

so i hd said the stories were about three men..the first you can find here.

Now to the story of the second man..this man got married to his wife and they had kids,boys and girls too, things were getting on beautifully until the man's eye caught another woman whom he started an affair with and later married.

there was a lot of outcry, mostly his family and friends said,the wife had both boys and girls, wetin this new wife wan come born? messiah?

the house turned into a war zone..a lot of fighting between him and his first wife, problems with the kids who were ordered to 'respect' his new wife, of course, the new wife decided who got what, whose school fees were paid etc..

well, things got to a head and the first wife packed out.

fast forward some 25,30 years later, the once bubbling vibrant man is stricken with colorectal cancer..the second wife had gone through whatever it is he might have had as is the nature of such women..the kids were now grown and with so much anger and bitterness.

still, one of the girls,now a grown woman with her own child, infact, with a six months old child carried him all the way from their home down here for treatment,with her own money..not minding the stress on her child and her family..

all she kept saying was..'what will i do now? he's still my father and i hate to see him so frail'.

indeed, he was shocked that it was the child of the first wife that stepped up to take care of him and wished he had done more for them,the kids of the other woman are still teenagers even.

And if you see this man, you see a man whose heart is full of regret..and he won't hesitate to tell you his story..

wordless sunday..interesting ID cards

2009-12-13T11:45:00.000+01:00

YAY!!! IT'S OUR ANNIVERSARY..

2009-12-07T09:25:00.001+01:00

I always say that there must have been some special plan for me to be with this man.

We never did the conventional..
i never even had the time to play coy, or we didn't the 'toasting' route.
we were totally taken with each other, still we fought it..
we were completely in love but we both denied it..
we were just friends,we said..

we would spent hours on the phone with eachother,
texting throughout most nights..
you would wake me up at night so i can read..
everyone who sold call cards at the Law school knew me so well
cos i would knock on their doors at odd hours..
just so i could say hello to him

my friends would tease me crazy.. but i would say..
'really, there's nothing going on, i haven't even seen this dude..well, not since this started, even then we didn't even know ourselves that well..

they'll just roll their eyes and say 'babe, you are totally in love'.

ME???!!
this was entirely new, i normally entered relationships because 'boy meets girl, chykes her, follows her around and tries to convince her, finally she acquiesces, cos well, maybe she just should'..
but this one here was coming from deep within me
i liked what i felt..
i liked the flow and i went with it..
yeah, we completely jelled..it was and still is awesome
we told each other everything, past, present and plans for the future, likes, dislikes, fears, friends, family...everything...over the phone

but it was scary too
so i couldn't wrap my head around it when you said to give you a break..
my friends said you were scared of your feelings
i was too..but was dealing with it..

months later you returned..you said the same thing but you promised you would never leave me high and dry, never again, you vowed i could trust you..
me, i couldn't even say no..i tried but my heart just wouldn't say no

and since then you've not faltered..you're loving me the way every woman dreams
you are dependable, supportive, trusting.
you come through for me every step of the way..

Three years today since i donned my gorgeous native outfit and performed the customary rites..the next day, we took it a notch higher..
life's been absolutely beautiful with you..
AND SO SHALL IT EVER BE!!

See, that's why i said i love December..

Title crazy..yes, Nigerians mostly are!!

2009-12-03T23:40:00.000+01:00

So i wanted to post the second installment from 'decisions men make' but something happened this evening i just have to gist you guys about.

I had my neighbour over, we were together going through some stuff i was doing for her online when i heard a knock. Turns out, some one from my church was visiting. We had worshipped in their congregation on Sunday and she'd mentioned she'd like to visit, so i had given her the address and she turned up today.

Pleasantries were exchanged and we started gisting. somewhere along the line, she mentioned she really wanted to invite me to Akwa Ibom state day here in Ibadan.(we're from the same state).
I was excited and all, i told her i'd never attended before but will like to, then asked my neighbour (who was closer to her) to get the card for me.

Then i heard this exclamation.. ' eh, brother and sister ke?'

i looked up ..'what's that?'

only to see her turning to the lady to say.. 'ah ah, why did you address the card like this now?'

i was astounded..i reached out and grabbed the card and it read, 'BRO AND SIS HISTREASURE'

And i went..'like what?'

'Brother and Sister now..if it's me,i'd never collect it o..ah,ah, when your husband is a doctor and you are a barrister, see the way she just addressed you lightly..' she said

At first, i tried to laugh it off but when she went on and on about it, i knew i just had to call her out on it.

Firstly, this lady was my visitor (she could've waited till she left before voicing whatever reservations she had cos it was embarrassing even to me)
Secondly, i did not agree with her, at all.

so i made that very clear.. 'girl, that card is rightly addressed ..our names are correctly spelt and we are her brother and sister in Christ, i eat communion with this lady, fellowship with her, pray with and for her and that by far surpasses any professional relationship i may have.'

ok, we argued a bit but i remained adamant and she concluded that i am just weird, ' cos she doesn't understand why i can take such things so lightly' .. because according to her
'even here, you allow people to call you Mrs Histreasure instead of Barrister (Mrs) Histreasure.

I no fit shout..i laughed it off but i hope my point was made.

it reminded me of doctor friend who wanted to marry a guy but her dad refused because 'how am i going to introduce him?' (guy read English in Uni) the guy decided he was going to become a professor in this life (so at least they can say at some point, they'll be called DR &DR (MRS) - talk about motivation.. quite unlikely source but you never know, it works.

Is it any wonder then that we now hear of people using prefixes like Teacher, Surveyor, Accountant, Architect etc..

I won't even enter the realm of Pastor, Reverend, Bishop, Chief, Elder, Alhaji and the numerous traditional titles which can be combined in a number of ways with the professional titles above to create more scintillating prefixes.

check this out..Surveyor (Chief) Elder Lagbaja

If you are sending an invite to him for an occasion or calling him to the 'high table' at an event, yo better not forget any of the titles and affixes as he may simply pretend he's not the one being addressed.

Indeed with the proliferation of Theological colleges and Private schools who give out honourary Doctorate degrees at will, no need to study years for one, with enough cash,
you can be Otunba Arch. (Rev.) Dr. Laffoutloud Lala MNI, OFR (JP) or like we used to scream in those Student gatherings back in the day "HIV, STD, TDB"..

G'dnite people..

Loving December + Decisions Men Make

2009-12-01T16:31:00.001+01:00

December is here..YAY!!

I so love this month eh..No, i wasn’t born in December, neither was my love, kids or come to think of it any close family member that i can recall right away..

Still, it’s an awesome month for me..

Something happened in December that still makes me smile, you know, that smile that comes from deep within and reminds that yeah, life can be beautiful.. Guess, if you dare!!

Well, Well..to the gist of the day

The decisions we make in life have far-reaching effects ..sometimes more than we could ever have anticipated..

I have been exposed to a few situations these past few days that made me reiterate the above well known fact.

MEN..MEN..MEN..

Yes, they all revolved around three men and the things they did when they were younger..different people who never knew one another but whose lives i was chanced to look into in the past week..i will not mention their tribes cos i do not like re-enforcing stereotypes inadvertently or otherwise

FIRST CASE SCENARIO: This man married a wife and had kids by her..he seemed to have had a thing for women and had several problems with the wife on this account. It seems tho that he later had another woman who superceded all the others, was said to have been his childhood sweetheart but was now widowed and living in the same town with him(and the family). He laid his life bare with this woman, did his businesses with her, showed his properties to her (the only thing he didn’t do was name her next of kin),told her the people he owed and who owed him..as in this woman was the one that knew everything about him..his wife was just so called by name only.

I was amazed..

Now the kids were all out of the house and living their lives but had an idea of what was going on(as in that he had another woman..when they confront him, he’ll just go on and on about how difficult the wife was and all.(that’s not the post of this post sha). The point is, this man died quite suddenly and intestate too.

After which the children realised they were just hanging and knew next to nothing about their father. Infact, they said they had to call the woman to attend the family meeting after the burial and to find out what she knew..

I’m still trying to wrap this around my mind..having a wife and treating her like that..

Flaunting a mistress this way..

what about your kids?..

how sure are they that the woman would reveal everything?

what if this woman doesn’t come through for them ? cos she really doesn’t have any responsibility towards them..she can keep telling them business is dull ‘till thy kingdom come’

Now, Imagine how the wife would feel..i can’t even put it in words

And when will our people understand that a will is necessary immediately you start having property be it real estate, shares or anything you would love your child to have when you are gone

Ok, how about telling them about these things yourself, if you feel making a will means sudden death.

Damn, how about just giving your wife her rightful place and averting all these confusion, even if for the sake of the children you both have ..hell, she deserves it ,at least living with your mistress in the same town all these years is enough heartache..

See as the tory come long I don over-yarn..i’ll have to continue with the other two in my next post..

Have a beautiful December y’all.

xoxo

Lagos traffic is simply frustrating!!

2009-11-27T11:59:00.001+01:00

Remind me again why i decided that residing in Lagos is not for me?

Traffic!!!

you got it..

so tell me, what then possessed me to take a trip into the dreaded labyrinth of roads in this metropolis the day before a public holiday?

And further, went ahead to travel back on the first day of the Sallah holidays?

do i have some latent masochistic tendencies?

ok, don't answer that but OMG!!!

Lagos traffic is ------------------- (fill in your favourite adverse adjective)

Ah, my eye see shege, no be small matter..

i had my day planned, time scheduled to do everything i went there for,when i told my sister all that, she just scoffed at me..

"you know it's not that easy here , traffic is just unpredictable.."

and it happened :- after spending futile hours in a holed up in traffic which simply refused to move..we sought out alternatives
boarding the next available BRT bus headed to Yaba was my sister's suggestion - best decision ever!!!
Thank God for BRT buses, O Fashola, u do dat one alone!!

deciding to come back to Ibadan on the first day of the holiday -my worst decision in recent times..
but i missed Mr Me and the kids and was plain tired of Lagos wahala jare

apparently, half of Lagos was moving to Ibadan too, ok..i exagerrate but you get my drift
i left Lagos 3pm and reached Ibadan 10:30pm
no fronting..ah..

it's no wonder then that i woke up with body pains feeling like i should stay in bed all day..
but we had stuff planned out esp for the kids..

so lemme go enjoy my day, i hope u do the same!!

xoxo

Harmattan is here...so is that 'smell' of christmas..

2009-11-26T09:20:00.000+01:00

I don't celebrate christmas..at least,not as a religious festival..
but i sooo enjoy the holiday..who doesn't?
and i grew up this period is associated with a particular 'smell'.

yes o..when the harmattan is in full blast mode,
there's a certain scent you perceive in the air
i really can't explain it..
but truly, that's what makes christmas complete..
it evokes a peculiar feeling in people
you just know..ah, christmas is approaching

even when the harmattan winds delay in making its debut for the year,
it's believed that it will at least come out before christmas day
else it won't be quite the same..

But this year it's here early,
our dry chapping harmattan wind is already screeching through the trees..
and so, christmas is 'in the air' already..

what does the cold harmattan wind remind you of?
for me, it reminds me of going to visit gramps, of eating her roast corn with pear
putting my hands over her earthen fire as she makes spicy-hot pepper soup
with effirin.....and lots of fresh fish...

ah, let me stop here..before i start salivating..
so tell me what harmattan reminds you of
and if you are not here in Naija experiencing it,
what do you miss about it?

p:s-a special thanks to all who commiserated with me on the last post..as an update, well, i'm totally doped up on antibiotic and painkillers thus doing well and since i have no intention of spending this awesome long weekend with a swollen face, holed up in the house in pain, i begged off the surgery till next week..
yeah, yeah, i know you'll all go 'typical Naija wey go relax wen pain don subside' but really..i no fit shout.

g'nite jare!!

Ever had toothache????....OMG..

