Of wine that matures after 3 days and saving for a rainy day
KAMPALA - Rachaal M, who I hadn't seen in a bit, reminded me to update my blog. She said it was bad for image, the stale news. I didn't know she read my blog. Then Dennis 'Agony Uncle' Matanda posted a comment. As did Ernest 'Buzz' Bazanye, who enjoys the company of such illustrious literary luminaries like John O'Farrell and Jonathan Safran Foer among my favourite writers. Bannange, I didn't know that celebrities 'whom we read about in the newspapers' read my blog!
Anyway, the last time I blogged (or is it blag?) we was down under, drinking fermented grape juice and enjoying uncharacteristically warm weather in Grahamstown/Jo'burg. Everything went swimmingly until the day before we left when one of the guys from Zimbabwe, having had three too many, imagined that I had said something positive about Mugabe and wanted to 'take it outside'. As the bus was actually in motion, that was not a possibility but I offered to beat him up the next morning if he had the time. It did not matter that I threw him this gauntlet from behind the locked door of my room...
On a more serious note, such is the pain and suffering that the guys from Zimbabwe are going through, that while the rest of us went around shopping for some fine South African wine, the guys were stocking up on soap, toothpaste (Colgate, if you are Ugandan), sugar, salt and other groceries to take back home! This breadbasket-to-basketcase story should end soon.
I did get my hands on a bottle of what looked like a good red and entrusted it with Elias, my travelling companion, seeing as he had chosen to leave his bag at the carousel after the flight from Port Elizabeth. (Mbu he thought they would bring it for him.) I planned to keep the wine for a couple of years, put it away on my 30th. You can imagine my horror, three days later when an ecstatic Elias called me to announce that his bag had finally arrived. Oh, and that he'd put away half of the wine in celebration!
Since he couldn't let my wine mature, I can't see how I can let him grow into a ripe old age. He is still in hiding and should stay there if he wants to propagate his family line.
While those ones are still there (translate), there is the news that the university admin at Makerere has dipped its hands into the staff savings scheme to pay lecturer's salaries. The lecturers are up in arms but should they be? First, the uni says that the money shall be put back into the scheme which, if the uni admin is anything like one or two of my friends, means it will switch off its phone, change numbers or refuse to take calls whenever the lecturers call. But the whole essence of saving is to prepare for a rainy day, right? So what is wrong with dipping into one's savings to pay for daily needs? We do it all the time, plus if you ask anyone from Teso or Karamoja, these are indeed rainy days!
Anyway, the last time I blogged (or is it blag?) we was down under, drinking fermented grape juice and enjoying uncharacteristically warm weather in Grahamstown/Jo'burg. Everything went swimmingly until the day before we left when one of the guys from Zimbabwe, having had three too many, imagined that I had said something positive about Mugabe and wanted to 'take it outside'. As the bus was actually in motion, that was not a possibility but I offered to beat him up the next morning if he had the time. It did not matter that I threw him this gauntlet from behind the locked door of my room...
On a more serious note, such is the pain and suffering that the guys from Zimbabwe are going through, that while the rest of us went around shopping for some fine South African wine, the guys were stocking up on soap, toothpaste (Colgate, if you are Ugandan), sugar, salt and other groceries to take back home! This breadbasket-to-basketcase story should end soon.
I did get my hands on a bottle of what looked like a good red and entrusted it with Elias, my travelling companion, seeing as he had chosen to leave his bag at the carousel after the flight from Port Elizabeth. (Mbu he thought they would bring it for him.) I planned to keep the wine for a couple of years, put it away on my 30th. You can imagine my horror, three days later when an ecstatic Elias called me to announce that his bag had finally arrived. Oh, and that he'd put away half of the wine in celebration!
Since he couldn't let my wine mature, I can't see how I can let him grow into a ripe old age. He is still in hiding and should stay there if he wants to propagate his family line.
While those ones are still there (translate), there is the news that the university admin at Makerere has dipped its hands into the staff savings scheme to pay lecturer's salaries. The lecturers are up in arms but should they be? First, the uni says that the money shall be put back into the scheme which, if the uni admin is anything like one or two of my friends, means it will switch off its phone, change numbers or refuse to take calls whenever the lecturers call. But the whole essence of saving is to prepare for a rainy day, right? So what is wrong with dipping into one's savings to pay for daily needs? We do it all the time, plus if you ask anyone from Teso or Karamoja, these are indeed rainy days!
posted by Daniel Kalinaki | 11:40 am
8 Comments:
Speaking of Jonathan Safaran Foer (who I'm sure reads the Ugandan blogs EVERY DAY) did you ever read the Nicole Krauss book HISTORY OF LOVE? It's really really wonderful.
It should be "blogged"... blag can not be right. see that, Microsoft word underlines "Blag" with those lines that suggest you are wrong
Scarlett Lion,
Yes, I read Nicole Krauss. She, too, is amazing. We need, btw, to talk about 'the project' so let's speak this week.
The 1 a.k.a Ivan: You must be right. Or a secret Microsoft/US Federal Bureau of American English employee. Or a Muganda who meant 'brag'. Maybe that's me instead. Memo to self: Do not drink on Monday morning.
Half Bottles of wine are much better than no bottles at all. Of course you may need to be careful and confirm that Elias did not drink straight from the bottle. Eriases have the capacity to do such things.
Now, bollocks to Microsoft. If Daniel Kalinaki wants to use [Blag] in parenthesis, let him do it. He beat me to a teaching position, for crying out loud!
Half a bottle of wine is better than nothing at all. Eh ... Before I forget, make sure that Elias did not drink straight from the bottle. In moments of joy, Eliases are bound to literally apply red wine directly to the head!
I just wish you could blog more often, your hectic life notwithstanding!
Yay!
Now more.
RM
Elias just got back to me to apologise for drinking half my bottle of wine. He said friends in cyberspace had told him about the fatwa I had passed (on? over? whatever, you know what I mean). He said he was so traumatized by his impending torture and almost-certain death, he'd drunk the other half to calm his nerves! Someone restrain me...
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