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22:02
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Life...and living it
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In this short post I'm going to talk about my body, I know I know.
I'm so sick of it being such a big concern. I'm not body dysmorphic or anything but why oh why can't it just obey me and not flow, or protrude where it's not supposed to? I don't know if this is sounding like the most shallow post ever, but I really feel that I can't really talk about weight issues to my eat-what-she-wants sister or my eat!-eat! mother, and if you mention it to other gals, they just assume that you're chatting s*"t and fishing for compliments.
What I really want to know is how does one REALLY get over body issues? Put on or Lose weight 'just because' and not let it take over one's life? I find that when I used to stuff my face I was doing it with an attitude -
'I don't even care! I LUUURRVE my body'- and when (in final year of school) I used to starve myself and I lost weight, I was only temporarily happy with the amount I lost...so annoying!Maybe this is just a case of never human beings never being happy and I don't want to sound too neurotic, but seriously can anyone help to stop me obsessing about this issue, it hasn't got embarrassing yet, but I don't want it to get to the point where my favourite conversation starter is ' have you read about the ...... diet?' and my most profound thought is 'how many calories in a polo mint?'
The thing is although it is very present it's still quite quiet, I'm not physically stopping my life in order to devote time to scale-hopping, and I basically eat whatever (within reason) it just amazes me how it's always ALWAYS there, and has been for about 10 years!
Does anyone out there feel 100% happy with themselves and even if not, how has anyone ended the diet-cycle or the scoff-cycle?
HELP
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17:23
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Life...and living it
When I first came to GH, I spent a lot of time taking pictures of food. Yep- food. It was just so refreshing to see the "real" versions of so many of my favourite dishes after years of being forced to cope with the budget versions. These pictures of food were
slightly awkward to explain whenever people decided to look through the pics on my camera. Since I don't generally like to advertise the fact that I blog to randoms, I eventually resorted to just saying "a friend wanted me to take pictures of what Ghanaian foods look like" as a means of explanation. It's not
technically a lie....Well I realised that my long-promised "food" post had not materialised (sorry
Afrocentric!) and so what better time to remedy this than now?
Tangerines: When I first saw these, I was like "why is this woman trying to palm us off with unripe fruit?" Let's just say that I finally saw the light when I took them home and got under their bright green skin. Yummy's not even the word. Here they are in my fruit basket with one random "normal"-coloured tangerine.
Oranges: I have a sliiiiiight obsession with oranges but I've never really taken to English oranges- too tasteless. In the ATL, the oranges from the Korean supermarket were a fave because they tasted "like Ghana oranges". So here's the real thing and they're a dream for a lazy cow like me because you can get them ready-peeled! This is a
before and the
after after I completely demolished it, complete with lip-gloss marks....
Alasa/ Adaswa: I literally screamed when I saw these. I remember them from when I was little and I hadn't had them since my mum randomly brought a couple back from a holiday when I was around 12/13. When ripe, these are quite sweet and they have about 4 shiny black seeds inside each one. Smallish in size, if you chew the flesh for a while it turns into
chewing gum! How cool is that? They can also be incredibly sour when not fully ripe; kinda like any sweet from the sour section in a pick 'n' mix. Everybody tells me they're called
alasa but I swear down I used to call them adaswa or something like that when I was little. Can anybody help me out with this?
Mangoes: I kept meaning to take pics of the small Ghana mangoes you rarely find in the UK but um, they never lasted that long. Ghana mangoes are my all-time favourite fruit so that's my excuse.
Pineapples: Eating pineapples in Ghana makes you steadily pissed that you've been spending money on impostor fruit that can't hold a candle to the ones here. Sweet is not even the word. Amaaaazing and the taste is simply sensational. Cutting pineapples, however, is
not the business....
So here we are for starters and hopefully I won't take the piss in producing a part two!
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22:42
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Life...and living it
This is the wonderful
Tic Tac line from
Kwani Kwani which me and the other girls love so much. In fact I have always wanted to say it to somebody. Which actually sounds quite mean
however, I don't want to say it to be mean...well actually....errmmmmm...
look right,
THAT IS A LINE AND A HALF!Anyhoo, as per Nsoromma, this post is gonna be all confused about love. You see, recently I (er-hmm) acquired a toy boy. And apart from not being overly broad, he is the physical definition of my type and SOOOOOO cute. And sweet. And adorable. Awwwwwwwwwwwwww. Jheeze. He approached me when he caught me making eyes at him. Can you believe I actually got caught? S-L-I-P-P-I-N-G!
Jheeze!
But now the gloss is dissipating because his situ is somewhat messy. He has a clingy ex and a long-time-friend stroke love interest. Now tbh, I can't really complain to much about that
but I will as my attention is more than a little divided. You see there's this dude my family has been tryna set me up with who I'm surprised I actually quite like. He's intelligent, kind, funny, cheeky and oddly sexy even though he's not physical my type much.
I guess I'm just a bit confused as the second guy seems pretty much perfect
which scares the crap out of me but I know that with work the youngie has potential. The problem is that the second guy moves sooooo slow, something he warned me of but in real life, W-O-W, it's pretty much incomparable. Do I wait for him, as it seems the wait may be well worth it, as he has admitted to liking me?
But to limit myself from liking him too much whilst he moves like a snail I've been giving up a lot of my time (in retrospect, probably WAY too much) to the youngie. He's cute, he's sweet and I'm a bit bored so methinks why not. But now he has said 'I LOVE YOU'. Oh dear. I just kind of hug him and change the subject. But he knows I'm avoiding it.
Anyhoo, the reason I quoted the relationship guru that is Tic Tac (Muhahahahahaha!!! Mad crazy laugh time!), is that truly I like both guys and while I have been WAITING years to use this line. I'm starting to get scared that I may just have to!
Oh and in related news...the ex who shall forever remain hated is actually in a relationship with the girl he cheated on me for and in what feels like returning to a past life I am starting to fancy a promoter friend of mine. The wickedest thing is that I make cracks about it all the time to him, but now it's actually true.
I can only sigh and smh at my self.Yours,Nsoromma...COTH xXx
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18:56
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Life...and living it
This is a very quick one. I just really want to wish Ghana a happy 53rd birthday, and happy independence day to all of you. Ghana has come a long way, and we have a lot to be proud of. However you choose to celebrate, have fun and stay safe.
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22:36
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Life...and living it
Remember late last year when the colourful and lively "Zingolo" advert lit up our t.v. screens? If you need reminding, then check this out.
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Before that, I had never been so excited to see my fave show break for adverts. And I STILL love watching it. As annoying as the "Zingolo" tune may be, we can't deny it is catchy. Also, to see a Ghanaian artist on another channel other than on OBE really is something! But the most important thing is that the advert made the British public aware of where the cocoa beans that make their chocolate come from. It also confirmed Cadbury's move to Fairtrade. Fairtrade is a non profit organisation which ensures that the people in poorer parts of the world who produce the raw materials needed to make some of the things we enjoy, such as tea, wine, or even cotton shirts are not ripped off.
Sadly, there are not a lot of companies that are Fairtrade certified. And it's sad that there are people all over the world who are not given the opportunity to make a decent living. I'm not going to pretend that I always check for the "Fairtrade" mark before I carelessly throw a packet of biscuits or a bag of sweets into my shopping trolley. But the Cadbury's advert has made me more aware.
The news of Cadbury's takeover by American food company, Kraft, left us in the UK wondering what would become of the Bourneville factory in Birmingham. Most importantly, what will happen to the thousands of jobs it provides, if it is to close down?
I would hate for all those jobs to be lost, trust me, I would. But Kraft's chief executive Irene Rosenfeld said "[she] warmly welcomes Cadbury employees into the Kraft Foods family". However, what will happen to the Cocoa farmers in Ghana? There has been so much discussion and dialogue over the loss of British jobs, but I haven't heard a peep about the fate of the Ghanaian farmers with no welfare system to fall back on and with little else but their cocoa farms. I have searched up and down the Cadbury's website, and can't find anything about how Kraft's takeover will affect the livelihoods of those producing the cocoa beans.
Let me finish by congratulating Cadbury for it's efforts in supporting Fairtade all over the word; in countries such as St. Lucia, India and South Africa.
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15:50
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Life...and living it
I expected 2010 to be a much better year than its predecessors but I seriously did not consider that this year would bring reconciliation with people I had not spoken to for years and had subsequently written off for good. But I guess God has a way of bringing pleasant surprises our way. So far, making up with a family member I had sworn I would never talk to has been one of the best gifts I have received this year.
Remember in
New Year, New Beginnings! I mentioned about an ex-boyfriend of mine who lives in Ghana, and ceases not to harass me? Rewind back to late 2007. It was round about then, I started getting to know him. For the benefit of anonymity, let's call him X (cos that is exactly what he is). I had known X for a couple of years before then (he was my cousin D's friend) but I had hardly said two words to him. So when this reserved, aloof and somewhat proud young man started talking to me and showing an interest, I immediately became intrigued, and towards the end of 2007 he became my boyfriend. Okay okay, I know I should have known better and trust me I have learnt:
1. NEVER EVER EVER get involved with someone who's is connected to your family in any way
2.The quiet ones usually have something to hide
3.If you have to keep your relationship a secret, then the two of you should probably not be having one
Anyway, during most of our relationship, I was living in France, and aside from the daily phone conversations and the odd visit here and there, I didn't really see him much. For some reason, X wanted to keep our relationship a secret because he knew my cousin D is a bit overprotective of me, and would be less than happy to find out his friend was going out with his little cousin. Living in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country, with no T.V. or internet connection can leave you disillusioned and very needy. (If you don't believe me, try it.) Every night, I would make sure I had done my assignments, had a shower, and had done all the other important things by 9.55pm, ready for to hear the sweet tune of my phone's ring tone at 10 o'clock. To be honest, I had never before been so happy to hear my phone ring.
During our conversations, we would speak about absolutely everything, including certain family members who always left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Every time I mentioned someones name, his response would be no more than
"mmm,yeah, I have met her before" or
"err, yeah, I think your cousin has introduced me to him before". Anyway, I thought nothing of it and we blissfully carried on with what I would later find out was one of the most deceitful relationships I have ever found myself in.
Well, to cut a very LOOOOOOOOOOONG story short, I returned to London during the Easter holidays, to find out that X used to go out with one of my cousins - a family member I had fallen out with and had not spoken to for around four years and had spent many nights bitching about to him over the phone (Can we call her V?). OK, I know you're probably rolling your eyes in disbelief at the fact that I had no idea that my boyfriend used to go out with cousin or shrugging your shoulders thinking "
So? What's the big deal?". So let me clear a few things up:
1. I had barely seen or spoken to V in four years
2. I think it was a pretty insidious for him to not mention ANYTHING about their relationship, considering the fact her name had surfaced in our conversations quite a few times.
Well, anybody who knows me will not be surprised to read that I ended our relationship that very day.
A bit drastic, you may think. But, I had to end it as it involved family (no matter how sour things between me and V may have gone), plus I was a little more than concerned about how easy it was for him to keep such vital information quiet. And although he made it his number one goal to win me back, the truth was, I just couldn't get back with him.
I know this blog post is becoming somewhat long and laborious to read, but I am getting to the end, I promise. Fast forward to January 2010, I was at work , when I read an e-mail stating that a few new-starters from another branch of the company were coming to mine the following day to receive their training and to go through their starter packs. The e-mail also included a list of names of the girls we were to be expecting. God must have a strange sense of humour because whose name should I see in that list but V's?
So roll on the next day, I was at work trying to keep busy, trying to forget about the butterflies in my stomach and trying to keep a fake smile plastered onto my face. I must have been looking at my watch for the umpteenth time, When V finally walked through the big glass doors of the shop.
After a few moments of staring at each other stupidly and performing a few conversational rituals (
How are you? Fine thank you, you?
), she finally mustered up the courage to bring up the dreaded subject. Through our conversation, it became apparent that X had given her the impression that I had started a relationship with him knowing full well that she used to go out with him. And NO NO, that was not the only porky he was telling, he had also told her that we me and him were still involved!! (yes, he used to spend money and time to make phone calls from Ghana, so he could wind her up with his lies )What a bastard!
Well, once I had assured her that although breaking up with him was difficult, I would never knowingly go out of my way to hurt someone. Also, I couldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Then reality sunk in. The truth was that we had been played off against each other (there were also a few not-so-nice things he had told me about her).
Well, as typical happy endings go, we made up and laughed over how stupid we had all been. We even exchanged numbers and promised to keep in touch. (Well you know, baby steps and all that. After all, four years is a looooong time!)
Okay, we have finally arrived at the end of this story. I know it was quite lengthy and complicated, so I thank you for your patience. But that is why it has taken me so damn long to post it! I will end by saying that sometimes, when you stubbornly want to hold onto a grudge, circumstances will put you in a position where you'll have to just let go. The one thing I have taken away from the whole experience, is that it is so important to communicate. Before things spiral out of control.
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14:06
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Life...and living it
I recently went to a concert by British poet Michaela. It was really good, she is really good, but at one point I began to ask myself how is she doing this?
One song on her album, Fixing Barbie. is called 'Childhood Photographs' and it's about a suicidal friend of hers who blocks out the pain of losing her boyfriend by smoking illegal substances and cutting herself. D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G, I know but a beautiful song which is poignant in a nonchalant way (typical Michaela). Now I wonder for Michaela and for other artists, how can they bear to sing a song like that, which reminds them of a very painful time, or an ongoing problem? If I feel like crying when I hear it, how can she sing it at numerous concerts, make a video for it, practise it at rehearsals etc. etc.?
Blimey! These performer peeps are better than me at distancing themselves from personal pain or past emotions, I can still get very embarrassed thinking about that time I farted in a school disco and did not manage to cover it up, or angry at the thought of that 'friend' who slept with my boyfriend, I also still feel warm and fuzzy when I smell that boyfriend's 212 because these things happened to me and though I may not think about them all the time, they remain very real to me years after.
I don't know if I'm over-emotional, or if I'm clinging to anything I 've managed to remember as my post-baby memory deteriorates, but I take my hat off to those who can feel things deep enough to turn them into beautiful poems/songs, but disengage enough to sing/recite without becoming a wobbling mound of tears!
Boy, I know I was crying at that concert, and maybe somewhere deep, Michaela was too.
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22:32
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Life...and living it
Ga. Ashanti. Ewe. Fante. These are a few of many Ghanaian ethnicities. Believe it or not, Ghana is populated by a cool 23,000,000 people. With this is in mind, let me ask one question: Why on earth would anyone expect all Ghanaians to look the same?
As a Ghanaian woman living in London, this is a question that has wandered around my mind for some time now, and has still found no answer. Seriously, if I got one pesewa every time I was asked if I was Ghanaian, I would be a millionaire by now. I would be even richer if I received a pesewa for every time my response (a big YES) was followed by a look of surprise from my interlocutor. What do I need to do to prove to you that I am not Nigerian, Caribbean, Sierra Leonan and all the other nationalities I'm apparently supposed to be?
For those who walk around expecting me to be a few shades lighter than a black board and short with too much junk to fit in the trunk just because I happen to be of Ghanaian descent, you really need to take a trip back to Accra and take a good look around.
I remember being at a cousin's wedding. I was speaking to a family member, when I noticed a man nearby staring at me. Although I carried on with my conversation, I was becoming a bit unnerved by how intently I was being stared at. I was beginning think
I can't take any more of this when he finally approached me and rudely interrupted my conversation, "eh! excuse me, are you a Ghanaian?"
"Um, yeah" (that was me, a little surprised about the audacity of some people). I then got the once over as this man's eyes slowly ran over my body, from head to toe. When he was done, he focused on my face again and responded "it's up to you."
THE CHEEK OF IT!
Although I understand for each nationality there may be a 'typical look', I don't get why people act shocked when they stumble upon someone who looks different from 'the typical'. It's not as if I go through life never expecting to be asked where I am from, I just find it very annoying when I am treated like a compulsive liar.
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12:22
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Life...and living it
With everything that has been going on recently, I had not been able to get this post out.
So here it is a little late, the first flackback for 2010 goes to the late great Mr Theodore DeReese Pendergrass (March 26, 1950 - January 13, 2010). Former lead singer of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. One of the great vocalists of our time.
I don't want to drag this out, but basically if you don't know get to know!
Here is the man himself on the amazing 'Love TKO'...enjoy.
And here with the Blue Notes breakout single from their debut album, 'If You Don't Know Me By Now' on Soul Train.
Again with the 1979 grammy-nominated 'Close The Door'.
'Wake Up Everybody' on Sooooooooooooul Train...
And one of my favourites, 'When Somebody Loves You Back'.
Teddy we miss you! RIP
xXx Nsoromma
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20:07
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Life...and living it
I had a whole post planned about a new year and new beginnings and all that but when I heard about the earthquake in Haiti, I promptly forgot about all of that. For thousands of Haitians, there will be no new beginnings. This is a country, the poorest in the western hemisphere, that has seen her "new beginning" falter time and time again. This event is another blow to her legacy and it is the most shocking yet. I cannot possibly imagine the scale of the devastation nor can I begin to understand the helplessness the Haitian people must be feeling right now. All I can do is urge. If there are any helplines in the country in which you live, I ask you to donate. Haitian singer Wyclef Jean's foundation
Yele is accepting donations, as is
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without borders) and the
International Red Cross. There is news coverage of the earthquake on all major news outlets at the moment so it's not difficult to keep informed.
Let's all send out some prayers for our brothers ans sisters in Haiti. How much suffering can one nation take?
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22:54
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Life...and living it
Happy New Year Everyone!I hope you enjoyed your holidays. Now that 2010 is finally with us, what do you hope to achieve? Although 2009 came with its good times, the biggest one for me being graduation, I must say I am glad it is over.
I feel much more positive about this year, I know the job hunting will finally lead to a new job, and I will finally be able to leave the world of retail! (I am not knocking it beacsue at the end of the day a job is a job!) I am just saying that season is over for me.
Also, I am praying things on the relationship front will start looking up. I intend to shake off the ex, who refuses to leave me alone although he lives miles away in Ghana. On top of that, I am done pining over guys whose phone calls I didn't even smell although they swore up and down they would text or call.
Next, the weight I steadily and slowly gained over 2009 has got to GO! (So that will be a big NO to big tins of maple syrup and large bars of Galaxy) ...OK, not totally, but just not as much as before. Lol!
This is just the beginning, there are a whole load of other things I intend on improving this year, but we'll take it one step at a time.
What are your thoughts about the new year? What do you want to improve/ change in you life? SHARE SHARE SHARE!
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23:38
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Life...and living it
Wow, it has been a while hasn't it? I guess we have been all wrapped up in Christmas madness. I for one, have been totally unavailable,working all hours God sends down, all the while sending off a million and one applications in search for another job, looking for Christmas presents for loved ones, and being generally exhausted to do anything else.
You have probably been as busy as I have, spinning around in circles and getting yourself all wound up. But while you get sucked in by all the superficial, commercial nonsense that the Christmas holidays have become, make sure you remember the real meaning of Christmas and the reason why you are celebrating it.
The true meaning of Christmas is an issue people like to throw around and debate about, each and every Christmas, merely talking about it to satisfy their conscience(I confess I am ,at times, one of those people) without really exerting much energy to ensure the real reason for the season is honoured.
We talk about it being a time for sharing with family and loved ones, when its very essence is a Saviour being born to the world to save humanity, God Himself coming into the world to live the human experience.
I am well aware of the fact that not everyone is christian, but whether you're an atheist or a Buddhist, if you are going to celebrate Christmas, at least take the time to know what exactly you are celebrating.
John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York likens society's treatment of Christmas to attending a birthday party with no gift for the birthday boy/girl, but instead a million pressies for all the other guests.
Wow! Now I feel like I'm preaching! Well, before I get carried away, I want to sincerely wish you all a very happy Christmas and a prosperous new year. Thank you for your support this year, and I hope you stick with us in 2010.
God richly bless you all.
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22:36
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Life...and living it
Who here is sick and tired of other people's ignorant and misinformed ideas of Africa? Well, you are not the only one.
In the weeks leading up to my holiday in Ghana, I was hit by Ghana-fever and I couldn't stop talking about it. I drove everyone crazy with
Ghana this and
Ghana that. After ten years since my last holiday in the Land of Gold, a trip back to the motherland was well over due. So you can imagine my excitement once I had actually paid for my ticket. I remember a few weeks before my holiday in Ghana, I was at work when a dress in the stock room, waiting to be marked down and placed on the sale rack, caught my eye.
Mmm, I thought.
This dress is not actually that bad. In fact, it will go down nicely in Ghana. It's a good price too, and if you take away the staff discount...by this time I was grinning from ear to ear.
So after my shift, I took the dress to my manager so I could buy it. Needless to say, she wasn't as enthusiastic about my decision to buy the dress. "Why are you buying this god-awful dress?" she asked.
"Cos, I like it", I was determined to stand my ground. "Plus, it will be perfect for clubbing in Ghana". She responded by giving me a puzzled look and saying "are there clubs in Ghana? I thought it was just mud huts and fig leaves".
Now, think about all the times someone has said something to piss you off, all the times someone has treated you like rubbish, and all the times you were enraged by something you saw. How did you feel? Well, that was exactly how I felt at that moment.
I knew there and then that what I really wanted to say to her could cost me my job, so instead, I took a deep breath and said, "why don't you educate yourself, so you don't say something like that again". Then it occurred to me, that all the images had seen and all the stories she had ever heard about Africa were of poverty, corruption, war and death. She had probably never been told that Africa was the richest land in natural resources, or that the world's oldest university is in Egypt. The story she had heard of Africa was the one not told by its own people. But the one that she had been told by the history books and by the media. "Anyway, it's not your fault", I muttered under my breath.
That is the danger of a single story. When somebody tells your story for you, and you have no say in how it is told, the truth becomes distorted. Let me leave you a clip of Chimamanda Adichie , the author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. In it, she explains the danger of a single story in a more elaborate way. It's a bit long, but please click on the title of this post, which will lead you to the clip, and watch it to the end. There is a lot to be learnt.
