SEVEN DAYS!

       

                   

Hi guys, the last few weeks have been rather hectic as duty called and I made a trip to the motherland. Some of you may be aware that a trip to Naija is somewhat different from what we know to be the usual type of 'holiday' where it's a simple case of throwing a pair of shorts, jeans, a few t-shirts and sun hat into a suitcase and taking off for a relaxing break.  For a Naija 'destination' holiday from the moment you know that you are to travel, stress levels increase, military precision is a must and all angles must be covered. At times we travel back home for pleasure but in most cases it's a family celebration wedding/engagement, funeral or milestone birthday that takes us draws us back home. And so the games begin!

    Day 2: En-route to Sagamu!

If one is travelling home to attend a family event, more often than not this will involve wearing 'Aso ebi'.  Aso ebi is a Nigerian outfit made from matching fabric to be worn by a group of people to a party, wedding or funeral as a uniform. Wearing uniform outfits identifies the group of wearers. The thing about aso ebi is that it requires matching assessories i.e shoes, bags and jewellery. Which one may think should be an easy task, trust me it is not. Particularly if the only sample you have to work from is a photograph of the fabric in question, try deciphering whether a fabric is cream, beige, ivory or yellow in a pic taken with a dodgy camera phone! A head tie that appeared to be a colour-block combination of orange, purple, mint green and blue turned out to  be orange, wine, gold and lilac. When I reached Naija and was handed the head tie I started sweating, I kept examining and re-examining it and when asked what was wrong, I flipped out my phone and showed them how these colours had come out so different over the phone! I was asked not to worry as it didn't matter. Yeah right it doesn't matter when accessories I've matched it to are green!!! Thank God for Plan B back up neutral colour jewellery!

       

            

                Day 3: The heat! 

             

    

Need I mention the 'matchy matchy' shoe and bag business? Back in the day (and some still do!) our people on this side of the pond would rush to Liverpool street market to visit 'those' shoe shops to find 'those' matching shoes with bags. I 'free them' and will not be naming names.  Caveat emptor when you enter these stores sunglasses are of essence in case you are blinded by the brightness of those shoes every colour in the rainbow can be found there, Fushia pink, goldish silver, ribena purple, cockroach brown, lime green, fluorescent Orange to mention a few. Let's even forget about the bright colours, what about the designs? Those 'adornments' attached to those shoes n'ko? be it flower, brooch, butterfly or whatever, they are more like satellite dishes, conspicuous, bogus and in-your-face! And to further complicate matters those shoes have limited size range, no allowance given for width. Hence on the foot, they are never really are a perfect fit, toe-overhang or heel over-hang is 'under must' and feet often left calloused after wearing them. 

Times have changed though and now the ladies tend to stick to more classy neutral colours like silver or gold to accessorise, bought from reputable shoes stores to match our brightly coloured aso ebi. 

What about 'those' men shoes? Either white, crocodile, snake skin print and very pointy! Oh how times have changed. 

In the count down to travel date 'those' requests often start rolling in, these can range from the mundane like tea bags, favourite soaps, marks and spencer 'pint' (underwear), nighties, under skirts, football jersey's etc as you pack the suitcase it gets fuller and fuller. 

And then D-day arrives and you head for airport. What is it with our people and 'load'? We can pack for England! Those of us that fly 'Cattle Class' aka Economy get to see it all! The queues for check-in tend move ever so slow, being held up with over packed suitcases and taped up Ghana-must-go-bags, often weighing over the 23kg or 32 kg allowance. Passenger reaches front of the queue and upon being told they have excess they move to one side and start re-arranging suitcase and removing items. A very untidy state of affairs. 

Eventually we board plane and if you are unfortunate enough not to have done online check-in (as I failed to do on this occasion) you're guaranteed to end up sandwiched between passengers as all aisle and windows seats would have been taken. I'm not sure if it's me that is getting bigger or plane seats are getting smaller? I literally felt like a sardine, myself and lady besides me playing mind games as to who got to use the arm rest. Approximately 6 hours later we land and as plane taxis the tarmac our people start un-clicking seat belts all in a hurry and you just wonder hurry to where exactly? No one is getting off plane before doors are opened, also are we all not going to collect our baggage from the same baggage area?? We are such an impatient bunch. 

As we wait in baggage hall the main prayer is that all your luggage arrives intact. Back in the day it  was common placed for luggage to have been tampered with. This no longer happens though. 

                                 

                                     Day 4 : Fully Acclimatized!

We arrive home and revert to Naija mode, truth be told we are very warm people and Nigeria can be fun. Family have your back (some may beg to differ!) and there is no place like home. How times have changed, few decades ago coming for L'abroad to Naija was a big deal and one could have been revered and become a superstar. Sorry folks it no longer rolls that way. People are doing very well, if anything we are the ones that may have to pull our socks up to 'meet up with the Jones/ Baloguns) 

    Day 6: Aunty 'you wan to do your hair?'

I spent 7 intense days in Nigeria, 5 days in Ijebu and 2 days in Lagos. All the boxes were ticked, I saw my dad and family, met up with my nearest and dearest friends, the ceremonies I came for went hitch-free, weather was great, no rain, I ate every Naija dish my stomach could tolerate, drank chapman, got my hair plait and returned home to our cloudy shores safe and sound. I wish I had taken my selfie stick and taken more pics, but it was not always appropriate to flip out camera and be 'knacking' selfies when there is serious stuff to sort out!

Hence I upload a few blurry not so clear random pics, as they say 'Less is more'

    Day 4:  Selfie with Dad

    Day 4: Sisters-in-Law of the day!

    Day 4

     Day 5: En-route to venue

  

   

     Day 5:  Party time!

       

           Day 6/7: Rounding up with the gang!

Thanks to everyone who made this trip what it was (you know yourselves). 

On that note let's thank God it's Friday and have great weekend. 

There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say nothing and be nothing ~ Elbert Hubbard