Hacking It Off! What I got up to in January #1 – personal

February 2, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha109 Comments

My 2016 started with a big step that I had been contemplating for some time. For the first time in forever, I hacked off my hair. It was a way of saying Happy New Year to me.

I even jump in alarmed trepidation as I say this.

I never knew that I would finally have the gumption to take the step to cut my hair down to a low cut and carry it like that, but I am totally loving it.

Why did I take such a drastic decision after decades or perming, curling, weaves and all what not?

The answer is as simple as the fact that I just needed a break from all the stress. Let me give you a brief synopsis.

A lot of African ladies or women of Negroid genetics might relate with me. Our kinky hair can be quite ‘a handful’ to manage and because of that, we have it in constant perm or weaves or braids which takes hours on end to go through the process in the salons. I was just tired of living under the thumbs of a salon dryer.
Due to the time involved in having these hair-dos, and the need to keep it looking good, we avoid our hair getting wet by all means; hence, when I go to the pool, I find myself keeping my hair at an odd angle, never willing to enjoy a good swim because of that. A good number of African ladies that I know don’t mind getting soaked to the skin under the rain but they must find a piece of nylon to shield their hair. Giiirlll! I was sick of the torment especially living in a neighbourhood where the pool stared at me, morning, afternoon and evening.
The cost of keeping the hair in the latest style is not cheap. I am not complaining about the cost, but sometimes, I think it’s a big rip off especially in the Western World where doing your hair costs an arm and a leg. Besides, all the perms and stuff was just making my poor tendrils get thinner by the day.

So there it is and that list up there could go on…..

Now I stand under the shower and enjoy the warm water cascading down and soothing my poor, frazzled brain.

I swim without any worries. I don’t even bother to blow-dry it. Just apply coconut oil and let it dry by itself.

I don’t have to bother plunking my butt down for hours on end for any hairdresser, for now at least. I am totally tickled and thrilled.

Now, I will rock it until I get bored and I can always choose what next to do. I can always revert to the braids and weaves to switch up my looks, though I am seriously contemplating getting them locked into fabulous locks.

The good thing is that I thought I wouldn’t have the nerves to do it, but I braved it and did it. My dear Himself was shocked at first, but it’s growing on him 😉

A few of the different looks.

Challenges · Inspiration - Motivation · Lifestyle · Stream of Consciousness Saturday. · This Is My Life

An Averted Anxiety Moment…Streams Of Consciousness Saturday.

January 30, 2016February 1, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha25 Comments

Today is one of those days. I woke up with AN anxious pressing of thoughts, yet my mind was scattered to the four winds and I initially could not pin down what it was that caused the pressing niggles.

It was such that I felt like not doing anything but just crawling between the sheets and allowing the thoughts marinate and vacillate.

This was not the ‘I am feeling lazy today thoughts,’ rather, it was more like the ‘let me stew in some unknown worry and annoyance thought.’

However, I knew the fore-warnings and the possible resultant effects of such marinating. I would gradually spiral into a ball of anxious worry wart and by the end of the day, the snappy, stressed dragon will start showing it’s ugly face and it just goes downhill.

So I had to actively decide to turn my ANxiety moment into an active moment and I did just three things before the emotional waves came into balance.

These are the three simple things that I did:

I prayed briefly with my children.

I dragged on my exercising clothes and lazily sweated out for an hour and twenty minutes.

After the sweating, I sat in my thinking corner and turned to piece my thoughts apart to try and put my fingers on the niggles. Some thoughts were dealt with and resolved as quickly as a phone call. Other thoughts were written down and turned into action points to be resolved at assigned specific times.

Doing these three things decompressed my mind. I found myself back to a balanced tandem and my day continued on a good note.

Those moments of ANxiety can possibly be turned into moments of ANswers, but it takes a lot of conscious effort to deal with it.

I have learnt over time, that putting pressing thoughts or issues off or pushing them under the rug does not make them go away, rather the rug only gets higher.

This is my first post in relation Stream of Consciousness challenge and we Linda has asked us to use ‘an’ for today’s prompt.

Life · Lifestyle · Love · Personal story · The Great Book Of Lists

My Lettered Mind… The Great Book Of Lists Chapter 1.4

January 28, 2016January 28, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha46 Comments

At a young age, deciphering the lettering in the pages of a book became No. 1 on the list of my favourite things and if it is possible to say, I would say that I gobbled up literature with such veracity, that one would think it was an Olympic contest.

