Imagine there is war and nobody shows up.

                 
System of a Down - Boom! from andrio on Vimeo.

Sometimes you need to reflect on the world around you to put your situation into a larger context if that makes sense. 
It seems most people are afraid to take steps that are not on the map. But would you please explain to me how a map could even be formed if not by taking steps into the unknown? Ha?
And one thing is bloody sure, routine has never been able to move mountains. Never.
I couldn't find the band I was looking for, aaaahhhhhhh. Stuff like that makes me mad. So I try to soothe you with this one.

I'm not into HipHop nor football, it's just not my cup of tea. There are maybe few exceptions and for this guy I make one with pleasure. K'naan. I'm amazed about his story and his powerful lyrics. Let me tell about him. There are so many wannabe gangster rappers out there with their ridiculous gold chains and naked chicks in their videos rapping piece of shallow shit. But there also is a number of HipHop musicians who have a big personality and really a story to tell like K'naan. He's from Mogadishu in Somalia where's an ongoing civil war since 1991. He spent his life avoiding death and managed to flee to Canada as a teenager and somehow to get the great deal to sing his song "Wavin flag" as anthem for the worldcup 2010 in South Africa. Rad!
Listen to him, he has something to say.

 "I'm poor, a refugee been in prison and survived a war. I come from, the most dangerous city in this universe.You're likely to get shot at birth, so how could rap quench my thirst?," the rapper proclaims as he questions his desire to be an emcee in the midst of his harsh reality."

Tame birds sing of freedom.

Wild birds fly.

Hi. When the sun shines after this long winter I feel like a butterfly, spriding its wings to thraw. I really feel how the warmth it's unfreezing my cells. As I would blossom. Such a toasty feeling. Epic. Otherwise nice walk with my friend, his dog Toni is still such a big puppy. Lovely. Playground wasn't allowed to be missed.
On Friday the final phase for Berlin is starting . At last!

Lloyd's Python

             Me holding a corn snake at Lawnwood Snake Sanctuary

I like snakes. I don't think they look very friendly but I like their skin to touch. It's nice. I just couldn't have any big ones. I wouldn't have the heart to kill mice or rabbits. I've been in Poland over the weekend and discovered a snake in the forest. I was awwhh let's play but the snake was too shy and too scared so I let him go. It still reminded me of my scary meeting with a puffadder in the wild.

You must know a puffadder is one of the most common and dangerous snakes in Africa. It's venom is strongly hemotoxic, destroying bloods cells and causing extensive tissue damage. It's willing to bite and if you touch one you can be surefire to get bitten by one.

So now my story. I was chilling innocent in my bikini and without a bad thought prone on my towel and snoozing in the sun. Then something would constantly irritating me, the first time I thought it's the grass tickling my ankle so I scratched the spot and shaked my leg, the second time I thought okay it must be a flie or a mosquito so I tried to make it go away with my hand, but still not looking and kept on lying on my stomache, as something touched my ankle the third and fourth time I got really angry and eventually turned around to the right sight and I was paralysed with fear and scared stiff, there was this puffadder starring into my eyes and tasting my ankle with her tongue. Literally one breath away from my foot. No grass stalk, no insect, a highly toxic snake has been tickling me all the time. Crazy. In this moment I was fucking sure this is it, I was oh fuck well goodbye world. This is my end.
I wasn't in the position to run away or catching her.
So I knew if I move, I would die but if I don't move, I would die too. Hmmm. AHHHHHHHHH! I was still not moving and watching her and she was watching me and my head was rattling, okay when she's going to bite me, I will die within 5 hours or I will at least losing my leg. There was NO ONE on the farm and no hospital near enough for my leg to survive nor probably me. So I decided no, puffadder sorry but you won't bite me!! I honestly don't know how this worked out, I only can remember I was moving half- lying away from her , millimeter to millimeter to the right, sweat running down my body, keeping eye contact and trying to not freak out and stay calm, it took me about 10 minutes to be half a meter away from her, then took the chance and jumped up as fast as and as wide as I could and run into the house, now she was following me fast as a flash, so I slammed the door, put my shoes on and run outside but I only saw her vanishing in the bushes.
Pheww, this was rad!!! I guess I just have more luck than judgement most of the time. As few days ago before this happenend, I stepped onto a nightadder accidentally and it didn't bite me either. They called me snake woman, haha well why not :)

Elephants passing every morning your house, priceless. Lonely endless massive wild and the most beautiful beaches for just yourself and watching whales swimming in the sea , priceless. Waking up from the sound of a Gibbon and sleeping with Cheethas, priceless. Making a bonfire every night, enjoying the pure starlit sky and meeting friends for a lifetime, priceless.

