Monday, April 30, 2007

Aching back, Hot head! Not another fever!


Am sitting at my desk in the office just back from a meeting with one of the company's clients, by the way, i work as a client service executive in an advertising agency(i dont think i av mentioned this earlier)in Lagos.

My back is aching and my head is soooooooo hot, God! i hope its not malaria fever again! The last one wasnt funny at all. I seem to be getting this fever a lot frequently this days despite all the cans of Raid, Mortein and the like(all these mosquito killers never really do all they promise) i av spent so much money on lately.

I dont really have much to blog about just felt i havnt posted anything in a while and i had this overwhelming desire to put down something on my page(No slacking na).

Its 5.45pm here and about time i left the office but am just here sitting in front of my system with my aching back and head wishing i could just close my eyes and find myself in my bed at home without having to go thru the harrowing traffic on lagos roads but i know thats just wishful thinking as i have to get my ass out of here sooner than later and drive home. It actually gets worse as the day gets darker. This is one of those days i just wish i had a driver but i think am too young to have one anyway at least thats what my dad says.

Thank God tomorrow is another public holiday(May 1st, workers day). Am just going to lie in bed till late then later on head to the Palms mall in lekki to window shop with b.f, i need to get a new DVD player.

Dont know what else i will be doing but will just let the rest of the day play out, one thing i know for sure is dat i wont be taking any ice creams(still on my weight loss project o!)

My head is throbbing more and more, i just need to get outta here fast. Sorry guys, will continue blogging some other time. I pray i dont get really sick and have to stay indoors all day tomorrow. Pray for me too .

Bye.
Princess.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Another Selection Again O!


"E be like say them want to tell us another story again o!"

"E be like say them want to act another movie again o!'

"E be like say them want to do another deceiving again o!


The above are lines from Nigeria's young, budding musician-Tuface Idibia's song, Another story. The song was dedicated to all the corrupt politicians in Nigeria whose aims are to enrich themselves to the poor masses detriment.

Well, its election(abi na selection) time again for us in Nigeria. The gubernatorial and House of assembly elections held last saturday and i can tell you the elections were rife with rigging and all sorts of electoral malpractices. The ruling party-PDP kept true to their words that it would be a do or die affair.

Out of the 30 states in Nigeria, PDP won about 26 of them,ANPP won 2 states, AC won in one state and PPA won in one state. Even in states where it was so obvious that the people disliked the PDP candidates , they still won with LANDSLIDE victories.

Except for Lagos state where there is relative calm because PDP didnt succed in their plans to rig the elections and the candidate who won was the people's choice, in other states there are serious protests and demonstrations going on currently despite the police's intimidation. In Edo state for instance, the people came out en masse to vote for AC candidate, Oshiomole(Former Labour leader) but what did we see, the winner was denied his prize. The results claimed that Osunbor, the PDP candidate won with a landslide victory. Indeed! When the poor man came out to protest peacefully with his supporters, the Police arrested him!

When i look at the situation currently, i feel so sad and cant help but wonder "When will Nigerians be saved from the hands of these Charlatans???" . The President, the Electoral body(INEC) and the Police all connived to make sure that the decision of the people were thwarted.
Now people are frustrated and i dont blame them, I am frustrated too. In fact i dont see myself coming out to vote at the presidential elections next saturday. I think the best thing to do is for the masses to boycott the elections, no one should go out to vote. The candidates should all step down(Pat Utomi, one of the credible candidates for the presidential elections has already done this). Let PDP and INEC fill out the ballot papers and stuff the boxes with them. Make them carry go, we no want! Since whether we vote or not, nothing changes, na who dem want them go put. According to Buhari, the ANPP presidential candidate, the election results have already been written so why stress the people to go and vote??

I am really disappointed at the way things are going in this country, May God save us o!

Gotta go back to work now.

Ciao.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

An Easter Story!


