Wasi has something to share

(*snappy title, i know!) so. i just chatted to a friend about what i wrote about last night .  and about the new years' resolutions i made in january - whether i'd actually stuck to them or not.  we concluded that i had managed some (definitely done more photography and more writing, spent more time with friends, and learnt some stuff), a few i've sort of worked on (i'm a bit better at rationalising and actually believing my rationalising of my negative self-speak. a bit.), and some have just been a total fail (getting more sleep...going out less...erm, yeah, right). so, following on from my ground-breaking realisation that i actually need to take some action to stop this pretty blatantly destructive pattern of self-imposed sleep depravation, and all of the emotional issues that seem to be, if not resultant, at least somehow related to it, we came up with a bit of an action plan - three specific goals that i'll be putting into practice starting from tonight. unf...

it's 1.35.  a.m.  my eyes feel grainy, and all day, the right one has been twitching.  i am so tired, i kept dozing off during a conversation with my best friend earlier this evening, and my head aches, especially my ears. and there goes my right eye again. over the past week, i've averaged about 4-5 hours of sleep per night. this after coming back from two weeks in nigeria during which i regularly had rather broken nights of sleep, and the journey back overnight, during which i only slept for about an hour, between paris and london. i know i need sleep. and i will, soon. but i just needed to at least start this. anyone that knows me knows that the above is quite a regular pattern - i may go through periods where i start going to bed at a more normal time (say around midnight, relatively early by my standards), and get enough sleep.  but gradually, i will start slipping back into this mode - staying up later and later, my body and mind tired beyond belief, but...

today has been the epitome of total chilled-out-ness.  which was nice - for me, given i had nothing really to achieve - not so great for people trying to be productive. it was also jumaat prayer. which was also good. but now it's gone 11pm, and there's still a plumber in our house.  whilst it's nice that he's sorting out the taps, so that we don't have to keep carrying water from one room to another, i would just rather he goes home, and comes back another day to finish.  he's been here at least 5 hours. which is just ridiculous.  if i were him, i would no longer be doing my best work.  i get the impression he's feeling the same way. the day started before 7 am. again. with lots of waking up in the night. again.  at one point, i found myself just sat up in bed, staring at the full moon.  and also wishing the rooster around our way would learn when dawn is, and stick to crowing then.  it's going to be weird if this whole getting up early busines...

I left the house today, for the first time since I arrived.  A stone mason from Ibadan came down to talk business with my Mum - she's expanding the school she's built here, building on new plots of land not far from the original school. Driving in Nigeria is… a consummate skill (is that a tautology?).  There is no room for timidity or poor technique, because if you display either, there is a great possibility you will die.  I have much respect for anyone that commandeers a vehicle on the roads of Lagos - and cannot fathom people who seem perfectly happy to put their lives into the hands of okada (the small motorcycles that act as taxis) which flit in and out of other traffic, often with the bags carried by the passengers brushing the trucks, buses and cars that they zoom between.  And yet, perhaps because of the difficulty of manoeuvring the roads (at least, in the areas in and around Ikorodu, where my Mum's family all live), from what I can see at least, there seems...

Today: - the catherdal issued this statement which basically can be summed up by the following excerpt from the Dean's open letter to OccupyLSX: " With a heavy heart I have to tell you that St Paul’s Cathedral has to be closed today until further notice, because of the legal requirements placed upon us by fire, health and safety issues." - a statement was issued by OccupyLSX in return, basically stating that the camp feels it has met the requirements placed by the London Fire Brigade, and Health & Safety officials. The conclusion of an emergency meeting held this afternoon was a consensus that the camp will stay in place for now, and continue to pursue a positive dialogue with the church, in terms of finding out what exactly are the issues to health & safety, given the above all-clear. I took a BBC reporter to task for  In other news, tomorrow there will be celebrations of the camp's first week anniversary; there will be a public assembly at 1pm; and th...

The news this morning (especially that around the brutal eviction of Dale Farm) had me start the day feeling fed up and more than a litle hopeless.  What I see at Occupy LSX, and hear from the Occupy Movement in general, restored the hope that things can be different. Today I got to spend a good few hours at the camp.  Every day I note this, but... every day, it seems, in between my visits, there is growth and there is progress.  Talks, workshops and working groups continue - having attended a working group myself for the first time since Saturday, and also signing up to the Indy Media team, I find still a great level of incusion, real listening, and a welcoming of various ideas and opinions. General Assembly - rumours that the Cathedral have asked Occupy LSX to leave were officially quashed.  It seems The Times and the Evening Standard have got their facts wrong (great journalism as usual, then!) - a good inidcation, perhaps, that the initial positive reportin...

Only ended up being able to spend a v brief time at occupy lsx this evening.  While there, though, I was struck by the number of visitors it seems to be receiving.  Tourists streamed through, taking photos, marvelling at the efficiency of something that apparently is just 'a bunch of benefit scroungers'... Hmmmm.  Well, if that's the level of organisation, cooperation and true democracy that results from benefit scrounger, maybe we need a few more in power... oh wait, maybe that's what the expenses scandal was all about... A man asked another to film him beneath the 'Tahrir Square' sign, as he spoke in Arabic about what was happening around him.  A group of German high school students were led through, and an American couple were shown around, commenting on how great it was that the camp got the backing of the church. As usual (is it already 'usual'? I guess it is), walking round, I encountered a number of meetings, talks and people chatting - about th...

despite the flux of old blogs from my old facebook account i realised that i haven't actually written anything in a long while.  kind of been missing in action... you'd be forgiven for thinking i've just been sitting around with my feet up actually, i've just retreated a little from the virtual world i have been doing a fair bit of stuff, though...   gardening my niece and i started a whole nursery of seedlings on our balcony - that deserves  blog of its own. i've been taking a lot of photos and expanding my stash of camera bits the other day i actually referred to myself as a 'freelance photographer' - more in jest than anything else, really, though, just mimicking what a friend had just described me as.  not quite there yet. i've discovered new places  made first visits and had brilliant times learning from new friends developing friendships is one of  the things i've had a lot of time for other the past few months.  so whet...