Happy birthday Dad

This is to celebrate my father's birthday, wishing him many more. The best gift life has given me.

Happy happy birthday!!

So many bridges to cross

I sat down thinking of the many things in my life and others around me that happen and make no sense at all. It feels like after one problem has been sorted out the next obstacle is on its way. And it does tend to feel like it's always you. I found myself talking to my best friend and going, 'sorry to always make it about me but.....' and I must say I have some of the best friends out there are they always tell me 'you don't make it enough about yourself, go on...' After a good hour of self pity and inspirational words am good as new, or just until the next episode!

While life has it's moments when you stop and think...' I really don't get why this is happening', it makes absolutely no sense when children are dying, or even people in our peer group (though we feel old we are really not old at all), or you really tired you best to get something to come through, but not only did it fail ten times over, it brought other complications you could not even imagine, or have the strength to deal with.

With these things in life I have learnt to put them in my 'I don't understand file' and tuck them away, if it's something I can not physically change I suggest it be put away and in time it either sorts itself out or a solution puts itself to you and voila.

There was a time I was working with a colleague in the office, being the most senior person on the team, when things were not going as planned I started panicking. I worried about the time, I worried about the level of teaching I was giving my colleague, and trust me the more I worried I had more things piling up for me to worry about. After the second day of working late on stress mode, I found it amazing how my colleague was so chilled ( he had already developed a reputation in the office for being so chilled, from the very first day) I really had to ask him, ' how do you manage to be so laid back' and he said, ' I find it useless to stress coz at the end if it all, things always sort themselves out. The work we are doing one way or another will be done, so why stress about something that will be fine in the end'. He sure had a good point, and we did actually get it all done in the end with more laughs, and I did think to myself, I do always get stressed out but it all comes through in the end!! I must be addicted to stress. :|

However, with the situation at work, it got sorted out and moved out of my 'I don't understand file' but in life we will face more things that just never move out that file, such as deaths, loss of a job, a promotion that was overlooked, failure of a company, failed marriage/relationship, the fine you got when you have always been good with payments, the list is endless. In the words of three great men find inspiration,

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you are going through hell, keep going.” ~ Winston Churchill

“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

Just keep on and hold steady! It's all part of life's lessons

Guilty pleasures....a lesson or two

So with the snow raging outside and almost falling over 3 times on the way home, I managed to catch up with my old time guilty pleasure ‘The Wendy William's Show’.

My first fall was close by

Apart from learning that Jessica Simpson is having a new series and also the definition of a ‘beijing beard’, (for those who don’t know it’s a dye men use to make their beards look fuller).

Beijing beard dye 

I learnt how to make my own lip-gloss with unwanted or freebie eye shadows.Well I managed to try some with my gold eye shadow and ‘voila’ looks like a gold lipstick! All I did was use my gold eye shadow by dabbing on my lips and sealed it up with the classic Vaseline!

The golden lip-gloss :)

The other things she spoke of was making our own dry shampoo (for the life of me I can’t remember how she did that), rosewater toner, - this was simple, all she did was place rose petals in warm water let them soak in and sieve, and you have your rose water tones. The final product she spoke about was making your own bronzer - the ingredients were baby powder and cinnamon spice, haven’t tried that one yet!!

Hotel oh Hotel

I was watching a documentary on the Claridge Hotel in London, this is London most luxurious hotel for the rich and famous, with guests ranging from the likes of Donatella Versace, Mariah Carey, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and the Queen's guest if Buckingham Palace is not big enough, at room prices of more that £3,000 a night you can imagine the service quality is of the highest standard, I would expect the world at that price, in fact I would expect the world at £500 a night!!(prices sourced from: Inside Claridge’s episode 3 on BBC2, on Limerick Leader on line site it states nights can be as high as £6,900) 

Well as I watched this documentary they were featuring some of their guests who visited over the summer in 2012, including the President of Gabon and to my amusement they featured H.E President Joyce Banda of Malawi and the First Husband Richard Banda, with their 15 Malawian delegates, visiting the hotel for 11 days. They showed The First Husband Richard Banda arriving at hotel, and the grand red carpet welcome he received. All the staff of the hotel know all their guests by name, just for the personal touch. (at that price I wouldn't expect less!).

Watching this programme it really doesn't take a phD mathematician to help you understand the larger bill that would have come from this stay, am thinking room rate for 15 delegates each with their own room, the president and her husband therefore 16 rooms at £3,000 a night for 11 nights plus maybe 300 food bill per day ( 5* food experience is expensive and I feel this price is reasonable) a £500 allowance for each person per day brings the bill to £635,800 that is before flights, security, transport etc an eleven day trip costing close to a million pounds and this was only their UK leg! 

For a country such a Malawi going through a series of devaluations that have added up to close to 50% and the lack of foreign money, a bill of this magnitude is 'a bit' excessive. Would it have hurt to stay at a reasonably priced 4/5* hotel say at £500 (don't get me wrong £500 is still excessive when you don't have anything) or deluxe service apartments or maybe cut down the number if delegates that tag along? 

No doubt Malawi has it's issues, and the current state of Malawi, is not down to the current lady president, as the system goes, you inherit other people's mess, and the economic situation has been terrible for a few years now, but I think it's unfair to have this lavish lifestyle when a large part of the Malawi population can hardly survive in the current economic situation, as is evident with the pending demonstrations on the 17^th of January.

