Business, Church and .....

One of the topics trending on Yahoo homepage especially, is the picture of Beyonce.  For those already used to seeing her on magazine covers, this one is different. It is different because her face was painted black for a French magazine in commemoration of Fela Kuti. Now, people all over the world are irked. Naijapals, Facebook, (you name it!) for a variety of reasons. Some feel that it is an insult for her to paint her face black, some think people are being petty, some wonder what the theme of the photo shoot is, asking if Beyonce isn’t black enough to be used without having to paint her face even blacker. Some think she is being hypocritical since a picture of her was seen a couple of days/weeks ago and she was even whiter than before.  Non –Africans are laughing at the situation because it almost seems like an intra-black-society-racism, Beyonce is black, but not black enough? Some belief a “real” black model should have been used, say Alec Wek. Some even believe that Beyonce shouldn’t have accepted the contract. To some, it is a societal ridicule in that being that black is not seen as cool but when a model paints her/himself black, it is cool for that reason……. Confusion!!!

As for me, I don’t even know where I stand, because for the most part, I feel Beyonce is in business and wetin concern agbero with overload? On the other hand too, if they really wanted to depict a person that black, are they insinuating that there is no “black” person who is as beautiful as Beyonce? Or maybe they just wanted the WorldWide Celebrity endorsement thing…..My people, what are your takes?

In continuation to Looking Glass of a Nigerian Immigrant’s Post on churches, I decided to regal you with a story of my own on the subject matter. Apparently, to curtail our ever growing population in Nigeria, the government must have connived with some Christian religious leaders. Otherwise, why then would this certain pastor ask people to bring 750 naira per child for prayers? On getting home to Nigeria last December/January, my mum had gone to a revival service and when I asked my younger brother why he hadn’t gone with her, he said his spirit didn’t go with the invited pastor.  At this point, I kind of understood, because from time immemorial, invited evangelists would come and before you would realize what was happening, the focus would have gone from revival to sales of certain tapes, be it preaching tapes or music tapes. In this particular evangelist’s case, he had started siphoning money from the congregation form day 1. The next thing he said was for them to bring 750 per child for prayer!!! Ha!!! So what happens to those Iya Eleja with 7 and half children? Do the maths with me people, that’s about 5625 naira, for prayers, in the house of God?!!!!! Whatever happened to free salvation?

In personal news, I am going through that time in the Long Distance Relationship life cycle. For about a week now, it has been one issue over the other. Hardly would we have settled one before another would come up. Long story short, I am tired emotionally and I am just letting go. I understand that this might just be a phase, but I also am cognizant of the fact that we may or may not get over it. Either ways, for now, I am DONE. **Naija accent** I cannot come and kill myself. A Yoruba adage translates as “an eye that will stay with one till the evening (end) will not start emitting pus in the morning.” So if I have to spend the best part of our courtship years diffusing one flame or the other, I probably will be a firefighter for the rest of my life with him, mbanu, I have other ambitions. For now, I am back in the market, but merely spectating. Once I am ready to participate, I will let you people know, perhaps you have cousins or brothers or in-laws or neighbors, who by some stroke of luck  are emotionally stronger than I am.[In fact, I am even contemplating lesbianism, that way, I kindda know what to expect……..I kid I kid].

In conclusion, spring break is around the corner and I am just a few breaths (and exams) short of breaking out in a dance of relief! Phew….

Rising Up to the Challenge

  So in my earlier post about seven things about me, I wrote about how I do not know how to cook aesthetically (may my teeth no fall comot!), no matter how hard I try. I said something about how I was trying to improve on this. By the time I am done cooking, I am usually too tired to then start “dressing” the food. However, with time, I have realized that the “dressing” of the food is almost just as important as the taste. Though I am not Japanese, I have been consciously putting this into effect. With 9jaFOODie  of “Modern African Cuisine” challenging and “molete-ing” (for my Ibadan peeps) to make an aesthetically pleasing food, and LohiO  of  “Lohi’s Creations”,  being another source of “cookspiration”, 

I present to you……..**drum rolls**

HoneyDame’s first conscious, albeit lame attempt at aesthetic cooking.

