a cooking pot and twisted tales
Thoughts and Tales…A Lifestyle Blog with a Zing.
Always earnest, you’re to say sorry,
but your blood drawn flaying words
are deeply engraved and
fail to be erased from a mind
that’s no longer blissfully blank
nor free of such vituperations.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Below is my first Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
![Spanish_2[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/spanish_21.jpg)
At each point in my life, I have found myself spending it on the acquisition of knowledge or a certain skill.
Some were reluctantly assimilated when my parents threw me inside pre-school in my diapers and then primary school for formal education when I would probably have preferred to stay home and play in the red-coloured sandy area of my childhood haunts.
Now I thank them for gritting their teeth as painful as it might have been and not paying heed to my wheedling cry to escape learning my alphabets.
Imbibing knowledge is second nature to man. Learning is both formal and informally through social interactions and in my opinion, learning for me is ad infinitum.
You are never too old to learn new stuff and yours truly here has a lengthy quest to pursue, but now I’m doing my pursuits with some pragmatic sense and not running after every learning fad that catches my fancy like my younger days.
Ruling out the different fancy classes my mother enrolled me in, in a bid to make a lady out of her formerly gangly daughter; piano classes, dressmaking, crocheting, knitting, music lessons – not that I could carry a good tune or play the violin but I managed to play the flute decently – to baking, cooking and whatever was in vogue, thankfully we didn’t have ballet back in my town otherwise I probably would have been made to stand on my toes and possibly break them in the process, I’ve pursued quite some learning routes myself.
Some of them turned out successful and some were almost a disaster for me and the tutor.
I’m bilingual. After spending close to five years learning French, I fancied myself becoming a Polyglot so I embarked on learning German and Spanish.
I doubt if I ever crossed the threshold of ‘Guten Morgen‘ to the German teacher’s dismay and the dismay of my pocket. I think my tongue was not thick enough for the language and it didn’t quite sound as romantic as the nasal French which seemed to suit my tongue far better.
My Spanish has been sporadic in learning but I managed to progress beyond ‘Cómo estás to ‘me llamo Jacqueline‘ and at least I had the good sense not to spend too much just in case the desire died a quick death.
I fancied finding myself becoming a Taekwondo Maestro or is it Maestra, and I can’t tell you it ended well.
I nearly succeeded in killing the instructor and myself and that put paid to such ambition. I nursed my painful thighs for weeks and I guess he nursed some part of his bruised parts that was inadvertently caught in my not too stellar attempts.
I’m sure he was glad when I didn’t renew the fees for another session.
Not that I’ve given up hope on being nimble and flipping in the air in a chopstick, but I’m thinking that yoga is safer for now – at least I can get to sneak in a snooze on the mat and at least use a DVD and not have to spend scarce funds for now.
However, I still have some learning ideas that I’m toying with…
After all, learning is a continuous process. It’s ad infinitum
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Learning, Discovery Challenge
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
The Daily post photo challenge is ‘spare’ and a number of spare thoughts and photos come to my mind.
Spare Change!
I went shopping at an old souk recently and the amiable shopkeeper of a gift store had a huge frame filled with currency from different parts of the World that he had been to over his 78 years of living.
While admiring his spare changes, I noticed the space with a missing currency and asked him about it, and surprisingly he knew the money that had been in there.
He said it was rare currency ‘Pa’anga’ from the less travelled country of Republic of Tonga, which is a Polynesian kingdom situated in the middle of the pacific.
He had no idea how the money disappeared from his framed collection and that set off all sorts of vibrant imaginative juices in my mind.
I must visit him again, ‘cos I have some conspiracy theories 🙂
Feeding the flock.
My last spare is about interesting art.Beautiful art can be made from all sorts of stuff, even rubbish. This creative piece below is made out of spare tyres and was part of an art exhibition.
The creative mind is a wonderful thing 🙂
Spare tyre art
P.S. You can join our Summer blog party taking place right now. It’s fun and you get to meet fantastic folks. Looking forward to seeing you 🙂
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
They say when dining with the Devil
use a very long fork
I say, it’s better not to dine at all
no matter how delightful those devilled
eggs may look
you might not live to tell the tale.
Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
P.S. You are invited to our monthly blog party this weekend. It’s fun and you get to meet fantastic folks
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
Countless times she forgot
but he reminded her
that His love
is free.
Countless times she doubted
but His steadfastness
was forever
enduring.
Countless times she fell
but His right hand
propped her
upright.
Countless troubles called
but he remained
a tower of
refuge.
