Open Racism

Today I went to the post office to post a copy of Lime Magazine to my Uncle I was in it recently talking about my natural hair. Anyway behind me there was a man, he was about 40 wearing a pin striped suit he had gone grey and looked like he was visiting during his lunch break. He was with another woman who looked like she was from the office.

He said to the woman “Did you hear on the news this morning, Israel might bomb (and I didn’t hear the country name but I think he said Palestine)” She didn’t reply but then he went on “Yeah I wish they would, I wish we could drop a bomb on all those countries we need to get rid of all the Muslims the (insert derogatory name for people from Pakistan here) the (insert derogatory name for people living in Japan here) and all of those (insert a derogatory name for black people here).

The woman went bright red and suddenly found something interesting on her phone to look at and said “I don’t want to talk about this right now”

I could not believe what I was hearing! All the people from behind the counter were the people that he was saying he needed to get rid of. I wanted to turn around and cuss him big time but I had to be better than that and they had not heard him so only I was offended.

I turned around and got one good look at him so I will always know who it was, smiled and put my angry fists in my pockets.

It was sad when I saw him go up to the Muslim girl behind the counter and say “Hi darling, how are you? Having a good day?”

I really hate people like this.

Ghosts & Spirits

Wow, blogging is time consuming, especially with two blogs but this one is about life and things so let me take off my natural head and talk about something totally different.

Ghosts & Spirits - Do you believe in them?

Recently I was chatting with some of my colleagues and we talked about this topic and it reminded me of two spooky experiences I had

The first was when I was about 11 living at home. It was late at night and I was fast asleep, I had a TV in my bedroom and suddenly it switched on. Power surge? To this day I don’t think so. The volume was turned up to the loudest point and it jolted me out of my sleep and my heart was beating really quickly. I stood up out of bed to run over and turn it off before anyone else in the house woke up and it switched off.  I didn’t have a remote control for that TV so it was not on standby. I stood there for a minute or two shaking and then I heard this knocking sound I looked over to the handles of my wardrobe and saw that they were swinging gently and knocking on the doors. That was enough, I grabbed my quilt and ran into my parents room, where I made a sleeping bag on the floor by the side of their bed and slept there until morning.

Nothing like that ever happened to me again, I do believe it was a Ghost.

The second – a much nicer experience happened to me when I was about 19 years old. I was living, working and studying in Chelmsford and times were hard, I was on my own and money was so tight My father had passed away a year before and things were not good. My family were struggling financially and not in a position to help me. My wages went on rent and living costs so all my food money came from tips at work. So if people did not tip me I did not eat (always tip your serving staff). Anyway one day I was walking down the street and I had it in my mind that I would go to the cash point and get £10. So I was walking remembering all the things I had to do including getting this money. Then suddenly the wind blew and a £10 note flew right into my face. It literally landed on my cheek.  It was the strangest thing to ever happen to me.  I looked all around and there was no one in the street, nowhere the money could have came from, it was so strange.

I believe that was a gift from my Daddy.

Has anything spooky every happened to you? 

A Modern Day Love Story at Christmas.

I can’t really spend my life apologising for not blogging but I can’t help it, you see I'm in a love cocoon. All happy at home means that I don’t even visit blogger and it has been snowing over here, even more reason to snuggle with Mr Special.

Mr Special has moved in and things couldn’t be better. We are so happy it’s unreal.
I find myself praying a lot now as I’m so happy I’m afraid it will be taken away from me.

We have routines now, whoever cooks the other person washes the dishes and stuff like that. He cooks for me, wakes me up with kisses in the morning, gets me water when I’m thirsty in the night, massages my shoulders when I’m stressed, helps me take out my braids (yeah he even did that) he even lets me munch on those chocolates that I’m not supposed to have because it makes me fatter and then kisses the bits I think are fat. He is a darling. Just because he treats me well don’t take him for some weak guy, oh no, he is defiantly the man of the house, but I like it.

Then me, well….I also cook for him, peek at him in the shower, nibble his ears in bed in the morning, giggle when he grabs my breasts, do his washing, pedicure his toes (yeah I even did that) buy him the biscuits that I never would buy myself because they are overpriced and alone I would eat them in one go. Get in the bed before him and lie on his side so it’s warm when he arrives. Make him tea, smile when he arrives through the door, always ask about his day and more importantly listen to the answer.

Its good people!! It’s all good. Tomorrow it will be our first Christmas living together. We decorated our tree together and have been getting joint Christmas cards. Tomorrow morning I’m going to wake with him beside me, kiss him Happy Christmas and give him the gift I bought him.

Aawwww I’m happy, how are you doing?

Happy today....

Hey everyone, I hope you are all ok and glad you liked my picture of me as a little one. It was nice to hear what you guys did as children.

