Lagos Matters

Hi,

Its another Monday morning and, even though I generally hate Mondays, this one is particularly unwelcome because I had a crazy weekend! Prior to this, it was my style to have a mad dash every weekend, from salon to party, to friendly gathering, to god-knows-where, and to end up panting on Monday morning. ( My younger brother always wonders how I can manage that kind of life.) But I decided to slow down cos I love sleep, men! It is a brilliant biological invention. But, unfortunately this weekend I couldn't avoid it.

My office- its the events management arm of an advert agency- organized a party for a client on friday. Anyway I got home at about 6.30 am on Saturday morning. I slept for a while, but at the crack of dawn, a couple of guys who are just moving into my building began construction work on their flat. I dont know if they are demolishing the place but I tell you the sounds emanating from that flat- which is below mine- make it sound like that. Gba! Gba! Gboa! I woke up instantly.

I then decided to carry out some repairs in my house since that seemed to be the trendy thing that day. I pulled myself out of bed and went to call a carpenter. At this time I was starving! He came relatively promptly, fixed a few things, and went to get the materials for others. I decided to use that opportunity to run some errands and get something to eat. A big mistake as it was raining. Which brings me to part 2 of this matter. Lagos, rain and roads.

The drive from Ojodu to Ogba under normal circumstances should take 10 minutes max. In that persistent rain it took about 45 minutes and that was even good. What is it about Lagos that makes it difficult to drive through when there are even two drops of rain? It was terrible. Everybody struggling to move within the least available amount of space. All of us, me inclusive, swearing at everyone else. But thank God for LASTMA, I dont care what anyone else says, they always save the day. Come rain, come shine, they are always on the road. And Saturday was no exception. They made sure I got home before nightfall so that the carpenter could finish off his job. But because of the traffic I deided not to do the shopping i originally intended to. So when the carpenter was through I had to go back to do the shopping. Long and short my day ended at about 9pm that day as well.

Ok, fast forward to Sunday and I wake up by 6 am to attend church service by 7.30. During the service it starts raining and I decide I needed to complete my weekly ritual of newspapers, food, and preening before the rain caused any traffic. Well, I completed the first two but couldnt do the third before the rain came down in all its glory. So i went home to sleep.

I was able to catch some shut-eye until the construction workers arrived again. Then it was time to sort my clothes for dispatch to the drycleaners, to clean up and to go for preening. Needless to say my day ended at about 10.30 p.m again, with a head cold despite my turning down an invitation from my friends to sit in for drinks at our local joint, Uncle Ben's.

So, here I am on Monday morning in tyhe office with a cold and a runny nose praying the day ends quickly.

How was yor weekend?



Chili









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