As if on cue, opportunity came when a friend wanted me to help her make some Nigerian dishes for her Nigerian boyfriend as a surprise dinner thingy so I made 5 dishes.

Fried Rice, Jollof Rice, Buns, Grilled Cajun-Spice Chicken, Stewed Beef (peeking in the corner)

 And another view:

Oya dont be upset, I left some for you people na...mbok, dont vex

Jollof Rice, Fried Rice and Stewed Beef.

 What excuse has YY now? I tell you, guy is a goner!

ehn ehn! oya ratings!!!! The Good, the Bad and the Ugly......:)  ***rubbing hands in glee, no fall my hand o*** ;)

A letter To My Lover

My sweet potato, I wanna tell you my mind I wanna tell you my mind o,

   I do not know where to start this from, I really do not know. Is it that I have so much to say? Or is that I have soo little to say. You have been my sole and primary lover/soul mate for the past 3years. I have no regrets whatsoever. It has been rocky, yet it has been fun, you have been silly, yet you have been sweet. For reasons unknown to me, you decided to brave this long distance thing, even against all odds, even though you had rejected it earlier on when it involved another lady. Tell me, what surety did you have that I would keep in touch? Yet you remained my friend, sounding board, bank, opponent(sometimes), companion, fan and lots more, transcending even the physical distance. I know I have my moments of total unreasonability (if that's a word), but somehow, you see past that and help get us through those period, with God's help of course.

http://www.layoutsparks.com/1/212786/beach-love-couple-silhouette.html

   It would be nice to be able to celebrate this day physically together but truth be told, you have shown me times without count that we need not a special day set aside for me to know how much you love me and vice versa. We need not a special day for me to show how much I love you. We need not a special day for "special" gift giving. You know why, because with you, everyday (well, almost, when you consider those crazy days) is valentine. Every day, you are still my lover, friend and all that. Every day with you is some form of gift in itself.

    I want you to know that I appreciate you. I may not be able to show it like you would have wanted, but I feel very strongly about you. So even though it would have been nice to be together physically in commemoration of the day  (even if it is only for the sake of *winkwink*), from 8000 miles away, I bid you/us a wonderful Lover's Day and include my word to be your woman all day, every day.

I woev you my Sea Lion.

This is My Story 2

For the first part to this story, go here

When we woke up the following day (which if things went according to plan, we would fly out), it still looked as bleak as the previous day. Most flights from JFK had been canceled. There were projections that JFK would re-open by 2:00pm (Our flight was for 4:25). This gave me a glimmer of hope and when we got information that the trains had started running again, we decided to brave going home in that weather. We eventually made it home by like 2:00pm. At this point, it was almost obvious we weren’t going anywhere as the roads still hadn’t been plowed, hence there would be no way  of transporting ourselves to the airport. Eventually, after taking a shower and some random/spontaneous/impromptu/haphazard packing, my sister was able to call one of her “Ayaj” to come pick us up. 

People, there are crazy people in this world. This so called Ayaj is married with children but still wants to play field. My sister would not give him the time of the day hence, when he received a text from her asking for help in getting to the airport, this man LEFT his wife and kids to come get us.**Shaking head in disapproval** I mean, this man had refused to go to work that morning, claiming that it was bad outside, yet it  wasn’t too bad to come to a chic’s aid? Who am I to complain at such display of magnanimity? *Snorts*

Anyway, en-route the airport, sliding and gliding on the snowy ground, we got a call from a friend telling us that our flight had a backlog and they were only flying people from the backlog. In short, we probably would not be able to fly out. We decided to take a detour to one of our Sistah’s house, since it would be remarkably easier for us to the get to the airport from there than from our house. We got there, joked and everything. YY was being updated about all this though and together, we were trying to be optimistic. The following morning, I called the airline and they told me I would not be able to fly out until Jan 4^th. I was sitting there thinking to myself, “Scuse me?, I might as well cancel this trip= Demise of the love relations between HD and YY, after all, there is only so much physical distance a man can take, right?”

After much harangue, we got cracking to the airport in some ambulance looking van like this. Again who was I to complain? The flight was scheduled for 7pm but guess who didn’t fly out until 9:00am the following morning? At this point, I didn’t even care what time we flew out, provided it was guaranteed that we were going to fly out.

