my wanderlust is at full blast again lately. i’ve travelled a fair bit already this year but the hunger to leave home and explore the world never ends. i can never seem to get enough of exploring the world. down time from it feels like a famine, like a kind of heartbreak. i’m starving to take off again.

Actually… one woman was shockingly… nice? as we were walking, right in front of us this woman notices and picks something off the sidewalk and says Is it yours? she holds out this big gold ring. i said no and we kind of looked at it together and smiled. she looked at me and then said: here, it’s your lucky ring now! huh, what? i was sort of shocked and then she smiled and started walking and then turned around and said well could she have a bit of money so it’s her lucky day too? and then i was thinking, it’s probably all a ploy and she just needs money? but anyway, i just gave her some $ and then stood there looking at this ring wondering what the hell? wow, life is kind of good when you get bumped up to first class on the plane, get free champagne, and then a stranger hands you a ring. i better not be secretly going to die or anything. but, well, if i do at least i had days like this.

hey, look at what i found around the corner! it’s the Tete au Carre library building by Sacha Sosno. what a surprise when you are just wandering around.

mmm. yes please.

i away!

3- i will build the coolest office in said secret lair, where i will plan… something (give me time, i’m just hatching the plot of the plan first!)

clearly i will have to consult with the architects of dar darma marrakech for this particular lair

speaking of the netherlands, look at this library. wow.

i love what human beings are capable of when they are positive and imaginative.  look at this space.

(la galleria della luce by sunflower)

This one is called Dead City by Beatrice Coron.

More here: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/23931/paper-architecture-exhibition-in-paris.html

This piece of art is paperwork.  It’s called Dreamcity by Mathilde Nivet

Good God I want to buy this!!!  I love it.

About following your passion… who would think that cutting out paper could lead to a lucrative career?  Cool!

colours… COLOUR…

I remember when I was at my saddest everything in my house was black and white.  And then I went to stay with a friend in the UK and her house had the craziest colours.  These colours had such a visceral effect on me and I came home and started transforming my living space.  I still can’t deal with too much bold colour on a permanent basis but wow, I sure react well to it.  Hmm. Maybe some day!

Alright, enough with the dogs, getting me all emotional and whatnot.  Can’t handle that right now.  Get it, handle.  I am so cheesy right now but that’s okay.  Cheesy is better than teary.

Can you believe the detail in this door handle?  I’m getting one for my bathroom door.  Just kidding.

Happy place!

Random thoughts.

Lately I have been getting this weird feeling like I am seeing my life and the things that are happening around me as though I am not going to be here much longer.  It’s hard to explain.  It’s like there are moments when I am totally detached and so aware that soon I will just be an insignificant part of the past like the countless before me.  I see life as being special and regard much that I see around me with a sad tenderness like I am recognizing it and really trying to keep it in my memory before letting it pass. 

Do you know that despite the mind boggling numbers of people here and in history, each one of us is a unique combination of DNA and time and space that will never exist again.  Do you understand how incredible that is?

Being in Europe can really jolt the mind of a person raised in the “new world” too.  The other day I was in the oldest brewery in the world (founded in 1040).  What the…?  I also remember standing in England last year at a sign that said William the Conqueror passed through this gate in 1040.  1040.  How many people were born between then and now, each one the center of their own universe?  Who were these people?  How many people even know the maiden name of their great-grandmother?  Just three generations above ours and we usually know almost nothing about the people we came from.

I feel my mortality so much at the moment.  There was a time in my life when I could not bear to be here and wanted to die. At the time though, I felt that one day, when I finally figured things out, I would really want to live and then the choice would be taken from me.  Perhaps these were just the melodramatic thoughts of a lost soul, but I have found that, looking back, I was right about a lot too so who knows.  It could also be subconscious worry because my health situation is still uncertain, even though I have improved so much in the past 6 months.  Could also be the recent deaths in my life.

Anyway.  I know I’m not done with what I came here to do yet so I’m pretty sure I’m just being… (see next post :)…)

View from the Doge’s Palace, Piazza San Marco, Venice

I love Venetian architecture like these windows.

After the concert there wil be dancing for a few more hours as it is the end of the party.  Follow the stairs of the blue hallway to the dance hall.

(Glass Sculpture - Victoria & Albert Museum - London by nick garrod)