Just smile and suck it in darlin...

I remember my first photo shoot.. it was not fun, I had no confidence, I carried business suits to impress potential model agents and the shoot was done by none other than Peter Beard the man who discovered Iman (if memory does not fail me). I was way too over weight, too young, had very bushy eyebrows and even bushier hair (yep, I did the thing of having a perm when it was in fashion). I went for the shoot because Evelyn Mungai, my mothers very good friend, knew Peter and she made the shoot happened. I have to thank the likes of Evelyn because if it wasn't for her and people like her I would have gotten no where in the modeling field.

I was awkward, gawky and just not receptive to a camera lens in my face. You could clearly see this in the outcome. After that, things got better, not great, but yes, better. As with anything, practice makes perfect. At any given opportunity I would do a photo shoot just for the experience. I got more comfortable with the camera, the person behind the camera and I do know some secrets that make you look great once the shoot is done and dusted. I am lucky to have since shot in South Africa for the Cosmo cover, I have also been lucky enough to grace  numerous covers in Kenya and done shoots for fashion designers in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya and have shot in the UK with top photographers as well as in India with, as they would say 'Bollywood' photographers.

Today I would drop everything for a photo shoot - they are fun and I like fun, they are super creative - I like creativity and the outcome is simply stunning. Today, technology is far better, lighting is spectacular, make up artistes are amazing. You can make a day out of a photo shoot. You get there and there is food waiting for you, hair and make up get to work and then the stylists pull out looks that one could only ever imagine looking good together.
Kenya today knows its business in the industry and can boast some serious ass photogs, make up stylists, stylists and hair peeps. I am impressed.

My tip for a fantastic photo shoot - sleep well the night before, hydrate (this always shows if you do or you don't), be comfortable with the looks they pick out for you, talk to your make up artist about what you know you will confident in then when the lights go on, smile baby and suck it in -that is no industry secret- and have fun as you are in for the ride of your life.

Check out some snaps from my day with Barbara Minishi about two weeks ago..it is magnificent what some great make up and fantastic lighting can do to one's ego!!
www.thebarbaraminishi.com is her site.

By the way for more insights into what a real glam photo shoot is ALL about, I highly recommend you read the book BossyPants, by Tina Fey.

PS these photos may be for commercial use so have just used some of the shots that I had permission to share.

My first Kiss...

'Habari yako, tume tumwa ku kuuwe, bona unaongeya juu yangu? Thafadali piga simu tu ongeye' or something like that was the gist of the text message that I suppose was meant to be a death threat. At least they were nic enough to say 'habari yako' - Kiswahili for 'how are you?' and 'thafadali' - Kiswahili for 'please'.
My thoughts are, if you are going to hurt me, you are not going to warn me - forewarned is forearmed, but then again, the person on the other end of the sms seemed polite enough to give me a heads up - his mother must have raised him well (aside from the fact that he may actually kill people).

I can joke and laugh about it, but it is unnerving and sends a chill down your spine to receive a message like that. So I started to think, who would want me dead? I smiled because I could not count the number! Perhaps it was the person I shared my first kiss with. He was this hot Egyptian dude who had broken up with his very hot Indonesian girlfriend and needed a rebound girl. Guess who he set his eyes on - yup, monobrow me, who would have never got  kissed in high school had it not been for him. I remember him taking my good friend for a walk around the field to ask her if she could ask me if at 'hometime' I would meet him at the corner of the field for a snog. I (shamefully) did not play hard to get and at 3.00pm was there all ready. It wasn't what I thought it would be, kind of too wet for my liking and then it was over in perhaps 5 seconds.
Dude and his hot gf were back together the next day and they went back to ignoring me. Oh, why would he want me dead? Well you see, at the time of the kiss, I wore braces - the plate type - not the railway tracks and when he jammed his tongue in my mouth my first instinct was to close my mouth - I am not sure, but I think I may have hurt him!

If it's not him then may be it was the waiter I got into a fist fight with once. You see, we had gone out for lunch - the lady askari had directed us to park here instead of parking there and when we ate lunch and were ready to leave, the car was blocked. So I picked up a fight with the lady and asked her why she didn't direct the blocker the way she directed us (blockees) and she gave me a bit of attitude. To cut a long story short, it ended up being a melee and a waiter gave me a serious upper cut. I remember it hurt - my eyes were open but I couldn't see anything - that kind of humbled me and removed a serious chip off my shoulder. Hmmm.. so ya, I can rule him out - am sure he and I finished our issues there and then.
 