Anyway I write with joy today. Mr Special and I are (hopefully) be going to move in together before the end of the year!! Despite some negative opinions, I am so excited about it. People are worried we haven't been together long enough, or that if we move in together we will never get married and lots of things like that but to be honest I don't care. I know him, I love him and I'm happy if it's not meant to be at least let me enjoy this happiness we have had such a great journey.

His name is Andrew he is a year older than me, we met in 2007 on a Salsa boat cruise and became great friends. (hmmm perhaps I should write a post single ladies learn salsa lol). However, It was only in September 2008 that we decided to get together and I have loved every single moment. He has become my best friend and my supporter, he is of the only people in this world that I have full respect for. He has some amazing qualities such as integrity, commitment, intelligence, strength and courage. He is thoughtful, romantic and sexy, he has a great sense of humour and he is a fantastic cook. He really takes care of me and I couldn't ask for more only that I may be all those things to him. He makes sense of the world for me.

Comments? Questions?

I used to be a Centurion

I was walking around St James's Park yesterday when a full marching band came past. I love that London can be so random sometimes.

It wasn’t The Changing of the Guards ceremony which happens every day around 11am but it looked like the same people. I presumed they probably belonged to The Queen, I presumed they were doing a bit of practice but to be honest who knows? I saw tourists quickly grabbing their cameras and it just lit up the otherwise dull afternoon.

Seeing them march by takes me back to the time when I was a child, whilst other little girls belonged to the brownies or gymnastics. I was in a marching band!! It was called The Centurions. We had to practice every Saturday, marching up and down in formation. We also entered competitions but I can’t remember us winning anything.

I played the Cymbals, crashing them together at the back. My deepest desire however was to lead the band and be the Majorette twirling the baton and throwing it up in the air. Lol I guess I have always been a leader. I don’t know what happened in the end, I think I just grew out of it and didn’t go anymore.

Yep the picture at the top is me in full uniform! Somewhere at home mum has a video recording of me but luckily no one I know owns a video recorder so it will never see the light of day.

I was telling Mr Special about this story and as a child he used to be in the Scouts where I think behaved so badly one time when it was time for him to return he felt shamed and just never went back lol. So people what activities did you do as a child?

I told the watch man what time it was!

When Mr Special needed the strap on his watch fixed, I recommended a place near where I work. Less than two weeks later it broke again so being the dutiful girlfriend that I am, I offered to get it fixed again.

I popped up to the place on Tuesday lunchtime and when I got to the counter I was faced with this sullen looking man, the type of guy that just hates his job. I guess hundreds of years working in the watch fixing place had done him in. A customer was just leaving and she brushed past me angrily...I wonder why?

I smiled and handed him the watch and started to say “two weeks ago my boyfriend….
I didn’t even get to finish the sentence, he snatched the watch from me and the broken piece and said “I know, I know, come back in twenty minutes” I wanted to explain that the pin which they fitted, the one that attaches the strap to the watch was too small and too skinny but the guy wouldn’t let me get a word in.
“It’s the pin, it’s…..” I tried to say something but again he interrupted “No come back later” he snapped.

So I walked off and heard him say to his colleague “bloody customers, you would think they knew how to fix watches”

I was vexed! What a horrible exchange.

I went around shopping for a while and then when I returned I asked him for the watch, he almost slammed it into my hands. I pulled it to test it had been fixed properly, it had not, it broke right there and then and out fell the old pin, instead of a new one.

I was NOT impressed and now I had a chance to tell the watch man exactly what time it was (lol)

Here goes

Angel - So you wouldn’t even let me talk or explain the problem, you were too busy running your mouth and now it’s not even fixed

Watch guy (bright red) - well Madame..

Angel – NO honey, it’s my turn to speak, what is your name?

Watch guy - what do you need my name for?

Angel - So when I write to head office and complain about you they will know who I'm talking about

Watch guy – erm…erm….erm….we don’t need to do that, let me see if I can fix it again, if you come back in twenty minutes…

Angel – oh hell no darling…I'm not coming back, you are going to fix it right now.

Watch guy – but, we have loads of watches to fix before yours

Angel (laughing) – Not my problem, you should have listened and fixed it properly in the first place and you better get on with it as I have to be somewhere shortly this is what needs to be done.

Then I went on to explain properly and he fixed it. This was a case where the customer was right!

Anyway later on I got to thinking about the vicious cycle that guy is in. He has a terrible attitude and hates his job you can just tell. He thinks all the customers are horrible and because they respond to his attitude his thoughts become his reality and they really are. This means that every day is a bad day for him and every time he speaks to a customer something bad happens. If he were to just change his mindset and shift his attitude and be nice to people I'm sure he would have a better time in life.

I have known many people that are always angry and always complaining and they think their life is awful , but life is what you make it and if you go around with a bad attitude and a narrow way of thinking I'm sorry but you are just bringing it on yourself…Karma baby!

That concludes Angel’s wisdom for the day!

Beware the Crazies!

