long time no hear

long time no hear

I know its been ages since i posted, but I've been so swamped at work, its been unreal.
I dont want to get into it at this point, but my work place sucks, big time.....and it gets suckier and suckier every passing day...1 guy quit already, 2 guys are off for 2 months to their respective countries of origin for christmas and a couple of other guys are in school full time. So for the few shmucks left, it means more hours, no overtime pay.

On a positiv-ish note, it snowed heavily here for the first time in many many years apparently....and i like snow.....lots of people here don't....it usually rains a lot when its not summer and i like that too...but the snow is more refreshing. Plus everything looks clean and calm...even the dingy back alley at my work premises, looks nice for a change.....probably because the snow covers the syringes and other crap one might see around from time to time.

People in this part of BC obviously are not used to the heavy snow or as prepared as they are back east,so there have been tons of car accidents and power outages. We've been having quite a bit of the latter for the past few weeks......because of turbulence from winds, we started getting murky waters in our taps so there was an advisory sent out to boil water before we drank it, then other places had their power off for several days. I remember on the first day before the advisory was announced, i quickly went to the grocery store accross from where i live to buy some bottled water before the mad rush later on....but i guess everyone had the same idea because they were completely out......no other stores had anymore water and the one that did was selling it for an outrageous price...it was kind of alarming because, this wasnt even a big disaster but it had affected so many people and businesses.....you couldnt get salads or any sort of veggies from mcdonalds or any fast food cause they didnt have water....their burgers consisted of just meat and bread.......starbucks stopped selling any beverage for about a week......for fear of being sued in the future if someone got sick......shows how ill prepared we are for a major crisis.

Now i have to go to work...sigh*...it was supposed to be my day off, but i got called in yesterday at the last minute...never mind if i had made any sort of plans (not that i had, but what if i had)...i guess for now, i'm Post Time technologies' bitch.

hanging out with friends

With some friends at a restaurant. I drank water....while they ate. Because I'm such a cheapskate and didnt want to spend 50 bucks on some drizzle and sesame seeds. It was nice to hung out, for a change though.





















This was more my kind of scene....keeping it real with my friend Paulus and a couple of pints of beer

Images from the dread salon

Having my dreads maintained. Took about 5-6 hours!
For me, that's loooooooong!

Some guy at the salon who reminded me of an image of Jesus......
only with dreads...............and a cell phone......and
sitting under a dryer.

wont be giving up my day job any time soon, but...

Just thought i'd share some stuff i painted recently:

This is supposed to be a self portait.....The eyes are kind of spooky......

If worse comes to worst I could always paint signs for hair dressing salons in Ghana. :)

Fruit - July '06

still life - bottle of wine, sweet pepper and onions

midnight madness

It's 12:30 a.m and I'm eating.....I know i shouldn't but I cant help it,i'm hungry. I have been out since 8pm. I just got back from one of the biggest events of the summer here at B.C.'s English Bay..Its called the Celebration of Lights and is the biggest show of its kind in the world....its basically a massive fireworks display competition done to music..

...Italy started the show off today......its a really spectacular event...it attracts some half a million people to a small strip of downtown vancouver's beach.....and its free to watch...another unique feature of this event....i had almost forgotten about the amount of human traffic that congests the streets in the hours leading to the show..... i thought i'd got it all figured out by deciding to go across the bridge which connected downtown to the 'burbs and watching the show from that side to avoid the crowds....after waiting for over 45 mins for the bus and not getting an empty one and after repeatedly calling taxi service and being told to just flag one down, i eventually had to make the 20 minute trek across the bridge to watch a 30 mins fireworks show.....

It was interesting though....i made a new Brazilian friend as we walked together across the bridge....There were lots of drunk teenagers.......i noticed a few bodies passed out on the streets as i returned home....with friends trying to revive them or carry them home....young guys shouting out of their cars at passing girls....they are the same everywhere......the little people....as a friend of mine calls teenagers........i can still hear a few of them shouting obscenities at each other in the streets..lovely! all it takes is a couple of beers.....these kids can't hold their liquor, i swear....

for China's show which is next, i think i'll just stay downtown...keep it simple...it might be packed but at least i just have to walk a few blocks.....and not worry about being jumped or run over by some drunken teenagers.....too bad my apartment doesnt face the beach.....i wouldnt have to budge....

need to wake up

I feel i'm in a perpetual state of sleepiness....tiredness.....like i've been bitten by a tsetse fly.
I'm a coffee fiend now.....i keep myself in a semi-conscious state by ingesting copious amounts of caffeine by day and then of course i cant sleep at night, so i take melatonine some times and after 2 hours of sleep eventually, i start the day with a few cups of coffee to keep me going.....its a vicious cycle.....i just seem to have a very loooong jet lag.....

highlight of my week:

• tickets to go see Salif Keita next month

hip hop night

I got invited to a hiphop show last night by my friend, who works as a marketing manager for a Vancouver based hip hop magazine.....it was quite exciting for me because i dont get out much....of course i didnt know who the hell these artists were...much to his amazement.

