tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54578621862618057692011-08-05T20:05:06.700+01:00Thoughts and StuffFarai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comBlogger2731100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-73662688457246856262010-11-06T11:17:00.000Z2010-11-06T11:17:42.626Z

Boo.

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-20164504733354246982010-08-16T22:26:00.007+01:002010-08-16T23:11:25.685+01:00

So I took a year off from blogging and it's been amazing to put a bit of distance from my thoughts and to see if I could get certain things out of my head but who can tell if the shock treatment worked? It was a bit like going cold turkey or whatever recovering alcoholics call the moment of lucidity but I did miss telling you all about my utterly boring life and my pining for impossibilities. So

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-85760560771391777812009-08-08T09:13:00.045+01:002009-09-28T02:04:27.422+01:00

We venture out of Monrovia and into the deep recesses of the counties that are dark with vegetation and the green of ordered rubber plantations. A voice I know from a not too distant broadcasting past heads through the traffic to meet me and we greet each other and he's been around all this time, reporting on a war only the action junkies ever saw close-up in his quiet understated way. And no not

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-58380533810490449962009-08-06T19:42:00.003+01:002009-09-20T12:11:18.894+01:00

We spent an afternoon with the Liberian artist of the moment and the only things better than his paintings are his impeccable manners. The nerve centre of Monrovia demands infinite patience, electricity is erratic and the constant hum of generators is more than a hum it's industrial in tone and totally takes over the sound but Monrovians take it all on board and the gentleman painter says I could

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-29709536576865072072009-08-02T14:53:00.001+01:002009-09-06T03:43:49.785+01:00

I’m going to try and catch you up on some of this year’s stuff and ofcourse I’m writing retrospectively because I left the land of liberty some time ago and all that initial excitement has been tempered by passing time although I still think it's a fascinating place and much of what I’m telling you now has become memory and I need to write it down because my memory for events and places isn’t

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-68995122702785349452009-08-01T07:14:00.001+01:002009-08-22T13:21:44.060+01:00

Dusty boots time means the business of leaving the familiar and exploring close up what’s even more familiar – bits of Africa that we’ve known through headlines and as every Africa watcher will tell you the headlines never do the place justice. But it's one big story pool and even the stories you don't set out to get are there in great numbers the characters so familiar the landscape so visual

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-85635333924928903152009-07-10T04:50:00.002+01:002009-08-16T08:45:46.443+01:00

How are you? Ofcourse I regret this long silence, it’s like that time I kept away from the emails and cyberspace for a whole two months and fucked up on so many levels but ofcourse this silence has been for different more grown up reasons and looking back I have no idea where the month of July went one minute there it was with all it’s celebratory air a couple of family birthdays here and there

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-76320914993868610372009-06-28T15:48:00.004+01:002009-06-29T23:59:34.932+01:00

As hot seasons go, this has been fabulous. Enough heat to keep the memory of winter a very distant memory and it makes sense to do the minimum amount of moving and keep the fans going and avoid all meetings and encounters beyond a three mile radius because the trains are stuffy and traveling by tube before seven in the evening leaves you exposed to the kind of human odours which can suffocate

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-6869516166057920452009-06-20T16:28:00.004+01:002009-06-23T19:44:01.011+01:00

When the city's grey as it often is there is always a burst of colour in every shot and I've resigned myself to the Albion summer because it's good and far better than it was and all my peeps in the Southern hemisphere are complaining about a bitter winter and there's no real rush to get back until the writing's done and the deadlines met and our man is back from Cannes and we meet for a catch

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-9950608516505922362009-06-17T12:24:00.005+01:002009-06-24T13:03:30.401+01:00

Once when the skies were playing havoc with the drama of light it seemed normal to try and get out of our heads but only because there wasn't much in them to begin with and I ring a friend over by the grove and say an email landed in my inbox about a gig near his manor something to do with a lover's rock reggae revival and he reckons he's tidying up but he'd be up for a drink sure why not and the

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-54476658294650038352009-06-14T16:24:00.023+01:002009-06-18T18:27:41.783+01:00

Bha Bhe Bhi Bho Bhu I heard you calling and thought I’d respond because Sundays should be like they were in the old days when we sat by proper desks and caught up with our correspondence and wrote by hand and smudged the writing paper with tears and ink and drips of coffee and full lips coated in lipstick and looked outside and were pleased by the ordinary the flight of ducks the sun in June the

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-15733678452504785502009-06-02T11:03:00.003+01:002009-06-05T17:32:39.624+01:00

Power has been moving and changing hands or staying concentrated in old hands all over the place and it becomes a point of interest to those who watch the old continent and I find myself penning opinion pieces dressed as radio and why not everyone has an opinion but I’m still struggling with deadlines and this should not give the impression that it all takes forever because it doesn’t it’s just

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-39882479728358637132009-05-26T15:02:00.006+01:002009-06-04T16:15:50.997+01:00

The football season ends one Sunday but there’s no great need for weeping and gnashing of teeth it’s a welcome break and it will only be for two months but the significance of my first season as a semi interested fan stroke season-ticket-holder must be played out by venturing one more time to the Emirates to witness the Arsenal play one more time and all talk is of a show of support for the

