Meandering through some streets of Deira market – Echoes Of My Neighbourhood #7

January 28, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha54 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 love to explore my neighbourhood with glee.

Most times, while doing so, I feel like a kid unwrapping a present, keeping my eyes peeled.

It always bolsters my spirit, just watching people go about their daily lives with smiles or frowns, talking or not talking.

Just watching.

Last week’s Echoes brought in quite some fresh views:

Aloha from sunny Maui, I refuse to be jealous of Never A Dull Bling’s living it up 😉

Do you Yaw-Yan or don’t you Yaw – Yan? I learnt something new from Anghulinghugotero.

This bottom of the garden, from Writing in North Norfolk would feed my muse with inspiration to no ends.

Divine Body Expressions from Oba in her neck of the woods.

How luscious from Deb Was Here.

Would you throw it out, if it were you? I still haven’t found the answer to this echo from Mandibelle.

Contrasting beauties from Lady Lee Manila.

Nope! I won’t mind having this corner view as a boss lady. Kat Myrman’s World.

Little things trigger thoughts of home for Pancake Bunnykins

So, when can we get a peek at yours? 🙂

Regards,

Five Sentence Inspiration · Inspiration - Motivation · Lifestyle · My Thinking Corner · Quotes For You · Weave that Dream

Tuesdays Trickles 5..My thinking corner…

January 19, 2016January 19, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha38 Comments

Every Tuesday, I share snippets of thoughts that I call ‘My Thinking Corner.’

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

Each Tuesday, share your very short snippets of positive, inspiring, motivating, health, spiritual, writing advice, clips, posts etc, that can serve as a prop to motivate others and simply add my link to your post.

I call it my thinking corner because, I actually take out a bit of time just to think through things, encapsulate my thoughts as much as possible and detoxify my mind.

It might work for you in a different way, but the idea is to get the positive thoughts flowing.

Please send in your little thoughts. You never know whose life you might inspire.

Sometimes we stare hard at a closed door for too long that we fail to see the new ones opening for us.

When we expunge the negative, we must endeavour to fill the space created with the positive, because nature abhors vacuum in our existence.

As difficult as it might be, hold on to those positive thoughts. It never fails to expand your coast and broaden the possibilities of your impossibilities.

We must pay conscious mind to how we live each day, so that when we look back, we have lots of reasons to smile.

We ought to respect ourselves, otherwise, no one else will!

This is Rosema of Reading Writers little nuggets Small Choices. In-depth in brevity.

The gift called today from Oba of the King’s Oracle fills me with beautiful thoughts.

Tuesday’s thoughts by Bisi of Femininematerz connects the dots of rising to the skill of your art.

Deep thoughts of Trickles and Tears from Diane of Ladies who lunch reviews.

Persevere. These very few words from simply me speaks very loud and clear.

Creative Writing · Fiction · Short Stories

Rolls of Dice…

January 18, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha28 Comments

Mike held his breath and closed his eyes. Anxiety curled in his stomach like viper.

He knew that the roll of the dice determined his doom.

For minutes, he reviled himself for the gambling, which overtook his senses.

Going to town with the lads had turned out not to be a very good idea.

A mug of beer became several and a roll of dice turned into several rolls too many.

‘I should have stuck with the coin machines.’ He thought.

‘What will I tell Bernadette?‘

‘How do I explain that I have lost the inheritance.’ ‘That we are heading for the poor house?‘

Like a man waiting for the knell of the tomb bell, the jingle of dices sounded ominous and then it stopped.

Gasps, shifting of bar stools and music in the background sounded louder.

Bracing himself he opened his eyes.

Incredible! By some lucky God of Roulette he won.

‘You lucky son of a gun,’ Todd pounded his back.

‘Well, drinks are on you.’

He collected his winnings, left several dollar bills for drinks and decided to go home.

In response to the FFAW photo prompt above. Thank you Etol for the photo and Priceless Joy for your enabling platform.

