The Best Two Weeks of my Life
Dimples

Day 9...

... Was kinda boring. I did my hair in the morning, came back and caught up on some reading. I was up for going out in the night but I couldn't get a ride out of VGC so it was a night in for me. I enjoyed my nights in because I went to Lagos armed with lots of books. Anyways, it was a good night for me but nothing of any note to tell you guys.

Day 10

Today was Noni Moss’ last day and due to the fact that she was always rocking some wedding, party, club, lounge ... she was complaining that there were a lot of things she wanted to do which she hadn't yet done. For example, she hadn't yet eaten at Yellow Chilli so we decided to go there for some lunch. We met a friend of ours there and had peppersoup to start and then pounded yam for mains. I suffer from a severe case of 'eyes bigger than my stomach' syndrome so I struggled to finish the pounded yam, knowing the whole time that I really should stop eating because I was full but not being able to stand the thought of leaving perfectly good food on my plate.

I said my goodbyes to Noni after lunch and then went home to have a nap before the evening's activities. That night, I met Onada and some friends and then went back to her house as one of our other friends had organised a school reunion. We got dressed at Onada's and then one of her (many) admirers came to pick us up to take us to the bar in Lekki where everyone was meeting. We were there for a couple of hours during which loads of people from our former school showed up. It was really nice except that I kept getting embarrassed when I didn't remember people's names or even their faces, if they had changed a lot. In my defence, I was only at ISL for a year and I left right at the beginning of SS2 so everyone had two years more together than I did with them. I really didn't want people to think I had turned into one of those girls. You know? Those girls that you were practically best friends with in school and when you see them after a while, naturally you say hi. But despite the fact that they know you, they definitely recognise you and know your name, yet they look at you, re-arrange their features into mock confusion, adopt a well practised voice and say, 'you look really familiar, do I know you?'. To anyone that I didn't remember, I'm really sorry but I'm not one of those girls!

We dropped by Newscafe briefly after and then some of us headed to Bacchus lounge. I said hi to some people and was talking to my friends when one of them asked, 'did you see Fola and Dimples?' I'd see Fola but I hadn't seen Dimples, I didn't even realise he was in town. Dimples - so named because of his huge smile and very cute dimples - was this guy in the year above me who I'd had the biggest crush on in school, so naturally, I was curious to see him. A while later, I spotted him dancing across the table from me so I reached over, tugged at his polo shirt, said hi and was about to re-introduce myself when a look of recognition came over his face, followed by a smile and he motioned me to walk around the table where he gave me a hug and asked if we could go to somewhere with a bit more space so that we could catch up. We went to stand by the entrance to the toilets (it was the only part of the club with any room whatsoever), he offered me a drink and then grabbed my left hand to look at my ring finger. He smiled when he saw that I wasn't married and proceeded to ask me something about HIM, to which I replied that there wasn't any HIM. He reminded me how he used to take his mum to church near my house and confessed that while he'd sit in the car waiting for her, he'd hope I'd walk past so he could talk to me. Turns out he had a crush on me too, but how was I supposed to know, he was one of the cool older boys that intimidated me! We talked a bit and went our separate ways but he got me to dance with him a couple of times during the course of the night and just before we went home, he asked my friends if he could borrow me and we chatted a bit more. He took my number and confessed he couldn't remember my name (I forgave him because after all it had been like 10 years). He seemed really happy to see me and it was great seeing him too.

We headed back to Onada's house where I slept till about 11 the next morning when the driver could come and pick me up.

Day 11

I got home, went straight to bed and was woken up at 4ish by a text message from Dimples asking if I'd had a good night. A few text messages later, he told me he was going to a wedding reception and if I wasn't doing anything, he'd like me to come with him. I thought about it for a bit because I hadn't showered and I really wasn't in the mood to get dressed up but I decided I wasn't doing anything better so I told him I'd come along then I ran around in a rush trying to get dressed. I rushed out feeling very unready and we drove to the reception which was by the Palms together. He was kind of quiet and we didn’t have the same kind of repartee that we did the day before.

The reception was nice, even though I didn't know the people who had gotten married, a few of my friends and cousins were there and I even managed to see a couple of relatives that I hadn't managed to see on my trip. Dimples and I didn't get to talk that much because we were both busy talking to other people. When we were leaving, my cousin asked if we could drop her off somewhere and Dimples said that was fine. We set off only for her to realise she had no idea where it was that she was trying to go so she finally asked if we could turn back around and drop her off at the Palms so she could meet her friend there instead. I was really apologetic but Dimples was really nice about it and when we'd dropped her off, he came and sat in the back of the car with me and held my hand (well, we held hands) all the way back to VGC. Conversation was better but I have to admit I thought it was a bit of an anti-climax after how excited I was about seeing him the day before.

Day 12

I went to church with my Aunt and Uncle and then we went for lunch at the Federal Palace hotel, which has a lovely view from the restaurant. Give me a view of water, any water, and I'm hooked. When we got home after a big lunch, we all retired to bed and I woke up in the evening around 6ish to the sound of my phone ringing. It was my friend Lola who lives down the road from me in VGC, and who I hadn't managed to see yet as we kept missing each other. Anyway, she was outside my gate and the gateman wouldn't let her in. We have the most annoying gateman, he won't let anyone in unless someone comes out to get them and he won't let my friends park in the driveway because apparently 'Oga say no'. Anyways, I went down to let her and her cousins in and they stayed for about 20 minutes and then asked me if I wanted to come to the cinema with them in about half an hour. I said yes and an hour later saw us in Silverbird trying to decide what to see. They had wanted to see 'Bobby' but when we got there, we found out it wasn't starting until the next day and the only film that we all hadn't seen was 'The Holiday' so we saw that. I wasn't very impressed, I had been looking forward to seeing that film for a while and I'd heard it was a good romantic comedy, comparable to Love Actually. Puh-lease ... it wasn't even close. It was too long, Cameron Diaz's character was very annoying and Kate Winslet's character was literally Bridget Jones. Nope, not at all impressed. Thankfully, the Shawarmas we went to eat and Mega Plaza made up for it.

Day 13

It was D's last day and she wanted to go to Terra Culture. So we went there, checked our emails, bought some books, oohed and aaahed over the art in the gallery and made a pact to save some money so we could each buy a piece of art when we go to Lagos this year, then we had some lunch (Jollof rice, grilled Tilapia fish and dodo, cut into nice small quarters just the way I like it) and went to Silverbird because she wanted to buy some more books and some Nigerian movies. Seriously, I do not get the Nigerian movie thing ....at all! Then while we were waiting at Barcelos from some food to take back to little Miss Onada, we shared this big waffle thing with ice cream ... yum!

I got dropped off at Piccolo Mundo where I was meeting my friend Ugo. She's moved back to Lagos and we hadn't really had a chance to catch up so we had a lot to talk about over the best cappuccino I have ever tasted and a chocolate fondant cake. Yes, I know, I ate a lot that day. She's making some big changes in her life and she's so full of amazing ideas that it was really nice hearing them all and catching up on life in general. Then she took me home, said hi to my aunt and promised to come and sleep over on Wednesday which would be my last night.