I love sleeping :-) I unashamedly write it down as one of my hobbies till this day! My family and close friends will attest to this fact as well. They may also regal you with tales of how difficult it is to pull me away from this great love of mine, i.e. wake me up.


I had a feeling when I was younger that my siblings used to pull straws for who will have the privilege (read: unsavoury experience) of trying to wake me up. My all time trick then was to tell whoever was sent to wake me that I was up but wanted to pray first and then I’ll kneel down and start praying and then sleep off again (hides head in shame)!! And then, if my sibling accuses me of sleeping rather than praying, I will insist that I was still praying and ask them to prove it.... and that argument could continue for a long while!

I also remember another sleeping episode in boarding schools when burglars came into the house (I think it was purple house) which was next to mine, and everybody in my house woke up and ran out of the dormitory screaming in case they decided to come to my house as well, and I slept right through loads of girls’ screaming and the robbery. The girls in my room returned to find me still sleeping...

I do feel that I have gotten a lot better with the waking up bit in recent years. Though, some friends may say otherwise but I’m able most days to get up in time to catch the bus for work with the aid of two to three alarm clocks without any of the said clocks coming to any harm.

But the boot got firmly fitted on the other leg last weekend when I went to Alton towers with a friend of mine, Buchi. I had previously stayed at hers for a couple of weeks when I newly moved to Wales but she was still at Uni then so didn’t need to get up early while I was working and had to set two to three alarms to get up in time to catch my bus. So I had no clue that she was a sleepaholic like me!

So fast forward to last weekend, and we are in an unfamiliar town and need to go catch a bus to take us to Alton towers and Buchi refuses to stand up from bed.

I try everything,

Calling her phone so she thinks she has a call and wakes to answer it, she doesn’t budge..

Putting on all the lights in the hotel room, nothing..

Repeatedly calling, pleading, cajoling, threatening... she doesn’t even stir and only mutters that she’s on holiday and I should stop disturbing her...

In that one moment, I had my epiphany and suddenly realised that this is what my family and friends have gone through with me in trying to get me to wake up early for school, church, social events, fellowship... I had to stop my ‘getting Buchi to wake up’ efforts for a minute or five to quickly mutter an apology to all the people who had every tried to wake me up in the distant past and I will say it again,

To everyone who tried one way or the other, using various techniques to get me up from bed, I say that I understand your frustrations and I will like to say sorry for the grief I caused :-)!!

As for the Alton Towers visit, Buchi finally got up and although we did miss our bus, we finally got to Alton Towers and had a lovely time!!

Apologies for the time away, you who occasionally pass by... I never intended to be away for this long, it just kind of happened- kept on meaning to write something and kept pushing it back or in some instances, coming up with nothing worth writing about.. 


I came to the point where I wasn't sure if writing a blog was for me and I wanted to spend time and review why I blog- my blog started as an outlet for my poetry and then drifted off into a place where I share my experiences and thoughts. I still have loads of experiences and thoughts to share so I guess I'll still be here for the time being :-) 

A lot has happened since I was away- the London Olympics- went to see the women's football match between Great Britain and Cameroon, and even got interviewed by BBC World service cause my friends and I were the only Cameroun supporters; I got a lot of flack on Facebook for carrying a Cameroonian flag but like I said to the flack-dishing folks, I'm African, get over it!! 





The by-product of the Olympics is my resolve to get into playing some form of sports, I occasionally play table tennis at work but I was looking for something more cardio-intensive; I had previously tried both tennis and squash and that didn't go too well, so on Friday evenings I now play badminton with a bunch of people :-) Its good exercise and also a fun way to meet new people!! 

What else has happened? mon cours de français est terminé et j'ai passé mon examen! I am doing my best to practice regularly but a lot of times I forget. I am trying to do the exercises in www.languagesonline.org.uk. It’s really quite helpful and has other languages like Spanish and Italian, incase anyone is interested in learning a language.. I am thinking of retaking the same French class next year to help solidify my knowledge of French verbs, as well as present and past tense! 

I will do my best to update my blog regularly from now, but no promises ...


xxxx

otherwise called stop trying to help God...

