/// 2012

STRONG AND FIERCE. OPTIMISTIC AND DRIVEN.

/// wish

A friend sent me a wish:

"I wish you all the best and a truck full of luck and love for the next year. For things that are good to stay the same and for things to get even better."

/// porcelain raft

Put Me To Sleep by Porcelain Raft

/// such a thick face

/// lomography: what manila means to me

I've got an article out on Lomography's online magazine as one of Manila's CitySlickers! Check it out:

http://www.lomography.com/magazine/lifestyle/2011/12/26/manila-cityslicker-angel-what-manila-means-to-me

/// under your spell

01 Desire - Under Your Spell by 5titresss
/// i don't:
eat
sleep

i do nothing but:
think of you.

you:
keep me under your spell ///

/// christmas angelf

Happy Christmas everyone! As a present, here's my mix from Strict Rules last week. Enjoy and make the holidays sparkly!!

Love,
Angelf

/// i love my kanken

My love for Sweden (and April's photo of me in Bruges 2009) won me a Fjallraven Kanken!
Thanks I Love My Kanken!

http://www.ilovemykanken.com/kanken-latest/angel-wins-the-black-fjallraven-kanken-congra.html


And if you scroll down, you'll see more happy photos of Sweden's biggest fan and her Kanken:

http://www.ilovemykanken.com/gallery.html

Fall in Bruges with April, winter in Stockholm with Polina, spring in Stockholm with Carolina and summer in Bilbao with Arrate. Pure love.

/// snow

It's snowing where you are right now. Ahh.
Can I just hold you.

/// ik mis Albert Heijn

...en de Hema, en de Kruidvat, en lekker bakske koffie, en TAPE, en Vrijdag, en peppernoten, en hagelslag, en oude kaas... and all the nice concerts and all the crazy bikes. and all the lovely cities and the NS yellow (sometimes late) train. i miss everyone and everything, even the rain.

(Wat mis jij in het buitenland?)

- Nov 25

/// once upon a time 1938

Once upon a time, WPA poster, ca. 1938, a photo by trialsanderrors on Flickr.

/// parts of a whole

marikina gottingen bilbao stockholm arnhem amsterdam places then, now and yet to come, different sides, big picture, small picture, all me.

/// fever dreams

love you orange and white cat.

/// summer camp

/// lost at sea

/// Congratulations, 'cos we made it all the way home. ///

/// the difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul

After a While

After a while you learn
the subtle difference
between holding a hand and chaining a soul.
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
and company doesn’t always mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
and presents aren’t promises.
And you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead.
With the grace of a woman
not the grief of a child.
And you learn
to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow’s ground is
too uncertain for plans
and futures have a way
of falling down in mid flight.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns if you get too much.
So you plant your own garden
And decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn
that you really can endure.
That you are really strong.
And you really do have worth.
And you learn and you learn
with every good bye you learn.

 - Veronica A. Shofstall

/// the places you don't walk away from

"...They’ll be those edgeless institutions unbeholden to geography: unconditional friendship, the safety of conversation, and the places that feel like home — genuinely, and not in some socially constructed way — even if they are 3,000 miles from where you were born and raised. They’ll be the places where your dreams have been alternately incubated, dashed, and brought to life again. The places that stay under your skin and under your fingernails. They’ll be the places that — even if you do stray for a while — will be right there where you left them, waiting for you when you’re ready to take your life back. "

Source: Thought Catalog, "The Places You Don't Walk Away From"

Where my dreams have been alternately incubated, dashed and brought to life again.
Under my skin, under my fingernails, under everything you see in the surface.
I'm coming back soon, I'm doing everything I can, wait for me, or better yet, help me to come back.
Help me to come back home.

/// the black keys work

Bursting with multiple electric beats of joy in my heart.
I've always wondered who this song will be for. Now I know.
It's for you!

/// torre

Greetings from the princess' tower, where dreams were once crafted with melancholy, wishes and prayers. The Radio Dept. is shimmering in the air, and I try to remember how I did it four, five years ago. I have nothing to report, no burst of prophecy, no glimmering sparkle of an idea, except for that:

The salmon skies and the sunset will never change, and this can still bring a sliver of peace and hope.
The first star of the night still listens.
And a wish upon an airplane bound for the west can still lighten your heart.

The circumstances are different and weapons of choice from before (perseverance, "never giving up", focus) may not be enough. But remember, you are still ALIVE and if you have the old weapons plus the new weapons (creativity, maturity, patience and other "real world" solutions) with you, then nothing can stop you.

