Going Nude

Get your mind outta the gutter folks, I'm talking about lipgloss :-) I'm not really big on makeup, purely because I lack the patience to spend quality time fussing over each feature on my face, but my vanity means I have piles of unused or partly used glosses, lipsticks, powders, mascaras and professional makeup tool kits gathering dust on my dressing table lol. Sadly, I keep picking up whatever the must-have item is and so far this summer, nude is the way to go. Pink has had its time in the spotlight too, knocking le rouge out of the way for the bright summer season but nude is the next big thing (or so I've been told). Innocently walking through the makeup floor in Harrods, I clocked eyes with a male makeup artist at the Bobbi Brown stand (big mistake!). He had one of those pitiful faces that made you want to buy something just to make his day better (sigh). So anyhoo I strolled over and let him work his magic, seducing me into splurging on a few nude essentials, even telling me their Pot Rouge for lips and cheeks in Cabo Coral made my cheek bones pop like Beyonce's (as if!). Fortunately for him, my sister approved and so did a few passers by who actually stopped to watch the transformation process (eeeek!). Ever since that fateful day, I haven't braved the nude look but I thought I'd try it out today, wish me luck!

Wearing Boobi Brown rich color gloss in Melon

Back in the day..

If there were ever a time to obsess about the past, I think now would be it. With shows like Mad Men receiving rave reviews (for obvious reasons! the show is AH-MAY-ZEEING!!! like OMG Don Draper!) and a lot of 80s trends making a comeback this year, I think a little walk down memory lane should be embraced. Besides history is a great reference for the future (okay I just made that up lol). Having zoomed my way through all the episodes of Mad Men thanks to http://www.tvduck.com/, I decided to go out and buy a couple of DVDs from the 80s to help pass the time. It was during my rummage in HMV that I stumbled across an 80s movie club DVD box set for Working Girls, which included five movies: Desperately Seeking Susan, Moonstruck, Romancing the Stone, Where Harry Met Sally and Working Girl (great selection no). Given my investment banking background and work withdrawal symptoms (which I felt for the first time this week), I obviously started off with Working Girl which I had never seen. I was glued to my screen from the opening song (Let the River Run), till the closing credits. Top movie without a doubt! Great wardrobe, stellar performance from Melanie Griffiths (never knew she looked / acted that good once upon a time!), intelligent script with some great lines:

Mel G - "I've got a head for business and a body for sin, is anything wrong with that?" (Fierce!!!)

Mel G - "I'm not steak, you can't just order me"

Sigourney Weaver - "Dress shabbily they notice the dress, dress impeccably they notice the woman - Coco Chanel"

Aside from Alec Baldwin, the male talent was lacking (visually). I actually found a young Harrison Ford a bit too clean cut for my liking, but he still made a fine executive, and what is it with men (Don Draper too) and extra shirts in their office drawers?? Doubt my colleagues ever had such stashes, not that I was looking. Oh and the outdated computer monitors were hilarious with the plain black screen and ghastly green text display (life with no MS Excel eeeek!). All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this flick, think I'll be checking out Desperately Seeking Susan next :-)

London State of Mind

P.S. Excuse the not so great blackberry camera shot

What do you do when you are all blogged out? Top up your Oyster card and hop on any night bus heading West :-). Well that was exactly what my sis and I did earlier tonight and yes we got lost a few times but we found our way home (phew!). Another great thing about good ol' London, is you don't have to do much to get BUZZED on a night out. We initially planned to have drinks in any bar around Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square, but got carried away with our people spotting and ended up strolling across the Westminster Bridge whilst trying to shake off some annoying dudes (some guys just lack tact). Anyway after pretending to speak no English, they eventually buggered off and we got down to some serious tourist acts like taking goofy pics of ourselves on our blackberries and some equally distorted pics of the London Eye (it was a great view but I will NEVER go on that Ferris wheel). Can't believe I actually considered hiring out a capsule for my 21st birthday, given my severe case of Acrophobia. Funny enough, my friends and I decided to ride The Wheel of Manchester earlier this year (BIG mistake! lol), we ended up pressing the emergency button half way through especially as one of us (*cough*), had a panic attack and threatened to pass out if the operators didn't bring us right down lol. Where was I? Oh yes, London ;-) After much roaming (Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament Square), we eventually headed home, quietly content and appreciative of this very cosmopolitan city's gems!