2009-11-20T13:50:00.001+01:00

You need to feel it to understand..
the pain, the agony, the difficulty in swallowing, yawning and even talking
depending on how gnawing the pain is,you might not be able to eat
and you wouldn't go near your favourite lamb suya..

Arrgggghhhh,
the pain radiates to your ear, gives you a headache and makes it difficult to sleep.

that is the state i am now,
it's been on and off for the past three months,
the last time,i actually wanted to go to the dentist's but in my characteristic manner, i kept procrastinating, a few days after the pain subsided and i went my way, forgetting about the dentist and even wondering why i had thought it was a big deal.

now,it's back and it's worse..OMG!!!
this one started on Wednesday, from the onset it was different.ah, the pain..
one guy actually asked me yesterday which is worse..
toothache or childbirth...

i was like 'what?'
'he said 'well, someone said toothache is worse'.
i shook my head...the babe must have had an uber easy birth, she wouldn't say that otherwise
when i reached home,i relayed the convo to hubby(who himself had extracted a tooth a while back)

and he said,'i co-sign, ah, toothache's worse o..maybe your own is not just serious'
to which i replied...' well,you guys are in no position to do the comparison,last i checked,you don't give birth'..
he laughed..

well, when i went to dental clinic today, i didn't hear anyone screaming 'e gba mi o'
or 'e shanumi' or something to that effect.
so what does that tell ya?

but i digress.
so it turns out yours truly has a tooth that's been trying to grow out but is blocked by a bone and thus the gum is overstretched and inflamed..

bottom line, i'll keep having recurrent pain unless the tooth is taken out..
so i'm on antibiotics now to tackle the infection
and an appointment for extraction by next week

ah,they explained how they'll cut into my gum, drill the bone and extract the tooth..
i ordinarily wouldn't be looking forward to such an ordeal
but all my mind's saying is..
'anything but this pain..'

so tell me, ever had toothache?
how was it?
ever extracted one?
or more?
c'mon, do share..

Bronc -what?

2009-11-18T19:02:00.003+01:00

i had this week all planned out..
Hubby was taking a few days off work..something of a rarity here
so i had ample plans..

the kids will be off to school and we'll have the days to ourselves
how exciting,you think?
i thought so too

imagine my dismay when this fine chic (as my sis calls my little girl)
woke up with a fever and diarrhea
whimpering and in the 'must be carried state'.

all thoughts of bliss dissipated from my mind
i kept thinking..ah, malaria again

only to hear..bronchial pneumonia..
i went, bronc what?
she'd been having cough for like 3 days prior
so hubby explained it all
it still didn't make me any calmer(even though outwardly i was calm)
but i was indeed a wreck(esp when i heard how it's the 2nd killer of children under 5)
..no sleep during the day and at night..
dealing with the crying, vomiting, stooling
devising ways to give her medication and make it stay down., cos this babe knows how to throw up..and i mean bring everything back up

ha, ko easy ra ra
well, i'm able to write this now cos she's better,
been on antibiotics and malaria drugs since that Monday morning and still on going
and me, i still tried to read a spattering of blogs in those few mins when she closes her eyes, at least to keep sane..lol

i'm relaxing now
cos she's doing well, gettting her self back
true enough cos right now she's fighting with the brother
and seconds later singing
'i love you, you love me, we're a happy family...'

P:S ..it's only from the tune that you can begin to understand that that's the song she's singing..

Almost Wordless Sunday..the wily tortoise stories!

2009-11-15T17:38:00.000+01:00

Story, story.......story!!
you do remember the funny folktales involving the trickster,tortoise..i took these at the UI zoo last month (been trying to upload clearer ones since morning, my connection's messed up and won't upload till now).

this tortoise is about 90 years old. i learnt it lives for about 120 years (and i thought,no wonder it had such tricks up its sleeves,was prolly older than most animals..lol

c'mon, you do remember the stories? let's reminisce!!

My baby's off to daycare..and stuff..

2009-11-13T19:32:00.000+01:00

There's so much to talk about..a lot has been happening, i cannot believe i've been so busy yet notblogging about it..

Well, firstoff.my girl's now officially a playmate at a creché.

Yeah, i had to.

she'd become the typical mummy's girl,staying by my side all day and had become so clingy

infact, wouldn't even follow the dad at times,everything is mummy,ah..

i told myself i'l let her get to a year and half (she's a yr and 4mths now)but i just couldn't do it again cos babe wouldn't let me do anything..

so i went and got her registered.

She's always cries when the brother is leaving for school and when anybody opens the front door, she rushes out, so i was like now babygirl,you get to go out in the morning for real..

And i packed her basket, ah, i packed,everything i know she likes..every bit of everything (come see as dem laff me for dia)

oh boy,did she cry??!!!

i felt terrible, like a bad,bad mother..

i couldn't leave.. and i didn't feel this way when the brother started o..maybe cuz she's a girl and will look at me with such soulful eyes..

Anyway, i kept going back to carry her, hold her and just kiss her better but then she'd cry even more when i give her back. Finally, the attendants persuaded me to leave and i went home with a heavy heart.

i couldn't concentrate on anything. i kept thinking about her and how she was doing. Then i called hubby and he reassured me and all, even reminding me how she would've started earlier if i'd been working.

yeah,i had to remind myself why i decided to do this..

Well, it's been quite eventful..getting two of them ready within the same time i used to get one ready,ah, o be easy job o. No time for my morning runs again, though i must say going up and down the house sef fit pass run and bythe time i come back from dropping them off, i am totally exhausted plus the fact that they behave like they got some memo about getting the house as scattered as possible..

She's coping, it seems..so let's see how it goes..

And me don turn babes wey fit schedule time to do stuff..atleast till they return.

Have a splendid weekend, people..am trying to catch up on rounds..

XOXO

Almost Wordless sunday..Spectacular Shaped buildings

2009-11-08T16:10:00.024+01:00

Piano shaped building (Huainan, China)

Mind House (Barcelona, Spain)

Device to Root Out Evil (Vancouver, Canada)

Kansas City Public Library (Missouri, United States)
Upside Down House (Szymbark, Poland)

The Torre Galatea Figueras (Spain)

The Crooked House (Sopot, Poland)

Stone House (Guimarães, Portugal)

Nautilus House (Mexico City, Mexico)

Conch Shell House (Isla Mujeres, Mexico)

Cubic Houses (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

The Big Pineapple (Nambour,Queensland)

The sheep building (Tirau, Waikato, New Zealand)

p:s..did not include some of the more known buildings like Dubai's Burj Al Arab,well,it's popular enough..
happy new week, people!!

Don't think i didn't miss you!!

2009-11-06T23:08:00.000+01:00

Cos i did..

i did miss you so..

More than you know..

But i was just so overwhelmed, stressed-out plus i couldn't access the 'net for a few days
we even missed our Wordless Sunday..
So life happened..
But i'm here now and hope to catch up
cos honestly, i miss the fact that i haven't done my blog rounds in about a week now, maybe even more than my not updating..
so watch out cos i'l be there soon..

P:S..this is not a blog post, i shall be back to do a proper post after i've digested all your gist..lol

Here Comes the 50th post + AWARDS!!

2009-10-28T19:12:00.003+01:00

i just wanna say Thank You!!

You guys are awesome!!

You Rock!!

Really!

I know i tell myself that i started blogging for me..
to retain my sanity after dealing with tantrums, pranks and diaper issues
and to feel like i have a connection to other human beings(apart from my gorgeous man) after employing my 'tongue interpretation techniques' to decipher baby-speak all day..

forget the fabled cash through blogging, well,it has remained what it is, a fable.

So it started..
and then you began to read..
then lurk..
then comment..
then follow..

I appreciate you..
Cause of you,i do not just ramble on in cyberspace..
cause of this here blog, i have come to know you, read you,strive to understand you,as much as someone could know another through writings..

i have felt sad and cried for you
been happy and shared it all
most importantly, i have been out of my world and into yours and been around the world a thousand times.

I do not want this to be a long post but i hope my appreciation comes through!!
i love y'all!!

P:S-- i know i'm not at all good at all this techie stuff so these awards might look amateurish..still,i hope you indulge me and get one (or both if you fancy it) and feel free to pass it to anyone you wish to(just link to me)

P:Ss-- since these awards are to celebrate my 50th post,whoever reads this post and leaves a comment is considered a well-deserved recipient...

along with my top ten commentators here:

Ttolla
Myne Whitman
Muyiwa
Leggy
Neefemi
Nice Anon
Ms. Dufa
Yankeenaijababe
BSNC
Standtall

will be removing the widget though,i just wanted to be sure of the calculations..

i hope i'l always be here cos your love is amazing!!

Almost Wordless Sunday stil.. 50th post posing as 49b or not?

2009-10-25T00:10:00.002+01:00

Sweet diligent Blogger has calculated the number of posts on this blog and informed me that this is my 50th post..
But i hadn't ever really given a thought to what i'd do when i get to ,my 50th post..
And i have gleaned that as blogsville tradition is, i should at least, announce it

or do something striking..

Well, given that this here blog is mine and i am thus the CEO/MD, Commander-in-Chief, Governor and all the other fancy titles you might want to add(which i accept by default), i hereby declare that this post is not my 50th post,rather it is post 49b..

Yeah,that's how it is!!

hmmm,that felt good!!

Anyways,hope you enjoy our regular Sunday picture post while i figure out what to do for my actual 50th post!!

i got this by email and almost fell off my seat..Enjoy!!

CREATIVE BEGGING!!

Have a lovely week people!!

Marrying your sister's husband...

2009-10-23T11:49:00.000+01:00

My people..how's it going? been quite a while i posted.
A whole week to be precise - not that nothing's been happening, infact too much has been going on that it's been quite hectic keeping up with it all and the whole process of writing it down at the end of the day was just a bit daunting..

Well, i'm sure you've seen me on your blog..yeah, it's the first thing i do when i get a little chance.

Now here the gist of the day:-

So i met these three girls.One of them was ill so they came to the hospital.While we were gisting, they both told me separately that they were sisters with the sick one. Now, the ill one bore an uncanny resemblance to one of them,it was obvious those two were sisters, but the youngest one really didn't look like them but i just thought that maybe she resembled another parent.

Later, the youngest said she and the eldest were cousins.I was like 'really?'. She said 'yeah' but didn't elaborate. My curiosity was piqued but i really didn't think far.

The next day,while trying to explain something to me, the eldest then said that the sick one's mother will soon call bla,bla,bla ..i couldn't hold it back, i then asked her outright.

'i thought you were all sisters?'.

She smiled and said 'my family tree is complicated like that'.

So this is then what she said..
Her mom's sister(her aunt) was living with them as she was trained by her mom in school.Somewhere along the line, her mom died. The aunt was still with them,later it was obvious there was something between her aunt and her dad, her dad one day told them that their aunt that has been taking care of them will now be
their mom.

There was alot of drama even within her mom's family but when 'your child insists on marrying a particular somebody, there's nothing you can do'. So they got married.

And she had the one that was now ill -for her dad.

She later left and married someone else and had two other kids(one of them was the youngest amongst them)

so 'she was right to say we are cousins,afterall,her mom,my aunt was my step-mother'.

My mouth was open o, i no lie..i couldn't even it but then it is reality..

So i ask, ladies, would you marry your sister's husband?

And guys, would you marry your wife's sister?

Have a beautiful weekend people!!

Thankfulness through pain!!

2009-10-15T14:45:00.008+01:00

Have you ever woken up with an intense pain in your neck?
Of course, if you are human and have sometime during your life closed your eyes in what is called sleep then i'm sure you have.
They always say 'it must've been the way you slept, it will go'.
More often than not, you just stretch, rub your neck, turning it this way and that and the pain gradually disappears, usually before the morning is over.