In South Africa I'd been living in a....bush. Haha. First in kind of a container then in a house with ca. 40 m2 sharing my room with at least 2 people, always. No computer, no Internet, no TV, no wash machine, no Ipod, no camera, no Facebook, no Myspace, no Skype. Brown water and sometimes even no electricity. To get to the next town, I had to walk more than 1 mile to arrive the main street, there catching a Minibus taxi squeezed like a bug or getting a lift on a pick up (buggy). In town walking up the highest hill you can imagine to go on errands. Food, real fresh and amazingly cheap fruits and vegetables. Pick'n' Pay.
And you know what, this was the best time in my life so far.

It's not how much we have, but how much we enjoy that makes happiness.

I worked with animals, with primates to be more precise. In the primate sanctuary Monkeyland. Don't be shy, look it up : http://www.monkeyland.co.za/  I spent all day outdoors in the forest, no matter if it was hot, raining or stormy. I became a true member of the community. I miss them all like hell, still. It's impossible to describe my life there in a few sentences. 1000 stories to tell, 1000 of pics to show. Maybe one word: Awesomeness!




I was actually this guy and guided tourists through the forest. And pssss I tell you a secret, I still got the uniform ;)  Helped out with the animals and crossed this suspension bridge like 4 times a day. Haha, this background music is rather pretty dramatic! and the presentation could be a bit more exciting but hey :)
Joey naughty naughty boy you! I know you miss me nevertheless.

Here are more  fantastic pictures by Mike Brodie :)

 

 

Mike Brodie

Gosh I'm telling you, it was love at first sight!!! I immediately fell deeply in love with his photos. They speak volumes, unconventional, offbeat, authentic. Amazing work with amazing personality.

I came across the name The Polaroid Kidd which drew my attention. Mike Brodie is his real name and he left home with 18  only armed with a Polaroid camera from his friend and the spirit of youth to crisscross the American country riding the rails, capturing raw pictures of young hobos, romantic 21st-century gypsies, downshifter, punks, train-hoppers, squatters, vagabonds and runaway middle-class kids living off the grid in their own constructed universe. ACE!

It took him 3 years to do this. WOWEEE!

Take a wild rivet ride rough steel bracin' your rollin' wandering eyes, bracin' your rollin' adventurin' thighs, runnin' wind and flowery air rushin' through your tingly beaming beautiful feeling face... free hearts, open skies, push your spirit out on a rise... to the roof of the world... ride, baby, ride. Run and don't stop, sleep when you roll, roll when you wake, green and yellow dreams, your body aches, dirt bath livin', creek side givin'... swimmin' escape filled livin', give up your back, jumpin' jack, across the canyon crack'.... rails and dreams, nothin' but sun, clouds and pillows, dirt bath and willows, the sun is guardin' your life, the sky is your wife... the land is your man, go baby go...

Mike B's runnin' free, disappearin' before your eye's, out of the herd, the horizon flys, floating away on the back of a bird. In the sun....fire orange, bright ass day, another one... rollin' across... open wide... lovin' your amigo, go with the tide, golden rule livin' til' the freakin' end baby. No, no I will not go, I will not live in a carpet cube, a computer box will not be me's... an office chase is for the bee's, the one's whose dreams are lost in the breeze... a ride, the space, the roll on, no race... the go... the movin, the seein', the believe'n... the lovin', the be'in, the you'in and the me'in...the we'in, the us'in, the smilin', the screamin'. The drums are beatin', we're goin', we're leavin'...

Kaospilot

Do whatever it takes

I don't know where to start, so I start at the beginning and if I come to the end I stop. Haha, I love the sentence. Nevermind, I need to get rid of so many stuff which has been on my mind recently but it clashes with the things I got to know, few hours fresh. I'm still super excited and nervous like you are if you know something great lies ahead of you or kind of insecurity, stage fright, butterflies and sweaty hands, bloody stupid, I wish I knew what it was. Infact there is something mega cool , Bristol. But that's in september. I've been thinking it's just normal paranoia and panic, making me mad again, but Ben said there is no need to panic for me. I should stop to worry because if you want something enough it will happen, regardless. He's right, it gives me confidence knowing a precious friend of mine believes in me. Yeah, every dream is given to us with the power to make it come true. You only have to be ready and open for doing whatever it takes. You need to dare, to risk sometimes and I will go to the end if it's necessary. Although it's really draining me of strength. My other dear friend Aga was saying. what awesome CV, Rock'n' Roll is not dead Eva, damn what the hell must be waiting for you in Bristol that you run your head so straight and tenacious against the wall?  Well the best thing about it is, I will find it out.

