Dizzee for Prime Minister, what do you reckon?

After watching this last night, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry?

So where exactly were you when history was made?

My eyelids feel like a tonne of bricks. I stayed up to watch it. I knew I would suffer the next day but it was worth every minute of the dribbly mouth, desk bound haziness I experienced at work today...

So here's how my night went, please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors because like I said, I'm knackered.

I arrived home around 9.45pm from netball training. I got ready for bed because I was exhausted. I asked Rich to wake me up when Obama was declared president. I was 99% confident that he had done enough to seal the deal but kept reminding myself - this is America, you never know... Rich agreed to wake me up, so off I went to bed, deciding to keep the TV on with the intention of drifting in and out of sleep while the live coverage was on. At approximately 1.30am I abruptly woke up, which is strange for me, because anyone who knows me knows that I love my sleep. Word from the polling booths put Obama ahead, I can't quite recall exactly what the vote counts were, but all I remember thinking was wow, he's almost there. Compelled, I was fully awake now (Rich was fast asleep in the sofa by the way, so much for being my eyes and ears for the night), we were on the verge of history and me, little old me, was there to witness everything unfold on the little screen. Just after 2am they announced that Ohio went to Obama. The roar from the crowd when this announcement was made was a sound I will never forget, it was immense. Political pundits who were hired to be "objective" were shouting and whooping "he's done it, he's done it, Barack Obama has won the race", convinced by the theory that no other Republican candidate who had lost out on the Ohio vote had ever gone on to win the Presidency. But I still wasn't convinced. As much as I'm a born optimist, I vowed to put the champers on ice until he reached the golden number of 270. For what seemed like hours later the moment I sacrificed my sleep for occurred at 3.58am. How I felt the moment it was confirmed that Barack Obama was the President of the United States is indescribable, especially in my subdued state. I just wanted to share my experience of this hugely inspring and significant moment in our world history.  

Goodnight

Ms Quichexxx

New to Cocoa Diaries: Pieces of a Dream Job

It recently occurred to me that I've met some amazing women over the years with interesting, glamorous, and much sought after jobs. When I first ventured into magazine journalism many moons ago it immediately became apparent that the career manuals and books that I had devoured at the library were out of touch and had no bearing in the real world. The media isn’t like traditional industries where you gain the qualifications, start applying for work, and sooner or later you’ll get snapped up by an employer. No siree. Contacts, flexibility, and the ability to keep abreast of ever-changing work trends are the real qualities needed to survive in this hyper competitive and often cut-throat industry. I've also realised that the media is an extremely closed community, and those involved aren't particularly forthcoming in imparting their knowledge on how they got to where they are.

With these thoughts in mind I've been long procrastinating the idea of an additional feature on this blog where I regularly interview movers and shakers within not only the media, but other industries that are hard to penetrate. My first interviewee is celebrity stylist, Ruki Garuba. Ruki is currently leading an enviable life as the stylist to US superstar, Kelly Rowland. She is also a designer in her own right and the CEO/Creator of her own clothing label – Ruki Garuba. Read below for Ruki's journey. And if you wish to ask her any further questions you can catch her over on her own blog www.rukigaruba.blogspot.com

I earn a living by styling celebrities and designing clothes. Occasionally I do campaigns for companies (ASOS.com, Rimmel and Ford) and magazines (5 year stint as Fashion and Beauty Editor at Pride magazine).

The moment I knew I wanted to be a stylist was when I did my first shoot by accident. I Originally wanted to work in entertainment but Sherry Dixon (the then Beauty Editor at Pride) took a shine to me and took me under her wing and introduced me to a wonderful new world. I've never looked back since. But the moment I felt like a 'real stylist' wasn't during my time in the world of monthly editorials but when I saw Kelly Rowland's Ms Kelly album cover and sleeve with name on the credits.

My typical day consists of waking up in a hotel room, getting dressed and having breakfast in speedy time before going to prepare and help my client dress. This sometimes can be before 7 am. Then it's a full day of press, interviews, photo shoots and then a show in the evening. I'm on hand to select outfits, make sure the outfits look good on camera and then prep all the costumes for the main concert including doing the quick changes and then have them packed up after the show.

