Sorry about the more-than-prolonged absence;-)

I am alive! Just getting my nose down at work as I was away for a while. Plenty to catch up on...but entries, God willing, will be forthcoming as of next week.

 

Thanks for your patience!

 

latest news? well:

 

1. called my ex (Grace) two days ago. She's the one I broke up with in September 2005. A guy answers..by the name of Johnnie. He says he is using her phone 'cos his is broken. She was at home on a US holiday (she works for a US-based company). Johnnie claims they have been seeing each other for a year! -- note a year ago, I was dating her, so I was being done over??? -- and that they are about to get married. I call her best friend, who is equally very surprised by this news. SHe finds out in the evening, and informs me accordingly, that Johnnie is the boyfriend, but there is no marriage on teh cards...

 

Ok, we all move on, but the cheek Grace gave me when I called her, saying that she doesn't think that I need to know about her new relationship.

 

Yet, here is someone whom I have talked to a couple of times over the past few months, and who responds very warmly accordingly. I felt we were friends. we were lovers for a good six months! I even wished her a happy mother's day on 14 May--to which she did not reply. I called her on her daughter's 4th birthday, which she sounded to have appreciated.

 

So, she sends me this txt message yesterday evening: 'pls 4gods sake, Stop calling my fone. U are destroying my new relationship. Why?'

 

my response at 23.47: "When I txtd u on mothers day, u didn't have the decency 2 say 'thx', yet i said nothing. why would i bother u now? johnnie sounds like a good guy. i hope u take good care of him. he needs plenty of luck. i have been in a relationship w a gorgeous lady calld sandra since january-u never askd cos u r not really my friend. i askd u abt ur boyf n u gave me cheek! good luck, grace. secrecy seems 2 b ur 2nd nature. n u do it v well!"

 

I would really like to know whether it was harsh enough!;-)

 

on another note, I attended the funeral of Nana Amma, below, whom I commented on before I left. It turns out that along with the brain tumour, she was expecting her first child with her husband:-( So so sad.

 

I was deeply distressed .

 

I also found out from my written journal (which I have been maintaining since 1988) that I had a HUGE crush on her.

 

I realise now without any vestige of melodrama that I sincerely loved this married woman.

 

I miss her so much I don't even want to erase her lengthy hotmail messenger discussions with me. Her yahoo ones, regrettably, are lost:-(

 

My mental pabulum is this: can a man have pure love for a married woman that is not carnal?

 

Like Daniel (Hoffman-Gill) says, "see you on the other side":-)

It's Goodbye from me...till 25th May!

I saw David Cronenberg's fantastic movie "A History of Vilence" on DVD over the weekend, and I just couldn't stop thinking about Daniel over at his blog.

Read his post for the interesting and insightful points he makes. In essence the bad guy-turned-good doesn't get punished, and has to go back to his bad-day routes in Philadelphia to kill his own brother...who wanted him dead for "costing him" time and money.

It's a graphic movie and the initial storyline of serial killers on the loose nipped the story right in the bud--as well as the characters who got killed by Tom Stalls, who claims to his wife that the name "was available";-)

Go watch it. If you already have, watch it again. Viggo Mortenson is a great actor. His almost schizophrenic outbursts of violence are deeply disturbing. A lot of the time, less is more, and this movie proves it.

On that note, I will be away outside the now-rainy cats-and-dogs-capital for a good week, then will return to work on 25 May, hopefull rejuvenated as I ruminate over the loss of my friend below and how to deal both with that and my late brother Sam's, which is today. It was fifteen years ago today he passed away. At 1.30pm, whilst I was in school preparing for GCSE exams.

A week ago today, my friend passed on, and though I think I might be running the risk of belabouring my grief, I will leave you with this thoughtful post by a new visitor, based in Spain, called nigeria, what's new? who left me with this:

Miss Me, But Let Me Go
Author Unknown

When I come to the end of the road,
and the sun has set for me.
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room.
Why cry for a soul set free?
Miss me a little—but not too long,
and not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that was once shared.
Miss me, but let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take, and each must go alone.
It’s all a part of the master’s plan, a step on the road to home.
When you are lonely and sick of heart, go to the friends we know.
Bear your sorrow in good deeds. Miss me, but let me go

till the 25th...

In Memoriam: Oct 1972--1 May, 2006

I am not wont to post things like these on the blog, but this time, I want to capture her memory both offline and online.

My work colleague called early this morning to inform me of bad news.

I met Nana Amma, pictured above at an office Christmas party, on the plane from Tunis at the World Summit on Information Society last November. She was in a group of those who had taken Al'Italia to go to different routes, including Accra. I wrote abaout her in November in this post, which referred to her as the teacher.

I took to her because of her pleasant personality and striking looks. When I found out she was married, I was crest-fallen, but I maintained the relationship because we got along very well. She became almost like an elder sister to me in the sense that she confided so much about her private and personal life to me.

She had studied in the UK, and excelled in Information Technology. She was even actually looking for a new job from the one here in Accra, where she was Head of IT at a private school.

I found out last week that she had been admitted to hospital with a very bad headache two Sundays ago. On my birthday, she sent me a text message saying that she wished that she could spend some time with me, but she was still in hospital.

My last words to her, when I called her last Friday, was to tell her that she is such a good person who doesn't deserve to be in hospital. She chuckled, saying "you, you are not correct, Emmanuel".

I promised to call again. Unfortunately, I didn't.

I wish I had called her on Mayday to wish her a good one--but it's one of those things:-( What you got to do, do right now!

She passed away from a brain tumor at the tender age of 33 on Mayday.

May you rest in peace, Nana Amma.

You will be very, very fondly remembered.

xxx

[This, unfortunately, comes at a time when 8 May will be fifteen years since my one and only elder brother, Samuel, passed away. I now have another celebration of life to add to my yearly reminders. If it doesn't kill you...]