The Elevens Tag

I was tagged!! A 'lil bit excited sha because it is my first. I've been putting it off for a while, because I don't have enough people to tag. But I noticed other bloggers who were tagged, tagged less than eleven people, because most bloggers have done this tag anyways.

So first off, I'll say thank you to Daughter of Her King and The Relentless Builder for tagging me on this.

Now to the rules;

1.  Post rules
2.  Post 11 random things about yourself
3.  Answer questions posted by the person who tagged you
4.  Create 11 questions and tag 11 people to answer your questions
5.  Notify those tagged of the game
6.  Notify the person who tagged you after you have answered the questions
7.  No tag backs

Here are 11 random things about me;

1) I looove being alone. I love my company and I talk to myself a lot (don't worry, I'm not crazy)

2) I am the only girl among two boys

3) I suspect I definitely have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). As I grow older the less severe it is, but when I was younger I always had to touch EVERYTHING!! I came across 4 times. My dad caught me one day and I was so embarrassed. I still have other weird compulsions

4) I'm an extremely shy person

5) I absolutely love Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her novel Purple Hibiscus made me start to take my writing seriously

6) When I grow up I want to be The Minister of Health for Nigeria..lol..

7) Most of my very good friends are male.. I have very very few female friends.

8) I wish I had a sister!!!

9) I read a lot!!. They call me 'library girl' in school, (very much sarcastically). Buh I don't care *shrugs*

10) I initially wanted to be an Electrical Engineer and offfered Technical Drawing plus Applied Electricity in Secondary School. But somehow I changed to Pharmacy in SS2.

11) I want to visit Paris someday and take a picture under the Eiffel tower

That's done, now I'll answer questions from DHK and TRB.



Questions from DHK
I)What hairstyle are you currently rocking?
  A side-part straight weave. The hair has started smelling sha so I won't exactly say I'm 'rocking' it. Gonna yank it off tomorrow *scratches scalp*  

2)How long did you spend in primary school?
  6 years

3)What is your naughtiest moment ?
  Not a very naughty person..ah! I remember something I did when I was younger, but not putting it up here and I don't consider it that naughty anyways

4)How do you express your anger?
 I'll go to a quiet place where I can be alone, then grumble to myself. If there is a paper and pen nearby or my laptop I'll start putting my feelings in writing.

5)What would you spend your last penny on?
 Probably food (hiding my face in shame), buh I've done that a lot that's why it's easy to answer. I'm very slim in case you're wondering.

6)When was the last time you treated yourself to a niceeeeeee warm food?
 Yesterday afternoon at an eatery in school; white rice with plantain, efo-riro and meat

7) Who was the last person you said  "I love you " to?
 My Prince Charming a.k.a. The caramel in my Mars bar

8) What is your favourite take away dish?
 Chicken and chips..... Haven't eaten that in a very long while sha

9) How do you eat in public, spoon, knife, fork or hands, loud, quiet, slow, fast etc?
 It depends on what I'm eating and how comfortable I want to be. I don't eat loud o. I so hate it when people do !!!

10)Do you polish your shoes?
  I wipe my shoes everyday, but don't use shoe polish

11)What are your thoughts on after life
  There will be no worry whatsoever and people will love one another completely. I hope to make it to Heaven someday by God's grace.



Question from TRB

1) Would you describe yourself as fashion-conscious?
   Absolutely not! But I love dressing well and picking very classy pieces. As long as I don't look dowdy. I don't even know all those Designer names

2)Name one song you can never forget and why
  A King Wasiu Ayinde Marshall (KWAM) 1 song that has some lyrics that go "fatty bombom o, fatty bombom o.......shokologobangoshe", something like that. I just liked it when I was small o. I don't even know where I heard it because that kind of song would never have played in my house and when I was about 5, I was singing it out loud in my family's compound in the village during Christmas. When my dad heard me singing the song, he went ballistic and said I must never sing it in my life AGAIN!!. I was embarrassed because he shouted at me in the midst of a lot of people. I was a very sensitive child.

