27 September 2007

No dreadlocks

Its a strange ritual I know; open the door, drop my bag, take of my shoes make a bee-line for the mirror, give myself a once over, (check out my butt), remove every piece of jewelry I am wearing, change from my 'street' clothes to my 'house' clothes, let out a sigh of relief. I think I picked it up from Princess (the ritual) except the checking out my butt part, I don't know where that came from ... anyway yesterday instead of checking out my butt, I moved closer to the mirror and inspected my hair. As I parted and prodded the mass on my head I realised I would need to comb it soon else I would once again be growing dreads. Sigh. I don't like combing my hair. Its interesting though this antipathy I have developed towards my combs. Here is somebody who up to like 3 yrs ago always either had her hair in a pony tail or in a straight bob because she couldn't stand to have a hair out of place. I always had a brush and a comb in my bag to quickly restore order to my hair in the event that a powerful wind might cause the odd strand to stick out. Now see me going weeks without even running my fingers through my hair. As I noted with satisfaction that my hair had grown like a half inch since I colored it I decided to not postpone the evil day. I step back and in the corner of my eye, I catch my comb leering at me from its perch in my shower caddy. I turned and gave it my best 'I ain't afraid of you' look. It stares back at me defiantly, 'I am the boss of you' it seems to be saying. 'We will see about that, see you tomorrow' I say as I turn out the lights and make for the kitchen, all that muscle flexing has only served to accentuate the hunger pangs I had been feeling since I left the office. I skip the rest of my ritual and and fall upon the 2 slices of pizza in the fridge that I had promised myself I would throw away.

I woke up this morning a little feverish. 'adefunke! adefunke!! adefunke!!!' 'Will you stop this nonsense? All this demo because you have to comb your hair? Come on!' This is the conservative/practical side of me ranting, the one that likes to blend in, preferably fade into the background whose uniform consists of flat shoes, hemlines no higher than 3 inches below the knees, baggy jeans, guys shirts, hair relaxed (or natural) in a ponytail. The fashionable/impractical side of me (the one that made me buy the 4 1/2 inch platforms and all that eye makeup at M.A.C) kept flashing a pix of Gary Dourdan before my eyes, 'Your hair looks just like this, isn't this nice? Don't spoil the look by combing your hair' It kept urging me. 'If you comb your hair without a trim you will look like an S.U besides, its cold, do you really want to spend all that time in the bathroom untangling your hair? You will freeze and catch something for sure!' Oh Hell! I get out of bed headed straight for the bathroom and stuck my head in the shower and turned the water on. There is a very loud silence as I lather in my shampoo. I rinse and slather on loads of conditioner. There is an audible gasp as I reach for my comb. I stick it in the dense growth of hair and Ms Conservative lets out a loud cheer. Ms Fashionable lets out a loud Yoruba-esque hiss and clatters off into the corner in her 5 inch 'f%$# me' pumps. I spend the next 20 mins trying to make order of the chaos on my head, Ms Conservative is chattering away in excitement. As hard as I try I cannot avoid tugging at my hair and my scalp is smarting, I must not forget to take Tylenol. 'You do know I will not be combing this hair tomorrow right?' I ask Ms Conservative She skulks off into the other corner, Ms Fashionable lets out a triumphant grunt. Peace. I luxuriate in the shower for another 20 mins. Argh! I am running late for work. I am whipping around my apartment like a dervish, I manage to leave the house on time without forgetting anything right? Wrong! I forgot my Tylenol! Ms Fashionable is sniggering.

I saw
this on the BBC site via mochfella's blog. He thinks the men in Soweto are in trouble, I have a problem with the way the woman are gazing adoringly at the wigs

...
It's silly when girls sell their soul because it's in
Look at where you
be in hair weaves like Europeans
Fake nails done by Koreans
Come again
Come again, come again, come again, come again

Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill

24 September 2007

Bush says Clinton will be Dem nominee ...

... and by this single pronouncement, Bush has successfully jinxed the Clinton champaign and most likely Obama will be the next president!

Bush says Clinton will be Dem nominee news.yahoo.com

Manchester United 2 - 0 Chelsea

I was not intending to miss this match and in the aftermath of Jose Mourinho's and Roman Abramovich' decision to 'mutually part ways', the match became must see tv so much so that I was willing to haul my behind out of bed early on a Sunday morning get dressed and all that and drive all the way to Santa Monica to watch the match at an English pub at the invitation a friend. Princess called just as I was leaving the house and I didn't have the heart to tell her I was not on my way to church so I lied! (Father forgive me but You sef sabi) So we arrive, we pay the gate fee and shared a very, very greasy breakfast of Heinz baked beans, runny eggs, tomatoes, sausage and toast washed down with a not nearly large enough cup of hot cocoa yum! (one can only wonder why I am not losing the last 10 pounds abi?) We sat next to a group of proxy ManU supporters (I am guessing) who had something to say at every turn, nothing like alcohol fueled soccer commentary I tell you. I did agree with then on one thing though, ManU had a duty to win the match one time for JM and the Premiership as a whole ans to teach AM an important lesson, you don't sack the most successful coach your team has ever had, you leave him in peace to do his work. My friend was really excited at the fact that Mikel Obi was starting and he had a very very brief wavering of allegience I am happy to report ManU won out. Mikel played all of 30mins (?) before getting sent off on a very strange call. I am thinking the referee should have awarded the ManU penalty earlier and not compensated by sending Mikel off, the boy's studs hardly left the ground and he was going for the ball ... Anyway, after many saves Tevez finally got the better of Cech in the dying minutes of the first half and I could just see it coming too; ManU corner by Giggs to Brown back to Giggs low cross across Chelsea and unmarked Tevez heads it in. The Blues go into half time a man and a goal down. They returned in the second half and it seemed to me like they were content to just play it safe and not concede anymore goals while taking extra care on their part not to score any. Could the boys be trying to send RA a not so subtle message? In the dying minutes of the 2nd half, Saha scored from a penalty awarded for a challenge on him by Tal Ben Haim. Jose must have been somewhere, cigar in hand, terrier in lap laughing his head off.

