Off To Lagos, Nigeria (Jan. 2015) - Pictures by Zuhaira Sahid

Ever since I started the blog a month ago about my family and our predicament set forth by Madam,  the response was overwhelming. Unfortunately, I got carried away regarding the postings in London. The invention of digital camera which make do without any Kodak film made me take as much picture without even thinking. No second guessed about it. Just snap all day long until either the battery  or the digital card give way.

Another reason was Madam. I guessed she wanted me to start on Nigeria articles ASAP. Yeah, right..Like she is the one paying me to do all these, but a happy Madam is a happy house (note: I am not in the picture). Nevertheless, I better bow to her wishes. Like I said in the earlier post, that I can read her. What she is capable of etc.. Not that I am scared of  her in any way, but I sleep better at night knowing there isn't a  crazy woman sleeping with an ice pick beside me....

New Year's day came without much fanfare. We were at the fireworks show, but rushed back as we were due to fly out in a few hours time. This is it! Time to say good bye London and hello Lagos. 

Brightly coloured bags a trademark

Adik was sleepy, with Sven and Cikya

smiley Ben

awwwwww....will miss his nanny

Fay and Sven

As usual, on my insistance we were at the aiport as early as possible. Great! No drama so far. Gate still close and we had a simple breakfast at the coffee shop. I think it was Cafe Nero. 

coffee to jumpstart the day

same table, different angle

From time to time, I would go and take a look at the check in gate. It was very much later we realised that all KLM and Air France airline checked in at a different gate!! Bloody hell!! The screen showed somewhere else, but the info counter said otherwise. It was no time to panic now and Madam was in action. We went to the new check in counter and there was no problem with our luggage (Madam and Zuhaira spent hours dividing all the things between begs so the weight would comply with regulation)

We were running late, so we said our goodbyes to Zuhaira, Fikri and Afifa. Afifa will spend another few days before going back to Iowa, USA. Zuhaira and Fikri were scheduled to fly back to Malaysia on the 16th Jan, I think. Then the unthinkable happened!!! Something triggered the sensors and my laptop bag was subjected to a thorough check. What's worse was, there was an elderly couple in front of me also in the secondary baggage check. 

Good bye uncle Picky and Cikya!

 It felt like forever until finally it was my turn. They wiped the bag with a some sort of swab and put into another scanner (I suspect a chemical scanner, for drugs etc). Negative. Put again in the earlier bag scanner. Negative too. Finally they suspected that it was my Ipad mini which was in one of the pocket did the trick...ouch!!! What a waste of time! Lesson learned, all electrical devices should be out of the bag!

At the gate, It was the final call for the KLM flight to Amsterdam (we flew to Lagos via Amsterdam) All of us said bye to Madam's mother. She will be on a flight straight to Kuala Lumpur. The children were crying, especially Ben. It was sad to see, but duty calls (for Madam actually). It took some persuading by Madam to calm the children down (going back to KL in June). Finally, took off from Heathrow and back to Schiphol. I was not in the mood. It was evident as there were no pictures, except this one from Madam's camera.

Schiphol airport, all looked ok so far

I was in no mood at all and if you ask me to recall the flight to Lagos...I simply can't. But I can remember the queue at the gate. They were and are noisy bunch of people. Talk and arguing all at the same time. The children were a bit nervous, and I was snappish. Madam? The hell I care. It was like at a dinner party. They simply can't sit still, talking to each other and clearly having fun. It was like a bar in the sky. All the way to Lagos. The kids were catching up some sleep and once a while would escort Ben to the wash room. 

The only detail I can remember was, we landed some time after 7pm and luckily for us, a common face in the form of Donatus. Phew... Bags in the car, patrol car in front..off we go to Eko Hotel. Our adventure had just begun...