That is normal. And i have had that.

well, multiply that anguish a thousand times..

And then imagine the muscle behind the ear down to the shoulder erupting in a searing, breath-stopping pain that makes your mouth open as if with a life of its own and you might come close to what i woke up with this morning..

Hubby told me it's the way i slept, i believe him but that doesn't make it easier to bear. i haven't experienced something like this before..
He massaged the spot a few times with neurogesic, gave me pain relief and assured me that it is not tetanus or meningitis ( i was already thinking all sorts) and then left for work.

The pain is excruciating and in attempting to turn my head i have cried in pain and frustration, severally..
I feel incapacitated, holding my neck in my hands and thinking of how this could've happened.I know that because of the way this my little lady cuddled during the night, i was afraid to move since she's such a light sleeper but this shouldn't be this bad...

It got so bad i had to call him at work, tears streaming now my face, a searing pain any time i attempt to move. I know he would be busy, he had a full schedule but i was scared of what this simple 'it's the way you slept situation' possibly beget.

And he came through..

He gave me a more powerful pain-killer intravenously, assured me still that it's just the way i had laid my head at might and that in extreme cases, the pain could linger up to three days and that the medication would make me sleep and i'l be fine.

Well, i slept for almost two hours and the pain isn't gone but is a far cry from what it was. At least i can move, for that i am grateful.

This incident brought to mind the thought - "Be grateful for each day and live it to the fullest for no one knows what tomorrow brings.."

Imagine waking up and finding your life, your plans and dreams shattered by an illness you never anticipated or an accident you never could've envisioned...
And so i am thankful for each day
And thankful that this is what it is and not something worse..

I am even more thankful for this man, my man, who comes through for me time after time and in ways i cannot begin to anticipate.
Even when you have annoyed me and i don't want to talk to you(it never works though) or hold your hands and look into your eyes or gist and play, i know that you will be there for me to lean on when i need you.

So this is a thankful post, in a roundabout manner!!

Wordless Sunday..Eyo Festival - resplendent in white, masquerading in elegance!!

2009-10-11T00:02:00.000+01:00

I gotta go claim my amnesty package!!

2009-10-04T19:14:00.003+01:00

So sorry i have to sidestep 'Wordless Sunday' today.My internet connection is not allowing for photo uploads, it has decided to revert back to that old behaviour i thought it had repented of. Remember those days when it was so incredibly slow that i would be totally aggravated and would mention it in a post..
Unfortunately, i have caught onto its attention-seeking ways and so i know that the best way to deal with it to fashie it..

well, it works..ask my little boy here..

Now to the issue at hand.

Today, the Amnesty ends, except of course, Turai's husband decides to postpone the deadline..but all things being equal, today will mark the end of the government's amnesty deal with us, Niger Deltans.

So it struck me, i have found the perfect deal, to get my part of the National cake ..'the lay down your guns and be part of the first ever Federal Government of Nigeria Social Security deal'

That's how my country works..no Social Security of any sort for any group of persons but it,for the first time, devised a monthly payment for the the boys (and girls?) from the creeks who lay down their arms and shun the evil acts of militancy and kidnapping.

Yay!!

and i qualify.

You don't think so?

Well, i'm telling you, i do!!....qualify, i mean.

I'm a Niger Deltan - so i em, em, am a militant.. It doesn't matter that i live a great many kilometers from the Niger Delta, afterall, i have friends who tease me about this kidnapping thing helplessly, as if we grab faceless people off the streets.. for your info, we dont want no faceless you, you gotta be 'it', man..

Now, if you are 'it' or on your way to be 'it', that's when you gotta a prob.

But I digress..

So i got a plan, you see a few hours from now, precisely at midnight, the amnesty ends. Now, i will get to Aso Rock by 10pm, two hours to the deadline and i will be personally received by the president we should have (or maybe the president who is) Turai.. ( afterall, the president you know accepted a well known kingpin and leader of a prominent militant group himself yesterday and the man was on national TV all day, showing his face and talking about his faith in the government to settle the Niger Delta issue and all)

it sure is no mean feat o

so now i've got similar ambition!!

What's a girl to do?

Now all i need is a gun, yes, a gun!!
a gun to lay down nah....

but which of the militant group will i claim?
em,em..***thinking hard**
or maybe i'l just form a new group right away..

It works..

well,i have decided i'l think about that after i've gotten the gun..

Again do not wonder how i intend to get to Abuja by 10pm barely three hours from now..
I'm a Harry Potter adherent, and y'all know the spells rock,
besides, even if the Harry Potter version should fail
u know nah,
our very own dey..

Any which way, i gotta get on that list!!

P/s..i think a new group is a great idea..This is a sure way to cash in on the deal in a big way.
Firstly, the key positions are still up for grabs
Secondly, we can be our own autonomous group and all (our Igbo brothers know how important it is to be an autonomous community).
So if you want to join, drop a line with your name.you don't need to be a Niger Deltan or even in Nigeria, for the purpose of this exercise, i shall assign you an appropriate ward, clan, village and Local Government.

This is Naija!

A friend gets hitched + Independence Celebrations!!

2009-10-01T00:08:00.005+01:00

So i have this fab friend who's getting hitched today - the traditional marriage ceremony is today and the wedding on Saturday - Yeah, it's sooo gonna rock and i know i'l be missing out but i just am not in the frame of mind to go on a trip down home.

I love weddings and i'm particularly filled with joy for this friend of mine. You see, a while back when she was in her final year in Uni, babe got involved with this guy who proposed marriage and she considered it and told her parents.
Hmmm, her parents raised hell, as in hellllll..there were so many issues that the poor girl was just overwhelmed..and then she revolted.

First, they said he was much older than her(i mean, girl, that can't be the best you can do now..
Then the mom particularly said the guy wasn't from her tribe -but was from the same state o- and so was a no-no ( i mean, guys from your tribe don finish)
Then it got worse, guy had had been married before with a kid and parents (who are staunch churchpeeps, by the way) ranted..(it's unsciptural to marry someone who is divorced and all that

oh, i know they had some valid points but they just went about the whole thing wrong.there was so much drama, so much that the whole thing got unnnecessary publicity. It turned into a scandal and my sweet friend turned to a rebel..

Ah, it so affected her..she even had a extra year and all..it was a frigging terrible time . i think she even left the house and all that..

it took her a long time to forgive her parents but you know, at the end of the day, they will still be who they are to you..so when she was about to leave for service ( by then she'd met this her hubby) the guy enabled the whole reconciliation thing.

The ish touched her bad, she just became this babe wey no send, as in yarn anything wey u want, she go just de enjoy her life de go..but when she met this guy, she began to listen once again and for that i am glad.

I'd really thought to be with her cos she handled a lot for me when we were getting married seeing that i was in Lagos/Ibadan and she was back home but by yesterday, i just changed my mind and well, that's just how it'll be.

SO THIS IS TO YOU DEAR - AS YOU GET HITCHED, A WONDERFUL 'FRIENDSHIP FOR LIFE' IS WHAT I WISH YOU!!

Also, If you are Ngerian you know what today is..Ist of october - So while the nation ponders on whether or not we really have something to celebrate seeing that we seem to be on many fronts, a crawling, stuttering 49 year old..i'l just enjoy the holiday with Mr Me and the kids and say a prayer for the nation..yeah, no bashing today!!

Finally, i really wanna say thanks to all you wonderful people who dropped an encouraging line for your homegirl on my last post..i appreciate you all.

When hope is dashed...

2009-09-29T19:00:00.001+01:00

you get past being shocked,
you become numb..
shoulders hunched..
heartbeat dull

you are way past letting the tears flow..
but your heart's heavy
thoughts deep..
way past deep..

hope is good for breakfast, they say..
a cold comfort, for dinner it is..
hope deferred makes the heart sick,
yes, sick..

so how do you keep on keeping on
when hope is dashed?...

P:S..does the thing up there pass for a piece? i dunno but i know it's the way i've felt the whole day, since i got the news that the job i was hoping on won't be coming through this month-end (as i'd hoped)...i mean, i'd even made plans on creché for my little girl.
it didn't know i looked forward to leaving the house so much until i got the news..i didn't even know i'd hoped so much on it..

Damn, i tire sef?

I felt like spending the day in bed, covered up but i really couldn't, what with a child to take care of and all, so i spent the day blog-crawling.
Blogsville, u guys r awesome..i have been entertained, educated, informed..i have laughed, snickered, rocked on my seat..
and yes, you totally made the day bearable.

If u r out there and you have connections in Ibadan, hook up your girl o..e don reach desperado level

wordless sunday..world's tallest!! man - 8"2, woman - 7"8

2009-09-27T04:15:00.001+01:00

Indigo is not a colour, Pluto is not a planet!!

2009-09-22T00:17:00.003+01:00

No, not anymore..

So this is weird..or funny..or just plain odd..

i was trying to teach my boy about rainbows. i say 'trying' because the young man was just interested in the beautiful colours and not at all in the names they are called.
I still tried to tell get him to say the names though.
And i remembered that we had this mnemonic when we were young that explained the colours of the rainbow...

ROY G BIV - RICHARD OF YORK GAINED BATTLES IN VAIN

ROY G BIV - RED ORANGE YELLOW GREEN BLUE INDIGO VIOLET
But like the certified true internet mother i am and seeing that i'm a believer in Extranjera's internet philosophy that 'google is god', i decided to google 'colours of the rainbow'..
Imagine my alarm and dismay to discover that Indigo is no longer considered by the International body of artists to be a colour..

I was stumped!! Like seriously, i mean i have obviously been out of circulation cos i hadn't heard about this.

First, it was Pluto that was de-planeted ( yeah,it's a word and if it is not, well, it should be). After years of learning and believing, we were told that pluto no longer qualifies as a planet, now, they are telling us that Indigo no longer qualifies as a colour.

I wonder what else i will have to unlearn..

Yes, i already figured out that Santa is not real. Though i never actually believed it was, seeing that we don't do the whole Santa thingy in my house, but i have a friend who maintains(albeit jovially) that the lie of Santa bringing gifts is what causes teenage rebellion..

And yes, the argument is valid. Imagine the disillusion when your child realises that no, there is nothing like Santa and it was just mom and dad being sneaky all those years..

Do i need to mention 'the tooth fairy' Who gives us a coin for a tooth?.. Thinking of this reminded me of the pic i saw on leggy's blog, downright hilarious..i so laughed at the child imagining what the tooth fairy would him for his hand, if she gave him a buck for a tooth..

So about Indigo..or not?

I guess we stil have to give another name to that shade of colour in the rainbow before Violet,at least so we can teach our kids. Does it qualify as pink? Lilac? deep purple? yeah, it's a bluish shade but what are we gonna call it?

The Artists didn't say..at this point i say tsk, tsk to them. if they had to take Indigo away, they should've given us something else.
Ah, they didn't even consider/ remember that we would still have to talk about the colours of the rainbows, if nothing else.

I guess we'll have to wait for the teachers then..or just ignore them artists and continue with our Indigo just like some people suggest we should ignore the scientists and continue to regard Pluto as a planet. they don't know everything afterall, they might even turn around to re-planet it after a few years(you know how they are)

P:S..
Do checkout this awesome here blogger and congratulate her.
Yay!! It's Extranjera. She'll be writing her 200th post today. With her quirky and awesome sense of humour, she's a dependable dose of comedy to take along with your morning tea, coffee or whatever makes you tick.

Also in the search for more clarification on the Indigo thingy, google took me to a webpage of satirical comedy, a touch over the top on some topics but stil a lot of fun..Uncyclopedia..not to be mistaken for wikipaedia, at all.
Warning: be careful not to spend your whole day reading that as you might find your linking from page to page.

**We're still on Holiday over here, fun, fun, fun..i say!!

Wordless Sunday..This is what u call a mighty statue!!

