Now I know I can have nice nails!

I have to be honest I was resigned to  having to go to the salon if I wanted nice nails! So I hardlly had nice nails! And yes don't let's get it twisted  I know you can buff your nails into a nice shine, but if you want colour anot even mention patterns except you are dab hand  with all the bits and pieces in the shop, then if you are anything like me with all the best intentions ( I have the box full of barely used nail polish to prove it)! Painting your nails every 3 days is not the answer !

Then along came my friend Princes Carrie Carter who sent me a sample of nail wraps! 

Well I've put them on  and I have to say so far so good! I really liked how easy it was to apply , the fact that I got everything I need! The patterns are pretty awesome too.

 Now please do ignore my 

un-model like hands, but I do prefer the French looking bridal type ones!  This is something I can actually get to grips with! There is after all a pretty future for my nails that does not necessarily involve a nail salon!  

If you'd like some wraps of your own do look for carries jems on Facebook or simply click this link

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/800396490095581/

Simply Rude!

I am one, who would always say I like the simple things in life. Sometimes simple things turn out to be the best thing, e.g my iPhone is rather simple yes, but its brilliant too, and smart. Ok, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration but I am sure that you get my point. So here's the thing, in the course of buying something on line, I was given a free gift of a free website with www.simplesite.com.   The funny thing is they kept emailing me to remind me of the certificate, and eventually I had use for it. I set it all up, and  I used it as a landing page, for an email campaign that I sent out.  When I was ready to do the next one, I wanted to change something, only I could not log on, Oh strange I thought as I had stored the details in my iCloud key chain.  In fact the whole website was gone. When I could not reset my password, I emailed customer service first time they did not respond, in fact it was on the 4th time that they responded, and they said they took the site down because I had contravened their rules. Ok, so why did you not tell me?  They did not respond to that, they said should I decide to take up another site with them, I should read their rules and T&Cs for which they sent me a link. Well needless to say that went down like a lead balloon. I still don't know which rules I contravened. Amazing.   Yes I had the freebie version, but you do know that they bombard you hoping you are going to buy their full over priced version, so I could not understand why they would treat me in that manner. I think I have lets be rude to Nike stapled across my forehead right. Last time it was that pesky studios in London, now this lot. Anyway good for them, I am sure they will not fold because they no longer have my business but needless to stay there is a reason to keep to wordpress or blogger for the freebies. They really are simple and I have a blog on each and have managed to never put a foot wrong. I was going to say that I will post  don't use banner around social media, but hey ho they had lovely testimonies on their own website. Ha.  Good evening everyone and remember is you want a free www.. go to blogger or wordpress. love ya...

Happy Pill

So this is the thing, I love wearing this top to my Zumba class, because it makes me feel it's a fusion of my two favourite worlds, a collision of taekwondo and Zumba! Especially when El- pum comes on. We kick and punch in this particular choreography a mainstay of taekwondo. ❤️❤️❤️💪🏾💪🏾!! 

So here is another  thing: it's not just the cardio exercise that makes Zumba with Jose sooooooo good, it's that giddy feeling of happiness and stress relief that comes as a side helping! No matter the day I've had, no matter my condition during Zumba and after I feel absolutely amazing, like I can take on the world, I've been filled with happiness!!! So all you entrepreneurs out there -working night and day- stop -take a happy pill!! You'll be surprised at the difference it'll make! As I say a healthy entrepreneur is a happy entrepreneur!!! ❤️❤️💃😄💕😂

A5 Starting in Canterbury and other tales from this morning.

This is the thing, anyone who knows me will surely know that I can be quite inquisitive.  Today I started an 8 week long Mindfulness course.  Now I have to be honest as much as I can see that Mindfulness is all the rage and trendy now, I did not have a clue as to what I was going to learn.  The course itself was amazing.  I did not know what to expect, but I was open and  it was really enlightening, and I had an awesome time and can't wait until next week.

