Love, in the land of the Bard

 Hi folks.

Further to their earlier engagement, which I mentioned here, our lovebirds went all out to complete their union. We got invited to their wedding, which they had arranged to happen in Stratford-upon-Avon.

As most Literature students will know, this small, famous town is the birthplace of the greatest poet and playwright, and of course, with the Brits being who they are, they never let anyone forget about it. The entire town and its surrounding areas were all themed after Shakespeare. There were pubs, streets, monuments, statues, and areas named after him. They even had a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of the area, and it's no wonder there were loads of tourists in the area.

Anyway, it was scheduled for a Thursday, and we (Myself, Chioma, and her Mum, who had traveled over for it) traveled down to Stratford and checked into a very quaint hotel located in the middle of a bushy area.

It all went fantastically. The wedding ceremony at the local courthouse was short, sweet, and very simple. The couple looked lovely, and the guests were all a mixture of family and friends from both cultures. Aside from a few hiccups with setting up the cameras and getting things organised at first, the rest of the ceremony proceeded smoothly with no frills. From there, we went outside to take pictures, and this was right in the middle of a busy tourist street with all the mainly Caucasian tourists oohing and aahing at the lovely sight of Black love. Lol.

From there, we went on to the town hall for a wedding lunch. The hall had been previously decorated the night before by a couple of people, including yours truly, with Commander General Chioma coordinating and it looked really beautiful.  Apparently, the guest list had about sixty guests but knowing Nigerians and our propensity to tag along, uninvited to events, they had instructed the caterers to prepare for a hundred. Turns out there was ample food to feed the whole Stratford, and my goodness, everyone had their bellies full and still had lots to take home.

The couple danced to their selected playlist, and I couldn't help laughing at how Ify was blushing and feeling shy with all eyes on her. Tough woman don finally reveal herself. lmao.

All in all, a very lovely way to start a new life together. Here’s wishing Ify and Gbenga all the best of married life, love, and happiness in abundance.

Nyokometer

 Hey guys..

It's one of those things that I always thought would never be needed but guess what?… I got glasses!

So we have a company perk where we get vouchers for free eye checks with Specsavers and I was like, yeah why not?

That's how I booked a session with them and Chioma and I went to get our eyes checked. Not to put too fine a point on it, it turns out that even though my eyesight was still very good, however, due to long hours spent in front of computer screens and monitors, the optician advised I get some reading glasses to help improve my vision.

To be honest, I had already noticed some wear and tear earlier, when I would need to squint to read up small print on my phone or whatever i was reading. Bruh, when I took the test with the new prescription, the difference was so clear!! It turns out I’ve just been stressing my poor eyes ever since without them.

In any case, guess who’s got two new reading glasses? You guessed right 

Hola Palma, Mallorca

 Hola amigos

Believe me, people, Mazi Armstrong was in his bag when he belted that beautiful ballad describing this wonderful world, full of beauty, wonder, and breathtaking places to see. Honestly, the beauty of having the freedom to travel and witness this all cannot be overemphasized. There’s something elemental about it all that speaks to my soul. 

Na money and green passport be enemies of progress.smh

Sooo, despite all the fuckery from the Spanish Embassy earlier this year, they later approved my visa and sent my passport back, so we decided to make use of the Visa before it expired in November. Keep in mind that Chioma already had hers approved before mine came out. People of God, that’s how we literally spun a globe (or in this case, the map of Spain) and decided to take an abbreviated holiday on the lovely island of Palma, Mallorca.

It was a great decision.

We started making preparations early and you know what, despite the way everyone vilifies RyanAir, I’m eternally grateful for their business model which offers safe cheap flights to different places, as compared with other airline providers. We found some very very decent flight prices and booked a return trip for 4 nights. Crossed our fingers and chose a lovely looking hotel we found on Booking.com.

We arrived a bit late in the evening and proceeded to have an amazing vacation in Palma. 

Straight up from the airport, we decided to use their public transport system throughout our stay because it seemed like whoever was in charge of Uber’s pricing model on the Island had obviously decided to sniff some colos before uploading the rates. It took a while to get ourselves familiarized with the public transport system but once again, Google Maps to the rescue. On a side note, that app has got to be one of the best inventions of the modern world. We got one of their long, articulated buses and used maps to find our way to our hotel. It turned out to be a really beautiful place, and after some check-in shenanigans, we headed up to our room with a view.

Palma’s quite obviously a tourist Island and fortunately for us, our hotel was just a ten minute walk away from the beach. We had just strolled out the next morning after the sumptuous buffet breakfast offered by the hotel and found ourselves following a stream of people, dressed in beach attire and laden with beach accessories. Ten minutes later, after passing a lot of pubs, restaurants and quaint shops selling everything under the sun (including a LOT of lovely shirts with very vulgar inscriptions), we walked into a beachfront that opened up to the loveliest beach ever.

It was quite beautiful and had everything you’d want on a beach. The weather was very sunny, lots of sand, brilliantly blue water, half-naked people with all body types nonchalantly strolling by, everywhere (Side note, white people have no concept of shame when it comes to putting their bodies on display, so its best to just unlook and ignore the bits and bobs all left hanging out in your face). 

