Google Maps Satellite Imagery

It looks like Google have updated their satellite imagery for Lagos and Abuja. I'm not sure how old the images are but Lagos must be within the last 3 years, just looking at the various developments.

I've put together a map of various sights, take a look. Share anything else you discover in the comments.

Here are some of the highlights.

Abuja - National Assembly

Lagos - Eko Hotel

Lagos - National Theatre

Happy New Year

Hey guys,

It's 2008 and I have not left the shores of the United Kingdom in the past year. The issues that have prevented me returning to Nigeria are still ongoing and seem just as close to being resolved as they have been for the past 12 months or so.

I have moved on, I'm working self employed as a consultant engineer at a large IT firm. The work is a little boring, and I am starting to detest driving long distances (400 mile round trips sometimes.)

My OU courses finished well, I didn't get the Distinctions I was after, but had to settle with Grade 2 or 'B' for both courses. I don't know if it was the extra workload with the 90 points instead of 60 that I have done in previous courses, the fact that one of the courses was really difficult for me, or if it is the extra long hours of driving around like a sales rep struggling to hit their target.

I've more or less decided to stick to 60 points for this coming year, but I haven't selected which course yet. I need to choose soon though.

I do plan to update this blog more often with News from Nigeria, but it all depends on the time I have available.

Oh, Great!

Ex-Governor of Bayelsa State, Alamieyeseigha was sentenced to two years imprisonment for basically stealing everything he could get his hands on while in government. You may remember him as the guy who allegedly escaped police bail in London by dressing as a woman. After two days in prison he has been released.

Old News Update part 3: Chinua Achebe wins MAN booker prize

Hot on the heels of the announcement of Chimamanda Ngozi Adicie's victory, we hear about Chinua Achebe winning the 2007 MAN booker international prize

I read "Things Fall Apart" last year and I loved it. It's definitely one of those books I will read again, very few make it into that category. I am keen to add some of his other work to my reading list.

BBC, Guardian, Independent pay the story attention, and fellow bloggers also make some comments: Naijablog, Ore's Notes, Blacklooks and Talato-Carmen

Old News Update part 2: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wins Orange Broadband prize for fiction

One of my favourite new authors, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has won the Orange Broadband prize for fiction for her book "Half of a Yellow Sun". I read this book last year and I have to agree it is very good. (story on BBC, Independent)

Chimamanda gave a very interesting interview to the Guardian which is well worth a read.

The story is set during the time of the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) and portrays a vivid and, I'm told accurate, picture of what life was like for those trapped by the war.

Get it from your favourite bookshop: # ISBN-10: 0007200277, ISBN-13: 978-0007200276

Old News Update part 1 : Umaru Yar'Adua's inauguration

I have just finished a rather difficult assignment for OU which has been taking up most of my free time the last few weeks. So now I will finally get around to making a few updates which should have been done a while ago.

Yar'Adua Inaugurated as President of Nigeria

If you remember, I made some comments on the Nigerian Election and Yar'Adua's successful bid for the presidency. He has since been sworn in and visited the G8 summit in Germany and made promises to improve the election process.

He has declared his personal assets of $5 Million. He has now decided to form a "Government of National Unity" inviting members of the All Nigeria Peoples Party(ANPP), Action Congress (AC), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) to join with Yar'Aduas Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to form a government... I am sure this will take a lot of effort to sort out.

Meanwhile, there has been a long wait for the government to be formed and it looks like, finally, there will be a government in Nigeria very soon.

I am sure there are plenty of contracts to be signed when they finally get to work.

Update

Hey

I haven't updated since April, mostly because I've had little to report, and I'm feeling a bit down that I have been out of 9ja over 6 months now.

I've been making notes on some blog posts I'd like to do, and hopefully those will come out over the next few days. I've also been working on the new template for this blog. I've worked out a colour scheme I love, and now I'm just piecing together the CSS file so that everything will look, great. Should be ready any day, given enough free time.

Personally things are looking better for me, I have some work here in the UK. Nothing particularly challenging to be honest, just lots of driving around and lugging computer bits about, but it pays reasonably well. I'm still on the look out for the perfect job.

I have been continuing my OU studies and I have to say T209 is the most difficult course I have done yet. I am not enjoying it, yet I know I am learning some valuable skills in report writing and reading technical documents. I'm also trying to learn speed reading, because of the vast volumes of material I have had to read, but so far I'm not much better. My other course, M256 is going great.

Sad to see some Nigerian bloggers (Nkem and Chrome) have taken the red pill. Let's hope they find their way back here soon.

Nigerian President Elect: Umaru Yar'Adua

I think everyone is aware now that Umaru Yar'Adua has been confirmed as the President Elect after Elections on Saturday in Nigeria's Presidential Elections.

I don't think we will ever know the full facts of what was going on with all the chaos on Election Day, I just hope that Nigerians can accept this result, and work towards improving things for the next Election in 2011. Jeremy of NaijaBlog has summarised some constructive improvements to the Election procedure which I fully endorse.

From my point of view, The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Yar'Adua are very popular in Nigeria. Whether or not this is for the right reasons I cannot judge. It is the responsibility of the opposing party representatives to show the people why they might be wrong, but Nigerian Politics doesn't seem to work that way. If the Election had been transparent, free and fair I believe the same winner would be announced and for that reason I don't believe all of Nigeria is going to take to the streets in protest, but I am ready to be surprised.

It may be Fundamentaly Flawed but Nigeria has Elected a New president and the best thing, in my eyes, is for Nigerians to move forward and embrace this first ever handover of a Civilian Presidency because it is significant progress.

Voting in Lagos

Chippla Vandu of Chippla's Weblog has posted an outstanding account of one persons heroic effort to vote in the Gubernatorial Elections in Nigeria Yesterday.

Let us hope that the Presidential Elections next saturday (21st April) will go more smoothly.

Guardian UK: Lagos turns on Kickbacks

The Guardian (UK) has a story in their 'comment is free' section.

It doesn't really add anything new to the news from Nigeria but it's quite a good background piece on the current political climate.

Nigeria and Me.

I've had a number of comments asking why I'm not back in Nigeria.

Simple fact is that I was Supposed to be starting work on a new project in Nigeria at the beginning of the year but as those of you who have done business in Nigeria will no doubt know, such things very rarely happen on time in Nigeria, especially when elections are due.

I work with a formula, which I'm sure is a re-utterance of many other more enlightened people:

Time to do Business in Nigeria = Time Anticipated * Nigerian Factor

The Nigerian Factor is a concept quite hard to grasp without spending time in Nigeria. In my experience, in this formula it can be expressed as a number between 2 and infinity. The number is proportional to the number of people involved in the contract process with weighting for the political seniority of those involved and inversely proportional to the amount of bribes thrown around. Clearly bribery is out of the question if we want to keep our morals intact, so waiting is what we do.

Unless the miracle happens and a contract is signed I will be sitting here in the UK. I can't wait forever, so I may be making some difficult choices soon.

Meanwhile, I am just submitting my first sets of coursework for my two OU courses for this year, M256: "Software Development with Java" and T209: "Information and Communication Technologies: people and interactions".

Super Eagles Defeated By Black Stars

Nigeria and Ghana played a friendly match in London this evening.

If I'd planned better I could have been there to watch, but I didn't so I hoped to watch it on one of these channels I have on cable... No chance. So I resorted to hunting the web to find the score... And that's Much Harder than you think.

Eventually I tracked down the result on the Ghana FA website. Ghana won 4-1.

Well done Black Stars. Sorry-O Super Eagles.

National Geographic Features an article on the Niger Delta

Stealing links from other blogs is not a habit I like, but this article in the National Geographic, which came to my attention once again via Jeremy's blog, is worth spreading far and wide. The photos in the photo gallery will stick in my mind next time I fill my tank with Petrol.

Source: National Geographic

As a side note, the company I work for has often been involved in community projects sponsored by the oil companies, some are very successful, others, especially the most recent projects have suffered delays after delays. Mostly because of Political interference as far as we can tell.

Still in the UK

I'm still in the UK, no confirmed dates for my return yet.

I've spent my time working on a new CMS enabled corporate website for my employer, and in my spare time a new template for this blog, hopefully to include the new blogger features.

Apart from the dreadful Christmas Oil Pipeline Explosion that killed 260 people and the complaints about the ongoing fuel shortages, I haven't heard much from Nigeria. Shamefully I admit I haven't been reading much of the Nigerian press websites

It seems every other blog has jumped in on the "Celebrity" Big Brother Racism row. In my opinion Programmes like Big Brother are good reasons to throw away our televisions, but it seems some people do watch avidly including many Nigerian friends here in the UK. I'm not going to add anything to it myself, except suggest you read Nkem's posts (Bigot Brother, Bigot Brother coverage)

Home for Christmas

I'm back in the UK for Christmas, Cold, Damp and Foggy, just how Christmas should be IMHO. Lots to do before the day, so I doubt I will be blogging much.

I also have got the results of my two OU exams, as well as the overall course results.

For M255 (Object Oriented Programming with Java) I got 88% in the exam, with my overall coursework mark of 99% gives me a Distinction.

For MT262 (Putting Computer Systems to Work) I got 95%, with my overall coursework mark of 97% also gives me a Distinction.

Oddly before I started the courses I would have said I knew Java better, but perhaps that was a hindrance considering that I achieved a much better score in the C++ exam (MT262) than the Java (M255). It's surely a testament to the OU teaching material anyway.

PHCN/NEPA Pre Payment Meters

PHCN have recently provided us with a new Meter for our power consumption. This meter is a pre-payment meter meaning we have to purchase credit from the PHCN offices and then enter the code given on the receipt into the meter to get power. A display on the front indicates the kWH remaining for your current credit.



Since installation there are many problems that make this new meter a complete nuisance

1. The Meter will only indicate what credit remains or allow you to enter more credit when there is power - When there's no credit the only way you can tell there is power is that a zero is shown on the LCD display


2. If you run out of credit you better hope it's not at night or on a Sunday, the office is closed!


3. Our consumption seems to be measured much higher on the new system. We will be using test equipment on ours soon to confirm it.


4. According to some sources we will be paying ₦50,000 for this meter in 24 monthly instalments - We did not ask for this meter, nor were we given a choice so why should we pay? - Also we paid for the old meter too so why were those removed from our premises without permission?


5. PHCN sent us a ₦7562.10 Power Bill for December after we had the pre-payment meter installed in November!

Bah! This is Shenanigans!

My First Trip: A Retrospective

I have now published all the diary entries from my first trip to Nigeria in 2000. Looking back through them for me has been an interesting experience, many events I had forgotten, and some of my thoughts surprised me. I only vaguely recognise the person that wrote those notes.

Obviously I had to edit a lot of the details, some things would only be understood by my friends and family in the UK, so I cut those bits out. I removed names of everyone except public people, such as the chap who ran Planet 44.

Things changed quite quickly after those early days, Money was restricted so that we no longer enjoyed late night partying catered for by the company, My pay was set at a level somewhat lower than I was expecting. The same with my per diem. Working with Canadians proved quite difficult with different time zones, having to wait until 9am in Calgary before we could contact anybody which would be 5pm in Lagos, just when we were thinking about going home.

In 2001 I contracted Malaria, just after visiting our Canadian offices at Easter, and suffered with it for over two weeks. This was despite taking the anti-malarial drugs as directed. At that time I hadn't heard of Artemisinin and did not question the doctor giving me quinine based drugs. The drugs certainly shifted the Malaria but gave me terrible itching of the utmost discomfort.

In the end, the project I came to Nigeria to work on failed in 2002. Not because we couldn't do the job, but because we lost a LOT of money in a Bank Fraud, only a small part of which was ever recovered. For 2003 I was working in the UK, until march 2004 when I was called back to Nigeria to work with another company, established by my British colleagues from the old Canadian company. I started work on the project that I am just finishing now. This project too has had it's financial problems but nothing on the scale of that first project.

Basically, to summarise, I think now I do understand life in Nigeria a bit more, I feel more like a resident than a visitor, despite my UK tax status which still says I'm a UK Resident. I enjoy the challenges of living here, Every day is different. The Nigerian people impress me with their ability to believe a dire situation will improve. Now, I believe it will improve, given enough time and people whose interests lie away from the goal of fantastic wealth.

There is wonderful beauty in Nigeria, if you can tolerate a whole heap of Ugliness that's in the way, you can find it.

My First Trip: Day Twenty Six

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Friday 15th December 2000

5:30 my alarm went off, it was dark outside. Thankfully the water was still working now and I could get my last shower and pack my wash bag into my suitcase. I had a knock on the door from M3... who wanted to check I was up. I went down for breakfast at 6. After breakfast I brought down my bags and J3... took them out to the car for me. D... told be to keep N1000 in case I had to bribe my way through customs and split whatever I had left over with M3... J3... and M4.... I had N1500 so that was lucky. So I thanked M3... and M4... for looking after me and handed them N500 each. they wished me a good Christmas and said they looked forward to seeing me in the new year. I got in the car with D... and we were off to the airport. It was getting lighter now and I recognised the roads I'd travelled nearly four weeks ago on my way in.

