The Wedding Party Movie Review

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*ALL THE IMAGES IN THIS POST ARE PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE MOVIE. NONE OF THE PICTURES IS MINE*

If the advertising budget for the wedding party was anything to go by, a lot of effort went into this movie. I saw the trailer for this movie EVERYWHERE, by the time it came out, I was already thinking I have to see it. Rewind. Romantic comedies in all forms of entertainment are the baseline of what I like. I love love, sue me. I also LOVE seeing black people on tv. It’s the reason I’ve watched more than one Tyler Perry movie and relentlessly give all movies and tv shows with a black cast a fighting chance, including a lot of Nollywood stuff.

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This movie is chuck full of popular romantic tropes and many Nigerian ones- reformed bad boy getting married to quintessential good girl. ‘Good girl” as defined by entertainment is usually a colourless one dimensional character that is extremely naïve- and to be fair, Adesuwa Etomi, as “bride’ fit that stereotype perfectly. She shows her friends her wedding lingerie- a pink and white polka dot tank top and shorts combo and I can’t help but roll my eyes.

There’s also the cold in-law, and Ireti Doyle, surprisingly, overdoes it completely, providing the contrast between the ‘high class family’ talking about taste and potato dauphinoise vs the “razz” family that is overly excited about amala and their daughter getting married.

The actual wedding was the greater part of the movie and it was a lit wedding. There were times when it literally felt like I was watching someone’s actual wedding video, take from that what you will.

But where the wedding party excelled was being a typical but relatable rom com. In place of the airport scene is a scene where bride is chased to her “favorite spot”, by a fire on the beach front. WHERE? All the things that make Nigerian weddings familiar were present and a little bit exaggerated- the over the top wedding planner, struggles of a guest list, stealing at weddings, the ridiculous prayers, the dance in, the “ex” coming to criticise and stir up drama, same as the side chick, families fighting and then reconciling, fighting over souvenirs. There was a lot to laugh about and there was a lot to relate to.

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I have to shout out to the stellar performance by Sola Sobowale- she stole every scene she was in, glorious as an actress.

If this is the future of Nigerian romantic comedy, I’m pretty excited. And a last note of warning, don't watch it if you don't like rom-coms for goodness sake. You'll come out shouting that it's overrated and underwhelming and that's not the movies fault. 

Catch the Moments of Your Life. Catch Them When You're Young. (This is Us S01E08 Recap)

This season has been mad heavy for new shows and I've been scrambling trying to watch as many of them as possible to decide what the BEST ones are. 

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We open with the boys playing- we all know by this point just how rare that is, with all their complicated emotions and memories. 

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Kate is back at a meeting after falling into a bag of doughnuts at the end of the last episode.

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And then she's at dinner with Toby, who is wolfing down pasta and has the bread basket next to him. Somehow he's managing to eat and drink everything at the same time and it is NOT cute. Kate's Salad looks especially tragic next to his pasta and I can imagine exactly how she feels. I like that the break up was nice and swift. 

“I told you when I met you that I couldn’t fall for another fat person.
But you did, you did fall for me, so now what? You’re just going to throw me away?”

I mean Kate just told you she cried herself to sleep after she binged on powdered doughnuts and you're thinking of how she's choosing her emotional well being over you? hmm. 

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It's thanksgiving day and Randall is super excited. Of course he's cooking a hosting. Kevin has lured his co-star along by promising her that his family is super interesting because he has a black adopted brother and his mum his married to his dead dads best friend and did he say his twin was obese or did I just imagine that part? This babe is GORGEOUS! I mean the whole British people are dark and weird and cold is really over-played as foreigners always are in American TV. 

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Kate is walking down the plane aisle and everyone is looking at her like "ill deck you if you sit next to me." I felt bad because I've definitely had that thought before. Imagine how awkward it feels for the fat person. Kate had bought two seats though, so her seat mate could like leave the attitude behind. She didn't, but she should have.

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Co-star person wants to leave, all "I can't do this" and William talks to her about how dying feels and tells her to catch all the moments of her life while she's young and she runs back inside and kisses Kevin! Thanks William but yous about to get in trooouble!!

