My boy Sin today informed me on the happenings of the previous day. What happened was as follows -- through some amazing manipulations of fate, he managed to get the contacts of a young lass and they had been conversing for months without actually setting eyes on each other. As an easygoing lad, he wa content with this state of affairs. Inevitably affairs came to a head when the intrigued lass demanded a meeting. After assurances that she was quite a looker, Sin agreed to a meeting and on that fateful day we saw him off with a spring in his heel. The following day one look at our boy left us in no doubt that affairs had not gone according to plan. An extremely eloquent lad, Sin informed us that the good lady was nothing remotely like what she had assured him. Our sympathies were entirely with him.
Received the five CDs that constitute the monstrosity known as Visual Studio.NET and the few hours I spent tinkering with it left me in no doubt that IT is a very volatile and unforgiving field. However I have an excellent aptitude for this kind of thing so am doing just fine!
Find myself in similar circumstances as my boy Sin. However I have implicit trust in my gut feelings and the fact that this lady was celebrating a birthday swayed me still further and in very quick order find myself scheduled for a birthday movie. Turned out to be quite nice actually.

Smile to myself as I remember the antics of the hapless lad yesterday as he was betrayed by technology. Ha ha!
Made a small wager that Nigeria will be unceremoniously ejected from the World Cup and the storm of protest was something along the lines as someone suggesting increased salaries for MP's. I have every confidence that I shall win the bet.
Got myself bundled with a rather complex project at my main workplace. This of course complicates my timetable immensely but I have some very ambitious plans for the next few months that require quite some capital expenditure.
I have been bending over backwards to rectify my sullied reputation of being too busy for my nearest and dearest. But there are times when my nearest and dearest fail to co-operate! Tentative invitations to a drink have been soundly rejected leaving some lingering queries.
For some weeks now the Patriarch has been spending quite a bit of his time in Uganda leaving the Castle in the very capable hands of myself. The Matriarch after a few such trips became indignant at his regular trips across the border and demanded to accompany the Patriarch and see what was so good about Uganda. The Patriarch is a brilliant man and acceded readily to the request. The leave today.

My boy James has recently returned form allegedly studying in the States and looks none the worse for wear. However I was very touched to note that he had sorely missed the easygoing disorganized nature of the Nairobi life. Indeed there is no place like home.
My memory is drawn to a very old friend of mine, Katherine was her name. (Katherine with a K, as she always insisted.) Back in the day a CD was a very rare commodity and this maiden happened to purchase, or rather have purchased for her, a set of on one of Tupac's double CD albums. Naturally as soon as the populace came across this intelligence she became very popular and we were lining up at her door with well rehearsed lines like how fascinating her unkempt hair looked and how fetching her smile was. (It wasn't but back then we'd do a lot for a CD!) After a while Katherine realized that she did actually need to mark her property to forestall the inevitable stalemate when two people claim ownership of an item that does not have any distinguishing marks. The screech of her compass point grating across the face of her CDs was nothing compared the screech of that dear girl when she attempted to shake what her mama gave her to her new CDs....
On a similar nostalgic note I also recall a little girl who I used to play with when I was introduced to the wonders of nursery education. The only thing I remember about that lass was that her name was Tutu and she was my immediate neighbour at our princely castle in Ngummo. Even at her tender age she was formidable. How formidable? Me and my bosom buddy Tom, who put our mothers in perpetual distress from hanging form moving lorries and scaling high walls and other such manly activities were reduced to playing house, saloon and other such unmanly activities. I recall that I became very astute at plaiting grass!