2009-09-20T08:21:00.002+01:00

Hooray to me... Baby boom week, i say.

2009-09-19T10:15:00.003+01:00

Hello people..it's been a beautiful week..
Made even more beautiful by the fact that i have two brand new beautiful boys to call me aunty.. (i know, i see the number of 'beautiful' here)

ok..if you are from my part of the world, you know how it goes..
your friends' kids call you 'aunty'.
your sisters' kids call you 'aunty'.
your neighbour's kids call you 'aunty'.
Indeed, children call anyone and anybody apart from their mom and granny 'aunty'.

So yeah, i've got two add to the horde of the little ones who call me aunty.

First, my lovely friend who resides in Abuja and her bobo 'husband' who also qualifies as my friend. We all met in Law School but didn't become friends till we met again in camp and subsequently served together. All three of us. There so much history, it is gist for another day.

I'm so happy for her.last year she lost a five month preggy and it was such a difficult time for them..
Coincidentally, i had been thinking of her like two days back , telling myself i should call her before the week is out, that it's been sometime we really talked.
And then i got a text..and it was from her.

telling me she just had a BBB..

And i screamed with joy..actually, i really couldn't scream then but i called her and told her i was in the hospital and couldn't scream but will be calling her again when i get home to do the screaming part..

And while i was trying to just write about that, i got a text from hubs that this friend too just had a baby.
I am so thrilled for her cos she had a bit of a difficult pregnancy, just glad to see that it's all come down well.

So people, it's really celebration time!! pop the wine and let's toast and wish these cuddly little ones beautiful delightful lives on earth.

And you know that a series of serious celebration shall be going on later..from the naming to the dedication etc..

P:s..It's a looong weekend over here. the whole Ramadan thing gives us two full days as public holidays..Did i hear you say 'seriously'?
And we will rock it..
though i seriously suspect we will end up doing the 'kids things'..
awww, what can i say?

First day, Birthday!!...

2009-09-14T10:56:00.006+01:00

It's my boy's first day of school..proper school, that is, so he starts pre-nursery today. i said proper school cos i hope he does something other than watch cartoons, eat, play and sleep tha days away..

Bobo didn't even sniffle,infact, he just let go of my hand and ran off immediately he saw where everyone was gathered. I look on while trying to analyse my feelings, i know i was so proud especially when he even tried to pose for the few shots of pics i took.. but because he gets so clingy at home, i was sorta thinking he would be.
though i must say i wasn't particularly surprised seeing that he's been attending the creché in the same school for like 6 months now so everything must've been familiar to him..even though he was pretty erratic in his attendance

Still..

I got to thinking how fast children grow and resolved that i must always, continously develop all facets of my being and nurture all relevant relationships because a day will come, when the kids will be all grown and gone and while a mother is something i will always be,something beautiful, vital and everlasting, i cannot lose myself in it for i am also a woman, wife, sister and friend.

Also today, is my little niece's birthday. She just turned two. i called and sang 'happy birthday' to her, she was just giggling on the phone, it was so funny and i couldn't stop laughing. i so missed them.

Here's wishing u a beautiful life, sweety!!

Wordless Sunday ..Faces in the bushes ...or not..

2009-09-13T00:35:00.001+01:00

My neighbour's divorcing his wife..

2009-09-10T22:32:00.000+01:00

it's so sad..i've never seen so much drama until they moved here two months ago. i had heard prior to then that they were having problems, i just never realised how serious.

i've never seen a divorce of a couple so young, so maybe that's what touches the chord in my heart.

Some men are not just it, at all..i know you are going to say it's because i'm a woman but in my opinion, if a man is not willing to work at his marriage, to put in that extra effort when it is needed, then he doesn't have the maturity to be anyone's husband.

Guy won't even talk..

And doesn't come home either..We they first moved here, he used to at least reach the house to sleep(about midnight each day) to keep up appearances but since they had one shouting match one day, now he doesn't even bother..

And the marriage is not even two years old..

plus they've sired a child together..i look at the poor child and my heart breaks..he doesn't even spend time with the child just so he won't spend time with the wife.and so kid ends up spending time with us and prolly knows my hubs more than the dad..

as i said ..sad..it even makes me feel a bit guilty, having it so good..

and it makes me wonder..how does it go from 'i love you, will be with you forever' to 'you are not my wife, i want you out of my life' so soon.

And central in this matter is the fact that guy won't take care of his family. He just won't, even to get cash for the child's keep and food is a constant battle. And when i asked about how he was when they were dating. she was like

'well, she never asked him for anything and he never really gave her anything except her favourite perf once'.
so guy thinks since she's working, she should use her cash to keep the house and all..

there are quite a number of issues but guy just doesn't wanna work it..and it's so sad seeing her struggle through it..

He just wants out and has seen a lawyer, he hasn't told her yet.So he goes out of town and she sees the letter from his lawyer on the subjectmatter in his lappy bag..
So she's bewildered, shocked, hurt and doesn't know how to handle it.Ok, he's always said he would divorce her and that the marriage has failed but she never thought he would act out on it and before he left town, she says he was a bit nice to her so she's confused.

How do you suggest she plays it? should she act like she's seen the letter? ask him about it?

Lost!!

2009-09-09T02:30:00.000+01:00

i just realised i've lost a post..a whole post..
well, i have spent the last two and a half hours trying to recover it but it's not working.. so i'l just get to sleep
but this is sooooooo not funny.
and it means i gotta see my internet providers again tomoroow..
can't have this happening again!!
talk about frustrating..

Stuff it does to you

2009-09-01T06:11:00.004+01:00

Inspite of my desperate attempts to keep the thoughts that i am not in paid employment to bay, it keeps re-surfacing, telling me in the course of it what it think of a mother who has taken up blogging as a way of life, i mean seriously, whose life consists of hubs, kids, blogging, kids, hubs, blogging..

Don't look at moi like that..

it's bad, it's bad, i know.. but delightful in no mean measure..yeah, it is, living the exciting life through all your blogs..ahem, ahem, like in front of the computer, lurking and then stalking some..

and so the days pass..

Did i mention exciting?..

Imagine then my dismay when my internet provider subtly and then not too subtly messes with my connection..it got a bit poor, and then some..for a wireless network, it's pretty much messed up, so much so that i'm seriously considering changing to one of these telecomms services..

especially after last night..

which i spent up, well, up in practical sense, seeing that i slept about 1 am and woke by 3 but the network just dulled up ..sites won't open, pics won't upload.

at this time too?..so the very exasperated me resorted to cooking, yes, the whole works, grilled chicken, white rice and some stew..

While hubs puts finishing touches to his presentation of today (and so i ended up keeping him company too), fretting and doing serious jacking so he can show the old medical professors that he knows whatsup (which i keep telling him he does, which he never quite believes until afterwards when he has performed beautifully as he always does and i will tell him "i told you so" as i always do..

So day breaks, and we have to be at the Surgery Clinic by 8am this morning so girlie can be reviewed, stil the question gnaws at me..are they taking my internet connection away?
what will i do for fun and excitement? what with my 'no paid employment state' and all

No, don't call me jobless, **shakes head** no, no.. jobless, that i am not, i think?

what do you call the whole, hubs, kids, blogging, facbooking, blogging, hubs, kids thingy

but paid employment..hmmm sounds more...what?

i'm thinking of the term..

Wordless Sunday!! Are these animals high on something or just happy???

2009-08-30T09:40:00.014+01:00

Blogsville...We're Hooome!!!

2009-08-27T20:00:00.000+01:00

yay!!!

We're back home..it feels so good..
Yeah, we came in early evening.i am so thankful they discharged us..
Surprisingly, her bro didn't come to hug her..
He just kept smiling..looking at her and smiling..
i couldn't fathom what was going through his mind..
and then he brought her a toy..
and stared at all the bandages..
am sure he was wondering what they were
or more importantly, what they were doing on his sis

Well, i'm sure we are on our way to a full anf fast recovery..

And your truly needs some good rest..
for real!!!

Feels good to be back..to earth..
will be checking out y'all sooner than soon..
can't wait!!

AH..HOT WATER BURNS ON MY BABY GIRL!!

2009-08-26T07:54:00.006+01:00

When life throws you a curve, it’s usually a sharp bend you never imagined or anticipated.

It has been crazy here.

It seems like a million years ago when i was last here..giving you the tales of how our Saturday turned out..so much has happened since then

First, i wanna say thank you for your good wishes and prayers.. they probably averted a greater evil..

We couldn’t make it to church on Sunday on account of their ill-health tho hubby stil managed to go later. So there i was , about midday, in the kitchen trying to prepare lunch..we were expecting some visitors and i’d decided to make an elaborate meal..things were going alright, the kids were even feeling ok, watching ‘Dora’ when i told my cousin to boil bathing water for them.

I noticed he’d come into the kitchen to turn the water in the electric jug, but i really did not pay it any mind....

Until i heard the scream...

It was so heart-rending i did not know when i ran out of the kitchen..in the living room, i saw the pail of hot water..spilt!!!

My breath stopped..i followed her voice to the balcony where i met him trying to dry her body with a towel..i grabbed my girl..by this time, i was screaming..

I took her into the kitchen, broke two eggs and rubbed on her(i always heard it works), i also applied some salt.(the docs said i shouldn't have rubbed anything as they only increase the risk of infection)i didn’t know what to do.. i called hubs,i said some words i am not sure of now..his aunt that’s around took the phone and spoke to him..all i could say was..

’ do i wait for you downstairs or meet you at A&E?’

He said "ok, downstairs"...
just as i was coming down, i met my neighbour, he said he heard screams and knew there was something wrong..i told him it was my girl..he then opted to drive us to the hospital. He asked about hubs, i told him he was on his way, he tried assuring me, that it wasn’t serious and it was just the pain, i should give her paracetamol..i tried to listen to him..

i told myself he’s a paediatric surgeon and should know what he’s talking about but all i could hear was her screams of pain..he went to bring around the car, by this time, hubs’ aunty had ran upstairs to get the paracetamol, i gave it to her in the car..we were just turning off the driveway, when i saw hubs behind us.

We drove to the hospital Emergency. Hubs had call the Senior registrar on call in Plastics and they were there to attend to us.. they assessed and did all sorts..Eventually, they admitted her, gave her some painkillers and i the screams began to cease. Infact, because of that, i had to allow her breastfeed again (we were trying to wean over the weekend) and i’m glad i did cos they say it will aid her healing.

Well, the story is that he kept the hot water pail and went to arrange their building blocks, so this little girl goes, puts her hand in the hot water, the shock caused her to picked and hit the pail which fell along with her, the hot water scalding her inner thighs and shin and of course, the hand.

So here we are, taking up temporary residence in the burns unit of the hospital..and it looks like we stil have a few more days to spend here because though they have determined that her wounds are not deep and being a baby, will heal without any scarring, she's going through so much pain, has a fever(both from the malaria and the burns) and has to be closely observed to prevent infection.

For that we are grateful to God.. like my sister always says, ‘it could have been worse’.indeed, i only needed to look around the ward to be grateful, her case is the least serious.

So we’ve been shuttling between here and home where the boy stil lies ill.. but i spend the night with her and hubby with the boy..

Yesterday, when i got home in the morning, i brought back her toys, teddy, the laptop and a couple of DVDs..(Dora for her and House for me- just thought it appropriate).. and we try to distract her with these.. and for a baby she's pretty strong but when they dress the wounds, OMG!!! her screams rends my heart and i can't help but tear up.

We just pray the wounds do not get infected and that she will heal in no time..
say that prayer with us..

P:S..Internet connection is so erratic this side of the hospital that it can be said to be non-existent for the most part..wrote the post last night but couldn't post it cos of no network..hubby's come to relieve me so i'm home now and trying to post

Almost Wordless Sunday

2009-08-23T02:31:00.000+01:00

Since i'm awake, i thought i might as well..

