Monday, January 29, 2007

The Best Two Weeks of my Life
Bye Bye Lagos


Day 14 - Tuesday 9th January 2007

Onada's last day so we'd arranged to hang out. She also wanted to check out the books in Terra Culture so we went there; she bought some books, looked at the art again, and we got invited to a private viewing of a new artist's work on Friday, when unfortunately, we would be back in our respective countries. She wanted some more Nigerian books so we decided to go to The Palms because someone had told us there was a big bookshop there. Turns out there wasn't a big bookshop there at all but we walked around and then had some lunch at Nandos! I don't know if it's just me but I find the thought of a Nandos in Nigeria so cool! It was pretty much the same as Nandos here except that it's slightly hotter but I could still handle my extra hot. Oh and you can have jollof rice with your chicken which is pretty much the icing on the cake. Now all they have to do is sort out some dodo and I’ll be moving back to Lagos and into the nearest Nandos!

After lunch, we went to Silverbird on the hunt for more books then I dropped Onada home.

The last couple of days, Dimples had texted me a couple of times just saying hi, what are you up to, we should meet up soon, that kind of stuff. Because it was the last couple of days I had to spend with my girls, I genuinely didn't have time to meet up and I'd told him that. Even though he didn’t believe me and he thought I was hanging out with ‘the competition’. Just before I'd dropped Onada off home, we'd been texting and it turns out he was staying in the same neighbourhood that she lives so after I dropped her off, I went round and we were talking for a while and contemplated going to the movies. He told me to send the driver home because he would take me back. A friend of his came round and we sat around and chilled, watching Hitch in black and white (something to do with the DVD player), then went out and got shawarmas. All of this was interspersed with debates about why girls ‘front’, obviously their topic, not mine. It was a really fun evening and I felt really comfortable in his company so that was cool, such a change from the wedding. We made plans to hang out the next day and he took me home.

Day 15 - My second to last day

Oh, guess who called me last night? Taye. I had literally forgotten about him by now so I was very surprised to hear from him but we talked for about an hour. To be honest, it's the first time we'd really talked. He's a really nice guy but kind of serious, like I felt a bit silly telling him what kind of films I liked or that reading for me was purely pleasure so I try and avoid intelligent books where possible (thinking about it, maybe I shouldn't be telling anyone that). We made plans to hang out the next day but I forgot that I had made plans already to hang out with Dimples so I called Taye this afternoon and asked him if we could postpone until tomorrow.

So back to the morning, I haven't plaited my hair in years so I decided that before I came back to England, it was something I wanted to do. So the morning was spent at the salon plaiting my hair. I got home with a bit of a headache, chilled a while and went to hang with Dimples for a while. Again, it was really cool, we started watching 'Something new' but I had to leave before we finished and it was kind of sad saying bye. He might be doing an MBA in Scotland though so I guess we'll wait and see what happens.

