The Colonel has saved me

This week I braved the outside world to visit 3 of Lagos' shopping centres. The first: "City Mall"
looked especially promising from the outside - a striking 2 storey white faced building, complete with classical roman pillars and armed guards patrolling the car park. It took me 40 minutes to cover the 2km distance with the help of our skilled driver Raman aka "The Mumbler" (we cant understand a word he says...and Ill be honest, I don't think he can understand us either). So When we finally arrived at City Mall, I was almost salivating with shopper excitement. Naturally, I asked Raman to pick me up in an hour, I figured I had his number just in case I needed longer...I walked in through those glass doors with a swing in my step, so you can imagine my horror when I was greeted by a number of empty glass store fronts, a couple of very tired looking homeware stores, and a pharmacy advertising herbal Viagra. It became clear very quickly that I was in fact the only shopper in the mall.

After pretending to be interested in the latest lampshades in Nigeria's answer to Homebase, I decided to give up the charade and call the driver, but as I headed towards the exit, a red facade caught my eye...could it be? Yes!! Slowly the Colonel's face came into view along with those three mesmerising letters that every student dreams of "KFC"...I brushed aside any concerns about hygiene, and tucked in to a finger licking good chicken burger (not quite a zinger, but Im not complaining). Im not even going to reveal the price...suffice to say its more expensive than London...and thankfully, I did not pay for it later in the bathroom...

My second mall trip took a whole day to get to (or what seemed like it) - out in the Lekki peninsula, on the island adjacent to Lagos Island (yes, Lagos is on an Island). The Palms Mall appeared like an oasis in the desert (literally, as it is surrounded by dusty construction work, and is linked to the main road by a sandy track which brought Snoop Doggy Dogg to mind), but once we got into the car park, I could have been at Bloomingdales.
Inside I found a teeming mall thronged by Nigerians, expats and Nandos!! And guess what? It really did taste like Nandos!

My final Mall experience was to "Silverbird" Mall - a surprising little Mall in Victoria Island.
It had lots of tacky plastic necklace/ fake sunglasses/ fake hair type shops, a clothing shop, with
Mango Jeans selling for the bargain price of £80, and a 5 screen cinema! Hubbie and I decided to have our cinema debut by seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and my ears are still ringing! The volume was cranked up so high to cover the screaming kids, rustling sweet packets and telephone calls (the guy next to Si concluded a 30min business deal) - but to be honest it didn't spoil the film- in fact I think I could get used to all the hub bub, because despite all of these distractions, the audience added an atmosphere that you would never get in London. When Ron tried to kiss Hermione, the guy next to me gave a deep, thigh slapping laugh. When Harry found his parent's grave, the audience collectively sighed ( "So sad!" a lady tutted). It actually felt like Id bonded with my fellow cinema goers during the film. Needless to say the communal love was all negated by the crush that ensued for the exit when it was time to leave.