Now and yet to come. Nothing and everything. Dreams, and the reality that is beyond your dreams.

/// SE

M: You will be back one day
 stockhome wont go anywhere
A: i hope se
i hope SE hahaha
i'll be back.
M: haha
A: that's the truth speaking


   

A: AMEN
M: AMEN

/// valand

One of my favorite places in the world. 

/// six cups of rebel

/// hihi

/// smiley smile

/// standard mystical link

"You're linked with her. A standard mystical link, impossible to explain. No one can take your place."
 -
I wiped the snow off my face.
There was someone waiting for me.
And that's the only thing that stops us from freezing solid. 


Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, pp. 174-175

/// open season

/// call it off

Washed Out - Call It Off by Weird World Record Co

/// hunger

"The Northland, with its glaring lights and black shadows, its unearthly joys and abysmal despairs, is present and dominant in every line that Hamsun ever wrote. In that country his best tales and dramas are laid. By that country his heroes are stamped wherever they roam. Out of that country they draw their principal claims to probability. Only in that country do they seem quite at home."

- Introduction to Knut Hamsun's Hunger by Edwin Bjorkman

/// niet vergeten frico eten

Last night. Photo by Shinji Manlangit.

/// pacific!

Played last night at Jolo's car and I was brought back immediately to the thin line between Stockholm and Bilbao 2009. I missed this song, I missed the library.

/// the hammer

Since the first time, I have learned to brace myself ready
For the hammer that will crush my heart into pieces again

That hammer is called uncertainty.

/// tissue

With Kathy and Camille. #pizza2k11

/// home

i think of you and home. dancing around the kitchen.

/// power plant

/// wired

/// do not run i watch you from afar

/// horses

i love you! couches and listening to i break horses on full volume, let's have a drink! then we'll go to tape or vrijdag or de wacht. the fort, our fort and our secret world. yellow lights, the dining table, the cabinet, the big square coffee table. baking in the middle of the night, de wereld draait door, shall we have fries or shall we have chicken rice? a party tonight, and off we ride. you and me and your bicycle. and flying to the north. and swimming swimming swimming in a square sea of smiles and laughter, water parks and the whale ride! eucalyptus rooms where it's just you and me. the crystal blue and you, swimming towards me and then water, and then your lips. i love you.

/// LAKAS2012

IconaPop.NightsLikeThis from chky mnky on Vimeo.

LAKAS2012 Official Soundtrack "Pagbalik ko diyan, di na ko aalis." "Basta titira ako diyan." "Di lang pampamilya, pang-isports pa." "Doctors with borders."

/// swimming love

/// A and M ///

/// ACHIEVE.

NORWAY ACHIEVE.

/// boxed up in pine

 
Champagne bars and winter nights in Söder. I remember. Crisp air, the tunnelbana and apple cider.

/// glacier

"Si Angel, siya yung icon ng mga pangarap na natutupad." - Shine

/// where it wants to be

"Let you soul take you where it wants to be."

/// Tranströmer

Poems come, he has said, when "a strong outer pressure suddenly meets a strong inner pressure." One world without the other will not suffice.

/// do androids dream of electric dogs

"Let's try another." Impossible now to get a meaningful response. "You are watching an old movie on TV, a movie from before the war. It shows a banquet in progress; the entree"- he skipped over the first part of the question- "consists of boiled dog, stuffed with rice."

"Nobody would kill and eat a dog," Luba Luft said. "They're worth a fortune. But I guess it would be an imitation dog: ersatz. Right? But those are made of wires and motors; they can't be eaten."

"Before the war," he grated.

"I wasn't alive before the war."

"But you've seen old movies on TV."

"Was the movie made in the Philippines?"

"Why?"

"Because," Luba Luft said, "they used to eat boiled dog stuffed with rice in the Philippines. I remember reading that."

"But your response," he said. "I want your social, emotional, moral reaction."

"To the movie?" She pondered. "I'd turn it off and watch Buster Friendly."

"Why would you turn it off?"

"Well," she said hotly, "who the hell wants to watch an old movie set in the Philippines? What ever happened in the Philippines except the Bataan Death March, and why would you want to watch that?"

- Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

///

Aside from typhoon-beaten images of my country, and almost always being skipped over the international weather report like a country of 94 million doesn't exist, the Philippines is rarely known and rarely shown. But! In pages 88 and 89 of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, it was there. Too bad it had to be something sad. For the record, I have never eaten boiled dog.

