Apologies for the absence

Here's hoping you all have a wonderful weeekend, but before I go, the reason for the absence has more to do with seriously sporadic broadband internet connection, which somehow screwed up blogger.com.

For some strange reason, I was unable to BROWSE for pictures and upload, so I am doing that here through EML to BLOG service by blogger.com.

I went to Ghana's Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) [website: http://www.dvlaghana.gov.gh/] to get my learner's license, and here's the proof!;-)

Have a good one!

Given that Sunday is Africa Union Day, (it's always on the 25th May), Monday will be a public holiday. Yipee!!

Taxi Tales: Road Rage à la Bicyclette

Insults and tro-tros are no strange bedfellows, but Monday night’s was particularly insightful.

There I was having boarded a tro-tro heading to Tetteh-Quarshie interchange (roundabout) from driving school, when a man on a bicycle almost bumped into the tro-tro. Now, the natural thing in Ghana is to suck your teeth, cuss a bit and move on. Instead, after the insults went flying from some of the male passengers to the cyclist as to whether he was drunk, etc, the cyclist would return a few minutes later as the tro-tro slowed down. He tried to cross the route of the vehicle so that it couldn’t pass!

The insults went in freefall – and it was interactive! The cyclist cried out to the tro-tro "you’re a fool! Didn’t you go to driving school?! Don’t you know how to drive?!"

Meanwhile, some of the men visibly agitated started waving their hands unceremoniously and accusingly at the cyclist for this foolhardy action, asking whether it as *he* who was not mad and a stupid fool for his action? In the meantime, a female security guard sat between the men grinning like a chesire cat, and shaking her head mildly. I could tell that she would have done things differently. That’s perhaps the reason why my actions unwittingly mimicked hers;-)

My Mid-Week Madness: GBS Goes Gaga on Three; Driven to Distraction

Justbefore I disappeared for ten nights away from home for UNCTAD XII, I was anxious to see the new stations that GBS had promised.

After the three new channels -- G-Series; G-Africa; KidsCo -- "arrived", I next had a question for the ages: how on Earth did GBS procure Lipstick Jungle, which is an entirely new show on NBC in the States? How on Earth, when the show started airing only earlier this year?

It's clear that those are some of the insider secrets that only GBS staff would know--and would not be willing to divulge--no matter how hard I tried to interrogate them;-)

I have to say that G-Africa has been the bomb in the sense that it's exploded in our senses and--my God!--our minds and whatever else it can explode into. Sundays these days are to die for, 'cos there's only one station we tune to--and that's G-Africa. You've got your series and your Nollywood movies all vying for our attention--and plenty of attention they get from us!!! ([note to Editor: $100? for this plug? come on! you can do better than that!] I've had enough now--it's simply good! In all seriousness, it's hard to believe that you can even get a monthly subscription as low as GHC11.00!! (circa $US11.00)

Friends and acquaintances comparing DsTV to GBS have great basis of comparison in the sense that the former offers its proverbial so much more. Question is: how much MORE tv can I watch?? I struggle even with these 17 stations that GBS offers in that I cannot watch even half of them regularly. We generally watch SKY news to catch up news in the UK; G-Prime; and MGM.


Driven to Distraction
I'm being lazy in formulating new, funky terms to describe my going back to school to drive, so I'm stuck with the one above, which is also featuring on my Reflecting Eccentric World of E.k.Bensah II here.

Point is: I have started doing the theory on driving since the beginning of this week. I was a bit patchy on my memory of INFORMATORY; REGULATORY and warning signs, so I backed a bit this lunch-time. Will get back to you on how well I do, but I feel more confident today.

Keep yer fingers crossed, merci bien!

Cats and Dogs
How can I forget about the rain? I never said I was not yellow! Yesterday night proved how much so I was when I dodged into a corner to sleep (!) to prevent any lightning strikes come the way of my room!

I value my life too much, thankyou!