Friday 29 May 2015

Happy Democracy Day Nigerians!!

Happy Democracy Day my fellow Nigerians. This day has always been memorable for us and moreso today (May 29,2015) because power changes hands on this day. (former) President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will hand over the affairs of Nigeria to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The President, Vice-president, State Governors and their Deputies have been sworn in. We all hope this era brings about the much needed positive change Nigeria deserves. It is not necessarily the dawn of a new era per se, more of a recycling in my opinion, most of the people being sworn in have previously held politically appointed posts, even President Muhammadu Buhari who was the Head of State of Nigeria in 1983 under the military regime.
We can only hope that their minds have been refined and renewed to take Nigeria and its citizens to a better place, viable, stable & progressive, instead of being clouded with greed, quest for power and corruption.
Nigeria has dodged many bullets in recent times and has still held strong and united, from Boko Haram attacks to the Ebola outbreak, Elections and most recently Fuel (Diesel, Petrol, Kerosene) Scarcity. I commend the former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for taking his loss in good faith. I imagine his party members, legislators and some of his friends and family will not have taken his decision well but if there was any one good patriotic thing he did for his country, it was not fighting his loss.
The newly sworn-in President Muhammadu Buhari has assured all Nigerians of his intent to keep the oath he has made. He has been quoted saying "I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody" during his inaugural speech, if he stays true to his words then we may be in for a good run afterall. 
We can only hope for the best as we play our individual roles in making our great country a better place.
Toodles!XooX

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Happy Children's Day!!

Happy Children's Day to me and all the kiddos out there. 

I be person child na so yuppp i can celebrate children's day, we all have a child in us whether we agree or not. 
For all the adults out there like me that are fun, animated, comical and accept that we are very much in touch with our inner child, stay this way guys!! What's the world without the likes of us.
Children are the future and leaders of tomorrow, please train them up in the best way possible with love and affection and scolding when necessary. Make an impact on these impressionable minds while opportune. Spread some love to all the children you come in contact with. Parents 
Wishing us all chocolates, sweets, glitter and everything nice.
Toodles!XooX

"Hip-Hop is only for Children"

We get home from Salamander Cafe where I just purchased Onyeka Nwelue's latest release "Hip-Hop is only for Children". I'm so giddy and can't wait to bury my face in the book. The Generator is on, I settle into my Sofa and turn on the TV to watch Skin Wars, 20 mins in,the light dims and goes out. 
Yup. Diesel has finished I tell my hubby, I turn off the UPS and open the windows for fresh air to come in. I recall that only minutes ago AEDC (a part of the dissolved PHCN a.k.a NEPA) had sent me a bulksms to apologise for the drop in electricity supply-how amusing. I put on the rechargeable lamp,turn on some slow jams on my laptop and plug my phone to my power bank as hubby dozes off to wonderland. I pick up my newly acquired novel, admiring the witty front cover and pweety bookmarker with the author's image on it before i proceed to peruse the book from the half title page to introduction after reading the author's bio. 
I smile as a warmth spreads through me,ever brazen Onyeka, I'm definitely gonna enjoy this book so I'm gonna take it jeje till NEPA/PHCN/AEDC or whatever new name dey go by decide to restore electricity or till all my appliances run out of power. For now,my spirits are up with hubby's head in my lap as I fan both of us and swat at the mosquitoes that made it into the house. The music and words of the novel soothe me.Its 9pm, Saturday. 
Chapter 3, Page 58, 11.58pm. I slide my bookmarker in, its time for a shut-eye.this is as jeje as I can go. The rechargeable lamp has dimmed considerably, the laptop is still going strong churning out sweet melodies with its battery drained halfway, still no electricity supply. I plug all appliance so they can charge up whenever they decide to restore light w/o interrupting my sleep. Thankfully its a breezy cool night, gotta sleep nude to make d most of it. As I crawl into bed and my eyelids start to close, I make 2 mental notes -Gotta get diesel tomorrow and also drown the house in insecticide, let the mosquitoes feast tonight.{This was during the period of the #Fuelscarcity (Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene) that rocked the nation, NNPC/MOMAN/NARTO were all on strike, Airlines cancelled flights, Banks closed from 1pm, Telco's (MTN, Airtel, Etisalat) spread the word that mobile network would be shitty, No Power Supply either}
I finished the book by Monday,that's as jeje as I could go. 
It was a really captivating, insightful and interesting read and I definitely recommend it be read and digested by any serious Nigerian Artiste regardless of their Genre of music. 
It is a book that needed to be written and only Onyeka Nwelue could write it so. 
Toodles!XooX