/// amen

CLEAR EYES.
FULL HEARTS.
CAN'T LOSE.

/// When you strip it all away there is only God

"...Maybe it was the momentum of his hectic life, in addition to my need to keep busy, but my own life began to pick up speed. Thankfully George and I didn't spend much time looking back. I mean, we weren't making scrapbooks. We were steaming ahead. Thirty years of stuffing letters, tapes and film in drawers turned the house into one enormous discombobulated archive. Having an over-developed sense of duty, and the recent deep awareness of my own mortality, I began to organize the remnants and treasures of the life George lived. It seemed so unfair to leave this task to my son and it was important to me that things be in order. It was also an obvious way of staying close to life as I knew it, not being ready to 'move on' -- as they say, a term I have come to detest.

 Half way through the treasure hunt it became even more obvious how rich a life George led. From the bin bag of reel-to-reel tapes I listened to George working out his first song, "Don't Bother Me" and Ravi Shankar giving George his first sitar lesson in 1966.

There were traces of him everywhere; chord sequences and tablatures written out, notes and silly drawings but also deeper reminders, one written on a scrap from the Bel-Air Hotel, "When you strip it all away, there is only God."

 And I have been stripping it away, from the past, as well as streamlining the present. Isn't it what we of a certain age all desire now? To simplify our lives, to get rid of some of the 'stuff' we worked so hard to accumulate so we don't spend the rest of our lives as slaves to our material world? Through work and the process of producing this film I have discovered new skills, broader perspectives, new interests and above all, I cemented old friendships while nurturing new ones. I worked hard at it all and the results pulled me out from under the cool shadow of sadness. I admit I have had a pretty amazing 10 years. It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, that not in a million years would I have made that trade. I have to thank George for my life with him and oddly enough, for with my life without him."

 - Olivia Harrison, Still Living in the Material World 

/// forever

/// Magneetfestival, Amsterdam. Photo by Jochem. ///

/// and so i watch you from afar + dnrwayf

A poster I made for And So I Watch You From Afar (IR) and Do Not Run We Are Your Friends (NL) gig at Tilburg! Be there or be triangle!

/// choose to accept, make their own

‎"Mediating between the complex cultures of Asia and recent influences from the West, peoples of the Philippines have set their distinctive mark on whatever they chose to accept and make their own."

/// the golden house

To live in a house built by Horta
To find a home for my world-weary heart
Golden light will float in the air
Rose champagne and raspberry tart

My feet will brush the creme velvet floor
Brass handles, soft tassels and the highest doors
Elves and fairies sneaking in the corners
The corners, the corners of my mind

My cameras on the mantle
My books in secret drawers
A big bed full of dreams
Peppernoten, coffee and sugar cream

To live here and to live then
Open the windows say good night to the stars
Will I be free will I be me when?
Will I live in the golden house, the golden house from the past?

/// special agent are you there?

/// matar as saudades

Saudade (singular) or saudades (plural) (pronounced [sɐ.uˈdadɨ] or [sawˈdadʒi] in Portuguese, is a Portuguese word that can be translated as "longing, yearning", which describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one loves and which is apart. It often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return.


Saudade has been described as a "vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist ... a turning towards the past or towards the future". A stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing. It may also be translated as a deep longing or yearning for something which does not exist or is unattainable.


Saudade (or saudades) is defined as "a somewhat melancholic feeling of incompleteness. It is related to think back situations of privation due to the absence of someone or something, to move away from a place or thing, or to the absence of a set of particular and desirable experiences and pleasures once lived".


Saudade was once described as "the love that remains" or "the love that stays" after someone is gone. 


The state of mind has subsequently become a "Portuguese way of life": a constant feeling of absence, the sadness of something that's missing, wishful longing for completeness or wholeness and the yearning for the return of that now gone, a desire for presence as opposed to absence—as it is said in Portuguese, a strong desire to "matar as saudades" (lit. to kill the saudades).


In Dutch: Weemoed

/// gefeliciteerd

/// Happy birthday love. ///

/// carl

/// Carl. AUG 2011. Riche, Stockholm. 

First night surprise run-ins, a surreal day, rowing to a secret island, celebratory ciders, a row of sombre dogs, dying and living, to feel relieved. Meant to be.///

/// tiger and fox on the way to aalten

/// magneet festival

Sunday, sand dunes, coffee, glitter, lighting candles, rose, flowers on my hair, sunset with you.

/// places and times

Things and people happen in places and times.