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19:12
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Life...and living it
divWho here is sick and tired of other people's ignorant and misinformed ideas of Africa? Well, you are not the only one. /divbr /divIn the weeks leading up to my holiday in Ghana, I was hit by Ghana-fever and I couldn't stop talking about it. I drove span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"everyone/span crazy with emGhana this /emand emGhana that. /emAfter ten years since my last holiday in the Land of Gold, a trip back to the motherland was well over due. So you can imagine my excitement once I had actually paid for my ticket. I remember a few weeks before my holiday in Ghana, I was at work when a dress in the stock room, waiting to be marked down and placed on the sale rack, caught my eye. /divbr /divemspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"Mmm/span, /emI thought.em This dress is not actually that bad. In fact, it will go down nicely in Ghana. It's a good price too, and if you take away the staff discount.../emby this time I was grinning from ear to ear./divbr /divSo after my shift, I took the dress to my manager so I could buy it. Needless to say, she wasn't as enthusiastic about my span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"decision/span to buy the dress. "Why are you buying this god-awful dress?" she asked. /divdiv"Cos, I like it", I was determined to stand my ground. "Plus, it will be perfect for clubbing in Ghana". She responded by giving me a puzzled look and saying "are there clubs in Ghana? I thought it was just span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"mud huts/span and span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"fig leaves/span"./divbr /divNow, think about all the times someone has said something to piss you off, all the times someone has treated you like rubbish, and all the times you were enraged by something you saw. How did you feel? Well, that was exactly how I felt at that moment./divdiv /divdiv /divimg id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410725259307078386" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 184px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 190px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/SxbB9MI7UvI/AAAAAAAAACM/1_m2ZhEAZB4/s320/anger.gif" border="0" /I knew there and then that what I really wanted to say to her could cost me my job, so instead, I took a deep breath and said, "why don't you educate yourself, so you don't say something like that again". Then it span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"occurred/span to me, that all the images had seen and all the stories she had ever heard about Africa were of poverty, corruption, war and death. She had probably never been told that Africa was the richest land in natural resources, or that the world's oldest university is in Egypt. The story she had heard of Africa was the one not told by its own people. But divspan style="color:#000000;"the one that she had been told by the history books and by the media. "Anyway, it's not your fault", I muttered under my breath. /span/divdiv /divdivThat is the danger of a single story. When somebody tells your story for you, span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"and/span you have no say in how it is told, the truth becomes distorted. Let me leave you with this clip. In it, span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"Chimamanda/span span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"Adichie/span explains it in a more elaborate way. It's a bit long, but please watch it to the end, there is a lot to be learned./divdiv /divdiva href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg/a/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-9050382865552635837?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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1:12
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Life...and living it
This past week, just as I was feeling jealous that our American friends were enjoying yet another Thanksgiving without me, I was informed that Ghana, too , would be having a long weekend break. Alas initial enquiries on why Friday was a holiday only provided vague mutterings of "some kind of Muslim holiday". I eventually found out that we had a day off so Muslims could celebrate
Eid al-Adha, otherwise known as "Festival of Sacrifice". The only Eid I'd heard of was
Eid al-Fitr, which celebrates the end of Ramadan so this was new to me. My aunt and I were invited to spend the day at her Muslim cousin's house where we ate and drank
far too much. Friends and relatives were in and out of the house the whole day wishing everybody a happy Eid (and to get some cash) and there was enough food to even satisfy Boris Bogtrotter.
On the surface, there's nothing special about this. However, I had never been in the company of Christians and Muslims with so little tension. Everywhere I went on Friday, people seemed happy and there was a festive air in general. Now I can probably chalk that up to people being happy at the prospect of a three-day weekend but it was cool nonetheless. I can't possibly imagine this happening in a "multicultural" city like London where we're constantly reminded everyday just how much Christians and Muslims
don't get along. My university was in East London, the heart of a predominantly South-Asian Muslim community, and to say tensions ran high would be a gross understatement. I only have to cast my mind back to the all the
wahala the Danish cartoons of Mohammed caused. Therefore, since being in Ghana, I've really loved the way people seem to generally live and let live when it comes to religion.
Now I know us Christians can come in the overzealous types, determined to convert anybody and everybody, but I'm liking the way Muslims and Christians seem to get along side-by-side with minimal drama. Don't worry, I'm not living in fairy-land and I know it's not all roses and bunnies but a little tolerance goes a loooong way- on both sides. It'd be cool if I could dash some of that across the Atlantic.
(Also tried
tubani for the first time. One word- delish! I think I could definitely give up meat and live the pescatorian life in GH. Lol)
Image translation: The picture is entitled "
Eid's Paranoia". White sheep- "What do you think will happen to us this holiday?"Black sheep- "I hope, for God's sake, that we can run away and survive." (Very loose translation)
Image source
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23:34
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Life...and living it
I received a letter today from a man who NEVER writes letters, (trust me I've asked him for about two years to write me one!) It was so sweet, and in French and just..lovely!
Now, it's been hard going with this man, what was meant to be an island fling was forcibly converted into a lifelong commitment (through no fault of my own...I blame the baby lol) and there were times when I just couldn't wait to get away, imagine this I felt trapped by the baby and not him! Well there have been many terse words and intense silences between us but we decided to talk a few weeks ago and be clear about what we each wanted, he talked more than me but I managed to make myself clear that:
a) I'm NOT moving to a certain francophone Caribbean island as I will probably end up stuck at home with no career prospects OR in jail having killed his mother...kidding,
b) I want to finish my million masters' before I settle down because otherwise I might never do them,
c) We need a girl.
A very productive conversation that was, and so I was full of hope for our reunion in Paris, and apart from the ususal uselessness of men (calling me from sleep to change a nappy...are you Dumb? and no I did NOT do it!) it was all really ok, better than ok actually, GREAT! We laughed at the same stuff that nobody else found funny, we went out and saw the sights, we talked about our memories together and the things to come, it was just lovely! The baby took a bit of time getting used to daddy but I wasn't itching to get away, I enjoyed myself and it felt natural...AnD he bought lovely pressies (including a few designer garms!) AnD he has begun a change in personality that I thought would never happen - GOD IS GOOD!
Do good things always come to those who wait? With men, I don't think so , but sometimes you just have to have patience (and pray!) and for now I'm just
happy happy happy - I say for now because I have never been one to fool myself that I'll get what
I think I deserve -but as I said, I've seen some changes and for now (there it is again!) All is right with the world.
P.S while in Paris I watched the French X factor ( pronounced
ix facteurrrr) and a blond rockky-chick sang a song called "Ca, C'est Vraiment Toi" about a wo/man and his/her quirks and their effect on the wo/man and how with all that it couldn't really be anyone else, and how that suited them fine and I really like that so here it is::::
[www.youtube.com] 
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18:36
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Life...and living it
Whilst at the Accra Mall last week, I decided to open an account at the Barclay's bank there. I have a Barclay's account in London too so it just seemed like common sense. Unfortunately, I didn't have all my relevant information I needed to finish opening my account there and then so the bank employee made me fill out the application form and I promised to return in a few days with all my supporting documents. The gentleman assured me that this would be no problem at all and that he was looking forward to seeing me in a few days. I really didn't want to be one of those people who's constantly comparing Ghana with what I've come to know but DAMN! I just had to share some of the different banking practices between my home country and my adopted country(ies).
When I returned two days later in order to finish opening the account, I went into the bank looking for a "personal banker" kiosk or office of some sort. Instead, there was a man and a woman sitting side by side in front of their computers right next to the long line for the telllers. Fortunately for me, there was no queue for the "personal bankers" when I entered so the man immediately summoned me over. Now this was a different man from the one I had seen previously and after searching for my application for fifteen minutes, he told me to start filling out another one whilst he continued to look for the one I had filled out earlier. "Why continue to search for it if you're still going to make me fill out another form?" was the thought that immediately popped into my head, however, I chose not to verbalise that thought and dutifully began to fill in the form.
So while I was filling out the form which asks personal questions like my name, address, telephone number, income, etc. etc., a man and woman sat on either side of me. They were close, like shoulder-to-shoulder close, and the woman happily began to read over my shoulder. I stopped writing and stared at her with a bemused look on my face. She merely grinned at me and continued to peruse my application like she was checking for spelling mistakes. She then asked the banker to check her account balance for her and he did so within plain view of myself.
While the banker was "processing" my new application form, he stopped to deal with at least 6 other customers, with no semblance of privacy, so it took exactly 47 minutes (I checked) for my account to be opened. I was then told that I would get a whopping 10 free cashpoint withdrawals with the opening of my account (!). The process took even longer because the banker insisted on flirting heavily with every woman that approached the desk- myself included.
So it was a great relief when I finally left the bank clutching my brand new ATM card, vowing never to return until absolutely necessary. Fastforward to the next day and I receive a call on my phone from a number I don't recognise. I tentatively answer the call:
Banker: "Good afternoon Sankofa. How are you today?"
Sankofa: "Fine thank you.Um who is this please?"
Banker: "It's me from the bank! Have you forgotten me already?"
Sankofa: "Erm... is there any trouble with my account?"
Banker: "Oh not at all, I just wanted to call and say hello. Since you seemed to be in a rush yesterday, I thought we could talk today."
Sankofa: ".........."
Banker: "Hello? Are you there?"
Sankofa: "You know what? I'm a little busy at the moment so I'm going to have to talk to you later" (CLICK!)
I could hardly believe my ears. This man essentially
steals my telephone number from a
"confidential" application form and he expects me to be happy to hear from him? This was compounded by the fact that this was the second time in a week this had happened to me. A worker at MTN also decided it would be okay to "steal" my number whilst apparently "fixing" my phone for me. And to rub salt in the wound, the damn phone
still wouldn't connect to the internet! Is telephone number theft the norm nowadays?
Image source
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1:19
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Life...and living it
I have walked to the ends of the earth
For you.
I have run marathons
And climbed mountains.
I swam oceans,
'Til my arms ached.
I can't catch my breath
My knuckles bleed
And my feet are blistered.
My eyes swim with tears
But always
I will push on
To be with you.
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22:46
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Life...and living it
I understand why you may be less than perky. I can't say I blame you. With all the doom and gloom, the ever increasingly short days and crappy weather and all the news on the vast amount of soldiers dying in the war, you may feel justified for feeling a bit miserable.
BUT...
Shouldn't we be grateful for life? The fact that the cold is enough to make us want to lock ourselves indoors with the heater on full blast not proof that God has preserved our lives up until now?
Today, you may have observed the two minute silence, in respect of those who have lost their lives in battle (may their souls rest in perfect peace, and may their loved ones find the strength to carry on), but I also spent the day being thankful for the gift of life.
A beloved church sister lost her battle with cancer yesterday, and she is no longer with us. This has made me realise that no matter the issues I am dealing with, it is important to live each day to the fullest.
Reader, remember this, you may be struggling to find a job, you may have just broken up with your boyfriend/ girlfriend or dealing with a multitude of other problems, but REMEMBER to be thankful for your life!
R.I.P Maame Jones. I know you are in a better place.
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2:41
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Life...and living it
Ever since I first stepped foot on English soil, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the whole country falls into a two-minute silence in order to honour the British men and women who have died for their country since the First World War. The build-up to Remembrance day is inescapable and on Remembrance Sunday, chapel services are held all over the country in order to give due to all those who have died in the name of Britain and the Commonwealth.
I remember being barely out of primary school when I discovered that other brown faces, aside from South-Asian ones, were also part of the First and Second World War effort. Imagine my shock when I discovered that West Africans, East Africans, Southern Africans, and men and women from the Caribbean had also joined the allied powers and laid down their lives for the good of the "Great British Empire". Some colonial soldiers voluntary joined the British forces because they genuinely believed they were British and needed to protect their mother country. Others were forced to join via conscription. Whatever their reasons for joining, these men and women fought just as hard as white Brits in the quest to defend Britain and her allies. However, although South-Asian contribution to the wars has been well-documented, with support for Nepalese veterans from
famous faces, I feel that African and Caribbean contributions to the two World Wars have been chronically ignored. The number of Africans that were part of the war effort is truly astounding:
The
accompanying article from the BBC does a far better job than me in illustrating just how much Africa did for the allied forces and it's definitely worth a read. All I'm asking is that tomorrow, when your hand is below your red poppy in that two-minute silence, spare a thought for the hundreds of thousands of Africans whom the British would like to gently erase from the history books.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young. Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.
Image sourcePoem from
For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon (Ode of Remembrance), 1914
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11:08
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Life...and living it
Are you in good mood today?
I am! So I decided to flashback to this good old fashioned 1990's new jack swing jam. You best be dancing along!
All together now,
'That girl is pooooisoooooooooooooooooooooooon....'
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12:15
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Life...and living it
You know, it's one thing to hear about a phenomenon, but nothing beats experiencing the real thing. Friends who had recently returned from Ghana had complained incessantly about the rise and rise of the
LAFA. Huh? That was my initial reaction too. It stands for "
Locally Acquired Foreign Accent". You see, as part of some Ghanaians' haste to embrace anything and everything foreign, the beautiful Ghanaian accent has fallen victim to tragic butchering. As a linguist (3 years of uni is worth it just to be able to say that. Yay me! Lol), I'm well aware of the fluidity of accents and how easy they adapt and merge. However, there is a patent difference between somebody who has lived in a different culture and has therefore adopted (consciously or unconsciously) the local accent, and a person who has never stepped foot outside the country for any length of time.
I remember when we we in our teens,
Friday's Afro and I would call this an "
Aferican" accent and it's sad to see the phenomenon has not died out but seems to be under going some kind of revival. Originally the property of the Ashanti "bogas", the LAFA is thriving everywhere. In my experience, most Ghanaians speak excellent English but I can't count the amount of times I've heard people apologising for their English merely because they don't possess some kind of foreign accent. What is so special about a foreign accent? What are the thought processes that lead a person to think it's normal to fake an accent? Can anybody out there enlighten me?
On the flipside, since my arrival in Ghana, I've become a victim of what I call "accent-ism". I've been introduced to people who are perfectly pleasant until I open my mouth. The English accent provokes a total and complete shut down in pleasantries. Often the person will adopt a look suggesting they have just smelled something bad (it's not my armpits, I checked...) and even Stevie Wonder can see the "wo ye too-known" look that passes across the face. I'm by no means suggesting that everybody has been like this but I'm beginning to see that the accent war goes both ways. Now what kind of fuckeries is that?
To see a fantastic LAFA at work, check out the link below. You have been warned...
[www.facebook.com] Now what experiences of the LAFA or accent-ism have you experienced?
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14:31
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Life...and living it
I did a French with Linguistics degree at King's College, London and this was one of the books on the reading list for a course on Maghrebi (French North African) writing.
This tale of memory and searching is written by Assia Djebar, a veritable G in francophone African literature from Algeria. Djebar, real name Fatima-Zohra Imalayen, writes mostly about the struggles of women especially in relation to Islam, the effects of war on the woman's mind and artfully deals with the clashes and harmonies between old and new, tradition and progress.
Assia Djebar was born in
Cherchell, a small coastal town near Algiers, the capital of Algeria. Her father was a french teacher and the culmination of this and her study of classic arabic gave her the linguistic flexibilty to manipulate the french language giving it Arabic sounds and rhythms.
Her feminist stance, use of French and often dissident voice has led to much international praise, but also to hostility from nationalistic critics in Algeria.
In this novel Djebar portrays herself as a journalist and returning daughter to Cherchell, once called Césarée, home to research the story and find the bones of a legendary female
Mujahddin (fighter/warrior) Zoulikha Oudai who helped the nationalistic rebels resist the French during the Algerian civil war in 1976.
As is commonplace in the work of Djebar, she portrays herself as an outsider, named only
l'invitee, la visiteuse or
l'etrangere*, and she delves, rather like a anthropological archaeologist into the past of the whole region through the recollections of the daughters, friends and acquaintances of Zoulikha.
For those who know Djebar's work this novel finds itself a stepping-stone in a path of writing begun with
'Women of Algiers in their apartments' (1980) and
'So Vast the Prison' (1995) and thus continues in the literary traditions of these two novels, this is perhaps the reason why Djebar installs an aura of
déjà vu in the prelude to the book.
Djebar manages to interweave reality and fiction in this work, using her real conversations with the 'women of Césarée' with her own imagined scenes from that heated time in the 70s when Zoulikha was alive and the war raged. Through the visiting of the ruins of the ancient town, the whole war as experienced by the little towns of Algeria is portrayed and revisited.
The title of the book means The Woman without a Grave and this talks of Zoulikha's unknown final resting place, a result of her assumed murder by the french military and the consequent eradication of her name in history.
This book is laden with imagery and has an intensity which is thick almost to the point of viscosity, drawing the reader fully into the stories within the story and into the humid, heady atmosphere of post and pre-independence Algeria.
I must admit that this book is rather heavy-going but can be read quickly if focused on, I could not really write a synopsis, evaluation book review on this one because there are many intertwining synopses and undercurrents of history and feminism.
Djebar does not find the real bones of Zoulikha, and to my mind there is the suggestion that she will never be laid to rest in even a metaphorical grave. The stories surrounding her are often fantastical, but sometimes mundane, embittered (such as the tale of one daughter who felt abandoned) but also laudatory (as shown in another daughter's heroine-view of her mother) and therefore the many contradictions ensure that her story is always being 'exhumed'.
All in all this is a powerful testament to the ongoing strength of storytelling and especially of female remembrance even in the most paternalistic societies. Although Djebar writes pessimistically about the ability of women to shine in an overbearing patriarchy, here she fairly paints Zoulikha as a real heroine, even if she does not have a day to remember her. the honesty of the accompanying portrayals of this normal abnormal woman illustrate the human side to the ghostly figure of the grave-less heroine.
*
the invited, the visitor, the stranger (All translations my own )
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2:15
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Life...and living it
This is the latest Sankofa/Nsoromma flashback to the 90's long time in coming I know (sorry-oo!). So here we go in no particular order...
1. Be Careful- Sparkle ft. R. KellyHere's the first if many that year that had me screaming, 'that's my jam!', and it really was. Honest to goodness I knew all the words (I know, I know, saddo, right?). So all together now.... 'Two years ago promises is all I heardddddddddddd...WAIT A MINUTE! Let me finish!...'
2. Sweet Lady- TyreseIntroducing that fine black dude from the Diet Coke adds, a.k.a. Tyrese Gibson, my 1990's (and beyond) celebrity crush. Sings like an angel, looks like....
dang! Dude is fiiiine!
3. Westside- TQNow I'm not afraid to admit (though truthful I am slightly ashamed) that I was a TQ fan and I own the album that spawned this mega hit. That still gets me when I'm in a chillaxing mood...
4. Boy You Knock Me Out- Tatyana Ali
Awww, when Ashley from
Fresh Prince decided to have a music career, this is what resulted. Here's her biggest song to date, and I'm only aware of one more godawful song after this one. But hey, you never know, bad music is in at the moment so she might make a comeback. And BTW, the dance moves in this vid are SPECTACULAR!!! Wowzers.
5. Teardrops- LovestationI think this song is a 1990's classic dance track. Love it to death and I still listen to it today. 'Whenever I hear goodbyes, reminds me baby of you...'
6. Are You That Somebody- AaliyahWow, another one that throws me back in time. I knew all Timbaland's ad-libs to this song ('dirty south, uh huh, can you feel this, baby girl, east coast feel this, uh huh, west coast feel this, say what,...' yes there are more!). Oh saddo that I am! So much so that in a school dance this song was used and I came on at the beginning, dressed as Timbaland, to 'perform'...*cringes at the memory*. Anyhoo, the vid is much better than my caterwauling so enjoy!
7. Who Am I- Beenie ManThis was the dancehall
jam of the time and if you do not that, where were you? If you don't know gets to know mehn! Jeheez!
8. (Doo Wop) That Thing- Lauryn HillThis song is so great, nothing I have do say could do it justice. It was just about the biggest anthem around at the time and Lauryn 'gorgeous' Hill was off the chain!Lyric of the song for me...'the second verse is dedicated to the men, more concerned with his rims and his Tims than his women...'...chick was not just a singer but a Hip Hop great.
9. Cheers To You- PlayaMaaaaaaaaan, I love the 1990's! This song reminds me why and it is
still a banger.
'Ohhhh! If I had a wish, baby, I wish...' 10. They Don't Know- Jon BThis is pure beautiful 1990's R&B. The white boy of R'n'B. Why can't they make them like this anymore? *sigh*
Jon B - They Don't Know (Official Music Video) - Click here for the funniest movie of the week
1998 honourable mentions for the following songs:
1. Be Alone No More- Another Level2. Heads High - Mr Vegas
3. The Boy Is Mine - Monica ft. Brandy
4. How Deep Is Your Love - Dru Hill
5. Love Like This- Faith Evans
6. End of the Line- The Honeyz
Shout out to the second UK honourable mention, awww, the Honeyz. Anyone else remember them?
7. Make It Hot- Nicole Wray ft. Missy Elliott & Mocha
Missy - 'Me with no Timbaland is like Puff with no Ma$e!' LYRIC!!!!
8. Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) - The Offspring9. Ghetto Superstar- Pras ft. Mya & ODB
10. Save Tonight- Eagle Eye Cherry
We got you wanting a 1998 party, alie?
xXx Nsoromma & Sankofa
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11:13
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Life...and living it
THIS gave me a good chuckle this morning. You have to wonder at the thought processes that were put into place before this endeavour....
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13:45
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Life...and living it
In the relative boredom of my life at the moment I've been scouring through my mate Afrocentric's extensive book shelves...after all what are friends for? Anyhoo, knowing me she recommended Changes by Ama Ata Aidoo since I've never read it, so here's my review....
Title: Changes: A Love Story
Author: Ama Ata Aidoo
First published: 1991
Story: The book follows the married life of Esi, who is an independent and educated woman frustrated with what she considers the drudgery of her life. She finds it hard to balance a demanding job with the demands of being a mother, wife and home maker. In Esi's world it is almost impossible for these two sides of her life to happily co-exist. Her husband, Oko, is also frustrated in their marriage and they are each trying to discover a balance in which they can both be happy. She finds her husband affections cloying while he finds her job a threat to their marriage and feels disgraced that he should be vying with her job for her attention. One morning Oko, decides to seduce Esi in a last ditch attempt to revitalise their marriage. Esi is unimpressed and what ensues is Oko raping his wife. From then on their marriage implodes and eventually the two divorce. Drawing ridicule for Esi from her in-laws and confusing her own family as to why she wants to divorce such a good man.
Around this time Esi meets the handsome Ali and following her divorce, they become involved. Ali is a well educated Muslim man, with a well educated wife who was forced to leave her education behind to raise their family. Despite her recent divorce, Ali's wife, and warnings for Esi from her nana and best friend Opokuya; Esi becomes his second wife. Married bliss does not last long and eventually Esi realises she is no longer happy. Ali feels his home is with his first wife and Esi get's only snippets of his life. And these snippets decrease the longer they remain married, soon he is giving her the excuses he was giving his first wife when Esi first met him. The book ends with Esi coming to terms with her new married situation.
Review: Sometimes when I read a book I have a silent little moment at the end when I love it. I had that with this book. I find it
so sad. At times throughout the book, Esi annoys me because I feel she is a selfish character yet I can't help but support her attempts to truly acquire happiness instead of giving up and giving in like all the other females in the story. However, she does give in—in the end—to a situation which even she seems to realise is worse than that she started in. In some ways this book can be seen as an affirmation that African woman cannot have it all, in terms of a happy marriage, happy kids and a fulfilling career. But rather than that, this book feels like a subtle warning to be aware of what you hold and to cherish it. Esi should have been a little less self absorbed and realised her blessings in the first place, and even though I admired her courage to look for her happiness in the end I pitied the life she ends up with.