The adventure that I have with books has led to a rhyme or two words.

Out of my forays in reading, I got to learn that I am an incurable romantic realist *if such a term exists* and I always look for the happy endings or at least something heartwarming.

I read several horrors after a fad and found it absolutely not to my taste.

Yes, I admit, the amount of Mills & Boons, Harlequin Romances, Barbara Cartlands, Penny Jordan’s, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Amanda Quick and the rest of the crew that I read, must have contributed some coins from my piggy bank to the authors pockets and it’s amazing how much content the brain can take in and still keep soaking up more each day.

Ah! These brings back the days of mobile library and the ice-cream van to my mind. The two always seemed to come around the school premises almost at the same time and now that I think about it, that ice-cream man must have been responsible for my love for sweets. Just imagine bringing my two favourite things together 😉

I digress. Back to some of the books that caught my mind, held my thoughts and stoked my imagination enough to steal into the toilet for a quick page of reading when I was meant to be watching the beans on the fire and yes, a page turned to several and the beans got burnt.

For this weeks The books that transport me, chapter 1.4 of TGBOL, these ones come easily to my mind:

Lorna Doone – Richard Doddridge Blackmore
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
The Basket Of Flowers – Christope Von Schmid
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Gone with the wind – Margaret Mitchell
Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
Sands Of Time – Sidney Sheldon
The Secret Garden – Frances Burnett
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
The Merchant Of Venice – William Shakespeare
Comics of : Archie, Betty & Veronica, Jughead, ASTERIX, TinTin
Fairy tales by The Brothers Grimms
Enid Blyton books

Numbers 18, 19 and 20, I pretend to buy for my children and still sneak in a good read and a chortle. Please, you are free to think whatever, I am still a child at heart 😉

Family · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · The Daily Post · This Is My Life

The Dear Diary Day’s…

January 26, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha31 Comments

Of course there was life before the computer and there will still be life after the computer.

It’s called ‘Living and The Dear Diary Day’s.

Before I started blogging, my dear diary took the brunt of my words and my dear Himself’s ears were perpetually hot from lending his ears to my nattering.

Now he can flip through the channels in peace while my gleaming eyes are dancing as I mumble and mutter over the clattering computer.

I still scribble a lot in dear diary, though not everything anymore and sometimes, I do get the feeling that she feels disenfranchised because at times, I feel her giving me the cold shoulder when I want to write those personal tidbits at the end of the day.

My typical day starts at 4.30 am on school days, when the alarm shrieks to wake me up. I groggily waddle to the bathroom to take care of business with eyes at half-mast so that the sleep can be retained for a little longer.

I then lie back for a few more minutes and just either read the Bible or pray quietly, going through things in my head. I enjoy that part of the morning when everywhere is quiet.

With school age kids, I prepare their breakfast and a meal that they take to school. On a lazy day, I slap a sandwich together. They have a canteen, but I am not particularly enthused with the offerings especially since my younger son has allergies.

We get ready for school and hopefully the morning goes sanely without looking for a missing sock, or pencil pouch or their glasses and what have you. It’s always a nice morning bustle.

After shooing them off to school, I try to get in some brisk exercise or lazy walk and just take in the fresh air.

Thankfully, for the past few months, I have not had to dash off to work like a headless chicken as well, but that might change anytime soon, when I get back to school myself.

The rest of my day follows with attending to Himself as well, planning the days meal, dashing out for xyz, homework’s, housework, personal business, reading, writing, listening to music and what have you.

Some days involve church work, charity work, this and that and those work, but life is usually full of odds and ends of things to do.

Now that I blog, I also fit it into my days schedule. Blog early. Switch off and get other things done, then come back to the blog later when the dust of the day has settled.

I keep pretty much busy without my computer, but please don’t get any ideas of coming to take it away.

I just got this new one when the old one gave up from exhaustion during Christmas, though I think my dear diary would be secretly pleased if you nick my computer.

The Daily Post Life After Blogs.

Your life without a computer: what does it look like?

A link to my neighbours/Community · Dubai · Echos Of My Neighbourhood · Photographs · This Is My Life

Echoes Of My Neighbourhood # 6…

January 21, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha67 Comments

On Thursday’s, I share a picture about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple.

