2018 in Review

2018 i.e

Hi guys, it's another year wrapped to the glory of God. Thank you all for keeping in touch and at par with adnilscorner. It's really encouraging when I see comments and messages from ya'll. It's encouraging, gracias.

This review is mostly for me and some of it, for you. I'll be highlighting some posts/articles that might have been missed or that are personal faves of mine. This year, I realise I didn't do a lot of fiction. I was mostly introspective it would seem. Yeah. But in all, I'm mighty super exceedingly glad that my year's goal for 2018 which I'd outlined here, was mostly accomplished. Woo-hoo. Did I read all those stuffy books I said I would? Nah. But I'm trying, honestly. It would seem that even though I'm a book lover, I have my niche. And it ain't academic. Did I conclude my schooling? Woo-hoo. I'm glad to announce that I did. Did I save? Uh....well, I did!!! I am rather. Or I'm still on it? Heh🤷🏻

Business wise, I kinda lost steam with my Midastouch hair salon. Yo, that's my business for those of y'all that don't know. My relocation did a number on me TBH. It's not easy to uproot oneself from the familiar basically and try to grow roots in another place. But hey, that's that, working on it. Will find my balance soon enough. I hope. Which brings me to putting myself out there, did I or didn't I? This, I'm not so sure what the answer is, it seems to be a lil of both. 

So! Review's not about what happened in the blogosphere or the country at large, uh uh. I also need to officially state that the MMC series' on pause mode. Mostly due to insufficient raw materials, sad. I really liked writing about what goes on in official settings. 

The year started out on a sad note for me, lost my dad. It was heartbreaking and birthed this post. Meandered through and found myself married. Really, that's how it happened. Yours truly woke up one day and gbam! Marriage, just laik dat 😂 and then, she quit her job and relocated all the way to a city that people say “they're all mad there” lol. Note, that's a direct quotation. I seem to be putting too many disclaimers these days. Yeah, the walls have ears it's said. 

The highlight of 2018 for me's embedded in this post. I think I did a lot of meditations on God's love this year, that I wonder...

Am I still on track?

Well, gotta go now. See you shortly. For 2019, I intend to return to my first love, poetry 😍. Yes, 2018 did bring a lot of changes, but that's no excuse. Cheers... See you all next year, God willing. 😁

Diary of a new Lagos Wife💍: The year of Firsts

Dear diary,

A merry Christmas to you. How was it? Mine was spectacular.

Yeah, spectacularly spectacular. Experienced Christmas in Lagos for the first time and it was...hmm, dunno yet. 

This year's Christmas also happens to be my first Christmas as a “Mrs” (there seems to be a lot of firsts happening to and around me lately) and it was ok. Not exactly as tentatively planned, but ok. There will always be other Christmas'es' I told myself. 

So, attended the Christmas service with the family and spent some part of the day with the extended family cooking up a storm in the kitchen 😋 with the CCO (Chief Commanding Officer), my mother in-law supervising 😁 Afterwards, had a really quiet day no thanks to the powers that be, PHCN.  To cut short a rather boring long story, allow me to tell the story with pictures. 

 Trying to reason how to go about making our first Christmas really memorable and beginning to feel stressed. Even before I'd started anything🤦🏻.

 Yay, me finally catching the holiday spirit bug as soon as I started the decorations. Ably assisted by my bruva*

                                    Victory at last😄

And then cooking began in ernest. Here, I was the assistant chef😁

Christmas morning😍

And that was it. The highlight of the whole affair IMO was hosting guests, haha. My hostessing skills are quite rusty, believe me. 

Another surprise, the roads and streets of Lagos were empty and traffic was relatively light. I'd been told it would be that way. But Lagos? That's chock-full of human beings? Like sardines in a tin box? Impossicant I thought. But, seeing was indeed believing as it's said. Apparently, all the wise men from the East who'd migrated West to hustle, had returned home for the holidays, hehehe. Please do not quote me anywhere. 

