Sunday, February 27, 2011

Responsible blogging!

It has been a rather uneventful weekend with the usual couple of nights out thrown in. Apart from a little win at the casino and a few drinks around town there really is nothing to write about. I am now waiting for the next couple of hours to go by so I can go and watch Arsenal and Birmingham fight it out in the League Cup final!

Will this be the day when Arsenal get back to winning ways and prove that even with a team averaging 23 years old they can, in fact, win trophies!

Incidentally, I feel I should just take a little bit of time to warn a few of you reading this blog. (A rare moment of seriousness!) It has been drawn to my attention that I have written about casinos in quite a positive manner. I have also mentioned a couple of times that I have won money there. (Not a lot of money I hasten to add!) Now firstly, when I go to the casino I take a set amount of money with me. (20 cedis or about $13) and I go expecting to lose this money. If you have any ideas that the casino is a way of supplementing your income you are very mistaken!

Every time I have been to the casino (3 times!) I have seen men and women lose serious amounts of money! They will leave and them come back with more. It is very dangerous so please do not go if you can not afford to. Only go with the money you expect to spend on a night out.

You may think I am being overly serious here, but I felt this is necessary because I have had a couple of emails from people enquiring about going. (I must remember to blog responsibly!)

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Crazy Rain! Swim home?

Just a quick blog is this! It rained and rained and rained tonight! Wow! A serious storm. Rain, lightening and thunder for hours! Unfortunately I was stuck in pig farm (and area not and actual pig farm, which is fortunate!) where i was overseeing the quiz night the volunteers have every tuesday. After waiting out the storm inside for an hour or so, they decided to brave the weather and head out! This was my chance to also escape home!

After making sure everyone got a taxi (or a tro tro) home I was left in the street (now a river) in my jeans (worried about my phone) waiting for a taxi! none came! I could see from my position one taxi was parked up and a driver was sleeping inside! He stirred and i gestured for us to go and to my surprise ( he really looked to be enjoying his sleep!) he said lets go. I think he felt sorry for me, and he was really great to brave the weather and give me a ride home! We drove slowly the whole way and then we go to my road. We had to stop!

Near my house there is a huge gutter which carries goodness knows what down it! (a certain friend has in fact just warned me of what it carries down it and therefore after this post I will have to go and take a shower!) A car was stuck in the middle of this newly formed river with the water racing down either side of it half way up! I paid the driver (gave a little tip for his kindness) and decided to start wading on through! I got quite a way in to the river (up to my knees) and decided another route may be better.

It turned out there were no routes through and the other ways were even more dangerous! with the risk of actually being swepped down the gutter! Fortunately after a little while the waters died down and I did not need to swim though, just merely walk through all the litter and debris lieing around.

I am now home and there is the occasional rumble of thunder, but I am in my room(still with the A/c on!) relaxing and thinking of sleep!

Now let me go and wash my feet and legs thoroughly!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Accident count!

I cant believe I have been forgetting to do my accident count!

An incident to one of my most famour housemate (Dramalison) has urged me to get back into Accident counting. Unfortunately, (although everyone is ok, which is fortunate!) Alison was involved in a car accident whilst on an excursion with her company. The car hit a pot hole (there are a lot of them here!) swerved and then flipped off the road. It is a wonder no one was seriously injured. We all extremely happy Alison was not too badly hurt and wish her a plaeasant and safe tip to the wedding she will go to this weekend!

Oh Dramalison, thank you for bringing Drama to the house!

Samuel Polley, Ghana's only English football pundit!!

Well, this evening I am buzzing - over 24 hours on from a great experience on Viasat1, a local tv station here. As many of you will know I was asked to be a pundit on the live Arsenal vs Barcelona champions league match! Now in any analysts career this is a huge deal, and I think now that it is safe to say that I have moved away from being surprised that I am in this business to actually believing that I can rub shoulders with the..................

I actually fell asleep half way through that sentence, so now, whilst I am in the office, I will attempt to finish this blog without falling asleep again! (I clearly was not buzzing enough!)

