Free your mind

People discriminate. That's a fact. It is not just some sort of lack of tolerance or being judgemental. It mostly is the way they percieve  differences between themselves and others. To be honest, we are all so similar, despite colour, race, gender, age, sexuality. We all have the same desire: to be happy.  

I am not the one who found the reason behind discrimination. Unfortunately! There are others more skilled and more than likely smarter than me. Or maybe not. Because I haven't heard about anybody who came to a  conclusion yet and, until somebody does,  people  still discriminate. 

However, as blonde as I may seem, I believe that parents could be partially blamed. I gloriously came to this conclusion today! Let me explain myself.  love social  media. Let's be honest. Face to face socialising becomes more difficult and at the end of the day nothing is official until is not on Facebook....or Twitter. Everybody knows that! I am part of all sorts of groups, some having to do with my passions or  my work interests....but mostly my hobbies.  Some groups are women only and, as silly as it may sound, it is fab helping out sisters, But today I decided that I needed a loving hand and a clear brain from my girlies. 

You see, I am a girlie girl with some really "manly" passions. I drum and drums took over my whole existance. What  has that have to do with Facebook groups, you may ask. Nothing really, but have some faith in me. There is more to be said. So I love my drums so very much that, getting better and better, I decided to take over an other instrument, one that I  always wanted to learn: bass guitar. So I started recently splitting my time between my drums and my bass. It's just that with drums I have no problem, but on bass I kind of got stuck....and I suck!  So I reached out to my fellow ladies in a few Facebook groups and asked if there was anybody out there who played an instrument. I knew  that my issues would be  sorted once at least a hundred out of around 1,600 girlies active in all those groups would reply. Everybody did actually,  but.....only three ladies posted that they played piano or acoustic guitar. The rest (make the math, 1,597) wished they were encouraged by their parents or partners to get involved in music. It's true that some said they can sing and a  few that they bought instruments in the past, but sold them right after their partners disagreed with their new hobby. The majority  of those ladies only Facebook groups thought I was extremely lucky playing instruments mostly designed for men. Really? Honestly, who decided what's for us and what's for them? 

The whole day I was trying to figure out why women my generation are less involved in music than men.  It may be, as my Facebook sisters said, because their parents didn't encouraged them. So I asked if they had brothers who played music. Some had. Are parents more likely to buy drums for example to their sons rather than their daughters and, if yes, why? Do parents believe that their daughters' grace is forever lost whilst playing drums or bass on Led Zeppelin? I believe that this is not their concern. I kind of think that parents implement the first seed of discrimination in their kids' way of thinking when they decide what is proper for a girl and what is it for a boy. When parents start dressing their daughters mostly in pink and their sons in blue, they, the children understand that colour is important. From there on to skin color discrimination is just a step. Then Santa brings a drum kit to a boy and a set of plastic pots, cups and plates to a girl. They both learn who is the master here....and who feeds the leader. 
So without going any further, I would just ask parents to think before having actions that may encourage their children to discriminate... Just think....and think again. Encourage your children to dream huge, do things that nobody dreamed doing, conquer the world! It's 21st century and all this lamentation about skin colour, gender, sexuality is pathetic....and disgusting. And to prove I am right, I dare to say: "Hi. I am Brigitte. I am a girlie girl and I beat the hell out of my drums". 

Always yours, :)​Brigitte

The truth about Masterchef

I love cooking! The whole alchemy behind boiling, frying and rosting has always fascinated me. Just think about it. Raw, unpleaseant stuff becomes an explosion of smells and flavors... that could create lifetime addictions more than the finest cocaine would!

I started cooking, I mean really cooking, long time ago and, during the years, I added a little bit of style and class to my final products and developed in that five stars gourmet cook.  And this because, as we all know it, us Virgos cannot exist outside excellence and perfection. 

For several years now, I watched many cooking TV shows...too many I guess, but again, without putting me in a box, remember my three highlights: Virgo, blondie, girlie!  

I am still mesmerised by those amazing chefs creating culinary masterpieces, so I watch their shows with loyalty and passion. I also watch Masterchef.....and I still don't get it! So let me explain myself. 

For me, time management is important. A well done job, sorry, an excellent job, requires a certain amount of time, so I plan and strategically follow the procedures I created before starting the job. I call it the strategy of being always on time.  Last week for example I had 15 people for dinner. Simple menu, 2 curries, one veggie, one seafood, plus some rice and naan breads...enough to feed the crowd.  I had no more than 2 hours to complete the job, starting with picking all the goodies from my veggie garden and continuing with cooking the Indian feast, sipping my wine (a good chef always has a nice glass of wine handy....as seen on TV!), washing the dishes, making my home presentable and wellcoming for my guests.... and of course putting my face on with what ever that involves....Two hours not even a minute more. An hour before my proposed deadline, I was already all over the internet, facebooking, tweeting, instagraming and pinteresting. The smell of my curries was lingering in my home, which, by the way, looked clean and tiddy. What am I saying? It looked stunning, the home of an OCD girlie that I am. 

Since then a question keeps bothering me. If I, a person with no Michelin stars, can cook for 15 people and do the job in an hour, why a heck those skilled and trained aspiring chefs, competing for a Masterchef apron, need 90 minutes for producing a bloody toast sandwich or one so called a-la-carte poached egg. Maybe because it is served with 2 perfectly simetrical  sliced tomatoes on the side or maybe because that  invisible sauce apparently sprinkled on the plate needs time inventing it. 90 minutes that don't include cleaning up the storm they made whils cooking. That's probably the producers' or maybe the audience's dutty!  Ridiculous! So, I'm just thinking: am I a superwoman, which I am not, or are they, the aspiring chefs, just part of a setup steriotypical reallity show, one that we follow without thinking. Either way, my hypothesis (that meets my conclusion too) cannot be more than the fact that us, women...and sometimes men (not very often though) are kind of busy thiese days. We have a limited time to muck about in the kitchen and, in that short time we have, we cook. I mean cook! Prepare the food that feeds our families just by following the recipees our mothers, grandmothers and their female ancestors used. We do it in time and on time! The chefs we adore started the same way. Gordon, Jammie, Nigella never needed 90 minutes for a toastie! They've created masterpieces in less than that! So please just give me a break Masterchef! I love you but I chose to don't believe everything about you! I will though when you can proove that you invented the hole in the macaroni!

Always yours, :)
​Brigitte

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