Got Lost Before?

This Monday turned out to be the most unplanned, annoying, fun-filled day. Just relax a bit; I’m going to let you on it in a little bit. It’s crazy, it’s big… You ready? Ohh come on calm down ok ok…I SAID calm. Ok just teasing you a little bit.

              It started all last week, no probably even the Friday when I ended this semester and she asked me whether I would be able to come meet her. Well, I would have just I hadn’t thought of it yet. Opps…my bad! She? She’s is my girlfriend…who else? Anyway, she even initially felt I would probably not want to come see her because of the distance but trust me with the experience I had on Monday, distance isn’t going to be a problem anymore, I’m damn sure of that!  Well she kept wanting me to come see her especially last week, she had moved to her Aunt’s place at Spintex, a little closer to where I’m staying. I live in Dansoman. (The places are tows in Accra, Ghana. – if you are familiar with Tema, Accra, Dansoman, Spintex places in Ghana, this one will thrill you but I promise it will be the same even if otherwise)

               I called my friend, Plange from school, we were what you call room-mates back in high school, and his birthday was Friday. He said he was going to have a little get- together of some few old pals back from school and some of his friends on this very Monday I was going to see Vida.

               Normal day, normal life on Monday: I had to go to the bank earlier to get some money to buy petrol for my car. You ever had the feeling before on the road that you were supposed to use one road especially but everything points to use another tough you don’t really know where you are going, and a bit confused with the directions given. I’m I making sense. Ok, I’m saying, that Vida, my girlfriend, was directing me to her Aunt’s place, right? And then with the directions she gave me pretty matched with what I already had in mind but was all wrong. You know what she said. I should pass by the Accra Mall and just follow the cars. You know where I ended up? In Tema! I hadn’t been there before, Tema I mean…but you know the signboards too I saw pretty much agreed with her direction and my assumptions, and went on the Tema motorway instead on going to my right to Spintex and you know the damn thing about motorways they are so long that you have to be driving at 100mph if you really want to get somewhere. Somehow I felt I was lost…when I had gone through three roundabouts instead of the just one she mentioned. I called her and I told her I was at VALCO roundabout and she told me to go a little forward to KPOGAS… Ok…a little revealed nothing like coming to KPOGAS, I called later to say I have ended up in some Presbyterian Church in Community One. Guess what she said, “ohhh Edwin you’re in Tema.” Darling please…as id I don’t see that written all over. “Wait, a sec. did you pass in front of Accra Mall or by the side.” Ohh I pass the front. “But I meant the side, I told you to follow the cars.” Now, tell me guys how the heck I’m I to think the when someone says passes by a building, you pass the side and not the front, the front is more logical, right…and ohh the cars in front of me were all going to Tema.

                  So I’m like, “ohh boy I’m going back home, that’s if I even find my way back.” Bida, goes like, “you’re going home.” I was so pissed that was so lost, and not that but soooooooo far away from where I had to go to. I mean if you get lost near where you are supposed to go meet someone, that’s ok but this was way off course.  The craziest thing too was I was coming back trying to get back to the Accra route and hey I seek, to Akosombo, and I was actually on the road…Jeeeeeeeeeees! I could take that being lost this far out but on the road to Akosombo, that’s hopeless. At least turning back abruptly through the traffic, a sign board led me out. You know what, an advice, always, always, look at those one too many signboards, IT HELPS!

                   Back on the motorway, I resolved anyway to go see her…I don’t like failing at anything when I can make t right…but that right didn’t come easy. It meant I had to top up the tank again. Yea sure, I mean come on! Tema-Accra…I had to get petrol again. If you in Ghana you would know that most people will consider Accra-Tema as travelling! Anyway, I managed to come down before I saw her in the long run and of course the road to her house was so shorter then Tema, certainly!

                  Seeing her, her lovely face and all that brought a sudden calmness…although she could be annoying and sweet as well…love that! She had redone her hair, now some light brown colour now (you know me and the hair)…she looked beautiful but she was always like that…nothing taken. Well after some time, she agreed to go with me to a friend’s party…Plange’s? remember? At least she met some of her old school mates. Party was small but was full of laughter and much talking from me and pictures, tons of food…still wish I could have finished what I was given. (I hate those things with parties, you just can’t eat a lot, your stomach miraculously is full though you know normally, you eat more than that ) In the long run the day was fun for me…I mean hey a day spent with friends is cool but Vida alone is incredible now add that to the equation of friends!

 

You know what being lost, now thinking about it was actually fun. I remember this guy who was selling in Tema, I asked him where KPOGAS was and he said, “not far from here, just go straight and it near ECOBANK” Dude I was lost in some place KPOGAS couldn’t have been…and mind who you ask for directions too, huh?

 

Driving Experiences

               I started driving since my seventeen birthday. I remember that very day; I came back from school because I didn’t want to spend another one of my birthdays in school. The previous on in school was during the time of a house inspection so I really didn’t have the chance to celebrate- boarding school. I remember cleaning all those windows floors in our dormitory to get the house neat for the house inspection competition, which we won in the long run so all the same I was glad. Well so this particular 17^th birthday I remember telling my dad to show me how to drive, at around 3pm in the afternoon that 1^st July. You know why I wanted it at that time; he told me sometime back when I wanted to learn that his dad showed him how to drive at 17. I’m like, “it’s a new age dad.” I know I kept saying that for a couple of months and this year I decided it was going to my last. You know what my father when I asked him to show me. He said, “No!” So plainly, no! Stunned though I didn’t let my eyes give that emotion away, I always try not to show too much, if I do show you, you got to be very lucky. “Why?” I asked the man, who at this time was trying to hide a smile, which he always does. I guess in some way I took at side of me from him- hiding emotions. I’m a bit loose though. I guess it reduces as the lineage descends. My dad said, he couldn’t use the Pick-Up truck to teach me, because that was a government vehicle. Fine I understood. Intelligently my mother cut in, “you can use mine.” I loved the idea. My mother drove a white coloured Ford Escape, a 4×4. My dad once again claimed the car was automatic and it wasn’t good for a beginner otherwise when you get hold of a manual driven car it would be difficult to adjust. I had heard that line all my life. Jeeeees! Whether automatic or manual, I just wanted to drive. In the next 10 minutes of my smart dad trying to convince me that the day wasn’t right, he some how budged to show me. We went out and from there I started learning the how to drive, bear in an automatic transmission.