From his house I headed to Churrasco where I had initially made plans to hang out with Lola on my last night. I had invited Ugo along, then a couple of guys I'd met a couple of days ago, and my cousin and basically everyone who I wanted to see one last time before I left. Lola also invited three of her friends so in the end, a little catch-up between the two of us turned into a 12 person cocktail fest. Except that the blender wasn't working so we couldn't have any of the creamy drinks (I didn't care because I was very into my Mojitos at this point). Oh I have to tell you about the annoying hostess at Churrasco. When I first got there, it was just me and two guys so we sat at the bar and caught up. Then Lola showed up with her three friends and we asked the hostess if we could move to a table. The conversation went something like this:
Me, smiling and being oh so pleasant: Hi, do you mind if we move to a table?
Her: Are you eating?
Me: No, we're just having drinks.
Her: Sorry, the tables are for people that are eating.
Me, looking around bewildered because it's 8 O’clock on a Wednesday night, only two tables are occupied by people eating, and there are about 10 tables to spare: Emmm, I seriously doubt it will get full ....
One of the guys jumped in and assured her that if they needed the table, we'd stand up. So very reluctantly, she led us to a table for 8.
Then my cousin shows up and sits at the spare seat. Then Ugo shows up and pulls up a seat from another table. Then the last two people show up and the hostess comes up to us again:
Her: I gave you a table and now you are spoiling all the other table arrangements.
Me sincerely: I'm sorry, we didn't mean to. Would you mind if we move to that table over there so that it will take all of us?
Her: I'm sorry, I can't give you that table. You're not eating; you have to wait till after 11 to sit at a table, you can move to the bar.
Now if you've been to Churrasco you'll know that it has a pretty big bar with chairs all around. If we moved to the bar as a group, there's no way we would have been able to carry out any sort of conversation whatsoever.
I'm usually a really nice and polite girl I promise, but I was getting really annoyed at the increasing lack of any rational thought on her part.
Me: It's 9 O’clock now, only two tables are occupied, there are 12 of us here drinking and to be honest, we're happy to go somewhere else (someone had been talking about checking out Bambuddah). And you're honestly telling me that you'd rather lose our business than give us a table in your near empty restaurant which is not going to get busy since it's a Wednesday night?
Ugo spotted the owner and suggested going to talk to him, and the hostess reluctantly said she would do it herself. Then she came over, said we were lucky and we could move to the bigger table. Lucky? Us? Imagine that.

Anyways, it was a really great last night and as is the way with Lagos, everybody in the group seemed to have worked with someone else, or gone to primary school with another person or something and that made for good conversation. And the Suya we bought on the way home was the perfect end to a pretty good day.

Day 16 - My last day

My flight was at 11 in the night so I had planned that I would leave VGC at 5pm.

I woke up and packed, then had a shower and went to The Palms. There were a few essentials I needed to buy before I came home; Indomie noodles and Choco Milo. Also, I was determined to have meat pie and sausage rolls from Mr Biggs. While I was there, I got a text from Taye asking if we were still on so I sent him one back saying I was in The Palms and he could come and meet me there if he was free. I finished shopping for the essentials and then went to the really nice coffee shop in The Palms, I can't remember what it's called but it's the one that is at the opposite end of the mall from Shoprite. I had my John Grisham book - which is taking me a while to read because it's basically Grisham recounting a true life case of gross injustice in some small American town, and while it's got interesting bits, it's really just like reading a load of legal documents. And not that that's a bad thing, it's just not what I signed up for. I was expecting a great Grisham legal thriller - not that he's had many of those in the last few years. Anyway, I digress - I had my book, my notebook where I was working on a blog idea and I had my Sudoku book so I was looking forward to some nice coffee and some me time if Taye didn't show up. But he did and it was nice, though by this time I had no interest in him in any way other than as a friend. And to be honest I think he felt the same. I had a cappuccino, he had pizza and we talked. We managed to find a middle ground between his intellectual conversation and my notoriously playful banter, which we cemented with me promising to read his book recommendation, 'The Life of Pi' and him promising to read something by my favourite author James Patterson. We said goodbye and then I went home, got my suitcases and headed for the airport.

I know 'hate' is a strong word but I think it is fair to say I hate the airport in Lagos! It took me three hours from the time I joined the queue to check in, which wasn't even that long, until I got through immigration! And much as I was thinking that I want to move to Lagos, I must admit that I breathed a sight of contentment when a mere 15 minutes after arriving at Heathrow, I had passed through customs, collected my luggage and was on my way out of the airport.

So that’s all folks. If I were you, I wouldn't revisit my blog because it is unlikely I will have anything interesting to report till next Christmas!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

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.

