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Showing posts from 2011

2012 is the year where you'll know my NAME!

I know, I know. Saying I've been busy is no excuse for not writing in this blog but trust me I have been. So the good news. I went to New York which was fun for Chelsea (fellow bloggers) bday. We were so lucky that we had missed the snow and got loads of sun in November. Got to see the Statue of Liberty, up close, Times Square, 5th Avenue, went up the Empire State Building and of course the International House of Pancakes! I thought it would resemble the Hard Rock Cafe but the look is very laid back, the portions are not. The shopping side wasn't brill because their tax is so high it's not worth it and don't even let me get started on the street numbers and avenues. Confused! Me and Chels walked everywhere just because it was so confusing. I had a six pack when I got home. One of the highlights of the hol was definitely the musicians on the subway who were so lost in their music they kept forgetting that they weren't in Madison Square Gardens (We went there, I brief

Mz Bratt job

So I'm going to bed and I get text from my choreographer asking me if I wanted to do a music video casting for Mz Bratt. She's a new UK MC. For once, I was on paid holiday from work so I could do it. This was my first ever casting so me being me, went to bed stressing about what to wear and being overly thankful to God that my hair had been done already. I woke up an hour early trying to think of ways to dress boldly. If you know me, you know I'm already a funky girl who loves her colours- that's how nervous I was! The casting was in Fulham Broadway. I spotted a dancer as soon as I got off the train (you can always spot your own kind!) and followed her at a distance to the venue. There wasn't alot of people, which was good. There was a few people I recognised. A guy came out taking people in three's to a room. The nerves kicked in so I had to pee. Of course when I came back they guy was already playing the music we would be dancing too so I caught the last 10 s

My amazing bday weekend!!! YAY!!!

Sorry, it has been a while but I was inspired to write this blog because of my great bday! Went with Chelsea (fellow blogger) to Alton Towers to celebrate my 23rd and it was BRILLIANT!!! Went on all the greats - Air, Nemesis, Rita, Thirteen. This one was the shocker because we just had this little bar over our laps so I assumed it wouldn't be anything great. Plus, Chelsea pointed out that we actually couldn't see the ride because it was hidden behind Rita. So the ride starts and I think ok, then it goes up and drops down this steep drop. The type of drops that gets your stomach in your throat. Then we went through these double doors and we were in complete darkness facing a knight in armour before the ride just dropped down a level and then we went backwards in the dark. I was screaming “Get me off!” Had to get a pic of Rita because our faces when that ride shot off was classic. I avoided Oblivion because I believe that ride is the Devil. If you find yourselves in Alton Towe

the bengal in the zebra weekender part 2

So it was that time again to take Fergie to the vets as there was a deal for £10 micro chipping for the month of June. Fergie gets in too many places so I thought yeah this is a great idea and booked the appointment. Now we all know how crazy it was last time with him biting the vet and just being an embarrassment so I didn't have high expectations for this one. His appointment was booked on Tuesday. I got home really late on Monday night so getting up early to take Fergs before work wasn't appealing. I kept him indoors and he spent THREE hours crying in my ear because I wouldn't let him out and then as I put him in the bag and zipped it, I saw his little nose push the zip down and he escaped! I tried again, he did the same thing then he ran downstairs. There are four floors in my house so running down them, half asleep, desperate and irritable is not funny. I grabbed him, took him upstairs and shockingly he sat patiently in the bag. I threw his fav green teddy in - the on

“I'M A TRANSVESTITE! SO YOU CAN'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!”

My mate and choreographer Kloe made this amazing solo earlier this year and now she's put it into movie mode! I'm so proud of her and her dedication to progressing herself. A lot of people should take note and stop waiting for life to start but just go for it and don't think about what other people say. I love this girl loads and I'd advise anyone who wants to see some real dance check it out on YouTube. She even does a headstand on the pavement! It's been a challenging week but I feel like in my personal life my life has taken a U turn which is great but work is another thing. Sometimes teaching dance is so frustrating when people take your creativity and you invest so much time into them and they just disrespect you or you work for someone, training up more than 150 people and they disrespect you. But what I know is that I'm better than their poor attitude and I'm good at what I do so if they don't appreciate me, someone else always comes along that

Princess Kate is a HOTTIE!!

