Breathe and Stop

Sometimes it feels as if life is running ahead of you, as if you can't quite catch up with what's going on around you. It reminds me of childhood, when you'd cycle down a hill and suddenly be going faster than you could really control. All you do at such a time is hope that your feet will somehow reach the ground to slow down the motion that you're unable to manage.

That's how I felt about two weeks ago. And what to do at such a moment in life? Though it seems impossible at the time, the best thing to do is to stop and breathe, breathe and stop. That's exactly what I did. In the midst of too much going on, I took my favourite gals (my mother and daughter) out for lunch at Tribe, Afia Beach Hotel. The lunch was great, but the best part was the walk on the beach that followed:

The Beach (aren't we lucky to have this in the centre of Accra?)


The Daughter

The Chalets, neatly hidden by palmtrees

And suddenly, after inhaling the beautiful sea air, I could smile again and life was back to being good.

Rawlings drama... as usual.

Here's another nasty surprise. A man, Nana Darkwa, who in a radio interview claimed that Rawlings set his own house on fire has been remanded in custody, denied bail and will spend the next two weeks at Nsawam prison (Nsawam = a horrid, horrid prison just outside Accra). At the moment I am too tired to even go into detail and lay out what a disgusting breach of human rights and freedom of speech this is. For me, the past two weeks have been exhausting, emotional, tiring and scary, but it looks like things are turning around and there will be a brighter future, fingers crossed.

So instead of me trying to make sense of my sleep-deprived thoughts, please do let me know what you think, is there any way of justifying the imprisonment of Nana Darkwa?

Nasty surprises

I'm having a bit of a rough week. Too many things are happening at once and I could really use a moment of peace to enjoy the fresh sea air around me, but no such luck. Please excuse me for already failing to uphold my new year's resolutions.

In the mean time, I'll leave you with two horrid experiences I had this weekend in my beloved Tema. I went with my mum and Em to Usave (a Shoprite affiliate) in Community 1. On the way there I kept raving that this is the life - a nice breezy drive, good music blasting and Tema's organised (but potholed) roads. As we went through what was my local supermarket when Evergreen was to pricey and before Maxmart made it to Tema, I suddenly heard my mum yelp, then scream: a rat! Since I have a severe rat phobia, I lost all calm and started running through the shop, wheezing "excuse me, excuse me!" as I tried to make my way out as soon as possible, suddenly feeling very hot with a racing heart.

Once out and able to breathe again, my mum informed me it was actually a mouse, running over some tins just where she was about to reach out and take something. (Imagine that, reaching out for a tin of sweetcorn and landing a mouse in your hand. *shudder*).

It took a while to recover but by the next morning, I was better and started to prepare my lovely scrambled egg Sunday breakfast. As I cracked a second egg into a bowl, a smell filled our kitchen, and as I looked down I saw flaky, runny egg white and, wait for it, a b-l-a-c-k egg yolk!!! (I really do wish I had taken a picture but I was too shocked, instead, I'm thinking happy thoughts and give you a picture of sunset over East Legon).


Lesson learnt, be observant of where you shop and what you eat. Have a wonderful week, keep me in your happy thoughts.

Ramblings of a Procrastinator (yes, I stole your title, Abena!).

Procrastination is the thief of time they say. If you ask me, procrastination is the thief of everything. Let me tell you why:

Early last year, I felt a slight chill in one of my teeth. Every now and then it'd hurt but I'd ignore it. Then I left for Sweden and things happened very quickly. Suddenly I had a daughter who needed my care almost all the time. One day when she was about three weeks old, I couldn't ignore the pain anymore. Because of the pain, I could barely see, think, sleep and I stopped producing milk. I left my little one at the hospital and went off to the emergency dental clinic (which charged me double as I put off going there until a Friday evening and was as such charged the weekend rate).

The dentist put in a temporary filling and sternly told me to have it permanently sorted out within a month, which I promised I'd do, knowing I'd most certainly not. Three weeks later, whilst having breakfast, the filling and one third of the tooth came out. Did I go to the dentist? Nope. Instead, for the past nine months, I've gotten used to eating on the left side of my mouth and after each meal, taking a toothpick to dig out any food which may have ended up in my little grotto!

Yesterday, I finally had the first step of my root canal done. This took three hours, cost me countless cedis (although I know it was cheaper than if I'd done it abroad) and left me with a jaw so sore, I couldn't open it for more than to insert a straw, which means I spent 24 hours living on smoothies (thank goodness for Smoothy's! Goodbye BoneShaker, my new favourite is Piccolo Mondo).