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It doesn't look like that here, but it felt like the plane was about to crash (like I don't hate flying enough)- yeah so this 'near death' experience leads to Kate deciding to have weight loss surgery. Although no-one cared when she said it because Randall found out that... his mum has known about his bio dad for like ever! Trouuubleee.

Yeah- this episode was a bit bleh. I feel like they tried too hard to make us feel something, with the whole flashback to how they invented their traditions and Kevins new babe and I just really felt detached from it all. 

How about you guys, what did you think?

How Your Weekend is Ruining Your Christmas Body

For the past year, I'be been trying to lose weight. If I'm honest, I've been trying to lose weight for the past year and a half. I've juiced, jogged, starved, cut out whole food groups and all I've done is ruin my metabolism and increase my size. 

Finally, a million and one fitness groups later, I decided to take the sensible approach and work on diet and exercise (duh), making smarter food choices and trying to maintain a consistent workout schedule and most importantly, getting rid of my extremely accurate weight watchers scale. I've tried to log things in My Fitness Pal before (great app, but can't be arsed)- so I've turned to my regular pen and paper and that's working out a lot better. I also started insanity asylum, which I genuinely prefer to any other insanity workout I've done- so far, so good. So weekdays are great! Up at 5, work out, eat my breakfast, take my already meal prepped lunch to work, eat my healthy dinner and my healthy snack packs.

Friday night and it all goes to shit! I'm going to use this weekend as an example. On Friday, I had a great morning. I worked out, pushed myself to finish, packed one of my most filling breakfasts (sweet potato and scrambled eggs), ate at work, was so full, didn't have lunch (small boiled plantain and chicken) till much later. So far, so good. 

Left work to go to Hans & Rene after dark. Hmm. Started my night with a gelato cocktail (kiwi mojito, absolutely delicious). Didn't say no to the free food platter (mini sandwich, mini pizza, mini meat thingi), ate the thing. To go , I HAD to have the mojito gelato (it was cheaper than the cocktail AND had alcohol). I chalked this up to dinner and went home telling myself in the back of the uber that it was my 'cheat meal' for the week.

Nope.

On Saturday, I started well- had exactly one slice of yam and one egg after my ab workout. I was feeling righteous but also hungry. So I had a cashew snack pack. Still okay. Then I was really tired and had to go out so I had a cappucino with sugar and everything. Still not terrible. I skipped lunch and had two handfuls of seaweed peanuts instead. Cool cool cool. 9.30 pm and starving, I had a salmon salad with olive oil and balsamic dressing (heavy on the olive oil). If this is where I said goodnight and went to bed, the day might have been salvaged. "How about a nightcap?" Dami said to Dami. So I had six hob-nobs, and a giant horlicks (with a little sprinkle of hot chocolate to give it that kick). Sigh.

Sunday! I had given up the righteousness. Started my day with no workout and some leftover pasta with chicken. I guess the leftover wasn't leftover enough because I was still so hungry. So I repeated my horlickshobnobs combo. Had a nap. Went to GT fashion week, started off with a turkey and cheese croissant from Hans & Rene (these need to be permanent, soooo good) and sprite (because to be fair they weren't selling water.) Next step- the lounge. I had a platinum pass and I wasn't about to waste it. So two mojitos and a few small chops down, I went to watch the show. Came out of the show peckish (maybe seeing all the model bodies?) so I went back to the lounge for some chocolate cake (YUM-MAY) - tbh, it was average but it was free, so extra marks for freeness. Went outside to meet my friend who was buying a toastie and I thought - heh, why not? And throw in a cold fanta please?I don't even like fanta.

Went home and attempted my workout- gave up half way through and ate my toastie. Fell asleep with a what the hell question mark hanging over my head.

I woke up this morning and as I struggled through my workout, I thought? I can't wake up at 5 to workout, nearly die at different points throughout the workout only to throw away all of that work at the weekend.

That, my friends, is how I ruined a week of hard work in one weekend. 

Father Christmas and Other Lies your Nigerian Parent Never Bothered to Tell you

*yes all the images are mine- a monkey isn't fine but his mother likes him*

Father Christmas

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What else did this guy do but scare children at parties and give bad gifts? He definitely didn't leave anything under any tree and the only way he could have come in the house was if he was a ghost and had magical powers to pass through the barred windows and sometimes doors and reinforced mosquito nets.

