I gasped writing that title. Q4? Are you kidding me? Where does the time go? Really, where does it go? Around July I looked at where I was on my 2018 goals I’ve done quite a bit without realising it. But still have some items I need to accelerate. It’s so crazy that it’s just 3 months till the end of the year. Let’s take stock!

Making: an effort to work out 4-5 times a week and eat clean

Cooking: lots of pulses (well, not me but our cook). Beans, lentils, chickpeas etc.

Drinking: ACV with my green tea and water.

Reading:

• Is the Bible Good for Women–  Wendy Alsup
• The Gods Who Send Us Gifts–  Ivor Agyeman-Duah

Since my last post I’ve finished reading:

• The Bang Bang Club– Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva
• Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE – Phil Knight
• Outliers: The Story of Success- Malcolm Gladwell
• Half of a Yellow Sun– Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• My True Type– A. J. Drenth
• The State of Africa– Martin Meredith
• Africa’s Tarnished Name– Chinua Achebe
• The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives– Lola Shoneyin
• The Problem that Has No Name– Betty Friedan

Wanting: more hours in the day and more days in the week

Playing: Sauti Sol.

Wasting: my scented candle.

Sewing: Pass

Wishing: I could control time

Enjoying: The semblance of settlement Lagos has given me the past few weeks

Liking: that our client enjoyed the week of workshops that nearly killed me. Great to see that your efforts were valued.

Wondering: where and when I will settle. I’ve been in transit all my career and whilst it is thrilling, it will need to stop at some point. I wonder when.

Loving: my house plants! 🙂

Hoping: to sort out all my immigration woes. I need to apply for visas to 4 countries in the next 3 months

Marveling: at how no matter how hard I work out my thighs/ hips will not get smaller.

Needing: Nigeria to get its s*** together and fix its power supply. Also needing to visit a new country soon but air travel in West Africa is an actual joke.

Smelling: a mix of a vanilla scent and a blue berry scent from two different candles

Wearing: nothing because Lagos heat

Following the following on Instagram:

• @PaulNicklen– NatGeo photographer whose work focuses on marine life
• @TheNerveAfrica–  media company telling African stories
• @FitnessBlender– Fitness site whose at-home workout videos I have been using for years. At my leanest in 2014, I was using their workouts religiously (and running) and eating squeaky clean. I did not step once into a gym and lost a ton of body fat.

Noticing: my skin is starting to act up again

Knowing: better than to stress over things I can’t control

Thinking: about what I want to do in the next 18-24 months

Feeling: Saudade- “a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return”

Bookmarking: Lots of IT blogs and reports. I’m on yet another IT project and learning a lot very fast. I love that my job allows me to creatively solve nerdy problems.

Opening: a bottle of water to drink

Giggling: @iamzoie on instagram. He is hilarious!

PS: Was thinking hard that I miss blogging/ vlogging and my goal for next year is to get back into it regularly. I know I could do it this year, but as it were I have some goals from this year that I’m still lagging on. So 2019 will be a new slate.

Lots and love and light.