Now some of the things I learnt today, actually have nothing to do with Mindfulness and everything to do with the fact that I like to talk and like I said I'm inquisitive.

So here is a question, do you know where the A5 starts?  Well for as long as I have know of the road the A5 I thought it started at Marble Arch in London.  Today I learnt that actually it starts in Canterbury! Imagine that, and that its a road that was built by the Romans and goes all the way to Holyhead.   Having checked on Google, it has is starting in London,  but a little digging , I understand that the modernisation of the road has meant that some of the A5 has moved or removed. And that's another thing, I would have sworn it went up north!!! And before you all have a go, I am not confusing it with the A1!


I am certain that I do not have to tell you that we spend a lot of our time on Autopilot though, after all our lives are so fast and so busy right?  However did you know that even when you are doing things that you are aware of that your mind is working on full steam  in the background.  We did this exercise with raisins, which highlighted this,  because we were really made to think about the raisin, it was quite amazing the level of thought and conversation that came out of it.


Now, don't laugh but not knowing what to expect at the mindfulness course  meant that I did not know we would have a meditation session.  Then that brought out a surprise feeling for me.  I missed going to the hairdressers. Random? Not as random as you would think. In this meditation we had to clear our mind, we were guided by our leader, and in the end, I had no thoughts going into my head, and I was nearly falling asleep. This is what used to happen at the hair dressers it was my time, time for me to think or not think, and I am now seriously considering growing my hair back.


Purpose is the seasoning of life. I knew this, but it was reiterated on my way there, and  I thought it was worth sharing.

If you are interested in learning about mindfulness, I would definitely recommend Mindfulnessnow, the teacher is really interesting, open and really welcoming.  Check out details here  

6 Degrees of Separation!

So, this is the thing, can you remember when you were growing up and you mum would say ' behave yourself' especially when you go out. All the time, my mum always said this, sometimes I'd tell her I'd been somewhere and she would say I hoped you behaved yourself  lol.  Well that was just what your mum said right.   Well who saw the film six degrees of separation with Will Smith?  In this film the lead character played by Will, managed to ingratiate  himself into high society Manhattan  by insinuating that he was friends with their children courtesy of attending the same ivy league university as the said children.  In actuality it was all suggestion, because of knowing someone who knew someone.  This six degrees of separation theory has been bandied around for a while now, and I am not sure if it has been proven or not, although I did hear something on Radio 4 proving it is likely to be true, let me say this, if you are Nigerian ( and I speak as someone with Nigerian heritage) its more than likely to be 2 degrees of separation!!  I have had this proven time and time again. For example there was the time I took my mum to a friend's,  50th Birthday party. I knew this friend through  my Old girl's association ( alumni) of which we were both active members.  We got to the party, and  it turns out that my mum knew more people at the party than I did, including the celebrants mother. It was as if I had accompanied her to the party.  If that was a one off I would say it was a coincidence, but it was not.  I have countless stories to tell including the one the friend of my best friends sister turned up at my office as a new member of my team ( don't panic I am not going to tell them all) about such coincidences,  however I will restrict it to the one that was prominent today.

Today I attended a memorial service for a lady, in my capacity as president of my old girls association .  I had learnt of this lady's demise,  through an email from an association member who was the lady's aunt.   I  sent my condolences and said I would attend the service, especially as it was being held in my neck of the woods and as the lady also went to the same school .  Now the lady in the picture with me is my sister friend, of many many years.  Prior to receiving this email she had mentioned to me that her cousin had died she had found it a bit shocking as she was young in our age bracket I remember talking to her, and consoling her as much as you could and that was it right?  Well actually no, because it turned out that the person who died is one and the same person whose memorial I was attending.   Her Aunt is also my friend's Aunt.  It does not stop there, either, because I also met a lady that I used to see on the train, in my days of commuting,  and it turns out that she is also the niece of the lady from my old girls association.   The lady who died was one of 5 sisters and  it turns out that one of them was in the same class at school with my older sister.

