A Lifestyle Country...

A busy intersection in downtown Auckland

A Nigerian friend who has been here for six years told me the other day that New Zealand is a "Lifestyle Country".

"What the hell is that?" I wondered.

"well, they dont want you to work too hard", he explained, "Upskill yourself, get a good paying job and pay your taxes when due. If you get a second job, they take 40% of that additional income in taxes".

So apparently, dont kill yourself working too hard. Enjoy yourself.

Perhaps a bit of an over-simplification from my friend but New Zealand is certainly very "Work-Life balance" orientated. Auckland is similar to Stockholm in the fact that a 20min drive from the city will get you to the beach. Or to some stunning scenery a la Lord of the Rings. And apparently, the South Island (Auckland is on the North Island) is even more alluring and has more to offer in terms of outdoor activities.

I was down in the dumps for some strange reason on Friday and felt very very listless. I went out to a bar with some colleagues and had to leave early as I just couldnt bring myself to get in the TGIF spirit.

So on Saturday, I went to the barbers shop and got a haircut.... or more accurately, I cut off all my hair leaving a bald plate. (I look hot!) I had gotten the Anne Rice Novel, "Ramses the Damned" and made my way to Albert Park. Albert Park is situated right in the middle of the city center a half block away from my office building actually. As a true Lagosian, it always amazes when there is so much green in the middle of a city. Not just any city but the biggest city in the country. It was the same in Stockholm and people from outside the city always look at me funny when I comment on how much nature has been preserved amidst all the skyscrapers. Apparently, Auckland (and Stockholm too) has too much skyscraper and not enough nature.

Visit Lagos sometime I always tell them.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day with the sun shining, I made myself a sandwich and sat near the fountain in the middle of the park and proceeded to read my novel. The park bench I sat on at first wasnt comfortable enough after about 3 chapters so I moved to the luxuriant green grass lay down and continued reading. Of course I dozed off.

I woke up with a start when this adorable puppy started sniffing at the remains of my sandwich. After accepting the apologies of the handsome couple who owned him, I lay there and thought to myself, "Yep, this is not a bad Lifestyle to have at all".

I felt infinitely better so much so that I went home and did some cleaning. Hahaha

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Frank Lampard was back to his best in the game

Chelsea won with the biggest margin ever in our Premier League history when we gave Manchester City a footballing lesson with a 6-nil defeat at Stamford Bridge.


Needless to say, it is going to be an absolutely wonderful week! You just know it.

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Sharing My Friends

Labake dressed in traditional Hausa-Fulani garb during her National Youth Service





Name: Omolabake Mahassin Quadri


Time I have known her: 10 long wonderful years


Location: Milan, Italy


Memorable Moment with Her:
We had gone out partying all night in university. A group of us were supposed to go back to Labake's place to get some sleep until the morning. Labake's apartment was in a complex that had an external gate that was locked at 10pm every night. On getting to the gate, Labake informed us she had lost her keys. Six slightly drunk and very nervous people were forced to scale the 10-foot fence and jump into the complex to wait outside Labake's apartment door until morning when she could get extra keys from the Landlord or something. When the last person landed on the other side, Labake with a huge grin on her face pulled out her keys with a flourish and opened her apartment door.

She thought it would be much more fun to get in the way we did!


What I like most about her:
Her passion. Labake ALWAYS strives to out-do that most difficult of persons to please. Herself. Her motto in life is, "If I cannot find a way, I will make one". No matter what it takes, Labake will get it done. If you are looking for someone to have your back, call on her!


Other comments:
Labake and I were both born on Feb, 04. Which makes her my twin sister!

She and I were members of a great team on the local AIESEC board in university. A lot of people dont get her but I do. Completely! She can be very annoying a lot of times but then, so can I! I love her with a passion and would defend her to the ends of this earth and beyond!

Not More Important...BUT...!

Old Picture from Malta. Me with Nikki a die-hard Manure fan

'...football is more important than life and death to you' and I said 'Listen, it's more important than that'."