Who else? Let's see - there are some people I don't really care for in my life. They are in my life by default and that does not mean that I need to like them or kiss their asses. They don't like me for this. I know they don't like me and to be honest, I don't care. My life has so much more going on in it and their pettiness does not even feature. May be its a way to get my attention - try again!

Being in the business I am, you make plenty of enemies & frenemies! You meet people from all walks of life - those who want to know you because of the position you hold and how you can help them - you know who you are and how you have lunched me when I was the editor of DRUM - they want to know you because they want to do what you do - someone once said to me when I was on radio; 'I am only your friend because I want to do what you do and I can do it better' You meet people who take advantage and then you meet those who hate you and don't even hide it. I have met them all!

To be honest I cannot make out who the sms could be from - all I can say is that I send that person love and light - plenty of love and light and thank him (or her) for giving me something to blog about.

Boo!

Would you like to hear a ghost story? I am not into the horror films, I do not like blood and guts and all things gory but I am interested in things that make you go hmmm.. Ever sat around at a friends house during a sleep over and after talking about boys and fashion the topic of the supernatural comes up? Ever rented a movie and watched it and felt really creepy after because the story line was so close to reality?

I hate horror movies. I have watched Nightmare on Elm Street and seen through all the rubbish, I watched the Scream series and thought ok, interesting but there are a few movies that have given me sleepless nights and freaky vibes.
Let me tell you about the house I used to live in.

When I was three months old my family moved into a beautiful house in Loresho. It was set on 5 acres and it was huge. My dad wanted to buy this house and he made an agreement with the owner and he said he would renovate where necessary. He built the gate, the swimming pool, made the extensions and basically poured his love into this house. We had wall to wall carpeting, heck in one room we had floor to ceiling carpeting! This house was grand, it was my home.

6 years later my papa passed away - some would say he was too young to die. For me, the void will never be filled. Life went on as normal but odd things would happen - and for me, I  put it down to my imagination or may be that I was seeking attention - after all, I was the last born, the only girl and I had gone through the trauma of losing my father.
I remember as I got older and I would be alone at home I would hear things downstairs, like the kitchen chairs moving or a door being opened and shut. I would constantly see an owl in my garden, even though this animal is nocturnal, it would be staring right at me in the middle of the day.

The family business started to fail, things were not working out as well as they were meant to and one by one, we lost almost everything. The biggest blow was of course the death of my brother. When he was alive though, his friends and I were sat in his room one day and just like that, a light switched on and off - from the switch and we all saw it. There was one night that my TV switched on by itself and the video (haha, remember the era of the video?) started rewinding the tape in it by it self. I couldn't do anything but stare in disbelief.
After Raju died my eldest brother fell really ill. No doctor could diagnose his illness. He even went blind - but of course later regained his sight.
I used to sleep in my mums room (wouldn't you??) and I would hear footsteps. I remember when I would tell my mum she would say just pray. And I did and it would go away. Again, wild imagination or evil spirit playing mind games??

When I was 17 I had an official boyfriend. I took him home one evening and no one was there. It was dusk, I was locked out of the house. We took a walk in the huge garden. Of course, as a teen does, we took advantage of being alone. So we decided to kiss and as we leaned in for one, we heard someone behind us made the sound of a kiss in a mocking manner. There was no one behind us and gosh, did we freak out. We pelted our asses out of there, into his car and out of that compound.

I never looked too much into it but then as I got older friends would tell me that they felt an odd vibe. People would visit the house and say that this house was scary - but for me this was home. One day thieves decided to raid our home. They got my brother at the front door and he did a very brave (or foolish) thing. They held garden shears to his neck and told him to open the door. They were three. My brother told them to calm down and then yanked the shears from them and punched one of them. He then says that they all looked behind him and almost went pale as though they saw something paranormal. They ran into the shamba, we called the cops and Raj who got home in all of 5 minutes, to say the least, armed; it took 4 hours but they eventually fished them out of the shamba and they were arrested. That was an interesting night.


We left that house 7 years ago and we haven't had any strange experiences since. I know that if you have faith in positive energies you can always overcome negative experiences. Light always removes darkness. What utter shit, you may think! Perhaps -may be this is just my creative writing getting the best of me..but as with any scary story I have to leave you with the thought of it being as close to reality as possible.
I can tell you this - a new family moved into the lush house in Loresho that sits on 5 acres last year. Within 4 months the daughter of the house passed away from a mysterious illness and just last week her father died of a heart attack. Coincidence? You make your own conclusion. (play scary music here...tananananananananananananana)