Monday, 11 January 2010

Under Construction

I wrote this poem two years ago towards the end of my NYSC program - i was worried sick about getting a job and striking out on my own... It felt like being kicked out the house, you know, and i was scared about what the future had for me. I'm pretty much ok now, of course, but my life-building is still way far from being completed.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>











I’m at work on my building
I’m at work on my life;
Tomorrow will be better, they say
But for now, its still night.
Working by candlelight on
The mistakes of yonder years
I clean up the angles of my ambition
And straighten my building-plan.

Talent ain’t enough
You need lots of luck
’Cos it’s hardest at the foundations
Setting rods of sweat and hardwork;
Mixing mortars of expense, and
Laying brick after painful brick
I work on past the lintels
Aiming for the lime lights.

Sometimes I want to
Hang my tools, follow the sway
Just curl up in bed, and
Cry the night away.
But I ain’t slacking, ain't slacking
Not till my life is roofed, and I
Pull up my poor, battered, jagged
Rugged construction post.

’Cos
My life is under construction
Growing from a boy to a man
And the working team is made up
Of Me, Myself, and I.

Saturday, 9 January 2010

Test... and other ish


Okaaaaay! So i just wrote Total's scholarship test. Mmmmh! I don't know if i'll pass o, make una pray for me. The host said to check emails some 7-8 days from today; me i just wished they'll mark it already and let me off this stupid tension. This one don pass shaa; the next stage is an interview with Total executives and the reps from the instution for the program. We'll get there when we get there. Ahem!

But mehn, that test hard o, SHL stuff, VERY little time; then come see me writing at blitzering speed like the devil and all his children and great-grand children where right behind me, LOL.... O'boy, some pple really amused me at the centre. Like one guy who came with three pencils (we'd been instructed to come with pencils, erasers and calculators); the test host had to ask him if he was planning to open a super-market!

Well, in other news, i found this really funny spoof video by someone called Gbenga Salu. The video takes a comical look at the black-listing of good old Naija by the U.S. Enjoy and tell me what you think!

Hitler Defends Nigeria!!

Thursday, 31 December 2009

Peace and Love

I guess i've really done it this time - MIA for almost 2 months, that's gotta be record. But its the last freaking day of the year, so even such an extended AWOL like mine has got to have an end.

So i'm back...

But first, apologies:
I know it was really effed-up the way i just went missing - posting that Embarassing Moments story, and then puff! I'm sorry Blogsville, its just that my life took some crazy turns.

Here:
- my salary was delayed for 4months
- my rig allowance was delayed for 3months (since September!), so i was basically FLAT-ASS BROKE from October to mid-December (which is when it was finally paid)
- my Nokia 5200 phone (which doubles as my modem) suddenly developed problems 2weeks ago, and the PC suite no longer recognizes the phone.
- 8 days ago, Total Nigeria sent me an IV for a post-graduate scholarship test; i've been studyng like crazy ever since
- and the coup de grace, my laptop hard-drive crashed some 4 days ago. I've formatted the C-drive and re-installed my old programs and docs, so the laptop is pretty okay-dokay now.

So, here's to all of you who still checked me out even when i was as dormant as a hibernating mole: SugarK, MyneW, Fabulola, and Taatababe - THANK YOU!!
And especially to my own Ada-bekee: Nne, o teela, mana ugbua a lotala m.

Happy New Year everyone!

Monday, 16 November 2009

Embarrassing Moments

Sometime early this year (i forget when, or maybe I just don’t want to remember), my company organized some sorta "Customer Satisfaction" training program; it was a 2-day thing. Fat waste of time, i can tell you. Plus, the lady doing the training thingy for us - i think her name was Bimbo, but let's call her " the Trainer", has a nice sarcastic edge to it, :D - its my view shaa, but i think she was just there forming "whitey" for us, lol. Ok, i think (honestly thinking, this time) she sincerely meant to impart some "customer-satisfying" knowledge to us, but at that moment we were being owed 2 months’ salary, and that kinda distorted our view of the whole thing. Unpaid salaries can do that, i assure you.


Alright, i digress. Here's the jist: On Day2 of the training, the trainer asked each of us to tell his/her most embarrassing moment. It was really hilarious. Mehn, I laff sotey i come get headache for jaw. See as everybody - from Trainee Yard-hand to DGM - just dey swap stories of dem take fu.ck up like say tomorrow no dey! Me sef, i talk my own join. I told of how my most embarrassing moment was in my J.S.S 1, first term of my first year in secondary school. I told of the day i came home looking like a pig.


It so happened that my secondary school - CKC, Onitsha - wears "white and white" (for those who don't know, that means white shirt upon white shorts (for juniors) or white trousers for seniors)). I was like 11 then, and i just loved to play - you name it: football, handball, chase, tag, tug-of-war, or just plain fooling around in the sand - kay9 will be there! My mum used to warn me then to watch how i play, that i was now in secondary school, that i now wear "white and white" and i can't afford to dirty it too much.... For where? Who-sai!! It all fell on deaf, playing ears. Then along comes the day that i played the Play to end all plays. I played and played and rolled all over the whole of CKC's football field. After a while i noticed that my white uniform was no longer white in color; in fact, it was totally brown. So i did the smartest thing that came to my head: Remove the shirt, turn it inside out, and put it back on - surely, the inside MUST still be white! And that's what i did. But then the playing field started to call me again, so i ran out to it and played some more - played a WHOLE LOT more. Maka chineke, my uniform hear'am that day.


