Out and About!!

It's nearly the end of July already! at the begining of the year I made a couple of resolutions, whether I have kept them entirely is another story. One of them though is to swim. Well, my status on that hasn't changed much but I have given it a few tries. The first time, it was still winter and I went to an indoor pool which was very warm and cozy. It had a "learning" area carved out of the main pool, but was only seperated by a single barrier which carried a sign that told the experts to stay clear, but apparrently they had no regard for that! the experts kept scaring me off in the "learning area" as they came with their intimidating strokes from the other end to complete the long strech of the pool, some even splashed in from the jumping boards, doing so repeatedly and effortlessly, almost as if it didn't take anything to achieve it, which made me feel like I only came to fool around in a swim suit.
My teacher was a friend of mine that came from Hambourg, I decided to have a little of "private practive" before I went full time just so I can have more confidence by the time I joined my other adult beginners. Thankfully, I didn't drink the pool water or attract any risk of drowning, Infact, I was so good a student that even the safety guards in the pool area assisted me in making my feeble attempts at breast strokes, but deep inside I did all I could to keep my sense of humour to myself when by way of illustration I was urged to be still and release my body as a duck, let myself glide in the water like a fish and try to move my legs just like the frog does it lol.
Peter and Paul
I looked forward to more swimming lessons when I went to visit my friend in Hambourg but unfortunately we didn't have enough time however, I think it was worth missing....

First we were at a reggae party the night I arrived, which was bursting at it seems with people, most of the Africans were friendly and eagerly smiled their greetings, "Hallo! alles klar?" there was reggae music alright as the title of the event suggested, but nothing prepared me for the other songs that followed. Hmmm.. there was TuFace, AY.Com ..., all Nigerians! ok let me give the account calmly... First of all a song by P. square, Nigeria's famous twins when it comes to "Naija R and B" came on, and I was the only one that seemed to be standing with my mouth open, It was a song that the twins sang featuring J. Martins "E no easy o!" the excited club gave a yelp of approval when the song started, meaning it's that familiar! and a few seconds later when the verses started the DJ scratched the disc and went silent on some parts of the music which were echoed by the excited clubbers, to my shock (a delightful one anyway) rather than amusement I must say, because I was like, what?? in this very German enviroment.... broken english?? the parts of the song echoed are still in my head, it says ....e no easy eh! oh oh oh oh  to dey sing and dey dance and the people dey rejoice eh oh oh oh oh oh  I say ........no be today oh oh oh oh oh lol (highlighted parts were the echoed ones). That day I realised I never really gave much thought to the song that seems to be really appreciated by these clubbers that are so far away from the context of the song thus, i decided to enjoy the song and make up for what I had been missing..  my favourite part of the song goes like this:

"No be everybody wey sleep the night wake up see the light yeh

See the future is bright yeh, and e dey enter for eye yeh

Make you do your best yeh, Papa God go do the rest yeh

Even if you no get money,eheheh dey jolly dey shake body. ahahahah"

(notice the rhymes)LOL



Trying to strike a Pose with the Rathaus



The City Tour

The morning was the very important part of the trip for me, we were to see the city especially the impressive Parliament which they call the Rathouse and I was going sailing...., with a life jacket of course given my status. However I must confess that although swimming is not a popular culture in my background, coming to Europe, I was often embarrassed to admit I couldn't until I decided to agree "it's ok to admit that you don't know". Once I did that it wasn't too embarassing but i had to answer the question "so how do you feel learning to swim as an adult? is it difficult?" And my answer is often "well, the trouble is letting go and blocking out the thought of drowning," and then I change the topic of conversation lol. Hence, that explains my delight when during breakfast, my friend suggested we take the bicycles to the city so we can have more control of our movement round the city. I was so pleased with that suggestion because I felt hmmm this is my turf! one cannot afford to remove bicycles when talking about the highlights of my growing-up days, I cycled like I was nursing an ambition to take part in Tour de France. I hurriedly finished my breakfast and I went down to choose the one I would ride, I climed it and turned the pedal to the right position with my right leg, then I cycled it a short distance, stopped it with my left leg and i did a 180 degree turn, then I came back to the starting point, this time cycling a little faster than I left and then I pressed the brakes abruptly. Lol I could see the look of approval on my friend's face, she seemed visibly impressed by my intuition of trying the breaks and she commended me in Deutsch saying "aha bremsen! sehr wichtig" i.e, aha the brakes! Very Important. I cracked a few jokes like confirming if i needed a "cycling liscence" considering how thorough the Germans can be, but she assurred me it was ok, even though we had to check the headlamp because the authorities are very particular about the lights lol.
I rode "thirstily" enjoying the breeze brushing my face and the breath of clean fresh air, relishing each moment especially nodding at other cyclers as we made our way through the cycling path, obeying the traffic lights e.t.c. Disappointingly though, after a few hours of riding my stamina started to wane and I began to roll the bicycle rather than cycle, I felt stiff and easily out of breath and couldn't wait to get to any spot just to rest my bones. Refusing to ruin the whole experience at first, I consoled myself saying my legs were too short and I couldn't reach the pedals properly, so all the energy I use to reach the pedals is what is weighing me down.....
I had started a low sugar and no fatty foods diet but the sight of an Ice Cream parlour gave me every reason to park my ride, secure the locks and make my way there, using only gestures to explain my goal at that particular moment. By late afternoon the only strength left was to roll the bicycle, this continued until it was time to go home finally and we had to roll our two wheelers to the river bank where we took the Ferry to the other side of town.... given my earlier enthusiasm I was shame faced by the time we boarded the Ferry

The vehicles PS: Just incase you're wondering, Yes! mine is the red with white stripes