AMOROUS MUSINGS

What you may or may not have realized about me yet is that I am half Chinese. The Chinese side of my family have lived in Malaysia for ages — primarily in some combination of Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Ipoh.

Most of childhood summers were spent running around my grandparent’s home in KL and eating the most delicious food that I have ever had the pleasure of eating, including but not limited to INSANE AMOUNTS of roti canai from our local spot.

Each time I go home to KL, I trawl through books of old family photographs and ask my family members about their lives. [2012 promises an exciting update on the latter].

Here are some amazing pictures of pictures of my family in KL in the 50s and 60s that I saw at my uncle’s home in London recently. INCREDIBLE!

Last year I stumbled upon a blog depicting modern-day adventurer/explorer Ben Saunder’s attempt to reach the Geographic North Pole, unsupported aka SOLO in the fastest time ever. 

Note: Be sure to check out all the incredible videos that he created with his team in the lead up to the attempt 

Unfortunately for us all, Saunders was unable to complete his solo attempt at the North Pole — the weather was working against him and made it impossible to attempt.

I subsequently became utterly fascinated with the new faces and stories of the modern-day adventurer, as before coming across Saunder’s work — has assumed this sort of life was a thing of the past. (I also assumed incorrectly that the kind of brilliant travel writing that came back from said explorations was no longer occurring — but I think we all know there are some insanely wonderful memoirs out there). 

Other than Saunders, there is Alastair Humphries (who in 2011 encouraged us all to take some microadventures in our close-to-home environs) and who is also as you read, rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. (See blog here)

Saunders, Humphries as well as Martin Hartley (photographer) and Andy Ward will be attempting a South Pole expedition in 2012, see the expedition website to read up on it. 

For me, the beauty in the adventures that these men are embarking on is the ability to continue to see Earth as an incredibly unexplored, unknown planet (much like the Planet Earth series etc with David Attenborough do). That there are STILL places within our reach that can test the limits of what we understand and how we interact with it. 

I am missing some fabulous female adventurers though — and am going to track them down because I am sure they exist…. 

A tradition started a few years back of making a list of everywhere I’d spent at least one night through the year (inspired by Zach Klein). Here is a run down of where I spent my days and nights in 2011 when I was away from home in Geneva.

• New York, NY
• Los Angeles, CA
• Paris, FR*
• Verbier, CH
• Zermatt, CH
• Lucerne, CH*
• Basel, CH
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• London, UK*
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 
• Milan, Italy 
• Zurich, CH*
• Berne, CH* 

* indicates multiple visits

Past years here: 2010, 2008, here (2006), here (2005).

I was in New York for two weeks. 

It was incredible. 

Pictures and stories soon. 

From the age of about 4 to 18, I never spent more than 3 years in the same location and before you ask, no my family was not in the military.

This means a few things:

1/ I am one mean packer and mover (esp if you give me the help of one or both of my sisters, if all else fails in our collective lives — we could found THE BEST moving company)

2/ Memories remain in my mind, but are seldom tied to objects (with the exception of books, books are treasures that should only be given up when they are of the “I bought this book to read on the transatlantic flight” variety.

3/ I am not easily intimidated in a room of strangers

4/ It is hard for me to answer the question of where I am from

It also means, that I get restless easily, VERY easily (ask S. if you do not believe me). 

Thankfully, my job provides me with ample distraction on a relatively regular basis (did I mention getting ash clouded into New Delhi and taking 4 flights to make my way back to Geneva?)

In the following weeks I will be hitting the following cities: Zurich, London and New York and there is a sliver of hope for a real field visit to either an Eastern European or southern African locale — I will be spending 2 glorious weeks in my home away from home away from home, NYC. There will be BBQs, there will be shopping, there will be hang time at Mantiques Modern, there will be endless hours of laughter and dancing — my soul will be SO full of joy by the end.

I cannot wait to exercise some serious built-up travel excitement.

a few weeks ago, s. & i made our way to lucerne for fumetto, an international comic art festival.

as well as seeing incredible work by american artist daniel clowes — we spent a lot of time obsessing over the work of german atak (aka hans-georg barbe).

his illustrations, paintings and sculptures pull from so many genres — humor plays a big part throughout and one cannot deny the incredible use of color that gives his work an almost technicolor glory to them.

the artist.

some of his work.

all stills from atak’s website here.

work is bananas, but these images from the selby are too beautiful to not share.

all i can say: LOOK AT THOSE GILLS IN THE THIRD IMAGE, NATURE IS INCREDIBLE.

from mya henry and eric werner at hartwood, tulum, mexico