Oh mobo! I really did enjoy this book. I'm impressed that it touches on marital rape in Africa, the martial destruction it can cause, the honest and innocent (?!) ways in which it can occur and the way society views it all; yet this is all done without detracting from the main story and becoming a crusade thinly veiled in a story. The peripheral characters such as Esi's mother and her nana; the side story of Ali's wife's personal struggles between education and family; and the interaction between Opokuya, Esi and Opokuya's husband all add a bit of positivity to Esi's sad story making you aware that her life does not exist in a vacuum of other factors. It was also brave that Esi left her daughter with Oko's mother and the author does not paint this act as evil merely the actions of a conflicted and honest character that she simultaneously loves and fears her daughter's presence in her life. Most of all I like this book because it all seems very
real. A thoroughly good read, and not long winded in the least at under 200 pages!
Ratings: I give this book four little nsoromma's out of five! 4/5 stars
[www.cynirje.com] />
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Image">[www.saloneconnection.com] credits
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10:01
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Life...and living it
I was having a conversation recently with
Afrocentric and
Nsoromma about travel in London and it was interesting to say the least. Travel in London has the potential to be soul-destroying or life-affirming. Hopefully, it'll lean towards the latter if you take note of some of these general observations. Now place your tongue firmly in cheek and remember these the next time you venture out with your (increasingly expensive) travelcard!
1. If there are empty seats available anywhere on the bus/ tube/ train, DO NOT SIT NEXT TO ME! You have just given your thanks to God above when you get on a half-empty tube/ train carriage or bus when a leering man decides to park himself right next to you. Never mind the 15 other empty seats available. It's Boris Johnson's law that somebody must sit uncomfortably close to you, stinking of stale cigarettes, whilst trying to rub himself against you. With that goes your 27 minutes of thinking up what excuse you're going to give work about why you're late (again), instead, begins the game of how far away you can edge away from the person whilst they're trying to physically sit on your lap....
2. It is not proper transport etiquette to stare at your fellow passengers during the daily rush hour. Yes we're a city of people watchers but one must be subtle with it. So when the 6"3 man wearing a tartan dress, bovver boots, and sporting acid pink hair steps onto the Northern line at Camden, feel free to stare at him all you like but only via the reflection of the windows! I can't vouch for your safety once the words that strike fear into every Londoner's heart are uttered:
"What you looking at?!" 3. One must remember that the South Londoner is a different breed of Londoner, in particular those that hail from the South Eastern region. Eye contact is seen in one of two ways: a declaration of war, or an indication of willingness to marry a person. A personal music player and an engrossing book are your only friends in this part of town.
4. There's no point running for the bus. Really. Most bus drivers take malicious pleasure in watching you frantically waving at them to stop via their side mirrors. 171 bus drivers in particular take great enjoyment in waiting until you're a a mere metre away from the stop and then zooming away into traffic with enough skills to rival Jenson Button. If you're lucky and a driver takes pity on you, by the time you pant and heave your way onto the bus winded by the whole 20 metres you had to run, the hostile stares of your fellow passengers will be enough to ruin your morning. They'll have to wait a whole 36 seconds as you simultaneously hunt for your Oyster card (you probably left it on the kitchen table) whilst trying not to display just how unfit you really are.
These are just some of the few recurring travel observations we made. How's travel different where you live?
Image Source
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12:54
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Life...and living it
a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/StYklRyIpkI/AAAAAAAAACE/dHClqhwI3e0/s1600-h/images.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392537826670192194" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 207px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 188px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/StYklRyIpkI/AAAAAAAAACE/dHClqhwI3e0/s320/images.jpg" border="0" //a This blog post is mainly an extension of span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"Sankofa's/span post on her own blog, a href="http://www.altiustendo.blogspot.com/"Altius Tendo/a, entitled 'span style="color:#ff6666;"a href="http://altiustendo.blogspot.com/2009/09/you-have-such-pretty-face.html"You have such a pretty face../a./span'. In her post, strongspan style="color:#009900;"span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"Sankofa/span/span/strong describes the awkward manner in which people approach the issue of her weight and certain individuals' failed attempts to compliment her in spite of her size.br /br /Unfortunately, strongspan style="color:#009900;"span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"Sankofa/span/span/strong is not the only span style="color:#ff0000;"FAT/span girl who has had to deal with back handed compliments and snide remarks with regards to her weight. As a child, I grew up with my cousin. (For the purpose of this blog, we'll call her span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"Amina/span). span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"Amina/span is only five days older than me and our mothers are very close. We were therefore treated like sisters and often compared to one another. Me and span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"Amina/span spent the majority playing (and fighting) with each other. We had the same interests, wore the same clothes (sometimes against our will!) and the same dislikes. In fact, there were a lot of similarities between us except:br /br /1. span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"Amina/span was (and still is) span style="color:#330033;"emslimmer /emspan style="color:#000000;"than me/span. /spanbr /br /span style="color:#000000;"2. span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"Amina/span is /spanspan style="color:#000000;"shades /spanspan style="color:#999999;"strongemlighter /em/strong/spanspan style="color:#000000;"than me./spanbr /br /3.span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"Amina's/span hair was span style="color:#ff6666;"emlonger /emspan style="color:#000000;"and not as tough as mine./span/spanbr /br /Now, in a Ghanaian family, you know exactly what that means. span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"Amina/span was considered the beautiful one and we often heard comments like this: emspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"Amina/span is span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11"soooooo/span pretty /emand emOh! span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12"Amina/span is a nice girl. /em(You know what is intended by the word 'nice'). Whoever was making the comments at the time, would look at span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13"Amina/span with so much adoration in their eyes, then would turn to me with a pitiful look and /or a half smile. (Sometimes, I wouldn't even get a glance!) Now, I may not have been "beautiful", but I was certainly more smart academically. Thus span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14"Amina/span and I neatly fitted the stereotyped 'beauty and the brain'.br /br /I must say, it didn't really bother me while we were really young, but at the age of 12/13, when a girl starts becoming more aware of her physical appearance and her physique, this started to become a problem. I won't comment on the hair and skin tone issue because these were things I emeventually/em learnt to accept, and even love. But as for the weight, well, that is still very much an issue I am still dealing with.br /br /When I started secondary school, I was most definitely the biggest girl in the class. No questions asked. It did not help that my bra size was a 32B. It may not seem like much, but trust me, in 1998, that was big for an 11 year old. (I am well aware that 11 year span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15"olds/span these days look like full grown women). I won't pretend that I spent my all of my secondary school years self loathing, but I was bothered about my size. However, I was very good at covering up my insecurities and acting like the insensitive comments didn't bother me one bit. Covering up my insecurities did somehow turn into fake confidence, and although I don't know exactly when it happened, by the time I started sixth form, I was beginning to feel beautiful. Don't get me wrong, there were knock backs on the way. Let me give you an example: I remember at the age of around 14, I was at my cousin's house one night. My other cousins were there. Altogether there was about seven of us (including span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16"Amina/span). We were in my cousin's room, watching T.V. There were three boys and four of us girls. I can't remember what I did to upset one of my cousins, but all of a sudden he, (let's call him J) started laying into me, verbally. The things spewing out of his mouth were venom. em"You need to lay off the donuts you fat bitch"/em and all sorts were coming out of his mouth like word vomit. I mean, I have never hated any of my cousins, including J, but I was span style="color:#000099;"hurt/span for span style="color:#ff0000;"ages/spanspan style="color:#000000;", especially since none of my other cousins stood up for me, but found J's abuse hilarious. I must confess that span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17"Amina/span was the only one mature enough to apologise afterwards./spanbr /br /Anyway let's span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18"fastforward/span eight years, I (sort of) don't have the same beef I have with my weight. Don't get me wrong, I do believe I am attractive, and not ugly by any stretch of the imagination. however, let's not pretend that I am a size zero. Also, I am span style="color:#ff0000;"still/span having to deal with people's annoying comments. Let me give you an example. Earlier this year, I was with an...acquaintance, (let's hold back from calling her a friend), we had just finished a night of rehearsing a church performance, and by the end of the night, we were all famished, so I started going on about what I wanted to eat. Hear my girl: emthat is why you are so span style="color:#990000;"fat/span! /emI was knocked back by those words because it had been ages since I had heard those words. Also, I didn't think grown-ass women made digs at each other like that. Plus, I thought it was below the belt since we had had a discussion earlier where I told her that my weight was the cause of frustration for me because it is one of the only areas in my life that I find hard to control. (That's "friends" for you *sigh*).br /br /I have come to the conclusion that I can't afford to rely on other people to make me feel good about myself. That is something I will have to do by myself. I mean, I do have issues with my weight, but loving myself is something I am learning to do everyday.After going on a countless amount of diets (and gym memberships!), I have come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, God, in His infinite wisdom, created me to be fat. It seems with everyone there is always something about themselves they have an issue with. Which is why like span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19" style="color:#009900;"strongSankofa/strong/span, I don't have time for people that go on and on about how much they hate their belly, their big nose, their small boobs etc etc.br /br /Oh yeah, back to span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20"Amina/span - it's funny how a bit of maturity will allow you to see things totally differently. Please don't get me wrong, span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21"Amina/span and I have BOTH grown up to be beautiful women, but I don't feel, AT ALL, that she is the more beautiful one. I look at us, and think emwow! I may be a few kilos heavier, but span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22"Amina/span and I are EQUALLY beautiful in our DIFFERENT ways./embr /br /Let me leave by telling you this: everyone has body issues, but it is up to YOU to deal with yours. Do not rely on ANYBODY to help you get over them. Also, ranting about what you don't like about yourself is span style="color:#ff6600;"BORING/span for those who have to listen to you. The chances are your so called 'listener' does not really care about your complaints. Also by ranting, you are only drawing span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23"attention/span to what people would not have noticed in the first place. Most importantly, God must feel so insulted everytime you open your mouth to say you hate something about yourself that He created.br /br /Anyway reader, whtaever your issues are, learn to appreciate what you have.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-8231989020121458168?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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10:52
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Life...and living it
p align="center"span style="font-family:arial;"/span/ppspan style="font-family:arial;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bT7cJ23xj1A/Ss8gJOHqXkI/AAAAAAAAABE/Pn6G61_vJsc/s1600-h/Nobel_medal_dsc06171.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390562621766917698" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 238px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 219px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bT7cJ23xj1A/Ss8gJOHqXkI/AAAAAAAAABE/Pn6G61_vJsc/s400/Nobel_medal_dsc06171.jpg" border="0" //a/spanbr /span style="font-family:arial;"/spanbr /span style="font-family:arial;"/spanbr /span style="font-family:arial;"/spanbr /span style="font-family:arial;"/spanbr /span style="font-family:arial;"So, President Obama has won this year's Nobel prize for peace. I must admit that when I saw the headline I thought 'huh?' I couldn't think of any ongoing war he had stopped or any impending war he had avoided, or really anything that showed that he was working towards world peace. You see there's a reason that some people are on the Nobel committee and some (me) are not. /spanbr /br /br /span style="font-family:arial;"The committee explained his winning is a sign that they want to support what he is aiming for; his efforts in ridding the world of nuclear weapons, the immediate closure of Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay and his push for peace in the Middle East to mention a few of his peaceful pursuits. Now although all these things are true and do represent a goal of 'world peace', critics might well say, "but he hasn't actually emdone/em all of it", I mean in winning the prize President Obama is in the company of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, German scientist Albert Schweitzer, Dr. Martin Luther King and Mohamed ElBeradai all of whom were awarded for tireless efforts or lifetime work in the 'field' of peace. Are 10 months as US president and 'good ideas' enough to deserve a place in the often controversial list of Peace Prize Laureates?/spanbr /br /span style="font-family:arial;"I don't know, as I continued to read I agreed with the reasons behind his success, it is very important to encourage and support those who strive for the good, there are too many people giving props to drug dealers - Curtis Warren listed included in the Times Rich List as if he's making an honest living , paedophiles - the furore over Roman Polanski's arrest for strongdrugging /strongand strongraping /stronga 13 year old, cheats, warmongers and other such unsavoury characters./spanbr /br /span style="font-family:arial;"Well done Barack, let's just hope that your speeches, good intentions, and awards are not your only legacy./span /pp /pp /pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-4549381627519652508?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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22:28
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46496000/jpg/_46496881_lailaandanton.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 282px;" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46496000/jpg/_46496881_lailaandanton.jpg" border="0" alt="" //abr /Ummm, it's late and I bireally/i/b want to go to bed but I am up in arms!divbr //divdivIf you don't know, this is all about iStrictly Come Dancing/i, professional dancer Anton Du Beke has an Moroccan dance partner, Laila Rouass, and he 'jokingly' called her a Paki. He publicly apologised, she, although offended, accepted the apology and the BBC 'stood by their man'./divdivbr //divdivPeople are bleeting that this is political correctness gone wrong blah-de-blah. Usually, biI/i/bi/i am the one bemoaning political correctness gone crazyspan class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:x-small;" (argh, vertically challenged for short??? Nah, your just short mate!)/span. But how is it OK to get rid of Carol Thatcher for calling a footballer a gollywog span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"(blatant racist term in the UK)/span but to keep Du Beke because it was 'in jest'? How comes racism is OK against Asians but bnot/b against black people?! iWTF?!?! /iIn jest my bANUS/b, look if that was a black chick being called a nigger people would be up in arms, there would be shouts that the BBC is institutionally racist. But Du Beke get's bilet off/i/b?!! And bWORSE/b, for some iunknown/i reason it's OK for Bruce Forsythe, a veritable darling of British primetime TV to say being called a Paki is not different than Brits being called Limey's. Like, bARE YOU BLOODY JOKING/b?!?! No, it's actually bEXACTLY /bthe same as being called a Nigger, Gollywog, Chink, Spazz span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"(for spastic)/span and all the other words that have a real serious negative effect on a group in society, and lead to victimisation and deep divisions in society. It is inot/i an innocent adjective. It is a vile, foul, iboffensive/b/ib/b word. I tend to support the BBC almost unreservedly but honestly, this is badly done!/divdivbr //divdiva href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/carol_midgley/article6866935.ece"The furore continues.../a/divdivbr //divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8290733.stm"Image credits/a/span/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-6396353955762769935?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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0:57
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Life...and living it
Last night, bspan style="color:blue;"Afrocent/spanspan style="color:blue;"ric/span /band I attended our very first a href="http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1170009502190#/group.php?gid=48957002564"Ghanaian Londoners/a event at the Dust Bar in Farringdon, organised by the lovely Adwoa Agyemang and we had a blast. We were late (gotta work on that GMT) but we still managed to catch some great speakers including bBex Mortty /bof Quality Network Solutions and the London representative of the NPP whose name unfortunately I didn't manage to catch. There was immeasurable Ghanaian talent in one little room and that included a fellow Ghana blogger Kwabena of a href="http://ghanahype.blogspot.com/"Ghana Hype/a. Kwabena is also the creator of the wonderful ba href="http://kayobi.bigcartel.com/"Kayobi/a/b clothing line and if you haven't checked out his stuff, I suggest you do so asap.br /br /Anyway, when the actual "networking" session began, let's just say that bAfrocentric/b and I took a little while to get into the swing of things. Alright, we were down right wusses! I find networking really hard people! Tell me I'm not alone in this. It feels like the first day of school all over again. We eventually manned up and met a myriad of creative (and analytical) minds. Still I sometimes wonder at the usefulness of these networking beyond meeting new people. How many people really utilise these new contacts when all is said and done? We would still do it all over again a heartbeat because new people are new people, no long. So, what are the thoughts of people out there on "networking"?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-5113846273549509398?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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21:21
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Life...and living it
a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/SsnzVEZrXJI/AAAAAAAAABc/T2QdclUIDXw/s1600-h/i+love+Ghana.jpg"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389105972409752722" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/SsnzVEZrXJI/AAAAAAAAABc/T2QdclUIDXw/s320/i+love+Ghana.jpg" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 146px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 123px;" //aWhen we talk about our motherland, we tend to talk about her in the same way we talk about our family. In other words, emI love her but she can be so annoying! And, oh yeah...if you're not one of Mother Ghana's children, don't even think about uttering a word against her! /emI'm sure you know exactly what I mean. In my last post entitled "Welcome to Ghana", I went on a rant on how erm...strange my experience was at Kotoka International. But trust me, now that I'm back, I am missing Ghana like crazy! So here is a list of ten really annoying things I had to endure in Ghana, but (not so secretly) wish I could enjoy in London.br /divdivbr /div1. Having to barter for everything. When we first arrived, the first thing I noticed was that nothing has a fixed price! Come on, if you are going to sell something, at least know its market value. However, after bartering the price of slippers from 35 Ghana cedis to 20, I started to think 'emhey, this is good! I love the fact that hardly anything comes with a price tag'./embr //divbr /div2. GMT (Ghana man time). GMT to me was pure fuckeries at the beginning of our holiday. Can you imagine waiting for two and a half hours for someone to come and pick you up. I mean, why tell me you will arrive at 10pm, when you reall mean 12.30 am? The thing that kills me is when the said person (finally) arrives, there is no remorse or any effort to even try and feign a bit of haste. One morning, my cousin called and said, "hey, I will be at yours in an hour and a half".br //divbr /div"O.K", I answered lazily, and went back to sleep. Well it goes without saying, I managed to get an extra hour of sleep AND have breakfast before he actually arrived. emWow! this is not bad, I can actually get as much sleep as possible, watch an episode of Tinsel AND have a big breakfast, and still be ready on time/em. This is only possible in Ghana.br //divbr /div3.Family. What else can I say here? Whether in Ghana or in Timbuktu, the very people we love so much and hold close to our hearts can sometimes be the source of so much annoyance. But this is more true when the first thing your big (not so slim) cousin, who has not seen you in ten years, can say to you is 'emo shri-eh!, you are fat!'. /emAs if I need reminding of the fact that I have grown two dress sizes in the last ten years. Not only that, my charming big cousin soon started to give me her sob story about how she hadn't been paid at work for over eight months. (I guess I don't need to spell out what she was getting at here!) Needless to say, political correctness is not at the forefront of Ghanaian's minds. Nevertheless, after a week of being back in the U.K, I am actually missing my family terribly.br //divbr /div4.The heat! Damn that Ghana sun is hot! Seriously, how is it that I am drenched in sweat five minutes after coming out of the shower? We slept under full blast of the air conditioning and two ceiling fans! However, now that I am back in London and preparing to face a long cold winter, I am actually missing the Gold Coast sunshine.br //divbr /div5. Having to wait for over an hour for chicken and chips! Can someone please help me out here? Am I being unreasonable, or am I within my rights to have a moan when I have to wait the whole afternoon for a plate of chips and a chicken sandwich to be sent to my hotel room? kmt! I mean, you wait no longer than five minutes for your two piece chicken and chips meal in this part of the world! But, I have come to the conclusion that if "fast" food in Ghana is not so fast, you can at least find comfort in that fact that it is being prepared from scratch and has not been sitting there the whole day!br //divbr /div6. The Accra Mall. O.K, don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Accra Mall. But when you see the same emShoprite/em sign in every Ghanaian film, when your social life in Accra is based in the coridoors of the mall, when you can't step into the mall without bumping into the same dozen people you saw yesterday in the same blasted mall, IT ALL GETS A BIT ANNOYING!! But seriously, I will miss the Accra Mall. After all it houses emRhapsody/em, the best bar/club in Accra.br //divbr /div7.Frank Rajah Arase films. Let me not even lie, I watched enough of these fims. But how many times do I need to see the same two girls fight over a light skinned man/kente wearing prince? And how many Ghanaians do you know with the name Akeela, or Zazee? And seriously, where are the kingdoms of Azula and Mumuni? Nevertheless, I will miss evenings with my family in Ghana, watching these films.br //divbr /div8. The taxis! These yellow pannelled vehicles were the cause of so much amusement when we first arrived in GH. I remember sitting in a Taxi from Abeka to Lapaz. Now anyone who knows Accra knows the roads on that route are murder. I mean, I was expecting bumpy roads in Accra, but that route takes the piss! And it didn't help that the taxi I was sitting in was nothing more than a metal shell on wheels. I wasn't sitting in a car at all. I was practically on the floor. And everytime the monstrosity of a vehicle went over one of those God forbidden port holes, I got scared that the metal shell would give way, leaving our bums to hit the dusty streets of Accra. Anyway, now that I am back in London, my Oyster Card is my friend. Seriously, although I would do anything to not have to sit in a overcrowded train carriage, who can afford a taxi in London?br //divbr /div9. Road hawkers. In Accra, it is not necessary to go to your nearest supermarket to be able to tick everything off your shopping list. While in GH, I found it slightly irritating that I couldn't look out of the car window without someone waving t-roll in my face. Now, I actually miss having to walk emall the way /emto the supermarket to do the weekly shopping.br //divbr /div10. Wacky driving. I HATED the fact that people in Ghana drive like absoloute maniacs. But when you have to settle back into life in London, and you're running late to work/ church/ any other important place, you wish your bus would jump the traffic light and cut into somebody else's lane to get you there on time!br //divbr /br /div/divbr /br /diva href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/SsnuxzI2O_I/AAAAAAAAABM/QtrIEL5KgBk/s1600-h/images.jpg"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389100968433826802" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/SsnuxzI2O_I/AAAAAAAAABM/QtrIEL5KgBk/s320/images.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 179px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 273px;" //abr //divbr /div/divbr /div/divbr /divTrust me, I can't wait to be doing this again:br //div/div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-516724050276084845?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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18:14
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_C8P3yXiYibE/SeSrHvWSSMI/AAAAAAAAAY4/cHi8HkWWhoM/s400/forgive_and_forget__by_SelfTitledNightmare.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_C8P3yXiYibE/SeSrHvWSSMI/AAAAAAAAAY4/cHi8HkWWhoM/s400/forgive_and_forget__by_SelfTitledNightmare.jpg" border="0" alt="" //abr /You know, I think learning to forgive is one of the hardest things we can do but what tops it a ga-zillion times over is just bigetting over it/i/b. Maaaan, that really is one of the things I struggle with and it's really sad because whatever it is you are refusing to get over is only blocking iYOU/i!divbr //divdivThis little grain of wisdom has been told to me in a number of ways including my big sis screaming it at me on one occasion. She said that when I recount stories from the past my emotions at the time come to the surface and it is obvious that I haven't really dealt with whatever the issue was. Up until now my take on this was always deny, ideny/i, span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"biDENY/i/b/span. But how can I continue to argue with the truth when it's killing me inside?/divdivbr //divdivThere are so many people who I'm sure need an apology from me for fuckeries ii've/i done to them, or that they feel I have done. It's inevitable, as inevitable as the fact that I feel I need certain apologies in order to move on with my life. Today, I've been a bit quiet, just thinking...a lot span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"(ladies, u /spanispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"know/span/ispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;" how dangerous /spanbispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"that/span/i/bspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"i/i can be!)/spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"./span For anyone who knows who Nsoromma is, who I have honestly offended, I hope to God that you know I'm sorry. But more than that I do truly hope that these people can move on and whatever it was does not block their growth into the beautiful person God intended them to be. In the same way, though it's bloody hard and I know there will still be days I cry, i'm going to finally do what I say i will do and let it all go./divdivbr //divdivI hope that everyone else can do the same,/divdivbr //divdivLove You All,/divdivNsoromma...COTH xXx/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"br //span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"Image credits: /spana href="http://hams-ter.blogspot.com/"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"http://hams-ter.blogspot.com//span/a/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-910173361311781499?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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14:59
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Life...and living it
