Being in Bangkok (A South East Asian Journey Part 2)

I'm back from Croatia and England. Croatia was absolutely fantastic. Your surroundings really do influence to an immense measure how you feel mentally. Take away the city and replace it with the salty sea and fresh fruit and vegetables and you feel like the person you are meant to be.
More on those glorious days of relaxation and recreation when I have sorted out the photographs.
The trip to the UK was short but sweet and made me remember what I love about England most: the people. And Waterstones. And Topshop. And the sea. And ...

I have sorted through the pictures from Thailand and have created an extremely image-heavy post. All the pictures were taken with the new Canon EOS M, which is truly stunning.

The flight from Singapore to Bangkok was just over two hours if I remember correctly. We stayed in the beautiful Amari Watergate Hotel, which was smack bang in the middle of Bangkok. I somehow ended up staying in a twin room by myself. I can't truthfully say that I didn't do any bed-to-bed-jumping and dancing to this song on the first evening there (aka I did).

This was the fantastic view from the hotel room. It was even more spectacular by night, which is why I didn't take a picture.

Directly out side of the hotel. Stripes on the run while taxi driver stands idly by.

After we arrived we went to have a Thai Massage. It was quite intense (and by intense I mean rough), but I enjoyed it so much. Complimentary tea after having yourself yanked around for a while.

Our driver for the two days had some groovy looking bits in the car.

When I woke up to this (I like sleeping with any curtains open) my heart crept up into my throat and then lay down with me on the crispy sheets.

I will never get gel nails again (probably). As gorgeous as they were (really gorgeous and they lasted weeks), my nails are still in a state after having them taken off. Old faithful iPhone, and a load of chemicals and powders and liquids in fancy tubes and pots. The M.A.C. Plushglass lip-gloss is godly (Imagine if all Gods wore this lip gloss? Zeus and Krishna perhaps rocking out in the shades 'Ample Pink' and 'Oversexed'.).

Important Rule: Keep hydrated in the tropics.

We drove for about an hour and a half out of Bangkok to go to a 'floating market'.  You hop on your ride and travel through river-ways past stands and beautiful surreal greenery. Photographs do not do it justice.

These are made of fresh coconut and sugar. Dee-vine.

This slightly suspicious coloured drink is actually sweet coconut water. If beer tasted like this thirteen-year-olds would become alcoholics after the first sip.

Aside from the crop this is SOOC. I love this shot.

Gentle reminder that we were in crazy Asia. Cute tea cosies.

Neutral colours with some interruptions and a shark everyone wanted to take a picture with, why though?

Bangkok bokeh. Taken whilst we were on a river-dinner-cruise. The food was amazing, the scenery even better. 

Flashing Gangnam-style kids Tees. 

Thai script is beautiful.

I have never in my life seen an animal this cute. And he felt SO soft. I was (am) in love. 

Everything looks a tad cooler with less of our western alphabet.

Crispy white sheets, the last morning.

This groovy suitcase has accompanied me on my travels this summer. I love it unconditionally, especially because I always spotted in really quickly on the luggage belt.

The flight back to Singapore. I listened to the Alt-J album what felt like three times and I still can't get enough of it. 

My final day in Singapore. I walked back from a near by mall to click a few snaps. Slightly regretfully I ended up soaking wet. My Dad lives in the tall condo in the middle of this picture.

One of the pools at Regent Heights. Yes 'one of them'. How ridiculous! What do you do if you live on a money-making, money-eating island? Create countless recreational opportunities! 

On my final day I had matcha latte with my Dad and took an instax walking across Robinson road. 

I had such a fantastic trip and I will remember it at least until I die.

The time I spent in Asia felt like a teaser. It barely scratched at the surface of all the things to see and discover on the other side of the globe. It made me realise that while at the moment life is full of uncertainty, doubt and hopeful anxiety, I am pretty sure I want to go and work in Asia for at least a few years after I finish my studies (still working on that one). 

Slinging in Singapore (A South East Asian Journey Part 1)

Where do I possibly begin an attempt to put my trip into words that even scratch at the surface of what those ten days meant.
I suppose I should start by mentioning the amazing 60-year old Philippine lady who sat next to me on the plane. Our twelve hours together started with me helping her operate the in-flight entertainment system and ended with her telling me about her (saucy) love life. The two of us were still giggling as we approached Changi airport.

