General

The discontent is almost palpable. There is that sense of wanting more that seems to leave those it has infected disaffected with the status quo. Rumour has it that a number of senior company people are lining up moves elsewhere for themselves. It hasn’t helped that there is some uncertainty over what the long term company strategy is. A number of key company cash cows projects appear to be slipping and just what will happen to the personnel currently servicing them is unclear. People huddle in twos and three talking in hushed tones - tones that suddenly fade to an uncomfortable silence when someone outside the huddle approaches within hearing distance. ...

I finally went on that road trip. I packed my bags, booked my flights and went on a jaunt to America. America for me was two cities - a flying stop in Chicago and a couple of weeks spent vegetating in Houston. The America I saw was a welcome relief from the biting cold that was my home city; 17 degree temperatures were Lagos-esque when juxtaposed with the near Arctic conditions I had fled from. ...

Steve shares his learnings so far - 30 days after quitting Facebook The Christian Illuminati? Or Just a well connected crew? More questions than answers in this teaser... Large-proofing emergency services - counting the costs. The Jerusalem UFO, or a drone? Becoming invisible? Wack or what? The bloke who added his wife to a terrorist watch list to prevent her flying back home. ‘Spray-on skin’ for burn victims. This brings a whole new meaning to the storm in a tea-cup idiom. Storm in a bed sheet? Mubarak’s cronies launch a cyber counter-insurgency… Mosquitoes evolved?

I suspect that the truest measure of how sensibly one has aged is how well one is able to take a long hard look at choices - and their potential long term effects - before acting. Time, that most elusive of customers, respects no one. From the day that we are born, our share - ladled without so much as an explanation lobbed in our direction - ineluctably runs out like sand in an hour glass. Each passing second once spent is lost, left to float in the seething morass that is the conflation of opportunities missed, acts of omission and of omission and perhaps on the odd occasion windows of opportunity fully utilised. ...

The last few weeks here have looked and felt like life on slow play. Days blending into weeks, weeks somehow adding up to January ending. Slow-ville … Yawn..

ISAs, Fixed deposits, Savings Plus, Pension plans, and playing the stock market…… Money on my mind and that not in a good way… If only I could win the lottery… Sigh.. :(

It has been aeons since I was tagged. Apparently Esco thinks we are stylish and versatile as does Jaycee… Versatile? Maybe.. Stylish? Definitely not.. Just ask the girlfriend… So here goes… My wardrobe is composed entirely of blacks, greys and whites - except for two shirts that were imposed on me in January by you know who… I am an Adult Child of Practising Preachers - I’m not quite the quintessential preacher’s kid although even I would admit I have my moments.. My mother’s first degree was in English - and she still corrects my text messages till date (which is why I do not send her a lot of them). The first non-explicitly Christian song I ever sang was A Whole New World from the Aladdin soundtrack. Blame it on a TV-starved, ultra conservative childhood. I love chilling to music… I once had Brooke Fraser’s Shadow Feet on repeat for close on three straight days… I’ve had Steve Fee’s When Everything Falls Apart on repeat today.. I’m a Football Manager addict player. Interestingly, I have a new pal at work who I connected with over Football Manager. These days we swap in-game stories over lunch.. My one moment of fame was being handed the role of the Magi bearing Myrrh in our Children’s church theatrical adaptation of ‘We Three Kings’ for Christmas back in the day. That has not prevented me from fantasizing about playing lead guitar at a live gig before 2020.. Fat chance I guess, but hey I can dream… Tagging? I’m not sure who has done this and who has not.. So.. feel free.. Run with it.. Its therapeutic..:)

I never celebrated turning thirty. The significance of achieving that chronological milestone was lost in the hustle of every life - a barely discernible peak in the flat line that had become a monotonous existence. I had just lost a cast iron guarantee to return to my old job in Nigeria followed quickly by the petering out of what I thought was a nice, strong girl connection. One day I fell asleep, the next I awoke to being thirty plus. ...

On my forty things by forty list is a task to read 25 books each year. For 2011, I am thinking of starting off with the Booker Prize lists. I suspect a few of them might be out of print, but from running my eye over the list there appears to be at least a few of particular interest. Ben Okri’s 1991 winner ‘The Famished Road’ and Ian McEwan’s ‘Amsterdam’ stand out as starting points. First off though will be ‘The Finkler Question’ by Howard Jacobsen - thanks to the Kindle… :) ...

The turn of the year is unique for the way it inspires one to try better. Plans from the last year, cast aside without thought or regret, suddenly return to the fore of the mind - seeking to exact their recompense for one’s neglect. Its a New Year.. The one thing I plan on doing this year is to articulate more of the thoughts floating around in my head. Hopefully I’ll write a piece each day on here.. Maybe I’ll not..December 31, 2011 will be the final judge of how well I fared…