I loved The Family. Seriously, check my Twitter feed – I live-blogged the whole thing. The first episode centred around the 60th birthday of dad Sunday and all the things that revolve around such a momentous occasion. In this case, there was the baking and icing of several cakes, preparing for a special church outing [...]
Category Archives: London
First Night: The Family
Also posted in Family, Humour, Identity, Nigeria, Television Tagged Best Of British, Black People, Family, London, Nigeria, Telly 3 Comments
Meet The (Nigerian) Family
Returning tonight on Channel 4 is the third series of their documentary, The Family. This one follows the adventures of the Adesinas from Hackney (insert postcode whoop here). I’ve only seen a few episodes of previous series (series 1 had a white British family, season 2 a British Asian one), but I really enjoyed what [...]
Also posted in Family, Humour, Identity, Nigeria, Society, Television Tagged Best Of British, Black People, Family, London, Nigeria, Telly 2 Comments
Talk About Targeted Reading…
Last weekend, I went walking through my neighbourhood. En route to the library, I walked past the man who sells secondhand books outside the Hackney Empire. I gave him and his wares a vague friendly smile and carried on walking, until my eyes alighted on one book in particular. Behold: It was £1. Clearly, I [...]
Also posted in Books, Literature, Love, Shopping Tagged Feminism, Joy, Literature, London 8 Comments
Autumn
I am currently sitting at my desk in my cosy flat, feet encased in woollen socks and fluffy slippers, a tatty purple shawl/poncho about my shoulders, and a hot water bottle in my lap. My thighs feel like they’re on fire – it is a highly pleasurable sensation. A toffee apple candle my sister bought [...]
Also posted in Love Tagged Best Of British, Joy, London, Seasons, Things That Make You Go Mmm 5 Comments
The Do-Over
Walking around the John Lewis school uniform department last Sunday, my sister and I got to talking about what we would change about our school years. There were lots on my part – much as I loved my boarding school experience in Nigeria, I would’ve left earlier if it meant easier integration into an east [...]
Also posted in Career, Education, Identity, Work Tagged Getting started, Joy, School, The Opposite of Joy, Writing 8 Comments
I’m A Finalist Again, Baby!
You guys. 2010 keeps on giving! I have been selected as a finalist in the Blogger of the Year category at the Precious Awards! In answer to Drake’s question: Yeah. I’m fancy. Like I said, fancy. The Precious Awards celebrate the achievements of women of colour, and I honoured that they have found me and [...]
Also posted in Blog, Career Tagged 'Lady Things', Best Of British, Blogging, Joy, Precious Awards, Prizes 3 Comments
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in London
On Wednesday night, I put on a pretty frock and shiny shoes and made my way to Sadler’s Wells, a venue which if it isn’t the home of dance, is at least a favourite hangout of it. I love Sadler’s Wells – it’s so warm and welcoming. And it was especially welcoming this week; I [...]
Also posted in America, Black Fridays, Culture, Review, Theatre, Video Tagged Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance, Joy, London, Theatre, Things That Make You Go Mmm 5 Comments
Just Wright
Carrying on with the Week Of Brown People Entertainment™… d’you remember when I wrote (all the way back in April) about black romcom queens? Remember, it got into The Guardian? Well, on Tuesday evening, I went to see Just Wright, the movie I wrote about in that post. It made it across the atlantic only five months late! We’re [...]
Also posted in Movies, Society Tagged 'Lady Things', Film, Race, Things That Make You Go Mmm 2 Comments
A Disappearing Number
This week on YGD appears to have unofficially been christened the week of Brown People Entertainment™. I have awesome friends, and so it’s no surprise that a ticket for a terrific play, A Disappearing Number, came into my possession at the weekend. On Monday night, I headed to the Novello Theatre and watched a truly beautiful play [...]
Coconut Cupcake Crazy!
Last weekend saw the last Bank Holiday Weekend of the year till Christmastime. Allow that to sink in, won’t you? That’s it, basically. Unless you have some allocated holiday time still unused, all you traditionally employed people are looking at about 14 weeks of non-stop work, save the occasional cheeky duvet day most of us [...]
Also posted in Food, Home, Humour Tagged Awesome!, Eating, Food, Friends, Things That Make You Go Mmm 7 Comments
Settling In
Apologies for the recent silence. As I explained last Friday, I moved house on Saturday. The following day I collapsed, exhausted, in between bouts of frantic floor scrubbing, intensive clothes folding and manic hoovering. On Sunday evening, delirious with tiredness, I had myself a little self-pitying cry. I ache from the tips of my hair to [...]
Also posted in Home, Love Tagged Getting started, I Want To Go Home, Joy, London, Things That Make You Go Mmm 2 Comments
Alone vs. Lonely
Next week, I shall be moving into my new flat. At the moment, I am caught up in the minutiae – packing everything six levels deep, with the top and most accessible layer made up of the things I’ll need immediately – socks, tea, clean pants, deodorant and my radio. But I know that when I move [...]
Also posted in Home, Identity, Love, Video Tagged Gaah!, How To Be Alone, I Want To Go Home, Joy, London, Singledom 7 Comments
What a Difference A Year Makes
This time last year, I was in Nigeria, coming down from the high of my high school reunion and gently simmering in the sub-Saharan heat. Today, I am in north London; the weather’s hardly blazing and the most exciting thing on my social calendar is a visit to my threader’s at the weekend. My blog, [...]
Also posted in Health & Fitness, Uncategorized Tagged Family, Friends, Life, London, Stress 2 Comments
Sloane Crosley: Love At First Reading
One of the joys of living in London is that I get to indulge my inner media wanker on a pretty regular basis. She enjoys going to the theatre before loudly and (probably) obnoxiously recounting how good/bad/avant-garde* the staging/lighting/re-interpretation of the text* was. Sometimes, she attends concerts in cramped/poorly ventilated/extremely grand* venues and then pontificates [...]
Also posted in America, Books, Culture, Literature, Love Tagged Literature, London, Shoreditch House Literary Salon 5 Comments
The Naija Connection
On Friday, when I met up with lovely Jeremy Weate of Naijablog, London was ‘enjoying’ a dry Nigerianesque heat of 30°C. We went to dinner at Manna [4 Erskine Road, Primrose Hill, NW3 3AJ], a vegan restaurant (Europe’s oldest: not killing things to eat since 1967). After dinner we walked up Primrose Hill – a [...]
Also posted in Blog, Nigeria Tagged Blogging, Jeremy Weate, London, Naijablog, The African Experience 1 Comment
