BHH

WHO SHOWED UP.


Carlo and I were the first there, as usual. (It is as if we have no lives!)

Ivan was not far off (which I found strange seeing as he had an exam that only started 2 hours before he showed up.)

We moved tables because, even as pretty as Carlo and I both are (and we are) the idiot waiter had not served us for 45 minutes. We finally got drinks (which I am chalking up to Ivan's arrival, the waiter obviously thought him cuter than us. Must be those dainty little fingers.)

Rev then walked in brandishing the book I lent him like a weapon.

We seriously considered getting him thrown out seeing as he doesn't exactly blog anymore. (What am I saying, exactly? He doesn't blog at all.)

Ed was next looking a bit dressed down compared to his last appearance and this was quickly explained. He is on leave. (Oh, to be on leave.)

Glenna and David were next and it was becoming quite the crowd. Glenna still had some work to do to beat a deadline and so she left David at the mercy of Rev who briefly accused him of being a spy for the CIA at which point we agreed that the only information David would give the CIA is the growth status of Rev's dreadlocks. (Quick Aside: These guys are together and have known each other since they were 10 years old, how cool is that?)

Rachel was next with Hellen in tow. It was good to see Hellen although I did accuse her of not RSVPing my Facebook invite and it's always nice to see Rachel, well..., because she is Rachel and I still have a huge cyber-crush on her. And she brought books, bless her.

My lover finally made an appearance. Albeit a short one, it was a nice one. He got time to float the idea of a literary magazine and open his birthday present.

Flora was next and she looked nice. We got to talking about lingerie and where one can purchase said lingerie. (Where can one purchase quality lingerie?)

Peter showed up last and took out his laptop and proceeded to be anti-social by actually watching Family Guy.

All in all, I think it went pretty well. December is up to another one of you. I sent out invites, put up a kalango and did The Kampalan. I pass the baton on.

BHH

This thursday, same place, same time.

Here By Me by 3 Doors Down

So I am at work and completely bored out of mind. You wouldn't think that is possible, what with having to be a motor mouth to do this but I finish a call and I can't remember what I have just been saying. So what do I do to aleviate this, search for lyrics of songs that I like and post them here. Sorry guys, false alarm post.

"Here By Me"

I hope you’re doing fine out there without me
‘Cause I’m not doing so good without you
The things I thought you’d never know about me
Were the things I guess you always understood

So how could I have been so blind for all these years?
Guess I only see the truth through all this fear,
And living without you…

And everything I have in this world
And all that I’ll ever be
It could all fall down around me.
Just as long as I have you,
Right here by me.

I can’t take another day without you
‘Cause baby, I could never make it on my own
I’ve been waiting so long, just to hold you
And to be back in your arms where I belong

Sorry I can’t always find the words to say
But everything I’ve ever known gets swept away
Inside of your love…

And everything I have in this world
And all that I’ll ever be
It could all fall down around me.
Just as long as I have you,
Right here by me.

As the days grow long I see
That time is standing still for me
When you’re not here

Sorry I can’t always find the words to say
Everything I’ve ever known gets swept away
Inside of your love

And everything I have in this world
And all that I’ll ever be
It could all fall down around me.
Just as long as I have you,
Right here by me.

And everything I have in this world
And all that I’ll ever be
It could all fall down around me.
Just as long as I have you,
Right here by me.

Some think this is the best song ever, give it a listen sometime.

I'm out of here.

Love, as I see it.

