My debut with Zambezi FC was in the summer 2002. I never thought an end will come during those fun filled seasons that followed. But I guess there’s a huge difference between 23 and 28. I’m not as invincible as I thought I was. Over the years, many have come and gone. It seems this is the perfect time for me to follow suit.
So I’m done… for now. It was fun.
If there’s anything I’ve learnt in my 27.99 years of living, it’s that there’s never a dull moment. Never. It’s taken me a while to come to terms with that… but knowing that, I believe, makes life much simpler and easier to live.
27 was a good year. Lots of tough decisions. Lots of happy moments…including obtaining keys to my first home. But only a few days ago… a week before saying good bye to 27, there was a fairly unsettling development that some may see as a setback. I guess it is depending on how I decide to proceed. It could also mark the beginning of great opportunities to come.
Tomorrow, I’m going to be ushered into the world of no excuses. A world of men and women… and I have to be ready to play. As my uncle put it earlier this evening, once you get busy working, you lose sight of the days, the weeks, the months and the years. Next thing you know, you’ve lived a chunk of your life.
I am excited about tomorrow as I am about the last hour and a half of 27. I am prepared to meet the challenges and the decisions to be made. I look forward to looking back a year from now and saying… 28 was a good year.
I’ve been one lucky bloke. All things being equal, I’ve had a pretty good deal. It’s time to move to the next level. I’m ready.
About 4 years ago, I wrote a blog entry about how on the morning of my 5th birthday, I discovered I could whistle. I ended that post saying 19 years later, I could still whistle.
Well, 23 years later, I can still whistle. Life is beautiful
It’s officially thanksgiving day and though I’m quite sleepy, I have an urge to write. It’s looking like I’ll be in South Holland tomorrow evening with uncle and his family for dinner. Prior to that, I’ll try to take care of some of the many things I’ve been putting off. It’s really nice to have a thursday off.
Oh and last night, I had my first ever dinner in Chinatown. I was hosting Fiona for the night and we decided to take a stroll there. It’s just nice to know that Chinatown is fairly close by.
But, for now, I’ll just keep playing the Fray’s How To Save A Life over and over again. I love it. I got the plugin from youtoube for this blog. Apparently this is not the official video… but it’s equally great.
So now that thanksgiving is here, the year’s virtually over. It’s now time to prepare a new set of resolutions for the coming year. This year, God’s been very good to me. Next year, my hope is to just take things easy and travel a bit. Hopefully see Ghana for the first time in 10 years.
But for this special occassion, for today, I am thankful for the many blessings that have been showered on me. For having a place to sleep, a job to go to, and the opportunity to eat the food I like. I am particularly thankful for my family. We’ve grown stronger and closer over years. And I am especially thankful that I have a nephew who beams with happiness when he sees me.
Don’t cut the turky without me.
Happy Thanksgiving!
After trying to fix bugs in code, playing soccer for a couple of hours, running errands for the home and taking care of a few chores,it was time to explore Chicago with my new toy — the Canon Powershot S2.
It was a nice evening… I was in good company.
Today marks the end of day 4 of Dad’s visit and the beginning of my “extended” vacation. Yesterday , December 12, was my last day of work for 2005. I like the fact that I can devote most of my time to hanging out and playing catch up with Dad. We’ve talked about most of my relatives and friends back in Ghana; about Dad’s consulting work and about the future.
Last night, I realized I’ve missed so much — and so has Dad. But the nice thing about all this is that, we have today and hopefully tomorrow. We’ll be in Grand Blanc, Michigan with other family members for Christmas.
At about 8pm yesterday, we started at the Montrose exit to Lake Shore Drive and took an hour long ride around the Loop. Driving on LSD at about 30mph is so nice during winter nights. At the Water Tower place, we talked about Jeffrey Archer’s reference to Michigan Avenue in The Prodigal Daughter, one of Dad’s collections that I became obsessed with months before I came to Knox.
A decade ago, Chicago seemed a distant place. Dad and I would mention it as part of our conversation only when we were discussing books we’d read. Yesterday’s ride around the city that once seemed so far away makes me wonder where Dad and I will be a decade from today. But while decades come and go, I can’t help but think that 10 years is quite far away.
For now, we’ll live in the moment. We’ll continue catching up and we’ll continue exploring the city together. It’s beautiful. A must see at night. Dad certainly enjoyed it.
The White Sox just won the American League. I admit, I’ve not followed them that much this season. Honestly, I’m not a baseball fan. But tonight’s a good night for Chicago. Hopefully things will go really well for them in the World Series.
Earlier in the day, I was at Soldier Field for the Chicago Bears / Minnesota Vikings Game. It started slow but picked up. A fun game to be at. Tillman’s good. And I now understand why there are so many Urlacher fans out there. But the afternoon belonged to Clark.
On weekends like this, when soccer fails to live up to it’s billing, it’s good to know there are other sports, other teams that can lift one’s soul. Yesterday my team lost 3-0 to a team we should have been able to beat. I don’t know how it happened. All I know is we just couldn’t score.
I guess that’s sports. Win some, lose some.
I’m signing up for one last soccer season. It’s a new Nike turf field. Quitting now will be terrible thing to do.
I flew a kite last weekend at the Montrose beach. It was so much fun. The strong winds characteristic of Chicago’s Lake Michigan pulled me along a few times. The entire experience which lasted for perhaps a little over an hour reminded me of my experiences with Kites many many years back.
I flew my first kite when I was 4. It was a windy, cloudy sunday afternoon and my uncle who now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts had paid us a visit. Being a sunday afternoon, we were eating our usual fufu and pea nut soup. Uncle had promised us many times that he was going to make us some pretty cool kites. And he did exactly that. I tore a piece of paper from my writing book and took two broom sticks from the broom used to sweep the living room. For the tail of the kite, I got a hold of the most recent addition to our rag collection - a piece of cloth that had fallen from grace from Mom’s wardrobe. I cut the rag into 1 inch thin strands and tied them together to make a kite tail about 10 feet long. One last thign we neded was glue - to keep the broom sticks which were the frames of the kite attached to the paper. Our starchy fufu made a perfect substitute for glue.
After about an hour of creativity on the main verandah - our workshop, our kite was ready to be launched. I held the nylon thread which was a little less than 10 feet and run as fast as a 4 year old could. Within minutes the paper kite was in the air. It didn’t stay for long since with all the fufu I had eaten earlier, I didn’t have the energy to keep running.
