Hello everyone, season's greetings to you all from your favorite boy @ Patrick Ndem!! It is with so much pleasure and with utmost humility that I welcome you all to today's edition of The Diary Games on my blog. As usual, today's episode promises to be interesting, intriguing and as fascinating as ever!! So guys, sit tight y'all and enjoy!! 😃

As we all know, it's the Christmas Season and I am taking life as simple and as easy as can!! Like I mentioned earlier, I didn't come to calabar to stress but rather to get as much rest and sleep as I can as I prepare for the new year!! So today wasn't any different either. I woke up late, like a boss; so to speak ! 😅.

I mean, I sleep for hours these days. And trust me when I say this, I deserve all the rest I can get. I have worked like hell all year and so I deserve this moment!! So after my extended sleep, I left my room at about 11am this morning. Went straight to the parlor where I met my parents and siblings all watching a movie on TV, said my morning greetings to them and then went back to my room to grab my toothbrush to brush my mouth. After brushing, I went inside and brought out my dirty clothes for laundry. My cousins had already helped fill the whole water pots with water earlier thus making the laundry thing a lot more easier since I didn't need to fetch water before doing the laundry. So I brought my clothes out, soaked them in a pail of water, added a bit of detergent to the water, went back to fiddling with my phone for about 30 minutes before proceeding to wash my clothes. After about 45 minutes to an hour, I was done washing.

At this point it was about 1:50pm. After spreading the clothes on the line, i went back to sleeping again!! I slept for over two hours and by the time I woke up, it was almost 4pm. I got up, feeling refreshed and energized, but bored, I started looking for where to go to keep busy. I followed some young teen boys who live around our neighborhood to a nearby local football pitch where they usually train most evenings. I had no intentions to play at first though, but just to watch them play. But on getting there, I was picked to play for a team who were in need of a player to complete their squad. And so, there I was, set to play football once again!! I haven't kicked the round leather ball in over two years!! I don't mean to brag though, but I am not so bad at the sport. I know fitness-wise, I'll be lagging behind other players, but definitely the ability is 100% intact!! So in less than 10 minutes, one team had scored and so the other team who conceded had to leave the pitch for another team. Guess this so-called other?; my team!! 😅. So we went in, four of us. It's a 4-aside game where the team that scores stays on, while the loser leaves the pitch for another team. In the event of a draw, both teams leave the pitch for another set of two teams.

So we went in, gave our best, but ended up conceding at the death!! It felt quite cruel after all the effort we'd put in. So our team left the pitch for another team and so we had to wait till it's our turn again. After about two sets had played, it was our turn again and so we went in and played a draw this time. This process continued until it was almost 6pm and then a few guy decided they were going home and wouldn't play anymore. Two of the guys from my side of the 'hood decided they'd had enough football for the day and so I had to follow them back home. Few minutes later I was home and so I poured some water into a bathing bucket and took to the bathroom to shower. After bathing, I went in, got dressed in a short soccer playpant and a T-shirt, got a chair to sit outside to enjoy the cool breeze. My clothes weren't all dried and so I took them off the line and folded the dried ones into my bag, while leaving the stil-wet ones in a metal pail. Tomorrow, I intend to take the wet clothes outside again so they get to dry fully. After sitting outside for a while, I started to feel hungry and so I went into the kitchen, boiled water for my garri and made swallow popularly called eba in Nigeria, warmed the soup, dished a bit of soup into a small round stainless bowl, took it outside and ate dinner. After eating, I took the dirty dishes back inside and stil went out to sit for a bit more time. Feeling slightly bored, I decided to take a little stroll to exercise my legs a bit more. I strolled as slowly as possible just to wild away time, got to the main road (not a tarred road though, but it's graded and just needs asphalting), sat in front of a provision shop with a few guys as we chatted for about 30 minutes. After a while, I bid the guys goodnight and then returned back home. On getting home, electricity had been restored and so I decided to plug my phone to charge. My phone is currently charging as I type this though. I intend to go to sleep immediately after this though. Should there be any further events tonight, I promise to let y'all know on the next episode!! Bye for now guys until the next edition!! Love you lots...! 😘🥰🥹