Catch-Up 11/06/16

I'm currently typing this somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean, between Europe and North America. 

My friend Mia of Miafarradaily has long since advocated trans-atlantic flights as the perfect period for introspection, writing and drinking lots of wine. My usual over 6 hour flight practice is eat, watch something, read, sleep....rinse and repeat. But today is a work day back home in Malabo and in between assuring clients I am not going to abandon them because I'm going on vacation and furiously responding to work e-mails that materialized overnight, I decided to blog as well.

Over the past week I have been in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Addis Ababa, Malabo, Frankfurt & Lagos (transit), and I am now headed to Los Angeles. That should give you an idea of why I'm currently wild-eyed, unable to sleep, watch another movie, or even read. I am so sleep deprived and running on pure adrenaline that I have turned into one of those crazy people who never switch off. I left Malabo yesterday at 8pm to arrive LA around 9pm today WAT, people at work must be wondering if I'm mad sending in-flight emails at 2pm instead of getting the rest I truly deserve.

I am well aware I haven't blogged in a month or so, as my regular Profashionals have come to understand, I take breaks from TWP periodically when certain aspects of my life become manic. As I work towards achieving a balance, slowly I come back to my little piece of internet real estate.

For the first month after I moved to EG, things were a bit slow, it was election period there and because I work primarily for the government not a lot was going on, so I kind of gradually eased into life there. Then at the beginning of May everything kind of exploded, work became CRAZY. I've been so used to in-house Counsel life and having just one un-demanding multinational client, that I'd completely forgotten what it was like to work for a law firm and have multiple clients expect you to ask "how high" when they tell you to jump. I literally wake up in the middle of the night to check if I have any emails because I am such a stickler for responding at the earliest possible convenience", which according to my boss means IMMEDIATELY!

The funny thing is, despite the ridiculously high stress levels, the lack of sleep, the staring at a screen constantly figuring out a way to solve someone's problems...I am happy.

I've never been one to shirk hard work but my current levels of discipline astound me. I can be terribly lazy and always ready to do tomorrow what I can do today, but working here has revealed something about me to myself that I certainly did not know. I've honestly become a workaholic and I was never one before. I took the pursuit of pleasure very seriously and sometimes I could get so involved in inconsequential nonsense DURING work hours that I'd neglect work, knowing I could catch up later, but not deeming it important enough to attend to just then.

But now I go DAYS without checking my social media because I have so much work to do I actually forget its there. I've never been the "checking up on friends" MVP but I have now deteriorated so badly that if I didn't have some of them in groups constantly talking amongst themselves I'd scarcely remember they existed. My poor mum has given up on trying to stay in touch with me and I recently forgot a very close friends birthday, which NEVER happens!

I even had to take a hiatus from Daks In The City because I just couldn't.

I'm not saying its a good thing, but I've never considered myself as one of those people who would prioritize work over personal relationships and its started to happen and its just SO WEIRD.

Now I just realized I've spent the past 7 paragraphs talking about work....FML.

Ok so besides work, what else has been happening?

Life in Malabo keeps going on at its unhurried pace. I've gathered a little tribe around me, and besides flashes of FOMO when I watch Lagos weekend snaps, I'm coping quite well.

I think my favourite thing about being out of Nigeria is that I haven't heard anything regarding marriage in over two months. In Nigeria, the pressure is ever present, all the "when are you calling us o", to "I can't wait to wear your aso-ebi", to "your womb don dey tey o" (lol, true story, someone said that to a friend of mine.)

Not a peep here.

Though I love my Lagos with a deep abiding passion, I will take peace of mind over the constant haranguing I get while I'm there, and stay away for as long as possible.

Like I mentioned earlier, I went to South Africa and left my heart there.The country is SO BEAUTIFUL, the people are SO LOVELY, everything is SO AFFORDABLE, the food is DIVINE, the wines are FANTASTIC. Honestly I am so washed by SA at this point. 