Inlinkz

A link to my neighbours/Community · Creative Writing · Family · Fiction · Short Stories

Fortune Unfounded…

January 17, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha32 Comments

The call for prayers blared through the loud speakers, the pull of the voice sounds compelling, but prayers are the furthest thing on Aashish’s mind.

He feels sad. He has no money to apply for residence visa for his wife and two daughters to join him and the much that he earns is barely enough to tide him over, after he had sent some home.

It’s Sunita’s birthday today, he thought that by now they would have been with him.

His children are growing up without him and yet the fortune that he sought, leaving them behind eluded him.

He pulls out the crumpled, almost faded picture of his family. It was taken years back in one of the quick snap booths, on one of their rare visits to town. It has been five long years, since he last set eyes on them. He has failed them and his shoulders slump further.

Sometimes his spirits are buoyed with stories of people winning lotteries and he struggled to buy a ticket, but it was always someone else who won.

He felt he was better off back home on his farm in Nepal and doing odd jobs to augment their meagre income.

At least he will get to be with his family again and he will be happier again and Anu will understand, he hopes.

Being away from his wife has been the hardest part. The fees for entertaining himself with one of the willing ladies was just too much luxury for him.

With a sigh of pent up emotions, he fished out his rubber-bound telephone from his pocket and dialed his brother’s number.

Hello Aadit, tell Anu that I am coming home, he said.

From my neighbours yards, I harvested these thoughts and would like to share them with you.

Feeding The Tiger, Fighting The Lions, from Deborah Crocker.

Getting That Book Constructed For Submission, from Connie Jasperson

How to easily find time for stress free blogging , from Janice Wald

I enjoyed reading Life Lessons from voyager of freedom.

Curative list of 2016 writing competitions from Yelhispressing

A little teaser for you from A Momma’s view.

A tale of two dips, from what’s for dinner moms.

Devotions · Gratitude · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · Life · Love

I am grateful and blessed to have you as my friend…

January 13, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha47 Comments

Life brings friends our way who turn out to become our families in almost every sense of the word and I am particularly grateful for such a friend as my dear good friend Mrs. Ekaete Augustine-Edet.

We have journeyed together from our days as single ladies working at the French Embassy, Lagos Nigeria almost two decades ago, to today as mothers and wives and she has remained such a steadfast friend, sister and motivator.

She is one of the driving forces behind my starting my blog, because she believes in me and my writing skills. She kept asking me when I would start my blog, until I got started.

She is there anytime I call with a need or something on my mind. I had reason to make such a call and as usual she selflessly gave of herself, her time and her pocket.

I thank God for a friend like you and really don’t have much words to appreciate your kindness.

On another hand, I have been blessed with running into interesting characters since last week.

Two lovely neighbourhood dogs, Lola and Cookie and Meow, The cat seem to have adopted me for reasons best known to them, though I do stop to say hello to the cute dogs when I am taking my walk and they are out and about.

Meow is a lone ranger, but always appears by the chair where I sit sometimes to watch the World go by and he rubs himself on my pants legs seeking attention.

I am more a dog person and not particularly a cat person but strangely, this would be the third encounter where different neighbourhood felines come up to say hello.

Since I don’t know much about felines, maybe those who do can tell me what this indicates.

I am grateful for little meaningless moments like this. They end up meaning a lot when we appreciate them and each moment that I spend in a state of gratitude, the phrase that the best things in life are for free couldn’t be more true than it is.

There is so much to be thankful for. Just look around and you will see.

You can join Colline’s or Maria Jansson‘s gratitude challenge platforms

Regards and blessings

The Daily Post

Fast Forward Please…

January 12, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha18 Comments

In as much as it can be fun to reminisce and recall those lovely times or not so lovely times that we had as teenagers and even as toddlers, I think the year is still a bit young for me to be living in the doldrums of the past and feeling wistful over things that are bygone.

Ask me again, on a day that I have just finished listening to a heart tugging music or read something sappy, or better still, hang around till the next holidays and toss the question right back at me, then, I just might be in the mood for poignant reflections that would have you pulling out your tissue box.