The often misquoted 'famous' saying by Bill Shankly, the popular Liverpool FC manager who started the winning streak of the great Liverpool side of the late 70's and early 80's. (A VERY LONG TIME AGO!)

Two posts ago... I struggled to put my feelings and misgivings about the Blue's poor performances in recent matches. Every time I thought about the fact that we hadnt scored in 4 premier league games, storm clouds seemed to gather over the skies of Auckland and I had to restrain myself from choking the life out of some random idiot who desperately needed it!

And when I allowed myself to remember that the "Special One" was no longer with us... well... lets just say the bumps on my head still hurt a lot!

I was disappointed to learn that ESPN wasnt going to screen the Valencia vs Chelsea game. Instead Liverlesspool and Marseille was scheduled. Since an 8pm start in Europe means 8am in Auckland... I decided to have a lie-in and catch the final scores and read the match report on the internet when I woke up.

I was very tired from the night before but couldnt stay asleep while the game was being played. So I hopped on the internet to catch the live-feed some 20mins into the game and my day went straight into the toilet as I saw Valencia was one goal up!

Grit your teeth and smile!

After a long shower and even longer breakfast that tasted like mulch in my mouth... I checked again and found the scores level! And then some 20mins more and Didier Drogba scored what would be the winner!

My day suddenly brightened. And I realized what a truly beautiful city Auckland is. The girl in the elevator going down was the second most beautiful girl I had ever seen. The bus driver was such a jovial and smiling fellow, the receptionist on the ground floor who always seemed so dour face looked like a fresh faced cherub. And the chinese guy in the cafe was shocked when I actually laughed at the same joke he ALWAYS told me whenever he saw me.

And all because Chelsea won a game many thousand miles away from me.

Football is NOT more important than Life. But said existence certainly seems much more rosier when your team is winning innit?

My good mood lasted the whole day and I swear I heard the "Halleluyah Chorus" reveberate around the building when I got round to checking the sports pages (dont tell my boss) and found that Liverlesspool had lost at Antfield!!!

Them with their mustachioed-rotating-loving-pot-bellied Spaniard who showed his lack of class when Jose took his leave of the Premiership. They went down to a Marseille team who is currently 17th in the French League. Ah there is justice in this world. I shouldnt obsess about another team but this team of pretenders have knocked us out of the CL twice in a row at the same semi-final stage. Wouldnt it be so cool to have them knocked out of the group stages? And that seems very likely.

But back to us! Next game is against Bolton. I will be dressed in my Drogba-inscribed Jersey and cheer the boys on!!!

Oh When the Blues...

Oh When the Blues...

Oh When the Blues Go marching In...

I want to beeee in that nuuuuuummmberrrrrr.

Oh When the Blues Go marching In!

We Lost the Special One

Its true.



The man I have jokingly referred to as wanting to be like, when "I grow up" has left Chelsea Football Club!



The self-styled "Special One", who truly made my claims of Chelsea Football the best club in the world as true as they have ever been in our history has finally had enough of the interference, meddling and constant looking-over-shoulder from the owners of the club.



No not the fans, who I believe really "own" the club but the wealthy Russian Oligarch who had the financial muscle to match the dreams and aspirations of Jose Mourinho. No doubt, without the influx of hard cash we would probably still be an 'almost there' club in the English Premiership. But more than money can buy... the winning mentality and moulding of a conquer-all side was ALL Mourinho's doing.



And now we have lost him.



We didnt let him go... we lost him. And it puts a sinking feeling in my stomach.



Jose Mourinho, I do you no justice when I put the moniker of "self-styled" next to your description. No matter what happens after this. You are already one of the greats of the game and you can only better your previous achievements. Too bad those achievements will not be tied to those of Chelsea's



You really are the Special One!
(I dont feel like working today!)

Hard, Thick and Fast!

The title of this post sounds like a porn movie title doesn't it?

It has been two weeks since I last made a post on my blog and my loyal and caring readers (all half a dozen of them) have filled my inbox (not exactly) with queries and demands to update them with the latest going-ons in my life.

