WOAH MAN...

I want to take this opportunity and just thank all the women out there who have inspired me, and who continue to inspire me. Sometimes I feel like the world wants us to be hard and cut-throat. But I think that god placed women on this earth to add some emotion, fragility, fiery spirit and tears. We are the beauty that decorates this world. This beauty isn't something outward but that sensitive spirit we carry with us that allows us to look into someone's eyes and see a potential, a journey or a desire.

Here's to all the women who are strong - even though the world makes us think we are weak. Here's to loving our family so much that it makes you hurt when you see someone fall, to doing a job interview even though you're running a temperature, to encouraging a friend all night long on WhatsApp because she's going through crap.

Here's to us!

Here's to our beautiful, messy selves and to our big hearts.

DAVID KROSS LOVES SHAKESPEARE

On a boring Sunday night, I started watching the German television show "Durch die Nacht mit..." (Eng.: Through the night with...) with the German musician Clueso and the German actor David Kross.

The show's concept is simple. Two celebrities spend a night together in a car, driving around a city to different locations. Usually, they don't know each other very well and so their conversation is (mostly!) riveting.

I really enjoyed watching David Kross, who starred alongside Kate Winslet in "The Reader", recite Shakespeare's Sonnet XXIX at the end of the show.

WES ANDERSON'S TRACKING SHOTS

Wes Anderson latest film "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is amazing. Anderson loves using tracking shots in his films. The tracking shots move horizontally in a dead straight line and have become Anderson’s signature. He’s certainly not a fan of curves.

At a recent interview he was asked, "Why do you love using tracking shots?"

Wes Anderson says, "I like seeing the actors play the scene through…Maybe it comes from a theatre experience. I like having a cast doing something difficult in a shot…It’s fun!"

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO COMMENTED ON "MY REAL CHALLENGE..."

I read the Facebook comments of my article on Denizen again today. At first I wasn't even sure that I wanted to write it, never mind publish it. But I'm so happy to see that so many people share my experience.

HELLO THERE, LUCIO FONTANA!

While I did study art history, I had never heard of the cutting-edge artist Lucio Fontana until today. I had to write a short summary on the current exhibition “Lucio Fontana, Retrospective”.

His father was an Argentinian sculptor and Lucio spent most of his time in Italy where he created his art works. Slashing the canvas, Lucio Fontana replaced the palette knife with a box cutter. His unconventional use of materials gave him the reputation as a genius. I love his bold colours and how the cut canvas takes on a life of its own.

Now I know what to do with my old canvases!

ATLAS HANDS

Benjamin Francis Leftwich's wrote this most beautiful song, which really struck a chord with me today.

Take me to the docks, there's a ship without a name there
And it is sailing to the middle of the sea
Water there is deeper than anything you've ever seen
Jump right in and swim until you're free

I will remember your face
'cause I am still in love with that place
When the stars are the only things we share
Will you be there?

Money came like rain to your hands while you were waiting
For that cold long promise to appear
People in the churches started singing above their hands
They say, "My God is a good God and He cares"

I've got a plan, I've got an atlas in my hands
I'm gonna turn when I listen to the lessons I've learned

CREATIVE JUICES

All human beings have a deep longing to create. Like Pablo Picasso said – I would (…) paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell.

I think we all want to make our mark on the world. We want to be unique. We want to make something of our lives that no one else can. And there is something primal about dipping fingers into paint and smearing it onto a canvas; sanding wood until its lines become visible and its edges smooth; spreading mud or clay onto the ground in a pattern.  

Last night, I took out my long-forgotten sketch pad and charcoal crayons. I had the urge to draw again and to smear my charcoal-stained fingers onto paper and create an image. It was of a woman with wild hair and a wild heart.

MOUNTAINS IN THE MOTHER CITY

I love using my trusty little Olympus Trip 35 for holiday snaps. It's a point and shoot camera with a solar-powered light meter; the zone focus system lets you choose between: 1 meter, 3 meters or landscape (see above). The Trip 35 is so cool that it was even used in the new iPad ads.

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.