The Life of the Party...

Loads and Loads of fun!

Thats what the Fonterra party turned out to be. It was billed to start at 7:30pm but my flatmates and I, together with 2 other colleagues arrived there at about 9pm. To a fully packed house! And I was sufficiently dressed up enough to get a loud cheering and sustained applause as soon I stepped into the hall! Talk about a grand entrance!

Red Jacket a la "Thriller"; Gangster Hat a la "Smooth Criminal"; Skin tight leather pants a la 'Bad' and; White gloves a la live stage performances and I was looking the part! (Minus the lightened skin of course but hey! This was MJ from the eighties right?!)

Unfourtunately they had played "Thriller" already and the damn DJ didnt play it again despite repeated requests. So the 3 hours i spent watching the Thriller video over and over again learning the moves just went to waste!!!
He did play "Beat it" and i can only say I have a much better appreciation of entertainers now! It is frigging hard work!!! I was positively exhausted after dancing all alone in the middle of the crowd for the duration of the song!

I had half drunk ladies coming to rub their hands over my skin tight leather pants and there was this particular lady who kept telling me (and everyone else) how hot I looked and blowing me kisses all night! I DID NOT catch her name never mind her number. Bugger!

And to crown it all, I got the award for "Best Dance Moves". Award which turned out to be a 50 dollar gift certificate for a fancy restaurant in central Auckland. Since the costume cost me 59 dollars to rent... I guess I still made a loss!

But here are some of the pictures to prove what a wonderful night it was. I am currently uploading a whole bunch of others on Flickr. So check my flickr badge to the right in a couple of hours or something...




So Here is the great Michael Jackson rehearsing his dance moves before going to the Fonterra Xmas Party... notice the subtle twist of the legs? That is the true mark of a dancing genius






















And there he is living it up in the middle of the dance floor. His adoring fans loving every single electric move...






















This fan asked for a personal photograph with our star and he was his ever obliging self...





















But then she tried to steal a kiss! Much to the chagrin of our adorable Star!!!







CLASH OF THE TITANS!!!



Manchester United host MY club in a few hours in what the media has billed the most important game Manure will play this season. Its also a huge game for us in Chelsea as if we win we go level on points with the Red Devils. If we lose, a six point gap opens up between us. But with more than 20 games still to play and the league not yet halfway through it wouldnt be the end of the world if we did lose! We have played Barcelona already in the Champions League this season and came away with a win and a draw from that.

Having said that, I fully expect Chelsea to win this game and shatter United's self belief and conviction. I made sure I took a nap this afternoon as the game is at 4:55am NZT. I just wish Sanni Muhammed was here to watch the game with me. Or even Segun Sangowawa who is a newly converted Manure fan too. He's always been a wanker anyway! These are two of my good friends from Nigeria.

Rob I know is a Manure fan as well. Ah well... he's a great guy in every other respect. Hehe

Going as Michael Jackson...

Can anyone spot the difference in the pictures above?

Okay Okay... Michael Jackson's transformation over the years must be one of the most documented ones in the history of showbiz. Physical transformation that is! In looking for pictures for this post, I found some pretty amazing before and after pictures of the one time King of Pop!

But being a die-hard Jackson fan (the weird one, not the Middle Earth one!) I couldnt publish those horrible pictures on my blog. And they were pretty horrible. Brought to mind that old joke, "Only in America can a poor black boy grow up to become a rich white woman"

But having said all this, whats all the hullabaloo with MJ all of a sudden?

Well... tomorrow is the company Christmas party in Fonterra and the theme is "Miami Vice - '80s version" or something like that. You are supposed to dress up like characters from the original Miami Vice series or just as someone from the 80s. So I am going as MJ as seen in the Thriller video.

The problem is that every SINGLE person I told I was going as MJ said, "you are not white enough; You will need some foundation; You are going as Michael Jackson while he was still with the Jackson 5???" or some other such comment to drive home the fact that a black man cannot honestly go as Michael Jackson to a costume party! Anymore than my white, 5 foot, mid thirtyish something female boss can go as Will Smith!

