Sunday, January 19, 2014

The OWACO Show

"Welcome to 'Overseas With A Carry On', where we are always pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm your host Olu Ashaolu. On today's show we're going to discuss the life of an international basketball player."

That would have been a great intro if I was a TV show host; perhaps something to add to my bucket list. Recently, a friend (and now a counterpart since I'm officially a "blogger") of mine better known as Can Ball Ray published a write up that I submitted about the hardship of missing out on family time during the holidays. A well written piece if I do say so myself *smirks*, but I'd like to quickly reiterate that here. Getting enough days off to make a trip back home is nothing more than wishful thinking in this profession, but for those who are blessed to make it back for the holidays, the less fortunate have a message for you: we wish you a Merry Christmas and a lost bag or two.  It's like the younger sibling who gets upset because the oldest gets the last piece of pizza, revenge is imminent!

Speaking of food, I have a passion for it. When hungry, I eat.  When upset, I eat. When food is around, I eat. I call it the Seafood diet.......................For those whose head the joke went over - See. Food. Diet. But to no despair, I do my best Gordon Ramsay impression in the kitchen - minus the Kanye-like rants.  Okay, maybe Robert Irvine is a better icon to emulate. Cooking for one leaves me often times with leftovers or searching a for quick and easy recipe. I follow numerous food-related accounts on Instagram and I stumbled upon a very quick and easy dish that I'd love to share with you all.




This dish was as simple as taking a single serving of either boiled white or brown rice (I prefer brown #healthychoice), frozen or fresh salmon (I used a frozen filet) and a few eggs (whole or whites is totally up to you).  I cooked the the salmon on a skillet until it was about medium to medium-well  while shredding it with my spatula. Once the salmon was cooked, I cracked a few eggs over top of the fish, added some salt & seasonings and cooked the eggs to a scramble. Then simply laid the egg scramble over top of the rice. You may enjoy your eggs a little runnier than I so adjust the cooking time of the eggs to fit your desires. Also, if you do not have salmon, canned tuna can be used as a substitute. Voilà!

In basketball news, did anyone else appreciate the slaughter of the Golden State Warriors that Kevin Durant displayed last week? He recorded a new career high of 54 points with 3, after, 3 after 3. What impresses me the most are the guard like skills he possess with his 6'10"-ish frame.  His right-to-left crossover, his pick-and-roll poise, his mid range pull up and his overall efficiency (54 points on only 28 shots) is staggering.  He is definitely a force to be reckoned with for a long time in the Association. And last but not least, I'd like to give a big shout out to my city of Toronto. Drake has lifted the spirits of Raptors with his recent Drake Night event against the Nets 8 days ago. I don't gamble but I can bet somewhere in Toronto, someone is attributing the Raptors winning 9 of their last 14 to the former Degrassi star.





Photo: E.K. Stoneall/ Lucas Oleniuk




Until next time,
#OWACO

Olu


Sunday, January 5, 2014

Introduction To O.W.A.C.O.

Welcome to O.W.A.C.O. 

Thank you for taking your time to visit my blog.  My name is Olu Ashaolu, I am from the great city of Toronto, ON, Canada but thanks to basketball, I have spent the majority of the last 10 years traveling to various other places in the world.  The idea for this blog originated over two years ago throughout my final year at the University of Oregon.  I began to fall victim to the oh-so-modern times and became more and more involved with online social networks.  I gained a bit of 'popularity' thanks to great collegiate student sections and their adoration for dunks. (Poor me).  Twitter is one of my favourite tools due to its simplicity and speed but with a 140 character limit and no longer in school, I was in need of a more spacious and slightly more formal way to express myself.  Blogging seemed like the perfect hybrid between a tweet and college term paper.  And with that, voilà , here I am today proud to present O.W.A.C.O.  From my high school adventures in Hotlanta, Georgia to post-graduate college classes out in rainy Eugene, Oregon to playing professional basketball in Europe, it has been an exciting roller coaster of events.  I plan to bring you not only the basketball experiences, but the social life happenings that my peers and I go through on a regular day-to-day basis.


I titled this blog "Overseas With A Carry On" because, that is exactly what life is for me 9-10 months of the year.  I can remember the very first night I slept in my apartment last year in Spain.  It was my first professional contract and I was playing in a small southern town called Cáceres.  I remember taking a look at the 'Maps' app on my iPhone and pinpointing my location and being in disbelief that I was actually on the other side of the globe.  As far as the 'carry on' part is concerned, you can always find my peers and I with our backpacks/book-bags.  Whether heading to practice, heading to a game, running errands or boarding a flight, it is just something we basketball players always seem to have with us. It's essential and has become apart of the culture - like Nike elite socks.  :-)

As mentioned above, these entries will not be solely basketball-centric, but also personal experiences, thoughts and everyday chit chatter on topics that may be of relevance. Anyone who knows me can tell that I am a huge Seinfeld fan; if you're familiar with the famous American television series from the 90s, you'll understand why perhaps I should subtitle this as, "O.W.A.C.O. - The Blog About Nothing."  All that's missing is a coffee shop, an ex-girlfriend-turned-best-friend like Elaine and an eccentric neighbour a la Cosmo Kramer.  Don't worry, finding a friend like George Costanza will be the least of my worries!

Until next time, 

Olu