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: Monday Morning, But Make It Fashion, Woodin for sale? The Pleasure way to avoid Incontinence, and Sub Box

Monday Morning, But Make It Fashion: Accra Edition. Monday morning is not for the weak; it's basically a personal attack. Your alarm is screaming, your bed is holding you hostage, you are calculating traffic and somehow you still have to look like a woman who has her entire life perfectly organized. Suddenly you’re standing in front of your wardrobe saying, “I literally have nothing to wear!” Meanwhile, the Accra sun is already preparing its own meeting agenda. Relax, Accra corporate girl. This is not the day for a fashion experiment. The secret is to dress smart for the heat without sacrificing the corporate-girl aesthetic. Choose breathable fabrics like cotton, linen blends, and lightweight materials that won’t have you regretting your fashion choices before 10 AM. Skip anything too heavy or clingy, especially when you know you’ll be navigating Accra traffic. Instead of thick layers, try a lightweight blazer you can easily remove once the heat becomes disrespectful. Go for sleeveless or short-sleeved tops under your blazer, and choose relaxed tailored trousers or midi dresses that give you room to breathe. Also, Accra corporate girls know the struggle: you can be melting outside and freezing inside the office. So keep one light layer handy for that aggressively air-conditioned office. And shoes? Comfort is not negotiable. You may look fabulous leaving home, but after walking through parking lots and surviving the morning commute, your feet deserve peace too. Choose comfortable loafers, low heels, or chic block heels that can survive a full working day. The goal is simple: look polished, stay comfortable, and avoid looking like you’ve been personally fighting the sun. Because whether you're stuck in traffic, rushing into a Monday meeting, or grabbing your first coffee, your outfit should still say: “Yes, Accra is hot. Yes, traffic was terrible. And yes, I still look fashionably undefeated.” Happy Monday, now go to that office and give “CEO energy on 3 hours of sleep.” Accra corporate girl! Stay stylish, stay hydrated, and may your outfit survive the heat, the traffic, and the office AC.

Woodin for sale? Maybe the only Ghanaian fashion brand well known across our borders, at least in Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin, is Woodin, our Woodin. Produced in Tema and owned by Dutch company Vlisco, makers of the real Dutch wax print, and who also own GTP Ghana Textile Printing. Suffering from cheap Chinese copies and imported second hand clothing they have been seriously struggling off late, and recently an investor walked in and bought lock stock and barrel, for an undisclosed sum. Rumour has it that the sum was one US dollar. Then you buy all, including the debts which I hear is millions of dollars. There’s talk of a revival of Ghana‘s cotton industry to support the textile industries. But talk is cheaper than Woodin.

The Pleasure way to avoid Incontinence. When you are in town and feel the need to urinate but there is nowhere to go you use a muscle to hold it back. It is called the pelvic muscle. This muscle weakens as you get older, resulting in incontinence, the unwanted loss of urine. This unwanted release can also happen during lots of laughter, or real fear. And for that to happen you need not be old. And if it is anal release, not urine, it I still called incontinence. Unpleasant news, we all hope to get older and now know what we can look forward to. Nope, that muscle can be trained and strengthened. For example squeeze 5 times, or slowly squeeze over 5 seconds, hold 5 seconds, release over 5 seconds. These are called Kegel exercises, you can look it up. If you follow a Kegel exercise program you get results after 6 weeks. Results? Yes, your pelvic muscles will strengthen and you will have less problems holding your urine back. And there are pelvic exercise machines, like vaginal cones/ weights you insert and try to hold in by contracting your pelvic floor. Comes in a set of increasing weights. Ask about them in the gym if you a want to start an interesting discussion. Or biofeedback devices for the techies amongst us. These are sensors (vaginal or external) connected to an app that shows you on your phone if you are squeezing the right muscle. Doctors may prescribe electric pulse devices for people with very weak pelvic floors, giving a small electrical pulse to help the muscle contract. And the pleasure part I mentioned in the title? Now that your pelvic muscle is strengthened you have more control over you vagina, and can unexpectedly squeeze hubby when he is in you. He will be so surprised that he will end up with a premature ejaculation (there's very sophisticated words for banal things). There’s exercises against that as well. Some guys train not to ejaculate so they can keep going. Same muscles…..World health Organization (WHO) is talking about 150 minutes exercises a week. Do they know what they are talking about?

Sub Box. Ndabaningi Sithole Road, Labone. Who was that? He was one of the fore fathers to get Rhodesia out of the hands of the British to become Zimbabwe. A sort of East African Nkrumah. Pity, we are free but most of us don't know much about how we got there. I often visit Sub Box after I have visited the Saturday organic market at Labone Coffee Shop. Their cappuccino at 60 GHC is nice, espresso goes for 40 GHC and fresh orange juice at 60 GHC. For pineapple juice they now do their own brand, in a plastic bottle at 45 GHC, but I prefer glass. The cheese beefburger goes for 195 GHC which is a bit stiff so I didn't try it. Cupcakes cost 45 GHC.

Lydia...

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