Along came Sally.

They had grown up together, playing hide and seek in the neighborhood,
Her first bike ride, he was there, urging her to ride on, she fell off and dint cry,
Her first day in school, he was there, he kept all the bullies at bay, he never left her sight,
Her first hike, she was 16, he drugged her to the top, took a snap together, she looked like hell,
They made a friendship pact, best friends for life,
 Best friends was great, until sally came along.



When sally came along, everything changed,
Sally came and made her share, share her best friend for the first time,
Sally made her feel, negligible, dispensable and most of all vulnerable,
She saw the way he looked at Sally, in a way he never looked at her,
She saw him trip over himself trying, trying to win over Sally,
She saw him fall in love, and she dint like it,



She despised sally…”why she had to come along and make her feel this way”?
Every moment and every time spent around him was different now,
Every time he appeared, her stomach would get all tied up in knots,
Every time he held her hand, they would get all drippy with sweat,
Every time he dropped by, she would stand still like a robot,
Every time he called her buddy, and sally sweetie, she would flip,



She hated the stories he told sally about her,
About her first bike ride, her first day in school and her first hike,
About him urging her to ride on, fighting off the bullies, and her funny picture from the hike,
About the friendship pact they made, best friends for life,
Best friends wasn’t great, she wanted more,
She wanted to be his sweetie, his sally.

YOUNG TODAY!

Young girl, I was young just like you,
I wore that skirt, some inches shorter,
Went out at night and stayed a little bit longer,
I had fan with Tom, Dick and even Rodgers,
Then came Harry, Alice, Martin, and their forth born Thomas,
Young one I didn’t think about today, now I look way too older.



I  have learnt that tomorrow is only a day away,
Tomorrow things could take a turn,
The employee today, the employer tomorrow,
Today the teacher, tomorrow the student,
Today the slave, tomorrow the master,
Young one I learnt that tomorrow is a reflection of today.



A coin well spent today, could feed you tomorrow,
I remember Harry had some coins; he bought a Chevy and drove off with Candy,
Mike had some coins too; he bought some land, and saved the rest for a rainy,
I heard Harry is in town, his car ran down and rusty ,
Not so with Mike, he sold off his land for a fortune,
Young girls please don’t ride off with the Harries.



Sure tomorrow is not promised; no need to be too cautious,
Today’s guaranteed, yes live like there’s, no tomorrow,
I guess what am trying to say, if you do get to see tomorrow,
You won’t look back and wish, you had it any different today.
Young one yes live for today but don’t forget tomorrow.

Business etiquette

If you are an avid salesperson or business person  then you have come to know the importance of the right language in this line of work, its application can be a powerful tool when used correctly and a deal  breaker when applied  carelessly, to lay it flatly the obstacle between you and a good deal.

 The last thing you want is to offend the client by sounding rude, over confident, incompetent, inaccurate and the list could continue the list of all the wrong impressions that may befall and dog your sales experience due to your neglect and utter ignorance of the language you use to your different clients. 

  The conversation you have with the managing director my friend should be clearly different from that one with the head of stores, your colleague and so forth, while some can push in some time for pleasantries and heavy conversation openers others have no time for your small talk and quit frankly they need you to go straight to the point and tell them what is it that had got you ringing their company phone off the hook so don’t waste their time with conversations about the weather and any unrelated issues..

You have to know how to indulge the distinct differences, while there is similar language that applies to all clients their needs to be some sought of specialization when it comes to each client, it is upon you to have an in-depth understanding of your clients environment and actually prove that you comprehend his business, surroundings and operations fully and thus prove that your product will add the needed value to them, more so you will prove what an adept salesperson you are consequently filtering yourself  from the random sales park that we are well aware of, you know the kind whose main goal in their sales seems as that of forcing their products down our throats. it will not work not for the long term I can tell you that. Therefore display of current terminologies in both yours and the clients field is pivotal.

 God forbid that you use the famous yet dreaded sales person mantras………..I am selling, or I want you to buy………..,and consequently commit career suicide.

  Adopt something that doesn’t develop the inherent buyer resistance when they sense that someone wants them to part with their money. open up with something that captures their attention for the right reasons too, don’t capture it and make them want to loose you as soon as you open your mouth for the next sentence? Capture it and keep it. You get my drift? Its called congruency resolution, where you capture your audiences attention by setting a situation where the clients has to follow what you have to say in order to understand you and in the process of doing so you get their attention as well as total understanding of your product..Kappish?

