HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME: THE BIRTHDAY CAKE DILEMMA

Hello Hi,

Today is my birthday and I wanted to take a little break but how could I not write on my own birthday? :) Thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes, you have made my day!

My last BellaNaija post can be found here and my youtube video too is here. Today, I have a short but true story written below and I hope you all enjoy:

THE BIRTHDAY CAKE DILEMMA

Like some people, I have a birthday tradition – I must have a cake on my birthday (it doesn’t matter who buys it), with my name inscribed on it and nobody else can eat any piece of the cake that has a letter of my name except me. Thus, some of my friends think that I am weird and I remember the shock on their faces the first time they heard me yell “please don’t cut or eat my name” on any of my birthdays. Eventually they got used to it and it just happens to be one of my idiosyncrasies. If you also think that I am weird, that’s ok; I’ve never strived to be a usual personJ.

A short while ago, I moved to a new country and my birthday was approaching for the first time yet there yet I had not figured out where I was going to get a cake from. So I called a friend who had been around a little longer than I was to make enquiries.

“DQ makes the best cake in the country! You should definitely get one from them” he assured me and so I placed my order two days before my birthday last year. I asked for a large sized cake because I wanted all my newly acquired friends and colleagues to have enough to eat. I also needed something big because I had asked the cake shop to write my name in full – Happy Birthday ‘Ugochi V Ukah’.  The cake was ready for pick-up the next day and I went hurriedly to grab it. I was excited when I saw it because it looked pretty; I do not remember the exact colours of the icing now (probably white and gold or blue and black) but my heart was filled with joy knowing that I had my whole name to eat all by myself. I got on the bus, guarding the cake while standing throughout my journey. A few people offered their bus seats but no, I wanted to be sure that the cake would not roll over from the stand and so I remained standing until I got home. The cake paper wrapping read – Keep Frozen and so I quickly put it in my refrigerator without unwrapping it and went to bed almost immediately, half dreaming about the cake.

The next day was my birthday; as usual I dressed to impress (myself), wore a pair of heels and took a couple of selfies. Usually, I walked to my work place but I could not on that day because I did not want to sweat or carry a cake for the fifteen minutes journey so I decided to take the bus. The bus came ten minutes later than scheduled but that was okay for me as I was able to get a stranger by the bus stop to take a few more pictures of me in the beautiful sunlight. Eventually I got to the work, I realized that the paper bag covering the cake was wet but I assumed that there may have been some liquid in my fridge which had soiled it or maybe something else on the bus. I did not think much about it but needless to say, nothing prepared me for the event that followed soon. Leaving the cake on my desk, I went around to invite my colleagues to come during lunch time for some cake. It was then that one of them requested to have a look at my beautiful cake and so I had to take the wrap out. Lo and behold, my cake was melted!

I stood there surprised “Why is my cake flowing?!” I started to ask, “Er, why is it pouring?!”

“Because it’s an ice cream cake” he replied.

“Ice cream what?” I was confused. “What is that?” I had never heard about it in my life.

“It’s a cake that is like an ice cream. So it can melt” he replied, looking surprised at my reaction.

“Why would anyone want to make a cake like an ice cream or vice versa? And why was I not told about this?” I began to question him as if it were his fault.

“But you bought it from DQ, they only make ice cream cake” and he showed me the paper bag where there were instructions on freezing.

It did not make sense to me because firstly, I just assumed that freezing and refrigerating would have the same effect, that was why I had not frozen it and secondly, I never knew that such cakes or ice-creams existed; not even my friend who recommended the bakery had warned me. Once again, my being new to a place had taught me a new lesson and I was reminded of how much more I still had to learn. I was quite sad and wanted to continue arguing but by this time, the cake was becoming worse so we ran to the kitchen and put it in the freezer with the hope that it will re-freeze by lunch time.

By lunch time, the cake had managed to solidify a bit but there was no sign of my name anywhere on it as the icing colours has melted and formed various shapes. Therefore, I could not separate my name only for myself but I did not care much at this point. I was just curious to find out what it tasted like and I wanted everyone else to enjoy themselves. We had to use cups to drink the cake and true to my friend’s word, it was the best that I had ever had and everyone seemed to have fun. The rest of my day was lovely as well; I went out for dinner with some friends but one thing remained on my mind – I knew I wanted to have the ice cream cake again but in the right form as it was supposed to be.

And so this year, I got another ice cream cake with my name again but only ‘Ugochi V’. I ran straight to keep it in the freezer and sent an email to my colleagues for another lunch desert. It read:

Dear All,

For my birthday. I have brought an ice-cream cake today; yay! This time around, I made sure to read and follow the instructions and I ran straight to the freezer (not fridge) and put it there (see picture as proof). So hopefully, it remains in good shape.

So please come and eat some during lunch time for desert at the kitchen. I have some plates but I also kept some cups just in case we need to drink it again like last year 

I hope to see you all during lunch.

Thanks,

Vivian

 This year, I was prepared – the cake was still intact and so was my name. As we all enjoyed the cake, I did not care much about who ate my name; rather I was just happy for a second chance to get this right, even though it had taken me a whole year! J

                                                     

I would like to use this medium to say how thankful I am to God for keeping me and my family and giving us all that we need, thank you to my family and friends, and thank you for reading. 

Happy birthday to me, Cheers!

Please leave your comments below as usual and follow me on twitter: @vivio_gogo and Instagram: @ugochiukah for more updates.

