What I love about Night at The Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb

Apart from the amazing blend of history and quirky characters, it has the elements of a good story, which is what drew me in the most.

The night guard, Larry (main character/protagonist) is on a quest to fix the golden tablet which holds the magic that brings the exhibits at the museum he works at, to life every night. He encounters obstacles along the way; from the funny guard at the British Museum, Tilly, to the Triceratops skeleton and then Lancelot who is on a quest to find his Guinevere and who when he discovers what the tablet is capable of doing and the powers it holds decides to steal it and claim from it its 'gift of life'.

Right then it seems all that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong for Larry the night guard who had just then discovered the way to solve the problem of the tablet after visiting 'Egypt'. The museum exhibits are starting to weaken. Time is running out

Soon Larry overcomes Lancelot- who now appears to be the major antagonist- with help from his museum friends and son, Nick. We easily sympathise with and understand Lancelot's reason for taking the tablet, especially as he enjoys the fact of being alive and not just being still and stared at by little children who visit the museum regularly. (Ted Roosevelt,  played by Robin Williams- of blessed memory- points out to Lancelot that it is important for education, as the children are being educated anyway).

One major theme that runs throughout the movie is 'Letting go'.
Larry's letting go of his museum friends he may never see again; his letting go of his son who has decided to explore the world for one year before applying to College (a sub-plot in the movie)

In all it's an excellent movie. Action packed, extremely funny and educative. And the fact that it is set partly in pretty London is a plus!

I came away from it wanting to actually learn more and brush up on my knowledge of a few things, historical and present.

Definitely a worthy outing.

I should watch movies more.

I should post on here more.

:)

Love, ay

When is Change Coming?

                         

"Ebin pa ara ilu....... Won ko n se ofin, won de n gbadun ni ti won"

The traffic on the road leading to Bodija market is building up. I am beginning to get really hungry. I can actually hear my stomach rumble. But for this traffic, I should be home in the next 5 to 7 minutes. We move steadily past Methodist Grammar School, towards Oju-Irin and I turn to the billboard for the umpteenth time. It always disgusts me when I see it. I don't know why. In it is this politician clad in a white jalamia and skull cap.

I remember the first time I noticed the political advert. I was driving home with my boss and he pointed it out, commenting on the politician's felicitating with Muslims on the Eid-el-Kabir celebration. He pointed out that the jalamia and skull cap were a political gimmick just to appeal to the good side of the celebrating Muslims all with the aim of garnering their votes in the upcoming elections. I remember him saying he was so sure the man is not actually a Muslim and is most likely a christian. As soon as he said that, I looked closely at the picture and spotted the RCCG wrist band on the politician's wrist, beside his wristwatch. We laughed at this. 

The wrist band is so conspicuously positioned and the politician has his hand resting on his jaw to make it more obvious. It screams ' I am a Christian that loves Muslims. Don't bother about what I plan to do. Just Vote for me, not the others".  

I twist my mouth and turn away from the billboard. We are still caught in traffic at Oju-Irin. My stomach is crying for food. I am tempted to buy a bottle of Pepsi from one of the street hawkers but hold back the urge. I am on a one-week fast from carbonated drinks. I hope I can keep it up. My ribs ache. Having to share a front passenger seat with another person in this small car is tiring. It's annoying, especially as the man I'm sharing the seat with is big boned and seems to be resting all of his weight on me. 

A convoy of vans is worming its way through traffic steadily and the man sitting beside me starts to shake his head. From the vans some people are waving hands vigorously, others are waving brooms. They are all singing and shouting. "E dibo fun APC oh", "PDP o le wole" Some are playfully chatting with other motorists and gesticulating, while others are handing out flyers.

The man beside me is still shaking his head and then he turns to the driver

"Where did they see these people?" he starts in Yoruba.

It is the driver's turn to shake his head and he turns his head to the window, observing the spectacle, just as we start to ease out of traffic slowly and approach the filling station. He looks ahead at the convoy of vans when we stop, as if in intent observation of an odd phenomenon. He sighs and turns to face the man I'm sharing my seat with.

"Where did they see this people?" the man asks again. This time sounding like he is really expecting an answer from the driver.

"Ah!" the driver starts "Ah..." His lips downturned, he shakes his head and then sighs.