Monday, January 22, 2007

The Best Two Weeks of my Life
Colds, Old Friends and Taye

Day 5 - New Years Eve

I went to church, then had lunch with my aunt, uncle and cousins and then headed to my bed for a much needed kip as I'd only slept a couple of hours the night before. After I woke up, I went to watch the fireworks in the park with some of the VGC massive. The highlight of the park experience was seeing my 30 year old friend running around the park flying a remote control aeroplane - which he wasn't great at, he kept flying it into trees and having to shake it loose - that he had bought for his two year old niece. After the fireworks, we went round to Noni's house where we ate eba and efo ruro (I have no idea if that's the correct spelling), then had Toblerone for desert and drank champagne while we saw in the New Year. Then I made my excuses and went home. To be honest, I wasn't too bothered about not going out on New Years Eve because I think it’s kinda overrated. My ideal thing to do would have been to go to a house party but there didn't seem to be any going on this year and the only other option was The Boat Club which would have cost 7000 naira and I've heard is way too pretentious to really be fun.

Oh did I mention I had a cold? I'm pretty fit and hardly ever get ill ... that is, except for colds. I get every single cold that ever goes around. A couple of nights before New Year, my air conditioner was really cold during the night but I was too lazy/deep in sleep to wake up and reduce the power so I slept through it and ta daa, woke up the next morning with a cold. So by New Years Eve, I was more or less constantly high on some cold medication and only able to function for a couple of hours before needing to conk out again.

Day 6

I met up with some of the VGC massive at the Nicon hotel for some lunch (or so we thought). We sat outside by the pool, ordered Chapmans (yup, I know, I was becoming a bit obsessive by this point. Oh by the way, does anyone know how to make a good Chapman? And while I'm on the subject of recipes, I'd really appreciate a puff puff and okro soup recipe). Anyway, I ordered goat meat pepper soup and they came back to say they didn't have goat meat peppersoup but they had chicken peppersoup if I wanted. I was cool with that so I ordered. Then my friend wanted the starter basket which they didn't have. Fine, she was a bit annoyed but she looked at the menu and chose something else. They didn't have that either. After making about 4 different choices on a menu which only had about 20 items only to be told each time 'I'm sorry ma, we don't have that one', she finally asked what they did have. The guy pointed to the sandwich side of the menu and was like 'ennn, we have most of the sandwiches.' Sandwiches?? Sandwiches??? Needless to say, she didn’t really feel like a sandwich so I cancelled my food order and we decided to go and get the great chicken from the Chinese restaurant on our way home.

A few chicken wings and some full bellies later, we got dressed and went to meet some friends in Churrasco. It was my first time there and I have to say it lived up to the rave reviews from my sister. I was even more impressed with the number of dirty cocktail names - Slow comfortable screw against the wall with a twist and Pornstar to name a couple. We talked, drank, chilled and generally made merry.

Day 7

This was probably my favourite day of all the days I spent in Lagos. I met up with Onada and two of our friends; O and D at Chocolat Royale to catch up. It was the first time I had seen O this holiday and it was really nice catching up. I keep in touch with Onada and D by email but O and I have never been great at keeping in touch. But more so with her than anyone else, it literally takes a couple of minutes before we go back to exactly how we used to be. It's really nice. Her boyfriend had dropped them all off and since I had heard so much about this guy she had been dating for about 2 years, it was nice to finally meet him. He was so different to everything I expected; he was really nice and friendly and soooooo in love with her. Sorry O, I have no idea why I thought he wouldn't be like that! After he dropped them off, his car broke down and he set about trying to fix it, but not before getting his cousin to come and pick us up and take us where we wanted to go. Altogether now - awwww. We had ice-cream, cakes and biscuits and were planning to go to M Cafe in Silver bird but that was full, so prompted by my musings about how I hadn't yet eaten my favourite meal of pounded yam and okro, O's boyfriend and his cousin took us to Yellow Chilli. We went upstairs to the bar where we could be as loud as we wanted, taking loads of pictures (Onada is such a tourist) and eating our very scrumptious food. Me, I ate my pounded yam and okro with my hand the way God intended it. We were joined by another large group of people, and about half an hour before we left, another large group came in. In this group were LondonBuki and T.Minx and it was the first of many times I saw them.

