GRETA Thunberg has been honoured at the GQ awards. They created a special award for her, saying that her “fearless dedication to raising awareness of the global climate change crisis” made her “the absolute embodiment of this award”.
Greta’s 16, she’s Swedish and she’s hella cool, sailing across the Atlantic rather than flying to New York for the UN’s climate change conference.
Greta also has Asperger’s and used her social media accounts to issue a rallying call for people with the syndrome to recognise their super powers.
"When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And then you know you're winning!" she wrote.
"I have Asperger's and that means I'm sometimes a bit different from the norm. And – given the right circumstances – being different is a superpower.
“I'm not public about my diagnosis to ‘hide’ behind it, but because I know many ignorant people still see it as an ‘illness’, or something negative. And believe me, my diagnosis has limited me before. Before I started school striking I had no energy, no friends and I didn’t speak to anyone. I just sat alone at home, with an eating disorder.
“All of that is gone now, since I have found a meaning, in a world that sometimes seems meaningless to so many people. #aspiepower #neurodiverse #npf”
The GQ awards took place last week and Greta received the Gamechanger of the Year title because they couldn’t give her the Lifetime Achievement award. Not just yet anyway.
She’s not one for red carpets or schmoozing with celebrities. She’s a climate change crusader with a purpose.
Sleb Safari, on the other hand, is as shallow as a puddle and frivolous to boot and loves poring over red carpet photographs and rifling through the winners' goody bags.
This year's GQ award recipients got £18,000 worth of swag including a Hugo Boss watch, a two-night stay at The Royal Atlantis hotel chain, a tooth whitening kit from HiSmile, Beats headphones and a coffee table book by David Yarrow from London’s Maddox Gallery.
On top of that they received a year’s membership to both Orangetheory Fitness and the Ivy Club in London and a voucher for three classes at Barry’s Bootcamp.
Orangetheory is a "science-backed, technology-tracked, coach-inspired group workout designed to produce results from the inside out” and Sleb Safari has done the non-science-backed but definitely technology-tracked legwork and asked Google whether there are any branches in Sweden. There aren't. Greta is way too busy doing serious, grown up things with potentially, and hopefully, global consequences to be indulging in a "science-backed, technology-tracked, coach-inspired group workout". Sleb Safari, on the other hand, always has spare time...
Greta's also unlikely to make the most of a year-long membership to the private Ivy Club in London. Sleb Safari on the other hand... you know the drill...
Spanning three floors above the Ivy restaurant, The Ivy Club is described as “an Art Deco oasis” with the entrance “discreetly concealed within a flower shop on West Street, Covent Garden”.
Greta, in the spirit of recycling and repurposing, please don’t let those memberships go to waste. Gift it to Sleb Safari, your shallow as a puddle admirer.
Belfast Restaurant Week competition
SLEB Safari has three vouchers worth £40 each for Belfast Restaurant Week to give away.
This year restaurant week will run from Monday September 23 to Sunday September 29 and 40 city centre restaurants are taking part.
During restaurant week you can enjoy lunch for £10 per person between 12pm and 2pm Monday to Friday and a two-course dinner for £15 per person from 5-7pm Monday to Thursday.
Over the weekend Taste the City Producers’ Market in Writer’s Square in the city centre will host food stalls and live music and chefs from participating restaurants will give demonstrations. Restaurants will also offer the Big Belfast Brunch.
Participating restaurants and menus can be found at www.belfastrestaurantweek.org
To be in with a chance to win one of three £40 vouchers to a restaurant of your choice which is participating in Belfast Restaurant Week answer this question correctly:
Q What is the hashtag being used to promote Belfast Restaurant Week 2019 on social media?
Email your answer to competitions@irishnews.com and mark your entry ‘Sleb Safari/Belfast Restaurant Week competition’. Please include your contact details and the name of the participating restaurant you would like to visit. Usual Irish News rules apply.
The competition closes at noon on Wednesday September 11.
Kirsten Stewart right to disregard homophobic advice
HAT tip to Kristen Stewart for ignoring the daft 'advice' given to her about concealing her sexuality to 'protect' her career.
Kristen told Harper’s Bazaar UK that she had been told "If you just like, do yourself a favour, and don’t go out holding your girlfriend’s hand in public, you might get a Marvel movie".
That's heartbreaking. And it's heartbreaking for a young LGBT+ person to be reading that in 2019. No-one should be made feel ashamed of who they love or how they love.