I like everyone else around the world, watched the Royal Wedding and I have to say, it was lovely. Kate looked beautiful and her sister left me speechless. That was the sexiest wedding gear I have ever seen. Saw Harry giving her the eye! My mum got all dressed up in her African gear....to watch it from our living room. She is funny. Made me think about weddings and marriage. Marriage kind of freaks me out. I have no idea why. I think it's the whole becoming one that gets me. Oh yeah and the forever bit too but I definitely want a wedding. Buying that dress, would be the best shopping day ever. I haven't been to a wedding and I'm itching to go. I've got all these gorgeous Monsoon dresses to wear so come on guys put a ring on it! Was feeling really low for a few days. I was feeling like I couldn't trust many people which was upsetting but I'm glad that I'm all better now. Positive! And ready to keep aiming for my amazing future! MYSELF did B Supreme woma

It's all a sign girls

Sorry for neglecting you guys I've been so busy with rehearsals but it's worth the wait. Just to be clear in case any dudes are reading this. This blog is not a boy bashing blog. I'm just not feeling the male species at the moment. I've had two guys I've dated. One looked like Marques Houston and the other like Bobby Brown. Which is weird because I'm not attracted to them and now I remember I wasn't physically attracted to the dudes I was with either. (Trust me boys banter will get you far.) So for arguments sake in case someone reads this and says "Hey you're talking about so and so. I can say no I'm talking about Marques and Bobby." But this one is about Bobby. Bobby is this dude I met at a dance open class and we got along really well and he texted me alot. You know he was going for it and we developed a friendship but then he said he liked me more than that. My brain is crazy so in my head Bobby was a serious hottie so you can imagine

You're not Vogue, You're a Children's Mag!!! ATTENTION:Preview of my fantasy book!! Aaah

OK so I've been sending off emails to any magazine that sounds interesting to do work experience or freelance work that I found in my Writers Handbook. It's the only thing you'll ever need in your writing life. It has contacts for all agents, promoters, magazines, newspapers, courses and tells you about festivals and prizes. It's the best book basically for me right now. Anyway I contacted one girls magazine more aimed at 7-12 year olds asking for work experience. I wrote a little paragraph and sent my cover letter to them. The next evening when I got home from rehearsal (bare in mind at this point I'm tired and kinda irritated from dance) I decide to check my email. I had a response from the magazine (I won't bait there name cause they may help me in the future) and all it said was Hi Abiola, When you ask for work experience is really important to check your grammar. Love (name of the magazine) xxx It was one of those moments where I had to blink alot and rea

NEVER GO THERE!!

Going into overdrive to get an agent. I've finished my kids picture book and I'm currently writing a young adults book. Figured it's best not to limit myself and be open to write as many different things as I can, just to see where my strength lies. It's funny to think that all I need is someone to sign me and then BAM I can get published. Come on agents!!!! Holla at me. They say JK Rowling is the worlds RICHEST writer. She's almost worth $1 billion. I admit she has set the bar high but honestly, nothings better than a challenge. I've seen some amazing talent for my mates in the last two weeks. Ebru performing at Yoyo's and mashed up the stage. Then I hear her on Kiss FM with her song 'Prisoner.' I screamed and Fergie ran out the room. Then Kloe and Jared's solo piece's at Breakout which were amazing. For some reason my address on my ticket said Hackney, London, Afghanistan. Clearly I won't be receiving any mail from that theatre. It&#

