Honest Scrap…

 

When you have been away for so long, as I have been, you don’t know where to begin, so I thought, why not do an ‘Honest Scrap’ as I have been nominated by our very learned friend, Ms Maya, and Mr. Unspeakable Joy Thank you guys for finding my ramblings worthy of this very prestigious award. ( I hope that qualifies for  sufficient bragging?…)

It’s been a minute since I was last here. (that’s a lie, I do actually check my blog frequently just that I have not been putting anything up.) Then, since I am always telling stuff about myself, I felt there is nothing you don’t know, except what happened since I last blogged. And because I love breaking rules, I will tell you 10 things that happened while I away…

1. I went to Paris with my family and had a blast of a holiday. Queued for an hour plus to climb the Eiffel tower, saw the original monalisa, shopped and shopped some more, became a kid again at Euro Disney, whereby, after a rollercoaster ride, a snap shot of my family from a hidden camera uncovered me as the biggest coward ( I was literally crying… and I did not even know it, although during that crazy ride, I at one moment gave myself up to death! It was that bad!) but to redeem myself from the ridicule I endured from my kids, especially because the said photo has been framed for posterity, I insisted that we all go for another roller coaster ride, whereby this time round, I had my eyes tightly shut…In short I had a wonderful time in Paris over Easter.

2. I also managed to turn a year older. Talking of getting older, my blog friends have surprised me. (I invited a few on my FB..)Apparently when I blog, I come off as this elderly mother – all grey, bent and wrinkled :( I probably succeeded in fooling many. No! I am not old. Infact David’s daughter is still very young at heart. And because of this, she does not get old. Chances are, if you are 27, and not taking good care of yourself, you probably look older than this mother of 3 (11, 8, 6.) It is my gift from God. Even my little girls remark on photos, ” Mum,  in this pic you looked like a teenager!”  I kid you not.  That at 37

3. You remember that nice job that I was praying and fasting to get? The one where you also said a prayer for me? Yes that one. I just finished one year with them. I learnt sooooo much! And then I resigned. I have 1.5 more months with them. Why? see point no. 4

4. Our time in the land of chocolates, watches, clocks,  puntual trains, beautiful mountains, rivers and lakes, vacuumed streets, etc, is up. We leave in the next 2 months! Where to? Continue reading…

5. No. Not to the land of my people, but to a land with plenty of sunshine. A land where we once lived. Well, we just thought that since Zuma is now president, and the Soccer World Cup is drawing nearer and nearer, let’s first return there, then who knows what’s next?

6. I never actually wanted to live outside of Kenya. I was one of those ‘made in Kenya’ people. My husband though, had those tendancies of wanting to apply for Green card, talking about going abroad. I always thought that if he did (when I was girlfriend and he was boyfriend..) perhaps that would be the end of our relationship.  But many years later…. well, there were things I really loved about Switzerland,(see no.4 above)  and I thought I could live here long (er) but…life happens. At this stage I have thrown up the towel, … might as well see the World!

7. I was not too excited to return to S.A., which is part of the reason I have been quiet, mauling and convincing myself that there is a lot of good there. I did not make any enemies, I still have friends etc, But I would have been more excited to go to a new location, but thankfully, I will not need to learn a new language.

8. We delayed telling the kids this piece of news until just last night! Their exclamations were quite surprising. Laura is happy that she will learn in English and not German. Michelle is happy that she will (?) have her own bedroom, and now that Obama’s kids have a dog, my kids have concluded that if we go to South Africa, they too can have a dog?! I have not bought into this idea, though I can see Denzel has been swayed. I am not into the ‘walking the dog’  thing!

9. Yesterday eveining, Alex and I walked upto one of our neighbours to tell them this news, as I did not want them to hear from the kids, especially because Alex and their son are best friends, and because they have been very good friends to us. I thought it would take just 5 minutes to break the news, since it was 8 pm anyway, but I ended up staying an hour! The lady of the house burst into endless tears, and her little boy too, and there I was feeling like, “Now what?”

10. My boss. In unrelated news, at an incident at work, she decided to let out her temper on me. I did not retaliate, but went numb. After about 30 mins, I watched something really odd unfold. She summoned me into a meeting room, during which she apologised, to the extent where she felf she needed to give me a hug. Blink.. blink. At that point, a calm but firm voice went out of my throat saying to my boss, ” You had no right to speak to me like that” , my eyes squarely on hers. That is one of the best things I ever did in my life, and I will never forget that moment. I learnt that counting to 10 can move a mountain!

This post is unedited, and has no links. I promise to be back to tidy up. Also, if the following were not tagged, please accepted my nomination.

Prou, Mrembo, Mobius, Jamaa Poa, Ssembonge, Rombo  & our famous thinker M

…and don’t give an excuse of how much you hate tags. The truth is you like tags!

 instructions for the award are: (but feel free to break the rules!)

1. You must brag about the award
2. You must include the name of the blogger who bestowed the award on you and link back to the blogger
3. You must choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
4. Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog.
5. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!