"Sir, Ebin ma n pa ara ilu." He drags the words and gesticulates with his hands placed idly on the steering wheel. "People are hungry." he continues. "You cannot blame them"

The man is listening intently now, while I fidget, hoping to get a little bit of space to rest my hurting right buttock.

"You see me now, I will drive all day, from Bodija to Beere. I will have to deal with police, deal with area boys. Patapata I will finish everyday and carry just N400 home. Tell me what I will do with N400. Ee san owo ile. E o ra nnkan f'omo"

"Hmmm " the man beside me responds. "Ooto le so. You are very right"

"See, Oga. These politicians just make laws, but they are not bothered about how it affects us. They are the ones enjoying, we are the ones suffering everything. Ko easy"

We have gone past the filling station and now are moving steadily along Bodija market. I hold my breath as we drive past the waste dump just close to the vegetable sellers. I wonder how they can sit in that smell, and talk, smile and eat. I want to puke. I cringe at the thought of buying vegetables sold close to a dump and having diarrhoea for days.The convoy is moving in a jagged manner ahead of us, brooms still in the air, mouths still singing praises, as if they are doubly sure about their future. As if they are really sure of what it even means to vote and vote for the right person. I wonder how much they have been paid; N1000, N1500, or a small bag of rice? 

Soon the convoy is out of sight.The man beside me and one of the three passengers at the back seat alight at Transwonderland when we are now finally out of all that Bodija market traffic. I smile, happy that I get to enjoy the front seat by myself. We have not gone too far, before two people hail down the cab.

I am still happy at my new found comfort when I realize I will have to shift for one of our new passengers. I mutter under my breath as the second lady forces open the door while I shift towards the gear box.

I can feel the driver's eyes on me as he starts to drive.

"E ma binu" he says, as we move on towards UI.

My throat hurts. I gulp and mutter thanks. 

I'm too hungry to say more than that.

*based loosely on real events, but essentially fiction.

Love, ay.

Sometime soon...

My alarm beeped at 4:30am.

I managed to roll from one side of the bed to the other struggling with the being that seemed to hover around my eyes and exert a slight numbing force. Finally, managing to get hold of my phone on the left side of my bed I put the alarm off and placed one knee after the other on my soft carpet, my head resting on my bed.

Darkness enveloped me. I stood on a corridor, a dim light shining in a far distance. I could hear John Legend's 'all of me' playing and the soul-lifting tune resonated throughout the corridor. I turned left. Darkness. I turned right. Darkness. I looked on ahead to the dim light. Where was the song coming from?

The song stopped, then started again. The corridor seemed to vibrate with great intensity. I let out a whimpering cry.

My eyes opened, with me finding myself mumbling. Sola's picture was on my phone screen. I pressed the answer button.

"Hello sweetheart! Were you in the shower?"

I let out a deep yawn. "No jare."

"Ahn ahn. Where did you now keep your phone?"

"I was praying oh. And I slept off"  

Sola laughed. His hearty laugh that always had me feeling butterflies in my stomach, but not this time. I was upset at his amusement and ashamed at my self for sleeping off mid-prayer.  

"Babe, I just wanted to wish you a happy Valentine's day before you start to get ready for work"

"Aww..happy valentine's day to you too dear"

"Oya hurry up and go and shower. This is 5:24am."  

I gasped and got up, said "bye, talk to you later, love you".

Changing into my towel, I made to go to the bathroom, at the same time muttering inaudibly what was supposed to be prayer, committing my day into God's hands.

God would understand my need to hurry. Lagos traffic was nothing to deal with in a light manner. Not especially when commuting from the mainland to the Island.  

At 1:00pm Sola sent me a text message that made me smile. He had something planned. He picked me up after work for dinner at Exotica's.  

"You look ravishing".

He sounded like he took the line right out a movie. He looked even more excited than I was, grinning from ear to ear and laughing his butterfly inducing laugh.  

Dinner was romantic. Candle light, good music and equally good food. We ordered dessert. My cake came on an intricately designed platter and when the waiter set it on the table, I saw the words, 'will you marry me' written at the bottom in strawberry topping.

I was genuinely surprised. We had discussed marriage. I mean, I wasn't even one to date without the end goal of marriage. But I hadn't expected a proposal so soon. My love for Sola seemed to swell right at that very moment.