There were still pockets of traffic here and there but not your typical Mexican stand off (according to hubby). Not that I strayed too far from my locale, nope. Waiting to see how the new year celebrations would look like. I've heard, touts take over during the cross over nights that are usually held in churches. Well, *Fingers Crossed*

😁😋🤐

And yes, Boxing Day did indeed look like this. There's more than enough to go round, please help yourself😀. Merry Christmas once again. 
Cheers...

*Bruva - Brother

Frank Friday:Putting CHRIST in Christmas

A merry Christmas to you and yours. My prayer for you's that you see and know and experience the visible manifestation of the reason for the season, Jesus. 

I hope we all had a good one. Statistics show that this is also the season many get depressed due to one thing or the other. Could be pressure, distance from family, friends and loved ones, lack of money or one thing or the other. But let's try to not put ourselves under any sort of unnecessary pressure. Which brings to mind a joke someone shared recently about another someone being asked about the Christmas celebration and s/he was like, “is it my baiday?” Lol, sounds like something I can say. True, it's not your birthday so don't feel like you've got to throw a party to prove a point or something like that. No. Christmas' all about Jesus' arrival and its significance. If we must ponder on anything, it should be that.  Remember, you've got nothing to prove. I'm also talking to myself by the way cos in the beginning, I was gonna put some pressure on myself, based on first Christmas as a married woman you know😋. I'd wanted making it a memorable one. But hey, 🤷🏻

There will always be other Christmas'es'. I believe. So here are some pictorials that attempt to describe how this year's Christmas commemoration looked like: 

Me reasoning how to go about making our first Christmas really memorable and beginning to feel stressed. Even before I'd started anything🤦🏻. JJC*

Yay, me finally catching the holiday spirit bug as soon as I started the decorations. Ably assisted by my bruva*

Victory at last😄

And then cooking began in ernest. Here, I was the assistant chef😁

Christmas morning😍

This was to be a short post as is my fashion but it just occurred to me that I veered off course a lil bit, so...

Here are a few pointers to putting CHRIST back in Christmas. Some persons might argue that Christmas observance ain't even scriptural and was an adopted pagan tradition and on and on, but that's not the point. The point is, we're already “marking” it right? So, why not do it the proper way as opposed to the usual round of cooking, binge eating, and entertainment that seems to be prevalent. For record purposes, “proper” is highly subjective, this is my “proper”, thank you. 

• Read your Bible. To put it in context, preferably the Christmas story. For us, (I & hubby i.e) we read the book of John chapter one. 
• Go to church. Yeah, most churches hold Christmas services that day. Don't pass it over in favor of finishing your cooking or something. 
• Meditate on the scripture passage read. That way, you're constantly reminded of the reason you're celebrating. That would also curb some untoward behavior (if you know what I'm talking about, drop a comment😉).

As per usual, there'll always be the human factor(s), petty annoyances, grievances et al that'd threaten to make you loose the Christmas spirit but then, *shrugs* that's life for you. Deal with it! Will gist you details of my Christmas proper in “Diary of a new Lagos Wife”. Keep it locked down.

So, those were a few pointers. There are lots of ways to having a CHRISTcentric Christmas, but I'm short of time. Yes, time😏 Bye...

Peace.
*JJC - Newbie
*Bruva - Brother

Diary of a new Lagos Wife💍:The wedding party 🎊

Dear Diary,

Today I attended my first ever Lagos party  aka wedding aka owanbe *cues in Banky's “ain't no party like a Lagos party”*. I highly doubt my kind of party's what he was singing about, but still, “ain't no party like a Lagos party”. Hehe.

So, I'd attended with a certain mindset (the things I'd heard? Hmm) and I wasn't disappointed. What stood out for me most was the plethora of high class fashion(?) on display. *shrugs shoulders* I'm no fashionista, so I can't tell what's high fashion or not, but what I mean by high class fashion in this context, is the variety of styles that were on display. Wait, is it high class fashion or high end fashion?*facepalm* This is beyond me. Bottom line, I liked what I saw c'est finis. Them sisi ekos (Lagos belles) sure do know how to dress up and turn up. 