We got to the airport and were immediately hounded by people trying to carry my luggage (in exchange for a tip) but J3... shooed them away and handed my luggage to me and D.... I gave J3... his N500 and waved goodbye.

And so to check in, I had my suitcase checked, they wanted to know what I was carrying, I had two folding tables inside that D... wanted me to take back for him. They wanted me to prove that I wasn't stealing African art treasures. In the end they gave up, I think they worked out that there weren't many folding tables around in pre-colonial Nigeria. After that it was plain sailing to the cafe where I got a coke and then went to the boarding lounge. Before we boarded the plane we had to go out onto the tarmac to identify our suitcases before they put them on the plane. I don't know why they do this, but if you don't identify your luggage it stays in Nigeria. This happened to D... on his first trip.

While I was waiting to board I had a talk to another British traveller who was about my age, the first I'd seen. He was impressed at the number of bars I'd been to since I'd been there, he was also impressed that I'd stayed for nearly 4 weeks on my first trip. He'd only ever stayed two.

We boarded and I had a window seat near the very back of the plane in row 51. It was a better plane than the one that brought me here, it had individual TV screens for every passenger in the back of the seat in front. I could choose what to watch now. There's also a handy map channel that shows you where you are and other information like altitude, ground speed, outside air temperature (-59C over the Sahara, I had frost on my window) and Estimated arrival time.

There was a patch of bad turbulence on the way over the Sahara and we climbed to 39,000 feet or nearly 12 Km. There's not much to see when flying over the desert, I think I saw a herd of wildebeest but it just looked like a rippling black blob so it could have been something else.

Eventually I saw the white cliffs of Dover and there was only 60 miles left till Heathrow. It was darkening now and while we circled over London waiting for our turn to land it became night.

This side, customs was a breeze. I skipped past all the Nigerian immigrants and went straight in to the queue for EU passport holders. There was only 5 or six in the queue, a quick scan of my passport and I was welcomed home. I found a seat to use while I waited for my suitcase to come around, It eventually did and I was out of there.

I needed to change my Bus Ticket so that I could go from Heathrow instead of Gatwick like my Ticket indicates. I found the Coach Ticket shop and had my ticket changed, it cost me £1.50. I was told to look out for the 202 bus arriving at 18:10. It was only just 17:15 so I went wandering around the airport for a while. I bought some snacks to keep me going and then headed out to the bus shelter. It was very cold out here, I opened my suitcase to get my fleece out and put it on. It made things a little better but not much. I was missing Nigeria already.

I saw a bus come in around 18:15 numbered 201. It said it was going to Cardiff but since it wasn't the number I was told to get I assumed that it didn't stop in Newport. At 19:00 I decided that I'd better check with the ticket shop again because my bus hadn't shown up. They told me that the bus had been and gone at 18:15. The Cardiff Bus. I complained that it said 201 but they said it should have been 202 and there was nothing they could do. By the time I'd paid another £1.50 to get the next bus, it had arrived and gone, it was early this time. So I had to change it again and get the next one at 20:10. They let me have this one free though.

So eventually I got a bus and I was so cold I could hardly move. Luckily the bus was quite warm and I managed to sleep a little on the way. I hardly noticed a thing between Reading and Bristol.

I had arranged for mum to pick me up at 9:15, I finally arrived in Newport at 11:15 and had to phone her to get her to pick me up. Eventually she came and we sped home.

My First Trip: Day Twenty Five

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Thursday 14th December 2000

Today was my last day at the office and there wasn't a lot to do. D... had his press conference with 100 expected attendees with the Commissioner for Information. I had been invited to give some moral support but I had enough of meeting government officials in the first week I had here, and I didn't particularly want to be in the newspapers or on the TV.

This was also M1...'s last day here, he was leaving tonight, and we both went to the British Airways office on VI together so I could confirm my ticket for tomorrow morning and M1... could check in. D... had been unable to find his ticket after his recent move and wanted me to enquire about replacing a lost ticket.

In the afternoon D2... came around again with his laptop, and wanted me to go with him to his house to see If I could get him connected to the internet, he'd been unsuccessful so far, and had no trouble when he connected at the office. So J3... took us over at about 3pm and I was expecting somewhere pretty decent for a solicitor, but no. It was a huge, ugly block of flats. We couldn't get the car into the car park on the first try because there is a speed bump outside that would require a JEEP to get over. since the Lumina we were in is very low to the ground we didn't really want to risk getting hooked up. The other road around to the car park was almost as bad with potholes that should be called craters. Eventually we make it and I go with D2... to his flat. The heat in here was very bad, no NEPA and no AC anyway. I was taken to his office and sat down. I picked up the handset of the phone and immediately realised what the most likely cause of D2...'s problem was. The line was very noisy, like radio static and sometimes it took two or three tries just to get a dial-tone.

I tried hooking the laptop up and while it dialled it made some of the strangest noises I've ever heard. It got nowhere of course. Eventually I gave up, by this time I was sweating all over. D2... offered me a drink but since he's fasting for Ramadan I thought it polite not to take it.

So at around 5 I got back to the office, D... had come back and had now gone to the house, M1... had arranged to have dinner at 5 so that he could eat with us one last time before leaving that night. After dinner we saw him off and went inside to shower and change. D... had decided to move into M1...'s vacated room tonight so that he could be here to take me to the airport tomorrow morning.

So it was decided to have one last trip to Planet 44 - we did the Original Sins, B52s and the E... ice-cream thing.

So we went back to the house for sleep in preparation for an early 5:30am start and a goodbye to Nigeria and my good friends.

My First Trip: Day Twenty Four

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Wednesday 13th December 2000

Today was the Christmas party at the office. Since E... was leaving today and needed to pack, D... was called upon to conduct the award ceremony where those who have been with the company x amount of years get an award. We've been too busy to sort out anything special so the awards this time which were all for 5 years service were just a simple $100 bill. They seemed very happy with it though. for 10 years they get a big screen TV.

The staff all seemed to enjoy themselves, M4... and M3... had brought food from the house and served it out for us.

Cosmas turned up during the party to confirm that the delivery of computers would be on Friday, too late for me to supervise.

All the staff at our office in Akure, had come to Lagos to join our party. Last year D... and M1... were working in Akure where they butchered and barbecued a goat (not themselves obviously) to celebrate Christmas. No goat this year thankfully. Just Pork Chops, Chicken and Rice, there was free beer that had been brought from our house for everyone. E... likes to tell the tale of him working on the expenses sheet and having to type in, "one goat". He was wondering what sort of response would arise in Calgary but nobody noticed. Probably because it was so inexpensive. There seemed to be a bit of confusion with M4... and he didn't manage to get the food to the office until 2pm and we didn't start eating until 3 because they wanted to get the award ceremony out of the way first. We decided that having a final meal with E... at 5 would be stretching things a bit far so we cancelled our dinner with M4... and arranged to go out.

At about 4:30 I went back to the house to see E... go back to Calgary, about an hour later we had a phone-call to say he'd made it through customs and was now sitting in the bar in the departure lounge drinking a pint of becks.

At 9pm we went to planet 44 for a snack, we were all pretty full from lunch. I had an egg burger which was more of a meal really. E... had left a cheque for us to take to Ranni to pay our bills for the last few weeks. I looked over one of them and we had spent N20,000 (£120) in one night on drinks. No wonder Ranni is always pleased to see us.

My First Trip: Day Twenty Three

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Tuesday 12th December 2000

Aside from the fact that I had absolutely nothing to do there was only one thing interesting about today.

I GOT PAID!

I was handed £xxx to cover my travel and medical expenses and $yyy ($zz for every working day including travelling days)

I've never seen real $100 or $50 bills before and now I've got $xxx of each. When America finally makes up its mind to elect George W Bush as president they expect the dollar to get stronger for a while so I'll get more pounds that way. Woo Hoo, last time I checked it was 1.4547 $/£ which means I take home about £yyy. which isn't bad for 4 weeks work I think. I should have my rate increased when I come back so that should be even nicer.

D... was paid his as well, He's asked me to carry some of his money home for him, I'm a bit worried about customs searches but D... thinks it'll be OK

My First Trip: Day Twenty Two

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Monday 11th December 2000

This week is meant to be my busiest week according to D... but I'm still not sure exactly what he means. I've got to wait for the PC's to arrive and then all I'll be doing is setting them up unless that. I'll no doubt have plenty of help. The problem I think we're going to have is that D... wants to put PC's on every desk and some desks just won't take it, because they are already full with drawings and paperwork. It looks like they want me to install the network rather than get someone else to do it. I'll have to work out some measurements of my own before I leave so I can get the right amount of cable, for when I return in January, that is if I can get a new visa. The visa I have is valid for three months but only for one trip, so unless I stay here over Christmas I'll have to go to the Nigerian High Commission in London to explain. I have every intention of returning on Friday.

Things are so frustrating here, when I went to Hyperia last week I checked out when two of our accounts expired and they showed me the date on the system to be expiring in April 2001. Today, we get a message when dialling in that our passwords are not correct. We phone technical support at hyperia to discover that our accounts expired yesterday. I got one up on them though because I discovered I could dial in with the username and password of the account we created a few days ago for D2... and check the email accounts that were meant to have expired. Hah, email for free now.

You get such unbelievably bad service from them it's hard to imagine that they are the best available in Nigeria. It makes us want to set up our own ISP here that charges a lot less, provides a solid 24hr service with excellent connections speed and full net access on all accounts.

D2... came in complaining that the Laptop I'd set up for him wouldn't dial in so he could check his mail. I took it from him and tried it. It worked first time. I even tried it on an analogue line we have in the office just in case it was the fact that there is a digital exchange on this particular line that was making it work, but after a while the analogue line worked too. So I told him it was probably line noise at his house. It wasn't anything to do with me using his account earlier because he was trying it last night.

My First Trip: Day Twenty One

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Sunday 10th December 2000

Breakfast

I got up at 8:30 to go with D... for breakfast with D2..., but D... didn't show up until 9:30 which was too late for the breakfast outing. Never mind.

Sunday lunch on the beach

Afterwards we headed back to the house to change out of our sweat drenched clothes and get ready to go to the beach for lunch. By the time we got our food it was 4pm. Neither me or D... had eaten for 20 hours, longer than B2... that's for sure. Barbecued Chicken and Chips on the beach for Sunday lunch makes a change though. Especially in December.

B2... had been trying out the reconditioned Mazda truck we just bought by running it out to the beach we were at. It broke down about halfway to the beach so he had to get a taxi back to the house to get the Toyota Landcruiser to tow the Mazda back and then come to the beach in the Landcruiser. So he had a pretty tough time. A Nigerian woman with us ordered fish for lunch which made me feel a bit ill when I saw her eating the heads. M1... hadn't eaten his fish head so she ate that as well, all of it. Uurgh! I finished my chicken and all that was left was bone and gristle. A small boy called me from outside the beach house and pointed to the bones. So I handed them over and he proceeded to eat them by crunching straight through. I hope he didn't choke.

We weren't quite so pestered with beach vendors today, I didn't buy anything at all, I would have bought this nice Breitling watch (fake of course) but the guy wouldn't accept my price. So I told him to go away and think about it. He didn't come back. D... ordered his Bar that he's having made. It's solid mahogany with hand Carved elephants on the front. An amazing bargain at N45,000. He wanted to have a cheap shed built for a generator housing at the Apartment. That was going to be made of mahogany too. How much is a mahogany garden shed worth in the UK? It seems to be easiest wood to get here. There was some guy trying to sell me ivory statues, and another trying to sell me a sword. As if I'd even attempt to take those through customs.

I did see some interesting bracelets before, they were made of Cobra skin, and they felt and looked amazing. I wasn't too sure if I knew anybody that would appreciate them as much, so I didn't buy them. I think K1... bought some of them for her daughters while she was here.

The sun disappeared behind the smoggy skyline and we had 30 minutes or so to get home before dark.

For our evening meal we went to Planet 44 at about 9pm. D..., M1... and E... each had a steak after they saw the one I had last time. I had Beef Stroganoff because nobody had tried that yet. It was good, except it tasted a bit too much of cheese, which is strange because I'm sure Beef stroganoff is usually not at all cheesy.

They had rather irritating live music so we left quite quickly. and headed back to the house to watch the Matrix and then get some sleep.

Back From Abuja

Just a note to say I'm back in Lagos, after my short trip to Abuja.

I didn't get much chance to go out and see the city but what I saw made me wish to go back sooner rather than later. On my return to Lagos, I felt the tension rise in me as we hit traffic coming from the airport and we didn't leave traffic until we reached home on VI. I've decided on my next trip, when I feel I need a vacation I will spend a weekend in Abuja to chill out, perhaps not at the Le Meridien next time though.