Facebook woes

I'm sorry but Facebook is getting on my last nerve. Like every time I sign on, there is a new random person trying to add me as a friend??? What is that about? I would NEVER even dream of adding a total stranger to my "friends list"........people forget what the term "friend" means these days! Well according to http://www.dictionary.com/, a friend is a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard. HELLO! lol. Okay I do sound hysterical but seriously it is beyond infuriating, it is actually extremely rude, presumptuous and a severe disregard for privacy (still sound hysterical lol but I mean it!). These people need to stop! The excitement of seeing that red alert box over the friend icon on my facebook page has now been replaced by anxiety. I'm even getting good at ignoring it for some days before checking in, just to make sure a real friend hasn't been ignored for longer than necessary. Someone needs to sort it out. A friend suggested I change my profile pic because it could be attracting the wrong sort of attention BUT the invites are also coming from females (should I be concerned? lol). The polite thing to do is send a message first then a friend request not vice versa, but I guess that is asking for too much. The good news is I know the solution to my problem, LEAVE FACEBOOK (duh!) but the bad news is I can't go through with it, at least not yet. So till then my soon to be long lost genuine friends will need to join me in playing the waiting game, while the strangers can keep getting the ignore button :-)

Hookahdom

Yesterday was one of those days that were just too good I wasn't quite sure what part to blog about. Everything was splendid and to top it all off, my dear friend (first ever person my antisocial self made friends with at uni *blush*), treated me to my favourite Thai restaurant, Busaba Eathai. My close peoples know I'm ALL about great conversation and boy did we have A LOT to talk about, especially as we hadn't done a one-on-one session in ages. One of the things we talked about was our blatant love for London and how this city caters for everyone like none other, especially in the summer when we have a gazillion tourists roaming about (sometimes aimlessly lol).
So on my way back home, driving through Edgware Road a.k.a. Hookahdom (some call it Little Beirut), I couldn't help but notice how different this road looked back in the 90s when hardly any Hookah or Shisha bars existed. Now, a drive through this stretch of road feels like a drive through the streets of Persia, Egypt, Morocco and other Arab cities. It also smells different and every other restaurant doubles as a Shisha bar. Even their Starbucks is customised, luv it! For someone who lives really close by, I am certainly not a hookah queen, in fact I've only smoked it once and that was on a trip to DC sometime last year, probably Thanksgiving (random I know). Anyhow it was fun but I hear it is worse than smoking a fag (well that is what my lil sis told me). For now, I'll just stick to admiring my miniature Moroccan Hookah pipe (see photo), which I bought on a trip to Marrakech with my friend, a few years ago (great place but take a man, you'll need the protection!). Lurve bric-a-brac and try to get some wherever I go. That reminds me, must head to Portobello road tomorrow (note to self, no Hummingbird cupcakes allowed!)

Jerk!

Okaaaay so it's past 4am and my sisters and I have been jerking all night lol (the joys of youth!). They are still going strong but my over 25yrs old bones and muscles called it a night about an hour ago. It all started because my party throwing friend sent me a list of new hot tracks to check out (he is the only reason my playlist stays fresh). So any way we started off with a mix of whiskey, boiling water, honey, lemon, and cinnamon a.k.a Hot Toddy (Usher featuring Jay Z and Ester Dean). Everyone and their mama have had an opinion on this song today so I'm not gonna say much but it's fierce! Thankfully my sisters and I are quite talented (my youngest sis is great with lyrics, melody and everything in between, oh and she's a great dancer just like me and my other sis....so I like to think lol), so we really didn't hold back in terms of our music selection for our impromptu dance session. We went through an eclectic playlist, often taking dance notes off some brave folks on YouTube and that was when the jerking started lol. There is something retarded but insanely fun about jerking BUT it won't be a move I'll be displaying outside the confines of my bedroom, unless I've got some fierce juice in me veins :-). Speaking of which I think I need a body double for this weekend, so many parties (I CAN'T get out of *groan*) so little stamina eeeeks! Time to hit the sack xx

Love Mondays....

