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Sunday, December 18, 2011UNFINISHED OBSERVATIONSOver the past few weeks, I have come to realise that little, if anything in Lagos, actually gets finished. I have also come to realise that Lagos - in particular - has it's own Time Zone, which is totally unique to the Outside World. One has to actually reside here to understand how this Time Zone works, because it comprises of another day in the week, which is commonly known as 'Tomorrow'. Tomorrow falls somewhere between Monday to Saturday, although no one can actually pinpoint when it actually starts or ends - it is simply 'there'. I've had text messages on my phone from someone who told me she was on her way to see me. Now, forgive me for thinking that the message actually meant this lady would be arriving within 30mins, as she was just a short distance away.................it's not an unnatural assumption is it? Silly me! The sender of the message pitched up 3 days later & wondered why I wasn't amused. If she'd sent a message saying she would see me 'tomorrow' I would've been a bit more understanding! Before we moved into our apartment, I made arrangements to be there in order to accept delivery of certain household appliances & furniture. The usual wait was 5hrs, for a vehicle to travel no more than 20km. Repeated phone enquiries as to the trucks whereabouts would always be met by "the truck she is on the way". In real terms, the truck would be at least 30yrs old & no doubt be held together with bits of wire & packing tape. It would not have any form of suspension left & would chug out exhaust fumes thick enough to blind at least 4 cars which had the misfortune to follow it. The traffic is so horrendous it defies all attempts of logic & to make matters worse, at strategically awkward places, the police would hold up any form of flow, by pulling over cars for non-existant traffic violations. Argue all you want or pay the arsehole so that he can proceed to the next poor sucker. So, having probably paid 'dash' (a bribe) the truck would trundle off again, at a snails pace. Road surfaces alternate between tarmac or paving bricks. On tarred surfaces, speed bumps are added, to ensure one doesn't get smart ideas & put foot to whizz along at 18kmph. Should the road be paved, it is guaranteed to have collapsed in several places. This then becomes akin to an obstacle course, because whilst trying to avoid the collapse of the actual road, various uneven piles of old paving bricks will be stacked haphazardly towards & possibly nearby the kerb, which you can't see, because a car has broken down & a vintage truck has been propped up on old tyres/parts of tree-trunk/chunks of concrete, whilst the scraggy arse of a sweaty mechanic peeks out from the depths of a truly fucked engine. And all the time, in the background, is the sound of a dozen or more impatient drivers, fists on hooters, like it makes every problem go quicker. So, as you can see, it can indeed take 5hrs for a delivery truck to negotiate the pitfalls of a mere 20km journey. Getting back to unfinished things, the 2 photos below demonstrate my point about incomplete workmanship. In the first picture, you see a rectangular shaped lump of solid concrete. This is a drain cover. The drains run alongside roads & form part of pavements. They are a nightmare! I've seen teams of labourers heaving these slabs away from their rightful place, in order to clean out the drains, which clog regularly. The offending blockages are sometimes taken away, but more often than not, they're piled into putrid mounds at the side of the road & are left to rot away. In this instance though, it appears as if the drain has indeed been been cleaned, but someone neglected to put one of the slabs covering it back into place. Now, this is a pavement in an incredibly busy 'informal' shopping area, used by thousands of people every day & those thousands either avoid it, or trip arse over tit because they weren't looking where they were going. What really, really grates my tits, is the fact that this is 'normal' & totally acceptable.  A little bit further along & another slab has been left in the way of foot traffic. Since I took these photos last week, the walls have been given a fresh coat of paint.  After a much moaned about wait for an apartment, we finally moved into a really lovely spot on Banana Island, which isn't an island, but is on an island............... We've had a few teething problems, which have been incredibly frustrating. Power outages happen just about every day without fail, but the compound has it's own very capable generators, which kick-in the moment the mainline power dies. This is great, naturally, because life without electricity is no fun. However, what we weren't told (initially) was that the power surges fuck up your electrical appliances. One very expensive 12kg washing machine* later, we have voltage regulators fitted to the main appliances & a UPS on the TV.  The photo (above) is the view we have from our apartment. S'nice innit? I've learnt to ignore the pylons & now use them as measuring devices....................first thing in the morning, the humidity is pretty staunch & visibility is ranked on how many pylons I can see in the distance! The photo below is of the fountains in the gardens...............awww.........nice colour innit!  So here I am, almost settled into the new spot & ready to start packing suitcases again, 'cos in a few days it'll be time to head to the airport & fly off into the night sky, to a place where we haven't been before............................. * Hubs employer has paid for & provided everything for us :-) Labels: Banana Island, Falamo, Lagos  
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