Bang the Gong! - a trip to Abuja

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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:21 am

This is a continuation of my "Bang the Gong!" thread that's in the Help & Tips forum.
<http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=117363>
There's three months worth of fairly straight baiting there to plough through so I think it would be more appropriate to start another thread here.

"Ed", a colleague of my main character Richard, is played by jojobean.

Lev1 wrote:

Dear Edxxxx,

Thanks for your mail. I will be in Abuja that Friday morning November 2nd, but since you guys are staying are landing so early by 3.00 A.M i wonder how we are going to meet there, did you book any hotel where i can meet you. I will take night bus to Abuja and will be getting to Abuja around 8.30 A.M. From all indication you will arrive around 3.00 A.M, that same morning.

Now see what you will happen, once you land at the airport, buy a GSM SIM CARD are call me at 080x9x0x1x8, you can call me from your country before departing, remember to put the country code 234-80x9x0x1x8. The SIM CARD are sold in the airport for people that just arrived and need cummunication, just like you. That means you have to carry your GSM PHONE so that you can slot the SIM and make your calls. The SIM is very cheap, you can get one at the equivalent of Four Pounds at most.

There is Likely to be many whites at the airport, so don't think you will be the only white there. I hope you get what i mean. I am likely to come alone and through telephone communication and little description of the clothes we are putting on, we can locate each other withi the airport.

I dont think it will be easy for you to locate me i the airport with just a picture,because there will be too many people in the airport, mostly blacks like me and you may get confuse looking at every face that pass you by, i hope you get get what i mean.

Regarding the Gifts you are bringing for us, just make any good choice, i think it will be okay.

Please kindly confirm to me that you are okay with this arrangement ans will be there on Firday money to pick you up. Okay.

Ed wrote:

Thank you so much for your email. I will get in touch via phone or email before we leave. There is not need to worry. Even though we may get there at 3 or 4 AM, I still have to put the plane in the hangar. That takes a while to do. So, we probably won't even be ready to leave for another 2 or 3 hours. We will probably just nap in our plane until you arrive, for a few hours. I'll get up around 7:30 and go and get a SIM card to call you. We will likely meet right outside the airport. Now, do you prefer to stay in a hotel for the day to rest, or would you rather move back immediately to your town? That is your call. Remember, you only need to purchase a one way ticket to Abuja, as I will pay for our return travel. Is that your plan?

I agree that the easiest way to find each other will be by calling each other once I get there.

I appreciate your help. I will be sure to bring enough gifts to really satisfy you guys and show our appreciation.

Again, I will email or call before my departure. I look forward to hearing from you.

Lev1 wrote:

Dear Edxxxx,

I have seen your mail and i am okay with the whole arrangement. I am looking forward to meet you in Abuja. I think we will rather start comming to Enugu immediately and when we get to Enugu we can rest in hotel room before going to the village to see the gong.

There is no point staying in a hotel room in Abuja, we dont have any bussiness there. I hope you get what i mean. We will get a good hotel in Enugu where you can stay till we finish the transaction since it is close to the village and there are some nice hotels around.

Remember to give me a call before you depart and call me as soon as you arrive so that i can locate you, okay.

I will wait for you.

Ed wrote:

Rxxxxxx or myself will give you a call before we leave. I am already beginning to prepare the plane for leaving. The crew just did a private jet inspection on it now and said that it is good for take off around 9 PM tonight. I am going to take a nap for a few hours so I will be well rested for the trip.

I have no problem going directly to Enugu. If we don't need to stay in Abuja, then that is fine. I will need to get at least one day rest before moving to see the gong. Flying an international flight like that can be tiring.

I have your gifts and everything. I wanted to confirm that you only purchased a one way ticket to Abuja. Remember, I will cover your costs for the trip back.

I really appreciate your efforts here. This makes me feel much more confident about traveling there.

Cheers.

I call Lev1 at 19:45GMT to reassure him that we�re getting ready to fly: <http://docs.department23.co.uk/LeviCall.mp3>
I tried to find out if he was actually on the bus to Abuja right there and then, but he appears not to have understood much of what I was saying.

Next morning, at 10:18GMT, Lev1 leaves the following message for me: <http://docs.department23.co.uk/LeviWondering.mp3>

Nothing confirmed as yet, but there's a chance he might have really spent 12 hours on the night bus from Enugu state to Abuja.

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:41 am

Otterfan wrote:

Nothing confirmed as yet, but there's a chance he might have really spent 12 hours on the night bus from Enugu state to Abuja.

