The Tellrhodes Blog

VAN DIJK FOR BALLON D'OR? A Champions League winner and PFA player of the year, but could Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk's stellar 2019 get a whole lot better? The Dutchman is odds-on favourite to win this year's Ballon d'Or - and told BBC Sport: "If I am rewarded for the season I had, that would be unbelievable and I would be so proud." Should he win? And who else is in the running? We take a look... Who Usually Wins The Ballon d'Or? The Ballon d'Or - the award for the world's best player - traditionally used to change hands most years - until the 10-year stranglehold that 6-4 second favourite Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo (five years each) had from 2008 to 2017. That ended last year with Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric lifting football's most prestigious individual trophy after a Champions League final success and Croatia's run to the World Cup final. So what do recent winners have in common? Usually they are forwar...

Loving the You that you are.   Hello Lovely Readers of TTB, I know I deserve to be flogged and stripped of my Writer title but please Biko, Forgive me as the Bible commands *Puppy eyes*.   I'm hear and I'm here for all my people that think that their skin colour or body type is a mistake. Well People of God and atheists too lol, your skin Colour and body type is perfect. No, I do not come with Cliche qoutes and stories about loving and owning who you are, I come as one who was of the opinion that my skin colour and body type was a curse and of course this song is totally inspired by Beyonce andWizkid's Brown skiing Girl ! *Dancing zanku off the beat* Growing up Being lightskinned wasn't easy for me especially as I was the only lightskinned person in my house and somehow I had managed to only make dark skinned friends, I had constantly heard people call my friends and siblings Black beauty, Black and shining, Caramel skin, chocolate skin and all other wonderful co...

Hello TTB followers. Welcome to wallflower and let me officially welcome you to a new week. Today, we'll be doing a bit of this and that with a compilation of quotes that have helped me look on life in a different way this week. So here we go.. I hope you find them useful.     20 quotes to help change your perspective of life 1. “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” ~James Dean 2. “When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.” ~Wayne Dyer 3. “A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr. 4. “You’ll never get a Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me!” ~Capt. Henry P. Crowe 5. “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” ~James Joyce 6. “I’m looking California and feeling Minnesota.” ~Chris Cornell 7. “Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying, That’s Goddamn right.” ~Stephen King – The Shawshank Redemption 8. “THE EDGE, there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who re...

Hey TTB followers and welcome to Vocabulary Building with ME(Stephanie). Here we explore words from weird,  to archaic, to long and short, simple and complex words. WORDS OF THE WEEK Epochal [ep·och·al] 1. Highly significant or important; momentous. For example— “Epochal decisions made by the president.” 2. Without parallel For example— “Epochal stupidity.” SLANG OF THE WEEK Shook: Use it as an adjective and you’ll mean shocked, surprised, or startled. The inner monologue for feeling shook is "Whoa, what just happened?" Post by: Osaruyi Stephanie Aiseosa Facebook: Stephanie Aiseosa Osaruyi Instagram: stephanieonette_ Twitter: Osaruyi Stephanie Aiseosa

TUESDAY TALKS WITH GBEMI BEWARE OF ROVE BEETLES!!! Hello TTB lovers, welcome to another edition of Tuesday Talks With Gbemi. So today, makes it a week since I was stung by the rove beetle and trust me, the experience was not pleasant at all. Infact, I had a rough week battling with the aftermath of the incident and so today, I'll be enlightening us on this insect. The Rove beetle commonly known as "skirt and blouse" is a red/orange and black coloured insect that can be found in virtually every habitat, It usually lives near drainage lines and watercourses. During the daytime, rove beetles can be seen crawling around on the ground, with their wings hidden, and can resemble ants. Adult rove beetles are predators of other insects and at night are frequently encountered around light sources, hence while it is also referred to as the "electric insect".  Rove beetles do not bite or sting but their blood contains a strong toxin called pederin​ that can cause ski...

