Chez Moi

Schools, Strikes and my own schooldays

2008-07-23T13:08:00.005+03:00

I am not very surprised that students are going on rampage seeing that the adults had their share in the limelight late last year and beginning of this year. What is making me wince is the kind of statements being issued by those who should know better. To paraphrase one Bonny Khalwale O cellphones! O single parents! O boarding schools are bad! O caning should be brought back! O blah blah! It

Your questions, my answers

2008-07-02T11:37:00.003+03:00

Akiey a) What's your fav month of the year & why? My favorite month of the year is December because it is the holiday season, I can afford to see my nearest and dearest then, as they are not too taken up with their lives. Everybody is nicer expecting Santa to smile their way; including the one who pays me for my labor who usually throws in a few

The Call Never Comes

2008-06-10T16:37:00.001+03:00

Alexander Graham Bell did not have any idea of the scale of agony his invention would bring to humankind for years to come. His was much better though put in the same light with gunpowder, bullets, bows and arrows. The telephone and its variants brought with it a phrase hitherto unused on the regular “I will call you”. I am pretty certain when our unwired ancestors said that they meant it. That

TMI

2008-06-05T11:21:00.001+03:00

Recently I joined a choir. We meet once a week and I have a ball hitting those very high notes (am soprano one) voice exercises and singing. The highlight of my workweek usually is choir practice. In another life I could have been an opera singer or something similar. Now in the process of singing one gets to meet new people. If you have been following my story here within these pages, you would

Random Musings

2008-05-27T11:53:00.003+03:00

It is the cold season around this part of the world. The cold season brings with it a unique problem. Forget the many layers of clothing to keep you warm. That, I can live with. It so happens that I have to take the layers off when I get to the place where I sing for my supper(R ). To reveal two distinct points on my chest reacting to the cold. Photo from the onion. www.theonion.com/.../

2008-05-08T16:28:00.000+03:00

Please stop me and correct me when my stupid is showing. That is what good friends do for each other. Thank you.

Counting my blessings

2008-04-09T11:32:00.005+03:00

It is very easy to feel down on most days this year especially in my beloved country Kenya. There are lots of things to be grateful for but the bigger influencing factors provide temptation to mope around and feel terribly sorry for myself. One can have very grateful heart but that gratitude will not get you anywhere if the ground beneath your feet shifts constantly leaving you in pieces.

Fair and lovely

2008-03-31T12:42:00.003+03:00

I was fascinated by this ad in the Sunday Standard dated 30.03.2008. First I thought it was an early April fools prank. Mr Google informed that indeed it does exist. I am speechless.

29th to 30th December 2007

2008-01-31T15:18:00.000+03:00

As one of the pumbavus severally referred to by the Member of Parliament for Othaya, I faithfully forfeited all activities that usually accompany a Kenyan year end concentrating on one thing and one thing only. The election. I did believe. That we have come a long way. Democratically. Financially. Socially. That Kenya is my country, najivunia kuwa mkenya says the government spokesperson

A level headed look at things.

2008-01-23T09:24:00.000+03:00

Kenyans are fighting inequality, not ethnicity By: Rasna Warah As every middle and upper class Nairobian will tell you, one of the most irritating things about the violence that rocked Kenya in the week after the elections was the fact that many maids, guards and nannies did not show up at work for a whole week. This was not because they were protesting over their inhuman working conditions or

The mood in Kenya

2008-01-18T09:07:00.000+03:00

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does the truth become error because nobody will see it. -Mohandas K. Gandhi(1869-1948) The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)

Happy Holidays

2007-12-20T11:32:00.000+03:00

May this Christmas be the first of many, Each more joyous in our growing love, Revealing more of happiness than any Riches might provide or pain remove. Years flow like an unrepentant river, Carrying the soil of life away, Holding far more than they can deliver, Rushing past the certitudes that stay. In love there is an

7 Weird things about me

2007-12-14T12:06:00.000+03:00

I got tagged by laspapi and nakeel. Been avoiding to do the tag but cannot afford to have it hanging over my head in the New Year insh’allah. Here are the rules 1) Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog 2) Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself 3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs 4) Let each person know that

