so... about that Romanian cage-fighter



*

Ok, so Nsoromma wanted to know more about the cage-fighter...

He was your typical white man on the hunt for something exotic... He looked at me like I was lunch!
So I agreed to meet him 7 overground train stops AWAY from my house (why do I do this?) and when I got there he immediately flagged down an approaching bus - here's the ensuing conversation-
Me: (nonplussed) errrr why do we need a bus? we're in the centre of town
Him: (nonchalant) Oh, to go to my house
Me: (sardonic) I'm not going to your house MATE, I don't actually know you, let's just get a drink here
Him: (slimy) Oh come on baby (Me: Baby?) I'm an events planner (Really?) so I've wine at mine, it's so annoying to have to buy it again outside
Me: (ghetto) Nah bruv, you must be loopy, what, are you taking me for a drink or what?
Him: (glowering) OK fine.

After this there wasn't much conversation, when I said "let's talk" he rolled his eyes, picked his nose and said "ok , 'talk' " (making inverted commas with his hands) In short it became...well difficult, especially when the hand tried to travel to ( as he put it) my 'strrrrrong thighs mmmm'
UGH, shudder with me readers, I high-tailed it outta there, gross.
He sent me two lewd messages then buggered off (Phew!) But as I said, it was cool to be on a date, and he wasn't evil or anything so never mind eh?

Anyway, since then there's been the sexy TWENTY YEAR OLD (who was really about 17) from Guadeloupe ( I didn't know 'e was a minor officer!), the old school and uni friend who is sweet but annoying and the new obsession. If you want to know more let me know, there's a lot to tell!

I am praying through all this, and God must have a sense of humour 'cos he is bringing me BARE jokes along this journey.

Anyone else got some dating jokes, disasters or successes? Let us know x

Friday's Teeny Weeny Afro

* Not how my cage-fighter looked...

In the slightest...

at all.

Best Thing In My Life

First published on Baring Testament .

Hi all,

I know I've been MIA. But sometimes you just need me time. Down time, so sorry. But happy 2012 everyone! This one is gonna be a good one! Something has been sitting on me about last year, and I wanted to share. Despite not being here much last year. it was a good year for me and I thought I'd mention some highlights...they'll put this year into perspective...

On 31st December 2010 at church a wrote a list of five things. Very specific, that I wanted to begin in my life. And as I get each of them I'll let you know on here. I prayed to God for them, and believed in him to answer my prayers.

One of the things I asked for was a permanent job by the end of 2011, paying a minimum of £30,000. Considering I was in my first job, post-masters, barely any experience, earning £21,000, in the middle of a recession, on a temporary contract, it seemed beyond far from where I was then. Plus I was due to be out of contract at the end of January 2011. The team was full, and my manager was advising me on where to apply for jobs at my level. Maybe earning slightly more. £24,000 including London weighting looked reasonable.

So following my prayer I started looking for jobs in the region of £27,000...ambitious for my level, but with London weighting of around £3,000, that would bump me up to £30,000...just about.

Then an AMAZING thing happened. Three positions opened up in my team. One at £21,000 and two at £32,000. My manager encouraged me to apply for the one at my level, I was doing well, practically in-post and pretty much guaranteed it.

I didn't apply for it. I applied for one of the £32,000 roles...and I got it. First choice candidate with the highest score in the interview and application. And I was expecting to get the job around December as I had put a time-cap on my very specific prayer...it came in MAY. Plus I get a travel allowance bonus. It's funny...I was scrapping around to JUST make the mark for what I had asked God for and he gave me just so much MORE!

Another prayer I prayed after having just broken up with my boyfriend was that I want to meet and know who my future husband would be by the end of the year. I started to date someone pretty soon in the new year who I had known since I was about 13...comfortable. He was nice, sweet, attentive and INTO ME. Like really. He seemed just so proud to be by my side. And he was God-fearing. PRAISE GOD.

But then something AWFUL happened...I just clean went off him. Like completely. For no apparent reason. And he tried everything, and he tried SO HARD, to keep it going. But it died. Just like that.

In the meantime I was still in contact with a couple of ex's (I must stress, this was NOT in any way other than as friends from a distance), including the one I broke up with in December 2010. One from a few years ago, who is in his early 30s starts talking about settling down. A few months later he's clear its me he wants to settle with and starts trying to make a play for me. Then someone else I was crushing on HARD in 2010 starts talking the settling down line...

But AMAZINGLY, I got back with this Ex from December 2010 (since blogging was SPARSE at the time, he has yet to be mentioned on here...). We didn't push our relationship. Or try to define it. After breaking up we went back to the basics of our friendship and it just seemed to grow from there. I never saw it coming. He just seemed to come out with it one day when we were talking, that he wants to be with me...and I just thought, yes. That was around April and we are STILL very happy together. Even more AMAZINGLY we both took it seriously, so much more than first time around. He is the first man to have ever been introduced to my family as my boyfriend and he has been very well received. And I have been invited to meet his family too...

