I've heard of that dance show - the US version. Sounds fantastic. I love dancing. Make sure you post some clips on YouTube, you can also add them to your blog posts. Would be great to see them.

I am on a health kick too - but vegetarianism can't work, I am Jamaican and can't give up the chicken man!

Had the day off on Friday and decided to collect a bed I bought on ebay for my daughter. That was my first mistake. Days off are for relaxing, not for trying and failing to erect a loft bed on your lonesome. I sat down defeated after four hours, without enough energy to treat myself to an afternoon at the movies as planned.

Going to the cinema is one of my favourite treats, and I'm dying to see The Last King of Scotland which actor Forest Whitaker just won an Oscar. I had a whole week without my daughter at home as it was half-term holiday from school. I guess I am growing up because usually this would signal a week of binge-drinking after work with colleagues, mid-week raving and general single-woman behaviour. I went to the pub once, for a work social, and was home by 9.30pm, and the other evenings just went straight home. At my age, I'm feeling more of a need for my beauty sleep as awful as it is to admit that.

But I like to make up for it on the weekends, so Saturday was spent out with my girlfriends at a 'dance' in west London. We did the full on girls night out, went to one of the girls' house to get ready (hence I forgot my make-up and am walking around like death warmed up), got there around 1am, and left around 5am. It was cool - it was a party for a DJ we know. Lots of people turned out for him. He's a cool guy, a white guy that plays black music, speaks Jamaican patois and has hung around with black people for so long he basically thinks he is black, and no one is about to tell him otherwise. My friends have known him since they were teenagers, so we went to pay our 'respects' so to speak.

With no husband yet (if ever), at a time when I really should be thinking about how many (more) kids I would like, I am living the life of a single (mum) girl, going out much like I did in my 20s. People here are getting married later and later - and a lot of black people are not getting married at all, which the women complain about all the time. Me included. I've had one proposal in my life and no ring, so I guess that's no proposal. Sometimes it gets me down, but mainly I thank god that I have one child, and that I am finally doing the work I aspired to do since I was a child. Life may not be perfect, but it's good.

Now I did get asked out by a 26-year-old on Saturday...

Since Information travels the word over, we are aware of the latest spate of shootings in the UK and it is a tragedy. I must say that as a person who lived in the US until 2001, I was a little surprised that they shootings caused such an uproar, only because maybe in the US shootings and the reporting of them are a much more "regular" occurence.

Here in Sierra Leone, in related news, a teenage boy (a student at Technical School) was stabbed to death at his school's Prize Giving Ceremony on Monday. The details are sketchy, but apparently another student, his girlfriend, invited another one of her suitors to the Ceremony. That suitor attended armed with a knife and got into a scuffle with the Technical student over the girl. A scuffle that ended with one boy's death and another's arrest. Sad.

Switching gears: Sierra Leone's first reality tv show is going from strength to strength! If I haven't mentioned it before, "So YOU Think You Can Dance, Sierra Leone" is its name (obviously you can see where the name came from!). It's produced by the new tv production wing of our company (SSTV Productions) and aired on SLBS TV (Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service).
Talented kids are competeing for the title of Best individual and Best Group Dancers in Sierra Leone. I host the program and it is a joy to see how week to week these ordinary kids are rising to the challenge. The public also gets the opportunity to vote for their favorite dancers through sms voting after the show is aired on SLBS. It's providing a great learning opportunity for everyone involved!

Family News: my husband is on a work-out regimen and just announced that he's going vegeterian for a month- leaving me with the dilemma of figuring out what the heck he's going to eat! (should just feed him salad greens! lol!). Daughters are doing well: the eldest announced today that "I am not your friend!" because I would not let her eat cheese balls before her lunch of jollof rice and chicken stew! Stay Well.

From Freetown,
Nicky.

It's been a very tough week in south London. A 15-year-old boy was shot in his home, the third this month. Black on black crime is at the top of the news agenda, and the news programmes are awash with people from the 'black community' who you would n0rmally never see in any other context, to give their opinion on the escalation in 'gun crime' among young people.

As the mother of a 13-year-old living in south London, it is worrying. But it's not news to us. This is the circumstances our children are growing up under. I think what is worrying is that not enough of us are campaigning for something to be done about it. For some time we have been aware that guns are a problem in the community - it affects the choices you make concerning where you rave, how much freedom you allow your kids, and things like having a car become essential because you don't want your kids to ride public transport late at night.

I don't like her to travel through Brixton when it's dark, so she might go the long way round via Clapham to my best friend's house, however she will always collect her where possible. Kids have to be streetwise from a young age, know how to carry themselves with confidence so they don't look like an obvious victim.

Tears welled in my eyes as I read about this 15 year-old Billy Cox - he was no angel from the sounds of it - but nonetheless - I bet his mother would rather have him alive with a tag, than having to choose his coffin.

When I read stories like this, I am glad I do not have a son. I do have a 19-year old brother though.

Hi Donna!,

I'm so sorry about the delay in my getting on this blogger! All I can say is having to juggle electricity and water issues in good old Salone means getting on the internet for extended periods of time can be a bit difficult! Factor in work, family and business and there you have it!: an absent blogger!

I do know the name Redwoodd-Sawyerr although I don't know any of the individuals personally although I hazard they are all related to each other.
My name is a combination of my maiden name (Spencer) and married name (Coker). My husband, Lawrence, is also Spencer-Coker as he took my name as well!

This is going to be a short introduction 'cos right now I'm into the last hour of my four- hour Breakfast show program on Capital Radio SL. I'm typing in-between picking songs to play and chatting on the mic! Gotta go again!

Nicky

Hi Nicky,

It is a mild, sunny morning in London. The sun is actually shining, and my thoughts are leaping ahead to balmy summer days in the big city. Of course that could all change by tomorrow, but I hope not as it is my daughter's 13th birthday party, and it would be great if the weather is good for her birthday.

My daughter's name is Clarke Naomi Redwood-Sawyerr. I hear Sawyerr is quite a common name in Sierra Leone where her paternal grandmother is from. Her grandmother is an amazing woman, and when Clarke was 9, Grandma Oseh took her and her three cousins back home to Freetown. It was a great experience for her.

I just thought I'd check in, but can't stop as I'm leaving work and have party stuff to sort. I'm expecting 20-25 young people. Help.

Speak soon.