Bye Bye Sydney ;( xxx

Wow everyone, I can’t believe my time in Sydney is over. It went quicker than I thought. I have to admit the first two months were challenging, but I’m SO GLAD that I made the leap from London to Sydney.


Those of you who were at my leaving party may remember me saying that I wanted to ‘meet people from interesting parts of the world, and Australia might be the place to do it’. I certainly did. Not only are they interesting, but also some of the most kind-hearted and beautiful people I am privileged to now call friends. I can’t vouch for every Aussie, but judging by the ones I’ve met, Aussies are fantastic people. To make my transition easier, people offered to show me around and take me out. It was the purity of spirit in their deeds that really touched me. I guess because I thought ‘why would you bother spending your time trying to make me feel more comfortable when you barely know me?’ When asked they replied ‘ah you know, it’s no big deal’. IT IS A BIG DEAL!!! Well to me anyway ;)

The kindness I’ve experienced here is like no other. Without sounding like a UN campaign, I truly have a renewed belief in the sincerity of people and human kindness. Sydney is a breath-taking city, with beautiful people living there. I am blessed to say I have made life-long friends.
To end, here are a few key things I’ve learnt whilst here:

• Aussies are not obsessed with kangaroos or koalas

• They are however obsessed with a chocolate biscuit snack called ‘Tim Tams’ which are our equivalent of Penguins - ours came first ;)

• There are A LOT of left handed people in Aus, it’s incredible!

• Thongs aka flip-flops are acceptable for every occasion, even Church on Sunday!

• Australia is home to some of the greatest people I know

Can you see that my face has a red tinge? Crying at the airport ;( x

I’ll definitely return to Australia in the near future. Until then, it’s G’day from me in Sydney xxx

I'm Baaack!

Hi everyone!

New vlog! Hope you like it xx

;)

Black History Month in Oz! Er... Well sort of!

Hi everyone,

Seems like Black History Month is in full swing from what I've seen on facebook (the source of all knowledge!). All jokes aside, I guess I'm missing out on the talks and gigs in London this year. No prob though, I'm having my own BHM in Oz! See...

Yay I can canerow my hair all back, the short cut has well and truly grown out! ;)



Not perfect at the back, but hey, I couldn't see ;)



My lucky comb ;) Don't be deceived by (or laugh)
at the missing teeth, this comb can still do wonders ;)

















lol, well a change of hairstyle doesn't quite constitute a historical celebration, but it does open the door to the wonderland of identity. I'll be honest. I did have reservations about coming to Australia because of my colour. I've been lucky enough not to have experienced racism in my life, and saw this trip as the gateway to a potential first encounter. These thoughts clearly didn't stop me coming ;)





The Aussies I've encountered are lovely, from those at the supermarket to Bondi. I am however very aware that I am different from the majority. I tend to think the first thing Aussies notice is my complexion. But I'm not sure. The first thing anyone asks me upon hearing me speak is 'where are you from?' So I'm guessing they pick up on the accent. Their eyes then light up when I say London (LDN sounds a bit more trendy that England/UK ;)  ). I can't help but wonder whether they believe me or not, or whether they are going so say,'ok, you live there but where are you really from?' Only because that's how it works at home; and we all have a similar accent! People want to know where you're really from aka your heritage because newsflash*obviously black people don't come from England*. Having a thoroughly British accent doesn't cut it, nor does having a mauve passport. It's the skin. I sometimes feel like saying 'well actually my grandad was white, so there, I'm very much British if colour is the judge!' ;) Alas I never say that. I just say what everyone wants to hear. The black part. Ghanaian and Antiguan. I rarely go into the fractions unless further scrutiny and questions ensue, typically brought on by close inspection of the texture of my hair. Sorry guys, is this getting a bit uncomfortable? Don't feel uncomfortable reading this! It's because I know you are all wonderful, open minded and diverse that I feel I can share this with you ;) xx



