Saturday 26 April 2014

Naturals in the Capital 3!!!

It's back, SAVE THE DATE!!! 
Date: May 31st
Venue: Baytown Lounge, Apo
I pray i'm around for it though. The meetup for Naturals in Abuja. Everyone is invited though, naturals or not. Hair discussions, seeing beautiful people, hairdos and shopping!!! Sadly I may not be in town to attend. Let's see how it goes though, Check out Natural Nigerian's blog for more details and posts on the 2 last meetups.
Toodles!XooX

Friday 25 April 2014

What a friend we have in Jesus

I have always loved this hymn but of recent it has an even newer meaning and understanding to me. Jesus Christ is really the only friend we can confidently do a 'tell it all' with that we can completely trust, we can't demand the same of our 'earthly' friends 'cos no matter how much love exists between us, there are just things we'll tell them or situations we'll encounter as friends that'll be too much for one party to handle. No fear of being let down, jealousy, envy, change in feelings/mood, pulling back, etc. He is always there for us regardless of our situation. The love of Christ truly is agape. Life is way less complicated having him as ur best friend. He can meet all our emotional needs, provide support, strength,wisdom and more...
We still need our physical friends though, even the Bible emphasizes the need for constant fellowship and uplifting the spirits. The main thing is to chose our friends wisely, they should add value to you and vice-versa. Be sure to cut-off any 'unfruitful' friends 'cos they will only bring you down if you keep them around. The lyrics of the hymn are below, enjoy.

What a Friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged;
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge,
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He'll take and shield you;
you will find a solace there.

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear
May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to
Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright unclouded there
will be no need for prayer
Rapture, praise and endless worship

will be our sweet portion there.

The Quarter Cafe (Late December Post)

I found this cafe around le boo's birthday when i was thinking of a new meal treat to give him for his birthday and decided to search my Foursquare app for pancake spots and it brought up Quarter Cafe in the search results. The name kept my attention and i checked out the comments people had made about the cafe, they were good comments and some of the people that commented were my friends on Foursquare i could trust the comments to an extent.
I did some more research on the Cafe and found quite a no. of blogs that had recommended them and gave good reviews on it. So it was decided! I was gonna take Le boo dere for something different from our normal cuisine for his birthday. We had the Oreo pancakes for his birthday and we had a swell time! The cafe is in a very coded area and doesn't have a sign outside it. They even do deliveries. I love the black and white theme of the cafe, its quiet and we had our meal in the outer section. I love that it never gets crowded as most places in Abuja tend to. We went there on the 7th (a day after le boo's birthday), then the 10th, then the 12th, then the 19th..lool. and many more visits/ deliveries since then





I have to confess i am addicted to the cafe!!!especially their Oreo pancakes! that's practically the only thing i always have whenever i go there, i just switch up the toppings depending on my mood and you know i like to share my treasures with my friends so of course i'v taken quite a no. of my friends there. I've also had some deliveries to my house from them on my lazy days to satisfy my cravings. Their pancakes are fo fluffy and filling that just 2 of it is more than enough as one meal for me. I love their hot chocoloate and whipped cream and the strawberry frappe! and deir delivery boxes are uber cute!! I had the opportunity to meet the owner briefly (Khadijatu Mohammed) and she was quite a delight to speak with.


You can find them at No. 6 Tapeta Str, Off Thaba Tseka Str, Off Ibb way, Wuse 2, Abuja
Tel- 08184144444
Twitter- https://twitter.com/QCafeAbuja
Instagram- qcafeabuja
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/thequarter14
Thank me later.
Toodles!XooX

My last single gal Bday *sniff (Late December Post)


I turned 24!!Monday birthday but I started the party from Sunday! Sunday night i went to Cubana club for a birthday treat and friends chill, mostly made up of shisha, drinks and dancing and some karaoke. I have to say i had a swell time, dint get home till around 2am and crashed out!(sadly had to get up early for work the next day which was my proper birthday) and it was quite a way to celebrate my last birthday as a single gal (got an upcoming post on that). Sometimes i have to count the year i was born to remember my age. My birthday was loads of fun!! Lucky for me my BFF was in town and though i did not get to spend much time with her that day 'cos i had to be at work and she had to travel to Lagos that day, she still took out time to surprise me. 
I stepped out of the office and came back to discover a box of yummy cupcakes and a card at my desk. It was real sweet and made me smile, wish i had been around when she stopped by. Then later in the day, the boo surprised me with a birthday cake at work from my favorite cake place! (Oven Craft). I cut it up to pieces and shared it with my colleagues before heading off to drop a slice of cake for mumc at work and collecting some birthday blessings. I had a chill day with the boo afterwards and was off to Lagos the next day for Christmas, a Wedding and hols till the 30th when i found my way back to the saner Abuja. I plan to do a post on my Gidi hols, was loads a fun!
My friend hastily baked me a tasty cake for my Sunday birthday outing and i shared it with my friends at the club. I got to take only about a quarter home which i shared with my neighbours.
Sunday outing.Got hot, smoky & full too fast!
The Oven Craft cake. Red Velvet & Vanilla flavors
Mama & I
Friends
My partner in crime. lool
Former shisha addict moi
 Toodles!XooX