 People skills as much as you hear about them are in built for others while others have to learn and cultivate them, lest you sink ships as that adage saying goes and consequently die by your own sword. Avoid those loose sentences that you leave hanging in the air because you lack proper words to express yourself by enriching your vocabulary, research  on your clients business before you appear and make a good fool of yourself, read the newspaper and impress them with your grip on the current affairs if you ever want to be that seasoned sales person you’ve targeted in your vision 2030.And if you have leant anything from this anything at all then the last opening words you will ever use regardless of the client are……..I am selling………doors will keep slamming on your face but at least you now know why!!                      

     

UNWRITTEN RULES

Sometimes there those situations that leave you looking stupid because of going ahead and forgetting to obey natures unwritten rules.

Example, when you are traveling alone in a bus, there only three things you can do, sit facing the front, facing the side or sleep and risk passing your next stop. For me the third choice is usually not an option, with all the pickpocketing going on am not going to make it any easier for them. 

So when your dealing with the first and second option the only thing left to do is think, think and think, sooner or later while going through your many thoughts u will eventually bump into something funny and if you are like me; who cant suppress laughter, you will end up smiling big and large leaving the person next to you wondering what’s wrong with you and sadly when you notice the person looking at you strangely, you have to reshape your smile into something somewhat more serious to save your image. That’s where I come in to question nature, who said that we can only laugh when everyone knows what the joke is?or when everyone agrees its funny? WHO? Because too many a moments of mine have been ruined by these unwritten rules, those moments I just wanted to burst out loud with joy .

Here goes another situation that got me almost labeled the other day, I was waiting for my friend and we were quite a few waiting for someone, I Was getting impatient as it had been half an hour of waiting and there is no fan in that, either way you know the drill, you have to keep a cool face and act fine in front of everyone else plus you cant even click because they aren’t the ones your mad at.At least my friend had the courtesy to call and inform me that she was running late something I learned later that someone had forgotten to do. That worked and got me relaxed coz let’s face it, its better than being stood up. so there I was waiting as others who we had shared the grounds with were met by there people and others just left (obviously stood up),then, in came this very handsome man, I wished he was the one I was meeting with, but oh well, he walked up to a lady who was standing next to me n she had been standing for long if I might add.

      What ensued was a very heated argument that I just couldn’t help but eve’s drop.

The lady was obviously infuriated by the man’s lack of courtesy to even call her and say that he was running late. They tried there best to keep it cool as everyone else except me tried to pretend that they were not listening,I tried my best to get in on what was going on and couldn’t help but just smile at the whole situation the lady noticed my nosy little face and sneered in dismay and decided to take there little misunderstanding outside, that’s when I realized I was breaking the rules. But the only difference between me and the rest of the people there is that, they are better actors than I am.

      Your still wondering what am talking about? I bet you have been through those moments yourself try and remember. You have been there, yes there in the office meeting and the boss is mad because of some shoddy work you and your colleagues did and you cant help but smile when you remember it was your apparently not so clever ideas that will cause the rest of the team to work over the weekend, that may not be very funny to the rest of your workmates but it is to you. Or in your younger years at class time and the class prefect reads out the noisemaker list and your friends name appears times three,again funny to you but not your friend over there.

 I could go on and on and if you still don’t get the drift then you are obviously one of those that don’t break the rules.

A LITTLE PRETENSE WILL GET YOU SOMEWHERE.

Pretenders may be worse than murderers but we all have to do some pretending at one point in our lives, and dating is one of them. Like a doctor who has specialized in medicine so does a pretender need to specialize in presence?

  Most girls have asked this question over and over again, how does such a good man end up with such a bad girl? Or how come all the good guys get the bad girls. The ship has sailed for the girl next door, it’s gone but those of us left behind can catch  this other  bus and still go places, so listen up and listen good.

   Men will go on and on about the way they like the natural girl, the one that doesn’t wear make up yada yada yada yada ……….don’t listen to that it’s a whole load of crap, Then all the girls wearing make up would be single, in case you haven’t noticed, they are not. If that is the reason you stopped wearing make up you can slap it back on your face. The truth is men don’t know what, what they do know is what they don’t want and Commitment unfortunately is top on their list of no no’s.

So the question is how to suck them into one without there knowing.

A man doesn’t go looking for a longtime commitment when entering into a relationship. He is probably looking for someone to share time with and have fun while at it. They ran away from commitment, hide away from it and detect any person trying to put them in that dreadful position. The truth is men read a lot from appearance and if they can’t read anything from yours they’ll try and read it from the first conversation or your first date. That’s whey you’ve got to do it right the first time.

