So I am back home from my 2018 Christmas holiday in Nigeria. Yes ooo, I went away on my own. It was my first time of going away during Christmas on my own. Usually my going away on my own tends to happens any other time of the year… even Easter… but never during the festive December season. Last Christmas (2017) I took my blessings with me… not this time around jare.
Too much wahala from the school last year. I was even summoned for a meeting…. as “why did you not bring your children back on time”?.. See me see trouble, are these not my own children again. In addition, the kind of heat and frowning face my daughter gave me… as in “mummy you are the reason I will not get 100% attendance this term”…. what kind of child wants to be going to school instead of a holiday.
So when I started planning for this time out, … she was like ” I want to come with you”…. me I was like “come to where nne”…. I sharperly reminded her that I will be arriving after school has started. That resolved that national anthem of ‘mummy please can I come with you’….
There is an invisible string attached to my blessings. All three of them. I have been cracking my brain on how best to fit some time out by myself during the festive period and at the same time, spend this same festive period with my family. I believe I have got a good solution moving forward.
Christmas home and away
I spent Christmas with my blessings up until the 26th. We did everything we planned to do and more. Considering that small Prof. Still had a fractured leg. We managed to get him out to the movies (24/12/18) to watch ‘Aqua Man’. That was a fun night out. After the movie we all ended up at mine…. all the children and adults having stopped on the way to buy ‘Asun and fried yam and a couple of bottles of bubbles’. We found ourselves wishing each other merry Christmas at midnight and dispersing finally around 2am.
From the 27th I had completely relocated an exhausted me, myself and I to another country. The only instructions I gave was “look after your father”.
‘Activities’ is the only word I can use to describe the days I spent in Owerri and Abuja. To say that my feet did not touch the ground is an understatement…. amongst other things, I attended a wedding in Orlu, a birthday party in Mbaise, a medical mission in Urualla. So I guess I am recovering now…
Traffic jam
I did so many things…. visited friends, family, villages, restaurants and met new people. I experienced traffic holdup at banana junction. It took us 2.5 hrs to cross the junction, driving on the wrong side of the road. I lost my voice the following day. The fumes no get part two. Im surprised i did not have an asthma attack. After this experience I decided that until I leave town, I will remain within a mile radius of my hotel…. full stop. I can not come and kill myself.
A night out
A group of us (childhood friends from my innocence) decided to go for a night out. At this point, many needed a change from the regular village festive activities. First we went to Cubana to eat fish….. all eyes were on us quite frankly. Seeing six women walk into a night entertainment spot with no man in sight, to drink alcohol and eat fish…. then having a huge discussion on child abuse in Nigeria, having watched a child perform on stage… at night…
It is amazing…. night out
Then we hit the club. Yep we went clubbing… my way of clubbing… no frills clubbing … FGGC 6WC89 girls rock (Federal Government Girls College Owerri, 6w, class of 89.
I knew exactly which club to take them to… this was my town after all…. These ladies really indulged me. But I will never forget looking up while dancing to see them checking their watches and giving me sign that we will leave the club at 2.30am. I mean who does that. We only just got there 🙆♀️. No amount of alcohol could convince them to extend our stay. All I could see was 2 fingers followed by 3 fingers…. indicating the time to leave… 2.30am
We left as planned and we ended up in my hotel room jisting like teenagers and crashing out at 4.30am on the bed (we could have stayed till 3.30 at least)… all six of us… well, I slept in the arm chair.
I remember calling room service in the morning and requesting 3 extra towels. The guy who answered the phone shouted with great surprise “three towels”…. to which I responded… “are they your personal towels”… we both laughed and minutes later 3 additional towels appeared.
Girls night out
A visit to Mbaise
Medical mission in Urualla
At around 5am, two of the ladies left to go back to Emekumu. They had their driver waiting for them at the hotel all this time they were eating fish and shaking a leg. One loyal pharmacist went to work in morning, but later came back to complete her sleep…. then disappeared again to attend to an emergency. The rest of us eventually started our day around 2pm…. we were so sleepy that we didn’t bother with breakfast… eventually one went back to Urualla and the other to Aba…
All in all it was a great Christmas..
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