6. Fish in the water – you knew it was coming!

Two words – Michael Phelps! 

For the past week we have marvelled at how the swimmers look like fish in the water. Seriously, it must be a lot of work to look that good under water and make it effortless. I applaud all the swimmers who work so hard to make it look easy and fun. 

Apparently its a science – I watched a local news piece and the journalist was taking to an aquatics technician (or something similar). He was explaining how a lot of science goes into swimming and how swimmers work on different muscles and movements to enable fast diving into the water, pushing themselves off the turn, etc. Here I was thinking its all about swimming, no no. Apparently its a lot of strenght training as well. So next time you see a swimmer with broad shoulders, know lots of work went into that! 

7. Perfectly chiseled bodies

I am in awe of how fit and muscular the athletes look. I know they work 36 hours a day to look that way excel but I cannot help my jealousy at such perfection. My perfect body so far, female athletes running 800M – not too stout, perfectly lean. *sigh* Sanya Richards-Ross needs to hook me up with her trainer – her workout schedule will work just fine too! 

8. Beach Volleyball Bikinis

Don’t get me wrong, I am in awe of female beach volleyball players. I presume that the history of the sport probably begun somewhere on some sunny beach. I do occasionally wonder though – how comfortable is to play on sand and have the incredible urge to fix your wedgie everytime your undie/bikini/costume goes ‘fishing’??? What if sand rides up um, you know, after you fall? Wouldn’t it make more sense to wear shorts similar to the track athletes? For comfort purposes? My questions are totally legit right?

Sorry ladies, you get to be 8 on my list 🙂

9.’Sports’ I don’t understand

Running is a Kenyan African sport. We revel in it, understand it, and love it. I mean, how hard is it to understand that if you start running from point A to point B the first person wins? So when we see people cycling indoors, and jumping up and down on trampolines, naturally we pause and scratch our heads. Sports I cannot understand even if I tried to but watch nonetheless in fascination:

• Trampoline
• Gymnastics – Artistic
• Gymnastics – Rhythmic
• Somebody please explain the difference
• Cycling – Indoors
• Water Polo
• Fencing
• Synchronized swimming
• Archery
• Shooting? ala!
• I belive that makes nine!! 🙂

10. London 2012 Opening Ceremony

*Disclaimer* My hate-hate relationship with NBC will occasionally seep onto this post.

My ultra favorite moment of the Olympics has always been the opening ceremony. I long for the art, pomp, music, anticipation and of course – country ‘uniforms’. This year’s was a bust. I had slaved all day at work because we had an open house – BBQ, music, games, the works. If you know me really well, you will know that I love planning and executing events. So much so that I was at Costco by 9:30 am – before opening time. So after shopping, prepping, hanging out in the solar (basically exhausting myself) I was all pumped to watch the opening ceremony. But wait! I wasn’t done yet, I rushed to modern toto’s school to pick her up, rush home and prepare dinner because we had a guest coming over. Come 8pm, I was ready to revel in ‘Olympic festivities’.  Hmmn, the opening ceremony was all botched up and hodgepodged by yours truly NBC (shocker!) So, instead of enjoying a well chorepographed, witty, and eccentric opening ceremony, I had to deal with NBC’s edited version and interpretation of Danny Boyle’s vision. On a positive note, it was good to see so much happiness and hope – the promise of friendly competition. So, due to NBC’s undoing, I give London a solid 10. Blame it on Nothing But Crap!

Malaria and Other Bugs

I have been sick for a few days, at least I think I have been. It may be the daunting task of turning my house in shambles er mess to a stepford wife’s magical wonderland. You see, the in laws arrive Thursday morning.. . . . . . .and its Monday night. Meanwhile, my house looks like a couple of toddler parties and renovations happened, oooiiiii 😦  The Malaria makes sense now doesn’t it?

Where I come from, my mother’s house :):), every ailment is Malaria. Anything remotely resembling a headache, fever, or viral infection is and always classified as Malaria. It might be that Malaria is pretty rampant in Kenya and so we do the best we can – misdiagnose and overmedicate. No wonder the mosquitoes are always a couple of buzzes ahead of us!

Oh how I wish I could walk to the local Pharmacy and buy a couple of anti Malarials. Hmn, I wonder what the latest name could be – Cotexciphan? Wait a minute? Did I just quote Fringe? heh heh

Clearly my medication is not as sophisticated as pharma R&D medication. Meanwhile, I will continue self-medicating with the best reality tv out there. . . . . Olympics.

