Life's What You Make It

On a hot Tuesday in April 2022 a plane landed at Murtala Muhammed International airport Lagos with on board the Cup with the big ears and in the company of Clarence Seedorf and some very sturdy body guards to protect the Cup. Like three years ago the Champions Trophy was on tour and came to Nigeria and this time with Clarence Seedorf from The Netherlands and Jay Jay Okocha from Nigeria as ambassadors. There was a whole program built around it. It started Tuesday afternoon with an indoor match between The Netherlands and Nigeria. Rob played in the Dutch team together with Patrick, Maarten, Jelle , Martin and Max and of course Clarence. A Nigerian lady was their coach. Everyone had a team uniform of course, Rob had not Rob on the back of his shirt but Oga, this means chief or boss. The Nigerian team had famous players and musicians from Nigeria. Some of them played in Europe like Paris Saint Germain and Club Brugge. I took Elizabeth, Glory, Ali and Yinka to the match. Especially Elizabeth who’s a good football player herself enjoyed it so much. There was an idol she really admired. His name is Davido, he played in the Nigerian team and he’s famous here, he’s a singer or rapper and has on Instagram more than 20 million followers. His attitude is something he should work on though. Rob met him at the cloakroom. The man had two ‘male personal assistants’ putting on his shoes and doing his laces and another person took off his watch. The star of the Nigerian team is Jay Jay Okocha. We met him three years ago, he’s a very integer and humble person. He’s also very rich and famous, but he is behaving very normal. But because Elizabeth loves her idol she wanted a photo with Davido. Rob asked him and he posed with her, but in a bored way. Jay Jay also posed with her, but totally different, very friendly. Ali and Yinka were sitting more behind us and when the match was finished I saw that Ali had put on a clown’s wig. We made some great photos of them afterwards. The match was supposed to start at 15:00, so I was there on time. Rob came with Martin from the office and was stuck in traffic. When we arrived, we waited outside a bit, but you could see they were still building up the venue. Things are always last minute here. Also inside, the bar area was not ready yet, the pitch was not ready yet, basically nothing was ready, and so two hours later the match started. In Nigeria we consider this perfectly on time. It's amazing to learn that they don’t have a time issue here at all. We can learn something from this, just relax and take it easy, it’ll be alright. Rob run and run and did the very best as oldest of his team, he even almost scored the first goal. Jay Jay was surprised by him and Rob took a shot, but just missed. How cool would it have been if he scored. In the end it was a very close match and according to the Dutch team they lost in the last seconds of the game by 8-5…..

Nearby the venue there's a hotel where Nigerian Breweries had booked rooms for the players to get changed and to be able to get a shower. When Rob and I came to the hotel, Rob’s room was not available and there were no other rooms available. It turned out the already had rented the room out to someone else although it was booked for us. It took very long to solve and we got a bit impatient, Jay Jay was sitting there and asked what was wrong, he then said that we could use his room to change and shower, how kind is that! I love this man. Before we went back to Landmark Centre to watch the match between Real Madrid and Chelsea we had all together a quick dinner at Shiro, our favourite restaurant which happens to be next door. We watched the match, but left when it finished. We decided to sleep at the airport hotel, because we were flying 07:00 the next morning with a private plane to Abuja with the Cup, Clarence and the Nigerian players. When we arrived at the hotel the security lady working there recognised me, I’ve been there only once months before for maybe 5 minutes. Incredible right? So the next morning we had a quick breakfast and rushed off to the domestic airport. We were the first, but guess what, at midnight one of the organisers had send an email to the group that Clarence was pub crawling with some friends and so we were leaving at 11:30am instead of 07:30am. And we missed that message! And there we were at a small empty private airport waiting for hours for the others to arrive. By the time we could leave and we headed to our aircraft, we saw that beneath the cockpit the Heineken logo was on the plane. So off we went, when we landed at Abuja airport we looked over our shoulder and noticed that the Heineken logo was lost in space, hahaha, probably it’s now on a roof of a little shed somewhere in between Lagos and Abuja. So if you fly between Lagos and Abuja look out your window and look for the Heineken star. And so the program continued in Abuja, the football players were going on a bus tour through the city. We thanked for this and had a little break at the hotel. 5pm there was supposed to be a drink at one of the bars in the hotel for meet and greet with the fans. We went there around 5:30, and of course no one was there, and so we waited till 7pm and went to our main venue also at the hotel, where we would watch the next match again all together. Clarence was very on his own, did not much interact with the group. The Nigerian players however were very open and approachable and sat down with us. I had no clue who was who, but Rob recognised quite a few players. So we met for example for the Ajax fans, Tijani Babangida and Finidi George, Thursday we came back home after a two intense but wonderful days. A nice note to add; many of the security guys always recognise Rob, they always say "hello boss"! For all events the same guys from the security company are there and so they know Rob. The photos below show the second day in Abuja. The bottom row the photo on the left is how we are always surrounded by security men with guns. During the first weeks in 2018 I was a bit shocked by it, even traffic police are wearing these guns, but nowadays I don't see it anymore. The car of Clarence broke down and so he had to step in another vehicle, then these sturdy men get out and protect us. The photo next to it is Lagos seen by the air, do you see all the yellow danfos/taxi busses? And they made it in the newspapers!

