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Saturday 8 October 2011

www.veniviici.com

The Boss! :)
So what is veniviici.com or www.veniviici.com?
In the simplest of words it is an online apparel and accessories store targeted at Emerging African markets. At this stage its just for women, we roll out men very shortly! Did I just say 'we'... oh yeah! We!... I work with Veniviici.
Veniviici is extremely exciting for a plethora of reasons:
1) We sell fab clothes
2) We work directly with all our brands, a lot of them globally renowned and are able to bring these fab clothese and accesories to you at the same price you get them in the UK.
3) We guarantee 100% Brand authenticity and Brand integrity.
4) You can pay with your Nigerian debit cards.
5) We are extremely secure.
6) We carry only the most recent seasons!
7) We deliver within 72 hours
I could go on and on and on and on and on... however I'll leave you to go to our fantastic website, www.veniviici.com

Ade!
 .... Actually! (I am now unofficially taking my CEO hat off! Let's get real jor!) :) Veniviici really is about a bunch of very ambitious, passionate, very perfectly imperfect and fun guys providing a much needed service to Nigeria, with a view to go into Africa. Trust me we're a weirdly cool bunch! :)

We love clothes and we love authentic clothes! Original O! We have therefore thoroughly sat and thought of how to get these awesome fashion items to you at the best possible prices. Please believe we fought and convinced the brands we work with to ensure that they are not only available on western platforms... aah aah Ki lo de! Must we constantly buy clothes at ridiculous prices? (one of man's major necessities! Haba!why must we buy from 'Iya Risi' who just came back from America? Why?)... How can someone be selling me an 'Atmosphere' Skirt for N6000.00! 
The one thing we as a team are is real! very real!... Read a bit about us in our stylebook .
On a more serious note ... guys drop by and wish us the best! I recently read how a 'Bill Gates', 'Steve Jobs' or a 'Mark Zuckerberg' will never emerge from Africa! Lie! I personally don't believe that! The Africa I know and respect constantly provides the best with the least possible resources at its disposal! we are just rarely acknowledged for it!

Please understand that www.veniviici.com is a statement, a creation of something out of nothing! GBAM!  
I tell my team constantly:'We have everything we need to succeed ' we simply need to work hard to stay the best! I aim to deliver excellence, I suggest you aim at that too! Anything short of that is unacceptable!'


01/10/11! With Mr Amosu
Our mission is simply this ' To provide you with the best possible service by remaining the best at what we do. Our core competence, our business! is to provide you with the most beautiful, most trendy, most recent  and authentic fashion items conveniently, at the most competitive prices and as quickly as possible!.

 Show us some love please , and keep us in your hearts and your prayers! God knows we need them!
I am keeping a journal and will keep updating my blog with extracts, so look out! Please Feedback! on here or email to (feedback@veniviici.com). Its the only way we'll grow!


Ade Adeyemi
 (CEO Veniviici)

facebook :  http://www.facebook.com/VeniViici#!/VeniViici
twitter : https://twitter.com/#!/thisisveniviici

Veniviici.com went live 01/10/11 and we have pretty much sold out our go-live stock :) 
Africa Rocks! THANK YOU GUYS!


Tuesday 2 August 2011

Ananda in the Himalayas...A world above worlds!