Found myself helping a completely intoxicated gentleman to effect an entry into his own house. The fact that he was able to drive there is still a mystery to me because that gent was unable to stay on his feet at all!
With the realization that a project is due on Thursday and I have had so many things to do that getting around to it has not been possible, came the realization that drastic measures need to be taken. Naturally the first casualty will be sleep.
Have come to the conclusion that there is nothing as formidable as a determined woman. The facts are simple -- she is very interested and I am not. No amount of hints, subtle of otherwise seem to make a difference. Fleeing precipitately does not seem to help either! There was a close moment on Sunday when I almost said "I'd rather go out with the tide" but God intervened by making an old friend bump into me and drag me over to the dance floor.
The return of the Patriarch to his castle has reminded me that the 24 hours in a day are fully at my own personal disposal and I don't have to concern myself with cooking dinners of stuffed chicken for small boys who fail to realize the intricacies involved in Mediterranean cuisine!
Sing Happy Birthday, and quite before I am done the laughter that comes my way leaves me in no doubt that my rendition is not coming out quite as planned!

Despite my better judgment, agree to the silky persuading tones of a cat called Nyaga to participate in an IEEE IT showcase. Even with my antennae waving that it is a bad idea, I agree to bring some of my work to be showcased.
Things immediately begin to go sour when it is discovered that not only will the event last all day, and not the morning as I had thought, but it would also extend to the following day. This means interfering with plans to eat meat and make merry at friend David's place.
I was not the leased surprised to find the print press there. But I was jolly well surprised to find Nation TV there, cameras, spotlights and all.
Everything went swimmingly until the camera was switched on, after which it dawns on you that a few hundred thousand Kenyans are going to be watching you and will laugh outrageously should you make the slightest mistake. This you immediately proceed to. For instance you say your project is addressing two major problems and then you go on to mention three. I can hardly wait to see myself make a fool out of myself on TV!
That lunch we were promised became more and more conspicuous by its sheer absence as the hours went by. Soon some very disgruntled young men were baying for blood.
When it became apparent that the food was not coming, the presentations degenerated into something else altogether. Some of my boyz fired up Napster and the rest fired up games of one sort or another.

I have for a long time refused to entertain complaints from people who complain about not being telephoned or written to whereas they fail to extend similar courtesies. One such lass today held forth for close to ten minutes while I watched in amazement as my calling patterns (or lack of them) were brought to the light. At this point let me stress if you exhibit such characteristics wewe ni mjinga.
My memory is refreshed of an unfortunate young man who, while surfing the net, decided to visit some of the more - ah - adventurous sites where people, being nothing nut mammals, do what they do on the Discovery Channel. What this gent failed to realize was that an Apple iMac is a work of art and among its many features it also boasts a very powerful set of speakers. These speakers were very functional and the volume was quite maximum. So you can imagine the scene when the stillness of the facility was suddenly shattered by extremely loud grunts and squeals that left little to the imagination. If you believe that a dark skinned African male is unable to blush I fear that you are in error. The sight of that young lad struggling to deal with his situation I must confess got me laughing so hard that I was reduced to tears. The lad started by:

• Implementing the Universal combination of ALT-F4. He discovered in very quick order that this does not work on Apple machines for the excellent reason that these devices function quite differently from their Windows brothers.
• Clicking the volume icon on the task bar. He again discovered that on an Apple things are arranged quite differently and the volume controls are similarly quite different. For one thing the taskbar on an Apple is not at the bottom of the screen!
• Switching the machine off altogether. Here the Apple's intelligence quickly proved to be a drawback in this young man's view. The Apple's power button assumes that you cannot possibly want to switch off the machine in the middle of use and thoughtfully asks a series of questions on whether you want to close the active running applications.

Do remember that all this time the facility is echoing with the shattering sound effects of the movie this lad was watching. At this point in time everyone in there is yelling with merriment. Personally I was almost on the floor, laughing so hard tears were rolling down my cheeks. Alas the woes of modern technology!

