Thursday, May 1, 2014

A Writing Pad

MEMORIES OF ABE IGI SCRABBLE CLUB

It was meant to be a regular day at the office. 
Abe Igi was the office you resumed to before venturing to other offices; that if only you had other offices. Even if you did, you were guaranteed to return to close accounts for the day, accounts that will certainly roll over into the next day.
So were the last days of the month of June in 1993. 
And like all last days of the months, office was short of stationery.
Hey, we weren't talking of stencils or duplicating papers. No.
We were short of Scrabble recording sheets.
Given the number of games we played, players and intensity of games, we were constantly in short supply of recording papers. It got so bad at a point that we became individually creative about managing papers.
Sammy Okosagah will decrease his font size to 7 to save space. Sanni Olasunkanmi(better known as Moshood) will scribble in pencil just so he can erase and rewrite. Falo will use rizlas for the pleasure of recording a good game of scrabble.
But we were In an unusual time that required unusual solution because we had depleted all papers in the house.
Rizlas evaporated in smokes, erasers thinned out from overuse and Sammy ran short of opponents. Except me of course. ....lol.
Then, Oga had come in the afternoon with a stash of papers. Papers he left on the dining table after a hearty meal of EBA and OWO soup. Hmm. We did not touch the papers o. Much as we needed them.
But our patience was rewarded. OGA RETURNED from work and needed his full doze of scrabble for the night. Now, he too needed papers and seeing papers on the dining table he naturally reached out for them.
Scrabble Endgame is pure science, geography and artwork all at once.Na so Oga begin design paper to calculate his winning move.
No be so we too begin take paper to play our games.
Well since he opened the gateway on a Friday night, played into the next days.....Saturday. ...Sunday. ....Monday morning. .....
Just then after we had finished all the empty spaces on the reverse of the papers that we turned to the front page....
And the it hit him....And it hit us in the face the importance of the document we had been using to record.
I no fit go guardroom.....therefor....I can say no more

Excuse Me Dance

Excuse me dance. .....

 It started as a solo dance which i had found pleasurable, fulfilling and fitted my doctor,s recommendation of 30 minutes of exercise per day. 

It began with a song, a mellow one. The words hit me first. I have heard them a thousand times. It was not fast, i
t was not slow, it was not mid tempo. It was just a Boys To Men song. And whoa, those guys bake songs!!!


I had sat all evening nursing one unabused bottle of JD. You gotta be careful of those stuffs because the makers demanded the least decorum of responsibility from you regardless of them not being responsible enough to make their creation less enticing. 


Well, dulcet as JD was, euphonimous as the environment was, I was under a self imposed restraint to be responsible, reined and free spirited all at once. A delicate balance was needed and I found it, so I thought. 


Excuse me dance