And funnily enough, it has been easier this time. Which NEVER happens when you get back with an Ex. When we first got together I kind of saw him as a time filler. A nice guy but not the man of my dreams. I find it truly amazing that he seems to be everything I ever wanted. And not in the least who I expected him to be. I have never been happier.

THEN 30th December 2011, he PROPOSED. All of a sudden my mind flashes back to the prayer I made and I think 'Oh My Days, really?!'. Saying yes was the easiest thing I have ever done.

God gave me EVERYTHING last year, He is truly the best thing in my life. And all the good I have in my life can be traced right back to Him. 2011 was magical for me. And it looks set to continue.




I am TOTALLY psyched for 2012!!!!!


What did God do for you to psych you for 2012?

Chilling with Jill


When was the last time you went to a gig? I mean a really good, hip swaying, foot tapping, sing-along-till-you're-hoarse gig? Last week, I had the pleasure of seeing Jill Scott. And believe me, the pleasure was all mine.

My fascination with Jill Scott was something that crept up from behind and caught me by surprise. It was actually my girl Sankofa that put Who Is Jill Scott? Vol.1 on my phone and practically force fed me Miss Scott's music. Her ability to manipulate words and make them mean what she wwants them to mean had me totally sucked in. The rest, as they say, is history.

So about three weeks ago when a colleague gave me the heads up about Jill Scott's UK tour (thank you Sandrine!) you could just imagine my excitement. That night, when I got home, I don't remember taking off my coat, or changing out of my uniform. I didn't pass Go, I didn't collect my £200, but headed straight for the laptop and logged onto ticketmaster.

This brings us up to last week. The date, 30th November. The time, 7pm. The place, the 02 Academy Brixton. We actually arrived at the venue at 6.30 to be met by a three man deep queue snaking around half of the building. The excitement started to bubble up inside me from then. I didn't care that I had to wait on the street, frozen to the bone for a good half an hour.

The show started with a DJ warming up the crowd with tracks from RnB's golden era. My man was laying on 90s track after 90s track from Biggie, The Fugees, Missy, Mary J Blige, Lil Kim, Tupac, Blackstreet...oooh, I was in music heaven! The crowd was great too - whether this is a positive reflection on Brixton or on Jill Scott, I don't know. But everyone was having a ball.

The lady of honour came on stage at 9 on the dot. Not a minute early, or a minute late. And there is something to be said about an artist that respects her fans enough to show up on time. She strutted on with a sure sexiness in every step. To put it in very Ghanaian terms, confidence be what?!

She got the party started with one of my favourite tracks, Shame from the new album Light of the Sun. And that was it. I was taken. Jill Scott's music had me seduced from the get go. We were also taken back in time with emotion laden tracks such as The Way and He Loves Me
(a sure favourite!)

What I loved about Jill was the fact that she engaged with the audience, and made us fall in love with her personality. My girl has a sense of humour! And this came shining out through her anecdotes which peppered her performance right till the end. And she did not fail to show us how powerfully feminine she really is with her Womanifesto and Rolling Hills.

This beautiful lady had us all captivated and eating out of the palm of her hand. Her voice which can be sultry and moody at one minute, and high and piercing the next is another story altogether. Trust me, you know it's good music when your thirty-something year old auntie can't stop moving.

I could go on for ages about the natural talent of this woman but I have to stop somewhere. So I'll leave you with this: it was a great night. Money well spent in my opinion. Money I would spend again and again and again to see this lady perform.

I was supposed to leave my top five Jill Scott songs, but that was too difficult. So let me say this: I love all of them.

P.S. Click on the title for a little surprise!

Dateline....




Hello all!

I know it's been super long (sorry!) I'm sure that the posts will resume, although probably in sporadic and spaced-out intervals.

Just wanted to write a few quick pieces about, well, my recent dating experiences. I am recently coming out of a TWO YEAR drought/hibernation/coma whatever you want to call it concerning the opposite sex...after the to-ing and fro-ing with le martiniquais and all the mess that ensued, I have been keeping myself to myself.

However, following a barrage of weddings, I have decided to actively get back out there so I've recently been on one date with a Romanian-french cage-fighter (who used to be a spy of some sort...) and have been invited out by a uni friend this week, I have also been set up for a blind date...
Woohoo! I'm pretty sure I won't be seeing the cage-fighter again, but it was cool to be 'on a date' and I'm just going to try to enjoy my self.

