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

This week's contributors: Lydia, Pépé Pépinière, this week's subjects: Maintaining composure during love season as a bachelor or spinster, M&S, How backwards were we, 233 Jazz Bar and Grill, Honey Suckle, AFCON tournament.

Maintaining composure during love season as a bachelor or spinster.

As a bachelor or spinster during the lovers' season, maintaining composure can be both empowering and essential. Here are some practical tips to help you navigate this time with grace: 1. Do Not Take It Personally: In stressful situations, avoid perceiving personal persecution or insult where none exists. For instance, if a coworker makes a decision you disagree with, consider it a business choice rather than a personal affront. Everyone has differing ideas, and not all of them are meant as insults against you. 2. Reflect on Past Reactions: Think about previous emotional outbursts. Rarely do such bursts of emotion improve a situation. Reacting impulsively tends to complicate matters. Remember the rule, not the exception. Most often, throwing a fit doesn't lead to positive outcomes. 3. Avoid Assumptions: When upset, we tend to assume the worst behavior from others involved. However, these assumptions may not be true. Anticipating problems can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, after a breakup, assuming friends will turn against you might lead you to distance yourself unnecessarily. 4. Identify the True Source of Frustration: Dig deeper into what's truly bothering you. While a situation may trigger your emotions, it might not address the real issue. Understanding the root cause helps you maintain composure and respond effectively. Remember, being single during lovers' season doesn't mean missing out. Embrace your independence, focus on self-improvement, and celebrate the love you have for yourself and others!

M&S, short for Marks and Spencer, is a 140 year old British clothing chain, known for it's quality British made goods. At it's hay days it had 959 stores across the UK, and made a net profit of 1 billion Pounds. Since then their initial refusal to accept non M&S credit and debit cards, Covid, the internet and fast fashion have played havoc with them, and profits are down to half of their triumph year, and the main news one reads about them these days is that they are closing another 100 shops and sacking another 7000 people. Meanwhile their saviour has been the introduction of luxury foods in 1931, and the pre-packed sandwich as a first in 1980. It would be a pity if they too went under, in 1953 they introduced the slogan “the customer is always and completely right”, and in 1957 they introduced a stocking measuring system, another first. So now there is new management and more focus on what today's customer wants than what we are selling today, and indeed, they seem to be turning around, sales of clothing are up again, and they recently bought the intellectual property of collapsed fashion marketplace Thread, and hired some former Thread staff including one of their co-founders, with the aim of adding personalized recommendations to the M&S website. Could have been a bit earlier, British arrogance?

How backwards were we? In 1847 Philipp Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician and scientist proposed hand washing with chlorinated lime solutions before helping a woman deliver, to reduce mortality shortly after delivery due to postpartum infection or puerperal fever or childbed fever, being any bacterial infection of the reproductive tract following birth, and in the 19th century this was common and often fatal. But at that time bacterial infections had not been discovered yet, so not being able to prove his theory scientifically (whilst mortality dropped from 18 to 2 % after handwashing), he was sent away as a nutcase and eventually locked up in an asylum where he was beaten up by the guards, wounded, and then died two weeks later of an infection. It is only about 25 years later, when Pasteur, a Frenchman, established that bacteria were responsible for infections that Semmelweis's advice of handwashing became accepted and implemented, and eventually became compulsory.

233 Jazz Bar and Grill in Accra, opposite Ghana Broadcasting, greek salad. So this time I brought my own vinaigrette and everything would have been perfect now except that this time the salad was not very crispy, but more like cooked kontomire. And I counted the black olives, which are nice, not too salty, not too oily, they were 11. Olives and olive oil is becoming a big thing of late, all sort of health benefits are attributed to it, and I have no reason to counter that, so it is becoming fashionable and the average price is up about 75%, year on year. Try to buy cold pressed, the original beneficial molecules are still intact, with hot pressed they sort of steam the oil out, call it cooking the oil, which does no good to these health benefits. And watch the expiry date, olive oil should be consumed within 24 month after harvesting and within 6 months of opening the bottle. Store in a glass bottle in a dark place.

Honey Suckle Ring Road, Accra, seems not to do much on the training of some of their staff on politeness and product knowledge, and when I ordered something straight from the food menu it needed 3 staff who, amongst each other, were shouting in my ear before my order was understood and accepted and passed to the kitchen. And it needed my prompting before the order then came out if that kitchen. Grilled chicken with mushroom sauce. Not a bone in sight and half dry, and the sauce was a straight flour sauce with some pieces in it which could indeed have been mushrooms, after all it was called mushroom sauce.

Puff, the AFCON tournament is over. It was getting a bit on my nerves, first the drama about Ghana being ousted, and all the theories on why and what should have been done and who did it, and then the finals which even turned the Jazz Club and Grill into a football venue, this time I had only 8 olives. And all that knowing that football is only being played to draw the crowd so they can see the advertisements, or who else is paying for all this.

Lydia...

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