Anni Manika

Are you sitting down, Anni, shown behind Manika, doesn't like her photo taken but since tomorrow is her birthday and Manika whose birthday was yesterday twisted Anni's arm to pose in a joint birthday feast. So here is probably the only photo you will ever seen of Anni enjoying the birthday treats that she and Manika provided for us at BankservAfrica.

As we celebrated, the budget speech went out on all broadcast media, and all I can say we are in for some tough times as taxes are drastically increased. I am thinking I should draw up a basket list of monthly essential grocery items and price them from several supermarkets in the area to do a monthly report on where to go to still have your cake.

Speak to the Hand

Anni does not like photos taken of her but I did get permission to take her hand as long as her face is not showing, so now I have a speak to the hand photo of Anni, that is Anni with a "i" not a "e" as in one of my favourite TV series "Annie with an e". Oh dear I am digressing again.

The end of the year holidays can't come any sooner, and it can certainly be felt at BankservAfrica, as expectation of the summer break is starting to show through the cracks. The weather of set in rain doesn't help either as the words "let's get a hot chocolate", has become the rally call of Bankserv. For me, I am just so happy that I am working, even at this late time of year when everyone is tired and exhausted. Or should I say grateful, that I have not being forgotten and discarded on the wayside of life.

This time of year, as Christmas Day draws closer ever so faster, it is not about the summer break that my mind focuses on, but what Christmas actually means to me, especially in my current circumstances when presents and gifts are the lowest priority. I always wonder what if I was there nearly 2000 years ago, what I would be doing as I watched my Messiah come into the world as a tiny baby. As the anthem proclaimed by the Skitguys, who would better tell how I feel at this time of year like they do.

I have always wondered if I was at the stable that night, would I have seen a king or just a baby.

If I had stood there with the shepherds listening to the stories of choirs of angels would I have asked what child is this? Oh would I have known that he would someday be the shepherd of all.

If I had watched wise men bring valuable gifts and knee down under the guard of heavenly wonders. Would I have understood that he would be the one that I find all wisdom and that he was the greatest gift of all.

Just as that baby was held by its mother, he would hold me. He would hold me with his amazing grace and his adoption by his father Joseph would be a picture of my adoption in God's family. Who can comprehend that this baby who was defenceless, swaddled, and held would someday be the one holding me in his hands?

I did not witness a star moving across the sky or scores of angels proclaiming his birth but somehow in the middle of my ordinary world this extraordinary baby’s birth found a place in my worn down beat up heart.

So like all those people who saw him, he is the one I've been waiting for.
To repair me!
Redeem me!
To love me!
Forgive me!
To comfort me!
To help me!
To die for me!
Raise me to life!

So what child is this?
He is the one who comes to save me. To save me!

So at this time of year, especially this year, I hold out my hand to the one who comes to save me. As I stand at the edge of the precipice, you are the one who holds my right hand. I am not alone. Thank you, Messiah. You are the one who came to save me. To save me!

Anni’s Desk

It is interesting how different people personalise their office desk. I have seen many personal work spaces, from Now Media to the IFC, from PRASA to Bosasa, so many desks, so many minds. Dare I say it is like a window into their mind that you have to somehow decipher.

An office desk is normally away from the home comforts and safety yet it is these small tokens found on a desk that makes it feel safe again. Take Gary’s desk at BankservAfrica, his workstation is open for easy access and on top are sci-fi tokens such as the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and an Axl Rose looking skeleton, WHAT is this Guns N’ Roses rocker still alive? I don’t even known anymore. With so many celebrities fake dying online; I don’t even know who is alive or rocking up in the band in the sky. So just by looking at Gary’s desk, you know straight away where his safe zone is.

Now compare this Anni’s desk right next to Gary's, it is almost cleaned up of all personal stuff except these 4 items. Now what to make of a blue glass sphere with concentric circle patterns, a piece of amethyst, polished fuchsite or is that a malachite, and don’t forget the starfish, uhmmm. I haven’t positions these tokens at all, this is how they are sitting on her desk. Curiouser and curiouser!

Oh and then there is that hideous corporate clean desk policy that dictates robotic empty unhappy workers. If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered me, then what does an empty desk indicate? An empty mind? I think a clean desk is a sign of a fearful mind.