Saturday, August 05, 2006

Hell on earth, Internet Explorer and Playing hard to get

There is this character in Greek mythology called Sisyphus, who was sentenced to an eternal punishment that never ends.My version of this punishment would be being made to move house over and over. Nothing beats moving house in Kenya.It is a bit easier here because of dollies, U-haul and other convieniences. But in Kenya it was a whole different kettle of fish.First of all you had to hunt for boxes to put in your belongings.If you didnt know where to get them you had to go to different supermarkets and buy their old boxes,most were either too big or too small.Then you would have to find old newspapers to put in the boxes to protect fragile objects. Don't forget that you had to get hold of transport.So that would mean getting hold of some old run down Bedford lorry that is being held together by dust and grease.You were lucky if you got more then one turn boy to help you out. You would have to do loads of trips with the lorry and cars available to get things to the other house.Let me not forget the furniture!For one reason couches and chairs seem to have been teleported into the living room because it takes twisting and turning these pieces of furniture into next to impossible angles to get them out the doorway, let's not forget that most of this furniture is made of a combination of rock and hardwood and is back breaking to carry. And then there are the dreaded wall units! Have you ever been on the business end of a wall unit?! The last time I had to help move on I am almost took an axe and flame thrower to it! Then people accumulate all sorts of useless heavy junk. The last time I did some heavy moving I had to help a neighbour move.The worst thing is that they kept on postponing the move!So when we were psyched up the move was always postponed. Then on the afternoon that we were bumming is when we were called on. First of all we were moving things from a town house so that meant at one point carrying things down 3 flights of stairs! The old folks had one heavy steel chest in the master bed room on the top floor. We postponed moving it for as long as possible but at the end it sat their looking at us in defiance knowing that we had to deal with it. I firmly believe that the residents of that house had hidden a corpse in that chest and weighed it down with cement blocks because it took 4 of us to move that chest.
Then to add to our suffering after carrying the super heavy couch into the sitting room, the lady of the house insists on us lifting it and placing it down in 4 different positions to see where it looked best. "Ma'am there is this wonderful thing called an imagination," is what I wanted to tell her after the 2nd attempt at dislocating our shoulders. Then came putting the beds back together which was a puzzle but as long as there was no more backbreaking lifting I did not mind.
To add immense insult to injury, the lady of the house who spent the majority of the time directing traffic and the last one hour or placing the utensils in the right place after we had carried the cooker made of pig iron or some other metal that multiplied the effect of gravity in place comes into the sitting room and exclaims, "Aiii, nimechoka sana (My, I'm so tired)!" I was so tired that I couldn't even come back with a sassy comeback. After being part of several moving efforts let's just say I have reduced my material objects to clothes, books, utensils, TV, dvd player, I don't even have the big ass stereo that most dudes have; I use my MP3 player and two speakers for music. So if you ask me to help you move and you see me run for the hills you know where I coming from.

I think that Internet Explorer should be scrapped!The computer I am using on has IE and it keeps on hanging whenever I try to access the KBW feed!So if I haven't commented on your blog it's because I don't know you have posted.Mozilla on the other hand rocks, all the tabs I can open and lots of other neat features!

