Today was another hectic day. Cash First. I woke up late as expected.
Actually my alarm did its job perfectly and I woke up. Unfortunately it was in
the middle of my sleeping cycle. I had to snooze for me to get fully out of the
cycle. And it happened that I was just a 1/3 of the cycle
and I had a 1 hour snooze. A look at my watch definitely did not give me any
good news. My watch is getting uglier by the day by the way… it cannot handle
the kind of life am living. Too much vibration for the poor thing to handle. I
took my shower and all that stuff that takes place. I did not have breakfast.
My delivery was taking place early in the morning and I was already behind
schedule. Again the relationship the company had with this particular client
was a special and rather strong one so like family, if I landed at the right
time I would definitely be part of breakfast… I can guess what you are
thinking. Took a last look at the album and packed it nicely in the company
branded envelope. It was big! Those x-ray kind of packaging. White in color. I
slipped it in my laptop bag together with my diary and I left the house. It
would be along day. Destination #1 Kawangware.
I happened to get a Mat right outside the house and I got to
town in good time. Church sermons, praise and worship songs were already
filling up the sunny city morning. I went straight to the Kencom bus stage
where I was lucky enough to get the last bus plying route #46. If I had spent
another minute doing something I would have spent an unimaginable time waiting
for another bus to get to full load. I couldn’t wait to settle in my seat to
tweet. I was excited of that trip. It has been a while I went those sides. I
went through my Email, DM, and my inbox on Facebook on the bus. I felt like a
senior government official at the back of a government limo being driven to
work.
I still don’t understand how people assume we don’t need
M-pesa on Sundays. It is always a huge hustle to transact early on Sunday
morning. But that was an issue of a petty nature. From the bus stop it was a
short distance to my clients place. As I had guessed, I was part of breakfast. It
was a great set up. Did what I had to do. Did all the final negotiations on
mode of payment, options and was on my way back to the city. It was around 11.
I had spent a lot of time there.
Rushed back to town via the photo studio to deliver another
flash full of photos for printing, which I would be picking later. I was to
pass via Mathare but the time was not on my side. I had to postpone picking my
shoes. I had promised my friend Bram, that I would be in town by 11.30am and we
start our small trip to the swimming out of town that I had so anticipated. I
took another ride to the house where I picked my costumes & all the other
needed stuff. I picked my friend Asha who was waiting for me in the house and
started our way back to town. As planned we wanted to have a nice time there so
we had invited even friends of friends. It was about half past one and I was
still lying to Bram in town that I was on my way. In fact at some point I lied
that the mat had stalled at the cemetery just before Bunyala road roundabout: he
is good because he waited all that long. To make it worse he was being waited
on at our destination by another lady. We picked a mat right outside our court
and got to town in less than 15 minutes. We met up with Bram in town who was
pissed and could not stop lecturing me on my poor time management. Disappointment
No 1 – lateness.
But how could I have left a prospecting talk. At Kawangware
we started talking about plots and shambas and that was a prime area. Plots
were hard to come by. Met a guy who was selling his small pub due to some
financial crisis he had. It was opposite a church… but it was too far from my
reach though. Managing it would have been quite a hustle… These were some of
the things that drive me crazy. I just can’t avoid the talk of money. Bram
understood that but still did not get it why we were late. We met with my
friend Asha’s friends. The excitement was quite high. So far we were 6 in
number. We did some shopping – snacks and headed to the get our mat to Thika.
I won’t lie about this but ever since I read about JKUAT’sOlympic pool, I was baby excited to dip into that pool. My friends and I have
this thing of swimming in pools around the country… I know country sounds weird
but it’s the best way to tell it. One reason being in the traveling career we
find ourselves going a long way to dip in different waters. Lakes, rivers, and
pools as well. So I was just as excited of a new pool. JKUAT. The short trip
was fun. Bram couldn’t stop lecturing me in regards to my timing. Got to JKUAT
– excitement still running high and met up with my cousin and his friend who
are students there and we walked to the pool.
Anticipation, Anticipation…
 | |
| My Idea... Lets Say, Fantasy |
The pool was large yes, but everything else did not add up.
The environment, the water… it had been a while since I swam in a river…
To me and Bram, that was not such a big deal but considering
the rest of the party, the water was bad & unswimmable*. Especially if you
are used to salt water pools on the west side of town. Disappointment No. 2. I
was disappointed flat. But in my mind I had set it that I must swim and I cared
less about the water. I had seen dirtier, ask Doldol. I went to the changing
rooms and hit the showers after changing to my costume. Dilly dallied at the
pool side for a while then took my first dive. The rest of the swimming was
history.
We swam until we were told that it was closing time. The
custodians of our clothes had taken a rather long walk and we couldn’t find
them. It took my cousin and his friend like 30 minutes to get to our location
to bring us the clothes. We caused quite a scene acting all confused and word
had even started going round our clothes had been stolen. We took the after
shower and luckily enough Bram had some multi purpose skin antifungal which we
mixed with our lotion.