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-60146661793767283412009-05-18T10:31:00.008+01:002009-06-04T11:55:51.813+01:00

Hello. You ok? It’s been a while since I’ve caught you up on stuff and it’s not that the thoughts have been silent or even on a break it’s the busyness of life and sometimes we can hardly come up for air and at a certain age when you know you’re well into the second half of this journey you try and catch up with all the time you know you let go flippantly. These isles and this city are full of

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-58656676844672408422009-05-13T13:49:00.001+01:002009-05-15T16:23:40.401+01:00

I come in to the usual train station after a day with the little people and they were not so little and I was in a foul mood but these things have a way of sorting themselves out so they took refuge in a cinema and took in Wolverine XMen Originals and I thought it was rubbish and we would look at each other my boy and I whenever the hero said lines like I'm good at what I do and what I do is

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-68005789620904910352009-05-09T19:49:00.000+01:002009-05-13T22:02:44.054+01:00

Coffee house offices are the best the constant supply of caffeine the people watching by the massive cinemascope windows the sugar rushes the enforced no smoking the creative arguments which won't rise to pitched battles and there's broadband everywhere you go even McDonalds and Burger King are dragging in the suits looking for work that way and as far as eateries go they may be the only places

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-89788509147664245912009-05-07T21:57:00.010+01:002009-05-11T18:53:20.543+01:00

It was an amazing scene - the arena filled with the faithful hoping for the miracle of victory over an old enemy and the club has splashed out on flags and the feel good factor and the manager has written in his programme notes that the team needs the fans to be the twelfth man and roar the team to great inspiration and before the whistle has gone I can feel the great surge of mob excitement and

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-85954533861454368302009-05-02T19:30:00.004+01:002009-05-09T21:50:03.485+01:00

In May wherever you are you are inundated with holidays it's May day it's Africa day it's Workers' day it's a bright long weekend in which to tan or drink or lose yourself in sweaty sheets with some insatiable body and when the train announcer says there'll be no service on this line this bank holiday and the radio's full of swine flu news like we're all going to go that way and the house being

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-16129174018657207622009-04-30T15:39:00.003+01:002009-05-09T15:49:35.314+01:00

No idea where this month's gone one minute it was there then the next it's ending and I wanted to be gone by now but cannot force events and the city is beginning to seem stale there's more bad news in everything we read and who wants to hang around for the great depression summer and more importantly there are projects to complete so the nests can be feathered and my head is so free of clutter

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-77789419686313620922009-04-29T08:57:00.000+01:002009-05-05T15:50:47.196+01:00

The close contact with writers near and far has me stocking up on books for the long days ahead and I’ve began several mostly the authors bookmarked as farai favourites there’s a couple of new greenes and I’ve ploughed through A Gun For Sale which I’ve found too beautiful and harrowing and I don’t want it to end while tobias wolff’s old school is a brilliant on-the-tube read and I haven’t really

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-24615742897003324772009-04-23T19:22:00.011+01:002009-05-05T15:46:23.640+01:00

Still feeling a little high on the weather because dull grey has given over to bright colours and a deep green everywhere you look and that's reason enough to trigger the memories of what good summers feel like and yes I know I go on and on about the season but you cannot underestimate how much it lifts the spirits and it's fine to wander around naked from keyboard to kitchen for the coffee and

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-75655366433771529832009-04-18T18:45:00.006+01:002009-05-08T18:35:37.533+01:00

I no longer find it difficult to get out of bed and three or four hours sleep will do me and it may be that I'm not tiring myself out enough but that's a good thing for this morning because my happy brood is in town with a friend and a mother in tow and these things have been in the planning for a week or more and I thought I'd take them down to the south bank because it's my cultural hub in this

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-78149327889699363702009-04-17T08:34:00.011+01:002009-04-29T18:36:46.296+01:00

On and on we go and there is something to the myth that after a while time is all downhill because who would believe we are nearly half way through 2009 as if the year can be measured in a week like the science fiction writers allege that’s how time on some planets goes and earth months just zoom on by and before you know it you’ve got a head full of memories and a Zimmer frame and you’re

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-68286813366106345642009-04-10T18:05:00.005+01:002009-04-28T02:56:53.575+01:00

The sunny weather has been playing up all week like only a pretend summer can with rain and cloud cover and sudden chills but the hibernation is over so we're all out there breathing in the fresh air full of new flowers and the green of new leaves and I'm back walking the nature trails as a suitable break from work. Nothing much is happening in the African world unless you count the bizarre union

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-85954683933597567552009-04-05T12:57:00.001+01:002009-04-28T02:53:07.170+01:00

I popped back down to see the children and to say goodbye to my boy before he went on his school trip because it’s important to set eyes on the people you love in case anything happens in the emptiness of their absence and a negative angel sitting on my left shoulder reminds me of the news headlines featuring grieving parents at the scene of some coach or bus crash and I’m besides myself with

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-23599339521188242792009-04-01T11:04:00.010+01:002009-04-26T08:50:19.255+01:00

Schools have broken up for the Easter holidays and I’ve been hanging around London for work rest and play but mainly work and the telly folk are busy chasing Mr & Mrs Obama and they’re deadly honest with their email responses and write things like no please leave me alone the rest of the week G20/Obama arriving and I’m cool with that because when stuff starts happening there’s no stopping it.