I've always had the slight Nigerian bias against SA, don't know why, I guess its a competition thing. Maybe I'm romanticizing it a bit, because I was only there for a week, for work, but visiting has completely changed my perspective and I'm fully prepared to pack up my 7 suitcases the day my boss says "go"!

Will blog more about it next week so you can see it through my eyes.

I also had to spend a night in Addis Ababa because Ethiopian Airlines don't care about no-one but themselves, and the contrast (for me), between the two cities was stark. I wanted to linger in South Africa but I couldn't wait to get out of Addis Ababa. I don't mean to offend anyone but the parts of the city I saw were so run-down, I couldn't believe it.

I only spent a day and a night there so I am aware I can't really make an informed assessment but I don't know how to explain it, it was just depressing. Right from the airport, all our spirits (my Team and I) sank, everywhere was just so dingy. Old Abyssinia has always been a romantic place for me, I've wanted to visit Ethiopia for ages. The history, the people, their stories, their leaders....its all been very fascinating for me, but seeing it in real life...not so much. Definitely not looking forward to going back.

Just basically checking in to say I'm alive, I'm well, I'm thriving and for the whole of next week while I'm in LA I will be kissing my ejima niece and nephew, eating loads, sleeping even more, catching up on my shows and hopefully....blogging.

Love and Light xx

p.s. Massive congrats to my egbon Noble and his gorgeous wife Chioma. Wish you guys a lifetime of friendship, happiness, children and prosperity.

New Beginnings..again

Pop Caven Kingdom 'Lagos' Tee

Topshop ripped 'Jamie' jeans

Adidas Superstars

New Year, Old Me

I like the me that I was back in 2015, don't see why I have to become someone new because Pope Gregory XIII created the modern Gregorian calendar to get one over Julius Ceaser.

Vlisco Campaign: A Christmas To Remember

So I recently did a shoot with international fabric brand, Vlisco and Style Vitae to celebrate the launch of the Vlisco Christmas collection with Noble Igwe, Samantha Dimka and Bolanle Olukanni. The campaign titled 'A Christmas To Remember', was aimed at celebrating the brand's uniqueness, creativity and complete interpretation of the true African fabric.

How I'm Staying Fit Over The Holidays

So I'm off to my village; Arondizuogu in Imo State this weekend. I'm definitely excited, my cousins are going to be around, there are weddings, parties...oodles of activity and to accompany all this will be food, lots of it.

See I go to the gym 4 times a week, I don't do a lot of cardio because I shed weight really quickly so I stick to weight training. I go hard at my workouts because I find it very difficult to stick to a clean eating schedule. I've managed to completely cut out soda and some carbs but I largely still eat whatever I want. So to offset all the crap I eat, I beast it in the gym from Monday to Thursday for at least 2 - 3 hours per day.

Now my very legitimate fear with going to the village is that there is going to be tons of food, which by virtue of my being a gully I have to have, but where I'd normally eat then spend 3 hours at the gym the next day, this can't work in the village. No gym...nada.

I'm actually terrified of what I might look like by the time I get back to Lagos.

I came up with a few easy steps to take to be able to enjoy my Christmas feasts while not neglecting my body.

So I met Claire Sulmers of The FashionBomb Daily

....and completely lost my shit

I managed to keep it together though on the outside, as the realest G.

Currently Obsessed With...

MYSELF

Genevieve Article : My Tinder Experience

This post was originally published on genevieveng.com under the column, Daks In The City, written by Adaku Ufere HERE

Loving...

Genevieve Article: My Lagos Fashion & Design Week 2015 Experience

Daks In The City

So I don't know how I forgot to loud this on here, but I'm the new Style and Beauty Contributor at the Genevieve Magazine website genevieveng.com.

Things I Learned in 2015

Doing a recap of the year when it hasn't even ended...weird I know. But its 1am, I'm up writing a client proposal and it just hit me that this has been a hell of a year. Where best to sort through the muddle than on TWP eh?

Daks' Workout Plan

Dare I say it....I finally joined the FitFam bandwagon.