If any of you read my blog at all last year, you know I was head over heels in love for the first time and you also know how devastated I was when it ended. Those of you who know me personally, you know how broken up I was about this and I want to say something about that; I don’t think I really knew what love was then. Sure I saw myself married to this man and “our” house and kids, I saw everything and I think that was our problem. I was so caught up in tomorrow that today was just in my way and I believe it was the same for ‘Sir, whom I loved’ to borrow a phrase. Our relationship never existed in the here and now but always in an ideal we both had of this perfect life we were going to have. You will remember, Iwaya especially, me saying I would be broken if this ended and indeed I was but the point I am trying to make here is that if this hadn’t happened, there is no way, in a million years, I would be as happy as I am now. Being in love and being heart broken taught me to truly love, to live in the love. And I tell you there is no better feeling than that of knowing this moment is awesome, this moment is (I hate to say it and sound corny) precious. Imagine a lifetime of precious moments, I know it’s hard, joy overload, we are not conditioned for so much happiness but I say to you, embrace it. (I’m starting to sound decidedly odd.)

Love is odd, indefinable, but the late night texts on my way home up till I get there making it feel like he is right there, that is my definition. Writing this while smiling the whole time, defines it. Being able to be my own person aside from him yet having him be such an integral part of me, defines it. Laughing at terrible jokes together but also discussing the identity crisis of a trans-gendered infant, defines it. I know, I know it could not be more right.

Carpe Diem, my friends. It’s worth it.

Finally, a work-related post.

Some guy called me and told me his son had eaten his airtime. That was the funniest thing I had ever heard.

Parenting and all it's attendant bullshit.

I showed my mother the video of me bungee jumping and for the first time in my life, I saw her look old.

I told her when I was going but I guess the abstractness of it all stopped it from sinking in for her and so now, so many months after I did it, I have forgotten how it felt, is when she gets how horrifying a concept it is. I don’t know if I should have shown her or left her in her ignorant bliss.

I didn’t like seeing he old, I don’t want my children to some day age me n 15 minutes either but what goes around comes around, who knows what form of soon to be thought up extreme-come-this-close-to-death sport my kids will engage in about 20 years that will stop my heart beating for a minute? I don’t, but that is one day I can definitely wait for.

That book review I promised.

Since I read this book, I have read about 3 others but luckily for me I found a review I had written some time back and I still agree with it. The book is

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor.

If you read alot then you know that there is usually one book which just seems like a drop of rain in a desert of okay-written, not so memorable books and this book is one of those.

You will think about it a long time after you have read it and you will want everyone to read it so you can have someone to talk to it about. It's books like this that give book clubs a reason for existance. In fact, I implore each one of you to read it so we can talk about it at the next BHH.

I loved this book, it is so beautifully written, so in fact, that I could not pick just one passage for an excerpt post, you need to read all of it. When someone writes so hauntingly about a rainy afternoon for the better part of 10 pages and still makes you want to read the rest of it; when you get shivers and actually hear the rain, you know you're onto something golden.

I didn't want this book to end and the only way I can think of doing this is to get all of you to read it so we can talk about it for the rest of our lives.

Nice reading.

Yet Another Job.

Yes, I know I have been gone a while and this is why.

While my last job availed me constant access to the internet, this one doesn't. Oh, did I mention I have a new job. I started training last week and will officially begin working on Monday after I have done a test on Saturday. The position is that of a call centre agent at UTL. Please don't prank call me, on second thought do. It will be nice to hear a friendly voice on the other side of the line.

Anyway, thought I should check in and say whats up.

Heads up, my next post is going to be about a Book so I will kinda be calling it in. I am sure I willl have alot of interesting things to talk about now.

See y'all soon.

Excerpts

I read these and wished I could write.

'To know clearly what you surrender, what you gain, and to have no regrets; to revisit without envy the scenes of a surrendered joy, and to taste it ephemerally once more, with a delight undimmed by the knowledge that it is momentary, that is happiness, that surely is freedom.'

