Two years ago, a colleague who sat next to me at work, a Crystal Palace season ticket holder, asked if I had heard of a Nigerian footballer called Victor Moses. At the time, I had never heard the name, but over the last 12 months, Victor Moses has slowly been catching everyone’s attention, and may have played his last match for Crystal Palace. Crystal Palace are reluctantly looking to sell him to ease their financial problems, and the interested clubs are rumoured to be Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester City(currently favourites to land him). He is currently the hottest football property outside the premiership at the moment and looks to command a transfer fee of between £3-5 million depending on which news paper you read.

His back story: Victor Moses was born in Nigeria, and lived in Kaduna. His father was a pastor and was killed during one of Nigeria’s many religious riots, back in 2002. (Sadly, today’s news is reporting religious clashes in Jos, it’s so sad how we are still fighting the same battles so many years on). Within a week of his parents being killed, Victor was brought to London, where he was registered as an asylum seeker.(Read his full back story here, although I RESENT the use of the term “war torn Nigeria” in that article)

In 2005, he helped his school (Whitgif)  to win the FA Youth Cup with a superb display, he was 14 at the time, and already attending Crystal Palace’s academy.

The young man seems destined for the big time.

The big question, will he ever play for Nigeria? He has already played for the England U-19 side, but can still switch to Nigeria if he so wishes. Can the right Nigerian manager convince this man to switch allegiance, or will England get him, just like they have already ‘captured’ Aston Villa’s Gabriel Agbonlahor ? The Nigerian team, for some inexplicable reason, is currently being built around the cretin that is Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel, however, building the team around this 19 year old lad will be a long term aspiration, and hopefully we can find the players to play around him, and build a team that can challenge for the World Cup sometime in the future. Looking at the current team in the Nations Cup, you can tell we are desperately in need of a creative spark in midfield, and Moses fits the bill.

Sadly, given his personal tragedy back in Nigeria, I doubt that this young man will ever wear Super Eagles green.

As a Nigerian, I have grown up reading about religious crises in the north, but this story just goes to show that innocent people are the ones who end up with scars for life. I am just pleased that this young man has at least managed to put the past behind him, and is poised to make a success of his life.

“We have to fight it and there is only one way to punish people diving obviously: suspension. Once it is in the game it is difficult to get it out. Once a guy knows he might be punished he will not dive.

“My view without going into any individual case is that we are all as managers to fight against it. Sometimes the players dive just because they pushed the ball too far and the only way to get something out of the situation is to dive. We are all managers who can never say that one of our players has not dived. Nobody can say that in our league. I can say that when my team are not involved I am 100% against it”

- Arsene Wenger, March 24, 2006.

“Is it acceptable? I have never asked in my life any guy to dive to win a penalty, but sometimes players go down because there is no other way to escape the goalkeeper’s tackle, sometimes they dive. We got a penalty against us two years ago in the Quarter-Final of the Champions League that made the difference when Babel dived. Nobody ever apologised to us, it was a blatant dive and nobody spoke about it”

- Arsene Wenger, August 26, 2009.

Source

So which is it, Mr. Wenger?

Like A Comet
Blazing ‘Cross The Evening Sky
Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow
Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye
Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly
And Splendidly Bright
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight
On A Cloudy Afternoon
Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle
Built Upon A Sandy Beach
Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower
That Is Just Beyond Your Reach
Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

Gone Too Soon

We miss you Michael……..

My name is Boso, and I’m a blogger.

It’s been 44 days since my last blog post.

I could blame so many things. Since we moved house last May, my commute went from 12 minutes to 1 hour (if there is AVERAGE traffic). By the time I get home, have dinner, put the little one to bed, catch up with email, watch a little TV, I’m exhausted. Not only have I stopped blogging, I don’t read the blogs I used to anymore.

But this is just part of it. To be honest Facebook, and Twitter has been where I’ve been getting my ‘Web 2.0’  fix for a while. It’s easy, it’s quick, and I can do it on the move, with little or no thought.