Delhi Airport!
As I prepared for our descent into Delhi, India, I subconsciously surveyed the British Airways business class cabin that had catered to me the last eight hours.
Breakfast had been fresh fruit, always a favourite. I thought about my onward flight and wondered what India would bear a semblance to. My vivid imagination failed me, I quietly took in my co-passengers in the hope that they would offer a clue! alas! even that did not help, they were an outrageous mix. My onward flight was tedious, extremely turbulent,  a propeller plane! It was painful!
I had engaged the flight attendant for all of 10 minutes , question after question poured from my being, in answer, he repeatedly uttered the words… ‘It’s the safest aircraft ma’m'; every word followed with a vigorous nod.
My Driver!
Relief flowed through the very core of me as I sighted my driver, his placard boldly inscribed with precious words ‘Ananda welcomes Miss Adeyemi’. Once I was firmly tucked into the back seat of the Range Rover. I called my mom, we’d last spoken before I left London, she was always there for me! Always!... I’d probably not be able to accomplish half my life if it wasn’t for her.
Dehr Duran! India!
As she ended our conversation she said ‘God has written that today you would be in India’, I laughed  for her words were cast in resilience, as though she’d just had a conversation with God himself and he had assured her that this was the case.
I wouldn’t have been surprised, India was never the plan, I had planned to be in Barbados today with another however that didn’t happen... thankfully! I had indeed flirted with the idea of not taking a holiday. However my going away had never been dependent on anyone and besides I could afford to go … so I looked to Google for wellbeing holidays and she so graciously coughed up Ananda in the Himalayans (www.anandaspa.com)! (In my head Google is a she, perfectly carved by fine minds to answer my every question).
The drive up the mountains left me feeling queasy, sharp bends, potholes and insane curves marked the path, cows cat-walked majestically on the streets, leaving even less space for already crazed drivers, I took picture after picture, parts of india were indeed like my ethnic Nigeria but there was structure. 
Where Cows are gods! hehe!
Unlike Dehr Duran, Delhi was beautiful, the airport organised and huge. Rishikesh was different, poor but there were decent roads and projects going on!
As we approached the luxurious gates to Ananda, I saw them; beautiful monkeys had come to bid me welcome, they were gorgeous. The most beautifully dressed guard I’d ever seen, his hands held to prayer as he greeted ‘Namuskar’, opened the gates. 
We drove in, my bags taken, I was checked in with a mug of fresh ginger and lemon. My schedule for the next seven nights presented to me, seven nights of blissful treatments, a rejuvenation of mind, body and soul. 
My simple goal was to take stock, rest, pray and seek God’s face as I led my team through the next eight weeks, as we transitioned through to reality.
Lunch was brown rice and lamb in oyster sauce combined with the best assortment of fresh vegetables I’d ever tasted, my body relished and then abosrbed the freshness presented before it. I had meant to sit for a quick minute, it was quite shocking when I woke up at 1830 with a start.
Damn! I had missed my  ayuverdic consultation as well as my Abhyanga massage (I had no clue what it was but it sounded lush).
My Ananda Whites!

I hurried into my slippers and ran to the spa, thankfully in Ananda the white pyjamas were adequate, no frills, no pretences and no extras. It was just peaceful and gorgeous and the most non-judgemental, most calming place I’d ever been to.
Love permeated the atmosphere and everyone here smiled.  Thankfully I had taken out my signatory long weave before I came.
The gasp that left my lips was unmistakable it was gorgeous! the spa I mean! the doctor was there, he had actually come to check on me until he’d seen my privacy tag hanging outside my door. I had to have it on there, for in Ananda someone was constantly knocking to see I was fine, catering to my every whim; spoken or unspoken!
 He explained that he had thought I was ill and had come to check on me until he encountered the sign.
I in turn explained that I was simply tired. 
He dutifully rescheduled my consultation for tomorrow morning after my private yoga session and then led me into the capable hands of my masseuse.

An Abyhanga Massage! 
The Abhyanga massage started with a prayer and then a head and shoulder massage as I sat upright my feet in a foot bath laid with soft smooth pebbles. It was administered by two of them. The ladies worked in sync. This was like no massage I’d ever had. The oils were warm, you could feel healing emanate as they coated my tired skin! It wan’t until they laid me on my stomach I understood why I needed two of these magical women.
One on the right the other on the left they massaged every tired bone, every tendon, every nerve, every sinew! This was no posh city massage... 

Dinner!