Random

2007-11-20T09:38:00.000+03:00

I could not help rejoice at this. I know it is premature and probably too little too late but it is time members of the 9th parliament were taught a lesson or two. I had to clap after reading my thoughts so well put. An answer to the question what women want straight from a woman's mouth. In other news Kenyans are getting more and more creative with their con games. Does this qualify as a

2007-10-12T09:27:00.000+03:00

The dreaded phone call came on a cold Sunday morning. “The Queen is no more” the caller on the other end said and I stupidly echoed “the queen is no more” and kept echoing for the next few days as it finally sunk that she was gone. Part of history now, we would from then henceforth be saying she was not is, was gone to be with -I am really not sure about this part because where do people go

Poussin no more

2007-09-14T11:58:00.000+03:00

Today is the last day I can claim to be twenty something. So how does it feel? No different from any other day. No flashing lights, booming sounds, lightning actually just the other day I was sitting my KCPE and now I am a taxpayer and eligible voter to boot, how time does fly! But it feels good to be thirty. A nice round figure. I have been practicing saying it for a while now, it does not

Systematic

2007-08-22T13:27:00.000+03:00

Of late I have noticed that various mishaps occurring almost everywhere I go are attributed to an amorphous entity who goes by the name "the system". The other day I went to book a bus ticket for a trip upcountry. "The system is down," said the smiling attendant on the other side of the window. "Please come back later, within an hour our technicians should have sorted it out." Never mind that I

Happy Bornday

2007-08-07T08:59:00.000+03:00

My favorite 3 year old becomes a four year old today. Just the other day; and I know I do sound & feel very old when I say this; you made your rather dramatic entrance into our lives. We have had both good times and bad ones. The sleepless nights and teary days when all I could wish for was a moment of rest and peace. Those have passed, things have gotten much better. I think I like the person

Mom!

2007-07-06T15:15:00.000+03:00

I have a question. What is the first recognizable word that ever comes out of a tot’s mouth? Mama? Dada? Me, I have no idea because 3.10 years down the line I am still to hear the ‘mom’ bit of it. Not for lack of trying. The little boy has been encouraged to address everyone by name and he does. He even knows that the coke side of life truck is passing by. I shall blame the advertisers

2007-07-05T11:25:00.000+03:00

An interesting read for those men who are jumping up and down pretending to be for or against abortion. Methinks though that we are looking at the problem from the butt end. Contraceptives and education is what is needed first and foremost, then we can talk about legalizing abortion if all else has failed. Anybody missed me?

Those seven things

2007-05-25T10:42:00.000+03:00

I have been tagged again despite having done my 100 and 6 weird ones previously, so here goes. Insomnia is a foreign term to me. I can count on one hand the number of times sleep has eluded me. Usually it is the other way round, me trying unsuccessfully to keep sleep at bay.I get the common cold thrice a year at most.At any one time I own less than 10 pairs of shoes,

TGIF

2007-05-11T11:22:00.000+03:00

Idle Questions Why is it illegal to take photographs of /around the KBC station?Who is responsible for removing those dead animals people run over on the road?Who is responsible for cutting trees that hang dangerously over roads, electricity poles houses?Why does an NTV reporter keep calling Douala, Cameroon doula severally and repeatedly?!! Why do most news anchors

Random Monday

2007-04-23T10:52:00.000+03:00

1. I do not know why I woke up and came to work today. All my tools of trade are on strike as some brilliant person disconnected the machines for cleaning over the weekend and did not connect them back. 2.My life has become very boring, anyone care for a trade in/out (?) 3. Why don't people keep time, again? If you knew two weeks in advance that a particular event was taking place then decide

Random pics of my homeland

2007-04-10T15:23:00.000+03:00

Waterworks ahead

2007-03-31T15:03:00.000+03:00

I have noticed, for the past year or so, that I have been attending more funerals than weddings, christenings, graduations , birthday parties etc. put together. I wonder why? A few weeks ago one of my friends lost her mom and we went for the funeral service. Now I had met the mom only once before she passed on but when the pall bearers wheeled in the coffin into the church for the service to