TEChnicoLAW Summit

I'll be speaking to 4th year Law students of the University of Lagos at the TechnicoLaw Summit, hosted by members of the Taslim Elias Chambers of the Faculty of Law, UNILAG.

The idea behind this summit is to invite reputable entrepreneurs from in different fields, who had Law as a foundation to speak to the students on how they have, so far, merged a Law background with working in different fields today. The students have identified a trend whereby students are picking up interests, learning new skills and constantly seek a way to get the best out of a law career and a solid interest. The fields that have been earmarked include photography, media, politics and fashion.

The speakers are: Kelechi Amadi Obi (A-list Photographer, Kelechi Amadi Studios) for Photography, Chude Jideonwo (Managing Partner, Red Media Africa) for Media, Folake Coker (Designer, Tiffany Amber) for Fashion and Ayo Sogunro (Writer, Legal Consultant and Policy Advocate) for Politics.

The details for this event are:

Date: Friday, September 4th 2015
Time: 1:00pm -3:30pm
Venue: Julius Berger Hall, University of Lagos
Theme: "TEChnicoLAW: Law beyond boundaries".

Catch Up - 30/04/15

Is it really a proper catch-up sesh if what I'm posting about is almost a month old?

Don't know, don't care :)

Over the Easter break I decided to do a little visiting, started out in New York for a few days.

NEW YORK

Catch-Up 16/06/15

I've been spending a lot of time working on several projects (both blog and work related), so my schedule has been mental and I was really looking forward to a few quiet nights in watching Jane the Virgin (which is a stupendous show btw. I thought it'd be an Ugly Betty doppelgänger but its such a lovely, funny show and Jane's father is my current favorite person), when my friend Amaka (www.makyscorner.com) came into town and pretty much blitzed all my couch potato plans.

From having an empty-ish social calendar, last week was suddenly chock-a-block with all sorts and I gamely participated up until Saturday when my granny immune system kicked in and I fell ill, just for a few hours though, shout-out to Medplus Pharmacy for running an awesome 24 hour practice and being on hand at 1am to pump me full of drugs.

Attended the opening of a fantastic new spot in Lekki, BLD by PLAY. BLD stands for breakfast, lunch and dinner and they have pretty much the cheapest buffet in Lagos, N2,500 for all you can eat. (see more about BLD HERE)

Unbelievable....yah. BLD is on Admiralty Way Lekki, right by KFC.

Catch-Up 01/03/15

The past week I......


Attended a Queen's College Old Girls Mentoring Committee meeting, and got to hang out with  a few of the students.

Was crazy nostalgic getting to see where I spent the bulk of my formative years. QC had a huge impact on my life and giving back to the school in any way is very important to me. We have Mentoring Assemblies every Thursday at 7.30 am where we get to share our experiences and life lessons with the students and we need all the help and hands we can get. If you are a Queens College old girl and are interested in sponsoring the Mentoring activities financially, or lending your time as one of the Mentors, please send an email to qcmentoring@gmail.com to indicate interest.




Attended a painting class on Tuesday hosted by Paint The Night Africa and it was quite the experience.

The theme was "romance" and we had to paint our own interpretation of it. I can't even draw a circle to save my life but by following the instructions and being part of such a fun group, I managed to turn out; in my estimation; quite the masterpiece.

The Polo Avenue x Genevieve Online Magazine Launch was on Thursday and it was chock full of a room full of beautiful people and Aunty Betty giving us girls a run for all our collective fortunes. Need to try my damnedest to look like that at 50, can't be easy.

So a Tea House has opened in Lagos, went to the Lagos Tea House on Saturday for lunch. I'm not really a tea drinker, only take hot drinks when its freezing and as Lagos is pretty much always Satan's personal playground, that translates to never. But I'm always game for new experiences so I and my friend Achenyo decided to check it out.

For Tea Snobs, they had quite the extensive menu..

I got the Strawberry Rose Champagne Oolong tea which costs N1,800 and Achenyo got the Water Melon Mint White tea.

