There’s a fine line between being switched on about things and being gullible. In worldly matters, I think I manage to get by as I feel I’m not all that gullible. I don’t know what kind of personality type I become when I tell you that I tend to be naturally suspicious of anything that doesn’t seem right to me. It has taken years of listening to this inner voice. I always ignored it thinking that things can never get that bad but at the end, all I was left with was regrets at not having listened to myself.

This thing of being naturally suspicious actually has its downsides, too. I don’t think anyone close to me can plan a surprise party for me because the natural excitement of doing something for someone else tends to show in your face, actions, behaviour. So, if I’m around someone, or quite close them, I can usually tell something is awry. Then, I’m either thinking the worst of everything, or I simply cotton on and then there goes the surprise.

Surprises were fun when I was a lot younger. Or maybe they were more fun because I was not at all tuned in to my surroundings or picking on frequencies around me. It’s never a bad thing, I guess. I’ve enjoyed the fun surprises, dealt through the nasty ones, and have come out mostly unscathed.

As for being gullible, I think I’m easily conned by my kids. When they were little, they’d collect all sorts of stones and shiny pebbles from school, the garden, or anywhere that they went to, and they would present me with these rocks and ‘charge’ me for them. We all know that it was to indulge the kids, plus it gave them a sense of importance when I handed over pocket money disguised as a payment for stones.

There was a time they filled a shoebox with a rather large collection of these rocks and stones and sold it to me for a thousand shillings. I didn’t haggle. It was going to be divided and that was the amount for their monthly allowance anyway.

Then came the crunch.

Apparently, that was money for their business and I still owed them pocket money because that was an agreement I had solemnly got into.

Gullible? Me? Perhaps!

But at least they were honest with their dealings, right?