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-24746247435732093762009-03-28T15:40:00.009Z2009-04-24T10:07:15.863+01:00

A woman walks out of the Heathrow Express at terminal 1 2 and 3 and she's left her mobile phone on her seat. The ticket collector is conveniently placed to pick up the blackberry, delay the train's departure, run after the woman the ten yards it takes to get to her and her luggage, and say you forgot your phone. I didn't I don't want it I left it there deliberately, put it back. She's just got

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-77944670496225050082009-03-20T11:31:00.011Z2009-04-21T11:09:03.986+01:00

For the first time in a decade, my dreams have become more vivid than they ever were. They are full of improbable characters like 60 year old crack addicts accosting me at train stations. Sometimes I'm directing a dead actor, other times I become the animal I'm watching and the perspective is incredible and for every dream I remember a thousand get away and isn't that the way it's always been.

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-62450498325615738262009-03-15T15:16:00.010Z2009-04-21T11:07:17.870+01:00

On a morning train to the south west the sun is blinding and I think my friend from the mask-making people near the Ivorian border looks quite out of place in this carriage hurtling its way past green and sunlit fields but certainly the kind of thing my boy would appreciate and I'm reading the papers in an effort to catch up on how the other half is doing and it seems to me that the recession

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-24298907144969446652009-03-14T13:58:00.008Z2009-04-12T14:11:40.703+01:00

I started getting bored when I'd made a decent run of the writing and my boots had gathered enough dust and there was very little left to see in Blaize's little big city and my yearnings started to be for my children and the familiarity of wet streets train journeys and the possibility of new work. You just know don't you when the lounging around the sun the new language creaking in your head the

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-82252394425036611002009-03-11T17:12:00.013Z2009-04-09T07:44:06.209+01:00

I wake up to an omelette avec fromage from kind Felix whose coffee’s not so great and I’ve woken up too late to dodge the heat but what’s the hurry it’s just another bright beautiful hot day and I think I’ll read and then maybe write after a midday shower and watch the Champions League battle for quarter final places and Arsenal had better beat Roma and wake up to their infinite possibilities and

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-51763507092454804682009-03-09T13:33:00.004Z2009-03-26T16:26:47.124Z

When the crowds had gone I woke up early and dumped my kit and belongings in the marvellously named Hotel Yibi and set about the business of a mental gear change by lining up my diaries and typing senselessly to keep up with this my blog. The blog gets the fingers used to typing and after a while the brain and the fingers are in tune and after a little while longer the scripts are writing

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-54091287081787961622009-03-07T14:32:00.004Z2009-03-26T15:34:20.741Z

It's getting hotter. A couple of filmmakers were running around putting up posters last night to publicize some unscheduled films for 9 o’clock this morning. Given the nights we’ve been having it seemed unlikely that any of us would make the screenings and I really wanted to catch the much-hyped AreaBoys from Nigeria but only managed to get up in time to go for lunch at the Hotel Yibi with my

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-56536576822250259332009-03-06T14:13:00.002Z2009-03-20T15:41:32.274Z

In the end it doesn’t get that bad at all. We are here in this tiny country which is pushing way above it’s weight in terms of cinema and the nights are long in conversation and to a man and a woman we are meeting to feel inspired and sometimes for the first time in four years or more. Outside the hotel meeting point where I get to every morning via Abdul the taxi driver who I know is ripping me

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-85398276974330222902009-03-05T15:50:00.001Z2009-03-10T19:34:54.972Z

Over at the Fespaco offices - that's the federation responsible for pulling together Africa's cinematic talents - a young cop helps me through the media crowds because he remembers us drinking a bottle of Flag together four years ago when he was just a student. He asks after my family and I'm annoyed that the French lessons I've been hearing and attending aren't helping that much here because the

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-44897065195640899752009-03-04T23:12:00.000Z2009-03-10T10:56:50.630Z

So the man at the airport says yes you can still get on even though you’re ten minutes past the check in time and he escorts the Moroccan prince with his mincing friends past security before the rest of us plebs then we take off roughly thirty minutes late and the journey to Casablanca is short and sweet and the airport food the best I’ve had in ages and Royal Air Morac fast rising in my

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-54595375085180996012009-03-03T04:39:00.014Z2009-03-03T13:48:49.933Z

The week was dominated in no small way by the death of my grandmother and knowing I couldn’t be there I took advantage of modern technology and rang in almost everyday up to the moment of her burial and tried to listen in to the final service and imagined a handful of earth in my hand being poured over her coffin in her grave and spoke to siblings and parents to get a feel of the mood and looked

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-81382184400111764442009-02-23T22:32:00.020Z2009-02-24T00:41:16.572Z

I’m hearing you loud and clear, time to fill you up with my thoughts, almost as much as you fill my thoughts up with you. It’s been difficult to write anything but work stuff what with new deadlines and new proposals to do but mostly it’s been harder to stay in because the weather’s been glorious. How could you miss the snow dad my daughter asks me the other day, it’s not like we have two feet

