Journal

Just a random thought, why do students write closed book examinations. I have over five years professional work experience and I am yet to value the benefit of those nights I deprived my “poor” body of sleep all in the name of studying for a paper. At work if I need something I go on the internet or look in a dedicated procedure, its called research! That doesn’t mean I do not memorize important details, it just means that I have a wealth of reference at my finger tips so I don’t need to cram everything into my brain.

Who invented examination? I’m sure it was just a means of making brilliant people like myself feel satisfied and dignified (Oh look at me, I’m smart I can recite the constitution word for word). Left to me, it’s more difficult to write an open book exam than a closed one without studying. A friend of mine said if all exams were open book, then everyone would pass…wrong, wrong and wrong cause in the same light, if you gave me a physics textbook and a physics paper, I’d stare at the pages for hours and still not know where the answers will come from… then again, I am just being humble of course I would pass after all I am a genius.

Well, enough of my rant, I have good news…I have lost a couple of inches at the gym…Yay, NOT! I wish the weightloss would also manifest in my dress size. After all, when I go to the shop I can’t wear a size 14 dress without seeing my “love-handles”. I just remembered,

I promised to take a real picture (no airbrushing) for you all to see what I look like now and then in 12 months put another one of what I’d look like then. I will do so if I get more than 20 requests (from different people wink, wink).

My exercise plan has been going well thank God; I’ve been going to the gym four times a week 1 day in the gym doing my own thing, two days attending aerobic classes and one day with my lovely personal trainer ‘Miss A’. Out of all the sessions, I must say that the time spent with my Miss A shows the most promise. I had a class with her yesterday and my body hurts so bad that it feels so good, she recommended that I ditch the “Tums and Bums” class and go for Body Balance or Yoga in order to build my core strength. So being a very obedient student, I will drag myself into the next body balance class and though my body aches I’ll give it my best today.

Talking about weight loss, on my way back from break this afternoon, a strange thought crossed my mind; what do I answer when someone asks me how many siblings I have? I normally say four (excluding myself) and they go on to ask ‘What do they do?’ Herein lies my dilemma, I lost my youngest brother Emmanuel in 2001 and saying I have three siblings seems I am doing a huge disservice to his life so I have to say four siblings but I don’t want to go on and say ‘one of them is late’…Is it okay if I say the youngest has gone home? Probably, surely, they’d not ask where home is.

My heart really goes out to people who have lost loved ones, strangely, you’d think with time it’d be easy to get over it but I know that until the day I go ‘HOME’ I’ll miss Emmanuel terribly. For those of you who believe in Heaven, in a strange way, it’s good he left this world at such a young age (9), before he got corrupted by sin. There are so many challenges I face in my day to day life that I shudder what would happen if rapture suddenly takes place today…Food for thought.

Okay my loyal readers, my weight loss memoir for today is full. Do have a lovely week and make sure you come back next week; I’ll be talking about the iPad and my valentine weekend trip…hmmm…interesting!

HAITI RELIEF

On Tuesday the 13^th of January 2010, most of the world didn’t feel the tremors that brought Port au Prince to its knees but we all understood the extent of the devastation that had occurred in Haiti. Within hours, pictures of dead bodies tangled in cement and wood filled our television screens, children crying for their parents and vice versa. If you woke up in Haiti you would believe the world had come to an end. On the other side of the world, I woke up in my cosy bed, took a shower and rushed to work. I opened the Sky News app on my Iphone and was saddened by the news. The first thing that came to my mind was “what can I do to help”!

It is really difficult giving money to a specific charity when you come from Africa, I regret saying this but more often than not, we hear of the vast amounts raised by these ‘charities’ and yet the there is little to show for it. Since I was born, the ’West’ has been raising billions for ‘Africa’ and probably still would when my grand children are born. However, it is time for the afflicted to rise up and act. Below you would find information on a Haitian Charity based in the UK. However, I diverge…by Saturday, I read that people in Britain had donated over £5 million and then I turn on my TV on Sunday and realise that all that money has been sitting on the runway for days. Haitians are a week into the disaster and yet the seed of hope seems ever so far away. Already signs of desperation can be seen, jungle justice rules the day in some slums, I saw a picture of a looter who was hanged, beaten and burnt and something inside me wanted to scream.

I do not understand why there is so much bureaucracy when it comes to aid. According to the BBC, “Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said its cargo plane with 12 tonnes of medical supplies had been turned away from the congested Port-au-Prince airport three times since Sunday. It said five patients died from lack of the supplies it carried”. The charities who can get food to the people risk getting mobbed because they do not have enough supplies and yet the UN and the US government are holding daily meetings…less talk more action lives are at stake!

Well, I do feel a little bit better now that I have let go of some of my frustration. Now back to my issue on finding a worthy charity to give donations; initially I thought of giving some money to the UN because I saw some of their vans on the news (so I know my money would be put to good use) but then again, if they keep most of the supplies on the tarmac, I might as well go out and give the money to a homeless man on the street who would probably spend it on a pint of lager.

Fortunately, on getting to work this morning, I received an email from my cousin about two charities; The UNITED HAITIANS in the UK SE17 1LB and ACTS WORLD RELIEF. Probably this would be a good place to start, for those of you who are dumbfounded by the amount of red tape the UN and US government is plagued with, perhaps you should check these organisations out http://www.actswr.org and http://www.uhuk.org I must add however, that I cannot vouch for their practices, but it seems to me that they would put the money to use and also offer Haitians a long-term means of rehabilitation.

