Scrumptious September

At last September is here and I cannot tell a lie, I am so glad that August is over. It was the longest, weirdest and most surreal month I have had in a long time – it just seemed to be one pothole after another.

September promises a lot of things – for a start summer seems to be officially over, leaving as suddenly and as unceremoniously as it came, so I guess it’s time to start trawling the shops for winter stuff again. *sigh*

A friend of mine just returned from a two week break (does one really go to Naija for a break?) and I asked her to bring me back the usual supplies of crayfish and Ogbono and boy, did she bring back some. I won’t be lacking in these two items for the next five years!! A bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean. ‘Didn’t you have any trouble at the Airport with all this stuff?’ I asked. She assured me that she hadn’t. Apparently she had called the airline (KLM) beforehand to let them know she would be travelling with some Naija food items and they said it was fine because every (Naija) passenger is entitled to take out a certain amount of food stuff with them. Hmmm, this was news to me. So I’m just passing it on to you all out there planning to make any trips soon. (Disclaimer: if you are caught don’t say you heard it from me!)

She also brought along two issues of The Guardian on Sunday for my reading pleasure. But I must admit that I was very surprised at –

1. The quality of the newsprint which is terrible! The pictures are all runny and unfocused and it they didn’t carry captions underneath telling you who the people in the pictures are, you’ll have a hard time trying to decipher it for yourself. Gosh, I remember when the Guardian first started (now my age comes through) it was considered the best quality paper in the Country and I especially loved the Sunday edition which always carried pictures by Summi Smart-Cole (whatever happened to him?)
2. The quality of English. The grammar is so bad!! Do the editors really sit down and edit this stuff? Expressions are wrongly used, words are misspelt and there is just a general lack of attention to the appropriate use of the English language that runs throughout the paper. One used to be able to read a newspaper and walk away haven learnt a new word or two but sadly that’s obviously not so anymore and
3. 95% of the paper is just about politics, politics and more politics.

One article did catch my eye though – it was a review of the book 26a by Diana Evans. My oh my, the reviewer sure held nothing back – talk about letting it rip!! If I was Diana reading that article, I would never write another book, ever. Ouch! The reviewer was incredibly harsh. I think too harsh. S/he absolutely tore it to shreds. I agree that the book is not to everyone’s liking and we all (mostly) agree that the section where the family moves back to Nigeria wasn’t very well presented and could well have been left out all together, but overall it wasn’t that bad. I felt sorry when I’d finished reading that piece. But moving swiftly on…

I have got a few things I am looking forward to this month. A few of days ago I ordered a couple of my favourite things here and here. So that’s something for me to look forward to getting in the post soon.

But best of all, we are off to Paris for two weeks second week of September!!! Yay!! I am way excited. Really looking forward to it and this time I am going to do more than just take a picture in front of the HUGE model Louis Vuitton suitcases in the front of their store on the Champs-Elysées, I am actually going to go in! Aren’t I brave?! *laugh* I shall also venture up the Eiffel tower and not just loiter around the bottom of it craning my neck trying to get a good view of the top of it.

I plan to have me a Scrumptious September.