The flight to Istanbul was quite uneventful. The food was as “eeewy” as you can expect and all. The wahala started when we got to Istanbul. Our layover was to be for 12hours. We had been promised accommodation but we weren’t given eventually. Needless to say we had to find something doing for 12 LONG hours. There were highlights tho’. Like some Turkish fellas, actually, the cleaners, calling out to my sister and finding it amusing. Actually, I personally found it amusing too at some point. They kept standing in strategic points and shouting out “Merhaba” meaning “Hi”. I mean, I was sitting there thinking about my predicament and there were this bunch of short and flat-headed bald men shouting out to us in a foreign language!!! One of them had the nerves to come by our table, pretending to clean up, to either

1. Get a closer look at the African wonder

2. Be a nuisance

Here is one of the culprits....short man devil osi!

Either ways, they were drawing unnecessary attention to us so I shouted at them and asked them to keep a distance or I was going to report them to the authorities for “constituting to be a public nuisance”*…..I laugh at myself now*. By the time they called the flight for Lagos, oh boy! I had no idea there were that many Nigerians in Diaspora!!!!

Come and see film show! Loud and Over-Bearing Nigerians!!!!At some point, I had to recall the baggage requirements. Sebi hand luggage consists of a bag that can fit in the overhead and a bag that can fit under the seat? Walai, it must have been that these people could not read, because I saw people with like 3 heavy duty bags!!! Ahnahn!!! They were loud, showy and unnecessarily quarrelsome. All these while, I refused to say anything or identify with any culture. I was almost ashamed of them. And I could notice some people looking at us surreptitiously like they were waiting for us to say something. Eventually, we got on our connecting flight to LAGOS!!!!  Finally…..

>>>>>>>>>>>>>Begins to heave breathes of relief<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

So tell me, what have your experiences been, travelling on a plane filled pre-dominantly by Nigerians? Because for me, that’s another post entirely. :)

**Pulls chair and sits with a plate of buns and a cup of cocoa drink, waiting to read your comments of course**

Finally, 7 things about me...Stylish & Versatile Blogger Awards

    I know this is a long time coming. I am terribly sorry for the delayed posting and the time lag and everything. I promise to do better next time (as I am hoping that you won’t hold this against me next time). As a rule of the Stylish and Versatile Blogger Awards, here are 7 things about me:

      1)  I have an OCD of brushing before taking a shower. If I am in a rush to go out and someone is by the bathroom sink, I brush in the tub BEFORE taking a shower….can’t explain it.

  2)  I am horrible with decorating. Give me a space, bed, rug, laptop and maybe some novels and I will be one heck of a satisfied chic.


  3)  Also, I do horrible with hair styling. Due to this, most times, I am on braids. And when I am not, within days, it looks like I have a mop on my head.

  4)  I love the idea of aesthetic cooking. Ironically, I cook for taste, never for aesthetics. I am trying desperately now to add a little bit of swagger to my cooking (especially after I painstakingly cooked for YY the other day and he told me it didn’t look palatable, I swear, I could have beaten him upside down!!!   ***story for another day***).

 
  5)  I never knew it could be this hard to write about myself.

  5)  Ok, numero 5 again. I love languages, but I do not think I am blessed with language acquisition or linguisitics or semantics or whatever-the-heck-it-is-called.

  6)  I (and probably a couple million others) am in love with the good-looking Indian men!!! Dang! I drool after one of my MARRIED professors (making cross sign).


  7)  In as much as (most of) my life is an open book, I am quite private too. Long story short, my life is a bit complicated and fully understanding me is an arduous task as I don’t even fully understand myself yet.

First I give accolades to those who tagged me,

Beautiful

Ibhade

Wild Boy

Ilola

Naijamum

Prism of an immigrant

In paying forward this award, I am  tagging

Lohi O

Blessing

Iphyigbogurl

Modern African Cuisine

PET Projects

It is a short list because for the others I would have tagged, they have already written their posts on this…..**sad face**, blame it on my lateness…

Thank you, thank you