Crimes against mankind

So summer is finally here - if you blink you'll miss it. But as the sun decides to pay us a flying visit we are all aware that we will be faced by certain crimes against mankind - here are some of my favourites:

Wearing inappropriate clothes when you live in a city. Now we are not at Sunsplash or Crop over so if your clothing only covers your nether regions please return back to your house and put some appropriate clothes on. I have holiday clothes that I wear when I have boarded a plane and safely landed. They have never seen the light of day or night in the UK, they have been bought strictly for sitting around a pool or at some tropical beach.

Toes hanging over your sandals, you may wish to be a size 5 but you're a 7 or 8, therefore the sandals you have on do not fit your feet. Your toes are actually dragging along the floor as you walk. I get it you like them and couldn't leave them in the shop I know I've been there but I did and so can you!!!!

Puny chests on display, I understand it's hot but we live in Britain and we have rules of decency here. Its the stiff upper lip and all that bs, so in a park or the beach you can take your t-shirt or vest off other than on those occasions leave them on. Amber Rose and whatever his name is (Wiz something) aren't together anymore so dream on no one thinks a pigeon chest is sexy, follow Snoop he keeps his shirt on - actually notice how baggy they are its for a reason! Men with chests, abs and pecs your woman likes to know that other women look at you and think dayum they can daydream but they don't know - understood!

Wearing black when the sun is beating down, I understand you have a limited wardrobe. It's only frivolous people like me who follow the Scouts motto, I have more summer clothes than the amount of days we've had that hit 25 oC or over in the last 2 years but wearing black doesn't make you look cool. It's hot man embrace the warm weather and wear light grey at least.

God is a genius even though Adam and Eve didn't know it toenails were meant to be painted. God thought I'm going to make toenails and then they'll learn how to create nail polish, it started off with a range of natural dyes but now we have millions of ways to make toe nails look pretty. Let me ask you now who are you to mess with what God intended, quick, quick all women out there paint your toenails before unleashing your feet on the world and if your feet aren't looking great treat yourself to a pedicure.

Time for me to go and get a pedicure before going out to enjoy the sun.

Taking away the COOKIE

So its been reported that recently engaged Megan Good has decided to put her man on a cookie diet (no sex until they married). As the 'diet' implies they were having sex so this decision has been made to help make their wedding night extra special, to bring them closer to God as they move towards their union or just because.

Now as a young all knowing woman I was confident that I would follow the path Megan and her fiancé have chosen. Wanting to bring something special to my wedding night (blame Hollywood - Mystic Pizza) I had grand ideas of having a bit of a break for 2 to 3 months before getting married.

Even when your not in a relationship celibacy is hard so making the decision to not have sex for an extended period when in a committed relationship and engaged is a bold choice, but as their marriage will be based on many facets of love why not. We all know when you haven't had your favourite junk food for a while the first bite always tastes so good!

On rainy days....

On rainy days my favourite things to do are:

1. Stay in bed
2. Read a fantastic book 
3. Watch a great movie - Sound of Music or Beaches preferably please!
4. Dunk a Digestive into a cup of tea
5. Eat cake

Basically just veg! It's not because I've lost the black girl vs rain and wind battle. I have hats, wellies and coats to deal with that dastardly (I think Wacky races when I see this word) combo; but mainly because its just so miserable and secondly its a no peep toe situation. I wear peep-toe shoes for at least  8 months of the year and the rain prevents that #imserious.   Come on you didn't believe did that- I just don't like the cold, wet, greyness of it all, its so miserable!

So at times like this when I'm stuck in the house, or unable to emerge from the office at lunch-time; I think of funny moments in my life to cheer me up. Let me share some with you (I'm basically a klutz so feel free to laugh):

• I'm on a first date, I've had a cocktail or 4 and I'm leaning over on the stool and I fall off the stool. But I fall in a way that the stool is kind of stuck on my arse. I obviously keep my eyes closed in the hope that if I can't see anyone laughing then I can climb into the abyss and pretend it never happened (wishful thinking). My date is trying not to laugh, finally I end up sitting back on the stool, my date laughs but everyone in the bar continues on as if something like this happens every day!
  