MEMOIRS 4 Somewhere along in life we ought to discover what makes us tick. For some people, it is a new pastime. Others would get to know or meet new people. It's all a channel and means of release  very relevant as much as it has that element of novelty. Cities fascinate, and visiting them could prove to be a novel experience. It opens the mind to travel and find one's way through the meandering or straight roads of different respective places. Different places with much stories, all of the bustling activities that go on in the day and the silence of night. Which is the city you have visited that granted you an exhilarating experience? It need not be Dubai or London. It only needs your naivety and cooperation. Learn to travel and appreciate places... Run your comments and thoughts Tellrheaders. Happy Saturday! 👤: Alkali Amana FB: Alkaliamana IG: Alkaliamana TW: Alkaliamana Email: alkaliamana@gmail.com

Hi TTB followers, welcome to Autocare I will be concluding on car fluids and their maintenance: Air Conditioning Coolant When the weather warms up, you’ll want to check the coolant (sometimes called refrigerant or Freon) level in your air conditioning system to make sure it’s ready to work. Checking this fluid can be a bit complicated, but it’s better than having a Mechanic charge you for putting more in when it’s not needed. Before you begin, you’ll need to get the proper A.C. gauge and thermometer from an auto-parts store. If it turns out your coolant level is low, you can easily recharge the system with supplies from the auto parts stores. Coolant With all the combustion and friction that happens in an engine, it produces a lot of heat. A Coolant is needed to keep everything, well, cool, by absorbing engine heat and dissipating it through the radiator. Maintaining the correct coolant level prevents overheating. You only have to check this fluid every 50,000 miles or so, ...

Hey TTB followers and welcome to Vocabulary Building with ME(Stephanie). Here we explore words from weird,  to archaic, to long and short, simple and complexwords. WORDS OF THE WEEK Venality [ve·nal·i·ty] 1. The condition of being susceptible to bribery or corruption. 2. The use of a position of trust for dishonest gain. For example: “The venality of a corrupt judge.” SLANG OF THE WEEK Mood Use mood in lieu of saying "same." Generally, it describes something you're into, as in... For example: "All I want to do tonight is lay on my couch and watch The Bachelorette." "Big mood." Post by: Osaruyi Stephanie Aiseosa Facebook: Stephanie Aiseosa Osaruyi Instagram: stephanieonette_ Twitter: Osaruyi Stephanie Aiseosa

UNCLEAN? “No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean. ” But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” Acts of the Apostles 10:14‭-‬15 NLT Hello there! It's been forever. Life gets in the way of our weekly rendezvous sometimes. Forgive me for past and future sins please. Anyway today, I want to address the voice of condemnation in somebody's life. The opening scripture verses are well known (or at least I think they are). The passage is extracted from Acts 10 where Peter had a vision where a sheet from heaven was lowered with "unclean" animals and God asked him to kill and eat. In summary, he had his convictions concerning what was unclean. He being a Jew was arguing based on the Law with the Giver of the Law. Imagine! Anyway that's not even the point today. I know there is someone reading this who feels filthy because they have lingered in sin. You b...

Rathakrisnan Velu - Strong Jaws R. Velu is currently the Guinness title holder for The Man With The Strongest Jaws . He is also known as Raja Gigi. On the 18th October, 2003, he made a record by pulling a very heavy train weighing 260.8tonnes with his teeth. And then, he broke his 2003 record on the 30th of August 2007- the eve of Malaysia's 50th Independence Day, by pulling  a train alongside 6 cars (weighing in total 297.1tonnes) with his teeth. (where some people can't even successfully finish ishan eran with their teeth o. I'm one of them sha) According to report, Velu was taught by an Indian master, at age 14, how to concentrate all his body energy to his jaws. This made it easy for Velu to pull or move mountains with his teeth biting hard to a rope tied against the object.  (So, guys what are you still waiting for? Mouth is not only used to talk and talk like chicken. Use your mouth too to break record! ) See you guys again next week for something ...

HOME He hadn't seen her in years. Everything about her was changed. Gone was the beautiful, sunny woman who had laughed with all her heart. Her mouth crooked as she told a joke,a glint in her eyes after a little lie. Gone was the woman who had loved him. Standing here was someone different entirely. He wished some much it was just a moment and maybe his eyes were deceiving him,and for a second he closed his eyes and prayed so. He knew when it started,when everything had been good and everything had turned bad. Once upon a time, she had been his beloved mother. In the year 2007,he was a young man becoming accustomed to being an adolescent and how much hormones could make the body functions. He and his mother had lived in a one bedroom apartment facing the London bridge. He had attended school on the weekdays and helped his mother at her photo studio during the weekends. It had just been two of them until Paul had walked into their studio on a Saturday morning. In a way...