Monday 25 May 2015

Ibeyi - Mama Says (Official Video)

Ibeyi - River





I fell in love.

Memory of the Day-Lyric Books!!

Sitting at my dining table scraping carrots my mind drifted to all sorts of things and it must have been the music (Celine Dion's Think Twice) from my 90's playlist filtering into my ears, weaving through my thoughts and into my brain that triggered the memory. 

Lyric Books!! There was once a time that we learnt the lyrics of songs from books. The books usually had a thin glossy cover and flimsy pages of loads of lyrics. They'd type out the Heading of the song first then who sang it and then type out d verse's and chorus and if any part had to be repeated. loooll. 

You can imagine the wave of nostalgia hitting me right now.

We'd buy these books back when I was in Secondary School for 100 to 200 Naira back den, depending on your bargaining skill and how loaded the book was. This was how I learnt the lyrics to Unleash d dragon, Thong Song n songs by Brandy,Destiny's Child,Westlife, Nsync, BoyzIIMen,Sean Paul and soooooo many other jams of den even the naija ones. 
The books would always get passed around and eventually get tattered, funny thing is we'd still consult them in that state whenever the jam came on on our Rechargeable Lamp radios and most of these books had d wrong lyrics in them! i think it was just a Nigerian thing though i'm not certain about that. *smh good ol' days. 
Now we just have to type out the song on the internet and several results come up with the lyrics n u can even get a karaoke version. 
Times definitely have changed.
Toodles!XooX


Saturday 23 May 2015

Feeling Blue or Bored?

1st thing Exit IG,Twitter,Snapchat,Whatsapp n FB. All the Social Media you are on. Take a break from it all.

Put on the lights

Take a Cold or Warm Shower

Exercise (it supposedly releases happy hormones)

Dance

Scream @ a Wall (let out emotion)

Eat something fresh n sweet and small portions (so you don't feel weighed down)

Count your blessings

Laugh

Tune into YouTube- Check for funny videos, dance videos, life hacks n inspirational/motivational type videos to boost your morale. Dance videos usually do the trick for me- Azonto competition vids, Beyonce's 7/11, Indomie, Shoki, Les twins n other pro-dancers n d likes. Comedy vids also set me straight- African comedians, A.Y, Bovi or whatever's your cup of tea. Reading online also works for me: Fiction- thenakedconvos, Short Stories- Naija short stories, Blogs- Verastic, naijahusband, etc.

You aint got internet? no problem,create a playlist of songs that get u happy,hyper n in a dance mood and get ur dancing groove on, you can watch urself dancing in a mirror for the fun of it or dance along to your fave dance video.

Music is not your thing? noting do you,maybe movies or series is d tin for u,not depressing stuff oo, anything u enjoy that gets ur spirits up.For me its animation especially old Disney toons or Despicable Me-those minions!lol, i can't get enough of them.

Not a movies person either?o ga oo. Novels or Inspirational/Motivational books may be ur cup of tea then.Can be anything from Science fiction to romance,animation (Archers is d way for me) anything that can grab and keep ur attention and even make you laugh.

You are not in the mood for any of these, then you might wanna Take a stroll, Write out your thoughts or pending tasks, Do some cleaning and De-cluttering, Visit a gallery, Go shopping, Have a long refreshing bath/shower, Eat some sweet fruit (added this just 'cos I'm a sweet tooth n it works for me), Go swimming, Exercise, Walk, Play a sport (Tennis, Basketball, Football, Polo, Golf, Squash, etc-whatever floats ur boat n that u enjoy), Play a game (candy crush,subway surfer,diner dash,ludo, sudoku n soo many other games r out there), Visit/Skype a friend,talk to ur friends 'bout random happy stuff , Go to the spa, go karaoke-ing or bowling (you'd be surprised how de-stressing singing along can be).

