Daylight settings

Did anyone else out there rejoice like me on sunday morning on discovering that they had gained an hour extra to lie in?

Joining the bandwagon

I am sad to report that after months of tough resistance on my part, I have at last been bitten by the Su doku bug....but I am loving it, haha.

I was off from work on Wednesday as I had had a lousy night the day before... the runs, backache, headache, general feeling of sick in my stomach ...hmm, coming to think of it a bit like having malaria symptons. Anyway I spent most of wednesday in bed tucked up with a little book full of Sudoku puzzles. I am generally not one that 'follows the crowd' but I must say I have been won over this time. I can spend hours trying to figure out which numbers go where.. and I am still at the 'easy' level stage!!

Of morbid thoughts and death

Do people who are about to die sense that they are going to beforehand?

Is there an aura around human beings just before they die they we can see?

I don't really expect any answers to these thoughts swirling around my head.

The sorrows of Nigeria

What a tragic weekend it has been for Nigeria. To have 117 people die in a plane crash it just breaks my heart and I have just found out that a cousin of mine was on the flight.

But after all is said and done, I do marvel that plane this sort of tradegy has managed to have been averted for so long given the poor maintenance records we have in relation to state of our aircrafts. Air travel is seen as no more different than from catching a taxi on the streets of Lagos. How many flights have I been on where the plane has been stopped half way through its taxi down the runway because some big man came late for the flight, or one more person has been able to get hold of a ticket at the last minute. I have witnessed on board fist fights, oxygen masks hanging down from the panel above my head, people sitting in the toilet because there are no more seats left on the aircraft. How many planes did I fly on with no seat belt, or had water leaking in through an ever so tiny crack in the port window? I just shudder to think about it.
And what is done about it… nothing. For me, the aircrafts in Nigeria remain in the sky as a result of the prayers said by passengers during the flight and I have been a sayer of many of those prayers.
I just hope that this tragedy will cause the NAA and the minister of Aviation to sit up and DO SOMETHING and be less concerned about lining their pockets. If it were any other country, they would be calling for the ministers resignation right now!

And then the news about the death of Stella Obasanjo. I will be brutally honest, shall I?

I was initially shocked when I heard about her death because she always presented as a very healthy, bubbly woman and to hear that she was dead out of the blue was very disconcerting. However, I cannot lie and say that I was grieved or particularly touched on an emotional level by it because at the end of the day what really did she represent for our Country and Nigerian women in particular. She had the power and the means to bring about positive change for our Country but all it appeared that she ever seemed to do was attend numerous parties weekend in, weekend out. She attended any function going. Thanks to The Bisi Olatilo show on BEN TV which brings into our homes every Sunday night snippets of all the ‘it’ parties that have been held the prior weekend Nigeria and more often than not, there was Stella beaming out at us at almost all of them.

Now I am almost glad that I didn’t expend much energy mourning her death because I have just found out that her death was caused by complications arising from plastic surgery!! I am furious. You rob the poor to fund trips to Spain to undergo plastic surgery???!!!! Uncle Shege, haba??? I am so mad I cannot even waste my time blogging about it.....

The beginning

Today is a wet day outside and I am so glad I have just cancelled my driving lesson. I hate to drive in the rain. Besides my instructor is beginning to get on my nerves. I get the feeling I am being used as some kind of cash cow, afterall I drove in Nigeria for over 17 years and the only reason I have finally decided to take lessons is to get my UK drivers license. The first lesson I ever had with him was just so .... Demoralizing! I mean it was like I had never driven in my life!! I did nothing right apart from start the engine! I don't think any amount of explanation would have helped put across the message that in Nigeria the aim is to get from A to B in one piece when you get behind the wheel. A wide spread of the fingers accompanied with a loud shout of 'Waka' does wonders for propelling you forward in Lagos traffic ... Especially if it's a woman behind the wheel. At least it did five and a half years ago. Anyways, I have given him - instructor - a deadline of wanting to take my test in December. I have had enough of giving away £18 of my hard earned cash every Friday afternoon. I'm in the wrong profession that's for sure. Wouldn't I like to earn £18 per hour for sitting beside someone in my car and belting out endless instructions?

But yeah, I really must get my act together and get mobile. I was almost thrown off the bus today because I couldn't find my ticket. I felt like a kid who had been caught with fingers in the cookie jar. Anyway, I was let off the hook (thanks in part to my angelic looks and the fact that I must have come across as 'don't mess with me 'cos I aint going to pay for another miserable bus ticket) and I made a promise to myself, in the next one month I shall be turning my nose up at the public transport system because I shall be cruising along in my very own metallic wonder!