I will be writing posts on future dates, including the most painful bits (as a form of catharsis) ...watch this space x

Ghollywood, Spare us the Details

Hello LALI readers. Not too long ago, I was thinking about our beloved Ghana, and all the achievements we as her children can display like medals of honour. Afterall, was Ghana not the first sub-saharan african country to gain independence from the British Colony? And can we not boast about never having a civil war? And have we not welcomed great political and historical figures into our country such as Maya Angelou, James Baldwin and Barack Obama? The list of achievements is simply endless, and I could have sat there for hours on end, smugly ticking them off. It makes you proud doesn't it?

It seems we have so much to be happy about, yet we have allowed our film industry to evolve into a tatesless, cheap, over-sexed monster. Yes, I'm talking about you, Ghollywood! (Gosh, I hate that name!) I know most of the time art imitates life, and it's not as if I don't know that people don't have sex in Ghana. But I don't really need to see a campus babe performing fellatio on a randy sugar daddy to get the gist of a film. Once upon a time, our films were authentically known for being family friendly. Now, I'm finding the industry's shift to soft porn totally overwhelming. And the swear words too! The writers need to know that the word "fuck" does not sit well in a sentence of Ghana English at the best of times. I practically have to watch a film alone first before making the decision to watch it with others!

Personally I blame the Film Censors Board for not adequately giving the films their rightful age rating (or for allowing these films to be distributed at all!), the smarmy producers such as Abdul Salam Mumuni and Socrates Sarfo (Yeah. That's right.I said it!) And the desperate actors and actresses that are so willing to play in these degrading roles. (I think I will hold off from naming and shaming here. It could be someone's son/daughter!)

Let me not be unfair, there are a few writers/ producers who know how to deliver a great film. (You go Shirley Frimpong Manso and Leila Djansi!) And let me just throw in here that Life and Living It, written and directed by Shirley is one of my fave Ghana films)

Here are the top three films that go on Afrocentric's Ghollywood Wall of Shame.

1. The Heart of Men
2. Hot Fork (Even the name of this is just embarrassing)
3. Kiss Me If You Can




Can Ghana's film industry, please, for Heaven's sake, spare us the details? We don't need to see it. And can we please return to a time when our films were not cringe worthy and porntastic?

Ghanaian Londoners

I hang my head in shame as I write this post; I know it has been a long time since I have put anything out there. I have had so much to share with you guys in the past couple of months but procrastination and a bit of laziness really have kept me from writing anything. Please accept my humble apology. But thank God for my girls Friday’s Afro, Nsoromma and Sankofa who has kept LALI going.
Now that you have forgiven me, can we move on? Thank you!

A couple of weeks, Sankofa and Nsromma agreed to attend a Ghanaian Londoner’s networking event with me, after (very gentle) persuasion. For those of you who do not know about Ghanaian Londoners, get to know. It’s an organisation created by our girl Adwoa Agyemang, whose main purpose is to connect Ghanaians in London, and friends of Ghana with each other.

My main reason for wanting to go was to support Adwoa. I believe in her vision and want to see it prosper. Also, I knew we would meet a host of interesting people. (Please feel free to define “interesting” in your own way). And believe me, we sure met an assortment of characters, such as the rather animated and eccentric gentleman (whose name I simple cannot remember) who was petitioning for the new Ghana passports to stay black, rather than the proposed green. (I know right. Green Ghana passport?! Yuck!)

Now to the good stuff! Because we did indeed come across some very good stuff. Firstly was the creator of Yaa Ataa Bags. A small enterprise specialising in bags, laptop sleeves and Ipod cases. They have a retro, or "sankofa" feel because they made from old African prints. Check out the merchandise here!The girls and I practically convulsed over the clutches. They are beautifully made, of good quality, and decently priced too!

We also met another talented young entrepreneur - the creative designer and owner of Yaa Ohene Wa Textiles. It's a fabulous collection of tailored dresses, shirts and jackets for men, women and children. Please check it out. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

My main reason for writing this (except to big up young Ghanaian Londoners doing great things for themselves) is to get us all networking and generally supporting each other. You'll meet a lot of weirdos on the way, but also a lot of like minded, motivated and totally inspiring people.

Anyway chaps, until the next time...

P.S. Happy B'day LALI!

Flashback of the Day: Donell Jones - This Luv

I've always really loved this song and since I've convinced myself that spring has arrived in London Town (na lie-oo!), my play list has been updated accordingly.


This song feels kinna like spring time to me. It's got a good beat and catchy tune, but it's also got this anticipatory vibe to it, just like spring, it's brimming with promise...which is just how I feel right now (not that I'm brimming with sexual promise...just promise in general). Plus it's from the 90's. I love 90's R'n'B. So enjoy...the Donell Jones CLASSIC, 'This Luv'.

Donell Jones - This Luv (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Donell Jones

Can you believe this song is 11 years old now! Wow!

Related Posts with Thumbnails