LASTMA made me cry | Blog-not-Mas II

You won't even believe this story if I shared it randomly as a caption on Instagram. So it's perfect that I'm taking you on a teeny tiny throwback trip to the first day of this month. Yes, I started December with tears. 😅

But before we go through the sad story of how Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) made me cry, let's take the throwback trip a bit further to the last weekend in November when I reunited with two of my friends after 5 years.

       

       L-R: Faith, A and T

'A' was our official photographer, and he's not really into pictures.
So you won't see him again after this.😄

It was a much-needed hangout that we randomly planned after I met with one of them (the guy) over a project we're working on. Our conversations led us to talking about the group we all used to be in and out of the blue, I picked up my phone to call the second person (the lady) and viola, it was still her number; she was still based in Lagos; and long story short, we decided to meet up on the 27th of November to laugh, eat, (window) shop at the mall (I didn't even realise how much I had missed this till I met T again; I've been doing most of my shopping online for two years straight) and take pictures (you can bet that I was the one that made us take pictures. They really couldn’t care about pictures, but not me. 

We even had a conversation around people going out (could be to a new place or not), meeting with friends and never documenting the moment through pictures. They said it was perfectly normal for them not to take pictures and I found it a bit strange, but I guess I'm the abnormal one. 😅 Let me know in the comments if you don't care so much taking pictures or if you're like me that needs to take pictures to remember the day, event, conversations, food, and so on.)

Prior to the meet-up, I had a business enquiry from a client of mine for an event styling session. And because the notice was short, there was no time to source items from "the abroad". So I decided to kill two birds with one stone that day by checking out stores I could find items to shop and style my client with for the event. My friends indulged me and we went round a number of men's clothing stores. 

 

It was a really great day, with awesome conversations, laughter, and so much food that we all couldn't finish and we literally asked the waiters to help put our extra food in takeaway packs.

This was Saturday.

Our food

I ordered a salad as well. I shouldn't have, now that I think about it.😂

Anyone that sees me like this will think I love food that much.😂

By Monday, I had my first virtual event styling consultation with my client and it was all shades of amazing.💃🏽💥 I had picked some items I could find from some Nigerian brands for my client and after the session I got to work, putting calls through to respective brands to ensure items were available in store. Unfortunately, the virtual service of the brand we settled for was not as helpful as I thought it would be, so I had to make a trip down to the store on Wednesday, a day before the actual in-person shop and style session with my client.

The entire trip to and from the store was super smooth. There was no traffic, and it wasn’t so bad finding my way to a new place using google maps. The blissful story changed on my way back. My client had requested I also find a dress for his wife. So on my way to the store to prep items for his in-store fittings and shopping the next day, I made mental notes of boutiques I found and decided to trace a particular boutique (such a shame that I can’t even remember the name of the boutique now) I had seen earlier. I trusted my sharp mind that can go through a route once and find my way the next time. Alas, my sharp mind was not sharp enough for Lagos roads. I parked at intervals to insert what I thought was the name of the boutique into Google Maps and then try to remind myself how I drove past the boutique earlier. Maps was telling me something else, so after trying to do it on my own, I decided to follow the direction on google maps. The only problem was it seemed Maps was directing me to the way home.

Anyway, by the time I got to Billings Road (Lagos State Secretariat area), I decided to just go home. That was when everything scattered.

If you know that road very well, there are usually different Law enforcement agents there, from LASTMA to MOPOL. There is also one turning to the left (honestly, I don’t know how best to describe the road because it was also my first time of driving on that road but just try to imagine a straight road that has a diversion to the left for those going left, and then others can keep driving straight if they’re not going left. Makes sense? Okay, let’s continue). Because I was so focused on the directions from google maps, I was on the left lane, without any inclination that I shouldn’t be there. When I got closer to where the diversion was, I noticed the traffic light, a barricade and LASTMA officials in that order, and I freaked out because I was on the wrong lane. So I thought it was best to turn out and join my lane. As I drove out from behind the car in front of me, I drove into the hands of a LASTMA official who directed me to an open space to park properly...

My face after an exciting day on Saturday
(and also my face to everyone that read till the end)

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My promise to you was that Blog-not-Mas series won’t be long. To achieve that, I decided to cap every episode at 1000 words or less. I'm almost hitting the 1000 word mark. So, I'm going to stop here, and we’ll pick up the story at the next episode. I promise, the next episode will drop in 2 days (max); it might be sooner.

Let me know if you enjoyed reading today’s episode, and loved seeing all the pictures of food, laughter and fine people.

Also, please tick the ‘notify me’ box if you drop a comment, just so you can be notified of my response to your comments. I always respond but I figured many people might have missed out on my responses because they don’t come back to check. Checking the “notify me” box will solve that.

Thank you so much for reading today’s episode.

Till the next episode,💗 x 💡

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