I was reading this article in the Standard about playing hard to get. Yes to some point it does make sense for women to play hard to get, but on the other hand good men are at a premium and some men don't like playing games. A good friend of mine used to have what he called the kenchic approach to dealing with such situations. Like the rotisserie at a Kenchic restaurant he would have 4 girls or so that he would deal with at the same time and the one that seemed ready would be the one that he would move on with, leaving the others wondering what went wrong as the attention on them would shift.In my case, I will admit that I have a somewhat short attention span with women, I'll chase a woman for sometime but at some point like a bat in the dark a louder sound will get my attention and I'll flit off or just decide to do my own thing. Of course this has led to interesting situations where a chic whom I used to try to get with would be act stand offish during that duration then she would be in shock when those overextened hellos and invitations to dates would disappear and be replaced with cameradrie or just plain indifference. Now the tables would be turned and she would be the one chasing me despite the fact I was no longer interested or in some cases she would become nasty because there are some women who don't believe that a man can turn down their charms. But that is one reason I like being on the bilas train because it makes life so much easier! But another pal of mine put it best about girls who play hard to get and wonder why they can't get a man.Many of them don't go to the extent of getting the man fully interested before playing hard to get, so it's like setting up loads of obstacles on a track ie barbed wire, ring of fire, pit of snakes (yes some women putup such major tests) but there is no-one on the track and the potential runner opts for an easier race instead, leaving your track to wither away and the track owner turning bitter as middle age creeps up on her (how's that for an analogy?). Who ever said matters between men and women are easy? So ladies try to find that fine line between being too reasonable and playing hard to get and let us know how that goes.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

@ kagz
It ain't like that, I know some kuyo mamas with great legs!Have a good weekend and holla back!

egm said...

I agree about moving being a nightmare.

As for IE, I am a firefox person to the core. And if a website complains it won't open in firefox, I got a plugin that will open it in IE embedded in a tab within firefox.

Archer said...

Kagz, I can't help it if Aco and I have good taste!

Unknown said...

TAPO ! OFF TO READ !

Anonymous said...

lol - moving is tedious for sure! the thing is to plan in advance, and to keep your volunteers motivated. Last time I moved I marinated some chicken the night before, had the guys put the cooker in place first, then roasted the chicken as they worked - afterwards they feasted on the chicken and drinks.. that way I had all the heavy furniture moved and placed in one weekend.

Orkoiyot said...

@Mama Mia: totally agree with your strategy; works wonders. Aco, i wonder what sort of incentive or pat on the back you received???

@Aco & Kagz make quite some interesting reading. Feels like a soap opera going on in here!

& yes, like Kags says, paragraphs wuld be great!

Prousette said...

mama mia's strategy with the helpers rock when you are moving. i'll just say thank God no one expects me to move the heavy things. I wonder why no one has yet come up with a local friendly moving company which would ease the headache of moving house.

IE is stress, I cannot open my hotmail account using it among other woes,

There is a difference between being hard to get thus being worth the effort to get there and playing hard to get which most of the time backfires royally.
have a great week aco.

Half 'n' half said...

LOL. About IE it sucks especially IE7, it hangs every few minutes. I had to remove it couz I just couldnt get anything done.
As for playing hard to get, I dont understand it either, I find it tedious especially after i read somewhere that if a woman keeps running and expecting the man to chase her, at some point he will get all panting and sweating and too tired to run anymore. So I just stopped running, just a bit of jogging once in a while.

Acolyte said...

@ egm
I see you are firefox damu too!
@ Archer
You tell her!
@ Kagz
I use paras to break into new topics.If you cant follow a block of words...ole wako!The PC I am on most of the time is the office one so upgrading is upto them.
As for the translation I have realised that my blog is getting some visitors who arent bi-lingual!
@ mama mia
For an arrangement like that, I too would help you move!
@ kibet
I think we got some ugali,sukuma wiki and meat for our efforts that day!
As for the paras, I only use them to break into new topics.I love to ramble on, if you can't follow...ole wako!
@ prousette
Lucky you!I think someone does that in Kenya but they charge an arm and a foot from what I hear.
I hear Kenya is yahoo! country, hotmail doesnt fare well there.
I think you should teach the girls of today when and how to play hard t o get!
@ halfkenyahalfsudan
The less said about IE the better.I see you got with the program, a bit of jogging doesnt hurt at times does it?

walk said...

ACO none related issue how much cash did you collect for the nation newspapers access project. can i still get in

Acolyte said...

@ joseph walking
Not takeing cash yet as plus you only 3 people have hollad, I need 6 more to make it work!So Ill put the word out!

Acolyte said...

@ Homy Gee
Thanks!I'll give it a try!