Hotel California

Hotel California

“Relax,” said the night man,

“We are programmed to receive”

“You can check-out any time you like”

“But you can never leave!”

This will be our last blog in and about Nigeria. Next stop starts on September 1st, a new adventure, but before this happens, we would like to share some fantastic last weeks. The weeks describe perfectly how living in Nigeria is. We started with the lyrics of the song Hotel California, somewhere in the middle of this blog you will start to understand why we choose this song.

Friday July 29:

Hugo and I left Vienna and at the end of the day we arrived safe and sound in Amsterdam. We saw Jack at the parking lot from a distance, he was picking up Hugo. He just had Corona and Ailsa a week before him and therefore to be on the safe side I decided to sleep at the Hilton Airport Hotel. Jack was supposed to give me a few small birthday gifts for Rob, but he took the bigger ones and I only had hand luggage with me, so in the end I had only one gift for Rob on Sunday, when he had his birthday.

Saturday July 30th:

A nice anecdote to tell, when I entered the plane there was a Nigerian guy in the seat behind me and he looked at me in a funny way. He then asked me; “Ma, are you on the right flight?” I said, “well, if this one goes to Lagos Nigeria, then yes, I’m on the right flight!” “Really”, he replied, “what are you doing there?” “I live there,” I answered. The man was surprised, I could tell.

I arrived at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, and I was faster than fast back home to my lovely Rob, but there was no Ayo there. Ayo had already Japa-ed. Japa is a Nigerian slang derived from the Yoruba language which simply means 'to run swiftly' out of a dangerous situation. In Nigeria it is the acronym of emigrating to a better future abroad. I had brought him to Robin and Armin in Bad Gleichenberg until August 13th. It really felt strange not having Ayo at our home in Lagos, like he belonged there. Barking when the doorbell would ring and jumping up and down like a puppy when someone was coming in, but no, not this time. Moving days were ahead of us and then a little barking doggie is not very helpful on the scene. Robin was very happy to take care of him, her little buddy keeping her company when Armin is at the (army) base from Sunday night till Friday.

Sunday 31st of July:

Rob’s 58th birthday! Hooray! And it was a real party! We started the day by putting stickers on furniture that was not supposed to be moved and going through some closets of stuff to take with us or leave behind. After a small breakfast we went to “Kali” a very nice roof top restaurant close to Eco Atlantic on Victoria Island. We were having lunch with Omome and her family, husband, one year old boy and her lovely, sweet parents. Omome is Rob’s biggest talent. In NB some call her jokingly his adopted daughter. I understand that she is a big talent in Heineken Finance. The food was amazing, the company even better, they all gave a speech to Rob, sweet words to remember forever. During dessert all the waiters came in with candles and a nice cake with happy birthday on it and then they all sing!

On a side note; Rob only told his team a few days earlier about his new job. It was one of our biggest frustrations (although we understood) that we were not able to share the decision that we would be moving. Nigerian Breweries is a stock listed company and the discharge of Rob and appointment of his successor needed to be confirmed by the Board of Directors on July 28. Then within 24 hours the Nigerian Stock Exchange needs to be informed, since it is concerned ‘business sensitive information’. So on July 28th Rob was discharged by the board and directly afterwards he informed his team, and he really broke into tears when he told them. They sang spontaneously “he’s a jolly good fellow” for him, it was very emotional. Some of his team members send movies via WhatsApp to me. And then the next morning Rob removed all his personal belongings from the office since the moving company would start packing on Monday….

From here we went straight to the next venue, Shiro at Landmark Beach. We were an hour early, so we went outside for a cocktail and waited for Marc and Patrick. Again, we had great food but also great company, how we will miss these guys, I’m filled with tears while I’m writing this. Will we find friends like them in London again? I don’t think so.

Whenever we eat somewhere with Patrick, he likes to tell the waiters that his dad is having his birthday and then they’ll come in with cake and candles and sing for him, but this evening it was really his birthday, second time this day Rob got cake and singing!

August 1st, day 1:

Moving day! Rob sent the moving company Koeman the code of Banana Island main gate, but after an hour we were looking at each other, where are they, it’s less then 10 minutes from the main gate to our flat at Bella Vista. Where were they? They were at our own gate at Bella Vista (BV), stopped by the guards. Apparently, we had to inform the management of BV that we were moving that day, which we hadn’t done so, simply because we didn’t know that we had to inform them. Nothing was allowed to leave the house. Alright said Rob, but you are not going to determine who comes into our house and what we are doing there. So packing is alright, right? The loading of the container will be on Thursday. They gave permission let the four men in, but not the little truck, they had to carry all the packing materials to our apartment. With a delay of almost two hours, they started to pack. Steven was the chief of the moving company in charge of mission Kleinjan-UK-Move.

