The Bowl of Soup...

As the story goes on, We'll get to find out that this story really isn't or has never been about two people... It has always and will forever be about about this little madam right here...


 



So all attention should be on her.. I'm just here to tell my side of the story.. ... So, Picking up from where I left off.. After settling in at my new abode, I and my new roommate went to the supermarket to stock up our cupboards and buy foodstuff.. I had volunteered to cook whenever and whatever I could.. My roommate can't cook to save his life! Anyway, so we generally put the room in order and cut the grass in our garden.. our fav part of the entire house.. coolest thing about it was, only I and my roommate had access to the garden since the entrance was through our room. This would eventually be our undoing though as we got to find out along the line.. It was a big house and we had housemates from all over the world including one confused one... Everyone minded their business and we tried to do same.. We had a polish housemate next door and she would always come and hangout with us after she got back from work. The house was ok and our stay there was looking to be a pleasant one.. boy, was I wrong! School also had been going on well and I was getting familiar with my mates and a few other folks.. So this day after my lectures, I and my roommate met with Timi who we had started getting familiar with. We were all hungry so he suggested that we walked to his place cause he told us about his housemate who was nigerian and had a thing with his own roommate so she would cook for all of them and he was certain that she would be able to make something for us all. So i gladly followed.. I've been dying to find out who she was since my last time there anyway.. So we all took the walk to the house, got a few drinks and other things on our way and when we finally arrived, got down to business.. while we were having fun and just generally doing our thing, we heard a knock on the door. We were already thinking it was a housemate or the landlord coming to complain about the noise we were making cause it was almost a sin to play music normally in that room! When the person finally came in, I was greeted with a disgusted stare from this girl whom I couldn't take my eye off of.. She had the sexiest eyes and she had the sexiest dress I had ever seen on.. I just couldn't stop staring and I must've uttered 'Wow' a couple times.. She looked ready to go out.. so she quickly dropped a bowl of soup and left the room.. All the while my head was buzzing.. literally.. I Could barely think straight anymore.. For some odd reason, I was drawn to this girl I had just seen for the first time in my life! Then what probably sealed it all was when we finally ate the soup.. It was the best I had ever tasted and since it had been a while, it tasted so so good! Not like it doesn't on a good day o..it was just exceptional that day.. I couldn't hold it any longer so I had to tell my roommate that i liked her on our way out of the house. He just murmured something cause he had already been offended by the way she looked at us when she came into the room.. I noticed that she did as well, but was too sprung to even care! I had finally seen the girl upstairs.. and she was all I could think of on the bus on the the way back to the house.. I couldn't help thinking why I was hopelessly drawn to her and till this moment, I still can't explain it But from that moment on, my life changed for good..

WALE.... THE SMARTY PANTS..

Next morning, I went down stairs to introduce myself to the new housemates.. especially my noisy Nigerian brothers who kept me turning on my bed most of the night.

I knocked on their door and got in, "Hi guys, am the new housemate upstairs, was told there were Nigerians in this room, so I thought I'd say hi..". The room was dark except for the light coming out from their room door.. Plus the loud music again. one of them was very skinny with a full afro like Huey from Boondocks, his name was Timi.. And the other... I recognized his face at once.. I met him at school the day before while I was at the school quad talking to a few of my Nigerian friends. His name, Wale.. he was cocky, talked and probably fancied himself as a total smarty pant. Midway through our discussions at school he asked "is your name also Sandra?.." surprised, all I said was yea.. to which he replied "seen..." and nodded.. That was odd..

Apparently the landlady had told them a new girl would be moving in before I even arrived.

Anyway since we had already met it was easy for Wale and I to get along very quickly.. He was sweet and a good listener, but I didn't fancy him and neither was I in the mood to date again anyway so we just got very close. Plus with time we all started living as a family, Wale, Timi and I. I didn't like Timi that much at first cuz I thought he was weird and rude, but cuz he was Wale's roommate and a fellow Nigerian, I learned with time not to take him too seriously.. because I do have a very short temper.

So sometimes Wale would come over to my room and we'd chat away about every and anything, including Wumi my friend who he had a mad crush on and wanted me to help him seal it. We'd talk till we passed out..I just thought it was cute that I could have a close friend I could be free and comfortable with. I would sleep over at theirs and wale could sleep over at mine. Somehow a lot of people including Timi kinda thought Wale and I were dating. It was funny but I didn't see the need to explain anything to anyone.

We lived like that for a while, doing our shopping together and Wale would help me out in the kitchen (Timi was lazy) but we were all happy just the way things were.

Then I met Timi's friends..

The Girl Upstairs

I probably should've written this first.. o well..
So on this day while I still had to be making the trip from south to the north of London every morning, I was with a couple of my new classmates at the 'quad'.. discussing our individual fates and just generally getting to know each other and describing our initial impressions of one another.. I heard one about me that still brings a smile to my face as well as worry to my heart.. My first 'friend' in my class, Esther, thought I was this very young innocent ajebo kid that needed to be looked after.. I couldn't help but wonder why.. I think her perception of me changed over time sha..