💝
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
P.S. You are invited to our monthly blog party this weekend. It’s fun and you get to meet fantastic folks
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
Wrapped in his loving warmth
she unfurled in phases
her petals opened
in full bloom
Her previous inhibitions
were lost at this stage
painful compressions
forgotten
**
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
P.S. You are invited to our monthly blog party this weekend. It’s fun and you get to meet fantastic folks
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
One of the side effects of moving around so much is that a lot of times you find your heart in different places and you get nostalgic. Some days I wake up with severe pangs to find myself in Houston, France, Abuja or anywhere my heart wanders to.
This weekend, I have pangs to be in Lagos, my Lasgidi. I would probably be attending a wedding or one social event. There’s always something to celebrate even against all economic odds. The two photos are from weddings attended during my last visit in 2015.
Jubilant, The Daily Post Photo Challenge.
To my younger unassuming self
I have no apologies to tender for my past mistakes.
Maybe I could have done things differently if I had been wiser
maybe I would have been able to escape
a couple of raps from Life’s school of hard knocks
but looking back right now,
could I’ve been better, I’m quite doubtful?
For we are only as wise as we know
Could things have gone differently?
Maybe, who knows. It no longer matters. What matters is now.
For life happens and all that happened
did when I was busy making other plans.
Now to you, dear older me, get on with it while you can
and squeeze the last droplet of juice out of those lemons!
Your World and mine would probably be a much better place when people are more empathetic and apologetic for their mistakes.
An apology is a balm offered to soothe agitated nerves and calms ruffled feathers, yet these three simple words of remorse “I am sorry” can be so difficult for some humans to express.
Their belief is that tendering an apology is a sign of weakness, whereas the reverse is the case.
To apologise shows maturity and the ability to take ownership and responsibility.
It doesn’t strip the peace-keeper of his over-sized sense of ego, nor will it cause any drastic changes in his physical anatomy; tongue-in-cheek.
Note that I use ‘his’ in this instance. My apologies to the menfolk, but experience and history has shown that most men are slow to accept their faults, to apologize and diffuse tension. The chauvinistic drive in a good number of them can be incredulous.
They are more bent on arguing blindly just to hear themselves and to flex their muscles. Indeed, many disastrous incidents have happened due to mule-headedness and oversized egos.
That’s not to say that there are no stubborn females out there, but I dare say that the ratio is far less than the opposite sex.
To apologize comes very easily to a lot of women I know. For the benefit of doubt, I’m not a feminist in that sense of the word of let’s burn our bras and chuck out the sizzling red hot high heels; I really like my red heels and to me, being strongly feminine, is being comfortable in the skin and gender that nature gave me, without being objectified as a sex object.
I don’t believe in sweating the small stuff and bearing unnecessary grudges. This weighs down the burden bearer and as far as I’m concerned, I have enough to carry on my shoulders without adding the extra guilt of not saying and meaning these three words “I am sorry,” to that woman whose toes I might have crushed in the crowd or the one whose backside I ran into with a shopping cart, when I turned the shopping aisle into my driveway.
Nope! The young man who wanted to reshape my African backside never said sorry.
He just merrily continued his one-hand drive of his trolley and scrolling down his phone after a mere cursory glance in my direction.
Chivalry has become extinct as we speak. Long live chivalry.
Apology, Discover Challenge.
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
Expose my heart
that I may understand your words
through every conscious,
awakened pore of each moment.
**
*an excerpt from my poem*
Pensive is an upper-class word that means reflective
another way to say that you are introspective
or maybe a bit ruminative
Whatever stokes your senses to be cogitative
it’s all good to be perceptive
though some prefer to call it meditative.
Some writers love to use grandiose words like stamp duty
a pensive man they would describe as broody
which makes him sound more intense than moody
…and excuses his behaviour that might be kooky
especially in those romantic books that are juicy
or those paranormal stories that tend to be spooky
Of late I have been a bit pensive
a gamut of thoughts run through my head making me restive
I need to sort them and get progressive.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Pensive, The Daily Post Prompt
Below is my first Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
I hear you in my thoughts…
Your words of wisdom,
of love and encouragement…
They are etched upon my soul.
They keep me warm.
**
*an excerpt from my poem*
Seating in front of the shattered mirror
staring balefully at her reflection with brows in a furrow
she surveyed the expanse of her buxom parts
and noted with dissatisfaction that every jiggly part
was most definitely heading South.
***
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
South, The Daily Post Prompt.
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
Brand me whole as only you can
That the entire score of me
Knows nothing but the fullness of you.
a cooking pot and twisted tales 