HAPPY EASTER/ Ah-Di-Ah!

Hello Hi,

Happy Easter to everyone. I always love Easter because after all the 40 days of solemn preparation, I can shout again (and of course eat food :) ). The weather was beautiful today this week and I took this picture of the cherry blossoms in this post, My last Bella Naija published story can be found here if you missed it and some people were asking for my previously made video, you can also find that here. Today, I decided to write a story that I hope many can relate with, so enjoy:

“Ah-di-ah, Ada bekee!” Uche called out to Adaobi; She pretended not to hear him. “Ada-amaka; fine girl! Sweet baby, i di complete (you are complete)!” He was referring to the size of her bust and bottom. She placed her calabash, filled with water that she had just fetched from the stream, on her head and began to walk away from him as quickly as she could. But Uche continued to call out “I must marry you! 17, 18, 19, gbe-ge-dem!” he sang, according to the rhythm of her hips as she walked. She wished that he would stop as he was causing more unwanted attention towards her and the village boys passing by were smiling at her but she knew that he would not so she continued to ignore him and walked faster.

Ada, short for Adaobi, was one of the most desired women in the village; not only because of her looks but also because she was known to be a great dancer, very hardworking and her mother never failed to brag about her cooking skills to her friends. Therefore, Ada had many nicknames from the villagers such as nwa mpete (cute child), Ada asa (beautiful Ada), Ada ocha (clean Ada, because of her fair skin), including Ada ego (Ada of money) which her father called her because he hoped to make good money from her bride price someday. Every girl wanted to be like her and wished they would get half of the attention that Ada received from men. Unlike the arrogance that would have become of many if in her shoes, Ada remained a humble girl and was neither flattered nor welcomed any of the advances that she received. Many men - rich and poor, famous and of royal descent, had come to ask for her hand in marriage from villages nearby and afar but she turned down their proposals. She promised herself that she would marry a man whom she knew would love her completely regardless of beauty or cooking skills as she did not want to end up like her best friend Ezinne who had married a rich man but was never happy.

Just like the other young and even old men in her village, Uche who was a well-known hunter, wanted to marry Ada. The feeling was certainly not mutual; in Ada’s eyes, Uche came across as over-confident, loud and far-off from being a gentleman. That was apart from his regular annoying catcalls and names he gave her whenever they crossed each other’s paths. She had warned him many times to stop calling her names and had once poured water angrily at him but her anger and warnings were in vain. In fact, it seemed like her attitude towards Uche had fueled his desire even more and whenever he saw her, he would shout even louder and declare his love for her. She tried to avoid him as much as she could but he had discovered her schedule and so somehow, whenever she was farming, Uche was also farming on the land next to her family’s even though it did not belong to him; when she went to the stream to fetch water, he was there holding a calabash that she was sure he never used; and when she was at the market selling some of her mother’s vegetables, he came around buying them all such that her mother became fond of him as he was a very good “customer”.  Therefore, when Uche came with his uncle to ask for Ada’s hand in marriage, it was not surprising that her mother gave her support. Ada tried to express her skepticism about Uche to her mother but she would not understand. There was nothing wrong with a man who cooked vegetable soup often, her mother said but Ada knew very well that Uche had never cooked a pot of soup in his life. Her explanations concerning her doubt fell on deaf ears and in the end, she was advised to pray and hope for a sign from God.

It happened that on a fateful day, Ada was walking back home from the farm when two young men tried to molest her on the way. She screamed for help and thankfully, Uche quickly ran to her rescue. He fought them bravely while Ada ran away but as they were two men against him, he was beaten up badly. However, he had saved Ada and she showed her gratitude the next day by visiting him with some of her specially prepared meal. He was badly bruised and she felt a little bit guilty. That was the first time she had ever been to his house and she found him to be quite different from what she had expected. He was calm, kind and made intelligent conversations; maybe those men had beaten some temporary sense into his brain, she thought to herself as she went home and she was sure that he would be back to his usual arrogant ways once he recovered. To her surprise, he did not and even though she still felt like he was stalking her, he only smiled at her and did not call her names anymore. Although she felt relieved, a little part of her missed that ‘bad’ attitude of his.

Some weeks later, she was almost attacked by a snake along the riverside and again, Uche killed it swiftly with his hunting weapons but not before it bit him. He might have died but luckily, Ada had some expertise in expelling snake venom. After that, Ada and Uche became friends and quickly got married as she had gotten all the signs that she had asked for from God. Uche proved to be a wonderful husband to her, a loving father to their 2 beautiful children which she bore eventually and a kind son-in-law to her parents. He called her Ah-di-ah, which she had come to cherish and their love for each other was strong. His hunting was also successful and their marriage became an example of a perfect one for the villagers. They grew old together happily until Uche took ill. His illness progressed and he knew that he was going away soon. As he lay on his death bed while she sat by his side crying, he wondered whether he should tell her the truth now – about how he had arranged for the men to pretend like they were going to molest her although he had not expected them to beat him up that much since they were his friends or how he had set the snake loose the other day although he had not anticipated the bite. Either way, he had genuinely loved her and he did not want her love for him to fade away, not even when he died. So, he decided that some secrets were best taken to the grave and instead of a confession, his last words were “Ah-di-ah, Ada bekee!”

*Ada – first daughter

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Twitter: @vivio_gogo      Instagram: @ugochiukah

It was beautiful when God created man; it was even more beautiful when He re-created us by dying for our sins and rising  ~ Unknown