THE FIRST TIME

My first blog is exactly that, THE FIRST TIME, a mishmash of thoughts, a maze of ideas, a labyrinth of type and memories in no particular order at all. Whats on my mind today??? my resignation from my job after growing my employers book 300% last year (well it was the whole bunch of us, so excuse the 'me')?- Resign at the top they say! but that's not the reason why, I have to re-tool, re-focus, re-educate myself, I have to do what I have only dared to think about in the last 5 years. What else is on my mind? its someones birthday today, she turns 14, big girl, every ones amazed, does that make me feel old? NO! I figure now that you're only as young as your mind wants to be or sometimes as old as the strength of your hangover, I must state though that it can be sometimes confusing, this age thing....... best be yourself, always, is all.

My mind wanders through the dusty track back home through the supposed largest roundabout in Africa near Ngara from college in Nairobi............. the noisy bus with Maltese people uncomfortable to sit next to an dark African (me) through the stony views of Valletta............... waiting for my visa interview in the US Embassy over Christmas 2006..........clutching my ticket from Heathrow towards Picadilly circus on the London Underground..........being stopped by a stubborn traffic cop in Mozambique (speed trap) because I did not read the speed limit on the road! how would one read the road please? and perhaps he should have just asked the US Dollar tip up front........OH! How sexy Swahili is when the ladies of Dar es Salaam roll it off their tongues! (They could tukana (swear at) you and you would have no idea! you would just smile and nod like an idiot.....................oh yes!, following a beautiful young lady on the streets of old Johannesburg until I got hopelessly lost only to be rescued by paying a fare to the cab driver (At least I got through what would have been a horribly boring day! and I didn't even talk to her nor did she notice me!).............................. buying bird kanyenya in on the drive to Kamuzu Academy in Kasungu to play basketball in that old VW kombi that Chichiri Secondary School (CHISESCHO) had, failing miserably to chew on the 'utakafumbi' (rats) that my forefathers enjoyed (my great grandfather would have disowned me).................talking of grandfathers: being caught with my hand deep in my grandfathers inside jacket pocket on his office door whilst perching on a table and responding that I was looking for the newspaper when he caught me (Ouch!) it always had coins in it you know, it was truly and hugely embarrassing, no that's not the term it was world 'stoppingly' embarrassing............... 'borrowing' my grandfathers yellow vauxhall (this was before UDF but the colour stuck with my mom for a whole while) to go to to Five Star for the disco with DJ Fiso, we pushed this car all the way and only started it with a coin (amazing ignition aint it?) after we were way down the slope........... my mind insists on the erratic flow that only I can comprehend..........driving to Blantyre from Lilongwe to attend interviews for my very own post (Branch Manager) because the Insurance company I worked for had merged with another Insurance Company, and guess who was on my passenger side?......... the manager from the other 'merged' firm who had also applied for my job.... and he kept mumbling to himself all the way in preparation for the interview while I was reduced to a chauffeur role.... and guess what? he got the job! ......but I got to be his boss by getting a bigger post on the same 'interviews', so all's well that ends well............... resigning form my job of 12 years Ooh! the insecurity was massive! you never build strength until you dare, I feel (truly) for people with job opportunities elsewhere that are not brave enough to resign from the jobs they have had since leaving school/college for they will never know what they are truly worth............. my sister enjoying my birthday cake a day before my birthday after she had discovered it in the cupboard in Soche East and then insisting she had not touched the cake even with cake all over her hands and mouth, naughty girl!!............driving my wire 'car'......... 'Juliet' my very romantic platonic girlfriend that had to end up being fully married and has never explored her artistic side again, for me she represents the many people of Africa and the world that because of hardship and conformity to societys norms have foregone their true calling, and in turn the world has been deprived of their art, their love, their talent... forever.

Well, well well! enough musing for the day now that my blog has re-awoken my talking or is it writing talent? what else? ........(quietness).....ZZZZZZ