This week's contributors: Lydia, Dore Fasolati, this week's subjects:August fashion, old perfumes, anti biotics, more than 1 husband, East End Bistro, Amoako Boafo.

August inspired

As summer comes to a close, August is about enjoying those chic warm-weather styles from floral prints to form-fitting separates and puff sleeve blouses, these outfits stand out with platform sandals.

Work meets play!!! Get down to business this summer in fun, lightweight fashion pieces and let it inspire your wardrobe all month long. 2022 is the year of Periwinkle: a soft, soothing shade giving baby blanket color vibes. And if you’re staying at home this summer, there’s plenty of suggestions for you too, from wedding guest-appropriate dresses to chunky, city-ready sandals. Here are few suggestions to help you throughout the month of August.

• Embrace all things linen for utmost lightweight and sweat-wicking properties. Do more flowy linen outfits for less wrinkle than slim-fits.

• Wear sneakers or platform sandals with mini lengths outfits.

• Carry a mini bag with at least one printed item.

• Keep it chic in a balloon sleeve flare dress with a Panama inspired hat and platform sandals.

• Do more walkable platform heels over stilettos. Plus they work equally well with casual white jeans and simple silk tops and they do well with a date night frock, so it can be worn twice.

• Pair flare frocks with sporty sandals.

Keep reading for more August inspired updates….

Old perfumes

The global perfume market is about 30 billion dollars yearly, or 4 US Dollar per year for every person in this world. So if you didn’t take your part then someone else took it....

This is serious stuff, and organizations like the Scent Academy and the Scent Culture Association have turned it into a fulltime job to look and sniff at every scent from Although perfumes were already used in Egypt by the mistresses of the pharaohs (and by Cleopatra, who indirectly influenced the fall of Rome) right now the smell sniffers are busy deciphering clay tablets from 3200 years ago found in Mesopotamia (a biblical area in today's , Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Syria and Turkey),  some written by one Mrs Tapputti, who currently holds the world record of being the first female perfumer and the first female chemist. Mrs Tapputi describes the distillation process of perfumes and gives perfume formulae, which we actually can remake today and that's what we are doing. It's like travelling back in time when you first smell such reconstructed perfume, one of the researchers said. So far two Tapputti tablets have been deciphered, one is currently in the Louvre Museum in Paris, the other one is in the Girl Museum in Germany . There are hundreds more clay tablets which have not yet been studied, so more is to come. Amongst the many ingredients used are horse radish and dried babybird feathers. So get ready for a new perfume line called the Taputti perfumes.

But for now we can also stay with some of our own classic current perfumes, like Shalimar (1925), Chanel no 5 (1921), Tabac Blond (1919), Narcisse Noir (1911), Eau de Cologne Imperiale (1853), Fougère Royale (1828), Florida Water 1808, Extra Vieille, Jean Marie Farina (1806), 4711 Echt Kölnisch Wasser (1792), and the winner is Aqua di S.M. Novella from 1533. This company was formed in 1221 in Florence, Italy, by monks trying to heal the sick with herbs. they just launched their first eau de parfum in 800 years, called l'Iris. Know of any brands which have survived that long?

Antibiotics

You may wonder why there are so many different antibiotics, some costing close to nothing and some costing a little fortune. Antibiotics are prescribed to fight bacterial infections, be it in your guts, your lungs, a wound, wherever. But they are being grossly overprescribed, to be on the safe side many doctors just add antibiotics to the mix of tablets they prescribe you, without really knowing what they are fighting. The typical cold you get, call it the flue, is a virus, and antibiotics, which fight against bacteria, will do nothing against viruses.

The over-use of antibiotics makes that some bacteria are developing resistance, so then you need to use another antibiotic. So we keep developing new antibiotics, to use there where resistance has developed against the old drugs. But the development of new antibiotics is not endless, and slowly the scientists are running out of options. So if you now get your lungs infected with a bacteria that is resistant to all antibiotics then? You may die. What make things worse, in animal husbandry, say chicken or pig farms, growers typically add antibiotics to the drinking water of their animals, just to make sure they don’t get sick. And you eat that meat so you also get a nice overdose of antibiotics. So better go for organic chicken, not the agric one.

Apart from bacteria and viruses we also have fungal diseases. And a current fungal resistance problem is with a certain type of Candida fungal infection of the lungs. Some people suffer this chronically and are running out drug of options, and if no new drugs are developed for them then that will be fatal. Luckily enough so far the cases are very rare.  But Candida rings a bell, doesn’t it? Vaginal Candida fungal infection?

Can a woman marry more than one husband?

I am asking this question because traditionally we allow men to marry more than one wife. Now that the LGBTQ bill (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, the Q stands for “questioning”) is being discussed and will maybe be voted in Parliament we might as well stick in this multiple husband issue in as well, it will definitely heat the debate up a bit. If I listen to some of my married friends there definitely is a need for more but better husbands

East End Bistro.

I recently had a lunch appointment near Nafti and we ended up in the East End Bistro. The setting looks ok for a business lunch, and they have an outdoor seating as well. The lamb chops were a bit ok but too fat, and traditionally lamb chops are served rosé (the only time this term is used for meat, normally it is only used for poultry, like magret de canard), so the question on how did we want our lamb chops done was a bit funny. The accompanying potato puree was definitely not home made. But the potato chips my guest ordered were good. Most of the shrimps on the shrimp khebab were fresh and nicely crunchy, but somewhere there must have been a piece that was a little off, fortunately I somehow still managed to reach my home toilet before war broke out.

I repeat, running a restaurant is a skill, and buying the tools does not make you a good carpenter

Amoako Boafo.

This 38 year old Ghanaian painter is presently in vogue and his paintings have been selling between 50,000 $ and 3,400,000 $. Yes, you are awake and your eyes are reading correctly.

This reconfirms my earlier statement that African art, and that includes African fashion, is in vogue. So jump onto that wagon ! !

Lydia...

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