There will be small horses on green fields and our feet will touch the ground and Metric's Hustle Rose will be playing in the background like the past, present and future merging into one. Perdone senor will be ringing in the air! Our stomachs will be tumbling in happiness and the air will smell like gold in the air of summer like how it has been (and will always be), but clearer and "now-er" and to get there, we will enjoy and make the most out of it and the time is

ALWAYS

N
O
W

and

YET TO COME

and good times and great people are always

E
V
E
R
Y
W
H
E
R
E

Don't forget that you got tissue paper stuck in your ears when you and Arrate went to l'mono to see the Norwegian metal band, holing up in the couch and drinking ciders from Sweden on the sidewalk, looking up to nouveau-hip apartments with high ceilings. The Radio Dept, Moyua, Art After Dark, first-time punches, and sideway glances. Which came first? The golden memories or the writings on the wall? Does it matter? Or are all memories golden afterwards? Who knows! Just keep on keep on keep on riding the golden horse.

/// wild nothing

I saw Wild Nothing Tuesday night at Paradiso, I don't have any photos or videos but I do have an awesome t-shirt.

12/08

1. capy on bed
2. aafke and anouk, mgmt one hand dancing, wild forest animals <3
3. dinner for angel by susie

10/08

1. Michelle and Sofia visiting, mini tompouce, "Chinese! Chinese!" "She's always so dramatic!"
2. "I thought about you yesterday. Where is Angel now."
3. "He wants to have dinner with us on his island..."

/// winter beats

i break horses winter beats shimmer summer

/// it's just a wish, squirrel.

Dear squirrel,
There’s sure to be a big cake on your birthday. May I, just this once, eat
the whole thing by myself?
A honey cake, preferably.
Everyone can watch.
I’ll wolf it down in style, like nobody’s ever done before. They’ll all clap
and cheer, I promise.
After that we can carry on as usual (singing Happy Birthday,
unwrapping presents, dancing, getting ready to leave, saying how much
fun it was, asking who’s birthday is next, etc.).
It’s just a wish, squirrel.
The bear

Dear bear,
Okay. But in that case I’ll make two cakes.
The squirrel

Dear squirrel,
Thanks for your letter. But once I start eating and everyone’s clapping
and cheering me on, you won’t mind if Ieat the other cake too, will you?
They’ll be so impressed with my performance that they’ll jump up and
down for joy. And croak and chirp and hiss… I’m sure they will. It’ll be
an unforgettable birthday. Especially if you make three cakes. I’m sure
of it, squirrel: three big cakes. And if they’re honey cakes, make four.
The bear



Toon Tellegen, Brieven aan niemand anders

/// towers

06/08

1. BEUNINGEN family parties with dead neanderthals + DNRWAYF, epic cakes and rose, wild rain and a spanish dance band haha
2. heidi and relaxing cartoons + fantastic brunch of croissants
3. paella
3. the return of dino
3. taking pictures in nijmegen centraal at midnight

/// saturday morning

Our pastel-colored childhoods.

/// YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN!

04/08

1. happy birthday mami!
2. more goldstar macaroni!
3. remembering snow & taxis.
3. hearing michelle's voice on the phone and sofia saying "hindi ko talaga makakalimutan si angel!" awww <3
3. warm baguettes and pecorino cheese YEAH

03/08

1. three krieks three many last night at metropole with the bouwmans! mark's dad kept teasing me to drink more.
2. making the most perfect baked macaroni, it's called "goldstar".
3. sending emails finally for the project! achieve.

02/08

1. MMKA with Maren, museum cafe and girl talk, Sonsbeek park, strawberries, rose, baguette and cheese!
2. Lowlands stories at friendly neighborhood Patrick and Olga's
3. "I'm happy in the fort with H/R" song!!!

01/08

1. a day of awesome, uplifting, inspiring music. young dreams, cashier no.9 and a place. ahhh.
2. blue xmen shirt, good morning cuddles
3. a summer holiday!
3. summer time, the balcony and the sun

/// caramel

We went to Nijmegen and M got me this caramel coat as a birthday gift. Awww! Thank you M! <3

27/07

1. oslo hotel
2. best pasta salad ever (rodent salad!) with bieslook (#supermarketsuccess), lemon juice, feta cheese and the very old dutch yoghurt dessert yum!
3. drinking kriek at the move with M, and meeting tom and marlen!

26/07

1. afternoon high heel kisses
2. michelle is going to drive to me!
3. seeing anouk and wytse again. a big hug upon parting, lifting me off my feet.

