Clara's Travel Tales: The Bookworm Edition

For my first post for the 15-for-15 challenge, I thought I'd write about the mishap that almost befell me two weekends ago.

The "Alakoba" Book

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As I may have mentioned a few hundred times on this blog, I LOVE reading. This has unfortunately got me into trouble many times, but today we're going to focus on those of the Ajala kind.

I once missed my flight to Stockholm although I was on-time and already checked in, because I was focused on the book I had with me. I remember the airline attendant looking at me bizarrely, once she noticed that I had been sitting next to the counter all along,  and asking me how I could possibly have missed all the announcements calling for me. She sha looked upon my innocent baby-face, felt sorry for me and booked me onto the next flight, free of charge.  I knew I was lucky that day, and since then have been very vigilant about reading in airports. That is until 2 weeks ago, Friday the 16th of January to be precise...

I was scheduled to spend the weekend in Vienna with T whom I hadn't seen since just after Christmas, and was really looking forward to leaving Brussels for a few days. So as a bona fide OCD-er, I made sure that I was at the airport on time and at the gate at least 1hour before boarding was meant to commence.

However, in spite of my best efforts, I got bored and pulled out the interesting but not-so-well-written book I had been trying to finish. And that my dears was when the bookworm demon struck! I started reading, and got so into it that I didn't notice the time passing, hear the announcements for boarding, or even see people around me moving. As in I was gone! I was far far away in India, Delhi where the story was taking place.  By the special grace of a God that said I would see T that weekend, I felt a pain in my neck, looked up and noticed that the area around me was empty. Panicking slightly, I looked around, saw a line forming just ahead, and kia kia joined it.

Imagine my surprise when the airline attendant told me that, that flight was headed for Warsaw in Poland. Olorun lo yo mi, I could have ended up on the other side of Europe! The man sha saw my confusion, took pity on me and directed me to my own gate which was just behind me. There, I was lucky enough to meet another kind attendant who checked my documents quickly and literally ran down with me to the plane. I was the very last person to board, and had to do the walk of shame down to my seat. Still thank the gods of long distance relationships who were up there, looking out for T and I.

This Was The Week That Was...

I started this week in Vienna on Sunday, before packing my luggage and doing the long 8-9hour journey back to Brussels. This is because as a poor nurse, I have to go via Slovakia, flying Brussels-Bratislava then getting the bus from the to Vienna central (currently accepting donations to the Ajala fund, thank you!). Anyway on the flight back, I started to feel fluey and a bit ill, but I still went to work the next day because Tuesdays are basically 4hour meeting days with only 3hours of actual work. This was a very bad idea, as the lack of rest meant I felt even worse on Wednesday, but I again went to work because I found out we were short-staffed that morning from colleagues being ill and I enjoy going to class with the kids. Let's just say that was a terrible decision. 

Fluey on the way to work yesterday

Now as I've mentioned a few times, I work in children's psychiatry with half of our kids being autistic and the other half being psychotic. Well one of the autistic kids (our calmest, normally) decided to kick off and it was beyond crazy to see the violence and strength in this little 11year old girl. She completely wrecked the classroom; smashing all the breakables, aiming mugs and glass cup at our heads etc. My colleague and I tried to calm her down, and protect her from hurting herself but for some reason she decided to go for me. I got kicked about a million times on my shins, scratched all over my face, spat at and had my glasses almost broken. Already feeling fragile from the flu/migraine, I just broke down and cried. The spit on the face was what tipped me over the edge, I think...I felt so helpless! 

Had about 10 of these tiny scratches all over

Here at last!

I always write my name/year and the giver in my books.

After my horrible day, I got home to find a package from Nitty Gritty! It was "Antonyms of a Mirage" by Atilola Moronfolu. I had seen this when it first came out and really wanted to get the book, but never got round to it. Anyway I won it in a giveaway earlier this year and have been eagerly awaiting it's delivery.  I was starting to get worried, but as they say everything happens for a reason. I think the postal gods knew that I needed to save this special delivery for a day when I'd require extra cheering up. So thanks to Ibhade of Nitty Gritty, the US and Belgian postal services, I went to bed a happy bunny last night.

Today I'm off work, because my manager wanted me to stay home and rest. See, this is why I love my job in spite of the sometimes crazy days!

Last Post for 2014....A Mish-Mash!

 Source

End of the Year

December was a very busy time for me, as I travelled a bit and then worked/hosted some guests over the Christmas period. I went to Vienna as usual in the first weekend, then Germany in the third weekend (met Jen from Ibibiogirl and visited T's family). Vicky, my Argentinian friend, arrived on Christmas eve and stayed until the 27th when Mr T got here. I was so tired from working full-time  and all the fun I had with Vicky waka dugbe-ing around Brussels, doing longer throat and eating all manner of mede-mede. Anyway by the time T got here, the temperature had really dropped and it even snowed sef, so we just stayed home and I slept a lot. He left yesterday, and I'm back to work today and tomorrow before packing my bags again and heading off, this time to mama Charlie's country (England for my non-naija readers).

My 2014 in Books

I started the year with Adichie's Americanah and it was definitely worth the hype for me. The issues that come with moving to a new country and finding yourself a "minority,"  the fight to affirm or (re)create your identity, doing the adjusting/adapting required, and merging your new culture with your home culture...these are all things that meant I recognised myself very strongly in Ifemelu and the other immigrants. On the other hand, I really didn't enjoy Taiye Selasi's Ghana Must Go. I had seen an interview of the author on RAI1, an Italian TV station, and was really impressed so I actually spent some of my Amazon vouchers on the book. Unfortunately, I was bitterly disappointed. I did not like her writing style one teensy bit.

