Xmas Family Gathering: The Whispering Palms Experience

Got a call from my aunt, didn’t want to pick up because I was feeling bad for not going to see her or even calling to check up on her. I was able to gather courage to pick when she called a second time. After the usual pleasantries inclusive of the attack of not checking up on her, she instructed I cancelled all plans I had for Xmas because she had something planned. I couldn’t grumble or complain as my Xmas was being snatched from me. Xmas is like my first birthday, I usually have the day to myself after our usual family breakfast and early lunch. It was a day I saw my hommies I hadn’t seen all year through. I didn’t have a choice but to cancel all plans I had made.

The venue for my aunt’s planned gig was Whispering Palms. I had not been there in ages and a trip to Badagry was never on the cards for me but remember I didn’t have a choice. I left home with my bro, his wife, Fifi (my darling niece) and my cousin Damz at about 3.45pm on Xmas eve with the hope of getting to Whispering Palms in 3 hours. I thought wrong, the traffic was gangster, we got to Whispering Palms a few minutes to 9. My aunt and other family peeps got there like 30 minutes before us despite leaving Lagos at about 2pm (yea I don’t see Badagry as a part of Lagos, the place is far).

Not much activity that night except family bonding, gisting, eating and drinking (I took malt o). Had a lot of turkey to eat…….. Bliss. It was fun seeing Yomz and his family again after 10 months, the trip I wasn’t looking forward to was getting interesting and I couldn’t wait for the next day to continue our bonding and having fun.

Christmas morning and I was up at 6am thanks to my alarm. I kitted up for my new addiction (jogging). Myself and Damz went to the football pitch to jog. Distance covered was 4.36km (2.7miles) in 23 minutes which for me wasn’t bad, I can’t come and die. After jogging we walked round the place to have an idea of what fun stuff we would do. There was a gym, a basketball court, swimming pool and a host of other spots. After walking around for a bit, we decided to go to our room to shower and get ready for breakfast but my bro and other male cousins decided that we go play footie first. Myself and Damz were so game. We went to the pitch to burn some more calories. Guess who co-starred ? The adorable Fifi of course, she was fully kitted in her Milan jersey (rolling my eyes) and she had the first kick of the day, then signed autographs (lol) afterwards before granting us permission to take pictures with her. Let’s say she was our mascot. Official line up had Big Yomz, Fifi’s dad and SP the ghost face Mr Bonji, my humble self and Damz in a game my team won 4-3. Ok I would have said I was man of the match but Fifi’s dad nicked it with his more purposeful approach (scored a brace) but even as huge as Big Yomz was (also 6’8 tall) his runs and positioning was amazing and he also bagged a goal. SP sat in goal all through but was quite a tough nut to crack though going forward he was poor with his funny passes, hahaha. Mr Bonji was on point scoring a goal and Damz also brilliant with his pin point passes and his goal wasn’t bad. Not one to brag, I had a good game too with two goals to show.

After about an hour of footie, we went to freshen up for breakfast and after breakfast we went to ride boats (manually though), had coconut drinks and played table tennis in turns with fish and drinks flowing by the side. We went for lunch at about 3pm and when we were done, everybody faced their rooms to nap. At about 6.30pm the footballers gathered themselves again for another round of footie maintaining the same team as it were in the morning. This time the game ended in a 2-2 draw with Fifi’s dad and Big Yomz bagging their team’s goals and Mr Bonji and I getting the goals for my team. Our second goal was sorta controversial with Damz holding SP down professionally (you know what I mean) for me to get the equalizing goal that ended the game. We went to freshen up and after gisting for a while myself, Fifi’s dad, SP, Damz, Mr. Bonji and Mr. T decided to go in search of fish and drinks but we were disappointed as they were out of fish so we settled for Suya and drinks. Again I didn’t take alcohol, I had energy drinks. I didn’t want the day to end but its funny how time flies when you are having fun. Myself and Damz left the other guys at the joint to go to our room as Damz was tired and me I wanted to just catch up with those that had sent me Xmas messages and also respond to those that criticized my top 13 songs of 2013 (lmao) while lying on my bed. I must give a special shout out to my darling friend Mimi for keeping me company all day, bless you dear.

Didn’t know when I slept off, but I know I was up till about 2am. I woke up at about 6am to carry out my regular early morning ritual of jogging and this time I covered 4.19km in 22mins 47 seconds. It wasn’t a bad run though if I didn’t have too much junk to eat I would have done better. At 7.30am we were all getting ready to leave Whispering Palms and at 9.10am exactly we checked out and hit the road, to head to my aunt’s place for brunch. We got to Gbagada the venue for the brunch at 11.09 (2hrs after leaving Badagry). Correct meals from ikokore to yam pottage to dodo, beans, rice and a few others were up for grabs.

The gathering in one word? Amazing. Whispering Palms isn’t a bad place after all and not a bad place for a family getaway or reunion. Family gatherings are simply the best. The ladies also had fun and the place was also filled with other families who came there to enjoy Xmas. You could tell they also had mad fun. It was nice having a different experience for Xmas and to those that knew I would have fun, una no lie. Shout out to Rahmah, Bimps, Deyems, Q-Beats and SO.

Thank GOD we bought Olamide’s Baddest Guy Ever Liveth Album, it made the trip worthwhile to and fro. I mean all 21 tracks were on point. Fifi enjoyed the trip the most though, sleeping at the right time and waking up at the sound of Turn-up’s intro beat. My noise about Turn-up is too much abi? I can’t help it jare.
Thanks again guys for your time, I trust you guys had a fantastic Xmas. The new year shall bring us all good tidings. Stay Blessed peeps, much love. Find some pics taken at Whispering Palms below.
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