FINDING THE KING’S RING. LOVE AND LIFE
Wacera Kieha &Kelvin Karanja.
“I am looking for friends. What does that mean -- tame?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties."
"To establish ties?"
"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy
who is just like a hundred thousand other little
boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me.
To you I am nothing more than a fox like
a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need
each other.
To me, you will be unique in all the
world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world....”
A wonderful piece of a story huh? The fox needs to make a friend out of the boy,
and he needs the boy to understand that
henceforth he - the boy - will be special to the fox more than all the other boys,
and He – the fox- will be special to the boy,
more than all the other foxes. Such is life and friendships or so.
A few nights ago, specifically (21st July 2018),
a fox decided to tame a few humans or if you wish,
a tamed fox chose to
express its tameness in kind, by calling over a few friends for a barbeque night.
The fox in narrative is this guy
he owns and runs a baking company called
Minnie’s Bakery
When he put out a rallying call on WhatsApp for a couple of mutual friends
to prepare for a barbeque night, we all didn’t
think much of it, the plan was to appear, eat meat and go back home satisfied and
tipsy in that order. Turns out, the fox is
launching a new company, Minnie’s Parties and
we were the fortunate willing lab rats.
Call it a little market research
but enjoyable and lovely like no other research out there.
By doing so, he killed two birds with one stone. One bird,
he was to hold a long overdue house warming party
(A kind of a little fun thing these group of friends begun last year,
call it a house warming merry go round),
it was his turn
to get his house warmed. The second bird was him doing a little experiment,
where he was researching
(the best combination factors that will induce
maximum pleasure on clueless humans, alcohol playing the center
stage and meat playing the omnipresent stage, aka, Barbeque party).
Those details aside. What we had that night was pure ecstasy under the moon,
with the sky seducing us with some
intermittent drizzles here and there. The cold, a prerequisite in July,
was a nonstarter or rather we cared less, to hell
with the cold. We paid zero attention to it and it was swiftly swallowed by our energetic fire,
literally and unsarcastically.
The host had a bonfire going on, a kind of a very romantic set up on the roof top of his
apartment building, simple chairs
whose sitting areas were to be warmed by extremely enthusiastic individuals.
On the side, not far away from the fire,
a mini blue tooth speaker was blaring out the songs of whoever cared to connect their phone,
and adjacent to it a grill was
warming up salivating for the chunks of marinating meat in the fridge downstairs.
When we arrived at around 9 pm, the first thing to catch your eye was the hanging lights by the Bluetooth speaker, a lovely
set up, lights with shades of yellows and reds to prepare your mood for the evening ahead.
Oh, and he had prepared a weak punch. The problem with a weak punch is that it’s meant to shake a tough liver, there is no
way this can happen sufficiently, so, more vodka was added to the concoction.
Does it need to be mentioned that things
and people went crazy and nuts shortly afterwards?
Foxes unrelished their devils and madness for the next 8 hours of the night.
Then there is this game called Jenga.
Turns out, the game is universally called Jenga,
it’s not known by that name
geographically, east Africa that is;
Players take turns removing
one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks.
Each block removed is then placed on top of the tower,
creating a progressively taller and more unstable structure.
Please take note of the words “more stable”,
because this game should be the ultimate test for engineering students.
Two fellas amongst us, kept partnering on it,
this lady
and this guy
these two humans were everything else apart from helpful and frankly speaking
they would make horrible structural engineers, pun not intended or intended,
mostly intended.
We lost count of the
number of times they brought the tower down.
Where were the rest of the guys you ask?
oh well, watching the two
removing the wrong blocks and sipping a punch after they collapse a tower,
on and on.
Taunting couldn’t get better than
that.
In all honesty though, everyone played, it was fun,
but there is a point of diminishing returns that people get to.
It is the point when the alcohol content in your system equals the level of soberness in your brain.
It is also the point
where everything you say is punctuated with a smug smile unknowingly.
It is a time when you should stop building a
stable Jenga structure, because the theory
of relativity kicks in.
Speed of light within a vacuum is the same
no matter
the speed at which an observer travels, better put;
the stability of a structure built in an imbibing atmosphere is
unattainable no matter the level of concentration.
In between, food came, some lovely meat stew, Ugali, roast potatoes and veggies.
It is good to mention that foxes were
shy with food, reason? There was a visual of sizzling assortment of meat on the grill.
It is very wise not to fall into a trap
where you fill your stomach with veggies unless of course you are a freaking vegetarian.
If you have a chance or the resources to marinate your meat before grilling, it is a genius move especially if you
are single, it adds points, (This was evident from the compliments
bestowed on the host by the ladies).
The marination and grilling produced some lovely, hot, sweet,
delicious pork grill chops and goat grill ribs.
It’s a rarity to feast on such lovely chunks.
Back to games. More alcohol first,
then sit by the fire, everyone grabs a sit and we play a game called the king lost his ring.
Basically, every person sited around the fire is given a number,
which is domicile to the seat they are sitting on.
Then, a starter king and queen are chosen.
The game starts with some dramatic effects
where the lead announces the king has lost
his ring, guys fake angst and
all manner of uncivilized shock,
then the lead says something like,
I think number 2 has it,
number 2 is supposed to say No!
then the lead asks who? to which number 2 replies with a random number,
let’s say, Number 5 has it.
Those steps must be strictly followed,
if the responder messes on either or fails to respond to the domicile number of
their seat when called out, they rise and move to the last chair, number 9 for example,
and someone else occupies
seat number 2 for example, so on and so on.
The ultimate prize is reaching the throne, becoming king and staying
there for as long as possible.
By the way, it is not possible to stay as king or queen for long,
because you are imbibing,
concentration is trash and teetotalers are suckers,
they keep piling a lot of pressure.
My friends, if ever there was a time you considered setting a barbeque,
or a party at home or somewhere in the bush,
the Minnie’s party guy knows his shit,
seek his services and call your friends through.
At five thirty in the morning, drunk and tired humans were singing karaoke as a group,
with a phone as a projector,
Source – YouTube, others had long retired to couches downstairs.
For us all, we were there because friendship called,
and there is nothing as satisfying as a group of friends enjoying an
evening and beating stories like wizened sapiens,
stories that would have otherwise remained unfunny, uninspiring,
untold and engaging with people who would have otherwise remained elsewhere doing something less than life and love.
A little lack of sleep matters less when you are busy making memories,
and one wizened old man said,
don’t retire after making millions, retire having made invaluable memories.
A barbeque like that, warms the heart like something we cannot describe and brings friends closer than a magnet
we cannot possess.
For more pictures, sights and sounds, check this link
“This is how it works. I love the people in my life, and I do for my friends whatever they need me to do for them, again
and again, as many times as is necessary. For example, in your case you always forgot who you are and how much
you're loved. So what I do for you as your friend is remind you who you are and tell you how much I love you.
And this isn't any kind of burden for me, because I love who you are very much.
Every time I remind you, I get to remember
with you, which is my pleasure.”
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