divbr //divdivbr //divdiv style="text-align: center;"img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9hvuxdnTztk/STQYrOtcy8I/AAAAAAAAAYE/9V5tExLqO54/s200/Misc.BlackSuperwoman.jpg" //divdivbr //divdivbr //divdivbr //divdivHow does a modern woman survive in this Jungle of life? Where can she find span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"time/span to bbe and do /ball the things she has to? /divdiv She's cooking low-salt high-fat nutritious, delicious and balanced meals for the boy, low-fat low-salt, reduced this, reduced that for her mother, will go to Canterbury three times a week, find someone to pick up said boy from nursery and Lord let's not even mention her diet (span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; "next week promise!/span), she hardly has time to take a bath, eek! PRESSURE!/divimg src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:dtO9PCGc8yMYUM
[i.ehow.com] style="text-align: center;float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 135px; height: 135px; " border="0" alt="" /br /This is a question I'm starting to ask myself, I'm a mother, a graduate, a masters student and..... BROKE! Trust me, I was living the dream, "popping" into Topshop here, Hamp;M there, until about two weeks ago, when I realised that all those £1.50 potted flowers I was buying from Lewisham market (amongst a span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#993399;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"m/span/spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFCCCC;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"y/span/spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#999999;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"r/span/spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"i/span/spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FFFF;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"a/span/spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"d/span/span of other things) were NOT actually going to be any help in trying to pay for the three-to-eight years of education I was considering (masters x2, phD then world domination, oh and somewhere in there marriage and more children). So the next few days will see me writing to numerous charities who might help if I fulfil the requirements which range from living in Lewisham borough to aiming to study in Turkey, and other such randomness.divBlimey! and as if that's not enough I've got baby-daddy's mama drama fresh from le Diamant, Martinique, if this woman doesn't stop telling me my child is 1.fragile, 2. at danger from sitting in his pram or 3. retarded because he's not walking yet, I'm going to have to go up at the next altar call --- Jeeeeesus forgive me!div style="text-align: center;"img src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:CDYfdtFAls5RzM
[www.marshallgreeneinc.com] //divdivbr //divdivAnyway, yeah that's all, I was trying to not rant on this blog, and that's partly why I haven't written for ages (span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"partly - don't hit me Nsromma and Sankofa)/span, but it's all I've got. I'm going to make a cuppa and watch Monk now./divdivI'm rinsing Hillsong's 'Desert Song' right now because this a span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"dry patch/span but you know These dry bones will live!/divdiv style="text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;color:#663366;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; "bbr //b/span/span/divdiv style="text-align: center;"bspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33CC00;""All of my life in every season you are still God I have a reason to sing"/span/span/span/b/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br //divdivbr //divdivGood day to you all /divdivbr //divdivbr //divdiv style="text-align: center;" /divdivbr //divdivbr //div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-5840800651475129917?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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22:55
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Life...and living it
a href="http://jtaplin.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/obama.jpg?w=298amp;h=384" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" src="http://jtaplin.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/obama.jpg?w=298amp;h=384" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 384px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 298px;" //abr /divYesterday at the UN General Assembly, Obama made another typical Obama speech...cooperation...yada ya...responsibility...yada ya...make a change. Now from the way I've written this you would think that I either do not like the man or object to his ideas and reforms, right? Wrong! I applaud the man for what appears to be a genuine passion to affect a change within a world which is for the most part unchangeable--from within one of the world's most conservative Western nations. Ordinarily, I would be like, 'well, gee-whizz that sure is a big task he's set upon himself' and happily turn around and go about my daily business as usual.br //divdivbr //divdivHowever, I think that this typical stance of mine will not suffice. I feel for Obama, really I do. I mean the tasks before the guy are immense, and after watching Newsnight I felt compelled to collect my thoughts and re-evaluate the way I look at things. Apathy is one of the things killing our world as a whole, knowing this how can I continue to be apathetic in response to what Obama is trying to do?br //divdivbr //divdivIt has always annoyed me span style="font-size: x-small;"(not just me either!) /spanthe way that the US has become the world's self-appointed, thoroughly-corrupt police force. They pick their fights according to what is at stake for them and this should not really be the motivation behind 'humanitarian' action. While this annoys me, as somewhat of a realist, I can appreciate that this is what a sensible nation should do to some degree. Obama is right when he says that his nation have collected a lot of enemies because of this stance, particularly in the last couple of decades. But he is bialso/ispan style="font-weight: normal;" right when he points out that an end to unilateral US action should be met by other powerful nations taking up their slack./span/bbr //divdivbr //divdivWhile the early indications are that the world's Western press is applauding the signals that Obama is sending, by backing down from the mantle of international hegemony and 'coming back into the fold' to become a team player, I wonder what this can ever truly ibmean/b/i. Liberal that he is, his country do not seem to be backing him and a divided leader span style="font-size: x-small;"(i.e with a divided support base)/span can never stand. It's funny that as despised as Bush was around the world, he was deeply loved by 'the right people' at home, so he could afford to screw up elsewhere. While providing states like Iran and North Korea with the archetypal 'evil Western leader' upon whom they could declare war. Obama is in a truly impossible situation, he does not have the luxury of that solid home base and therefore, like Clinton before him span style="font-size: x-small;"(to /spanispan style="font-size: x-small;"some/span/ispan style="font-size: x-small;" degree)/spanspan style="font-size: medium;",/span the reality of what he can do is limited. Further to this, Bush was an obvious known to his enemies. What dictator worth his mustard is going to trust Obama? They are caught between wanting to show him biup/ispan style="font-weight: normal;" and a lack of belief that the US will ever relinquish their total international control and effectively engage with them. /span/bAnd the sad thing is that bieveryone/ispan style="font-weight: normal;" knows this. Facing unprecedented and difficult situations is standard for high-level leaders but that doesn't make the actual situation any easier./span/bbr //divdivbr //divdivThe speech outlined a new direction in US foreign policy which is a direct 180 from his predecessors' unremittingly unilateral stance. Obama, much as he has done at home, is advocating multilateralism, cooperation and consensus in facing nuclear proliferation, climate change and terrorism. Important issues and definately options everyone should consider as a viable way forward in international politics. An honourable, and dare I say, heroic stance to take by the US President. This kind of change deserves at the very least an atypical reaction from this particular jaded follower of politics. And for what it's worth biI/ispan style="font-weight: normal;" salute what he's trying to do while all the time realising that the vultures are circling. But is this just Obama's wish list of unrealisitic goals and dreams?/span/bbr //divdivbr //divdivbspan style="font-weight: normal;"Listen here for yourself to judge:/span/bbr //divdivbr //divdivspan style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="364" width="445"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vlhih1uuXRAamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vlhih1uuXRAamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/spanbr //divdivbr //divdivNsoromma...COTH xXxbr //divdivbr //divdivFurther media coverage:br //divdivullia href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/09/2009923132529344419.html"Al Jazeera coverage/a/lilia href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8270174.stm"BBC coverage/a/lilia href="http://www.france24.com/en/20090923-obama-gaddafi-ahmadinejad-mugabe-address-united-nations-general-assembly-climate-nuclea"France 24 coverage/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/23/obama-un-general-assembly"The Guardian coverage/a/lilia href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/23/AR2009092300993.htm"The Washington Post coverage/a/li/ula href="http://jontaplin.com/2008/05/"Image credits/abr //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-423448687624995265?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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2:05
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Life...and living it
I was happily watching iThe X-Factor/inbsp;this past Saturday whilst simultaneously on the phone to Nsoromma, when I happened to glance up at an advert on the t.v screen. It was the beat in the background that caught my attention and it was the people dancing that held it.br /br /iSankofa/i: I swear down those people on the telly look Ghanaian. One of them even looks like Tinny...br /iNsoromma/i: Tinny? Are you sure? What advert was it for? Let me check it on youtube.br /---------------br /iNsoromma/i: Oh my God! It iis/inbsp;Tinny!br /br /So here's the advert I saw below. It basically reinforces Cadbury's supposed commitment to ethical sourcing of fairtrade chocolate etc. etc. I'm just happy our people are doing big things! The video was well done and everybody looked happy. But that damn ihead/inbsp;still freaks me out....br /span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="640"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CxHSsluny9samp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CxHSsluny9samp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"/embed/object/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-8110472300812091857?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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16:36
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Life...and living it
div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divbr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/Sred9QsjwfI/AAAAAAAAAFU/YbIlQsy-nWk/s1600-h/Victoria+rowell+Obama+cloth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/Sred9QsjwfI/AAAAAAAAAFU/YbIlQsy-nWk/s320/Victoria+rowell+Obama+cloth.jpg" //abr //divbr /I just saw this over on a href="http://theybf.com/index.php/2009/09/21/ybf-folks-do-the-2009-emmy-awards/#more-16279"The YBF/a and just had to share. Victoria Rowell, best known for her roles as Dr. Amanda Bentley on iDiagnosis Murder/i and Drucilla Winters on the soap iThe Young and the Restless,/i decided to wear this to yesterday's Daytime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. I'm all for promoting African design because quite frankly it's about time our designs started gaining recognition worldwide. However, the famed Obama cloth that already seemed to divide opinion in Ghana is inot/i for the red carpet. Agree? Disagree?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-5701518794603841082?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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20:26
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Life...and living it
We've been reminiscing hard over here on iLife... and Living It/inbsp;lately and we thought it was only fair we share. We're working our way back through the 90s and highlighting some of our favourite/ seminal songs year by year. Hope you too enjoy this trip down memory lane. First stop- 1999! In no particular order:br /bbr //bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"1. Big Pimpin- Jay-Z ft. UGK/span/bbr /No party was complete in 1999 without this song. This was back when Jay-Z swore he'd "never give his heart to a woman" (pre-Beyonce) and he and Dame Dash were tighter than Rick Ross in lycra. iStill/i a banger imho.br /span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fWeMCC2ywwYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fWeMCC2ywwYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/spanbr /br /bspan style="color: #351c75;"2. So Anxious- Ginuwine/span/bbr /Biiiiiiiig tune from Mr. Elgin Lumpkin! He had/ has the "baby hair" game on lock! Timbaland had already started trying to rap over his artists' songs and baggy leather trousers were really having the best year iever/i...br /bspan style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RjByAkEYu2Aamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RjByAkEYu2Aamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/span/bbr /br /bspan style="color: #351c75;"3. Everyone Falls in Love- Tanto Metro and Devonte/span/bbr /Reggae jam of the year. Hands down! Another one that everybody still grooves tobr /span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z3nhVTDSJHIamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z3nhVTDSJHIamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/spanbr /br /bspan style="color: #351c75;"4. Girl On TV- LFO/span/bbr /How 90s can one possibly get in this song? Boyband? iCheck!/inbsp;Appearance by wholesome TV star? iCheck!/inbsp;White boys rapping? iCheck! /iFor real though this was a summer jaaaaaam and it still brings images of warm sunshine to my mind.br /span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y4iGDSjOpXcamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y4iGDSjOpXcamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/spanbr /br /bspan style="color: #351c75;"5. What's It Gonna Be?!- Busta Rhymes and Janet Jackson/span/bbr /This Hype Williams directed video was the most expensive video at the time, costing approximately $2 million dollars. Ten years on the video remains visually stunning.br /span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/P4PFClnMkOUamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/P4PFClnMkOUamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/spanbr /br /bspan style="color: #351c75;"6. Unpretty- TLC/span/bbr /Forget iNo Scrubs /iand iBills, Bills, Bills, bUnpretty/bspan style="font-style: normal;"nbsp;was the true female empowerment anthem of 1999. R.I.P Left Eye./span/ibr /span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GndxXs_rxMYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GndxXs_rxMYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/spanbr /br /bspan style="color: #351c75;"7. If You Had My Love- Jennifer Lopez/span/bbr /J-Lo before she was "J-Lo". Before Puffy. When she used to dance. Before she decided not to actually iact/inbsp;in her films. Come back. We miss you. (span style="font-size: x-small;"Look out for C.S.I Miami's Adam Rodriguez- "Eric"- in nbsp;the vid/span)br /span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="640"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dhHOJO-gec8amp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dhHOJO-gec8amp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"/embed/object/spanbr /bbr //bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"8. Breathe And Stop- Q-Tip/span/bbr /Nobody could touch Hype Williams for videos this year. Q-Tip had us all nodding our heads like fools. I bet you're doing it now....br /span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yqdAVMDquasamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yqdAVMDquasamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/spanbr /br /bspan style="color: #351c75;"9. What These Bitches Want- DMX ft. Sisqo/span/bbr /The antithesis of the female "empowerment" songs of the late 90s. Earl Simmons broke it doooooown. "iThere nbsp;was Brenda; Leticia; Linda; Felicia; Dawn; LaShawn; Arnes and Alicia; Theresa; Monica; Sharon; Nikki; Lisa; Veronica; Karen; Vicky... babout 3 Kims!/b/ibr /span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ef5-PX5knRYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ef5-PX5knRYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/spanbr /bbr //bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"10. You Owe Me- Nas ft. Ginuwine/span/bbr /A slight cheat as the video wasn't released until 2000 but this song istill/inbsp;gets people on the dancefloor. It's an integral part of the "old school jams" set they always play in clubs. With a cameo from Destiny's Child (v2.0), "Nasty Nas" had us all dancing to the sick Timbaland beat.br /span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"span style="font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/X3bANUSYOysamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/X3bANUSYOysamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/span/spanbr /br /bspan style="color: #351c75;"11. Meeting In My Bedroom- Silk/span/bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"12. 808- Blaque/span/bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"13. Colourblind- Counting Crows/span/bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"14. This Luv- Donnell Jones/span/bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"15. Get It On Tonight- Montell Jordan/span/bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"16. I Try- Macy Gray/span/bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"17. I Wanna Be The Only One- Eternal/span/bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"18. Maria Maria- Carlos Santana ft. The Product Gamp;Bnbsp;/span/bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"19. I Want It That Way- Backstreet Boys/span/bbr /bspan style="color: #351c75;"20. Bills Bills Bills- Destiny's Child/span/bbr /br /Wow I just realised just how much booty was being shook in the videos of '99. I thought the videos these days were bad....div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-898090929664569483?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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15:30
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/SrO1VJzW6qI/AAAAAAAAABE/o1bf-0TBuyo/s1600-h/P9130532.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/SrO1VJzW6qI/AAAAAAAAABE/o1bf-0TBuyo/s320/P9130532.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382845354651085474" //aemAkwaaba! /emThis is the word on every Ghanaian's lips as a display of how welcome you are in their territory. Touching down in Kotoka International Airport for the first time in ten years presented us with quite an unforgettable emakwaaba /emexperience.embr //empFirstly, after ten hours on the plane - yes ten, not the promised six - the aeroplane's wheels finally hit Ghanaian soil, (note to self: Ghanaians are seldom on schedule) and we were ready to begin our holiday in the Gateway to Africa. Or were we?/ppWhat is a Ghanaianism? In my definition, a Ghanaianism is that peculiar thing, a way of thinking, a type of methodology which makes sense to nobody else except for Ghanaians. At Kotoka International, we were hit by an obstacle course of Ghanaianisms. Here goes.../ppGhanaianism no. 1: Immigration. The immigration officers were catching a feeling off me and Keera. Yes I tell you, those officers get the first pick of women who enter the country. They greeted us with "are you married?" while nonchalantly looking over our passports. I could be carrying Michael Jackson's passport for all they cared!/ppGhanaianism no. 2: After immigration control, we were immediately faced with a big emAkwaaba /emsign which also read, "Ghana does not welcome paedophiles and other sexual deviants". I learned right there and then that Ghanaians do not beat about the bush./ppGhanaiansm no. 3: Collecting our luggage from the circular conveyor belt was a task in itself. If I'm standing in a spot trying to get my bag, why cut in front of me without saying "excuse me" first, especially when your bag is nowhere near where I am standing? Silly me for thinking some politeness principles were universal! /ppGhanaianism no. 4: One word says it all. CUSTOMS. We were ordered to open our suitcases for inspection. "What are these things for?" we were asked. "My family" responded I. "Are you sure?" emWell, duh! /emThen he asks again, "what are these things for?" (By this time, I was getting mildly annoyed, but in hindsight, we did have the whole world and its mother in there. I'm talking suits, bags, tins of tuna, ipods etc. Note to self: if you are Ghanaian, NEVER EVER EVER tell your family you are travelling to Ghana. They will definitely make sure that all 46 kilos of your baggage allowance and your hand luggage is filled up!) Anyway, after being asked for the third time what the things in my suitcase were for, I 'fessed up, "half are gifts and the other half will be sold in my auntie's shop". emOoops! /em"You have to pay duty then", he replied coolly. emReally? /emI actually though he was joking. "Come on Keera, let's go". I later found out that Mr. Officer was far from joking, and had just let us go without paying out of good will./ppGhanaianism no. 5: Just when we thought escape to freedom could actually be a possibility, we were slapped by another obstacle in this long obstacle course. The next thing is the official border, which once crossed meant you were officially in the Republic of Ghana. Keera was able to step over the border - no questions asked. But me on the other hand, yes, you guessed it, was stopped. "You don't have baggage stickers on your suitcases" he offered. emWell duh! They only got ripped off by Mr. Customs when he insisted on opening our suitcases!! (/emThese stickers, which are put on your bags from London have a number. The same number is stuck onto your boarding pass, so when you arrive, the sticker helps to identify you with your bag.) I was pissed by this time. My general mindset was: emGreat! my light skinned friend gets authorisation to cross over. Well excuse me for having black skin! /emBut it turned out that I got stopped because I was pushing the trolley stacked high with our suitcases, while Miss Yellow Skin was only carrying our two hand luggages. embr //em/ppGhanaianism no. 6: Last but not least, Ghanaianism no. 6 cracks me up the most. Imagine workers, not employed by the airport, but self appointed, who busy themselves with loading your bags into your waiting car. I was wondering why they were being so helpful, until they said to us "tip us" (tr. pay us) emPaaaahaaa!!/em talk about self employed! Well, needless to say, they quickly scuttled away when I replied "ask my uncle"./ppWhat can I say? after all this is Ghana, the Gateway to Africa!/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-839063117210401867?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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4:14
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Life...and living it
An honest look at the emotions a man goes through when his girlfriend tells him she's pregnant. With samples of Donny Hathaway's iA Song For You /iand Stevie Wonder's iNever Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer/i, the lyrics speak for themselves. (span style="font-size:x-small;"Come back Lauryn!/span)br /span style=" white-space: pre;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:10px;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pmDybzfNBG0amp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pmDybzfNBG0amp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-599845803504406986?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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12:17
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Life...and living it
div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SrFixBOKkXI/AAAAAAAAAFM/G4pDMlyWa5o/s1600-h/FGM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SrFixBOKkXI/AAAAAAAAAFM/G4pDMlyWa5o/s200/FGM.png" //a/divdivWell I do and I believe most people in the world also love vaginas.Whatever you choose to call them: vajayjays; pussies; fannies; coochies and the like, who doesn't love them? They are the source of much pleasure and the porthole of life. However, there clearly some in this world who do bnot/b have the same respect for vaginas as I do. I'm talking about bFemale Genital Mutilation (FGM)/b. Specifically about FGM in Ghana. I don't know about you but I was shocked when I discovered that FGM was practised in areas of Ghana. I've long been aware of the process of FGM in countries all over the world, particularly in Asia and Africa, but (call it ignorance) I was unaware that this practice was present in my beloved Ghana.br /br /For those of you who aren't aware of what FGM is, it is the practice of female circumcision which often includes the removal of the clitoris and the removal of the outer and/or the inner labia. This usually occurs at a very young age with the consent of the female's parents/ guardians. It is supposedly carried out for religious/ cultural reasons.br /br /Firstly, looking at the physical aspect of this, it is bnot /bsafe. This isn't carried out in a sanitary hospital somewhere, but usually in the home of the older female who performs the procedure. In many communities this older female is held in high regard because of the work she does. Excessive bleeding is the norm with risks of serious infection and in the very worst cases, death occurs. Some forms of FGM (infibulation) involve stitching the vaginal opening closed with only a tiny hole left for the expulsion of menstrual blood. In these cases, the usual risks of childbirth are greatly heightened along with the risk of suffocation of babies in the womb. I feel squeamish even thinking about some of these things.br /br /Now FGM occurs for various reasons but one of the the main ones is to reduce the "plague" of female promiscuity. Because clearly when a woman has sex she has sex by herself and the men sleeping with her to put her at risk of being labelled "promiscuous" have nothing to do with it . There are no proven health benefits for FGM and the fact that this practice still goes on (despite being banned by several countries) can only be described as bbarbaric/b. I don't care who I offend but there can be bno/b possible rationalisation for this.br /br /Going back to FGM in bGhana,/b we have one of the lowest rates of FGM in African. However, the 9-15% rate is still far too high imho. It should be zero. FGM is almost non-existent in southern Ghana and more likely to be found in the North among the Frafra, the Kassena, the Kussasi etc. Whilst looking for more information on FGM in Ghana, I came across this:br /span style="color:#cc0000;""/spanspan style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="color:#cc0000;"The practice among some groups in Ghana appears to have few spiritual roots. It is not perpetuated by religion, but rather by traditional tribal beliefs. Some believe it leads to cleanliness and fidelity of the woman. Others believe it will increase fertility and prevent the death of first-born babies. It is also seen as a way to suppress a woman’s sexual desires and make her less promiscuous. Other common beliefs are that children born to uncircumcised women are stubborn and troublesome and more likely to be blinded or otherwise damaged if the mother’s clitoris touches them during birth. In some areas the presence of a clitoris in women suggests she is a man and must be buried in men’s clothing and the funeral performed as a man’s when she dies. Uncircumcised women are regarded by some as unclean, less attractive and less desirable for marriage."/span/span/spanbr /span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"span style="font-size:x-small;"a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080306201636/www.state.gov/g/wi/rls/rep/crfgm/10100.htm"Source/a/span/span/spanbr /br /span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"Now as I said previously, I was unaware whilst growing up that things like this occurred in Ghana. Was I being hopelessly naive? To Ghana's credit, she has been one of the most proactive countries in eliminating FGM and has actually a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/28/world/world-briefing-africa-ghana-prison-term-for-genital-cuttings.html"arrested/a people for violating the ban put in place against FGM. One of our neighbours, Burkina Faso, with an almost a href="http://www.fgmnetwork.org/gonews.php?subaction=showfullamp;id=1243007696amp;archive=amp;start_from=amp;ucat=1amp;"70% /arate of FGM in women, has begun construction of a "span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; font-family:'Times New Roman';"a href="http://www.fgmnetwork.org/gonews.php?subaction=showfullamp;id=1247053244amp;archive=amp;start_from=amp;ucat=1amp;"Pleasure hospital/a" where surgical reconstruction will be carried out on victims of FGM. It's encouraging to see that in our part of Africa, at least, something is being done about this practice./span/span/spanbr /br /I'm not trying to write a whole essay here but I was just wondering if I was alone in my (incorrect) belief that FGM was not a part of Ghana? Has anybody had any experiences or know of the way in which FGM is perceived in Ghana (or anywhere else in Africa)?br /span style=" ;font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;color:#cc0000;"span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px;"br //span/spanbr /There is lots of information about FGM on the web, in libraries etc. If anybody is interested in a more personal account of an issue that affects over 130 million women worldwide, Somalian supermodel Waris Dirie's book bia href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Desert-Flower-Waris-Dirie/dp/1860497586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;s=booksamp;qid=1253189299amp;sr=8-1"Desert Flower/a /ispan style="font-weight: normal;"is a good read./span/b/divdiv/divdivspan style="font-size:x-small;"Image /spana href="http://www.buzzvines.com/end-female-genital-mutilation"span style="font-size:x-small;"source/span/a/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-3513781952494556746?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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3:09
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Life...and living it