The highlight of my career thus far is ever changing as I do new projects. One has to be working on Kelly's album shoot, another touring with Keyshia Cole and thirdly being a Fashion and Beauty Editor of such a respected black women's magazine by the age of 22.

My toughest challenge was when touring in the States for three months with a whole team of people I never met until 24 hours before we started the tour. I also hadn't before then spent that much time away from loved ones and friends. Having to live, breathe, sleep and work with strangers and your boss (the artist) with only the occasional day off is HARD. Being on a tour bus is difficult as you are thrown into a very small living space with colleagues (12 per bus) for 24 hours at a time with nowhere to escape. We even did a 72 hours stretch from Memphis to Vegas. You then have to get into a stadium to work and pull together a show each night which can be stressful enough on it's own. This was the time when I felt I grew the most, I learned how to be diplomatic, how to fend for myself in a dog eat dog environment and mostly just how to be tough on the outside even when you feel like you're cracking on the inside. For example finding a trustworthy dry cleaner in every city that could clean 12 outfits which consist of 4 parts each in roughly 9 hours was testing to say the least, not to mention I was in a foreign land and the only English person on the team. But I did it and did it well every night.

I commute to work by plane/train/car depending on where the shoot or show is taking place. Sometimes on a rare day I throw on my favourite hoodie (an over sized black Keyshia Cole one I got when I toured with her) and prepare myself for the 30 second walk from my bed to my desk at home. On the way I take in the sights whilst collecting my laptop from my bedside table, pick up the post by the door and grab a coffee from the kitchen

The first thing I do when I get to work is turn my computer, crank up the music and start by responding to emails that I haven't already seen on my Blackberry.

For breakfast I have a cup of coffee and three bowls of Cherrios. Followed by a glass of water and Berocca for energy.

The advice I would give to others trying to break into the industry is firstly do your research and find out which area you want to work in - is it editorial and fashion shoots, is it celebrity, films or theater? Then find out who the main stylists are in this area and contact
them for work experience. I can't stress how important work experience is. It gives you a great insight to what the reality of the job is, and also puts you in a great position to find out about up and coming vacancies. To be a successful stylist I think you need to really be able to put your personal tastes and styles aside, your clients aren't an extension of you, so you have to be able to create an individual look that is true to who they are. Be diplomatic and calm in your approach to clients, fashion houses, colleagues etc. It's a stressful environment and no one wants to work with someone who cracks under pressure. Also very importantly - always work at growing your skill. I critique everything I do and look at how I could have done it better. I read magazines all the time. Get a subscription to the main fashion magazines, I personally like Marie Claire and Grazia and I'm on style.com everyday, keeping abreast of what's happening. I also make sure I visit shops and department stores as often as possible. All this helps you to grow each day. Most importantly - never leave home without a notebook and pen. Jot all your ideas down and stick in pictures the inspire you.

My future ambitions includes growing my celebrity clientele, having my collections stocked in boutiques internationally and being a good wife and mother - one day!

Kelly Rowland as styled by Ruki

Kelly wearing a dress from Ruki's collection

Estelle's new video - Come Over

'Come Over' is the fifth single to be taken from Estelle's Mercury nominated album 'Shine'. Featuring the prolific Sean 'Shagga' Paul, the track has that hazy, sunshiny reggae vibe to it that takes me back to the beachfront live reggae jams that I often stumble upon during my travels to the hotel resorts in Negril. The video was directed by Lil X and features the styled to perfection Ms Swaray getting her ‘whine on’ with Mr Dutty Eh. Enjoy! 

2nd 'Black Girls' trailer

Black Girls is a new documentary by Chris Scott. Refer to my previous post for further info

16 Candles...

Ahem, well okay, maybe sixteen plus a few extra couple of years or so...

"Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me". Today is my born day ladies and gents, YAY! So over the last few years in particular, I've had absolute disastrous birthdays, ranging from being cussed out and called a bitch by a friend who shares the same birthday as me (okay, so ever so slightly in her defence, she was blindingly drunk). Or as was the case last year, ending up in a dusty, South London shebeen, you know the type: dark and dingy, filled with the pungent scent of weed & cheap wine, ladies dressed in white lyrca and lace, topped off with a Ghetto Superstar DJ with verbal diarrhoea whose every record spin is predicable and unimaginative. Mmm, not good. So last year I vowed that I would spend the following birthday abroad, or at least out of London, and just do something a little different. As you've probably gathered - my plans didn't come into fruition. 

I'm pretty certain it's because I'm a winter-baby why I struggle to have a good time on my birthday. All my summer-baby friends have great birthdays, with the summer season practically ensuring that everyone is in a positive mood, and up for a night on the razz. With my birthday on the other hand, the grey and wet weather, combined with the fact that the clocks turn back signalling the start of winter means that a) I'm always presented with a string of last minute cancellations "Sorry Keysh, I would love to come out tonight, but..." or b) the friends who do turn up out of obligation look as if they'd rather be snuggled up under their duvets watching the News at Ten. This indeed was the case last night. As per usual I was struggling with ideas on what to do, and then during the week I got an invite to ex-Misteeq member, Sabrina Washington's, surprise birthday party, and thought it should be would be fun, you know, nothing too strenuous: I could grab a couple of my friends and go out to shake a leg for a couple of hours. We were told that she would be arriving at 10pm, but we got there around 11ish to find a half empty venue and no Sabrina. After answering to a series of "Are you sure this is her party?" "Yes". "Do you think then that maybe she's not going to turn up?" "Of course she's going to turn up". A few hours later the lovely lady in question arrived looking gorge’ in a stunning fuchsia pink & black mini dress. But I suppose due to the endless waiting around, and not much happening beforehand, it was somewhat of an anti-climax, and before you know it my friends were sitting down complaining of achy feet and all sorts. Deciding to put everyone out of their misery I suggested we grab our coats and just knock the night on the end. Typically just as we were leaving, things began to liven up.  

Today I'm going to be taking it easy. Rich is going to cook a roast dinner and his famous apple and plum pie, and then we’re going to settle down and watch Arsenal hopefully slaughter West Ham this afternoon. I think I’m gonna celebrate my next birthday in July. 

Me & my fella (Rich was the photographer for the night)

Scorpio ladies in full effect -  Yours Truly with Sabrina

Me and the girls nursing sore feet, gosh anyone would think we're in our sixties. 

X-Factor: So how do you think they're doing?

A few weeks back I endorsed X-Factor contestants Alexandra Burke and Rachel Hylton as the forerunners of the competition. We're now two weeks into the live shows and getting somewhat of an indication as to who is likely to go the distance. Last week it was Michael Jackson Week and Alexandra took to the stage and gave a rousing performance of The Jackson's 'I'll Be There' (although as Simon pointed out, it was obviously inspired by Mariah's version as the ad libs were sung verbatim). Looking every inch the superstar, it was almost a certainty that she'd sail through to the next round. And she did. Rachel on the other hand surprised most by opting for what in my opinion is one of Jacko's weakest songs, like ever, - Dirty Diana. Decked in an ill-fitting gold lame jacket and backed by an over the top stage production befittng a West End musical, Rachel's performance appeared clumsy, contrived and uninspiring. Not surprisingly, Simon slaughtered her. In all honesty I was shocked that she wasn't in the bottom two, proving that she's obviously got a few supporters out there. I understand her need to break free from the "generic R&B girl" tag but she needs to find a way to marry her need for experimentation with song choices and a personal style that comes from a place of sincerity. Watching her on stage last Saturday, it was clearly evident that she wasn't at all comfortable, and I found it near impossible to connect with her like I did in the audition stages. I sincerely believe it will be last chance saloon if she doesn't come correct tomorrow. Check out the performances above and tell me what you think.