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-83630995725310730012009-02-17T08:10:00.005Z2009-02-18T14:15:56.747Z

What an incredible night it was at the Emirates. After a splattering season, a stop start stop draw kind of season and with five months to go, it seemed almost certain that the Arsenal would rue another year of lost chances missed opportunities and fateful damaging injuries and I had to stand the ribbing of the Chelseaites and those who sing you will never walk alone and wonder why Arsene

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-176600173355611622009-02-13T09:18:00.001Z2009-02-16T12:22:36.477Z

The London hotel is crap and tiny and cramped and the coffee's industrial and I only need the place to lay my head down and sleep and I dumped my bags down showered grabbed my gear and headed out the door to be in an edit for two straight days with a broadcast over two nights in a row because there on my first full morning in my adopted city the sun is shining and on the television live from the

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-17339197722610589962009-02-10T09:43:00.002Z2009-02-15T18:24:20.743Z

This Saturday afternoon the city of gold and shimmering light is breezy with the clouds above it playfully splitting up like lovers in a play fight where every punch is a hidden hug and then they regroup again and the smell of late-night rain is in the air and after the month I've had I'm pleased to land at Oliver Tambo International Airport and my frequent flyer status means the taxi drivers

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-49279742438224980362009-02-09T11:12:00.001Z2009-02-14T20:17:35.836Z

Another agreement, after more jailings more rapes more abductions and a splattering of murders the broken country is in a struggle to understand itself but in reality the forces of an old revolution are trying to convince themselves that they're at the forefront of a new one. Anyone who’s been here is full of the same question – how do things fall apart this quickly? I drive to the local cafe

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-73708343422321003312009-01-30T12:43:00.001Z2009-02-09T16:36:36.449Z

How are you? I've missed talking rubbish to you on these pages, really missed it. I imagined you checking up on my nonsense and seeing nothing for days then weeks and imagining I'd written myself off. The missing month occurred because it was impossible to write from the broken country, and I filled up the diaries and the notebooks with stuff I'd have liked you to know and on the 2nd of January I

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-61418176106165790892008-12-31T18:04:00.011Z2009-01-04T12:11:49.128Z

I wake up in the great big city of gold with a fierce sun touching everything and from above in the hotel window Jozi looks green and jungly and African and the season of goodwill has everyone gone and the streets are strangely empty as befits the time of year and I start to plan a journey but it's the weekend so what's the rush and so I settle down instead to a day of reading and I should crack

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-26886709146842694632008-12-29T00:25:00.001Z2008-12-31T18:03:14.520Z

Hello. Long time no write rubbish to you. The year is over well it feels like it is and yet another war takes us into another year. It seemed a good time to get back on a plane and to be honest the cold was getting to me I was beginning to feel that the long walks will no longer be fun and I was aching for a bit of sun. At the new shiny airport the duty free shops pretend there is no recession

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-47755140187881251922008-12-24T22:44:00.011Z2008-12-25T09:56:04.192Z

I don’t know what’s brought on the vivid dreams but they’ve been high definition sharp and ofcourse I scramble to write them all down before I lose them in the middle of the night and realise the dreams were there but the act of writing them down was itself a dream and so curl up again and hope they return. And when they don’t come back in pictures they come back in a feeling of rude and

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-91842458225630712132008-12-21T00:17:00.004Z2008-12-22T21:14:29.017Z

You haven’t posted anything since the 14th, went a message from somewhere and it’s strange but true that friends do that to you and with them and the feeling I have that you want to know what’s going on I find myself typing to remember the days since the last time I spoke to you in this way and no I haven’t moved much except in the ways everyone else is moving a little shopping here a little

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-34704458008303650452008-12-14T13:52:00.016Z2008-12-15T19:31:28.169Z

Tick tock tick tock another year gone just like that and folk at an impromptu dinner go what’s your new year resolution to one another and one boy says to see things more clearly with all that implies I think has he been doing too many drugs and the young woman says to stop relying so much on my parents and get a job to work with refugees would be right for me because she could be from that group

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-60204267701713660812008-12-11T23:11:00.006Z2008-12-12T11:19:11.736Z

The use-by date on the salmon says 5th December but we are in the age of the credit crunch and a garlicky marinade plus a long spell in the oven should get rid of the taste of age and thank fuck it's not fish caught in one of Zimbabwe's lakes and dams and rivers spewing sewage but damnit watching our pennies has got to be a new discipline. Over at Woolworths a closing down sale is under way and

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-7341558641312370612008-12-07T12:50:00.012Z2008-12-08T20:38:51.968Z

I'm just getting ready to head out to the Emirates for another predicted Arsenal victory when the phone goes and as usual I ain't picking up because everyone deserves a weekend off from modcoms but the voicemail says where are you? Abderrahmane wants to see you he's asking for you to be here for his Q&A and I'm touched by the loyalty of friendship and I dig out the London African Film Festival

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-13380804441747129842008-12-04T07:27:00.002Z2008-12-05T12:04:30.942Z

