How to get the most out of your microwave...

ingredients
lg (life's good) microwave of high quality with a control for defrosting
the manual for the microwave
a frozen chunk of beef stew
some precooked rice

steps
1.turn on the microwave
2.put the frozen chunk in a plate (preferably the plate the rice will be in)
3.open the manual to the page on defrost ( i cant give the page number here as your microwave may be different)
4.follow the instructions on the manual to begin the defrost process
5.ignore the hissing sound inside the microwave, its just the juices in the stew coming up for air
the microwave depending on the price will beep to tell you its done.
6.if the microwave is high priced it will intermittently beep , if not you will have to manually peep through the window of the machine to confirm
7. take out the plate add the rice and put back in the microwave and set for 1 min
at the end take out the plate, get a fork , your meal is ready

the process takes far less time than trying to defrost by cooking over the fire. you lose valuable liquid if you try using the fire. to counter this, you could add water. though the problem here is that water will dilute the taste slightly. the system above works for frozen soup too. however, you will have to boil water separately to prepare the eba. i wont encourage trying to use the microwave to shorten the time to make the eba. i cant guarantee favorable results

so the eagles did their thing. at the last minute they turned their fortunes. it will be real nice for ghana to trash them on sunday. they should have gone home earlier. anyway, i still support the black stars. i still have my ghanaian flag at full mast.

Six Pairs Of Shoes, Two Pairs Of Slippers, Four Bags……

work! yes that’s what’s been keeping me away from blogging frequently. sadly, i cant write about it here because this place wasn’t for work. i went for my curtains last week. the syrians hadn’t started on it. the fela said they were waiting on my feed back. i was shocked cause i had told them to use their discretion, i had white walls (how can that be difficult?). well the guy now tells me he’ll call on monday with estimates which he did. after the discussion it dawned on me that  we just couldn’t do business. i am going to look for a more affordable curtain option. its for the inner rooms for pete’s sake. ( i often wonder if it was peter the apostle that this reference was made to).

my gas cooker has been set up. i am now primed to do some cooking. i have the pots, pans, the whole works. i can now boil water to take a hot bath. the house didn’t come with bath room heaters. i have been on cold showers since living here.

i finally got a flag. a ghanaian one. its interesting to see the curious stares from people i pass on the street. with this very nigerian number plates (lagos: centre of excellence...let's not go there) complete with the flag and then they see green white red and a black star i wonder what goes on in their minds. is he a ghanian working for a nigerian company or just an enthusiastic supporter of the black stars? talking of support for the black stars, i think i’ll make them my team. i can be saved from the bad-for-the-blood-pressure home team. they seem to be slowly but surely working their way towards an early flight home.

i went for a drive round today. drove through the harbour area, discovered (well america was always there inhabited by the red indians but columbus discovered it) some great scenery. when i get a camera i’ll be back there taking pictures. also found a way to the beach from home so at least i know how to get around my area.

about the title of this post. there’s nothing to it. those whom it affects understand.

Of water, the President and flags...

i haven't had time to visit here and write for some time now. work came in through the window and as usual i got immersed in it. i decided i needed to come up for a breather. i was at the beach last weekend. had a great time there. i sat watched the sea and the scenery in the company of a number of colleagues. apparently the fact that we were nigerians stood out as a sore thumb. i will not go into any details i'll just say that nigerian women dress conservatively period!

i got a shocker yesterday. got up early as usual (still feels like i slept too long when i wake up with the day so bright). took a bucket to clean the car (something i've had to do lately, until I get a handy man ). turned on the tap and nothing! i had noticed that my neighbors all had some extra tanks. i once saw a water truck filling a neighbors tank it didn't quite fit until now. luckily i had a contingency plan. i drove to a colleagues place washed the car , took my bath and came back home. on my way to work, i met the lawn guy ( finally he had finished the work, the barbecue parties can begin) and asked about it. he said ah, that it was the only problem they had around the estate, that water didn't run sometime for as long as two weeks. hmm...