p class="MsoNormal"The year Y2K seems so recent since it’s in the 00’s...then I remember that we are getting to the end of 2009, that’s nearly 10 years! This means I am well within my rights to term some of the following songs as old school classics...they definitely feel old when you hear them!/p p class="MsoNormal"uspan style="font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;"The Ramp;B Flash/span/u/pp class="MsoNormal"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Kelly Price - Love Set's You Free/span/span/li/ulThis song featured i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"everyone/i! Aaron Hall, Babyface, Case, Dru Hill, Kandice Love, LovHer, Montell Jordan spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"(in leather pants! Muhahahaha)/span/span amp; Tamar Braxton...woah! This song sends me right back to secondary school, it was such a jam! But UMG will not allow me embed it, so here’s the Kelly Price amp; Aaron Hall version. The beat is so reminiscent of the time, I hope it gets you happily grooving like I am now, so here you go...this Ramp;B banger is a bonus track off of i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"Mirror Mirror/i, i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant: small-caps"Love Set’s You Free/span/i.p/p span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "a href="http://www.okmusicvideos.com" embed name="'RAOCXplayer'" src="'http://allmusicvideocodes.com/asx/lovesetsyofree.asx'" type="'application/x-mplayer2'" width="'300'" height="'300'" showcontrols="'1'" showstatusbar="'0'" loop="'true'" enablecontextmenu="'0'" displaysize="'0'" pluginspage="'http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/Downloads/Contents/Products/MediaPlayer/'"/embedbr /span style="'font-size:"Music Video Codes/span/aa href="http://www.myspacemusicvideos.us"Myspace Music/a /spanullispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Ruff Endz - No More/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"Now if you weren’t feeling i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"this/i at the time I don’t know b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"WHAT/i/b you were feeling! Another solid Y2K Ramp;B banger off of their album i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"Love Crimes/i, which incidentally had another good song, i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"Missing You,/span/i on it./p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="apple-style-span"span style="Arialquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;font-family:quot;;font-size:7.5pt;color:black;"object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xaJMnaJybMsamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xaJMnaJybMsamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"3LW - No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-size:18px;"/spanNow even at the time this song was a guilty pleasure even though i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"I/i was young and it was a big tune just because I always thought i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"they/i sounded so young! I love it though, reminds me of my first serious crush...shout out to Jerry! LMAO!! And also jamming with my SSSO girls and at ’venture!/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="apple-style-span"span style="Arialquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;font-family:quot;;font-size:7.5pt;color:black;"object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/q-9gTnSS7cUamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/q-9gTnSS7cUamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"R. Kelly - Fiesta (Remix) ft. Jay-Z, Boo amp; Gotti/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-size:18px;"/spanMy days!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mr. Robert Kelly smacked it on the i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"TP-2.com/i album, it was soooo hot. For me so many jams for that year came from this album, the i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"I Wish (Remix) To The Homies We Lost/span/i was amazing, as were the i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"I Don’t Mean It Remix/span/i, i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"Like A Real Freak/span/i and i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"Strip For Me/span/i. But back to this song in particular—i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"Day/i-i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"um/i! I knew b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"ALL/b the words, yes I i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"was/i that sad, c’mon now sing along...After the show is the Afterparty, AND, After the party is the Hotel lobby AND.../p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1AzDWw40oDsamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1AzDWw40oDsamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Jaheim - Just In Case/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"Back when i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"Ghetto Love/i was out, Jaheim was on top of the world, his fortunes have since changed and his popularity has perhaps waned somewhat due to his inability to progress as an artist. b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"However/i/b, the album was sooo good, I really did think he has the voice of an angel...!/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="apple-style-span"span style="Arialquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;font-family:quot;;font-size:7.5pt;color:black;"object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Dli8qtZ_leEamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Dli8qtZ_leEamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Jagged Edge - Let's Get Married/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-size:18px;"/spanFrom J.E. Heartbreak, this song along with i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"Keys To The Range/span/i and i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"Did She Say /span/iwere really good. This was a big favourite and I remember i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"everyone/i vowing that this would be their wedding song! b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"Please note: /bI went to a girls’ school, I don’t know any i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"guys/i saying that at the time, but I could be wrong.../p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="apple-style-span"span style="Arialquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;font-family:quot;;font-size:7.5pt;color:black;"object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IuKDg5xncPYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IuKDg5xncPYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Joe - Stutter ft. Mystikal/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"I thought this song was groundbreaking at the time, Mystikal’s delivery was fire and it was like waking up sleepy generally boring-love-song-singing Joe to a whole new world of Ramp;B. And his bank balance didn’t suffer for it, either! From the Ramp;B classic album i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"My Name Is Joe/ispan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;" /spanspanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"(random thought: Have you seen the cover? He looks like such a sleaze!)/span/span./p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="apple-style-span"span style="Arialquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;font-family:quot;;font-size:7.5pt;color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tE56SMO3FQQamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tE56SMO3FQQamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Kelis - Caught Out There/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-size:18px;"/spanWho didn’t scream along with this, ladies? If you say no, you b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"lieeeeeeeeeeeee/b! Ah, this song could appeal in various moods...it appealed to pissivity of the highest order, to those days you just wanna crank it up and scream for no apparent reason and when you wanted to listen to mad production. These were the days before i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"everyone/i had been done by the Neptunes and it was an amazing track off of i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"Kaleidoscope/i...i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"Caught Out There/span/i./p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="apple-style-span"span style="Arialquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;font-family:quot;;font-size:7.5pt;color:black;"object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-D0Qs3cy22camp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-D0Qs3cy22camp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Kelis - Get Along With You/span/span/li/ulp/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"I didn’t know this had a vid! This was my favourite song off the album, i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"Kaleidoscope/i. So here you go.../p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JYsqgScbPp4amp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JYsqgScbPp4amp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Lucy Pearl - Don't Mess With My Man/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"Lucy Pearl...just saying the name makes me smile. So sad there was only one album, because I really liked it, but such is life. i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"Don’t Mess With My Man/span/i was one of those tracks that got you neck rolling thinking about if b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"she dared to even think about messing/i/b with your man....lol, I was i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"how/i old at the time, like 14? LMAO, I could still relate!/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:10px;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/93AAjDN_cAYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/93AAjDN_cAYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Pink - There You Go/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-size:18px;"/spanAnother solid Ramp;B album of the time, i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"Can’t Take Me Home/i, spawned this megahit. The album was sick, this song was sick and the video was sick...especially when she rides the bike into the window, plus i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"I/i think she looks real sexy with that hair. Wow, memories of when people used to discuss if Pink was fully white or ‘had some black in her’ a la Charlie Baltimore, LOLS!/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="apple-style-span"span style="Arialquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;font-family:quot;;font-size:7.5pt;color:black;"object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/G68IfDtcunkamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/G68IfDtcunkamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Next - Wifey/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-size:18px;"/spanY2K was the beginning of the mainstream success of Ramp;B, and a good time too because Ramp;B was still good then spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"(arguably it’s a bit rubbish now)/span/span! And i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"Wifey/span/i is a key jam of the time, it was played everywhere at every party and we loved it. I must admit that by 2004 I hated it but recently I have been listening to i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"Welcome II Nextasy/i and I remember how it used to sound and why I loved it. Now i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"that/i album was...woah...hmmmm, sex album anyone?/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="apple-style-span"span style="Arialquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;font-family:quot;;font-size:7.5pt;color:black;"object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/g7vj1lG5KLIamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/g7vj1lG5KLIamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"/pullispan class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"X-2-C - Bonafide/span/span/li/ulp/pp class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-size:18px;"/spanThis song features on i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"Save The Last Dance/i, a film I loved at the time and still quite like now. I bought the soundtrack to the film such was my love for that film and this was one of my favourites off the album and the film. i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"My Window/span/i by Soulbone was great as well, I know you’re all thinking shouldn’t Shaka Demus and Pliers, Ice Cube or Fredro Star remind me of the film...ok yeah they do, but this was a better song. I was became soooooo sick of i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"span style="font-variant:small-caps"You Can Do It/span/i!/p p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"span class="apple-style-span"span style="Arialquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;font-family:quot;;font-size:7.5pt;color:black;"object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vM7iLeBmL08amp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vM7iLeBmL08amp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/span/p p class="MsoNormal"Soon come, with the rest of the Y2K jams, gotta cut this before it gets i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"way/i too long. Plus, I’m off to have a Y2K Ramp;B par-tay!/p p class="MsoNormal"Bye people,/p p class="MsoNormal"xXx/p p class="MsoNormal"Nsoromma...Child of the Heavens/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-5032128075893241043?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
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13:37
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Life...and living it
a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/Sq5HdzLGOKI/AAAAAAAAAC4/uX2wCxPWLCk/s1600-h/africa.jpg"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381317182032853154" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/Sq5HdzLGOKI/AAAAAAAAAC4/uX2wCxPWLCk/s200/africa.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 190px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" //a After visiting a href="http://penpowder.blogspot.com/"Pen Powder/a's blog the other night, I started thinking span style="font-size: 78%;"(yet again)/span about the plight of mother Africa as a whole. How can the most resource rich continent be so abjectly poor, governed by dynasties of despots who reinforce the illegitimate actions of their fellow tyrannical despots through lavish gifts the likes of which most of their countrymen will never see? I know it's nothing new and has been going on since we started to gain our independence but it came upon me again, and I was enraged span style="font-size: 78%;"(you will start to see a pattern with me, I get enraged and then I feel you must know about it! Sorry!)/span.br /br /When I was still in school and the term 'third-world country' was still politically correct span style="font-size: 78%;"(if you don't know, it is no more, instead we now have LEDCs - Less Economically Developed Countries - get to know!)/span I learnt that Africa was the strongemONLY/em/strong continent on God's good earth that was 100% third-world. Yes, people the emstrongWHOLE/strong/em thing including the likes of Egypt and South Africa, who were not classed second-world like Brazil was span style="font-size: 78%;"(the mind boggles...). /spanAnyhoo...after President Obama span style="font-size: 78%;"(Omama)/span came to Ghana and spoke to the people about Africa solving her own problems many Africans were outraged. How can our brother come and say such things to us? Does he not realise that our continent was ravaged and pillaged by the colonial powers and they still have us in chains?br /br /Now, don't get me wrong I have sympathies with the neo-colonial arguments. There is barely anywhere in Africa you can look without seeing American, British or French neo-colonialism, you only have to look at Liberia, Angola or Sierra Leone span style="font-size: 78%;"(to name a few)/span to be slapped in the face with it. And in much the same way that African-Americans can still complain about the effects of slavery crippling their people the same can be said of Africa's neo-colonialism.br /br /strongemHowever/em/strong, just like I feel African-Americans use slavery as an all-encompassing excuse for social degradation and low achievement so do Africans. Firstly, Obama is your brother? strongemReally?!?!?!/em/strong His Dad originated from Kenya, he is half-white and ufully American/u, is it so surprising that he came out with that view? Think about it, as a high-achieving black American I'm sure he's heard all the complaints about 'the white man keeping us down' and has decided that a lot of the time they are excuses. But just as the whole a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/blog/2009/jul/23/barack-obama-arrest"'Cambridge officer acted stupidly'/a incident indicated, he is not unaware of what black people face in his country. In the same way with his connection to Africa, I doubt he is unaware of how thoroughly his country has colonised his father's continent.br /br /However, he did see it as an excuse for Africa to blame their plight on other people and I think to some degree he is right. We are all too ready to blame other people for our problems, while strongemwe/em/strong are in in a position to do something about it. I'm a firm believer that its the little things that we do which create the stage and pave the way for bigger movements and change. This is no less the case when we are dealing with the mammoth task of making out continent more self-sufficient. Tell me how on earth can we complain about Africa begging for handout's when on a local level we perpetuate the very same type of behaviour. Are we span style="font-size: 78%;"(as in Africans abroad)/span not in anyway responsible for this 'give me, I want, I need, you owe me' attitude when many of us are killing ourselves over here to feed and clothe those who are more than capable of doing it themselves?br /br /Now before I am inundated with personal attacks about not understanding poverty, blah-de-blah, consider...I know a family of six living in a teeny, tiny flat, in a bad area who are really struggling for basics. A 2 bed flat and one of the rooms is a half room really, can't make ends meet and merely existing exacerbates their poverty. Yet they are in abrokyrie (tr. abroad) and so life is great? Hmmm, so supporting 8, 9 people in Ghana who claim to want need, etc. new laptops and mobile phones to show off with is understandable? Repeatedly sending 'school fees' only to be told school fees have not been paid and now are desperately owing or else poor little Kojo can't finish school? They do not live in shoddy housing and many do not work because abrokyrie will provide? Consider, my mother's younger sister in Ghana has four kids and a husband, a shop my mum got for her and a house abrokyrie money built for her. All her children will be able to go to school to the highest level. But she doesn't work and yet when she needs things and abrokyrie should provide?br /br /If we do not stop such fuckeries on a local level then Africa will never stop it on an international scale either. Since cutting off my Aunty's requests for 'needs', the woman has been slowly learning self-sufficiency. It's long, painful and at time she makes damn silly decisions but she must make them in order to grow.br /br /So do you agree that:br /ulliWe (as in Africans abroad) are in part responsible for this 'give me, I want, I need, you owe me' attitude? /liliEffecting a change in abrokyrie-relatives-back-home dependency will benefit our continent? /li/ulspan style="font-size: 85%;"Image Credits: /spana href="http://www.travelblog.org/africa/"span style="font-size: 85%;"www.travelblog.org/africa//span/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-7589388075816075535?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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11:06
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Life...and living it
Didn't I promise you a part 2? Get your box of kleenex and your cup of tea ready. Here we go:br /br /6. biLesson Learned- /iAlicia Keys ft. John Mayer/bbr /br /One of the highlights of iAs I Am/i and a bonafide "break-up song". Ms. Keys and Mr. Mayer give us pure perfection in this melancholic song.br /object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/24gjW4Oqj2kamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/24gjW4Oqj2kamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/objectbr /br /7. biThe ice was getting thinner-/i Death Cab For Cutie/bbr /br /Perfect example of the type of songs to expect from the poster kids of the emo movement. Documents the point in a relationship when you realise that the whole relationship was built on air and there's no longer anything to hold on to.br /bspan style=" font-weight: normal; white-space: pre;font-family:Arial;font-size:10px;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nC8XqUtmW_kamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nC8XqUtmW_kamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/span/bbr /div style="text-align: left;"span style="font-family:Times;"span style="white-space: pre;"br //span/spanbr /span style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:x-small;"span style=" white-space: pre;font-size:10px;"span style="font-size:medium;"span style="font-size:16px;"span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"8. biI'm Done- /iTweet/b/span/span/span/span/spanbr /span style="font-family:Times;"span style="white-space: pre;"br //span/spanbr /span style="white-space: pre;"span style="white-space: normal;"span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size:medium;"Little-known Tweet song from her second album It's Me Again. It showcases her beautiful, airy voice with lyrics that tell of the point everybody reaches when you decide that you and Love are on a serious hiatus./span/span/span/spanbr /span style="font-family:Times;"span style="white-space: pre;"bspan style=" font-weight: normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:10px;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/56OKJiOWLVgamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/56OKJiOWLVgamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/span/b/span/spanbr /span style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:x-small;"span style=" white-space: pre;font-size:10px;"br //span/spanbr /span style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:x-small;"span style=" white-space: pre;font-size:10px;"br //span/span/divdiv style="text-align: left;"span style="white-space: pre;"9. biWasted time- /iMe'shell NdegeOcello/b/spanbr /span style="white-space: pre;"br //spanbr /span style="white-space: pre;"Yes another Me'shell song. The whole of iBitter/i is certified "dust and sackcloth" music, I'm telling you!/span/divdiv style="text-align: left;"span style="white-space: pre;"bspan style=" font-weight: normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:10px;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YYKmhxV75Usamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YYKmhxV75Usamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/span/b/span/divdiv style="text-align: left;"span style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:x-small;"span style=" white-space: pre;font-size:10px;"br //span/span/divdiv style="text-align: left;"span style="white-space: pre;"span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size:medium;"10./span/spanspan style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size:medium;" /span/spanbispan style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size:medium;"I'm a mess- /span/spanspan style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size:medium;"Anthony/span/span/span/ispan style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size:medium;" Hamilton/span/span/b/spanbr /span style="font-family:Times;"span style="white-space: pre;"bbr //b/span/spanbr /span style="font-size:large;"span style=" white-space: pre;font-size:18px;"bspan style=" font-weight: normal; white-space: normal;font-size:16px;"span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size:medium;"Mr. Hamilton's gritty voice is at its absolute best here. How can you not feel the man at the beginning of the second verse (1:39) when he wails /span/spanspan style="color:purple;"span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size:medium;""I'm a mess right now. I can't eat can't sleep. Bills are piling high, ain't worked in three weeks"/span/span/spanspan style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size:medium;"?/span/span /span/b/span/spanbr /span style="font-size:large;"span style=" white-space: pre;font-size:18px;"bspan style=" font-weight: normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:10px;"object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Var8w492b-Uamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Var8w492b-Uamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/object/span/b/span/span/divbr /Hope you enjoy these selections. Maybe we'll have some fun next time with "Songs that make me happy". One can only cry so much!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-6277576992217022646?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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23:36
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Life...and living it
object width="480" height="385"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wdODuw5SZnEamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wdODuw5SZnEamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;color1=0xe1600famp;color2=0xfebd01" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/objectbr /br /Haven't heard this song in iaaaaaaages/i and thought I'd share. Completely sums up how I'm feeling right now. Hope you enjoydiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-6247906055464172825?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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23:31
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Life...and living it
div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46367000/jpg/_46367397_adebayorb466.jpg/bmi_orig_img/_46367397_adebayorb466.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46367000/jpg/_46367397_adebayorb466.jpg/bmi_orig_img/_46367397_adebayorb466.jpg" //a/divI can't believe I'm actually writing this post. I am a life-long, die-hard Liverpool fan and everybody knows that Arsenal is the team I hate most in this world (followed closely by Manchester United). I also have no particular feelings either way or another for Manchester City. However, I've been reading/ hearing all sorts of rubbish today about Adebayor's behaviour towards Arsenal today and I thought I'd throw in my two cents.br /br /Quick recap of the background story before the game today:br /br /Emanuel Adebayor just signed for Man City from his former club Arsenal this summer after publicly declaring his desire to leave said club. Basically Adebayor said he would like to play for AC Milan because he felt as though he was being treated unfairly at Arsenal and this abviously did not help to endear him to the Arsenal fans who had already turned against him. The deal with AC Milan fell through but he eventually ended signing for Man City at terms that were more than agreeable to bboth/b clubs.br /br /Ok, now keep in mind that the Arsenal fans have given this man all kinds of abuse both before and after her expressed a desire to leave the club. One "fan" even a href="http://www.tribalfootball.com/adebayor-furious-clash-arsenal-fan-228633"attacked him at an airport/a amidst accusations of his laziness whilst at the club. Now some may argue that this abuse was/ is warranted given his outspoken declarations against Arsenal. Fair enough. However, I feel that if one can dish it out, one must be able to take it too.br /br /This brings me to today and Arsenal vs. Man City. Now keep in mind that this game has been hyped up to no end and the entire footballing world is waiting with bated breath to see how Adebayor will handle himself against his former club. Footballing wise, Adebayor thrives under the pressure and scores a goal against his former team-mates. In celebration, Adebayor runs to the Arsenal fans, who have been booing him incessantly throughout the match, and slides on his knees, arms held out in jubilation. This clearly riles up the Arsenal fans who respond by hurling any available missile at him. In a post-match interview, Adebayor apologises (without any urging) to the Arsenal fans he offended and admits that his emotions ran away with him.br /br /Now this is football. Arsenal fans have been giving this man stick for months now, booing his every touch, hurling insults etc. etc. and now they want to get up in arms when he decides to rub their noses in it a little? Like I said, don't dish it out if you can't take it. I've heard criticisms bemoaning the fact that as a professional football player, he is a role model to kids and blah blah blah. Please! He's a mere man who happens to be a good football player. If you're looking to a random stranger to be a role model to your children, may I kindly suggest that there is something quite wrong with you? These same people accusing him of being a poor role model, are the same people who today, displayed such acts of classlessness by throwing missiles at him, spitting, etc. etc. Yeah, great role model byou/b are.br /br /Now after all this, I have to admit that I don't even ilike/i Adebayor. The man is a whiner and you all know how I feel about grown men whining.... His actions towards his former team-mate Robin van Persie were questionable at best and each angle of the video replay tells a different story as to whether he deliberately stamped on his face. However, I have to say that I really felt Adebayor today. Like him or not, his reaction after scoring that goal made me very very happy inside.br /br /Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments!br /br /span style="font-size:x-small;"I/spanspan style="font-size:x-small;"m/spanspan style="font-size:x-small;"a/spanspan style="font-size:x-small;"g/spanspan style="font-size:x-small;"e/spanspan style="font-size:x-small;" /spanspan style="font-size:x-small;"c/spanspan style="font-size:x-small;"o/spanspan style="font-size:x-small;"u/spanspan style="font-size:x-small;"r/spanspan style="font-size:x-small;"tesy of /spana href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8246825.stm"span style="font-size:x-small;"BBC Sports/span/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-7312994844504762149?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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21:22