From there, we went to Soul Lounge at the Palms. I like it, I think it has a great atmosphere but it’s kinda small. It wasn't too busy that day so it was nice. We drank wine and did Tequila shots and danced for a while and then I had to go home around 10:30ish because I wouldn't have been able to get a ride home later. It was just such a fun day, you know one of those days where everything you do is spontaneous and impulsive and yet you couldn't have had a better time if you had planned it.

Day 8

I went to visit my cousins and just spent the day with them, chilling and helping them cook. It's really nice to catch up with them even though it's only once a year. Halfway through the day, I got a call from this guy (we'll call him Taye because I think he looks like Taye Diggs) asking me if I wanted to do something that night. I said yes and hung up really excited. I had met Taye in London in April. He lives in Naij and was on holiday. A friend had mentioned he was cute (and he is actually very hot) but since I knew she was making her move, I stayed away. However, he spent the whole night trying to talk to me and I spent the whole night trying to get him to go and talk to her and dance with her and so on. When I was leaving and he asked for my number, I thought, 'you know what, I haven't encouraged him at all and he still wants to see me. Plus I also think he's cute and she only just met him too' so I gave him my number. He was going home in two days and wanted to do something the next day. He never called. Turns out that even though he didn’t ask for my friend’s number, he asked around and called her and asked her out. Anyway, I bumped into him in Lagos at the party on the 30th and he was being very nice. He'd say things like, 'there are some great places in Lagos, but it's not the places everyone goes'. To which I replied, 'Tell me, it will be nice to go somewhere that's not as crowded as the places I usually go.' And he replied, 'I'm not telling you, but maybe I'll take you'. He asked for my number and when he was leaving, he asked what I was doing the following week. Anyways, judging from my experience with him in London, I wasn't sure if he would call and had given him three days because I'd decided if he was going to call, it'd be within that time. So I'm at my cousin's house, it's the fourth day and I'd mentally made my peace with the fact that he wouldn't call, and then he calls. I can't lie; I was looking forward to seeing him. I got home, had a nap and was about to hop into the shower when I got a text from him saying he had car troubles and couldn't make it. Then he called to apologise. I don't know why but I had a feeling that we wouldn't meet up and I felt like it was an excuse. But then that left me all confused; why would he call to ask me out if he didn't want to go out in the first place??? Anyway, I said it was okay and ended up going out with Noni and a few of the VGC massive. We first went to News Cafe where we were treated to champagne by this guy trying to impress a girl (Nigerian girls can enjoy oh!) and then we went to Bacchus lounge because everywhere else was pretty dead. I won't go into it again because I already went on and on here about how it was the best night I had in Lagos so I guess it’s good that Taye cancelled on me otherwise I would have missed out.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The Best Two weeks of my Life
Humongous Houses and Chapmans

Noni Moss’ day to day account of her adventures in Nigeria inspired me to blog about my own day to day itinerary. Actually I’m just doing follow follow and copying Noni’s idea.

Day 1 (27th December)

Noni and I got to Lagos on the same evening; different flights an hour or two apart. In true Noni style, by the time I had gotten my luggage and called her, she had sorted out our evening plans and dismissed any thoughts I might have had about staying in. I'm a part of the VGC massive so I knew that refusing her would mean risking her coming to my house and waking up my entire family in order to make me come out. Basically, resistance is futile. With that in mind, I went home, had dinner with my aunt and uncle, changed my top, put some make up on and went out. We went to a house party in Lekki thrown by a girl who apparently has one every year. She had a huge, huge, gorgeous house! Honestly, every year I go back, I spend a good amount of time just gaping at the huge, magnificent houses some people have. I always make it a point to walk around VGC just to look at all the new houses and re-affirm my commitment to marrying a rich man and becoming a lady who lunches … joke! Anyways, back to the party, apparently there were 400 people in her garden and it didn't even look crowded so that should give you some idea of how big it was. It was a really good party and I got to see lots of people that I knew. It was very surreal seeing friends who I made in London and who I've never seen out of London, but it was nice. There must have been twice as many people in Lagos this year as there were last year. We left about 3am to go home to get some much deserved sleep.