I heed their call and submit.

Something really momentous and life-changing HAS BEEN going on but I hesitate to put it down on this space for reasons I cant quite put into words... I had an interesting conversation with my little indian when I was about to start publishing this blog. He was of the opinion that a blog was an online diary where people shared their innermost and most personal feelings. I begged to differ then. Maintaining a blog for more than a year now has only served to reinforce my feelings on the subject.

Even if an individual sets out to consciously communicate his fears, hopes and dreams on something so open and easily accessed as a blog, his sub-conscious mind would still mould HOW he wrote his posts. If not WHAT he wrote. Many bloggers stick to a particular subject matter anyway and the few that proclaim to share their innermost thoughts are being a bit economical with the truth (thats euphemism for "bold-faced liar")

Now what point was I trying to make with all this...?

Ah Yes... so I WILL eventually share with the whole world (such as it is) the scope of the major happenings in my life but not quite yet. I will also leave the psychological dissertations to people like Brodie Boland. He does it infinitely better!

So WHAT has been going on with me that I can share now? Well... my last post reported laziness on my part and I did have one REALLY lazy weekend but the opposite is now the case as work is in full flow!

The New Zealand Dairy industry is right now in high season, the 4 million odd cows in the country have just calved and their udders are heavy and dripping with milk. This Milk has to be extracted (very humanely and with lots of eye-popping technology), collected, manufactured into cheese (Edam, Cheddar); milk powder (Whole, Skim and Butter); Milk Fat; Butter (salted and unsalted); Casein; and quite a few more dairy products, packed in cartons, bags and drums, shipped into containers and transported across the 140 country sales network.

Now since I sit right in the middle of this huge chain of getting the milk from "Cow-to-Customer" (with particular emphasis on the Middle East and Africa market), the emails have been coming in hard, thick and fast, my phone hardly ever stops ringing and my fax inbox seems to be full no matter how many times I clear it! Product planners, Factory managers, Sales Managers, Account Executives and Logistics planners are in high gear as we work on our constantly evolving (and world class) supply chain network and try to make our customers happy.

I Love My Job!

But it hasnt all been work work work. I finally managed to get my hands on a really cheap car. Which means I have the run of the whole of Auckland without having to rely on the not-so-convenient/reliable public transport system. Or on someone coming to pick me up to go to West Auckland. My social activities have largely been confined to the City Center but now with my Silver Mitsubishi Galant 1997 model (which has seen better days but at least still runs) I can expand my prowling activities to West, South and North Auckland. Check it out...

Dont be deceived by the shine. They apply special polish to make it look better. But like I said at least it runs!

Did I also mention that I played in a Fonterra football team against staff from MAERSK Shipping and TOLL Ltd? I didnt score or any goals but I did huff and puff (and huff and puff some more...) on the mixed team which won the cup eventually. I was supposed to play on the men's team as well but I picked up a knock in my left knee and couldnt continue. (and I was afraid my huffing and puffing might turn into a death wheeze!) First pic above is me in my snazzy jersey!

And here is a group picture of colleagues from work at the company Spring Ball!

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And speaking of football. Chelsea had to come from behind to level scores against Rosenborg of Norway in the UEFA Champions League Round 1 games. Rosenborg probably wouldnt be able to finish in the top half of the English Championship!!! So now in the last 3 games we have played, we have scored a measly 2 goals. This is very worrying. Granted Lampard and Drogba who combined to score about 50 goals last season are out injured but then what is all the prattle about "strength in depth" if other players cannot step up to the plate and take responsibility?

Dont get me wrong.... I think the boys played wonderfully. The Norwegian club was camped in their own half for most of the game and we must have had about 20 shots on and off goal but we need to start scoring goals if we are to move ahead this season.

Long term... the Champions League is sort of our holy grail. We want to win it. And yet I get the feeling that if we dont, the Russian might give Mourinho the boot! And to make it more interesting... if Mourinho does guide us to the ultimate prize in European football, i get the sneaky suspicion he will quit!

We can only wait and see!