..can't continue, someone's a-crying..so later

A weekend out of sorts - Nursing them sick kiddies

2009-08-22T15:17:00.006+01:00

I was awakened by his cries but i didn't give it so much thought..

'make some cereal for him' i called out to my coz

my eyes not quite open..i stil need some more sleep seeing that i'd been up most of the night (we are trying to wean and men, the girl no gree for me o),

'but his body is very hot o' - my coz said

hubs was on his feet in a sec and truly, he was hot to the touch and i don't mean warm..i mean serious high temp. all the sleep was gone from my eyes in an instant, he brought him in and he came over to me, laid down on my abdomen, God, he was scalding hot!!

'Malaria again' -hubs said.
I sighed.
He took him, tepid sponged him and i went for paracetamol (one medication we try to make sure is always available)..i got back and met my girl awake and seriously seeking attention. Immediately she saw me, she reached out, i carried her and she was a bit warm but i thought it was from the incessant cries of the night past..

We decided we'll get the malaria drugs, meanwhile they are both in the must-be-carried mood (of course). I left to get the drugs, i'm almost there when my phone rings, imagine my amazement when hubby says-

'ur girl is running a high fever, buy the drugs for two'.
i was like
' what? are you serious? malaria no de contagious now?'

It wasn't quite 10am and i was already drained. The thought of the two of them down at the same time further affected my already downcast spirit. I took a deep breath, said a prayer for grace and continued to the pharmacy..

It's been crazy since then, nursing, tepid sponging, clearing vomit, trying to give medication(which is another tale on its own), trying to feed, placate..
Hubby had to cancel morning rounds and just stay, infact, at a point, 'twas only him the girl would follow..
It is exhausting - mentally, emotionally, physically exhausting but that is parenthood.. a life of challenges
The boy finally slept (temp stil not good but i'm thankful that he could sleep) and girl's temp is down but she's stil weak and won't stay on her own ( she's on my laps as i write)
So things are in a lull right now (sort of) and i'm able to sit for a few minutes.
And i remembered..ah, blogsville!! so here i am.

well, i guess that's it for now..the boy is awake and crying, so i gotta go..will be back to check on y'all later..hopefully

say a prayer for us..

Sexual Harrasment..How is it the woman's fault?

2009-08-18T09:15:00.003+01:00

There i was, struggling not to open my eyes even with the two of them struggling for space on my abdomen..i reached out, eyes barely opened and kissed them both on the forehead..ok, i get it..it's officially morning..mommy needs to wake up.
i groaned, turned, looked up and met hubby's smiling face. he was already trying to prepare for work. i closed my eyes, pulled the covers up to my chin and then i heard them..
'it's the way a woman is dressed. you know, most girls they dress indecently.they are the ones who will complain of being sexually harassed. if you dress well, no man will harrass you'--she said..
hubby and i looked at each other with incredulity on our faces..did she really say that? on national TV? (turns out they were doing some feature on AM Express- a breakfast show on NTA)
ok,surely that was a mistake..she's a dumbass..some one else will say something that makes sense
Low and behold, out of like 10 or so people interviewed, about 7 of which were women, only one person (and a man) said something that could not be interpreted to mean that sexual harrassment is usually the woman's fault. by the time the feature ended i was livid, hubby was like "why do they think that?". "Has the psyche of our women become so eroded that they believe something that hurts them is their fault?". 'how is it their fault"?.
I looked at him, At that moment, i was totally pleased with myself, yes, pleased that i married this man, he has sense..lol.but seriously, why is it in this society that a man does something wrong to the woman, but the woman, somehow takes the blame.
i felt like knocking some sense into all their heads. i felt like screaming..it is not your fault ..that you are harrassed or possibly raped..no, it is not your fault.
Sexual harrassment is about power!! Sexual harassment is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors and is a form of abuse (sexual and psychological) and bullying.It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and annoyances to actual sexual abuse or sexual assault.Granted there are the women who think that all their power lie in their exhibition of their bodies, enticement of men or some such thing to achieve their goals at any particular time.
But a great number of women who are in the majority do nothing to invite harrasment for sexual gratification.
In the workplaces, bosses exercise their power over their subordinate by asking them for sex and in some cases, frustrating them out of their jobs if they refuse.
In the schools, lecturers press their advantage in similar ways..ok even the frat guys do this, harrass girls, intimidate them into sexual relationships.
In civilised societies, there are laws that have been implemented which have empowered women to take steps to keep these behaviours in check but no, where i come from, it is totally the woman's fault, she invited it by wearing what she wore, or the way she walked or the way she spoke. Any wonder why these women do not speak out? why statistics on rape are difficult to compute, because, if you say something, it is an indictment of self.
During my service year,(it was in the North) i came in contact with some of these women through my work and our Community Development Group endeavours,..An staggerring number of women up there have been raped or sexually harrassed in some way. I wouldn't even say it is different down South but i mention this because these are women who are fully garbed, from head to toe some even with socks. Now, how does their dressing invite harrassment?
A woman is raped, it is her fault.
A woman is batterd, it is her fault.
A woman is divorced, it is her fault.
A woman gives birth to female children, it is her fault.
A woman's husband dies, it is her fault.
I hate to hear the kind of thing i heard this morning because it does nothing but re-enforce stereotypical society psychologies that women are fighting hard to overcome and the damage they do to the mind is inquantifiable.

Got a hectic day, so off i go..will see you guys later..Now don't forget i love to know your thoughts..so drop ur 2cents.
later!!

Wordless Sunday!! Footwear..Some Weird...Some outright hilarious

2009-08-16T14:27:00.004+01:00

No, i wouldn't call your baby ugly

2009-08-13T22:07:00.009+01:00

I pride myself in saying my mind..and i try to, as much as i can. For this reason, i've been called some names, from the nice ones like blunt (very nice) to the not-so-nice ones..Yet, i have learnt that sometimes it pays to be a little diplomatic (and i do not mean compromising your principles so you won't offend someone).
Yes, it does pay to not say somethings sometimes.
So i went to see someone who just had a baby. Just as i was about going this chic came in with her friend, seems she's the cousin or so to the one i went to see..
They seemed to be in their late teens, all dressed up and strutting.
Imagine my horror when this friend-girl takes a peep in the babycot and then squeezes her face and says something in the line of..'wetin do the baby make e carry face like that?'.
All eyes just turned to her, she shrugged and said to her friend..'the baby's not --- ' she shut up.(I'm sure she was wondering why everyone was looking at her like she was crazy
Her friend just looked super embarrassed.
I looked at her and her head was screwed on tight..
God, doesn't she know anything?
You oohh and aahh at a baby..you do not call someone's baby ugly..no, you don't, especially not in the mother's presence.
And i called her out on it, she stuttered and said that's not what she meant..me, i was just pissed.

Like they say 'monkey no fine but im mama like am',infact, him mama no even see say hin no fyne..
I was just thankful that the mother just dozed off, she didn't open her eyes when the girl made the statement but who knows?

***Hiss*** Little children that have no business opening their mouths

Cancer - When a loved one is down..

2009-08-11T20:28:00.007+01:00

A lot has been going on here. Always has been. True but the last week i have witnessed a lot. By virtue of hubby's type of work and the place he does it at, we tend a lot of visits from peeps back home. And yes, they come here. What's one to do? It's actually never occurred to me that i could do anything other than what i do -accomodate them and give them as much support as possible. the distance from home down here is not a joke, so when they actualy come down, then it is serious.

We have had a couple of cancer cases referred here. you have to understand that for the generality of the people, it is the scariest thing (and rightly so,).
so when someone is diagnosed, the denial stage here generally consists of some months in so and so church, drinking of blessed olive oil or some such thing, dry fasting, healing services, prophetic prayers etc.
Or spent at trying out one type of alternative (herbal) medication or the other, native, chinese, all sorts. Generally believing that the doctors did not know what they are talking about and such is not their portion.
So when at last my people take themselves to the hospital, it is usually a sorry case. Knowledge is what makes all the difference. That and a mind that understands that sickness can afflict the body without being 'sent' and maybe i should add, a culture of undergoing the occasional medical checkup.

ok..check this out:

First case scenario:-
Woman, mid-forties diagnosed with breast cancer and referred. she immediately undertook treatment which included mastectomy, 6 courses of chemotherapy and 15 courses of radiotherapy. All which she prayerfully and faithfully undertook.

Second case scenario:-
A 29 year old woman diagnosed with anal cancer. Her case is so sad, it's difficult to write about it. She was brought in almost gone. i mean, when they called the day before and said they were coming, i was sorta aggravated, cos i was like..what short notice..but by the time they arrived, my heart filled for them. she couldn't sit up. one side of her buttocks was almost overtaken by the ulcer and she was bleeding profusely from it. she was pale and had to be transfused immediately, her PCV was 13% and dropping. she received 4 pints before they could consider the surgery. Two people had to come down with her as i person wouldn't have been able to cope.
She has just undergone a colostomy today (for those of us who are drawing blank here, i've read upon it majorly,yay, google!! it is a surgical procedure that brings the end of the large intestine through the abdominal wall,stools moving thru the intestine drain into a bag attached to the abdomen)
and it is a chilling experience for her people..mainly because such things are unheard off and they are worried what life will be for her afterwards.

Like the doctors have said, given her state that bag should be the least of their problems..
For the first case, she came in yesterday for her checkup and seems to be doing excellently. she's healthy, all the hair she lost is regrown and she's so fit. she has been a support to them too.maybe the fact that she's a nurse helped her to take the right decisions but she's all the better for it today..(her family too,even us who have become so close to her are happy that she's doing so well)

But of the second, we asked...why? why did you guys wait this long? for it to deteriorate to this state?
And i learnt that when first doctor hinted at the possibility of a cancer, they panicked and refused to go back there. so she has gone through it all, the herbal treatment, the church, the visits to other doctors who readily operated upon her (for the cash)..and when the situation deteriorated, (the wound wouldn't heal but was gradually expanding) they went back to a hospital where another biopsy was done and now, it is at the please-doctor-do-whatever-u-can-she-must-not-die-stage.
my heart bleeds because there are a lot of cases like this..i have seen a woman who refused a mastectomy and a year later came back begging for it.
the oncology clinics are filled with men and women ravaged by cancer whose prognosis are not fantastic. people who did not know about cancer or what it entailed until it overtook them.
Factor in the poverty level and the non-functional or should i say non-existent health insurance system and you might get an idea why people are losing their lives this way.

In this instant case, money doesn't seem to be a problem and it is rather sad that this is happening. you know, i spoke with a doctor friend about such cases and he was like..if he was the one, he would tel them not to spend anymore money on him,as he's terminal and there's no point..and i sighed and shook my head, i said
'it is difficult..it is difficult to just let your person stay at home and die..you wil want to know that you did your best, that you tried and deep in you, you would want to believe that all hope is not lost, no matter how grim it looks'.

please, say a prayer for them, that His Grace should be sufficient!!

This place I'm At..

2009-08-06T13:50:00.010+01:00

i'm in a dark place, my heart's cold, i shiver...my thoughts are heavy..i search myself, trying to understand.
i tell myself to snap out of it and be my usual optimistic self but i cant,my heart continues to be heavy.
i spent yesterday and night in front of the tv devouring the complete season 7 of 24, the adrenalin pumping and all,
not even a blink til morning light..stil..
i do not know what steps to take again..
or where to go..
In my jumbled thoughts, doubts, fear, frustrations assail me,
Discouragement tugs at my heart..
Yet i do not wail neither does a tear escape..
But my head i hold in my hands and my heart i try to still..
From deep within, i gathered some strength and whispered,
Lord, get me through this..
Open that way you want me to trod..
Give me the grace to wait, to hope
A job, that what i need
and it's been as elusive as the holy grail
Yes, it will..it will make me a better mother, wife, sister and friend..