Day 2

I woke up kinda late and then dragged myself to the hairdressers. I have long hair which might look great when it's all nice and styled but it's a nightmare for someone like me who really hates faffing around with hair and makeup. So I was in heaven at the thought of going to someone who would wash and set my hair for me for the very reasonable sum of 600 Naira ... that's like £2.50! I emerged sufficiently beautified but at a high price! I honestly thought my head would explode when it was under the dryer. Seriously, how do women do that every week??? Anyways, I got home, slept for an hour and then went to a friend's dinner party with Noni. There were some really cool people there, especially two guys and a girl who had all started their own production company together. It was the two guys that really impressed me because father time and mother experience have presented me with very few Nigerian guys who have impressed me. They were very opinionated (as I find most Nigerian men are) but what I found interesting was that they had obviously put a lot of thought into the opinions they held. They weren't just arguing for arguments sake or because they were too proud to admit that they might be wrong. After one particularly long discussion in which I held the opposite views to theirs, I found myself coming round to their way of thinking by the end because of the sheer persuasiveness of their arguments. And they just had so much respect for women (one of them even referred to himself as a feminist); for example they expressed disappointment at mothers and friends who convince their daughters/friends to stay with husbands who cheat on them or beat them because in their opinion, every woman deserves better. In short it was an ideal dinner party, and everyone got on so well. We went to Saipan after which I enjoyed. I really like their live bands! Congratulations are in order for Noni because I think she may have met her future baby daddy that night ha ha. Read her post on her adventures in Lagos to find out why I’m finding that so funny. And then it was on to Bacchus which for the first time, I really didn't enjoy. It was too packed for us to dance together, and there were some drunken guys fighting most of the night. Another relatively early night.

Day 3

I didn't really do much all day. I was supposed to be going to a family friend's engagement which started at like 1 but I didn't get there till 5. It was so much fun and the first time I got to see all of my old school friends since I'd gotten to Lagos so that was really nice. We took loads of pictures, drank loads of Chapman (how did I ever get through last Christmas without drinking it even once, I wonder) and spent a huge amount of time studiously ignoring the two groups of men with the talking drums who positioned themselves by us. I got back to VGC around 9ish and rang Noni who invited me to dinner at the VGC Chinese restaurant with her Uncle and Aunty. Mmmm, I completely support her verdict on the chicken though I can’t believe she remembers what number it was on the menu! And I had my third Chapman of the evening!

Oh, have I mentioned how much I love VGC? For me, it’s proof that things in Nigeria can actually work under good management. The roads are paved (which is nothing short of a miracle in Lagos!), they’ve got palm trees and a park which are obviously well maintained, there was a fireworks display on New Years Eve, there is a shuttle bus service which runs regularly, good security, I could go on and on. If I ever move back, I would love to live somewhere like that.

Day 4

I spent the day with my little cousins. Or rather spent the day in the hairdressers with my little cousins while they did their hair. In the night a few of us went to a friend’s birthday party. Cue another beautiful house with the garden lit by candles, the pool filled with balloons, two bars serving cocktails, food, and small tables dotted around the garden and the pool. And she had a dress up policy which means everyone looked really nice. It was a really nice party and the kind that only ever takes place in Lagos.

Monday, January 15, 2007

The Best Two Weeks of My Life

Hey People,

Hope you all had a really good Christmas and New Year!

I’m back … and really wishing I wasn’t. It’s taken me a while to blog about Lagos because I had no idea how to put the last couple of weeks into any sort of coherent blog format. But I’ve now given up on that and decided to just write about my holiday as I remember it, so pardon the randomness and enjoy.

