life of a street dancer

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...

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...

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 ...

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...