My many names

I'm known by different names to different people. In the kitchen, my dad gave me a history lesson on my names. ABIOLA - given to me by my mum, it means wealth be on to her. Which I thought was v typical of my mum to think off. SERIFAT - given to me by my dad and is my Muslim name, even though I'm a born again Christian. My dad is Muslim, although he doesn't really know why and half my family follow Islam as well. I have a vague memory of it being Ramadan and this was my obsession with the Pokemon game phase on Game Boy. My dad came home and was well chuffed that I had fasted with him. In truth I had forgot that I had agreed to but I had been playing Pokemon all day and forgot to eat. I didn't have the heart to tell him the truth. So every Ramadan as a kid, I had to fast. I was named after a girl from my dad's school who helped him financially throughout secondary school because my dad was a poor orphan. TEMI-TOPE - given to me by my Auntie Sade who is my Nan's s

'Stop stalking me you f***ing bitch'

So I've been off work all week having what I call a 'Writing Week.' This basically is me sending out manuscripts, writing or editing new stories etc. Seeing as the work experience flopped! It's now my last day and I'm proud to announce I have sent off 2 manuscripts to literary agents and I have learnt that investing in my future is expensive!! I really thought I would send more than that but literary agents are so picky. They all want different things. It's not like if you want a retail job and you send out one good CV to every store and someone eventually gives you a job. Nope. Some agents want 3 chapters of your story, others want first 50 pages and some want 'sample chapters' which is code for your best. Then you have to number the pages, make sure all spelling and anal stuff like comma's and full stops are on point, print off and pray the print comes out nice and fresh. Next is the query letter where you write to the agent, telling them the overa

The Bengal in the Zebra Weekender

This work experience hunt is not going great. I've had zero responses and the 14th is creeping forward. Finally called Random House and spoke to someone who explained that it was first come first serve with who hands in their cv but she was sweet enough to say she remembers my name and will look out for me. Yay!!!! I found another work experience opportunity on their page so hopefully I'll get that one. Got a rejection letter from an agent. They said I have a strong story but it's not for them. Can't they just make it work for them??? When I get my millions, they are gonna wish they made it work!! I caught my Mum drinking out of my Micky Mouse 'A' Cup I brought from Disneyland in the summer. I had to explain to her that because her name is not an A, she is not allowed to drink from it. She got a bit huffy and tried to claim all the other cups in the house but I ignored her. She knows why I'm funny about my cups. When I went to see Wicked the musical, I

Cucumbers don't taste like water, they taste see through

So today at work we did our stock take. I hate stock take. There's always ONE person who completely messes up and someone has to do it all over again. Today it was me. Technically it wasn't my fault and no one had to clean up my mess but I was told from management to count the quantity of jewellery on the shop floor. To be honest, I didn't think it was a strange request so I got on with it. I even dragged Eyesha in to help me but then as I was doing the Peony bay (the girly, pearl like jewellery) and I had finished the bay, then a customer came over and brought a basket full of jewellery. So I panicked and thought 'oh crap do I have to do the whole bay again?' And that's when I realised my task made no sense so I shared my view with the lovely Gemma and she of course said it was bull and to stop doing it. At that point the assistant manager came in, ready for his eye watering 3 - midnight shift and when I told him what I had spent the last 4 hours doing, he wa

Do white girls with no bum hurt themselves when they sit down?

So there we are banging out routines. My heads crazy confused because being in Birmingham has messed up my daily routine. We're all sweating like we're in a sauna and we sit down to have a break and the floor is wet. We lean against the wall and the wall is wet. Confused, we look up and see that the whole studio is wet with our sweat!! And to top it off, sweat was dripping slowly down the wall on to our choreographers laptop. We go out to our complain to the owner who's actually one of my mates and she says 'Oh yeah, there's a damp wall in there.' Whoever said dance was glamorous was seriously not at THAT rehearsal. Up in Brum with Naomi. Found a gorgeous coat in Oasis for 40 quid from wait for it............... £130!!! And me and Naomi still had the cheek to negotiate on it for 20 min. We ate at this really cool place called 'Around the World in 80 dishes.' The chef kept asking me if I liked it hot and spicy. Took me ages to work out that he wasn'