Oga stop me here o!

By -

 




Location: Brighton

    I recall one of my first times boarding a commercial bus in London. Usually, if you intend to alight at a certain bus stop, you’re expected to press the bell before the driver approaches the bus stop. So on this occasion, I got to where I was gonna alight, and of course, I wasn’t used to "pressing the bell" before hand, so as the driver approached my street I tried to alert him by saying “I’m stopping here o”, but he didn’t listen. 


    Before I said jack, he had zoomed passed my street, then I started screaming “Oga stop me here o”... (Pidgin English).



Location: London

    For where! The driver didn’t even turn towards my direction even though I was standing right beside him in the bus. Everyone in the bus was giving me the ‘what’s-wrong-with-this-one’ look.🙄


    Then I remembered that I was in the UK. But before I would press the bell, driver had driven like five bus stops passed my street. 😩


    Omo! That day, see trekking for me. Plus my plenty heavy bags. No Okada! 

I almost cry! 😩


#storyofmylife


Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.




Location: London Eye

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE DUMBEST THING I DID GROWING UP

By -
Image
So there was this guy ‘chyking’ me (asking me out). He was like 7years older than me. Anytime I passed through their house, his sisters would call out to him saying “ Kevwe, your babe dey pas o ”. I was still a teenager, and he was way older, I despised him. Cos he’d obstinately escort me to fetch water, against my will. Even when I’ve warned him severally to gimme SPACE, he wouldn’t listen. This guy was stalking me and I hated it! Before you know it the “area boys” who normally teased me whenever I was carrying a bucket of water on my head, would find another reason to tease me even more; they’d begin to call him ‘my guy’. And I’d be so mad! I fetched water morning and evening, and this guy would just goan position himself somewhere and be waiting for the hour when I’d pass through their compound, as there was no other road to the borehole. He’d walk by my side, asking to help me, but I always shunned him,  most times I’d double my pace and walk faster even with water on my head, he w
Read more

IGNORANCE...

By -
Image
    My hand luggage and backpack were meticulously packed for the journey, and since they were pretty portable, I decided to keep them with me instead of getting them checked in.   On arrival at security checks, I was asked to declare all my liquids, and with a clean conscience, I brought out all my deodorants, perfumes, body lotion, liquid soap, toothpaste, makeup foundation, etc... It took me by surprise when, at once, the immigration officer gathered together all the above items (excluding one of the smallest bottles of my perfume) and said to me: “we’ll have to trash these”. 😳 You said…? I asked him like I didn’t hear him quite well the first time. And he firmly repeated himself: “We’ll have to put these ones in the bin”, he paraphrased. At that point, I was like “trash”? “Bin”? What’s the relationship between my newly purchased body cream and the bin? I really wasn’t clear what he meant and why for goodness sake he’ll want to shove all my stuff in the bin. Maybe the word “bin” ha
Read more

MISSING

By -
Image
  Something horrible happened to me recently. Turns out it is one of my 2021 highlights  Quite a lengthy read tho... I was all packed to leave for Brighton from London. Had one piece of luggage and a backpack, with my purse hanging in front of me.  Got on the bus, then on a train and then landed at the National rail station to board to Brighton. It would take 8mins for the train to arrive so I sat on a waiting chair where a young man was already seated, greeted him with a smile and sat beside him, with my backpack on the middle seat separating us.  Train arrived and I jumped on it, sat on a seat beside the toilet but decided to move to another cos of how close it was to the toilet. My earphones were plugged in throughout most of the journey. One & half hours into the journey we arrived at Brighton and people were already stood up waiting to alight, I noticed my backpack was missing.😳🤯 Scurried over and under my seat, see if it was there, but no, it wasn’t. Left my seat at once, r
Read more

CALABAR CARNIVAL 6...Wahala

By -
Image
Episode 6... 28th December came the big day, The almighty Calabar carnival itself. A festival of culture, colors and life! In fact Christmas Day in Calabar was not as colorful as the Calabar carnival day itself. Xmas dey trek for where Carnival dey,...It was a blast! Just before it’s 1pm when the major routes will be blocked, Lucy and I left early to get our nails and hair fixed. We meandered our way through to Watts market... Hmmmm, coman see babes, see chicks, slay queens, and hardcore Calabar babes with their hairy yellow skin and 'Yam-Legs'...lol, (abeg na joke o) some don dey there since early mor mor! All queued up in the various saloons, either changing their hairstyles, attaching artificial lashes, carving their brows, fixing nails and others doing “bend-down-select”. We wait wait wait ooooo!... Until it finally got to our turn, after hers was done, Lucy immediately rushed off and left me behind cos she was part of the bands participating in the carni
Read more