I don't think I have ever felt a more bombastic cocktail of emotions as I did while I waited for my suitcase to arrive on the luggage belt.
I saw my Dad for the first time in two years, a lot was instantly and temporarily forgotten and more remembered.

There was a taxi drive to a breakfast at the Fullerton Hotel. Singapore's architecture is insanely impressive with it's swooping curving skyscrapers decorated with nonchalant palm trees and greenery. Sci-fi Marina Bay twinkled through the haze and I promise I did actually pinch my hand as my Dad enthusiastically attempted to prepare me for harsh emotional hits. The aircon breathed artificial freshness.

 I have never experienced Jet lag the way I did when I arrived in Singapore. I basically hadn't slept straight for almost 48 hours and was ruthlessly being enveloped by my father's new and very alien life style.While my dad and his new partner fed me stories and plans I was seriously doubting that it was actually all reality. The humid heat pressed on my body and bones and I was thankful when we drove to their condo. After being presented with fluffy slippers I was asleep within 20 seconds, a fan blessing me with its delicious whipped up air.

When I woke up several hours later, we drove to Orchard. The city is so far away from anything that is easy to describe but my eyes alone were pleased feasting on more sky high buildings and shops and ill-placed shrubbery.

On more than one occasion I was spoiled, materialistically speaking. The second picture is the view from the bedroom I was given for the trip. How many human beings live in that concrete jungle?! Weirdly, I felt as though those buildings were empty.

 That roller coaster was brutal. I screamed a lot and afterwards enjoyed a sweet natural high produced by this swirling metallic framework.

A minute fraction of Singapore's sky line and an enticing night club at Marina Bay.

 My Dad was working some of the time I was there but we met for lunch on those days. I appreciated the chance to briefly witness some angmos (Singlish: foreigner) who had decided to spend an extended period of time working on this tropical, money making island. How HOT that sweet banker must have been.

There was a lot to talk about with my Dad. After work one day he took me to this rooftop bar called 1 Altitude (check the website!). Whilst classily dressed waiters attended to your needs, you were able to enjoy a 360 degree view of Singapore whilst lounging on comfy chairs. In the background an adorable asian girl sang beautiful acoustic versions of old pop songs. So I had a Sing Sling, watched the sun set and got a lot off my chest. 

I find extremely inclined to mention that two tables away from us there was an already pink faced old English gentlemen in a crisp suit who enthusiastically told his conversational partner: "Singapore is on fire! On fire I tell you!"

Ridiculous and cliched as it was I couldn't stop laughing for about five minutes.

And as the sun disappeared into nothingness, the city state transformed into a magnificent display of lights with effortless ease.

This girl (Joyjoy) was pretty cute. She's my Dad's new partner's niece and we spent a day together exchanging universal girl gossip and shopping. 

As if I wasn't already being spoiled enough, my Dad planned a quick trip to Bangkok as well. I had an amazing time there. Amazing doesn't even begin to cover it. Words, unfortunately, can't ever perfectly represent an event, a time, experiences, feelings. But thank God they exist, and thank God I am able to burn these pictures into screens to help failing memory and attempt to share my time.

There are many more pictures to come, especially of Thailand.

I am leaving for Croatia tomorrow morning where I will be spending a week with my best friend. How beautiful, wonderful, lovely, lucky!

After Croatia I'll be in England for a week and I've got this feeling I'll have hundreds of photographs to sort out after that.

I really like this band a lot lately.



Lots of love internet world.

Formalities and Freedom

I have to admit, the fact that I was soon to be flying to Singapore to see my father for the first time in two years partly eclipsed the significance of graduation and prom.

I finished my final exams what feels like centuries ago. My Japanese oral was about women and their role in marriage and I remember saying so many times that the most important thing was love and that we'd all get along better if we remembered that occasionally. Cheesiness prevailed and it went well.

When I got the question for my History oral I remember smiling and thanking the Gods, fate, destiny, karma and the sweet figure who is no longer my teacher.

After, the weights lifted, we sat by the Main and talked, minds clouded by a new kind of fatigue. What followed were days of blissful nothingness, which I filled with coffee, friends and early morning Game of Thrones marathons. (This morning I finally managed to pick off where I left off with that...)