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.nappturality.com/uploads/articles/napplady_c.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 271px;" src="http://www.nappturality.com/uploads/articles/napplady_c.jpg" border="0" alt="" //aspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"br /span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"Am I afro-cen.../span/span/spandivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"...tricked in then out of slave-ry/span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"by my afro hair?/span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"br //span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"br //span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"why do tight curls and/span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"wider combs mean i pour a/span/spanspan class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" /span/span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"libation to gods/span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"br //span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"I just want my hair /span/spanspan class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" /span/span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"to grow and not to burn caked/span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" in no-lye...no lie!/span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"br //span/divdivbr //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-4109243007554875594?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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16:13
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Life...and living it
Remember when you were in school and had to have a roll call in the mornings before classes and in the afternoon after lunch? You always knew when your name was coming because you got "the pause". In the interest of anonymity (lol) let's pretend my name is a typical Asante one like Nana Owusu-Mensah. You would be sitting in registration:divbspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"br //span/bdivbspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;""Mears?"/span/span/b/divdivbspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;""Present!"/span/span/b/divdivbspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;""Norton?"/span/span/b/divdivbspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;""Present!"/span/span/b/divdivbspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;""O'Sullivan?"/span/span/b/divdivbspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;""Present!"/span/span/b/divdivbspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;""Um... Oh-wa-see... Oh-wy-sa... um... Nana? Is Nana here?"/span/span/b/divdivbr //divdivYes this was the story of my life. At first I would scramble to help them out and say "present" before my name was butchered any further. Then my perverse side emerged and I took great pleasure in sitting there stony-faced until every last phoneme of my name had been dragged out. What acted as an impetus for this stubbornness was the awareness that composers like Tchaikovsky presented no pronunciation difficulties but my own phonetically simple name did not even merit an attempt. I mean most Asante names are spelt phonetically and basically you say what you see. I'm not asking you to have a perfect accent but you could at least try. I mean I had girls in my class whose surnames were Smagacz and Jevtic and a guy whose surname was Trtica. They were pronounced "Sma-gatch", "Yev-titch" and "Treetisa" respectively and their first names were never pronounced instead at roll call. These people could happily pronounce Agnieszka Radwanska but my proudly African name was apparently asking too much./divdivbr //divdivI know there's a lot to take on in multicultural Britain but why are some people deemed more worthy of effort than others? In an ideal world wouldn't it be great when waiting in the GP's office not to have every eye on you as the receptionist happily butchers your name? What's even more infuriating is that they always say span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;""Oh that was a mouthful. Hope I pronounced that right"/span with a stupid grin on their face. And when you attempt to correct them, they look at you blankly, then shrug and say span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#6600CC;""Well at least you knew I was talking to you!" /spanIt's enough to make me want to do this:/divdivbr //divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre; font-family:Arial;font-size:10px;"object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9koCEJE1Y0Aamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9koCEJE1Y0Aamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/object/span/divdivdivblockquote/blockquoteblockquote/blockquotebr //divdivbr /divbr //div/div/div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-1469004114306772220?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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21:41
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Life...and living it
a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/SqA8uaHyjXI/AAAAAAAAAAw/psrDUVPvXmg/s1600-h/images+jf.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377364723064016242" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 110px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 118px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FMkil1HyYwY/SqA8uaHyjXI/AAAAAAAAAAw/psrDUVPvXmg/s320/images+jf.jpg" border="0" //a Would you ever get married to someone outside of your race? Or perhaps, outside of your nationality? Would you marry somebody who is not of the same faith as you? A conversation with a (yoruba) friend of mine got me thinking long and hard on this issue. I asked her if she would ever consider dating an Igbo man, the fiery response I got back was "God forbid! Olorun maje!". (Please forgive me, my nigerian friends if the spelling is wrong) Now I don't exactly know the politics between the different tribes in Naija but I can tell you that sister girl was not looking to get too up close and personal with any man whose name doesn't begin with Ola...or Tola... or Bola... or end in ...femi or ...yemi or ...kemi.br /divWhen Sankofa wrote in an earlier post that one of us was given the choice of "doing a masters or getting married" she was referring to me. 'The choice' was my 22nd birthday present from my dad. (Can you imagine?) What you may not know my friend is that when father dearest offered me this choice, he was talking about bringing someone home whose family originate from within the borders of our homeland Ghana. emReally dad? Even in one of the most multicultural cities ever?!!! /emAnd you can also safely assume that the future Mr. Afrocentric will have to have an impressive c.v. So you see, that does not really leave me with much of a choice./divbr /divDon't get me wrong, I'm not saying I will get Jungle Fever and date a white man in the name of breaking social barriers, but I am calling into question our reasons for getting into a relationship with someone. Is it based on ethnicity? Race? Or how many random letters come after his name?br //divdivLet me take a moment to answer the questions I threw out in the beginning. Would I marry outside of my nationality? emYes...but within reason. /emspan style="font-size:78%;"emsorry/em. /spanspan style="font-size:100%;"Somebody of a different faith? emHell no!/em Of a different race? Mmm...I have to be honest, even after this long blog post I still can't answer that question with confidence. emOK...let's see...perhaps... if I ever get Jungle Fever./em/span/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-7794299308467463723?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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17:15
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Life...and living it
This is in the same vain as the first Laugh of the Day. Ummm, the recession is hitting people so hard that instead of bargain designer bags ebay are selling, well, designer bags with a difference...Paper bags!divbr //divdivimg src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/Sp__TsNFgBI/AAAAAAAAACk/7dbhiVspMRs/s200/burberry.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377297193852305426" //divdivbr //divdivWhat's worse...it's not even new, it's listed as used!/divdivbr //divdivN.B. Clink on the post title for the link!/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-6213509083662422848?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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23:22
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Life...and living it
span xmlns=""pFunnily enough the guy I wrote the last poem about got into contact. Some background: We had issues, timing was always off. I wasn't over my ex, then I was bereaved then he was bereaved. So we had a total break from each other for a few months, saw other people. But then we hooked up again and decided we wanted to try again. We were sorting out our issues when emshe/em pops up, told him she was pregnant (3 months gone) and keeping it and determined to make a go of it. He refuses to be with her and she's been doing some pretty amazing things to get him to be with her. But he is a stubborn goat and gets her out of the situations she gets in, tells her its for the sake of the baby and then reminds her they are not together. I'm sure she has a voodoo doll with my name on it. Anyways...br //ppMy stupid MSN Live Messenger is always logged in because I always ignore it I was not too bothered until I saw the dreaded flashing orange bar with emhis/em name on it.br //ppBeing either brave or stupid (you decide) I decided to reply and hi. This is what I hear: His whore is overdue, if she's not given birth by next week she'll be induced and he'll be someone's daddy. It's my fault I confess I asked him if he was a daddy yet so what did I expect? Then he is like oh am I married yet? What's emthat/em supposed to mean. He saw me in town with a guy added two and two and came up with 75. Anyway he decides to let his feeling out about how he's sorry he hurt me and he never meant to. I believe him, I've had the unfortunate experience of dating some pretty big assholes who have enjoyed hurting me and he was never like that. But who cares? It's the same result if I'm hurt isn't it?br //ppWait before I depart into ramble mode, I need to let you know the fuckeries. The whore got kicked out by her mum and guess who she's living with now? It's like rubbing salt in my wounds, they r living together like cute little family unit. This shouldn't hurt but it does. And the worst, strongworst, WORST/strong thing is I haven't spoken to him in a couple months and I was dreaming that in that time she would lose her baby, so emI /emcould be happy again. Now he's telling me he's so sorry and he didn't want to bring his drama into my life. Then he tells me he loves me and has done for a while. So I'm crying now because I do still care about him, I'm crying because she really is going to have his baby and I'm crying because I wish I could find it within me to not wish such horrible things on a pure innocent party that I secretly wish was mine. Is that evil?br //ppFuckeries./ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre; font-family:Arial;font-size:10px;"object width="445" height="364"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RLp76Zl14z8amp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RLp76Zl14z8amp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"/embed/object/span/p/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-4732492497103120423?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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0:23
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Life...and living it
span xmlns=""pThis is something I wrote to help me start getting over someone who I was never with but have been finding it emreally/em hard to get over. It's ALWAYS the ones you don't expect...br //ppbr //ppShould I just let it die.br //ppThis thing we've triedbr //ppI poured myself into youbr //ppI tried emso/em hard.br //ppAnd you could be the medicine to my painbr //ppBut you can'tbr //ppI thought maybe I could be your lovebr //ppAnd I can'tbr //ppI thought it would work.br //ppBut it's not.br //ppI don't think you're not ready.br //ppI think that it's just me.br //ppAnd you.br //ppWe don't quite fit.br //ppBut maaaaaaaaaaaan seeing you with another will emkill /emme,br //ppI'll be emso/em jealous,br //ppBecause I think you emwill/em try,br //ppBut you wouldn't with me.br //ppI think you'll love herbr //ppBut you couldn't love me.br //ppWhy is the timing always wrong?br //ppMy ex? Your Uni? Your strongemBaby/em/strong?!?!?!br //ppIt's not meant to happen.br //ppIt's just not.br //ppI thought it would work.br //ppI thought one day I would be your lovebr //ppAnd I can'tbr //ppAnd you would medicate my painbr //ppBut you can'tbr //ppI emdid/em try hardbr //ppI poured myself into you.br //ppBut this thing we've triedbr //ppWe should just let it die.br //ppbr //ppNsoromma...Child of the Heavens/p/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-9111029767602042143?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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12:00
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/Smmi3OBeOTI/AAAAAAAAADs/IvyD9QF4JLw/s1600-h/Graduation1.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 199px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/Smmi3OBeOTI/AAAAAAAAADs/IvyD9QF4JLw/s200/Graduation1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361995900902062386" //abr /3 out of the 4 members of this blog graduated with BAs in the last couple of weeks and an MA is expected to be gained by September. Hey, we're not just pretty faces! However, after 3 (or 4) years of stress and wishing you were doing anything else apart from this "stupid" degree, once you get to walk across that stage as they call your name, I'm only left with one question: span style="font-weight:bold;"Now What?/span The world is supposed to be our playground but some people are determined to make that playground consist of only a swingset. One of us (who shall remain nameless) was told "well done. Now it's either marriage or your masters. Whichever comes first is up to you"! Woooooooow. Talk about not being able to enjoy the moment. I personally want to do my masters next year but I was having trouble deciding what courses to think about applying for when my mother insisted an MBA was the only way to go. This is all regardless of the fact that I've never once expressed any kind of interest in business administration and my degree is in English Lit. and Linguistics! Look I wouldn't mind being rich just like the next person but I'd rather be happy and it's clear where my passion lies and an MBA is definitely not it!br /br /Another one of our esteemed writing team was also told to get her masters as soon as possible because otherwise she would be "wasting her years". This was to a 22 year old btw. It's also important to remember that all this "advice" came from people without degrees themselves. What is it that makes it so tempting for so-called "uncles", "aunties", and the like to make you a vessel for their unfulfilled dreams? We're in an economic recession and it's depressing enough to think that you're never gonna get a job without the pressure to incur even more debt doing a degree you have no interest in. Yes I know that everybody and their mum has a degree(s) these days but damn, can we get even a few weeks to enjoy it before reality kicks in? It isn't too much to ask it it?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-5504116070579530929?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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13:43
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bT7cJ23xj1A/Sl5JhnhteyI/AAAAAAAAAAU/8ISTWeuuX2E/s1600-h/Dubai+2009+059.JPG"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bT7cJ23xj1A/Sl5JhnhteyI/AAAAAAAAAAU/8ISTWeuuX2E/s400/Dubai+2009+059.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358801448512355106" border="0" //abr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"hahahahahaha/span! I went to Dubai at the beginning of June to span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"y'kno/span let off some of that exam steam! And while there our wonderful hotel organised trips and excursions everyday, to the beach in the morning, and 'shopping' in the afternoons. 'Wow' we thought, 'all those famous luxury Dubai malls, you know the ones with ski slopes inside and 5 star (freezing cold) cinemas...' we couldn't wait. So span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"Monday/span rolls around and instead of naming the place we would be going shopping, all we were told is " yes, its very good place, nice, discount shopping yes good place!" span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"Hmmm/span, I don't know about anyone else but I was envisaging a mixture of span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"Primark/span and span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"Poundland/span, boy what i got was a mixture of span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"Deptford/span Market, an 'English for foreign learners' class and a bin!br /br /I'm not actually joking when we got there people from our hotel were backing away from the lurid green shopfront where we were greeted by a massive poster saying " RUB-A-DUB DUB CLEAN YOUR TOTS IN THE TUB " accompanied by a span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"Rubberduckzilla/span monstrosity, weird! And it just got weirder, rows and rows of terribly-made cheap clothes next to prams next to packets of crisps, and the whole while a bearded man following you round the span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"nighties/span trying to make you take a trolley.br /After our initial bout of nausea and convulsions, we decided to look around and thank God we did. You know when you go to other countries you find some strange span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"engrish/span emblazoned across tee-shirts etc, these were the worst i have ever seen! Once in span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"Martinique/span I did see a top that said 'Music looks at me span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11"PHARD/span' huh? what?br /Anyway, back to Nine Town (as this Oasis in the Emirate Desert was called) the tops ranged from the depressing - a top with a 20 line poem about holding your dog's paw when the time comes to put him down- to the spiritual -incomplete inaccurate lyrics from a span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12"Hillsongs/span song- to the retro- a beautiful piece with I ROCK RUFF AND STUFF WITH THE AFRO PUFF across it- Yes yes Lady of Rage!br /br /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13"Eurgh/span! the shop was disgusting, afterwards we were thrown into a span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14"tro/span-span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15"tro/span (van/minibus) with about 25 Iranians who found our dark skin and our span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16"English/span extremely funny, horrific, one of them was making a video of us! Lord have mercy!br /Not a minute too soon we were returned to our hotel where we wept with shock and relief, it was over, Nine Town was over. Oh and did I forget to mention the Iranians bags were bulging with tat from Nine Town, yuck!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-7094859899914289358?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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22:26
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Life...and living it
span xmlns=""pspan style="color:#333333;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"This is a little something I wrote back as an undergrad on a particularly/span/spanspan style="color:#333333;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;" /span/spanspan style="font-family:Batang;color:#ff0066;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"ibfantabulous/b/i/span/spanspan style="font-size:12pt;color:#333333;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" day.../spanbr //span/ppspan style=" ;font-size:12pt;color:#333333;"strongspan class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:13px;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"I just reread it and it soooo applies today too! So here you go/span/spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"...Being Me.../span/strong/span/ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:180%;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"br //span/span/ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"I'm learning to follow my own advice,/span/ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Learning to just be me./span/ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"I'm not doing what everyone says,/span/ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"I just wanna be free!/span/ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Today, I feel so fabulous,/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Having a wonderful day,/span/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"The sun is shining and birds are chirping,/span/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Feeling good in every possible way!/span/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Yesterday I had an epiphany,/span/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"The Lord opened my eyes./span/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"I learnt not to be so obsessed/span/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"With the who's, what's, where's and why's./span/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Just let everything flow,/span/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"What's meant to be will be./span/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"Never suppress that inner glow,/span/span/ppspan style="color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"It'll all go right, you'll see!/spanbr //span/span/ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"xXx/span/ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"Be happy people,/span/ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"Nsoromma...Child of The Heavens/spanbr //p/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-6179643936662513943?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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16:51
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SjnVFYSHx9I/AAAAAAAAADE/HezwrabkV7g/s1600-h/fanta.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SjnVFYSHx9I/AAAAAAAAADE/HezwrabkV7g/s320/fanta.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348540320873695186" //abr /So I haven't written a blog post in a while and I was complaining to Afrocentric that I felt like I had nothing to say lately. Then, for some reason, I realised "hold up"! I'm always complaining (or "passionate" as some people call it) about something. I realised there have been two things that have repeatedly put my back up in the last few years and this is one of them. Yes people, I'm talking about skin bleaching. Interestingly enough, just as I was formulating this post, I noticed that the BBC website had just posted a story on this very problem and it had rocketed to the top of their "most sent" article column a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/africa_have_your_say/8095882.stm"/a. Clearly this is an issue by which many of us are concerned.br /br /Growing up, I was never really conscious of skin colour until I progressed further and further up the educational ladder. When my sister, who is eleven years younger than me, was born I remember a great hoopla being made over her beauty. Now don't get me wrong, Sankofa Jr. is gorgeous but I noticed certain terminology was always used to describe her. "Oh Sankofa Jr. is so pretty and fair!" "Sankofa Jr. has such lovely and bright skin". You see where I'm going with this right? However, the older Sankofa Jr. got the darker in tone she became and a move to the ATL only expedited the issue. I remember showing a recent picture of her to a certain family friend who exclaimed "Oh no! She has gotten sooooo dark! Have you not been keeping her out of the sun?" She had to get a big br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SjNYxMi49dI/AAAAAAAAAC0/dtS6MB8UbE8/s1600-h/Pause.png"img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 105px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SjNYxMi49dI/AAAAAAAAAC0/dtS6MB8UbE8/s320/Pause.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346714784823309778" //abr /br /Since when did black Africans become so obsessed with skin colour? If I had a pound for every time I, or a friend, has been slyly given skin "brightening" creams or been told that we're pretty ieven though/i we're dark skinned.... Let's just say that I'd be making an appearance in Forbes. I am well aware that there is a difference in attempting to even complexion and straight up "Casper-ification" but some people need a big fat bSIT DOWN!/b Hey, fine with me if you want to destroy the protective melanin God gave us. Or if you wish to expose your skin to hydroquinone (C6H602 for all you science buffs) of which the long term effects include premature ageing, blotchy, collagen- damaged skin, and skin cancer (yes black people bcan/b get skin cancer). Skin bleaching creams also contain mercury and trust me it's in a far more potent form than the type in a thermometer. Mercury, as pregnant women will know, can lead to kidney and liver failure in addition to leaving blue pigmentation in the folds of the skin, not to mention that these products are illegal in the United Kingdom. Now let me ask you, when you think of a beautiful woman do these images come to mind? Don't even get it twisted, it's not an exclusively African disease. Skin bleaching creams are prevalent in Caribbean countries and Asian countries also. In my opinion, the world is going mad. You've got white people going mad with the tanning and black people embracing the Casper effect ihard/i. Sorry to be insufferably cheesy but whatever happened to loving ourselves? God gave me my skin colour for a reason and for that reason alone I'm gonna love it till the day I die.br /br /Also, if you're so determined to bleach, why attempt to hide it? You ain't slick. I am sure all of you have encountered the phenomenon I named this post after. The "fanta face, coca-cola body" woman. Don't come and tell me you don't bleach when your knuckles and feet look like you've been grazing in charcoal but your face is more orange than the "You know when you've been tangoed" man. Come on!br /br /Truthfully speaking, thinking about this issue made me think about the other side of the coin. Remember when we were in school and the light-skinned boy and girl were automatically the most popular people in your class? (St. James' holla! lol) Yeah just admit we were all on light-skinned boys until Moris Chestnut, Tyrese, and the ilk came along and put them out of fashion. I've happily said that light-skinned men are not my cup of tea as I've grown up. However, I have seen men straight up bROASTED/b for preferring light-skinned black women over their more melanin- endowed counterparts. Now where's the difference? Yes from today, I am really trying to stop that foolishness. It's a free country, just as I have my preferences, why should I lambast somebody for also having their preferences? But preferences are just that- preferences. If a man I like prefers lighter-skinned women does that mean I need to chemically alter my skin to better fit ihis/i preferences? Hell no! Come on people, if this does not apply to you, urge your mums, your aunties, (hell, your uncles too) to put the bleaching creams down. Our skin is beautiful in the myriad shades it comes in. Let's celebrate this. /cheesinessdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-8437566805088956916?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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22:10
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/SjgalGC9HdI/AAAAAAAAABc/delIxjFLvno/s1600-h/pissed_off.png"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/SjgalGC9HdI/AAAAAAAAABc/delIxjFLvno/s200/pissed_off.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348053782082952658" //abr /span xmlns=""pHow come some people just don't know when to quit?br //ppThere are people in my life who I could swear were created for the sole purpose of aggravating and upsetting me. It's a conceited, the-whole-world-revolves-around-me view but really, at times like this I'm emcertain/em I am right! Let me throw out a word of warning to the wise. I told you so is strongemthe single most f********ing annoying thing you can say to me!!!!!!!!/em/strong Because by the time you've said it I'd have already apologised, therefore, I'm only ever gonna think you are deliberately trying to piss me off. Or else why do it?br //ppAlso, how come some people can totally block out what you say to them and expect you to listen to all the minute details of their drear and frankly miserable life? Talking to some people is strongemliterally/em/strong like talking to a brick wall. They repeat the same nonsense they said 20 seconds earlier with no hint or suggestion that they even heard what you had said to them. That's not a conversation; it's a frigging soliloquy so if you want just repeat your nonsense over and over strongemDO NOT/em/strong expect me to want to listen. What you strongemshould /em/strongexpect is that it will over a period of time start to really annoy me and I'll either block YOU out or tell you to strongemshut the f***** up!br //em/strong/ppAlso, I'm of a somewhat, erhm, emfiery/em temperament. If you shout at me chances are 9 ¾ times out of 10 strongemI will bloody shout back/em/strong. So don't shout, thanks. Muchos Gracias. So if you have known me for a number of years, you emwill/em know that I WILL shout back so if you shout at me you are looking for it. If I then give it to youstrongem WHY THE HELL ARE YOU COMPLAINING?!?!?!/em/strongbr / /ppLook, I'm well aware that it's a whole 'Ghanaian respect' thing that says that you should stand like a bloody mute and take abuse from your 'seniors'. I'm still at a loss as to emwhy/em the fact that your parents got freaky before mine can make someone think I'll roll over and take the strongbullshit/strong. But emI try/em, I strongemreally do/em/strong then the South-London-Black-Bitch in me kicks in after...ooo, let's say 10 minutes. I think I do well. strongTEN BLOODY MINUTES. /strongAfter that I think I'm well within my rights to tell you to stick it where the sun don't shine.br //ppRant, over....br //ppThanx guys, it's been real therapeutic....lol...br //ppEnraged,br //ppNsoromma...Child of the Heavensbr //ppN.B. Reading this back emhas /embeen kind of therapeutic. I feel calmer and I'm actually laughing at what I wrote. I even feel like apologising, but then the problem with apologising that I've always had (as in seriously from childhood), is that when you apologise the other person half the time emstill/em doesn't see the wrong they have done. They feel vindicated and oh-so-right, which means that they are still gonna make me scream...grrr, perhaps Nsoromma need to take a chill pill!/p/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-3256001125435634396?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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0:42