At some point I began to feel like the odd one cos guess what, I'd tied iro and buba, young sisi like me. Lol.

I really dunno what's obtainable in the iro and buba game, whether it's strictly for mamas (that's the general consensus) or young 'uns like us can also participate. I hear friends say they can't wear them and yours truly was once in that boat until she saw the light in person of a young girl who rocked it. 

My take though on fashion in general's that, whatever rocks your frame and is comfy and is carried by your conscience, why not? As for me, I tilt towards the conservative and laid back spectrum. In all, it was a lovely fashion parade wedding with me making mental notes 📝 of styles to sew next, haha. I kept musing about how I finally get to witness the "Lagos turn up" folks shout about on social media.  If anything, Lagosians ain't playing.

Hubby though was of the opinion that I was yet to see anything, that that was a precursor of things that were to come (pls bear with my grammar😂). 

But outside of fashion, I couldn't tell much any difference between a Lagos wedding and that of others, like say, Abuja. I had a swell time though, regardless of having arrived the venue feeling tired and drowsy. Why? Seven letters, one word, go!









Traffic! 🚥

Peace...

Diary of a new Lagos Wife💍: Imagine Dragons

Dear diary, 

I have a confession to make, I'm a scaredy cat. Never knew how much of a scaredy cat I was until my relocation to Lagos. Lagos, the monster that devours the hapless unsuspecting victim (at least in my head). I've been asked to not see it in that light, na God go help person. It brought out all my fears, both real and imagined and it turns out that the latter's the worse.

So, hubby practically pushed me out of the nest today. I'd been assigned this mission for a long time; “go to Egbeda” but I've been terrified of doing that on my own. Emphasis on “on my own”. At least I've passed through several times heavily "guarded", lol. Fear sha, smh. For those that know the distance between Igando and Egbeda, it's not such a big deal. I mean, I only get to enter one bus. This has made me remember my first individual trip at night to Ikotun *shudders*, another time. 

So I did and mission was successful until my return journey where instead of going to Igando, oga bus driver took me to Ikotun. Didn't notice in time because I was busy composing this. 

Well, to God be the glory, none of my imagined fears came to pass like missing a bus stop which technically (wasn't my fault) happened or being told that my English is too much or the bus leaving me because I'm walking too slowly (which nearly happened) or one conductor insulting me on top of my change because, reminder.

Ah Lagos, it's well. 

Shout out to hubby for pulling off a typical mother hen or is it eagle routine on me, you do well 😏. Lagos sha, it's not for me. I know this.

Peace...
Trivia: today's entry subject matter's a band name. Yup. I love their song “Believer”, check it out. 

Diary of a new Lagos Wife💍

Me coming outta my hiatus

Still me wondering if anyone's here

Oh bloggy, bloggy, bloggy, I've missed you so.

Hi there guys, howdy? This has been a long time coming but only until yesterday, courtesy of a comment on a post concerning my Lagos travails joys which I'd shared on facebook, have I decided to run with it. This title/series is courtesy of that and God willing, I shall be reposting the said post here. It'll be our first journal entry 😁. Timely, if you ask me cos I've encountered one time too many, stuff I'd rather not. In this Lagos.

I'm sure it's no longer news what brought yours truly down west right? If it is, I'm sorry and owe you guys a major throw/flash back. Click here to get the gist of how the Northern belle traded the North for West, epic.

So encountering Lagos was a huge culture shock for me all in all. Gist for another day seeing as this is us officially launching the “Diary of a new Lagos Wife💍” series. Sit back, put your feet up and enjoy the journey. Seeing Lagos through the eyes of a newbie. 

Ekaabo. 

Peace