There's more!
I am happy to have brought back those memories to a few of the departed, and you are welcome. Every so often I, too, aspire to the status of 'when I' but then reality sinks in when I realize just how much in demand someone with my peculiar mindset is back in the real world. Better to stick here, trying not to get run over by an Okada when crossing the street to buy another telephone card at the Flobora International Pharmacy.
It is the high point of some days, to go over there and buy one pack of 'Rich Tea' biccies (150 naira) and one telephone card (500 naira), put 650 naira on the counter and watch the girl leave off praying to pull out the calculator and discover that the sum of 150+500 naira is, indeed, 650 naira. Praise Jesus! A miracle! Sometimes she checks it twice.
After doing my Mr Wizard the Human Calculator act I do my bit for the Nigerian environment by spurning the offer of a black plazzie bag for my purchases. After years of doing this I have found that the Isolo environment is noticeably cleaner. Of course that could just be those fun-loving North Koreans out scrounging.
Our Lagos ramp is filling up with S-76 helicopters. Jeez! It's getting so you can hardly move out there, what with all these blades whizzing around. And the noise! No wonder we all shout at each other in the bar! It reminds me of going for a pee at Warri Airstrip, when every time one of those goddam Dauphins would touch down on the ramp just outside the toilet's open window, with that peculiar fenestron racket like bandsawing sheet steel. And no chance to put my hands over my ears.