You can see that Clarence Seedorf holds the Cup with his bare hands, only when you win the Cup you're allowed to touch it. We cannot touch the Cup. Security guys wear white gloves if they need to hold the cup.

A week later Dolf van den Brink and Harold van den Broek the CEO and CFO of Heineken NV came to Nigeria, therefore Rob and the teams had been busy for weeks to have a flawless presentation. As part of the visit he flew with them to Enugu, they are building a new brewery in Ama.

The commissioning of the brewery was broadcasted live on national tv, shortly after this event Rob and I were at the airport (again), flying to Dubai and there was a guy who came to our airport officer saying that he recognised Rob from television. The days with the big bosses went very well, but one night, of course the evening that Rob wasn’t sleeping at home I had a nasty fall. I wanted to take Ayo for a walk and walked to the storage room to get my flip-flops out, but before I was there I hit the ground very hard because there was water everywhere, which I didn’t see because I didn’t put on the lights. I could hardly breath, was in a lot of pain. I knew Ali our driver was on his way home, because Rob forgot his passport, tooth brush and more. I called Ali in tears and he came to help, I also called Rob, my rock, but I didn’t want him to come home, just to let him know what happened and to hear his voice. He called Patrick our friend and neighbour on the 3rd floor and he called Glory. When Patrick came, just a few minutes later, water was already flooding underneath the front door. I managed to get on my feet, so nothing was broken, only shaken. Patrick found the source. Every toilet has a shower (or as they call it in Nigeria, a hand held bidet) next to it, and in the bathroom of our study the shower head was broken off, and with an enormous lot of pressure water gusted out. It flooded this room but also the hallway, partly our bedroom, Hugo’s room, and it was also in the hallway to the front door and all the way to the utility room. Ali and Glory dried it all, this was a lot of work. Before Glory left at 21:30 she gave me a cup of tea in bed, she’s the best. Patrick walked Ayo for me. Thanks Patrick! For a week I couldn't turn in bed, I could walk and do everything but the nights were not very pleasant. It’s gonna be just fine, I’m a tough cookie, the boys would say “she’ll live”. No photos here ;-)

Just a day after the big bosses left we flew to Dubai to see Noa. The first week of May in Nigeria has several bank holidays due to Eid Mubarak and Labor Day. You always hear the exact date very late because it begins after sighting the lunar crescent and gives the nation one or sometimes two free days. For Noa it was only an hour flight from Doha, she arrived the day before us. We arrived very early in the morning on Saturday May 1st and went straight to bed before we started exploring Dubai. First time for us, so lots to see and do in this crazy-over-the-top-city. The taxi ride from the airport was a rough one. Our taxi driver came in a fight with another car, both opened their windows and were shouting at each other on the highway. Our taxi driver was chasing the other car and at a certain moment that car tried to push us off the highway. We asked him friendly to stop chasing and focus on the road instead of arguing whilst driving. Just weird.

After a little nap and a good breakfast we headed to Dubai Mall. We walked around a bit and explored the aquarium zoo. Very funny to have this in the middle of a mall. We learned a lot about the fish and penguins species. They are there for ‘research reasons’, do you know you can’t see the difference between a male and female? And since they were born there, they have never eaten any plastic, as justification argument.

We went after a few hours mall-walking home to the hotel, changed in different outfits and left for the Dubai Fountains and dinner. We found a nice Turkish restaurant, the waiter was very kind. He heard us speaking Dutch, apparently he lived in The Netherlands, so he could speak a bit of Dutch, but he was impressed by Noa’s (American) accent.

The next day we went to the Mall of the Emirates, another huge mall, but first we chilled at the pool on the 19th floor of our hotel. We went there by metro/underground and easy way of transportation in this country. Here we found a huge indoor ski circus, just amazing. In the evening Noa had booked a restaurant for us and she didn’t say where, it was going to be a surprise. And a surprise it was, Toni Roma’s, our boys and also Rob’s favourite ribs place. We straight away phoned Jack to make him a bit jealous and jealous he was. The location was also very nice, at a harbour surrounded by spectacular skyscrapers.

