Wedding dairy

In my blog profile, I told you all that I got engaged to my 'prince charming' and would give you gist on any developments. Well there has been huge developments. I'm married now!!!

It all happened so fast, at a point I felt like, I was watching a movie, my movie!

I met Toni some seven years ago at my cousin's place. We exchanged numbers, and he called me for one year relentlessly despite my unfriendly attitude. Well, I finally 'gree' for the guy when I had an accident in 2006. Then he was always by my bed side, telling me how beautiful I was, despite the many bruises on my face and body.

I remember telling him how ugly i had become and that I had no smooth surface on my face anymore. He looked at me, smiled and said, "I can still point out the four cardinal points on your face and you don't have bruises there, Amaka you are still very pretty".

Even though I knew he said that to make me happy, I still believed him. It was after the whole incident I decided to give him a chance. My first official relationship. I say official because the one before that was like a mirage. Moving on.

Like any other relationship, we had our misunderstandings and issues that threatened to end the relationship, but we survived them all.

He finally proposed on the 15th of September, 2011, at the Palms Shopping Mall, in a dramatic manner that left my mouth opened. And then we fixed a date.

My advise to anyone who is trying to plan his/her wedding is just fix a date and commit it into Gods hands. He'll take care of everything I promise.

My wedding was a special one because it was the first time my family would all be together in one roof in 12yrs! The excitement started when my lovely brother, Chidozie, whom I last saw last when I was 12, came back to Nigeria. It was a Moment I would forever treasure.

Seeing him was awe inspiring. Happiness. And then my brothers and sisters from another mother came to stay for the whole wedding period. We had so much fun reminiscing on the good old days and living together as one really big family! Shout out to the Idachaba and the John's family!

The traditional wedding took place at my family house, in Festac, on the 28th of April and it was a miracle. My God just took control and silenced the mouth of the enemy.

My makeup was done by the very best BEDAZZlED - Ettah Bassey. She made me look too beautiful I almost couldn't recognise myself! It was a day I danced away myself not minding that I tied a wrapper!

Then there came the white wedding on the 5th of May; that was once six months away was now right in front of me.

My wedding dress was made by Rose Blossom Bridals. Bridesmaid dresses were made by Ayaba, my course-mate in Unilag. I just have to give it to her... The babe is good! My girls were looking too sexy it was unbelievable.

According to Jumoke Oropo of Oasis Events, "the best bridesmaid dresses I have seen this year". Can you beat that!!!! Ettah did her magic once Again.

My favourite moment was when my brother, Chidozie, walked me down the aisle. It's a moment that I have come to cherish, and each time I remember it comes tears of joy.

The love that was shown to me by my family members was outstanding. I can't forget to appreciate my darling Izzy! My one and only Chief Bridesmaid, CBM, MOH lommo! When you say true friends are hard to find... I found mine in her!

This dear friend of mine stayed in Nigeria for six months despite her fathers tantrums just to attend my wedding. And even though she didn't organise a Hen night for me (bridal shower) I still love her.

She never gave any convincing reason why she didn't and it pains secretly that she didn't organise one because it's the duty of the chief bridesmaid to do that... Right?! I love her still. She made me ruin my make up with tears on the wedding day. We had a little "thank you for everything and I'll miss you" moment.

The Highlight of the reception ceremony was the group dance. Lovely! We danced to "Today Today" by Eldee the Don, and "Bottom Belle" by Omawunmi. It was just like that Eldee's song was made with Tony & I in mind! I bet you guys had seen it! Its lyrics almost captured our moments before marriage. And now, I actually just feel like I'm living with my best friend.

I just wish I could rewind the days before the traditional wedding and days after the white wedding and just relive it all again!

I say a big thank you to every one that attended, and made my wedding a memorable one. For those that contributed one way or another, you are highly appreciated. And to my new family, the Ukachukwus, I'm happy to become part of you. To my best friend & husband, Tni. (pet name), you were destined for me...

Official wedding pictures coming soon.

Notes from my NYSC Camp.



First day on the Parade ground

 I know everyone would be wondering why I haven't written anything in a long while. Well I'm sorry for this. I have had so much happening in my life in the past few months that blogging had to take back seat for some time.

But now I'm back and Better.

Let me start by giving you a summary of my NYSC experience. And then I'll give you other gist.

Like every student waiting for his/her call up letter, I was very anxious to know where I was posted to. Although I had tried to "work" my posting to Lagos I wasn't 100% sure of my connections. On that faithful day I got wind that the call up letter was out so I rushed to UNILAG to know my fate.