Lagos needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into order but I have no idea where it should start. Have the Police and Other officials properly enforce traffic laws, especially for Public Transport, is probably as good a place as any.

I also recently went to a hospital in Lagos for the first time to visit a friend, that was quite an experience but I can't tell you about it. It made me realise I have to take more care over my travel insurance - Mine expires tomorrow!

My First Trip: Day Twenty

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Saturday 9th December 2000

Ugg 2

One Major Hangover I can tell you. (Sorry Mum) I couldn't move until about 11am and then I staggered downstairs for a coffee. I managed to eat some Pringles to keep me going till M3... made the sandwiches for lunch. M3... really impressed me when upon seeing my state offered me dry bread instead of the usual stack of stuff in a bun. M3...'s sandwiches are too good to refuse so I accepted the sandwich as it was, but I had to pace myself a bit.

I was too fragile to do anything useful today, not that anybody else was either. I sat around watching TV, worked on this diary for a bit until dinner. Giant Pork Chops, rice and tomato sauce. I had no idea you could get pigs this big, must have been as big as a cow.

In a brave attempt to heave myself back out into the world we went back to Planet 44 for a while but I wasn't really in the mood to drink.

I came in about 11:30 and went to bed. It had been quite a tough day.

My First Trip: Day Nineteen

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Friday 8th December 2000

One Week To Go!

Friday at last. In one weeks time I'll be on my way home for Christmas. I was first down for breakfast again, another helping of fresh fruit. D... turned up at the same time as M1... and E... came down. I let D... and E... head off to the office while I waited to go with M1... who was on the phone to Calgary.

First thing I went with J4... to Hyperias office to set up an account for email access. it cost 20,000 Naira and we paid in 50s so it took a while to count. They set up the new account and said it would be active at midday. For an internet company they had very few computers in their offices.

Worms 2

D2... the company solicitor is getting the new email account for the laptop I'm fixing for him. P...'s virus removal instructions arrived this morning and I cleaned out the nasty bits from each of the computers. The worm found its way to D... from this old laptop that's being given to D2... While I was testing it earlier this week I sent an email using the account already installed on the machine to D..., so that we could verify I had set it up correctly. I had no idea at the time but I had infected him with the virus. It cleverly adds itself to your email signature and using outlook express it's completely invisible, you wouldn't know you had it until your computer suddenly shuts down when you open an email.

D2... was coming around to have a meeting with D... and E... and he wanted to pick the laptop up. He came with us to the house for lunch and M3... had been told to prepare an extra plate. What had been forgotten was that D2... is currently fasting for Ramadan. Oops. Still he's invited me & D... out to breakfast on Sunday morning for fixing his laptop, so I don't think he's sticking to it very hard. Unless he means breakfast at 5:30 or something.

Dinner tonight was spagbol. Mmmmm.

Happy Birthday Ranni

As it was Friday night it is standard procedure to go out somewhere for the evening. We'd had an invite to Ranni's Birthday Party at planet 44 so We showed up and invented only 2 drinks this time. The cake was interesting because it was made of ice-cream and meringue. Ranni was forty today. Today was also the 20th anniversary of John Lennon's Murder.

My First Trip: Day Eighteen

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Thursday 8th December 2000

Morning M3...

M3...'s first breakfast was good. Instead of V...'s separate grapefruit and fruit salad dishes the two were mixed together. It was really tasty. E... was impressed because he didn't have to sugar his grapefruit.

There wasn't much to do today. I was waiting for D... to sort out the LPO so that I could take it to Cosmas, and that was it. So I twiddled my thumbs for a bit, and then went to the house for lunch. We had corned beef in the sandwiches today, and that was really good.

Worms

In the afternoon D... had an email from K3... to say that every email D... had sent to him today gave an error message that an unsafe ActiveX object was embedded in it that it would not use, and that it might not display properly. Sounds strange I thought.

So I investigated to try and find out what was happening and I discovered that every email D... had sent in the last couple of days had an attachment embedded inside that made all sorts of changes to your system. Realising that this was an email worm, I sent a few Details to P... So he could get from the internet the details I needed to clear it out manually and send them to me.

D... sent an email to everybody he'd written to over the last few days to warn them, and also making sure that if they hadn't got infected the first time they would now.

At 6 we hadn't left the office yet and the guy who's getting us our new office furniture brought round a chair to show us. It wasn't exactly what D... had asked for but it was very good quality. D... told him to bring around some tomorrow with higher backs.

Hot Hot Hot Soup

Dinner tonight was brilliant. It started with a spicy vegetable soup It tasted like he'd put half a bottle of Tabasco in it. I think it was a bit too hot for D... but I loved it. Following the soup was peppered steak and chips. Fantastic.

There weren't any good films on tonight so everybody went to bed. I was the last up at 10:30 and just as I was brushing my teeth the phone started ringing. I really couldn't be bothered to walk all the way to the phone and I figured it wouldn't be for me anyway and that whoever it was would figure out we've gone to bed with out me having to tell them.

My First Trip: Day Seventeen

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Wednesday 6th December 2000

Bye Bye V...

I came down for breakfast this morning at 7:15 and I was the first up. V... greeted me and asked me how I spelled my name. He thought it was spelled Haran for some reason, so I corrected him. Quite a few people who have asked my name have asked me if I'm Jewish, LOL, V... didn't though. Eventually the other guys turned up and they all looked worried, about how they day would turn out. I had made sure I'd be tucked out of the way when they gave this poor man the bad news.

So off we went to the office, my main mission today was to finalise the deal for the computers. This is fun, I've never been responsible for 2.6 million before even if it is only Naira. So I went off to Surulere where this company, Computer Warehouse, is based. I arrived and met Cosmas, our contact and told him we were ready to place the order, and after a little confusion over the delivery dates we were agreed. So we are about to leave and Cosmas asks me for my LPO. I had no idea what he meant. He showed me an example and it was an official company headed Purchase order form with all the details of the order enclosed. So we had to head back to the office and get that sorted. We needed to get some quotes for networking installation and I asked Cosmas before leaving if they could do it. He called this other guy to see me and we arranged for him to call at the office that afternoon to measure up.

Enter M3...

While all this was going on poor V... was getting booted out and the new guy M3... was preparing lunch for the first time. it was now nearly 1pm and I was going to miss this first meal. I had some cash so before going back to the office we went to Mr Biggs for food. I had Special Fried Rice and Chicken which cost me 180 Naira. about £1.06.

I got back to the office and D... came in just after me with a wrapped sandwich for me. M3... had made me food after all and they brought it for me to eat. it was good. Similar to V..'s with more red onions. Mmmmm.

What's an LPO anyway?

D... had a meeting with people that afternoon and locked himself away in E...s office. He left me to deal with getting this LPO sorted and showing the network guy around. To get the LPO L... told me I had to talk to M4... who had all the letterheads on her computer. She wasn't around and nobody knew where she was. So I had to go and explain this to Cosmas. He told me he could start the order process if the quotation was signed and dated with a note to say that the offer was accepted. I had to interrupt the meeting to get D... to sign the quotation. Then the Networking guy needed taking around to measure each of the rooms and be told where we would like the workstations to have access points. So that was my job and I was just making wild guesses about some of the locations, but I think I got most of it right. The guy seemed happy enough with my description and seemed capable enough himself. I knew he'd asked me the right questions to get the job done properly.

Fish

With all that out of the way it was time to get some dinner. M3...'s first dinner. Well, it was battered fish, so I wasn't too impressed but all the other guys thought it was great and had extra helpings of it. I just had the one piece of fish and a pile of rice. there was plenty of dressings available to hide the fish with so I managed OK.

This was also the first time I had met M3..., and we weren't properly introduced. I think M2... has told him all he might need to know about us, he seemed familiar with the fridges and locations of bottle openers and things so I think he'll be OK.

There was a film on the TV called Go! which entertained me for a while until I got fed up with the British guy in it. The Matrix is on this channel on Sunday and E... and M1... have never seen it so I hope we are around to watch it.

My First Trip: Day Sixteen

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Tuesday 5th December 2000

Bad news for V...

There's a bit of a lull in the air this morning. Since K1... and J2... left there's been peace and quiet (except for the generator and AC) and it's been great. Also a difficult decision had been made. V... our cook was to be fired because of differences he was having with all the other staff. Now this seemed a bit stupid to me, Firing probably one of the best cooks in Nigeria, but D... pointed out his lack of control where alcohol and women were involved and that he causes so much trouble for the rest of the staff living in the compound. He also mentioned the suspicions he has that he's been stealing various bits and pieces from the house, like table lamps, video recorders and food. So I can see the point.

The thing about firing a cook is that you don't want to eat a meal from him after you fire him, because you might regret it. Things have to be done quickly and this is what I had difficulty with. He was to have no warning, tomorrow morning after our breakfast he'd be invited into E...'s office and given the bad news. A driver would be sent to help him move his stuff out of the house and take him wherever he wanted to go. Since he lives in the grounds of the house, he'd need to find somewhere to live which is why he'd be fired early in the morning so he had a chance to find a bed for the night.

It still feels like, the rich white man wins again, so I'm a bit upset. I think we all are. He obviously has problems outside work that are affecting him. That's probably why he's always drunk at lunchtime, If those problems were known to us something might have been done a long time ago to solve it.

D... has already found a replacement called M3... which is a bit harder to pronounce than V.... M3... would come in tomorrow lunchtime to prepare lunch and be the resident cook from then on.

Moving L...

So that's what was hanging over all of our heads today. E... had asked me to help L..., his assistant move to the desk near the safe. Which is by D...'s desk where I usually sit. Thinking about it for a while I asked if it would be easier just to move the safe. And nobody could think of a reason why not so we gave it a go. First I tried but it would just not move at all. It was firmly stuck in place. We called the Driver, C... to come and have a go. C... is a BIG man that would scare off the odd armed robber by just stepping out of the car, but he couldn't shift it either. While C... was struggling away N... came in with Coffee and told us that when the safe was installed they dug a deep hole and filled it with concrete and there was part of the safe going deep down into that concrete. So effectively it was bolted to the floor. How stupid are we?

I don't know if I've mentioned the power system here but if you can imagine every type of plug, every type of socket and every type of voltage being mixed together randomly, you might get an idea. Some sockets are labelled 110V some 220V and some not at all. I took great care when moving L...'s PC making sure I had the right adaptors for the plugs, and the right voltage eventually I got it working after only giving one 110V surge protector the biggest and last surge of it's short life. Bang. Smoke. Bad Smell.

So we took our last lunch with V... and came back to the office. I was sent out with J4... Our CAD office man, to Hyperia's Tech support office to see if we could get a new account set up for D2... the company Solicitor, and to see about a few other things. It costs N20,000 a year for just email access. that's £140. I think we could set up a shared internet dialup account. for 85,000 and all use hotmail or something. Might suggest that when we have the network installed.
Yawn

I did pretty much nothing for the rest of the day and went back for our last dinner with V.... E... opened a bottle of wine. We had chicken and potatoes. it was yummy.

There was talk of going out but everyone was too tired again. so off to bed.

My First Trip: Day Fifteen

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Monday 4th December 2000

Not a particularly interesting day

Well everyone was tired today, everybody except me was either ill or in pain so I found that quite amusing in my own sadistic way. J3... sorted D...'s temperature out with some "magic potion" Which turned out to be Andrews Liver Salts. It did the trick though I think because he seemed much better within half an hour of taking them.

My Job today was to produce an evaluation document for all the quotations I'd been getting for the 15 PC's and say why I think the Dells offered the best value. I even managed to throw in some excel sheets that showed it all mathematically too.

J2... and K1... left the office around 3 to prepare to leave for the airport. This was the last I saw of them. Before they left we had another group photo session outside.

Dinner was a chicken wing salad followed this spicy beef pasta thing. It was pretty tasty

Everybody being tired meant that the house was asleep by about 9pm, So I sat around watching the telly which was boring, and then wandered up to bed myself.

Abuja Photos

I've posted a handful of my Abuja photographs to flickr, but haven't had chance to update any captions or organise them into sets at the time of posting this.

Here's a couple to check out.

Abuja

I'm in Abuja for a few days, My first time!

Looking around I am very impressed at the way things are working here, and I wonder what it is about Lagos that makes it so much more oppressive.

The roads are moving freely, buildings are spaced apart nicely with some very nice architecture around the place too. The weather is hot and dry in the day but quite cool at night as I experienced from my balcony in my hotel room. Cars and buses don't park on main roads blocking up the whole system, and everyone seems more relaxed.

Having said that, an Oyibo took me out last night to see some of the city and as he was backing his car out of the hotel car park he smashed straight into another parked car. Nobody saw us, and there was no apparent damage (bumper to bumper) so we went away quickly ;-)

I've just managed to get on-line at my hotel, I did get on-line yesterday but the connection was very poor. My problem is I need two power sockets, one for my laptop and one for my wireless bridge which I need because none of the wireless cards I have work well with linux.