So yes, a week before graduation I awoke to find an e-ticket to Singapore in my inbox. The details can be explained in a long-winded and possibly intimate manner, but suffice to say I was enveloped by an underlying feeling of excitement and apprehension for a while. More on that when I have sorted the ridiculous amount of photos I took there.

Films and books and corny American television series plant all these ideas in your mind about 'prom'- and I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to it on a lot of girly levels. But in reality it was a gathering of proud parents, reluctant teachers and nostalgic, dressed up teenagers. We listened to awkward speeches and cringe-y performances and afterwards we danced our socks off until our hearts and feet were finished.

Unfortunately the photographic remains of this time are currently only available in grainy iPhone form.
I feel the need briefly to express the love I felt for my dress. It's by London-based Three Floor. The leather strap neck detailing is just ridiculously amazing and reminds me of something slightly ill-fitting of a formal dress.

This is our neighbours cat. He is the most beautiful creature I named 'Aslan'. Whenever our paths cross he projects an aura of selfless love not many cats do.

 The thing is, Frankfurt can be beautiful.

 I visited my sister at work and here I am after having a needle stuck in my ear being told that the oxygen levels in my blood are totally fine. Thanks Thomas!

@ M.A.C.

 These women are my home.

M is for Mausam.

 One of those 'thigh pictures' and a me at about 7 AM after removing about 78 pins from my hair. I then packed my suitcase and left for the airport three 3 hours later. 

Finally, a think a few people need Cosmo Sheldrake in their lives. Listen and enjoy.

Cosmo Sheldrake 'The Fly' - Live at RX89 from Bat On Ball Creations on Vimeo.

Don't Crop, Please

I never ever have to attend school again. It was an anticlimactic ending as the lessons trickled to a stop and there were only a handful of perhaps nostalgic students who even bothered to show during the final week. I'll have my final two oral examinations for the Abitur in two weeks (Japanese and Histroy) and then that will truly be it.

Although it took a few days a feeling of scrumptious freedom is currently coursing through my body and brain. I now have more time than ever to dedicate myself to this blog, to think about the future and plan.

Last week a sweet blonde girl wearing cute flatforms, frilly socks, donning a cobalt blue Fjällräven rucksack stopped me in the middle of town and told me how much she liked my outfit and asked whether she could take a photo and interview me quickly. Initial shock drowned me for a millisecond and then I enthusiastically agreed. It's going to be published in the June issue of FRIZZ magazine and possibly on MTV!

How difficult is it to take pictures of the clothes you like to wear and post them on the internet? Pretty difficult. I have to be honest and admit that one of the main reasons I wasn't bending over backwards to post OOTDs was out of suspicion of the possible laborious reaction of various individuals at school who may have discovered this cheeky place of self expression.
But now I can truly say that I don't care and I'm doing it for me and anyone who's interested! This outfit encompasses everything I currently love. White, pastel blue, silver jewellery. I have never seen anyone wearing such a brutal crop top in Frankfurt but I have an undying love affair with them and can't wait to be in London over the summer, where I am sure I will receive far fewer intensely curious albeit distinctly disturbed looks.
(BTW, I bet you haven't seen these Zara skorts on the blogosphere before... )

Skorts: Zara, Cardigan: Sammydress,  Bag: Vintage, Necklace: Nastygal (this is my sister's. I unfortunately have knicked it on countless occasions), Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell via Nastygal, Socks: Topshop

If you are a fan of Metronomy and have not heard this remix yet I strongly suggest you listen to it with your eyes closed and enjoy.

Lately, I really have been feeling good. Dear self: don't stop, please.

5 Places on the Internet to Subdue Unwanted Feelings

When you find yourself in a state of mind where the thought of getting up and facing the world as a confident individual seems near to impossible, the internet acts as a way to tolerate human society from a safe distance and indulge in a sometimes more than necessary bout of isolation.

Here are only 5 (of the endless list of) places which exist on the internet to gently help you in your time of distraction.

ROOKIE

Rookie is an online magazine founded by the infamous Tavi Gevinson (her fashion blog has been around since 2008). There's all kinds of scrumptious articles and stories and poetry and photography and DIYs and playlists to get lost in. I love this site to pieces. A quick pick of recent favourites: 

Tokyo Drift: Photo diary from time spent in Tokyo.