well i guess i'll have to get the jerry cans as a temporary measure and get the contingency tank as a more permanent fixture. water not running for two weeks? funny over here there's always a known time line for inconvenience. if power is out, you know when it should come back. if water goes you know when it should come back. the water thing is minor though...been years since i had government water running through any pipes with reasonable consistency so its no problem at all. i'll just get a tank and that's it.

heard an interesting story on the radio yesterday. apparently the president's convoy had been involved in a car crash. a car actually ran into the presidents car (imagine that!). a traffic cop was giving testimony for the state in the matter. he stated that the driver of the other car had been given signs to stop and ignored it hence the crash. the driver's lawyer was refuting this, claiming that his client didn't get any stop sign , that the lights had changed that was why his client moved. also he argued that at the time the president's car was hit that the escort on bike where no where near there which meant there was no way of his client knowing the convoy was official. everyday i get a new level of respect for this country. i can't imagine the case finding its way to court at all in home country. police would probably just bundle the fella to the station and 'deal' with him.anyway there's no way of such an accident happening in home country. an hour before the president's convoy passes the road is blocked. then he flies over it in a 'copter.

i had my first haircut yesterday. here i get the impression that people are trained in whatever they do. the 'barberer' ( the saloons here usually have 'barbering' saloon instead of barbing - sounds scary huh?) wraps this white tape-like stuff round my neck before putting the usual cloth to stop the hair debris. it was in the careful way he did it, you got the impression of 'professionalism'. boy! did he take his time to do the haircut. i kinda miss the nigerian-three-flicks and your hair is done. i guess here you have to plan for a haircut, no dashing in and dashing out.

lest i forget last weekend i got my house cleaning done. with the help of a group of 'professional' the house was cleaned and now spic and span. i set up my first piece of furniture a dining set cum work table . then the second piece - the sound box - no further details. i plan to set up the gas cooker this weekend not that i plan to do any cooking. my microwave does just fine.

this morning i passed a nigerian . well i figured he was nigerian because he had two nigerian flags stuck on either side of his window frame. i guess its because of the nations cup. there's a fever here. i saw a guy who had painted his whole wind shield (screen) with the Ghana 2008 and its colors. i wonder how the guy saw the road and if the police allow that. i'm thinking of getting two flags too. one ghanaian , one nigerian.

Honeymoon over....

i got bad reviews on my last blog. i was told the home country had automated parking lots in the newly built-sparingly-used local terminal. so i stand corrected. when next i visit i shall look out for it. the honeymoon is over. work has started. its so different going to work and coming home to an empty house. opening the fridge, pulling out yesterdays left over and pushing it into the microwave. its so adult. i plan to get a cook/steward but i'll enjoy this first month of freedom. its not everyday you get to live alone.

i finally got hooked with a guy to do my lawn. saw the guy cutting a neighbor's flower so i asked him if he could do mine. he said his boss is around till sunday but he'll squeeze in time to do it. i came back home to find one part of my lawn done. how he got in? my gate is low and i dont have a padlock on it yet. i dont have any security items that need securing (except for a recent piece of furniture , more about that later). the guy came back in the evening and gave me the scare of my life. i was just closing the microwave when i heard a knock on my kitchen door! for a moment i couldn't figure out how that was possible.

rather than open the door i went through the front door and came round back and saw the grass man at the door. he greeted me and started talking about the work. i waited for him to finish and the naija man in me asked him out of curiousity how he got in. he apologised and said he rang the bell but it didn't seem to work so he let himself in. well i figured he had let himself in to cut my grass what harm could he do. besides the neighbour who's flowers he was trimming wasn't his oga so i guess he is well known in the area. he said he'll come finish the work sometime soon, aparently his lawn mower had run out of oil and fuel. i had to give him part payment so he could refuel and come back some other day to complete the work. getting ready for the barbecue parties.