ONE BIG FAMILY...BEFORE greets AFTER

By -
Image
#ONE_BIG_FAMILY It’s been over two months since their story shook the internet. A family of five that was known for their bizarre lifestyle and affliction. Ben, his wife and three kids for over seven years roamed the hinterlands of Bekwarra-Ogoja, Cross River State in search of nothing in particular. Adorned in their customary rags and spotting dreadlocks, which is typical of insane people in Nigeria, they found a home sleeping in open fields and in the cold. Two months after
Read more

SUCKING

By -
Image
When I first saw them sucking, so many thoughts ran through my mind; I couldn’t help but wonder what manner of food that could be. Although I was very young, I could still replay the look on their faces whenever they sucked. I’m referring to the 'Calabar' neighbor we had, whose kitchen was marked by the unique redolence. The aroma alone does a public announcement that they are “Calabarians”. I dunno if you’ve tried this sucking before; but my first time was with Afang soup. Afang soup makes no sense without  “suckables” in it. Omg...I lack words to describe By now you’re wondering what exactly this thing is ... “Mfi”, as it is locally called, is simply unshelled periwinkles. It is mostly eaten by Cross Riverians and Akwa Ibomites; and it is characterized by so much sand content. You can tell when someone is cooking with “Mfi” during the washing... The process is so tedious. Enough water and enough patience are the basic tools for washing, as it makes so much nois
Read more

Proudest thing ever!

By -
Image
  One of the proudest things I’ve done in my life is resigning from a toxic work environment. I once worked with this Start-up organization, where the CEO was a real bossy boss.  He was walking in his “CEO shoes” every day of his life, he was so obsessed with achieving his dream for his org that he cared less about his employees!  We would use our personal emails and our personal mobile number to reach out to clients.  I remember suggesting that a work phone should be provided for me because the clients were beginning to encroach on my personal space, but I was told off and tagged a complainer. In so many ways we were going out of our way to help him achieve his goals for his organization, yet these sacrifices meant nothing to him.  He kept demanding more.  He’d give us tasks that encroached into our weekends even though working weekends wasn’t part of our employment contract, and when we fell short of delivery he’d scold us so harshly, making us feel like we were not hardworking enoug
Read more

NOTES ON FEMINISM

By -
Image
  Feminism is one subject that comes with a lot of different baggage, and over time I’ve seen the sprout of different facets of feminism. In Nigeria, which I know of, there’s an amount of negativity attached to the title “feminist” or the word “feminism”, both from self-acclaimed feminists and from society.  And this is because the word feminism translates to different things for different people who identify with this title. A feminist can be: 1. A woman who fancies and promotes the idea that women are in no way less than men, hence should have equal opportunities and be treated fairly in society. 2.  A single and heartbroken lady who therefore thinks all “men are scum”. 3.  An aggrieved/hurt lady who takes out her annoyance by blasting men under the ideology of feminism. (But automatically changes her ideas of men when she finally falls in love with one helplessly).  4.  A lady who doesn’t fancy the idea of marriage, or has attained a certain age where she thinks she’s totally fine w
Read more

“Keep an eye on her”...

By -
Image
  I did something today that I’m really proud of, even though I ended up breaking down in tears after — Calling out racism! I’ve met lovely people across all races since I moved to the UK. I’ve had very pleasant and memorable experiences. But I’ve also encountered people who left me with unpalatable experiences. One very repetitive disgusting experience is RACISM!  I don’t care how covert it is, it is evident and it absolutely disgusting! So today I discovered a massive mall not very far from me and I went on a tour. It is called Exchange mall located in Illford East London!  One of the shops I visited was TK Maxx , I looked around a bit as I window shopped, and on my way out as I approached the exit door, I saw a security staff dutifully positioned there.  I clearly heard one of his colleagues giving him an instruction through his walkie-talkie phone. He said, “The Black Female approaching, keep an eye on her”.  Now, I was the only Black female approaching the exit. The only other per
Read more

ONE BIG FAMILY...THE PARTY!

By -
Image
We organized a Christmas party to celebrate their recovery and liberation as well as thank God for his blessings. The party was organised by the hospital team and also supported by the 'Help Wihtout Boundaries' Foundation. The event took place on the 22nd December 2018, at the Federal Neuro Psychiatric hospital in Calabar, graced by the head of clinical operations Dr Ekpe, the consultant psychiatrist in charge of their case Dr Oluntoki, Oberiko Progress other doctors, nurses, social workers, guests and other patients in the hospital. You can imagine the feeling of extreme joy Ben and his family had as they celebrated Christmas. To every normal child Christmas is special, it is a season where they look forward to new clothes, an outing and unlimited fun but to these kids Joy, Ebenezer and Joshua who had no idea what Christmas means, nor looked forward to any new clothes, it was an extraordinary occasion and an amazing feeling as they had the opportunity to wear new clo
Read more