The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

The first time I was in London was in 2003. Aside it being a long time, I was quite young. I hadn't started partying more seriously. I am beginning to not party more seriously though, the clubbing thing is a phase that is passing. But on February 22nd, I was excited to be in Jand! Long don! Babylon system! Home of serious African partying!  Hello #London ! Here for tonight. What's happening here? Rocking a @GhanaThink lacoste. Holla if you see me lol. Cc @GhLondoners — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) February 22, 2014 I picked what to wear very carefully. I was keen to meet as many people I knew or didn't know in the few hours I'd be in London. Enjoying free wi-fi at #London Heathrow. This is awesome. Folks have to give wi-vi everywhere and monetize it more easily. — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) February 22, 2014 Given that I wasn't roaming on any telecommunication network - would you try it if you used Airtel - wi-fi was my way to get the internet and communic...

Everything in #Belfast is like 10 minutes away. From hotel to work to food to club to etc. Except the airport lol. — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) February 21, 2014 I woke up on February 22nd , in Belfast , ready to prepare for my flight to London to spend a day en route to Accra. (I thought) the flight was at 1:20. It was at 12 rather. But I realised this at 11:01.am. Crap! 1 hour to the flight? Checkin counter closing 30 minutes prior to the flight. Aish! I had my +Airbnb  host call me a taxi. I briefly met Miro and another guest of Mary's. I needed to make the flight. I tried to check in online with British Airways but it wasn't working. Does checkin close 30 or 60 minutes to departure? The +British Airways  website seemed to say 50 or 20. I funally headed to airport around 11:20 hoping to get there in 10 minutes after Mary gave me a glass of orange juice. I picked the 20 minutes option and told taxi driver I had to get there by 11:40. While in the car, I real...

If someone asked me the top 5 European countries to visit, I would not have added Northern Ireland. Oh, but wait, Northern Ireland is not really a country, it is part of the UK. But it's still not England. And from being there earlier this year, it doesn't have many black people walking around. Except in the clubs :-) Aww, yeah. Well, mostly. I have hardly seen young people in  #Belfast . Noticed this earlier. And oh yeah, ain't seen no black people yet hehe. — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco)  February 19, 2014 Why shouldn't I say so? I am a young person.  I shouldn't say so ? I'm a black person. I live in Ghana. 2:33pm in  #Belfast , Northern Ireland. Thinking of  #Ghanaian  music & hearing it everywhere. Check  #Music4Tourism   #GMWFestival .  #233moments — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco)  February 20, 2014 Ghanaian music should have really traveled. We've not done a great job with this. Music for tourism is fine, music for export ...

I don't know much about Northern Ireland. I do know that they have their own 'national' football team that's not really good and they've not been to the World Cup before. That said, why do they have their own national football team? Because the British invented soccer. It's true. As in, that's the reason . Anyway, Northern Ireland could have benefited from playing from a British soccer team cos I don't see them going to the World Cup anytime soon. It is the home of George Best and also where the great Jonny Evans who plays for  +Manchester United  hails from. I expected Northern Ireland to be crazy about football but it was not really meant to be. Every country should have  #Supersport . Including Northern Ireland. And then  #ESPN  because of the  #NBA .  #sportsfanspeaking . — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco)  February 19, 2014 I am a huge fan of sports, especially watching, and studying soccer aka football and basketball.  +SuperSport ...

While in Belfast last month, I stayed at the Europa Hotel. When the taxi driver was dropping off my boss Ehi and I at the hotel from the airport, he said "this hotel is the second most-bombed in the whole world". It didn't look it. The hotel was a little expensive though and I was going to have to cough up a little extra to stay there 3 nights. So I decided that after the 2nd night, I'd check out and find a cheaper place to stay. Enter +Airbnb  aka Air Bed & Breakfast. I went to airbnb.com and started looking for a place for a night in Belfast. Knew friends who'd used the service, nothing to be scared off. It would give me a story to tell anyway :-) Why does  @Airbnb  take your money before verifying your ID? This verifying your ID can take a lot of time too. Sigh. Not cool.  #airbnb — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco)  February 21, 2014 Okay, this scared me. I knew I had to pay for the accommodation, thank you GT Bank Visa Card. But I didn't think that I...

Last month, I traveled to the UK for the first time in over 10 years for work. The particular place I went to was Belfast, in Northern Ireland. Belfast is quite the interesting name . Makes me say things like "Belfast. Make I bell you fast before I go lef Belfast." It took a while to hit me that I was actually in the same country that has London. If some other events had gone a certain way, I'd have been in Dublin, Ireland instead. It turns out they are really different countries, they even have different currencies. In this blog post, I'd share some memories. I couldn't get any phone network to roam on, but who needs that, when you have wi-fi :-) 2:33pm in #Belfast , Northern Ireland. Here for work with Rancard, meeting Intel on an ongoing project. Colder here than Ghana. #233moments — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) February 19, 2014 Been working on this project for over 9 months. Intel Explore & Learn. Explore & Learn . Change of plans. No more Du...