So, I actually now believe that I can rub shoulders with the top analysts in Ghana and hold my own in front of camera. On the Champions league show I was on set with two former Ghana BLack Stars players. One of whom won a champions league medal with Bayern Munich and he was also playing in the game between Bayern and Manchester United where 2 goals were scored at the death to help Manchester United take the crown! (He is a defender, so he didn't want to talk to much about that one!!)

Back to the game. (I am not going to analyse it all on here dont worry) The game was a neutrals game! It was such a good end to end battle that anyone would have enjoyed watching it. We made our predictions in the studio. (mine was 2-2) And then we set down to discussing all the inns and outs of Arsenal and Barca. It went well and I was able to disagree with what was being said on a number of occasions. I think I may have surprised a few people in the studio.

Whilst watching the game we got a nice buffet of little snacks and then I sat down to nervously watch the game. (I'm an Arsenal fan!) Then my phone started going crazy. Obviously, quite a few people watch the show because I had so many add requests on my facebook page. I guess I must have been doing something right. So does this mean I have joined the world of the celebrity? Maybe, someone saw me and came to say hello at the taxi station yesterday. I am just waiting for the paparazzi to catch me doing something untoward! 

Anyway by the end of the game, Arsenal had scored two goals to take the league. As went back on set for the final discussion, Sammy Kuffour was passionately unhappy with the score. (Especially after predicting a 3-1 win for Barcelona and saying that Arsenal did not have a single chance!) The set took a little beating from him, just before we cam on air! Woops! Well done Arsenal for making a former Champions league winner angry!

I am in the office now, so I have had to bring myself back down to earth! The most glamorous thing I will do today is go and sit in a little chop bar and have something to eat! Although there is romours of some events coming up this evening! Will keep you all posted!!!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Dearly Departed Olga(sm)

With emotions running high yesterday we said a fairwell to an integral member of the Blue Gate house! Olga(sm) has run away to Europe before heading out to South Africa for a 9 month spell! (Not a bad life huh?)

So as I woke up in the house, after we had been to the jazz club the previous night, most people were just taking Saturday morning easy. Suvo(sh)jit and I went to get some Lunch and then came back to relax a little in the afternoon. It was more than likely that a little bar crawl would occur in the evening so I decided to just play it cool in the house.

I will only write one sentence on the next part of my day. I went to watch the football with Olgasm and Josh and Arsenal lost a four goal lead to Newcastle!

We have been enjoying the pleasure of having a table tennis table in the house for the last couple of days. It is only a temporary visitor but it has been really nice to have a knock about with the guys here from time to time! I must say that I am especially rubbish and need a whole lot of practice. (I really hate losing!) The only issue is the table is right outside my room so the ping pong noise can begin to cause a little craziness! But who am I to stop people having a little fun!

So Olga(sm) and Josh came back to the house and we had a few beers whilst playing table tennis with Swiss Tony, Swiss Robinson, and Dominik Zapper. (Please note the new nicknames!)

After a while it was time (unfortunately) for Olga(sm) to make her move to the airport. For some strange reason (no offense to who's idea it was) we decided to light sparklers in her honour. I always thought that sparklers were more of a celebratory item, but it seemed to go down well. We gave Olga a card with out heartfelt messages on (Olga cried) we gave Olga a hug (Olga cried) and then finally we waved Olga off (Olga cried!)

I must say that it certainly is not the same without Olga around and we will have to find away to keep the parting momentum going. Those of you in the house that are reading this, I implore you to keep up the spirit of a few beers after work, A few beers for lunch and Mandingo at the weekend!

We did go out last night and we tried our best to have a good time. We went to a couple of spots, including one called 'stomach clinic'. I think we have a picture somewhere which I will put up sometime! Then we made the obligatory trip to Duplex. We were even joined by Alicia, our hidden housemate. It was great to have her out with us, and she even added to the drama of the evening by having her phone "stolen". I learnt today though that someone actually brought the phone back to her. It was claimed she left it on the back seat of a taxi. (which we searched!) It is unfortunate that their really are a lack of honest people around. They only brought it back to receive their reward!

Anyway I will end by wishing Olga(sm) a pleasant trip back to Europe and then a wonderful time in SA!!!