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/SjBfLonTOVI/AAAAAAAAABE/1yrPmXwKT5w/s1600-h/music.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/SjBfLonTOVI/AAAAAAAAABE/1yrPmXwKT5w/s320/music.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345877411174234450" //abr /span xmlns=""pI recently decided (as in a few seconds ago...literally) to do a regular(ish) post on various things that cross my mind. Ok...let me rephrase, on the things that give me cause to pause and think a little bit (such a rare occurrence in the aftermath of the mental exam mush that has currently replaced my brain). So here's the first of many of my 'food for thought's: music.br //ppMusic is such a therapeutic thing for me...as is writing sometimes. The music I listen to can set my mood, help heal my wounds, make them worse or piss me off. At times I've been really surprised, shocked even at my personal reaction to music and that of other people to the same medium. For those who you who have never heard of it or never watched it you should check out a href="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?amp;autoplay=trueamp;docid=-2512318500146146032amp;q=TRUTH"The Truth Behind Hip-Hop/a, something I first watched at a youth retreat with my church when I was about 18. It had a real impact on me and it's something I have never forgotten. I threw away ALL of my 300-odd ORIGINAL CD's (...this was pre-mp3 downloads, lols...) and though I felt spiritually cleansed, IT HURT. A lot. I'm such a Nas and 2Pac fan...and Outkast...and Busta...and DMX...damn that HURT! But I felt it was all for the greater good, I mean it's not just the influence of Hip Hop, it's also the belief's that inspire many Neo-Soul musicians, the explicitness of Ragga and the longing and lustfulness often in Ramp;B...even love songs. I was not a new Christian when I watched the DVDs but I would be a liar if I did not acknowledge that they opened my eyes.br //ppNow what human being is not moved by music? NO ONE (as far as I'm concerned, but feel free to comment and challenge me at the end of my post). However as a hip hop head I noticed discrepancies and falsehoods in some of the preacher's (G Craige Lewis of EX ministries) claims and the student of politics and school debating champion that I was, these things for me just undermine some of the evident truths in his words. A a href="http://www.clarkyboy.com/hiphop.htm"grand debate wages/a as to whether G Craige Lewis is of God, or exploiting a Godly message for personal gain to the detriment of the Christian community. I believe the later. COMMON SENSE can tell you that much of the music is not good for our very souls and encourages and supports behaviour in us that contradicts much of our base belief's and I think that is true whichever faith you (do or do not) follow. I applaud the Preacher for perhaps reminding me of the importance of music in inducing emotions but I'll take much else of what he says with a MASSIVE chunk (not a grain-o, emchunk/em) of salt. I believe he was sent to give me a message and my bible and the holy spirit in me exists to cross check what I hear, WHEREVER I hear it.br //ppI have much of my old music back. I even have more than I had before. BUT...I thank God for the spirit of discernment, I feel that now I veer away from the tracks I feel can be emotionally damaging to me and do not feel bad listening to empowering tracks made by 'secular' artists. I implore you all...strongBE AWARE OF WHAT IT IS YOU LISTEN TO/strong...be it Hip-hop, Hip-life, Ragga, Highlife, Ramp;B, Neo-Soul, emwhatever/em, how it rests with your soul is a good indicator of how it may benefit you. The preacher is correct when he says you don't know what influences some of these artists, strongemwe really don't/em/strong but strongemneither does he/em/strong. It is up to GOD to judge the hearts of men (and the subsequent heart they used to compose the music), I don't presume to label someone a believer or a non-believer because they wear their jeans low or listen to rock music or go raving, strongemhow is that my business?/em/strong that's between them and their God. So I'll take the music as it comes, when I'm sad and I just strongneed /strongto revel in it, emembrace /emit and move on I will listen to some Mary J.! When I feel militant, 2Pac still does the trick and when that foolish boy is acting up I agree with Erykah that he'd better a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teEm2toxBNU"Call Tyrone/a! But I just need to be aware that when I need to move on from my misery I should switch from a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsHjNBOFzZw"Roses/a to a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGfUCqorc5U"Just Fine/a. Or that after being thoroughly pissed-off I should perhaps not listen to a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a79c76pY88o"They Don't Give A Fuck About Us/a or a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbm3to__x0k"When We Ride On Our Enemies/a and focus on a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ru6me8k6Gc"Keep Ya Head Up/a. When I'm confused what's wrong with a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=towp_XCWReg"Lord Give Me A Sign?/a Me and D strongemboth/em/strong need a sign, we all struggle!br //ppHere are some excerpts from 2Pac – Better Days:br //ppspan style=" ;font-size:10pt;color:black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"'Time to question our lifestyle, look how we livebr /Smokin weed like it ain't no thang, so even kidsbr /wanna try now, they lie down and get ran throughbr /Nobody watched 'em clockin the evil man do'br /br /'I'd love to see the block in peacebr /With no more dealers and crooked cops, the only way to stop the beastbr /And only we can changebr /It's up to us to clean up the streets, it ain't the samebr /Too many murders, too many funerals and too many tearsbr /Just seen another brother buried plus I'd known him for yearsbr /Passed by his family, but what could I say?br /Keep yo' head up and try to keep the faithbr /And pray for better days'/span/spanbr //span/ppNo matter what he believed, what sins he committed, strongemI don't know/em/strong but no one can convince me that strongemthat/em/strong can ever be at odds with my God!br //ppPeace xXxspan style=" ;font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;color:black;"br //span/ppNsoromma...Child of the Heavens/ppI'll leave you with DMX's Lord Give Me A Sign:/ppspan class="apple-style-span"span style="font-family:quot;Arialquot;,quot;sans-serifquot;;mso-fareast-Times New Romanquot;; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-language:AR-SAfont-family:quot;;font-size:7.5pt;color:black;"object width="500" height="405"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/tztrOz1A75Mamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/tztrOz1A75Mamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="405"/embed/object/span/spanbr //ppspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"'/span/spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"No weapon formed against me shall prosper/span/spanspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"br //span/span/ppspan style="font-size:10pt;"span class="Apple-style-span" style=""span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"For this is the heritage of the servants of the Lordbr /In the name of Jesusbr /Lord give me a signbr /Amen'/span/span/spanbr //span/p/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-108172838510731954?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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19:04
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Life...and living it
span xmlns=""pI can empathise with Mary J. When she cried for No More Drama...and yet I can't quite make it work in emmy/em life. Consider...br //ppI split from my very nice boyfriend of several months (around 6 I think...) because I was on this whole no more drama hype. As lovely as he was he had some fundamental 'flaws' that we could never get past:br //polliHe's inkremoni (tr. Muslim) and I am not, and I've met too many people whose lives have been messed up because of the differences in their parents' religions. Sorry, I know it may work for some people but emI'm/em not interested in that wahala (tr. Drama) in emmy/em life.br //liliHe's dodgy. Like emD-O-D-G-Y/em, as far as I'm concerned there are enough opportunities in this country for someone raised in the system to emdo/em something with their lives. He's a fast approaching 30, graduate who takes stronggreat/strong pride in having never had a job. He's not on benefits and is strongliving it up!/strong No! C'mon I feel like I should be past that kind of dodginess in my life, as I've iterated before I feel like I am on the cusp of starting a emwonderful/em life where my looooooong education is finally going to pay dividends. Look, I've done the ride-or-die chick thing before; at 23 I'm not interested in having your back if the police catch you. I'm older now and I'd probably be more inclined to think 'Good! You emdeserve/em to be caught! What are you thinking? GROW THE HELL UP!'That's drama man.br //liliHe's alatani (tr. Nigerian) and before you people start on the racist hype. Listen. I've been with my fair share of Naija guys before and I just cannot abide the whole 'I'm Nigerian, we're the best' thing, how about 'I'm Ghanaian, I love being Ghanaian and I don't want to contend with the part of you that secretly believes your people are superior to mine!' Neither is it fair on him that I have inbred bad feelings about Naija dudes (OK that's not strictly fair emor/em true, I think Ghanaian guys can be high wastage too!). But I would be a strongbig fat liar/strong if I did not acknowledge his very alata-ness was a problem. ASEM! (tr. Trouble)br //liliHe's a lovely guy but really, I can't have a relationship with a man who can go for emweeks/em, strongyes! emWEEKS/em/strong without feeling the need to see me when we live in the same 'regions' of London (Southside, that's where I'm coming from!)br //li/olpAww, bless him though he's nice, just not for me.br //ppSo I moved on with the help of an old, er, flame. Grrr, he is sooo the epitome of Ghanaian male wastage! Consider...br //ppWe have history and the whole idea was that now we have no separate dramas in our lives we should give it a real go. THEN he announces the drama of all dramas that no girl wants to hear...there's some chick expecting his child. WTF? ASEM! So, after his pleas and various (annoyingly childish) 'tests' of my loyalty and thinking long, deep and hard, I decided it is pretty unfair to judge a guy on the basis of one mistake, emeven/em if that 'mistake' results in a new life.br //ppNice, aren't I?br //ppWell, I think so! I mean for many people that's an automatic no-no and I thought I'd try the mature route...fat lot of good it did me! He is as childish as when I first started seeing him a couple years back. Despite all his talk he's still essentially a child. I mean 'tests', emreally/em?!?!?! That nonsense always ends badly. It's sad though because I really, emreally, strongREALLY/strong/em like him but I think he's incapable of being in an adult relationship. W-A-H-A-L-A, I'm sorry but it's not about strongbabysitting/strong grown as men!br //ppThen there's the friend, who I believe is absolutely strongamazing/strong! I (not-so-secretly) adore him. He's mature and straight-forward, God fearing and strongemabout/em/strong something. I can tell him anything and everything. We can jam for hours and sometimes it is that nice kind of jamming, where neither of you say much of anything but you just enjoy each other's company. BUT, there's this underlying sexual chemistry that's growing...Which really isn't a problem...until you factor in the knowledge that he does not want a relationship. He generally treats me so well that, heck, I'm only human! I fantasise about being with him and sometimes when I look at him I know it's written on my face...as in emthis boy isspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;" /span/ememnot stupid/em and he has categorically informed me that he knows how bad I want him by the way I look at him. Before my flustered, embarrassed ass can reply he also told me that I shouldn't feel bad in the slightest because extremely explicit thoughts cross his mind whenever he's around me. Now, it's out there it's like walking a tightrope...I don't want to lose my friend! But DAMN! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh ASEM!br //ppI emreally/em can empathise with Mary J. but someone needs to show me how to achieve this ideal of no more drama. I mean without getting bored. Because when I get bored I always get into some emother/em trouble and it begins again. Oh DRAMA, WAHALA, ASEM!/p/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-740309740713126949?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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23:42
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Life...and living it
They say church men are the worst men. Do you agree? Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against a man who will get out of his warm bed on a Sunday morning to pay his respects to God. Is that not something all of us christian sisters want?br /br /However there are strange occurences that happen in God's house that lead me to believe that everyone is in church for their own agenda. And trust me, it is not always about worship.br /br /I remember, around three years ago, my church held a single's night. (And before you start jumping to conclusions, let me make it clear: it was NOT about desperate singles scouting for the perfect partner). It was a seminar, followed by a discussion and refreshments. During the discussion, I was amused to find that a great deal of people find themselves in God's house on a Sunday morning to check the gyals dem (or the man dem). And I'm not talking about horny teenagers, these people are grown folk!!br /br /Here are the top five methods these not-so-sly hopefuls will use:br /br /1. The line. Everyone who goes to church knows the line. It goes like this , "emsister, the Lord has directed me to you, and the Holy Spirit is telling me, you're the woman for me". /emIf you ever fall victim to this manoeuver, your response should go like this "emReally? Well, I haven't heard anything from God, so while I wait for Him to speak to me, could you keep your distance? Thanks"./embr /em/embr /2. Watch out for those who plant themselves in certain departments you know they have no business in joining. If Mr. Hopeful decides to join the choir as soon as you join, and you know he can't hit a single note, that is cause for concern. You may laugh, but a young man, the other day, confessed to me that he joined the welcoming team after catching sight of one of the new comers. He knew he had no interest in this department, and once he had caught this girl in his net, he left the welcoming team as quickly as he had joined.br /br /3. Next, be weary of the young men who are so eager for you to join their department. "emSister, I have been studying you for some time now, and I can see you will be perfect in the announcements team"./em Need I say more? Once the two of you are working side by side...br /br /4. Also watch out for those who insist on sitting next to you sunday after sunday, all the while hoping for Pastor to say, "emgive your neighbour a holy embrace"./em You know exactly what I'm talking about. They make a bee line for you regardless of where the usher has placed them, and wait for the right opportunity to make their move.br /br /5. Lastly, there are those who invite you to theirs after the service "for sunday lunch". em*wink wink*./em If you fall for that one, you deserve a good beat down.br /br /I'm not just picking on the men. Women try to pull these moves too. lol!! Anyway, I will finish by saying there is nothing wrong in using an opportunity to get something you want. But people make the whole "dating agency" thing their primary goal on a Sunday morning. And when you're on the receiving end of their "advances", it can all get a bit tiring. By the time the last "amen" has been said, you're ready to breeze out of church!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-3778851088429539665?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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23:05
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Life...and living it
Never mind everything happening for a reason. Some things are just not fair. These are my exact sentiments towards the nonsense Sankofa and I had to go through today. I mean, today started off well: breakfast at Whetherspoons in the morning, followed by church - and we still managed to make it span style="font-size:78%;"sort of /spanspan style="font-size:100%;"on time to church. /spanbr /The f**keries began after the service though, when a "distinguished gentleman" decided to pay me a back handed compliment about my bag. Trust me, Sunday's EastEnders omnibus couldn't touch the drama that goes on in church.br /Anyway, let's get to the point: aside from my phone taking a hard fall from my pocket and breaking into pieces while I was running for the bus 185, the afternoon simply couldn't get worse.br /We did make it on the 185 (thanks for asking), and got off at Lewisham. While still recovering from our conversation with the "distinguished gentleman", we decided to take a trip to Sainsbury's. We were both fed up and annoyed, not to mention the weather being temperamental today. So we got into Sainsbury's and the first thing Sankofa reached for was a drink to calm her nerves. We got carried away in the shop, trying to find popcorn, biscuits and drinks etc. etc. (Did I mention we were en route to the cinema?) Anyway, we finally got it together, paid and headed out of the shop.br /br /What do you think happened next?br /br /We walked out, and practically got jumped on by a emfat bele/em security guard. "Did you pay for evritin?", he asked in his thick naija accent.br /br /"yeah, you wanna check our bags?", you know that was us in our south london, bad gyal accents.br /br /"you took this drink, drank it in our shop, and dumped the bottle without paying for it". Yes, you guessed it! The drink Sankofa so badly needed when we first arrived in the shop.br /br /"would you like to follow me , girls".br /br /He was so smug. Do you think he cared it was a mistake? Did he even want to listen to the simple explanation? Did he give a s**t that we were with my three younger sisters?br /br /NO, NO, NO!!!br /br /We were proved right in the end, and Sankofa paid for her drink afterwards, but it's still unfair. emBig bele /emwas clearly judging us by his own standards. Don't you just hate it when someone accuses you of something you never did and refuses to listen to what you have to say? Or when they know they are in the wrong but won't admit it because they are trying to save face? Grrrr!!! It's so annoying.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-7389049653324337416?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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18:58
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Life...and living it
Hi people. How have you all been? It has been a while, hasn't it? For those of you who have been doing exams, how did they go? If you have not yet finished, well good luck with the rest. But if like me, you have kissed good bye to the wonderful world of academia, you are probably findng ways to fill your time. I decided to fill some time on Friday night, by going to see the U.K. premier of the Ghanaian film, The Perfect Picture, at the Odeon Cinema in Surrey Quays. Me and my girls enjoyed the film - it was entertaining from beginning to end. The story line wasn't your cliché story of wicked step mothers, witch doctors and women who can't have babies.br /Unfortunately, the film was not the highlight of the evening. Bad time keeping and organisation stole the spotlight. Firstly, the (very helpful) organisors of the film premier sent me a list on facebook two weeks before the screening of the the ticket outlets that would be selling the £10 tickets. I was enthused to find that there were two outlets down the road from me. You can imagine my dismay then when I went into one of the shops, three days before the screening, only for the shop owner to tell me, "sorry, I don't have any tickets. My shop is on the list but I don't know anything about this film premier". And as for the second shop - let's just say the shop owner up and left one day, and is still nowhere to be found, not even to sell me my tickets.br /Anyway, by stroke of luck, divine intervention or just pure coinsidence, me and my girls got our tickets (which were apparently sold out - again, according to the helpful orgnisors) about four hours before the movie was due to start.br /So, after a nine hour shift at work on Friday night I knew I had to sprint, or even better, fly accross the underground network, from Canary Wharf to Canada Square to make it for the film (which was to start at 9pm prompt - so said the lovely organisors).br /After meeting up with the girls, we get to Surrey Quays cinema at 9.10pm (emOh my gosh, have we made it on time? Has the film started yet? What if they don't let us in?/em) Well, there was absoloutley nothing to worry about because the film did no start until 11!!! Yes, I kid you not. My people had actually outdone themselves with the whole lateness thing.br /Let's not even forget that ONE cast member out of the whole crew that was promised us turned up, and oh yeah - the lovely, helpful organisors sold more tickets than there were seats, so we had people ready to kick ass in order to get a seat, people sitting on people's laps, people standing in the ailes and people even sitting on the extra chairs they decided to put out at the front. To put it this way, by the time the film actually started, people were fed up, pissed off and tired - but still very anxious to watch the film.br /We were all relieved when it actually started, so can you imagine the total "pissedoffness" that filled the room when the M.C. decided to talk over the much anticipated "sex scene"? (And, yes, I am using the term "sex scene" very loosley.) I can't even front though, the film was really good, and I do recommend everybody to watch it.br /Apart from the "minor" set backs, it was altogether an enjoyable evening, except for the fact that the film didn't finish until after 1 in the morning, leaving me and the girls (and our long faces) on the night bus back home.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-173106388003120680?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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15:17
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Life...and living it
I know we're in a recession but I have no words for this. Click on the link and see for yourselves. Wooooooooow....br /a href="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LARGE-TED-BAKER-LONDON-CARRIER-BAG-NEW-STYLE_W0QQitemZ190306420390QQcmdZViewItemQQptZWomen_s_Clothing?hash=item190306420390amp;_trksid=p3286.c0.m14amp;_trkparms=72:1685|66:4|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:0|293:1|294:200"Madness I tell you/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-6613748267540839291?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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11:41
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Life...and living it
Everybody who knows me knows that I blove/b my make-up and beauty products in general. I love experimenting with make-up and I often get comments like "span style="font-style: italic;"I'm too scared to try that on my eyes/span" etc. I live by the "what do you have to lose" school of thought. If it looks crap, you just take it off right? Anyway, just thought I'd share some of my favourite beauty products with you guys, so here we go!br /br /1. bUrban Decay Deluxe Shadow Box/bbr /br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMRvBf-ZoI/AAAAAAAAAA4/EWmWM8J6FrU/s1600-h/urbandecay.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328622283663500930" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMRvBf-ZoI/AAAAAAAAAA4/EWmWM8J6FrU/s320/urbandecay.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 262px; width: 250px;" //abr /br /My favourite eyeshadow set gives you nine of Urban Decay's most popular pigmented eyeshadows in one package. Yes the packaging is oh-so-very-slightly tacky but the colours look amazing on black skin.br /br /smallspan style="font-style: italic;"However, if the price tag is too much to justify in this recession, any of span style="font-weight: bold;"Sleek/span's palettes are a wonderful alternative. I personally like to mix colours from both palettes./span/smallbr /b£20/b in House of Fraser, Debenhams, or Boots (the Oxford St. one)br /br /2. bUrban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion/bbr /br /Also known as the greatest thing ever invented! I have quite oily skin and before I discovered this my eyeshadow would usually migrate into my eye creases or fade as the day went on. But no more thanks to this. You put it on before you apply any eyeshadow and it won't budge for the rest of the day. Trust me, it's worth every single penny.br /br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMeKvYcKZI/AAAAAAAAABA/lmhAtNHUaJY/s1600-h/IMG_3164.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328635953975929234" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMeKvYcKZI/AAAAAAAAABA/lmhAtNHUaJY/s320/IMG_3164.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 240px; width: 320px;" //abr /b£9.50/b as abovebr /br /3. bNARS blusher in "crazed"/bbr /br /Lasts forever as a little goes a loooong way. Get heavy-handed with this and you span style="font-style: italic;"will/span look like Ronald McDonald's twin sister.br /br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMgwog8yHI/AAAAAAAAABI/bS9OT9K9_Gk/s1600-h/crazed.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328638803990857842" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMgwog8yHI/AAAAAAAAABI/bS9OT9K9_Gk/s320/crazed.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 164px; width: 200px;" //abr /br /ismallCouldn't find a usable pic of the actual colour but that's what the packaging looks like./small/ismall/smallbr /br /b£18.50/b in Selfridges, John Lewis, and Libertybr /br /4. bM.A.C. Blot Powder/bbr /br /a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMjPzUeQbI/AAAAAAAAABQ/Ykq-vcWFwNY/s1600-h/MAC.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328641538490515890" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMjPzUeQbI/AAAAAAAAABQ/Ykq-vcWFwNY/s320/MAC.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 320px;" //abr /Stops me looking like I've just been anointed.... Removes shine without messing with the rest of my make-up.br /b£14.68/b in M.A.C. (Carnaby St.) and Selfridgesbr /br /5. b M.A.C. Zoom Lash Mascara/bbr /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMkNkM-LGI/AAAAAAAAABY/IrlN8pqnSa8/s1600-h/mcoc10.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328642599584410722" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMkNkM-LGI/AAAAAAAAABY/IrlN8pqnSa8/s320/mcoc10.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 254px; width: 165px;" //abr /Not much to be said here. My favourite mascara and it can somewhat tame my mental, contrary eyelashes.br /b£11.00/b as abovebr /br /br /6. bM.A.C. Lip Gelee/bbr /I don't ask for much from lip glosses. I mean is it asking too much if I insist they be non-sticky and don't leave those nasty white "deposits" in the corners of your mouth? Well, lip gelee lip glosses from M.A.C. give me what I'm looking for. They also manage to make my lips feel moisturised at the same time. Bonus!br /br /Honourable mention too for bSmashbox/b "lip enhancing" glosses.br /b£10.50/b as abovebr /br /7. bCocoa Butter/bbr /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMqiTsBj9I/AAAAAAAAABg/6kW85z8PznU/s1600-h/cocoa+butter.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328649552998272978" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMqiTsBj9I/AAAAAAAAABg/6kW85z8PznU/s320/cocoa+butter.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 290px; width: 290px;" //abr /Forget all the fancy body lotions. No matter how much I experiment, test, etc. I always end up coming back to this favourite. The more raw the better.br /br /8. bO.P.I nail varnish in Russian Navy /bbr /br /I searched and searched for a navy polish to no avail until I discovered this. Gone are the days when iFriday's Afro/i and I would mix black and blue polishes together in an attempt to achieve this look lol. Thanks O.P.I!br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMsy103wmI/AAAAAAAAABo/0FI4yWYnlF8/s1600-h/opi.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328652036063347298" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMsy103wmI/AAAAAAAAABo/0FI4yWYnlF8/s320/opi.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 240px;" //abr /b£9.50/b but can be found cheaper here: Chemistdirect.co.uk a href="http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/opi-russian-navy-nlr54_1_10431.html"/abr /br /9. bPerfumes/bbr /br /I can't pick a single, favourite perfume because that changes each day but the three I seem to come back to again and again are:br /br /bNarciso Rodriguez for her/bbr /a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMuQ13Ej9I/AAAAAAAAABw/Y-eajvbfD0w/s1600-h/narciso.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328653650980278226" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMuQ13Ej9I/AAAAAAAAABw/Y-eajvbfD0w/s320/narciso.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 320px;" //abr /b£30/b approx. for 30ml edtbr /br /bArmani White/bbr /I'm pretty sure this has now been discontinued :-( but you can till find it on eBay etc.br /br /bAnna Sui/bbr /a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMxfksL6bI/AAAAAAAAAB4/8h7dvCmom1I/s1600-h/MakeCappedImage-15html.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328657202604140978" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMxfksL6bI/AAAAAAAAAB4/8h7dvCmom1I/s320/MakeCappedImage-15html.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 320px;" //abr /Another one that I think has been discontinued but as above, it's still possible to find it.br /br /10.bM.A.C. Brush Set/bbr /br /Last, but definitely not least, I loooove my brush set(s). I resisted the idea of make-up brushes for a long time as I had a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn't really make that much of a difference. Well, how wrong was I? You use far less product with brushes and if that means my make-up lasts longer in this recession, then I'm all for it. M.A.C. sell mini brush sets as a limited edition product every Christmas for a fraction of their usual price (around b£40/b). So, if like me, you're counting the pennies I'd suggest you wait till then or hit up eBay (again lol).br /br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMzlzYZkaI/AAAAAAAAACA/HCFh2xI3JU4/s1600-h/mac-heirlooms-4-face-brushes.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328659508650152354" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fxYWUHEdphY/SfMzlzYZkaI/AAAAAAAAACA/HCFh2xI3JU4/s320/mac-heirlooms-4-face-brushes.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 314px; width: 300px;" //abr /br /So here ends my very first "beauty" post. Let me know what you think and there may just be future ones.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-5417955917301393505?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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23:15