Over the last few weeks, I was selling all kind of furniture that we were not taking to London. We will downsize that’s for sure. Every time someone came to pick something up, I wrote a letter with this person X has bought something of our household, so please give him free pass through the two gates. This always worked well. Cupboards, closets, cabinets lamps, chairs and a table and a sofa these items were more convenient if they would pick this up in our moving week, so I thought, well no, wrong thinking! It made it so much more complicated.

Monday afternoon, a driver of a lady who had bought and paid for a sofa was at our Bella Vista gate but was not permitted to enter the compound. Rob and I went down to the guards to see what was going on. First, they said the car was too old, really? This is Lagos they all have old cars; no one cares. Then the manager came outside to talk to us. He said we didn’t give notice 30 days in advance, so nothing was going to leave the house! But these were our belongings. Rob told them “Look”, you treat us as criminals”, while the real crooks is the Compound Management, because they were taking our furniture ransom while the apartment was rented by the company. The discussion got typically Nigerian very loud. Then also the head of Bella Vista Security got involved and he loudly informed his guards that nobody was allowed to enter or leave apartment A1-23. So we were taken hostage in our house… Rob called with the office to get support to get this resolved and we did not know where this would end. Then the office told us that the rent wasn’t paid, nor the service costs. I remember Rob calling the office and telling them listen you have 7 minutes to pay, because then it is 4 pm and the banks will close. It turned out that the management of Bella Vista never sent an invoice, and without an invoice nothing would be paid. Grrrrrr, a lot of argues and frustrations. I sent the driver at the gate away, with the promise that we were going to bring the sofa to them.

Parallel this misery there were a few more things, for our UK Visa we needed proof that we lived where we lived. Sounds easy right? It’s not! Everything that was linked to our house address is paid by Nigerian Breweries, so we don’t have anything on our name to proof we lived there. Rob called the bank; they might be able to help. And they could support us with our bank statement. But then they said, “first send us proof you live there”. Seriously?

Another thing was how to get Ayo to the UK. Ayo was denied on our KLM flight. They don’t take dogs to the UK. Rob called a few other airlines to see what they did, yes, he could go in the hold, but then he was too small/light! That is really a strange rule. Next option was to find a company that specialized in transporting animals by plane. Also here we ended in a wall. You can only book a dog as cargo 2 weeks in advance. In London all animals flown into the UK are medically checked in a Heathrow airport facility. So far so good, but this facility is booked full months in advance. So, then what…. We found a good solution; Ayo will go by animal taxi, through the Channel tunnel at Calais. His taxi will arrive at 8am in the morning and he will arrive at his new house in London the same day. Day one was an intense one. Luckily, they didn’t pack our bed yet so we slept really well.

August 2nd, day 2:

Benjamin and Yetunde came in from the office, they oversaw our move from Nigerian Breweries side. What kind of surprises would we have today? Benjamin and Yetunde went downstairs to speak to the management and to see whether there were no issues anymore. Yetunde stayed a bit longer, she kept an eye on things.

The manager Mr Dickson came in with the whole maintenance crew, the carpenter, the plumber, the electrician, etc., 10 men in total, to check the house, but also the BQ of our Glory. With 10 people they walked in her tiny BQ, unbelievable.