3)What physical feature would you like to change?
  Perfectly happy with how I look. In fact I think I am one of the most beautiful people ever created..notbeingproud... I thank God for the way I look. I won't mind wider hips sha..lol

4) Three words that other people use to describe you
   Weird, quiet, unfriendly

5)Three words that you use to describe yourself
   Intelligent, deep, funny

6)Pen (Biro) or pencil? Which do you prefer, and why?
   Pen. Pencil marks are too dull and don't leave vivid memories

7)Do you have a favorite fragrance (perfume, body spray, etc).  If yes, what is it called?
   No. Just obtain anything I see on my mum's dressing table

8)What are your pet peeves (Name three at most)
   dirt, noise, body odour

9)Do you like children? Why or why not?
   I like them when all they do is sleep (it can be really nice watching them), coo and smile. But when they get noisy and bratty they can be a pain. I can't wait to have one of my own

10)What's the name of the last book you read?
   The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives

11)What's the name of your favorite author?
   Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie a.k.a Agadi Nwanyi (igbo phrase that means 'old woman'- i just like the way it sounds. That's what her sister calls her because of her 'deep wisdom'..hmm)


Phew!!!!

Now to my own questions.
Ay's questions

1) How many pairs of shoes do you own?
2) Name three places in the world you would love to visit
3) What is your best food?
4) What would you do if you had just 24 hours left on earth?
5) Do you believe in love at first sight?
6) What is your beauty regime?
7) At what age did you start school?
8) How did you spend Christmas last year?
9) Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?
10) Have you ever been caught up in a physical fight with anyone?
11) What do you love about blogs ville?

And the bloggers I'm tagging on this are.........drumroll............
Just 2...*sigh*

secretlilies
Re-Birth of a DramaqueeN

Yep, I'm done!!!!!!!!!!! Yay me!!

That was tiring and fun too. Going to check this out of my to-do list.

Thanks Daughter of Her King and The Relentless Builder for this opportunity

The Genotype Question

I was watching ‘Moments with Mo’ on Africa Magic Entertainment sometime last week. It was an old episode on Sickle Cell and the consequences etc, which I had watched a long time ago before then so it was my second time of watching it. Mo Abudu had people living with sickle cell on the show and a woman who had lost her child to sickle cell. There was also a man who had broken up with his girlfriend because they stood the risk of giving birth to a Sickler.

I’m sure y’all have heard about Sickle Cell Anaemia (SCA) or know people living with it or people that have died as a result of it..:(. I’ve not actually seen them go through a crisis or been close to a sickler with the SS genotype before. People with SS genotype have severe sickle cell anaemia while people with a milder genotype like SC have less severe or no symptoms. I have a cousin with the SC genotype. I just found out when she got admitted to a teaching hospital after she started vomiting blood, had turned completely pale and developed a fever. She’s 5 years old; my aunt said they (she and her husband) found out when she was 3 or so. She doesn’t have the crisis that the SS ones have but she a times has difficulty breathing because of her asthma and looks very bony, although she is the most playful out of her siblings who are not sicklers.

I was worried when I found out that my cousin was SC and the only question I had to ask my aunt was “but didn’t you guys know your genotype before you got married”. As if she read through my mind she started gisting me about how when she and her husband were about to get married they had checked her husband’s medical records and found he was AA. She already knew she was AC (never heard that before? It’s quite rare) and so they got married. It’s when their second born (the sickler) started falling sick and they found out she was SC, that they took another blood test (she and her husband). Her own was still AC, but her husband’s own had 'changed' to AS. Ah!! What a surprise, how could that have happened? But it was obvious it was true or how else could their baby be SC.

They had asked the important question before marriage, but now all had changed. Theirs is an exceptional case of people who asked each other about their genotype before marriage, but were greeted with shock after marriage. But how many of us ask that important question before marriage or while dating? (hoping the records are correct or better still take a new test). How many of us are married and didn’t check ours and our partner’s genotype before marriage.

It’s a very important area to touch before walking down the aisle or better still before even attempting to fall in love. Seriously, it’s no beans. The woman who came on on Mo’s show, the one that lost her child to sickle cell (he was 35 years of age and married with a child) said if she knew her genotype and her husband’s before marriage and had foreseen all the suffering she would go through she won’t have married her husband. She still has another child with sickle cell that is 32 (would be older now since that Moment’s with Mo episode was in 2010 or so).

