A playlist, A reading list

Is it me or does Capital seem like the best employer ever! because look at the adventures Sharon and Susan get to go for,these girls are living my dream and the dreams of a lot of other people I am sure, an employer who pays you to have fun and travel on fully paid trips to exotic places.Who said you cannot eat you cake and have it because I think these people are eating the cake and having it in a big way.Thing is I follow a lot  more like 5 Capital girls on social media and each one of them has some side hustle or is Capital the side hustle? Assuming that it is what are the chances that they could allow some other people on this cake and especially the part of travel or going to events to cover them and maybe just maybe have a 30 minute show at midnight or other odd hours (you can't be too ambitious,being new and all).

The chances of this dream happening are non-existent so I figured I will do the closest thing to it and introduce this monthly post titled A playlist, A reading list and share songs that I have loved in that month and some banter on books/articles and related stuff,lets see how good of a consistent 30 minutes show I can make. Ladies and Gentlemen welcome aboard the.........................................(I am still thinking of a name for this imaginary show-suggestions are welcome)

A playlist

Just a Band’s –Hey!

Truth be told Just a band took a really long while to grow on me,because I am for simple easy to understand music concepts but probably for lovers came out and I was smitten :-) so to say and I went back and checked on most of their songs and Hey! is amongst my favourites the lines in this song will/can win any lady's heart if used appropriately.

Dela and H_art the Band's Adabu 

H_art the band are one of my favourite artists and I love love their music and Adabu is pretty cool, Listen to it,you will like it and they even are changing Swahili because we all know kitu huwa tamu kama asali,but asali is too main-stream and sweet so now they are introducing tamu kama madafu!.

Sage's Maskini

Sage is a really pretty girl who I knew from Dumbala and then really knew her from her drama with Kaka Sungura,Excellent song and Sage is prettier than ever!

Nyashinski's Now You know

The song speaks for itself and Nyashinski is still quite the rapper/singer.In his own words; 'Hata niwache muziki miaka hamsini, nikirudi bado na wacrush nyinyi'.

Mejja's Poa

Before all these new artists came there was Calif,sometimes I will get on a number 9 and they will have this purely Calif play list and honestly I have entertained the idea of just loudly singing along to the songs but there is an image to maintain and hence I sing I along in my head :-).The best at Calif is Mejja, ok maybe not but he has a way with words and Poa is a song that has these happy memories for me and I have listened to it quite a bit lately.

A reading list

Lately I have been reading poems,I know I don't seem like a person who would read poems for fun but things happen :-D :-D.Sometime last year I really wanted to get Bone,Salt and Nejma and for many reasons couldn't but a while ago a small miracle happened because how else do you explain the authors of these books hosting a free download event on Amazon and me finding out in time and as expected downloading the 3 books.Who made me start to read and somewhat like love poems? funny you should ask because also Beyonce loves her poems and she is Somali and ofcourse her name is Warsan Shire.

Warsan speaks my language,sometimes I read her poems and think how can she think like this and write stuff that almost everyone can relate too.Poems/stanzas in poems that I have loved this past few months.

Questions for the woman I was last night-Warsan Shire

It’s not him who’d come across the sea to surprise you, not him who would know where in london to find you.

How far have you walked for men who’ve never held your feet in their laps? How often have you bartered with bone, only to sell yourself short? Why do you find the unavailable so alluring? where did it begin? what went wrong? and who made you feel so worthless? If they wanted you, wouldn’t they have chosen you? All this time, you were begging for love silently,thinking they couldn’t hear you, but they smelt it on you, you must have known that they could taste the desperate on your skin?

and what about the others that would do anything for you, why did you make them love you until you could not stand it? How are you both of these women, both flighty and needful? Where did you learn this, to want what does not want you? Where did you learn this, to leave those that want to stay?

Be Small For Me-Warsan Shire

"every day they want you to shrink:

fit here, in my palm, in my shadow, don't be bigger than my idea of you, don’t be more beautiful than i can accept, don't be more human than i am willing to allow you to be and be quiet, you’re too loud, even your unbelonging is loud. quiet your dreams, your voice, your hair, quiet your skin, quiet your displacement, quiet your longing, your colour, quiet your walk, your eyes. who said you could look at me like that? who said you could exist without permission? why are you even here? why aren't you shrinking? i think of you often. you vibrate. you walk into a room and the temperature changes. i lean in and almost recognise you as human. but, no. we can't have that."