There was a huge crowd in front of every notice board at the Student Affairs Department which was expected so I automatically joined them. Under the hot scorching sun in March, I tried to look for my name and there it was Anyanwu Chiamaka, state of deployment - BN. I whispered something to the Lady that promised me I had been posted to Lagos under my breath. Benin! How can they post me to Benin!

Still angry I went to my department to collect a certain document, while waiting for my turn I began to think; how many Nigerian states starts with "B" and has an "N" in it ?

Benue, Bornu, Benin.... And then it occurred to me that Benin is a state capital while Edo is the state! Blood of Jesus! I had to quickly collect the document and rush back to the Student Affairs Dept. On my way back I kept saying to myself "it can't be Benue, it can't be Benue". Lo and behold there it was staring me in the face in my NYSC call up letter "State of Deployment: Benue"! What! Why me!

Then I called my mum to give her the news and she reassured me that everything would be fine. She said this because I had earlier done my court wedding and had my marriage certificate with me so all I had to do was submit it to the NYSC officials in Benue and I would be automatically redeployed to Lagos which is my husband's base.

But the fear of making my way down to Benue was unthinkable. My only consolation was that I would have to spend just two weeks at the orientation camp instead of the regular three weeks.

On the 6th of March I said goodbye to my folks, and boarded a plane to Abuja, to connect to Benue (the food basket Of the Nation) by road.

To cut the long story short, I met a dear friend at the Airport and we became each others backbone during the orientation camp.

My camp Besti (Ayo)

The weather in Benue at that time was at its worst. I say this because even the locals were surprised at how harsh the weather was.

The first day was a huge struggle because It was difficult for me to wake up at 3am to get ready for parade at 4:30am but I adjusted quickly.

Like the soldiers would say "No Option!". We had to take our baths outside in the cold because the NYSC officials refused to open the toilets and bathrooms for reasons unknown to us. It was amazing how extremely cold the weather would be in the wee hours of the morning and then become very hot later in the day. Simply put, the weather in Benue state was harsh... Too harsh.

To worsen issues there was no stable mobile network in the camp except for Etisalat. My MTN line was constantly reading SOS while my Airtel got a bit of reception when I climbed "The Hill". So this meant that if i had to call or send text messages to anyone i had to climb the hill and if anyone wanted to reach me they had to be lucky enough to dial my number while I was on the hill. *Pathetic right?*.

The first thing I did after I finished my registration was to apply for relocation back to Lagos because I couldn't bare the thought of staying in Benue for a whole year !

In a bid to avoid staying under the hot sun for parade I decided to join the RED CROSS. Although this did not stop me from avoiding the sun totally but it helped a bit.



 I was nominated to be the Social Director for my Platoon! (a leader is always a leader anywhere). So I had various social activities to handle for my platoon. I obviously did a good job because my platoon won Miss Hotlegs!!! *Yaaay me!!!*

Being the social director really helped me to understand my capabilities in a way I haad never known. There was a show which all the Social Directors organised and we decided to do something different by painting our faces and doing a group dance. Well I did not make it for the rehearsal, but I joined the dance at the end and did my "shaky shaky bumbum" freestyle. *hehe*.



See me shaking bumbum... it was a serious something !





Mr Macho and Miss NYSC contestants.

 The beauty pageants and Mr. Macho competitions were extremely fun. I did not enjoy it too much because I was at the background making sure my contestants were well taking care of.

The camp fire night to me seemed like an initiation of some sort. Or maybe it's just me. With all that was said before lighting the fire and with the process of all the platoons coming out one after the other to run round the fire it just seemed like we were being sworn into a cult. It's just my imagination.

 Initiation night...... Sorry i mean Camp fire night.

I had to deal with corpers who chose to be blinded to the fact that I was wearing two wedding bands (I only wore them to ward off admirers because i wasn't married yet, well i was married legally but not officially but my plan didn't work).

Did I mention how 90% of the NYSC kits given to me did not fit? I had to go round looking for someone to switch outfits with.

One thing that amazed me the most was the behaviour of some corp members. Honestly you would think that they weren't privileged to see the four walls of a primary school let alone a University! Some had very bad command of English while some was just plain nuisance.

Looking back at the whole thing I still don't see the usefulness of NYSC orientation camp. You spend useful hours under the sun for parade that would not benefit you in anyway outside the camp.

You spend more useful hours attending lectures where you can't concentrate because of the noise or because you don't have a seat and most of the time you can't understand what the person speaking is saying. The federal government just sells off University graduates to the military for three weeks without permission.

BY THE CENTER !! QUICK MATCH !!



Join the QWEE !!