This year I can safely say that I have tried very hard to keep in touch with all my friends. I return all my calls and reply all my mail and I also endeavor to reciprocate all my visits. This I can tell you is jolly hard because I am the kind of cat who always has something to do. Last week I got the wind knocked out of my sails.This does not usually happen seeing as my quick retorts have all sorts of comments ranging from 'thinks on his feet' to 'that sarcastic bastard.' Upon inquiring from a dear friend why on earth she does not keep in touch, that dear lady informed me that she 'didn't feel like.' DIDN'T FEEL LIKE! My friends, especially Sin would be very amused to know that I was speechless and paused for all of five seconds in stunned amazement. The things I endure from my friends and the trampled feelings I entertain! But I am a man of my word and I said this year I was going to be exceptionally good so I shall continue to be nice to everyone. (By the way, I can whine on my site if I feel like it so if you don't like it you can take a deep breath, count to five hundred and jump in a lake!)
It is with some dismay that I learnt that the major source of my Mp3s, Audiogalaxy.com. run into some trouble with the law and as a result it is no longer possible to download music from that establishment. This is shattering news and I am shattered. Make no mistake about it. Things had gotten to the stage that it was the first thing that I opened! Upon going to the site to dig around Audiogalaxy expressed regret at being unable to offer us music but were still the top place to go and discuss musicians. DISCUSS MUSICIANS? Mushindwe nyote!!

Gone forever are my days of being understanding to people regarding finances! More often than not I find myself unable to even have air burgers for lunch due to useless buffoons who I lend my hard earned iron men with good faith and who subsequently free in good speed at my approach! No more loans, no more work on credit! SWINE ALL OF YE!
Hakan Sukar, Turkey's Captain was even more surprised than the goalie when 11 seconds after the whistle had W J Lee retrieving the ball from the back of his net! 11 Seconds! That I believe is a record! But anyway, its been a terrible weekend soccer wise seeing as my team Korea lost. In case you have forgotten allow me to remind you -- I forever root for the underdogs!
Ronaldo's RIDICULOUS hairstyle doesn't seem to have slowed him down any! Personally I think that hairdo makes the man look like a fool. Perhaps he was paying for the haircut in installments and the funds were exhausted before the cut was done! I did feel for the Germans-- clearly the lack of their only play maker Michael Ballack hampered considerably their performance. Kahn's morose face moodily watching Roque Junior turning cartwheels of joy can be immortalized as a Kodak moment!

By the skin of my teeth complete the work on the date it is due and leave the evaluators in no doubt that I have had a rough week and would think very dimly of ill timed interruptions or queries. There seems to be none and things go generally well.
Get invited for dinner by that relentless Amazon and she still seems unable to see through my excuse that I have a headache in my stomach! I shall have to try going underground as a final solution!
A very dear friend seems to have contracted a nasty bout of Malaria! Get well soon Sue!
Got a nasty surprise when I inserted my ATM card into the machine and some seconds later was retrieving it some distance away where the indignant machine had flung it. There is not much likelihood of a credit transfer bouncing and so my gloves are ready for yet another bout with the people who I pay to keep my money! The nerve!
Suddenly have a strong urge go listen to oldies music. I have spent the better part of the week hunting down The Temptations, the Bee Gees, The Three Degrees and stuff along those lines. Audiogalaxy is a waste of time so now I use a combination if Imesh and Kazaa Lite.

Refuse with spirit to return to the IEEE showcase, due to a very disgruntled and hungry spirit but most importantly because we have a party to attend that will brook no delay!
Waste half an hour as one of the party is 'fashionably' and otherwise late. The sight of the dear lady transporting us all to Thika is a sight to behold.
Get to Thika after taking the wrong turning once or twice and after going the wrong way another one or two times finally wind up at the abode.
Spend a good part of the afternoon rambling and telling outrageous and completely impossible tales, have a game of Monopoly that is played with spirit and energy. Future land barons were seen in action.
The appearance of roast goat in the middle of the game interfered quite a bit with the pace of the game. But finally it resumed. All this was to the accompaniment of loud music that I am sure did nothing for neighbour relations.
After a good day spent in pleasant surroundings make our way back to Nairobi, satiated with meat and merriment.