In Our Next Life We'll Be Diplomats

We are back again with a brand new blog from Nigerian soil. Rob arrived March 23rd in Austria. He did the usual quarantaine. By now it starts to be a routine. Sitting at our home, the Backyard and waiting for the police to check if you are following quarantine guidelines. Working till day 5 and then get some free time. But this time it was really hard for Rob. He had planned some days off but most of them he ended up working. However we still have done some trips. We went to a little art village called Gmunden in Carintia, it was a very beautiful, sunny and warm day, perfect for a stroll through a picturesque art village. We know the village a little bit, many years ago we’ve been there. It is a village full of art, galleries and artists. But there was nothing there anymore of all the fun art shops. Maybe a few were still there but unfortunately closed. We bought a coffee and a tea at a shell petrol station, because all restaurants and bars are closed in Austria. How cosy is that. The lady misheard Rob when he said "1 tea, 1 cappuccino and the toilet Bitte". She started working on the coffee machine, but did not show us the toilet. So, Viv looked for it and found it herself and then she brought us our drinks…. 1 tea, 1 cappuccino and 4 latte.

So he got in total 5 coffees. Pronunciation with a face mask is always challenging; toilette sounds apparently like 4 Latte. Very logic translation buying 6 drinks for 2 people. We had a beautiful drive back home, trees were starting to blossom, I love this season.

We had the first improvements done to the house while we were there. We have new curtains in our bedroom, we have a very nice corner desk as well, so we can properly work from there. Unfortunately, they did not manage to finalise the extra-long bed for us on time, so this will be installed when we are back this summer. We also have new curtains in our living room. We also agreed with the local wood/construction company for the next steps. We will renovate one bedroom this summer. It will be totally stripped and rebuild. This was the only room we could not see when we bought the house since it was used for storage by the owners, and it was locked. We will also rebuild the main entrance and build a small kitchenette and bar so when we will sit outside in the sun, we have drinks nearby. Last but not least we get some extra windows in our bedroom, we can fully enjoy the beautiful view over the mountains and the valley.

Armin came over to the Backyard just before Easter to spend a few days with us. Robin came a few days earlier with a trailer filled with wood. Armin asked if he could do something in the garden, and I replied of course you can, not really knowing what his plan was. He’s a soldier, who cannot sit still, he’s always busy with sports and doing things outdoor. The photos will tell it all, he made a, as we like to call it a water track/ course, from up the mountain starting at our stream. This way the water flows faster in our hot tub. Robin painted the wood, Armin was building it in two days. Just brilliant. See the photos above. Beginning of April Robin was so sweet to bring us to Vienna Airport, we had to be early for our last antigen test for our flight, two days before we had our PCR test. With this in our hand we went to the check in desk. There was a bit of a commotion, an African man was very upset and not without a reason. He had a PCR test of 75 hours old, because he was traveling to Paris. For traveling to Paris, you need a test in 96 hours, so he should be fine. Here comes the sad thing, for Amsterdam it’s max 72 hours old at arrival. Therefore, he was 3 hours short and was not allowed on the flight. The man took his loss and left. He probably tried to get on a next flight the next day.

On our right hand sight there was a lady checking in. The employee behind the counter asked for her PCR test and she replied she didn’t have one. The lady behind the counter frowned her eyesbrows told her she needed it, but then the lady said: “No I don’t need one because I am a diplomat”. I know diplomats are with many things above the law, but when you do care about you fellow human beings around you and you jump on a plane, you will have to test yourself in order to save the world from this horrific pandemic that is ruling our lives for too long. But no, not when you are a diplomat, or this lady…. Now she might not help it that she is too egocentric and or dumb to understand that by her behaviour she might infect a plane full of people, but then I would still expect from both airline companies or governments that they have the brains to understand this.

It was for us a clear example on how rules are adapted to allow these types of mistakes based on wrong understanding of out of place privileges. We are all in this together, no exceptions and we all need to follow the rules to get out of this pandemic quickly and healthy. Another example of this is that we as expats, living in Nigeria are excluded from the Dutch Vaccination programme. Reason is we are resident in Nigeria. However, the Dutch Diplomats living abroad are covered by the Dutch Programme. We know that running the country at this era is not easy, also that we make mistakes in running the vaccination program, curfew, close down of stores, etc. But one fundamental thing we cannot do wrong and that is assuming that some people are above these regulations.