•  I'm on a another date, he (another guy) picks me up we drive 5 mins down the road and his car breaks down in the middle of the main high road of the area we live in. I know how to play the game so I offer to push, but the heels and dress I have on mean that isn't a possibility. So he tries to act like he can push the car himself, I offer to steer but he is like 'no I got this'. The traffic is backing up all along the high road; he is so embarrassed and I am trying my best not to laugh. I don't think we've spoken about it since.  Lol but I need to remind him of this the next time I see him because it was so funny.

• I walked into a bottle of brandy - as in head first into a bottle that someone was holding at a party (my spatial awareness is poor any wonder why broken down car guy didn't let me steer). Lol I try to act like I'm all cool and collected but I'm not. These situations seem to happen to me quite regularly, grazed ,my knee as I fell down the stairs on Saturday.
  
•  Just asked one of my friends who said I had a blonde moment recently (please don't take offence - most of you aren't true blondes anyway) and spent 5 mins trying to get something out of the boot of his Porsche. How was I to know that the boot was at the front of the car (erm I was totally engrossed in something else when we put the bags in there, and yeah its not the first time I've had to go in the boot but I have a bad memory). Question for you is why is it a boot when its at the front lol!

I love funny pictures and videos, although not mean ones; If you have any good ones please share my way. I like this one at the mo  --------.>>>>>>>>

Mainstream beauties??!!

Just a quick post to say:

As featured in Pride's May issue

1. I'm loving that beauty for black and asian women is being discussed in mainstream publications. If you haven't read http://www.stylist.co.uk/beauty/the-changing-face-of-beauty#image-rotator-1 then please do.
2. Glamour UK tweeted 'Afro envy' to encourage its followers to view a gallery image of Solange (I <3 Solange) @ the Met Ball. Glamour UK I have Afro envy too!!!
3.  I participated in a Pride Beauty Roundtable,  catch up on the conversation in May's Beauty edition.

London mayoral elections

So this week London decides who will be Mayor for the next 4 years. I lost my voting cherry in the first Mayoral elections and to be honest I have a much keener interest in who wins this
election than the national one (I have issues with the parliamentary system but I'll leave that for another post).
The polls suggest that this election is quite tight with Boris and Ken with a lead (exactly who is leading varies dependent on the papers political leanings) of about 2 points.

I urge anyone who is eligible to vote to do sonmainly because I believe it's your civic duty and unless your planning some other form of legal protest, this is more or less the biggest opportunity you have to influence a change in policy. I'm not naive enough to believe that it will make a significant difference but if you're not trying to get your voice heard you can't complain.

Anyway as part of my journey to find out more about the candidates I recently attended a hustings for the BME community. Now if you are unaware I'm not a fan of events like this. My general view is that black people are a diverse group with different concerns and having a hustings especially focused on 'black issues' suggests that the subjects that will be tabled are not concerns for Londoners as a whole. But trying not to be defeatist after debating the issue for a while I decide to go and dragged a friend along.

I'm not going to comment on the late running of the event. I would just suggest that there are lots of very good event mangers out there and it's always worthwhile to use professionals to do the job they are experienced in but I digress.

I'm sure or I hope, some of you watched the debate on tv and are aware of the policy areas that were discussed. At the time I was dismayed to think that although we have very high unemployment rates in London, the average price for a house is unaffordable for many on the national average wage in this city, schools are oversubscribed, the EMA has been abolished, a two stop return tube journey (without an Oyster) costs £7 (personal gripe) etc all that anyone in the audience wanted to talk about was stop and search. Now I'm not saying that stop and search isn't in important issue, but when we are in economic turmoil and things are becoming ever more expensive and with the likelihood you're more likely to be unemployed if you are black (breathe girl) I was very perplexed by the repetition of questions in this area.