In my best friend post I mentioned that I once knew a girl that only washed her face once a week and another that ate four crackers a day. Where they are now? I don’t know, the face washing girl is probably sick and the cracker girl is probably dead, after all you can’t survive on that. The reason I don’t know where they are is because I try my hardest to avoid crazy people but sometimes in life they just creep up on me.

The first crazy I met was when I first moved to London. I rented in a shared flat with two tall hunky Nigerian brothers, for the case of the story I'm going to call them Chocolate and Caramel as that’s exactly what they were and truly delicious!! I don’t think they lived there at the same time, I think Chocolate moved in and then when he moved out Caramel took his room but I cant remember I do know that they were both around and I was happy to have them there. We got on well and we did not trouble each other and just to clarify I didn’t get with either of them. Messing with the people you pay rent with is a bad idea!

In the other room there was crazy. This was the first crazy I had ever properly been acquainted with and I was petrified of him. As with all the crazies he started off really nice and smiling but then the cracks started to show. He was the original reason why I avoid crazy people. Here are the highlights of a few things that happened.

· One night I came home late and he was standing in the doorway saying 'what time do you call this I was so worried?' I told him he was not my keeper and had nothing to worry about but this got him angry and told me he was going to teach me a lesson. I just managed to escape to my room and lock the door. I told Caramel who must have decided to keep an eye on him.

· One day crazy's father came to visit, he arrived smiling, he left in an ambulance - crazy had beaten him up.

· One evening my landlord found crazy sitting on top of the gas cooker which was switched on smoking a cigarette - the landlord had to wrestle him off it.

· Crazy drove his car into a bus and I heard about it because the police came for him.

· The final straw for me was when crazy tried to attack me in the kitchen, he cornered me and kept saying 'I need to talk to you, I need to talk to you' luckily Caramel was home and because of my previous story decided to deal with crazy. I can’t remember what happened but I do know crazy didn’t trouble me again, after this I just moved out.


The years passed by and I encountered many crazy people, like the guy that showed me his penis on the tube, or the date I went on...yeah I almost forgot about this...I was at his place sitting nicely watching a film and then he just got up and started attacking the air - his flat mates ran in and said 'oh no its happening again quick the music!' they rushed to the stero and put on some music and this calmed him. These experiences just made my opinion of the crazies more solid so can you imagine how upset I am to find that another crazy is in my life?

This one is a woman and worrying she is she is Mad (note the capital M) and she knows where I live and has my phone number!

We started off as friends and everything was calm but like I said before, this is how it always starts.

Here are some of her highlights

· She knocked on my door asking if she could use my toilet, I asked her what was wrong with her toilet she said there was a ghost in there. After she thoroughly mashed up my bathroom (it was like Armageddon) she came out ready to fight me asking why I locked her in there.

· She 'cooked' me some fish and gave it to me as a gift the fish was raw it had never been near a cooker. I asked if she knew it was raw she smiled and said she was trying to kill me.

· She threatened me and we had an argument because she said I stole her man. In all the years I have known her I have never seen her with a man. When I said this to her she said 'oh yeah, I never had a man did I?

· She also (worryingly) drove her car into a bus like my first crazy this must be a crazy trait

· She asked me for a hug, I yielded and she bit and licked my neck and wouldn’t let go, this was unpleasant/traumatic she hadn’t washed in weeks.

. She was sectioned about six weeks ago! Yup they came and took her away. But then she called me from her hosptial ward saying she would be out soon and she knows that I was the one that got her locked up - I wasnt. She said she is coming for me.

That last point is the reason why I wrote this...she is back out and she slipped a note for me through my letterbox this evening saying 'girl we need to talk I have missed you'

I dont want to talk!!!

Any suggestions.

The Liccle Tief Bwoy – Who is the real victim?

One night in Antigua, Mr Special and I were relaxing in the hotel room. I think this may have been the day of the boat trip. We had been out all day as it was around 7ish (the time when most people would have gone to dinner).

I was sitting at the dressing table just fussing, probably doing my hair or something girly and Mr Special was reading or reviewing photos or something of that sort.

I heard a rattling of keys in the door; it was like someone was trying a key, and it not working so they were trying another. I was scared because the story about the two British honeymooners that got murdered in the hotel room (link) was still in my head it was only a year ago.

Also I remember clearly that Antigua has 15,000 illegal immigrants (remember in my last post I told you about the size and the population this is a lot) and because of this, resourses like the police and hospitals are now overstretched.

Anyway I said in a quiet voice to Mr Special

“Babe I think someone is trying to get in”

Mr Special did not business he is a fearless black man so he walked over to the door waited until the next key got pulled out and then opened in really quickly.

On the other side was a skinny teenager with a stripy t-shirt a plastic bag and a surprised look on his face.

“Yeah?” Mr Special asked, in a very annoyed voice

“Erm….erm……towels” the boy said “they asked me to change towels I must have the wrong room”

“Babe shut the door!” I said

I was alarmed because the boy wasn’t holding any towels and I was thinking he would just shoot us or something.

