SO WHAT’S SO NEW THIS NEW YEAR?

Welcome 2016! Happy New Year to all my friends, readers and… well if you’re not one of the above… then you. Happy New Year to you.
Ok, fine, I’ll be the first to admit it’s a bit late for festive greetings and frankly I’m not too fussed about the new year. Apart from my work schedule and the date I write on forms/letters, not much changes for me at the start of a new year. And even those things mentioned above change through the year anyways.
Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of new stuff has happened recently, a lot of which I touched on around Christmas. But nothing’s exactly been tied to the New Year “festivities”. A lot of awesome changes have taken place though: I’ve somehow managed to further strengthen the bonds I have with my brother and sister (Seriously didn’t think that was possible), almost none of my lil cousins is actually little anymore (as is apparent in the title photo above) and I discovered DJ Khaled on Snapchat (Lord help me that guy is funny).
Now there are quite a few new things going on in this beautiful life of mine but let’s talk a bit more about Snapchat for a second. For those who may not know, snapchat is an app available on both tablets and smartphones designed for photo and video messaging. It’s uniqe selling point being that the photos and messages can only be viewed for a predetermined number of seconds… and only once. That’s basically the app in a nutshell (“But snapchat can do so much more”, you may say. Well I say, I’m not an app dictionary, sue me). Where it’s appeal really starts to show though is in what content actually gets shared as users have to get a bit creative to successfully convey a message, in an image/video, with such a short viewing time for said images. This makes for some hilarious and interesting exchanges and the whole thing can get a bit addictive. That is unless you cant actually hold a phone, or use a touch screen. (facepalm). I know this is why I was never too keen on the app, and many other phone apps for that matter, but with my family round over the holidays there was no escaping it. My siblings love this app and now so do I. I’m nowhere near an active user but I still love me some snapchat.
On more accessible phone apps, Whatsapp, a messaging service for phones and tablets, launched a PC friendly service last year. It’s called Whatsapp web and is a godsend. I can actually send texts myself now. Somebody pinch me. You’d be forgiven for thinking I only just discovered texting. It’s now easier than ever to pester keep in touch with friends and family.
Some of you (i.e.almost none of you) may know I tried cutting out red meat and poultry from my diet mid last year. It was so easy I could have gone full vegetarian if not for some advice from a nutrionist friend of mine. I was a dedicated pescatarian for a few months until my zealous efforts ended abruptly when home-cooked Nigerian dishes arrived in my kitchen for christmas. It didn’t help either that it was all prepared by the godesses that pass for women in my family. Mummy and Chidinma, I’m looking at you. So yeah, I’m very much back into steaks and grilled chicken. It wasn’t all in vain though. My diet is predominantly fish now, which is much healthier than what it used to be, and if I have to eat chicken, beef etc. it has to be either super healthy or taste out of this world. In other words, I will never stop eating suya.

There’s also the ridiculously awesome fact that I turned 26 last month. I’m gracefully striding towards my thirties and honestly cannot contain myself. With another year of life under my belt, I’m a year smarter, have a years worth of things to continue enjoying going forward, a years worth of silly stuff to avoid, a years worth of memories to further round out myself as a person… the list goes on. Every new birthday is like an annual upgrade. I look behind me at a wealth of information, emotions and memories at my disposal then turn around and move forward knowing I have everything behind me to inform my decisions. In other words, by the time I’m 30, I’ll be as wise as Yoda with well over two-thirds of my life to live. I will be even more awesome than I am now (I know, who would’ve thought).

Of course we can’t talk about new things without mentioning the afro. Yes Ifeanyi Nwokoro is growing an afro, and it’s actually not as hard as I thought. People keep lying to me that it looks “amazing”. I’m just like, ok, if you say so. :/ Just kidding really, I know I’m beautiful. 😀 On a serious note though, I’m actually struggling to find many reasons to cut it. The day will come though.

And finally, there’s the blog, yes, this very blog. I’ve got a lot planned for you guys this year but I’ll start small. The web link for the site going forward will now be www.mylifeinachair.com. It’s a lot easier to remember and sure as the sun it makes more sense than the previous one. The old link will still work, you just might not see it anywhere anymore. Hopefully this is only the first of a series of awesome things I’ll be implementing this “New Year”.

Till next time, Happy New Year people.