I love the Olympics so much so that I am collecting my ten best Olympic moments, hint – it has a lot to do with B&B – bikinis and buffs :):)

Death, Pyjamas and the Olympics

My computer died a few days ago. At least I thought it did 😦 The battery won’t charge and it keeps on blinking funny. Thats the best way I can describe it. See, I have had it for only 2.5 years so what gives? Its been to the Geek Squad at least 6 times, each time with a different problem. I must have bought a lemon, thats the only plausible explanation I can think of. Unless, a laptop’s shelflife is now two years? I have to revisit the story of stuff and think about the rapid evolution of technology and e waste. *Sigh* A new computer is not anywhere near my budget for the next couple of years, or until modern toto needs one. Who am I kidding? She will probably be rocking an I pad while wondering what archaic devise mama is using for work.

 

Anyway, I decided not to take my computer’s ‘death’ that bad, because I knew something really good was coming on Friday. I LOVE the Olympics! I was sure it would be the highlight of my summer. Shock on me!Along came #NBCFAIL  I have no cable and I don’t think it would have made a difference if I did. Due to the business?capitalist?greedy nature of the powers that be , NBC seems to be showing nothing interesting live, including the opening ceremony. So, after a really hard day’s work, I rush home to clean, cook, bath modern toto, and settle before 8pm. o__O my night was in complete and utter disappointment. I have never hated the voices of Matt Lauer and Bob Costas like I did yesterday. The opening ceremony was all botched up, with NBC showing commercials in what felt like 90 second intervals. Uggggghhhh!!!!!! WTF? Naturally, I did not understand the opening ceremony until the ‘country march’ I eagerly awaited to see what ‘uniform’ Kenya had donned this year, only to be shocked to see a white boy carry the flag. Hmn. . . . . Oh what a night! I went to bed at midnight hugely diappointed and decided to give NBC a second chance today. I knew I would be pretty busy watching exciting olympics events, so  I decided today would be a lounge in pyjamas kind of day for modern toto and I. Well I should have known, once bitten. . . . .
Not only did NBC not air most events live, they chose to air all the popular events during primetime to make more $$$$ If this is not the absolute defition of greed for the greater profit, I don’t know what is. Let’s just say by 3pm, I knew China had two gold medals in swimming and Ryan Lochte humiliated Phelps won the 400M IM. What’s the point of waiting 6 hours to watch an event whose results you already know? What an epic disaster NBC? Did you forget the Internet exists? Come on!! I call this kidnapping by TV! If this is how the Olympics coverage is going to be I would rather get updates from Twitter. Yup, I am boycotting NBC this summer, what’s the point really? Yup! My Olympics gusto is gone. Meanwhile, I will contribute a tweet or ten to NBC’s epic failure, in my pyjamas of course.

I have seen the face of God and his name is Brian Kinney

Two guesses as to who Brian is mmmh yeeeaaah. Oh yeah, he tickles my fancy, still does. This has been my summer of playing catch up on awesome shows I missed in my yesteryears. Well, I stumbled onto Queer as Folk in the local library and was hooked from episode one. I don’t have cable (can you tell?) Not particularly because of Brain Kinney but the awesome chemistry of the cast and the superbly written script. However, I must admit Brian Kinney is the most beautiful man I have seen on TV this summer. I kid you not! Gale Harold became Brian and embodied him in every way. I loved his arrogance, brilliance, wardrobe (in later episodes ahem). As the show evolved, I figured out that he was the protagonist of the show, not needy boyish Michael Novotny. But then again, I am biased, clearly. Was the sex a distraction for me? Nah uh, Babylon was! All the awesome music from Babylon reminded me of my high school senior year and freshman year at college. Woman, if I could dance to electric house music one more time in Klub House ‘aka’ K1, I would be in music heaven.

I may have loved this show for sentimental reasons, the baggy jeans from the 2000’s and boots ‘aka avunjas. Oh lord, have we really come thus far? How I thought that men’s baggy jeans was a cool fashion statement, I will never forgive myself ugh! Everytime Michael Novotny popped on screen my fashion police sense screamed a little bit. But then again hey, I was a victim of fashion in the late 90’s too. What I loved most about the show was its evolution. Queer as Folk wasn’t simply about the sex lives of gay friends in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was much more than that. The show evolved to tackle discrimination, homophobia, discrimination, and many atrocious human rights violations of the LGBT community. I was appalled each time an episode and/or season dealt with an issue and I would think ‘OMG that was so long ago’! Only to read the news and realize we haven’t come that far in 12 years.

Why am I going on about the ‘queers’ you may ask? I attribute three reasons to this show being on my mind today: David Guetta‘s Titanium (yes, I do miss Babylon), Sally Ride passing on, and the first ever LGBT activist nominated to the high court in Kenya. It’s a bittersweet victory for me. On one hand, I am super grateful to be a resident of a country that prides itself to be the free world and a melting pot. As much as we are a free world, it seems we are moving 1,000 steps backwards, from treating women as baby carrying vessels with no regard for their life to denying basic health care to the underserved. When did this happen? I keep on asking myself how one can claim to be religious yet use their position of power to persecute the powerless? Is that religion? All religions I am familiar with practice empathy, justice, kindness, love, peace. How does one defend their discrimatory actions and words with religion? I am constantly baffled by such callousness. Surely if God existed religious fanatics would be struck down by lightning or brimstone perharps? Speaking of Brimstone, whatever happened to that show?