Now as it is, my brain cells are in the front drive and looking totally forward to newer forays and exploits. Today, this moment, now, is my present, so let’s focus on that.

Turn the next chapter please.

The Daily Post Prompt If I could Turn Back Time.

If you could return to the past to relive a part of your life, either to experience the wonderful bits again, or to do something over, which part of you life would you return to? Why?

Five Sentence Inspiration · Hope · Inspiration - Motivation · My Thinking Corner

Tuesdays Trickles

January 12, 2016January 17, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

Every Tuesday, I share snippets of thoughts that I call ‘My Thinking Corner.’

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

I call it my thinking corner because, I actually take out a bit of time just to think through things, encapsulate my thoughts as much as possible and detoxify my mind.

It might work for you in a different way, but the idea is to get the positive thoughts flowing.

Every last Tuesday of the month, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated through the month and their thoughts.

I hope to see you join. Best regards.

When you run your own race, the chance is high that you will win, but when you run another person’s race, you will spend your time looking at their behinds.

The beauty in you, will only shine when you start to see for yourself that you are a masterpiece.

Motivation comes from the constant recharging of the muscles of your mind.

Remember that the lessons from the heat of a fiery experience, refines you into a more exquisite quality.

To those who still have hope, the strength surely comes.

Life · Writing

Save Me From Myself…Help! This is torturous.

January 12, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha45 Comments

I am not crazy and I am not exaggerating.

Sometimes, my muse runs off into the wild winds not to be found.

But that sometimes is very, very rare.

As a matter of fact, I am wishing that the muse would run off for some days and let me have peace.

How do you quieten the thousand voices of characters in your head, with ideas racing from pillar to post and vying for your attention.

A lot of times my body is tired but my brain remains supercharged and the voices just won’t keep quiet.

It’s totally driving me mad.

Even when I say that I am not going to think. I STILL THINK.

Hey! Is anybody out there? I need good tips of how to kill a muse and get some sleep.

What do you do to keep the voices in your head shut? Short of hitting my head with a sledgehammer!

Creative Writing · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Poetry/Poems

I wonder how long they will last?…

January 3, 2016January 3, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

The gym overflows to the brim
Every corner occupied to its seam
The svelte and the porky
The taut and the cuddly
All gathered in the square space
Intents burning in avid blaze
Brand new gears all donned for the show
Sweat trickles down and dots the brows
The man with the wobbly one pack
See’s in his mind a defined six pack
The lady with the pouting lips
Takes the 50th selfie as she takes another leap
The dude with true six packs
Simply shows off with all the weight racks
The sage mother like I, walks sedately on a climb
We offer each other a nod and a smile
We huff and we puff
We groan and we grunt
I haven’t seen the gym this way
No. Not in many months of May
I know the new ‘Resolutioners’
With the Dre beats and everything new
Let’s watch and see how long
The new fad will continue to brew.

Family · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Personal story · The Daily Post

For Sanity’s Sake…

December 17, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha30 Comments

I have always felt that evenings are meant for kicking back and relaxing after a days hectic job, either with family, doing what families do; eat, talk, laugh, squabble, watch TV, do homework etc.

I would rather close my day reading a good book, or browsing the dailies and just talking off my husbands ears with tidbits of the news.

I also enjoy the quiet time of going through my mailbox or lazily catching up with the blogs, with the sounds of my household in the background.

On days that I feel like stepping out for the night, we could just take a leisurely drive through town, grab a pizza or watch a movie with pop-corn and all the works.

I simply cherish my evenings and due to that, I prefer to do my work in the mornings; bright and early, I am ticking to go and by evening time, I am mentally not in the mood to burn.

The downside with that is that what I cannot get done with by 7pm, gets shoved over to the next day.

It does not escape my mind that there are some whose livelihoods revolve around night jobs.

I truly cannot fathom how they do it, year after year without turning into grumps.

I would go bonkers and probably turn into an ogress – QED.

The Daily Post prompt Because the night.

Are you a night owl or are you the early bird? What’s your most productive time of day? When do you do your best work?