yeah about the piece of furniture. i got something to make the house a little less quiet. i haven't mounted it yet, i need to do some house cleaning, to rid the sitting room of the debris from the curtain hanging experience. i would say i'm settling in nicely. i'll go look up sitting furniture on saturday. now i'm in a bit of dilema. should i get the dstv before the chairs? getting both would maim me where it hurts most. then there's the reading table i have to get. i think i'll just do things gradually, my list is unyeilding, still as long as the first day.

today i saw a shouting match. i was going through a back way i had found to get home by avoiding the tema motorway when i saw this group of 'area' boys arguing heatedly. it looked like a fight was going to errupt. if i wasn't driving i would have waited to watch for the outcome. i haven't seen much public show of anger since i came. even the taxi drivers are so well behaved its so unreal. today i actually listen for car horns and i could count the number of times one went off. unlike lagosians, it seems ghanaians dont drive generally with their horns. they seem to use a series of light signals to say 'i am speeding make way on the speedlane' or 'go on i'll wait' when a motorist from the opposite side of the road wants to turn into a filling station. these are things we often use horns to express in lagos.

oil at $100 a barrel is theivry. those guys at the naija delta , iraq etc need to stop their disturbances. my car does very good fuel conservation but i do more driving here on the average than i did in lagos. i finally found proof that my tank is 40litres. my fuel indicator got to the red light some days back. i drove into a fillig station and i paid about 40Ghana Cedis for fuel. fuel goes for about 1.0 - something Ghana Cedis per litre. for the first time i understand that fuel is really costly. most cars here are diesel engines and diesel is far cheaper. now i know we really enjoy in naija with fuel at less than a dollar per litre.

Hide my identity?

yesterday had an interesting experience. i was coming back from picking a colleague at the airport. meanwhile before i carry on, the park at the airport is automated. i have been living in the dark ages. you drive your car to the park press some button on a yellow box and a card pops out. the barrier goes up and you can pass and park. when you are ready to go you take the card to a little lady behind a teller window and give the card, she swipes it and tells you how much you have to pay. you pay for an hour and some for every other hour. when you've paid she gives you back the card and you have 15 minutes to get out of the parking lot or you pay for another hour. its so simple a contraption i wonder why we haven't implemented it in the home country. i mean i can park fly to here, come back the same day and pick my car and pay just a 100bucks!

anyway back to my experience. on my way out of the airport i ran into the roundabout. here let me digress again. when i was learning driving , i vaguely recall my dad telling me something about giving way to traffic on your left. vaguely because when i actually started driving, no one seemed to obey the rule. when i came to ghana, i noticed that at the round about people always seemed to wait. i figured it was because of this rule but i wasn't sure anymore whether it was right or left. then once i was told that cars on the round about always have right of way. well i took note of this and i took on the 'when-in-rome' attitude until yesterday.

i got to the round about , i waited and waited. the cars kept passing and passing. then right next to me a taxi made a run for it. well i guess instinct (something you develop driving in lagos) just made me follow suit. well i thought i had gotten away scot free then a car overtakes and parks in the red light lane. i was taking a side road which didn't have lights but the car infront was in my way. i didn't horn because i realised early on that in ghana you hardly heard the blaring of horns. well the light turns green and instead of the car to move the door opens and this young lady steps out. she comes over to my window and indicates i should wind down. i'm wondering if she wants to ask a jjc like me for directions. boy was i wrong.

she was making what i'd call a citizens arrest ( well i couldn't move my car). she asked if i didn't know that at the roundabout i had to wait for cars? that what i did didn't give a good impression about nigeria ( my car has nigerian plates). she said she was nigerian too. blah blah blah. well i was amused so i apologised and told her i was just new in town. she went back into her car and drove off ( she had actually caused a little snag in free flowing traffic).