Lars and the Real Girl


On Thursday a friend invited me to the screening of 'Lars and the Real Girl'. I daresay this is the 'Little Miss Sunshine' for the year, please see it when it opens this fall. I wasn't really enamoured of Ryan Goslings performance in 'Fracture' (let me be honest I was somewhat distracted) and I am yet to see him in 'Half Nelson' but he was golden in the character of Lars our shy bachelor who goes to extreme lengths in his coming of age. The inhabitants of the small village in which Lars lived gave a whole new meaning to the popular saying 'it takes a village to raise a child'.

Death at a Funeral.


"A dignified send-off for a loved one erupts into uproarious chaos when romance, jealousy, in-laws, hallucinogens, dark secrets, life-long yearnings and a spot of bold blackmail"

I saw this on Friday and maybe it was coming of seeing Balls of Fury upper Friday (not 1/8 as funny as I was hoping, in fact it sucked) I had blast. Nah, even if I saw DaaF right on the heels of the Naked Gun movies it would still have been funny! Please if this movie is showing anywhere near you, see it. Its worth a drive sef, trust me.


Arsenal 5 - 0 Derby

Vassiriki Diaby (10)
Emmanuel Adebayor (25)
Emmanuel Adebayor (pen 50)
Francesc Fabregas (70)
Emmanuel Adebayor (79)

Coming off Derby's 1 - 0 win against Newcastle, I didn't want to take this game for granted, last season especially we had a very worrisome record against the smaller under-rated teams, sharing points unnecessarily and at times even dashing the points out all together. I needn't have bothered. I was up bright and early to watch the game and my boys no dissappoint me at all.

D - Guns blazing, we opened scoring in the 10th minute with Diaby's rising drive from the edge of the penalty area, a feat he almost repeated a couple of minutes later but for the Derby keeper who denied him.

E - Adebayor made it 2 in the 25th minute, with a pass from Cesc he parted the defence, skipped around the keeper and of course your fathers relative is Bob!

R - 4 mins into the 2nd half, as if dem never suffer reach, we got a penalty off of Oakley pulling Eduardo down in the box. Yes Adebayor stepped up and yes he scored. At this point I was very happy I had called a 3-0 win and I felt it was only good that I also get my 3 pts in my mini-league on FaceBook abi how una see am?

B- Just as I was thinking 'any minute now Arsene will be making his first change of the game', Cesc made a correct drive from 20 yards. I was not even upset that Cesc stole my 3 pts from me. Then it occured to me, this is a good match for a spelling lesson ...

y - 80 mins into the game, Adebayor chested down a long ball, shoke off his marker and stroked in the ball. The young man scored his first hat-trick for Arsenal.

We are still sitting pretty at the top of the table, 2 points ahead of Man U (who inched up after an interesting win over Chelsea) and with a game in hand! We play Newcastle on Tuesday in the Carling Cup which should be fun, then we play West Ham away on Saturday in the PL.

Match Report soccernet.com


19 September 2007

Arsenal 3 - 0 Sevilla

Francesc Fabregas (27)
Robin Van Persie (59)
Eduardo (90)

I called the game at 2-1, didn't think Sevilla wouldn't score. I am not complaining.

Meanwhile e be like say JM don commot Chelsea ... soccernet.com

Convincing start for Gunners soccernet.com

Young Gunners firing on all cylinders soccernet.com

16 September 2007

Tottenham 1 - 3 Arsenal

Missed the first half of the game, (I set my alarm and forgot that it doesn't go off on weekends!) Great comeback from the boys, to think I actually called it! Nice to see us topping the tables once again. I saw the Chelsea match, daylight robbery. It seems the gods are smiling on Blackburn, what with the Lehman assisted goal they scored against us that ensured we shared the points and now the very legitimate Chelsea goal that was disallowed ...



Match Report soccernet.com

Match Report arsenal.com

12 September 2007

La's Finest

My very first encounter with one of LA's finest and I am happy to report all went well!

