Hello readers! It’s a wonderful Monday morning today, isn’t it? I like that it rained this morning. We got some respite from the crazy weather this weekend. I know I lingered in bed for longer than I naturally would because the weather was so darling! Hope y’all enjoyed your weekend with your families and friends. Time to catch up on important news you may have missed from last week and the weekend.
AMAA 2013
For those still in year-two-thousand-and-late, AMAA was on the 20th of April in Yenogoa, Bayelsa state! I’m proud that the AMAA has risen from the bottom and are now at the top (nam’saying?). Each year, AMAA hands out awards to deserving theatre art practitioners. And each year they invite a notable Hollywood figure as a special guest. This year Mario Van Peebles (film maker and producer of “New Jack City”) was more than grateful to grace the event as it was his first time in Africa. As much as I would like to tell y’all that the event went completely well and everything was peachy, I hate to break it to you but it wasn’t. The accommodation provided for the invited guests was below average. The governor of Bayelsa state, Henry Seriake Dickson, was said to have promised to provide 5 star accommodations for the local and international guests in the 250-room state lodge. However, the lodge was not renovated until the morning the award ceremony was scheduled to happen so guests were lodged in hurried Plan B hotels with no water supply and pest ridden rooms. You’d think that would be the end of it but nah: the ceremony was filled with bad jokes and grammatical mistakes from AY (the comedian) and barely audible voice of Ama K. Abebrese. Both hosts were quickly swapped for DakoreEgbuson-Akande and Ghanian actor, AdjeteyAnang. Let’s not forget the cussing out between Chioma Chukwuka and a journalist on the plane. Chioma Chukwuka was not afraid to put a piece of her mind out in the open. Let’s just say it was a pretty ugly match.
T.B Joshua cast demons out of Nollywood actress
Camille Mberekpe (known as “Mama Eko”) was at the Synagogue Church of All Nations on Sunday to seek deliverance from evil spirits that have been tormenting her for a couple of years now. The veteran actress was shown live on national (and international TV) rolling on the floor and screaming after the popular prophet had commanded the demons to come out of her. Camille had confessed to attempting to “bring down” another popular Nollywood actress because the actress was a firm believer in God and prays a lot. She also said that all attempts to drag her to the dark side had failed. We are glad Camille is herself again.
18 killed over the weekend
Gunmen killed a total of 18 people over the weekend in two separate attacks over the weekend. In Bayelsa state, 8 former militants were killed in a clash between rival gangs. In Adamawa state, a group of gunmen stormed Njilang village and killed 10 people and injured 9 people before crossing the border into Cameroon. Speculations are that the gunmen were members of the Islamist terrorist Boko Haram group who are responsible for the deaths of 3,600 people since 2009. We hope that the police force and the Nigerian Secret Service investigate and arrest the culprits responsible for the killings.
You’re alive but some of y’all are barely surviving your weekdays. Weekdays can be overwhelmingly stressful, I can’t deny. But amidst the crazy deadlines, projects, classes, meetings, you have to really live and enjoy (not endure) your weekdays. It’s time to stop looking at your job or school as a necessary evil to survive resulting in a career wasted waiting for time away from work and school. Every week spent simply waiting for the weekend to arrive is a week wasted because that’s 5 days wasted looking forward to 2 days. The numbers are clearly against us. It’s your responsibility to start living for the weekday as much as you’re living for the weekend. I’m here to teach you how. *grin*
- Exercise
This might sound like a contradiction for some people. Last weekend, I did about 10 laps in the pool after 3 months of no exercise and my legs are still sore. So I understand that you’re thinking exercise will only leave you feeling more tired than you feel on a regular weekday. So here’s the deal: don’t go doing 10 laps in any pool if you haven’t gone swimming in a really long time. Start small. Jog for about 10 minutes in the mornings to awaken all your senses and move up slowly but surely from 10 minutes 3 days a week, depending on how long since you last exercised. Let exercise become a part of you. Don’t go overboard or you’ll end up being useless throughout the day and possibly the entire week. Regular exercise controls weight, combats health conditions and diseases, improves your mood and boosts energy. Who doesn’t want that?! So get to it this week. Start now. If you can find the time and spare cash, register at a gym. Work. That. Body.
2. Don’t sit around waiting for change to come
After all my motivational writing, some people still won’t take the bait and enjoy their jobs or school. If you’ve sat down, thought it through and found that no matter what, you cannot find contentment, happiness or fulfillment in your workplace, don’t you think it’s time for you to make a change? And if you don’t like the course you’re studying and no Stephen Covey or Oprah Winfrey can make you hate it any less than you do, don’t you think it’s time to switch up? There’s no point reading Monday-like-Friday posts if they don’t help you enjoy your Mondays and other weekdays. Start hunting for a new job. Look for a new course. Don’t sit around and wait for a new job to drop in your lap because it’s not going to happen – the unemployment rate is sky high. And don’t go through school only to come out with a terrible GPA because you studied a course you really didn’t like. Make a change.
If you haven’t read any of our Monday-like-a-Friday posts before now, read them here, here and here to get more week day survival tips. Enjoy your week!
Photo credits: jamyesack