groundnut soup(Ghana style)

I cooked some groundnut(peanut) soup with chicken today. The trouble with this soup is you have to siphon a lot of oil off. The soup brings out all the oil in the peanuts and when You add the chicken..... well, you can always use skinless chicken. It's best eaten with Fufu. But you can have it with gari, rice, yam, kenkey, (a kinda sour corn mash),banku( super-thick corn porridge), sweet potatoes, even bread if you want. My friend Eni who is Nigerian and I have decided to exchange foods every wed (when we meet at the sports centre). She's bringing me moimoi which is a bean dish from Nigeria and I'm taking her some of my 'Nkate-nkwai'(twi), Nketie Wonu'(Ga) aka groundnut soup. That way we can sample dishes from each other's country.
Going through my hair I've discovered a few locs on the edges that completely unraveled-after 8mths!! I thought I was supposed to have 'African' hair as I'm all african. Actually I have a great- great grandfather on my mother side who was dutch (he was the governor hmmm.....)and some suspected arab ancestry on my father side, so I have them to blame for this state of affairs. Fortunately I have 99.9% african blood,so most of my hair is locked in spite of its loose coily texture in places. I managed to track my loctitian today and she has graciously inserted me in her hectic schedule for friday. Phew!Sorry about that big forehead and looking bug eyed in the above pics, I was trying to show the growth at my hairline. My hairline is gradually improving, for this I give God all the glory.

credit crunch?

It's time for my babies to be tightenend again and all I managed to do is tighten 1 1/2 locs out of 380. It's ridiculous. I can't seem to find the time, or get settled - there's always something....*sigh* I am at this very moment searching for Angela's card so I can call and make a booking. Somehow when I take 4-5hrs out of my day to go and get my hair done, everyone understands. We even have take-aways. But I'm attempting to DIY, dinner must be cooked per normal, everything must continue as is.. no interruption. But I won't grumble. I'm just going to have to ask hubby for the 50 quid to go and do the deed. Thankfully, God has blessed us in the middle of the credit crunch so I can actually afford it. But I'd rather save it and send it back home to my mother. I send money home regularly as do all my siblings to take care of my aging parents(all you africans will probably relate) but my mum's had some challenges and I want to up the total to get the extras she needs. We've had to hire extra help to help care for her and I want her to have whatever her lil' heart desires. My dad too, bless him. God's faithful and he will provide.

I've been tagged!

I've never been tagged b4 so I hope I'm doing it the right way.

1. Link to the person that tagged you
http://divalareine.blogspot.com/

2.Post the rules on your blog

3. Share 6 non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

So here goes:
1. I love the sound of rain when I'm going to sleep ,or background sounds of voices or music.

2. I enjoy Ghanaian food(red red,beans in palm nut sauce and ripe plantain is my fav/or apim-green plantain and Nkontomire..YUMMY) and like to wear my traditional attire (cloth or kente with headgear) to church or important functions.

3. I learned to swim in my mid-40s.

4. I'm an artist and love to do wax paintings. Back in the eighties, Anne and I travelled from Ghana to Sierra Leone to have an Art exhibition. At that time it was rare for anyone our age to go outside the country for an exhibition. It was very successful and we were featured in neswpapers and TV.

5. My daughter is also my best friend. We both like Ghanaian praise and worship in 'twi' or 'Ga' and often sing and dance along with the music.

6. I usually ask God for my parking space b4 I go out (except for that 4th retightening trip!) and I usually get it.
Last, but not least....I know,Iknow it said 6 not 7 things, nevertheless
I hate arrogance and the use of foul language!

Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
http://luvlockd.blogspot.com/
http://www.thandislocsnlife.blogspot.com/

http://rchgrl1.blogspot.com/

http://happilynappilynish.blogspot.com/

http://mylocsjourney.blogspot.com/

http://www.yooforea.blogspot.com/

Guys, if you've recently been tagged you can ignore this. I picked you bc you're all at a similar stage of locking as me and I read your blogs hehehe.

Anyone whose reading this, if you haven't been tagged consider yourself 'it'.

Rebellious teens?

No, I prefer to call them locs with character. This is how my locs look and I've decided I like it. It dawned on me that the fuzzy,frizzy stage is to be enjoyed. My locs are simply deciding what they're going to be when they grow up. I like wild and I like the volume. They will not always be like this. One day I will wake up to find them fully developed, all 'behaving', but for now..... I'll Enjoy big hair.

PhotoArtistry

I didn't quite know what to do with my hair so I wrapped it at the front. It made my locs look big and bushy. So that's how I wore it to Anne's 'do'. A wrap is a good standby when your locs won't behave.

My friend Anne(she has traditional locs) is the owner of photoartistry. This was the opening of their new premises. It was wonderful, especially since I had the priveledge of seeing the place when it was a huge, empty shell. Anne and her team worked very hard to transform this place and it includes offices, workshops, conference hall and gallery. If U want to know more about PhotoArtistry, just google it. They do some fabulous work on canvas acrylic and more. Anne is not only a business woman, she is an artist and a painter and has had quite a few exhibitions. She is one of the people who has encouraged me to revive my art skills and also make my dream of making hair/skin potions into reality. The 3 in above pic is Anne, Seiwa and me. We 3 have been friends for years, both in Ghana and UK. Seiwa,(in the middle) a former sisterlock wearer,is an artist too and very creative. She's the one who got me onto the Art journals(on my website http://www.locsdiary.piczo.com/) and now she's hooked me on another. Regarding her hair, I wait with bated breath to see what she's gonna do. I'ts def going to be locked again, but I don't know what method she's going to go with.

moor mill

Paul's (hubby) brother and wife and baby were visiting from the US so the whole fam went to lunch at Moor Mill which is an old country pub/restaurant/motel. It was a mill, back in the day, and U can still see the wheels turning. We had typical UK weather, snippets of sunshine and bursts of wind and rain.

Arashia's twist-locs

Arashia's locs were started with 2 st twists. Tightened mainly with the nappyloc tool or bodkin. I'm not a fan of the latch-hook. I might try a crotchet-hook sometime. These pics were taken a week after being tightened by moi. She has 350 or more locs. Many of them would be the size of extra large sls. Some a lot thicker. Her hair is very dense and thick and U can hardly see the scalp even after retightening. She also put a bit of colour in some locs. We are trying to keep to a 4wk touch up schedule, but often find ourselves going 0ver 6wks. This last retight took about 3 days of doing a bit here and a bit there.It took longer bc there was so much growth, I had some repairs to do and I split 4 locs. There are 2 more to split near the crown. I'm leaving all the thick ones in the back intact as they're not really noticeable.