So let's see what procrastinating dental care in general and fixing this cavity in particular has cost me:
Money, lots of money (emergency care, follow up care, transport, smoothies,it all adds up).
Enjoyment of life before Christmas when the pain was at its worst.
Loss of sight (well, only temporarily but still)
Eating in a sane and reasonable manner (what normal person needs to dig for food in her teeth after each meal?)
Milk Production - for about a day, my darling daughter did not get much in her.
Use of the teeth on the right side of my mouth.
And of course, TIME!

So do you agree with me that procrastinating thieves a lot more than time???

Ghana Loves Haiti concert.

I did promise to update you on how to help the Haiti victims from Ghana. A concert was held about ten days ago at Alliance Francaise with a fantastic lineup. Unfortunately I missed it because someone decided 21:00 was a more fun bedtime than 19:30, but read about Kajsa's rather exciting experience here.

The Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund Ghana informs me that there's a Ghana Loves Haiti relief concert being held this Saturday at the International Conference Centre from 19:30. For further information check their facebook page where there is also information on how to donate money by texting.

Of course after hearing how long it is taking to get help to the victims and after reading Holli's criticisms of the corruption that goes on where disaster strikes, some of my inital enthusiasm at giving money to those in need is now lost.

Happy New...February!

Around the 20th of January I realised that this year had started waaaay too quickly for me to keep up: I hadn't even posted my New Year's resolutions and suddenly we were heading for February? Well, as someone who likes to make life easy, my 2010 is starting from today!
(picture borrowed from here)
For the first time in a looong time I actually have proper new year's resoultions, and quite a few. Well, I always have proper resolutions, it's just that since I like to enjoy life (how do you translate "livsnjutare") and live by the notion that "man måste unna sig" (one must treat oneself), my resolutions usually consist of things like "this year I must have more fun than last year". In a similar manner, for lent I usually give up cigarettes, coffee and beer, i.e. things I don't usually touch anyway.

Anyway, I digress, here are my resolutions for this year:
1. To read at least 10 books (I think I should make it 15, 10 is being a bit kind to myself and I've already gotten through 1.5).
2. To pick up French again and learn it to conversational level. After all, what's the point of learning French for 6 years if I can barely make a sentence now.
3. To learn Ga. My husband, in-laws, mother, relatives and soon my daughter, all speak it, so I better start learning soon. (I find my understanding of Twi is sufficient to get by, no need for lessons quite yet.
4. To get fit. It's amazing (and not in a good way) how the body changes after pregnancy and how little time one can find for exercise when you're sleep-deprived and taking care of a baby.
5. To cut sugar and all white starches out of my diet (gradually). My motto for 2010 is SUGAR IS THE DEVIL!!! So far the devil has had quite a firm hold on my life since March last year.
6. To follow up and make one of my own business ideas come through. I really, really hopw I manage to do this.
7. To blog at least 5 times a week. I am really nervous about this, well mostly nervous about actually telling the people who can check me about this. (After all, I could lie to you about the progress on all the other points, but not this one). Also, to work on my other blog which I'll hopefully present soon.
8. To explore Ghana. I lived here for 4.5 years and visited countless times before that, and so far been to Accra, Tema, Takoradi, Cape Coast, Kakum, Oda, Prampram, Akosombo, Aburi and Kumasi. There is so much more to see. Places of interest include Bonwire, Axim, Volta Region and maybe the North (but I don't like flying in small planes, or travelling by road for more than 4 hours and sleeping in villages, hm...), etc. My litte brother, Mr. T will hopefully visit at the end of the year and the plan is to have some sort of a travel plan in order for him.

Here's hoping Em (who decided the best Christmas present for her parents was to throw all sleep training out the window) has one resolution: to sleep through the night, all night every night.

On that note, goodnight!

Ghana going for gold!

I've spent the past ten days complaining about how I'm not feeling any of the fun, football-loving spirit we felt two years ago when Ghana hosted the African Cup of Nations (for those of you not in Africa, the African Nations Cup is on at the moment in Angola). After catching the last few minutes of the Ghana game against Angola, I finally felt some excitement. And today, after our 1-0 win against the green giant, Nigeria, the whole country is excited, there's jubilation in offices, rejoicing in the streets of Accra and even from my sitting room I hear the cars honking all the way down the road.



(Pictures from the Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, during CAN2008)

On facebook, it's fun to read the comments from both before and after the game of predictions and cocky retaliations by Ghanaians. To think of it, the Nigerians have been ever so quiet since we booted them out of the final...There's nothing like the rivlary between neighbouring countries, and in our case I'm happy to always show big brother Naija that despite them being about 100 million more in population than us, we will continue to beat them when they least expect it. I'll repeat the funny old-school saying that I was taught after our win against Nigeria two years ago:

God is not a Lagosian!

The Angry Pedestrian

I had heard of him before. Actually once when I was in Naa's car she pointed him out to me and that's how I was later able to recognise him. And today, as I turned into Labone Junction, I saw him in front of me, tall, shabby with a wild, determined look on his face. Just as I said to my mother: "That's the man who...", we suddenly locked eyes.

