DIET

Hello everyone..

Whats up?

Loved the comments and encouragements I got from my last post. Thank you guys you always make my day.

To my new followers WELCOME guys. I promise you...you will love the secretlilies's journey.

Anyways today I thought I should share this with you' ll.

I have been talking a lot about weight gain and weight lose and all.

I used to be 55kg for a very long time. When I mean long time I mean pretty long.

I will drink 5 bottles of coca cola a day and I still didn't add weight.

Anyways in the past 3 years I have slowly gained some extra 5 kilos. Now I am 60kg... sobbing, meaning I have moved from a British size 6 to a British size 8.

anyways I said I wanted to lose weight and they all want to crucify me. Please don't just hear me out....loll..

I have talked to a lot of people and they keep telling me that it's very difficult to loose wight and it can't work. A lot say big girls can't go down to a British size 8 etc.

Because of this I have decided to put myself on a diet and see what it takes. Don't worry I will not starve to death. I will only make sure I loose 5 kilos. So the aim going back to 55.....

I really want to experience a little bit of what people talk about "being on a diet".

I will like to find out if it is very difficult or if it is easy. I also will like to find out how long it will take me to loose just 5 kilos.

I start a diet on Monday and I will follow the diet judiciously by the grace of God.

As I post I will update you guys on my journey and if I can actually stick to the diet or be tempted to eating all the good food in the house. LOL

Another thing: I swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.

So the day I, maybe make a mistake I will let you all know.

Anyways do have a lovely day and enjoy the weekend.

Ciao

Difficult.. Is it Really?

Hi every one

What's up?

I have been thinking of what to post for the past two days now and I have come up blank.

I am usually one that has something to talk about but it doesn't seem to be coming today.

Anyways I will just start with my thoughts and my feelings:

Anybody that knows me, knows that I am an avid reader: "especially the romance genre". I love reading. I can stay up all night reading a good novel.

One of my favorite authors is Debbie Macomber. I have read a lot of her novels and she is really a very good writer. The catch is that she has been/ is currently #1 NEW YORK TIMES & USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR.

I have been made to understand that before you get that kind of rating your books must have sold over 1 million copies: that's on a particular book. Now this lady has several of her books that have sold over a million copies. She is making a huge living from writing contrary to what people think. She has even had a lot of her books made into HALLMARK MOVIES...

I am so happy but sad at the same time.

Why is it that African writers almost do not get to the height of their writing careers?

Let me take Nigeria for example: how many of the publishers in Nigeria have actually come out to say that an author's book has sold over 1 million copies world wide?

Is it that we don't that have bestselling materials? No we do I am very sure of that.

I know we have Wole Soyinka and Chinue Achebe etc but we need more. We have a lot more. too numerous to mention....

Is it that they aren't given the same opportunity like their foreign counter parts? One can say so?

So what are our publishers doing to change this situation?

When I think of things like this I am very impressed with MYNE WHITMAN, Abimbola ESSIEN Nelson AND Lara Daniels. I must say I admire their spirit. They have impressed me and given me hope that a time will come where Nigerian writers will be bestselling authors all over the world.

Anyways don't forget that this is just my thoughts. Please let me know yours.

Have a lovely day and do take care of yourselves.. Hopefully I will have something new to post tomorrow..loll..

Thanks again for your comments.

Ciao

Education

Hi everyone.

I hope you are all okay, well rested and ready for the week.

For me I am and happy for various reasons.

Before I forget: " A big shout out to my new followers thank you so much for making secret lilies your home, and for the comments I love them.

Thank you.

I have been thinking about our educational system for a while now:

Men!!!! we have a long way to go.

I joined a friend to the art institute in Atlanta, and I was shocked at what I saw. This school is a school that's focused more on hands-on than book work/ reading. They do the general courses which is mandatory for every higher institution but they focus more on practicals than theory.

It got me thinking a lot of my mates, friends, parents, Nigerians, do not know what they actually want to be when they grow up. We almost all go into the university studying courses to please our parents or because society.

I have always said this if I have a university I will not offer courses like law, medicine, engineering etc. I will not have the traditional school. I will have courses like cartooning, game creation, interior design, drafting, agriculture, farming, etc.. I will like my students to be able to come to school and get a degree in whatever they want to do, not what their parents want

In Nigeria we look down on polytechnics or yaba tech, etc cos they aren't the traditional universities?

Even when the state governments or organizations offer scholarships to students, they offer the traditional courses. So if I am in the Arts I can only get a scholarship to study LAW nothing creative. Science: engineering etc and Medicine...

I have a friend who loves making-people up, but she will not go to a cosmetology school because her father will not pay her fees, so she is stuck with one science course and hoping that one day she will be able to fulfill her dream..

I pray and I wish that we will all fulfill our dreams.

At that school yesterday I felt like going to enroll and start all over again, this time spending 4 years doing what I like not what my parents want or what society feels is accepted..

I wish and I hope that we will all fulfill our dreams cos this life is short.

Do take care of yourself and have a lovely week ahead.

P.S. A big thank you to Atilola. She gave me some very good points for my book. I am sure I will dedicate the book to her when it is eventually finished and published.

Domestic Violence

Hello whats up?

Thank God its Friday.

Let the week just roll it in, we have lots of fun activities lined up.

Anyways a few days ago some neighbors called the cops and accused a lady of domestic violence. When the cops got to the house, they found the lady stabbing her daughter.

when the lady was asked to stop she refused so they had no choice but to gun the woman down. The sad fact about the story was that the daughter died from the stab wounds...

although they found her other child outside, who she had tossed out the window..

