Mention the word ‘bottom power’ and what comes to mind is the picture of a ruthless ambitious woman, ready to sleep her way to the top. And it doesn’t matter who with. Amanda, now in her 40s, was not born poor, so had no excuse all those years for falling for Sam, a man well above her reach.

Most people want to meet Mr. or Miss Right”, said Jare a 30-year old single mother of one. “Most people in their youth dream of one day making a commitment to one person. When they do, they don’t then leave the marriage because they do not respect it, can’t stand living with an unfaithful partner or because their partner is drinking or spending the house-keeping money on current fashion.

It is a fact that a lot of women have dreamt of being skinny at some point in their lives, staring at pictures of impossibly slim models, wondering how different their lives could be if only they looked like these models.

THE amount the average woman spends to look glamorous these days could make the average husband bankrupt for the rest of his life! Hakeem, a spare parts dealer and in his 40s is a self-made man.

It was an exclusive 50th birthday party that boasted the best foods on the menu down to exotic canapé and choice wine and champagne. However, by the time desert was served, Veronica, 36, had changed from the polite, friendly lady who had initially charmed other guests, into an insulting and aggressive loud mouth. The reason? After guzzling a few glasses of Chablis, Veronica, a beautician, who runs an impressive salon insists she wasn’t drunk – but instead, had suffered a bad physical reaction to white wine. And like a growing band of women, she has sworn off it ever since.

“I believe it is totally unrealistic for any woman to be expected to feel love for a child she hadn’t carried through pregnancy and brought into the world”. Declares Serah, a 48-year old school proprietress, six years into a second marriage to Nathan. They both had two children each from their previous marriage. She continues: “If you haven’t cared for them when they were helpless babies, or kissed a toddler’s graze better, how can you be expected to love them the same way as your own flesh and blood?

Nkechi, a divorced mother of three boys was at work when Benson, her partner rang her mobile. “I need to talk to you urgently”, he said. “What for?” joked Nkechi, “can’t wait till we both get home?” “This is serious darling,” Benson said, “I don’t want you to hear this from any of the boys.

A study last year showed that energy drinks can change heart rhythms. A team of researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany scanned the hearts of 17 people an hour after they’d consumed an energy drink. They found the left ventricle of the heart, which pumps blood around the body, was contracting harder after the drink. Frane’s public health agency has said young people who drink energy drinks are at risk of sleep disorders, daytime drowsiness and developing addiction to other substances.

Thousands of children live in step-families all over the country as divorce has made fractured homes commonplace. Yet behind the facade of normality, it’s rarely plain sailing. Getting the brunt of the flak is the ‘wicked’ step-mother, Oyinda, a 45-year-old mother of three who re-married a few years ago. Ade, her new husband was a dad of one daughter, Ibi, who was thoroughly spoilt by Christy, her dotting silver-spoon mother.

Three days after she had her first child, Halimat’s husband, Doja, brought mother and child home – with Doja’s mother happily ensconce in the family home. “Shortly after we arrived, I put my son in the Moses’ basket we already had ready for him”, Halimat said. “All of a sudden, the sound of my newborn son’s cries filtered through to the living room, stinging my ears and piercing my heart. I rushed to where he was but I was too late. He was already in the possessive grasp of my mother-in-law who’d placed an exclusion zone of fierce grand-motherly love around him, barring all from going near.