Did you know that Kate Winslet (the lady Leonardo DiCaprio spent the last minutes of Titanic dying for) keeps her Oscar award in the bathroom of her guestroom? Weird shey? Even scandalous. But she has a giant bathroom mirror, and her guests get to hold the revered plague, stand in front of the mirror, and pretend to give an Oscar acceptance speech. I didn’t know about this. Tokunbo mentioned it last...
We are discussing furniture and home pieces. Tokunbo says she's a sucker for Victorian-styled home decors. Eddie tells her to cut her taste according to her pocket. Tokunbo takes offence and informs Eddie that she can afford whatever type of decor she wants and all she needs to do is to call one of the men on her contacts. A knowing smile creases across Mallam Hassan’s face. Eddie clears his throat...
Mr. Cele hasn't been very happy tonight. He's grumpy, getting mad about everything. He's even complaining that the malt he was served has too much sugar. Tokunbo, who never minds her business, asks him if everything is alright at home. Eddie suggests that maybe his kids have spoiled the TV remote again. We laugh. I make sure to laugh just a little because, knowing Mr. Cele, he may refuse to drop me off...
A live band is playing in the background tonight at Metroville. Everybody around is swaying their body to the rhythm of the elite highlife sounds of the performers. Even Mallam Hassan is casually nodding his head while taking occasional big man puffs out of his cigar. Eddie, being the Lagos boy that he is, has found himself his element tonight, rocking Tokunbo’s behind gently at the side of the table....
This morning, I binged on pap and some akara before I left for work. I typically leave home without having breakfast, but I woke up a little earlier so I had enough time to buy some akara from the lady at the end of the street. As soon as I got to the workstation, I started to feel drowsy. It did not take long for me to close my PC and get a good nap. I might have even snorted a bit. Abdul remarks about...
Tonight, only myself and Eddie are cheery. Mr. Cele's sullenness isn't much of a surprise, but Tokunbo is uncharacteristically grumpy too. When I asked her, she said she was alright, but the more time I've spent here tonight, the more I realize how far from the truth she is. Eddie whispers to me, loud enough for her to hear, that maybe she's having menstrual related mood swings. She shoots him arrows with...
These, and more, are very common utterances at the workstation. I have since noticed, with utter amusement, how quickly I have settled into this 9 to 5 life. Time moves quickly, and fatigue has not been as much a problem as I had projected. I had never taken conscious notice of the underlying factors that contributed to these things until I had a conversation about office space with my friend, A.B. A.B....
Eddie is uncharacteristically moody tonight. Tokunbo is doing her best to rile him up with her mischief but he’s giving her the blunt end of his reactions. Mr. Cele is explaining to me the wonders of the gbegiri and ewedu combination, a taste he acquired during his NYSC days in Osogbo decades ago, but I’m distracted by the sour countenance Eddie is putting up tonight. Mallam Hassan is yet to...
Have you moved cities before? And if you have, how hard did you find it to settle down, and how did you find it adjusting to the ambiance of the new city? At the workstation today we were talking about the culture shock one experienced when one moved from Lagos to Abuja or vice-versa. One of our colleagues had moved from Lagos to Abuja, and had intimated us about his experience with settling over here....
Eddie has been on a video call with a South African lady he’s trying to convince to visit Abuja; all expenses on him. Tokunbo isn’t here yet. Mallam Hassan and Mr. Cele are not here too. After Eddie gets done with his call I tell him that Mr. Cele is going to arrive here complaining of something someone did to his house or his vehicle. Eddie thinks I’m being cynical. We take a bet. Mr. Cele...