And of course I knew that eye contact meant I had made myself his next victim. As he flung his hand towards the car with force, I thankfully reacted quickly, swerved him and started speeding off. As I laughed at my lucky escape, I caught him in my rear view mirror - he had turned around and seemed to be following me, but at his pace I could relax, he'd never catch up.

Oh and by the way, the end of the sentence I started to my mother was "attacks people's cars!".

Earthquake scare hits Ghana!

Did you receive this text last night:
"Today's night 12.30 to 3.30 am COSMIC RAYS entering earth from Mars. Switch off ur mobiles today's night. NASA BBC NEWS. Plz pass to all ur friends."

I got it around 21.00 and looked at it a bit confused. What was going to be the effect of cosmic rays passing earth if my phone was on? I thought about it for a while, then thought, well, it doesn't hurt me to turn off my phone so after passing on the message to my mum, I did just that.

It seems I was one of few who acted reasonably. Somehow, this text has spread round the country and turned into an earthquake scare (cosmic rays - earthquake, I don't get it?!), with many people spending last night sleeping outdoors as they were too afraid be indoors when the earthqake would shake Ghana.

I'm guessing today is going to be a loooong day for those who got the wrong message. Instead of getting scared in the wake of the Haiti earthquake, let's do what we can to help:

Google has a good page listing a few ways to donate, click here for more info. For those in Sweden, DN also lists mosts of the charities that are receiving donations for Haiti. There are quite a number of Facebook groups that claim to donate an amount per member, I'm not sure of how true this is, but sticking to my 'it doesn't hurt to join' mantra, I've joined this Swedish one and seen this one. Other than that, do check out this Facebook group and Yele Haiti for more ways to help. Once I hear of any ways that we in Ghana can help locally, I will let you know.

Let's have a happy Monday!

Dear Vodafone...

You're like a love interest playing hard to get. Just when I've spent the days before Christmas, praising you to the skies with Miami, you cut me off in a "treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen" kind of way. After weeks of "who needs iBurst" comments, I suddenly had to come crawling back to iBurst, resembling a girl who drunkenly calls her ex on a particularly lonely night. Then, I finally decide to confront you, "what the &%#¤ is going on?" and you softly convince me that it's nothing, just work overload, you'll be back to your best as soon as possible. The exact terms being that somebody will come by the next day to check out the connection.

Already that evening, of course, the network is back on, oh it's like being sent flowers the day before a reconciliation date and I'm happy, oh so happy again. As I start my "Dear Vodafone" love letter the next day, you predictably disappoint me, but now I'm already hooked. "Surely the connection will be back on again soon" I think, although by now I should know better, I should know that you've found someone else to woo, not caring the least about how I am going to connect with the rest of the world.

I try to get back with you for several days, but I'm left disappointed and longing for you more and more. Today I finally gave up and now I'm digging up the ex-files, reaching for the iBurst modem. But as I'm about to stick the cable into the laptop, what do I see? We're back on!

As I am writing this, I see you flickering, on and off, on and off, as if to remind me that you're not mine for keeps, just for as long as you're enjoying it. So now Vodafone, I'm practically begging you, stay with me baby, I need you, I need you there when I wake up and before I go to bed. But if this is the way you're going to continue, I'll have to break it off and find someone else. I don't want to because I really like you, your customer service and your closeness to me, but hey, I'm only human and nothing, nothing will come between me and my love and need for the internet.

Crappy new year?

Sorry, I don't mean to dampen your happy new year's spirits, I was (as always) extremely happy about entering a new year, and especially 2010, after a fantastic decade like the Noughties. However, ever since Vodafone, on the second to last day of the year, decided to cut off my broadband (and most of Accra's it seems), I kind of lost my positive attitude (I'm on iBurst now, my ever 'reliable' substitute). I wasn't able to post my roundup of 2009, which even included a challenge for Yngvild. I couldn't give you a detailed account of my very typically Ghanaian New Year's Eve (see Kajsa's blog for a hint of what it involved).

And already a week into the new year, I haven't posted my New year's resolutions yet. Hm, could that be the reason why I'm already failing? Hey, the year is young, the still lots of time for me to redeem myself! Don't worry, after a bit of rest, and assuming iBurst doesn't fail me, I shall put my resolutions in print and hopefully fulfil them.

Happy New Decade!

Merry Christmas!

We've had a lovely Christmas, I hope you have too. This year's Christmas Eve julbord (christmas table) managed to be more Swedish than ever before, with all the necessary goodies present. A perfect fusion first Christmas for Em, who got the traditional Swedish Christmas table in a traditionally hot, hot, hot Ghana!