Overnight: A really simple but ridiculously sweet short story about a girl who's unsure of nighttime etiquette and has a lovely chat with a stoner.

Secret Sharers: A group of people divulge secrets about various things such as old films, abandoned New York subway stations and the acquiring of free doughnuts.

(Emma Dajska does collages for some of the articles. I'm in love with almost everything she produces with her mind and hands.)

trntbl.me

On this site you can listen to all the music someone has ever posted on their tumblr blog. This is a great way of (re)discovering (old/)new music.

Polyvore

When I was about twelve years old I used to literally spend hours on this site. You can make collages with images users have saved from all over the internet (mostly clothes) and create outfits and stories and pretty pictures you can look back on later and ask yourself when you ever had time to create such goodies. Although this site isn't some kind of secret, I feel like it's often put to one side in favour of trawling through tumblr dashboards and wistfully scrolling through lookbook.nu.

The Student Room

This is of interest if you, like me, are suddenly confronted with the petrifying imminence of possible higher education and you, like me, seem to know next to nothing about everything.

Very useful if you, like me, are basically set on going on an adventure on your own to somewhere in the United Kingdom, where salty sea and Media and Communication courses, Topshop, concerts and fellow students await in abundance. 

I have however been avoiding this website for the past week as it has been filling me with equal amounts of anticipation and fear, which proves to be quite distracting when attempting to successfully complete the remainder of your senior year.

YouTube

You already know that this website is basically boredom's cheeky affair. You will undoubtedly find yourself in this wonderland of moving images if all attempts at subduing unwanted thoughts and or boredom have failed you.

An endless array of options are laid in front of you: You could get lost in a string of pet videos, or find yourself swimming in a never-ending supply of music, and chances are you may in fact end up watching a video of a selection of people yawning.

When these finally few weeks of school are over, my mind will be so much more capable of dedicating time to this minuscule dot in the internet-verse.

When all else fails, always, always go for Morrissey and wait.

Failed Cheesecake or Do it Yourself

Today I baked a delicious looking cheesecake, complete with enticing digestive biscuit base. Upon opening the oven however I remembered suddenly, that I had forgotten to add 200g of caster sugar to the mixture. I ate three digestive biscuits and threw the cake in the bin. Feel free to apply your own metaphor for anything here.

I spent my Easter weekend painting my bed and an old mirror white. It was satisfying but took (much) longer than expected. And although I locked Carl out when I started painting he has been wandering around with white spots on his back for a few days now.

Before. My mum DIYed the cover for the piano stool. This is one of the countless reasons I love her.

Masking tape. Now imagine me taking this photograph, it suddenly seems oddly ridiculous, right.

Moving, conscious, black furry thing which will remain celibate for life, called Carl.

After. It's one thing to have all these ideas in your head and another to cover your bedroom floor in newspaper and spend two days coating an ancient Ikea metal bed frame in paint. 

Also, I finally watched Perks of Being a Wallflower today. I read the book ages ago and remember not expecting it to affect me like it did. I also remember crying at the end and being dubious about the possible movie adaption.

But I really enjoyed it.

After gossiping for about two hours on my bed, a friend with excellent taste and I watched 201mins of Stephen Chbosky's creation which left me with the same warm feeling as the book. I can't find the right adjectives and nouns and verbs to string together in order to describe the book or the film, but I just hope that people in the future will read the book or failing that, watch the adaptation and feel something.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised by my realisation that Ezra Miller is more than mildly attractive.

(In German, the film is called 'Vielleicht lieber morgen' which translates roughly as: 'Perhaps tomorrow (is/will be/could be) better'. I have just realised how difficult it is to translate those three words. Nevertheless, I had to point out how amusing I find it and wonder how many people decided that that was in fact, the best possible translation of the movie title. How about 'Die Vorteile eines Mauerblümchens' which translates roughly as: 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'.)

Ezra Miller x Terry Richardson

Playlist if you fancy.

• French Kiss - The Teenagers
• Midnight City - The Knocks ft. Mandy Lee
• Lights (Shook Remix) - Ellie Goulding
• Second Chance - Peter, Bjorn and John
• We drink on the Job - Earlimart
• Sans Soleil - Miike Snow (live)
• The Walk - Mayer Hawthorne ft. Rizzle Kicks