Hi TTB followers and welcome to my series. Hope you had a great week? Thanks for your consistency and love.. I am most grateful. Let's get on with this shall we?           Broken      (Episode 11)          (Recap) My life had been complicating enough and I was ready to let go. The day that changed me began like every normal day. The doctor came in, did his routine check up, I had breakfast and lunch. Towards noon, I felt a sudden urge to have a stroll. You see, I had been lying for weeks so I needed to exercise my legs. I called one of the nurses and we set off to stroll around the garden surrounding the hospital. After a fee minutes of walking I decided to sit and just enjoy the scenery (since I was going to die anyway) when I heard the most beautiful melody. I listened carefully and although it was an unfamiliar song I felt shivers all over my body and an urge to go see where this was coming from. Wh...

THIS ACCENT THING, NA BY FORCE? Back then in secondary school, we had this subject called “Elocution” where external teachers come in to teach us how to speak in the “right diction”. It was educating and mostly entertaining to hear Nigerians who are not bred abroad trying to teach you how to speak right and twist your tongue to a particular accent. Then in school it was made compulsory we speak in the right diction to the extent that our normal greetings to teachers changed. Even with all the wahala our principal did, most of us still maintained our normal accent. I can remember vividly then that my Economics teacher told us in class that most of us that are refusing to adopt to speaking in the right diction will be the ones who will eventually get to the university and change our names from Funke to Mirabel. His predictions partially came true. Imagine me getting to the university and meeting people trying to twist tongues to speak the American accent. I am not against it, in fact...

Can Serena Williams finally clinch her 24th Grand Slam title? Action at Wimbledon has reached its second week and some of the top seeds are still in contention for both the men's and women's singles title. In the women's field, 37-year-old Serena Williams is on track for an eight Wimbledon title and a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam crown. The great American is also seeking her first Grand Slam title since her Australian Open triumph in 2017, while she was pregnant. She returned from maternity leave in 2018 and made back-to-back Grand Slam finals at Wimbledon and the US Open, losing to Angelique Kerber and young Japanese, Naomi Osaka, respectively. Good for Serena now, the woman who denied her an eight title in last year's final, Angelique Kerber has already been knocked out. Can she now power through? The 37-year-old has come through her section of the women's draw with the loss of just a set. Having defeated Italy's Giulia Gatto-Monticone 6-2, 7-5 ...

So,  I began this short story series and I release it in episodes. Guess the title - 'LA Casera!'. It has a striking element. Do well to read and get back to me. To read it, follow the instructions on the picture above. Run your comments and thoughts Tellrheaders. Happy Saturday! 👤: Alkali Amana FB: Alkaliamana IG: Alkaliamana TW: Alkaliamana Email: alkaliamana@gmail.com

NIGERIA RENEW RIVALRY WITH CAMEROON Twenty-four teams made it to Egypt but after 12 days of action, eight have to crashed out of the competition leaving sixteen others to continue with the dream of becoming champions. The two top teams from each group automatically qualified for the first knockout stage i.e. the round of 16 stage, with the other four being the third best teams across the groups. Super Eagles of Nigeria will face a tough task of qualifying to the quarter final of the Africa Cup of Nations as the tea will face defending champions, Cameroon in the round of 16 on Saturday. This tantalizing fixture was accomplished on Tuesday evening after a 0-0 draw with Benin Republic, and Ghana’s 2-0 defeat of Guinea Bissau, condemned the Cup holders to second place in Group F, and a direct confrontation with the second –placed team in Group B, being Nigeria. Cameroon defeated Nigeria in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in 1984, 1988 and 2000, but most painful for the Sup...

SHE A kick to the stomach. That's what it felt like when she had gotten the text. She taught they had been happy together or maybe that's what she wanted to think. They had been together for four years and this past months she had felt like they were moving to the next level. She had met him at in one of her most trying periods. She had just lost her mother who had spent years battling with cancer and there he was; her knight in shining armor, saying the right words, doing the right things. It had been so easy to fall. Looking back, she wondered if she had been lost to have seen it. How dependent he had wanted her to be, how he made sure every decision came from him. She had been happy then, after all it felt good having someone take up all the responsibilities after she had done so much for all other people. It had been so exciting to be free. She had met his mother one year after their first date and she thought maybe he had been thinking of having something ser...