  

He stood up, grinning even wider. I smiled. He looked like a cute little boy excited to open a gift. He started to bend on one knee as he held out a marquise diamond ring, all of its facets gleaming temptingly. The reality of it all dawned on me. My eyes started to wet.  

Fellow diners looked towards our table and with their eyes and smiles and a few audible awws, urged me to say the magic word.

"Will you marry me, Omobonike Idowu Olayiwola?"

My dear Sola. I looked at his face and my life flashed before me. I thought about where I was in my life presently. I looked at my past and thought about all I had set out to achieve and in what sequence. I ticked things off my mental list. My mouth quivered. A tear ran down my face. Sola's smile eased a bit.

I bent on my two knees, by his side and cupped my hands around his ears.

"Baby can you give me a year. .....Or two more?" I whispered.

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Did you like this story?

What worked and what didn't?

I really look forward to your comments.Thank you. :D

Love, ay.

These are a few of my favourite things.....

This year my reading has progressed at a good pace. Not very much how I want it to progress, but quite satisfactory.

I finished E.C. Osondu's 'Voice of America', Sefi Atta's 'Everything Good Will Come', Taiye Selasi's 'Ghana Must Go, reread, 'Half of a Yellow Sun and now I am currently reading 'Fine Boys' by Eghosa Imasuen.

E.C. Osondu's Voice of America is a collection of short stories. Stories about immigrants, children in refugee camps, live executions, stints at prison cells. I found it a very good and informative read, like going back in time to a period I've never lived; the 1970s and so on.

It felt good to read a wide range of stories touching on different issues and finding out things I never knew about before further made me confident about the importance of reading as a way of discovering many things and travelling to different places, back and forth, all in one sitting.



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Moving from 'Voice of America' to 'Everything Good Will Come', seemed like a very perfect transition. When I first heard about the book, the person who I heard about it from proclaimed that she didn't like the book and would not recommend it, but I decided I'd rather read the book and make my own conclusion.

Everything Good Will Come is a powerful feminist book and I love that I got to live in the 70s again for a quite a good part of the book. The book is set in 1970s, 1980s and 1990s Post-civil war Lagos. It is a coming of age story. A story about freedom and the path to attaining it. It states real hard truths about the stereotypical role of women in the society and also challenges it. Enitan is a fierce character who found her voice and freedom at the end of the book.

For some odd reason I was singing and dancing to Olamide's 'Eleda mi' at the end of the book. Enitan's father is released from detention and on her way to her long time friend's home to give her the good news, she stops in traffic in a sudden burst of excitement mixed with the sweet joy of freedom, to dance, much to the amazement of passers-by.

"My hands went up. I wriggled lower, and sang again......"

"..... I danced the palongo. fearing nothing for my sanity, or common sense. I added a few foreign steps to disorientate the discontented so-and-so: flamenco, can-can, Irish dancing from side to side. Nothing could take my joy away from me. The sun sent her blessings. My sweat baptised me."

Taiye Selasi's 'Ghana Must Go' is a book I just happened to 'stumble upon' and I'm glad it exists in my collection of books. It is a lovely book, by a lovely writer. Taiye Selasi is my new female writer crush.. Chimmy no go vex

One look at the eye-catching cover, the beautiful print and the reading the blurb, I couldn't wait to dig in.

The writing is good and the plot is endearing. When I first started reading the book I was quite distracted by the way events unravelled slowly and the way everything was described so lyrically you would feel sucked into the space in time and then completely forget what part of the book you are.

I found myself going back a few pages, a few times and trying to make sure the points connected and I was still in the story. This made reading the book quite hard in the beginning and the frequent flashbacks did not help. But as I moved on I started to actually enjoy the book thoroughly and smiled to myself a lot while reading it.

I discovered that Taiye Selasi has a unique style of writing which makes her work so special. So it didn't come as a shock to me when recently I came across this article that reveals that her work is actually inspired in many ways by music, hence the lyrical nature of her prose.

"....two bubbles in water that now, her lips parted, run in down her throat, where they find, being water, more water within her, her belly, below that, her thighs, dripping wet --the once-white satin nightdress soaked, wet from the inside, and outside, a second skin, now brown with sweat --and, becoming a tide, turn, return up the middle, thighs, belly, heart, higher, then burst through her chest."