Mr Special closed the door and I called reception.

Let me tell you they were fantastic they called security that moment and security caught him.

Later on we found out that he was an ex employee who had broken into the housekeeping office and had stolen the keys. He had broken into every room along the row and ours was the last one. He had stolen ipods and valuables (which is strange because I would have my valuables locked away) but luckily everything was returned.

Mr Special was gutted, he said it was his one chance to give someone a good beating (lol) and even I was angry but when I heard more I changed my stance.

He was let go in January and had another job in construction but was also let go from that as well He was young and had a baby.

I really think that he had just become desperate. With no job seekers allowance or unemployment benefits that we have here he must have been desperate to feed his child.

People will do anything when desperate.

You have to ask yourself, who is the real victim here?

Do you think it’s the tourists who are all insured for their loss of items and didn’t lock up anything? (even if we were not in, he wouldn’t have got anything from our room we locked up everything)

The boy, who was jobless, hungry and desperate who will now go to jail and from what I know, jail in the Caribbean isn’t the hotel that it is in the UK. Jail always fails to rehabilitate anyone so he will just come out hardened and ready to commit more crimes.

Or the child, who probably wont know their daddy for a long time. Who will go hungry at night and if he/she survives will probably grow up to be just as desperate

I’d love to know who you think suffers the most in situations like this.

Its my birthday!!

With my eyebrows raised in happiness and a dimple on each cheek, created by a smile that dances on the corner of my lips, I gently sing happy birthday to me.

As I sing it I look around at the warmth of the flowers, cards, gifts and chocolates that fill my life on this special day. Seeing them confirms that people really do care for me and that makes me feel good.

I'm the me of today the Angel that took this many birthdays to create. Throughout the years I have matured into the caring, happy, friendly loving, attractive, funny, creative, sexy person that am today and the way I see it…things can only get better.

So I'm going to sing it a bit louder HAPPY BIRTHDAY and pray that for the rest of my life birthdays will feel this wonderful and I will be this much at peace.

Thank you for reading my blog and providing an audience to my escape and creativity.

Angel x

Life can sometimes be so…..refreshing…

It’s my birthday week and I'm in such a good mood starting from yesterday. Before I tell you about that I have some stuff to mention.

1) The dress that I loved in this post is sold out and they are not getting any more. If it wasn’t my birthday week I would be gutted but instead I have ordered three more dresses. When they arrive I will try them all on and pick one - you might have to help me.

2) My hair is done - on the eve of my party - I will get Mr Special to take some photos and I will post them. If I can someone to take a photo beforehand I will post them then.

3) Remember that trifilin brotha in this post? Well mini story…….I got an email from him saying

"Hey girl happy birthday for the 15th, I have booked an FBM for you as a birthday gift"
I was at work and confused I turned to my colleague and said "what is an FBM?" she didn’t know so curiosity got the better of me and I emailed him back.
"Sorry to be dumb but what is an FBM?"
"Full Body Massage" he replied
I was shocked and puzzled, why would he do that for me? So I replied
"Oh my gosh, that is very kind of you"
He then replied "yeah so when do you want me to come over and give it to you?"
"The voucher?" I said
"No" he replied "the massage"

LOL- you know I didn’t even have the energy to reply, very hilarious.

So now to the point of this post why I'm in such a good mood.

Yesterday

When I woke up I was relaxed and happy in Mr Special's arms. Strangely enough the night before Mr Special had given me a full body massage without even knowing the foolish story above.

Every time I open my eyes he is always awake and looking at me, he always tells me I'm beautiful even when I think I look my worst and you know something? That makes me feel beautiful.

We laid there and talked for a while and then we went jogging together. I love exercising with him as he is so encouraging it’s like having a personal trainer. When we came back we showered ate breakfast and enjoyed the day. When you are in a love cocoon, time just slips by, before I knew it, it was early afternoon and he had to go a meeting. I wasn’t too worried he had been with me all weekend.

When he left I realised that for the first time in weeks I had some spare time. It was a warm day so I took some water, some boiled sweets, a book, a mat, some shades and myself in a summer dress up to the park.

I love that park, its one of my favourite places (for Christmas Mr special framed a photo I took in that park and wrote a poem on top of it) I would have biked there but my legs were sore from the jogging. It’s not that near to where I live but it’s quiet. On walking in the park I clocked a brotha sitting on a bench reading.

I was so happy to see that, they say that we don’t read and here was a guy sitting just lost in his book. We nodded at each other and I then walked onto the grass laid out my mat and got relaxed. After a while of reading the sun was really beaming down so I decided to lay back and enjoy it warming my body. I don’t know how long I was there but on feeling a shadow across my face I opened my eyes to see that same brotha standing above me smiling.