Anything logical that will get you out of the blues/boredom mode is on the table-just DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF WALLOW in pity or allow bad emotions n stress build up. When all else isn't working- Pray & Take a nap. Things always seem better/clearer after a nap.
Toodles!XooX

Castle in Kaduna, Nigeria

I found the Kajuru Castle online while searching for a unique spot to shoot our pre-wedding pictures. I contacted them via email and we were booked for a visit in April, 2014 (this was a unique package for my husband and i as i worked hard to get us booked).
They do day tours and stay overs for a fee.It was absolutely breathtaking and i couldn't believe such a beauty was in Nigeria. I'm glad i did not settle for a studio photo-shoot. It has a serene atmosphere with beautiful views and landscape. We had the time of our lives, as brief as our visit was ('bout 4hours) and even our photographer thanked us for taking him there. Everyone was courteous and pleasant and we were sad to leave. Our pictures also turned out stunning!
 Fast-forward to May 1st 2015, we went back!! We just had to one way or another,
DAY 1
We did a road trip from Abuja to Kaduna as a convoy very early in the morning and straight to the castle. We went  fully loaded with games (Monopoly, Scrabble, Ludo, Couples game, Ayo, Cards), a Karaoke machine & 2 mics, a Shisha bong, lots of food and drinks.We got in around 10am and the 1st call of duty was a tour of the entire Castle by the lovely manager with a brief history lesson on its existence. Once everyone had settled their luggage in the rooms, 2nd call of duty was to hit that awesome pool hard!lol. Those that were not in the pool broke off into sections and picked their games of choice while we all chatted, took pictures and listened to the jams filling the castle. The landscape and serenity was surreal. After lunch and the arrival of our remaining friends (we were 12 in total), it was time to go hiking on one of the hills close to the castle. Back to the castle it was already dinner time, we all had dinner, took a second wade in the pool before retreating to the Cabana area to churn out some tunes from the karaoke machine. It was good fun with loads of laughter at off-key singing. After Karaoke, it was time for drinking games and 'Concentration' was eventually agreed on as the game of choice. I was out by the 2nd rotation.lol. plus i had no interest in drinking any alcohol. Three outdoor beds had been set-up by this time for those that were gonna sleep out. Those of that were outta the game had our jisting session by the pool beds before deciding to call it a night around past 1am. We still left some people playing games out.
The outdoor bed was bliss! It was a proper comfy bed on an iron stand and comes with a Duvet and tent like mosquito net covering to keep any bugs out, i got loads of breeze enjoying the view and got to catch the sunrise. The bed is typically for 1 but can still fit 2 people.
DAY 2
We were up bright and early, chatted and we the ladies got to making a big yummy breakfast (Waffles, sausages, scrambled eggs and baked beans with Hershey's strawberry and chocolate syrup). Next up was playing games, chilling, swimming competition by the guys, taking more pics and vids and jisting. Lunch time we all ate, packed up our luggages into the cars and took in the last bits of the castle awesomeness. We signed the Castle Guest Book with a quill pen and took group pics in front of the castle gates before heading outta the castle. By 3:30pm we were on our way back to Abuja as a convoy and got in around 7pm.
It felt like we had spent an entire weekend at the castle and it was a worthwhile experience. I have a feeling we will be going back again :D
Castle Info:
  • Once you have been booked for a date to go there (whether as a couple or group of friends), no other bookings will be accepted for that same day, so you'll have the castle to yourself to tour and take pictures.
  • There is a fee attached for visits and spending the night and an extra fee if they will cater to your feeding.
  • You pay a 60% non-refundable fee before the scheduled date to confirm your booking
  • The castle is secure and guarded by 2 dragons
  • They have 1 Master Bedroom in the main house, the remaining are sizeable Dungeon rooms in the tower
  • They have a standard kitchen with all the equipments you'll require
  • Plan out your activities to have maximum fun
  • Take sunscreen!! Sun be blazing out there
  • Take along hiking shoes, swim wear and lightweight casual outfits
  • Take a good camera along-You definitely wanna capture this, trust me
  • Check out this sites for more info, pics, etc. of the castle and to contact them-
http://irenebecker.photoshelter.com/image/I0000UywbOQFJqQU
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kajuru-Castle/141965829210359
http://kajurucastle.com/
http://www.abujafacts.ng/the-amazing-kajuru-castle-of-kaduna/

Monday 18 May 2015

We are ONE!!