25/7

1. "I'm so proud of you" Norway and choosing to not give up values and to meet it with more love.
2. Cosmic blue wooden clogs on sale at H&M!
3. Walking in the sun, Arnhem binnenstad.
3. Are you warm? Are you cozy? Are you warm? Are you cozy? :)

birthday 2011

1. mark bouwman 24/7
2. "happy birthday" in the morning
3. "clouds in your eyes" solves it

/// hearts

see you later <3

/// mercado, portugalete

/// Mercado, Portugalete. Juan Luna y Novicio. Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao. ///

/// young folks party II

"The Geriatric Folks are high tech" photo by Anj

"Si Peggy Wang" by Kathy

An assortment of cakes and 20,000 robo.tos, blowing birthday candles, making wishes, dancing to 1901 and saying "Birthdays are great! I am the winner." Love the Young Folks!

/// hanna

My new favorite movie. Sparkling soundtrack, an elf-girl Bourne, running in tunnels, dreamy car rides, abandoned theme parks, Berlin. Dream, how I dream to feel.

Begin again, begin again.

/// bizzare alacrity

a·lac·ri·ty /əˈlakritē/
Noun: Brisk and cheerful readiness.


The trick is that nostalgia has an important place in our lives. The adventures we slip into that involve longing for the past inspire dreams and generate the same ancient energy and dust that made up the characters and ideas of the first stories, that brightened cave walls, and patterned Mammoth hides. But nostalgia, if unchecked, can drag a person down, can gain unreasonable control of a person’s emotions, and can make them miserable.

Some feel nostalgia for high school, for college, for camps, for first loves or second houses or third spouses. Some wistfully want to go back to an era of protest and meaningful discourse, like the 1960s. And some even feel nostalgia for eras that haven’t ever existed—The Lord of the Rings is a good example.

-


Nostalgia reduces smart men and women to defeatists that end up making life that much harder for their friends, family, and acquaintances.

So, cherish bizarre alacrity. It exists everywhere when you stop juxtaposing your life with icons. Slipping into nostalgia is good and healthy, and reminds us of our laurels, that seems true. To get stuck in a dream for a little too long is not shameful, because when it passes you have the wonderful chance to iconoclast and restructure how you look at the world around. With nostalgia checked you think of more, and flow through life along something of a sine curve, let’s say, rather than a straight axis. The ups and downs, when moderate, define the width of one’s capacity for thought. For instance, you see more of a crowd of people if you wander it in curved paths, rather than just straight through.

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/the-hang-ups-of-nostalgia/

/// onverveerd

O
N
V
E
R
V
E
E
R
D

/// on a tricycle

"You have to remember where you came from." Now I realize the true meaning of it. It doesn't mean you have to be proud of where you come from or that you owe something to your motherland, not even that you have to like it. It just says "remember". Remember the good things that made you who you are right now.

I am a strong person, but I don't owe it to where I came from. I can ride in the rough, and slide through smoke without losing sight of the goal. But I don't owe it to anyone but myself. I can dodge third world traffic and cross killer highways, doesn't mean I like it. But I remember the good things that make up who I am. The courage and the resilience.

It doesn't mean the Swedes are sissies, they also have good things and values relevant to them, and unique to how and where they grew up. Like how they have the spirit of equality and fairness flowing in their veins. Or how the Dutch have their free spirits and open-mindedness present in their every move. Which they should remember.

Remember where you came from means remember your strengths.

/// hamster

/// Saturday night. The hamster. ///

/// tarsius

Last night at Attraction! Reaction!:
Crowd: More!
Diego: Wala na kaming tracks!
Angel: Repeat!

/// two constant things

There are only two constant things in the world: change and Julian Casablancas' black leather jacket.

/// julian julian julian love

Multiple Julians, twinkling guitars. Love you forever.

/// MindKilla

/// winter last last year, summer this year

Peaking Lights - 936 by Add Void

/// the body

/// love

/// Arnhem, December 2010. ///

/// my very own rutger

"I want to ride bikes." I said, it was the very first thing that I thought of. "Oh, but we only have one bike!" he said a little disappointedly. "That's okay, I'll ride on the back of your bike." He stopped for a half second, then started whistling a tune embedded in the corners of my heart, with a little smile on his eyes. I was surprised and slowly felt this overwhelming happiness wash over me- "Like the movie!!" I exclaimed. Ahhh. My very own Rutger. There's not much else that could make me happier.

I love you!

/// hats

I miss you part 275320172.

/// like norway

When I grow up, or rather, in the near future, I want to be rich and responsible, creative and drinking lots of coffee. Like Norway.