- Iris Murdoch, The Bell -


'And it might be absurd to us that one Iqbal can believe the breadcrumbs laid down by another Iqbal, genarations before him, have not yet blown away in the breeze. But it really doesn't matter what we believe. It seems it won't stop the man who thinks this life is guided by the life he thinks he had before, or the gypsy who swears by the queens in her tarot pack. And it's hard to change the mind of the high-strung woman who lays responsibility for all her actions at the feet of her mother, or the lonely guy who sits in a fold-up chair on a hill in the dead of night waiting for the little green men. Amidst the strange landscapes that have replaced our belief in the efficacy of the stars, Millat's is not such old terrain. He believes the decisions that are made, come back. He believes we live in circles. His is a simple, neat fatalism. What goes around comes around.'

- Zadie Smith, White Teeth -



'And then I felt sad because I realised that once people are broken in certain ways, they can't be fixed, and this is something nobody ever tells you when you are young and it never fails to surprise you as you grow older as you see the people in your life break one by one. You wonder when your turn is going to be, or if it's already happened.

- Douglas Coupland, Life After God -



'Everything was gone. But not everything. This sort of evil does not subside, this sort of evil grows as it feeds. They would turn to other villagers with their machetes swinging in dull whirrs of dark iron and if they could not slice the lips, ears, noses cleanly off or of they did not chop the hands, buttocks, legs cleanly off, if the flesh lung to the body by a string of bleeding desperate faith, their hands would grab in, nails digging in for a stronger grip, and pull, to tear it off. And then they would laugh and let the man, thus mutilated, live because they thought it was funny.'

- Ernest Bazanye -



'What was it about this unlovable century that convinced us we were, despite everything, eminently lovable as a people, as a species? What made us think that anyone who fails to love us is damaged, lacking, malfunctioning in some way? And particularly if they replace us with a god, or a weeping madonna, or the face of Christ in a ciabatta roll - then we call them crazy. Deluded. Regressive. We are so convinced of the goodness of urselves, and the goodness of our love, we cannot bear to believe that there might be something more worthy of love than us, more worthy of worship. Greeting cards routinely tell us that everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time.

- Zadie Smith, White Teeth -


'She didn't read books so she didn't know that she was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop. Man attempting to climb to painless heights from his dung hill.

- Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God -

Rock Night Chronicles

Have you ever just been dying to listen to a song and you can't find it? Since Friday of last week, I was dying to listen to 'Starlight' by Muse but never to find it anywhere (and don't tell me now how you have it.) I listened to Touch FM and asked for it everyday till yesterday, nothing, they don't have it yet. I go to Steak Out yesterday and ask Shadrac for it but he doesn't have it either, he tells me Tams does. I have to leave at 11.30pm and still no Tams and just as I am walking out he walks in and I tell him he must play this song and bless his soul it is the first of his set. I was so happy, I just wanted to cry. Thank you Tams.

Talk about crying for songs, I haven't heard 'Travelling Soldier' by The Dixie Chicks in a while, so when I listened to it this afternoon, it was all I could do to stop myself wailing and calling attention to myself. See the lyrics below and cry with me.

"Travelin' Soldier"

Two days past eighteen
He was waiting for the bus in his army green
Sat down in a booth in a cafe there
Gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair
He's a little shy so she gives him a smile
And he said would you mind sittin' down for a while
And talking to me,I'm feeling a little low
She said I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go

So they went down and they sat on the pier
He said I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care
I got no one to send a letter to
Would you mind if I sent one back here to you

Chorus:

I criedNever gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone when the letter said
A soldier's coming home

So the letters came from an army camp
In California then Vietnam
And he told her of his heart
It might be love and all of the things he was so scared of
He said when it's getting kinda rough over here
I think of that day sittin' down at the pier
And I close my eyes and see your pretty smile
Don't worry but I won't be able to write for awhile

[Chorus]

One Friday night at a football game
The Lord's Prayer said and the Anthem sang
A man said folks would you bow your heads
For a list of local Vietnam dead
Crying all alone under the stands
Was a piccolo player in the marching band
And one name read and nobody really
a pretty little girl with a bow in her hair

[Chorus x2]


Is that not the saddest song?

Bye.