In the meantime, Steven and his crew were busy packing our belongings, hopefully it’ll survive the long journey. It’s not about the money that’s it worth but the emotional value is so much more. Two drivers of people who had bought something came to collect their things. I wrote the first letter for the first person who was there and who was ready to leave. You know how fast they wrap things? All of a sudden, all the stationary stuff was gone, I managed to grab a pile of red A4 paper to give permission to take out the things that were sold. The first one who left called me from the main gate saying that he needed a stamp. I had no idea what he was talking about, but after a little investigation it turned out that my piece of paper needed to be stamped by the guards of Bella Vista so that the main gate would let my guests out. So, here was another hurdle in something that can be easy. Fine, I changed this and told every person to first get a stamp downstairs from our security before driving to the next gate. The next person who left with a few items, I wrote the same, please provide this driver with a stamp. Then he was sent back because I had not specified what he exactly had in his car. So, I changed this red piece of paper again and off he went and didn’t come back, so it worked. The packers were still working hard, and Glory provided them with good food and lots to drink. Between 4 and 5pm they were ready to leave and because our bed was wrapped up, we slept in the hotel where we also started 4 years ago, the Radinson Blu on Victoria Island. We first went out for dinner to our favourite restaurant Izanagi. The manager knows us, and he always asks where Ayo is. We told him that we choose his restaurant for our last farewell dinner together and he was honoured. When we ask for a small dessert, they made a nice treat of it with “safe flight”. After we’d eaten too much we headed to the hotel, which was not far from the restaurant. We checked in and went to our room. I wanted to have a quick bath, but Nigeria had decided to really give us a proper farewell, no-hot-water, also not the view we asked for. We were so tired but Rob checked the reservation and it stated clearly Lagoon view. We wanted that because the Lagoon is beautiful to look at with all the boats, fast and slow like small banana boats, see them fishing and the sunset. So, he went down to get it solved. According to the reception there was no Lagoon view in the booking in their reservation system. Until Rob showed them the print out from their own reservation system which stated Lagoon view. And by miracle it was suddenly also in their system. It was a mistake. So sorry Sir .

Wednesday August 3rd: day 3.

This morning still no warm water at the hotel, the shower was a different story, you had to count, 5 seconds under the shower before you got burned, 5 seconds out of the shower to wait to cool down again and so on. After breakfast we went back to Bella Vista again, let’s see what this day would bring. I asked Ali and Yinka to bring the sofa to the lady whom driver tried to get in on Monday. She didn’t live far; it was somewhere in Lekki. Our drivers went together, but then Rob needed something from the office and they both went to the office and got stuck in traffic. In the meantime, we were running out of soft drinks, water, and food, we needed them back. I felt awful not being able to feed these hard-working men. In the end it all went well but I felt guilty towards the moving crew.

At the end of the day, we went back to the hotel, to have a nice warm bath, but nope still no-hot-water and no iron therefore Rob was wearing a wrinkled shirt at the Farewell dinner with the management team unfortunately. But we got a room with a view now, so there was progress. Around 6pm Glory phoned me and told that the guy from earlier this morning came back to pick up the rest of his bought items. Guess what, yes indeed the guards of Bella Vista didn’t let him in. We came up with a different route and that is our dear friend Patrick, many times a lifesaver. we called him, and he would call the security at the gate and ask them to let his guest in. And so, they did. The two bookshelves were already downstairs, so easy to grab it and load it in his car. The head of the guards came along, and Glory came downstairs with her red piece of paper which I left behind for her in case the driver came back. Then the guard said, no sorry sir, we don’t accept red paper!!!! “Hahaha, really, are you serious?” Patrick said, “sure, okay no problem”, he went to his flat and copied it four times on white paper. When he came back to the parking lot, he said, “alright now we do it the official Nigerian way including a photograph for my boss/dad.” He gave it to the guards, to the driver and one for his boss/dad. Every day they tried to come up with new restrictions, but luckily, we are so flexible ;-))

This evening we went to restaurant Slow where we had dinner with the management team. A few were on holiday, so we were with a little group of 8 people. Hans gave a nice speech and Grace too, she also had gifts for both of us and surprise surprise Rob got for the third time this week a dessert with candles and singing waiters.

Before we move to Thursday I almost forgot to update you on the latest status of our move! On Wednesday Rob went in the morning to the Estate management to check if everything was alright for the move on Thursday. The Manager Dickson said he needed to check but would let us know. On Wednesday by 4 pm no news, by 5 Rob called him and he did not pick up his phone. But you know Rob, a man on a mission, so he kept ringing. Finally, Dickson picked up and said he was driving and could not hear it, but he would call back as soon as possible. At 7 pm Rob called him again. No answer…… but then at about 9 pm Mr Dickson called back, a man of his word! But when Rob asked him, is everything is now okay for the move tomorrow, he said he did not have time to check and would do it tomorrow. I think you can all imagine how understanding Rob was for somebody that had taken us hostage, we have been fighting with for 3 full days and that he had been too busy to check.

And I also forgot to tell you that the Dutch Moving company who was coordinating the move send us a mail that the container was cancelled and that everything would be loaded in small trucks and stored in a warehouse somewhere until a container would be available. So Rob gave them a call and asked which carrier (MSC, Maersk, Hapag Lloyd, Grimaldi, etc) should have delivered the container. Rob has access to the local Managing Directors of these companies and was convinced that he could fix for us a container. The Moving company reluctantly told him it is Hapag Lloyd but did not want him to contact them. The experience was that if customers got involved it worked counterproductive. “Sure”, said Rob and asked his purchase team to contact them. Within 15 minutes they were back in his office. The container was confirmed and would be there the next day.