Tooth Fairy

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Lol. I have a faint recollection of a small amount of money for one tooth one time but come on - no one bothered to keep up any fairy appearances - if you got money, fair enough - your parents were nice but you certainly knew where that money came from- them.

Sacrifice fairy

You know those cute pictures where the parents are doing all this struggling and suffering and their kids had no idea? niccuh you kneeew- you knew about those sacrifices yo and even some that were made before you existed.

Easter Bunny

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Giiirl if you don’t git! Easter was about forehead ash, palm crosses and Jesus dying for our sins yo. Bunnies didn’t come into it- heck, chocolate didn’t even come into it. Occasionally, schools would try and be cool and all and make kids decorate eggs shells and churches would organise egg hunts but no one was believing in easter bunny.

Harry Potter

Hilarious how we heard tales by moonlight about turtles marrying princesses and outsmarting animals and kings, but harry potter? Hell no- not allowed. Magic was bad, not be be believed in or imagined, even slightly. Mate- parents didn’t even want to buy harry potter bedding or whatever- just no. and Harry Potter was one of the milder books on magic.

Why are you cheating on yourself?

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When I first started being a runner, I had never run before for fitness. I used to wake up at 5.30 am everyday and take a bus so I could run with two other new runners for 12 minutes. It was easy to make this commitment because other people I didn’t know that well were involved and I didn’t want to be a flake or let anyone down.

When I started running more seriously by myself, I learnt that actually, the most important person to trust is yourself and being able to trust yourself is the same process as being able to trust anyone else. So I had been stuck on a longest run of 5 miles and I was sick of it. I wanted to be able to go and go and go and not break my speed either, so I decided to do a runkeeper training plan. The only thing with a training plan is that you can't wing it- you can't go around being tired or blaming rain or snow or whatever, you just had to go- so that’s what I did. I just went. When it rained, when it snowed, when it was high summer, when it was a frosty day. That diligence paid off and within weeks, I was able to do half marathon distance, something I had never achieved in the years I had been running before.

I thought of trusting yourself because I was looking through my posts at times where I’d committed to a series and failed after one or two posts- at the end of the day, maybe no one cares- I’m probably the only one that cares- but me caring IS the most important thing. If you don’t feel able to trust yourself, it affects your ability to follow through, to remain consistent, to grow as a person. You have to treat your word to yourself like your word to anyone else- it has to mean something.

Frank Ocean's Blond: A Review

Mate, Frank Ocean made us wait how long for this album? Come on! By the time it came out, people were expecting fairy dust and unicorn zoos. These things don't exist so it was clearly not going to happen but I think he came pretty close (tooth fairy level). 

I'm going to review with the help of my friends (whose permissions I did not obtain in advance)

01 Nikes

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You start this thinking 'mate if this is what I'm looking forward to, it's sick!

02 Ivy

You know that song in the album you know that you're going to skip after the first few listens? This is it.

03 Pink + White

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He said it best.

04 Be Yourself

One time I was listening to this album at 6am in the kitchen and my mum came and started talking to me and this came on and it just cast this nice holy veil on my head. Same thing happened with my friend, but with her driver.

05 Solo

"In hell, In hell, there's heaven" , theres context for this lyric but based on my social conditioning, I still feel guilty about it

08 Good Guy

This is one of my faves because it comes up at a point where I've stopped listening to the thing and my ears perk up again

09 Nights

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I think this is the first easy fave - until pick + fucking above (please see above)

12 Facebook Story

LOL- this asshat with this French accent

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Female perspective (right perspective)

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male perspective (wrong perspective)

15 Siegfried

Love- this is actually one of the longer songs and after all the snippets almost, you just want that

17 Futura Free

Perfect End.

I love this album, thank you Frank. 

kai Collective

Fashion, lifestyle and travel blogger, Fisayo Longe has finally launched her clothing line. The pieces are gorgeous and AFFORDABLE, but don't take my word for it, shop it here. 

Here are two of my faves! 