Anyways.. another friend of Esther's whom she obviously knew from Naija, joined us at the table and took over the whole conversation!15 minutes and one 'K' later, I knew almost everything there was to know about this person.. Or so I thought! So this Esther's friend, Timi, took the discussion to another dimension, and we found ourselves talking about other things.. things that I seemed to have interest in.. So I paid close attention.. at that point because he seemed to be having answers to questions that had existed in this mind of mine since I stepped out of Heathrow!  And because of the presence of my classmates, from whom I had just found out the wonderful things they thought of me, I let Him talk away until everyone began to leave and our little gathering dispersed.. I was left there with my thoughts and all of me was yelling at me to run after Timi.. which I eventually did anyways... and ask him to devolge those precious secrets that he carried around and i was so desperate for at the time..

I eventually caught up with him after while he was leaving the quad and finally, I could comfortably ask him all the questions I needed to... After our somewhat brief discussion, we were headed back to school, but this time, to the "Forum" and there, I found what I had been looking for..my kind of friends.. and from that moment on, our friendship was sealed!
 A lot more happened during that day but fast forward to a few days later, after all said and done.. literally.. Timi took me to his house somewhere around school which he shared with another dude he knew from Naija. We had earlier discussed about my need to find a place near school so he offered to let me stay at his place whenever I needed to until I got my own place..So we got to his house, which was very Indian by all standards, smell, occupants.. everything! We made small noise and talked some more.. He told me his roommate was upstairs with the new 'babe' from naija and that she used to cook for them and all that stuff.. So naturally, I thought they were seeing each other..
We had a few drinks and I ended up sleeping over cause it was already too late to start heading down south. When I woke up in the morning, I met Wale, the roommate that was upstairs... "Wonderful, he likes to talk as well!", i thought to myself.. I quietly woke Timi up and told Him I had to leave for my class.So he told me the bus to take that will get me to school from the big shopping mall just behind his house. I asked for the toilet as well, which was upstairs by the way.. quickly washed up and left for my class... All the while I was upstairs, I found myself wondering what room the 'new Girl' upstairs would be in and what might have transpired the night before for so many strange and odd reasons.. and when I got to school, I found myself thinking of was who this mystery Girl upstairs was..

..AND THOSE MUST BE THE NIGERIANS...

2:23pm and I was at the Brent Cross house behind the mall after series of laziness and skepticism about whether I wanted to make the move or not.. You see, I was brought up like a guy, and that means being quite disorganized for a lady... and late! I walked to the house. It was a little white house with a little red gate and from what I could see, it had a huge backyard.. "Perfect for summer" I thought. Quiet street, (too quiet actually) not so posh but not bad... not bad at all. 
So I called up the landlady. "hello ma'am, this is Chizoba again.." I greeted. "Oh hello darling! are you at the property now?". "yes ma'am, I am".. "you're a little late" she replied. "so sorry ma'am, I had quite a hard time locating the place" I lied. "ok, no worries, I'll be with you in a bit, I have to go pick up my daughter from school and I will be back in 10 mins.." she replied. "shit, now I'll have to wait outside here for 10mins" I thought.. "Oh its totally fine, take your time" I replied "I'll wait..".

12mins or so later and after hoping all the cars that passed by would be the landlady, this little car went slowly past me and parked at the house across the road. Then a little Indian lady got out of the car and came towards me. She was 5 feet or less, not sure because I was 5 feet 7 inches and i felt like a giant compared to her, she looked really small. She could have been about 40yrs or somewhat.
She had a wide smile as she walked towards me "oh sorry for keeping you waiting darling.." she said "I had to pick up my daughter from school". I hadn't really noticed when the daughter got out of the car anyway so I just told her it was okay and we could get on with it.. I could get used to this "darling" thing, I thought.

My room was upstairs, a little box room that could fit a single bed and a closet, there was a reading table and a chair by the only window in the room.. I know houses in London were small but C'mon!! my room back in my Nigerian village was 3 times this size!
So anyway, she went about telling me all about the house and the house mates and showed me around.. She was really chatty, while I was practically not listening to half the things she was saying. The house wasn't my kind of place. It didn't quite fit my taste... yes, even on a budget. So I told her I'd think about it and thanked her for her time.

I went over to spend the night at my favorite buddies' Shashank and Osho, they are Indians and so far were the best people I'd ever met. They belonged to a band, Shashank was a guitarist and lead singer, and Osho was a drummer with very long hair. Every time we went out together all the African girls would comment about his hair, and would ask when he would cut it. They were ready to pay a huge price for his hair.. The thing is, Osho could get any girl he wanted because of his hair. Only problem was he is Singh and he was shy. We were crazy together, the three of us and I loved them to bits.. Plus I needed a place to think about the house because everything in me didn't approve of that house.. but for some dumb reason I was already tired of house hunting and therefore I had to think... and Shashank's house was THE place to think..