Will post some pictures if I get online again with my camera to hand. If not when I get back to Lagos.

My First Trip: Day Fourteen

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Sunday 3rd December 2000

Lagos

Me, D... and M... decided to go to the beach. Some of the stuff the beach vendors carry around is so nice, I really want it, but getting a 3 foot solid teak giraffe that weighs 20 kilos home, could be a challenge. Plus I have a feeling that a Giraffe would look a bit out of place in the UK. It looks great here though.

Dining out

Eventually we got back to the house to take the others out for dinner at a place called Santa Fe, It's a Tex-Mex restaurant with plenty of choice. We sat round a large round table and enjoyed a good meal. J2... and K1... are leaving tomorrow evening for a 17 hour journey back to Calgary so this was their last night. D... was feeling under the weather with a bit of a temperature so he didn't really enjoy himself.

Well we were all really tired now and needed another good nights sleep.

And so completes my second week in Lagos

The Last(?) Bob's Bar Bash

Last night Bob Ackerman, Bob of Bob's Bar, hosted the last outdoor music party at his venue. As I've mentioned before, the NAPEX compound has been purchased from the Nigerian Army/Federal Government and the new owner wishes all the current tenants to vacate. According to Bob last night, they now have until January 31st 2007, but he still said that this would be the last party. I've heard rumours elsewhere that some tenants have been given until the end of March.

Bob hinted that there's a plan to reopen in a new venue in the future, but did not make any commitments. Certainly Lagos night life for many expat's will be a different experience after it's gone.

As this was the last time, I took along my camera and took a few shots. It's night time so much of them are quite dark but you should be able to make them out. Click on the photo or the link above to see the set of photos.

My First Trip: Day Thirteen

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Saturday 2nd December 2000

Saturday Again!

Woo Hoo, Lazy Saturday, I got up about 8:30 and nobody else was around at all so I got a cup of coffee and read a book in the lounge for a while. There wasn't really a need to bring many books they have an area upstairs in what might be considered a landing, where there is a sofa and armchairs and loads and loads of books and magazines stacked on shelves.

Eventually J2... showed up and I grabbed a bowl of fruit and chatted to her about some work things. D... turned up at about 11am after he's been to a tenants meeting for his apartment block. nobody had turned up he said. D... and E... were to go to a Press Conference about the Lagos State project. They got lunch at a really good Chinese restaurant. Meanwhile I went shopping to get some supplies for the house. K1... & J2... came along and J3... came along to make sure we bought the right stuff. The ladies also needed to go to a pharmacy to get some pills for a case of Nigerian Tummy. (nothings affected me yet - I feel as good as ever)

Shopping again

Shopping was fun, we needed two trolleys one for food and one for the three boxes of water we need. We've got a corporate account here too so no fiddly cash has to be handed out. M... turned up from his meeting with Chevron the big oil company here and helped us out with a few of the obscure items we couldn't find, like a potato masher and bicarbonate of soda. V... had prepared the list so the handwriting was a bit hard to interpret.

A nasty beach

After shopping we hit the beach, this was definitely the worst one so far, although its not far from the house. K1... dragged me down to the sea, and the waves were huge. K1... said that the waves she saw in Hawaii were just the same. Looking around we could see something that looked like a crucifix sticking out of the water further down, we weren't sure if it was a mast from a ship or even a diving platform so we wandered down the sand to take a look. It took us about an hour to get close enough to make out that it was a sunken ship, and a big one, possibly a freight liner. It had probably run aground or sunk at sea and washed in. We saw some pretty awful things walking down that beach. (DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH UNLESS YOU REALLY, REALLY, REALLY WANT TO KNOW.) First there was a woman defecating right next to us, then we saw a dead goat floating around just on the shoreline (LAST CHANCE NOW!!)and to top it off on our way back we noticed a rotting human corpse with a picked clean grinning skull just staring at us with its empty eye sockets. At first I thought it was a man asleep, something that is not an uncommon sight, but then I realised he looked pretty thin, and then I noticed his head had no flesh on it. He was definitely dead - for how long though? I understand that after 2 or 3 days a body puffs up bursting the seams of clothing with all the gases from the fermentation going on inside, eventually this comes out and the body dries out and things start wasting away. There wasn't much left on this guy, but that could be because of crabs and birds I suppose. As the locals say on such occasions, "Welcome to Nigeria", I can imagine a postcard with the picture of this body on it with text in large friendly letters saying that. On the back I'd write "Wish You Were Here - Instead Of Me". (NB. I knew you'd read it but I bet you wish you hadn't)

The Welsh Beach Embassy

This is the beach with the bar that D... calls The Welsh Beach Embassy on it. It's really just a bar with well priced beer, that D... likes and one day they gave him a baseball cap for being a good customer. In return he brought them a Welsh flag to draw in the Ex Pats. It works too, except now six months on the flag is looking a little the worse for wear. But its a strange sight I can tell you. I'll try and get a photo, but I don't really want to go back to that beach too soon.

We had dinner at the house with pork chops, something about picking the meat off the bone seemed wrong to me today, so I didn't eat much of it. There was plenty of chips and beans though.

Afterwards we went to Planet 44 for drinks - I really needed them - we got some food from the appetisers menu, just a sample of everything. I don't see much of a niche for a Lebanese restaurant in the UK, but it was pretty good, nice food and very different.

Back home now though, we were planning to get to the meeting in Lagos in the morning and it was now gone midnight.

My First Trip: Day Twelve

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from December 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Friday 1st December 2000

December in the Sun

I want my advent calendar! I found a few bars of Toblerone in the fridge this morning so I got a chocolate fix. This was the first piece of chocolate I'd had since the Crunchie I had on the plane. Wow it was good. I've seen some unfamiliar Cadbury products on the shelves at Park 'n' Shop. Something called Tom Tom which is like a menthol éclair according to what I'm told. I'd like to try that just to figure out what on earth it would taste like. There is an advertisement here that celebrates the 30th anniversary of Tom Toms so they are pretty well established here.

J2... had pointed out a couple of problems with my printouts yesterday so I printed some more out. It wasn't my fault. The paper had skewed in the printer so that it didn't look straight. A couple more people turned up today and had nothing to do so they went to J2...'s training session. They needed a certificate for the PowerPoint session they were taking.

Having fun at work

Fridays at the office are the days that most of the staff dress up in traditional African clothing. So to cause a few giggles we decided to go to work in Traditional African clothing too. I hoped we wouldn't be offending anyone. I only had the shirt, which I borrowed from D..., but E..., D..., J2... and K1... each had the full costume without the hats, which seem to only fit black people. M... didn't have his outfit with him so he was the only white person not dressed up. I took my camera to get some pictures of us all. All of the Nigerian staff were very impressed, and thought we'd done something really good. I... the receptionist wanted to know what the celebration was. We just said, "It's Friday."

For most of the day I was sitting around waiting for printouts. We were expecting some quotes for PC's to arrive but nothing had happened. C... from the people offering Dell computers came round to see me again, to find out why we hadn't bought his computers yet. he tells me they require a 75% deposit at the time of the order. I think we'll have to give Dell UK a call to check them out first.

Group Photos

The AC was being serviced at the office in the afternoon, so we went outside for a bit, where there's a slight breeze. We took some group photos of everyone in the office, there were a surprising amount of people. I hope to be able to name every face on the photographs by the time I leave. You might catch a glimpse of me in my African shirt thing too, but I was careful to hide near the back.

At the end of the day, E... was calling everybody into his office to let them know about their pay rise. Everybody came out smiling and very happy. Just wait till they see their bonuses next year if this project takes off.

D... thinks we now have one of the highest paid security guard in Nigeria working for us, and he gets more than the president of Nigeria's Bodyguards get. He was on 12,000 (£70) a month before the pay rise, but with the pay rise and moving to hourly rather than daily rates, (he puts in 80 hour weeks) he's moving up to 40,000 (£230). He got a small promotion because he is one of the few guards that can read and write and he helps the non literate guards fill in their time sheets. All of our guards have a similar amount given them so they are all pretty happy to work for us right now. Obviously, These guys are worth far more than that, but if we paid them what they deserve I think they'd all retire. I'm told the average wage for a security guard here is just 4,000 a month (£23).

Fish - Yuck

That evening it was fish for dinner, yeuch. It was sole with a lemon sauce. If I liked fish I'm sure it would have been great food, but I don't so it was puke. The fish they sell in the fish & chips restaurants here have teeth, Snapper I think its called. Also there's croker or something but I'm not that interested.

Tonight was the grand opening of the dance night-club at Planet 44 and we had an invite from the owner, and since he went to all the trouble of getting us that boat ride we thought we'd better not be too rude. So we went in and had our usual round of Original sins, I couldn't decide what to drink next so E... got me a B52 Bomber (tia maria, baileys and cointreau) while I was thinking. I taught them how to make a brain haemorrhage, although it didn't turn out right, too much grenadine and too narrow a glass. E... calls them Abortions.

Winamp - It really whips the llamas...

Interestingly the DJ at this bar was using winamp, he just had a bunch of playlists running and spent the rest of the time pretending he was doing something with a mixing desk.

Ranni, the owner of Planet 44, is getting a new till that will let you program new cocktails into it so that he can keep track of the booze that is being used. He says he'll let us put our own cocktail recipes in it so we can get whatever we want. This is so cool.

Anyway, lazy day tomorrow so no need to get up early but I was very tired and needed a sleep. so I toddled off home to bed.

My First Trip: Day Eleven

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Thursday 30th November 2000

Bringing D... back Online
Last day of November. My first Job today was to start getting everything from D...'s old laptop working on his new one. I got his email up and running, and tried to get lotus notes going but it wouldn't work. The documents went in without a hitch.

Printing Takes too long

Then I had to print J2...'s certificates. I was surprised at how long these took. I only had a small subset to print off, about 30 but at eight or nine minutes each I had to tie up the laptop and printer a while. In fact it took about 5 hours with a couple that had to be done again.

When I'd finished this It was about 3pm, we had arranged a meeting with that guy at two and he hadn't shown up yet. Eventually he arrived at 3.40 D... said he was tempted to ask him to wait outside for an hour and forty minutes but we were going home before then so we thought it best to let him in.

I left the new laptop nonchalantly on the desk as I talked to him about the 15 PCs we want. I wanted to give the impression that we buy from people that give us a good price quickly. He went away with a smile on his face when I told him he had until tomorrow to put together a quote. Because tomorrow we hope to decide who to use.

Bad news from Lagos

I went back to the house for a beer, a shower and dinner at 5 and spent the rest of the night in watching telly, because for some reason I am tired. (because of all the work?). There was an item on BBC World about a fuel fire in Lagos. This was right next to the beach we went to on Saturday in the boat at Takwa Bay. We could see the smoke on our way home from the office. It had been burning since 6:30 this morning. 60 People burned to death - including the inhabitants of two houses in a neighbouring village. That's nasty. Then watching Sky News we heard about that Nigerian Kid murdered in London. Not a good day for news.

We haven't been out at all since Sunday, I realise, and I haven't really wanted to. Maybe we can get a few beers and a meal in at Planet 44 on the Weekend. J2... and K1... are leaving Monday evening so we're going to have a sending off party I hope.

My First Trip: Day Ten

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Wednesday 29th November 2000

Ugg

I found it difficult to get up this morning, I got downstairs just as D... arrived, and we had our breakfast. I tried some of "Fancy Boy's" Coffee. W... the Canadian guy who left last Friday, brought his own coffee Swiss White Chocolate Flavour. The directions ask for 2 tablespoons for one mug so I thought this was going to be something special. but it didn't taste much like coffee or white chocolate so it was a bit of a disappointment. The label proudly indicates that it uses all artificial flavouring. I call it Fancy Boys Coffee because whenever W... got it out for breakfast S... would say, "Oh Look at Fancy Boy here with his Fancy Boy Coffee". We thought this was pretty funny and so now W... has this nickname when we aren't being serious.

I headed into the office with the other guys, and was told to go with B2... one more time to look for CD rewriters. B2... was also going to look for some drugs for J2... who'd hurt her ribs on our boat trip and was getting steadily worse as the days have gone by. B2... hadn't come back from the black market where he was getting us some fairly used tyres for the Toyota LandCruiser and the American Chevrolet Luminas that we have. We have those because you can't get parts for them easily here. And this is a deterrent that hopefully stops the highwaymen stealing them from us.

Back out around Lagos

After B2... came back with the tyres we went around some pharmacists and found that none of them stocked the exact Drug that J2... wanted, but had something similar. We thought it best to check with her but couldn't get through on the phone. So I went back to the house for lunch and spent the rest of the day at the office, It didn't look like we'd have time to visit any computer shops. D...'s new Laptop arrived with this shifty looking bloke, one of the guys I met on Monday. He showed us the laptop, it's box looked a bit odd but everything inside was new and still sealed except the laptop because it had been fitted with 256 MBs of RAM which I verified quicker than the guy who brought it. The man said he would prefer cash as payment and had brought a suitcase to carry the money away in, but with the largest note we have available being 100s that's at least 3800 notes which would have taken a while to count and check for the obvious forgeries. So E... insisted on paying by cheque. This is a risky thing for a business to accept in Nigeria but we had the guy talk to our bank manager who assured him that we would honour the payment.