         The girl with the makeup on, stilettos, tight pants, short skirt, tells a whole new story, a story that men understand so well, she tells a story of  been there done that, a story most men love uncovering. While we cannot all go wearing stilettos or mini skirts we can do something to level up with the other chicken in the race.

   Your first date with that guy you’ve heard your eye’s on is not the place to bear out your heart and soul  to him, telling him what you want in a relationship, how the last one ended up, how you love science fiction novels, how you love this, hate that, never done this that, I guess what am trying to say is SHUTUP ALREADY!A little mystery please? Men love challenges and when you leave so much unrevealed he’ll come searching for the answers, he doesn’t have to know that your last relationship was one year ago or the fact that you hate soccer so much, let him discover that three months later when you bring down all his football posters off his bedroom wall, then he’ll have liked you enough to forgive you easily. You get; your true colors later the girl he thinks he wants now. Therefore the first couple of dates will have you at your best, the you every guy can fall in love with. Am not talking about a total makeover am saying that you can pretend to be interested in his long stories about cars, or the ones about his favorite football team, you can also pretend it’s okay that you waited for him for over an hour when usually five minutes is max for you. Do it all for the future, because it is in this future when he’ll have fallen in love with you and there is nothing he can do about it.

If that doesn’t work with this guy try it with the next guy and the next and the next until you get it right, and that’s how bad girls get good boys.

IF I KNEW WHAT I KNOW NOW.

It’s true if I knew then what I know now i would have done things much differently. Wondering what am talking about? let me let you in.


    My fear for people in higher places than me started way before I began looking for a job. it started with my primary teachers, I gave them all the respect and fear they deserved. The luckiest people on earth that’s what I thought! They got to whop my ass from Monday to Friday and if you were unlucky and got to upper primary then Saturday was added into there already full basket, they also had  no homework to do, no unexpected questions to answer in class(questions that once answered wrong cost you a beating) and most of all they did not get a panic attack everyday when the prefect read out the noise maker list and everyone crossed there fingers hoping that there names did not appear, everyone except the prefect and her desk mate who was occasionally tipped off to shut up right before she started the list, but we took care of that and threatened that the prefect jot her name if the class wasn’t tipped off also, that took care of the prefects desk mate but dint take care of the rest of us.


That was my primary life, wishing I was a teacher and share in on the benefits. I came up with a plan to take care of me; I decided to be a quiet one, the one who does no mistakes so that I pass through that phase invisible thus unscathed.


 That landed me into secondary, and there was an even higher power there, THE PRINCIPAL!I found that this one was feared even more hence transferred my fear for the teacher to the principal. She was so feared that her office was called the DARK ROOM, her nickname the BOMB and her deputy the SOLDIER, who could fight with that? My fear was elevated and I resumed my previous position, being the quiet one, she who does no mistakes, almost invisible behaviour, for the penalties here were even bigger; suspension and even worse expulsion! I wasn’t ready to mess with that.


Then along came university, and life suddenly began to make sense, here we are in charge and they are in charge we both call the shots. Equality they call it, I call it bliss. One can actually fight for there rights here, they call them strikes, but I call it fighting the fear.I realize now the teachers I so feared are ordinary. I mean if my friends taking bachelor of education are going to be teachers, principals and lectures then I need not have feared. They are just so ordinary like me, we laugh together and joke about the fact that they will once stand in front of a class and look serious and teach.

 And hence my regrets now, if only I knew then what I know now ,that they were all pretending to be higher powers to intimidate me I would have passed through my primary and secondary life more peacefully. With this realization I vow never again to fear another human being. So when I enter into those tall buildings and the watchmen and the secretaries are trying to create this very serious atmosphere I don’t fall for it, I talk my way through, the way I should have done it back then, they are ordinary people like me and you so talk your mind out and fight for your rights.

My neighbor Mrs Njoroge.

The fact that I could bump into Mrs. Njoroge on my way to the shop and just exchange greetings with her proved to me that people can change and Mrs. Njoroge is one such example.

In less than one week after moving into our new neighborhood I found Mrs. njoroge and my mother chatting in our livingroom,which was so unlike my mother who did not believe in any friendship between neighbors unless it came with benefits, like Mama Evone,our next door neighbors at our former place, mum and her were basically just sharing the balcony until mum spotted her big sufurias outside her kitchen door,sufuria’s that would become handy in one of her parties, they’ve been friends ever since. Friend with benefits my mum would call them. Seeing that it had only been one week Mrs. Njoroges benefits were yet to be discovered.