So all in all a nice relaxed day in Lagos, the center of excellence.

Thursday August 4th: day 4

Loading Day, but will they let us load, that’s the question.

Rob sent Steven from Koeman moving company all the entrance codes and with the container they came on Banana Island without any problems. But in front of Bella Vista were again some issues. Also, Marc was there with the keke napep, our tricycle, which went in the container without its motor as “decoration material”. Outside the BV gate it needed to get off the truck and into the container. The guards were not amused, didn’t let the packers in, everyone was parked at the wrong spots, and troubles were in the air again. But there was Mr. Kunle, our previous Estate Manager who got fired a year ago from Bella Vista. We’ve had some troubles with him, but he called Rob the day before and said if there was something he could do or help, Rob should not hesitate to ask him. And there he was, he asked if everything was going alright, Rob replied “no, it’s not going well.” He said, “let me talk to them”, the guards and security of Bella Vista. Rob and Marc saw him making a lot of hand movements, speaking Nigerian loudly, shouting almost and after a few minutes he walked out with a big smile and said that they could go in and go ahead, all sorted!

And so, the loading started. Ali drove Rob to the office. Glory and I had it all under control, the last item that we sold were token from the apartment and things were also finalized with the transportation of Ayo and Rob managed to get from Bella Vista management a piece of paper with Rob’s name on it, so he could send this to the UK colleagues and they could use it for our visa application. Hallelujah, a day with not too many problems, right? Nope, around 3pm, the container was loaded, they wanted to leave, I wrote my famous red sheet of paper again and off they went. I waited 20/30 minutes before I also left with Yinka to the hotel. In between the two gates we saw the truck with our container, our chief Steven hanging outside at the passenger’s seat. He saw us, jumped off the truck and we briefly spoke and checked if everting was fine, “yes”, he said, “you can go, we are fine Ma.”

Yinka drove me to the hotel and instead of calling me, my number was on this red paper, Steven called Rob. Rob was in the middle of meetings with the Union, not an ideal moment to disturb. Nevertheless Rob took the call, he had visions that our container was lying on its side in a ditch… Steven told Rob that they didn’t let them leave the island, he didn’t understand the lady at the gate, if Rob could talk to her. So, he got a lady from Biporal (Island Management) on the phone. She said there was a 40ft container with our belongings that wanted to leave the Island, but before that was allowed, they needed to check our outstanding’s with Island Management. They could not find us in the system so it was a big problem and the truck could not leave until it was resolved. Rob asked her if she was also there in the morning when the truck arrived. She confirmed that. So, Rob asked “how can it be that in the morning when the truck arrives you have our permission to let them in, so you could find us in your system, but in the afternoon suddenly we disappeared?” “And why, if she had a container coming in with papers of a moving company on which they put stamps and signed off they had not checked during the day if there were still any issues with us leaving.” Her answer was great! We could have needed the container from the moving company for something else than moving…. When Rob asked her to give 1 example what you can do with a sea container on the 13th floor of an apartment building, it became very quiet. She took the escape that she would investigate it and would let me know. Directly afterwards Rob got another phone call, it was Mr Kunle and again he helped. He said I kept an eye if everything was going smoothly and now, I understand that the container is stuck at Banana Island gate. Do not worry I will solve this immediately. 5 minutes later the container could leave the island. And it’s because of Glory who called him for help earlier this week that we had him on our side as a lifesaver!

Mr. Kunle.

I arrived at the hotel at a very decent time and was ready for a new attempt of a nice warm bath….and again no-f..cking-hot-water, no towels in the room and no iron. That night we had our last dinner party, we needed to dress up a bit. I went downstairs to the front desk and complained that it’s an expensive hotel and the third day in a row we didn’t have warm water. Nigerians like to say sorry for a lot of things, even if you cough or sneeze, but I was so fed up with all this “sorries” this week. Long story short, someone came up after 45 minutes and fixed it. Rob came home when I was having my bath, when hotel management brought us a great gift as apologies for all the inconvenience……… You can imagine how happy we were with the 1 liter tetrapack Cranberry Juice  That evening we had a wonderful Indian dinner with Rasna, her brother, and her parents and some more friends. We didn’t make it too late, we were knackered.

Friday august 5th: day 5.

