Wisdom

After Jack, Ailsa and Hugo left we had a great trip planned. As you know we can be a bit impulsive and when we got the wedding invitation of Mark and Lauren, the daughter of Steve and Theresa Cranmer, our dear Friends from our Munich time, we decided to go. Only minor challenge was that it was in Tampa, Florida and I only had 4 days available due to work priorities. But we promised and so we went. The whole trip was from door 2 door a full 108 hours, covering 9.255km of which 26 hours flying and in total 35 hours travelling, but who is counting. We left Lagos on Wednesday night and when we arrived the next late morning in Tampa we were knackered. But this was our Orlando shopping day so we took our rental car and drove to Orlando. Here we spend a marvelous afternoon and evening in shopping malls. Almost everything that we had planned we bought. Next morning we drove back to Tampa, checked into our hotel and decided to go on our next shopping tour. In the evening we went to the pre-wedding night at Gaspars Grotto and met the Cranmers! We had not seen them in at least 7 years and they had not changed at all. They are a very lively and warm family with great sense of humor. It was great to meet them and catch up on the old times we shared and made new memories. The next day was the big day for Mark and Lauren, but we also needed to do our PCR tests. It was surprisingly complicated to make an appointment and we could not figure out where the location of the appointment was. In the end with help of Steve and Theresa we discovered that they came to the hotel and we ended up doing our PCR test outside at the parking lot. That was a new one for us. In the evening we had the wedding of Lauren & Mark. We have been sofar to weddings in Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Italy and Greece and every time you discover different traditions and customs as part of the wedding. In Spain we were partying with the bride and groom on the wedding eve till sun rise. The wedding was in an olive farm and they were married in the family chapel at their hacienda. In Poland there is Vodka and lots of flowers….. and so every country had is peculiarities The great thing in Tampa was that Jake, Lauren's younger brother, was the officiant, he wed the couple, after an online training of 1 minute as he explained. The bride and groom looked great and we all enjoyed a great evening. There was a lot of speeches and a lot of line-type of dancing. And also interesting is the concept of the ‘love seat’ where during the dinner, the bride and groom are sitting at a table for 2. The idea is that that is the first moment of the day that they can be together.

And then we went on our trip back home….. from door to door in 108 hours. It was great and we were so happy we went. Great new memories were made again with this beautiful family.

When we came back I had to fly directly to Abuja for our yearly Distributor Conference which after 2 days continued in the Commercial conference. Very long days with limited sleep. Jetlag set in and I was really struggling. We also did our yearly investors conference for our shareholders, investors, analyst and other stakeholders. But finally it was Friday and I could switch off and recouperate. What a great week it has been.

Nigeria is now really out of lock downs and covid and everything is here back to business as usual. The only sad thing is that a lot of our friends lost their jobs or projects they were working on and have left. It's also clear that we have to start building our lives and new friendships again. This is sometimes frustrating and hard, but it is also rewarding to meet new people.

We did one of our first trips outside Lagos, with friends we went to IITA in Ibadan. IITA, International Institure of Tropical Agriculture is like Wageningen for the Dutch readers. It's a crop development site where new varieties of crop is tested to produce better yields and output. It is set up as an estate with its own country club on the outskirts of Ibadan. There are about 50 families (110 people) living there who work at IITA as scientists. Additionally there are guesthouses for short term stay visiting scientists and when not all occupied they rent out rooms to visitors like us. Being there you can use all facilities. We did a jungle walk with another group of Nigerian ladies. We were told to dress up properly with long trousers, good shoes, against insect, mosquitos and to be able to do the jungle walk. Imagine our surprise when they showed up on flipflops. And as you can expect and imagine it is a long walk when your flipflop breaks down halfway the jungle walk. We were there with Steven & Esther, Sil, Patrick and Leon. After the junglwalk we went for lunch. They had a great menu with Sweet & Sour Chicken with Indomie. Very tasty. In the afternoon we went to play golf on a 9 holes course and had great fun. And then after some relaxing we went for dinner, coktails and more drinks. Dinner was amazing, they had Sweet & Sour Chicken on the menu with Indomie, really tasty. And then after dinner it was time for drinks and games. At least I have been told. I was probably a bit tired and passed out on the couch. Luckily Viv was still sober , because she was only hitting me every 5 minutes with a plastic bottle of coke shouting at me that I should drink cola to feel better. She also was very loudly commenting that she knew the game but that the rules were different. So she was very constructive. O yeah and then she would hit me again with a bottle of coke to tell me to stay awake. When I finally made it to my bed I was so happy the room was not moving, but then Viv disappeared. She was testing if the sweet and sour chicken fitted through the sink....