And then at last, it was time to go home. My God, i looked worse than a pig! My uniform was dirty - stinking dirty! - both inside and out. Even my friends whom i'd been playing with were ashamed of me - and this is the part i never could understand - none of them looked half as dirty as i did! How manage?? Mehn, i don't know how come no teacher saw me like that, but I’m mighty glad none did – cos if they had, walahi, my otule for catch fire. The closing bell rang, and i skunked back home. I never played like that again, ever.


Oh well, that's what i told them at the training, and we all had a good laugh - laughed enough to keep High-Blood pressure away for at least another half-decade, i can tell'ya. But you know what? I bet every one of us there had "crazier" (is there such a word?) embarrassing moments than the ones we talked about. I know i do, lol! My oh my, this kay9 wey una dey see here done do some really really crazy tings o!!


(To be continued.)

Sunday, 15 November 2009

URL Change: may be, may be not...

Dear Blogsville,

I wish to announce to you that i'm may be switching URL's; i don't know why i want to do this, but its been on my mind for a long time now. I still may not carry through with it, but - but if ever you try to pay me a visit and get something like "The blog you are looking for was not found", don't fret, a'ight? Just go on to khay9yne.blogspot; you'll find me there.

kay9.

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

Last Night...

Hi peeps, howz your new month going? Mine just dey crawl by nga ahu there.

Now, about my last post, almost everyone wanted to know what my replies to Z were like. Ok, i've dragged and dragged, but the honest to God truth is that i don't have them anymore... yes, i deleted them. Now, now, before you shout me down as a two-timing, cheat-ass muther-effing bastard, PLEASE HEAR ME OUT! I keep the SMS's i get from Z (every one of them, God and my nokia phone are my witnesses!), and Z keeps the ones i send to her - i don't like piling up text msgs in my Sent folder, and i suspect Z's like that, too. Ok, that's lame, "suspect"... but c'mon peeps, the thing is Z loves her freedom, and i respect that - that's why i don't go checking all the SMS in her phone and cross-referencing them with mine. Lol! But this much i can tell y'all: my texts to Z were EVERY inch as expressive as hers to me.

Here's a poem i wrote for Z some four years ago. I actually wrote this from memory - couldn't get the original, probably buried somewhere deep under my pile of graduate notes - i'm sure i missed a word or two in more'n three places, and the last verse wasn't properly saved on my biological hard-drive, i'm afraid :) Just tell me what you think.

*****************

Last night,
And the night before
I sat out, watching
A starless sky
While a shy baby-moon
Stayed away.
Wrapped up in my sweaters, and
Listening to my juke-box's
Midnight blues,
I thought of you
My baby-boo.

I thought
What wonderful, crazy lines
You and I loop.
What melody -
What symphony -
You and I do:
Me doing the bass,
You doing the treble,
While Mother Nature completes
The orchestra.

Later, going to bed
I hoped that you,
Dear Beautiful Brown Eyes,
Slept in a world
Full of smiles...


- kay9

Monday, 26 October 2009

SMS's from Z



From: Z
Time: Monday, July 27, 2009 2:23 PM
Hi,Kay. am cool but not bcos of d wether.am so sory,must'v bin vry hectic.not up 2notin jus ...damn dis strike!wud'v bin thru by sept.hey!dnt mind me.gud9t,ok...kia



From: Z
Time: Saturday, August 08, 2009 5:09 PM
lif may luk touf wit daily strugls but in my hrt exists,u;not jus as a 1da;cos lik a star u fel in2 my lif.u mde me smil evn wen thns went wrng cos in ur eyes lies my sunrise.wish we cud sail away 4eva,jus u&me.we stil loop 1dafl wild lines.i now bliv dt lif is b-e-a-u-tiful.hpy bday,k9.hugs&kisses!!!ciao
(This was on the eve of my birthday.)

From: Z
Time: Monday, August 31, 2009 5:38 PM
Hi,kay.am in my room.yes,am @owerri.10x 4evrythn.am gld i cam.so hw did d query go?my rgrds 2ur frds.oh!&#2 wen he coms back.am already missin u.luv u.tkia



From: Z
Time: Thursday, September 10, 2009 8:51 AM
Hi,u 2busy?jus thot i chck up on ya.so hwz work?any loadouts?dnt work yerslf out.mayb d 'no pay,no work' thngy'l do d trick.dnt mind me.jus tkia,ok?luv ya,baby

From: Z
Time: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 2:42 PM
nvr felt nor writn any truer wrds as dese:i luv u,K.so made me a wish&prayd 2hv ur kids,4evr kiss ur lips&grow old bein loved by u.g9t,baby.luv u sooooooo much.

From: Z
Time: Friday, September 18, 2009 12:16 PM
Been tnkin abt wht wud mk my wkend wortwhl&al i cn imagn is bein held in ur arms&kissd al d way down...slowly.al am tryin 2say is:i mis u lik crazy.lvly wkend,k

From: Z
Time: Thursday, October 22, 2009 4:19 AM
Baby,hw ye doin?@work,huh?bin tnkin of ye lik crzy.tot if smtng wre 2hapen 2u&it scard d crap outta me(knw i shudnt bt cnt help it).stay healthy,pleeeze. luv u.

From: Z
Time: Monday, October 26, 2009 11:20 AM
9ic day?had me 1.went 2d salon wt my sis&told her abt 'us'.tuk it rather calmly,she did.telltale!dtz me.luv u al d way 2kilimanjaro&bak.tkia


My dear blogsville, i think i've been blown. Goodbye to bachelorhood! (sob! sob!!)