Before I could get annoyed he said "would you mind taking a photo of me and my friend?"
I searched around for the friend as I had only seen one guy but it was true there was another brotha and he was also on the bench reading.

"No problem" I said but could he come here as all my stuff is here and I don’t want to leave it.

So he walked back to the friend and they both came back over. I noticed that the friend took ages and was limping. They handed me the camera and whilst they were discussing who would stand where I sneaked a photo, then they posed and I took another. I much preferred the non posed shot it looked so natural.

"Would you mind if I sat here and read with you?" the friend said "it’s my ankle, I don’t think I could get back over there"

I didn’t mind at all so then all three of us sat there reading in silence for around 30 mins.

I broke the conversation first

"So are you two on holiday?" I asked, they weren’t but I just presumed it since they wanted a photo. One of them was reading this huge book entitled 'Africa' the other was reading something called 'conversations with God'. We discussed books and what we have read before they were surprised at how fast I could read! I told them that 'my boyfriend thinks I'm a super reader' I thought I should drop that in quite early so they both knew that I had a man in my life. They were surprised that I had come to that park when I have parks nearer to me but I explained how I found peace there. Then we just talked…we talked about everything, about the state of the world, the children, how single women find a good man, how single men find a good woman, all about Mr Special, how that guy busted his ankle, all about hobbies, interests, jogging, biking, music and just life. Now no one can tell me that black men and women don’t get on.

I was there until 7pm!! And the sun was still shining.

When I left them there was no foolishness no "can I have your number" no corny chat up lines, all three of us just appreciated a good refreshing conversation and we went our separate ways.

I love these moments in my life.

I’m Scared.

I’ve been assigned an Elderly person for my charity work but unfortunately there will be no recipes, it’s a man!! I’m getting a granddad not a grandma I really pray we get on well. Sunday is our first meet up. (if you have no clue what I’m talking about read here)

So you know what I’m up to this weekend the charity work, but next weekend I’m taking Mr Special to stay at my Mummy’s. He was supposed to come up with it was her 50^th but it clashed with his brothers wedding rehearsal so he couldn’t make it.

My family have already met him and already like him. They are happy because he makes me happy but as things get more serious suddenly I’m starting to feel scared. (sigh)

I have been through this twice before and the pattern goes something like this

Ten Steps to Doom

1. I met the person and got into a serious relationship
2. Introduced them to all my friends
3. Taken them home to my family
4. Family fall for the person and welcome him with open arms
5. Suddenly he is in the fold, they remember his birthdays buy him gifts for xmas etc
6. Things are happy for a few years
7. Then somehow it all messes up
8. I’m broken-hearted
9. They are broken-hearted as the longer the person is around the more they get to know and love them
10. And it’s back to square one…

(bigger sigh) I just don’t know if I can do it again not for a third time. To them or to me…I just don’t know if I can go through those ten steps again. I want it to get to point six and stay there for a lifetime and when I look in the mirror I have to ask myself, why cant it?

I’m scared in fact I’m petrified it won’t or that one day he will just turn around and stop loving me or taking care of me like he does. That tends to happen with me and its a real confidence kicker. However things are so so wonderful in our lives right now (only six weeks until we go to Antigua)

I have left myself totally open to him and perhaps it’s too much too soon but he has friends that were engaged within four months of meeting and we both believe that when you know its right you know.

Sometimes…by Angel

I have to hold my breath at the beautiful things he does…I am in awe

I have to try and reciprocate to show him how much I care….I am in love

I have to pray each night that we never reach point seven….I am in hope

Will you pray with me?

Obama is in London and its Financial Fools day.

Today is April the 1st and in the UK they are calling it Financial Fools day.

I know I have lots of other stuff to tell you about what’s been going on with me but I had to write this.

Traditionally every May 1st people come out and protest against Capitalism, it usually starts as a peaceful protest as I believe that 90% of the people are peaceful. Then for some reason it always ends up in a riot with the protestors smashing up Starbucks and other 'capitalist' organisations.

Anyway this year it’s on April 1st and the protestors have renamed it to Financial Fools day. I think it’s to coincide with the G20 Summit which is happening here with the world leaders including President Obama.

This was he and Michelle when they arrived at Downing Street.

And this is a little video is of them trying to park 'The Beast'

So what are they marching/protesting against? Well pick a topic that we are all annoyed about?The Environment, The War, The Recession, Capitalism, Poverty, hell I could go on. The problem is that today many different organisations have all joined together and have decided to take it to the streets.

London is very jittery, with all police leave been cancelled and lots of warnings going out. Someone even drove into the city in an armoured car lol don’t ask!

Anyone who works in the city or in finance has been told to come to work in jeans and dress down. I must stress that this is a really bad plan as many of these fat cats looked hilarious/uncomfortable on the tube all squeezed into ill fitting jeans and they all stood out a mile! Sadly they have to dress like this as in previous years business people have been attacked. The protestors see them as the cause of it all and sometimes protestors storm offices and attack the people in there.