Once I'd returned home I started to talk to friends and family about the event and it all became clear. As people with or starting families we were interested In increasing house prices, a lack of good schools and high unemployment rates. We wanted to know how they planned to prevent another riot as we didn't want to see our home city torched and looted. We wanted to know why we had spent large sums on a bike scheme when the price of public transport rose and why promises of Olympic tickets for children hadn't been kept. We questioned if Boris really thinks anyone would vote for him whilst he thought his place was to stay on holiday when the city he holds political office for was under threat.

And it was then that I remembered why I still believe black people aren't homogenous and why I'll be sticking to reading manifestos and watching/attending more inclusive events in the future.

If you disagree and think we need more BME political events I'd be interested to read your views?

Also to those who organised the event I would like to say I celebrate your endeavours to get all involved in the political process.

Inspired by ...

Michelle

It's got to the point where the last name isn't needed at all. She is an icon, the most televised First Lady (next up is Jackie), highly educated, great career, pretty, well dressed, strong, caring and focused. A loving mother and wife with a great relationship with her mum she is Essence's poster child. Michelle looks like the kind of woman that would be my friend, fun and savvy with a I'm not playing mentality when required.

I recently watched a short video where Barack and Michelle were having a date night with some of the American public, Mr President was open, engaged all the things that make him an accessible politician but it was the First Lady who really stood out to me. Dignified, relaxed and confident she really looked like she was enjoying dinner with this group of people she had never met before.There is a genuine warmth that comes through when you see her in a photo, in the way she engages with people and the hugs, fist touches etc that she dolls out.

As I've written before Michelle is just one example of a Phenomenal Women!

Some of my favourite Michelle moments:

Being black and British

I'm 2nd generation born and raised on this fair isle called Britain and growing up in London, in a leafy villagey type area I have to say I've had it pretty good for most of my life. I can't say I've ever really experienced overt racism - yep certain shopkeepers like to put my change down on the counter, but there have been a few times that the money I've meant to pay them has fallen in  between the sweet supply and I've said sorry with a glint in my eye as I've walked out of the shop. All in all, I can't complain I did well at school, went to uni,  have a career I enjoy etc - things aren't perfect by the least  but things have worked well for me. This doesn't mean that I'm unaware of the racism and discrimination that go on in this country but like I say I've been largely unaffected by these issues.

Yet although my head has been largely in the clouds I have begun to notice that there are a number of very concerning figures in the press of late (I think they are even more concerning as they are in the mainstream media):

• Black Britons least satisfied of UK population
• Black people more likely to be unemployed in the UK than US
• Half of the UK's black young males unemployed
• 60% of black undergrads don't expect to be in employment 6 months after graduating

I could go on but its depressing! So what I really want to know is what are we going to do about this situation? We are feeling the pinch of the economic downturn harder than any other ethnic group in this country and as we are all aware that there isn't a great black politician or community leader who is going to fly down from somewhere to resolve these issues?!?!  And it would appear that the powers that be really don't give a toss, so its up to us to do something about this situation!! I also implore people like Lee Jasper to stop tweeting that black people can't be racist and actually knock on the doors of the people who matter, and Diane Abbott to stand up and speak out about the issues that affect the black community.

I'm seriously worried about the generation of black kids coming through who:

•  have university fees of £27k to contend with
• even if highly educated are more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts.

I'm usually an optimist but from where I'm sitting the future is looking bleak. High unemployment rates leads to many other concerns such as poor mental health and increase in criminal activity. Our young people need to be given a level playing field and to know they can strive for and achieve what they want. I have a teenage son and I talk to him about the need to work hard at school, to ensure that when he goes to uni (I'm of Nigerian descent so any career requires a university degree) he gets experience in his chosen career etc, but I wonder what more can be done to ensure that our children understand the added extra they'll need to compete when their starting blocks are just behind the starting line?

I'm going to think about how I can contribute to improving things.