200th Post: Ankara Bag Giveaway

LTV has reached a new milestone today! It's our 200th post up in here, can I get a whoop whoop?? Weheyyy! I've been blogging on and off for about 3 and a half years now and it's been such a journey. Starting from my original baby "Through Hell and High Waters" which I eventually merged into this 'new' blog, all I can say is how time flies. 200 articles in and I know I'm not stopping anytime soon. I just wanted to say thank you to all my regular readers, my sporadic readers, my first time readers and those who are only here to try and win the free bag. I appreciate every single one of you.

Now on to the matter at hand, the giveaway. Recently, an aunt of mine started to sell these absolutely gorgeous bags made of Ankara. I know a lot of people have been in on the trend and there are lots in the market but hers were truly special to me because I know the circumstances they were born under. I've always wanted one of these bags but often found them waaay too pricey to really justify. Don't get me wrong I like my bags, but I felt the novelty of the ankara bag would wear off quickly. That was until I saw the amazing array of prints my aunt had, some of them don't even look like ankara!

Okay let me stop blowing her horn and show you pictures of some of what she has in stock! She does iPad and iPad mini cases

Clutch bags in various shapes and sizes

A myriad of bags with long handles and of varying sizes

These ones are fairly big

Totes

Aren't they beautiful? It was sooo difficult for me to pick one for you guys but I chose something that I thought would appeal to a lot of people. It is one of the smaller bags with the long handle, consider it an early Christmas present :) 

It can be dressed up or down and no those yummy heels don't come in the giveaway too! Haha. I just thought they looked quite darling together. :)

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is to leave a comment saying your favourite thing about the blog and one thing you really really want from Santa this Christmas. The giveaway will be closing on the 19th of December and unfortunately, it is only open to my readers in Lagos State. Apologies to everyone else, I'd work on something really special for you all soon.

Don't forget to share the page and tell your friends to enter too! :)

If you would like more details on any of the other bags, including pricing and delivery and pick-up, feel free to call on 09099019508 or email cokertunde@yahoo.com, just ask for Tund's Bags. :)

Poolside at The WheatBaker Hotel.

So it's been a minute since I was last here, things have just been SO busy on my side of town. Interviews, work, story writing, NGO organisation.... You name it, I've been doing it. Things have been super crazy and I literally haven't had a second to blog, or when I have had a second, I've just wanted to use the time to sleep instead. Lol.

Well today is a little bit less busy, finally and so I can come on here and update y'all! It's been a hectic week to be honest, the running around is starting to take it's toll and I can't wait for Christmas. Looking forward to the times when I can spend hours lounging by a pool and not sitting at a desk. Haha. Speaking of lounging by a pool, that just reminded me, I never shared these pictures of the time I went to The Wheatbaker Hotel with my twinnie, Efe. Efe also features in the Izanagi post. It was a random day of the week and we just really needed some chill time so we met up for a drink and a good chin wag and sat outside by the pool.

Nice tall glasses of a Mojito and a Chapman

Vegetable Tempura. This was actually really yum.

As you can imagine, the Wheatbaker is not cheap. Haha. I really don't remember what this all came to though, if I'm honest. But it served it's purpose which was to relax us. Nice short post to ease us back into the routine. I'm sure everyone's looking forward to the weekend by now, I hope it's relaxing!

P.S: I have a special announcement for you guys tomorrow too so be sure to come back and look out for that :) Hope everyone's having a great week! Posting should be back to normal from now, fingers crossed.

Izanagi: Where Dreams Come True.

I'm meant to be trying to get abs, yet in the lead up to the deadly holiday season I find myself eating out more and more for a whole host of reasons. This particular day though, was totally worth it. My fellow Pan-Asian, Thai, Japanese food lover, Efe and I, decided to finally give Izanagi a shot. This place has been on my mind for a looong while because they do sushi, but I wasn't too sure about being served sushi in Nigeria. Then I thought about it logically, if I would eat sushi almost anywhere else in the world why would I not try it here? Anyway, on the recommendation of a good friend of ours, Efe and I trooped along to Izanagi about a week ago (week agooo).

It's on Idejo Street in V.I and as soon as we passed the dodgy looking construction workers and other people hanging about and climbed the stairs, I fell in love. Let me just say now that my expectations for this restaurant were sky high and I was very sure I was going to be at least a little disappointed. Efe and I sat down and perused the menu, giggly with excitement. We looked at the menu and were surprised by some of the prices, 3 maki rolls for N1,200? Yes please! Our waiter was pleasant and quite knowledgable and also very patient as we were consumed by general indecision. In the end, we opted for Prawn Tempura and Chicken Dumplings for starters.

The tempura came with tempura sauce and was coated with the lightest, fluffiest, most delightful batter. The type that doesn't leave you feeling like you've swallowed a wad of oil and clogged up your arteries, the best kind! And the dumplings were extremely flavourful, they came with chilli powder, soy sauce and sesame seeds, but really I enjoyed them just on their own.

Oh before I forget, I had an Izanagi's Kiss to drink, a non alcoholic cocktail with apple juice, coconut juice and some other stuff I've since forgotten. It has the yummiest, most fragrant smell. Efe had an apple juice. No need for expensive drinks when there's food to be had!

For our mains we ordered one plate of Beef Udon Noodles to share along with three maki rolls, from left to right the rolls are "Mango Roll" which was a roll wrapped in a deliciously sweet slither or mango. "Plantain Roll" which had tiny and fairly spicy plantain pieces over a tuna roll and my absolute favourite the "Salmon Skin Roll". The sushi came with a side of wasabi and ginger. The noodles were extremely tasty as well and even though we struggled to finish it, we still picked up all the pieces of tender, well flavoured beef and left the delicious noodles alone.