 "Led by destiny", this book was lying in my bookshelf for years, I never read it .Today I opened it, the author signed it with these words " may this book be an inspiration for realizing your dreams", 2 years before she died young I found out now. Thank you. I've been starting to read it. It's in polish. It's going better than I thought.

Kinga and Chopin began with nearly $600, two backpacks, a one-way ticket, hardly any plans and many dreams. How could they see the world with practically no money? Through hitchhiking, of course. Packed with inspiring diary-style chapters, colourful images and amazing stories, Led By Destiny by Kinga Freespirit captures an incredibly hitchhiking adventure around the world.The journey took them five years.

Enough for now. I have to put my other thoughts off until tomorrow. 

Hi there. What have I actually done the last couple of days? I'd even argue that I've been overly busy busy. But to others I might have done "nothing".  Nothing important because I had fun or because I diverge from the norm. So like all things, it's all relative. It depends on how you look at things. And I think when I do have fun, no matter what I'm doing, it's something I do at the end. Anyway, to make a long story short. I randomly throw some words in the circuit. First I need to remember. Ah okay. Paper work like billions things ( that's actually nothing to do with fun) Anna, pictures, driving, presents from Argentina, Malaga, paranoia, fighting, nerves, chatting, Ben, deep forest, drums, bonfire, Munich, losing, missing, talking, Laura, presents from Cuba, singing, laughing, new sport shoes, embarassing, skint, workshop, white massive sunglasses, sun, tan, grandma, thoughts thoughts thoughts thoughts thoughts thoughts.
And I've found and watched THE movie Dandelion on youtube. 10 videos. I can't get it on Dvd, not even in the Uk. It failed. Hmmm. Crap.
And my blisters are hurtfully healing. And I've been writing a recommendation letter for myself. Pretty weird!
And I want wishful thinking to stop. I wanna touch it. I think I truly deserve it, a heartful please must do.

I'm just saying:

                                                        

 Man oh man you're my best friend,

I scream it to the nothingness,

There ain't nothing that I need.

Well, hot and heavy, pumpkin pie,

Chocolate candy, Jesus Christ,

Ain't nothing please me more than you.

I'll follow you into the park,

Through the jungle through the dark.

Moats and boats and waterfalls,

Alley-ways and pay phone calls,

I've been everywhere with you.

We laugh until we think we’ll die,

Barefoot on a summer night

Nothin’ new is sweeter than with you

And in the streets you run afree,

Like it's only you and me,

Geeze, you're something to see.

Today it's a tragic historical day. 96 people, all important members of the polish government (including the president and his wife) have been killed in a plane crash together. Half of the regime! No matter the politics, the nation is crying today and I, born in Poland and still having most of my relatives living there, wanna you to know this:

Poland has a long history of pain and suffering. Once the most powerful kingdom in Europe, spanning half of Germany, down to the Balkans, most of the Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, 1/2 of Euro-Russia, the Baltics, and Finland,  in 1795 it has become an invisible nation with no government. Poland's territory was partitioned among the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire, and Austria. In 1918 (after 123 years!) it regained independence, but only some years later it's become a captive nation under Soviet and Nazi rule. Throughout it all, Poland has always held its head high and lived on with pride, dignity and identity.

The memorial event (the symbolic reconciliation between Poland and Russia over the Katyn massacre in World War II, over 20.000 polish officers have been executed by the Russians) that the President and dignitaries were about to attend  was to look back at the pain and atrocities of the Stalin and Hitler eras. It was a chance to express grief for the millions dead, and to stand up as a nation on its own, independent and a friend of the world. Instead... the head of state and many top leaders and citizens perished. Yet another Polish day of suffering.....

Of course one could say, so many plane crashes, so many people are dying every day and only because they were all leader of the government, the world is making a big deal about it. I agree. I don't think highly of politicians anyway. But this time it's about much more! It's about the entire future of Poland right now.

Alright. Hahaha. Been hiking today again and ended up waiting alone 1 hour, after walking downhill backwards in pain, for my dad's car picking me up at the Hammer lake with 9 nasty blisters on my feet which made it impossible for me to go one step further.There getting jumped on by something big and heavy from behind coming from nowhere in nowhere. Heart attack. A crazy dog. He kept me funny company though.

Oh Kurti, it's such a loss you're gone. You will always be missed you know.

I'm baking a candle stand for my bosom buddy Anna back from Spain, actually from Argentina where she spent the last month travelling. Haven't seen her for half a year. Toooo long. Excited! Yes you heard it right, baking. Out of salt dough. I already burned my fingers. But that's just me I guess.

I love and admire creative heads.