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: From Couch to Conference Room: How to Style Joggers for the Office, Anaemia, Children first? and Brown Sugar Lounge and Restaurant

From Couch to Conference Room: How to Style Joggers for the Office Once reserved for lazy Sundays and post-gym errands, joggers have officially made their way into the workplace. Thanks to fashion’s evolving relationship with comfort, we’re seeing more people swap stiff trousers for soft, tapered joggers — and surprisingly, it works. Choose Tailored Joggers First things first: not all joggers are created equal. Save the oversized fleece for lounging — for the office, go for: Structured fabrics like twill, ponte knit, or scuba. A tapered leg that flatters, not flares. Minimal details: avoid loud logos or drawstrings dangling mid-thigh. Stick to neutral colours like black, navy, charcoal, or camel to keep it professional and versatile. Add a Blazer (The Power Piece) The ultimate jogger upgrade? A well-fitted blazer. Throw one over a tee, blouse, or light knit to instantly sharpen your look. Try this outfit combo: Black joggers White fitted tee Checked or camel blazer Leather loafers or pointed flats. It’s polished, modern, and ready for anything from budget meetings to brainstorm sessions. Footwear Matters Shoes can make or break a jogger-based office look. To keep things elevated: Choose leather loafers, minimalist sneakers, or ankle boots. Avoid anything too chunky, sporty, or worn-out. For dressier offices, pointed-toe flats or low block heels work wonders. Keep the colour palette cohesive to create a sleek silhouette from head to toe.

Anaemia. In my industry, fashion, I work with lots of women. Once I know that I want the person to continue working with me I ask them to go the lab for a quick check up, full blood count. That costs about 100 GHC. And I have a good reason to ask for this, in half the cases the laboratory report shows that the person is anemic. What is anemia and what are the symptoms? Anaemia is when you are short of red blood cells, it is the red blood cells that carry oxygen through your body to where it is needed, like muscles and the digestive track. So with anaemia your body will lack oxygen in many places, and your body cannot perform optimal. The result can be that often you feel tired, weak, have dizziness, shortness of breath, sometimes cold hands or feet, frequent headaches. If you experience any of these symptoms it does not necessarily mean that you are anaemic, but it may be worth checking, you are not supposed to have any of these symptoms anyway. How does one become anaemic? Diet. Lack of green vegetables which contain iron, like kontonmire and alefu. Lack of vitamin B12, mainly found in meat, fish and eggs. You can read up on it on one of the search engines or AI. Or you can go the easy way, buy blood tonic. Personally I prefer the veggies and meats, they contain other things as well. Some say anaemia is for women because we menstruate and loose blood. Mostly not so, if your menstruation is average you loose only about 60 milliliters of blood during that period of 3 to 7 days, if you were a blood donor they take about 450 milliliters in 10 minutes! Am I a heavy menstruator? A standard, regular sanitary pads absorbs about 5 to 6 milliliters of fluid when fully saturated, so if you use about 10 of these during your period you are average. In case of doubt spend money on a gynecologist, money spent on health is never wasted money.

Children first? No. You love your kids and will do anything to bring them up to be healthy and become good citizens. So they have your full attention, always. But kids need a father and a mother to get a balanced view on life. And the father is not only there to bring the money. Ideally kids grow up in an environment where the parents have a harmonious relationship. So putting all your attention on the kids will make you underdo what your husband is expecting from you. So he may start looking elsewhere for attention, in the worst case he may even decide to move out. So now you spoiled it for the kids. Thus, hubby first. And especially just after birth it is important to keep track of hubby, you've been busy with yourself during the pregnancy, and now that the child is there again he does not get your attention. Often men then get jealous though they won't tell you. Hubby first because the kids come first.

Brown Sugar Lounge and Restaurant. 25 Orphan Crescent, Labone, Accra. Someone spent money, it is a quiet but well done place. One can be in the open or inside, inside even has a pole for pole dancing, the waitress says that is long ago, and looking at her I don’t think it was she. The washrooms are beautiful. They seem to have a live band on Friday evenings, just next to Zen Gardens, I have to check this out one of these days. In the past brown sugar used to be slang for opium, and the Rolling Stones had a song with a title like that. We had Jollof with spicy goat meat at 140 GHS each, asked to comment in 2 words my partner said “too sticky”, but the sauce was nice. They have a hidden 5% service charge, Maybe it was mentioned but it did not catch my eyes. Service is a bit slow for a place that claims “food is ready” on the billboard. As a decoration the inside has a lot of boards with sayings by the famous people like Dr Kwame Nkrumah “he who is willing to humble himself : the hour of success awaits him”, or Fela Kuti “life is never a problem to be solved, its's and experience to enjoy”, and others. Nice to do some reflections before continuing a hard day's work.

Lydia...

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