Hey....i haven't had time to catch up with what's happening in the world in general, let alone in the hiphop world......until last week ...i didnt know who Lupe Fiasco was....but now i know.... after yesterday, I now know who Mr Lif is....they were aight.....i probably won't be going to see them again any time soon.....but now i'm a little bit more enlightened.......

We were frisked and searched by the bouncers before we entered, because some people had been shot there a few times....mostly gang related......my first thought once we entered....was...man...this is loud!.......I must be getting old. It certainly sounded louder than any club i've ever been in.....i honestly wished i had my earplugs handy......I would have looked uncool, but i would have saved myself from some irreversible damage to my ear drums. You get used to the loudness after a bit but that's not a good thing, in my opinion.

Anyways it was great fun to hang out at Richards on Richards, it was nice to chillout for a change. I got home today after 6 am. Thank God, I don't do this often. It does take a round out of an old lady like me :)

grief from all angles

Got blasted by my boss, for stuff i didn't do.

He had travelled. His sister, who's like the 2nd in command changed some decisions he'd made. He'd told me before he left that i shouldn't discuss stuff with anyone at work....i should just work on a project alone...which didn't make sense...because my role in the project is just a part of it....the programmer is also involved and so is his sister...so that plan didnt work and he took it out on me, amongst others.......then I had an argument with Paul, a friend of mine and he called me a brat. I've been called all sorts of names in my life, but never a brat.....anyways......whatever.......tomorrow is another day........hopefullly it will be more positive.......

btw, y'all had better start posting some comments.....something.....anything....I feel like i'm talking to myself here....what's up with that? Speaking of what's up...

what was up with Zi-Zou and the header on the Italian guy's chest.....? whatever he said...i dont think anything justified Zidane heading him and at a time like that.....

diary of a deranged insomniac

its like 5 a.m. and I've been awake for...oh...5 hours? my brain just gets hyper at night and no matter how many breathing exercies i perform or how many bloody sheep i count, i just cant sleep....and i have to be at work in 4 hours.....:(

somehow, my brain is slow and sluggish during the day and then at night...boom! it goes into overdrive......i should be taking prescription sleeping pills but i dont want to get hooked....so i suffer in silence....

i cant drink coffee often because i get anxious and paranoid....

anyhoo...after tossing and turning all night i thought....maybe i should get up and continue editing our little movie, "M.P". This would most likely be the only productive activity I do today. The rest of my day is pretty much shot.

Happy Canada's Day

This was a popular beer Ad that was on TV years ago.....pretty funny:

Happy Canada Day, people!

Yay, Black stars

Well Ghana made us proud yesterday. I must say, I thought they were a little more relaxed than during their game with the Czechs and that harsh penalty was a big bonus for us. Our next team to meet are the Brazilians....all i can say is we will not lose without a fight.....i have to be realistic here.

I couldnt wait to rub our victory in the face of my American colleague (well, american-canadian....but proudly american)...as soon as he entered the office he was like

-"dont' even say a word Yinka....u guys won bcos we felt sorry for you....and the game was fixed".....

-whatev .....we kicked your butts!

-"Besides" he added "we excel at so many other things anyways....how many people actually watch soccer in the states?Not many"....

-"what else do you excel at" I asked

-"well....blowing up other contries.....for one" he blurted out......he's funny that guy........later on during the day i noticed him carrying a cup of water around on his head...i decided to ignore him...but after a while, i was curious....

"what's up ? why the water on your head" I asked.

"oh, i was just trying to make u feel at home" he retorted. The others at work burst out laughing. Funeeeee. I guess I should be grateful they are not making clicking sounds at me.

hump day

I think today is when summer officially begins or it's the longest day of the year or both.....something like that. .....who knows?

Went for a job interview that lasted 2 hours. I'm trying to find either a 2nd job or a new one more related to video production. It seemed to have gone ok....the owner of the studio seemed like he was impressed.....so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.....I'm kind of indifferent about the job....but i think its good practice to go for different interviews...I've been so out of touch with the system.....its been years.....i'm talking 6 years, since i went on a job interview. I got there today thinking i was just going to drop off a resume and a demo reel...turned out i had to have 2 interviews....one to screen the hopefuls, i imagine before the main interview with the man himself....it was positive because i think the owners are young-ish and are looking for younger staff...so thats some points for me, hopefully......if i do get the job it will be great, bcos the location is great.....a cool mountain and lake view....only its an hour's commute and that kind of sucks......i guess i've been spoilt from living downtown and working close by..all the jobs i've had here have been close by.....anyways....whatever will be, will be.

go Ghana!

So its 2: 0 against Ghana..I must admit, I didn’t expect them to play as well…..but after playing decently for a bit now…its like, ok….now let that generate some goals….that’s the whole point of running around and tackling guys…cmon! I mean they had soooo many chances….so many missed chances…..anyways…..Go Ghana! Its not over till its over….right?