I had a friend visiting and we decided to make a very adventurous shopping trip out to the Cabazon Outlets (1hr 34 mins one way according to the mapquest.com esimate). We arrived without incident although I must say it was very very hot and going there in the middle of the California heat wave was not helping. Anyway thank God for water and sunglasses and air-conditioning. After walking the length and breadth of the place and buying everything in sight (huge exaggeration) we get in the car and head out back home. As I was driving she was my navigator, reading out directions from the printout I made the day before from mapquest.com. Somewhere along the line me and my no sense of geography self must have missed a turn or something because next thing we were like 30 miles to San Diego! Yepa mo gbe! I take the next exit of the freeway and pull up in the very well lit parking lot of a Bank of America branch. I called a friend who took one listen to the tone of my voice (he later said I sounded like I was about to cry) and had the courtesy not to laugh. Get back on the 215 (North) and then on to back on 'X' freeway (I forget now) then get on the 610 (abi na 710) Contrary to what he thinks I do not live in Long Beach, I will point this out to him later from the comfort of my apartment surrounded by my belongings. So we get back on the freeway and are cruising along (I didn't want to alert my friend but I was pretty worried about the car, the maintenance light had gone from green, to yellow and this morning rolled to red! Wouldn't it be just peachy if this car decided to make a weird noise and just die in the middle of nowhere? Of course when it rains it pours not only are we lost driving in a car which according to the Honda manual is 'totally unreliable' (or something to that effect) once the maintenance light turns red, my phone is quarter to dead and we are fast running out of gas, when it rains it pours right? I began to recite Psalm 23 and made a quick pledge that I would go get de oil change etc as soon as I got home, that I would buy a car charger and will stop waiting for my fuel gauge to flutter just above empty before I fill up my tank and most importantly I will buy a GPS navigation system (Garmin c330 is after all only $228.54 at Wal-Mart). Its like past 9 pm at this point and I am not exactly sure I am traveling at the speed limit. I am traveling in the fast lane and I look in my rearview mirror and I see flashing lights! WTF?! I looked at my speedometer, 72 mi/hr give or take 2 miles. Okay o, I indicated I would be making a left turn and pull over. Imagine my surprise when the police car just kept going. Whats going on then I saw another police car pull up behind me. What is going on? I turn down the music and wait in the car. The cop comes to my window and I wind down. 'Good evening ladies may I see your license and registration please' I hand over my license and what turns out to be my registration. 'Do you know why I pulled you over?' he askes as he looks at my 'particulars' I am thinking damned if I do, but I am too sure you will tell me. 'Ma'am is this car registered to you?' 'Yes it is' 'Ma'am may I ask why you are driving a car registered in California with a drivers license from the state of Texas?' 'Err because I used to live there and only recently moved ...' I was half expecting a buzzer to go off somewhere and him to say 'Wrong answer, go to jail, go directly to jail do not pass go do not collect $200' 'Ok. Ma'am the reason I pulled you over is you didn't relinquish right of way to the mercy vehicle behind you' Oh so that was what that was! How the heck was I supposed to know, besides I pulled over the minute I saw him. Of course I didn't vocalise any of this I just said 'Oh'. He hitched up his trousers and continued to educate me 'In the state of California when you are in the fast lane and a mercy vehicle which could be a firetruck, ambulance, etc is behind you, you should move into the slow lane and let it go by you.' I do recall reading something like that in the Drivers Handbook I read in preparation for taking my drivers test, also not a week to the day, I had also received a similar lecture from a friend on our way to the bowling alley! All this proves is that I am one big 'alako gbagbe' () I put on my best 'I so was not aware of this' face and silently prayed for the best. My bank balance is barely hanging on after all the damage I had nonchalantly done to it over the last 6 hours, a ticket would just finish it. and don't forget, we are not sure if the car is functioning according to the Honda maintenance manual! 'Ma'am I will not be writing you a ticket today, (I almost unhooked my seatbelt and hugged him, realising that would for sure guarantee I get a ticket, I settled for the 'cheaper' sigh of relief/slumping over the steering wheel) 'Next time remember the mercy vehicle has right of way' he said as he handed over my 'particulars' 'Yes officer' my friend and I chorused. 'Okay then, drive safe, you ladies okay with directions?' 'We are lost' my friend and I chorused again. 'Okay, which highway are you trying to get on?' '91 West' my friend replies. 'There is a lot of construction going on in Riverside so I would avoid the 215 through there' (tell me about it, we drove through all the construction/commotion) just drive about 20 mins then take the 'Van Buren' exit and just follow that down you can join the 91 from it.' 'Thank you officer' we chorus again as we get on the road and follow his excellent directions. My friend calls back to find out how we are doing, thankfully my trusty Nokia hung in there with me. 'We are fine, on the 91, I will call when I get home'. Finally I get on the 110 and then take the exit to my street, I have never been so happy to see my street or my apartment building for that matter! I say a quick prayer of thanks for journey mercies as we alight. Of course I collapsed in a tired heap once I got in my apartment.

P.S. I am yet to change de oil etc in my car, I have perished the thought of buying a car charger and the needle for my fuel guage still flutters below empty before I head out to the gas station. I have made several trips to Wal-Mart and I am happy to report I am still sans GPS nav system. I do have Triple A though :-)