Trying new things

I attempted to do new things. Things I wanted to do but never got the chance to. No, its not any of those typical things like taking solo trips to exotic locations, or trying out sushi.

It was a something I would bring up but was often told that someone would be around to help me. When I told dad what I wanted to do that afternoon, he expressed shock. Laughed a little too. But I didn’t let that deter me and insisted that he helps. My father is quite advanced in age and has a visual impairment but I was determined to learn from him. I grabbed his chair, set it near the site of work to be done and explained to him how the whole situation would work.

This was my first attempt at changing a tyre. Dad continued to make fun of me for not knowing how to change a tyre. In my defence, he didn’t teach me how to do it 🤷🏿‍♀️

Everything was going so well, I was proud of myself. But there was one thing I overlooked, the locknut. It requires a special key to fit into the grooves whenever you need to loosen or tighten it. Saying that I sweated is an understatement. I sweated bullets and blood!

While the attempt at tyre changing failed miserably, I was proud to have given it a go. The mechanics who finally did it gave me great pointers for the next time I try it ☺

 “The doer alone learneth.” –Friedrich Nietzsche

Being understood

My parents know me as a quiet person. Though I am not at times 😁

The main reason for their belief in me being quiet is because I rarely talk. When I do open up to talk, my thoughts seem to be cryptic language spoken in hieroglyphics.

It is something I have been thinking about lately because an adult is expected to express themselves clearly. An adult should be able to make themselves understood. Are you even an adult without this ability?

I would like to find out how others have overcome this barrier. Or is it that I should let the people stay unclear while I work to show them what I mean?

Sunshine Blogger Award

Who doesn’t love sunshine in their lives?

I was nominated to be part of Sunshine Blogger Award by Bex who is the definition of sunshine herself. Her favorite flower is the Sunflower. Sunflower people!! We all need some sunshine during this difficult time so we can have something to fondly remember when we are old and grey (I am already greying so the old part is what I am waiting for).

The rules are pretty simple:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog
• Answer the 11 questions given to you
• Nominate 11 bloggers and write them 11 new questions
• List the rules and display The Sunshine Blogger award logo in your blog post

One small problem though, I don’t know many bloggers (the shame) so it might be a little challenging for me to nominate eleven other people. I promise to improve.

Here are the questions Bex left for me to answer:

1. If you had a chance what African country apart from your home would you live in? I was thinking Botswana because of the beef. I like good meat.
2. Are you a morning person or night owl? Neither, though I do get bursts of energy both in the morning and at night on different days. Weird, I know.
3. How often do you blog? Every Lunar eclipse. I have been known to keep drafts for up to three years. Another area for improvement.
4. What have you learnt so far in your blogging journey? Just write, it doesn’t have to be perfect.
5. Who inspired you to start a blog? I really can’t remember
6. Why did you choose your blog’s name? I thought it was cute. I was young, don’t judge me
7. Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years? Bex why you giving me a loaded question like this? Yes I have answered with a question!
8. Do your family know about your blog? Nope and I hope they never find out. Probably need to change the name too
9. If there was a blogger meet up which country would you want it to be in? Malta
10. What is your talent? I have the knack for languages but never commit to learning them
11. Using one word describe yourself? Resilient

Getting your sh*t together

I will be bidding my twenties farewell very soon. It is a bittersweet thought when you think about it. Why do I say so?

For starters, it is believed that you must have your sh*t together. I’m talking finances, family, work and all else that comes with having things together.

I HAVE NONE OF IT TOGETHER!!

The other day, I had a weird conversation with my sister who mentioned that a woman loses her senses at some point in life and makes mistakes especially when it comes to people she dates. I am probably not saying it right but I think what she was trying to say is, you will end up with a married man if you do not settle down.

There are a million and one defenses I have towards her concern but like many things, people have opinions on matters based on personal experiences or those of others. I feel this is one of those times.

Despite all this, I am making attempts to get things together. It may not seem like I am doing much but I honestly trying.

As the year ends, I am able to confidently say that some items on the to do list for the year have been checked off.

Some of it came together with a lot of effort and tears. Lots of tears!

It is interesting that I did this some time back. It’s still a struggle but I do try to remind myself that it will come together…in time. Hang on!

Catching up

When a lot has happened, it’s a little tricky to pick one item to write about. Second half of 2017 highlights since I last wrote :

I got my second booking from traffic police. Woodlands police. They don’t play so I better oblige or reason in a calm manner. Does that even work? Reasoning with police in a calm manner?

Emails at the office were either hanging or bouncing. This my friends caused a lot of problems especially for appointments and completion of tasks. You can imagine what it did for relationships with colleagues 😟

We got a new boss. Well my supervisor became Director, Acting Director of my department. It’s both weird and exciting. Bracing myself for an exciting time ahead because she is wonderful, really tough but wonderful.

My sister’s cast on her foot was removed. Hooray! I signed the cast with “Best after 08/05/17” and it has indeed been uphill since then.

Went to my first ever Sherry party by the Law Association of Zambia for the new advocates that were called to the bar. All girlified and stuff. A great experience seeing them happy and excited about their new lives ahead. Met up with my girlfriends and chatted up a storm. Was anxious to get home though, had to drive myself home so no sherry for me. That was a bummer.