Oh Yeah, I did it!!

2009-08-03T01:05:00.007+01:00

As u already know, i was tagged by this absolutely fabulous here blogger to participate in this mega cool meme..

So the idea here is that you list 5 items in each category, a favourite 5 - but not necessarily in order of favouriteness - to show the diversity/similarity/hilarity/polarity/ or extreme same-ness of your personal likes.

So let's get down to it (in no particular order)!!

Five Favourite Celebrity Crushes:
1. Oprah - she is just awesome, such an inspiration and real too.
2. Antonio Banderas - Don't you just love the dark sexy mysterious look? Even hubby knows i got a thing for Banderas or didn't u watch the Zorro flicks?
3. Wole Soyinka - Nigeria's first and only Nobel Laureate, Poet, author,social critic and so much more. I stand in complete awe of the man..Well, most of his books, u gotta keep a dictionary close by..lol..and 'The Trials of Brother Jero' stil cracks me up everytime.
4. Michael Jackson- my first childhood crush until all the drama. really..wrote him letters and even planned my wedding to him -lol
5. Bruce Willis - Watched him on 'Moonlighting' and was hooked.couldn't get over the crooked smile

Five Favourite Songs:
1. Westlife - I wanna grow old with you
2. Keeno -My mama, i totally gbadun the song, i even have a post in draft on the song..it touches me so.
3. Enya - Caribbean blue
4. Asa - Fire on the mountain
5. Kefee - kokoroko

But no, i just have to add, Amazing grace, yes, that Amazing Grace.

Five Favourite Words
1. What i call Mr Me. It's a word in my native language that means 'my treasure'..
2.LWKM - (laugh wan kil me) A Nigerianised LOL. it intensifies the imagery of laughter and u can do a lot with it like lwkmd..d for die
3. Aspiring - life for me is an ever evolving cycle of aspirations
4. Ore mi - means 'my friend' in Yoruba but from the way it sounds, it conveys a deeper,more endearing meaning than just saying 'my friend'.
5. zenzizenzizenzic - it means the eighth power or exponent of a number but sounds like a conjurer's word.When i first saw it, i thought it was gibberish..lol

Five Favourite things About Nigeria
1. The New Nigerianised name 'NAIJA' - rugged, beautiful, charged with energy, independent, creative, real.
2. The language - with over 250 ethnic groups and 400 languages..our very own pidgin is now spoken nationwide and even in the neighbouring countries.
3. The optimism of the people. Even with the bad economy, dysfunctional government and non existent infrastructure, all you hear is 'e go better', 'it is well' etc
4. The comedy- it is downright hilarious. It takes a swipe at the government in a way that's totally exhilarating and then at the people too.
5. The Music. It's really putting us out there with the rest of the world. Dem de try sha.

Five Favourite (Random) things:
1. Yellow..my favourite color constantly changes, but yellow's always been a sorta constant(in the background) since i discovered in my sophomore year that i could wear it and well too.
2. Dora..The Explorer..Ah, a real life-saver it is. My lil ones live, breath, dream Dora..it's the only thing that can distract them so i can take a shower. i totally rave it.
3. Blogging - an obviously recent discovery but it's become a part of me, i'm dreaming of anniversaries and awards already. i crawl blogs everyday and discover awesome people.
4. Facebooking - An addictive pasttime -'nuff said.
5. My family - My adoring Mr and adorable kids, i'l give up everything just to have them.

So there you have it!!
i had a bit of a tough time, doing this..sorta..I really had to take a deep breath and go explore my heart and i realized it's because most times,i have a problem picking favourites and it often happens that whatever i like at a particular time becomes the fave of the moment..

So cos i want to know u better, i tag you:
1. Darkangelgurl at Wings for My thoughts... cos she's a cool sister and friend and my blog motivated her to make her very first post..yay!!
2. solomonsydelle of It was so much easier when I only had One..she was the first Nigerian mommy blogger i found and she's fab.
3. Yankeenaijababe at Welcome to YNC lounge.. I'm glad i found her (and only just did along with a host of other Nigerian bloggers..awesome).she's interesting, positive and inspiring.
4. Standtall at The Activist.She's so passionate about the change that we must all strive for.
5. Maria at Manic Mariah..her world's exciting and she's fun.

You can add and remove categories then tag 5 people and be sure to visit the people you tagged to let them know you tagged them.
So have fun and may this travel the world!!

A day in the books...

2009-07-31T23:34:00.003+01:00

I am stil in the euphoric state of having been tagged by Extranjera in a meme. yeah, yeah, i hear you but sorry, head's stil in the clouds on that one. i feel humbled and loved, newbie not-even-a-writer blogger like me.

What's been happening for real?
it's been a crazy two days, like 24 hours a day almost not been enough. First, our power holders (the power company,so called because it is part of their name, incidentally, they also tend to hold the power more than they give it) had withdrawn the power for more than 10 hours..turning the whole house cleaning/ overhauling into something much more than a chore for me.

Then today, i went shopping for groceries, a normal thing you might say. that would be so, were you to shop at a mall or some such place..but if u have to go to the market(and you would want to, if you must have the best bargains, coupled with the fact that most things you need just aren't available at the shops), where you do not understand the language, neither do most of your sellers English (amongst several other issues, the haggling,for one) then you are in for a real experience..

So you see why i gotta take a rest now that my two terrors have retired for the night in comical poses at their different play spots..yeah, yeah, i know i have to tuck them in first..

so have yourself a great Friday night and in some minutes's time, a lovely month of August!

Nanite!!

Fun Day

2009-07-29T22:58:00.005+01:00

ok..so that might be a totally misleading title as i did not step out of the house today at all neither did i leave the laptop at the particular time for more than 30 minutes, i really did enjoy my day..had beautiful surprises.

yes, i did, inspite of having to endure a long shrieking episode with my little boy, which i cut short by having him dressed and packaged off to the creche (i was contemplating letting him stay home cos of the bad weather, imagine the horror) and a long drawn battle for breast from his sister.

Thankfully, with the ASUU strike stil on and my brother here to visit, she was out of my hair, for the most part..except when she just had to have the breast..then, wild horses wouldn't keep her away.

Firstly, i got to chat with my bosom friend whom i havent spoken with in a while, she's an absolute romantic, softhearted, funny,intelligent, beautiful girl who's been part of my whole adult life. I absolutely miss her. our conversation was so crazy and funny, i missed her even more. crazy crazy girl..

Secondly, I was honoured by a visit from Extranjera, a blogger i absolutely admire and adore. She was blogger of note a few days after i joined blogger and i just fell for that first post i read and since then she's been my morning tea on blogosphere. Now, she did not only visit, she commented and even followed my blog..awesome.. talk about encouragement!!

Then, hubby came home early, though he had to go back to work later but it sure was fun having him around as i was able to offload the kids to him..and just perch on the couch with the system on my knees doing stuff..did i tell you i just adore this man?

A prayer for.....

2009-07-28T23:54:00.001+01:00

i have been worried, anxious, sad..Been online the whole day yet totally unable to make a post. my heart has been heavy, my feelings befuddled. i have absolutely no way to make this lighthearted or witty.
i keep asking myself the question..what exactly do they want to turn my hometown into? i mean, we have always been known as hospitable, friendly, accomodating people with a live-and-let's-live attitude,(at one point, we were known as the only safe state of the Nigerian Niger Delta region)suddenly, the young men decide the way to go is criminality.
One might even make an attempt to understand them if they were fighting a cause or any such thing,(at least,the militants of the creeks of Bayelsa are operating under the cloak of resource-control)
but no, my people do not operate like that, their own is out-and-out criminalit, no excuses, no apologies..and typically so, because when something arrives at our doorstep we have this uncanny behaviour of taking it totally out of proportion.

How else would you explain the kidnapping of ordinary citizens and the demand for outrageous sums of money - like 50million naira from school proprietors, footballers, pastor's children etc...nobody seems to be safe.
i hear most days it's like a curfew or some such thing has been declared,the people scurry to their houses and by 9pm, the whole town is quiet....sad..very sad..

And when i hear these stories, my anxiety level increases, my whole family is there, friends i've made over the years and stil love..for God's sakes, it's where i grew up and i love to think of it with fondness..these stories sure do not help!!

these questions come to mind..the politicians who introduced the money, the guns, the idea, what do they think of the way the tides have turned? Are they now afraid for themselves and their children? the ones who advocated that they be paid, when all this began, how do they feel now that this has turned into a profession with very attractive renumeration? An even more disturbing thought...what is the government doing about it? With the spate of kidnappings these past months, has anyone been caught? any punitve measure to deter taken?

sometimes, it seems this whole governance thing is a big joke...

i will go to bed now but not before i say a prayer for my state...we need it

...God disposes..

2009-07-27T00:44:00.007+01:00

Life can be scary sometimes..
scenario - Sunday, yesterday..
plan - church afterwards relax and regale you with cool stories of a fun weekend, my friday 'parrrry' and then the NMA state dinner yesterday.

Instead, there we were, rushing out of worship service to take our litle girl to the teaching hospital where we spent the remainder of our day. it was a gruelling time for us all.she wouldn't stop crying. i knew there was trouble when she refused to suck, i mean, knowing my girl, i began to get worried.. And she's not a crier, plus she kept stretching and would pull her legs towards her tommy.

Well, they suspected intussuception,and since hubs took time to explain what it means to me i was totally beside myself. It did not help that the paediatric surgeons had been called to review since they might have to do a surgery, i couldn't stop tearing, i could only thank God my hubs was there, in charge especially since he knew exactly what to do and where to go. It was traumatizing, all kinds of thoughts ran through my head and my, i have a wild imagination. coupled with the sobering sight of sick children, cries and all. it was not fun. A 2- month old even passed away while we were there. Sad

The Ultrasound showed no indication of intussuception,though the doc said it might be gas, we did an x-ray, and when that showed too then they thought it might be meningitis so they wanted to do an LP(lumber puncture). Everything was in place for that when the consultant, God bless him, called..by this time, she'd stopped crying and was even playing a bit..so the kind doctor said it might just have been intestinal colic and agreed with hubs that since all symptoms seems to have subsided and we live close by, we could leave but be sure to return if any thing changes.

I was relieved, the last thing i wanted was a child on admission and thank God it was averted but we were so thoroughly stressed out. infact, it was when we were told we could go that the hunger pangs hit me and i realised we hadn't eaten anything since morning.
We had plans to attend an orchestra concert and i sooo wanted to go.i was tired but stil wanted to go. ok, so i got all dressed up and ready to go except i laid my head for a while and zap.....

woke up about now......

A treasure of Inestimable value!!

2009-07-23T22:39:00.003+01:00

It seems very apt that this comes now. I cannot fail to appreciate you at this time. This is to my man!!! MR Me!! i totally adore you.. you make it easy too.Dependable, loving, strong. you are one person who can make me laugh, even when i'm mad as hell, even when the anger is directed at you.. Oh , you d man!!

I thank God for giving you to me and feel sooooo lucky to be married to you. yes, my marriage to you confirms that i lead a charmed existence.

I so love you, your sense of humour, your high intelligence(even though you consistently tell me i'm the smart one), your deep empathy for others, not forgetting your loyalty and devotion to your family.

I feel blessed and i look forward to more exciting years with you.. and yes, things can only get better.
You absolutely rock man!

Happy Birthday!!

I really should..

2009-07-22T11:47:00.002+01:00

i really should start writing things down.. when i woke up, i had this fantastic (to me) idea of a post evolving in my mind.
I really should've written a line or two as it formed but i didn't and now i feel like this old wornout chic with a brain that doesn't work.. psst, did it ever?

