I coulda been scoring goals in Chelsea

I just thought I should share this action photo of the football play we had in the park after action paintball the other weekend.

If you know your football, you will see the natural grace and athleticsm in the tackle I am about to inflict on one of the AIESEC Auckland members...

I swear if my dear mother hadnt insisted on a University degree, I could have been right alongside Didier Drogba scoring over 20 goals a season.
There would have been no need for Sheva to come to Stamford Bridge and I would probably have 2 world cups, a champions league and 2 Premiership titles under my belt already!!!

hehehehehehehe. Who am I Kidding?!!

You can check out AIESEC Auckland's blog for their take on our fun-filled weekend

Finally... A Computer of My own

They came in boxes...























The Work station had to be put together first... (No IKEA but a lot of DIY stuff still available)...






I have to say, it doesnt come naturally to put stuff together but I look good holding a hammer and the instructions... I think






And Voila! My new workstation complete with the work and station is ready!




BOY AM I GLAD OR WHAT?! So this is where regular updates will be typed and sent out to the blogosphere. More on why I chose a desktop later.

A party, a pub-crawl and paintball...

Its one thing to to be with your mates/friends/people generally in your age range and have the lot of you acting like you were 10 years younger. Actually I would go so far as to say there is nothing more rewarding and satisfying to relive tension and have a good time.

But when you are in your mid to late twenties (still not that old I know...) and you are in a group where the average age is 17-18, you will still find it hard going quite a bit.

Which is the position I found myself on Friday last week at my AIESEC buddy's party. Oh, dont get me wrong, i mixed it up like mad and had a good conversation with one girl in particular. (it helped that she was drop-dead gorgeous... even if she wont return my calls now...:) But when they started doing body shots with whipped cream and tequila shots... i felt so out of place. I was invited to 'body-shot' off a nice looking 19 year old but gracefully declined with a smile on my face. Ah Well... Twas a good coming-of-age party and Yifan the birthday girl in question had a smashing time... (key word here is 'Smashing(ed)

Mialy and I were together and we met up with James Rowland one of the AIESECers who was on a pub crawl with a bunch of his non-AIESEC friends. They were half-way through when we met up with them so we crawled through 5 or 6 pubs before heading home. It helped that James and his friends were Beer Conneissours (is that how it is spelled?) and so were able to give us the history, reputation and pedigree of the beer on sale. Pretty frigging amazing! Who would have guesses that the ordinary looking vintage ale I had had inspired a great work of art!!!

Ended up dancing at the viaduct, a really snazzy complex on the waterfront with quite a few bars and clubs there. Got dancing with this seemingly young Asian woman but when i went out for air and got a blast of cold icy wind to clear my head, she looked all her 40 years (at least!) heheheheheheheheh

But the highlight of the whole weekend was the Action Paint ball.




It is going to be a long hard road to get rid of war and violence in this world of ours. As if it is not enough that there are such divisive factors as religion, ethnicity and pure power plays, some will also instigate it for profit but a whole lot of people will just want to go to war for the sheer adrenaline rush!!!

We were dressed in long overalls and had protective helmets to protect our eyes from the water-based paint balls which travel about 250 feet a second! According to the staff there, one of those balls hits your eyes and your eye-balls will definitely be on the losing side. Say bye-bye eye-ball!

There were 18 people in total in our group and we split up into 2 groups along the lines of ICX and OGX. We got suited up in the overalls and protective helmets, got the safety run through by our designated 'referee' who was going to take us through each of the 'games'.

A few minutes on the target range and we were ready!The guns are specially constructed with gas cylinders attached which turns the paint-balls (which are about half the size of a ping-pong ball) into such deadly projectiles.

We played five different 'games' which all had to do with variations of either capturing a main flag and planting it in the opposing team's base or planting your own flag on a hill and defending for a certain time period.

Pic below is me striding confidently to the OGX team base to wipe the flag in their faces after we had eliminated all of them...















In one or two of the games, we had recurring lives which meant when you got tagged (have a paintball explode on some part of your body leaving a large splotch), you had to scream "TAG" and rush to your base get cleaned up and rush back into the fray. In the particular game above, we had only one life each so when you got tagged, you went to your base and stayed there!

Needless to say, my team (ICX) won four out of the five games.