How are you? I know when you need to hear from me, I feel you looking for new posts and my sixth sense prods me to the keyboard and says go on, what’s an hour before breakfast before the day begins before sun sleet or snow? It’s just a cosy hour of typing practice so go on. I’m listening to the radio and some geeks at Harvard have discovered that happiness is contagious. If you know happy people

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-82356709332267710352008-12-01T18:10:00.002Z2008-12-03T08:07:46.042Z

December arrives like it always does - unexpectedly - you know it's coming but then everyone around you says can't-believe-we're-in-December already. I for one can't believe that a whole year has passed since the last December. It's world AIDS day and the scientists are being rolled out to talk about the war in the labs and the new inventions like the gel designed to lower female infections and

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-34748958267170696042008-11-30T14:02:00.003Z2008-11-30T22:23:31.421Z

On your feet for yet another African Film Festival because they keep coming, feeding us cinema from the place where nothing but bad news ever happens, apparently. A friend has been doing the London African Film Festival for some 15 years and a launch party is held for the festival that will feature Jerusalema Waiting For Happiness The Birth of Fruit and many other goodies over the last three

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-12145452175986371402008-11-27T20:19:00.006Z2008-11-28T13:08:06.656Z

The drama of the power-sharing deal that never was is with us as the cholera continues to take its toll. Wiser people will one day put it all down, a step by step guide to defiant ruin, when ideologies clash and the pursuit of power triumphs over all else and the world shakes its head at the injustice the greed the stubborn animosity and the loud silent scream of a nation. I’m on the phone again

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-89227850665580651092008-11-25T17:01:00.000Z2008-11-26T11:05:13.592Z

How are you? Been a bit quiet my end and I suspect you've probably been on the move too because which one of us is any good at sitting still or staying in one place for too long? The leaves have become compost the trees are completely naked and the cold is amongst us, sometimes the thermometer hovers near zero and everything is cold. I'm going through the seasons as if I'm in a memory relapse.

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-43291758781260893452008-11-20T23:16:00.012Z2008-11-22T01:36:43.134Z

Late in the evening, as my roast potatoes are reaching a perfect tan besides the sweet potatoes and the salmon in lemon and garlic, I get a call from Harare voices saying where can we meet for a drink and wolf down my dinner because even if the hour's late, I'm more than keen to hear how they're all doing and what to expect when I finally decide to get back in my seat on a credit crunched

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-50111788348048771662008-11-19T11:49:00.012Z2008-11-20T03:28:07.577Z

The other day as the sun was sinking, a very large black cloud went down on the fields all around us, low and heavy and dark and pregnant with water. But it didn't rain and the heavens never opened and that's because they don't open they just drizzle and drizzle and drizzle and fill everything from man made streams to the holes in the roads to soaked shoes. After a while it makes no difference

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-30547561747041699722008-11-17T10:33:00.002Z2008-11-17T14:58:51.149Z

A man is walking and pulling a suitcase on wheels across a rise on the green overseen by an ancient tree whose naked branches remind my kid of a skeleton with too many ribs. The images of approaching winter are everywhere, the high streets are lit up in the early darkness by Christmas lights forcing the citizens into that state of mind which says prepare for the season of good cheer. Reminded as

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-30625030197484770942008-11-12T13:51:00.009Z2008-11-13T19:09:51.461Z

I head out for a walk early in the rising dawn and have my first conversation several hours later. What have you been up to, says the man. Writing. And more writing. And even more on some days and I’m getting fairly sick of it.. Well you know, he muses, it’s a lonely life out there being a writer. The loneliest thing I know of, but keep going and we can hit the ground storming come the January

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-43440582838066186022008-11-09T01:05:00.009Z2008-11-09T02:59:53.198Z

It's dawned on me that an entire year has passed, a year to the day, since I started jotting down my own brand of nonsense on these cyber pages. There's no special celebration to a blog's anniversary, and as tempted as I am to read it all from November to November, I cringe at the soppiness of it all, the self indulgent observations, the simplified analysis the joys the aches the pride the

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-66983713048581561602008-11-05T07:48:00.002Z2008-11-07T11:32:54.497Z

In the end, the world’s expectation was delivered with resounding certainty. Pessimism gave way like the day gives way to darkness but this was a bright night with mates and colleagues texting into the night and I stupidly stayed awake until that speech, caught a couple of hours sleep and left for the west country to be with my boy on his last day of half term. The 5th of November is about

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-33598341146275580522008-11-04T17:22:00.010Z2008-11-04T19:47:12.245Z

The morning walk is wet and cold the gloves are on and the drizzle falls and climbs my boots and soaks my jeans but I walk on as if I'm on a great march so early in the morning and the steps are full of energetic purpose as befits a pair of legs so long out of the gym and I ignore the mud puddles because walking helps me wake up in this cold dark winter or I'd be asleep until way after lunch and

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-16556473634550110562008-11-02T10:29:00.009Z2008-11-04T12:23:45.955Z

So I’m having a coffee with a new best friend after one of those nights that’s been a long time coming when wars and stress and memories are billions of miles away and I’m lighter of step and mood so much so that even the news that Arsenal lost fails to dent my spirits and Sunday’s drawing to a close and I’ve had one person on my brain all weekend and I can’t wait to see her again because this is