Little anecdote to end. When I started nursery in Maidenhead (that's right, my existence has extended beyond Palmers G!) my Mumma was concerned. Noting that I was the only black child there she asked me, 'Sweetie, do they call you any names at nursery?' in a worried/loving tone. I replied in an equally emotional tone, 'yeees'. Her heart was racing. 'What do they call you luvvy?'
I replied, 'Shooolah'. ;)



Happy Black History Month xxx



God Bless the NHS

Hi everyone,

As you can imagine, I've been feeling flat this past week. Had a truck-load of assignments too, which was fun. I think the most 'exciting' thing, tragic actually, was that I had an accident. I sliced my finger open with a knife.

It looked like an over-boiled frankfurter, you know when it splits open and the flesh spills out...

Not nice at all. The blood wouldn't stop pouring so I had to have a couple of stitches. 140 AUD for two stitches.

Paying that hurt me more than the knife ;(

Can you see how the area is blue/green? The doc put the needle right in the wound, I nearly passed out.

I didn't let the wound hold me back. The next day I managed (not sure how) to make cook-up soup. Sidenote: Cutting pumpkin with a gammy hand is very difficult. Glad I managed it though ;)

Pumpkin, onions, potatoes, carrots, organic pasta, organic lamb and seasoning

The wound is healing nicely; despite the fact that the nurse didn't take out all of the nylon stitch, so I had to do a DIY job with my tweezers.



My Godmother xxx

I'm writing this post with extreme sadness. My Godmother has passed away. I know people only speak of the good at death, but that was all there was.

My Aunty Debbie was a fighter and loved life. She was always energetic and smiling, even when it was tough. My aunty was kind. Despite her suffering she thought of others, including myself. At my leaving party she gave me a little green notepad (my favourite colour) to record my memories of Australia. I haven't opened it. Maybe because I want the memory to stay intact.

My single prayer whilst I've been here is to see her at Christmas when I get home. That was my only fear when I left. Though it's too short, I've been blessed to have had her in my life.

I hugged her less than 2 months ago. Spoke to her a few weeks ago.

Will love her forever xxx

Till we hug again xxx

Sho getting techno?!

Hi everyone, thought I'd put in an appearance! Please bear with the quality, there's only so much of my face my Dell lappy can take! ;) Lots of love xx

Location, location, location

Deary me friends and familia, it has been a while. Sorry, but the Australian higher education system is C.R.A.Z.Y! They give you spontaneous tests and assignments due for the following week. Forgive me please xx

In between my academia-filled days, I have been exploring a little of what Sydney has to offer. First let me acquaint you with my local area. Here's where I live:

Here is where I hang out in between lectures...

I visit my friends from uni at their homes too....

Dyou know, I think part of me really did think it was going to be like this. Bliss. Home from home. Ah.

Wakey wakey, here's where I really live... at the roundabout turn left:

Go all the way down and turn right until you see my distinct yellow door...

Isn't it a sight to behold? So there you have it folks, my digs. Enough of that, here is some of the real beauty of Sydney...

Oh sorry wrong snap, I mean this...

and this...

And one that is particularly dear to my heart....

;) xx

Jollofing it up in Aus

I imagine every parent is worried when their child leaves home for the first time and goes to university, albeit across the globe. My mumma gave me strong words before I left: 'Eat well and don't come back looking worse than you left. If you come back with an accent I will shoot you'. You'll be happy to know that everyone here thinks I'm very 'english' so there is no danger of me picking up an accent.
I know that the burning question everybody has is, 'If you can't eat oreos to survive, what on earth are you eating?!' Put simply, you can take the girl out of Accra but you can't take Accra out of the girl! Well not quite, I won't pretend that I was born and bred in Ghana but we all know that I love it dearly ;)
Yesterday I had a craving for jollof rice so set about making some.

