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Aside of the occasional foray into the main street to either shop, use the ATM, go to church, get to the Library or some other mundane task, I have spent the last few months indoors. Today I went out to the ATM. Normally there should not have been a queue but today my eyes were assailed by a queue, stretching into the distance. There must have been at least twenty people on the queue occasioned by the demise of one of the two machines. These are the only two machines in walking distance of my house, which is shocking considering we are just off the city centre. ...

The following is an attempt to be coherent at 3.45am. If the logic is fuzzy, the imagery abstruse and the conclusions bother on the insane, blame it on reading Malcolm Gladwell into the wee hours of the morning! In response to my rant/ sobfest in March about losing my friend Di, LoloBloggs pointed me to a post in which she argued that the right girl, wrong time argument was merely an excuse to prime women up for the inevitable future break up. Whilst that may be true in some situations, in one of those not-so random brain waves, it crossed my mind that the rightness or wrongness of the argument was peripheral to the fact that it fit the observed data for a reason - it is pragmatic! A further thought was a what-if, what if there exists a third dimension that when coupled with the right person and the right time serves as a useful predictor of how likely a person-connection is likely to proceed beyond the realms of casual acquaintance-ship? I would like to suggest that that third dimension is that of context. ...

I think I’ll get the job. Our discussions went very well, the interviewers were very friendly, and only just stopped short of saying they didn’t see why an offer could not be made ASAP. I had scaled through the technical bits of the interview a few weeks ago before meeting up with the HR folks this time. Fingers crossed though. And there is an option to remain in my city! Now that’s some good news, first bits of decent news in a while too.

I finally went shopping, with a few friends from around the neighbourhood. Meat, tomatoes, onions, and a stop over at the African shop for some real rice meant my long running addiction to KFC is definitely in for a serious beating! Slowly getting used to this town, I cringe at the upheaval another relocation might cause if I get the job I am currently interviewing for..

She popped up on my IM window today – the first time in months that she has. In an oddly unsettling way, it seems odd that she appeared. Odd becuase a mere few months ago, we were seemingly inseparable. I was caught in two minds - to buzz her or not… Truth is there was never any closure. All we had was a slow drifting apart as we each sought to focus more on our own things…. In theory, we are still normal – still friends, still confidants - the only difference from the days of a somewhat burgeoning friendship being the fact that life has happened, and squeezed the ‘thing’ I thought could grow into a dry lifeless crust. ...

In retrospect…. Life happens.. With or without our consents…. And in its wake often comes change.. which we by default detest. Over time, we develop safe routines, coping mechanisms and default positions to deal with life - ultimately acquiring some semblance of balance. Sometimes change is subtle; imperceptibly modifying the place where we are on the continuum of life, instigating minor perturbations - little oscillations if you like - around our equilibrium positions. The pragmatic thing to do then is to try to hold the fort, to resist change and maintain the status quo. ...

It is times like this that I am ‘happy’ that I still am unmarried. My flatmate has this ongoing conversation with his wife. I swear I can tell the whole tale, blow by blow, word by word. They have been married for nearly 15 years, his Nigerian employers passed him over a couple of times for a promotion - piquing him enough to make him quit - with a hefty pay off - and head back to school after relocating his family to Europe. ...

Perhaps, this is definitive proof that Social Networks like Facebook and Twitter can be good for you after all. First one bloke has his alibi corroborated by a Facebook timestamp (possibly saving him from up to 25 years in jail), then an attempted suicide was averted and Freddy Adu is finding life on the bench less stressful thanks to support from his peers via Twitter. What say you? What is the most unconventional use you have put Social Networks to?

The bad part of waiting is the uncertainty - the vacillation between extreme positions, the rehashing of the entire sequence of events in the mind seeking clues as to how it went - and the undoubted clarity that hindsight often brings along with all the could-haves and should-haves that tag along. I am waiting, have been waiting since a couple of days ago, for a response from the chaps I spoke to. I thought we had fruitful discussions, answered all the questions they asked, and chipped in with a few myself to ensure their expectations for the proposed role matched mine. Now, its time for the wait, while they decide if we are a match enough to progress to the next stage. Fingers crossed, done my bit now, all I can do is wait…… and hope……

Chris Abani, speaking at TED in 2008 makes a statement I largely agree with; The world is not saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of every day acts of compassion.. In the last month I, Saw a bottle of palm wine explode: The chic was taking some palm wine to her father for a traditional wedding. She failed to consult knowledgeable others and left the bottle of palm wine corked. 67.5mm Hg of pressure (that is the saturated vapour pressure of ethanol at 20 deg C) ripped the bottle to pieces, and showered us in palm wine! Met @medianemesis -- dude is really cool, smart.. and everything I imagined he was and more. Y’all need to follow him on Twitter and read his old blogs - fabulous! Attended Chill and Relax. Been a long while I chilled and listened to sublimely intelligent minds speak the language of poetry. I should attend when next I am in the vicinity. Thanks to Cerberus for sending a timely reminder. Went on a ‘date’ with my friend EC: It was her birthday, I was in town doing nothing so she dragged me along to go grab a bite and just catch up on old times. This was just old friends hanging out after a year of us both zipping around the world without actually seeing each other. Got recruited as a husband finder, so send in the resumes for your brothers, nephews, uncles and (gulp) good ex- boy friends for consideration. The chic in question is uber smart, pwreeety, focused, - world class in short….. and she needs to sort this out in 2010 unfailingly… Discovered I miss my campus bistro: My morning breakfast bun - the white bread + bacon + sausages + a hot cup of coffee has grown on me in the last 13 months.. Saw a rainbow - and it actually lifted my spirits. Was up since 2.30am, it was wet and windy, and then suddenly as my train came out of the tunnel just north of Edinburgh the sun broke out and the rainbow appeared - Priceless! Thought I liked her enough to jettison the 5-year plan, then thought it was a passing fancy and then ultimately decided to fast track certain portions of the plan as opposed to whole sale changes.. Oh, and this is not one of the usual suspects…… Was reminded of the one we lost to the genes. She would have been 29 today! Saw a different spin on love: They have been married for 55 years, she is now confined to a wheel chair, but each day, he takes her for a ‘walk’, he pushes the wheel chair and they chat as they ‘walk’. That in my mind seemed like true for better for worse. Watched Imagine That, yes it’s kinda mushy, its cheesy, it runs against belief, but I liked it. Sue me! I need me my twin daughters already