I am picking up a red jacket and pants a la Thriller from the costume shop and I had better print a sign and paste it on my back that says, "...MJ from the '80s".

Pictures to follow of course


U2 in New Zealand

I shook Bono's hand today.

Okay I didnt. But I could have.
U2 are in New Zealand for concert and they are staying in the Hyatt Hotel which is right opposite the Fonterra Building. And which incidentally is where i go to gym. Going to work this morning, there was a small crowd gathered at the entrance of the hotel waiting to catch a glimpse of the band. I thought about going for an impromptu gym session right there and then, but figured that Bono and co. would more likely be in the bar.. or more realistically have the bar brought up to their suite!!!

Right about now, Bono and the rest of his band are thrilling thousands of kiwis while I am stuck here still nursing the after-effects of my lung infection and flu. Well... they are playing tomorrow night again but tickets sold out months ago and besides I am off to my party!

I wont miss my Saturday morning workout at the Hyatt. You never know!!!

Where's that Tequila Bottle...?

It's going to be a long month...

I am broke.

How in blazes did it happen?

I have been indoors for the last 6 days nursing my flu and swollen/infected air bags and of course I am running out of groceries.

I start back at work tomorrow Wednesday anyway so I go online to check how much of my paycheck I have left over from last payday. Maybe I can go to Foodtown tomorrow morning and do some shopping before I start my shift in the afternoon.

Damn account looks like it took a hit from one of those smart bombs the US Army used to such deadly effect to flush out Al-Qeada operatives from the caves of Afghanistan in 2002!!!

Friends, I get paid on the 15th of the month; not the end! So you can understand my cause for concern! After making sure I wasnt the victim of some internet fraud (i would have sued Norton and the whole Symantec company), i finally realized how many bills I paid this month!

Biggest chunk of course is house rent which usually takes about under a quarter of my whole salary. I say "usually" because this month it took more! We pay weekly rent and i usually just transfer 4 weeks worth to my flatmate who makes the payment. But November has 5 weeks in it so...

Phone, Electricity, Sky TV; these I share with my flatmates but still! We have managed to bring down electricity costs every month which is fantastic and with summer here already... it should only get lower. I Hope. We dont use the clothes dryer anymore which is good right?

New Computer - Yep! I am still paying for my snazzy new computer. I bought it on a hire-rental pay every month basis kinda thing. Have 4 more payments to make i think. Sheesh!!!

Debt - even the USA is in debt, dont laugh. I made yet another payment to my legion of debtors. Been paying one off every month since I got here. And there is one that I might have been taking for granted a bit. If you are reading this, you know yourself. We will have a conversation about this ASAP!

And of course, this illness of mine hasnt exactly been free. It comes cheap at the price but I really must get medical insurance. If I had invested in medical insurance at the beginning. I would have been able to claim this back now. The Irony now is that i will get cover for a year and not sneeze for the entire year!!!

But what I am complaining about????

I worked for one year without pay on the Nigerian MC, honed my money management skills at the feet of Maria "Gotzamani" Johansson in Stockholm, frankly now that I think about it... I just wont be able to afford to go out at the weekends!!! So what?! I will host a party at my nice apartment instead!

Where is that tequila bottle and the salt shaker?!

When Life Throws You Lemons...

"When Life throws you lemons... get some salt and tequila and call me over.."

What happened to the ol "...make some lemonade" part? hehehehehehehehehe. I got the above twist to the Life n Lemon saying from Rina Macharia who I spent an absolutely wonderful 3 hours chatting with yesterday. Up until 2am NZ time.

It was actually quite an interesting chat. Both in content and manner.
Content - We spoke about love, life, sex and future dreams. Pretty intense conversation wouldnt you say?
And Manner - it was normal MSN typing at first, then she called me up on Skype. But since I didnt have a microphone, she did all the talking while i typed my responses on MSN!!! Very very funny. Thank you very much Rina for cheering me up and being with me at quite the low period!