Keeping fingers crossed here that he spent the night on safari... Very Happy

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:56 am

Another call!

<http://docs.department23.co.uk/LeviWondering2.mp3>

I'm trying to put together a nice loop of background sounds to play when I call him and explain where we are...

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:09 pm

Looks like he is there. Can you try calling him? Get him to email us? It would be nice to get that IP confirmation, though I am near certain he is there.

Where to next? Laughing

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:24 pm

^^ Sent you/Ed an email.

I've just called Lev1:
<http://docs.department23.co.uk/LeviCall2.mp3>

The background sounds are a little drowned out because of the way I've set up the recording. Hearing it at the other end (at Lev1's end), the sound and my voice will be fairly mixed with plenty of "airport" type sounds.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

Good job Otter! Sounds like he made the trip.

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:52 pm

We are waiting on email confirmation right now. Hopefully within an hour or two we will have IP confirmation. We are still up in the air on what to do. I think we are going to try to get him to just wait for us in Abuja for another day.

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 4:51 pm

Thank you readnotify.com.

New IP: 196.1.179.204

Still no email from him though. And my free subscription expires today. So, I won't be able to tell if he checks it after today.

EDITED TO ADD IP LOCATION:

address: Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd.
Internet Services Unit,
Plot 251,
cadestral zone A0,
Herbert macauley Way,
Central Business District
Abuja,
Nigeria

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:40 pm

He's never had that IP before.

I wrote:

Dear Lev1,

I've told Ed about our phonecall and he's going to email you. He's the one with the piloting experience so it's better that he make all the flying arrangements. Keep watching your email account for a message from him, okay? I don't want to stay here longer than necessary.

Ed wrote:

We are in Port Harcourt now. We really need you to come and pick us up. Please. We got re-routed due to some logistical problems in Abuja. Please come pick us up. I can give your our location when you get closer. I will pay for the flight back to your city and reimburse you for your trip to Abuja. Please come get us. We are stranded here.

Ed wrote:

Is it possible for you to wait in Abuja for us? I think we will be permitted to fly in later. I think that is the easiest for both of us.

He left a message on my answer service when I was out:
<http://docs.department23.co.uk/LeviWondering3.mp3>
I made a quick call and urged him to check his Yahoo email account. He said he would, but that was a few hours ago now.

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:39 pm

Fantastic work. I can't wait to see you get another helmet. Onya!

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 1:23 pm

I wrote:

Dear Jes5ica,

Hi there, I hope you're okay. Has Lev1 informed you about what's been happening?

We were meant to land at Abuja early this morning (Friday) but the airport refused us permission and directed us to Port Harcourt. Ed landed here okay and then we both contacted Lev1 and told him about what had happened. However, he hasn't replied and so we've had to get some rooms at a hotel here for the night. Can you find out if Lev1 is okay? And what his plans are? The silence from him is a little worrying.

I wrote:

Lev1,

What is going on? Still no reply from you, so it means we're going to spend another night here. What are you doing? Why you are delaying your responses? I want some action from you and I want it quick because I didn't come over here to spend all day waiting at a computer terminal in a hotel lounge.

Jes5ica wrote:

How could you do such a thing? You were the person that persuaded us to come to Abuja at the first place.If you were not interested in this business why dragging all this far? To be frank with you,i felt so bad at the turn of event.If i had known i would have allowed those Japanesse purchase that gong.

Anyway,you are free to do whatever you like.Inspite of my health condition which i told you .It is not fair.I can't continue goodbye.

I wrote:

Jes5ica,

So does that mean you're going to withdraw your offer? We fly all this way (5000 miles, please note), and you simply refuse to deal with us? This is not funny and I hope you are not being serious here.

Events were totally out of our control. If Ed had known he was going to be refused landing permission at Abuja, then we would have made different arrangements. But we didn't know that, so we made the best arrangements possible.

I'm still willing to persuade Ed to fly to Enugu airport (he wants to go home right now, he's sick of this whole thing and the way Lev1 has treated us---I know how he feels), so please reply and let me know if this is still possible.

I think you are acting very unfairly, blaming us for things that no one could have foreseen.

Still no email from Lev1 to confirm where he is, but maybe jojobean has been sent one over the weekend so I'll wait to hear from him.

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:07 pm

I have had no email from them. This is a shame that they are twigging. I don't understand it. They have no reason to believe that we are lying. Other than not showing up. Twisted Evil

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:42 pm

It might not be over just yet.