as she drove off it got me thinking. her major problem was that i had nigerian plates and i drove like 'a nigerian'. why do i have to come to another country and put up a pretense? lagos is the lousiest place to drive. people don't obey traffic rules that's why they need lastma to help them. there's nothing like right of way. right is might. if a trailer comes bounding by your left let's see where your right of way comes in. so why do nigerians expect to behave differently in another country and put up a 'good' image when at home they behave in a crappy manner. you want to launder your image when your underpants are dirty and stinking? its a pity the lady in question isn't reading this blog, i certainly would have wanted her comments.

today i got one item off the long list. i hung up the curtains for the palour with the aid of a 'professional'. it remains putting furniture and the sitting room is set. well almost, there's the home theatre etc. i'm contemplating laying mats japanese style. after all its my home, you sit on whatever furniture i present to you. and if its a mat so be it.

Finally...

"finally, finally dem don show demsef" as the area boys in home country would say. after 13 days of constant electricity supply at about 1.00 AM GMT the lights went out. for a moment i wasn't sure what was happening. i went to peep at my window perchance that is was only in my apartment but i saw the whole neighborhood in pitch blackness. i waited for the tell tale sounds of generators blaring off and heard none. either my neighbors where exceedingly confident about the power situation or they were too much into serenity so they avoided noisy generators. i dozed off, i was woken about two hours later when the light returned. so far its been stable.

when i told a more seasoned 'immigrant' about the light situation. i was assured that it was a normal occurrence but that the light always came back. mentioned something about them just being back from an 'energy crisis' the famous energy crisis. well atleast its good to know that there some flaws in the energy system afterall. from lessons learnt in home country , if light is on for too long there must be a problem!

yesterday i confirmed the theory that all policemen given the same conditions will act in the same manner irrespective of the country they are in. on my way to renew my permit to drive around with naija number plates ( a small act of patriotism - the ima ndi anyi bu principle) i encountered the blue cloth fella's ( they wear navy blue here). the driver of my car was a ghanaian , he knew the way to the border i was a jjc. the police stopped us about 30 mins to be border asked for the car papers which i presented. he now asked the driver for his international driving license. now you only need such a license if you are a foreigner driving in another country. we were asked to park. though i'll say here the policemen are more polite when asking for egunje.

on parking i and the driver came out of the car. the driver was wearing leather sandal-like footwear with no buckles. the policeman asked him why he was improperly dressed for driving. that he needed to wear something that held his legs well in case of braking. so the driver was booked for driving with wrong credentials and not wearing the correct foot wear. we were asked to show up in the district court by 9.am the following morning and meanwhile they held onto the car papers. so the guy tells us we had to bring GH15 (roughly equivalent to $15). the driver insists we cant afford that. after wasting our time a bit they accepted GH8. in the trip to the border we encountered about 4 checkpoints in total and only one 'obtained' us. the one closest to the border.

just before we left there. the inspector called the driver aside and told him that he shouldn't say anything to anyone about letting us go after collecting money. that he is only trying to help us out, knowing the court delays and all. in essence the man was begging that it be not known that they took bribe. i was puzzled why the guy should be so worried then the driver later explained that the charges were trumped up. and that if we had to go to court he'd would have said we were brought after we couldn't give the money demanded. the way he spoke with confidence gave me the impression that such allegations would get the policemen in trouble and besides i was witness.

the experience with the customs i cant write about here. i have to protect the identity of some very helpful people should i need their services in future. the bottom line is that to get the renewal , i had to stamp my passport four times. i left ghana (one stamp) entered togo(another stamp) spent some hours by the beach, left togo ( yet another stamp) entered ghana ( the final stamp). with these i could ask for an extension of my driving permit by 30 more days.

i went to get more domestic stuff today. i got pots and a rug which has replaced the mattress. i'm seriously considering japanese like furnishing . have mats place on the floor that guests can sit on.

i heard some news which made me proud to be associated with home country. the central bank of ghana is pursuing soludo's ideas about banking. they raised the stakes for capital base to $50 million. from all indications the smaller banks will have to merge. so naija still leads in some things after all.