It is what it is-Bone(Daley-Ward Yrsa)

I am anxious. I want to get back down south. The north is unsettling, all deafening silences and stressful boredom. There are not nearly enough distractions and it can all get too bloody silent, which leaves room for dangerous things, like thinking.

Wine-Bone (Daley-Ward Yrsa)

It’s never too late to be wise. See how your spirit has been fermenting.

Dankyes (Mwaghavul)-Bone (Daley-Ward Yrsa)

Today is the first day of the rest of it. Of course there will be other first days but none exactly like this.


I think this show is going to be quite good but I am obviously being biased :-).Let me know what you it; too boring or it's something you might check out next month Insha aa Allah.

After Hours

Hello my name is Rahma and increasingly I am becoming a youtube addict and I need help(if ever there was a self-help group for YT addicts then this will be my introduction), lies!!! I might need to tone down a bit but what I would do with out the entertainment it provides me is unimaginable.Thing is for the longest time I was under-utilizing YT(Yes YT because people have pet-names for things they love) and only used it to watch music videos and occasionally to learn words to songs because at some point in my life I was very serious with this words to songs thing but now I just listen and with time the words will be learnt and if not,honestly who cares.

Professor Google is my best friend and is the site I visit the most and YT is the younger more attractive professor :-D :-D because she uses videos as her teaching resources and Google is still on some old school teaching aids like charts and images. So now YT is my favourite teacher,reference material and source of entertainment.The challenge with all good things is you end up spending loads of time on them at the expense of other important things and this is why YT is my official after hours plan every day of the week.

The struggle of 'I don't want to waste my work hours on unproductive things' being a responsible adult and all resulted in a big discovery by my standards; You can take videos offline and watch them when you free so what I do now is to select all the videos I want to watch and download them over the day and have a ball when I go home in the evening :-D :-D.

People do different things in their free time(what do you do people? do tell) and if you are me, live alone and spend basically zero time on commute therefore you get home early, cook,eat,clean and do all your chores by 7 then here is why in addition to all the other things you do YT should be your new best friend.

All kinds of Tutorials

There is literally all kinds of tutorials on YT and for each tutorial you search you get a lot of videos to choose from,my default is always to go with the one that has most views,if not that I always go for the ones that aren't too long.The tutorials I am currently really liking are those to do with natural hair care and make-up,I know vanity!!!!!!!! but I might give up on the make up ones because they lie;simple every day look and they use 20 products and 50 brushes! maybe I exaggerate a little but there is nothing simple in them.Hair tutorials are really nice and have proved useful :-).

I am having this itch(itch because it might just go away) to learn how to be a better photographer and I was searching for free classes on photography on YT and a lot of them came up though I am yet to take any I know when I take them my photography game will be tops, also I know a friend who told me they taught themselves how to do data analysis by using videos they found on YT.What's better than video lessons that you can replay as many times as you want so as to master a skill, this is enough reason why we should all embrace you tube.

TED X Talks

Even before I made friends with youtube and only used it to listen to music,I occasionally also used it to watch and listen to TED X Talks because  then I thought I will be wiser if I did and would randomly go and watch those that had the most views,Now though I find topics and then search for talks on said topic and have a good time with these talks,some are really boring and some are quite informative the ones I am currently really liking are The skill of self-confidence, Confessions of a D girl and the sociology of gossip

Documentaries

Remember that time I went for the 'Beyond' photography exhibition and I was so surprised that there is a female only village in Samburu and my heart wanted and still wants to go to Samburu.There is a bus point(stage?) from Isiolo to Samburu and I know where it is(obviously), sometimes I think to myself I should just get into one of these buses and go to Samburu and call home when I am already there, who knows one day soon I might just do that..........................I digress.YT is the home of documentaries and all kinds of them.I haven't watched too many because I am more of a 20 minute video- maximum kind of person and most are over 40 minutes. I found this documentary on Umoja village in Samburu (the female only village) and it was like the photos at exhibition came alive and my hopping on a bus to Samburu will happen very very soon Insha aa Allah.


Entertainment

If you are looking for any kind of entertainment YT is your friend, I always watch The real househelps of Kawangware and sometimes Nairobi Diaries in all it's weirdness and Pendo's fights, I take offense with the fact that she went to Boma and thinks charm is juju!.Currently I am loving Tuko Macho  although it's not on YT,talking of Tuko Macho if you aren't watching it please start and you'll thank me for sharing this gem of a web-series(does it air on any TV station though this is what I do not know).I  have heard read  good things about OH BAMA although I haven't watched it so maybe watch it also :-) :-).