We told the guy about our requirement for 15 new Desktop PC's and his eyes lit up, when we told him they would all be networked he got even more excited and said he would like to give us a quotation for this work. So I got some plans of the office printed, so that he could measure up the cabling required. This is something I could do but I'd rather let someone else climb ladders and drill holes through walls in Nigeria, the ladders look like death traps. It would also save me all the hassle of getting network equipment sorted, which I could see would be a problem.

Too many people to talk too

Later the man from the company offering Dell machines came round to speak to me and show me his revised price which is even better than before. There might be a problem because to save money they are coming by ship where they can be hidden in the back of a container so they don't get import tax. This is normal practice in Nigeria but means we have to wait a while for them to arrive. We need them in two weeks before I go home preferably, else D... will have to supervise it all himself.

I had a phone call from the first guy I visited on Monday, asking me why I hadn't called him. I told him that we were offered a much better price, and the option of having the 256Mb Ram pre-installed, with the machine delivered within two days, and in fact we received it that afternoon and were using it now. He wanted to know if there was anything else we needed and I told him about the 15 machines and he got excited and wanted to visit me tomorrow, I told him no problem and to come around 2pm.

Working by myself at last

D... wanted me to put some of the important stuff on his old laptop onto his new one. I decided to use the current office network to do this and it took about an hour. I copied 600 MBs of documents 200 MBs of email his address book and a copy of lotus notes from the UK office he doesn't have the installation disk for in Nigeria.

So a pretty busy day, and I was really tired and after dinner I wanted to go straight to bed. D... gave me his old laptop to use now, while I'm here so that I can clean it out and check my own email. I have to make sure its all fit to go to some other person before I leave.

J2... asked me to help her produce some Certificates for the office staff she is giving computer training to. I eventually ended up doing 78 of them! And some of the names are just beyond my comprehension. Like M.... I............ who seems the keenest to learn computer skills here. I eventually finished producing them all and could now print them off at the office tomorrow. I typed a little bit more into this diary, and then slept very well. I don't get paid overtime at the moment so why I did all this I don't know.

Nasir El Rufai: "Why they hate me"

It's an old story, from September 5th 2006 but I have just read this post on saharareporters.com of an interview with Nasir El-Rufai, Minister for Abuja Federal Capital Territory or 'Mr. Bulldozer'

It sort of backs up every good thing I've heard about the guy, and I admire his stubbornness for doing the right thing.

My First Trip: Day Nine

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Tuesday 28th November 2000

First week done

So I've been here over a whole week now. I think I'm starting to like the place, Its got something indescribable about it that makes you like it when in reality it is a hellhole. I guess if we didn't have the infrastructure we've got like drivers, security guards, cooks and housekeepers, I would find it a bit difficult to relax enough to enjoy it here. It's kind of like being on holiday but you have to work for 9 hours during the day and at evening you can kick back and relax.

Shopping

So a shower and breakfast and it was off to work. Today's mission to put together a specification for 15 Office Desktop PCs and travel around Lagos with B2... getting quotations for these systems. We got 4 quotations and one company that had stopped dealing with computers. The cheapest quote was 95,000 Naira per box, the most expensive was 230,000 for pretty much the same things. The cheapest offers were for systems that were going to be built in Nigeria using components that you can get here. The more expensive systems were branded products like Compaq and Dell imported from the UK.

I was far more impressed with the offices for the people selling the branded machines. one guy offering to build them for us wouldn't let us in to see what he had! The company I think we should go with was offering DELL 733MHz P3 with 128 MB Ram for 176,000 N each (about £1000). This comes with 3 year warranty and the satisfaction of dealing with the company that supplies Shell and Mobil out here with about 500 machines each. Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these! (you'd have to know what a Beowulf cluster was of course)

More Shawarma!

By the time we'd finished traipsing around it was too late to get lunch at the house so we went to the Shawarma place again. Yumm.

In the afternoon I tried to help D... deal with all the calls he was getting offering to supply our computers. We had a call from one of the people who we spoke to yesterday with regard to purchasing a new laptop for D.... They offered us a good price so we took them up on the offer. They said they would deliver tomorrow.

Park 'n' Shop

We got home for dinner at around 5ish and before we enjoyed some of V...'s spagbol we headed out to Park n Shop the local supermarket to get some more booze and snacks. We've got an account here too but this time E... was due to hand over a cheque. I think the total was over 2 Million Naira (about £11,000). This did include Furniture, a TV & video and other Electrical equipment D... had bought for the apartment as well as a supply of food for the last few months. While we were eating it was pointed out that there were 4 bottles of wine about to go off in the cupboard and we'd better finish them off before they go bad. So 6 people split 4 bottles and we got through it all by about 10:00. D... went home around then and we gradually all drifted off to our bedrooms.

My First Trip: Day Eight

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Monday 27th November 2000

Back to work

Got up for breakfast feeling pretty good, and had the usual grapefruit, pineapple, Banana, Mango and Passion Fruit. followed by toast and coffee.

I went to the office knowing that I was going to have to do some proper work today. D... had sent me on a mission to go with a Nigerian colleague and get some prices for his new laptop. A Toshiba Tecra 8100 600Mhz P3 only with 256MB or Ram instead of the usual 64. Getting such equipment was a bit of a job but after visiting 4 companies that advertised in the local paper, we negotiated some pretty good prices. Well, I told the people what I wanted and my Nigerian Colleague shouted at them for a bit in Pidgin English and Yoruba until happy with the price they offered. We ended up getting three quotes and most at prices lower than those advertised in Computer Shopper in the UK.

Lagos by Day

Travelling around Lagos is never boring, there are just so many people everywhere it's hard not to find something interesting. Whether its the signs on the walls saying "DO NOT URINATE HERE" or the signs for the HUGE religious gatherings they hold here. D... says once a year they hold a gathering in the Lagos Churches and there are over 12 million that attend. Some individual churches getting 250,000 people.

By far the most interesting signs say. "This Property is NOT for sale. It is the Property of Suchandsuch. Beware of 419". A 419 is somebody who pretends to be something they aren't. Such as selling you a piece of land they don't actually own, or offering you a share of a fortune they don't actually have. When a country invents its own words and symbols for things like that you know they have a problem there.

FOOD

By the time we'd finished travelling around Lagos, and I'd seen quite a bit by now, it was time for lunch. It was too late to get back to the House since V... is only happy to make food at a set time which is between 12 and 1. and it was now nearly 2. I was offered a "Shawarma" and taking a gamble I asked "Is That like a Kebab?". "Yes" I was told. I knew that because I've had Shawarma Kebabs before. It's a bit like a Tortilla wrap. You get meat (Chicken or Beef) stuffed into a pancake type thing with vegetables and chilli sauce. I felt a bit sorry for our Driver B2... who as a Muslim, was on the third day of his fast for Ramadan. He had to take us to this place. He asked me to join with him in the Fast but I said I'd rather not. I'm hungry.

My first patient

Well that was all kinds of fun. I headed back to the office where there was a laptop waiting to be fixed on my desk. It was about to be handed over to one of the Nigerian staff and they wanted to make sure that all unnecessary software was removed, and that everything worked OK. There were a couple of simple problems that needed fixing, and once done, I ran scandisk and defrag. It looked like this had NEVER been done before so It took quite a while. But I handed it back in much better shape than I received it in.

While it was defragging D... had me work out a minimum Spec for 15 PCs that we'll be purchasing soon. These are for staff workstations and I wanted to put together something with a bit of meat on it for an office half-life Championship sometime in the future ;-). I've decided on 600MHz P3 with 128 MB Ram 20GB HDD and 100Mbs Networking. 17" Monitors all round. Should be fun. We're going to need another 10 or so to fill all the desks here and in the houses so, with the laptops as well were going to have a pretty large network to organise. We've got a really good UPS system at the office so that when NEPA fails we can keep everything running until the Generator starts.

So at 5pm the laptop finished defragging just in time to go home and it was back to the house for Dinner. I got a quick shower and a change of clothes and ate the chicken soup followed by marinated steak and potatoes.

After dinner I worked on the last few days of diaries and went to bed at 9:30 or so. They'd got the old generator back now so things were far far quieter.

My First Trip: Day Seven

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Sunday 26th November 2000

The idea of breakfast at the Sheraton hotel was very appealing so I persuaded D... to take me there.

It was a very customary European affair there, Even down to yesterdays telegraph on sale in the shop. (BTW I noticed some snooty woman won Millionaire in the last week) There was a buffet with lovely things like pineapple, pancakes, hash browns, bacon, sausages, egg, tropical fruit salad, coffee, Danish pastries and fruit juice. I had a nice time.

After breakfast we went back to the house to change for the beach, I think its called Elekko beach. It's the same stretch of white sand that begins near the house, but we were taken about 20 miles or so along it to a certain spot, preferred for its bar and restaurant. This stretch of sand goes for about 200Km so its pretty much the biggest beach I've ever been to. The sea was fantastically warm, warmer than my shower this morning. The waves are very powerful and the sand drops off very quickly from the beach. You can only get out 4 or 5 meters before you have to start treading water. If you are out that far you might get swept away with the undertow so it's not a good idea unless you fancy a trip to South America. Also the water is very sandy and it crystallises with the salt on your legs when you come out. If you get it in your shorts you have to shake out the pebbles out before you sit down. I bought a few presents for some of you guys so If I don't decide to keep them myself you may get to see what they are.

On the way back from the beach we stopped off at a place called Tarzan's where they have live African music and dancing, very interesting to see and hear. The dancing seemed a bit too energetic for me though.

After Tarzan's, we headed out to Planet 44 to have a meal. I had a great big steak cooked perfectly covered in a spicy cheese sauce. Yummy. Being good customers we get credit here now, so E... our accountant just has to sign his name and we get as much food and beer as we like. Fabulous.

Now I'd managed to get very drunk again, so I went straight to bed, and tried to type some of the last few days diaries, so If they seem a little weird. blame the booze. The local beer here is actually quite good when it's cold. I'll try to swipe a few bottles before I leave. It's great. You can get a crate of 12-just-more-than-a-pint (600ml) bottles for 600 Naira which is only about £3.50 - two pints in the UK at most!

Nigeria - tourist paradise by the year 2050? Probably only for the brave but it's possible.

My First Trip: Day Six

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Saturday 25th November 2000

No Work Today!

Well today was Saturday, so there's no need to get up in any rush. My alarm came on at 6:30 but I'd forgotten to unpack it the night before so I had to hunt around trying to find it. I grabbed a shower and managed to soak the floor because I didn't realise that the water pressure keeps changing because of people using showers over the house and the power fluctuations caused by the generator. After a while I noticed that the shower was now shooting over my head out of the Bath and onto the floor. The water had already seeped into my bedroom soaking the carpet around the door. I switched off the AC and opened a window. It would dry up in no time.

Breakfast

I went down for breakfast, nobody else was around, I found the table laid with fruit and toast as usual, and a heap of pancakes. I sat around watching TV waiting for someone else to turn up, Eventually a few guys appeared and we ate some fruit and pancakes. and eventually D... turned up from the Apartment. Today we had organised a boat trip with the brother-in-law of the owner of Planet 44. The idea being we were looking at purchasing a boat for the company. Something that hasn't even been discussed with the head people in Calgary, so it was all pie in the sky. Still it was fun.

Boats are cool

We were taken out to a place called Tarkwa Bay, and it was very nice. The boat was a 40 footer and so too big to land on the beach so we had to call over one of the kids on the beach to get a smaller boat out here for us. Eventually we were rescued by an Syrian Ex pat who helped us out by first shuttling us from the boat to the shore in his own boat, and then organising some beach chairs and a sun shade. We had to pay for them but it wasn't much.

It wasn't long before we attracted the attention of the people selling things. Mainly what they had was wood carvings and peanuts. There were some clothes and things, as well as fruit.

Beaches are cool too

This cheeky guy calling himself London Prince, a potentially bona fide name, demanded we take a photo of him in his tie, that a German tourist had dashed him, and then demanded we send him a copy. We might try but whether NIPOST gets it there is another thing.

After a few hours in the sun, a few beers from our ice filled cool-box, and taking a couple of photos. the boat arrived to takes us back. I had plastered myself in factor 15 so there wasn't much chance of me being hurt by the sun, but I could see that E... and K... were pretty red.

