- Making strawberry-rhubarb baiser cake on Saturday morning.
- Sitting on the floor of the balcony with Markus until late at night, drinking red wine and talking. He cut my hair in the bathroom sink. Far too short, I was shocked. But it'll grow back.
- Lying topless on the balcony with a drink and my Vietnam travel guide, allowing my back to get used to the bright sunlight.
- According to a box of multicoloured chocolates at the supermarket my unicorn name is Fantastic Sugar Socks.
- Watching the sun rise as a huge orange fireball during my morning commute. This always reminds me of the fact that we're zooming through space on a huge ball ourselves. It gives me such a weird feeling.
- Playing games with the kids outside. Running around, even though it makes my feet hurt. A ladybug in my hair. I imagined it might be a sign for good luck?
- A moment of absolute silence at 2:40am.
- Simon and Martina! I wanna marry them both and live in polyamorous bliss for the rest of my life. In Japan of course. These two are awesome.
- TRAVEL! MOSCOW! VIETNAM! Remembering the weirdest, most unimportant moments most vividly. Like reading signs while standing in line at the passport control in Sheremetyevo. But I'll add a few lovely moments, too - just in case.
- MOSCOW: Dasha's amazing apartment - looking at all the art, reading graphic novels, eating homemade dinner on the floor at 4am / Natascha's engagement party - she has the most amazing accent when trying to speak English and becomes such a warm and happy person when she's drunk / taking pictures with a rainbow umbrella at Red Square / eating at Кафе Юность (amazing food, lemme tell ya - cheesy mashed potatoes, mezze, the most tender and smooth pastrami sandwich) / spending time at a bookstore / making friends at the Garage-museum, looking at the children's rainbow artworks outside; getting a slinky toy pin; trying out virtual reality glasses for the first time / standing on a bridge over the Moskva in the middle of the night, calling an Uber / pick-and-mix candy, sea buckthorn handcream, Dasha's pink women's march hat / opulent subway stations, more like ballrooms / borscht, pierogi, Bulgakov's apartment //
- VIETNAM: taking the (super cheap) taxi everywhere / daring to go outside for the first time, being overwhelmed by all the people on the street, on the roads, motorcycles on the sidewalk, the warm, humid air; trying to figure out how to cross the street, planning strategically which route to take / the food, plenty of it - little street restaurants with flimsy metal chairs, wrapping everything in salad leaves, herbs or rice paper, buying banana paper from an old lady on the street; sitting on a rooftop during a lovely sunset, enjoying sour seafood soup with starfruit; raiding the convenience store and lying on our hostel bed together with matcha koalas and wakame Pringles - learning how to make Vietnamese style pancakes and getting so sick of summer rolls - dumplings everyhwere, Thai-style ice-cream rolls, Pho, Banh Mi, omelette and banana pancakes for breakfast; and - my favourite - fresh fruit smoothies by the pool. Heavenly delicious! / running into a very weird open air concert in a park at random / Japan revival: that amazing Izakaya and spending a whole evening singing karaoke in a basement somewhere in Saigon; toasting with onigiri and salty litchi drink from the convenience store; shopping at Korean and Japanese stores we accidentally found in the middle of a strange part of the city / a day trip to the Mekong delta with some Scots and Spaniards; taking in the crazy products sold at the Cai Be market (living frogs, anyone?), going on a bike tour through the orchard, a boat tour with a female captain who is out on the river for over 30 years now; being saved from a spider by a lovely Scotsman / Phu Quoc - how lucky we were, booking that wonderful resort for next to no money, with the big bungalows, white beack and turquoise water in such a peaceful part of the island. I'm very grateful for this coincidence because - let's face it - we had no clue. We just booked a flight and whatever looked nice and cheap enough. / swing time in the hammock / taking pictures of us 'walking on water' on an invisible wall in the pool and letting Lexi model for a non-existant soda commercial on the beach / buying a lamp in a small store by the road, petting a Vietnamese cat after faking interest for the baby / trying all kinds of exotic fruit, including jackfruit, cinnamon apple and durian / watching the sun set huge and red over long beach / sitting on the pier at night, watching the black sea and the stars of the southern sky, looking up constellations with SkyMap; seeing a shooting star / the fabulous snorkeling trip with old French hotel magnates and sea urchins, getting horribly sunburnt / Tiger beer and tiny mangoes which look like apricots and fall down from the tree over the pool / booking a night at the fancy Central Liberty Riverside hotel with the most amazing shower, infinity pool on the rooftop, an amazing breakfast buffet and - in my imagination - digital nomads working on the deck chairs in the rooftop bar / getting iced matcha latte in huge quantities, drinking it lying stretched out on the hotel bed with a view over Saigon river at night - almost as nice: watching the sunrise over the river, a reward for waking up before 6am / crisp white hotel bed sheets //
- Oddly enough, a short list this month means that I was very happy and busy with life. So busy that I didn't feel like writing it all down. Which might be a mistake - or the best decision I could make and finally what I wanted to achieve with writing down the good things in life?
apr 1 2017 ∞
jun 25 2017 +