Category Archives: Beauty & Brains
Racism is real. Ask me, I saw it in action yesterday. I was in a matatu, heading somewhere, and I was seated next to the driver with a friend. As the driver was driving, he encountered two middle-aged Indian men, kalasingas, as we call them, riding on motorbikes at the speed of like 5 kilometres per hour, chatting, and hence, blocking the road on that lane that we were on. The driver went ballistic. It was ugly. He started insulting the men, the men insulted him back. It was some seriously foul insults that I… Continue reading →
I’m sure you’ve all seen them, the dreadlocked, curly-haired, braided, kinky-tressed (or Afro-kinky-tressed) ladies all over town. These days when I walk around the city centre, or go to any event that has several ladies in attendance, I notice it. More than half of the ladies have some form of natural hair style. Is it a trend? Yes. Is it more than a trend? I think so. I think the natural hair phenomenon is more than a sensation and it is here to stay. I am one of the natural-hair sporting ladies I’m talking about. After several… Continue reading →
After going through a harrowing quarter-life crisis and FINALLY finding my purpose, what I can say is that this has been such an eye-opening experience for me in so many ways. People, embrace your quarter-life and mid-life and three-quarter life crises! They open your eyes to new dimensions! At that point in my life (and even now), I wondered how or why someone would go to school, study, go to university and specialize in a certain course, say, business, do well in it, get a job related to the profession, then a year later, hate… Continue reading →
Happy New Year 2011! It’s great that we all get to see a new year even as we cringe as the years add on to our ages, but oh well…such is life. It strikes me as no coincidence that during the festive season, there are so many competitions, raffles, pick-and-win’s, shop-and-grab’s, etc. Why is it that there is an influx of these competitions when the holiday season rolls around? At every supermarket there is a raffle of some sort. Shop for goods worth 1,000 and get a raffle ticket to win a Vitz or whatever… Continue reading →
I was watching TV on Saturday morning, hoping to catch some funny cartoons to remind me of my not-so-distant childhood (cough cough, but do I say ) but what I came across was disturbing, to say the least. When did cartoons become so…how shall I put it (at the risk of sounding redundant)…disturbing? There was a cartoon programme which showed an old lady speaking to a monstrous creature whose dialect I could hardly make out. Is this what kids are watching nowadays? Monsters, dragons, morphing humans turning into anything from a Transformers-like gadget to a… Continue reading →
I am at a place where I don’t know anything. Coming from someone who has always known what she wanted from life, this is scary, to say the least. Further studies, well, those have been put on hold as I decide what it is I even want to do, if there is anything I even want to do! My job, well, let’s just say me and Job are not so in love anymore. Somewhere along the way, my love for dear Job faded. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t think fondly of… Continue reading →
A funny thing happened yesterday. I am one of those people who would buy just anything from a supermarket: groceries, beauty products, sanitary products, shoes, clothes… I mean, they put them on their shelves so you can buy them, right? As it is, I am not exactly shy about buying certain things in a supermarket. Haven’t you always wondered why when you buy sanitary towels or tampons they have to be wrapped so tightly with three pages of old newspaper as if they were a banned commodity or harmful to all who view it? Seriously,… Continue reading →
![How to get Rashes off your face [Part 2]](http://lily.co.ke/files/2010/04/orange-juice-150x150.jpg "How to get Rashes off your face [Part 2]")
This is another gem from another of my aunts (yeah, my aunts are better than yours!) During my sister’s upcoming wedding preparations, the bridesmaids had a meeting with the beautician, who happens to be my aunt. Ok, I have a confession to make. I never really did stick to my tried-and-true remedy for rashes. I am quite lazy when it comes to beauty treatments. I honestly can’t picture myself waking up an hour earlier than usual everyday to apply makeup and do all those things that women with perfectly flawless skin do to maintain their… Continue reading →
Sometimes, when I am not too wrapped up in myself, I watch people; notice people. Sometimes, when I look really really closely, I see their eyes and what’s behind them. I notice their clothes, gait, expressions. Body language is the greatest whistle-blower. I see a man, heavy laden, dragging a mkokoteni (hand cart) along a road filled with cars hooting at him for causing an even greater traffic jam, regardless of the fact that whether or not he was there, the traffic pile-up would reduce by, what, a centimetre? Anyway, the man’s body is young,… Continue reading →
So there you were, the two inseparable lovebirds, cooing at each other, stealing glances, barely keeping your hands off each other. You called each other 10 times a day “just because”. The sweet little gifts were exchanged and the sweet nothings whispered in each other’s ears. Everyone around you was jealous and sick at the same time. But, though you barely noticed it, it’s gone now. You can’t even remember the last time you missed him/her. Or you met a kindred spirit. This girl understood you and finished your sentences. You had the same taste… Continue reading →