Ok moving on. . . . . . .I was sad to learn of the passing of Sally Ride. In my self professed ignorace, I had never heard of her till news of her death hit Twitter. I really don’t care whether she was gay or straight. However, I must point out that she was a woman who achieved the highest possible achievement in every sense of the word. She made it to space. Again I ask, how did her identity and sexuality affect her achievements? This is where I hang my head in shame on behalf of all the bigots who persecute the LGBT community. SHAME ON YOU!!!

Finally, I am super stoked that the words LGBT can be mentioned in Kenya as a local LGBT rights activist was nominated by the president as a high court judge. This is HUGE news! For REALZ! Congratulations Monica Mbaru!! I come from a country where culture and religion dictate everything so much so that we were indoctrinated at a very early age to believe that rock music was the devil’s, Michael Jackson was a devil worshipper, and all gay men wore earrings (Believe me, its a long ridiculous list). We are super conservative and uber religious, treat mean and women of the cloth like semi-gods and blame the devil for everything, including oversleeping. Yup, that’s Kenya for you. We come a close second to Uganda world renowned  for torturing and killing LGBT activists. Somehow though (by the grace of Brian Kinney), it seems Kenya has evolved (there is a Brian Kinney after all), and so have I. Yup, my thinking has since evolved with my growth and exposure. I currently work to ensure that underserved commnities (particularly the LGBT community) get the healthcare and socio – economic resources they need. And you know what? I LOVE IT!!! I cannot envision seeing myself working for another cause, as I always say as long as it has to do with sex, you bet I will be passionate about it – think reproductive health rights.

So, please celebrate with me as I dance to Babylon’s beats tonight and ponder over what this appointment means for the Kenyan LGBT community.

We will Survive. . . . .

Peace!

How to Conquer a Yoga Handstand

Step 1: Lie down, with your back to the floor, on your yoga mat

Step 2: Take a deep breath in

Step 3: If you know me really well you should know that I love Yoga but there is no way I can accomplish a handstand or give advice on accomplishing one

Step 4: I used the title for my post in an attempt to hook you in – that and it was the heading of my first unread email from my yahoo inbox

Step 5: If you are still here, you must be really interested in what I have to say write

Step 6: Seriously, the good stuff begins now

Step 7: Right after this

You standing on your head yet?

On a lighter note, I do love Yoga. A friend introduced me to Bikram Yoga this year. I love it, its a combination of my two favorite things, sauna and Yoga. What other form of meditation and/or exercise do you leave feeling completely rejuvenated and steamed? Nope, I didn’t think so! Well, in my rush to do all things Yoga I purchased a Groupon deal ( 30 for 30) thinking that I would manage attending daily Bikram Yoga for only 30 days. Only? Well, I did momentarily forget that I was a working mom who had to pick up my toddler, get home, make dinner, give her a bath and put her to bed by 7:30 pm. The idea was to leave home by 7:45, get to the studio by 8 , meditate and relax before class begun at 8:15. Bear in mind that I could not eat dinner during ‘rush hour’ because it is advisable not to eat 3 hours before class. Basically, I wolfed down dinner before I left work at 5pm. If I was lucky, modern baba would come home in time to giver modern toto a bath and tuck her in. How long do you think that lasted superyogamom routine lasted? Let’s just say that I utilized approximately 12 of my 30 days. Epic fail? ??? I chose to see that as a lesson, try not to over do it. If I am lucky, once a week of any form of Yoga works just fine. That combined with running around after the ‘queen’, housework, and the minimum thrice a week HIIT keeps me in check. Not to mention the monthly 5Ks. That keeps me in check err shape and sane for now. . . . Hopefully once modern toto grows up I can venture out into a gym and bootcamp perhaps? Maybe run a full marathon one day? Or a triathlon? the tough mudder? All in good time! Meanwhile, I will continue attending Bikram Yoga classes whever I get the chance and practicing Yoga in the confines of my bedroom from yogatoday 

If you would really like to conquer a Yoga handstand, look to the experts 🙂 

Namaste

Welcome back!

Who am I kidding? I can type my thoughts on screen without having to bug modern baba. See, he’s been working late a lot and since the tot sleeps by 8pm – you get my drift. I have no one to talk to, and nothing relevant to watch. It is summer after all and we have no cable. I am twiddling thumbs here, counting down days to the Olympics, two more days to be exact. Yay!

Now where was I? Yes – spilling my unfiltered thoughts onto the screen. Hmn. . . blank blank . . .  blank blank. It must be the excitement of something new. Let’s see how long this lasts. Heh Heh. I gotta stop killing myself  *insert smiley face*

Well it is 10:32pm and I have work tomorrow. Off to bed I go, hmph!! Good night world!