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-82644074917496119952008-10-30T10:54:00.006Z2008-10-31T12:25:09.634Z

The Congo chaos begins again, another round of aggression from the tall men in the East? There are so many reasons why this war keeps waking up when we least expect it to, but there are some obvious truths. The Congolese are musicians, the Congolese are poets, they are dancers, lovers; the Congolese are rubbish at war, a mate tells me on the phone, the refugee exodus was precipitated by hordes of

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-21604564407073837272008-10-28T13:36:00.009Z2008-10-28T15:00:31.226Z

Late October's sun is a speck of light on frosted windows.Long muddy walks in strong winds as winter whistles in make me think of a little village – the little that I saw of it and the tonnes I feel – with a sea facing Denmark and a wrapped up walk and cooking and a burning log fire and telepathic television watched in happy silence and real laughter. Television is good in the winter because

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-68928555130296884242008-10-26T20:52:00.000Z2008-10-26T20:23:19.029Z

Read somewhere that our brains are strongest and quickest at 39, and that after forty, reactions slow down and we actually get thicker. Every other day there is a new scientific discovery designed to make us panic. Fat is bad for you, not it's good for you. Salt and coffee prolong your life, beer, contrary to received wisdom, does wonders for the libido, and women can have babies at fifty in

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-11298894364890416412008-10-23T14:05:00.002+01:002008-10-24T16:27:14.697+01:00

Financial darkness looms. It’s been like that for a lot of people around the world for three years or more. Food riots began soon after Christmas in Egypt in Guinea in Sierra Leone and the billions being spoken of as having evaporated have meant little to the truly penniless. Something on the radio about Haiti this morning – a pleading Prime Minister saying it is important that the world does not

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-21964741310956167622008-10-21T20:17:00.005+01:002008-10-29T23:31:24.763Z

It’s been a bit frantic my end, and I sorely regret not catching you up with the old blog, but you have breaks too don’t you. And to the man who emailed: are you alright shamwari? Blog’s been silent – have we been reduced to communicating through a blog too? Where are you, says a voice in Washington, still here in the city of Michael X and London is looking uncertain. It’s the whole planet my

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-11688375214975207202008-10-13T12:54:00.002+01:002008-10-15T08:22:21.895+01:00

God’s compensation for a shitty week has been the weather – the missing summer arrived in London and confused the animals and the people and the bright sunshine seemed entirely misplaced because over in the local cornershop the advent calendars were on sale and it was incredible but true to realise that another Christmas was just 9 weeks away and the summer weather was still in town.I postponed

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-41298675817057271972008-10-10T14:58:00.010+01:002008-10-10T20:49:32.691+01:00

Even though you know the end of the blog is nigh, you are back like a mug for the next installment. Me, not you. Whatever, the writer's curse is to write and the writer's salvation is to write some more and it's been a quiet Friday the world locked out of my office and my head and I'm going to jot down a few thoughts before I catch up on neglected friends and have a bender of a Friday. I had a

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-62350197871278330652008-10-09T12:24:00.015+01:002008-10-10T07:36:43.803+01:00

The world financial markets are imploding. That is the news and nothing else matters. Bank after bank is falling, great names on Wall Street and every financial capital are being uprooted and I know I know nothing about what this all means but I am hoping that somewhere in this mess will emerge great works of literature like The Grapes of Wrath which came out of what history dubbed The Great

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-37518663938237874412008-10-07T23:55:00.006+01:002008-10-08T01:00:26.656+01:00

I'm in South London wandering the streets after a pleasant dinner with my mate and his 11 year old beautiful daughter. I switch the mindset and head out further south.A friend of mine who shall remain nameless has been addicted to the scourge of London’s urban innards that is crack cocaine for some time. The lot of the addict is a schizophrenic one – he hates and loves his master, cautions

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-38905702543724376122008-10-06T17:43:00.006+01:002008-10-06T19:28:26.738+01:00

I'm dreaming of airports almost nightly and long to leave and get on because I'm not tired of this city just very bored and there are events and excitement and work that I'd love to conclude and the writing is fine and working but I do it much better on the road and I'll be back in a month anyway and my friends the philanthropists are being a little slow so the only distraction is the art which

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-89484523366517388342008-10-03T18:55:00.006+01:002008-10-04T01:38:11.964+01:00

Nothing much ever happens in October, as far as I can remember. It’s one of those months which is far better spent by the pool with a chunk of goat or pig on the fire and a collection of good outdated novels to be read in the shade and a pile of other people’s money to be used in the pursuit of artistic goals but I’m nowhere near that idyllic setting and like the other mugs I’m having

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-84586153127883879862008-09-30T07:28:00.006+01:002008-10-01T09:04:53.993+01:00

The dawn is dark and broody, rain in the air and that kind of chill which feels like the spent arguments of tired lovers. How it can all go from glorious light to this in a day is one of the mysteries of this place; and if you’re not used to it you can understand how some people get so depressed with the darkness that they must move to sunnier climes and streets where umbrellas are as rare as

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-85525135585311536732008-09-28T19:29:00.016+01:002008-09-29T23:03:32.635+01:00