My question is that how can a mother be so heartless. If you tell me she spanked her child I would have said okay, that's a different story, but this isn't spanking at all, she took a knife and was stabbed her daughter repeatedly.

What got into her?

What was she thinking?

How could she do this?

In fact how did she get this way?

Such a sad story.

Like one of my friend's said on facebook: "she wishes she can just take a remote control and press the pause or stop button and all the evil news will stop coming. I feel like that too at times.

Anyways happy weekend and please make sure you go for the garage sales happening on saturday the 3rd of this month i.e. tomorrow at Bibi's cottage, Admiralty way, across from Tanalaziers, Lekki phase 1. 9.a.m-5pm. Proceeds will be used to rehabilitate rape victims etc.

Please do check the link below and tell me what you think.

Thank you and have a lovely weekend

http://lagosmums.com/2011/12/01/just-my-thoughts-naija-kids/

Hurting

Hello everyone.

Big welcome to my new followers. Thank you very much and I hope you will enjoy this experience.

Anyways today I thought I should write about this after much brain cracking and checking, if you know what I mean.

I listened to Ada as she cried and told me all that he did to her.

I couldn't imagine it.

How could Jide do this to the love of his life. Wasn't he the one that was head over heels in love with her just a few days ago.

Don't get me wrong, Jide didn't physically or mentally abuse Ada it wasn't that?

It was deeper.

Jide threw their trust away. He broke his promise.

He promised, he said he will always be faithful but he didn't keep up to his bargain.

he failed.

I can still remember when Ada will come and tell me about all the things she did with Jide. All the bad things in bed and all the lovey doveyy stuff in the day.

I swear Ada showed me every gift Jide got for her and I must say he got a lot of gifts for her cos I saw stuff from shoes to bags to cloths till my eyes got tired with envy.

I can't even relate the Jide I know to the Jide I am hearing about now..

It must be wrong.

but as I looked into Ada's eyes I knew that the stories were true.

I knew that he had hurt her, for I could see the hurt in her eyes.

Ada's story isn't fiction, but real although names used are fictional.

It brings me to this question?

Why is it that the people we hurt the most are the ones we love.

Why is that the betrayal of a spouse is very hurting and painful?

Someone says it hurts to the bones.

Is it because we allow them see the most intimate part of our lives, our hearts, our secrets, our dreams?

I wish we will just try and stop it.

I wish we will just tell the demon that prompts us to hurt people to go away.

Anyways just my thought.

Do have a lovely day and I hope you enjoy reading as I enjoy posting.

Working From Home

Hello everyone. How r u?

Today is a new day and a new week. I hope we are all happy.

Hmmm I can smell Christmas in the air. Can you?

Please do tell me what your plans are for this Christmas. For me I haven't even decided what I will do for Christmas, so I think I will not mind some advise.

Anyways back to the topic of today.

I talked to a friend recently in the states. As we were gisting she told me that the doctor put her on bed rest, cos of the baby's health. Quickly I asked her what she was going to do about work and she told me simply that she was going to be working from home....

Wow can you beat that.. working for home...

This can never happen in Nigeria.

I wonder when women "Rights" will be taken seriously in this darling country of mine.

I know someone who had to go back to work a day after she gave birth, cos if she didn't do that she was going to loose her job and she couldn't afford to do that, not with the economic meltdown.

I asked couldn't she have sued the company?

They replied: how could she? Who will listen to her or fight for her?

This is so sad.

I wish we had a package where people could choose to work from home.

I wish we had a package where women were given 6 to 9 months of maternity leave instead of 1 to 3 months..

I just wish.....

The "H" factor

Hello everyone!!!! thank you so much for the comments about my last post.

I really appreciate every bit of it and I know a lot of it will go a long way in making my novel an interesting read.

Anyways today I decided to post about what I call the "H" factor.

When I talk about the "H" factor, I mean the fact that when people talk they can't pronounce words that start with the letter "H". For instance instead of saying "house" they pronounce it " ouse", leaving the "h", where I do not know.

As much as I hate it when they do this and sometimes chuckle a lot, I even tease Temi that his people are the ones that always have the "H" factor problem, (N/B Temi doesn't have the "H" factor THANK GOD).

The reason why they do this is cos for instance in the Yoruba language if I am not mistaken there isn't a letter "H". Its like it just vanished into thin air..LOL. So it is quiet difficult to transit from the rules in Yoruba language to the rules in the English language.

In the french language the letter "H" is silent for instance the word " Haricot", which means beans (don't forget that every word has to be spelt with an article), is pronounced "aricot". Now when the french converse in English they find it difficult pronouncing the letter "H", which isn't silent or hidden but present in the English language.

The truth:

" Yoruba language is very similar to the french language but when the Yorubas pronounce English words without the "H" etc we see this as being razz, local, bush, uneducated etc.. but when the french make the same mistake it goes this way: " oh you know English isn't their first language, its allowed...

Anyways I should stop. I hope we have learnt a little about the 2 languages...LOL

N/B: I just got my cutting mat and rotary cutter delivered. Nice!!! My sewing machine is coming soon. Slowly but surely my workshop is taking shape and I will soon start churning out different designer hand bags... hopefully.

In the mean time check out this site, I love her drive, passion and her bag designs. http://www.chachalifestyle.com/category.

ciao