Thursday 24 April 2014

Karaoke Bridal Shower (Late November Post)

This was the most stressful bridal shower i have ever planned with the smallest group of people! and i have planned two so far, you can check here for the post on that. My friend and colleague was getting married and everything was kinda happening in pretty fast, her traditional wedding was slated for December 7, 2013 and her church wedding for Feb 1, 2014 and she would be relocating to Port-Harcourt after that, so i knew we had to throw her a shower before the wedding prep craziness got real! My plan was for us to make it a surprise initially but that wasn't going to work 'cos she was shuttling PH and Abj 'cos of her marriage counselling and wedding prep so she was informed so that we could get a date for the event to hold when she would be in town.
I already have quite some bridal shower experience so everything is pretty much routine, you can check out my former bridal shower post here for info on that. I created the BBM group for the shower and added our mutual friends and requested that they add her other friends that would be interested in joining the shower to the group. Let me pause here and say my friend is the kinda person that has loads of friends! or so it seemed until it was time for the shower, Long story short i had to add my friend (the bride-to-be) herself to the group so she could add her friends 'cos we were only 9people in the group and we definitely needed more people if we were going to throw a fab shower. I had intended for the shower to be as fun as Mel's own where we had paid for an apartment for the night and had loads of proper fun but that would require at least 20people with minimal contributions or if the 9people would be ready to contribute at least 12k each towards the event which they were not.*sigh.
I have to say the majority of these ladies were the most uncooperative, tight-handed, argumentative and annoying set i have ever had to deal with and even more annoying because of the small number (only 9ppl).
The idea of the karaoke shower came up from that when i realized that funds would not be enough for anything else, i contacted the owner of the Karaoke lounge so we could discuss the cost of us hosting the shower there, food, drinks and bringing in a cake. I informed the ladies after discussions had been completed and told them the cost per person, it was about N6k600 to cover a bottle of the most affordable champagne they had (25k) and the rest was for the cake (12k), finger food and any other drinks for all the ladies. Payment was quite a hassle to get, only Annie and Dubs paid more than the amount which made up for the N600 the other ladies did not pay thankfully. I concluded the transaction with the Karaoke folks and made the necessary down payment. There was drama in the group afterwards on agreeing on the colors everyone should wear and then on the date. I had a wedding the weekend of the shower but luckily got back in time to set things up that Sunday. I hurried home from the car park, changed, picked up the cake and headed to the karaoke bar while calling up the gals to know their location and hurry them up to the venue so the surprise wouldn't be ruined. It hurt a bit that even though i got back from a trip i was the 1st to get to the venue and start setting things up. 
Everyone finally arrived in their sweet time and some even came with +1s (which is not bad except that it costs more)*smh. The bride-to-be arrived and it was a jolly time, Annie came with her pro camera i took a no. of pics. I introduced the bride-to-be to the owner of the karaoke bar and luckily he gave us an upgrade to the VIP section which was more private.Once everything was setup i had to leave the fun asap 'cos my back was killing me from the road trip, i handed over to the able Dubs and said my goodbye's. I changed and ran home to crash, can't remember if i even got to taste the cake. 
The koko was that the bride-to-be had fun singing away, from the reports i got later, and it was a good way to send her forth to her hubby's home and new city. It makes it all worth it for me. *i should go into event planning, the rate at which i love it. :D
Toodles!XooX

Hair Salon Review (Late December post)

For an updated review (October 2016) click here in order to be properly informed of the current status/service of the salon. Thank you.
To Read my August, 2014) review on this salon click here.

The post below is the 1st post/review i did on the Lumo Naturals Salon from my visit there in December 2013 and  January 2014. They have since improved immensely and were transitioning as at the time this post was written as contained in their rejoinder. You can visit their blog as well.


