Love, life and laughter

Three friends, a Friday evening and a beautiful apartment in the trendiest part of Gothenburg. We ate, we drank, laughed and almost cried. One's enjoying married life, one's going through a divorce and one is waiting for a proposal. So many life destinies to discuss, dreams to share and opinions to express. In between that we managed to sow a business idea, but more importantly take a deep flashback trip to 90s R'n'B! I was so inspired I spent Saturday morning making a new playlist on Spotify. This smooth TLC song has been on repeat quite a few times today, can't believe I haven't listened to it for 15 years!

Grief, worries and loss

After a fantastic summer, (at times, Gothenburg has been hotter than Accra), it seems the weather has turned to reflect the mood. As the rains pour down over Gothenburg, everywhere I turn, people are in mourning; over a dead celebrity, a friend gone too soon or the passing of a relative. I thought I'd find out what my friends were up to on Facebook this evening, only to realise a friend has just been diagnosed with cancer.

It makes my heart sink any time I hear of anyone being caught by this horrible disease. I truly hope she gets through it with good medical care and the support of her friends and family. After going through a very tough time last year, I realise how sad it is when in your sorrow, those you thought were your friends desert you. Thankfully, in my own situation, I had a great support team within my own family, otherwise I don't know how I would've made it. Still, it's been more than a year and I still mourn the friends I lost*, because when I needed them the most, they chose not to be there for me.

*In life we never lose friends, we only learn who our true ones are.

Happy International Women's Day!

I have thought for over a week of what I would write today. There's too much to talk about, too many angles to tackle the subject from and unfortunately I don't have the time to think of something clever.

It is International Women's Day today and all over the world, including Sweden, supposedly the best country in the world for women to live in, we are still very far from equal to our male counterparts. I'm a huge fan of the Madeleine Albright quote (skip to 12:30):
There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other”.


As with anything, together we're stronger and it is only together we can work to abolish the inequalities that mean women are perceived differently; traditionally female jobs pay less and women are still underrepresented in the executive bodies of corporations and governing bodies worldwide.

On that note I today want to wish a special happy International Women's Day to these persons:

1. Maya Angelou – an inspiration in life, art and willpower. I named my daughter (and blog!) after her and thinking back, it was even her time in Ghana that inspired me to attempt at living in my homeland.

2. Every friend of mine, whether real-life or virtual. Our paths are so different, our goals likewise, and yet I can't but be amazed by the strength and tenacity that leads us to manage three children, work and fulltime studies, single motherhood with a successful corporate career, pursuing entrepreneurial dreams while creating a family and caring for a sick parent, etc., etc. The list is too long to write out and here I am talking of my closest group of friends!

3. My mother – the most amazing woman in the world. I hardly praise her here. Why? No words can do justice to how wonderful she is.

Happy International Women's Day!

New beginnings

New Job,
New Apartment,
New Friends,
New Projects,
New Routine,
New Laptop (woohoo!).

All I need now is new phone and I am all set for this brand spanking new year.

What's new for you in 2012? Is the year looking promising?

Death on Facebook

Speaking of death, I read an interesting article on a topic I have considered many times. How does Facebook handle the death of its members? Remember my friend G? It's been three years and I still get birthday reminders on Facebook. I am sure I'm not the only one of his friends who sees these as a painful reminder of his death. Still, it would feel strangely cruel to defriend him just because he's passed away (in the same way it is difficult to erase a dead person's phone number from your phonebook).

In the article, Liza Campbell mentions how one of her deceased friends makes a new friend a good four months after passing away. I too have seen that happen.

I know many prefer for the dead person's Facebook page to still exist, as it becomes part of the grieving process to look at old pictures and updates of the deceased. Would it not be relatively simple though, to say that upon the receipt of a copy of a death notice/certificate, Facebook will at least disable the deceased's account from being able to make new friends and from having birthday notices sent out?

Or am I thinking in too simple terms?

Heading back out on the Accra scene

Some time ago a friend and I were discussing how our social activities seemed to have dwindled. We wondered whether this was because our friends suddenly considered us married and with children and as such not able to make it out. Well, if that's the case, friends, ask before you assume! Let me decide whether I'll be heading out or not, being married or a parent does not necessarily make you housebound.

As a result of my friends' unfortunate assumptions, I find myself making new friends and it seems I am slowly beginning to fill out my social calendar and discovering lovely new and old places around town. In the past few weeks, this has meant movie nigths at Silverbird Cinemas, dinner for la Baselette who was about to leave town at Il Cavaliere Pazzo at the Polo Club, which with it's beautiful interior and delicious food helped make the evening great (along with the fabulous company of course). If you go, do try the pain perdu, scrumptious dessert!
A few days later I was off to the Ghana Goes 2010 event at African Regent, arranged by fellow blogger Nana Darkoa and ended the evening with a light snack at Rhapsody's.
Dinner at Mama Mia:

In addition there's been trips to Till's Beach, my beloved Tema and evenings at Bella Roma and Mama Mia. Hm, could this, rather than Em, be the reason why I'm so tired?

So, my dear friends, it's not me, it's you! Whether you call me to come out or not, I'll make sure I'm having my own fun, one way or another!