BY JABBES MVULA - It was just about 21.00 hrs (9:00pm) Arizona time on July 19 when I got my first text message from home. It was my immediate young Sister Monica, and the message - "You are now our Big Bro and Father, our first born, don't get upset when we wrong you." Monica followed up with another message from her two daughters Violet and Rachel, together with my other kid Sister, Ellah. Well, I was humbled with the message, that my large family considers me the father.

The next two messages were the greatest, my first daughter Judith, she was teasing me, coz she knew Dad was happy. Then Thoko just came on the line and sang two songs - Happy Birthday and ... oh my God, I have forgotten the other song coz I was so excited. Just after Thoko said "I love you Dad", her Mum came on the line too to wish me a happy day.

I haven't spoken to my young Brother David who is in South Africa in a while. His message that came just after midday local time just made my day coz I had decided to sleep a lot today. His message was "Today a boy is born, happy birthday Big J." By the way, sometimes people call me BIG J.

One of the biggest suprises of the day was a call from a very old friend who has never called me in a century, Norah. She suprised me with a stray call to wish me a happy day. She admitted that she meant to call somebody else, but she was suprised that the call came to me instead - interesting. Anyway, it was fun talking to her after sometime. It added a smile to my day.

My good friend and confidante, Richard wrapped up the day when he and his wife Julie hosted a special birthday dinner for me at their home. I spent a wonderful time with his three children, Maddie aged 12 in grade 6, then Jack who is still in pre-school, and 18 months old Heather who spent the entire four hours that I was visiting, running all over the house. They were so warm to me and I enjoyed the art and creativity of Richard, which he has passed onto his daughter Maddie. I loved the presentation she made at school about Jamaica, and I asked her to make a presentation about Zambia next time. She agreed. After spending some quality time with the family, we had dinner, and I enjoyed the Chicken and Macaroni. They gave me the birthday cake. I wish Thoko was here to eat with me.

I gave myself a lot of rest today, sleeping half of the day, something I have never done in the last nine months that I have been working on the Bad Timing project. My birthday was worth writing about.