So my mum knew, like mums do, your behaviour can come  back to haunt you. Imagine how embarrassing it would have been if I had been misbehaving around any of these people. So folks, I hope we all listen to our mothers.

NK Dee has taken up a new opportunity!

My Home of Learning today!

Are you looking for that aha moment? So this is the thing, knowing me is to know that I am a people's person through and through.  I am an aspiring personal development coach trying to gain traction, and its amazing how much you know but how little you know all at once when you are trying to lift the lid on your entrepreneurial skills.  I recently took up a new opportunity, which I knew was going to be interesting and more than a little outside my comfort zone, but having gone to my first training workshop today, I am happy to report that I had a good aha moment.  Which was  I pay attention, get going and succeed, but what the success will bring for me personally is the opportunity to use my coaching skills!

The training event was very well presented, and it was a really good to spend the middle of the day with a group of friendly like minded people, a sign that I was definitely in the right place.  If you would like to know about this opportunity click here of course you know I'd love to hear from you so you can email me here.   Live your dreams everyone, time waits for no one.

Sometimes your day falls apart!

In his book Today Matters John Maxwell told the story of a boy called Alexander,  Alexander went to bed with chewing gum in his mouth unfortunately he woke up in the morning and the gum was in his hair so he was late for school, he lost his homework, he fell over he hurt himself, the point is his day went from bad to worse. While I would not say that my day went from bad to worse,  it did go from good to awry. I did wake up in the most positive of moods, I had a plan, which started a bit late, but started nonetheless, I had planned to go for a walk that's part of my new routine, i was going to come back and do some work, also mapped out,   I was going to make some phone calls write a blog post et cetera and then I was going to go for an insanity exercise!  So where did it go awry? 

As I left my house this morning, I noticed a note stuck the side of my car, it said, and I quote “ nearside tyre flat, Bob x” hmm  I thought? Had  peek, and true enough it was flat. Not good, but still upbeat, I left it and went on my walk. On my return after coffee,  I took the car to the garage, I was there for a while, wrote some notes. etc. when I left, it was well past lunchtime, and I went in my local shop, to buy some bread, and when I got to the counter I did not have my wallet, the one with my bank card in it at any rate. So after my purchase, I had to confirm that I had left it at the garage, all in all after lunch, went out to get to get the wallet, and but by the time I got back the  best part of the day had gone. I had plans to go to an insanity class, so after a 40 minute power nap, ( don’t laugh, I was that tired!) off I went. 

So, I knew Insanity was hard, after all I spent many a sleepless morning watching the infomercials on the tv. But Oh my Gosh, I was really not prepared.. up and down, squats, lunges, squat thrusts. Oh I was dripping with sweat.. lol.. I kept thinking that oh my how am i going to do teakwondo tomorrow?  As hard as it was, I only missed one set for the love of God, I just could not do it. My legs are killing me ( nothing new there) , my abs are in shock and I can’t wait until next week.  Hopefully for those of you who believe in astrology, this mercury retrograde can't end soon enough!

