HONEY, I'M (BACK) HOME

Cough! Cough! Choke! *clearing throat*. A sneeze here. Eyes tearing there. Handkerchief swats the stuffy air. The guest takes off, probably never to be seen again in that dust-infested enclosure, or hopefully to be seen again....

And that, my friend, is my imagery of what visitors to my blog have been subjected to, thanks to a tweet and Facebook comment I received from two friends, bearing an eerily similar jibe, "Feddy, your blog has gathered dust...."
And who can blame them? The last time I wrote on this blog, Africa was still reeling from Asamoah Gyan's painful penalty miss that saw the Black Stars miss out on the chance to become the first African team to make the FIFA World Cup semis. Last time I wrote this blog, Luis Suarez was only hated for the handball that denied Ghana a direct ticket to the semis in the first place. Last time I wrote this blog, Wikileaks was all the rage....
All that was back then in 2010. Since then, Gyan is no longer Africa's most talked-about striker. That, in my humble opinion, is one Demba Ba who has almost single-handedly made Newcastle United genuine Europa League Contenders. (I'm sure followers of the French League will beg to differ. Indulge by all means.) Since then, Luis Suarez is twice as hated, and this time not just by Africa, but an entire legion of dark-skinned Homo Sapiens, as well as a good number of those who do not entertain racism in any form. (thank you, Patrice Evra, for complaining. You will never walk alone...)
And is wikileaks the hot topic of the moment? Your guess is as good as mine. At this time I don't see any earth shaking discussion of the moment that matches the proportions of wikileaks. But America has its Republican Presidential Nomination campaigns, North Korea is still mourning Kim Jong-Il, China has added a ban on any form of 'western' entertainment (no, seriously. check it out) on top of Facebook, and Kenya has just released a sequel to the 2000 blockbuster "The Way of The Gun", featuring one Nancy Barasa. Ok, I might be exaggerating the latter. And as I write this, Sumatra has just been struck with an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale.
Since 2010 there has been so much to blog about- my transition from the Sports Desk to my exploits around the country in NTV's weekly news magazine the County Edition, The referendum, The ICC process, Railamania/Railaphobia (depending on which side of the horn you are blowing), The 'Ugly Car' showdown pitting the Vitz against the Probox, Fernando Torres, Gor Mahia, Mike Sonko, Twitter, Miguna Miguna.......the list is endless.
But what did I do all this time? I thought about it, I compiled it in my head, slept over the idea, woke up the next day to blog, made no time for blogging, witnessed another event which I'd think about, compile in my head, sleep over the idea, wake up the next day to blog,... ah well, you get my point.
That paragraph can be summed up in one word- Procrastination. It is probably why I haven't bought my own house yet. I have wasted time, which is essentially money, whose loss eventually leaves me still paying a lot of rent to one Kahiga Muigai.
As the year 2011 drew to a close, a good friend of mine, a Norwegian-based gentleman going by the name Oguda, launched his blog. I was among those he asked to comment on his debut post. Apparently he was very impressed with mine, after braving all that dust as he sifted through the archive that is feddylicious.blogspot.com. That was November 29th. Since then, has five posts already. Talk about fast off the blocks!
An avid reader in every sense of the word, Oguda's enthusiasm relit a dying ember within. I will not let this man become an avid writer too as my blog gets mummified. I am the journalist here, for chrissake!
I do not make many resolutions at the turn of the year. But this time I have three realistic ones, two inspired by this man Oguda.

1. Dust my blog. If not for me, but for the daily visitors who stoically come back hoping that this (insert noun) will wake up from his slumber and spew out another good read. 9 views today (and counting) before i posted this, 93 last month, 1,464 since I went AWOL. Never again.
2. Read more books. I earned my language stripes by reading widely, albeit novels and story books forming the bulk of my literature. Addiction for movies robbed most of that enthusiasm. I wish to start over with a book a month. Or a chapter a week. Or a page a day. Cue Joel Osteen.
2. Cut down the procrastination. Heck, mummify it altogether. If I achieve that, 2012 will bear more significance to my future than it already is. Much more significance than starting this year single again. Much more significance than my expected new contract, now that I am saying goodbye officially to the sports desk. Much more significant than the fact that this year I attain a very, very important age. Richard Branson says"screw it, let's do it". Ditto.

The process has begun, with a post that clears the dust off this blog. Long may the momentum remain.
Feddylicious is back.