I know I'm guilty of trying to 'help God' in a lot of areas in my life. A friend of mine visited yesterday and as we gisted she reminded me of the freedom, peace and trust that comes from completely relying on God. The business of trying to 'help' God is not the easiest thing in the world, its very hard!!

Cause you have to constantly think up and rethink up stuff when the plans go awry and the like.Now, I'm not advocating that we all just sit down and relax and 'let God sort us out', we have to get on with what He's called us to do.. I got sent this poem in Uni and I think it explains better the stuff I'm trying to pass across. I'm not entirely sure you wrote the poem (someone said Lauretta Burns)

This morning was one of those mornings.....

The one where the bus passes as you are just on your way back...

The one where you decide to wait for the next bus due in 10 minutes...

The one where the bus does not show up...

So I'm chatting with a new friend of mine and she asks those dreaded words, that gives me shivers, 'are you single?'

Are you a serial dater? Take our questionnaire and find out!!!


Serial Dater [sē rēz dāt-әr] noun. A person who has no qualms to date two or more people at the same time; can be both Masculine and feminine in gender.


Synonyms: double-dipper; player, womaniser

1. During the past year, you have been in three ‘relationships’ and your currently angling for your fourth= +8 points.

2. You are of the opinion that ‘we all need to keep out options open’ in a relationship=+3 points.

3. You feel that the ‘Tiger Woods saga’ was more of his enemies trying to get at him=+8 points.

4. You have spent years honing your ‘girl radar’ and can tell when there’s a new girl on the block from miles away=+4 points.

5. You have Jay Zs ‘On to the next one’ as a ringtone=+2 points.

6. Your definition of a long-term relationship is one that lasts for 6 months=+9 points.

7. Your friends generally don’t like you around their sisters=+10 points.

8. You don’t allow your sisters to hang out with any of your male friends=+10 points.

9. You believe that there’s someone, somewhere out there for you to eventually marry, but in the meantime you ‘drop it like its hot’=+12 points.

10. You call all of your girlfriends ‘babe’, not necessarily as a term of endearment but more like a ‘get out of jail’ card just in case you mix up the names of your current girlfriends=+16 points.

I created this questionnaire for fun mostly but there was also a time when a particular guy, in a relationship, who had introduced me to his gf, suddenly backtracked and suddenly 'wanted to show me a good time'..

I personally believe that any score greater than 2 is way off but what do you guys think? And also, what question do you think I may have missed??

Have a good weekend xx

Happy Holidays people!

Zumba, for the unaware, is a high energy dance workout that includes Latin style dance routines in the workout. The end result is that you have fun- which most exercise classes do not include- and you get fit in the process.

I started searching for Zumba classes in my area and found three different classes and decided to go for all three to find out which class best suited me and herein lies the gist of this post..

My first class went really well save for two things: My dance instructor was male and although he danced in tune with the music and we all worked up a sweat, I couldn’t concentrate! For one, I couldn’t help staring at the dude and wondering if a guy was allowed to grind his waist and hips in that manner and two, I kept on wondering if getting all the ladies to butterfly (we used to call it shuperu in secondary school) while lying down was more for his benefit than ours cause I’m still not sure what muscle groups we were working on dancing in that position.

My second dance class, the week after that was at a community centre. The good thing about it was that it was a lot cheaper than the second one and I was hoping that the cheaper price didn’t mean that the dance instructor would be rubbish at dancing. So I arrived at the dance class, not sure what to expect, but hoping for the best. For one thing, the class was a lot larger than the first one I attended- it was in a really large room and was packed full- they even had ticket collectors at the door incase someone tried to sneak in without paying.. I paid for my ticket, showed my ticket and found a spot near the back. The instructor was a bit late so people just milled around and waited..

And then the instructor walked in, or should I say glided in. I looked around and noticed that everyone was staring too- the lady looked like she just popped out of a movie- and not just any movie oh, one of those films where they'll have street parties, and her father would forbid her to go, for fear she would meet her lover, Eduardo, a poor dancer but she would defy her father's commands and go and meet Eduardo and they'll dance away in the moonlight!!

Where was I?