Did I mention how painful it was to have those paintballs explode on ANY part of your body? Some really nasty bruises were sustained and we could all see how one could lose an eye in the game! Quite a number of the girls vowed never to play again! (and I am sure some of the guys as well, albeit quietly!)

In the picture below, i am under heavy fire and have the popping of the air guns flying over my head! You have to experience the adrenaline rush to understand what I am on about!

A sucker for "BlogThings..."

I am such a sucker for these "BlogThings". Especially when they are this flattering

(I am living and have been living my dreams for quite a while now so I dont mind paragraph two quite as much)

What Your Soul Really Looks Like

You are a warm hearted and open minded person. It's easy for you to forgive and forget. You are not a very grounded person. You prefer dreams to reality. For you, it's all about possibilities. You believe that people see you as larger than life and important. While this is true, they also think you're a bit full of yourself. Your near future is likely to be filled with great successes and accomplishments. You just need to figure out how to get there. For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.

Inside the Room of Your Soul

And check out this one... At least now I am convinced they cheat on these things. They probably just looked at where I was using the internet from and pronto...

You Belong in New Zealand

Good on ya, mate You're the best looking one of the bunch Though you're often forgotten... You're quite proud of who you are

What English Speaking Country Are You?

And to wrap it all up... I am red, cute, furry and good to hug...

You Are Elmo

Sweet and innocent, you expect everyone to adore you. And they usually do! You are usually feeling: Talkative. You've got tons of stories to tell. And when you aren't talking, you're laughing. You are famous for: Being popular, though no one knows why. Middle aged women especially like you. How you life your life: With an open heart. "Elmo loves you!"

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

So go on then... if you haven't ever visited it before go to Blogthings and waste the entire morning! (I am wasting the tail end of working Friday!)

A weekend to look forward to...

Interesting weekend lined up

First tomorrow evening my AIESEC buddy Yifan is celebrating her 21st birthday. She's from Malaysia and has a Korean boyfriend so lots of pretty Asian girls certain to be there. Hoohah!

Then same Friday evening, there is a "Pub Crawl" on the books. What back home in Lagos, we used to call, "Club Hopping"! Organized by James Rowland one of the AIESEC people, I am looking forward to it. Last time I was out with James, I kinda 'got lucky'. Lets see this time....

Saturday, AIESEC Auckland have a paintball session lined up. This is where we all dress up in protective clothing and helmets, get a paintball gun, load it up with paint-balls and we attempt to splat as many opponents as we can! Heard a lot about this, cant wait to try it out. There is also some soccer and fish n chips planned. Havent been as involved in the LC as I would have liked, so glad for this opportunity to mix up with the LC members.

And then on Sunday, we have been invited to a picnic at the foot of a volcano (same one I slid down into the crater see post here) by a former MCP of AIESEC in NZ, Jessica.

And oh yeah... tomorrow is payday! I get my own computer over this weekend or early next weekend at the very least! Yeehah!

TGIF! (Well it is tomorrow)

Dripping, Soaking, Sogging Wet...

I got caught in the rain today!

What a glorious, wonderful, fantastic feeling! I had almost forgotten what it felt like to have the rain beating down on you, heavy enough that it obscures your vision (and if you wear glasses, they get steamed up); have every single item of clothing on you soaked through right down to your underwear and your socks and shoes. The clothes stick to your skin and your shoes squelch.
You feel like every care and sorrow is being washed away and in its place is a sense of renewal, well-being and content. I have always loved the scene in the movie Shawshank Redemption (pic above) where Tim Robbins makes it out of the prison and raises his arm to the heavens.

Little children who are said to be nearer to all things elemental, instinctively recognize this fact and absolutely delight in running around in the rain laughing, screaming and trying to make the biggest splashes in the rapidly forming puddles. At least until the grown-ups break up the party! Anyone do that in their childhood? I find a lot of parents these days are too scared of common little things like colds!

So if you ever feel down and a bit in the dumps, try looking for a good tropical torrential downpour (okay... a temprate one will do as well) and go out into it fully clothed. Walk around, take your time and get deliciously soaked!

PS
And when you are done, get out of the clothes, rub yourself down briskly with a nice big fluffy towel and get into dry clothes. Or you might catch your death of cold!