16 seems so far away...

It seems that the relative wilderness of Africa is not as isolated as one would expect, I've been tagged by DL into trying to give advice to myself - that alone a feat comparable with climbing Mt Everest in my undies since I'm not know to listen to anyone let alone me!

We shall nevertheless try, who knows, all things are possible....

I hate to have to break this news to you but you know getting through your O'Levels is not gonna be quite enough, in spite of what everyone tells you - they lied! right after those damn O's come the A's which fortunately you happen to hit upon away of avoiding while still completing your secondary education - atta boy!

Your late teens are gonna be relatively quiet, things actually start getting interesting when you turn nineteen - oh if you only knew then what I know now.. for instance, nice polite, boys don't get very far with girls, the wilder, bad boys do for reasons which you will never understand... of course, by the time those girls realize what a gem you are it will be too late.

At nineteen you will meet the first of three girls who will then shape the rest of your life - the first will break your heart and it will take oh about 8yrs or so before you quite get over her. The second will many many years later betray you in a way that though shocking will make you a stronger man. As for the third, well she will hold a key to unlock a part of that somewhere along the line you buried deep within yourself.

By 21 you will have formed the basis of friendship with a select few people who will over the years to come remain true and steadfast, in that sense you are indeed fortunate to have good friends. These very friends will, during the course of celebrating yours age of majority toss you into the sea off the Mount Lavania beach, in spite of the fact that you just wined and dined the bastards.

This will also be the year that another wonderful woman will take you in hand and make a man of you, you'll never see her again after that brief encounter, but in the years to come, you will always remember with love and admiration.

You'll never become a lawyer or an engineer, face it, school was bad enough and if not for a combination of good luck and a wonderful sense of self confidence in yourself you'd be in trouble my younger self.

But what you chose to do will take you to places most lawyers and engineers never go to, so don't fret too much about being left behind. In your life you'll do things that a lot of your peers will not, go places few people go too.

There is one thing that I'd try to change if I could... that Sunday when you had to go for CIM classes, don't on the way back home stop off to do the grocery shopping - trust your gut and get back home please... if you don't, that will be the one regret of your life... the 30mts you spent there you will regret for a long time to come.

PS: Your collection of alcohol, while impressive is not quite as good an investment as you thought, stock would be better, or even gold.