Ananda was after all; a glamorous , boutique ashram. I smiled as the revelation met my mind. I had really wanted to visit an ashram and thought I wouldn't find one. This was perfect for me.
These women had the hands of angels, they prayerfully tortured tiredness and aching out of me, they were truly blessed!… an hour , a steam and a shower later, dinner was pan-sneered chicken on the bone ,and fresh vegetables.
A satisfied smile lit my face as I remembered instructions I was given not to leave my balcony doors open as the monkeys sometimes climbed in, in search of food.
The view from my room was unbelievably breath-taking, it rested right on the valley, the Himalayas looming ahead…Only the fool says in his heart that there is no God!’ The hand of God was unmistakable here...
At some stage during the day I asked what Namuskar meant as it was constantly said to me… my replier explained that it translated to:
The god in me bows to the god in you
I’m trying so hard to get enough work done so that I’m in bed early enough and can get to morning yoga at 0700, the amphitheatre looked gorgeous as my golf cart drove past it earlier on.
Namuskar...
I don't make beds and I declined house-keeping's
 evening service...haba! 

Friday 8 July 2011

Berlin!!!... CEO Duties... an SATC experience!!!

The almighty Alma! Appreciate!
'God has a sense of Humour...' #Just Saying...
I'd spent the whole day negotiating terms with suppliers, planning, directing and advising my team... no one had been kind enough to warn me of the tumultuous yet stimulating life an MD/CEO lived. It was painful!... I sat at my desk, as I slowly ensured that my tasks for the day were definitely completed, after all I was still an employee... one with an extremely demanding job!
Emotionally spent and clearly drained, I subconsciously or maybe even consciously glanced at the Gucci timepiece that dominated my left wrist. Oh wow! it was 18:39, where had my day gone? My ride to Frankfurt airport was due to arrive in just over twenty minutes. 
 The last two e mails I sent were done in a rush, a quick glance over and the hope that they satisfied the intended recipients was about all I could muster before I grabbed my laptop bag and Amarante Louis Vuitton Alma MM (I had to! blush!! it is gorgeous, a work of art!hehe! in Vernis leather!) and rode the elevator 16 floors down to reception. 

I dutifully handed my black Jasper Conran wheelie to my driver and got in the car. A staggering breath of air escaped me as I took the back seat, a clear sigh of relief. I had an hour to myself but before I laid my head to rest there was a call I needed to return... (that tale...is for another day :)).
A very accurate 60 minutes later, I walked into Frankfurt airport, wheelie in hand, dropped my bags off with the smiley ground staff  at the Lufthansa desk and headed to my gate... a quick detour at Meyer Feinkost, perhaps a tall glass of German Riesling would calm this inaudible, escalating churn my stomach had engaged in... You see, I am a bit of a 'nervous-flyer',(don't ask!) I don't enjoy flying at all, weird I know! for someone who flies pretty much every week.
Frankfurt Airport!
 A few announcements, changed gates and small conversations later, I was firmly tucked into the signatory Grey Lufthansa seats. As a 'nervous-flyer', I am mandated to advise airline staff, check weather conditions et all, they in turn are mandated to monitor me throughout the flight, give advance warning of heavy clouds, weird sounds and  pretty much as much information as they possibly can of any potential issues. God forbid full blown hysterics on a flight... I have had that before, not pretty at all!

