ROBERT FROST'S A DREAM PANG

I had withdrawn in forest, and my song 

Was swallowed up in leaves that blew alway; 

And to the forest edge you came one day 

(This was my dream) and looked and pondered long, 

But did not enter, though the wish was strong:

You shook your pensive head as who should say, 

‘I dare not—too far in his footsteps stray— 

He must seek me would he undo the wrong. 

Not far, but near, I stood and saw it all 

Behind low boughs the trees let down outside;

And the sweet pang it cost me not to call 

And tell you that I saw does still abide. 

But ’tis not true that thus I dwelt aloof, 

For the wood wakes, and you are here for proof. 

OUR WORLD REVOLVES AROUND PLASTIC

After watching the VICE documentary ‘Garbage Island: An Ocean Full of Plastic’, in which the VICE team tries to find the mysterious garbage island in the North Pacific, I was hooked. Because what they found is much worse than an island of trash. The Gyre used to be where all our biodegradable trash would break down to nutrients for fish and sea monsters.

But now the Gyre contains polymers of plastic that are so tiny that the human eye can’t even see most of them. And guess where these little plastic pieces end up? Inside the fish we eat.

Plastic is not biodegradable. So how do we remove it from our daily lives? Why do we even use it? I’ve been scouring blogs for answers. Some plastic-free bloggers take things to the extreme and believe plastic is bad for you and contaminates the food you eat. They throw away their Tupperware and don’t eat anything that has touched the P-word.

I just want to start small: and not produce plastic waste. But starting small seems like a momentous task.

So far I’ve come up with some solutions: I always take my own fabric bag with on shopping trips; I don’t use the little plastic bags for weighing vegetables but stick the price tag directly onto the apple (I have not figured out how to do this for smaller fruits); I buy vegetables in glass jars because pickled foods are good for your gut flora anyway. I want to go to more neighbourhood markets and buy fresh from the farmers who sell everything in crates.

But that’s where my ideas end. How do you buy products without plastic? Everything comes wrapped in this transparent film nowadays. My everyday things: razors, make-up, sweets, butter, cream cheese, fast food, and take-away coffee. If there is too much plastic around an item, I refuse to buy it. But what is the solution? Should shops and wholesalers use paper bags instead? Is that more environmentally friendly?

They should really put a tax on plastic.

I don’t want our ocean to be broken.

FALL IN LOVE WITH AFRICA

I love Spoek. I really dig this dude. 
Seriously, take a listen and fall in love with South Africa.

CITY VS. NATURE

Sometimes big cities are just annoying – the pushing and shoving of crowds, the early morning rush hour, the beggars who make my heart sad, and the general pressure to produce, work and be busy. Colleagues and friends ask me – Oh what did you do last night?

Nothing. I did nothing. I read a book. Milan Kundera’s ‘The book of Laughter and Forgetting’. Yes, very ironic that title. And I made a salad. And I recovered from the flashing computer screen in an over-heated office.

When did this become normal life? Life was so different when our parents grew up. They were not surrounded by screens and did not have to be available all day long. I, on the other hand, get e-mails, WhatsApp messages, SMS’s and phone calls all day long.

My dad grew up in Namibia and spent his weekends on his uncle’s farm where he played outside with his friends and meerkat. I mean, sure, that’s not an average childhood. But compare it to how kids spend their time these days…it makes me want to heave a deep sigh. Things have changed so fast over a few decades.

Whenever the big city gets too much, I like to flee into nature and take a long walk (or escape to Denmark, see photo above). Nature always reminds me of how powerful the elements are and how insignificant our problems are in comparison.

LA DOLCE VITA

Traveling to Rome has always been a dream of mine. I studied art in high school and at university and wanted to see Michelangelo's Last Judgement and ceiling in the Sistine Chapel in real life.

My friends and I did the typically tourist thing: brought along a camera, wore sneakers and marched from one amazing ruin to the next amazing church. Rome is so full of beauty that your eyes can't take it all in after a few hours. I began thinking, 'Oh another old church...oh another pretty painting...". It's like the city is loaded with history like a budget airplane.

Michelangelo's fresco though was a moment of beauty...I stared at it, my neck aching, for quite some time. It was amazing to be so close to such genius. And for that brief moment I was in wonderland and forgot the stuffy feeling of it all. 

IT'S TIME FOR GERMAN RAP

 

I've blogged about Casper again. But his version of Coming Home is just so infectious that I am serving it to you like a freshly baked slice of bread with melted butter. Wet your appetite? Check out this odd-looking but sweet-sounding bloke.

WOE IS ME!

Albert Camus once famously said, "In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer".

It is the end of winter in Hamburg. The roads are covered in snow sludge except where car tyres have formed black lines. I wish that Albert Camus' words would resonate within me. But as my boss has so correctly pointed out, "You've got winter on your brain!".

RYAN OH RYAN

I just watched "The Place Beyond the Pines" with Ryan Gosling. Who doesn't love Mister Gosling? With tattoos. Wearing rugged tees. On a motorbike.

What struck me most about the movie is that the beginning features many close-up's of Ryan Gosling: love-struck, pensive, angry, thoughtful, etc. The director, Derek Cianfrance, made sure that the female population got what they came for.

The second thing I noticed was that the film felt like two stories. I usually never have the urge to leave the cinema – and have never done so before in my life – but I was tempted to in the screening of The Place Beyond the Pines. The movie was just that half an hour too long. It felt like he had already added the sequel into the main film.

A little tidbit on the director…his wife also made a movie called “Towheads” about her as a mother. It was filmed in their house and features her hubby (just his legs) and their kids. I watched the trailer and it looks like a funny, sweet little film. I can’t wait to watch it!

SUMMERTIME IN HAMBURG

Who knew that summer would ever arrive in Hamburg. Like a memory-loss potion, I have already forgotten the grey and depressing cold. Please, dear summer, never leave us! People are so happy. I even receive a smile – now and then – from a passer-by. Oh summer, extend your warm rays forevermore.

P.S. I've been playing around with tilt shift on my brother's camera. Check out the above result. Such a wicked little thing that makes a normal bush look hot. 

FINDING MY VOICE AS A WRITER

Lately, I've been reading tons of blogs, scouring newspapers and navigating online websites to find inspiration. Why, you may ask? Well, I'm trying to find my voice as a writer. And I feel in order to do so successfully, I need to see how other people are portraying themselves online. Although that's also pretty fake, aint it! We all have a different personality. Some writers love sharing about really intimate things in their lives. Others love writing about nonsensical, ordinary things without much emotion. I think that I am a very private person who is not so fond of sharing so much about myself. I might even delete this post.

This blog started off as a spontaneous 'oh lemme start a cool kids fashion blog' idea and mutated, as my life changed, into something a little more jumbled. It's like when you go through you're basement and you open old dusty boxes or suitcases and find an assortment of things. And because my brain is like a sieve...I like to keep moments, or poems that remind me of someone, or photos, to remind me of the little things in life.