In this part of London where I sometimes live the weekend takes on a slow coiled beginning and with the weather being what it is you can walk for miles and enjoy the way London is built and how for generations men strived to bring the countryside to town with the green parks dotted here and there and the rivers and fresh springs in countryside not far off were summoned to break the monotony of

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-86104137130395041012008-09-27T16:37:00.003+01:002008-09-29T19:23:07.540+01:00

And how was your weekend? Besides yourself with excitement? Another month ends and you’re a day older and isn’t that just the way it goes and those of us still 24 can’t wait to get a little older and if you could do it again from that age you’d probably change everything like someone unhappy with the cards they’ve been dealt when they picked them in the first place and I feel no such compunction

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-26769007970976182622008-09-25T13:31:00.006+01:002008-09-25T15:56:52.433+01:00

By now the old man knows the difference between screaming headlines and the silence of diplomacy; he knows too that when people scream and reject him they are really saying we have no other way of dealing with you except to try and embarrass you a little but the thickness of skins is made up of many rejections and many humiliations and he's there in New York because of this latest one, the 

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-16361972067964757412008-09-24T19:04:00.009+01:002008-09-24T20:23:44.697+01:00

Fiction mode and I’m in love with my heroine only because she reminds me of stuff and I write and write words into her mouth and they completely sound made up they cannot be real but actually they are. I find I’m so wrapped up in the world of African politics it’s three minutes into the day’s work when the stupid cow goes on about development aid versus AIDS and how can it be more important to

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-35786603518027188392008-09-22T09:49:00.002+01:002008-09-23T11:05:23.590+01:00

News all over the world is local, and all attempts to find out what is going on in South Africa saw the story from this vantage point way down the running order of headlines and beaten in prominence by events in Pakistan and the season of the political party conferences here in Britain. A week ago when Zimbabwe had its day of hope and cynicism the news had been about the financial markets; but

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-23167168398723291382008-09-21T09:26:00.000+01:002008-09-22T10:13:27.906+01:00

Sunday lovely Sunday has casually stepped into a routine for me where I head south west on unreliable trains which take longer than usual because of the predictable engineering works which never seem to end every other year and it’s the same excuses come the full blown autumn because the tardy slow trains will be blamed on leaves on the track and come the winter we’ll be hearing of snow on the

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-38517619252133500232008-09-19T11:36:00.003+01:002008-09-22T14:40:39.013+01:00

My Friday began shortly after midnight because on Thursday night I make my way over to the Dust Bar in the painfully trendy East End for a work party. The lovely boss is leaving for pastures new and everyone has contributed to a video done like a news bulletin on the only news channel worth watching and the first floor of Dust is heaving with familiar faces and the bar is open to all for free

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-8704402036726112212008-09-18T14:08:00.007+01:002008-09-18T14:36:08.258+01:00

It’s been busy, as you can imagine, and there’s been no time to catch you up on things. What with all the happenings down in Harare and elsewhere besides. In just these last few months, there’ve been elections in many places – Zim, Angola, Rwanda and the Swazis are voting some time soon even though political parties are banned. Africa watching has been almost as interesting as Wall Street

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-17527583702223669472008-09-15T18:10:00.000+01:002008-09-16T18:55:17.319+01:00

Solja, Betta, Tonderai – the names I’ve known and the faces belonging to them now buried in soft hot red earth over at the Warren Hills cemetery may have been looking on as the day unfolded on this September morning over in Harare. Not being there, I gorged myself on the media as it happened. The radio as usual was first with the images, the correspondents were there describing the setting of the

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-50364530736466154762008-09-14T17:12:00.009+01:002008-09-16T19:20:49.995+01:00

I run away from the city of many sins half asleep and feeling pious as befits a Sunday and the state of my heart mind and body because I ain’t done much sinning in a long time. It is too early to be out of bed for a Sunday but I’m on my way to the offspring and I ring Delhi to find out what the journey would be like on this sun-splashed September Sunday and he says avoid Victoria Line and head to

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-71538297411852628982008-09-12T21:07:00.002+01:002008-09-15T23:19:21.459+01:00

After the events of the evening of 11th September, 2008, the story claims headlines and column inches all across the world. The saturation coverage is all encompassing and I find myself thinking I should drive over to the Rainbow Towers now, be there for this weekend, start packing, must do a piece for the online publishers. But I’m thousands of miles away and I work the phone and speak to people

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-36137768876545003522008-09-11T11:09:00.005+01:002008-09-12T12:02:40.539+01:00

This date brings that question – where were you seven years ago? from a couple of mates and it’s the same answer I was on radio telling millions of listeners about the biggest outrage of the new century and then to bed in a tiny flat in south east London and up again to tell the same listeners about the death of thousands and the touching last messages left on answering machines and the lovers

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-75383732682885187872008-09-10T12:57:00.005+01:002008-09-10T19:55:56.668+01:00

Cracking on with the business of writing I head for a greasy fry up and eat with the bus drivers and the painters and decorators crowding into north London's cheap little cafe and go through my guardian and surprisingly do the crossword half way through the coffee and before the fry up and make plans to lunch with the producer and dust up the week's writing so it can be delivered like a tray of

