A frumpy woman dropped a staggering 10 dress sizes in time for her second wedding – after her first husband had called her “fat and ugly”.

Stunning Liz Kerslake might now be rocking an athletic eight and a half stone body but, only two years ago, she tipped the scales at a bloated 13 stone eight pounds.

During her first marriage, Liz, a new home saleswoman from Plymouth, Devon, became comfortable and piled on the pounds.

Having always been a bigger woman, the 39-year-old was initially spurred on to lose weight when her husband told her she was “fat and ugly”.

After rigorous calorie-counting and successfully dropping four stone, she left her man behind, and during her divorce in 2008, met her second husband, Nick.

As their relationship blossomed, 5ft 6in Liz stopped going to the gym and the weight piled on again. Ahead of their wedding last summer, she was determined to get rid of her belly and fit into her sleek white gown.

A newly svelte Liz said: “I was determined to look the best on mine and Nick’s big day.

“When we got together I’d been hitting the gym four or five times a week.

“I felt really comfortable and stopped exercising but carried on eating the same.

“The weight piled back on and I was worried I would look bloated on my wedding day.”

In a desperate attempt to shed the inches, Liz signed up to the National Slimming & Cosmetic Clinics weight loss plan.

She had heard about her local clinic in Plymouth from a male friend who had lost two stone and looked “incredible”.

Liz said: “The final push to really do something about my weight came when Nick proposed. “We set the date for the summer of 2014 and that gave me a goal.

“Within the first week of signing up with NSC I saw results. “As soon as I could see a difference in the way I looked I was looking for reasons to stay on track.

“Before then I had always looked for an excuse to fall off the wagon.”

As part of the NSCC plan, Liz visited the clinic every two weeks and met with the manager Karina where they discussed her goals and diet. Due to the demands of her work, Liz very rarely finds time to make it to the gym during the week, but mixed her healthier diet with walking her Chihuahua, Roxy, for up to an hour a day.

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is thinking that procuring financing for their startup is a win if they get the money.

But securing the money can be disastrous if it’s not from the right people. Pick an investor like you’d pick a spouse.

Investors aren’t just about gaining access to money: They’re partners and, to some extent, they’re also bosses. And just like the wrong spouse can wreck your life, the wrong investors can wreck your business.

What if investors want you to fire someone you wish to keep or prod you to hire somebody you’re not keen about? And so the world of start-up’s is littered with stories of founders kicked out by their investors.

Discern what an incompatible investor looks like

“But how will I know an incompatible investor when I see one?” you might ask.

Investors aren’t good or bad. Compatibility comes from the match between your way and theirs and between what you want and they want. Perhaps you really want investors who leave you alone to run your business without interference. They are rare but they do exist.

I believe smart founders want investors who pitch in, help with strategy and tactics and introduce them to contacts. And probably most investors want to do that. But even when they do, if they have problem-solving styles and ways of helping that are different from yours, incompatibility can be a problem. Compatibility involves matching of people like in a marriage.

source:entrepreneur

A security guard is selling his VIRGINITY after reading about women doing the same – but his cherry comes at a high price.

Romanian Sorin Georgian Salinievici, 24, wants Sh. 208,000 – and says the winning bid must be from someone who “looks decent”.

“I read about girls doing this and thought if they can do it so can I,” said Salinievici, who dropped out of university as he could not afford the fees.

“Regarding her appearance, the woman that buys my virginity has to look decent. I’m not saying she has to be very beautiful, but to look normal and be a nice, honest person.”

On posters around his home town of Galati he writes: “It could be a nice present on International Women’s Day on March 8th”.

He added: “But really I am doing this to sort out my financial troubles, not for fun, and I want Ksh 208,000. I won’t give it away for less.”

His friend Vasile Han, 25, told local media: “He has had relationships with girls before but he never found ‘the one’ he wanted to have sex with.

“He takes sex seriously and strongly believes that you should save yourself for the right person.

“That he is now offering his virginity for cash just shows how desperate he is for money. One lady has already contacted Sorin about taking his virginity.

“I have had one offer from a 29-year-old woman in the capital Bucharest, but I rejected it because she only offered Ksh. 100,000,” he said. Sorin lives alone after moving out of his foster parents’ home.

“Job” and “joy” have one letter between them, but for many they’re like chalk and cheese, oil and water, or snakes and mongooses.

And yet people do experience joy in their work. They’re the people who regale you with tales of how much they love what they do and make you feel bad because you don’t leap out of bed on a Monday morning.

Here are two ways to feel more joy in your work.

Don’t Be an Island

When you’re hating on your job, there’s a tendency to withdraw from the people you work with. You don’t chat with them because you don’t even want to be there. You don’t ask about them because you don’t care. And you don’t laugh with them because you just want to get your work done and get home.

Time and time again, polls have shown that the people you work with are the number one reason for loving a job. So disconnecting yourself from people will not only deprive you from human connections that can provide some much needed relief, support, and joy, but it’ll also do real damage to your happiness prospects and self-esteem.

Say hey. Be interested. Smile. Offer help. Not because you have to, but because there’s more fun to be had when you’re part of a community.

Accept Responsibility

Sometimes the last thing you want to do is raise your hand and take on responsibility, especially when you have a full plate already. But if you’re not responsible for something, you’ll feel like a tiny, insignificant cog in a big machine.

When you side-step responsibility for the contribution you make, you also side-step the inherent value you get from it.

More than a sense of a “job well done,” taking and accepting responsibility is the only way you can really see your contribution. Whether you played a small role in a big project or were leading a complex program of work, you have an impact. Maybe you offered a dependable, ever-present skill that helped things along. Maybe you had an idea for a better way of doing things. Or maybe you listened to people and made the best choices you could.