Hey Guys!
Its Easter once again which means we are already into a quarter of the year.(God! Was that fast!). I dont know about you but sometimes i feel like slowing time down maybe because i havnt been able to do all i had planned to by this time of the year.
Any way, i guess there is still time to achieve them cos as the saying goes-"When there is life, there is hope". Its great enough that we are alive to experience yet another easter.
For those of us who are Christians, Easter is a period to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, a triumph of good over evil. It is a time to show love to the less fortunate amongst us and forgiveness to those who have offended us- the kind of love and mercy that was shown to us by christ who died on the cross for our sins.
I am going to share a story with you all. This story touched me and i hope it makes some meaning to you too.

THE RICH FAMILY IN CHURCH by Eddie Ogan.


I’II never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene, 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without man y things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money. By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home.

A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.

When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three potholders to sell for $1. We made $20 on potholders.

That month was one of the best of our lives. Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having money the church will give them. We had about 80 people in church, so we figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the Pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show mum and Darlene. We had never had so much money before. That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering. We could hardly wait to get to church!

On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and was over a mile from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet. But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes and I felt rich. When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mum put in the $10 bill and each of us kids put in a $20. As we walked home after church, we sang all the way.

At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills. Mom put the money back in the envelope.

We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night. We had two knifes that we passed round to whoever needed them. I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never thought we were poor.

That Easter day I found out we were.

The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn’t like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed I didn’t even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor! I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eight grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor.

We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn’t talk on the way. Mom stared to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?” we looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week. Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was little over $100.

The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, “You must have some rich people in this church.”

Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that “little over &100.” We were rich family in the church! Hadn’t the missionary said so? From that day on I’ve never been poor again. I’ve always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!

Have a happy Easter everyone and remember we are rich as long as we have Jesus in our lives.
Princess.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Getting into shape!


Not like am out of shape or anything. Though I have put on some extra pounds recently, I know I still look good (Yes, I get compliments). Ok so you are asking ” why bother then?” Not only for the fact that a slimmer, fitter body is healthier but also cos I would love to wear that my favourite green suit which has been hanging at the corner of my wardrobe for almost a year now without breathing fresh air (poor thing!), or maybe I should just say it: “I want a slimmer look!”.

This is something I have always wanted to do for a while(I mean shedding the weight) but trust me now, I always find an excuse to eat that extra piece of cake, take another cup of ice cream or eat just one extra bar of good old choc (My sweet tooth, Ha!). Even going to the gym is so difficult (until 2 weeks back, I hadn’t stepped into the gym for more than a year). Now where did I get this sudden motivation to say “Things have got to change!”

From my MUM.

No! My dear mama didn’t whip my ass or nag me to death about my eating habits. She simply decided to embark on a weight loss program (GNLD) and after watching her do it determinedly for two days, she was already beginning to look slimmer to me, I didn’t need any other prompting. I mean, I can’t just sit down arms folded while my mum turns into a beauty queen (Don’t get me wrong, I would love her to look like one). I just thought to myself that if she can do it, then why cant I?

How am I going to achieve this is the next big question. I have already mapped out a strategy that I believe will work. My strategy? Don’t be in a hurry, I will share it with u guys. As I read through the GNLD manual (the one mum was using), it struck me that there is really no magic formula to losing weight. All the fad diets, the miracle meal plan and what have you really boils down to the big D word- Discipline!
One thing that rings through the meal plan, the exercises, the 8 glasses of water e.t.c is discipline. If only we can all be disciplined about our lifestyle- what we eat, our exercise regimen and all, we can all be our ideal weight.

So I have decided to create my own weight loss plan.
• A small bowl of cereal to start my day (breakfast)
• One serving of fruit mid morning
• A low fat lunch
• A mid day snack (crackers, nuts or fruit)
• One glass of low fat meal replacement shake(Dinner)
• 8 or more glasses of water through out the day.
• An exercise activity everyday(crunches, leg raises, arm exercises e.t.c)
• A visit to the gym on weekends.

I have already started on my Lifestyle plan, Today is the eighth day and I think its working (Someone actually told me I looked slimmer at work today).
I have a little book in which I record every day’s achievements. Knowing myself, I just pray for the strength to keep it up. Will keep u guys posted on my progress and if there is anyone who is looking to lose some weight, u can join me on this and lets see how it goes.

Wish me luck y’all.