I'm here at work, we have double security today and lots of police outside as one of the events goes right past my office. I was wondering what I would do if protestors decided to come in. when my boss told me about this story. Now me and my colleagues are dying laughing at it.

Apparently some Greenpeace protestors stormed the IPE ready to attack the traders. However the traders (who are probably quite stressed and have been having a really bad time lately) fought back. Now two of the Protestors are in hospital one with a broken jaw. LOL This is what happens when you bring beef to someone’s workplace!

Liverpool!

I'm back - well sort of! I thought I would kick off by telling you about Liverpool.

In fact hmmmm I'm not sure what to tell you or should I say I don’t know where to start. Sorry for the LONG post!

I went there for the Liverpool Salsa Fest on the 13th -16th March. I had never been to anything like this before but I really wanted to improve my salsa skills.

Liverpool is known as the European Captial of Culture and you can see it on the map just there.

I guess I have to take it day by day, I will just give you the low/highlights

Fun Friday
Fresh faced and slightly excitied we arrived into Liverpool on Friday afternoon. We had planned it so that we get into the hotel, check in, eat in the resturant and then go out to the welcome party. The hotel reception had told us how to get there so when we stepped of the bus we were pretty surprised to find that we were standing outside a pub.

Pub = Public house and for anyone who is UK based, it was like standing outside the Queen Vic based in a ghetto.

"is this it?" I asked my friend "you booked us into a pub?"

"I'm not sure this is the place?" she replied, quite puzzled.

In the doorway a drunken man was standing smoking a ciggarette.


"is this the hotel?" We asked him

"YEAH…this is it!" he said VERY excitied to see us

So we walked in with dismay. There was no reception, just a slightly deaf woman serving pints to the customers. However she lead us to our room.


Four flights up some stinky stairs and through a door it was like a different world. A clean refurbished landing with around six, clean wooden floored rooms off it. We were happy and I breathed a sigh of relif, when we got in the room we had a beautiful view of the river and we danced around a bit all happy until I noticed that the room didn’t have a toielt or shower. We quickly discovered that we had to share the bathroom with all the other guests. Yuck! I had a quick peep and saw the dirty toilet and the hairy shower and felt like crying.

Obviously there wasn’t going to be any dinner in the resturant, there wasn’t a resturant, but the old lady advised us that there was a local 'chippy' (Fish & Chip Shop) just down the street. So we got a takeaway.

Suddenly I was homesick.

By the time we had checked in and eaten. It was now time to get ready for the salsa welcome party which would be in town. Just as we were leaving and we walked through the pub, I heard some wailing and turned around to see a Kareoke! You know I couldn’t resist so I asked if I could sing.

Where we were staying was a predominately white area and it was all white people in the pub. I wasn’t really sure what reception they would give me, however when I got up and sung 'My Boy Lolipop' they all started dancing and saying how amazing I was. Lol

We left and went onto the Salsa welcome party which was in a nightclub called Europa and I felt much better. It was great and when we got back to the pub at something am, they were all still in there having what UK people call 'a lock in' it was really noisy but four flights up you couldn’t hear a thing.

I slept quite pecefully in the clean bed and that was that.

I learnt on Fun Friday that you should never let your friends choose the hotel lol lol

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Salsa Saturday
On waking I realised that this shower thing was gonna be a problem, luckily I had waterproof slippers that I kept on at all times but the whole thing was nasty. I was tramatised but realised I needed to keep clean. I had to use a hover technique using the toliet and I just kept promising myself that I would never do this to myself again.

Saturday was a day of lessons hourly from 9.30-6pm then a Grand Salsa Ball in the evening.
It said on our programme that there would be nowhere to buy food and we would have to bring packed lunch and we were annoyed! 'How can you bring packed lunch when you are in a hotel?' Nothing was open in the morning to buy stuff so we said that we would just cope and buy things from the vending machine that was there to keep us going until the evening.

When were were there we got chit chatting to people that we had seen at the welcome party and we met this couple called John and Jill. They actually live in Liverpool and were quite old. Anyway we asked if they knew where to buy food and they said 'guys don’t worry at all, come to our house we live just around the corner'

I was shocked! In London you would never invite strangers to your house. I was also paranoid becuase lets face it, do you have strangers in your house? Perhaps when we got there something would be awaiting us, but I realised that they had invited a couple more people back so I relaxed a bit

Jill was so extra! She left the lessons early to go home and prepare a full spread. Trust me this involved Curry and Rice!! I tell you what I was humbled and amazed at the level of kindness. It really got me thinking about the way the world is, so full of mistrust and fear, when was the last time you did something that amazing for a stranger?

I bet in the past people could do this kind of thing all the time and no one battered an eyelid. What do you think?

That was the best part of the day and I must remember to send them a Thank You Card.