We stopped at a Thai massage place and I had a “fish spa massage” (something I’d always wanted to do) while Chioma had a body massage in a cushioned electric chair. The Fish massage is where you dip your foot into an aquarium thingy and lots of small fish get to nibble away at your foot, presumably eating away the dead cells and any other thing they like. Sounds painful, but honestly, it was pretty exhilarating and felt like there was a live current running through my body throughout the session.

We then booked a boat trip around the island and I tell you, getting on the water was quite the thrill. The boat ride lasted about two hours and there was lots to see… Caves, coves, and some small communities living near the water's edge. The boat stopped in the middle of the ocean and some of the tourists on the boat stripped off and jumped right in. Chioma and I just dey look. Pity us biko, we haven't finished learning inside swimming pool, na open ocean we wan enter? I can just imagine our mums casting and binding any spirit that wants their children to enter water…lol.

We also booked a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of the island and went sightseeing on different days. Like so many places in Europe, Mallorca has quite a history, and they’ve taken great pains to preserve most of their historical spots and package them into tourism gold.

One beautiful spot was the Cathedral in the city center. Even though we were unable to enter, the outside had spectacular views and was worth walking around on its own. There was a beautiful moat (yes, an actual moat) all around it, and the view of the ocean just on the horizon was absolutely breathtaking.

We also toured a well-preserved Castle, which used to be one of the residences of the King of Spain. Again, you have to applaud the way history is preserved in these countries. The Castle had high castle walls, dungeons (we didnt get to go in there), a big, beautiful courtyard and a museum which housed so many historical paintings, figurines and artifacts. The Castle was on a steep hill, surrounded by a very lush forest and from the top of the walls, you could see miles ahead into the ocean. Apparently, this served as a lookout point in past times when enemy ships were trying to sail into the city.

One sad point to note was the number of black people (mostly North African origin) who littered all the tourist spots, trying to sell all sorts of goods and services. It was a bit weird seeing in real time how they would congregate in one spot and hurriedly pack up their stuff and run to another spot once they saw a police officer in the distance coming towards them. It was very sad and humbling seeing them try to make a living offering to braid hair and selling obviously fake football jerseys, fake designer bags, shoes, and all sorts.

Every good thing comes to an end, though, and we were quite sad to leave. After some very last-minute shopping (side eye to Chioma), we hurriedly set off for the airport and got informed of a delay to our flight back home. Waited at the departure lounge for a bit before they sorted their stuff out, and we safely made it back to our beloved Brum.

All in all, a very well spent vacation on a beautiful island.

Gracias Palma, Mallorca, nos vemos pronto.

Milestones Part 5 - Happy and Fulfilled

 

Heey boo

Yup, it's been 5 years today. 5 amazing years of us being together and i just wanted to take this time to thank you and say a few things.

You have been the most amazing partner a man could wish for. Your beauty, strength, generosity, resilience, compassion, creativity and drive are just some of the things that make you the special woman you are and I thank God everyday for giving me someone who complements me and makes me a much better version of myself everyday.

I love you so much and there’s no way that will ever change.

We have so many adventures ahead of us and I cant think of anyone in this life that i’d rather face them together with. 

God has been very good to us, and i know that will never change. Our family’s growing as well and its such an exciting time for us. I’m 100 percent confident in our ability to be the best parents ever to our baby girl, and there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that you’ll be the most amazing mother ever.

Thank you for all you do. I see you and I love you to bits.

Honestly, you make me so incredibly happy. I seriously thank God all the time for putting you in my life because you just complete me and fill in all the missing pieces.

Look, my promise to you is this—never have any doubts or worries. I'm always going to be there for you and the kids, period. I promise to always work on being the best husband and father I can possibly be, God willing. 

Let’s enjoy today and there’ll definitely be many many more reasons for us to keep celebrating soon.

Again, I'll repeat our toast: To the life we have, to the love we share, to the future that awaits us and to the very best of growing old together…. May God always envelop us with his love and blessings now and forever!!

Cheers to the next 55!!

Brighton - Pebbled beach, thieving Gulls and family fun

 Heey people wagwan with y’all.

Like I said earlier, it’s been a blazing end-of-summer period. We’ve had another good summer full of its ups and downs (Stupid Spanish Embassy pricks!!) and in all things, we thank God for life, health and provision.

Before this time, from the end of Spring/beginning of Summer, we had been trying to make plans with my Aunty Ngozi for any sort of family reunion slash party/get together/ any reason to enjoy ourselves, but we weren’t able to put anything together as yet. So in that vein, seeing as Chioma and I missed out on Nadine’s graduation soiree (They threw a mega bash for her in London on her graduation), we put heads together with Aunty Ngo and decided that we’d all do a beach outing somewhere in the UK where all the London fam could be re-united and have at least one annual get together.

Brighton beach was the choice, and everyone (our family circle in London) decided to show up and ball out that day! Awesome.