Highlight from events

My brother loves loves award shows and he will always get recordings for each award show but thing is to watch a 2-2.5 hour show can be a difficult task what YT does for you is it gets the juicest parts and packages them in many 3-5 minute videos.This I love.

Like these two Summaries on Beyonce's Lemonade this and this one that is probably one of the most played on my phone.

There are also many highlights from all serious events like speeches and major global events :-)

Cooking classes

Are you looking to improve your cooking skills? look no further YT has your back in the words of Proka in reference to Mandi's cooking channel 'Hapa kuna mavitu mazuri sana, many times I find myself licking the screen,looking at her recipes.................

There are many YT channels out there that teach how to cook and I don't have a specific one I love the most but I think Miss Mandi both on her channel and the chop up is a good place for any one to start.

Product Reviews

What I have learnt is that product reviews will save you from buying things that you might end up not liking though not to be trusted 100% they are really useful.If a product has many bad reviews it's safe to say that chances that you will also not like it are high and YT is the queen of reviews :-)

Music Videos

Youtube's primary function is music videos I believe so all songs you ever wanted to listen to can be found here and for free too.Except now there is the small big problem that is Tidal and Beyonce doesn't put out a lot of free videos but it's okay(no it's not), anyone with me to start a petition against Beyonce's loyalty to Tidal?? anyone??.

If you are me and mostly forget song titles YT understands and loves you,if you remember some words those will help you find the song and worst case scenario you don't remember the words but remember the video concept YT will use this to find what you are looking for.

Green Coffee

Green Coffee Shop :-)

Has anyone ever heard of green coffee? I hadn't because truth be told I am not much of a coffee drinker.Sometimes small miracles do happen because how else do you explain me reading Jeffrey Archer's story Cheap At half Price in his book Twelve Red Herrings this week, just to see green coffee and it's prices in it and the significant part this played in the story.It means unprocessed coffee that is sold by the farmers to the people who will then process it and turn it into what we all know as coffee.

I am slowly turning into this 'expert' on happening places to eat at in Garowe because every time a new joint opens someone tells me and I think to myself I have to go see how it is and most of the times I actually check said places out.The best time to visit a new joint as I have learnt is when it's still very new as then they are trying to impress and will have the best of everything, case in point the guys at Green coffee gave us free bottles of water as a welcome/hello, give them a month or two and they will stop with the free water and even the smiles maybe.

Green Coffee is a rooftop restaurant located at a mall, this mall opened during the just concluded Rio Olympics that amongst many things had the world falling in love with the Kenyan national anthem and me finally reaching a conclusion as to why Usain Bolt  always wins, have you seen his strides,the man is tall and has the longest strides ever.The mall is called..........................(your guess is right people) Olympic Mall.If you have been to Garowe you know malls are really mini-supermarkets that will sometimes have the best finds because they are hugely dependent on imports from the Arab world and the West for their stocks but their biggest issue is that they rarely restock stuff so you might find something you really like and when it's finished and you want to re-purchase it it's not available and will probably not be available for a long long time. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how they have kept to the theme of green because they actually have the carpet that is usually on the football fields on the whole floor, so it's the sunsets, faux grass floor and a view of the street lights, pretty cool if you ask me.The stair-case is also painted green and the walls have green paintings on them.These people were very serious with this green thing.

Notice the green faux grass :-)

The sunset :-)

Paintings on the wall

The green stair-case.

Clearly I really liked the walls :-)

We had their hot chocolate,chocolate cake,cocktail and fruits bowl.It wasn't too shabby but there are places in the town that you could get better cake this I know for sure. Their biggest win according to me is the faux grass and the sunsets/rooftop.I have been there only once and therefore cannot pass final  judgement but I am definitely going back to try their teas and all their cakes.

The hot chocolate

Hodan having her moment :-)

The cock-tail that made me regret my hot-chocolate decision

If you live in Garowe or visit Garowe and are looking to satisfy your sweet tooth the places to visit are:

Teatree coffee and tea shop: It's a really nice place run by a girl who came from the UK so best believe she is bringing the Starbucks experience to Garowe as she serves a lot of different kinds of teas and coffees that includes frappuccino and loads of cupcakes :-) :-) :-).

Take a Break:These guys have the best cake in Garowe because their slices are so big and do not have the strong smell of eggs and are oh so soft.Plus they also sell pizza, shawarmas,tea, coffee and all the juices you could think of.

Green Coffee: What's better than tea,cake,faux green grass,rooftops and sunsets to kill time, not many things if you ask me. What I hope though is they get someone better to make their cakes so as to mask the smell of eggs.