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Infidel-ity

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Sometimes I imagine infidelity in marriage to be a bit like if you and your best friend moved cities and they got a new city best friend and the first time you go to visit, you're upset and sad and jealous and you hate whenever their name comes up

But then maybe you go away together- just you and your best friend and you have an amazing time and bond and you remember why you're best friends and new city best friend doesn't even come up once and after a while when new city best friend comes up, you don't even care anymore- sometimes new city best friend doesn't even come up for weeks

Then one day, you ask 'I haven't heard from new city best friend in ages' and best friend says 'yeah I don't know, we don't really talk anymore'

Snapshots: Delis

Palm Wine and Other Local Drinks

When you think of wine , you think - red, white, sparkly , non- sweet, tart, tastings, crackers , cheese- there are so many wine associations

When it comes to palm wine *crickets*

We know it's tapped. We know it's from Palm kernels. People have nkwobi with it sometimes. That's it. But Palm wine has a fascinating history - there are regions, types and interesting food pairings. Health benefits, proper storage and what other kinds of alcohol come from Palm wine- *spolier alert*, ogogoro is one of them. Studio of Mode has done the hard work for you, travelling and learning about palm wine and now you can come and check out what they found (and drink palm wine)

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This exhibition is for you if any or half (or none) applies:

• You're tired of the same old weekend routine
• You want to drink and learn new stuff at the same time
• You always wanted to be a wine expert but might as well be a Palm wine expert
• You're curious about history especially the Nigerian kind
• You've been looking for new reasons to justify your drinking
• You hate cheese and you hate crackers and just want some spice in your life

Tickets can be got here: http://shop.studioofmode.com/products/palm-wine-and-other-local-drinks Learn and get to drink our different types of alcoholic drinks! At the exhibition, you get to: Learn and taste: - The different types of palm wine and palm trees - What palm tree can be used for - Learn and try Burukutu and Pito - Learn how to make Kunu Aya and Kunu Zaki (and what the differences are between them) and of course taste them.

There will be bottles of palm wine on sale as well - so you can take the party home with you.

Snapshots: The bar @ Radisson Blu

Body Dysmorphia

I was going to title this post 'glory days' and put up all these old photos of me in the past three years where I was a lot slimmer and laugh like OMG- I want to be back there. But the more I went through the pictures, the more I realised something very disturbing- I'm always looking forward or backwards in terms of my body and never thinking of right now. It's nice to have all the pictures and all (I document everything, from my sleep to my outfits), but I looked at so many pictures and remembered feeling fat- feeling like I had the power to just do a little more to achieve a degree of perfection that my mind didn't fully know. It didn't help to have people in my life who fed into that energy and made me feel like how I was wasn't enough. And what I realised from looking at those pictures is that the warped mindset is only a mind thing but it will always be there, even if I was perfect tomorrow. If I can't enjoy who I am right now, I will never be happy, no matter who I become. 

(click right to see more photos)

Monotony aka Consistency

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Aka boring as hell- Do you know how boring it is to do the same thing everyday? Especially when it's good for you?

Actually, let me rephrase- it's only incredibly hard and boring to do something everyday when it's good for you- and that's the thing about changing your lifestyle, dieting , losing weight , fitness, blablabla etc

Maybe it's the first of a month or someone just gave up their seat because they thought you were pregnant or shaded you or you just woke up with plenty ginger - so you decide to change- you buy shitloads of fruit and veg- you grill some chicken- you download insanity.

Day 2.5 and it's your friends birthday and the journey through small chops and birthday cake ruin your life. Suddenly , your lettuce is wilting and your chicken has gone off, lifestyle change paused- again.

I remember when I started running- I used to run 12 minutes every single day- rain, snow, hail, scorching summer , when I eventually started doing 3 miles a day, same thing- until 3 miles became a short run for fun and I could do 12 mile runs without having to catch my breath after (how the mighty have fallen).

But you know what? That shit was hard. Consistency means some days are bad and some days are good but ultimately , there are more good days than bad days or enough good days to make changes.

Consistency tends to look insignificant day to day but if you do 10 minutes of working out everyday, it adds up and is better for your body than doing one crazy 2 hour workout a month and never working out again. Sometimes when you're being consistent, you need to just pause the image of the 'end' because sometimes it seems tooooo far away. If you think of the 20kg you have to lose instead of the 0.5 you've lost, it's enough to make you give up.