Next morning we took it easy. Some of us were so late that breakfast had already closed and the kitchen would open again 2 hours later. We did another round of Golf and went for lunch to the bar at the swimming pool. Also here they had a great menu. I think it was something with Sweet & Sour Chicken and Indomie. They had a very interesting way of managing the variable menu on a black chalkboard. Normally you would wipe out with a sponge and water, but here they crossed it out with chalk.... We had a wonderful weekend and headed off home to our little Ayo. He stayed two days with Jackie and Graeme McLuggage. Graeme brought him back home.

Our next adventure was already waiting. We would go to Austria for 2 weeks.

Austria was mainly a health trip and a little fun with three days with Morgan (Kirsty couldn’t come) and our ski & family friends Louise and Ard. They arrived on Thursday March 17th. We went to Turracherhöhe, a 15 minutes ride from our house to organize skis for Ard and Louise. Robin was also with us, but she had to work from home. Armin joined us as well.

On Friday we went skiing early in the morning and it was just fantastic! Then we topped it of with nice lunch at K-Alm. Then we went home for some R&R and off we went for dinner in our favorite steakhouse. It is also known for the after dinner Don Papa rum.

On Saturday Robin joined us skiing. We went to St Oswald this day and again beautiful sunny weather and skied from there to the other side of Bad Kleinkirchheim. At one point we lost Ard, he’s used to ski in front, but here we know our way. He didn’t pay attention where we went. The only thing when you ski late in the season is that around noon, the snow gets slushy and heavy. We showed Morgan, Ard and Louise the ‘hotspots’ so we went for lunch at the Einkehr, with great Wiener schnitzels. On Sunday, after coffee at Falkert See, Ard Louise and Morgan drove back to Munich. Ard and Louise flew back to the Netherlands and Morgan went back home to see Kirsty and his youngest daughter.

On Monday morning we went first to do some shopping for our new kitchen to be. We made a very wise decision to buy a new kitchen for our house. After we finalized the new tiles we went to the dentist for Rob’s 2 wisdom teeth. Viv thought they were removed very quickly, in like 20 minutes. I felt it differently… and this feeling continued for days. For those who had some removed, you will recognise it. First a swollen face on one side. For days not able to put a spoon or fork in your mouth. Cutting your food so small that it almost looks like going through a blender. So as you can imagine I stayed for days feeling miserably on the couch. Viv went during that week for a 2 day trip to Vienna to have her yearly medical check up on any outfall of her breastcancer and luckily she got home again with her MOT renewed (in Dutch APK goedgekeurd) and hopefully clean for another year. Although we both feel that she is in a good shape it is always a nervous moment doing all these medical tests.

On Monday morning the stitches were removed and we started our trip back to Nigeria.

Here the rain season is slowly starting, so it is very humid with grey days. During our ‘medical’ trip, Arezoo from Iran had arrived and was staying for 10 days already in our house. Arezoo is a friend from Heineken. She was on a 1 year assignment in Nigeria during 2020 covid year and decided to come back for a 4 week holiday. So when we came home and opened the door we expected a jumping Ayo and very happy Arezoo to greet us. But unfortunately that evening Ayo was attacked by one of the other dogs in Bella Vista. Viv took him the next day to the Vet who fixed him and now he is back into his usual happy-up-and-down-jumping-state. And as I said already earlier. Live in Nigeria is back like before Covid.

We gave Arezoo some typical Dutch food, hutspot with rook worst (Dutch smoked sausage). We also played a lot of games in the evening and they did some crocheting together.

Party season is coming. Last night we had our first Indonesian "rice table" at our home after 2 years of covid shit. Two months ago Viv started painting the dogs of Jackie and Graeme. Beth, the dog on the right was still alive, but sadly she passed away a few weeks ago, she was 16 years old. She has given the whole McLuggage family many years of joy, she will be missed.

Heineken Champions Trophy Tour is back next week with Clarence Seedorf as ambassador . More about this in our next blog.

Ciao for now!

No Wahala!