Back Home

We docked at the small jetty, and our faithful drivers, M2... and J3..., were ready to take us home. I just can't believe how good these guys are. They aren't just drivers, they are also our bodyguards, they negotiate the purchase of our fuel and exchange of our money in the black market, the only way to do that here, they are there to pick us up early in the morning and there to take us home late in the evening. I don't see anybody in Britain being as reliable as these guys.

We had planned to go to the Lagoon again after V...'s dinner but we were all a bit worn out with the heat on the beach. So we sat around drinking wine and watching telly. great.

My First Trip: Day Five

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Friday 24th November 2000

NO NEPA 3

No NEPA AGAIN! but this time the generator was started at about 6:20 and that was very welcome I can tell you.

Same great breakfast, and a later than usual trip to the office, D..., E..., S..., W... and B....had a meeting to attend this morning so I was to travel with M..., J2... and K1..., who didn't really move until 9. This gave me chance to catch up with the news on the BBC World channel we get. There's digital satellite in the house and BBC world is basically a re-branded version of BBC News 24 so it was all very familiar. The only news was the lack of news from the US Presidential Election fiasco so I didn't really learn much about home. The weather showed that it was still raining though.

I got to the office and D... was nowhere to be seen. I sat at his desk and used his computer to install JBuilder 3 Pro that came on a PC-Plus CD I had brought with me and taught myself to use it but it was so slow to use it was painful. I answered some calls as well and found some of the people completely incapable. K2... phoned, this was the first time we had spoken for a long time, long before I moved into the house in Bristol. He asked me how I was enjoying crazy Lagos. I told him that was the right word to describe it and he laughed. Of course this was all with a 3 or 4 second delay between us and Calgary so it was a bit weird.

Hob Nobbin' in my not so scruffs

In the evening we went to a Canadian-Nigerian Business dinner at Le Meridien EKO HOTEL. Now I didn't really feel part of the group here, I was introduced to lots of people who I didn't know or would ever meet again. There was this Canadian guy who came up to us and asked if we were Canadians too, one person said yes so we were all introduced to this guy as Canadians. Including M..., D... and myself. I get handed this guys business card and the company Name is CANADA and his Job title HIGH COMMISSIONER. Whoah this is a Mad place. He knew all about our upcoming project and sounded quite enthusiastic about it. His name was Ian Ferguson. There was a comedian on hand to relieve the boredom of the necessary speeches from some guy from bombardier aerospace, the company that builds LEAR jets, a Nigerian in charge of the Nigerian air force and this Canadian politician I mentioned earlier.

W..., S... and B... slipped out to catch a plane before we had food, and we said our goodbyes. Then we settled down to our food trying our best to ignore the boring guy going on about Bombardier Aerospace. [Edit: Sorry]

Moving house

Afterwards it was a case of going back to house to set up my stuff. I'd decided to move into one of the rooms vacated by S... and W... so that I could enjoy 24hr electricity, and a short stroll to get to the breakfast table. D... said he would be moving back in here too when he'd sorted out a few deliveries he was expecting to the apartment. D... wanted to go out to work off the stress of that dinner and so did a few other people. I would have been happy enough to stay here and watch telly but they were having none of it.

So we went out for another debauched evening with too much alcohol.

My first night in the main house was a good one. I fell quickly asleep to the soothing sounds of the AC and the generator. I was Alcohol fuelled of course.

My First Trip: Day Four

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Thursday 23rd November 2000

NO NEPA 2

Woke up this morning again with no NEPA , generator came on at quarter to seven and cooled my room down enough to get up in time for a quick shower before leaving just after seven for brekkie.

Today was W... and S...'s last whole day here in Lagos so they were very stressed out trying to get enough meetings in with the relevant government type people. D... was busy most of the day working on various things away from his desk, so I occupied that space and typed out the last 2 days diaries into HTML so that I can send you all a nicely formatted version of my diary. I'm planning to send this out to everyone whose email address I can remember, so if you know anybody, I haven't sent it to who may want it, please forward it. Let me know their address so that I can sort it next time.

Biding My Time

For most of the day, all I did was work on D...'s laptop playing with this set of pages. Most people thought I was doing something constructive, so I think I did OK.

The rest of the day was pretty boring, I decided I wasn't to go to any more meetings because of yesterday, and D... understood I think. D... did say though that some people remembered me and asked why I wasn't there at the next meeting. This is so scary.

I wasn't sure whether to be answering D... telephone or not, so I was just letting it ring and the nearby admin. staff would come to my rescue pretty quickly. I asked D... about it later and he said it would be fine for me to answer the phones as long as I was careful to get names from these people, and try not to be rude when I can't understand a single word.

So the day rolled on, we had another great lunch, another great dinner, and after tea I crashed out on the Sofa watching a film about something or other, but it failed to hold my interest, so I fell asleep.

So home to bed

My First Trip: Day Three

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Wednesday 22nd November 2000

NO NEPA

We had no NEPA all night, The generator for the apartment is only switched on for certain times of the day. When we have no power we can't get water so we have to wait until just before 7 to take a shower. Once the AC comes on it doesn't take long to cool the place down. D... says the unit in my room was about £200. I wonder how much it will cost to take home.

We went over to the house to have breakfast and we found that the generator at the house was broken down. They had no lights or AC so it wasn't too comfortable. It made a difference to the amount of noise they have there. The Generator has been on almost constantly so with the Drone of that and the AC it gets quite noisy. These generators are big, they look like the engine section of a tractor. The usual Generator they use has an acoustic enclosure that stops the noise, It's currently being serviced and the backup generator doesn't have this.

Hob Nobbin' in my scruffs

W... and S... were going to a meeting at the secretariat. A government place that will be housing one of the offices we'll have. D... asked me to go along just to take a look at some of the computer equipment they had been using to do a trial run of this project in 1997. I wasn't told I'd have to go to any meetings today so I was just wearing jeans and a T-Shirt. When we arrived we were immediately taken to meet this guy who is in charge of financial matters (The Commissioner of Finance for Lagos State). W... gave his demonstration of GIS software, which is incredibly powerful. You start off with a photographic map (taken from satellites) and can zoom in to a streetmap type view that you can overlay with a photograph of the area. The map shows each of the plots of land and clicking on one will show you all the details like who owns the deeds , gives you their phone number and even includes photographs of the structures in this plot of land. His example was of Calgary, and it looks quite nice there. Apparently it is the richest city in Canada.

After speaking to this guy for over an hour in an office with no AC, we were all melting. The guy who was taking us around to meet everybody, took us to an Air Conditioned computer room and brought in bottles of coke. We'd been instructed not to drink out of bottles, but since no glasses or straws were offered we took a risk and just wiped the tops on our clothes.

After a brief chat with some surveyors who will be doing the work for us, regarding the collection of data, and taking photographs, we were taken to meet The Permanent Secretary for the Lands Bureau of Lagos, Now I was getting embarrassed about my clothes. Nobody warned me about this. I was relieved when it was decided that we needed to return to the office to collect some materials in order to give a presentation to His Excellency the Governor of Lagos. I decided I didn't need to attend that so I stayed at the office and typed Tuesdays entry to my diary.

I NEED FOOD

When I was back at the office I realised that everybody else had had food back at the house at 12 and I'd have to sort myself out. An office lady offered to take me to Mr Biggs, the Nigerian McDonalds, almost. I had a burger but it was a very weird shape and a bit chewy. still it seemed edible

At 5 I realised that nobody was around any more so I headed over the road to the Apartment to get a shower before dinner. J3... was outside and insisted he needed to give me a ride in the car. He took D...'s laptop from me and put it in the car. I had no choice. So after 30 seconds or so in the car I got to the apartment block door and J... insisted on carrying everything upstairs for me. We're on the 3rd floor and with no NEPA the lifts don't work. So it's quite a climb in the heat. I unlocked the door and J3... dropped the stuff onto a chair for me and told me to lock the door, "Lock 'dis" He said. "Mosquito!". "OK - Thanks J3..." I said and locked the door.

I took a shower as cold as I could get it and that's still warm, and changed into some clean clothes. I'd been sweating all day. I sat in the lounge, there was no electricity it comes on at 7 when they start the generator. It turns out that the NEPA supply to the apartment block has been cut off because someone didn't pay the bill, so we only get AC when they use the generator which seems to be whenever we are about to leave.

I typed a bit of day two on D...'s laptop running on battery, and played some of the MP3s that I brought with me. When 7 came around It was getting difficult to see because the sun had set and without NEPA it is a bit difficult to survive here, the battery on this laptop was getting low and there is no way to recharge it.

So, at 7, we went to the house for dinner and had yet another fantastic dinner. By now I'm sure you are fed up of me describing the food we have so suffice it to say that I would gladly pay £15 for it in the UK. J2... had gotten a bit ill from all the alcohol last night, Tsk, Tsk, (K2... - Her boss - had asked D... an E... to make sure she was taken to these places and enjoyed some of these drinks.) D... had arranged to go to an upmarket place called the Lagoon, so rather than drag out all the people from the house and leave J2... on her own we thought it would be better if it was just Me and D.... We just talked about the problems in Nigeria and how the work we are about to start doing could start the chain reaction needed to make this place successful. If there was a good power supply and less corruption there would be more businesses able to set up here and therefore more Jobs, less crime, more tourism, more money, a nicer place to live. It's just this first step to getting 24hr electricity to this place that holds the key. With the work we are doing we'll be helping the government to collect the correct amount of tax they should be getting which will enable them to fund the improvement of NEPA. Lagos holds the world record for population growth for cities with a population over 1 million. There are an estimated 12.8 million people here now, and this has grown 20-fold over the last 30 years. D...'s spoken to government officials who currently estimate the cities population at around 20 million which would make it the 4th largest city in the world. Somebody said the population grows by about 6000 every day.

The Lagoon

Anyway, the lagoon was a lovely place sitting by the Lagos lagoon, which is off the north of VI here, and I reckon that such a place would be well beyond by financial ability in the UK.

So I hope maybe you understand a bit more about what it's like here. We got J3... to drive us home, J3... had been sleeping while we were drinking, which is 100% understandable, so we had to wake him up to take us home. Awwww...

My First Trip: Day Two

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Tuesday 21st November 2000

6:30am

I didn't sleep very well, I think I was suffering from culture shock in its truest form, NEPA was switching on and off every hour or so, this meant that the AC unit in my bedroom wall wasn't working to its full capacity and it was too hot to have a blanket. I was paranoid about mosquitoes so it was very bad. At 6:30 my alarm went off and I got up and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, No electric and so no AC, it was very warm in there, and the water which is kept in bottles in the fridge, was warm.

This was my first encounter with B.... He is a Nigerian who has recently emmigrated to Canada but has come back with S... and W.... He occupies the third room in the Apartment and he and I share the same Bathroom while D... has his own. I had a quick shower, it was interesting because the water from the cold tap was warm enough to be comfortable and refreshing aside from the fact it was a dark brown colour.

Breakfast

At 7 we went off to the main house to get breakfast which is local fruits like pineapple, mango and grapefruit, followed by toast. We also have coffee and fruit juices and stuff. It was a chance to chat with the other members of the team that I only had a brief introduction to last night.

We then went to the office, this was my first time here and I was introduced to all the Nigerian staff, who are all very friendly. I was still very confused about what I would be doing here. After I'd had the tour I took a seat by D...'s desk near an AC unit and within a minute I'd been supplied with coffee by a guy called N.... Only he pronounces it N... because his first language is French, so I'm supposed to say Merci Beaucoup and stuff like that.

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings.

D... asked me to go along to a few meetings that S... and B... were going to, in order to sort out an internet link to Canada and a network link between the various locations in Lagos we occupy. I learned that Nigeria, and everywhere else in Africa really apart from south Africa, has no Internet backbone and they have to use Satellites to get a connection. we basically have a choice of installing our own satellite dish in the grounds of the main house, or having a microwave link to a telecoms centre and share their satellite link to America, and use the internet to get to Canada. The various locations we have will be connected with Microwave antennas that will probably require very tall masts since there are lots of trees blocking a direct Line Of Sight.

In a particularly good meeting with a company called GS telecoms, we were in this small conference room with a guy called Celestino, NEPA was switched off so there was a brief moment when it was pitch black while we waited for one of the guards to run over to the generator to start it up. The funny thing is that the lights went out while Celestino was talking and he wasn't phased by it all, he continued with what he was saying as if nothing had happened, even though we couldn't see anything at all. S... was stunned at this and told the story of how when New York had a complete power failure (A brown out I think they call it) People panicked because they thought the Soviets were attacking, and many people were killed in the panic. Here in Nigeria it is taken for granted that you cannot rely on electricity, and you always expect to be cut off at any moment. Its crazy.

Running out of things to do

So eventually we'd finished the meetings and we went back to the office to waste some time before lunch, prepared by V... at the main house. With lunch out of the way we went back to the office where I had absolutely nothing to do apart from moving a PC upstairs so that J2 could set up a classroom to teach PC skills and things to sopme of the Nigerian Staff.

