My Wonderful Valentine

     Good week everyone! Right, how many things do I have in my head today? Not many, but I do feel a swollen head from the enormity of the thoughts in it. First is a song or should I call it classical music piece that I have been playing in my head over and over, and over again. Lovely piece though and since I’m have no clue on how to write music ( my droll music teacher in secondary school killed it for me) I’ll simply refer everyone to the movie I heard it from. The movie is called the, I think, "Valentine Caveman" starring Samuel L Jackson as a homeless classical music genius who had so many spirits playing in his head, both good and bad. 

Now I know why the blues I’ve been feeling have been playing this song over in my head! Valentine’s day and Frieda. I had a horrible Val’s weekend and she’s still not talking to me. All we’ve talked about since then have been plans of what we want to do for the next three months, business, what to do, which family to call but no playful pulling of the cheeks, even the “I love yous”  have been brassy. I wouldn’t even dare smack her on the bottom let alone venture between them – but, hehehe, I do know that when it does happen, it will be well worth the wait! That piece has been playing in my head ever since and has been so apt via the one star instrument I know that comes nearest to expressing complexities of my thoughts that even the spoken language cannot, the piano. Its ability to make me transcend the normalities around me to the pure subliminal sphere where my mind always wants to be, with its erratic yet consistent and purposeful fluttering like that of a butterfly, makes her my favourite of all musical instruments.

 The fight was about one of the stalwarts of any relationship, finance. And it was my fault, too. We had agreed to set aside some money for a project this February but I went and used it for something else thinking I’d get the money needed from someone who owed me from a project I’d done a week earlier. Alas the money was not forthcoming and the bubble burst when she suddenly asked me about it, with love shining in her eyes, on the stupid lovers’ day. You should have seen the stunned shock and then the hurt that filled her eyes before they completely frosted over and then came the metallic tone she always uses when talking aggressive business. My day took the plunge of a parachuteless skydiver. It’s been business and courtesy ever since although I must say she has been thawing out gradually and steadily – trust my skills now; I’m a bigz boyz!

 It has taught me though, and it’s painful too, that I’m not a sole proprietor anymore and that finances in a relationship should never be joked with, even with the sweetest of them, and trust me, she is, if I’m ever going to live in peace and harmony in a co-habiting relationship. So baby, I’m sorry, I promise to work hard at not doing it again. So as regards tonight, all sanctions lifted? Still thinking about it? I’ll wait im-, patiently…

  This week’s post is dedicated to an illustrious son of our beloved country. Like I said before, my dear country is too bigz to be brought down; we are an amazingly unique people. We may not have had the kind of leaders committed to steering us in the right direction but we, the collective, never fail to shine as stars. Just when we were groaning under the weight of the shame one of ours, a would be terrorist, brought on us, another, has the dream of representing us in the coming winter Olympics 2014, after he’s done beating his leukemia! Yes my friends, as I write now Seun Adebiyi has just had a, and I hope successfully, bone marrow transplant. That the least of his feats. You should go to his blog and feel the full force of the positive energy emanating from this young man. The man loves to live and clearly loves to share too. I don’t mean the desperate clinging onto life because you’re terrified of the unknown. No, I mean the celebration of life so much so that you notice the beauty of the little things in life; the smile of a labourer trudging home from work as he sees his little ones rushing out to greet him and seizing his bag of weary tools, remembering the best summers in your life while going through its worst blizzards and so much more. His winning smile alone embodies his whole perspective to life even with his swollen face from the abrasive drugs he’s been pumped with to fight organ or tissue rejection. I’d go on and on and still not do Seun any justice but I enjoin all of us to rally round him and give him our best support; he embodies our good nature and strong will and desire for success. I will be following his progress and will write on him from time to time. (Seun's Blog)

  Okay this is getting a bit long so I’ll have to pen off here till next week. Let’s be happy, be more prayerful, not give up dreaming and work hard to achieve our dreams! Have a great week everyone, and me, I hope I get a Valentine’s day extension – tonight!                  