                 Who said driving was fun. I wish I could enjoy it then, though now I do enjoy. Most of the trips I made in my mum’s car when I was 17 were not my own errands. Actually I don’t think I ever took the car on for my own purpose. I was sent. Not bad! At least I still get to drive, maybe they didn’t allow me to go too far was because then I didn’t have a license. As time went on, I mastered the driving any automatic transmission. I knew that was driving made easy. You get into the car, get the gear to D(rive) and hit the road. Two pedals, a large break pedal and a normal size accelerator. No one could miss it. Then I began to wonder why people don’t want to drive automatic cars…it’s easy. Isn’t it what everything supposed to be? Then again life is not easy but easy (you still with me). One thing I love about automatic driven cars was their speed. Hit the gas and the car moves from 0 to whatever.

                 Up till 19 years I never drove a manual car, I tried occasionally but I was horrible. I thought I would never be able to learn how to drive it. I didn’t really care; I had decided to buy automatic cars all my life. What put me off sometimes was the thought that sometime in the future I would be in a fix where only a manual car was there to drive.

Well all this time I just studied and listen to theories on how to drive manual cars. I don’t know how but I felt that listening to all I heard I could actually do something when given the wheel. Then my dad said he was going to get me a car for university. He got me a TATA Indica. I couldn’t hope the car was going to be automatic, I knew I wasn’t. I had seen many cars already like that roaming the streets. Well the car got home and within my birthday month, this July when I got back from my trip to Abidjan the car was waiting for me. I found some courage to take the bull by the horns, and that I did. I actually shocked myself when I realized that I could actually drive this thing. I wasn’t that perfect; sometimes in traffic the car could just go off because I lifted my foot too fast off the clutch pedal. I remember on a couple of occasions it went off when I was the first in front of the traffic light and so many cars behind me. Did they ever tell me you could sweat as a beginner driver? You can say I just did it. I took all the theories I heard and nailed this thing home. This time I didn’t need my dad or anyone teaching me how practically. No one sat in the car the first time I took. I took it like I already knew how. I bet only those in my home knew I was a leaner. Now I actually cannot make the difference now between which transmissions I love. I guess both are okay. Yea, you can say that again, “Since I know how to drive both.” This is my third week in driving manual cars and hey it feels like I have been doing this forever. Now I want to take car my dad’s huge 4×4 Nissan Patrol. I’m sure he’ll still no give it to me, but now I don’t really care since I can’t be caught in a fix anymore. 

 

OIL PRICES HIKES

             You know initially these prices hikes in oil didn’t really bother me till… OMG! I’m going to tell about it real soon. You know all you guys that maneuver your way and send the prices of oil causing my small fuel I put in my car so costly… okay! I’m just going to reserve my comments on it. People are you still there? Can you like, tell me what is this prices surges doing to you, your budget, practically everything because in the long run it really does affect all things? Jeeeez! Why do I have to be so right?

 

                Where does the story begin? You know when you are a kid and your dad goes like he’s going to buy fuel for the car and all, normally you won’t budge. Why? Surely because you practically don’t know what is going on behind the scenes. The many calculations dad has to do before taking that car. Ohhhh true! I can now actually recall seeing my dad on many occasions taking some papers often and doing some plenty maths. Then I would have believed it was his work. Now boy! I sure don’t; he was doing his budget allocations. You want to ask him? Check out with your dad, maybe he doesn’t use a paper; his mind will sure do the job so well…lol. Then again seriously people, we have to get to down to serious business

 

                 I came back from Abidjan on Sunday, to come and meet the car my dad had bought some months ago some me. The car is sleek; a TATA Indica. Well for a student now entering the university, that’s cool. Besides the car apparently saves fuel. I wonder why the marketers also say that. Those people! If the car saves fuel, what the heck does it run on, doesn’t it get finished. All that blah! Blah! Blah! Blah! On car saving fuel, it still doesn’t matter because in the long run you still going to buy fuel which doesn’t have the price remaining the same, always climbing high. That is the case with me in this one. I came on the Sunday, there’s fuel in it; I mean fuel, not water. And then before the end of the week, everything just goes down like that, I even bought some in the week to top it up. I mean hey, it does feel good to feel like you are turning into a grown man taking responsibility for your own actions. Well, then just in half a day I realize that my fuel gauge by some magic bends it heads downward towards the red zone. Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez! Is that how things are run in this country? I felt things are too expensive. I mean I could go ahead and buy fuel in the country I came from no problem but now! Whoosh I now get why some people go on doing strikes and demonstration in their countries and all.

 

                     You know the irony of everything. Many times the government can’t do anything about it. Why? It could lose. I wonder why it has to like that, but that’s what it is. The irony is that those oil owners know that whether the price goes so high, people are still going to buy. I mean cars will still run, right? I guess I got to go back to the drawing board because surely I’m in some dynamic world. I need some direction on it. Have you been affected some how?