Sweet Times Turned Sour

So, you would think I would know right? Do I not look as if I would know? This is what happened, one day not so long ago, there I was minding my own business, on my way to watch shop on the strand. I was just walking out of Embankment tube station, when for reasons known only to God, I stopped for a young man who said.  and I quote " do you like make up?" what an odd question I thought, anyhow I stopped,  and it turns out he was a salesman, oh yeah knock me, like it was not obvious. d'oh anyhow he was an amenable chap, we had a good chat about what he wanted to sell me, which was this experience where you go and have a make over and get your pictures taken with a mate.  Initially I said no, but he wore me down, he reduced the price, he supposedly gave me longer to book ( I later found this to be untrue) but I was only allowed to bring one person.  That was really annoying, and they were quite fiendish about that. I have not gotten anywhere and I am already irritated twice.  Ok, I got over it.   Fast forward a couple of weeks, and my phone rings, its a lady from the studio when are you coming she asks, then comes another saga, firstly I was not ready, I had not even told my friend that I wanted to come with me, I was busy learning trying to sort myself out, living life etc, so then she said, well you have only a certain amount of time to book, well I said, the sales man said that I can have longer, he's not allowed to do that, its on you voucher she said. Well I don't have a date I said, and the conversation ended there. I think in the end, we had this exact conversation about twice, with at least one of them ending in me saying, that you see that is why I don't normally stop and buy of vendors on the street.  When I finally got a date, which I subsequently had to change twice because Saturdays are difficult apparently, she kept offering me a Wednesday after all, like that was gonna work, I kept saying that we would be at work, well at least my friend would and besides I wanted a Saturday. Anyway got over it, booked April 9th.  So then it was time to book, she goes, there will be a deposit of £150 WHAT????  no word of a lie, I was screaming, well its for two of you, yes I said, but the sales guy said it was £50, well its refundable on the day she says and it because its a Saturday.  Do you want me to take yours and you get your friend to ring in and pay hers?  I mean it was such a palaver, it hardly seemed worth the effort, I was tempted to tell her to stuff it, but I did not I prevailed. I paid.

So come the 9th April. I have to be honest to all intents and purposes it was a nice afternoon with my friend.  We had wine, we did our hair, ok my friend did her hair I did not have any to do, we had make up and nails painted.  We had fun with our very funny and dry photographer. The host a Jamie foxx look alike was very amenable and friendly. Ok they have redeemed themselves right?? Oh no, we were told that it would be 20 minutes to view the pictures, that turned into an hour, then when we did get to see them, the guy who was really friendly and warm to begin with changed before our very eyes, when we said we were not buying any photographs.  Let me explain, it turns out they were charging £500 for 10 images or something of the sort.  That was not surprising, what was surprising was the rudeness of the guy and the fact that we were not allowed to choose a picture of both of us together.  We could each have one of ourselves only and we had to choose it in a hurry. Bearing in mind we had 3 clothes changes and there were loads and loads of pics. It was too bad, really.  Do you think this is the worse thing?  Well we don't get our deposit back until a week after we have been?  Apparently they hope that we would put it towards the rip of price of their photos. To me the worst thing was not being able to chose a photo of my friend and I. What is the point? I may as well have gone by myself. Whenever I complained about anything their answer was that it's on your voucher.  Not good enough. I feel duped, and annoyed, mainly with myself for going against my own policies of not stopping for sales people on the street.  Lesson firmly fixed in my head!!!

Msnikkidee does Decluttering: Part 2, Tripping over the clutter!!

OK, i have to be honest I have not been prepared for the amount of clutter that this decluttering malarkey brings. It has made me feel quite low.   For some inexplicable reason i was expecting to feel a certain amount of euphoria.  As I look at my previous success now covered again in clutter,  my first visible success has gone into hiding.  In he first couple of weeks i took out 4 boxes of books, 3 bags of wool and i have about 8 massive bags of stuff waiting to go to the skip, I am always finding stuff and adding it, i have just taken out a further bag of bric-a-brac and a bag of books that i had forgotten about, so with all my work i am still knee deep in clutter so to speak,. Then to add insult to injury I opened a drawer to put something in it, something else fell down the back and now I can’t close the door, its so annoying. 

I realise that my expectations were a bit on the foolish side, i have not allowed for the nature of me that is to spread, yes i am naturally messy, so i am not likely to be able to clean up and choose my loved items neatly. It also goes back to the point made in my previous post regarding the continuing realisation that i have too much stuff, the next realisation that clearly I have wasted a lot of money over the years in obtaining this stuff and yes, dare I say it, a bit of laziness in throwing stuff away. For example I came across the MOT certificates for my old car, the one before this, now consider this context, i have had my current car for 9&1/2 years. This and all the fads i have participated in over the years, car making, knitting, jewellery making etc stuff that i never saw through, most of that stuff has been moved a better home, but my point is it created clutter 

At least i have not found any other duplicate items, and am really happy that charity shops take bric a brac. I can't even begin to imagine what its going to be like when i really get started on my wardrobes and drawers. 