And where have I been all this while? Been in training for the last 4 weeks at work. Induction training I should have attended when I started my traineeship but which I (and the remaining 3 interns) missed in July.

And oh! I also managed to fall sick with the flu and get a lung infection.

Been such a long while since I was this sick and in this much pain. It all started last week Monday when I woke up and felt like I had been mugged in my sleep. My ribs hurt, My left hamstring tweaked with pain when I stretched it and my right wrist felt like I had slept on it and sprained it. "After-effects from the intense session at the gym on Sunday", I thought to myself. Nothing to worry about.

But then a slight fever and a scratchy throat on Tuesday night let me know I had caught the flu. I left work slighty earlier than usual on Wednesday as we had a field trip to one of the Fonterra factories and pack-plants on Thursday and I had been really looking forward to the trip.

I am glad I made it for the trip on Thursday but maybe if I hadnt, it wouldnt have been this bad. High fever on Thursday night and in the middle of the night, breathing while lying down suddenly became intensely painful!!! I called in sick in the morning and spent the whole day trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me. Friday night was absolutely horrible. Every breath caused me pain and it was with an effort that I stopped from crying out in pain (ok... maybe I did a few times...) A trip to the General Hospital on Saturday and I was advised to go to a WhiteCross Hospital Clinic where I would get the same consultation for cheaper. (It really sucks not to be accessible to free treatment with my work visa even though I am here for 18 months! Myabe this will spur me to get some damn health insurance at least)

I was diagnosed with plurithic inflammation of the lungs due to a bacterial infection and given some pills to reduce the inflammation and pain. Thank God for the miracles of modern science! I was supposed to go back and take an X-ray if the pain hadnt reduced by today but thank goodness it did.

Do you know you need a good deep breath to cough, laugh and sneeze. These 3 simple actions were denied to me while my lungs were inflamed and hurting like hell!!! Now I am taking a whole bunch of pills and hoping the infection is not a viral one and that i have been able to stave off pneumonia.

Some highlights of the past 3 weeks...

Hosted a party in our apartment for cute little Ana from Ecuador. She made all the food and brought all her friends and it turned into quite the event. We ended up dancing AIESEC songs and singing really badly at the top of our voices. And a group of us headed out to the town where burned up a couple of dance floors. Well... at least I DID!

Induction training. has been a real slog for me. I have been spoiled by all the bright lights and awesome presentations and speakers in AIESEC. While some of the courses I am attending have been really lively with discussions, questions and debates, some have been downright boring and I ashamed to admit that I was able to follow a Chelsea game online on the training computers we have in front of us which were connected to the internet.
It didnt help that a lot of what was being said, i had managed to pick up while working on the floor already.

My team (Middle East & Africa) had a Friday night out and consensus was that we should definitely try and do it more often. I had the most interesting conversation with my manager about... well... a whole variety of topics. Nothing like a couple (or 4) vodka martinis to break the ice between you and your boss! I ended up with 2 other colleagues at a very classy wine restaurant where I met this most passionate Chinese woman. She loves classical music and we spoke about living and growing up in communist China. Having lived in NZ for 10 years, it was quite amazing to hear some of her views on capitalism and all.

Induction Training Field Trip. Since this was my second trip to a Fonterra factory and pack plant. The main Highlight for me on this trip I have to admit was the bus ride back from the factory site.
We drove about an hour and a half to Hamilton to the Fonterra Te Rapa Powder Factory and my colleagues had tried to get me to entertain them on the trip there. I largely ignored them as I was still trying to get enough energy to get through the day.
On the trip back however, I was sufficiently psyched up enough to sing, tell jokes and entertain to everyone's delight on the bus. There were 12 of us on the bus and it was quite a varied bunch. Uruguay, India, South Africa, Argentina, Colombia, Kiwi, Malaysia, Japan... might as well have been an AIESEC after conference study tour!