AL HERPIN - The Sleepless Owl. Al Herpin was an American. Popularly known as The Man Who Never Slept. Yeah! You heard me right.. Al Herpin (my guy ) claimed to have never slept in his lifetime. The cause for him not being able to sleep is unknown Al Herpin lived in Trenton,  New Jersey. His daily routine involves coming back home from the day's work and would rest while sitting in his rocking chair reading  several Newspapers for hours until day break. By daybreak, he feels refreshed and gets himself ready for the day's work. Due to his sleepless state, he is notwithstanding, in a perfect health condition and does not seen to suffer from any form of side effects. Doctors and medical practitioners have attended to his case. They visited his home, all they could find was the rocking chair. No bed, cot or mat. In short, there was nothing on which a man could lie and sleep. For several weeks, the medics stayed with Al Herpin observing and hoping he would dose of...

Hey TTB followers and welcome to Vocabulary Building with ME(Stephanie). Here we explore words from weird,  to archaic, to long and short, simple and complex, to even slang words. WORDS OF THE WEEK Perpetuity (per·pe·tu·i·ty): 1. Time without end; eternity. 2. The quality or condition of being perpetual. For example— “The terms of the agreement remain in effect in perpetuity .” SLANG OF THE WEEK The Fuzz — The Police. For example— “Don’t let the fuzz catch you.” Post by: Osaruyi Stephanie Aiseosa Facebook: Stephanie Aiseosa Osaruyi Instagram: stephanieonette_ Twitter: Osaruyi Stephanie Aiseosa

LETTER TO ME I'll be honest, I'd saved up to buy a TV and either of Startimes or GOTv decoders. A friend even told me there was a way to use my laptop as a screen with one of the decoders (don't remember which). I mostly wanted a TV cos of AFCON and so I could stop feeling lonely. Then I remembered BBN was starting and I started obsessing over it. Will the new HMs be like the last? What wardrobe wickedness was Ebuka coming with this time... Or more to the point, Mai Atafo? Can Bet9ja do it better than Payporte and the other sponsors of the last one? What tricks would Biggie have up his sleeve? And on and on. Then I caught myself. This is the first day of July. September will come as quickly as the last 6 months ended. And then how much time would be left to pursue aspirations for the rest of the year? Plus, really, what would be the value added when the show's done? For some of you, I just dey talk my own. But maybe you should really think about it. Happy ...

TOUCH NOT MY ANNOINTED  By Hamz The line above has been ringing a bell for the past two days on this street, and last night, I was forced to research on the origin of it and found out that it was made by King David of the Israelites  while rejoicing about the return of the Ark of Covenant, He sang a psalm recounting the power of God as shown through a thousand generations. One of the sentences he made was the command of God, “TOUCH NOT MY ANOINTED AND DO MY PROPHETS NO HARM.” Fast-forward time to several millennia later to the 20th and 21st Century and somehow, certain people have taken the line  in scripture quoted above quite out of context, twisted them extremely out of shape and intended meaning and set them up as a bulwark for the ever-increasing nefarious excesses of the clergy. They give the impression that clerics are God-substitutes here on earth and that to dare to question them would be to risk having the 21st century upgraded version of leprosy visited ...

FLOP I'm a dunce She thought I was sure I could survive She gasped out loud As she ran to escape the land of Torts She looked around Hoping she wasn't lost Like another gull She tried to escape the Taon mold Be more than the status quo Surprised by the choke Of the Taon boss Determined to take what he deemed Was his and not hers The tort thought it theirs She slipped through the hold More determined to make her life hers She ran, to escape the somber rain outburst Then clashed into the the Checker at Dunst He looked palatable, she paused Apologised and tried to escape the hunting dogs Twists and turns When will the struggles stop Even with the odds How will I be more Under the umbrella of a feeble Moss She wondered, if she would come out on top She thought, This life of mine Is it really too precious to sell at a cost? Stealthy and slowly, She makes it through The Taon's rebuff Made it to the haunted land Her footpath, she looked...