First, Lev1 leaves me an incomprehensible message. I truly have no idea what he's saying here:
<http://docs.department23.co.uk/LeviCall3.mp3>

Then Jes5ica emails me

Jes5ica wrote:

It is not that i am backing out, no.It is just that i am no long sure about your interest in the deal.

But if you are really serious as you said and that you people are truly in Nigeria now,just call Lev1 and tell him when you will come to Enugu so that he will know and prepare tpo recieve you people.I must tell he was very furious when he came back from Abuja yestaday.

Anyway i will talk to him when he comes to tell me that you called or write him.

So it's time to play innocent and (slightly) apologetic. This one may yet be salvaged.

I wrote:

Dear Jes5ica,

Thank you for replying. I was seriously getting worried that you had pulled out of this after we had gotten so far.

Believe me it's not something that I want, to be stuck here in Port Harcourt. I looked on a map and it's hundreds of miles from Abuja, and still a fair distance away from Enugu. Over the weekend, Ed was prepared to fly to Enugu but we heard nothing more from Lev1 so we didn't know what to do. Instead, we are stuck here like idiots in the only hotel that had any rooms at such short notice. All the decent places had to be booked weeks ahead.

Lev1 called earlier today and left a message, but the reception down here is terrible. I'm not sure if it's because of the building we're in of if it's something more general about the area, but I could hardly make out what his message was. I think phoning him will be a bit of a disaster too, if my earlier attempt to hear his message is any guide. Email is better for getting details across, so if you talk to him tell him that I've sent him something by email and that it would be better if we made arrangements like this.

I can understand your being furious when Lev1 came back from Abuja without us. We were both fairly angry ourselves from the moment that the ATC people at Abuja refused us permission to land. From that point on, it was one disaster after another, and I'm still in a foul mood because of it. I'll only feel better when I finally get to meet you and Lev1, and I can see the drum with my own eyes.

I would apologize to Lev1 but I really don't know what I would be apologizing for as none of this is my or Ed's fault. We were just thrown about like leaves in the wind, and we're just as frustrated here as you and Lev1 probably are there. I want to blame someone, but sometimes there's just no one to blame and you have to bite your tongue and stay silent.

I hope we can arrange something soon and get this mess put behind us.

Trophy Videos · Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 2:21 am

Nice work, Otterfan and JoJo. Smile

Sounds like he did go, and got mighty pissed off about not seeing you there!! Laughing

I loved to see him write this:

Quote:

To be frank with you,i felt so bad at the turn of event.If i had known i would have allowed those Japanesse purchase that gong.

It is not fair.

I must tell he was very furious when he came back from Abuja yestaday.

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 82

http://docs.department23.co.uk/LeviCall3.mp3

says'
"Mr Rich4rd,I didnt know you will treat us this way, we trusted you,then disappointed us.Thank you very much , bye"

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:25 pm

^^ Thanks!

He replied and explained his message today.

Lev1 wrote:

In the message, i was expressing my disappointment of your inability to live up to your own part of the arrangement.Indeed i felt so bad and ridicled.

I never wanted to continue but at Jes5ica's word i decided to try one more time.If what Jes5 told me about you is true all you need to do is to check very well and tell me when exactly are you laandind at Enugu airport.

Again,if truely you are now in portharcurt,just buy a Nigerian sim card and call me with it.
As you can see i have putting in more than i bargained for in this deal,therefore, i can no longer appreciaate any other hinge.

Now that's what I like to read!

I'll also make sure there aren't any more hinges for him. It'll be a bugger for him opening doors, though.

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:34 pm

No hinges huh? Well, I am sure we can work that out. Where to Otter? I don't think these lads are going to pick us up at the airport in any other city except Enugu. We need a plan.

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:00 pm

I think we need to ply them with a few convincers to restore their confidence in us.

They were about to give up on the whole thing over the weekend, and it looks like I managed to get Jes5ica to give us another chance, but it's going to take a great show of faith before they're ready to do anything else.

One of Lev1's "Nigerian SIMs" would be perfect right now as I could talk to him AND convince him we're in Port Harcourt... hint, hint... Is there any way I can spoof a telephone call so that it appears to be coming from a Nigerian number?

They really need some petting and some loving, I think, before we can try punishing them again.

Trophy Videos · Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:24 pm

Quote:

They really need some petting and some loving

Not too much, now, you might throw up, or catch some kind of sympathy disease...hehehe Laughing

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:30 pm

No, not too much, only a sufficient amount so it hurts when the love is taken away.

"I will work to elevate you
just enough to bring you down."
-- Sober, Tool

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