I patiently waited for the plane to fill, not quite ten minutes later a tall, dark haired metro-sexual took the aisle seat beside me, only issue was he had a Lufthansa badge peaking every so slightly from under his shirt.
The observer in me very quickly picked up on that; the naij woman in me whispered 'Ehn Ehn o, who is this one now, abeg!' Gosh! sometimes I wish she'd just shut up and behave! haha!... he looked too butch to be an air host and too young and too pretty to be a pilot or engineer so really! only other option was a secret agent... 
I rarely assume so I asked; 'hi! going home?'... we talked all the way to our destination, turns out he WAS INDEED a pilot, a first officer, cute as hell and awesomely gay!
Josef or Joe was tres-fantastique, he explained every sound, jerk and movement and kept assuring me that everything was fine. 
We talked about my business, he talked about his even cuter boyfriend (ooh! saw a picture, that dude was pretty hatttt!), how he'd just flown in from Shanghai that morning and only flew 4 times a month, I was green with envy, pilots had the best work/life balance ever, no doubt!... he offered to model for me, I looked him over, niceee! could definitely use you, I quietly thought! 
Joe and Ade in my iPad Photo booth! Forgive us it was midnight!
 It was such an awesome flight, I hugged heaven, God ALWAYS had me covered! what a treat! my babysitter was an actual pilot! my spirit cried out victoriously in sweet sweet joy! ... We disembarked a few minutes short of midnight, I walked out of Tegel airport, said my 'Tschuses' to Josef after exchanging e mail addresses, the familiar Euphoric feel of being in a Big city hit me, it smelt and felt like New York.
Josef had sarcastically retorted 'Yeah Ade! New York in the 80s'... when I'd told him I'd heard Berlin was a huge, retro city, my gorgeously huge eyes had lit up as I'd followed my statement with 'like New York?' (uh huh you say! well! that's what I could relate with:), I luv'd the Big apple! lol!).
crazy taxi queue

My smile froze as I saw the taxi queue... Berlin indeed did not sleep... an hour and a half later, finally at my hotel and tucked into the lush queen-sized bed, I put the phone down and smiled... I was already firmly in love with Berlin... She made me smile...
 Gosh! I'm such a big city girl... truly cosmopolitan...  
Definitely cosmopolitan!The morning after! :)

I shall tell all about the Bread n Butter trade-show  I attended on behalf of veniviici... :), awesome  SATC moments and a conversation I had with my direct reports after the trade show. But! Now! I am extremely aware that I have just one more sleep in this fabulous city and I need need need to go into town... 
TSCHUS!! :)












*'Tschus - Bye (German)

Friday 1 July 2011

Would y'all have me back????


There are a few things in life as uncomfortable as a colposcopy… 
 I have no idea why I started with that, I have no fancy stories stripped around that enigmatic phrase, no tall tales… anti-climax eh? sorry! I’ve simply thought about writing for a while and for the weirdest of reasons that phrase had firmly etched itsself at the forefront of my mind...
 There are a few things in life as uncomfortable as a colposcopy… 
 The crappy part about not writing for a minute is that it gets harder to pen precious words to paper! It also means that I’ve had to find alternative ways to express this extremely fiery passion I so naturally carry… so I guess I am writing this year… but before I begin to pour out tales, adventures, diatribes, harangues, smart sayings. There are friends in blogsville I need to apologise to…
*Hangs head shamefully*
My preciouses… I’m ever so sorry for going so MIA…YN, Tnotes  and every one else, I've missed you!!!!
There's so much to write, but so little time. A year ago I was broken, hurting and learning to find me, working, having fab adventures and absolutely loving London as I discovered nooks and crannies of the ever so elusive city that had housed me for the last twelve years...
Its virtually a year and I’m still finding me, still live in London, still love London but work in Germany, I’m a CEO, an employee, busy as hell, completely secure in who and whose I am, not yet been made an honest women of  and yes! yes! met a coupla silly dudes! yeah! LOL! I def have to write about silly and sillier! :) …  I’m constantly traveling, constantly busy, constantly learning , constantly growing. I just got in from Edinburgh and been in at least five different cities in the last ten days, made some awesome friends and have such a healthy love for life! ... my cleaner goes on holiday tonight, need one desperately (for tomorrow) so if  you can help that will be awesome! my one rule 'you can't work full-time and clean your house yourself' - Ade says :)so lets see how much time I find to write… Power yoga is sooooo unbelievably awesome and so's tweeting; my handle @skizzzzles and please don't expect quality tweets! :) #I'mACreativePerson! Quantity trumps all...
SO... xoxo or 'love and tiara kisses' (Most Beautiful Girl Nigeria 2010 - thought it was classic! hehe!)
 

Thursday 6 January 2011

Would I write this year or not?...

It really is a million-dollar question... hmmm ... maybe , maybe not...! we'll see...