I thought the presentation was on point, the owners clearly put a lot of thought and work into it and its a nice place to just chill.

I expected the decor to reflect more of the "tea house" concept though, like a Japanese Tea House. Like maybe long, low tables and cushions and what not. It just looked like a regular restaurant which took its tea really seriously.

But if you're not finicky like me and don't expect a miracle everywhere you go then you'll be fine.

This is me trying to recreate  a "sips tea" picture. Not sure I got the Wendy Williams amebo look down pat but I tried.

If you're an avid tea drinker this is definitely the place for you. The Lagos Tea House is at Plot 6 Admiralty Way Lekki 1 (on the right just after the Lekki/Ikoyi roundabout if you're coming from phase 1 gate).



Drove around several stores looking for this Kamokini maillot......

I'm planning an island holiday for my birthday in July and as a control freak, I have a spreadsheet and a to-do list that I'm working on right now. I know I can order it off their website but they don't accept returns and I need to try it on before I can make a decision. Have gone round their stockists and none have this particular suit. So if you know where I can find it in Lagos please let me know. Very important.
*sidebar, I really love how Nigerian designers are making it so much easier to shop in country. If someone had told me years ago I'd be able to buy swimsuits made in Nigeria I'd have laughed.



We stopped by Stranger Lagos for their Salted Caramel apple pie and Bounty cupcakes after....

Love and light xx


photocredit: Insignia photos, kamokini.com

Hi.....

I looked at the date of my last post and cringed.

Man....

No words.....

Unforgivable.....

I wasn't going through any major life upheavals, I just got a bit...dare I say it....bored with blogging. Blogging has always been a creative outlet and after a while it became a bit tedious. Maybe its the over-commercialization of the whole thing but when it started feeling like it was "by force" to blog I withdrew.

However I woke up this morning, put on my Frosted Flaked t-shirt and for the first time in months opened up thirdworldprofashional.com. No idea what to attribute this sudden gra gra to but I welcome it.

In the meantime though my life has accelerated like crazy. Went on some fabulous trips, FINALLY moved out of my parents house and into a place of my own and made some very unlikely but very rewarding career decisions.

2014 was like a movie and 2015 is looking just as unpredictable but I'm ready for it.

Love and light xx

Catch-Up

I feel like the past couple of months or so have just been a whirlwind.

First off, two of my closest friends got married and none of them had the decency to do it in Lagos, so from Anambra to London to Benin to Port-Harcourt, I've legged it all over the world to watch these girls become women.

Then it was #DaksDay again *cue clashing cymbals*, the absolute bestest day in the history of the world ever,  rolled by again and as yours truly is an unrepentant Lost Girl and will personally never grow up, I made a big deal over it (again) and made sure my friends were as involved as ever (again).

All in all I've had a pretty stressful few months and extreme lethargy combined with travel fatigue combined with hellish traffic combined with random bouts of frustration and above all the horrific inefficiency of my ISP, Swift (swift indeed *sidest of eyes*), have ensured that blogging stayed pretty much on the back burner. Right now I'm actually using my mobile hotspot to post this because Swift is on the fritz yet again. Please if anybody knows any half decent ISPs in Lagos, for the love of God let me know because I might just place a burning cross in front of the Swift HQ one day just to shake them up a bit.


Daks Day

This delish cake via my Soul Sister Molly. Since the day I met this girl, many many years ago during summer school she has bought me a cake every year on my birthday. No matter what country I'm in or she's in she makes sure I get a cake on my birthday.

I wrote on Instagram that I wear pink on my birthday every year, its no secret that my favorite color is pink but I don't really do pink clothes, just lots of pink accessories and a very pink room. So I'd wear a pink accessory or carry something pink around the whole day. Don't ask why just go with it.

This year, with the chutzpah brought on by old age I finally had the courage to go the whole hog and wear all pink.

This year was definitely more low-key than my usual birthday throw downs but I was surrounded by some of the people I love most, there was food, cake and a pink dress.....best day.