We started walking back to get back on the road back to the
city. I then realized that nobody had touched the snacks we had bought for the
day. They were that disappointed, huh? I had already started on my drink which
was high on sugar and it was the one thing that was left on that belly since
the breakfast was long gone. Its sugar content helped me through; it sustained
me through the whole swimming thing. Asha’s friends had long got bored after
they took one look at the pool & they went their own walks within the
university grounds. We started waking through the grounds as we headed for the
mat stop. I saw several faces from high school that seemed or acted not to
recognize me. I acted better – I was not the one. I was now taller and they
kept holding it in their minds that’s I would live short and skinny. Packet of
biscuits in hand we started walking back to the highway to take our mat home. I
offered them to the ladies who we had by then got to where they were. They were
so down that I could feel their disappointment aurae, courtesy of the day. I
tried starting a conversation with them and sometimes I managed to maintain a
healthy one while others went just dry. We still got to the highway and stayed
for a while before deciding what would be next. By the way, I was to detour
towards Mathare to pick my shoes but a look at my watch told me that I was in
one of those crazy dreams of mine. I postponed once more about picking the
shoe. Instead Bram offered to pick it for me the following week.
We bid farewell to our hosts, got to our mat and headed to
town. It was around 5.30pm. The ride was smooth. As usual swimming outings had
stories for an entire week. This time round not even follow up stories on the
day’s events hit the scene on that ‘cold’ mat ride to the city. We passed round
the snacks within the mat which I enjoyed. I was exhausted… I needed the sugars
and the calories in those things. All hell broke lose when the mat crew decided
to ‘sell’ us to a bus. It was a common trend along the Thika Superhighway. So
it did not come as a surprise. They always looked forward to getting unfair
profits by handing over passengers to cheaper charging vehicles so they can
make more. Well, on this particular day, they got the wrong group. Maybe it was
meant to be but the stressed had a ripe chance to vent the day’s disappointments.
Maybe, maybe not. The drama caused a minor unrest at the bus stop where even
the driver calmed down. In my load of digesting the disappointments of the day,
I had not noted that the particular mat’s crew did not have the proper uniform.
But I guess I was so eager to leave the place that I did not care about detail.
A refund was not acceptable since they were offering lower than the fare for
the remaining distance. The issue was settled and we got into a genuine one.
Was it fun? I still don’t know, either way, it couldn’t replace the major loss
of the day.
In mind I had a perfectly planned day. I thought everything
would work out. I did not need perfect as such. I just needed a nice day, with
my friends. Before even the issue of time management comes in, the choice of
recreation was misplaced. The time I wasted for my friends became a double
edged sword when the pool became a disappointed. Meaning all the hustle, or the
trouble was worth nothing but a mere walk along the paved walk ways of JKUAT.
The final thoughts which were a bit straight were the evening plans I had. As
usual swimming outings are usually followed by coffee at majority’s choice. But
on this particular round, the mood just wasn’t right for coffee. After all the
new friends had already suggested they alight along the way for they had no
issues in town. So when asked what next, I casually replied that I did not have
any other plans. Fortunately or unfortunately nobody was mentally contented to
realize that my response was a dummy one. Something in my mind told me that the
day would get messed up further.
Bram just couldn’t let me. He kept shaking his head and
giving me the weird smile… I had learnt my lessons for that day. Organization
is important. Punctuality. Pre-visits. Planning. Control. Consulting. I did not
need more. The ladies did not get to town. They had already suggested they
alight along the way for they did not have any urgent need or issue to take
care of in town. When we got to town, we escorted Bram’s lady to her bus stop.
We then proceeded to Tuskys where I had identified the required drawing
instruments. It was on that final purchasing moment when I reconsidered buying
some of those instruments. The cost was coming to about 5,000/-. It’s not a
matter of being a Kyuk or what, but there was no point in having instruments
worth that amount and then I stay hungry in the name of having a drawing set. I
decided the set could be mine in bits. I am now the proud owner of two set squares, a Staedtler Eraser & and
some Staedtler pencils. Last time I
bought the HB pencil it was worth 20/- when a Mr. Mwaura caned us thoroughly if
we did not have the pencil when writing out compositions & Inshas back in
primary school. Also I had not yet started studying
because of 1 or 2 reasons.
So I bought my stationery as well, two weeks after classes had started. I paid
for the stuff and we left the supermarket. We walked to our respective mat
stops and coincidentally they were opposite each other, across the road. We stood
at the middle pavement and continued talking. It was almost 8pm. It had to end
and Bram & Brian said goodbye.
I got home 15 minutes later and my head was thumping shower!
Shower! Shower! I went to my room. Lazily packed the stationery into my school
bag. I then soaked my laundry, and hit the shower. It was refreshing. I charged
my phones and took my diary from my bag. Which I had not opened since I put it
there in the morning. I sat at my desk and emptied the receipts in my bag and
did the weekends financials. I cleaned up and defragmented my disks which had
begun misbehaving. I read my mails from all centers and wrote several articles,
some for my blog and others personal.
I washed the laundry I had soaked and hang them out to dry.
I packed my bag for school and went through the week’s program. It was when I
was done with all I considered strenuous that I warmed my supper on the
microwave and settled down to eat. For once I would sleep early. Tomorrow is a
crazy day. The time now is 11.30pm
Hi. Same Old Drama, Different Day. This blog is about me and others, nature, life, blah blah and why everything I like is great even the hurting - still great. If you disagree with anything you find on this page, Well. . . You are probably right..
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