We also visited the Souk with Noa. We found some nice colourful pillowcases, 5 in total, so when we agreed which patterns and colours we wanted my job started. Somehow Rob can negotiate about everything when it comes to work, but in personal life he can’t and leaves it up to me. Well after quite a few years in Nigeria and a lot of traveling abroad I sort of know the negotiation game. They start by triple the price because we/I am what is called a white nose. I ask what it costs, tell him it’s way too much and that he should come with a better price. This goes a bit back and forth. I may say it also depends on my mood how far I go. Anyway, Rob and Noa turn around take some distance but near enough to hear what I’m saying an giggle the whole time. They hear me say something like, "you a good day, me a good day". I think they feel a bit embarrassed sometimes, but this is absolutely the way to play the game. I also saw a nice kimono, he gave a price and it was ridiculously high, so I said no, he dropped his price and more. He asked what I wanted to pay for it and I said no more than 80 AED and walked away because I really thought he would never take this price, but he came out of his shop and said it was a deal. I must say I do like the interaction when you buy something.

The next morning after breakfast we headed to the beach with the hotel shuttle. La Mar Beach is a nicely recently developed place with lots of vendors and a great beach. We spend a bit of time there before we headed to the One & Only Royal Moroccan Hammam. This was a fantastic experience. Sadly men and women are separated, so Rob was on his own, Noa and I were together. Before we had the Hammam, we had a drink in the beautiful garden of the Mirage hotel. Time stood still at this place, extremely peaceful.

For dinner we went back to the Dubai Fountains and tried to find a place at a terrace, and we managed and had dinner at Jamie Olivers, It was so crowded because of the holidays and end of Ramadan. But while at the Dubai Mall we experienced the local racism against people from the Indian to Philipines Countries. Most (almost all) are alone and wanted also to enjoy the Ramadan festivities. They were told everywhere that only plain people (white people) and families with children were allowed inside.

We also went in the Burj Khalifa, the highest building on the planet, my goodness, we only could go to the 124th floor, 6 times higher than the 21st floor in our hotel, and that was already extremely high. We watched the sunset from the top of the world, very beautiful although it wasn’t a very bright day. Afterwards we went for dinner around the Fountains again. The next morning Noa was leaving very early because work was calling. She left 6am. We decided to have a stroll at the flower garden and butterfly garden. The butterfly garden was a bit disappointing. Many years ago, in 1990 we were at a similar thing at Cameron Highlands in Malaysia and that was incredible. But the flower garden was beautiful, we had a good time. In the afternoon we decided to go to the Souk again to see if we could find fabrics for a garden sofa in Austria. Doha had so many choices we were so certain they would have it here too. Yes, there are a lot fabrics, but not the thick ones like you see in Doha. So after hours of asking around and walking from A to B and C and almost Z we gave up. We were very downtown somewhere, and the only white noses around. We took the metro back to the hotel. At night we had dinner at Zuma, a Japanese restaurant and the food was fantastic. And guess what, they had Grüner Veltliner wine. Our Grüner Veltliner was only 16 euro per glass, but hey you only live once, don’t think too much when you're in Dubai. The next morning we flew back to Nigeria and hallelujah no more filling in long difficult websites or sticks poking your throat or nose, no more waiting for the test results, a lot easier to travel again.

Last weekend we went to the AMVCA awards 2022 at the Eko hotel in Lagos. You probably now think what the heck is AMVCA? Well very simple, these are the African Oscars and it stands for African Magic Viewers Choice Awards. The film industry in Nigeria is the second biggest in the world and is also called Nollywood. The biggest one is Bollywood, which is India. Nollywood produces 50 films per week, and generates $590 million annually. Graeme, Rob and I went a bit earlier to the Eko hotel so we could eat before we went in. Good move, because the event took till 22:30! I’m so glad I ate, otherwise I would have passed out on the floor. When we walked in we saw the most creative outfits, this is one of the things I so like of Nigeria. Women are full size, round but very pretty and they show their bodies, no matter what. Even the men dressed up out of the box, it’s a joy to watch this whole scene. There were more than 30 awards to give away, which is pretty impressive. It was life broadcasted, therefore we had little commercial breaks but this was filled with music and dance on stage.

"Rattle Snake" won a lot of prices; Best Actress in Drama, Best Actor in Drama, Best Cinematographer and Best Lightning Design and Best Director, but not the best film though which is quite interesting.

After the show we went with Rob’s colleagues to a bar at the hotel, of course it was Nigerian loud, they like loud music. Everyone at the bar was drinking a “Desperados-margarita-cocktail”, we had a special evening and made great new memories without realising.

The right photo at the bottom row you see Rob's cufflinks, Nigerian danfo (taxi) bus.

Next month I’m going to join Rob in Madrid he's there for his Global Finance Conference, I'm going at the end of his conference and we can spend the weekend in Madrid together. We've never been there.

We haven’t really made plans for the summer yet, but we are very curious how our new kitchen in Austria looks like and maybe, hopefully first weekend of July Spielberg F1 and we have a wedding in Scotland in July , Andre Rieu the week before in Maastricht, so there you go, Life's What You Make It!

Stay safe everyone.