Lydia's Weekly Lifestyle blog is for today's African girl, so no subject is taboo. My purpose is to share things that may interest today's African girl.

This week's contributors: Lydia, Pépé Pépinière, Titi. This week's subjects: Rain, But Make It Fashion, Fashion airline uniforms, Migraine, Market economics for beginners, and The pub at Accra International Airport

Rain, But Make It Fashion: The Accra Girl's Guide to Dressing for the Intense Rains. If you've lived in Accra long enough, you know the weather has a personality of its own. One minute the sun is giving “vacation in Santorini,” and the next, the skies open up like they're making up for months of drought. Welcome to the rainy season, where looking fabulous and staying dry becomes a daily balancing act. Start with breathable fabrics that dry quickly. Cotton blends, lightweight knits, and moisture-friendly materials will keep you comfortable even when the humidity decides to join the party. Save those heavy fabrics for another day—they'll only leave you feeling weighed down. When it comes to shoes, your white sneakers deserve a day off. Instead, reach for chic loafers, waterproof flats, stylish ankle boots, or durable sandals with good grip. They're practical enough for those unexpected puddles while still looking polished for the office. Because in Accra, even when it's pouring, the corporate girlies still show up looking like the forecast called for fashion.

Fashion airline uniforms. Rebranding a product costs a lot of money and is risky, you want to end up with more customers, not less. Sometimes it may be necessary, like when Barclays sold their African activities to Absa Bank. They spent 1 billion Dollars (thousand million) in Africa to make people aware that Barclays was now Absa, and that the customers would get an even better service than before. (hu hu hu), and that included software changes and other internal issues. But you may also rebrand to draw attention to a product. With slogans like “new, better, more”. That’s nice for toothpaste, but how do you rebrand and airline so that you are in the news once again? Take British Airways. They have about 250 planes, to repaint one would cost about 200,000 $, total bill for rebranding is 50 million dollars, that is for the planes alone. Now here’s a clever one, all these people in and around the planes wear a uniform, in a certain colour and a certain style. These uniforms wear out anyway and need to be changed, so rebrand by changing these uniforms. And get a fashion celebrity to dress in it and make a lot of noise about it. And be politically correct, go with the times. The last time that BA changed their style they brought in a gender neutral style, so stewards and captains were free to choose skirts, (the Scottish were already doing that) and the girls were allowed to wear trousers. Though I haven't seen any of their male crews wearing skirts, I think they pulled that one back and left Virgin Airlines to carry that baton, but it did give them a lot of publicity. At that time I wondered if our upcoming BBQ Laws (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer-LGBTQ+) will allow cross dressing anyway. The British Airways collection was designed by British-Ghanaian fashion designer and master tailor, Ozwald Boateng OBE, (born 1967) with the help of more than 1,500 colleagues from across the business who were involved in the end-to-end process, including design workshops, prototype feedback and wearer trials. The fee he charged was not disclosed but formed part of BA's 5 Bn Pounds investment over 5 years, and Ozwald is estimated to earn 10 million $ upwards yearly.

Migraine. A common ailment that is still poorly understood. And the additional bad news is that medication only suppresses it in about 1/3 of the cases. But certain things can be “triggers”, and it may help if you know your triggers so you can try to avoid them. To find out your triggers take note of the following, daily, for the next 2 months, day of week: Monday, Friday etc. Attack? No, if yes, start and end time, pain level 1-10, any prior vision problems, tingling, speech problems? What? Hours slept, sleep time – wake time, Quality: Poor, OK, good. What food, and breakfast, lunch or dinner skipped? Water drunk, 1,2,3 ltr?Coffee, alcohol, chocolate, aged cheese, processed meat (sausage etc), MSG salt, how much? Stress level, 1-10? Work, family, money, other? (all, haha). Exercise, type? Phone Screen time?, Period/flow day? (1-7) weather pressure drop, hot, cold, windy, storm. Medicines taken, dosage, time. It may sound amateuriastic, but after 2 months you’ll hopefully see a pattern.

Market economics for beginners. I have that habit of keeping things. Like the spoons and sometimes forks from take away and delivery foods. Then someone complained that cats were digging up her garden and destroying what she had planted, so I figured that putting forks upside down among her seedlings might keep the cats out. I went into my collection of kept plastic cutlery and got the forks out. 51 of them (2 were wooden). But the interesting part was that there were 20 different types. Ranging from white plastic to transparent to black, some even silver or gold coloured, long and short dents, reinforced handles, decorated handles, 20 different types. To me that means that 20 different companies or people are trying to sell their plastic forks into the market of takeaway and delivery foods. Serious competition there. The lesson is, if you think this market needs something, maybe big size plastic zips for sports wear (I couldn't find any), try to find it and see what you find. Many may already be selling what you are trying to introduce, and you’ll have to fight hard to find your place. Or get stuck with the goods. So before preparing to market, study the market first. Sounds obvious?

The pub at Accra International Airport. That’s when you already have checked in and after immigration and security. I prefer The Pub on the right after check in rather than the one on the left (they are both called Pub), the one on the left has bad memories with me, overcharging and no change. And it is nicely quiet at The Pub. The samosa was nice (45 GHC FOR 3), I ordered a second portion, but the chicken pie didn’t have much chicken in it. Water goes for 10 GHC, club mini at 35 and vodka also 35 a shot. They also sell jollof and waakye at 140-150 GHC.

Lydia...

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