The Zumba class was really quite good- we all danced the best we could, she would show us the dance step and we would try to copy- each with their own interpretation of the dance. I left the class, at the end, fully spent but glad to be one of the back up dancers in my dance instructor's movie....

I attended the last Zumba class because I had intended to attend all three but I had already resolved to continue with the class at the community centre. The last and final class was also at a community centre but a much larger one, and this time, I went with a friend. The normal dance teacher wasn't available so the community centre staff were trying to find a replacement and they eventually did. Now, we should have suspected something when the replacement instructor came in and four girls left at once- we just thought maybe they went to get a drink or something.

And then the music started and then we discovered why- the instructor couldn't dance AT ALL!!! Not in tune with music or in tune with anything- all she did was shout and then move her body and jump up and down! There was nothing Latin inspired about any of the steps she demonstrated and if you didn't dance or jump as high as she did, she would come to your side and start shouting!!! I did work up a sweat but also gained a headache as well!!

So I'm returning to my little community centre this week to continue my back up dance role!!!

I'm currently hunched over my laptop, with a cup of lemon and ginger tea and tissues nearby- annoying cold- pschew!

can be as easy as a phone call to your hair stylist, and if she's your pal, like mine is, then you can have a brand new do in less than 24 hrs.....

Now, I didn't notice anything was amiss when I got back home from work. I dropped my back and began making my supper, as I was cutting some cucumber, one fly just breezed by my face, as if to say hello. I promptly dealt with it, but still didn't notice anything. And then I spotted another one, and then another one and then several more!! I shut both windows and then chased and swatted and chased and swatted some more until the coast was clear... I detest flies with a passion so when I thought the coast was clear; I started cleaning my place using every anti-bacterial cleaner I could find.

The annoying thing, and this is what I want to draw attention to, was that anytime I sat down or tried to get back into whatever I was doing at the time, I spotted another one (I even saw a couple this morning). The end result was that I was very frustrated by the time I dragged myself to bed...

Isn't sin like that though? We leave ourselves unguarded by either not praying as we should or not praying at all or spending very little time in God's Word. This leaves us open and vulnerable to little flies (habits, deliberate sins) and the like. We then struggle to get rid of these things using our own strengths and abilities and then wonder why we fail each time.. When we finally reach our lowest ebb- the point where we feel we can't take it anymore- we then remember to seek God's face again and He shows us those areas that we need to work on and lovingly helps us begin the work we have to do.

This is what I thought about after the War of the flies was won and just wanted to share.. I'll probably by some bug spray on my way back from work, just incase a remnant still remains!! As I was looking for a picture to use, I saw that someone had written about chasing flies and God using it to speak to him as well!!

God Bless xxx

I tend to look for the little things...
Not grand gestures, which can be lovely in their appropriate place..
But its the little things
That reveal character and show hidden depths
Or reveal a shallowness that grand gestures may hide.


Little things like a thoughtful gesture,
Kind words said,
A compliment given,
A thoughtful note,
Someone going out of their way to help...

Like I said,
I tend to pay attention to the little things
Cause at the end of the day
Its the little things that stands the test of time

I have been away for a while now- apologies for that but things have really been hectic at work and I haven’t found the time to write properly. I have written down a few lessons I learnt over the past few weeks- enjoy!!

I am NOT my work!
My work as a researcher involves analysing survey data and writing articles and short stories to present the results of the analysis. I have struggled with separating criticism about my work from myself! I tend to view the two to be the same- but they are not! I have been writing an article since September last year, think I’ve probably mentioned it here once and that article has had more than its fair share of criticism! I have found it increasingly difficult to not take every critic that the article has got as a personal attack on me! With each re-write I had to make to my article, I began to get a bit despondent and I remember after one particular meeting I just needed to take time away from my desk. So I walked round the office, stunned at all the criticisms that the article had got, and just vented out some of the frustrations that I was feeling.

I spoke to a friend about it that evening and she really helped me understand that I need to learn to take critic on my work as just that- critic on my work and NOT as an attack on me!! It’s still difficult, to be honest, cause I went through something similar yesterday but I am beginning to learn, with God’s help, to separate my identity from the work I do.