 That’s why I found it unusual that in the first  week she was already in our sitting room, and she kept coming ever since, she would talk and talk and never let you put in a word.Mrs njoroge left no topic undiscussed,no homestead unturned and no person in the neighborhood unrevealed. From whose son had made whoever’s daughter pregnant to whose child had failed their K C P E exam to whose husband was sleeping with the house help, she had it all. All the information there was to know about a person.

  Over the months her character became even more clear.Mrs njoroge was known by everyone. She did not choose her audience, the time nor the place to brief you on the latest, she did not seem to be bothered by the fact that you were in a hurry, or that it was early in the morning or late at night she had the time for you and with it the latest gossip. It became a nightmare for me to bump into her as that would mean ten minutes of hearsay, five of questioning and another five of whom to say hi to back at home. I dreaded my encounters with her. She would probe me about everyone and everything happening at home. Asking what my mum was planning to build with the heap of stones she saw in our compound. Or what my brother was up to as she did not see him around anymore and whether everything was okay between mum and dad as she rarely saw my dad she did not stop at anything.

    Mrs. Njoroge as I later learnt was responsible for enough arguments in the neighborhood for she had chosen to be everyone’s watchdog, be it mother and daughter, father and son, boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife.househelp and employer she had chosen to take the very hard task of watching over those people we love when we were not around to do so ourselves. At first such information seemed quite useful to a person and one was actually quite great full to her, but with time all the constant arguments with the other party seemed to get worse thanks to Mrs. Njoroge.so in order to salvage what was left of the relationship one had to drop the less important party and that unfortunately was Mrs. Njoroge.

    Everyone hated it when the shortcut to where they were going had to pass outside her compound, it meant going the long way just to avoid her,bumpng into her meant you go back home on the note that you had forgotten something a behavior Mrs. njoroge noted and made her who she is today.

Mrs. Njoroge noticed that she did most of the visiting, was not invited to the local parties and everyone seemed to be avoiding her. I guess that’s when she realized that the only thing she need’s to exchange on bumping into a person in the neighborhood are greetings.    

  

Pssssssssssssssssst…I heard…...

Pssssssssssssssssst…I heard…...

Some offices have managed to keep things professional and you don’t have to worry about people whispering on the corridors about your private business, because it belongs to you only, on the flipside others have taken the lack of office etiquette to the next level. and your horrified just to share a normal conversation with your workmate without running it first through your mind, and lets face it in most offices than in few.

In such offices I can promise you if you haven’t heard a rumor about yourself don’t get happy yet, yours is probably too horrifying that your friends haven’t gathered enough courage to spill it to you yet. There nothing travels faster than the latest gossip not even that handout that the news that someone may be getting the sack..

You haven’t heard your story then you haven’t been to the real work place yet, you’re either doing too much working which I doubt or you don’t have a network. You know a network? that guy at work who has everyone’s scoop and the latest if I might add, from who is dating who to who dumped who first ,who slept with who, whose relationship is on the rocks to who is the latest baby mama even before the boyfriend learns that hell be a father, that’s a network for you. Just before you digest yesterday’s goss they drop today’s.

Sure thing everyone has a story to be told from that socially awkward guy who never speaks to anyone in class to that loud drunk ever at the receptionist desk.. No one shall be unheard from and the networks shall make sure of that.

And we have all been there, there in the  headlines, featuring in the latest scandle.there after spending a weekend back at home with family only to hear the next week that you spent your weekend with your boss in some lodging and you wonder when that happened?. The wildest things have been said and will be said, things you never did never thought of doing and if you did them you dint do them that way, but the shocking story is the one that is true and that’s the one that gets to you the most, because if you wanted the whole office to know about your love life you would have left your diary in the reception and made things a lot easier for the nets. You wouldn’t also have bothered to spend your bus fare traveling to a town far away from town to do your private business only to hear about it the next day with the nets.

But who is fooling who? Who is this telling out the tinniest little details of our lives? I’ll tell you who, you, you are! you sat your friend the same day told her/him what you’ve been upto during the weekend and made her promise not to tell anyone else, well news flash she just broke the promise and made someone else make the same promise. Quite frankly you’ve broken a few promises yourself. You get, we are the sources and sometimes the channel in this whole gossip thing.

Therefore its double standards, you get to hear someone’s story they get to hear yours too. So dig in lets spread the gossip you can be sure yours is floating somewhere. Your enjoying someone’s story, someone else is rolling flat on there stomach enjoying one of yours. Enjoy.