DEAR DIARY: Why is V-Day such a big deal?

>Leaving on a Jet plane is a song by John Denver, but most people will identify it with its first line All my bags are packed I’m ready to go. My mother loved this song and she hummed it every morning under the bougainvillaea tree as she took a nap. Sooner or later her demise hit us like thunder on a sunny day.

>It is amazing that we only have 32 days to 2015. I often smile to the thought that I am in the future. 2015 is a big year, no doubt. It is the year that governments have placed deadlines to different development goals. It is the year that we will have our general election; it is a year of many changes indeed. Look at yourself; this is how the future looks like.

>When it comes to how we eat, the psychology behind our eating behaviour makes me appreciate the stories behind each meal.

I was following the First Ladies Summit on child marriage which recently took place in Lusaka closely since I had received an invitation to attend the same but could not make it due to unavoidable circumstances.

>Tell me one thing ladies, what part of your body do you want to change? You know, that part you want to be bigger or smaller. You don’t have to think hard. I know that you know it. It is good to admit it to yourself that you dislike that part of your body.

>It is Christmas next week. Yaaaay. It has actually been Christmas the whole month. I was communicating with a friend who is in the US, and he would end by saying ‘Merry Christmas’.

>It was just last week when I wrote about street harassment. I talked about two videos I had seen, one was of a male journalist in Egypt who disguised himself as a woman. He experienced physical and verbal abuse.

>My girlfriends and I were in Zanzibar last weekend for Sauti za Busara. We booked the flight three weeks before and hooked up with a friend in the Isles who gladly let us stay in her house.

>To test or not to test, that is the question. Going for an HIV test can be a very frightening experience; the flash backs about questionable encounters, the crippling self-doubt and even mistrust of your partner can run through your mind.