TWP Features

Interview in The Nation Newspaper

As a guest on Style 101 on Spice Tv Africa, Channel 192 on DSTV

On the Fashion Protege reality show on Africa Magic

Weddings

Because Nigerians like to marry and with all the gra gra surrounding the event; bridal showers, hen nights, traditional, registry and white weddings, you'd think I attended like 6 weddings in the past 3 months instead of just 2.

My QC roll dawg Nwabugo got married in London in June and and I gave up 3 of my precious leave days for her as per lovers and shit.

Not sure if I left my brain back at the office but somehow I forgot my camera at home and for this bit I'm relying solely on mobile phone pictures and photos I filched from Sisi Yemmie's blog.

She had a French themed bridal shower.....


.....and wore a Maggie Soterro dress looking like an absolute princess.

I'm all tough on the outside and melty on the inside and without fail I have cried at every single one of my friends weddings, but this one......my goodness. Bugo is a massive romantic and unlike me who is terribly ashamed of my love for the gooey stuff she lets her freak flag fly. So to say she brought it at this wedding is an understatement, the thing be like film.

Every moment brought waterworks, I kid you not. From walking down the aisle with her baby brother to her vows to their first dance......I bawled throughout.

See below for example, as caught out by Sisi Yemmie's unforgiving camera.

and I caught the bouquet.....

The world just won't let me be a grinch in peace.


Next up, my favorite month and the bride's birth month as well, July was all about my Gam Gam aka Iroghama.

This babe carried me from Benin to PH as she transitioned from a Bini girl to an Okrika wife.

You can just tell this post is full of stolen pictures....

My Gamma danced like there weren't a thousand people watching, gave me all I needed and more.

At this point she was possessed by the spirit of Patoranking

So yah...besides tons of NSFW, in fact Not Safe For Life pictures depicting extreme acts of debauchery, this is pretty much what I've been up to recently.

Love and light xx

This post is for MissIgho, Aunty_Nunu16, MissOHS, Tonicarlito and Gimbiya_xx.....the Blog Police.

Connect Nigeria Writers Conference - The Business of Writing

I'll be speaking at the 1st Connect Nigeria Writer's Conference on Saturday April 5th 2014.

The 1st Connect Nigeria Writers’ Conference is a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative of ConnectNigeria.com aimed at contributing to societal development through education. The Conference entails learning from seasoned experts on what you need to improve your writing and thrive in the business world. Are you ready to improve your writing skills to measure up with today’s demands for writing? It is imperative in this age of stiff competition that people understand the intricacies of the writing business. The people at Connect Nigeria understand the importance of business writing and in line with their corporate objective, which is to make information easily and readily available for Nigerians, they consider it their responsibility to play a part in empowering Nigerians with the requisite skills as it pertains to building businesses and improving lives.

The Writers’ Conference is targeted at aspiring writers to help them develop the requisite skill to thrive in today’s business environment.

Date: Saturday April 5, 2014

Time: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Location: Protea Hotel, 22 Awolowo Road Ikoyi, Lagos

Agenda

The event is a one-day affair inclusive of an amalgam of speeches, presentations and workshops that are expected to leverage on the knowledge acquired in the classroom. The strength of this event is that the speakers are drawn from the business environment, thus bringing real life experiences to bear on the theme.

Theme

The theme for this first edition of the Writers’ Conference is ‘The Business of Writing’. Speakers who write for a living will be sharing their knowledge at the Conference on what it takes to be at the next level of writing. This will include topics centered around the business of script-writing, novel writing, editing and much more.

Speakers

Deji Badmus

Sefi Attah

Abiola ‘Champ’ Salami

Ike Nnaebue

Lekan Otufodunrin

Adaku Ufere

Seun Salami

Attendance is FREE but you have to register to attend, you can register HERE 

*the event is wrongly stated on the registration site as being held inside the University of Lagos, that was the previous venue. The current venue is at the Protea Hotel Ikoyi.*