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Life...and living it
Now, I've always liked surprises you know, secret birthday parties, unexpected visits, the twist at the end of 'Sixth Sense', just love 'em, I suppose that's why I flick from channel to channel after Neighbours watching Diagnosis Murder then good ol' Murder, She Wrote and sometimes even A Touch Of Frost (span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:78%;" or Midsomer Murders). /spanThat wonderful element of 'whodunit?' even when you know exactly whodunit, is just so cool! Partaking in collective 'shock' and then being able to just get on with other things is just what one needs on a weekday - oh speaking of which, is that Zeke really dead? I know what I think AND I haven't cheated by going on Neighbours.com- anyway yeah on a weekday I love a good mystery with an obvious surprise thrown in for good measure. The old surprise Birthday is also a good'un, you drive the unsuspecting celebrant around the area 15 times saying, "yeah man we're going home in a minute just gotta buy a glue gun" - or something span style="font-style: italic;"just/span as subtle, then you get the call, and then SURPRISE!!!! and the best thing is when they actually are surprised and all your efforts have paid off, I really do love it. So in this vein I decided to keep a secret, everyone loves a surprise right? Even one about the 9 month time bomb ticking away in my ovaries - right? ? ? ?br /br /Ok. maybe not. Well, what could I do? after surprising myself (looking at that stick saying 'merde alors!') The next step was to 'surprise' my nearest and dearest - it was not pretty. It worked though, and although I'm not sure that surprised was the word they would use for what they felt, I do know that they weren't expecting span style="font-weight: bold;"that!br /So/span, what did I learn from it all? well, now that the memory's only as painful as period pains (compared to the earlier pain of stage 3 labour it induced in me everytime I thought about it before) I can tell you that I did learn, a lot. If you can't stand the (minimum) 10 hours of labour, stay out of the boudoir, also please know that actions span style="font-weight: bold;"really /spando have consequences, and not just for yourself, and often what you try to make yourself think is being mysterious is really just hiding, oh and of course : span style="font-weight: bold;"not everyone likes surprises./spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-3266414788546465393?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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21:19
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bT7cJ23xj1A/SeuoaLjIMlI/AAAAAAAAAAM/rV0OGBK1jxY/s1600-h/383px-HarryHoudini1899.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 204px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bT7cJ23xj1A/SeuoaLjIMlI/AAAAAAAAAAM/rV0OGBK1jxY/s320/383px-HarryHoudini1899.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326536152025936466" border="0" //abr /span style="font-family:arial;"So, /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"Houdiniism/spanspan style="font-family:arial;", a five-syllable word, say it now: /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"Hou/spanspan style="font-family:arial;"-Di-Ni-Is-Sm, good, now you may be thinking what /spanspan style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;"are /spanspan style="font-family:arial;"you on about? Well, let me tell you, /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"houdiniism/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" is an affliction of the modern male, where they become experts at escaping situations, and coming out unscathed, only to be captured, locked down and to escape...again./spanbr /span style="font-family:arial;"This may sound like good /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"ol/spanspan style="font-family:arial;"' commitment issues, but this is more, it creeps silently into the relationships of many males, whether these relationships be platonic or other. The first reported case of this condition, lets call him /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"Joedini/spanspan style="font-family:arial;", suffered very badly from it, and therefore so did his girl -he's the one who'd make the appointment, tell you "you better be there...2 o'clock yeah?" implying that he just /spanspan style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;"needed/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" to see you, then , at about /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"ahh/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" 14.50, the call - and don't be silly you /spanspan style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;"know/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" /spanspan style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;"you're/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" calling /spanspan style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;"him/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" - he'll say,"I'm just coming blah blah, trains, blah blah, my mum, blah blah I'm on my way now", using your name and '/spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"ish/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" when he profusely apologises, you'll say "oh, it's /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"ok/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" the snow isn't too heavy at the mo'...wish I'd brought a coat..." and then /spanspan style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"span class="on" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_SpellCheck" title="Check Spelling" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);BLOG_spellcheck();;ButtonMouseDown(this);"img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" alt="Check Spelling" class="gl_spell" border="0" //span/spanspan style="font-family:arial;"he actually WOULDN'T TURN UP, like seriously, he just wouldn't come, and off you'd trundle, knowing he'll call you when you get to /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"Brockley/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" station (as if he knew) giving you some /spanspan style=";font-family:arial;font-size:180%;"TALL/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" story, which, even though you don't believe, will have you back at /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"Norwood/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" Junction saying "Oh it's cool, there's a really nice crackhead telling me about his pipe collection..."/spanbr /span style="font-family:arial;"br /But people, don't be fooled this /spanspan style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;"span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"maladie/span /spanspan style="font-family:arial;"has varying symptoms and manifestations, trust me, take this guy I know, lets call him /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11"LightNTall/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" (/spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12"LNT/spanspan style="font-family:arial;") an intelligent, musically gifted nice chap, he'll call and it's all good...until "oh...let me call you back..." which he doesn't or does at like 4:37 am the next day, or there's /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13"ShortNDarkWithBlazerPatches/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" (/spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14"SDWBP/spanspan style="font-family:arial;") who displays an alternate form of /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15"houdiniism/spanspan style="font-family:arial;". The kind of escapologist who will 'toot-toot' you while you wait in the rain at the bus stop after you thought the jokey banter from the night before meant you were getting a lift...sorry yeah! As you see /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16"SDWBP/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" escapes home at 35 mph, no curve, no bend, with all the affirmations of close friendship toned down by the blatant selfishness and unwillingness to share that 15 minute ride with you./spanbr /br /span style="font-family:arial;"Now, this affliction has evolved over the years since the original Houdini (Harry, that is) who merely escaped from physical chains. These 21st century /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17"houdinis/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" will leave you wondering, 'when the hell did he leave?' in both physical /spanspan style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;"and /spanspan style="font-family:arial;"emotional ways, shoot, you'll be having a face-to-face chat, look at your watch, and he will be gone, his shadow still lingering because he left so fast! But before I lose focus, and get too personal I'm just gonna rein it in, /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18"Houdiniism/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" appears to be a natural phenomenon, whether its the one who /spanspan style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;"never/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" calls back, or the "partner" who you see once every 4 months, or the one who tells you 'I'm coming to /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19"Norwood/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" Junction now Babes' (Babes?) while he sits sipping /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20"mojitos/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" in Jamaica or something /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21"schtupid/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" like that, or the /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22"Igbo/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" boy who leaves you and your cousin buying /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23"Expensive/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" drinks in the bloody Hilton at Trafalgar, only to stretch his big lips into what he thinks is a pacifying smile...Ahem (!) or the one who /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24"manages/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" to slip away after church when you wore heels because you /spanspan style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;"knew/spanspan style="font-family:arial;" you had a lift, /spanspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25"blaad/spanspan style="font-family:arial;", they're all escapologists in one way or another, and if they're not... well they're something else, and that's whats up!/spanbr /br /br /'div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-7360427460405492070?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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18:32
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Life...and living it
a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/SeeC8er6KSI/AAAAAAAAAA4/MGk4R2Kiwao/s1600-h/slap.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325369059929893154" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 244px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 211px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/SeeC8er6KSI/AAAAAAAAAA4/MGk4R2Kiwao/s320/slap.jpg" border="0" //abr /divOn Good Friday, a good friend of mine had a dinner party. Imagine the scene...young Ghanaian girl, Sierra Leonian, a Yoruba girl and an Igbo...an Igbo guy and three Yoruba. Now before you jump down my throat span style="font-size:78%;"(about racism, or tribalism or WOTEVA!)/span I'm giving you a bit of background to lay the scene and inform what I'm gonna say later.../divdiv/divbr /divSome seriously good white wine and Fanta gets to flowing and being African students of politics, (for the most part) converstaion gets loud and argumentative. The topic was a bit of a mistake, I grant the Yoruba boy who brought it up didn't quite mean what he implied...OH WELL! What are students of politics if not eager pirahna's waiting to attack ignorant statements? So....hmmm, I'll call him Yinka...comments that the laws in the UK are too strict, for instance in the UK an man cannot slap his wife./divbr /div/divbr /divPoor Yinka! Myself, Teresa (Sierra Leonian), Nneka (Igbo) and Abiola (Yoruba) were the only other people in there at the time and being a room full of girls the horror in the air was palatable. Cries of 'ehhhhhh, so emWHERE/em are you free to slap your wife?', 'Wife beater, wife beater!!!!!' span style="font-size:78%;"(That was Nneka, quite enjoying making Yink squirm)/spanspan style="font-size:85%;" /spanspan style="font-size:100%;"filled the air and bless his heart we offered no way out for him and annihilated him as was our right, nay, our duty even./span/divbr /div/divbr /divThen enter the boys, Abimbola (Yoruba), Jide (Yoruba) and Chidi (Igbo). Chidi is aghast, 'I would never, span style="font-size:130%;"emstrongNEVER/strong/em/span slap my wife? What could you possibly mean? Have you run mad?'span style="font-size:78%;" (A this point I sincerely wish I could accent this for you, but I can't write it...linguists? Help any one?)./span Anyhoo, while Yinka is still digging himself deeper trying to get out of his hole (much to mine and Nneka's glee) Jide decides to play devils advocate...span style="font-size:130%;"span style="font-size:100%;"'/spanstrongWHAT IF/strong/span...emwhat if/em...your wife slapped your mother?'/divbr /div/divdivNow, myself and my girlfriends are still keeping up the righteous indigniton...like seriously sha, my husband will see fire if he abuses me! But all of a sudden Chidi is unsure and is backing down, like well, I don't know. Jide says seriously, the woman deserves a slap because that's his emmother/em, but we are adamant, she's your emspan style="font-size:130%;"wife/span/em. You get married and she should come above everyone else. Jide says 'No way! My mother gave me my values, you disrespect my mother you disrespect emME-/emslap her!'/divbr /div/divdivThis argument carried on into the night....or at least until people withdrew sullenly into their respective corners, each convinced they're right span style="font-size:78%;"(why can Africans never debate like normal people it's always a fight!), /spanspan style="font-size:100%;"but you get the general jist/span. But I'm still convinced I'm right!span style="font-size:78%;" (lol)/span But I'm interested by the polar responses this evokes, so i throw the floor open, what says you?/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-4372872394397330478?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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11:07
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Life...and living it
Why is it that some men feel no way about harassing you in public? I can't even begin to count the number of times I have been happily minding my own business on the bus or walking down the street for someone's uncle to approach me and ruin my day. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind giving you the time of day if you didn't look like you were my dad's senior in school, or if your chat up line wasn't knackered and over-played. Yet, it be oga who get big bele who dey wan mek i talk to him. (Don't laugh at my pidgin!)br /I remember being on Welling high street, with two friends, when a man driving by, who really should have been concentrating on the road, decided to slow down and beep at us. One of my friends turned around and waved. "Hi, uncle!" she shouted. I was thinking "yes! we are getting a lift home!". But when she turned around, I could see from her face, which showed nothing less than pure disgust, that it wasn't a trusted family member. I was in stitches when I realised it was her way of reminding 'uncle' that he has a wife and children to go home to.br /Seriously, is this a new trend? Or have the older generation always thought it appropriate to harass girls two to three decades their junior? What kills me is the confidence with which these men step to you with.br /br /Just for laughs here is a list of the top 5 chat- up lines uncles have tried (but have miserably failed) to entice me with.br /br /5. Have we met before?/ Do I know you from somewhere?br /4. Excuse me, is your name Yinka?br /3. Give me your number so I can call you later. (seriously! no "excuse me" or anything!)br /2. Are you ghanaian/ nigerian?br /1. Excuse me fine girl, I want to be your friend.br /br /And as you have guessed, my response is always "no uncle".div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-7364651680965700585?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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2:05
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Life...and living it
I was browsing one of my favourite sites a href="http://pajiba.com/"/aa the other day and stumbled on a discussion of songs that made people cry and it led me to think about mine. SO here's a list of my "favourite" songs to weep to. I don't if it's right to class them as "favourites" since they, by definition, make me cry. But here goes in no particular order of preference:br /br /1. emBitter/em- Me'Shell NdegeOcellobr /br /This song kills me. It really does. I first got into Me'Shell my freshman year of college in America after a particularly nasty introduction to the truly messed-up minds of supposedly "nice" guys. I didn't leave my dorm room for three days and played this song on repeat. It's a wonder I'm still here for it deserves to be filed under "Music by which to slit your wrists" (It should be a genuine genre I assure you...). It's sombre and impossibly beautiful. It's a deceptively simple song (it's quite short with basically one verse) but the haunting quality of Me'Shell's voice just takes it somewhere else entirely.br /object height="344" width="425"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CxbVR7l1Ivgamp;hl=enamp;fs=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CxbVR7l1Ivgamp;hl=enamp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /2. emI Can't Make You Love Me/em- Bonnie Raittbr /br /I heard the George Michael version first when I was about 16 and played it to death. It perfectly fit in with the romantic notions I had conjured up of my unrequited crush at the time (Will Barnes holla! lol). I was emsuch/em an angsty teen (some may argue that I still am). Anyway, I hunted down the original and discoverd that it was far superior to old George's version (no disrespect) and just like that it became an addition to my iPod's "Dust and sackcloth" playlist.br /br /object height="385" width="480"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KTLR3zHxnr8hl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KTLR3zHxnr8hl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/objectbr /br /3. emRaining in Balimore/em- Counting Crowsbr /br /I'm not a hundred percent certain what this song is about nor do I have any particular attachment to Baltimore apart from the fact that one of my Aunts lives there but this song just makes me incredibly sad. It doesn't make me cry per ser, but it makes me feel a bit depressed and just generally verklempt.br /br /object height="344" width="425"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gEnCxGh8kBgamp;hl=enamp;fs=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gEnCxGh8kBgamp;hl=enamp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /4. emSay Hello, Wave Goodbye/em- David Graybr /br /I could pick a number of candidates from emWhite Ladder/em but David Gray's cover of Soft Cell's classic just rises above the rest for me. It's a perfect 8 mins and 58 secs snapshot of a deteriorated relationship. We get disbelief, loneliness, anger, bitterness all in a few short minutes. Here is a rare example of a cover surpassing the original. It's perfect and I love it. Oh yeah, it also makes me cry.br /object height="344" width="425"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ib3mrQjvN3wamp;hl=enamp;fs=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ib3mrQjvN3wamp;hl=enamp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /5. emWhen She Loved Me/em-Sarah McLachlanbr /br /Yes, it's from Toy Story 2 and it's about an abandoned rag doll's love for her previous owner. Shut up. It still makes me cry. I remember seeing this in the cinema and being horrified that my eyes were pricking with tears when this song came on. But oh well, it is what it is and it's here on this list!br /br /object width="480" height="385"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fo2w5HPZTHAhl=enfs=1rel=0"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fo2w5HPZTHAhl=enfs=1rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/objectbr /br /Part two coming up (when I get around to it...)div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-8424044725462328161?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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14:17
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/SdtqQUNofjI/AAAAAAAAAAw/atDFJB3ERF0/s1600-h/job+seeker.jpeg"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 118px; height: 115px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_p1Y4MCYQFDs/SdtqQUNofjI/AAAAAAAAAAw/atDFJB3ERF0/s320/job+seeker.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321964213204713010" border="0" //abr /After being repeatedly harangued by span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"Sankofa/span about my lack of contribution I today braved the world of blogging for the first time...Hiya!!!!!!!!br /br /I've always wondered what drives people to write all this non-related stuff on the 'span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"intinet/span' (span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"lol/span!) and expected people to read it? Nonetheless here I am joining the legions of people writing whatever comes to mind on the span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"internet/span and do you know, it's oddly cathartic as I sit in my mates bed at roughly 3.30pm on a Tuesday knowing that coursework and revision are calling out to me, slowly eating into my ability to enjoy life...and living it span style="font-size:78%;"(span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"lol/span! Yes I KNOW the way I slid that in was ever so corny but I DON'T CARE!)/span. span style="font-style: italic;"Alas/span, whilst I have no interest in revising research methods or writing my second essay on voluntary sector policy I must admit the £7000 odd I'm paying for my span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"blimming/span degree is damn good incentive in causing me to reconsider the judgement that has me sitting here wishing to do span style="font-style: italic;"ANYTHING/span but revise. I know my fellow 'life...and living it' girls are feeling me because we are each in the same boat.br /br /The dilemma comes about because the learning into which we have each been 'encouraged', some to a lesser extent than others, in an ever-so-Ghanaian manner (Go to school, read your books! You must be an accountant or lawyer...what is this nonsense about studying Art?! span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"Kwasia/span!) to get 'good' jobs and go out into the world of work, make money span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"et/span span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"cetera/span. But as I sit here I wonder how right they all were...the world as we know it seems to be currently falling apart. span style="font-style: italic;"APPARENTLY/span, the bottom has fallen out of the job market due to the 'global, financial and economic crisis' and ex-high flying bankers are taking the boring mundane jobs our parents wanted us to fill instead. And it WOULD be now in the midst of this turmoil that the education system is preparing to spit me quite unprepared into the world of work which my lawyer friend, whose bed I am currently lounging in, tell me sucks.br /br /And all this when I should be revising for my exams.br /br /Now, to the dilemma...do I work my socks off trying to get a distinction for this silly masters so that I am catapulted to the front of the queue of desperate span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"jobseekers/span or do I actively not do my best so I can fail, be forced to retake and so delay entry to the boring world of work until all the ex-high flying bankers take this set of mundane jobs and I get a chance at the next set? span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"Hmmm/span, decisions, decisions....br /br /All this has got me to thinking....I should have gone to the Slade School and studied ART!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-8365064561096327698?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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21:38
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Life...and living it
a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Pyhfib56IA0/Sdk4bOcaGsI/AAAAAAAAAAk/kvFgmyoM3JM/s1600-h/n63259092318_7780.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321346475099822786" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 146px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Pyhfib56IA0/Sdk4bOcaGsI/AAAAAAAAAAk/kvFgmyoM3JM/s320/n63259092318_7780.jpg" border="0" //abr /divWhen we watch a t.v. show, we can sometimes get quite emotionally involved with the scenes we see on our screens. But, those emotions (usually) end with the closing credits. However, the drama EastEnders provided us with on Thurdsday night left quite a (long lasting)impression on its audience. You can imagine my curiosity on Thursday night, after a long day at work, when I logged onto facebook ( at approximately 9.10pm) to find a extensive list of EastEastenders related comments on my newsfeed. As someone who had abandoned the show for months, I didn't know what the big storyline was, but whatever it was had left people angry and heartbroken! Ok, so I must confess, my curiosity was aroused...and...er let's just say, I watched the BBC3 repeat at 10 o'clock. (ssshhh! that's between me and you) Anyway, after seeing Danielle get mauled down en route to Ronnie's open arms , I couldn't help but join the ranks of broken hearts. Even I felt cheated, and I hadn't even been following the show for the last eight or nine months it took for the poor girl to say the words "you're my mum"!br /So, on went my laptop at 11.01pm, so I too could vent. "EastEnders better rewrite the script", I wrote as my status. But the next day, when I realised that someone had gone and created a group "Bring Back Danielle from EastEnders" (or something like that), with over 6000 members (I kid you not) it left me thinking "wow! is it that serious?". People are proper pissed off with the BBC! People had posted all sorts of comments such as "Boycott EastEnders" and "BBC should write her back in the script". I mean, what were they expecting? A pastor and the Holy Ghost fire to bring her back? lol. However amongst the brouhaha was the one voice of reason. The obviously most sensible member of the group posted "has anyone considered that the girl who plays Danielle probably had other things to do in life?". Mmm...he has a point you know. It is, afterall, just a show. Ok, so I may have been sucked in (for a while), but I had common sense knocked back into me.br /Without ignoring the fact that what happened between mother and daughter was tragic, it's funny how we let the most trivial of things arouse so much emotion. Look, my point is, "calm down, it's just a t.v. show!"/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-5348768170148236657?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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13:48
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Life...and living it
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Pyhfib56IA0/Sdi6bAJ16_I/AAAAAAAAAAM/xYp4XPvVHHU/s1600-h/eyebrown+waxing.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Pyhfib56IA0/Sdi6bAJ16_I/AAAAAAAAAAM/xYp4XPvVHHU/s320/eyebrown+waxing.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321207932798757874" //abr /Now most people who know me know that I have a somewhat gentle obsession with misspelt signage. I have a love/ hate relationship with this because although they may provide me with many instances of unexpected mirth, I can't get over the sheer laziness of having a misspelt sign outside your shop. How can you expect me to take you and your business seriously when you're offering me an "intinet cafe"? What kills me even more is that nobody manages to spot these mistakes from the owners, to the people who put up the signs, etc. etc. Some may say I'm being pedantic and I probably am but come on! We live in the age of spellcheck don't we? Lol. Being a linguist (ahem!), one of the first things you're taught in any foundations class is to let go of our belief in prescriptive grammar and embrace descriptive grammar. I tried is all I can say. I may have become more descriptive in my grammatical views but if you're gonna have the cheek to proudly display something in order to entice me into your place of business, at least let me know that you bothered to press F7! Nevertheless, it's a tiny habit of mine to document these moments of unintended humour on the mean streets of London lol. So expect more of these whenever I feel the urge....divbr //divdivFor those of you who share my little obsession, check out a href="http://engrish.com"engrish.com/a for more laughs along the same lines./divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-6694778104638309621?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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22:12
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Life...and living it
We've finally joined the blogging revolution! Yes we know we're a few years late but stick with us, you won't be disappointed (we hope...). This blogging thing has been written so many times in our imaginations and we thought it was about time we finally made it tangible. So as an introduction: we're four Ghanaian brits in our early to mid twenties and we're going to write about whatever topic is on our minds on any given day. From music, to fashion, to current affairs. We hope you stick with us and see where this takes us. We know emwe/em can't wait!br /br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"br //spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8966828029284505556-5101750647901488243?l=lifenlivingit.blogspot.com'//div
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