Hmmmm (as in sigh)

I started working on Thursday, and is the case when I am working, I leave home pretty early and get back tired when all I want to do is sleep. As a result, I haven't seen my mom in a while. It's just my mom and I at home so when one of us is missing, the other really notices it. Yesterday I made it a point to go home early and yippee! I caught her just as she was going out so I was pretty stocked. It might seem right now that this post is going nowhere not so fast.

I was just wondering, what is about mothers? When I was younger and I was going through my rebellious stage, I used to swear I would never turn into my mother and now that I am grown, I know that if I ever became even half the woman my mother is, that I would have it made. I was having one of those days where I needed a hug and who better to make it all better than the woman who birthed you? I wonder, does everyone feel this way about their mothers? It kinda scares me. I mean on the one hand, I can't wait to have children if only to have them feel about me the way I feel about her and on the other hand I am terrified that they might not, that I will never be as good a mother as she has been to me. Either way, mothers rock, or at least, mine does.

In other news, isn't the Sanyu Breakfast show amazing? I know my morning would not be the same without them. And the Most Wanted show on Touch FM from 10.00am to 12.00pm? I so look forward to these two shows everyday.

And now, I'm out.

More Books

I finally thought of something to write about. I was going through my old posts and noticed I should have talked about other books that I read, I'm sorry I forgot. Since that last post I have read so many books but I can only remember 8 and I will write about four to begin with in chronoligical order from the last one I read.

A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket:

A Bad Beginning - Book the First.

I just finished reading this last night and I must say I really liked it. It is funny and easy to read. I like children's books and I usually enjoy them immensely and this one was no different.In this book the Baudeliere children become orphans and must stay with Count Olaf, which as you can imagine, does not go well. My 12 year old sister read Book the Third and really liked it. You should give it a try.

The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

There is something about these South American writers and magical realism, they do it so well and I am quickly getting hooked to this genre. This book was a bit different, in that, it was very believable, I guess that explains the realism bit. It is about this boy and this book, it is truly a book for people who love books. Rev, you will be getting this soon, don't fret. It is very well written and the imagery is beautiful. Have you ever read a book and so clearly seen it? That's what reading this was like for me.

A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket:

The Wide Window - Book The Third

I read this one before the first one by mistake. When Ernest bought it he thought it was the first one and I took it of him before he could read it. I guess you could say it was the beginning of my obsession with everything Snicket but that wouldn't be strictly true because the movie was the beginning. I really liked it and I knew I wanted to read the book it was based on. Just recently I find that it is actually 3 books. In this particular one is when the orphans go to stay with their Aunt Josephine. It takes on basically the same vein as the first one and it is worth a read. While you're at it, check out the website lemonysnicket.com

Fury - Salman Rushdie

Now anyone who knows me knows I am a huge Rushdie fan, I adore his books. This man is a genius, genius, I tell you and this book is no different. How do you begin to describe the thing you love most? I feel my words are inadequate to impress upon you how his words make me feel. I am planning to read everything he has ever written and I don't think I am a long way off. I loved this book, though not as much as I loved 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet.'

I am tired of writing now so I will stop and write some more soon. I will also put up a list of the ones I want to read and see if you guys can help me get them.

I'm out.

Rock Night Chronicles

I know it has been forever since I chronicled my nights and this particular chapter is not even because anything special happened last night but because I have the internet and nothing to do. So as usual I went last night, I go almost every Thursday and it has to be a snowy night in Hell for me not to orI have to not be in town.
It was ordinary and I saw the same people I see every Thursday. There are a bunch of regulars and just because we see each other every week, we are now friends. I have nothing more to say so bye.

Hallelujah, She is not dead.

I truly believed I was though. I have been wracking my brain trying to come up with a suitable reason to explain my absence and a topic to blog about now that I am back and sorry I can't figure anything out. I haven't blogged simply because I haven't had anything to say and I'm blogging now because I have nothing to do so early in the morning.