Lastly, Haitian officials say the death toll from the quake was likely to be between 100,000 and 200,000, and that 75,000 bodies had already been buried in mass graves. My heart goes out to everyone who has lost a loved one and also to those who are in hospitals. There is not much I can do from here except say a prayer and also give what I can be it finances, advertisement or well wishes. I also want to use this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed in any way to the Hatian relief effort. It is times like this that MY FAITH IN HUMANITY IS RESTORED, it is comforting to know that in everyone lies a good samaritan

For those of you reading this who reside in London, The United Haitians in the UK have provided venues for donations; items such as wind up torches, medications (first aid equipment), tents, sleeping bags, clothes, dry and canned foods, sterilising water tablets and MONEY. The drop off points are listed below (correct at the time of this post, please contact each venue individually), for enquiries call 07957 919 877.

NORTH LONDON:

Chestnut Community Centre, ST. Ann’s road (off Seven Sisters), Tottenham :

Mon- Fri, 9am – 9pm, Call 07852 937 981

Alternatively: The Hut 379 Seven Sister road N15 6SE  (Off Plaistow High St) Plaistow E13 OBS

Mon- Wed, 10am to 4pm, (for two weeks only)

SOUTH LONDON

Unit 6 Farrell Court, Elephant Road, London

Mon-Sat, 10am-6pm

EAST LONDON:

@Voice Of Africa Radio 24 Swete Street

www.voiceofafricaradio.com

TEL: 0208 471 9111

WEST LONDON:

DJED Cultural Bookstore situated @ Adelaide Grove, Shepherds Bush (off Uxbridge Road)

10-8pm

Happy 2010

Frozen Britain

This week has been beautiful for a lot of people but treacherous for some, before I go on about how much I enjoyed plowing through the snow in my snow boots, let’s have a minute of silence for those who lost their lives due to icy roads.

The snow created frenzy on the news with weather reports every 10-15 minutes saying “Snow is 15 inches deep in Basingstoke with the temperature dipping below freezing at -5°C”. At work only about 30 people made it into the office and even then, I had to close early so as to make it back home before sunset. In all this, I took a minute to observe the weather conditions elsewhere in the world, in Toronto, Canada it had been snowing for over two weeks with temperatures below -15°C in some areas. In Lagos, the temperature was an alarming 34°C any attempt to venture outside would leave you dripping with sweat.

I suddenly realized most times our personal battles seem so big but when we talk to others about it, they shrug it off because probably at that time they are experiencing worse. It is difficult to look outside the box when going through difficulties, imagine telling a mother whose son was trapped under ice for over 20 minutes that her problem is not as big as the wife who lost her husband in a car accident. It is easy to tell a friend of someone else who is going through worse times, but who decides whose case is serious or not.

As we go into the second week of 2010, there is still time for a new beginning. Take a minute to show love to those around you who are going through tough times. You may not be able to solve the problem but you can listen and give encouragement, do not shrug it off as being inconsequential. The message to take into this year is ‘Do not give up, I can do it, Now is the time to ACTUALIZE all my dreams’. Put your thoughts into actions, build networks that are profitable and abandon those that drag you behind. In all, remember every journey starts with one step, followed by another and then another…

Personally, In 2009 one of my goals was to loose weight and I tried doing something about it but didn’t see it through. I realized that diets just do not work for me what I need to do is burst my fat through cardio and other multi-vascular exercises. So putting aside the countless times I started and stopped working out last year, my road to a more healthy Jamie starts now. I will chart my course here for you all to see and hopefully inspire others to do the same. I’m starting again on a fresh slate and at the end of the year I will not be shopping for a size 16 Christmas dress!

Now onto lighter issues, 2009 was a great year for entertainment and being a HUGE buff of all things interesting, take a look at my top 10 Movies, Series and Music albums.

Movies

10.Ingloriuos Basterds: Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt

9.  Moon: Duncan Jones, Sam Rockwell

8.  Star Trek: J. J Abrams, Zachary Quinto

7.  Up: Pete Docter, Edward Asher

6.  An Education: Lone Scherfig, Carey Mulligan

5.  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: David Fincher, Brad Pitt

4.  Slumdog Millionaire: Danny Boyle, Dev Patel

3. Time Traveler’s Wife: Robert Schwentke, Eric Bana

2. Avatar: James Cameron, Sam Worthington

1.  This is It: Kenny Ortega, Michael Jackson

Music

Susan Boyle: I Dreamed a Dream

Jazmine Sullivan: Fearless

Alexandra Burke: Overcome

Whitney Houston: I Look To You

Glee: The Music Volume 1

Alicia Keys: The Element of Freedom

Leona Lewis: Echo

Paolo Nutini: Sunny Side Up

Asa: Asa

Beyonce: I Am… Sasha Fierce

TV Series

10.FlashForward

9.  Private Practice

8.  24

7.  Waterloo Road

6.  House

5.  Glee

4.  Grey’s Anatomy

3.  Fringe

2.  Desperate Housewives

1.  True Blood

I’m sure most of you agree with my choices, back in 2008 Heroes would have been No.1 on my list of TV Series but surprisingly, if I was to go on to list my top 20 it would make the cut. I think the writers got carried away with the hype and fanfare that surrounded the first two seasons. The plot has become very dreary that I no longer have sleepless nights thinking of what Sylar is going to get up to next, a word of advice just get on with it, your viewers are bright intellectuals!

Well, that’s me done, time for me to put on my trainers and go for a brisk walk in the snow…Yay!

Hello world!

Hi there, thanks for stopping by. You are in for a treat, there are alot of things that we hold on to in our journey through life, as much as we love good memories, the negative ones come with extra kilos. As we get older, the weight piles on. Some of this can be seen on a scale and the others in relationships or in our private thoughts. 

Jamie has the secret of how to get rid of this extra weight. 

In the mean time this blog is under construction have a look at the other pages while we work on creating the best weightloss practices available.