At this point I have to talk about the service, we got to the restaurant at about 6.30, just half an hour after they open for dinner, (can someone say keen beans?) and were immediately given our choice of seats. By the time we were leaving a couple hours later, all the tables were completely occupied, it was mainly full of expatriates and the crowd ranged from families, to couples, to just friends hanging out. This was a random Tuesday evening, I would hate to see what it's like at the weekend and so my dear friends, if you're planning on going; reserve, reserve, reserve! My main point though is that even through this busy period, our food still came out consistently and seemed to be perfectly timed by our more than able waiter. It was not until towards the end of the meal that I started to feel Mr. Perfect was cheating on us with the other tables around. Lol.

To end the whole fiesta, I ordered the Warm Lava Cake, Efe decided to pass on dessert though. I really considered being a good fitfam girl but what's the point of not trying dessert? Especially when by this time, I was convinced Izanagi could do no wrong! I kissed my "almost" abs goodbye and dove, head first into the warmth of this decadent chocolate cake. If like me, you love chocolate, your taste buds will explode at the richness of this dessert. The sensations of the warm cake and the cold ice cream were enough to make me shed a real life tear and I don't regret getting the cake for one second.

Warning, objects in the pictures are larger than they appear. The serving of cake was probably better suited to two people than one, but who's complaining? My only issue with the dessert was the inclusion of strawberry ice-cream. Yuck. Who does that? At the end of it all, our bill came in the cutest treasure box and I bet you're wondering what the low down is.

A grand total of N19,800. Yup, you read that right. Fortunately for us, it was just within our budget and worth every gaddem kobo! Unfortunately, it means I can't go there once a week until I've exhausted their entire menu like I originally planned to. :( 

So here's my final low down of what has been by far, my best dining experience in the whole of Lagos and certainly my top three in all my experiences.

Food- 9.5/10

Service- 9/10

Ambience- 10/10

Overall- 9.5/10

If you've been meaning to visit Izanagi's then go! If you've never heard of them, still go! If you don't like sushi or other Asian food, hell just go anyways! And if you see me munching away in a corner then come say hey and join me :)

November Challenge- Tripod Headstand

It's hump day again! Wednesday really is my best and worst day of the week you know... I have CDS which means I don't have to go to work, but I have CDS which means I have NYSC stress. I don't really mind CDS and actually I look forward to it a lot of the time. After Batch C 2013 passed out, I took over from the president of the Education CDS Group and it's going okay so far. I myself only have a few more months anyway and I hope I can get something tangible done in this short time left!

Anyways hump day also means it's work out Wednesdays! Today I want to share with you guys this challenge I took up at the beginning of the month, I was going to share before but then I thought, well why not? The challenge is to conquer the Forearm Headstand aka Tripod Headstead. Before we get into pictures, some background and a disclaimer. I am NOT a fitness expert, please check with a doctor or health physician before trying new exercises.

I am THE most inflexible person you will ever meet. Or I was anyways, I can't touch my toes for the life of me, my hands barely go past my knees, but some time ago while I was in Manchester I took pole dancing classes for fun and more or less became obsessed with core balance, strength and flexibility. People always look at pole as something sexy strippers do in seedy night clubs but until you've tried it you really can't understand the coordination and control it takes to be able to gracefully execute some moves. I love seeing dancers like the ones at "Fight" being able to contort their bodies into beautiful shapes and make it look effortless. I stopped going to pole after I moved away from Manchester and I lost my obsession a bit, I no longer spent hours on youtube watching MissDirdyBirdy or Jenyne Butterfly. However, one day when I was driving home, I started noticing pain in my right hip and literally just thought to myself, "Girl, you are too young for this!" and so I incorporated stretching as a major part of my exercise routine.

In pole one of the exciting things we did was headstands and I remember feeling so nervous the first time I ever kicked up into one. I decided that this month I wanted to be able to achieve a headstand with no kicking up, just like the way Maria my former pole instructor used to and thus started the challenge. I already knew the basics of the headstand but used PopSugar Fitness to further break it down. For reference, this is what it should look like.

The first step is getting into Tripod Balance but to get there you have to extend your legs out then walk your feet towards your face while transferring more of your weight to your head and arms before carefully lifting one leg and then the other. No hopping allowed. 

For this you actually need some flexibility in the hamstrings of which I have been building slowly.It probably took me about a week to be able to hold this pose for more than 5 seconds, now I'm super comfortable here and get into it every single time. 

Then you need to try and lift your knees off your triceps and then back down with control. This is a serious core killer! After many days I finally got the courage to lift my knees off my arms, it's all about going slow, breathing and feeling your body. Of course I fell backwards and hit the wall many times, haha. But that's why the wall is there in the first place! 

A few nights ago through sheer determination, after hitting the wall yet again, I pushed off gently from it and voila! I'm holding the tripod headstand with my knees at sort of a 90 degree angle, I managed to count to 5 before falling out of the pose but now I know my body can get there, I can't wait to push just a little longer next time. Can you tell how excited I am?? 

I'm feeling really hopeful that I can nail this with my legs extended by the time the month ends in the next 10 days! Practice, practice practice.

I realised that my hamstrings are holding me back also if I ever want to be able to go straight into a headstand they need to be a bit more flexible and so I've been working on loosening those too and maybe one day I will be able to touch my toes also! December challenge maybe? My ultimate stretching goal of life is to be able to do the front splits. Haha. Ambitious? Maybe. But what's life without a little challenge?

How's your hump day going? What fitness challenges have you set for yourself in the short and long term? Share with me! Also, am I like, the only one who can't touch their toes? *embarassed face*

P.S. Apologies for the atrocious picture quality, it was pretty dark when I did this and it also took a lot of experimenting, these were the best ones!