But you know...just keep going.

Spoiler Alert: watched pots boil.

Losing Weight Is Hard

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Losing weight is hard. 

It's crazy how it creeps up on you as well- one day you're pinching your non-existent size 10 "belly rolls" and moaning about your half a kilo weight gain and then like an hour later, you can't even fit your ankle into size 10 jeans.  These days in Lagos, all these 50 year olds with 4 kids are looking like 18 year olds and I'm here, 20 something and looking like a mama- we will not take it! 

Ah well for the next 31 days, I'm going to write about weight loss and my struggles- one day one day, I will get lose this belly... or die trying.

New Restaurant Alert: Due by Chef Dish

Hey there! It's been sooooo long since I did a food review but I went to a new restaurant on Friday and thought "why not?"

Due (pronounced dooh-eh) is a little cute restaurant on Adetokunbo Ademola in the Samantha Bistro family. It had a test run for a month before it opened officially on Thursday. It's divided into a cafe area and a restaurant area. 

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Cute, no?

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High chairs are cute, but they are certainly not made for you to hang around for hours

I don't know if it's because they just opened, but there was a limited menu, nothing else for it but to crack open a bottle of wine and try to decide.

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I love handwritten menus, spelling and all

We asked if they had any starters and they had chicken wings, so we ordered those blind.

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Since we ordered blind, I can't say what was in or on the chicken wings. I wasn't a big fan but I don't know that I can tell you why, maybe because it was fried and I don't like fried chicken? 

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poached fish and mash

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It also came with sweet potato fries

The poached fish was poached perfectly- it wasn't overcooked or over flavoured and the sauce it came with was very tasty. The mash was very homemade tasting (but like I make a good homemade mash, so that's not a bad thing). Sweet potato fries were an alternative to the mash, but I don't think sweet potatoes that aren't orange go with anything, my friend loved her fries though. 

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We asked if they had dessert and surprise- they did! The menu was turning out to be full of random surprises. We had one each but I think its the perfect size for sharing- the cream had orange in it, which made it taste a lot more exciting. 

We were pretty brave ordering from a menu with no prices, but in the end it was pretty average. Everything was between N1500 and N4000 (except the wine).

Due is at 35a Adetokunbo Ademola, Victoria Island  (small black gate between Tantalisers and Chase Mall) and the entrance is up some stairs at the back of the building. 

Tips for the eat.drink.lagos festival

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So last year,  EatDrinkLagos had a food festival. I don't know if anyone expected it, but the turnout was huge. It was in Parkview Estate and it basically shut down Ikoyi. Awks. More awks is that vendors anticipated numbers based on regular events and food was finishing left right and centre. From the goodness of my heart, I decided to write survival tips for anyone that wasn't there for the last one, or was there and otherwise pre-occupied by drunkenness, lateness or looking for parking space. 

1. COME ON TIME! I think this is pretty self-explanatory. I mean, you don't have to be there the moment the doors open, but if you're trying to do attending the reception time, you're on your own.

2. Bring cash (but like not too much, if thats not your thing)- I think people finished the money in the cashpoint opposite the venue last time. Luckily, this time, there's a great option that wasn't there last time- PayWithCapture. So as long as you have a phone (smart), you can pay (without network because etisalat is unreliable), but best set it up beforehand, so incase you're about to grab the last rib, someone else that thought ahead doesn't buy it before you- awks.

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3. Wear Loose Clothing- Seriously, look cute, because apparently it's Tinder in real life, as long as cute doesn't involve unforgivably tight clothes- guys and girls, I'm looking at both of you- because tight jeans are for everyone (and not for the festival)

4. Look at the Menus and plan ahead- the festival website has a list of vendors and menus with prices and everything. Take time out before the festival to prep your list and budget. You cannot eat everything or drink everything, so be wise. 

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5. Pace yourself but not too much- You don't want to try and eat everything in the first hour you're there, please- chill out. If you come early, you'll get good seats in the sitting area and you can take breaks. If your break is too long and your next on the list sells out, you're really on your own.

6. Bring some ziplock bags for takeaway- last festival, I sold cookie bars that were packaged for take-away basically and there will be other vendors that have things like that or things that you can make to be like that (with your handy ziplock bag)- there's nothing more painful than thinking the next day 'oh shit, I wish I bought that cake' or whatever. 

