Funny Factor Fotos #1

First of all let me say Happy New Year to everyone!

This is my first post for the year on an entry special which I'll call 'Funny Factor Fotos'. I took most of them during the festivities - on christmas day to be precise. 

Nothing really special about them, they were just funny stuff I came across as I took a stroll down the streets of Lagos trying to get a feel of what xmas felt like on that day...

If you've heard of DSTV then you'll understand why this pix is funny

I call this one - The Prisoner of Christmas

This is an ever busy roadside 'buka' (local eatery) that closed down for the holidays.

It wasn't until I took a closer look I got my funny factor from the yellow notice pasted on the wall. 

Obviously the guy behind these wheels must have been drinking what he was carrying!

Two reasons why I didnt get the shot of these policemen who were desperately stopping motorists for the rewards of the season - 1. I wasnt near enuff  2.They could seize my camera for paparazzing them 

Nice way to dry clothes at a camp meeting!

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See y'all in 2009!!

I got my eyes on 2009. See you all Next year!!

3 Nations - From The lens of an Iphone

Here are photos that came all the way from Senegal, Sierra Leone and Gambia - All Courtesy a Colleague's Iphone. Boy, I might despise Mac products but I'll give it to their Iphone, that gadget does some real good snapping!

Sierra Leone Ghetto. Kinda bares a similarity with Naija.

Corrugated Iron sheets must be superstars in Sierra Leone Ghettos. Abi?

Wow! Check out this multi-purpose mini-complex. They render all sorts of services, including selling 'tick water' whatever on earth that is!

But they have some nice looking joints though...

Approaching a nice looking Hotel- partially deserted due to the war that took place way a few years back.

Same hotel from inside...

Same hotel with a lagoon view at the back.

Senegal - a roundabout with a funny statue that looks like two goats standing on a gigantic tuber of yam...Sorry about the flurry pix.

View from a hotel in Senegal. Check out the filthy environs.

Senegal - A colorful looking housing estate. Sort of like the projects in the US or barracks in Naija

A group of ghetto Senegalese men my colleague met. He calls them the 'Ganja men'. The reason is clear - they smoke weed like we breath air.

The Gambia - The Banjul Airport. Of the three countries, Gambia seemed to be the neatest and most organised.

Gambia seems to have a lot of Sahara-like terrain.

And the Hotels there aint bad! According to Chris, Gambia is a cool place to holiday.

Lagos Bar Beach...Sad Story

The Lagos Bar beach was a popular spot in the old days and many baby boomers in Nigeria today remember those times. It was characterized by thatched shelters and a sandy shoreline littered with all manners of shells like most beaches. But I guess what made it popular was its proximity to the highbrow environs of Victoria Island.



My childhood was filled with visits to this once famous beach. Sadly, bar beach has undergone changes that have taken away those childhood memories with them. I believe the global warming phenomena is the major cause.



The pictures speak for themselves...



This is bar beach as it was in the mid 1960s. Notice the absence of some buildings at the far end

Picture courtesy www.elderdempster.co.uk

Bar beach as I knew it in the 1980s
Picture courtesy www.onlinenigeria.com




Bar beach by 2004
Picture courtesy alvinvdv

By the mid 1990s, the effects of global warming began to manifest on bar beach. During rainy season, the beach at times would overflood its banks
Picture courtesy www.unesco.org

Gradually, the beach began to loose its features to the seawater.
Picture courtesy www.hitech-company.com

Soon the beach was almost gone. People and companies situated near its shores must have raised alarm. Some moved away, others didn't. Meanwhile, the beach was dangerously very near to the Ahmadu Bello road that ran along its side.
Picture courtesy aaron-rowe.co.uk






A construction company was called to remedy the situation.
Picture courtesy www.hitech-company.com





Today, this is what's left of bar beach



...no sands, no shells, no thatch shelters, nothing but a huge dike blocking the raging waves of the beach.

IJEBU TRIPPING

, pTook a trip to Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun State and tried catching anything I could on camera.

There's something about those rusty rooftops and tarred roads that gives me some kind of nostalgia...



... And the hilly landscape littered with ancient old brazillian styled houses...






Some of these ancient houses have very large rooms, you'd wonder if giants lived in them. Like this one wifey posed in front of.



This building which I snapped on the way bares a striking resemblance to Nigeria's first storey building that was built during the slave trade era.

A lumber truck makes its way across the town bearing mighty trunks due for one of the sawmills.

Somebody once said Nigerians are always jacks-of-all-trades. Well this shop with a funny name proves that person right!

This tricycle driver had just dropped us when his colleagues at the taxi park surrounded his vehicle, congratulating him on his newly acquired tricycle. Hmm...every little achievement is worth celebrating.

Two Ijebu school kids wait in anticipation for their Mum to give them lunch money while their younger siblings have fun with dirt lying around.