D... had a meeting with a media company to sort out a Jingle for an Ad campaign that will be launched to announce the project they are expecting to start in the new year. A lady came into the office before they arrived because she wanted to attend this meeting too. Her name is O..., or something spelled like that. It turns out that she's a very well connected Lady, with contacts throughout the government hierarchy.

It was at this point that I began typing the last diary entry, since D... wasn't needing his laptop to play cards now.

Back to the Apartment

When that meeting was over it was time to head home for a bit before dinner at the main house. Since the apartment is just across the road from the office, we walked it, It was very hot outside. when we were in the house I had another Shower, noted that there was a new piece of furniture in my room, a dressing table, and that someone had been here to collect my washing that I'd left on the floor that morning. My bed was made perfectly too, and I had a clean towel in the wardrobe. One thing I didn't think to bring was coat hangers so I stacked all my shirts and trousers on the shelves. I noticed that they were all stacked very neatly now. This is magic.

Its quite shocking how much people are prepared to do for you in return for their money. Around 75% of Nigerians are unemployed, so I guess that they are so grateful for the opportunity to do honest work that they do really well at it, it's really, very impressive.

I borrowed D...'s laptop to finish my diary for day one lying on my bed. While I was there I noticed how quick the sun sets here, it goes from bright daylight to black nightime in less than 30 minutes. I'd like to watch the sunset here to see what it's like. I'll try to see it tonight.

To the house for dinner

So at about 7:00 we went back to the main house for dinner. It was amazing. there was a Prawn dish starter, lucky that prawns are the only shellfish I eat, then after that we had porckchops and porkribs with tagliatele(SP?) pasta with a tomatoey paste that was fantastic. The pork had obviously been marinated in something pretty tasty. There is such a contrast to the way we are living and the way the average Nigerian lives, it makes me feel very guilty. I was with D... earlier that afternoon as he was signing some letters that offered the Nigerian staff new jobs with the new company, and in most cases they had a 50% pay rise. I then realise that they are paid around 50,000 Naira a month now which is the same amount we get each month to spend on the things we need to buy when we are here, this used to include food at weekends but now we even get that paid for. E..., who is the accountant guy here, pays for it all so we basically have nothing to spend it on but beer and presents.

Going Out

After dinner we headed out to the bars all together. This was the first outing for a few of the Canadian visitors, and so they were in for a treat. We went to Planet 44, where dad took me the night before, and put three tables together and sat around. E... insisted on buying everyone an Original Sin followed by a B52. E... used to be a Bar tender in Canada so he was showing off his drink mixing skills by inventing a new "drink". We were all surprised by it when it arrived because it looked like a Mr Whippy style Ice Cream but tasted like baileys or tia maria or something. I think E... himself was shocked at how good it was.

Home To Sleep

After getting nicely numbed up by all the alcohol we headed back to our beds and I for one had a good nights sleep, even though our NEPA supply had apparently been cut off.

My First Trip: Day One

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.


Monday 20th November 2000

The Bus Trip

I woke up at 3am and grabbed everything I needed and left to catch the bus at Newport Bus station that was arriving at 04:05. Mum gave me a lift in and waved goodbye and stuff.

The Bus journey went well, I got a cup of coffee and relaxed, we hit a 06:30 traffic Jam on our way to the airports (first the Heathrow terminals then the Gatwick terminals, mine was the last one at Gatwick North.)

The Aeroplane

I arrived at Gatwick at about 8:15 and bought my ticket. I'd booked on the internet but wasn't allowed to pay by credit card due to the fact that I was going to Nigeria and they weren't prepared to take the risk of fraud. My flight was BA2075 a British Airways Boeing 747-400, and I had a seat in the middle isle in the economy section (or "world traveller class" as BA calls it.)

After we had taken off and were at cruise altitude (33,000 feet or about 10 Km) the stewardess came around offering drinks. I took the red wine and was surprised when two small bottles of wine were placed on my tray. When I had finished these I was feeling pretty good as you can imagine and the stewardess came around to offer me wine to have with my meal. WOO-HOO!, Only one bottle this time though. For lunch I had a choice of Chicken Tikka Massala or Braised Lamb. Deciding that the chicken would be the most popular and therefore probably made with the cheapest bits, I decided to go for the lamb. I was taken aback when I tasted it and it actually had flavour! And it was really good! there was a starter of prawn cocktail which was a bit chewy, probably because they had over-cooked the prawns to avoid any nasty illnesses on board. Pudding was rhubarb crumble with custard, in the same way as Mr Kipling puts custard in his apple pies. Oh and there was a funsize crunchie bar in there too. after the stewardesses had cleared our things they came around offering more wine, but instead I had a cup of coffee, which was really good too.

There was an onboard entertainment system that showed a pants film starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder, and an episode of Friends (The one where Joey finds a Porshe) and Robbie the Reindeer that was shown last Christmas I think on the BBC. Audio came through the headphones that plugged into my armrest, and there was a choice of BA radiostations including a comedy one that had lots of interesting jokes about aircraft cabin crew.

I could also listen to the audio of the other films that were being played to first class passengers who each had access to their own screens where they could chose which film they wanted to watch. I couldn't figure out what they were.

After a couple more cups of coffee I was handed an immigration form with lots of questions on it. D... had supplied me with the correct answers so I had a head start. On leaving the plane there was an announcement, "Could Paul Magowi and Aaron Rowe Please make themselves known to the officials at the door of the plane, on their way out."

So when I came out of the plane I said to a guy standing there "My name was just read out..." And he said "You're Paul Magowi!" He started talking into his radio in a very bizarre cross between English and something else. I tried to stop him and explain I wasn't Paul Magowi I was Aaron Rowe. Eventually he understood and walked off to find somebody who knew. He walked down the corridor/ramp thing and at the corner he found a bearded man holding a card with my name on it. His name was N... and I didn't know it yet but he was actually in charge of all the communications in the Airport and knew everybody there. He took me through Immigration at light speed. In fact I'm a bit worried I might have been smuggled in, but I have official stamps in my passport, that prove I spoke to people in Immigration.

Immigration

At this time I had a quick introduction to the environmental conditions I could expect. It really felt like I was in a steam sauna with my clothes on. Everybody was sweating and fanning themselves with their passports. I think I fully understand why they call Nigeria the armpit of Africa.

I was taken to collect my suitcase but I was standing around for 40 minutes waiting for it to appear, When it did N... grabbed it for me and insisted on carrying it for me. He took me outside to look for D... but he wasn't there. "He might be upstairs" said N... So I was taken up a flight of stairs that looked like they'd been bombed a few times, and into the departure lounge. Hundreds of Nigerians swarming around queuing for a flight to "Anywhere But Here" and I nearly lost N... as he moved very quickly through the crowd. I caught up to him and followed him into a small room where D... was waiting for me. He introduced me to some of the other Airport officials and another guy one of N...'s staff took my suitcase from N... and we were off to find the driver.

Journey across Lagos

It was dark by now. D... found the driver who was called J1... and he took us to where he'd parked the car. And so began my introduction to Nigerian traffic laws. Well it would have been if Nigeria had any traffic laws that anybody obeyed. It seems to me, that you just drive in the direction you need to go in and weave in and out of any traffic that gets in your way, If you need to pull out in front of someone, forcing them to brake hard, you beep your horn as you do it, just to let them know. This happens every 15 seconds or so. It's insane. We were on the Main dual carriageway between central Lagos and Victoria Island where we are based, and I saw at least two cars on our side of the road driving toward us. In the fast lane. Not that there are any sensible road markings to show the lanes.

The House

We arrived at the House that is the official residence of ........., and met some of the other staff, S... & W... who are doing mapping of Lagos and linking that to a database, so that you can click on a building on the map and know everything you'd need to know about it. As there is no official street Map of Lagos, this could be a very handy sideline, since this would be possibly the most accurate map of anywhere in Nigeria,

Also there was a guy called E... and his wife K1..., and there's J2..., who's the secretary to K2... who's in charge of the whole operation in Nigeria but is currently in Canada sorting out a deal to take on the Nigerian side of .......... as a new company, outside ........... The company in Canada has just been bought by ........... another Canadian company and they don't want anything to do with Nigeria.

Also there's M... a Brit who I had spoken to via email, and I met V... the resident chef and M... the lady who does all the cleaning. We ate a fantastic chicken dish that V... had prepared, Far better than that aeroplane food that I thought was pretty good.

The Apartment 1

After the Food we grabbed another Diver called J3... who took us to our apartment. D... has been responsible for the procurement and furnishing of this apartment and he casually tells me it's cost N1,500,000 to rent for the year and He's going to spend another N1,500,000 furnishing it. We arrived and unfortunately there was no electric, they have severe problems here, electric is cut off 7 or 8 times a day and usually for about 30 minutes. Apparently it is even worse than usual because one of the generators that NEPA (Nigeria Electric Power Authority) uses to produce the feeble Lagos Electricity supply is broken down and they need a new one. The government has tried throwing money at the Electric problem and the people at NEPA reasoned this way, "They gave us lots of cash because we are not producing enough electricity, so if we were to produce even less electricity then they will send us more cash" so the problem remains.

Apparently there is an independent electricity supplier waiting in the wings to take over once the political red tape has been sorted out.

The Bar

So anyway, D... didn't want to hang around waiting for the electric to come back on in this boiling hot apartment so he asked J3... to take us to a bar called planet 44 while we were in there J3... was sent to acquire 2 torches with batteries. This is a bar owned by a lebanese bloke and mainly white people were drinking there, I had to have a drink called Original Sin. It was a drink containing six spirits, Vodka, Rum, Tequila, Cointreau, Gin and Sambuca. There was a little coke in there too I think just for colouring.

After this we went back out to the Driver and asked him to take us to see if the Power was back on at the apartment, it wasn't. So D... asked J3... to take us to another bar. This one was called the Outside Inn and again seemed to be populated mainly by white drinkers.

The Apartment 2

We finally left the bar after a very embarrassing confrontation I'd rather not remember, and headed back to the apartment armed with two new torches, they cost about 3 pounds I think. Surprise awaited us because NEPA was back! I could now see this apartment. It's HUGE! we could fit the downstairs of my house in Bristol into my bedroom. My Bed itself is big enough to sleep three or four people, a bit worrying considering my earlier initiation into some local Culture. There's a huge living area with eight armchairs, a table to sit eight people, a huge telly and video, and a giant rug with original African artwork on it.

I settled down for the night enjoying the bliss of AC in my room, and fell asleep. I was awakened about 1am when NEPA switched us off and It suddenly got very warm...

On This Day Six Years Ago

Today is the sixth Anniversary of my first trip to Nigeria, and I have recently re-discovered my diaries that I kept for my family and friends back home. If you'll indulge me I'd like to share with you over the next few days edited copies of these.

The only editing I'll do is to remove some Names and places to protect the company I work for and the privacy of myself and the people I work with.

When I look back on those days, I can't help wondering that if I knew then, what I know now, how differently I would have approached my time in Nigeria. When I first came I was thinking I would be here for just two or three weeks, six years I would not ever have imagined.

These diaries come from a time when Bill Clinton was still US President and Al Gore and George Bush Jr. were still squabbling over Florida. How long ago does that seem? How the world has changed!

I've been trying to find some of the pictures I took on my first few trips but I'm having difficulty if anybody can help, drop me a line.

Eleko Beach Panorama

The Travellers Guide To Lagos: WikiTravel

I've just discovered WikiTravel, a Wikipedia spin off, that allows people to create travel guides to destinations all over. I've always been disapointed by some of the popular travel guides, so here's a chance to really expound on the highlights of Lagos from the people who are here already. Write about the places you like, your favourite eating place, night club, watering hole, suya spot... whatever.

I've added a little myself, but there's a lot of work to do! There's also some things on there that are a bit out of date (Eko 'Le Meridien' Hotel?)

So if you know Lagos, get on there and start adding information! The same applies to Nigeria and others of her cities.

Imoleoluwa's Naming Ceremony

I had the honour last thursday to be invited to the Naming Ceremony for my friends Newborn Son. I was invited to take my camera and now having reviewed the photos, my friend Timi has given me permission to post some of them here.

It was an exciting and bewildering experience, I wish I knew more Yoruba so I could understand a bit more. Only in ceremonies like this can one feel simultaneously completely out of place and an alien, and yet made to feel completely welcome.

Hooray for Mothers everywhere.

Conspiracy

Sometimes in Nigeria, and I suppose many other parts of Africa, it can seem that people and events conspire to frustrate and prevent you from performing your job properly. From Monday ~8am until this evening we have been without a Mains electricity supply from PHCN. So we had to rely on Generators, of which we have two. Both of them failed on Monday night, leaving me to sleep in a quiet but very hot bedroom. In the morning I had to wait until the Generator repair man could come to take a look. Eventually he came and got one of the Generators up and running. This was about 1pm I guess because I had already read half of a Jeremy Clarkson book by the time it was up and running.