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Throwback to my old menu

7. Take a break at my stall (3)- jello shots are a great non-stomach filling way to have alcohol- but I mean, mojitos do the job too! 

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You're Gonna Get Murdered- Girls S05E06 Recap

The episodes that start with Marnie are usually the episodes I hate especially when she starts by saying 'you're playing aggressive guitar at me' , to her husband who is lightly plucking the strings to whatever. 

cute headphones though

i remember this guy- isn't this Marnie's ex?

Yes, it is! More than a little worse for wear.

Another Marnie monologue- 'Remember when you said you didn't love me and my life would never amount to anything other than being someone's wife? Well guess what? I am someones wife and I have a life.' The 'I have a life' part is questionable to me tbh.

So, her ex, Charlie is it? asks her to come to something but he has to buy her a dress first. I mean the whole thing sounds legit- not, but whatever. 

Marnie admires herself 

then full on launches into a monologue at the shop assistant. 'Yes, I'm only 25 and a half years old, but I've managed to fit in so much...' LIKE. WHAT. BOO?

still going on

Of course he's at the party to deliver cocaine, but Marnie also delivers some great negotiation skills for a threesome. I mean in the end she charged $600 *eeek* but it was the

way

she did it

So basically that crazy experience has bonded them and they are having like a wild passionate night

Guess what?

Half my album's about you, you were my family

predictable or nah?

One boat ride later...

omg Charlie is a drug dealer, he won't let them get robbed

he's crazy, he has a knife!

gun vs knife- oops

lmao- he real life took off her earrings that the robber didn't even ask for

Marnie- what am i going to do about you?

WHAT IS THIS CHARLIE?

Charlie- um, I'm diabetic

I guess Marnie has a line because this is the point where she gets the f out. You go girl. Tide is really turning in my mind.

husband waits dramatically.

"I knew I shouldn't have married you, I didn't want to give up on yet another dream" - proud of Marnie and all but damn son!

Of course he cries.

This whole 'I climb into my best friends bed' dynamic of tv shows is one that I want- hey bestie, what say you?

Can Marnie have...redeemed herself? this episode? I am sooooo confused about my feelings right now

I

A day in the life of a Nigerian fashion buyer

*Since we did this diary, Bolaji left this job*

I work as the buyer for Grey Velvet Stores which is a retail store that focuses on African-made (more specifically, Nigerian-made) apparel. In the last year, we've expanded from an apparel-only store, to carrying other assortments such as lifestyle items and beauty products. As a buyer, I'm in charge of finding new designers to partner with and maintaining those relationships. With this job however, I get to wear many hats. So I handle not only buying, but merchandising, styling and, occasionally, PR.

I double majored in international business and fashion merchandising at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY. The double major was a result of a compromise with my dad because, in typical Nigerian parent fashion, he wouldn't let me study fashion alone. And I'm grateful for that because my business background is especially invaluable in my line of work. 

The fashion department at my university was phenomenal at securing its students amazing internships. I got to work at Tommy Hilfiger and Carlo Pazolini as an Assistant Men's Merchandiser and Assistant Buyer respectively. 

I also got to spend a summer semester at the Fashion Institute of Technology (which I loved!). 

When I moved back to Nigeria, I started NYSC and worked at the primary school I went to (Greenwood School). While at that job, I interviewed at a few places looking for merchandisers. I remember being surprised that the industry here had grown so much that people actually knew what merchandisers were, and were actively looking to hire them.

Then I found a post on Instagram for the position of buyer and applied, and that's how I got my current job. 

A lot of buyers/merchandisers I talked to while at university mentioned that no two days are ever the same and I've found that to be very true. Some days are slow but most of the time it’s extremely busy with zero time for breaks. So, here it is, a day in my life-

7.00AM

- I finally roll out of bed, shower, get ready etc.

8.30AM

- I generally leave for work at this time as 

I'm

 one of the lucky few who works pretty close to home . My commute is about 20 mins long on a good day. I have to pay that Lekki-Ikoyi bridge toll everyday though, so I guess you can’t have it all.

