Fun time in Bangkok, April 2015





At the end of 2014, I proposed a travel destination to a friend of mine. She wasn't so keen but I had been looking forward to going there so I sent her a few links and reviews. After some research, she became just as excited as I was. In early April last year, we set out for Thailand via Turkey!

We had a full day in Istanbul which was a lot of fun, that I could write about another time! We left Nigeria on a Thursday night, it worked well as the flight was a midnight flight so we both went to work. The next day was good Friday, which was a public holiday in Nigeria (Easter Monday was also a pubic holiday so we gained two days at work, yipee), we spent that day in Istanbul then left at night for Bangkok. We arrived Bangkok and finally got to our hotel in the afternoon.

We had two places in Thailand in mind, Bangkok and Phuket. The Easter weekend just went by, so this post is a reminder of some fond memories from a year ago.

We spent the first three days in Bangkok. We had an idea of what it might cost us to get to our hotel, so at the airport, when someone told us an extremely exorbitant price, we walked away. There were people who beckoned on us to have a look at tours, but for some reason, we were both drawn to a particular gentleman who sold his product well to us. We booked a tour for the next day, he showed us where to get a taxi and told us the amount it would cost normally to our hotel and we left. We were jet lagged, but sleep would not come. We spent two days travelling so we needed to collect ourselves before starting activities.

The Struggles of a Woman with Kinky hair


I've noticed that there is a natural hair movement, or so it seems...

I've always had hair so thick and tough that when I was growing up, I did not look forward to my hair being washed, or loosened or combed. In case you don't get that, I'll explain...a person of African descent has hair that is curly, kinky, curly, coily...so many words could go into describing our hair, might not have the pleasure of running hands through. When water touches our hair, it shrinks and becomes the toughest it can be.

I remember back in secondary school, school mates would refuse to plait my hair because of how thick, full and tough my hair is. So at the end, their fingers would hurt (well, that's what they said!). Bless my school mother, Anne, she would always come to the rescue.

As difficult as my hair was to manage, it was made worse because I could not keep plaited hair for more than a week as it would make me look untidy, well except it was plaited so tightly that it would give me little boils at the edges from how tight it was. I had to make that sacrifice sometimes sadly.

Banana Split with Yoghurt and Jam

Today I bring you this easy to prepare recipe, no cooking involved.

Ingredients
- Bananas
- Yoghurt
- Strawberry Jam
- Sliced Almonds
- Blueberries/raspberries

Alternative ingredients
-Watermelon
- Unsalted crackers

In the original recipe, here is method of preparation:

Split the banana lengthwise and lay the two halves in a shallow bowl.
Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out the yogurt and put it on top of the banana.
Warm the jam in the microwave for 15 to 30 seconds, or until it is very runny.
Use a spoon to drizzle the jam over the yogurt, and sprinkle the nuts over everything.
Top with the blueberries, and dig in!

Do nothing cake

My friend sent this recipe to me, I am yet to try it but I am sharing it here so we can all try then give feedback.

Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
2 cups of sugar (she always uses 25% less for cakes)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 eggs, beaten slightly
a pinch of salt
2 cups of crushed pineapple in the juice (you could buy it in a can so that will be 500g)

On giving lifts in Abuja

I don’t live in central Abuja and I see how people struggle to get some form of transport to get to work so I give people lifts on my way out. People who know Abuja well will easily know the locations that I mention in this post. 

My sister and I come out together normally, we both used to work in Maitama but at the end of last year, the organisation I work for moved to Asokoro. My sister still works in Maitama so we leave home a little earlier so I can drop her off before I go to work. On days when the traffic might be bad, I drop her off in Asokoro where she can jump into a taxi before I proceed to the office.

The Federal Secretariat is in between Asokoro and Maitama and we tend to give people going there lifts. 

One day we gave three people a lift and at AYA, one of the men asked if we were going to Garki and we said no, he got so angry, came out of the car and left the door open. We were all left with our mouths open. I think the other two feared that I could ask them out of the car and were so apologetic on his behalf but we said it was okay and they stopped at the Secretariat which was their destination. My sister and I laughed about it and carried on. Sometimes, people have tried to pay us but we tell them it’s free and they are always so thankful. 

Pork, pasta and vegetable stir fry

For the next four weeks, I'll post a recipe and see how much interest there is in this. My sister and a friend have told me that I cook regularly enough and enjoy doing it so I might as well write about some of the dishes...

Last weekend, I walked into a supermarket with my sisters to buy a certain item but could not find it. I wasn't prepared to leave empty handed so I dashed to the meat section and I left with a good deal, pork shanks happened to be the item of the day!

As we had veggies at home and some pasta, I decided to make a stir fry with these ingredients.

So the ingredients I used were:
- pork shanks
- onions
- garlic
- carrots
- green beans
- green bell peppers
- seasoning cubes
- turmeric
- salt
- curry
- thyme
- olive oil
The amount of ingredients you use will determine how many people you are cooking for. I cooked for seven.