Wanderlist: Myanmar

One of my favourite people to follow on Instagram is Ed Droste from Grizzly Bear. His photos, whether taken traveling, on tour, or from the home state of NY, are pretty much without exception gorgeous, compelling or interesting in some way. A few weeks ago he baffled his followers with an extensive visual report of his trip to Myanmar (Burma), putting this beautiful country once and for all on my 'places I must visit'-list. Wow! A heartfelt note accompanying his last shot from the country just might convince you, too:

"Our last night leaves us visiting #burma 's most sacred site, the Shwedagon Pagoda. I'm afraid photography doesn't do this much justice and the scale is totally lost, but it was absolutely stunning at dusk tonight. In the morning we leave to a 24 hour layover in Bangkok. Really glad everyone has enjoyed the photos from the trip, been one of the most memorable ones I've taken and I urge people to visit this incredible country with its amazing people and nature. If you do though, read up on its history and political stances and try to visit in a way that puts your tourist money in the hands on the people not the ruling military. It's impossible not to at all with entrance fees and airlines often being government owned but there are some ways around it, particularly with hotels and eating out and souvenirs. This country is in a really spectacularly interesting place right now just beginning to open up to the western world. Come before it turns into Disneyland and make sure to chat with as many locals as possible. I can't stress how amazing the people here are and how excited they (seemingly are) to have foreigners visiting. No write up on IG can even begin to shed proper light on the history and culture of this country so I just hope everyone's curiosity is piqued and you all read up on this great country and hopefully visit!!! Thank you Burma/Myanmar!!!"

Pictures © Ed Droste, instagram.com/edroste

Things I Love Thursdays

I don't exactly recall how I first found out about her, but I've been following Gala Darling for quite some time now. At first I wasn't sure what to think of her, since I'm usually way sceptical about semi-spiritual or guru-esque individuals and motivational blah-blah. But after a while I finally saw through the pink & glitter and realized Gala makes a great effort to promote personal happiness, particularly for women. She makes a convincing case in the following video (and yes, her kiwi accent is adorable) :

Her Radical Self Love project really appealed to me and I recently subscribed to her handbook. Now, I haven't gotten around to actually reading it yet (or in my case: listening to the podcast), but one of her concepts I intend to pick up is the so-called Things I Love Thursdays. It's very simple: every Thursday, you make a list of things you liked and loved in that week and write them down in a diary or post them on your blog. The idea is that listing those things will make you become more aware of the things you are grateful for and count your blessings.

Now I am cheating a bit here, since these are things I've loved over the past few weeks rather than exactly the last seven days, but: here we go!

SNOW! Most of Holland is covered in a white blanket. It's totally unpractical since our little country is so unequipped to deal with it, but oh so pretty. Also my city made the international headlines with a massive snow ball fight in the park, which gathered people through Facebook.
Letterboxd: finally a decent network to keep track of movie watching behavior. Thanks for the invite, Daniël!
  Scott Lenhardt’s 24 Hour Woman, animated. Adorable.
 Last weekend's Quentin Tarantino movie marathon in preparation of seeing Django Unchained. Does crazy things to your mind, I'll tell you that.
Ginger tea at breakfast: just spicy enough to get you going, but does it so, so, gently.
Celebrities reading mean tweets #3 (personal favourites: Jessica Biel & Christina Applegate)
Laura from The World Looks Red's ultimate hand luggage packing guide.
Comin' Home Baby by Mel Tormé. This song is awesome.
Red peppers with hummus as a pre-dinner snack. Hmmm.
“Obsessions make my life worse and my work better”: this incredible installation made out of coins on an Amsterdam square.
 Jodie Foster's Golden Globe speech. You go, woman.

Girly resolutions

HBO's Girls returned last Sunday with its sophomore season. I did quite like the first series although certain aspects slighty annoyed me: the high level of 'white girl problems', the fact I was both equally appalled and attracted to Adam, probably unrealistic displays of people in their early twenties in NYC... Anyhow I'm thrilled to see what they'll have in store for the new season: the first episode was promising (I need to host a French salon karaoke party asap) and I had to share these witty resolution-themed posters:




(Source: screencrush.com)

Remember when people thought the world was round

Happy 2013, lovelies!

As a start of my resolution to be a good blogger this year, here's a brief update in celebration of my current Hot Chip obsession. I didn't really listen to In Our Heads a lot when it came out last summer but boy, am I feeling it now!