I’m here. I’m in Lagos, Nigeria. I’m currently sitting on a stool that’s too high for the PC I’m using, and uncomfortable to boot. It costs me N120 an hour to access the internet, and when it deigns to arrive, it is slow. I got in to Lagos at 5am this morning, and was slapped in [...]
Monthly Archives: July 2009
T Minus 3: YorubaGirl's Holiday
I’m a bibliophile with a neglected library. This has become painfully clear as I prepare to embark on my holiday. I won’t be on the beach so much as at my parents’ gaff in the ‘country’, but the relaxed vibe will still be applicable. The last book I bought was Siri Hustvedt’s latest paperback, The [...]
T Minus 4: YorubaGirl's Holiday
How does one start the day from hell? By descending into its seventh circle straight off the bat, that’s how. I can exclusively reveal that hell’s soundtrack is the endless, piteous cries of infants mixed in with the bemused conversations of middle-aged men. I spent the day at the Nigeria High Commission. And I promise [...]
Posted in London, Nigeria, Travel
Tagged Africa, Customer Service, London, The Opposite of Joy
2 Responses
T Minus 6: YorubaGirl's Holiday
Hola! I’ve begun packing. And panicking. I’m not the most organised of people – at the best of times I barely get by and when I do, it’s down to the crack team of organised lovelies I keep around me at all times – and this time I’m suffering. I bought the suitcase; it’s a lovely, large [...]
T minus 7: YorubaGirl's Holiday
Oh, hello. The title of this blog post is a casual reference to my impending holiday. Although, come to think of it, the use of the word ‘impending’ which usually prefaces ‘doom’ perhaps wasn’t the best choice. I’m off, kids, to sunnier climes – the land of mosquitoes, Fela Kuti, suya and the originator of [...]
Mag Hag
I have the unholiest crick in my neck. Why? Because I spent every waking hour (including many of the wee ones) between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon taking out a few hundred braids. I even missed out on going to see the recording of Charlie Brooker’s new show. When I’m rich enough, I will hire [...]
The Unnatural Pull of True Blood
Lately, I’ve been resisting the urge to speak in a Louisiana drawl and wear incredibly short shorts. It’s the beginning stages of a new and possibly unhealthy addiction. An addiction to British TV’s latest HBO import, True Blood. I like pop culture vampires – Angel (or Angelus when he’s bad), Spike, I love ‘em . [...]
Posted in America, Books, Review, Television
Tagged Getting started, Sexy telly, Sookie Stackhouse, True Blood, TV Vampires
3 Responses
Ladies Wot Lunch
This weekend, I attended a very genteel gathering of ladies in north London. It was the second annual Newington Green Ladies Tea Party. It sounds very much like a grassroots level political party, doesn’t it? Maybe one day… it sure rocked, though. The tea parties are the brain- and lovechild of a lovely Kiwi Londoner [...]
Posted in Food, London
Tagged 'Lady Things', Baked Goods, Eating, Knitting, London, Tea & Sympathy, WI
2 Responses
Jimmy McNulty Reads Jane Austen, Slays YorubaGirl
Bloody hell, I need a lie-down in a dark room. Those who know me/ read this blog/ have even fleetingly met me know just how much I love The Wire and it’s conflicted anti-hero Jimmy McNulty. And just when I felt like I couldn’t love it any more, I read something that made me fair [...]
Posted in Books, Literature
Tagged Advertising, Coffee, Dominic West, Jane Austen, Jimmy McNulty, Joy, Pride and Prejudice, The Wire
2 Responses
1776 And All That
Thanks to a 1996 summer blockbuster starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum, lots of people have come to believe that the Fourth of July celebrations centre around an angry, destructive alien race’s desire to wipe out human civilisation. Not so, movie fans. It’s when America celebrates her independence from the Kingdom of Great [...]
Posted in America, London
Tagged 4th Of July, America, Food, Friends, Independence Day, London, USA
4 Responses