The interesting thing today was, people who at first had never heard of Ghana when I told them where I was from would meet me and be like, hey I watched the Ghana team on tv today and they were pretty good…

Week in review

I met another Ghanaian who works at the YMCA next door. I greeted her and then finally mustered up the courage to ask if she was Ghanaian...'yes I am'...she replied...'Etisen?' - she asked.
She was really excited to meet a fellow Ghanaian and immediately invited me to a birthday party that night. Later after we'd chatted a bit about Ghana and stuff ....she went back to her work and I went to have a swim....so I'm swimming .....and whilst I'm under the water I think i can hear Kofi Nti/Ofori Amponsah's 'Rakia' playing ....I'm like..wow...all that talk about Ghana and partying is messing up with my head but sure enough when I come up for air, 'Rakia' is in fact blaring from the loudspeakers. I look around me and all the usual athletes are there training in the Olympic size pool, seemingly oblivious to the fact that their usual classical music has been replaced with hiplife. I thought it was pretty funny. I guess my new Ghanaian acquaintance couldn't wait to start the party going.....

Another highlight of my week....in Capoiera class Monday, I managed to do a hand stand for more than 5 secs...that was a record for me.....of course that was also because we went to train at a gymnasium which had all the padding and stuff for protection on the floors....so once i got home that courage to stand on my hands and not think about possibly breaking my neck,went out the window.....but it takes time....I had never done handstands as a kid so its a new experience for me as an adult...hey if I keep this up i will be doing back flips in no time.....its the neck breaking possiblity that's always at the back of my mind.

couch potato for the weekend

the weekend has passed by so fast. i feel like i've gained 5 pounds in 2 days from doing nothing. i've got hi speed internet which is nice...that has got to be one of the highlights of my weekend.

I should get out there....go out....have fun...but why should i? i got cable....60 free channels....and i got hi speed internet...the gym at the ymca is right next door...i'm set. :)

eggs, weed and day time television

My sleep hours are messed up. I wake up between 1:30a.m. and 3:30 a.m. everyday.....i'm staying at this Bed and Breakfast single room that is modelled after a ship's cabin.....
my neighbours on either side are some latino students who talk loudly on the balcony till 2 am so it sounds like they are right in my room and when they start blunting, the smell is so overpowering I inadvertently get high with them...eeek.

There's only so much day time tv a person can watch.
I'd forgotten about how much unbelievable crap there is on tv here, especially  during the day. All these shows like jerry springer and maury's DNA test, all the myriads of reality tv shows....it's almost obscene...the least said, the better....

i am not eating eggs for a very long time...i get a free omellete or 2 fried eggs with hash browns and toast for breakfast with this deal on the BnB....its either that or just cereal and juice....and since i can be such a cheapskate and its free, i have a late breakfast so that way i dont have to eat much for the rest of the day....but its been eggs for 10 days now.....That can't be too healthy....i know they say an egg a day keeps the doctor away...but 2 eggs a day has got to be overdosing.

apartment hunting

It’s 6:12 am. I have been up since 3 a.m. I spent a greater part of yesterday looking for apartments…I didn’t get to see a whole lot..but there were 2 possible interests. Hopefully I'll find something affordable downtown soon.

Back in VanCity

Got into Vancouver last night. I had a long flight and very little sleep, if any at all. Stopped at Heathrow….went through a long line-up through customs and then went to meet up with a friend.

2 buses, a train and almost 2 hours later, I met up with her in Wembley. Man, was it ever cold? And I was inappropriately dressed….I was chilled to the bone. It was nice seeing her again, though….she looked good…less stressed out….happier….and her baby is soooo adorable…..she is like a clone of my friend and smiles a lot…she has the cutest dimples.

I hung out with my friend, her 3 month old baby and my auntie (my friend's mum) for a bit then. Then it was a mad rush to the airport. We left by 2 thinking by 3:30 I’d be in, since the plane left at 4:45.

I must say I was impressed with my friend's energy and how efficiently she handled the baby in town…I could barely carry the kid the first time without being nervous of dropping her…and here my friend was, carrying the baby with all her gear and the pram over the numerous escalators and even managing to run.

By the time I got into the airport it was 4:15., I had to go through customs line up again….now that was stress….i knew the gate closed at 4:25..and I was still in line at 4: 22 or so…..i heard the final call for the flight and I had to run like crazy to the plane through long corridors and long flights of stairs lugging my laptop bag and a heavy hand luggage….on an almost empty stomach and no sleep…..i got there past 4:45 ..i felt so bad….but as I run I thought to myself…dear God, if I’m not meant to be on this plane then so be it….if I miss this plane, there’s a perfectly good reason….but I made it and there was a good reason for that too.

After an especially long session through a customs check and verification of my travel history etc…..i met a nice elderly man who was on the plane with me…he had worked in Ghana, kumasi to be precise and he gave me quarters to call a cab…..i noticed a guy carrying a sign over his face following me around....i thought to myself...who's this weirdo...and as i was talking with the kind elderly man, i noticed it was my dear ex... was in shock....i just stood there not knowing whether to hug him or smack him in the face.....but he came over and hugged me...he'd brought my old coat that i left him....he'd even sewn the holes that were in the pockets.

anyways...he helped me look for my lodging which was nice....i didn't have to pay 25 bucks for a taxi.....

it was a weird night to put it mildly....but I'm glad to be back