Now no need to fear, sicklers do live long, (especially now with more advancement in medicine)but they go through a lot of suffering!! One guy on the show said his doctors told his mother he wouldn’t live past his 21st birthday but he was still alive at over 60!! God does work miracles. Still on the show, there was a couple who said they had known their genotype before marriage but had gone on with their marriage with faith in God. The wife is a sickler and their first born is a sickler, but a very mild one. They are very lucky she doesn’t have frequent crisis. They seemed a very happy couple and confident in their faith in God. I’m happy for them, but how many people have that much faith. Some people say they have faith, but how much.  A lot of people go ahead with their marriage knowing they are both AS and end up being unhappy and seriously traumatised when they give birth to a sickler. Late Pastor Bimbo Odukoya in her book ‘How to choose a life partner: 165 questions to ask’, writes

“Q. 146. Are our genotypes compatible?

Medically, it is advisable that an AS genotype should not marry an AS genotype

to guard against the high possibility of giving birth to an SS child........

However, we have an all-sufficient God and with faith all things are possible.

Be sure to discuss this with your mate. If he or she does not have enough

faith to believe that you could have only AS genotype children, then you should not proceed

any further. If your faith is strong and you believe, then you may go ahead. You must

however, consider two things: you should not have too many children; and in case you

have an SS genotype child, can you cope with a sick child?........”

She’s said it all

It’s a serious issue I personally musn’t play with since I’m AS. In fact there is an experience I had that touched me. When I was doing my IT in 400 level in a community pharmacy, there was a day a very thin looking guy came in. He looked jaundiced- his eyes were yellow. He held his prescription paper feebly then handed it to me. I sensed he was a sickler but didn’t want to conclude sha. Anyways his prescription was for diclofenac (a pain reliever), but not just any diclofenac. Let me bore you a little (or even more if I’ve been boring you since); diclofenac (D) comes in two forms; D potassium- which dissolves in the body faster and hence suppresses pain faster, and D sodium- does not work as fast as the former but is effective. His doctor prescribed the former. We had only D sod in stock. He took his prescription paper and started to leave. Oh no, I wasn’t going to let him go, not like that.

Me:  “Why don’t you buy D sod?”

Him: “My crisis comes at night and I’ve tried EVERY pain reliever and they don’t work. My Doctor says this will definitely work”

I was right, he was a sickler. I begged him to please just take what we had. As in what was running through my head was what if he doesn’t get it elsewhere and he dies in his sleep at night from pain...GOD FORBID!!.. It will be my fault, indirectly..“wo you must take what we have” (in my mind). He finally agreed and boy was I happy. He took only one satchet sha since it wasn’t what he wanted (He actually wanted to buy a pack of 10 satchets of D pott!!)..The koko is that I was sha relieved and since that day I said “ah, my child will not suffer!!!”

So, please friends ask o..hmmm... and before you fall in love o..I’m serious. Yeah you met this cute guy/girl and you can bet that you guys are made for each other, but have you asked them their genotype, especially when you’re AS, AC, SS or SC? Forget myths that state that between AS and AS genotypes, it is only a 1:4 chance of having a sickler.It’s a lie, that 1:4 chance is per birth. Read your biology well if you are or were a science student or even if you’re just curious.

So you’re wondering but how will I ask? Won’t I come across as too forward? I don’t know o, but just pray you get a chance to ask the way I did..:) Let me share a personal story.

Once upon a kinda long time, I met this cute guy- I mean he wasn’t cute the first time I saw him because I was too shy to look at his face. But the second time I saw him it was love at second sight.. We became good friends. As in we click in every way..too much chemistry going on...But then something kept nagging me, “better ask about his genotype o, before you fall completely”. We were still in the friends zone then, but I knew I had begun to fall for him. So I panicked. How was I going to ask? I started going paranoid. “What if I ask and he lies”...what if, what if.... Then finally one day..gen gen gen gen...his brother fell sick..and it was a good thing.

 We spoke that day:

Bobo: My bro’s sick

Me: Eeya, what wrong with him?

Bobo: I think it’s malaria..he’s been down all day

Me: (My heart started to beat. This was a chance to ask..seriously! I didn’t want to blow it)Does he fall sick all the time. You know tha AAs always have malaria frequently (nice one shey..*wink*)

Bobo: Yeah he does, maybe that’s why.But I don’t fall sick like that

Me: Ehn, ehn.....What’s your own genotype sef?

Heart beating, head pounding, hope getting lost gradually, gradually, gradu.........

Bobo: (cutting through my emotional frenzy) AA

Yepa!! Ope O!! My heart started dancing ‘alanta’. My head stopped pounding. I smiled a big wide smile and said a silent ‘Thank God’ in my heart.