Seeing that i've never been able to write in organisers for more than two days or keep to-do-lists, it'll be interesting how that would turn out..

Bewildered and loving it..

2009-07-21T23:42:00.003+01:00

They can be impossible. it sure was easier when i had to deal with just one. But two?.. crazy.. and to think that someone actually told to think of an addition..ah, i seriously think someone has plans to kill moi. for real?

Sometimes, i wonder how my mom coped with the battallion she had - 6 -or as my sis puts it - half a dozen.

So the latest thing is shouting my name- sorry, not my name, to them that's my name, the one only i answer to.... M -U -M -M -Y!!!! whenever he wants anything or simply needs attention. I dont even hear 'daddy' anymore and that was his first word!!

Now, he screams it.. M-U-M-M-Y followed by T-A-P, T-A-P, T-A-P on my body if i'm close by, before launching into a language that requires my utmost ingenuity to interprete.

sometimes, i get it wrong, in which case he'll go, 'M-U-M-MMMM-YYYY', T-A-P, T-A-P, T-A-P and we go another round of trying to interprete et al.

I'm waiting for the day he'll go 'mummy, do you know what happened in school today?..bla, bla, bla,(narrative)'.
I'm told it's not too far into the future but i'm hoping soon as my tongue interpretation technique might just desert me at a crucial moment.

"nuff said today..lemme go lay my tired brain down now that they've gone to bed.
g.nite!!

2009-07-20T18:05:00.000+01:00

473y8stemr

This week...In my history

2009-07-20T09:51:00.007+01:00

I'm gonna love this week

wat's it about the week, u ask..'sides, how can you know, it's only just started

i know,ok..i'l tell..i woke with this warm feeling in heart..and then it struck me,oh.. this is the week. yeah, like da week!!
i stretched, laid back down and let my mind wander down memory lane.
We really cant tell the story of our love without his day playing some role in it, majorly, i would say. It was on his birthday that...ah..do not open your mouth wide... yet.

Now,back in '04

hmmm, wat do you know? it's been 5 long years..

so as i was saying, back in '04, my adventure-loving self being at its best, i traversed the length of the North to go celebrate his birthday with him. After my Bar exams, my head was in a funny place, i wanted to totally rest and see or do nothing closely resembling an academic activity so i packed my luggage, sent it home and travelled to Gombe state to see my close friend who was serving there.

She served in a village,on the Highway that led to Adamawa. Billiri,pretty place, very picturesque, it was where i first drank 'fura de nunu'(milk and millet sold by fulani women)..Her house was called "Millionaire's Corpers Lodge" -lol -
In those two weeks, i forged friendships i stil enjoy till today.
yours truly had fun, i attended the corpers footbal match (where i screamed my lungs out), travelled to the nearby village to visit her corper friends, i climbed the highest mountain in the area (ah, it was fun when we started out but hmm, sha, i managed to get to the top) and then three days b4 i left, we(my friend and i) organised a picnic for her housemates and a few friends , it absolutely rocked!!

But i digress,

oh wait..did i mention that there was no GSM service? Service was available only in the state capital, though it trickled down there sometimes,mainly at night or early morning. so u either make all your calls when you go to town or you go up a little hill which had an abandoned NTA building with antenna..

So i made my 'happy birthday' call to him 2 days before d day,when i went to town, unknown to him i was already planning the trip down. Infact, i had planned before i left Abuja.i had a friend a friend who was serving there, she was d only one who knew of my plans
Meanwhile, i was in for a shock, i thought it would be a five or six hour journey. for where? i spent the whole day on the road.
***Tip*** Do not do any serious road travel in the Northern part of Nigeria on a friday except you are driving yourself.

I took a bus going to Kano, with our Moslem brothers stopping to pray on the road we didn't reach Kano till 8pm..Infact, i reached katsina State a few minutes to midnight.
I traced my friend's place.She had called me to say she wont be around but she left her keys. No Zain network (or Vmobile as it then was) in Katsina too, i think but MTN network was available..I rested. had a good sleep.

The next morning being the Day, a Saturday, if i remember correctly, i went to the payphone and made a call.

EXCERPT:
"happy birthday"!!
"yeah, thanks. so u went to town and u didnt call".
"nope, i didn't go to town"
"so, where are u calling from"
"here, katsina"
"seriously? you are just pulling my legs"...(and my heart went boom, is something going on over there? u shd've thought of that before traversed the breath of the North to come down here, oh no, dont think that, be calm)
"seriously" (he didnt believe it)
"ok.where are you?" i looked around and read the street name
"IBB way"
"now i know this is true.Ok. just take a bike down to STB.i'l be there waiting."

and i did. and he was....and we had a wonderful day, party and all..and then i had a wonderful stay.Go figure!!

He still says it, i am his best birthday present ever...like they say in my place, 'it makes my head swell'. But really, that was some trip!!

Happy Birthday, love of my life. May the new year be wonderful for you and us...

We look forward to when these will be history..

2009-07-18T22:33:00.005+01:00

Healing touch
A Sudanese-born doctor helps African women recover from ritual circumcision
By Irene Sege, Globe Staff

The tall West African native is subdued when she enters the African Women's Health Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Maybe this doctor, this African doctor whom she heard interviewed on public radio, will understand why she cannot feel pleasure making love with her husband and cannot forget the terrifying day more than a quarter-century ago when she was abducted and forcibly circumcised.

"Until today," she says, "I have nightmares."

That the woman found the clinic is one outcome of the attention that has attended Dr. Nawal Nour since she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in October. The weekly clinic she founded in 1999 is the only one in the country devoted to African women, many of whom have had all or part of their external genitalia removed in ritual circumcisions and have trouble finding physicians who don't gasp when they perform pelvic exams. "I've been trying to get a doctor that will understand the culture and the circumcision problems that I've had. I never came across any," says the woman, who asks that her name not be published. "The things I was being negative about, Dr. Nour spoke to me and made me feel comfortable."

"She really felt ugly," Nour says. "With her, the only thing I could do is tell her she's beautiful."

Both patient and doctor are 37-year-old daughters of Africa, born in countries where the circumcision of girls is widespread, who came to the United States for college. The patient is among more than 130 million African women and girls -- and at least 168,000 estimated to be living in the United States -- who have undergone a ritual that adherents believe promotes chastity, marriageability, and cleanliness. Nour is the child of an American mother and a Sudanese father who opposed the practice. Now the Harvard-trained doctor, a member of Brigham's obstetrics and gynecology department, has won an unfettered $100,000 a year for five years. Her colleagues have posted a sign on her office door that says "Quiet! Genius at work." " `Genius' is really a misnomer. It's an award for creativity," Nour says. "My goal has always been to work in Africa to train health providers. They don't take care of women who've already been circumcised. I'm hoping this will give me the leverage to get even more funding."

The award recognizes a reputation that has spread ever since Nour, during her residency, did outreach work in a Massachusetts community estimated to include 5,000 people from Somalia, where 98 percent of women have been circumcised, and 10,000 from Ethiopia, where 90 percent have. Nour's Somali interpreter, Layla Guled, calls her "a gift from God." When he runs into a Somali refugee in the mall or eats in an Ethiopian restaurant, Ali Sultan, a colleague and assistant professor at Harvard's School of Public Health, is often asked if he knows Dr. Nour once he mentions he is Sudanese. "If they know I'm from the Sudan," he says, "they mention her name."

One recent afternoon, Nour, wearing a white doctor's coat over a short purple dress, sheer stockings, and sling-back heels, strides briskly from room to room. Several Muslim women in the waiting area cover their heads with scarves and the rest of their bodies under robes or loose pants and long-sleeved shirts. One husband sports a Red Sox cap and a Patriots jacket. Most Wednesdays, Nour, a secular Muslim, dresses in a modest, long, flowing skirt and boots, but on this day she spent the morning making a presentation to hospital administrators.

"I wanted to look a little bit more elegant," she says. "I am Western, and I am Eastern. Sometimes a day will clash, and I need to show my Western side more."

`A constant thread' Born in Sudan, Nour moved to Cairo when she was 4, returned to Sudan at 12, moved to London at 14, then crossed the Atlantic to attend Brown University. In Khartoum, Sudan, where the White Nile meets the Blue, living in a house cooled by air filtered through wet grass, she overheard middle-school classmates chatter and giggle about the rite of passage they had undergone that summer. Later, in London, she read a harrowing account in "The Hidden Face of Eve" by Nawal El Saadawi.

"I wrote book reports about it in high school and went to college and wrote some little paper about it," Nour says. "I didn't remember I did all this until later, when people said to me, `Oh, I remember when you role-played this in medical school.' I guess it was something that was a constant thread throughout my life."

The circumcisions -- and women's feelings about them -- take various forms. What one African woman experiences as the removal of all or part of her clitoris, another, in a different tribe or other place, experiences as the excision of her external genitalia and the sewing closed of most of her vaginal opening. What one woman accepts as the way of her people, another despises. "It's torture," Nour's patient says. In her tribe, she says, weeping, the rite is kept secret from the uninitiated. When she was 10 and her parents were away, an aunt and other women, strangers, took her to a jungle area and, without benefit of anesthesia, circumcised her.If she couldn't be stoic enough not to cry, she was told to fill a dish with tears or be beaten. The wounds may have healed, she says, but she never recovered.

"Sexually there's no feeling whatsoever. Being a woman and hearing other people talk about how you can sexually express yourself, it's emotionally hurting to not be able to experience the same thing," she says. "I've never exposed my body to my husband. I'm always afraid if he finds out he will leave and find somebody who has what I don't have."

Nour's memories of her 12-year-old classmates are more benign. "All I remember is being puzzled by it and being puzzled by their giggles," she says. "About a year later, a couple of girls said, `You were lucky you didn't have to go through it.' They said they wouldn't do it to their daughters. There were other friends who were really proud of being circumcised."

Nour, the youngest of four children, was a "half-half" girl in a community where her father was one of a number of men who left Sudan for a university education and returned with a Western wife. Her sister Johara, 45, reached in Nigeria by telephone, recalls asking her father if she could be circumcised like other Sudanese girls. He said no. "I had the sense that I was dirty," she says. "I had to almost hide the fact that I wasn't."

Protected as the Nour girls were by an American mother and liberal father, that was no guarantee against circumcision. "I had a lot of friends, expatriate wives of Sudanese, whose daughters were spirited away," Nour's mother, Jane Nour, 70, says by telephone from Pennsylvania. "Their daughters were taken away, or maybe invited over by a grandmother. The mothers were furious. In a sense there could have been a danger for our kids. The family was supportive of my husband's view, but that didn't mean it couldn't have happened."

A shining light Nawal Nour, a dual citizen of the United States and Sudan, has let her Sudanese passport expire, and last year, after almost two decades in New England, she bought a condominium in Charlestown. Yet she considers herself a perpetual outsider.

She has another sister in Canada, her brother in Rome, her father in Cairo, and a boyfriend in New York whose parents were born in India. Despite her US-born mother and years in American schools here and abroad, a trace of British accent occasionally slips into her speech.

"I still don't belong," she says. "People used to ask me, `Where's home?' Well, home is where my bed is."

Between patients, Nour dashes to the computer in her office. Near the door is a copy of Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural speech in which he says, "As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." On her desk is the Eileen Fisher ad in which she wears shimmering gray as part of the clothier's "Women change the world every day" series.

Nour's mission is not only to help end the practice of female genital cutting but to care for women who've undergone the ritual, women she fears are forgotten in campaigns against circumcision, and to teach Western doctors about them. Even a routine pap smear is often impossible to perform on women who've been sewn up. Urination, menstruation, and intercourse can be painful, and childbirth more difficult than usual. Nour performs a surgical procedure called deinfibulation in which she opens closed women.