So what lessons did I do? It went something like:
10-11 Yoga for Dancers
11-12 Spinning Techniques
12-1 Salsa NY Style

Lunch at Jill and Johns

2-3 Reggetion
3-4 Ladies Styling

At the ladies styling I asked her if she could just show me again...here have a look (Selah, do Practice girl)



Then we left and went back to the hotel to get ready as although there were more classes we were knackerd!

In the evening I was forced to use the nasty shower again then we got ready for the Grand Salsa Ball.

Guys it was amazing, they had shows from some of the top world Salsa Champions, I wish I had taken my camera after this we danced the night away! until something am.

I learnt on Salsa Saturday many different moves and also that you can be kind to strangers

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Sightseeing Sunday

We were tired on Sunday and although there was going to be another full day of lessons we decided to skip that and go and see some of Liverpool. This was one of the only days I remembered my camera.

So we headed into town and visited Albert Dock where I sat on a big one and salsed with Elvis




lol no seriously Albert Dock is where you can get the ferry from and see many different musueums.
We had planned to go and see many things but our first stop was the International Slavery Museum.

What can I say about this place, I can say it was a bit of an emotional journey for me, the way they have done it, they dont hide a thing, it was so moving and sad that we didnt go and see anything else.

It started from Africa and brought you all the way to todays slavery, with alot of things that really made you think, on thing that stuck in my mind was there was a guy speaking who said

"do you really think you can buy things as simple as chocolate for so cheap in your local store without some form of slavery going on?" that was awakening for me.

After this we ate lunch and looked around a little but then went back to the hotel.

There was another party on Sunday evening, the farewell event. By now I was feeling really confident and I once again danced the night away.

I learnt on Sightseeing Sunday that Slavery still exisits today so we need to find ways of working out how we end it.

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Moody Monday
We woke up in time to check out feeling pretty tired, thus we were a little moody.
We slept most of the way home but all in all it was a good weekend.


Right im open for questions....

Its not good to engage....

.....In road rage..



As you know I work in Central London and each day I commute to work using the tube. If I'm on time I walk to the station, if I'm running late (or lazy) I catch the bus. Because I went jogging at the weekend and my legs were still hurting, on Tuesday morning I decided to jump on the bus. There were no seats so I was standing right near the front.



The bus set off as usual but I noticed at one junction it was taking ages to turn when I heard the bus driver sound his horn I looked out the front to investigate. In the middle of the road was an Audi stopped dead. The driver had his window down and his arm out doing a rude sign to the white van behind him.



From where we were, we could clearly see the words on the side of the van 'HALAL MEAT BUTCHERS’ but the Audi driver wouldn’t have been able to see it he was angry and really red faced. I couldn’t hear him but I could see that he must have been shouting out all kinds of profanities spit was flying from his mouth.



Suddenly the van doors flew open and out of each side jumped out these two bearded guys with blood stained aprons on. One of them had this humongous knife! The whole bus gasped and watched.



As soon as they approached the guy in his Audi his face went from red to white, he wound up his window quickly and sped off.



When I say sped off I'm talking like I blinked and he was gone I just heard wheels screech. It was hilarious. I heard some old African lady kiss her teeth and say 'idiot man' that just topped it off for me I couldn’t stop laughing. My laugh can be infectious sometimes and suddenly the whole bus was laughing even the driver.



I love those little moments in life when just for a second people come together. I walked into work with a big smile on my face.



The whole incident reminded me of the time I got road rage.



I was driving along nicely when the two lanes I was in merged into one, I signalled to move into the right lane but this woman in her fiesta wouldn’t let me in. I didn’t even think about it but just went behind her. Later on the traffic the road changed from one lane to two and then back to one again. I found myself in a position that she now needed to move into my lane. You know there was no way I was letting her in.



Unfortunately she was incensed and instead of dropping behind me she continued beside me, It was really slow moving traffic. She wound down her window and started screaming and telling me to move over. The woman just wouldn’t quit and the rational me thought 'oh just let her go' but she started calling me names and swearing and everything. I saw her mouth open and her lips moving and I realised that I needed to shut her up.



I just don’t know what came over me. My shopping was beside me and there were eggs on top, in a moment of madness I just threw one.



(I'm laughing I'm writing)



It sailed into her car and broke on her lap



I smiled, it felt good she was completely speechless her mouth was opening and closing but no words were coming out so just to make sure there wouldn’t be any more abuse I threw another, these were back in the day when I played netball regularly, and my aim was perfect. It smashed on the side of her head and rolled down her face.



I was enjoying myself I felt like a child playing a game but then I snapped out of it and realised I needed my eggs, so I then slowed down and waved her to go in front of me.



I bet she won’t be in such a hurry to wind down the window and start cussing anyone else in the future.



