Best Times.

Nicole Michalou

Meals with family are always amazing and I definitely love having dinner with my family. Although we do not spend time with each other every time due to our busy schedules and life, at any little chance we have, we make sure it's memorable and share experiences from each other's lives.

My sisters attend boarding school and my dad's job takes him on several travel trips but that doesn't stop the family from coming together once in a while. Sometimes, extended family members are also invited and that just makes things better. I always look forward to seeing my aunties as they give the best gifts ever

"Awwnn….my little girl is all grown up and very soon she wouldn't want to get gifts from us anymore" they would say, but really though, no matter the age, I was always giddy to get gifts and presents, who isn't ?

My uncles are just so overprotective as they'll always bring up topics relating to relationships to make sure we aren't in any.

"Those little boys at your school have nothing to offer you. Maybe when you're thirty you can consider getting into a relationship" and then my mum would reject it saying she doesn't want such for her children.It's annoying sometimes but it's actually fun to rile them up a few times.

My cousins are mostly boys and they too are so protective that when they bring their friends over for meals on Saturdays, they make sure we avoid having conversations with them.

Saturday meals are always the best. My mum would make her delicious akara and pap. The akara is also called bean cake. It is actually tedious making it as you would have to wash the beans several times and pap which is made from corn takes days to actually soak and blend but my mum does everything from scratch and that's what makes it so special.

The best dinner we've had as a family was our most recent dinner. Although, the day didn't start out quite well, it ended so well. My mum didn't make the meal though because we ate out and that was because she slipped earlier in the day and had pains at her waist. We were all inside the house talking when we heard a loud scream from outside and on getting there, I saw my mum on the floor in pain. It was certain she could make dinner for us due to the pains she was having and so, my aunt volunteered to help with dinner but then again, my dad decided it would be nice if we all are out for once.

The air was so cool and the night was peaceful. We decided to take a walk to the nearest local restaurant to have our dinner. On our way, we passed the nearby market and the air was filled with the aroma of immature roasted chicken. The sellers were at their store trying to get customers and every store we passed, they always tried to sell something to us.

"Madam, try this meat. It's the best you will find in this market, take it from me. It's also very affordable." They all had the same thing to say and it got me wondering how everybody's meat was the best and so affordable.

We got to the local restaurant and the place was filled. We were able to get a large table which would contain us all and then we went to place our order. There were a wide range of options from jollof rice to spaghetti, fried rice, and other delicacies but I decided to just go for amala and ewedu as I haven't had it before and I heard from my cousins that it was really delicious.

Picture by me

I ordered one meat with my food as I wasn't a fan of meat and at the end, I didn't even eat the meat but instead gave it to my sister.

Picture by me

We had a fun time at the restaurant having lots of intellectual discussions, arguments and it was the best really. We finished our food and started our work back home and I was so satisfied. The night was oddly quiet as the market sellers had started packing up. I saw the full moon and it looked so beautiful that I had to take pictures of it to remember that wonderful night as I hope to have more days like that. Well, excluding the part when my mum took a fall though.