I left Lagos last summer, July 2nd to be precisely that is now 9 months ago. In the Netherlands I was hoping to get a vaccination, but the program is fragmented and slow. The GP had no idea when it would be my turn and they were not of any help. In the meantime, Rob subscribed us on a Nigerian website for a vaccination here in Lagos. My doctor in Vienna said, “take the first you can get” and so we were scheduled for April 19th to get our first vaccination, but things are never going according plans. So a week after we arrived, on a Wednesday was Ali’s birthday, we sent him home after first going with Glory to the supermarkets. Wednesday evening Rob received a text message from our new company doctor of Nigerian Breweries, the vaccination program was going to be shut down as of the next day! This meant that we were not able to get our promised vaccine, what a bummer! But the doctor also wrote that she had about 20 vaccinations available the next morning. It turned out we had to be at the Nigerian Brewery Clinic by 07:15 and Rob drove, because Ali and Yinka were not around. We took Glory with us, she could get her vaccination too. The first part of our drive was normal decent traffic, but then we came at this huge roundabout (Costains) near the brewery and there it was one big nightmare. We drove maybe 5 meters over an hour and the doctor had told us that they were leaving at 08:30, so we were a bit freaking out. The traffic police wears pepper spray on their chest vests and big guns as well. There was a young man on Rob’s side and Rob opened the window, something they ask you always not to do, but he did. Rob said we were almost at the brewery our final destination but that the whole roundabout was stuck. The boy said “follow me sir, I’m gonna bring you there, no wahala”! (Nigerian for no worries!) I should have filmed it, which I am regretting that I didn’t. We ignored the shouting and cursing police, we drove against the traffic, the boy stopped trucks so we could go first, we went through a little not so green park, he stopped other vehicles, so we had priority and yes suddenly we crossed somehow this huge roundabout with hundreds of trucks and cars and people on the pavements and in between all the traffic. We made it just in time. There, at the clinic, we had to fill in our details, like name, surname, date of birth, passport number etc, but I already did that in the car when we were stuck, so that was twice, and then at a table, we had to do it again, for the third time. It felt very chaotic, but we didn’t care we were getting our first shots to freedom! We got our vaccination on Thursday and during the day we were just fine, nothing to complain about, until we sat down on our sofa to watch a bit of tv, then I started to shiver, the man with the hammer came, I didn’t like it, but at the same time I knew they haven't given me a liquid of water of something, my body was aching and working, which was normal and a good thing. Rob had exactly the same side effects, it lasted for 24 hours then it was gone.

Rob went to the Hugo de Groot School in Rotterdam and one of his friends in that time was Ruud Dobber. Although they have not met anymore after Highschool, Ruud is now vice-president at AstraZeneca. So, on behalf of both of us, “Thank you Ruud and as compensation, when we will meet again, we will take you for a Heineken”!

Being back in Nigeria is great. I missed it a lot. Everything feels good again being back. Until something goes wrong . For example, the rain season and air conditioning. We live in a very nice apartment on the 13th floor as you know. We also have still one apartment/floor above us. What can go wrong when it rains… We woke up on Sunday morning when we have heard for some hours thunder and rain. From the back of the house the rain made it through all the windows (not joking) and was flooding the rooms and even the corridors. We spend hours on drying the house. Getting our furniture from the floor. Some of the furniture soaked up the water and is permanently damaged. Finally, we got everything dried. Rob went to work at his home-office, catching up the backlog from the week. While working he heard a noise like somebody was taking a shower. He looked outside but by then the sun started to shine and then he found it; one of the AC’s was leaking again. We started drying the next part of the house.

We also had a toilet which we couldn’t flush, because there was no water in the water reservoir, we had to fill that first with the shower next to the toilet and then we could flush. Welcome to Nigeria. Next day the landlord came and stated the famous words he has never heard nor been informed about leaking AC’s nor flooding due to rain and yes they would fix it. Off course. For the next 3 weeks .

Rob had his Annual General Meeting of Shareholders somewhere on Victoria Island. We could stream it through youtube. This way I could make a few photos. Rob wore his face mask all the time, but in order to be better understood he had taken it off to speak.

We are getting back in a rhythm of meeting our friends again, having them over for dinner at our house or going out for dinner. Rob had a hair cut at his favourite hairdresser in town. He gives a fantastic head massage. Ayo had his favourite groomer over, he came only three days late....😂 We got a new neighbour on the third floor. Patrick moved in last week and joined Rob with a bit of tennis.

Last week we went to an exhibition of the daughter of someone Rob knows. We had to take the elevator to get to the right floor. Look at the photo how we had to stand in the lift, so funny.

Today we saw the F1 Grand Prix of Portugal at the Green House, this is the new name of the Heineken House. We went a bit earlier so we could sit in and at the pool, having a few drinks. It was a great afternoon spent with friends watching Max driving his RB16B to the second place. Great achievement.

Stay healthy and safe everyone,

till next time.