Tea with Frankie
2013 – The Highlights
A lot of moments, new people and 15 different countries made some sort of impression on me in 2013, and I really can’t pick only one occasion and photo per month to highlight like I did last year. Click the links and photos for the full stories, and I hope you will enjoy the trip!
January
January started off very well with me being introduced to Josie’s mind-blowing mousse on New Year’s Eve. After that, it was a cold and gray month where I was based in Sweden and occasionally managed to get away to some of my favourite people in Stockholm and Cicirella’s Copenhagen SPA.
February
February was a grey and slow month, so I went to visit my grandparents in Wroclaw, Poland.
March
In the end of February, however, I suddenly got an email – and a week later I was working for UNICEF in Nicaragua. I used the Easter holidays to explore neighbouring Costa Rica – spent some days in the sun with the two happy Ka’s and lived the Pura Vida lifestyle with my old friend Frank in Tamarindo.
April
April was a month of work, work and work. Then there was some occasional dancing, the Managua carnival and a friend’s wedding.
May
In may I found a couple of days to escape to the beautiful Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. I took a long and exciting trip and found some very sweaty and dirty dancing on the Palo de Mayo festival in Bluefields, and a well needed dose of hippie Island bliss in the paradise of Corn Island.
June
June was marked by the arrival of my dearest Renata and Den. Renata came first, and we went together to surfy San Juan del Sur, and when Den also arrived I couldn’t have been happier to be in both of their hilarious company in beautiful León. “WE SO FUNNY!”
July
In July, Camila came to join me in Nicaragua and we started off by travelling to Tola for work on Sociopreneur. Then we went for a completely insane barefoot hike in the Miraflor Reserve and for a beautiful weekend full of butterflies on Ometepe Island. By the end of the month, my contract with UNICEF Nicaragua finished.
August
On August 1st, I jumped on a bus headed west, and passed by enchanting Guatemala and it’s Maya pyramids hidden in the jungle in Tikal. I crossed over to Mexico and visited the Palenque pyramids and waterfalls with Chema, and went south to what became my favourite city in the country – San Cristobal de las Casas. We continued to the in many ways bizarre Mexico City, and went to see Chema’s mother perform in Cats. I also found out that I had been a surrogate mother for meat-eating myiasis larvae and filmed their murder. (Haha!)
After two weeks in Mexico, I boarded a flight – and found myself in New York. Reunited with Den and Renata, and overwhelmed by the city’s awesomeness.
September
I came back to Sweden on September first. And took my mother to India only six days later. (I still haven’t shared all of the stories from that trip.)
October
October started off with me randomly saying: “Hey, I want to go to Berlin” and Avina answering “Yay, let’s do it!” So we did a 10-day Berlin, Wroclaw, Torun and Warsaw tour. I went back to Stockholm for Avina’s birthday, and stayed an extra week for a great Halloween party with our Warsaw friends.
November
Suddenly it was November, I went to Gothenburg to do a workshop and then my mother said.. “I have some days off and I’m very curious about Istanbul..”
December
The end of the year came along with a new and inspiring smile. I travelled to Amsterdam and spent three days in a beautiful apartment and in much appreciated company, and after a couple of days of being back in Malmö, I thought “Nah..” and hopped on a flight to Marseille for a mix of sun, work and accompanied leisure.
It’s been a year that’s been very intense and tiring – but at the same time enriching and wonderful. Finding the opportunity to fill all free moments with pleasure and new impressions without loosing balance has been the key, and I am very much looking forward to the way I have chosen to end it.
How To Be Alone
Conversations today made me remember this video shared with me a couple of years ago by my dear friend Den. There are many friends whom I would like to share this with now – reminding them about the beauty of exchanging unvoluntary loneliness for chosen and appreciated soluitude. But first and foremost, I would like to dedicate this video to the wonderful people I’ve met on my travels. The people I connected with mainly because I was on my own and could give them enough time and my full attention. The deep talkers, the dancers, the happy people. You all know who you are.
So there’s beautiful voluntary solitude.. and then there’s that other thing: Chosen company. Welcoming 2014.
“Ah, fuyez douce image!”
Went to see Jules Massenet’s 1884 Opera Manon at Malmö Opera with some friends today. An entertaining performance, mainly because of the impressive costumes and very nice lyrics in French.. and despite the lead character’s extremely annoying personality. The French life-loving girl Manon was not only a beautiful and naïve little charmer, she was also a gold-digging, manipulative and heart breaking narcissist to the point where I got upset with her.
Something that for me definitely was a first timer in opera was an unusually long sex scene involving an actual bed, mirrors and realistic movements, and that brief moment of extras running around topless, which was just very random in the context. Adding some spice to the art? Anyhow, a nice way to spend an evening.
Merry Christmas!
Darlings!
Wishing you all a lovely Christmas Eve in the company of your favourite people and loved ones. I hope you get good vibes, warm hugs, genuine laughter and a lot of love. And an extra dosis of patience and positivity for those of you meeting up with extended family members with differing and provocative opinions. Hang in there.
My mother and I send our best wishes all the way from 1988. :)
Wesolych Swiat! Feliz Navidad! God Jul! Feliz Natal! Merry-merry yay! Take care of each other and enjoy your day!
C
Death by Lion
My dear Josie sent me a message with a youtube link last week, writing “I just found something and I know you’ll love it!”
I sense a vibe of The Great Gatsby and a bunch of other movies in there. The entire atmosphere, the photography, the costumes, the roles of the different animals and all the little messages are great. Such a wonderfully beautiful and well made video! Thank you, daahlin’!
Capital Cities – Kangaroo Court
In A Tidal Wave of Mystery (2013)
24 hours of Happy!
Pharrell Williams – Happy
Despicable Me 2 Soundtrack (2013)
Have you seen the world’s first 24 hour music video, based on this track? It’s a fun time killer to play around with, automatically adjusts to the time in your computer (super cool) and it’s good for background music.. at least for a while: http://24hoursofhappy.com
Pharrell Williams, the 40-year-old (yes!) genius, formed The Neptunes with his equally talented friend Chad Hugo in the early 90’s, and they were later discovered and signed by the great father of New Jack Swing, Teddy Riley. Then came N.E.R.D and blew our minds with cool and distinctive beats, the guys continued producing music with a bunch of other artists, and today the man with a kid called Rocket, a half-pipe in his home and maybe the world’s most beautiful jawbones just keeps on creating innovative beats and art, making the rest of us happy. (Apart from that sexist Thicke collab. Boo!)
Players
Istanbul, Turkey 2013
I met these two Takhteh playing men in a café in Istanbul. Takhteh is the Persian name for Backgammon, where the game is originally from, and the rules are slightly different from those in Western Backgammon. Another interesting thing was the size of the dice. “It’s much harder to cheat that way even if you’re an expert at throwing dice” a man sitting next to the two players explained.
“I always win anyway!” the man on the right proclaimed loudly, and the rest of the group laughed, except for his opponent. “Actually, it’s because the other guy takes it so seriously and is such a bad loser that we laugh about this,” the friend added quietly. “Look, he even closes his eyes and prays when the big man rolls the dice.”
“But that won’t help him – this game is not a matter of faith, nor even as much of skill as one would like to think.. it’s mostly a game of luck.”