Side note and background information: Scientists may be intrigued to know that I have discovered a new gene and am yet to publicise it, but you, my friends and family, get first dibs. It's called the rice gene. It has run in my family for a couple of generations, passed down from my grandmother, to my father and now to me. Having the gene means that you have no rational sense of the correct amount of rice to cook at any one time. You consequently cook double or more the amount of rice needed for the occasion. Put another way, if we were in a similar position to Jesus, we would have used rice instead of fish and bread to feed the 5,000. In fact, even though we have never been anywhere near the position Jesus was in, we still insist on cooking enough rice for 5,000 people. As I have this gene, I cooked enough jollof for a small village instead of one person. I froze some and gave some away and am still enjoying it from two days ago.

Since I've been here I haven't had fast food once, and am proud to say I have cooked every meal from scratch. See the complete meal below ;)

Breakfast

I Kid You Not!

Was up at 7.20am in order to leave plenty of time to get ready, have a good breakfast and walk to uni for my 9am lecture -
Shower
Breakfast
Bag/Notepad
Arrive at the right lecture room
Lecturer...
Lecture...
Lect...
No? ok.

Apparently we (2 more + me) were a week early for the lecture. They don't start until week 2. Thanks guys for letting us know ;)

No probs, still had some things to do around campus, pick up my ID card, hand in some forms etc.

After the admin was done, I got back home and decided to do a spot of cleaning. My room needed hoovering, however the hoover didn't have much suction. Side note: I love the way how 98% of people are bemused when the hoover loses suction. I don't think that my housemates ever dreamed that a hoover is like an electronic bin that needs emptying... ah... Fast forward the hoovering and cleaning of the entire communal area, I went back to my room and started on my bathroom. I was very much looking forward to this bout of cleaning as I bought a massive bottle of bleach which was going to do wonders. It did.

The bleach spilt on my hand.

My hand with no glove.

My hand with eczema. *pause for shock* ARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

The bleach I bought was not like Parazone, it was laundry bleach and so was a thin liquid that subsequently sloshed onto my hand when I opened it! It was more than salt to a wound, it was bleach to wounded eczema! As I am typing, my right hand is still irritated from the incident. Of all the places for bleach to spill...

On my eczema ;(

The Most Important Thing - Oreos in Aus

A lot of lies in a small box

Deary me, I'm writing this with a heavy heart and horrible after taste in my mouth... Oreos in Australia are VILE! I thought, "why not treat myself" to the popular cookie/biscuit lovechild which turned out to be a waste of 1.89 AUD. I don't know exactly what they taste of, it's almost like they put too much vanilla essence and not enough chocolate in... I think... They just taste wrong and the sad thing is, they look the same, therefore it's blatant deception!

Anyway, long and short of it is, don't ask me to bring you any back...

Woohoo, we're on! I'm not going to start this with a "G'Day mate" as if it's funny because it's not! ;)

All jokes... haha... *tumbleweed* aside, thank God He brought me safely here to Australia. 10 hours to Bangkok, a quick search and fumble to the next gate, 10 or so hours later, I arrived. Bleary eyed at 5.30am Sydney time, sailed through customs and onto baggage collection where I again laid eyes on the superstar that is Brian McFadden! Ah Brian, he's actually a lot taller than I expected him to be, actually I didn't expect anything because he has never once crossed my mind... No no  he has, because every time I see Kerry Katona, I think 'but he looks like a decent guy, how did they end up together?' Anyway, him and Kerry aside, he's quite tall!

We did make eye contact though, not only in Sydney but in Heathrow too... who cares!!! Oh, Lydia does...

Having collected my things, I entered the main body of the airport expecting to see a friendly face with a 'Macquarie' plaque ready to whisk me away in a comfortable vehicle straight to my luxury accomodation. The different time zones had obviously affected my rationale, as this was not the case. An hour later than expected, a bleary eyed, over- weight, older man meandered over and casually said "Macquarie?" that was my ride!

Fast forward 45 minutes more students joined the meeting area and we were en route to our respective lodgings... Here beginneth the adrenaline rush ;)