After eating well, we continued the stuff-fest with mulled wine and the accompanying snacks:

Since then, we've all been completely knocked out. So exhausted we postponed our Christmas Day turkey dinner til New Year's Day, after all, who says it has to be done a certain way.

Happy holidays!

Carols, cooking and camera shots.

Hello. There's no one reason for my almost two week long absence from the blogosphere, there just has not been any time to blog. For the past two weeks I've been in and out of cold and flu states, it seems as soon as I am about to recover, I get busy and fall sick again. Somehow though, I've still managed quite a few appointments, both social and business ones.

So far there's been two Carols nights, a lovely Lucia celebration, the opening of a bar/deli/(soon) restaurant and a mini-launch, or rather introductory session for one of our company's products. In between that I've managed to draft some agreements, handle a few meetings and negotiations and baked, sewn and cooked for Christmas. Any wonder I'm not finding time to recover?

As it is now, after a scrumptious lunch at Captain Hooks with a few of my lovely girls, I feel another bout of flu coming on, so I'll leave you with a few pictures and hope to find more time to blog in the coming holiday season.
Business meeting on an Osu rooftop? Not too shabby for me!

View over Labone...

...and Oxford Street

Bella Roma, deli and bar, found on the side road between Frankies and Standard Cartered:


Omanye Energy Drink, available in a shop near you, soon.

Ouch!

Yes, pain is the best way to describe how I've been feeling since Friday. It started with a toothache, I'm ashamed to admit the reason for the toothache, let's just say I ought to have gone to the dentist a loooong time ago. Then on Sunday night I started feeling nauseous, having clearly eaten something I don't agree with. Monday evening, and suddenly my head was feeling very heavy, continued by swollen glands, sore throat and a runny nose.

Have these 'pains' released each other? No, of course they've been overlapping! So since Tuesday I've had severe toothache, flu-like symptoms (don't even mention the pig word, I can't afford to catch that flu at the moment) and an upset stomach, which thankfully has cleared now. What am I doing to cure myself? Since I'm car-less at the moment and feeling a bit too fluey to sit in a dental clinic or any clinic for that matter, I've been curing myself in the most natural way: lots of teeth brushing, gargling and flossing, fresh orange juice and munching on garlic and ginger and of course staying off any spicy or too risqué foods. Don't worry, I'm sure by Friday I'll sort myself out with proper medical care.

For now Em, the internet and funny anecdotes keep me in good spirits. My mum just called me after her ride to Tema in a taxi this evening. As they got on the motorway they were hit by heavy rain and then the most powerful lightning she's ever experienced. As the lightning struck near them, she threw herself forward and clutched the seat in front of her, then once it cleared she asked the driver:
"Did you feel that?!"
He answered: " Yes madam, it was so powerful I even closed my eyes and bent down to hold my knees!".

Erm... who was driving (on the motorway!!!)???

(If you're out there, please have a safe ride home.)

'Tis the season...

We're now firmly in December and you know what that means: Christmas! Last year, the election was the grinch that unexpectedly stole Christmas when instead of being over and done with on December 7th, we had to wait till early this year to have all the results in.

Well this year, nothing will stop me from preparing for the coming holiday. Em and I (poor child, whether she likes it or not, she'll be brainwashed with christmas delights) are getting in the mood by hook or by crook. We already got the necessary Swedsih treats from London. We started with minor decorations around the house on Monday, but soon realised it's going to take a lot more before we can ignore the heat and really get a feel of the holiday spirit.

So I realised the best way to do that is with music. First, with Swedish nostalgia courtesy of Pernilla Wahlgren (a musical artist from a well known entertainment family who's been around for about 25 years):

and Sissel Kyrkjebö (who's actually Norwegian), with the purest of voices for this song, O Holy Night.

Then, last year's favourite, Alexandra Burke singing Halleluja. Now if only I could get a clip of Six pence None the Richer singing It came upon a Midnight clear, I'd be very very happy.

All this serves as a perfect prelude to the Carols Nights I intend to go to. After all, there really is no better way to get into the mood of the season. I believe Alliance Francaise and Goethe Institute will be putting on some Christmas concerts, if I could be bothered with the drive, I'd aim to see Ghana School of Law's carols night, as it is the one place you'll hear a few Ghanaian carols (I suspect theirs is on next Thursday).

Last year I cut a lonely figure at Ridge Church's carols night (Virgo was of course politicking at the time), I didn't consider myself lonely, but my aunties who I bumped into thought it looked so sad seeing a pregnant woman all alone in the corner, lol! I hope this year I'll make it to Ridge Church again and maybe one of the others I've mentioned. Perhaps I'll see you there?

The best thing about Christmas? It is the season of giving. Do your bit by clicking the button below. For every click, Pampers will, through UNICEF, donate tetanus vaccin to a child or pregnant woman in a developing country.