9.00AM

- Once I get in, the first thing I do is check my email, and make phone calls. A lot of my work is relationship-based as I interact with the designers themselves a lot.

10.00AM

-  Informal design meeting with our in-house designer. 

I'm

 in charge of trend reports and forecasting, as well as, relaying customer buying patterns. We discuss  a lot of things regarding production like new styles, costing & sizing and so on. Throughout the rest of the week, we’ll have check-ins just to make sure we’re on the same page.

12.00PM

- Meeting with the PR/Brand Manger to discuss any promotional events that we want to have. Depending on what kind of event we’re having, we discuss what needs to be done. We’ll decide on graphics for the website and social media, details about sales, plan photoshoots etc.

12:30PM

- A slightly unnecessary phone call from one of the girls in the store. It’s usually to ask me a question that I 100% did not need to be asked, or they already knew the answer to. I try my best to answer like someone with home training.

2.00PM

- Lunch. Usually we order out as there’s a decent selection of restaurants in Lekki. This year though, I’m trying to bring in my own lunch (which is actually much harder than I’d anticipated lol).

3.00PM

- I’ll go into the store in Lekki and do some visual merchandising to make sure that the shop floor is as attractive to the customer as possible. This is much harder than you’d expect as you have to work with varying designers’ aesthetics and make sure they all work together to form pleasing visuals. During this time, I’ll also take note of what gaps in the assortment of apparel we have and how best to fill it. I’ll also speak to the sales assistants to get feedback on what customers have requested for and add that to my notes. If it’s a Tuesday, I’ll head to the Ikeja store instead (in the morning though, no time for that afternoon mainland traffic). Sometimes, our media manager is present, so I can pull items for her to photograph for social media.

5.00PM

- I head back to the office to finish up any work that needs to get done.

6.00PM

- Our official office closing time.

7:15PM

- When I actually leave the office. 

Notes from a falling plane

I'm jealous of the girl asleep next to me
I wish I could sleep on turbulent planes
I think that lack of ability to fall asleep on a flight that's shaking even though I'm not scared and I'm really tired says something deeper, maybe
There's something really forced about the glamour of cabin crew
The make-up, the hair, the uniforms that never fit quite right- either too tight or too loose
Sometimes I catch a glimpse of someone's face and know that they wish they could meet someone that'll take them away from their life
It's really shaky now
It's impressive the way people are eating meatpie - it looks really meaty as well
Do you ever wonder about the impression you leave on other people?
When people tell me stories like 'I met you and you were sooooo coool'- it's weird because I'm always thinking of the other person, I never think of myself as the other person- does that make sense?
It seems to be a little less shaky
It's weird that my heart hasn't been in my mouth
I hate flying - it's so weird how people love it, like people love long drives
I don't think I love long being in boxes
Sometimes, in Nigeria, I think of how there are bars on all the windows and how unsafe that is.
But then I stop because it's one of those things that can drive you crazy if you think about it too much
The seatbelt light is off
On one flight, I thought the smoking sign was the seatbelt sign and I kept thinking 'this is a really bad flight, isn't it?'
Nigeria is full of men
This flight is full of men
Now I actually want to eat the meaty meat-pie
Because hunger
And no seat belt sign

An Interview with the founder of Retrocode

 I'm obsessed with the business of retail and when I stumbled on the retrocode brand on twitter last year, I was super excited. It was a completely new thing in the Nigerian fashion retail space. The prices didn't make me scream, it had a super responsive founder, there was variety but it focused on one thing...There were a lot of exciting things! Eventually, I got the founder, Cohan to speak to me about the brand. 

How long have you had the idea for retrocode?

Honestly, I never had the idea for "retrocode", I had the idea for a regular clothing line called "code" instead, but at some point, I think around my final year in the University, I finally decided I didn't want a regular clothing line anymore (so I sold that idea to someone else) but yeah I'd say the whole idea of retrocode still came up really spontaneously.

The name is brilliant. How did you come up with the name?

Since I already had the idea to name my regular clothing line "code" and that didn't work out anymore, I decided to go with something that had "code" in it but still represented what my new line was about, which is hugely about designating the style of an earlier time, so "Retro" just felt like a perfect prefix.

Why did you start retrocode?