We had initial concerns regarding the weather for the day, seeing as the rains had been a bit more frequent this period; however, the weather gods were pleased with our choice and gave us lovely weather all through.

Chioma and I decked ourselves up in our beach finery

and booked the morning train on Chiltern Railways via Moor Street Station. It was a beautiful, uneventful journey, and we arrived in Brighton well ahead of the rest of the party, who were driving in from London.

To be honest, there are actually a lot of beautiful cities in the UK and no doubt Brighton is one of them. We didn’t have time to explore too much sha. We headed straight to the beach venue. Seeing as Blackpool beach, which we had gone to earlier (posted here) was such a massive disappointment, our expectations were a bit tempered about Brighton Beach. However, any reservation turned out to be unwarranted. 

Brighton has a beautiful beach front with amazing views and a proper, proper beach vibe going on about it!. There were lots of folks around with tons of stands, pubs, seafront stores, and all the paraphernalia of beachfront settings.

Another curious thing was that this wasn’t a sandy beach as we have always been used to. Brighton Beach was fully pebbled with small, smooth, beautiful stones lining up the whole coast and giving a very different beach vibe

. There were lots of brazen seagulls as well, making a nuisance of themselves and terrorizing vulnerable people who had to abandon their snacks to these aerial bandits. It was comical at some point.

We hung around by ourselves for a bit and eventually went to meet up with the family when they arrived, and my goodness, it was so good to see them all. As usual, Aunty had gone all out with the food. There was so much to eat and nibble on. The drinks were overflowing as well(too much in fact cos a lot of the men were either driving or not drinking)... There was gist flowing as everyone tried to catch up with each other and provide updates on what had been going on in our lives.

The kids were running everywhere and enjoying the whole atmosphere and it was a really good vibe overall.

We didn’t have the luxury of an overnight stay, so when evening set in, Chioma and I said our goodbyes, gave hugs all round, and headed back to the train station. No shenanigans from the train this time, and we got home thoroughly exhausted but very satisfied with a great day!!!

Surrey - Meet the Fam

 Sometime earlier in the year, we got another invite from Chioma’s uncle and aunt who have been here in the UK for a long time now.

Uncle Arthur and Aunty Uche have been…well… let me just say they’ve been a bit reclusive ever since we came over to the UK and even though they’ve reached out once or twice and we indeed went to visit them in 2023 when we came here, it’s been that kind of distant relationship where everyone just kind of keeps to themselves and checks up on each other once every blue moon.

The difference this time around was that they had invited all family members (Spouses and children included) who were in the UK, from Chioma’s maternal side and i think it was intended as a sort of reunion for the family here and to reconnect with their own kids who, suffice to say, have long drifted away from this side of the family. Hmmm..

Everybody accepted the invitation and one fine August weekend, we found ourselves making a trip back to Surrey to visit the family. 

It was a lovely trip as we took a train ride first to Coventry and linked up with Ify and Gbenga who were driving to their house. It was a good, fun road trip.

You know, it’s just so weird to see the effects of what Japa does to families firsthand. We arrived last at the house and met everyone else who had shown up earlier. Now the thing is that Uncle and Aunty’s children have no active bond with their cousins, so it was a bit awkward with everyone just sitting in different spots, scrolling on their phones, and trying to make small talk with each other.

Overall, though, the atmosphere lightened up eventually. Gbenga brought a game of Monopoly and that was used to pass most of the time there with the cousins. They’re lovely people but i guess for Chioma and the rest of the Naija crew, it’s difficult forming any sort of meaningful relationship with people you’ve only known from a distance all your life. I engaged in conversations with them as best as i could and had a lot of gist and banter with the parents.

All in all, it was a lovely time, the food was amazing! Aunty Uche always goes all out to put up an awesome spread. They had also booked us all into a Premier Inn close by so we didn’t have to drive back that same day.

We came back the next morning and had a lovely breakfast before setting back off in every direction whence we came.

The journey back was not as smooth, though. After a lovely trip to London Euston, where we strolled around the capital and even had time to visit a beautiful museum of Human history (I’ve missed being in London, honestly) our train to Birmingham got delayed at one koro location like that and everyone had to get off and wait for the tracks ahead to be cleared. It was a long delay which put everyone off but we eventually got back safely. (The Train company eventually refunded the fare sha, so no wam).

Autumn

 And thats how September just went by without any post on here. Na wa o.

Heey guys… it’s been quite the autumn.

Yeah, it’s that time of the year when people realize that the weather’s getting a bit crispier and the skimpy skimpies have to be retired. The leaves have started taking on their orange hue and it's obvious that winter is warming up (see what i did there?) on the touchline.

This is actually one of my fav times of the year because, it’s not too hot and not too cold. Just right in the middle is how I like it.

Like I said it’s been a busy time for us and I’ll certainly update all doings and going-ons here as appropriate.

There have been trips, events, life updates and the like.

Its just been laziness and this accursed procrastination that’s been keeping me from regularly putting up stuff here.

All good sha. Shebi we have accepted it like that.