Every Thursday, share a photo of bits and pieces of wherever you are at any point in time. It could be houses, backgrounds of your neighbourhood, activities and so forth and you can tag it Echos of my Neighbourhood, add my link to your post so that I will get the ping from your post.

Every other Thursday, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated the previous week.

This is just a fun way of getting to see more of the World around us through your eyes, since we cannot all be at those places, we can at least see them through you.

I look forward to seeing your pictures.

Best regards,

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

For Last Echoes, the following interesting submissions came from :

In the bonnet from Mandibelle. Very cute and smile worthy. She has only grown bigger. 😉

This lovely trail from Wandering Poet. Calming environment. A good place to be

By the way, whose feet is bigger? By Kat Myrman of Mercury Colliding. I didn’t want to guess, lest I am wrong in my assumption. What do you think 😉

The Meeting Spot from Pancake Bunnykins seems like where some interesting conversation would go on.

Chemtrails in the sky from Spiritual Journey leaves you wondering. Take a look.

Let’s see some of yours PLLLEEEEAAAZZEE 🙂

Humor - Bellyful of laughter · The Daily Post · This Is My Life

Hear I Warble…Something New.

January 19, 2016January 19, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha63 Comments

I laughed out very loud when I read this prompt, because I have been tinkering around with the voice recorder and I said to myself that WordPress is out to get me 😉

I have no particular reason to cringe at my own voice, other than the fact that I think my voice warbles instead of coming out smoother when I sing, but hey, I gotta love what I have.

So WordPress, the simple truth is that I can live with my voice. What would I do if I don’t like it? Nothing. So I have to love it’s dusky tone and squeeze the best out of my juke box.

I have been working on reading my poetry online, but still haven’t gotten round to doing so even though I have a few recordings of my voice.

In family videos, I am either running around serving everyone else, or laughing so loud that I doubt if I am ever caught looking as cool as cucumber.

So for the voice part here goes.

You be the judge.

The Daily Post Can’t Stand Me.

What do you find more unbearable: watching a video of yourself, or listening to a recording of your voice? Why?

Image credit: Pinterest.

Personal story · This Is My Life

I Am Still Standing…personal story.

January 18, 2016January 19, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha44 Comments

Wisdom chose to come to me through my journey. I didn’t come by wisdom per chance. We all have our individual messages in our stories and each day, it unfolds itself for those who choose to see. 1453177669459[1]

What gives me the reason to believe at the end of the day is so simple ‘that my life has a purpose.’

My Faith is not magic, but a conscious choice to trust God even when I am confused, depressed and cannot make sense of it all.

A lot of times, I have faced adversities, but I always ask myself? What do I turn to in these difficult times? What should I do, when it seems like everything is threatening to cave in?

I simply stand in prayer and walk through the pain. I cry through the pain and this is where my strength comes from. It is not that by persevering I don’t ever doubt or feel exhausted. I do feel all these things, but what I know for sure and from my experience is that there is no strength without adversities and sometimes a lot of pain as well.

Those painful experiences that chase to break you, often times builds your courage and determination if only you persevere.

It’s Gods mercy that kept me through these adversities that would have kept me under or had me turn to negative alternative means to get through them.

It’s Gods mercy that sustained me from dying at the hands of molesters who nearly strangled me.

It was God’s mercy that preserved my life through a fatal road accident that took the life of another.

It’s God’s mercy that rescued me from the Snare of the Fowler in the name of armed robbers, not once but thrice in Lagos.

It’s God’s mercy that kept my mind sane through series of miscarriages and a still birth of my child.

I kept it all in. I pretended to be okay. I trudged on. I smiled, but I bled inside and I wore a brave face outside.

Some of these stories I hesitate to share in depth because I don’t seek for pity and it is difficult to talk through them.

There are days that I look back and wonder. There are days that anger or depression wants to light up inside me for some of these things, but I refuse to go down that rabbits hole. I stand.

Each day Grace meets me and tells me that it’s okay.

Each day Hope tells me not to give up.

Each day my Faith says ‘do not despair’ ‘That what is in front is greater than the one behind.’

Some have asked me before, how I can believe, how I can trust and have faith in a God who allows certain things to happen to some people?