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-89272043990145609092008-09-09T18:29:00.001+01:002008-09-10T00:28:29.406+01:00

An interesting day in the African news. The Lord's Resistance Army is beginning to piss a lot of people off. Having terrorised northern Uganda with atrocious crimes that involve the recruitment of child soldiers, the maiming of hundreds of thousands and a voodoo philosophy only mad men and women can believe in, Joseph Kony's rag tag army were meant to sign a peace agreement last week to end this

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-30479991920418314412008-09-07T20:22:00.008+01:002008-09-08T12:44:38.817+01:00

I've feeling very sorry for Bafana Bafana, the South African First XI Football team. At the time of writing this sentence, the South African team have 641 days 20 hours 10 minutes and 49 seconds to open World Cup 2010 and my guess is they'll probably be facing Italy, the current World Champions. They really have under two summers to go, and they keep losing matches. Yesterday they faced Nigeria

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-36100403579860240262008-09-06T21:42:00.004+01:002008-09-06T23:29:50.706+01:00

Dawn finds me up as it usually does, and staggering to the coffee pot for that first cup of the day and I see I’ve woken up earlier than the storms which seem to be taking a break so they can come back stronger later on in the day. People are losing their cars their houses their lives to the freak storms and I’m glad I’m staying put and close to the work. Then I think this is how it must be for

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-5305806186830557572008-09-05T19:54:00.006+01:002008-09-05T22:11:17.053+01:00

It's been 16 years since Angolans had nationwide elections and their elections have been called and postponed for the last 6 years but today they finally happened and all seems well with democracy again. Angola has been making the news for all the right reasons too - a little too much oil has given them more friends than they had before. Luanda, my friends tell me, is up and coming and

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-13350139045726328472008-09-04T09:00:00.007+01:002008-09-05T12:56:56.980+01:00

The deadlines are unforgiving as is so much else in life and you bend to the grind and chase them until you collapse into bed way before nine and begin again at dawn because there is one more to be done before midnight and you cancel all plans and hope the unforgiving goddess will relent and remember you but excessive sentimentality is so wrong for me and it’s best to take it on the chin and

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-74455267792408430742008-09-03T21:45:00.006+01:002008-09-04T00:07:36.765+01:00

The weather's getting bad, gale force winds and lashing rains predicted for the rest of the week and beyond. Out the other night and tube lines were being suspended because of flooding on the tracks and so on, same old story. Two months on and the familiar is becoming all too familiar and I'm wondering if I should just find a place and settle in.Tuesday I'm feeling the effects of being a wanderer

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-31071099367497176772008-09-01T13:59:00.008+01:002008-09-02T18:05:49.780+01:00

If a man gets tired of this city then he’s tired of life said one Johnson many centuries ago and he may have been right. Too much to do despite the apocalyptic economic forecasts. And I don't know about Paris being the city of love and romance, I reckon London's lovers have a grittier edge to their dalliances because there is only so much roses and louvre bollocks you can put up with.The weather

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-51715344590073806862008-08-31T15:53:00.004+01:002008-09-01T18:45:22.806+01:00

Like clockwork, some days arrive just on time and not a beat out of tune or a shadow too late but just bang on time. I'm up early because the day means more to them than it does to me and I must head out west and be with my real folk before the day drowns in the fog and clock hands spin on until their day is gone. And so I leave at 7 to catch a train at 8 and cab it to the tube station in an

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-46658826475391516652008-08-30T14:31:00.002+01:002008-09-01T15:43:53.620+01:00

Saturday evening I’m one of 60,067 souls gathered at the Emirates stadium to watch Arsenal try and save their ripped reputation because they lost to Mohamed Al Fayed’s Fulham the week before and it’s a late kick off and the August sun is still shy but present here in glorious late summer brilliance. I empty my head and arrive at the end of the first half because the man with the season ticket can

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-29478974759614622872008-08-29T16:51:00.001+01:002008-08-30T16:59:36.208+01:00

I stayed up late to listen to Mr Barack Obama’s speech because history is like a new and familiar shirt when it’s being made, you’re dying to give it a few good washes before it sits well and it’s best to follow Mr Obama’s journey from herein on and see whether history propels him onward to the White House or, like the other great orators of our time, to the grave. The idea that such clarity of

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-63244158112581897292008-08-28T15:09:00.002+01:002008-08-29T19:01:28.749+01:00

Train journeys have become offices for me. Technology means the mobile broadband is plugged in and you can write and research as you move along, despite the signal disappearing as you enter tunnels and meander through rain and the green and pleasant land. I’m heading out west and it’s a pretty morning to be doing so, and the wankers on their mobile phones loving the sound of their own voices

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5457862186261805769.post-8790656541926408772008-08-27T10:46:00.008+01:002008-08-27T11:21:25.947+01:00

The Olympics are over and 16 days seems such a short time. It’s the nature of time these days; it rushes past so quickly I can hardly believe August has just a week to go. So we can either panic or do things – make that call, finish that writing, plan and plan. But as usual my distractions seem to take over and I sink into excellent radio and cook to just a minute and time my tea to pm and the

Farai Sevenzonoreply@blogger.com