The other stuff will be published separately. Hope I remember!

This has been sitting idle for three years now 😑

Pet Peeves

A friend of mine sent me a list of questions you could ask someone to get to know them better. It was an interesting list and it did get me thinking about how I would respond to them and it also revealed that my conversations were dead shallow and unengaging. All in all, it is a fun list and you do learn a lot about self and the other person/ people in the end.

One of the questions I have the most fun with so far is about pet peeves. Its not all about what you find annoying alone, it is about which is the weirdest and craziest. Mine is about people who pour condiments over fries. How do you expect me to dig in without getting messy hands? And it is only the top layer of fries that get coverage!

I remember this one time at a county fair where my brother in law got us cheese fries. First of all, I almost wept about the food choice but was mighty hungry, secondly, it was a cultural immersion opportunity so I indulged. It was so greasy and the ratios were off…just give me a small cup or pour it on the side so I could have a choice of how to get the condiment on to the fries, please.

Anyway, I asked a friend that question and he drew a blank. He knew what he found annoying but just could not pinpoint one thing to answer the question. He also found it weird that I was able to respond without difficulty or having to think about it.

I want to say it taught me something about how we are raised or cultural issues of not allowing discomfort to distract you or something like that. I do know what annoys me but will not express it. Problems!

“Allergic to taking leave”

Those are the words my sister said to me when I told her that the office had called me in a day after taking time off from work.

It keeps happening all the time. Took time off to prepare for examinations but thanks to Corona, they were rescheduled to July. A whole month after the set time! Having received the memo on the rescheduled exams, I naturally shared with the family. Before they could ask about the work situation, I mentioned that I’d return to work the following week to save my days. As expected, you are allergic to taking leave floated around the room. I smiled and explained that it was for the purpose of conserving the days for the appropriate time. How that explanation fell on deaf ears 😐

As a matter of fact, I am not allergic to taking leave. I am just not very productive at home and would rather be in a place where I am doing something while counting down to when I would get home and completely loathe getting up in the morning the following day. Is that so hard to understand? 🤷🏿‍♀️🤷🏿‍♀️🤷🏿‍♀️

Life in Covid -19 times

So the world has been hit by a pandemic called Covid-19.

The world Health Organisation (WHO) directed all to observe social distancing by staying home and avoiding unnecessary movements. Wearing a face mask and hand sanitizing is mandatory. A typical day involves frequent hand washing and sanitizing. Work hours are now flexible but there is still little that you can do that involves going out and interacting with people.

Then there is the Monjeza household! The day ends with stern warnings about the risks for certain age groups when they catch the virus. Unlike the Spanish flu that did spring cleaning on the young population, Corona or the rona is not kind to the over 50s.

I guess you are now seeing whom the stern warnings are aimed at. Yes, it’s the parents, mom in particular. The woman will come up with all sorts of reasons for going out. As of today, I can’t wait to tell her a story of what happens to people as they are picked up to be taken to the quarantine facility. I intend to embellish the story for added effect and potency to last for at least two weeks. Enough time to stay worry free and plot for the next scheme to keep them home. Parenting a parent involves using the techniques that were used on us when we were young. Only difference in this case is that its bedazzled truth 😉. They told us lies with a straight face 😐

While we are not locked down as other places, we still have a lot of time on our hands. Others are using the time to get in shape. Funny story about joggers. The picture will speak for itself. Mind you, WHO said social distancing. MOH said “Zisungeni ndi meter”. The translation for Zisungeni ndi meter is most likely, stay a meter apart. The komboni kid in me refuses to say it. It is not right on so many levels 🤐

This was at the new fly over bridge on Kafue road. Ehem! You have to keep busy right?

One expects that having so much time off of regular stuff such as work, school and social gatherings would make someone to pounce on activities that have been pushed to the bottom of the to do list. Boy were we wrong.

What we did instead was sleep, eat, scroll on devices and repeat the following day. We tried new recipes, ate everything we got our hands on, slept the following day and woke up at noon. As for me, I had assignments to do. A research paper to finish but did I get to it? No! I slept and ate like everyone else 😉

Now that people are finding ways to get life back to a certain level of normalcy, the backlog is not going easy on me. Deadlines are fast approaching and flying by. Have I learned anything about being organized? Absolutely not! I will try try tomorrow 🤔

But really, I do need to do better. Tomorrow😅

The Big Friendly Giant

This book was very dear to me. It reminded of two special people in my life, one an actual giant (I am 5 1″ so ordinarily, anyone over 6 foot is a giant to me) and the other, a soft spoken Dutch man.

The BFG was an incredibly loving character that cared for the happiness of others more than he cared for himself. An altruist as my dutchman would rightly put it. His sense of selflessness was refreshing in the midst of darkness that was around him.

You see, the other giants were foul, mean and rather grotesque to look at. They were much taller than the BFG and sadly they ate children. Ate them whole. They were attacked at a time appropriately termed as witch hour. It was during this time when little boys and girls were sleeping that they grabbed them from their beds and were gobbled up. Very sad I must say.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in reading the book, be ready to shed a tear or three.

Dar es Salaam in pictures

Sent over by the Chef