The not so short cut

So I went to B&Ms on Sunday after church, with the sole purpose of buying washing up liquid. - Good for me, there it was on offer even before I had entered the store- so you'd think I would have picked it up and walked on, right? Well actually in deciding that I wanted to compare the price with the "others" , it was on my way to these others that I knew in my heart I would not buy- I walked past a shelf with pancake mix, and lo and behold I wanted pancakes for breakfast. Now the thing is, normally, I would not touch any of these ready mixes with a barge pole, but right there on a whim, I thought yes, considering the time etc that it would be a good idea yes?  Well fast forward to this morning ( the reason I did not have them yesterday is long and arduous ) and I decide to follow the instructions - shake and bake it said- all I had to do it said, was to add milk up to the arrows and shake.  And here is where the short cut morphed into the long cut, firstly it took an age to find the arrows, then after shaking  for the prescribed time I could see around the edges that despite my vigorous shaking it was not fully mixed.  That added time and what about when it came actually making the pancakes, consider this: I believe myself to be considerably capable in the pancake department, so imagine my shock and horror when I fried the first one and it came out all gooey. It did not set properly and I could not turn it over, ( good job I am not into flipping them then) and the second one was not much better. In the end having cooked bacon that was getting drier by the minute, I ended up abandoning the mixture and making my own from scratch!!! Ha ha ha laugh on me, it was quick, easy and it behaved as I would have expected. To be fair, I can see the attraction of the so called quick mixes, but this is what I know for sure: I will not be trying them again anytime soon.  

Msnikkidee does decluttering

So hands up if you have  ever made a new year’s resolution to declutter your house/room/desk and may be started, but did not complete, it  or worse you do completed it but ended up buying a new lot of clutter in a sense replacing what you have thrown out???  Then you are back to square on!!!. Well that has been me many times. So this year, it was not even on my agenda, however a chance nosy at a friend’s  Facebook sates status had me knee high in clutter before I  really had time to think. 

And surprisingly I am very excited about this, I really think its going to succeed where I had previously failed in the past.  I like the premise under which i took this on, ( did you know that there are books written about decluttering?) this is not just about getting rid of rubbish, but more concentrating on what we love and getting rid of those things that do not bring us joy and do not work.  

I immediately outed myself, i took a picture of the first place I wanted to declutter  and posted it on our newly formed FB group, as such i have no choice but to follow it through, 

The surface clutter was easy, old bills and papers lying around and there was a lot of it, kept me busy.  I hit a major tricky patch when it came to my books.  Anyone who knows me, will know how much i love my books. I do get a lot of joy from them, even just by looking at them, so by this reckoning should just keep the givers of joy right? In the end i had to concede, as in get over this, if i wanted to succeed in the long term, and so to this end, I was rather brutal on my journey to  get rid of those books i knew i would not be reading again, but none the less, it was blooming emotional and i had to change my criteria more than once.  One end i still have 2 full shelves and then some to go through, but so far so good. The majority of what I have retained are my classics such as Robinson Crusoe, the jungle book, and other exciting books. I also kept a good few that were about my beloved country, Nigeria, not forgetting my professional/self help books. 

Wasteful 

Now did I mention that I found the bit rather emotional, this is a good point to say how really I was shamed, by my obvious taking for granted of my privileged life, I found several unused notebooks and worse still duplicate books, purchased by me,  my discussion with a fellow group member, leads me to believe that yes shame just about covers it as does indiscipline. 

i understand that this is the fist stage of what will be a rather long process, but I can already feel the benefits and I am looking forward to see how it will turn out. 

One of the reasons i feel that this will success this time, is motivation and it is based around desire rather than a feeling that  I should, which surely only leads to bad feelings, ones of guilt and shame.  It will be habit changing some of which has happened already, but that is another week’s blog post.