---

After World War II, Norway experienced rapid economic growth, with the first two decades due to the Norwegian shipping and merchant marine and domestic industrialization, and from the early 1970s, a result of exploiting large oil and natural gas deposits that had been discovered in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Today, Norway ranks as the third wealthiest country in the world in monetary value, with the largest capital reserve per capita of any nation. Norway is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter] and the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of its Gross domestic product. Following the ongoing financial crisis of 2007–2010, bankers have deemed the Norwegian krone to be one of the most solid currencies in the world.

Norway has rich resources of oil, natural gas, hydroelectric power, forests, and minerals, and was the second largest exporter of seafood (in value, after the People's Republic of China) in 2006. Other major industries include shipping, food processing, shipbuilding, the metal industry, chemicals, mining, fishing, and the pulp and paper products from forests. Norway maintains a Scandinavian welfare model with universal health-care, subsidized higher education, and a comprehensive social security system. Norway was ranked highest of all countries in human development from 2001 to 2007, and then again in 2009. It was also rated the most peaceful country in the world in a 2007 survey by Global Peace Index.

Source: Wikipedia

/// kiss me bar gang in berlin

Photos by Sander Baks

/// holocene

AND I CAN SEE FOR MILES MILES MILES.

/// and wear her blameless mystery

I pondered how the bliss would look—
And would it feel as big—
When I could take it in my hand—
As hovering—seen—through fog—


A solemn thing - it was - I said
Emily Dickinson

/// home

i know.
you should be here. this is your home.
with us.

/// within and without

/// In and out. Grip the sheets, explode inside. ///

/// sockenplan

/// June 2008, Sockenplan. The very first. ///

/// know all directions by heart

When you're lost though you know
all directions by heart
take a look what's behind the scene
There are hills and trees to be climbed
when you know someone awaits your return

/// and our fingers almost touched

/// AMS + OSL

/// Kiss Me Bar Gang

We're the Kiss Me Bar Gang! We fight for glory in the Northern Territory! With one arm extended!

/// sometimes life isn't easy

Something very fast I made yesterday, with rain and wind rattling the windows of my tower room. Reminded me of rainy days a year ago in a parallel universe.

/// MPB

MPB by Gold Panda

@goldpanda i love you!
@goldpanda big smile explosion and tingling spine upon 2.30!

/// itinerant

"How are you? I want to hear about you and your itinerant life!" a friend wrote me.

Itinerant. I can't place myself with that "Into the Wild" guy, I actually think he's quite an idiot, throwing away a perfectly good life (and disregarding the feelings of people who actually love him) for "freedom": meaning squatting in empty buses in the middle of nowhere and getting poisoned from wild berries because he can't find anything to eat in the woods anymore and misread his dog-eared guide to edible plants book. STUPID. Goes the same with "I want to be free" guys common in the Western World who love to surf, play the guitar, who could not commit to anyone or anything and with no sense of meaning or direction in their lives, except they know that they want to be "free", whatever that means.

Itinerant. Like Rizal? Well, he was clearly rooted in the Philippines. Like the hippies? I couldn't associate myself with them either. Maybe itinerant like... I don't know who. Maybe because it wasn't a conscious choice. I didn't mean to be like this, I was just swept into situation after situation, place after place, holding on to a single piece of thread. I actually have just one place in mind, and would happily tack my pin in that wall and stay there. But it's not me who's in control, but forces upon forces upon forces steaming in, around, and between everything. All you can do is keep your heart steady and firm. Do not resist, but do not forget.

And hope that this love will lead you back to where you belong.

And to remember that every place in between also has the capacity to make you happy. And that home could be anywhere.

Itinerant like water flowing into the sea.

Itinerant like a KLM airplane, departing but always arriving.

Yes, it has to be KLM.

/// super duper rescue heads

///The perfect mix of you and me. ///

/// sitting in the sun

/// the fun dutch!

Sometimes I wish I went to Groningen instead, for example, when I see this video. Awww DEZE IS HEEEEEL MOOOOOOI! <3

/// manners!

/// creator

/// Stockholm, August 2009. Dancing in the Creators' Inn. Taken by Irina. ///

/// nijmegen

/// Real Life Beauty. Nijmegen, March 2011. ///

/// kafesne bat mesedez

/// Bilbao, 2009. Cafeteria de Deusto con Joseba. ///

/// summer

/// Brussels, August 2009. Taken by Gregoire. ///

/// bruxelles

/// Brussels, January 2010. With Gregoire. ///