"The sob is so loud that it rouses her fully"

The book is divided into three parts- 'Gone', 'Going', and 'Go', and begins with the death of Kweku Sai. 

          Kweku Sai, a Ghanaian, was married to Folashade, a Nigerian and they have four children, Olu, Taiwo, Kehinde and Sadie. In the book we find that he walked out on his family and moved back to his home country.

            

          His death brings the family back together from where they are all scattered and helps them to find healing and a closeness that they lost due to things left unsaid and pain inhabited over time

           

It's a well crafted story with beautiful characters with real life problems. You'll cry a lot more than you'll laugh. Taiye Selasi has the gift of transferring the emotion depicted in the her writing to the reader, such that the reader sort of becomes so emotional invested in the story, in the characters' lives, they just want to hug Sadie, or tell Taiwo "it will be fine."

I read Half of a Yellow Sun in 2007 for the first time. The copy I purchased quite unusually had a few missing pages, I never got to know the real details of what happened between Richard and Olanna. When I read the news that the film tie-in edition was to be released in March I prepared myself and grabbed my new copy as soon as possible.

Rereading it was a totally different experience from the first time I read it. It remains a story about war, love in the time of war. The pain of death, the cruelty of man to his neighbour. I read it through different eyes and felt even  more pain and sadness at what people suffered during that time. I don't have family members that experienced the war and the best my father could tell me about his experience then is just hearing in the news about the war, as a young boy and years later seeing Igbo boys, who looked much older and well-built being admitted into the same form with them (their juniors), after the war was over.

At a point, as I reread the book I remembered the lady that cried as she made a contribution relating to Half of a Yellow Sun at Chimamanda's book signing of Americanah last year, which held at Glendora bookshop, Ikeja City Mall. I imagined what depth of pain she must have felt as she cried and what the Biafra war meant/means to her family and how it affected them.

There's no doubt war is very terrible.

It's totally great that the movie adaptation is out and I get to see these characters I love so much on screen. I hope to see the movie tomorrow, April 25. I kept replaying the movie trailer as I read the book, fussing over little things like Miss Adebayo (Genevieve Nnaji) calling Olanna (Thandie Newton), 'illogically beautiful' when in the book Miss Adebayo says 'Illogically pretty' (Oh well, I'm sure I have nothing to fuss about. Don't mind me. Movies are different from books in many ways) , but all the same happy to see these characters on screen; catching glimpses of Aniekwena (OC Ukeje), Dr Patel e.t.c.

* Update: So apparently the movie did not show on April 25 in Nigerian Cinemas due to a delay on the side of the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board. Let's hope they sort out the 'unresolved issues' soon, because me I can't wait o.

The movie will be a great one, no doubt and I'll probably cry after watching it.

I like in particular how close to the end of the book, Ugwu finds his writing voice. After a gruesome experience at the war front and his return home, he starts to scribble everywhere, on newspapers, sheets of papers e.t.c and finally goes on to write the book 'The World Was Silent When We died', dedicated to his master ("For Master, my good man"). I don't know how I missed that before, but I totally could relate to and imagine the feeling of having a story to tell and just scribbling anywhere and everywhere, making mistakes, getting frustrated and then finally achieving something certain and telling the story you've always wanted to tell, the way it should be told. That for me probably depicts a writer's journey in some or most ways.

Half of a Yellow Sun is a great book that will remain very relevant for very many years to come.

 Fine Boys is what I'm currently reading. I only just started. I've heard/read good things about the book  and hope I find it a lovely read as the other awesome books I've read so far, this year.


***************

Till next time (if I don't run away for too long)...:)

Ciao.

Randomly..........

If you think too much about doing something you just never might get it done.
I've been thinking about what to post since all these days, but I just had to stop and give it a go anyway.

***************


You hear stories about the passport office in Nigeria and then you get scared to go there and get a new passport or renew your old one. My memories of the Ikoyi passport office when I was younger were that of a sandy area, people crowded on dirty benches under a tattered canopy, uniformed men and women carrying files and walking about, 'agberos' lurking around, sweat and maybe tears and long days spent going to check back for your passport.

