And the story so far

So the driving instructor lost her grandad and postponed on me but she arrived a few weeks later and I braved the roads of North London and drove for 2 hours. She pronounced me teachable and so far I have had 2, 2 hour lessons and have driven BabaLopes to and from the shops. He seems to want to get used to being a passenger. I do hate roundabouts and I have scratched the alloys on the front tyre. See I am picking up driver speak. What the heck are alloys?

I moved a car and lived to tell the tale. I can see a hidden Speedy Gonzales begin to surface as my foot has a mind of it's own and sort of presses the gas extra hard. I am driving an automatic and so don't need clutch and gears etc. Anyway, I have banished the scary spectre of driving and I believe that I can do it. I do have to subdue my road rage tendencies as a mad lady hooted at me and overtook and I promptly stepped on the gas and wanted to give chase until the driving instructor calmed me down :)

Lopes had settling in at her new school and I confess that I have become an "let's do coffee" mum. Was fun though and I realised that I can be as sociable as they come. Next step will be a ladies who lunch move. Can't wait.

Also a dear friend of mine had a lovely baby boy. I need to get broody but I just can't yet. Help!

Weight update

Start 102ks

27 May 93kgs

Now 92.8kgs (I ate too much coconut candy and tea and biscuit and did no exercise) I am having a fat couple of days as I have ate too much puff puff at the naming ceremony yesterday! Was fun though.

End of July target 85kgs. Off to make some prawns and fish pepper soup.

PS. Can you keep a secret. Got some tickets for Lopes and she and I are going to see High School Musical at the theatre. I will be the mum with the HSM pom poms and singing like the best of them. Please don't tell Lopes as she will bug me till we go.

Tolu's prayer

Tolu's prayer;

Please Jesus, you know how to drive. Help my mummy to drive because you have Daddy power.

There you have it. I am sorted for my first driving lesson tomorrow morning at 8am. I will report on my progress. As Dr Naaps said, morons drive so there is hope for me :)

Have been great and having fun sorting out Tolu's room and putting up new pink curtains and things. You see, before she was born, we were so sure we were having a boy that we put up dark blue curtains. Well thankfully we had a girl (I would advise all to pray for a girl as a first child) and she has firmly decided her favourite colour is pink. She liked purple, then yellow and orange and has now settled on pink and gold. So the carpet has been washed, curtains up and we are putting up massive flower stickers on the walls as my mural artwork leaves a lot to be desired.

I spy the sun and as I have been instructed by Hassan the gardener to water the plants, we are off in wellies and raincoat so Tolu can have a splash.

Diet update.
Starting weight 102kg (all in the backside and tummy) Have spindly legs and it's a wonder I don't fall over backwards.
Fell off wagon, gained 2kgs, Back on wagon lost 1kgs. Net loss 9kgs.
Current weight 93kgs
Target for end of July 85kgs.

I would never have believed that I would put actual figures up here, but what the hey. It's all good.

Driving update

Honest, I am not making it up. Received a text from the driving instructor on Friday morning that her grandfather passed away during the night. Really wanted to have gotten it over and done with as I did not really sleep due to the nerves. You would think I was going for a test and not a lesson.

Israel and New Breed - Alpha and Omega

My new favourite song. KML

My lil quirks

All the quirky posts got me thinking.

KML's quirky quirks

I make sequences out of nothing. They make no sense but I make them anyway. Cars, paving blocks, shower tiles etc.

I hate odd numbers. I always get things in multiples or give things away in multiples. However, I do have only one husband and one child!

When I set the alarm for the next morning, I feel deprived if the wake up time is less than 8 hours which is the magic number.

I like the smell of rain. I have been known to spray bare bricks with my water spray gun and sniff the bricks.

I love the number 2. I do the 2 times table in my head up to very big numbers and then get lost in my head.

I hold imaginary conversations with people I really want to give a huge telling off with the loud talking and gesticulations. Call it rehearsals or letting off steam, I always feel better afterwards and the people I should be telling off are none the wiser.

I clean all the grouting in my house with an electric toothbrush. It gets into all the little spaces which collect dirt.

I hate shopping. If I have to go out shopping, I make a list of what I am going to get, what shops I am going to get them from and then map my route for the day. Or else, I do it all online, even groceries.

I cannot ride a bicycle. I kept falling off as a child. Something to do with inner ears and balance. Still can't ride. However, that excuse does not work for my inability to drive, hence my soon to start intensive lessons.

I love ironing. Have not done it in a while but find it very therapeutic if I am all alone. Actually all housework is lovely if they all just left the house. Same with cooking.

My idea of a lovely weekend, is food, drink, all the remotes in the house and the phones and just me. No husband, no child, just me. Hmm. The selfish theme again.

I hate travelling. I just love arriving. Packing, dashing to airports or any ports, I can do without. Will be first in line for teleportation.