My answer to them is ‘how can I not, when I am a living testimony of Grace and Mercy.’ Know this and know it well, the enemy will always attack us through any means possible, which is why he is called The Enemy. What matters is how we walk through that fire.

Each day at the end of it all, I know that without Faith, Mercy, Hope, Grace, Favour, Trust and Redemption, the story of my life’s journey might have ended long before now.

There is an undefinable reason why it’s called Amazing Grace and each day, I hold out my cup for a portion of grace which is sufficient unto my day.

It’s called amazing grace because through the wounds and the hurt, through the broken spirit and the flayed mind, I am here and I am still standing.

The Daily Post Reason To Believe.

In Reason to Believe, Bruce Springsteen sings, “At the end of every hard-earned day / people find some reason to believe.” What’s your reason to believe?

Personal story

A Personal Interview…

January 15, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha33 Comments

I felt very honoured when Success Inspirer sent me an email requesting a personal interview about myself which I was glad to grant.

It would be a big pleasure if you find a few minutes to follow click on this Link for the interview.
Now let me go and sip some Chapman. I am feeling like a star 😉

Regards and have a good weekend.

Life · Lifestyle · This Is My Life

The Little Things That I Love…The great book of lists.

January 14, 2016January 14, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha51 Comments

I am late for this party, the great book of lists challenge, considering that I re-blogged the post and was all excited. Somehow, I failed to start off last week.

However, I am still going to gate crash and hope that La Duchesse Derat won’t throw me out without as much as a mince pie and a glass of warm drink.

I love waking up early when the entire house is quiet, lying still and just listening to the breathing of my husband beside me as I think through my day and make a mental to do list.

I love my early morning brisk walks especially with crisp cold breeze on my face and my denuded face free from any artifice soaking it all in.

I love those sights of little things that I get to see when I am out and about – like a flock of birds in a feeding frenzy and the naughty Cat that came and made them run away, or a budding pretty flower – such sights are fuel to my mind.

I love the tingly foot massage that my young ones take turns to give me. It is nowhere near professional but it is so soothing. Sometimes they throw in a neck rub.

I love those little moments when my youngest keeps offering to make me his special sandwich; which equals a slathered helping of peanut butter and toast, with a nice cup of beverage and he tells me ‘I love you mummy, enjoy your sandwich.’

I love having a full pantry of food even if I don’t have money in my pocket. It always leaves me with a contented feeling and satisfaction when I do my bulk shopping for the household.

I love having people around me. It always gives me a warm feeling, even though, I occasionally hibernate, which, by the way never lasts long to deserve that lengthy word.

I absolutely love to dance to my long playlist while working out. I steal in a wiggle or two. It’s like working out two things at once; My Body and my Soul.

Life · Love · Personal story · The Daily Post

All My Crushes…

January 11, 2016January 11, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha31 Comments

The eclectic taste that I have in things stretches to the domain of music as well and I have my late dad to thank for nurturing my mind with the plethora of sounds of music from different artists that floated through our home and seeped into my young veins.

I like music from all the artists enumerated below including the legend, David Bowie, may he rest in peace.

However, my young heart was completely enamoured by the Jackson 5’s and a little later just Michael Jackson. Me and my siblings danced to their beats and attempted all manners of moves that I cannot dare try now, for want of not breaking my legs.

As I got older, Boyz II Men became a teenage crush, though MJ still retained a special place.

Though there is an artist whose songs haunt my life a lot of times and that is the legendary Mama Africa ‘Miriam Makeba.’ There is something in some of her renditions that simply has me curling up and in bitter-sweet tears.

Till today, dancing ‘just because‘ still remains one of my biggest ways of relaxing, of laughing and I am known to lapse into singing – more like warbling tunes, when I am upset too.

It has a way of calming me down and I think my husband recognizes this as well. Once he annoys me and I start singing, he knows that I am deeply pained and my way of riding through it, is either to write it out, sing away the pain or dance to the beats.

You cannot sing or dance and remain angry because Music is simply laughter for the Soul as long as it is not filled with hate and abusive words.

The Daily Post prompt Teen Age Idol.

Who did you idolize as a teenager? Did you go crazy for the Beatles? Ga-ga over Duran Duran? In love with Justin Bieber? Did you think Elvis was the livin’ end?