Honestly, I think I'd rather say, retrocode was something I had started for myself, I just wanted to have shirts that a lot of people didn't have, it was like this very selfish idea. Lol, then one time my sister just said "how about you made this public" and basically that's how I started .

When did you start retrocode?

Retrocode started in late February. 26th of February 2015 precisely.

What did you know about your customers before you started?

My first set of customers were mostly just close family and friends and when I decided to finally go public with it, my customers were twitter followers I'd been following for a while.

Are you permanently connected to social media?

Yes.

Do you run all your social media platforms yourself?

Yes, everything.

It seems like you do a lot of things yourself. The marketing,the shooting, picking prints, interacting with customers and sorting orders. How do you find the time to do everything?

I actually have a team that works with me now. When I first started out, I did all of that myself but yeah I have a team of young men and women that work me, so to an extent it's been pretty easy.

What do you think makes retrocode so popular?

Judging from the feedbacks I've gotten from customers, I think it's the uniqueness and quality of each fabric. A lot of it is also based on good word of mouth and referrals from customers.

Who is your target market?

My target market is basically everyone who loves looking good, all demographics to be honest. That's the thing, retrocode is something everyone can wear, teenagers, youths even the elderly people love retrocode. It's something they can wear anywhere, I try to make sure there are pieces for every occasion.

What are your goals for the brand over the next year?

I have a lot planned out this year, like I just recently launched a denim line (dresses, shorts), so I have a lot planned for the year,there's going to be a lot of diversity this year. I'm working on a lot of different projects this year and also plan on expanding the brand so everyone around the world can have access to the pieces

What has been the biggest highlight and the biggest challenge?

Lool this, okay I can say that one of the biggest moments for me was when patoranking took notice of the brand and decided he wanted to be associated with it,then there was sheyi shay too, who also loved the pieces,everyone was talking about it, so yeah that felt really great, the biggest challenge for me was when retrocode trended on Nigerian twitter on new year's day, so there were like thousands of people reaching out for shirts and I had completely sold out, that was really challenging, having to tell these people that there was nothing available to buy at that time.

Why did you decide to launch largely on twitter on opposed to the traditional instagram platform used by other vendors?

yes this, I always get asked this a lot, for me, twitter just felt easier for me because it's a site I'm constantly on and I interact with more people there and I liked it because there on Twitter, people aren't scared to say how they feel about your brand and that was super important to me, I wanted to know what people felt about the brand, you can get away with selling wack stuff on Instagram but on Twitter someone's definitely ready to call you out, so I think that actually makes you more conscious about paying the littlest details to your brand and honestly twitter has been one of my hugest markets. So I'm grateful for that.

What and who are your influences?

This might sound ridiculous but I think old pictures of my parents, I even had this collection one time, "The Sylvia's Corner" collection it was mostly birthed by old pictures of my mum and her wardrobe because I am so obsessed with all of their style from the 70/80's and with retrocode I'm trying to bridge that gap between then and now like a cross between the style from the early times(70's - 90's)to the more contemporary style now.

What did you study and how did that lead into a fashion retail career?

I studied geology and that had nothing to do with my present career. Lol

Was your family supportive of your choice to pursue retrocode full time and if not at the beginning, how did they come around?

My parents were super supportive, my dad is actually one of my biggest supporters , when I started he always bought a lot of shirts for himself and even for his some of the staff, my mum also got a lot,my sisters and brother have been super supportive too, my sisters always patronized me a lot and told their friends about it, so it's been such a huge blessing.

I've

noticed that

you've

managed to stay very affordable. And a lot of Nigerian designers often use infrastructure as an excuse for their high prices. How have you managed to overcome those problems and maintain affordability?

That has been one of the biggest challenges too, like I've had people who have literally screamed about how "affordable" the pieces are, they usually always think it's pretty expensive, but yeah it's really not been so easy but that was the mould(that most Nigerian designers sell

sub-par

products at ridiculous prices) I actually wanted to break , I want people to understand that you can still have really great clothes with a nice quality that's not overpriced and it can be unique and exclusive, I think the fact that making money wasn't my original motive makes it all easy, retrocode is a very personal project that I'm very passionate about, so I still manage to find a way to manage all of that.

Do you love retrocode? Say why in the comments!