Don't fight the funny...

There are those days when you remember that the events that happen upon you each day are sometimes out of your hands. That's about the time you remember, too, that you probably shouldn't be trying to drink soda while zooming through Kampala's midday traffic on a boda boda... Unless you want to be splashed in the face by said drink or you want a sharp beggar snatching the bottle out of your hands. It's not that bad actually. You can use the soda to wipe the bemused look from your face.

The days when, despite being an accomplished driver, you drive the car like a newbie. The days when you don't seem like the gifted poet that you are. The days when a simple task suddenly becomes a burden of gargantuan proportions. You feel incapable, weak, and downright pitiful, for such a talented human being. The days when you simply aren't in the zone, and you feel like someone stole your mojo. You feel like setting out to find the guy responsible for your apparent loss of focus. But such quests normally demand a huge meal and a good night's rest beforehand. Okay, at least a good meal.

You start to think that someone somewhere is having a laugh at your expense. Sure enough you see him. The office colleague who notices that you buttoned your shirt all wrong, and left your zipper down. And it occurs to you that you've been like that for most of the day. At this point, you either run away like an ostrich to find some sand to bury your head in, or continue nonchalantly like it's someone else's problem. But people have laughed, and they've laughed at your expense.

You hope that the day gets better, but hope is not enough. And fate is not done with you yet. Forgetting your wallet and house keys in the office, only realizing this when you've reached the taxi park. Several things could happen, but at the end of the day you're probably thinking that whoever is in charge of your day seems to have a twisted sense of humour.

The joker who holds all the cards...

But, on the bright side, you can go back home, sit quietly in the dark and tell yourself that if everyone else had a good laugh because of you, why shouldn't you partake in a bout of healthy laughter as well? After all, anger is a poison and laughter is an elixir. You could hum that classic tune 'Don't worry be happy'. It sure adds a little sparkle in an otherwise dull life.

Next time someone laughs at you, laugh with them. Don't let them spoil the fun for you! Life is not a big joke, but it is funny in the right places. Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to see... A nice big smile!

Fille noire

The picture bears a stunning resemblance to one of my current relationships.

She was the most awe-inspiring creature I'd ever laid my eyes upon. She had the countenance of a goddess and the figure of your wildest dreams. She was free, free from the burden of guilt that many of us carry when we think we've done things. She was free, like a rabbit, in a field, filled with tulips. Room to run around expressing herself in tantalizing ways not fit for the faint-hearted.

The city was cruel, it was unforgiving, it was filled with both the tough and the deadly. The cowardly slithered into gaps and crevices where they wouldn't be trampled upon by the more aggressive denizens. Many of her kind lacked the courage to slug it out in the filth of this wretched society. Heck, most men didn't either. It was a classic dog-eat-dog world. You either ran with the pack, or got out of the way.

She wasn't the sort of girl that ran in a pack, and she wasn't cowardly either. She had a mind of her own, and did what she saw fit and justifiable in her own twisted sense of honor. At least she had a sense of honor. That's more than I can say for the lot of them. To her, it was all just a game, and she alone knew the rules. To tussle with her meant to be forever lost in a maze of excitement that brought no real joy, a web that meant you were just the day's dinner.

She had a smile. That smile could turn stone into dust. Even the most resistant hearts softened in the kind embrace of that smile. Time seemed to slow down when you were near her. Whatever she said sounded like a distant whisper, to which you could only agree. Her voice sounded like a maestro caressing a harp from within your ears, sweet and sensual. When she spoke, you felt all your self-restraint just melt away in the warmth of her soothing voice.

When our paths crossed, I was instantly aware of the strings pulling away my resolve. I thought I'd be the one to tame this tiger, but alas... Tigers are better left wild. A fact I hated to admit was that she was an accurate reflection of my own troubled psyche. We were similar in more ways than I cared to name. Still, there was no need for this...'attraction'. But she was oh-so-gorgeous! But I knew better to think that this thing could last. I knew that we were set on an inevitable collision course, and on that day of reckoning, "One of us must be found in the wreckage."