Whatever your contribution, own it.

source:themuse

The following analysis on Home Afrika by investment analyst Rufus Mwanyasi was first published in the Business Daily.

Since listing by introduction on the Growth Enterprise Market Segment (Gems), Home Afrika’s performance at the bourse has been nothing to write home about. Its stock currently trades at 57 per cent lower than its initial listing price of Sh12 and 15 per cent lower year-to-date.

Recent half-year performance showed a 73 per cent drop in earnings before tax, a situation likely to further dampen investor confidence in the real estate developer.

Operating profit dropped from Sh256 million to Sh73 million due to a sharp increase in the cost of goods. Revenues however maintained positive growth climbing from Sh486.6 million to Sh550 million or an equivalent of 13 per cent rise.

Be that as it may, Home Afrika’s weak interim results, albeit informed by new real-estate accounting guidelines, and the persistent poor showing at the bourse do not give an accurate projection of its long-term performance, especially considering the myriad of positive developments occurring in the real-estate sector.

Here are five points I believe are crucial to driving Home Afrika’s long-term success. First, the emergence of a young middle class in the country is creating a huge demand for integrated mixed-use residential developments.

Research shows that the number of Kenyans in the middle-income class have risen from 2.9 million as at 2006 to 5.2 million in 2012. I expect this young population to drive the formation of new households which in turn will feed the demand for Home Afrika housing stock.

Secondly, at the bottom end of the spectrum lie the low-income earners who also present a fantastic opportunity for Home Afrika.

Shortage of housing for low-income households is particularly acute in urban areas, with only 20 per cent of houses produced catering for this group.

Low-level urban home ownership is now estimated at 16 per cent with the presence of expansive slums and informal settlements. As population increases especially in the urban and peri-urban areas, this should provide interesting opportunities.

Thirdly, the introduction of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) in the country provides a channel to easily liquidate investments and raise capital for Home Afrika projects.

The company is already planning to raise up to Sh2 billion through Reits. If these plans come to fruition, it could create another wonderful opportunity for investors as Reit stocks are known to give higher dividend yields and more stable returns than common stocks.

Fourth, major investments in transportation infrastructure in the region such as superhighways, link roads and bypasses, expansion of existing roads, airports as well as proposed investments in rapid rail transit are set to open up new areas for development.

Through its “Go Africa” strategy, Home Afrika’s planned participation in property development in regional countries of Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Ethiopia is expected to boost its performance in the long run.

Lastly, the devolved government system presents more opportunities for real-estate development in the counties.

As interest rates slowly climb down coupled with the benefit of a relatively stable economy, the real-estate sector is set to perform well in the foreseeable future. Consequently, Home Afrika, being the only listed real estate developer at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, is likely to start attracting the much needed investor attention that it deserves.

“The genius, as far as the marketability, of Hip Hop is in its competitiveness. Its roots are as much in the dignified aspects of our oral tradition as it is in the tradition of “the dozens” or “signifying”.

In Hip Hop, every emcee is automatically pitted against every other emcee, sort of like characters with super powers in comic books. No one wants to listen to a rapper unless they claim to be the best or the greatest! This sort of braggadocio leads to all sorts of tirades, showdowns, battles, and sometimes even deaths. In all cases, confidence is the ruling card.” SAUL WILLIAMS

1.Khaligraph Jones

“Wananyemelea kivuli design ya Lwanda Magere…eh akina Khaligraph Jones wakijidai venye hao ni wakali kwa flow/Hata ufure vipi, Vigeti hapitakani na blow!”

(Last line double Entendre????)

2.Abbas

“At least Doobiez anaeza bonga, hao wengine tu ni ustupid wanakuanga”

3.Rabbit

“Nimechorwa sura ya Dandora mpaka kwa sura/Janja shinda kina Kaka Sungura,Watoto wadogo juzi ndo vichwa zimeanza kufura/Landlordi nadai kodi, anza kugura!”

4.Smallz Lethal

“Nadhani mliambiwa na kina Smallz Lethal boy/ si tumepinda over mosquito coil”

Earlier this year when a list of best rappers ever in Kenya appeared on Capital FM’s website, and positioned Vigeti as no. 2, his producer/manager/accomplice Ken Ring (who did an incredible job on this instrumental.

I nearly shuttered my spine from the head nodding) took to their fan page on Facebook declaring that they’ll change that perception and reclaim the throne.Thus from the dungeons of rap where chaos was formed “Simba” was spawned.

“Hii si diss track, hii ni mlale chini”

Vigeti has been dropping ethereal verses tangu era ya 3D Crew (Before they became famously known as Kalashaka). With classics like ‘Punchline Kibao’ under his belt he’s one of the few MC’s who has transcended the “just being a rapper” label, realness oozes effortlessly out of his being and that’s what sets him apart from the crowd.
http://youtu.be/HElqHolsY1I

“Mpenzi ni assasin venye amesete
She looks like sin and feels like heaven
Used to play the field but now I’m taken
Nipate cloud nine akichora seven”

Don Gotti is a Chuo Records MC who I first heard of when he was in the rap trio “Those Guys” -and later on- his solo project, “The Immaculate Conception” which was supposedly an EP- but was a tad bit lengthy- and despite his cadence, above average delivery and fluency, the listener was still left wanting for more . Fast forward to now!

“The Don” went back to the drawing board and seems to have found his niche as it’s displayed on his latest single “Mpenzi” (which was released on Valentine’s day) featuring melodic vocals from male singer Shaquay. The chorus interpolates the classic Swahili Nation tune Hakuna Matata (Mpenzi).

Shaquay executes his rendition exquisitely. The mastering and mixing is also above par.

Don Gotti’s flow,wordplay and skillful use of Swahili blends perfectly with the vibe of the song.