Growing up in the 1980s in communist East Berlin our filmography came from decades past. Joy came from actors such as Terence Hill & Bud Spencer and Louis de Funès who my sisters and I affectionately called Big Nose. Inger Nilsson’s Pippi Langstrumpf showed us spunk, strength, and common sense. But then there was the […]
Solo in Brazil, The Final Chapter
I was sad to leave Natal, having met some quality people. I was looking forward to not having to run into THE BOYS seeing how they were staying in rental homes and I had hotel reservations and had changed my flight itinerary. But as fate would have it, I found myself arriving to the airport […]
The English Are Fun Losers
By the time I arrived in Belo Horizonte for the Costa Rica – England match, England was already out of the tournament. Who would have thought that Costa Rica would top that group…over Italy, Uruguay, and well England. No matter. I was to meet a dear friend, Tricks, who over the years had become an […]
The Gardener in Me
It’s spring. It’s the time of rejuvenation, renewal, and regrowth. For me in my new apartment and it’s large backyard, it’s a time to play in the earth. Though I did manage to plant several bulb flowers soon after I moved in October, I’ve been itching all winter to finally get some real dirt under […]
Censored by Al Jazeera America
When we arrived in the United States twenty years ago, it did not take long for my father, a diplomat who can watch the news from morning to night with an occasional break for a sporting event and sometimes a movie, to find PBS. We would watch the garbage of network news fooled by their […]
Bulldog – The Game!
Writing the previous post on my first baseball game conjured up fond memories of playing rounders as a British school child in West Berlin in the 1980s. Soon followed the memories of kiss-chase and most fond of all bulldog! Bulldog was THE GAME. Come recess, the large rectangular asphalt yard at The Havel School was […]
Thoughts about The Lion King through Adult Eyes
Not too long ago, my French speaking fourteen year old cousin from Marseille came to the United States to visit the family. It was the first time that she and her aunt, my mother, had met. I don’t know how they communicated as my mother doesn’t speak French and she doesn’t speak English nor Nzema. […]
Tasting Notes – Chocolaterie Puyricard
When we were in France last September, my aunt took me to one of the Puyricard shops in Marseille. It was at the end of the two week European holiday and I had already sampled and bought chocolate in Germany and Belgium so I only selected a handful of chocolates, even though the shop had […]
Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales
There is a new volume of Brothers Grimm fairy tales published by Taschen. It only contains 27 of the most beloved stories but what sets it apart is the artwork, collected from illustrators from various countries working between the 1820s and the 1950s. I’m likely not to get it because when I do obtain a […]
Tears in Berlin
As mentioned several times again, my recent trip to Europe with my sisters was prompted by a Facebook connection of my sister with a former classmate and nostalgia over the best part of our life growing up in communist East Berlin in the 1980s. In the 20 years or so since we left, we have […]
A lover of mangoes. A woman - smart, without pretense, lefthanded, Afropolitan - navigating this thing called life. An unapologetic believer in social justice and karma. Choosing to radiate positive energy and be true to myself. Here, my musings.