I had so much fun I can’t even begin to try and describe how much. Three of my good friends were also in town, and it was the first time in 11 years that we were all in the same place at the same time. But that’s the funny thing about old friends, we all met up for cake (and ice-cream) at Chocolat Royale and within 5 minutes it was just like old times, no awkwardness, no lulls in conversation, just funny banter and catching up on the last few years. I can’t go on enough about how nice it was just hanging out with them and going out together.

Ooooh, I met a couple of fellow bloggersLondonBuki and Taurean Minx. They’re both really pretty and so nice and friendly. It’s pretty cool putting faces and names to your blog pals. I also met up with a couple of other bloggers who I know; Onada (one of the three friends I just talked about) and Noni Moss; believe me when I say that girl can party like no man’s business. My holiday would probably have been slightly more chilled if it wasn’t for her.

I met so many interesting new people in Lagos. Shock of all horrors, I’m actually thinking that I might want to live there for a couple of years. I know you’re probably thinking, ‘Ehen, so what? Are you not Nigerian? Is it not home? It is a natural progression jare’ En en, until I went back last Christmas, I was adamant that there was no way on God’s good earth I would ever move back to Nigeria… never ever. More so, I couldn’t understand people whose ambition it was to move back. It just didn’t make any sense. After I spent Christmas there last year, my position shifted a tiny bit; The only way I would ever live in Nigeria would be if I married a Nigerian guy (which at the time I thought was very unlikely) and he absolutely, positively couldn’t live anywhere else, and even then, there’d be serious talks! So imagine my surprise when after a week this holiday, I started thinking that maybe, just maybe, there might be something to this whole moving back thing after all. I’m taking my time to think about it, I don’t want to make any rash decisions based on my consumption of too may cocktails at Churrasco!

Hmmm, coming on to the topic of guys … lol, apparently, I’m hot stuff in Lagos oh. First of all, I met (completely platonically) a couple of really nice guys who gave me some faith in the Nigerian male species. I might just tell you more about them and some of the other guys I met but that’s a whole different topic for a whole other blog. Let’s just say I really enjoyed getting to know new people … ha ha. Oh, and another shift in my mindset is that I’m not as anti-Nigerian men as I once was; who knows, I might even end up marrying one.

I love going out in Lagos! In fact it would probably be accurate to say that I go out as much or more in Lagos as I do the entire year in London. It’s just so much fun, and its great catching up with people. Bars I loved this year were Piccolo Mundo and Currasco. I love a place that knows how to make good cocktails! Unfortunately, the club everyone goes to is still Bacchus and considering how tiny it is, I really didn’t enjoy my one night there. After that, we went to Bacchus lounge a couple of times and I had my absolute favourite night there! It was the first Wednesday after the New Year and the night before everyone resumed work on Thursday so it wasn’t very busy compared to what it’s normally like. But there was a good group of us and it was so much fun! We played this game my sister invented where you have to do a really stupid/crazy dance but keep a straight face while everyone around you dissolves into fits of laughter … and everyone joined in. It was just a really amazing night, and the first time since I had been in Lagos where 5am came around way too quickly!
Mmmm, and the food … Yellow Chilli and Terra Culture are the places to go for your Nigerian food. I ate goat meat peppersoup and pounded yam with okro both times I went to Yellow Chilli and loved it both times. Not to make anyone jealous or anything, but I ate suya, and Chinese food Naija style (which has the added benefit of being peppery), jollof rice and plantain (even though I only had plantain twice the entire time I was there … shame!). Actually, the only thing I didn’t eat was yam for breakfast and not as much puff puff as I would have liked.

Okay, I’m sitting at my desk daydreaming about food so I’m thinking it’s time for me to shut up about Lagos, but not before I say one last time what an amazing time I had … easily the best two weeks of my entire life … until next year, that is!