So finally I got some A/C and started up our computer systems, so I could check my email and start work. The PC we use to connect through our ISP refused to start. Windows XP Bah!

Eventually I traced the problem to a dozen or so corrupt files in Windows System folder and the only option was to run the repair function of the Windows XP install CD. This I'm happy to report, actually worked and all the corrupted files were replaced. I believe I may need to fetch some Updates again now.

The hard disk it turns out had a few bad clusters so I decided to replace it rather than take a chance that it will not get worse. So I used Knoppix to mirror the disk onto a new hard disk (I like keeping a stock for this reason) and then removed the old drive altogether.

As you can see I'm back online and everything is back on track. Today I was able to finish the work I was supposed to have ready yesterday.

These things seem to happen far too often here, There's always a spanner waiting to fall in to the gears and stop progress.

Outsourcing the British High Commission, part 2

As an update to yesterdays post I thought I should share some big worries I have with this online application system for requesting UK visas for Nigerians.

As I was going through the process of entering the details on the form I used an apostrophe / single inverted comma (') in one of the fields, and got back an error message that rings 100dB Alarm Sirens in my head as a web developer with some experience.



The error message indicates that there is no validation done on user input to the system! This means a suitably skilled web developer, wearing their black crackers hat, could use this 'feature' to put code of their own into the script! I haven't done any further tests but trust me that this is an amateurs mistake.

I am using Mozilla Firefox to access the site and I can see that there is JavaScript code on the page to prevent the user entering ' on the form as well as some other characters, but because of bugs in the JavaScript code this does not work with Mozilla Firefox (at least the version I'm using, 1.5.0.7 on Debian GNU/Linux). This isn't the argument though as the server application should never rely on the client sending valid information. This is rule number one of web security! Accessing the site in Internet Explorer prevents you from entering ' at the keyboard.

My fictional friend William De'Ath Could be a useful person to test this out with.

Further details easily obtainable from the site show what scripting language to use and what operating system is running it.

I am thinking about who to contact to investigate this.

The JavaScript side works on Firefox for the UK based online application service, I haven't tried to circumvent this to see if that is susceptible too.

Outsourcing the British High Commission

I am helping someone apply for a visa to visit the UK and it looks like things have got simpler with on-line applications being accepted. While the Foreign & Commonweath Office in the UK Operates the online visa applications for a long list of countries through a service called visa4uk, for Nigeria applications are handled through a company based in India through a site called www.ukvac-ng.com and www.vfs.firm.in. Here is the Whois info on the domain:

VFS (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Amish Shah
Lincoln House, 17 Altamount Road Behind Indonesian Consulate,
Mumbai, Maharastra 400 036
IN
Email: amishs@visa-services.com

Registrar Name....: REGISTER.COM, INC.
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: www.register.com

Domain Name: ukvac-ng.com

Created on..............: Tue, Dec 13, 2005
Expires on..............: Wed, Dec 13, 2006
Record last updated on..: Tue, Apr 04, 2006

Administrative Contact:
VFS (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Amish Shah
Lincoln House, 17 Altamount Road Behind Indonesian Consulate,
Mumbai, Maharastra 400 036
IN
Phone: 91-563-88628
Email: amishs@visa-services.com

I've looked at both online-application sites and they both seem similar in design, So I wonder why the FCO decided to outsource this setup when their own system could easily adapt?

A Photo Diary from a first time visitor to Lagos

After catching up with some of my blog reading, I got hooked by a link on Back to the Beginning by Through these Eyes. A South African man's visit to Lagos working for V Mobile September 2005. A number of things he says in his commentary aren't strictly true but it's only to be expected on your first trip, The information you have to absorb is so overwelming mistakes are easy to make. But "He don try sha!"

KAI: Kick Against Indiscipline

KAI: Kick Against Indiscipline
Originally uploaded by ajbrowe.

I noticed this signboard on my way back from attending a baby naming ceremony near Ikeja in Lagos. It was at a quite busy ad-hoc bus stop and I was fairly lucky to get this shot without catching any angry 'danfo' drivers waving their hands at me.

I thought it was a good response to Jeremy's recent post about the aftermath of the plane crash and litter bugs in Nigeria.


The argument the sign makes is on the verge of ridiculous. Do only Educated people treat their environment this way? Does indiscipline in Nigeria end at these bad habits? Kai!

Tales from the survivors of Abuja ADC Plane Crash

I've just read a report from the BBC as captioned, about the survivors of Sunday's plane crash. While it is still sad news for Nigerians everywhere, people everywhere are furious with Aviation Minister Babalola Borishade who, before any investigation or consultation with industry experts, decided to publicly place the blame with the pilot of the aircraft.

Experts from Boeing have just arrived to investigate the crash, and reports from eye witnesses and survivors indicate that the plane was on fire and out of control before it hit the ground suggesting that the problem was mechanical.

According to one early report Borishade has today been ordered so swap roles with Culture and Tourism Minister Femi Fani-Kayode.


A new Sultan of Sokoto has been named as 53-year-old army colonel Sa'ad Abubakar, brother to the late Sultan.

Let us all hope things improve from this tragedy.

Technorati Tags: Lagos, Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria, Plane Crash

The End of An Era

I have heard that the clubs and bars that are in the NAPEX (Nigerian Army Postal EXchange) compound on Victoria Island, close to the US Embassy, have been given quit notices. The Nigerian Army has sold the property and the new owner expects them to vacate by 31st of December.

The bars in this area are something of an institution with Expats. A lively environment that has the added safety of a resident Nigerian Army post. Bob's bar on a Friday night probably has the highest number of expat patrons than any other venue that I've visited, with its live Expat band and other regular outdoor live events that are a showcase of Nigerian musical Talent with Bob's Band as the Headline Act.

The Outside Inn is there, which is a bar that makes up for in atmosphere what it lacks in taste, and served the best steak I'd eaten in Lagos (until recently). Ladies of negotiable affection have outnumbered Expats in the evenings in the Outside Inn in recent years, for that reason I usually only go when I really, really crave the Desperate Dan Steak. And then hopefully with a chaperon.

Other bars, Mimis a bar I'll remember for it's pool table and the fact I remember being there on September 11th 2001 transfixed by the news cycle, Outback a Karaoke bar I haven't been in, and Chill Out a night club that has only been open about six months are also to quit.

There are a few other bars, lots of shops and other businesses and of course a large car park servicing them all that will all be closed off January 1st 2007.

What will happen to these businesses? Well overhearing Bob of Bob's Bar this evening, after I went for a meal there, he has no current plans to open anywhere else. "Unless you've got a big bag of dollars for me" he said.

Who is the new owner? I'm told it's none other than lovable ExxonMobil. What their plan is remains to be seen but I naively hope that it is for affordable Residential properties because Victoria Island certainly needs more.

Bob's Bar is hosting their finale outdoor bash on Friday December 1st. It will probably be a great night.

Back in Lagos

I'm back in town after finalising my visa arrangements on Friday and navigating the British Railway Networks to the airport. I would have liked to have said the train journey was good, and that the poor reputation of the railways is undeserved. However, finding a flea sucking blood from my arm while sat in a First Class coach of a First Great Western train, I decided there and then that I would not be praising them. Despite being almost on time.

So I arrived here yesterday morning, and made it out of the airport by 6:15am to be able to reach home before the Environmental curfew started which is 7am-10am Last Saturday of each month. Most of Saturday is a blur as I didn't sleep well on the flight and I was dozing on and off most of the time.

Today I hooked up my laptop and checked my email and received this story from a Nigerian friend of mine about the unswerving confidence of Nigerians. Not long after reading it I saw another headline come in from the BBC. Plane crash near Nigeria capital. Since then some of the names of those that perished on board have been revealed, including the Sultan of Sokoto, seen as the leader of all Nigerian Muslims.

After the crashes of last year, and the crash in September, one wonders if anybody in the Nigerian Government actually cares that their procrastination, inability to make simple rules stick and inefficient methods are costing the lives of the people that they are there to serve and doing untold harm to the economy along with it.

Nigeria High Commission

Nigeria High Commission
Originally uploaded by ajbrowe.

Paid a visit to the Nigeria High Commission today, The place was absolutely packed. nearly 200 were waiting for visas and my guess is almost the same were waiting for passports, all in one quite medium sized basement waiting room.

I arrived early, 9am, and got a ticket. I was 28th in the queue. If not for waking early to reach the High Commission in time for the doors to open, I doubt I would have managed to get out of there in time for my train home. It was 12:25 when I got out, and the queue seemed to be still growing.

Monday and Tuesday this week were public holidays in Nigeria for Eid ul-Fitr. The NHC closes on Nigerian and UK Public holidays, so Today there were Three days worth of people trying to squeeze in. I do feel sorry for those who had to wait hours upon hours, and especially those who were getting their first taste of Lagos!

Exams done.

Finished my second and last exam for 2006 this afternoon with over an hour to spare. I spent 20 minutes checking through and tweaking some answers and then left.

Reading the OU forums for the course I see that many other people left early. I'm not sure but I think we are the first year to sit this course as there were no past papers available for revision, except a specimen exam sent with the course.

I noticed a few errors in some questions which was quite annoying. You'd think someone would have proof read it?

Well I'm still hopefull of a distinction (85+%) but time will tell. Results should be available near Christmas. I've almost settled on which courses to take next year but quite shocked at the price rise. I'm going to need to find £950 just for next year!

I will now be rushing around preparing for my return to Lagos very shortly.

Technorati Tags: Lagos, Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria, exam, Open University, M255

How to survive a plane crash.

As I prepare for my exam tomorrow, I came accross a distraction that I thought I'd share.

The tale of an Expatriate surviving a plane crash in Nigeria, in 1983.

Little Miss Jocelyn

Last night after watching Spooks on BBC 3 I left the tv on for the programme that followed. This was how I chanced accross Little Miss Jocelyn.

Perhaps it's the Constant references to Nigeria, but I genuinely found this show extremely funny. After watching the show I browsed the BBC website and couldn't believe my luck to find the first 5 episodes available to play online. Wonderful.

Characters such as Ignatius the Nigerian Driving Instructor, and Mrs Omwukuopopo are inspired creations from someone who loves her culture, and wants to share it's hilarious foibles with the world. Please Please Please watch this show.

The DVD will be out soon

"Boy's own Nigeria"

Jeremy Weate has scooped the un-edited version of Alex Hanafords article in the Sunday Independant. (10/Sep/2006)

A very worthwhile read.

Exams are coming

I've just submitted my final piece of coursework for my Studies with OU in 2006. I am anticipating a very high overall score for the coursework in both courses, however I must still achieve 85% in the exam to achieve the Distinction grade I am aiming for. I managed it last year with T224 but this year I have two exams and both are very technical, requiring a lot of study.

I have a few things I'd like to complete for the various projects in Nigeria while I am home, and also I am off to Rhodes next week for a short vacation. On top of that I need to find time to go and reapply for my Nigerian visa in London, and visit friends and family.

Then if I have time there's the usual household maintenance that normally occupies me here. I can see a gate that needs creosote and a lawn that needs some TLC from my window right now...

Technorati Tags: Nigeria, Open University, Exam

I've Escaped!

No I haven't, not at all really, I've just arrived back in the UK for a few weeks. I have a holiday coming up and later two OU exams to sit, so I'll be telecommuting for a while.

I had a really pleasant flight back with Virgin Atlantic, Making up for most of my pain for my last Flight. Actually I received a nice lot of Flying Club miles after the last escapade so I have already forgiven them, although a voucher or just a brown envelope full of cash would have gone down better.

I had a window seat, with a vacant seat next to me. The lady occupying the seat spied an old friend sitting in the back of the plane and joined her for most of the flight. The space next to me gave me enough comfort to sleep quite a bit, always good on a long haul flight if you can do it. Usually with a stranger sat next to me fidgeting I find it very difficult to nod off. I think I'm worried about falling onto their shoulder and dribbling or something.

We arrived in Heathrow on time and exiting the plane was a calm and civilised affair, something quite rare on Lagos flights. There were no sniffer dogs waiting to catch the drug mules, or snail smugglers, whatever they are trying to catch. And my bag appeared not 5 minutes after I had reached the carousel.

I did note the new Iris Scanning machines at the immigration section, I was hoping to register my eyeballs with the government before leaving the UK in June so that I could give these things a go, but I missed the sign for the registration desk just after the security screening and found I wasn't allowed back to give it a go. Maybe next time.

Nothing much to Report. I suspended the Data Entry procedure at 19,000 forms because the remaining forms require a revisit to field to correct ommissions and irregularities before we can enter them. We need another 4,000 to complete this phase of our contract.

In the mean time, if you are missing news from Nigeria please visit the following blogs, all of which I read daily.

African Shirts, Musings of a Naija Man, NaijaBlog

Please note this is not an exhaustive list, I am working on adding a links section to this site after I upgrade the design. sometime soon depending on Google's upgrades to Blogger Beta.