I'm temping at an office that has internet so I will be blogging regularly even with nothing to say, you guys are in trouble, you're going to have to read all my crap now and you'll be sorry you wondered where I had gone.

I actually have a really nice picture of Carlo, Kaza and I that I should put up, maybe make this a little more interesting.

Ok, bye.

Does this make us Tagren?

It took getting tagged to get me back here, I didn't even know what this tagging was till today, every blog I'm going to has something or other to do with getting tagged, I have no idea who to tag but I will post 8 random facts about myself, here goes.

Oh, I'm supposed to put these up first.

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Ok, now here goes.

I bite my nails, don't know why I do it, I just always have. I have tried stopping a gazillion times and now I am down to biting only my thumb nails, I cheat sometimes and bite the rest especially when I am reading or watching a really good movie.

Movies make me cry, it doesn't matter if its sad, happy, whatever, I cry. Glitter made me cry and that was a bad movie, Titanic made me cry for 3 months, every time I heard that Celine Dion song for 3 months after I saw the movie I couldn't help crying, The Notebook made me cry like my mother had just died, I was in ugly cry mode for most of the movie. John Q made me cry in the first five minutes. Some songs have been known to make me cry and ofcourse books.

I read alot. I love to read, like Nathan, I will read labels, fine print everything but unlike Nathan I love novels. The first book I remember reading is Thumbelina, I was around 4 or 5 and my Mom and I walked into this shop and the book was there so she bought it for me, I was done with it before we got home. She asked me why we didn't just stand in the shop and let me finish it there instead of buying it.

How many are those? I have this strange ability to retain song lyrics, even if I have only heard the song once. I will listen to a song for the first time and sing the second chorus and it will get stuck in my head.

I am unkind to my hair, I don't go to the saloon as often as I should and I wish I weren't but I hate saloons.

When I was 7, I walked home from Kitante Primary School. We lived in Bukoto then, and when I got home I was exhausted and terrified because I knew my Dad was supposed to pick me up and I wouldn't be there. When he came home he gave the only beating he has ever given me.

When I was 7, my Dad forgot to pick me up from school and I slept in a kind man's bed. We had fish in g.nuts for supper that night and up till this day, I cannot eat fish or g.nuts.

And lucky number 8, I love food. I love to eat out and try out new things. The last new food I ate was Mongolian.

I guess, I am done. Now who to tag, can you tag someone who has already been tagged? Ok, I can't think of anyone, sorry.

Stranger Than Fiction

I received a beep from a number just like mine except for the last digit. This guy beeped me and beeped me and woke me up so I decide to call him and he apparently had the wrong number. He asked for a Jada and I wasn't then he asks who I am. Do you know how annoying that is? I told him I am obviously not who he was looking for and hung up. The next day he sent me this message, this is it ad verbatim.

"Hai halo, may u alwo me expres ma feelings 2u dat immediately i had ur tone,

I felt like we becm one hw do u see. I rly have luv 4u. reply."

How hilarious is that? I was home alone and had no one to share it with but I could not stop laughing. Whoever you are, you totally made my afternoon. I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

Why is Cock better Than Pussy?

I was in a taxi the other day and somehow those words came out of my mouth at just the time that the taxi was deathly quiet.
So we were talking about cock blocking which is the act of blocking cock. One friend stops another guy from getting with their female friend, that's cock blocking. We were wondering what the equivalent is for chicks, where a friend stops a girl from getting with her male friend. I suggested Pussy Plugging. The guys we were with were saying that that sounds disgusting and I asked "Why is Cock better than Pussy?" It's still a question I want to ask, does cock blocking sound better than pussy plugging and if so, why? Is it not only we have more exposed to the word cock than to the word pussy?

Those books.

A while back I told y'all how I bought a bunch of books, I have read a couple of them and I think it is time I talked about them.