So, that was a long post. I’ll leave you with a question Mo asked on her show.

When do you think is the right time to ask: Before dating, during dating or just before you walk down the aisle?

Or will you not ask at all?..... I mean seriously???!!!!

I leave you with these videos...

I miss home already :(

I don't want to go back to school.

My short holiday is over and I'm missing home already even though I'm at home now. It's just that feeling I always get when I'm going back to school. I'll try to make up any excuse why I shouldn't go back to school. But once I'm in school, I'm in school and all home-sick feeling is forgotten and gone and that's just the funny part.

It was not that easy to make up excuses not to go back to school when I was a boarder in secondary school, because resumption date was fixed and if you resumed late you paid a fine. I remember one time in SS1 when my mum dropped me at school and waited for me while I carried my load bit by bit to my dorm. I made sure I lengthened the amount of time I spent going back and forth until there was no load again. It was when my mom was finally saying bye I burst into tears. I felt ashamed; see junior students trotting about happily at the joy of leaving home to come back to school and there I was 'agbaya' senior crying. My mum just said, "Ko si nkan ti ma se. A sa le pada lo ile" (something like that sha), meaning "there's nothing I can do. Surely, we can't go back home now".

I wiped my tears, 'bravely' said bye and went to my dorm. It didn't take me up to 2 hours before I started laughing with my dorm girls and had forgotten about home. I didn't realize how much I had missed my friends. It was good to be back :)

So, as I'm weeping now....sigh...I know I'll get over it. But I'm tired of school joor...

my only consolation is that this is my last semester:)

Thanks for stopping by...
Till next time.

The Secret Lives et al

Hello, welcome. I'm glad you've come to visit my blog.

I've changed some things as anyone might notice. I've changed the name of my blog from Passionate About Writing to In My Mind's Eyes and then changed the template of the blog. You see, I decided to do a 'lil bit of re-branding. It's needed o, so people don't get bored with the same old thing. Reminds me of when our country was doing all that re-branding stuff and they used the slogan; 'Good people, Great nation'...lol..wonder how that helped sha.

Anyways, it's now In my mind's eyes. I suspected the posts on the blog didn't really reflect the former title, Passionate about writing. I've just been writing on how I feel about stuff and all, so In my mind's eyes seems more appropriate. I hope I don't change it again.

I'm on a short holiday from school so I have a little time on my hands. The whole of last week I read The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's wives by Lola Shoneyin. She's a very brilliant writer!!! I had to google her after reading the book..

Webcam tins...blurred

I read the book for a whole week because normally when I read a book I like to absorb every sentence and try to understand why the writer chose certain words and what was going through their mind when they wrote the book. But also, I had some schoolwork to do sha.... I can be very analytical sha. Dunno if to call it a blessing or a curse. 'Been reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett on and off for about a year now. Not that it's boring but I need to take my time and of course I have a lot of schoolwork to grapple with.

Anyways, before I started reading The Secret Lives book, I didn't believe or understand why a University graduate would marry into a polygamous home. But then on reading the book I learnt a lot about Bolanle and the circumstances that pushed her into such a marriage. For me, I think Bolanle's experiences in the household made her a better person at the end. I like to think the story was that of freedom; freedom from lies, emotional chains, past life experiences etc.  But then there was death..how sad.

It was such a funny story, there were times I couldn't help but burst into fits of laughter. I was awed by Lola Shoneyin's uncanny ability to tell a story so serious- which is a very important topic in our society, and yet make it so enjoyable. I liked the way she described the characters, or rather introduced us to the characters personally, because each character told us their own part of the story. This helped to leave a vivid image of the characters in my mind.

My funniest character was Iya Segi. Lola Shoneyin's description of her was so funny. I can just imagine Iya Segi's thick neck.

Anyhow sha, you will have to read the book for yourself if you haven't (I suspect most people have cos I'm just slacking). This is no book review; not that I'm good at that kind of stuff anyways.

Thanks for visiting...

And oh...one more thing before I forget. To the fashionistas in the house; how do you wear pewter shoes or what do you wear them with. They don't seem to go with anything!!!

Pewter Ballerina shoes

My mom got me the shoes, so on a normal day I won't pick these out myself...

Thanks for visiting again...yes you and you and you!!! Ese!!

Bye :)