Armageddon

A good week to my good people on the net. I hope everyone had a great weekend. It’s night time here and I’m just licking my wounds from a weekend long battle with my girlfriend through absolutely no fault of mine. And no, I am not taking advantage of the fact that she’s not here to defend herself to try and drag you to my side of this tug of war game. I’m just trying to lay it out as objectively as I can and leave it to you good people to judge. Truth be told, this is one of my very rare chances of getting back at her – she always has to win in all the arguments and fights we have. When I am at fault, and believe me, I hear no end of it, I apologize. When she is at fault, and she finally sees the error of her ways, she apologizes, and then I apologize for hurting her feelings! I have since learnt never to attempt to win an argument in a verbal swordplay with the woman, especially when she’s your significant other. She’ll duck, dive, shout, weave, feign, stab, sneak, double cross, cry, ‘hurt’, shift the goal post, mess with your head – anything at all to be ahead of the game and make you feel you’re the worst bully or dolt in the world and make you see how vulnerable she is. Well my dear, this is my riposte – my pen triumphing over your swordy tongue, in a place where you can’t touch me! Hehehe! Don’t worry baby, you know I love you.

What happened? Absolutely nothing that I can call my fault except for her extremely intelligent over analytic mind that on the one hand has helped me surmount huge obstacles with relative ease and on the other, sees conspiracies where there is none especially where it comes to the womenfolk. Okay, so I made a call to a friend in the middle of the night at about 3:30am and some stupid demon decided to choose that very time for her to call me and get a busy tone – no, I’m not saying you were influenced by the Devil to call me o! Before I go and add that one to my many sorrows. I was bored, couldn’t sleep, didn’t feel like reading or watching TV or surfing the net so I called my female buddy that I have known for four years now. We usually hang out and while one or two things may have happened between us in the past, we still got back on track and have been fast friends ever since and I told her so! Did she want to hear that? Oh noooo! “Kalu, I know you mean well and everything and your mind is open and all and I know -if you know what’s good for you - you wouldn’t do anything funny behind my back but what if there’s a teeny weeny longing for her buried deep in your subconscious? Do you realize cheating is not just sexual? There’s also emotional cheating as well.” At this point I just blinked and stared at her. There are some things my simple man mind just can’t comprehend. “I mean you guys have been close all this while so there must be some bond between you two (which I mean to break! – interpretation)”. Then here’s her next line of attack. “Besides I’m a woman and I know what we women can be like. You don’t know if she has designs on you and has been wanting to have you for keeps. Women can be very patient you know; they are capable of any kind of machinations and can blend into anything you want them to be just to get their hooks into you.” Now can you imagine what would happen if we were to have an argument about who has the right of way on a particular matter and I were to quote this very statement she made? Bloody hell! Burnt food for the rest of the day plus I wouldn’t be served; I’d have to go to the kitchen and get it myself. That’s not all o! Oh, I’m loving this!

I spent the best part of the day AND night trying to pacify her and eventually went to the sitting room to watch my favourite TV series, CSI Vegas. I was in the middle of the show when she came out to begin making hints at having make up sex. Perfect timing! I gave her mine too! I told her I wanted to finish what I was watching first. The result? Cold war III, series II! We didn’t speak to each other for the best part of the next day until the evening when we finally talked, apologized to one another and then uh hum, uh hum! The rest of what happened you do not need to know, thank you!

I find the battle of the sexes to be one the true spices of romance in a spousal relationship, rather like sibling rivalry where each party loves to hate, hates to love, hates to hate and loves to love one another – I love it! I celebrate the romance( even though I’d die before I’ll call myself romantic), fights, make ups, talks, the highs and lows and challenges in a relationship especially when each party is committed to seeing it work, love and have a mutual respect for one another. The tremendous benefit this adds to both people’s personality and character is unquantifiable and there is no limit to what they can achieve as a team if they set their minds to it. Families that sprout from such unions will invariably be very stable, cohesive and unified. This one’s for you baby; I love you; you’re the best. Have a great week everybody!