 To worsen issues, you are forced to live in uncondusive environments where there is no water no electricity, and at the same time endangering our lives and property with no apologies. *pity*.

I was the happiest person when I got my relocation letter back to Lagos. I was so excited I took the next available cab back to Abuja. And then a flight back to Lagos.

Joke of the day !

A 72yr old man was making love to a 27yr old lady, he started shaking badly and the lady asked him: wats wrong darling? The man replied: Sweetie, I don't know if am Coming or Going oooooooo.

Hehe

My 80's & more

I was BORN in the 80's. The last SANE generation! Oh yes. . .the last. And the hybrid generation.

We are the last generation that learnt to play in the street, we are the first to have played video games, seen cartoons with no color and went to amusement parks.

We are the last to record songs off the radio on cassettes. I remember when I used to wait patiently in front of my radio on Saturdays and Sundays just to record my favourite songs from Rick Dees Top 40 countdown.

We pioneered the use of
Walkman and chatrooms before it got loose. My walkman used to be my companion. There was a time my Walkman got damage and I begged my brother to buy me another, he refused, saying Walkmans were no more being sold in the UK. I was so angry with him I cried my eyes out. Then one day he said: "Sis don't worry I will get you something better than a Walkman".
I wondered what could be better than my dear Walkman. The next week he sent me my first iPod and I went into a frenzy. I just couldn't believe it. To me then it was just the most amazing thing ever.

We Learned how to program the VCR before anyone else; played with the ...atari, ten- ten,boju-boju, Nintendo and believed that the Internet would be a free world.
We are the generation of the Thunder Cats, Scooby doo, Super Ted, Captain Planet, Willi willi, G.I. JOE, Battle of the planet, Voltron *the last episode was a classic by the way*, Sesame street, Muppet Babies and The Masquerade. Those were classic days.

We Traveled in cars without seat belts or air-bags - lived without cell phones. Rode our bicycles down the road without brakes.
We never had GSMs but still kept in touch. We did not have Play stations, 99 television stations, rather we waited till 4pm to open our 'cupboard' television for NTA. Had no flat screens, surround sound, mp3s, iPods, computers and the Internet, ...but nevertheless we had a GREAT Time !!! ... I am proud to have been born in the 80's !

Location:Omoalade Alafia St,Lagos,Nigeria

It wasn't easy, but it was worth it !

Wow ! God really makes all things beautiful in His time. I have really come a long way in achieving this, but right now I am so bold to say that I'm officially a graduate with a Bachelor of Science, B.Sc(Hons) degree in Mass Communication, University of Lagos. You might wonder what I mean by "come a long way", well after going through the heartbreaking experience of having to write WAEC and NECO 7times *yes 7times, believe it or not* (Well i did not write it that many times beacuse i liked the idea of writting the exam over and over again but because the dreadful subject called Mathematics kept on proving difficult year after year. Imagine my frustration); I had an accident in the process; differed my admission because I needed my O/levels in one sitting; spent 5yrs in school for a 4yr course and still deal with perverted lecturers too; I think I have .... No scratch that.... I have definitely come a long way. But in all God kept me and I'm forever grateful to Him.













I'm not the type to make friends; but I did make a few friends while in school. Though some of them hated my guts, one called me 'annoying' to my face *i felt bad*, some I knew loved me from the bottom of their hearts and others were just on a hello/hi bases. Regardless of how they felt about me I'm happy I met them all. They were a huge part of my life for 4yrs and I cannot forget that.














I would love to talk about my personal experience with some friends but I don't want to leak some people's secrets here.















So we are moving on. Next stop is to serve our country and I pray we all go safely and return safely.














At this point I leave you with a song we sang the day we graduated from Secondary School (Queens College). It goes ...
"As we go on, we remember
All the times we, shared together
As our lives change, in whatever
We will still be friends forever"

Do you remember this ?

This was a Nollywood classic. In the days of "House of Macro".

Happy New (Love) Month

I don't know if that title sounds right but I know you get my point. Is it too late to say: Welcome to the month of love..... Well I just said it so bite me if you think I'm late. Ladies I'm sure you have all waited eagerly for this month; my advise to you would be 'don't get your hopes too high' because you just might be bitterly disappointed. I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, I feel its highly overrated and expectations are unnecessarily heightened. So much happens in the month of February; its a month where quite a number of hearts would be broken with no reasonable explanation, lots of babies shall be conceived *wanted and unwanted*, lots of marriage proposals for the romantic ones and all that jazz. Whatever happens this month remember to show some love to everyone around you and let the love continue to flow even after the month of February. *kisses*

Lest I forget........... Who wants to be my Valentine ?