The next day I called up the landlady and told her I would take the place because frankly, I was tired of searching and we made arrangements for payment and I moved right in. While she was leaving she said "There are some Nigerians down stairs who go to your school. Wale and Timi, they are good boys and you'll love them! but there are only boys in this house though, I've always wanted a girl and you seem like a nice girl so welcome..". "Great then.. thanks. I'm good with boys, I don't mind.." I replied. It was past 9pm and I had classes the next day so I was tired from all the moving and went straight to bed after arranging my belongings..

I think It was about 2:00am when I woke up to the sound of someone opening the door, then footsteps, plenty of them. Then voices... and then suddenly like a jolt of thunder, the loud music of DBanj vibrating from the walls! followed by so much laughter and loud talking. AT 2AM??! Now I was fully awake.. am sure everyone else was too.. I rolled my eyes in disgust.. "and THOSE must be the Nigerians.." I thought out loud as I put my pillow over my head... So much for a good night's sleep.

A New Beginning...

...The reality of where I really was hit me as soon as I stepped out the station and felt the chill of winter that was in full blast at the time.. Yes..  Station and winter! I was actually in London and it was terribly cold! It was the day after my birthday and this sudden change was not adequately prepared for and neither was it welcomed... Thank God for His graces and provisions, I at least had where to lay my head at night before I even got here..

The trip to the house was eventful. Stopped over at a local restaurant owned by my fellow green passport, wielding brothers.. The sight of a bottle of Star coupled with the songs booming out the speakers somehow brought the strangest joy to my heart. Not that they ever did before o!

Anyway.. So I asked the Nigerian girl taking my order to bring me pounded yam and egusi with goat meat and she gives a very surprised look and asks me what a goat is.. another stark reminder of where I was..

Fast forward a few weeks later... With the school session kicking off fully, the train rides from the house all the way to school became longer and more stressful, coupled with the cold and alot of other factors thus increasing the need to move closer to school. So I discussed with a few of my classmates who were house hunting as well and i somehow ended up with the number of an agent who later showed me and my mate a house with so many rooms. We were going to be its first occupants so we had a wide choice of rooms to pick from. I originally wanted something small and cozy enough for just myself but then the agent told us about this room that would be half the price of my projected rent plus the room came with a garden! This garden influenced my final decision majorly for so many reasons that I will not discussed here.. maybe in another blog..lol..  The house was in the same area with school, was close to a couple big malls and generally, everything was within reach so it was perfect. I later rang up my mate and asked him if he was interested in us taking the room together, turns out he was thinking same so we took the room.

I am from a very wonderful family and my parents always made sure they provided the best for us. So here I was.. After so many years of rejection and delay, which had affected my view of life greatly, and all the battery from every angle and the multiple complex issues, I was finally getting another chance to try make something for myself. .. God gave me a new beginning and put me on a whole new different path..

And that's how my new beginning began...

THE TYPICAL GIRL NEXT DOOR

So...

In the wet spring morning of March 2012, I was house hunting online for a place close to my university, as my cousin's house all the way in Romford, Essex was too far to commute to my school in Hendon, London. A lovely pair they were, my cousin and his wife, but the distance was killing me. So I had to leave the comfort of the warm and lovely room I enjoyed at my cousin's house to the unknown..

Then this house at Brent Cross just behind the Mall felt like the perfect place.. why else?? It was behind a mall for chrissakes!.. Plus of course.. a place I could afford as a student. So I decided to give the advertiser a ring.. "Hello good morning, My name is Chizoba and am calling with respect to your ad online for your room. Is it still available?" I asked. "Oh yes darling! it is..It is a single room and the housemates are wonderful! we have people from different countries and if you respect other people's culture then you would enjoy this place" replied the soft voice on the other end of the phone. She had an accent.. sounded Italian.. or French.. I never was good with accents so I had no idea. One time at a station I asked a man from Manchester if he was South African. The dude gave me a puzzled stare like I was nuts. Well, the house sounded like fun, and so I was excited.

"Is it okay if I can come for a viewing?" I asked. "Oh yes darling, will you be able to come at 2pm?" she asked.
"2pm is perfect" I replied, having no idea whatsoever what my schedule was like. "thank you very much, see you soon".

See, I was a Master's degree student in London, with a family that supported my every need. I am the first and only daughter of my parents and ever since I could remember, my dad has always been a "study abroad" person. So here I was in London as a student. I was more like a one man army.. I made friends easily though, because somehow even without talking, I seemed to draw people to myself.. Maybe it had something to do with my face.. or eyes.. or cheeks.. I had no idea.

I knew a lot of people but had very few friends. Plus they were all back in Nigeria anyways. So I guessed a lot of people perceived me as a loner or a snob. Frankly, I didn't care.. because after series of heartbreaks and disappointments, I had given up on love and wasn't in the mood to put myself in that position again. All my fairytale imaginations of my Knight in shiny armor had turned to dust.

And that was me.. Chizoba, the typical girl next door.