A popular Nigerian natural hair blog i frequent and the Dealdey site linked me to Lumos Naturals blog & salon. After going through the blogs i was super eager to try them out! I found a discounted deal on Dealdey and jumped at it. I bought 2 of the deal which covers 4 people in total. I was about to be thoroughly disappointed, i was totally unimpressed with the salon after an early morning trip all the way to Gwarinpa. There weren't enough chairs for customers and i had to sit on stacked broken plastic chairs, there was only one hair dryer which had no front cover to prevent the air from escaping and they had to improvise using a towel. There was only one steamer available so d queue was long for use of both appliances. There was no signboard outside so I had to walk into where the cardboard post with pencil was placed n ask if i was at the right place, as did other customers that came in after me.
There were just 2 face sized towels available for customers to make use of. The customer service was quite poor and only one of the stylists seemed to know how to handle natural hair properly (Precious) and I waited for her to work on my hair. There was no source of entertainment for the many waiting customers (neither TV or Radio). They do not sell weaves or attachments. Honestly I wouldn't willingly visit this salon again except to buy Natural Nigerian hair products.
2 customers complained about their time that was being wasted, 1 of d kids who got twists noticed her hair was loosing after being creeped and when it was brought to the attention of the stylist she sed dey dnt usually creep twists but she did 'cos dat was wat the customer wanted. The customer replied dat the stylist shld v informed n advised dem accordingly instead of just goin ahead wen she knew the hair would loosen, she left, visibly upset, with her kid n sed she'd cm in January to redeem her  own coupon. Luckily I had a novel n music on my phone to entertain me during all of this, at 12:24pm 1 customer left n I noticed one watching d TV series 'revenge' on her fone while anoda 'picked' her attachment herself to avoid any delays wen it was her turn. Only 1 adult had started twists, we were nw 5 adults left standing while the heavily pregnant mother of 3 of the kids came in with d last one complaining 'bout how slow d stylist was (very true) and after ranting for 'bout 10mins left saying she'l b back soon and would scatter d shop if her kids were not done by den (serious hormones!).
They did not keep to the normal first come-first served scheduled appointments 'cos no tags or number were given to customers to indicate who arrived first and they were quite slow. Although the shop is small I think the shop can be better managed to efficiently cater to more than one client at a time. It was rather easy for me to locate d plaza which is a plus since i'm not familiar with the Gwarinpa environs. I got to the salon by 8:10am 'cos when i called to book an appointment, i was told to come earlier than 9:00am which was the indicated opening time on the deal i bought. I had to wait till around 9:00am when one of the 2 stylists present came to put the coconut cream treatment in my hair n I had to wait for the person in d steamer to be done then I steamed my hair. Around dis time d owner left leaving only the 2 stylists there to attend to 4 kids and 5 adults making 8 individuals in total. I finished steaming ended round 9:45am around wen d 3rd stylist came around. I had to sit around till 11:30am to get my hair washed n get in the dryer. At 11:48am only 1 adult (she fixed) and 1 kid had finished their braids while anoda kid was rounding up her twist. The 3rd kid n 1 adult took the places of the people that had finished and started their braids n twists. 8 adults were now waiting including myself as my hair was now dry.3 people were ahead of me 'cos dey came earlier than i did (7am).
2 pairs of people had to sharing 2 chairs while the remaining  managed the stack of 2 broken plastic chairs while anoda sat on the chair at the washing area.I noticed no one was keeping an eye on the products on display and anyone could have easily nicked one.
The customer dat left earlier cm bk with drinks n snacks n asked for her position on the queue. this was when the stylists bothered to try to recognize the order in which we came we cm. She left n sed she'l be bk wen she feels her turn would be closer. Anoda customer left round 1pm (the lucky ones). At 2pm,another adult n kid started their twists as one finished n complained dt she shld v bin informed dt her hair cannot be packed in d style she wanted instead of being told it can be done and dey end up doin crap. 2:20 pm I'm still waitin, d customer dt asked her turn is bk n visibly frustrated n complainin dt she's still gonna v to wait a while b4 her turn. 2:30pm dey conceded washed her hair,put d treatment n put her in d steamer. 3:00pm pregnant mum came back, luckily her daughter's hair was done so we never got to find out if she intended to carry out her threat. I dozed off after that. 5:00pm the lil girl n 1adult hav finished deir twists n d last kid has taking her place. The lady previously under d steamer has had her hair washed and is now under the dryer. The 2 other stylists take a break to eat n resume work bk not long after while d last stylist took her own break. 2 shower caps were being alternated and reused in their unwashed state for all the customers that had to steam (quite a no. of people).5:43pm they started washing the hair of one of the ladies waiting and then put her in d steamer while they washed her friend's hair. 5:58pm they started the twists on the lady dt got out of d dryer after she complained her attachment wasn't mixed well.All this while I just sat waitin with the head wrap being used as a towel on my shoulders, observing all the drama.
I finally started my hair @6:26pm after the stylist finished twists n used her hand to pack d dirt/hair on d floor to sort of clean out d salon (brrrr). Water n rosewater was used to detangle my hair. 6:52pm d last kid finished her hair n dey washed d hair of d girl outta d steamer since 6:00pm as well as dat of her sis who was don steaming by dat time, deir oda friend cm bk around den washed her hair n gt in d steamer while d 1st of d oda 2 got in d dryer.few mins later she cm out to make her twists while her sis gt in d dryer.The stylists begged her to not do the long braids she wanted to 'cos dey were tired and dey felt her hair was too short bt dey finally agreed to do wat she wanted. 7:13pm NEPA (PHCN) strikes but luckily dey brot it back around 7:20pm n tk it again by 7:33.Finished my hair around 9:00pm and i wasn't a pleased customer.

2nd trip(January, 2014),gt dere by 12pm n left 10pm. dey v a sign, dts d only change.
I'm furious at this salon because it has a lot of potential, i don't know any other 'Natural Hair' salons and there is a high natural hair community in the FCT from the last NITC meeting i attended.
What can change?
The salon arrangement
The scheduling process for customers
The seating provision for customers
The no. of staff
The no. of appliances,shoulder towels, shower caps, etc. for customers to use
The customer service
The provision of entertainment for waiting customers (can be looped Natural Hair Youtube videos-hairstyles, advice, products, etc.)
The storage of hair products for sale (against theft)
I believe these changes will take the salon a long way!

Toodles!XooX