So imagine my fear when I realised my passport was going to expire soon and I would need to get a new one. I just got depressed instantly. Moreso as I knew I would have to do it all by myself. It was in the past that we all  (my parents and siblings) went as a family. I started making a mountain out of a molehill, worrying over how I would get a renewed passport without exchanging bribe or having to wait for days. I was really worried especially as I was not ready to do anything the illegal way. I went on google and read web page after web page about anything on getting a passport in Nigeria; people's experiences, how they got cheated, how long it took to get their passport e.t.c..

Finally, I summoned courage and went to the passport office/Nigerian Immigration Service(NIS) at Ikeja. Thanks to my friend who helped with directions. I was surprised because it looked nothing like I had seen before in their Ikoyi office. Interlocking blocks had been laid all over the compound neatly, people sat comfortably under a very good canopy and inside the office on comfortable chairs. No touts lurked around and the officers were organised and the atmosphere was very peaceful. The end of the long story is that I got my new passport in one day without sweat or tears.

Hmm.. Will it be safe to say things are getting better or am I dreaming?

***************


Totally unrelated to my story above, I've learnt one great lesson since this year started- not to talk too much about what you are doing, what you are planning to do or what's going on in your life with everyone, because;

1. Some people won't just get it and their ignorance can discourage if not anger you,
2. Some people don't really care and their disinterest could possibly make you feel bad,
3. Some people will discourage you outright with their snide comments and all, so you are better off shutting up,
4. Some people are just looking for gist and you are providing them with gist,
5. If you share too much about what's going on in your life, one day you might regret why you ever shared it.

When you know you really want something think it through very well, pray about it to God, write down plans on how to execute it and act before it's too late. That's the most important part- acting, not just dreaming.

And if you must share your dreams at all, let it be with a person or people you trust completely, whose opinion you value and who would tell you the truth without sentiment or any ill-feeling towards you.


I remember this from Tyler Perry's list- "40 at 40"

"Don't share your dreams with everyone and don't be angry with non-dreamers"

Even if it's a dream as little as doing the big chop (cutting your hair) and going natural...lol... In that case you might just hear rude comments like "you'll be very ugly". Do it anyway if that's what YOU WANT!

Anyway, I'm talking about other dreams...:)


Follow your dreams, don't be scared and you'll see how much you'll benefit and remember to pay no heed to the naysayers.

It might get tough along the way but keep keeping on and surround yourself with positive-thinking intelligent people.

If it's really what you want, go for it; but always remember to seek God's opinion.

"A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps"- Proverbs 16:9

See y'all later. I'm out.

Love, ay.

New Year. Things to be grateful for..

Happy new year everyone!!

How were the holidays? I trust you had a great time. I did.

Since entering this new year, I've had cause to look back and reflect on the past year and things I am thankful for in that year..

Firstly, I'm thankful for the gift of the family. This past Christmas, I learnt the importance of having a family and reconnecting with relatives from far and near as often as possible. I learnt that really, "a family that prays together stays together." Prayer keeps us close and helps us to be open about so many things we would never have imagined being open about. By taking turns to say prayers and by listening to each person pray we learn more about our struggles, the things that make us happy and with it all we become closer.

I'm thankful for the gift of friendship. I made new friends last year and I learnt how to be more open and share my feelings with other people.

I'm thankful for successful completion of my degree and subsequent completion of internship.

I'm thankful for the gift of writing and Blogger

I'm thankful for all those that read my blog posts last year (silent readers acknowledged :D ) and those who commented; especially those whose comments kept me grinning from ear to ear (like Toye's comment). Simply getting a notification on my phone that a new comment had been made on a blog post, is one of the things that usually made my day and kept me excited.

So much to be thankful for. I wish I could go on and on, but it would end up being a really long post.

Basically 2013 was a really awesome year. Like I said before in my last post, I grew in all spheres in 2013. Really! The best year ever! I'm hoping 2014 is even more awesome.

The year 2014 is already starting to fly by..lol. No time to waste.

Have you made new year resolutions? Most people don't like to. Put simply, is there something or are there some things you want to achieve this year? Then go for it. You can't afford to be sitting on your butt and waiting for things to be handed out to you.. Act!

Remember; "You can't make footprints in the sands of time if you're sitting on your butt. And who wants to make buttprints in the sands of time?"- Bob Moawad

See y'all later.

Love, ay.