(Note: after looking at the Claridge’s website they did have other rooms priced at £390 a night for single occupancy, therefore maybe the rooms that were used weren't at the rate or £3,000 a night as thought. I don’t usually right politically articles, this does not mean I am for or against the current government; the article was merely inspired from a programme I watched.)

Saint Joseph of Cupertino

I have grown up as a catholic and in the catholic tradition we acknowledge sainthood. The saint I wish to honour today is Saint Joseph of Cupertino, he is the saint of flight and for success in exams. As I no longer sit exams I think this is the best time to write this blog.

I was made aware of this saint by my sister, and all through university and through my accountancy professional qualification, as well as praying to our Lord, I always asked Saint Joseph of Cupertino to intercede for me, and pray for me during my exams. Having everyone around you looking for your success, surely could not be a bad thing, and it is with all my belief plus hard work (of course =) ) I can happily say NO MORE EXAMS!!!

Saint Joseph of Cupertino was a priest in the 17th century born in 1603 and died in 1663, and he was not the brightest of people, but with his prayer, he was asked at his examination the only thing that he knew. - Now I know what you are thinking....this does not seem like it is the best way to educate people.... in the time we live I honestly think they would have said he had a learning disability, rather than purely not bothering with revision. Therefore, it is with this I say, keep on studying hard and also praying.

The prayer to Saint Joseph of Cupertino for his intercession:

O Great Saint Joseph of Cupertino who while on earth did obtain from God the grace to be asked at your examination only the questions you knew, obtain for me a like favour in the examinations for which I am now preparing. In return I promise to make you know and cause you to be invoked.

Through Christ our Lord

Saint Joseph of Cupertino, Pray for us.

Amen

Immortalising dreams - Tiwerenge

Sadly, I cannot say that I have read many books in my life. If it were not for my exams or general academic work, I could literally count the books I have read in my lifetime using my fingers. Due to the minimal number of books that I have read, the individual stories are still so vivid in my mind. I remember forging my parent's signature in primary school to tick off with my English teacher that I had indeed read the book! Needless to say, I had 'read' the most books in my class!

My sister on the other hand would read absolutely everything she could get her hands on. Unlike me, she actually read the books! She would always recommend books to me, but alas, if it wasn't part of the Twilight Saga, I found the effort to psych myself up to be an almost impossible task to carry out. My lines have always been, 'After my exams are done!' or 'during my holiday' or my recent classic favourite is 'when I get a kindle or iPad’. Exams have come and gone, so have holidays, and the opportunity to get a kindle even as a present has come and has been passed off! Looking at it now, it was her way of sharing the area in her life that she finds joy in. 

Unlike my situation, where I was given the resources but did not utilise them, in Africa, and I can only speak for Malawian government school such resources are scarce. The number of child per book is very high. 

The dream to get everyone reading gave birth to Tiwerenge Foundation. This foundation encapsulated the joy of reading that my sister has always shared with my mother, myself, and her friends. Tiwerenge is an organisation in Malawi that supplies books to primary schools that need them the most. The very first resources of Tiwerenge were the very books that I was offered to read and never quite got around to reading. This foundation founded in Malawi has opened up the access of books to kids who would have otherwise not had the opportunity to these resources.

Something that started off as a casual conversation in my parent’s kitchen, the dream shared then was big! We discussed, looking at the use of kindles in schools. We also looked at starting middle school book clubs, where children could come together and share what they have read. This would get them thinking broadly for themselves. I personally felt the latter idea to be really good as I would have definitely been caught out with my signature forging routine! To imagine the thought of being asked to share what I had read, the shame!

This foundation is looking to provide skills that no one could ever steal from the children. To equip such skills to any child is a priceless gift and significantly undervalued, whether in a developing nation or developed. Just imagine not being able to read, what is the price you would have paid to get that skill? 

In these modern days we are sounded with over ambitious individual and an eager population. Everyone is looking for something that will fulfil their being, and give them that extra meaning to life. Think big and do it, don’t ever apologise or belittle your thoughts, imagination and ideas! If an idea such as that of a matchstick can light a room, imagine what an idea of enlightening a whole nation can do.

As John Quincy Adam said 'The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality', therefore, I say immortalise your joys, and dreams!

Food for thought

I have been pondering on what to write in recent days and due to several reasons I have suffered from writers block and as a way to free up my brain I will be taking my inspiration this week from the book of truth: The Bible.

These are a few proverbs that I thought were good to share. ( the quote either come from the book of Proverbs or Ecclesiastes.) 

1. Don't pay attention to everything people say, you may hear your servant insulting you and you know yourself that you have insulted other people many times.

2. Keep your temper under control it is foolish to habour a grudge

3. Never ask 'oh why we're things do much better in the old day?' it's not an intelligent question to ask.

4. Young people enjoy your youth. Be happy while you are still young. Do what you want to do, follow your heart's desire. But remember that God is going to judge you for whatever you do. Don't let anything worry you or cause you pain. You aren't going to be young very long.

5. Invest your money in foreign trade, and one of those days you will make a profit. Put your investments in several places, many places in fact, because you never know what kind of bad luck you are going to have in this world.

6. If you are weak in a crisis you are weak indeed

Food for thought.