And Facebook is another reason why I’m blogging less. You see this blog, it’s semi-anonymous. Some readers know who I am, but most of them have never met me before. Facebook on the other hand, I know EVERYONE personally. When I decided to import my blog feed into Facebook, all of a sudden, I realized that these two audiences were very, very different. I could write about a diet I was trying out on my blog, but when that got to Facebook, my whole family knew about that. So, I couldn’t blog about stuff I would normally do.

Anyway, there have been a few things I’ve wanted to blog about, but have never gotten round to it. So, I’m gonna give this another shot.

I’ll try and blog about stuff I’m passionate about. This means loads of :

• Football
• Politics (Both Nigerian and UK)
• Raising my little girl (nothing personal, just share thoughts, tips, etc.)
• Technology

And whatever pops into my little head. So, let’s see how long I can keep this up for…….

2 years ago, I had a post showing the difference in what was expected from UK university students, and Chinese University pre-entry candidates (See here).

In today’s news, this topic has come up again, with the exams regulator demanding immediate action, after finding out that GCSE science standards have fallen. Top private schools have already started to dump the normal GCSE in favour of the International GCSE exams, I did the IGCSEs back in 1994, and they compared favourably with the Nigerian O’Level exams.

So how easy is the Science GCSE? Well here are some of the multiple choice questions, I leave you to judge for yourselves:

GCSE Science (Edexcel, 2006)

Our moon seems to disappear during an eclipse. Some people say this is because an old lady covers the moon with her cloak. She does this so that thieves cannot steal the shiny coins on the surface. Which of these would help scientists to prove or disprove this idea?

A) Collect evidence from people who believe the lady sees the thieves

B) Shout to the lady that the thieves are coming

C) Send a probe to the moon to search for coins

D) Look for fingerprints

GCSE Science (Edexcel, 2006)

Many people observe the stars using

A) A telescope B) A microscope C) An X-Ray tube D) A synthesiser

GCSE Biology (AQA 2008)

When we sweat water leaves the body through…

A) Kidneys B) Liver C) Lungs D) Skin

Higher paper in science GCSE, Edexcel

At the astronomical club Alec and Louise discuss the possibility of intelligent life existing on other planets.

Which of the following statements supports the possibility of existence of intelligent life in our galaxy?

A) The galaxy is expanding very quickly

B) The earth is over four billion years old

C) The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence has spent millions of hours analysing signals from space

D) There are so many stars in the galaxy

We’re taking over, one company at a time…..

This man left Ivory Coast as a refuge 10 years ago, and he is now a CEO at 46 !!

(Although he was a government minister at the time, which is impressive, government minister at 36!)

The sad part of the interview:

“……..in a previous interview with the Guardian Thiam revealed he had refused to attend any more job interviews unless headhunters told potential employers that he was black before they met him: “I was tired of the usual answer, which was, ‘We like you, you are a great guy but this is a division with 10,000 employees and we just don’t think they would understand having someone like you at the helm.’”

It’s sad that there are still people who think like this. I had a ’similar’ incident a couple of weeks ago, someone called me and left a voicemail saying he was exicited by my CV, and that he thought I was a very good match for a job role he had going. I looked at the role, and it was spot on, very good role for me. I called him back, and left a voicemail. This was 5 minutes after he called me. He calls 5 minutes later to say, or sorry, technically, you just haven’t got it. I was bemused. What could have changed in 5 minutes? Then it hit me. My voicemail. He heard my accent.

Hey everyone, just to let you all know (well, I think I only have one reader left, thanks Jason!), that I’m still here. I’ve been really busy, but that’s not an excuse, I have simply lost the will to blog. I’m not sure why, but let’s see how it goes.

Happy New Year in arrears to everyone. I should be back blogging soon, once I sort myself out.

So, here we are, a few days away from the inaguration of the first black president of the USA, knee deep in the worst recession of our lifetime, but hey, hope everyone is doing ok.

Baby O is doing great, she doesn’t stop talking now, and she loves to sing !! We listen to the radio on the way to work/nursery and she’s picked up all the hits of the day, from Pink to Rihanna……..scary !!

Anyway, I should soon find something interesting to blog about, and hope that at least one person will read it.

Take care !

Every year for the last 3 years, I take a week off on the week of my birthday.