Memoirs Of A Geisha - Arthur Golden

When I told a friend of mine who devours books like I do that this book was written by an American who lived in Japan and put in print this Geisha's memoirs, he asked me what frame of mind that man was in to be so entranced by another culture that he moves there and studies their history and learns their language. Well, whatever he was on, he manages to enchant you with this world in the book. It does what so few books do to me these days which is completely transport me into the world of the book that to tear my eyes away from the page yanks me so violently from it that I am jarred for a second till I realise I am actually in a taxi way past my stop. I loved it. The language was like a clear stream flowing gently over rocks on a path it has not strayed from for ages. (That sounds alot like a line from the book) Suffice it so say, I strongly recommend this.

Stories We Could Tell - Tony Parsons

Tony Parsons happens to be one of my favourite authors and when I saw this book in Fareed's I could hardly walk out without it, I didn't. I have tried to read everything he has ever written. This book, for me, was very reminiscent of High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. The music was the focal point for the book and even though I don't think it is nearly as good as Man and Boy or even One For My Baby, I liked it. Like Ernest would say, "Infact, parts of it were excellent." If you are into the music of the '60s and '70s this book is like an amalgam of all the best songs of that time and it captures just what that music was about, the place everyone was in then and the way they felt. It also reaffirms what I like to believe, which is, that the music of an age aptly describes the genaration that made it and listened to it. I would give it 3 stars out of 5. There were some really good lines as well. He is still an awesome writer.

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

It is so hard to believe this book was written in 1937. It makes so much sense and I am quickly falling in love with it. I'm not done with it yet but what I have read so far is so not disappointing. This woman rocks (I guess I mean, both the author and Janie the main character). It is funny too.

Next

I am going to read If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things by Jon Mcgregor which is apparently an amazing book. Everyone I've told about it assures me it's awesome. Then I'm going to read White Teeth by Zadie Smith which Ishta says is the story of her life. Then I'm finally going to read 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, don't tell me again how awesome it is. In a while, I am going to put up my list of the books I want to read and y'all should help me get them, you and Fareed both.

I am done, I guess. Out. xoxo

I don't know yet.

The last post I put up I wrote on Tuesday and I just got access to the internet today so I put it up today. Now I have nothing to say. I am at the Serena, I am a poser. I have a couple of friends who have a room here.
Now I remember what I wanted to say. I was having pork with a couple of guys so I excuse myelf to wash my hands and as I stand up to go away so do they. It was so exciting, I mean you know the saying 'chivalry is dead' well for me it never existed. Except for the few times someone opened the door for me, nothing like this had ever happened to me and I cannot get over it. Every guy I have told about this is livid, they go they are spoiling for them. I loved it.
Ok, that's it... for now.

I Have Arrived!

For those of you who read the Sunday Vision thoroughly you will have noticed that my name was in the ‘It’s Kawa’ on Sunday. Yes, as a writer. Granted, all I did was the reviews but still I was so happy to see my name in print. I will take this moment to clarify that the review for Ocean’s 13 was actually written by Ivan Musoke and it was mistakenly attributed to me. I did the one for Pursuit of Happyness and I did the pick of the week, which was Dirty Jobs. I am so proud of myself and I know it seems like I am making a big deal out of only appearing once but it is so cool. I have actually already written my reviews for this Sunday. I am, must be, the hardest working employee you have Ernest.

In other news, the Ntinda Shopping Center is fast becoming my new home. I am always there, be it buying books at Fareed’s, having ice cream at Chilling Pleasures, having a drink at Michelle’s Pub, borrowing movies at Lids Video Lib or just hanging out at Kamikazi. It helps that it is only a 2-minute walk from my home and I know this is quickly starting to sound like a paid ad (I wish) but it is so much fun. If it had a cinema, there would be no reason for me to ever leave Ntinda except maybe for the awesome Club Sandwich at Café Pap.

I think this post is making it obvious that I really have nothing to say so bye bye my sweets. Till later.