Today Rob went to the office again and I had all the time for myself. I had a long call with my friend from South Africa, Lynn, we are going to see each other in London first weekend of September. She’s always my roommate of our yearly girls’ weekends. One of the great things of our move to London is catching up with so many British friends who we haven’t seen in a long time.

With lunchtime we met Jackie and Graeme at the Lagoon, next door of the hotel. They came back the night before and it was great seeing them again after their daughter’s wedding in July. We left around 15:45 back to the hotel. Jackie and Graeme stayed at the restaurant a bit longer, we left. At the parking lot there were three cars of Nigerian Breweries, we had two, Ali and Yinka were driving us with both cars and our 9 suitcases and a mo-pol (police escort) to the airport. And there was of course Graeme and Jackie’s driver, he made a last nice photo of us and our drivers. They were all outside and Ali stepped up to me and burst into tears on my shoulders. This was so emotional, so intense, I will never forget. I’ve had these moments with Glory too and Yinka was emotional the evening we informed them that we were leaving. Each of them had his or her own moment.

Back at the hotel we wanted to get our trollies from our room and check out, but the cards didn’t work anymore. Rob went downstairs, came back with a new card, again not working, then he went down again and this time a manager came up with him to open the room. We said to each other, is there a Candid Camera somewhere, to see how far they can push us, or what? The front desk officer said, “sorry sir, sorry!”

We arrived at the airport early but with a reason, checking in 9 suitcases can take time. We flew via Paris, we had put an air tag in 8/9 suitcases, we could follow exactly where they were going. In Paris we choose the second flight, therefore ground staff had time to overload the suitcases, for us it meant a longer wait. When we boarded the aircraft, we were sitting right above the loading, we saw them all getting loaded except the one without a tag. We arrived at Schiphol airport on time, and we didn’t have to wait long for all our suitcases to arrive. I think in 20/30 minutes we were outside. Normally Jack picks us up, but now we called for a taxi bus. And so after a very intense week, a long journey of 22 hours we were home in Zoeterwoude-Dorp on Saturday August 6th.

Rob’s last week in his own words:

Saying farewell is not easy. Last week was my last week in Nigerian Breweries for the hand-over to my successor Ben. It was an emotional week for me with many highlights. I will only focus on 2 of them and these were the farewell of Nigerian Breweries and the farewell of my team. On Wednesday afternoon NB organised my farewell from Nigerian Breweries. Kemi, my HR Business Partner had put a huge effort in organising this farewell party and it was brilliant. There were big banners with my face on it with the text ‘Join us as we celebrate and send our farewell wishes to a mentor and inspiration to many’. Especially the last part of the text made me feel humble and highly appreciated. It was in our Brewery Bar and our first big company celebration since our Christmas Party 2019 (before Covid). There were many colleagues and I loved it. The Chairman of the Board, Kola Jamodu, came and gave a very personal speech, which I really appreciated. Then our Managing Director Hans, our HR Director Grace, my team members they all gave speeches. The whole Exco was present. There were beautiful short movies featuring with me in it. Many colleagues had short videos talking about me. The MC taught me how to dance..... (at least tried), I drank from a tankard with my name engraved in it. They made 2, one of them will stay in the Brewery Bar and one I will give a special place in my home. And there was a lot of dancing and celebrating. The highlight for me of this great event was when my full finance team came forward on the song ‘Ameno Dorime from Era’. For sure as of now every time I will hear this song, I will have tears in my eyes. I also gave a short speech, and I almost kept it dry. For me this was one of these moments you will never ever forget in your live. Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries has created with me an enormous emotional bond, and this will stay with me forever.

The next evening and my final evening in Nigeria (for now ) my Finance Leadership Team took me for dinner to one of my favourite’s restaurants in Lagos, Shiro. We had a great time, with again some speeches. And I got some beautiful gifts. Dinner ended with a big smile on my face. My team is very dear to me. With all of them I have a special relation. I believe in them and hope we will meet again.

And then the final day. We rounded of the hand over and had a closing session in the office and then it started to rain. Lesson 1 in Nigeria is that when it is Friday night and it’s raining you better leave on time for the airport. But I first needed to pack all the gifts, presents, etc. in an extra bought suitcase, believe me, this took some time. I made it to the airport in time but in real Nigerian Style; Stuck in traffic, stuck in water, taking bus lanes, have armoured car behind continuously using their sirens. Then it suddenly was all over, getting on the plane and silence. Nigeria when will we meet again?