That’s the problem with getting all angry and driving around cussing people. Your car is not your armour and eventually you are going get hurt. Then at your funeral people will be asking 'why?' and saying 'what a nice person you were’



So the Moral of this story is… (lol) ………I will wait for your replies :)



Just FYI
The weeks ahead are going to be busy so I might not post often. On Friday I'm going to Liverpool for a mass salsa conference (Selah I'm going to be an expert) I'm going with a friend of mine. The weekend after I'm going out of town for a wedding, its one of Mr Specials best friends, the one after that I'm going to be out of town again as its my Mum's 50th Birthday Mr Special is joining and then the one after that Mr Specials brother is getting married. Busy as always! Angel

Later in life it gets lonely and cold that’s why the young should talk to the old.

I love waking up naturally, not to the sound of an alarm, so when I awoke this morning I felt good.

It was strange because I had a dream about Michael Jackson. I don’t remember the details but I know he was in it. I have no idea why I was dreaming about him although he is coming to the UK in July to do his final concert, so perhaps it was about that. I have seen him in concert before and it was amazing, but now he is a weirdo so I don’t have high expectations…anyway I’m digressing. I woke up and for the first time in a long time I asked myself the question “what should I do with my day?”

I’m usually rushing around everywhere my time and life dictated by my diary but today I felt free, the day was mine.

I put on the radio and ate a lovely breakfast they had a little gospel playing isn’t it great how that music lifts you? Gospel music has a feel good factor about it.

I looked out and the sun was trying to get out and that’s when I saw my balcony and realised it was in a real mess.

Usually I love my balcony most of the time it’s beautiful. In the summer I sit outside and eat breakfast, on hot summer evenings I sit out there listening to soft music and reading. I planted lavender in pots out there so the smell would waft in when I have the doors open and I always feel like I’m on holiday when I’m out there. It faces trees and a grassy area were children play sometimes. It’s really quiet and a lovely place to live.

Anyway this morning it was a mess, because of the snow, the bad weather and general neglect all my other plants apart from the lavender were dead, or waterlogged. I realised that that’s what I would do with my day I was going to sort it out.

So I took myself to the garden centre. Do young black female’s garden? Or go to garden centres? I ask because when I arrived EVERYONE was staring at me. I really regretted wearing my hooded top.

I ignored the eyes and went into the outdoor section and browsed around, I tell you I was confused! All the beautiful things that I liked had too much info and I was reading the labels on how to care for these things and I wasn’t feeling confident.

There was a sales guy who had been following me around watching my every move so I turned and said

“Its ok darling I’m not going to steal a plant, it’s not a practical thing to try and run away with is it?” then I laughed but he didn’t there was a bit of an uncomfortable silence so I continued “Do you know anything about gardening? I’m looking for plants that don’t need to be planted in the ground and are happy in containers”

This guy was useless he just blushed bright red and mumbled something the scuttled off.

I laughed loudly and continued looking around and that’s when I saw someone who looked like they knew what they were doing. It was an old lady, she looked about 70 she had a few plants in her trolley and she was looking seriously at a gardening magazine.

“Hi” I smiled then I repeated the question that I had asked the sales guy

She smiled quickly, the seriousness disappearing from her face to reveal something that may have been beautiful when she was younger. She said “Well my dear, what you need is a…..

That was when we got talking, in fact I spent at least an hour in the garden centre talking to her. Her name was Betty and she was widower living alone. The reason I stayed so long is I realised that this was probably the first conversation with anyone she had in a while and also my day was free and I wasn’t rushing around anywhere. Isn’t it amazing what we can do when we slow down a little?

Even though she didn’t complain or mention it, I got the impression that she was lonely.

This was the second time she has left her home since the snow which was a month ago!! The first time was only yesterday. When it was cold she was really ill with a chest infection and has only just got better. She said she was happy to get out yesterday and get some food as she had been living on canned stuff. I was surprised and asked her if anyone called in on her when she was sick I also asked her where her family was. She said that she has one son but he lives in Australia and she hasn’t seen him in years and that most of her friends have died and the ones that are alive aren’t very mobile. I made a mental note that I need to have a few kids so that if one leaves the country there might be one around to take care of me. She has a big garden which her husband used to do but its just too much hard work for her now so she was there today looking for plants that just take care of themselves.

So we chatted and she confessed how much she was enjoying talking to me. The woman had a wealth of gardening knowledge that’s why young should always talk to the old. After asking me a hundred questions about my balcony she helped me choose some three new plants and gave me advice on how to revive the old ones. In fact she gave me so many tips and guidelines, some which I wrote down I was more than grateful.

I felt a bit sad to leave her but then we all have our own paths I wonder if I will see her again.

When I got home I did some serious work, following her advice and now my balcony is set to be a pretty picture. When everything starts growing and flowering I will post one :)

The first photo (white) is called a Choisya ternata, its an evergreen and the white flowers wont be on mine until late summer. its going to grow tall 2.5m.

The second photo (purple) is called a Skimmia Joponica its scented so should be nice for when im sitting out there. It flowers in the spring.