I call this my Playstation holiday. I spend time relaxing, play games and having fun. Well, this year, sadly, at the very start of my PLaystation holiday, the playstation is not working.

I’ve spent most of today on the phone with technical support, but so far, no solution. The console is out of warranty as well, which is really, really sad.

One night every week, usually Saturday or Sunday, after my wife and daughter have gone to bed, I set up the ironing board in the living room, and then iron for the week for all three of us. It’s a task I’ve been doing for all the 3 years since I’ve been married. While ironing, the TV is on, and I’m watching all my TV shows from during the week (Thank you Sky+).

I’ve spent a lot of money on irons as well. I’ve used the £5 iron from Asda, and right now, I’m using a steam Phillips iron (well I was). Most of the water that comes out of the tap in the UK is quite hard, which means that any appliance that uses water (washing machines, kettles and steam irons) have a major problem, scale. My last two irons have been damaged by scale, so now, I only use Comfort Ironing water, which costs about £1 a pop, and go through about 4 bottles a month. And to tackle creases, I use spray starch, again, I use about 4 cans a month (£1.29 a pop)

So when Bzzagent invited me to try out the Phillips GC7220 Pressuried Steam Generator, I was pleasantly surprised. This is something I was definitely interested in, and I jumped at the chance to participate in the campaign.

This kit boasted that it could cut your ironing time in half, a claim I was eager to find out for myself. But what caught my eye first was the fact that with this iron, scale was not going to be a problem. The scale would never get to the iron, or in the pipes, it would stay in the tank. And if you rinse the tank every 10 uses, you should be fine. Considering that scale has cost me 2 irons already, this kit was probably worth the £100 it goes for at Argos.

After receiving it, the first time I used it was while getting ready for a wedding. I pulled out my wife’s silk top, trousers and my shirt.

With the new iron, I ironed everything in record time, the creases were simply no match for the pressurized steam. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went, but I knew that the real test would be when I did my weekly ironing.

And so on Sunday, I got my kit ready, put the TV on, and started ironing. My weekly ironing usually takes 3-4 hours. Before you say “How slow are you??” (my sister in law says that all the time), let me say that, yes, I take my time. And because I’m watching TV, I take even longer.

Anyway, I started my ironing at around 8pm or so. And after I was done, I took the clothes into the bedroom to put in the wardrobe, my wife was shocked. “HAVE YOU FINISHED ALREADY?”. I looked at the time, and it was 10pm. I’d already put the ironing board and iron away, and taken all the clothes upstairs. Less than 2 hours. This was a record, no doubt about it. So does the steam generator iron any faster than a regular iron? The answer is a resounding YES.

So let’s look at the good points and the bad points, in order to give a balanced view.

Pros

• As described above, ironing time is greatly reduced. I did not believe it when I was told, but using the iron has removed all doubt, and I am still stunned at how well it works.
• As described above scale is no longer an issue, which will save me money on ironing water.
• Stubborn creases are no match for this beast, so I don’t need to spend money on Spray Starch any more.

Cons

• If you use an ironing board like me, you can’t put the tank on it. The tank is quite heavy, so don’t even think about it. You’ll need to get a stool or small table next to you.
• The steam is pumped to the iron, and this process can be quite noisy at times. I usually watch TV while I iron, so it meant I had to put up the volume on the TV, which meant there was A LOT of noise in the room.
• Unlike conventional steam irons, which put out steam intermittently, with this, you need to hit a button whenever you need steam. You can lock this button down for a continuous burst, but again, this adds to the noise in the room.

All in all, it’s a fantastic piece of kit, and I am really glad I’ve got one.

If anyone wants to buy one, you can get them in Tesco (I haven’t seen it in my local Tesco), Argos(£99.99), Currys(£99.99) and amazon.co.uk(£99.95). (Prices are current as of 11th of October)

You might think it’s pricey for an iron, but if like me, you need to replace your iron regularly because of scale, this will pay for 3 regular irons (if you use it for the full 2 years Phillips guarantees it for).  Plus, if like me you buy ironing water and starch, the money you save on that as well means that this iron pays for itself.