*insert the Lion King theme song. lol.
It's our 1 year anniversary!! We had our marriage ceremonies on May 16 &17 so we consider both days our anniversary days. I can't believe 1 year has gone by already, its soo surreal. Aiit i'm gonna make this post a brief one.
Highlights of our 1 year marriage:
  • Moving to our new home & setting it up (still setting it up till now, lol. gradual process)
  • Our birthdays (we were both born in December)
  • Christmas Holidays visiting our families
  • Spending the New Year together and sharing meals to our neighbours
  • Getting our property 
  • Getting new lucrative businesses
  • Finally getting to open our wedding gifts
  • Having our siblings stay over with us for the hols
  • Home BBQ with our friends
  • Valentine's day getaway
  • Hubby's induction into a prestigious club
  • Lagos trip getaway
  • Attending weddings together (we have been to 3 so far)
  • Kajuru Castle road trip with friends
  • Marking our 1 year anniversary
We didn't do much on the day of our anniversary to mark it 'cos we kinda started marking it from the beginning of the month. 
We went on a road trip with some friends on May 1st to the Kajuru castle in Kaduna, it was soooo much fun (i'm gonna do a post on this later), we spent the night there and left late afternoon of the next day. 
On the eve of our anniversary which was a Friday, we spent the day together just chilling at home and reflecting on our life, then went out in the evening with our friends and had a nice time and we ended up partying till the early morning.
May 16th- we were soo exhausted!!spent most of the day sleeping. lol, then i made us waffles, scrambled eggs, sausages and baked beans for brunch with some strawberry and chocolate Hershey's sauce-yummmmmyyyy- before we hit round 2 of sleeping then replying calls and msgs (sms & social media) from family and friends. Late evening, Hubby ended up playing soccer on his PS4 while i watched YouTube vids and surfed the internet. 
May 17th- we went to church then the Nile Place for a buffet lunch. Home, Hubby watched football and played soccer on his PS4 (no i do not regret getting him the console for his bday,lol) while i caught up on all my YouTube channels and did some work and internet surfing-Yes people i'm a YouTube addict :D. We replied calls and msgs (sms & social media) friends and family and just chilled and looking for each other's trouble (you don't wanna know what this entails) for the rest of the day till it was time to sleep.

We didn't bother with getting gifts or travelling for our anniversary 'cos we'll be travelling by June for our Honeymoon!! I know right more than one year after the wedding ceremony, but i'm glad we set our priorities and can comfortably go on the trip and have a swell time. You can imagine how super excited i am about it and looking forward to a holiday. I love travelling and exploring new places!

We have no clue what people do for 1 year anniversaries anyway so we winged it and had a swell memorable time.
I am so grateful to God that we are able to pass the 1 year mark, it might seem small to most but its a big deal to us. We know people that get married and separate or divorce days or months after. It has been the grace of God that has kept us together this long and i pray we will live to celebrate many more happy, goofy, fruitful and prosperous years together. This past year has been quite the journey, a learning process still ongoing, we have had our laughs, crys, quarrels, disagreements, disputes, fun, goofiness, love, lows, highs, and so much more. We choose to focus on the positives and appreciate what we have and make the best of it. Remember love cannot survive just by itself, it needs constant nurturing. Contentment while pursuing goals is the key to happiness. We should make a habit of counting our blessings and then we will see how much God does for us. We hope to share many more of our anniversaries with you guys. Look out for new posts 'bout what married life has been like for me this past year.
Check out my post on Life as a 'new' wifey.

Toodles!XooX