I however liked Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowlands, Khaled Hosseini's And The Mountains Echoed, Swallow by Sefi Atta, A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif Unaccustomed Earth again by Jhumpa Lahiri, and Adaobi Nwaubani's I Do Not Come To You By Chance. Special mention goes to Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist, Rajaa Alsanea's Girls of Riyadh and Lola Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives which I particularly loved. These books made me laugh out loud, literally  and I really enjoyed reading them. They were (in the words of T about me), "kleine aber feine!"  I also loved Christie Watson's Tiny Sunbirds, Faraway. She wrote about Nigeria in a way that was very realistic. Even though the story was sometimes sad, I felt a kind of connection with the Nigeria she described, it felt neither over- nor underdone... 

Of the 75 books I read this year, only about 12 were written by "white, mainstream" authors, and even then 11 of them talked about "others." "Atypical" situations, places and people, for example transracial adoption, immigrants and immigration, being an expatriate, being Amish, polygamy, Jewishness and the second world war etc. I am apparently attracted to and fascinated by difference and otherness...

Highlights and Lowlights

• Travelling! I visited 6 countries and 10 cities/town. 
• Moving houses 5 times between July and November. It was hectic, phew!
• Putting up only15 blog posts (pitiful)
• Improving my Italian, then abandoning it for German
• Going to the seaside once this summer with T
• Going to a European zoo for the first time (the other time was in India), and visiting the circus, also for the first time, thanks to the generosity of a dear friend
• Turning 30. I had 3 birthday parties and got many wonderful presents. I especially love my churidar, my alabaster necklace and my Aya de Yopougon comic book.
• Discovering a good naija restaurant in Paris, then moving. Now I have to find a new one here in Brussels :(
• Drinking a million aperitivos whilst on holiday in Italy
• Seeing my friend K after 8years
• Having an amazing summer with my sisters and friend, while living in another friend's beautiful Parisian flat. I so want something similar when I grow up!
• Getting my turn at the annual mummy-and-me-only holiday
• Getting my current job

I am grateful for

1. Life and health. I turned 30 this year and became a bona fide adult ;) And everyone in my entourage (family and friends) is alive and well.
2. A wonderful summer. I had the best summer of my life this year with my sisters, a wonderful sister-friend and T.
3. Christmas with Vicky, which meant I wasn't alone in a new city during the festivities.
4. The online community of which I'm part. I feel like I have made so many new friends this year! I'm thankful that I discovered the blogs that made my 2014 interesting - Duru, GNG, Ibibiogirl,  Nigerian Scorpio, Berry and Pynk amongst many others.
5. Journey mercies. Not one train/plane/road accident or incident in spite of the many many miles that I covered this year. Truly a miracle, if you think about it.
6. The most uncomplicated cross-country move ever. My move to Brussels has been ridiculously coordinated and everything has fallen into place so easily...making friends, work, finding a flat and church, getting along with colleagues and even my day to day life!
7. My job. I love it so so much! I enjoy the work because it's very different from everything I've known up until now. It is really challenging me as a nurse
8. Progress with my finances. Thanks to nagging from T and him constantly telling me off for accruing unnecessary interest, I've increased my student loan repayments substantially and have started making serious inroads into paying back my debts, slowly but surely.
9. My parents. They are finally starting to enjoy middle age, this season of their lives where all the children are more or less independent and there are no grand-kids yet. They're taking up travelling again and making plans to really enjoy each other.
10. My family-in-law. I met them this year and it seems they love me as much as I love them. I even went there alone for a weekend and things went better than the first time when T was with me. I particularly love his mum because we're very similar (it's so uncanny!) and it feels like she's a friend. Everyone keeps telling me how lucky I am.
11. My siblings. One sister finished her masters last October and did fantastically well; she got 18.99/20 and was valedictorian. She then basically gave her French university the middle finger salute by giving her speech in English. Yep, my sister is gangster like that ;) She now has a place at university for next September to do her PhD in law. My brother is doing amazing things and is going places with his new startup and little company. I feel like this year was a very important one for him in terms of making progress and knowing what direction to take the business. The baby sister loves her course this time round and has really settled into university. I'm thankful that she decided (and my parents insisted) early on that she "drop out" of  last year's hated course,  and take a gap year. She really grew up in the 9months she spent in Paris. As for her twin brother, he is also doing great at uni, working/playing hard and getting fantastic grades. My siblings are such superstars and for that I am grateful
12. Mr T. This year has been difficult, with him moving to Brussels and then Vienna, but I think our relationship has become much stronger as a result of it. We've both had to make a lot of sacrifices this year in terms of time and money so we could see each other, and it really makes you ask yourself if you truly want to be with the other person.  I know now,  for sure that I love him and would go to the ends of the world to be with him. It's been 2years of ups and downs, but our relationship (and both of us!) has matured a lot. Like good wine, it just keeps getting better.
13.  Favour wherever I go. People have always described me as someone who makes friends easily, but this is the first year I've actually noticed that it is true....for some unknown reason, people are drawn to me and want to be friends. I spent a lot of time thinking this year about why this is so, as well as trying to figure out what it is about me that attracts others. I'm certainly not the most intelligent/beautiful/cool/fashionable/whatever-attribute-you-like person in the world! In the end I figured it must be God's grace, some special dispensation, a particular blessing in my life, because I know for sure that I haven't done anything to deserve the undeserved and unreserved love that often comes my way.  I am just immensely grateful!