In Guled, Nour finds not only a Somali interpreter but a refugee advocate who, like many patients, has survived trauma beyond genital cutting. Guled, 35, stylish in a long gray pin-striped jacket and long pencil skirt, covers her head in a colorful turban in observance of Ramadan. On her neck are scars from the day in 1990 in Mogadishu, in a country ravaged by civil war, when she witnessed her brother's decapitation and had her own throat slashed with a bayonet.

Guled was 6 when she underwent the most extreme form of circumcision. "I remember it like it was yesterday," she says. Not until she was 18 and visiting a newlywed friend did she oppose the practice. "She's on the couch, not moving," Guled says. "I said, `What happened to you?' She had tears in her eyes. We were all crowded around her. She said her husband couldn't open her, and he refused to take her to the hospital. He said, if we do it every day and every night he will open her. Then I started crying. I break down so hard."

The friends sneaked the bride to a hospital, where a doctor surgically opened her. The woman's husband promptly left her.

Guled also remembers her first visit to an American doctor. "She jumped back and said, `Oh, good God! What happened to you?' " Guled says. "I was so mad. I just put on my clothes and never went back."

Three years later, Nour coaxed Guled into accepting a checkup. "Layla really does represent the circumcised woman with long-term complications," Nour says. "That's what I'm trying to alleviate."

In 2001, Nour returned to Sudan. There, listening to her aunt talk about her own circumcision, she learned her grandfather had opposed the practice. "He went away on a trip, and when he came back he found out that my aunt had been circumcised. He was absolutely furious," Nour says. "She had the most severe form. She hemorrhaged right through her bedsheets. My grandfather was very upset. And he was a military man, so he was very strict. Despite all of that, she got circumcised against his will."

Yet Nour left feeling hopeful. "Every generation is heading toward the milder form," she says. "I really do believe this practice will stop. It may take some time, but it will stop."

This is just one of the many stories we hear, even from within our country and we hope that someday, there will be enough enlightenment and information to make this 'a culture we used to have'.

Rag day...

2009-07-15T23:20:00.007+01:00

Today the city was taken over by young men and women in tattered clothes. There was a couple or so every mile..dressed in clothes worn inside out or torn and ragged, some with graffiti on their faces and bodies, with their tins proudly decorated and of course, not without the coins.
Feelings of nostalgia overwhelmed me, my reminiscences made me smile.
Those were the days...

I never really participated in rag day, i guess it just wasn't my thing, i thoroughly enjoyed the proceeds though. My sister, the vibrant savvy one, never missed out on it and the fun part (for me) was helping count the cash..no,not the running around in the sun, thank you..
she would regale us with stories of what went down and how much fun she and her friends had.Sometimes, i would attend the students' meet before they started, to check out the razziest attire or makeup.

My first (and i might add, only) attempt at a rag day of some sort was in my second year, my bosom friend had an uncle who lived in Eket and worked in Mobil. Since we did not want to rag, she suggested we do the 'executive ragging'.
So off we went, with great expectations, we ate, drank, relax and when we wanted to go, he 'graciously' give us 2k...i laugh as i write this!!

Believe me, it wasn't at all funny then..my friend was so dismayed, frustrated ,angry. It wasn't so bad for me, since i was,more or less just along for the ride but she had already made elaborate plans for the cash, plans we had even discussed on our way there. it was sooo not funny. Well, we transported ourselves back to school and used the reminder for suya.
Later, it became something we would joke about, another memory we held dear.

When i thought of rag day, i remembered one other thing..it held during students' week so there weren't any lectures...now that was fun!!

Learning Patience!!

2009-07-14T23:34:00.002+01:00

I always knew being a mom will take an extraordinary amount of love, discipline and patience..i just didn't think the patience would have to be extraordinarily extraordinary. A fantastic experience motherhood gives, i agree.You learn new concepts, ideas, cuisines, methods everyday, of course, you have to if you really want to be a fab mom.
so hear i am, learning patience everyday.

I have always been a tad impatient, never suffering fools gladly as they say, a kind of lets-do-it-now kind of person(though my lazy procrastinating side is ever so ready to rear its side, ask my hubby and he will regale you with tales..example, how i stil go about with a postnatal belly pouch because ah, we will start the exercises tomorrow.. i digress.

But truly, sometimes it is totally crazy, my world is..ok.lets look at my handsome young man here, when he was born, he was such a lovely baby, no incessant cries, u feed him and he sleeps, if he cries, u cuddle him a bit and it ends..fastforward two years, the young man suddenly discovers the usefulnes of shouting, throwing himself on the floor and generally just screaming his lungs out for very long minutes.

At first i was totally beside myself, pleading, cajoling, singing, ah..what did i not do?.i think i even put him out in the next room a couple of times ( which made it worse by the way). until i realised it was just an attention seeking behaviour so now when he starts, i close my eyes, take a deep breath, call out to him, put him on my laps and tell him 'mummy is carrying you but you can stil cry if you want'

although this doesn't always work out because sometimes he turns his attention to whatever i was doing and that becomes his immediate must-be-fulfilled need or he just keeps bawling.

it is crazy at times, sometimes i want to tear my eyes out and then i remind myself that they are watching for every strange behaviour and so i take a deep breath, count to ten, relax and tell myself that there must be something i can do to make them sleep or at least distract them a bit.

Imagine, tonight, they just refused to sleep, i put off the television, played the lullaby, started to rock them but what do they do?...playing like its midday..i looked at the time, it's past midnight and i stil have stuff to do but i know i'l get nothing done till they both sleep so i stay and we sing the songs and clapped our hands and they were having so much fun that they forgot they were meant to sleep..finally, some time before 1 am, the sleeping bug caught the girl and him realising that he is 'partnerless' started crying and later slept off.

And i never understand the crying-before-sleep part..it is so exasperating..i see children who feel sleepy just lie down to sleep, my boy wil cry first of all, serious cry that will so annoy you because he will not accept any cajoling. i have learnt that it works best if i let him cry a bit then i go pet him, he will allow me carry him then..what can i say? it works for me.

How about trying to toilet-train? hmm, na tory be dat o..

I have learned though that taking a minute to take that deep breath can give you a whole new perspective on things or at least, make you feel calm enough not to yell.

Sometimes i just wonder -
When your child acts up, do you find yourself feeling compelled to discipline them because you don't have the patience to tolerate their behavior? This is natural....but how do you know when you might be overreacting because you're not as patient as a "older" or 'more experienced' parent might be? and where is the line between being patient and 'over- tolerating'?

ZAIN - Get It Together

2009-07-13T11:29:00.002+01:00

someone please tell Zain Nig to stop bothering me..it's becoming a nuisance. this incessant trivial text messages are really becoming annoying.
unless the text is to tell me that i have won a million dollars..o wait, that's not zain..watever, sha dont send me another text..

Especially the one about unemployment, na only me no get paid work?, and eh, if u really care about my situation, why is the text am supposed to send not free..eh..?

now, let me sign off before i get paranoid and start asking about who even told you sef

and i will not even talk about your evolutions, hmmm, at least not today..

A sister's a delight!!

2009-07-12T17:41:00.013+01:00

Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of. You know whatever you do, they'll still be there. ~Amy Li

I am blessed with 4 sisters.3 biological, 1 acquired..my elder sister, i smile as i write about her.she surely is a delight..she's d best.i cannot remember a period of my life without her featuring prominently.she's always been there, a constant.

Though she's only a year, three months older, she's always been the mature one,.even way back when we were much younger. always loving, sheltering, protecting, comforting me. life always has a way of keeping us close,throughout our elementary, secondary school and university days, even our service year was in the same state(believe it, we made no attempt to work it cos we wanted to be able to travel to visit each other).

One unforgettable moment(there are several but this i always remember)was when i was about to take my Bar finals, she's the person that called and said 'i know that expections are great and i know that you will make it but remember i love you no matter what happens.' she is that sister who has no drop of jealousy in her blood, even when everyone was raving about the younger more intelligent sister.infact, she raved about me even more.

She's intelligent, wise, sooo beautiful,outgoing and fun to be with. there's no dull moment with her, we have almost the same set of friends, we'd hang out,gossip and share our secrets..even till now.
To my elder sister, i say 'It was nice growing up with someone like you - someone to lean on, someone to count on... someone to tell on!'

And then we grew up (really?) she got married, i did too and life handed me another sister..by marriage, in-law, as it is called.

She's outstanding. She's beautiful, intelligent, savvy.it's been mega sweet having her as a sister maybe because she had been my friend way before i met and married the brother or because she is an only daughter and i was a sister God handed to her too.
Though she's out of the country,we are as close as, no, closer than we were when we were just friends.
She would call and we'll talk for hours, having fun, gisting about everything,sometimes the brother,my sweetheart would ask..'whose sister is she sef? mine or yours?'. i'd just make a face and allow him say hello -lol.

i miss you, girl..

When i think of my sisters, i remember these lines
Sisters function as safety nets in a chaotic world simply by being there. ~Carol Saline
Whatever you do they will love you; even if they don't love you they are connected to you till you die. You can be boring and tedious with sisters, whereas you have to put on a good face with most friends. ~Deborah Moggach

if you have a sister u adore, drop a line and tell why you love her so....or not!!

I stil de vex o, NIPOST striking, PHCN next..

2009-07-10T10:11:00.004+01:00

At about midnight, my hubby showed,he was dead tired. They had been attending to patients, doing nurses work, discharging some that had agreed to go home and generally just working their asses off, the nurses' strike was biting hard. I decided i will sleep jeje expecting that when i awake, my anger about the whole strike thing would have abated.. For where?

I only woke up to learn that NIPOST offices all over the country have been shut and workers have embarked on a strike action,. at first, i scoffed..those ones stil de..who de send letter sef? my Sweet gently reminds me though that they run a fairly decent speedpost service and yes, i remember i used them when i apllied for my masters program and it was unexpectedly efficient.

So while i was digesting that one and wondering where we are headeda, they suddenly announced that PHCN's planning to embark on an industrial action too.even NMA..and i just shook my tired..Seriously? Seriously?

i just hissed, and to think they have been screaming that Obama should have visited Nigeria, imagine!!!

Nurses on strike? Yaradua de vex me o!!

2009-07-09T15:38:00.007+01:00

The state of the Nigerian nation is a real cause for concern. Some have said the solution is prayer and fasting(God will have mercy on us and turn around our situation and make our leaders to stop using our money to marry new wives and buy mansions abroad), others believe in revolution(we have to sack those in power who are making our lives miserable, hang them and drown their families) but most people do not even know what to think - or perhaps they are tired of praying for a change that would not come.

I was having a good time in my fab world last night watching my little girl dance to the sounds made by the microwave oven (she dances to sound, any sound..and because of her i have stopped asking what constitutes danceable music but rock my booty to whatever we are dancing to at the moment), hubby comes in and his gist spoils my mood..he tells me the hospital non-medical staff were on strike, the hospital operation were almost grounded, nurses were joining the next day(today)and most patients would have to be sent home (to die, i added)

I didn't know how to react, on the one hand,i was elated, yes, that's right and about time too..if only doctors had the same mind, the government would not be playing games with them the way they are.

On the other hand, i was depressed and extremely vexed..What is the fate of a nation that does not appreciate and encourage essential services providers like medical workers.
it baffles me, but then what does one expect from leaders who jet out to foreign countries for medical checkups.

I am in a pugnacious state of mind, the behaviour of the Nigerian Government is appalling..i want to scream, i am angry..it is obvious that the dream of this government is to completely make Nigeria a failed state.

What else is one to think, ASUU has been on strike for three weeks now, nurses have joined yet what has our 'vision-filled' government done?

yet we hear the same people scream 'brain-drain, brain-drain'..they haven't seen anything yet.

Now they've gotten me all wound up...lemme stop ranting and go chill off jare, if my blood pressure come decide to rise, hospital no de work o...

so see ya...yo!