about me.

i recently made the decision that i want to upgrade this blog on a whole lot of levels. but as i mentioned in my last post i am a lazy sock so despite me having a lot of time right now (see, i already did learn to admit – i am not too busy!), not a whole lot has happened yet. add to my general state of mind that i have to pack for a camping trip in desolate wilderness beautiful platbos forest and you will see me in a slight state of panic not conducive to writing or making blog upgrades.

so i decided to do a go-to post for lazy socks bloggers and make a list with random things about myself. under the pretence that it will eventually move into the about me section,  it will thus qualify as part of the upgrading and not be a complete and utter sign of my laziness.

x things, i didn't count how many, about me:

apparently i'm a funny and not only by german standards.

i speak english with an american/german/south african accent. my uncle still calls it my bloody yankee accent but he also calls my motorcycle boots cowboy boots so his americanisms are clearly a bit off.

i like to travel and to come home equally much.

compared to mine, modern family is quite old school, most days i'm okay with that. i have A LOT of cousins and sometimes i number them for easy reference but not necessarily in the order or importance.

i like to drink wine and do yoga equally and together on special occasion. therefore i claim the title queen of wine.

i teach bikram and find that any other forms of yoga are stupid just not for me.

my parents made me take a typing class after school. that was the single most useful thing i ever learned though i hated it at the time and they had to bribe me with mc donald’s lunches.

giraffes are my favourite animals so i tend not to post very many cat pictures. if that is what you came for, sorry.

i have very messy hair. i use de-volumizer and to the demise of most tie my hair up all the time because i end up looking like a baby bear if í don’t.

i was a complete failure in physics. my teacher said i owed him a six-pack for enduring me in his class for a whole semester. i told him this logic could work either way. we called it even and nobody got beer.

i do kiss and tell sometimes. i kiss well and tell good stories too, so just consider yourself flattered if i involve you in either.

as my mind is busy packing for said camping trip i may or may not have forgotten important details about myself. so if you detect something that I missed and you need to know – just ask away, I will answer almost anything. 

The story of 2001 trees.

I’m still seeing a bit green and haven’t quite come back into the real world completely. So I will keep my Reforestfest recap brief and just tell you that instead of the originally announced 1000 trees, we planted 2001. Though the 2001. was a bit of a mistake as it was supposed to be 2000. But when the time came around to plant the final tree there was 1 little tree extra and everyone thought we may as well put it into the ground too so it wouldn’t feel left out, and voila we had planted 2001 trees.

It was simply the best weekend ever and full of exciting firsts for me…

I volunteered to sleep in a tent. And loved it.

I wore a head lamp, felt like the last unicorn, and was quite upset when I lost a battery within an hour of our arrival. These little buggers are very useful on a dark camping sites. Luckily I had some chaperones and a bright moon to show the way.

Call me a girl, but pink bubbly is appropriate anywhere.

I ate porridge with butter, brown sugar, and cinnemon for breakfast and think it is the best thing ever!

I danced in the forest at night.

I got down and dirty and planted a tree. And another one. And then some more.

A bit of a mad smile, but I was in fact enjoying myself.

I saw a big mole snake. Yuk. Exciting in the not so nice way.

I did yoga under a 1000 year old Milkwood tree with my hair down (Can you imagine? Me – doing yoga without my bun? Unheart of, but I loved every moment of it…)

Yoga mats warming up by the fire, getting ready for class.

I shared a mug of hot tea and milk with some friends and realized the act of sharing something makes it so much better.

I smiled for 2 days straight, but did not shower.

I learned how to break a tent down.

Shoes chilling in the forest.

A thank you to the sponsors will follow tomorrow. I’m still a bit lost in the forest today....

A good place to be a bit lost.

Wild things.

I’m going camping. Have you heard? Considering that I like to have my space I thought the idea of camping less daunting than sharing a dorm room with 20 others at the Reforestfest. Only a little less though.

In case you don’t know that about me – I do not like camping. I have attempted a few times and each time it was at best really uncomfortable and at worst really painful (ever spend a night on an air mattress with a torn ankle ligament?). It is just not in my nature it seems as it is for South Africans. I am a city girl at heart. We only camp on asphalt in front of the Apple store.

That would me on the right. In my tent. In the wild. Scary, right?

Also after watching too much 24, yes I’m old school like that, I had the worst serial killer nightmares two nights ago. Upon waking up I realized that I would be in a forest, in tent, in the dark soon and boom! all I could think about was the Blair Witch Project. Not ideal. But with the crowded dorm room scenario looming and all my friends camping too, I am still set on braving the wild. So far I have tent, sleeping bag, gumboots, and pink fairy wings in place as well as someone who will pitch my tent. Someone I don’t even know yet, but apparently all it will take is for me to call him King Steve for the weekend and bring him a beer. I can do that. I cannot pitch a tent. I did have the choice to take a small pop-up one, but as Mark says a camping novice like me will need a big one, which has to be properly pitched. I trust him. I also rely on him for a head lamp.

 Me: Do you have one of those funny head lamp thingies? Can I borrow it for tree fest?
Mark: I only have a normal one. Yes, you can borrow it.
Me: But the normal ones are the funny ones!

So tonight I shall document and report how packing goes. I think if I can suck at anything even worse than I suck at packing, it will be at packing for a camping trip. We shall see.

In the meanwhile I found this little treasure at www.tailsofamermaid.com and though I presume there won’t be much grass in the forest, it makes the idea of going into the wild slightly less daunting.