Feeling good, looking better, has been my motto for today, thanks to a few special people (one in particular......sigh). As I sit in bed, with my duvet wrapped around my legs (nippy London night) and my well deserved glass of my favourite tipple (Malbec wine) on my bedside table, I can't help but smile (you know that nerdy lovey dovey smile *shy face*) as I sway from side to side to Yori Yori remix (funny I didn't care much for the original). Like someone rightly commented on YouTube, "the song gives me feelings". Feelings I haven't dealt with in a hot minute and the timing is apt (hmmm). Summer '010 has been beautiful. I think it's safe to say I have ALL I need now :-)

Thought I should spread the love, enjoy! xox

P.s. All this good music has got me dancing....who knows one day I just might treat you to one of my sessions.....yah!

Born to be Wild!

I decided to go back to my roots yesterday, having suffered an excruciating migraine for the last few days. Yea I I know I am a bit of a hypochondriac but I had taken several Ibruprofen tablets, given up watching Mad Men on my laptop so my eyes could "rest" and downed several gallons of water to cure what I assumed to be a dehydration inspired migraine and yet my head felt like a clueless carpenter had moved in with the hopes of constructing the next world wonder......it HURT like hell and it just didn't seem like any known cure was working. Needless to say my featherlight Peruvian weave began to feel like an over fed hippo, weighing on my throbbing head. So I chopped it ALL off and freed myself of the bondage. I am not sure if plain old fresh air or psychology has anything to do with it but boy do I feel as good as new today :-)

I know a lot of natural sistahs like to say "I'm not my hair" BUT today I most certainly am my hair. I haven't felt this much liberated, eccentric and exotic in such a long time. Granted I had a relaxer about a month or so ago so my hair isn't entirely in its natural state. Still, I'm luvin' its wild state! Defo giving the weave a pass for the rest of the summer :-)

Let's go there!

I've always thought it pretty rich of Western media to remain fixated on the great divide between the rich and the poor in Nigeria, particularly Lagos. Between 2007 and now, I can't tell you how many articles and documentaries I've read and watched about how a large majority of Lagosians live in absolute poverty while  the upper class who typically reside on the island i.e. Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki and the ever expanding areas beyond Lekki, live like rockstars (okay not in those exact words but you get my drift).

Anyhow, a few days ago, I drove through some parts of London I never quite knew existed. London can be a pretty depressing place sometimes, no thanks to its unpredictable weather and blatant lack of modern architecture (not that I mind but some people find Victorian buildings dull), so you can imagine my state of mind after discovering what I now call the pit of London. For reasons best known to me, I will rather not divulge the exact location of these parts of London but I can tell you it was a depressing experience. Run down buildings and equally tattered residents, abandoned vehicles, unattended dump sites, empty nil-star rated restaurants with clumsy looking sign boards and a handful of druggies, beggars and homeless people roaming about. It had nothing in common with the London I have grown accustomed to. The London I see when I look out my bedroom window. It definitely lacked the presence of tourists, most especially Arabs who now make up a significant portion of London's creme de la creme. Few weeks ago, my sister and I were in Knightsbridge for a bit of shopping and even though all we did was shop, we felt like we had journeyed to the set of Sex and the City 2, even indulging in a bit of car spotting (Rolls-Royce Phantom, Lamborghini Murciélago and Porsche Panamera to name a few). Meanwhile on my drive threw the pit, there was a vivid lack of life, hardly any cars on the road, we even saw one of those retro Volkswagen Beetles, and the local transport was nothing as efficient as that in Central London.  Granted, the poor in London are better catered for than in Lagos but relatively speaking, they are not necessarily in a better position if travelling from one post code to another makes you question if you are indeed in the same city. Also unlike Lagos, a vast majority of London's upper class (in financial terms), are foreigners >>>>>> food for thought.

As a trained economist, I am well aware of the existence of income inequality in every nation, measured by something we call the Gini Coefficient. According to http://www.poverty.org.uk/, inner London is deeply divided: it has by far the highest proportion of people on a low income but also the highest proportion of people on a high income. So not only have I witnessed a great divide between the rich and the poor in the UK, by class, education and post code, there exists statistical data to back this fact up.....(just saying!). Still love London though hehehehe xx