I taught them how to play "Bitches Bitches" and there were various other games as well. Some of them quite flowery and boy-scoutly (I went to the shop and bought...) and others that had "pussy" as the main theme! Women outnumbered the boys on the bus ladies and gentlemen! We all agreed that we had to get together again as a group and re-play some of the games. But this time with lots and lots of alchohol!!!

So I am stuck at home for the next couple of days. Resting, taking pills and getting lots of fluids. Doctor's orders! I am already complety bored. And I should probably call work and speak to my supervisor at work who is covering for me while I am away. Just in case there are any issues.

I hope everyone is healthy and taking some tequila shots with the occassional lemons thrown at you by Life.

PS
I might take a trip to Thailand after the New Year

The "Yavert" and I

Emma Gavert.

Her last name is actually spelt with the Swedish "a" which has two dots on the top. And it is pronounced "Yah Vert" ... I don't have a Swedish keyboard (anymore) and this is very important that you know how to pronounce her last name properly!

Because you see, most of you reading this will not have had the pleasure and privilege of knowing Emma like I do. So the least I can do for you all is to teach you how to pronounce her name properly!

This post has been a long while in coming. There has been a lot of opportunity for me to reflect on my time in Sweden and the people who have become integral parts of my life from that experience.

Friend. Sister. Boss. Colleague. Major pain in the ass. Leader of the team in more ways than one. Constant source of inspiration and irritation. (in equal parts)

Emma was the National President of AIESEC in Sverige in the "...Year of balance and pure excellence". The year of the Diamonds. Together with Maria Klockar Johansson and Amit Desai, we four constituted the National Executive Board of AIESEC in Sweden 2005/2006.



What a kick-ass picture! Of a KICKASS TEAM!!!


She might not know this or maybe not REALLY comprehend the significance, but Emma changed my life when she selected me to be her teammate in Sweden. I was coming off the back of not being selected for a second term in AIESEC Nigeria, had applications to a couple of other AIESEC countries turned down when Emma called me in early 2005 and told me I would be joining her in Stockholm.

One of the most opioniated persons I know, Emma is an individual that wears her heart on her sleeve. Typically Swedish and yet seeming to break all stereotypes, this blonde beauty does not hesitate to write off anyone who does not meet up to her extremely high standards but is ALWAYS willing to give people a second and even a third chance! (You would probably be dead already by her hand if you are asking for a fourth chance!)

A hard taskmaster... Emma would never expect something from someone that she wouldnt be able to do herself. If Emma asked for a goddamn breakdown of meetings attended by the Sales people in the local committees over a 6 month period, week by freaking week... You know she would be willing to prepare such detailed data herself without batting an eyelid.

Her grasp of complex issues and a well thought out plan to constantly inspire and make her teammates innovate was one of her key leadership skills. She had an opinion on everything and yet... if she hadnt made up her mind about an issue, she would be quiet and gather more information before making a statement. And if she didnt know. She told you straight out!

And yet there was a playful side to Emma as well.

Getting drunk in Handelshogskolan (forgive the lack of Swedish letters guys!) and getting wheeled down Odengatan in a shopping cart by Maria...

Pulling funny faces at team meetings in the middle of AIESEC Experience discussions...






Always ready to ensure delegates at the conferences we ran, went away with amazing memories from the parties... and being the life of the party...






Getting us all to do the craziest things on board the cruise to Helsinki... (i just had to share this picture Emma... the more scandalous ones are locked away! I promise!!!)




Emma, thank you for an amazing year of my life... You are definitely one of those who has contributed to where I am today.

Mentally - for the amazing experience of driving positive leadership in AIESEC Sverige
Physically - for trying all year to get me to exercise some more... (I do now)
Geographically - For the glowing recommendation you gave me in the 1 hour phone-call with Fonterra
Emotionally - for teaching me how to better appreciate those you love through your loving devotion to Karol, your parents and brothers and sister

I love you very much Emma. Not all MC teams can say it but I have been very lucky in making friends that can call on me anytime, anywhere in the world. And I will answer.








XXX