And this is an additional one. Every chicken I cook must not have a single feather or hair so after cleaning, I use a blowtorch to give it the once over. Also any other animal must have no hairs so I shave the skin on the leg of pork/lamp etcl

Therapy over. BabaLopes is a year old tomorrow and Lopes and I are making cupcakes. Will post the pics. In case we do not get the decorations right, we also bought a cake today.

ps.

We made the cupcakes. See pic above. Could have used brighter colours but we got a bit tired. Now we are just about to shorten the birthday message from Happy Birthday Daddy to Happy Birthday Dad. Lopes and I get a cupcake each :)

Where was I??

Well, I just had to update for fear that SSD will send me a virtual smack with the missing koboko. Have been "just there". Can't seem to shake off this holding pattern feeling I have. And this too shall pass as Gramps used to day.

Thanks for all my birthday wishes. Had a good time with Lope insisting we had a cake. She was dissapointed that there was no party as she thinks birthday and party are one an the same! Did not eat loads but after 3 days off my diet plan, I hopped on my new toy, A nintendo wii fit and it had the audacity to ask why I had gained so much weight and to pick one reason from the list. I shamefacedly confessed to eating too much. Not my fault as Daddylopes took me out to an Indian restaurant which I have put down as a labour of love as he does not really love Indian food. As an aside, I seem to be slowly fading away. Have so far dropped 11kgs and feeling quite good with myself :) Still a way to go but one step at a time.

So far May has been good. Lovely weather and hot sunshine. We had an impromptu bbq yesterday and I would have put up some pics of the very authentic suya we made, but alas we scoffed the lot. While we were out shopping pre bbq, Lopes and her cousin decided to do some tap dancing in the supermaket in their flip flops. The problem was that they shouted for all to watch their "Lap" dancing. I did assure the viewing public that I had no idea where they got that from.

I finally got round to calling the Intensive driving school to make an appointment as I have to be driving in September when Lopes starts school. I must have a deeper fear than I thought as I was sweating buckets while I was on the phone. God help me. So you all won't say you were not warned, I will be embarking on the intensive driving course starting on the 2nd of June (Ta Ramy). So if you are in North London, stay at home!!

Food Glorious food, High School Musical...

Well as you all know, I slowed down on the cooking front and got a lovely lady to bulk cook for me. I am a fantastic cook, even if I say so myself, but only love cooking when I have the luxury or spending a whole day uninterrupted in the kitchen. Seeing as that will never happen and Lopes cannot go through 5 minutes withou asking questions or letting you in on her numerous observations, I have decided to get back in the saddle. So in the last week or so I have cooked:

Okra Ogbono with chicken, goat meat, shaki, smoked fish and fresh prawns

Assorted Meat and Chicken Stew

Beans and sweetcorn.

Efo Elegusi

All packed and put in the freezer, ready meals Naija style.

I also have some wateryam waiting for the Ikokore treatment and ordinary yam waiting for the Asaro treatment. And then I found a Fish Market and they sell fresh Red Bream and Tilapia. Fish soup coming up.

Now the irony of all this food is that I cannot eat most of the food as I am cutting out my carbs. To good effect, one day, I will post a before and after pic :)

High School Musical, HSM
Lopes loves HSM and that is an understatement. So in a fit of madness, I bought her a game for the Nintendo wii, which is basically a Karaoke game with all the songs from HSM1 and HSM2. We now fight over the mic and shamefaced Mum, or shameless Mum even, waits till she goes to bed and pretends to be a Rock Star in the making.

Birthday Alert.
Please beg God on my behalf. I do not mean to appear ungrateful for my forthcoming birthday but I always get a bit down near my birthday or New Year. This year, I will try to be cheery, So Help me God. PS. I expect presents, real and not virtual on the 28th of April when I will be older and wiser, we hope!

I need to start reading again.

I had been looking forward to watching "The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency" on the BBC on Easter Sunday. I say had, because even though I am still looking forward to watching it, I was most upset to hear that the Director, Anthony Minghella died yesterday. For some reason, the news of his death really moved me. I have never been a fan but I just liked him.

So in his honour, I am going to start reading again. Real books and intend to start at the front and not jump to the last few pages after an hour. So I will start with some books by Alexander McCall Smith, the writer of the The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Any suggestions welcome. I have to warn you that I do not want deep, meaningful, sad books. Life is enough for that. I want humour, not too chick lit, some depth and meaning but not enough to make me want to slit my wrists. My Amazon basket needs filling so get commenting.

Off to hunt for Frejon beans and a good recipe for Easter. Might have to cook with the phone to my ear, listening to Mama Kemi's instructions! I see confused looks, Frejon?? Mashed black beans, cooked with coconut milk and sugar. Eaten with sieved gari and fish soup. I want my mummy!!