Visas and stuff

So I've been to London to arrange my Visa and I will be organising my flight to return very soon.

Did everybody see that Ghana reached the second round in the World Cup? Even though they now face Brazil and very likely the end of the road, it's a huge triumph and reward for them and I wish them all the best, and hope they can put on a good show on tuesday.

In other news, I saw this story yesterday about the Nigerian Information Ministry alerting Nigerians travelling to the UK about an increase in robberies and muggings perpetrated on Nigerian visitors.

Most of the press coverage I've read seems to treat this with some amusement, and I believe are only printing it for the giggles. To be honest it did make me smile, especially this quote:

"I can count off the top of my head 10 Nigerians, both highly placed and not so highly placed, who've been at the mercy of tricksters and robbers both at Heathrow Airport in London and the streets of London"
Information Minister Frank Nweke

Now we get some figures... 10 Nigerians. Ten? Not even a whole football team. I hope that's not the figure that prompted the advice. I mean, according to the 2001 census there are 68,907 People Born in Nigeria living in London alone.

The serious reality as all sane people know, which I think is what the Information Minister was trying to point out, is that every country on earth is infested with thieving scum of their own, and perhaps Nigeria does get singled out a bit too often. The vast majority of the victims of robberies and fraud perpetrated in Nigeria are Nigerians themselves, and it's totally understandable why all Nigerians would want to distance themselves from that label. For reference take a look at the UK and US government advice to citizens travelling to Nigeria, I agree with about 99% of it, although I have not been a victim of anything personally but do know Many people who have. I have been a victim of a pick-pocket in the UK.

Technorati Tags: Lagos, Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria, visa, UK, fraud, Ghana

Something going on

So it's been a while. Not much going on you see, still in the UK, but I am making plans to organise my visa this week, for my return to Nigeria.

Not much happening at home, I recently dug out my Air Conditioner and had it running most of the time. I've put a power meter on the socket so I can get an idea how much it's costing, and it's not cheap, but the difference in sleeping all night and not sleeping at all is worth much more.

I've got some OU results back which I haven't reported, in MT262 (Putting Computer Systems to work) I achieved 99% in assignment 1 and 96% in assignment 2. In M255 (Object-Oriented Programming with Java) I achieved 100% in assigment 1 and 97% in assignment 2. I'm quite chuffed with that, although to be honest it is covering rather familiar territory for me.

As for the World Cup, those close to me will know and perhaps from interpretations of my comments on the Africa Cup of Nations in January I have been backing Ghana from the outset and with today's match against Czech Republic I am thrilled beyond belief. Of course, I hope England do well too.

More news soon I hope about my return to Nigeria.

Technorati Tags: Lagos, Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria, Ghana, Czech Republic, World Cup, Football, Soccer, Open University