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Chelsea to the left, Vancouver to the right.

A nice passtime on Thursday afternoons is to walk around in Chelsea in New York to watch different art exhibitions. This weekday between 5 and 8 pm, many new exhibitions are opening so the galleries are full and often you get a glass of wine, a drink or some snacks.

You often get to see many different types of oil paintings, photographs and sculptures from a variety of artists on these evenings. And it's the variety that I appreciate. Even if you don't like it all, there is almost always something that touches you.

This Thursday however was the first time I saw something I recognised. It was a group of paintings and sculptures of laughing Asian men that made you smile - signes Yue Minjun. When I was in Vancouver, Canada, about a month ago the city put up a new piece of art in a park - sculptures of laughing Asian men. I never got the name of the artist then, but for sure - it must be the same, no?

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To see which exhibitions are opening go to this web site.
This one can be seen at Arario Gallery, 521 W 25th St.
In Vancouver, the sculptures are placed where Denman St meets the beach, English Bay. 

The Angels have been at it hard - spreading the love and working hard so our magazine drive, while an astounding success, was only concluded very recently.  We finally managed to align everyone's schedules and loaded up our company car with all the fabulous, colourful, glossy magazines to be dropped off at the Durbanvill Church Center who co-ordinates the delivery of magazines to the patients at the Tygerberg Caner Ward. 

The midday heat was scorching and the temperature rose dramatically as we drove towards Durbanville.  When we finally reached our destination, nestled in the midst of vineyards and by an open field of lush green grass, we couldn't help but feel a sense of peace and stillness despite the heat.  We met up with Vida who runs the charity arm of the church and from the short time we spent with her, we quickly recognised the unlimited level of love and care she had for those less fortunate.  She led us into a storage room which was filled from floor to ceiling with every type of item that was precious for the needy.  Clothes, toys, toiletries and the list went on.  

She went on to outline the various activities and channels they use to ensure that the donations received, reached the people who needed them most, Tygerberg Cancer Ward being one of them.  Every week, they deliver around 120 magazines to the cancer ward, together with bookmarks and flowers and each person gets 2 magazines, a bookmark and flowers to brighten their day.  Most of the patients are from up country so they rarely get visitors and these magazines help them pass time while they wait for their treatment and during their recovery period. 

She then led us outside to show us the extra buildings built to house yet more things collected from their parish and through various donations.  Everything was neatly packed away, categorized and tagged for future use.  It was truly inspiring to see the level of selflessness and generosity people had.  It made me imagine a world where those of us who have share with those that are less fortunate and don't have. 

Thank you to all our Travelstarters and an even bigger thank you to Bridget McNulty and Kim Gray for opening their hearts and donating generously.  Most importantly, a very special thank you to Nanette McDonald for putting forward this suggestion as our Charity of the Month.

Check out our angels flickr page for more pictures on how we spread the love!

The "9th Street Commmunity Garden" on Avenue C and 9th.

Something that is easy to miss when living on Manhattan is green areas and proximity to nature. My first months here I lived just a few blocks from Washington Square Park, which is one of the bigger parks on the island. But it hardly felt like untaimed wilderness.

I realised pretty quickly that the only place that felt like a real breathing hole is Central Park. There you can almost forget the traffic and the skyscrapers for a while.

Therefor I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered the amount of gardens after moving to the East Village. You never have to walk more than a few blocks here without finding a gap between two buildings and here trees, flowers and other plants are growing and being tended to by volonteers.

As it turned out my new apartment is facing one of them and I took a walk there the other day. It almost felt a bit wild, and how it looked - you can see in the photo.

As I am sure many of you know by now, Saturday, 24 October 2009, was The International Day of Climate Action. Worldwide, various demonstrations took place in a call to Governments and Authorities to take action for a positive change in our current climate situation. These demonstrations were photographed, documented and publicized.

What is it all for?

The United Nations Climate Meeting is to be held in Copenhagen in December this year. All actions and demonstrations will be presented in this meeting, to remind our leaders of the urgency and reality of this climatic crisis. The intention is to put pressure on the UN to implement rightful action. 

Why 350?

The number has to do with the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 at a level of 350 parts per million is safe. Currently, this level is sitting at 390 parts per million.

Over 5200 events took place in 181 countries across the globe, 17 of which were held in Cape Town alone. I feel priviledged and blessed to say that I was a part of this incredible united stand for our planet! The plan was to hike up Table Mountain to form a 'human 350'. Unfortunately, due to bad weather conditions, plans changed. Instead, we hiked across from Table Mountain to Signal Hill. It was an awesome occasion that brought together like-minded individuals. We discussed easy ways to conserve energy and change small everyday activities that can make a huge difference. I shall do more research and share such ideas with you in time to come...

A great, big thank you to all the organisers and coordinators. And an extra special thanks to my dad, Jose and my spiritual sista, Cherise for joining in as well!

Love and Peace

The journalists are waiting for director JJ Abrams, recorders ready.

I was recently in Los Angeles on a press event organised by Paramount who had invited directors, script writers and other people who had worked with creating the movies Star Trek, Transformers 2 and G.I Joe. The reason was the upcoming DVD release of the films. The journalists came from a big variety of media - anything from bigger magazines in Australia to small nerd sites only read by Star Trek hardcore fans.

This was my first press event like this and I realised quickly how busy the movie creators are. The Star Trek director JJ Abrams gave individual interviews and it was a very strict 5 minutes per journalist. When the clock started ticking I understood how how little time that is and that not really any issues of real interest can be covered.

But for a movie lover like myself it was really interesting to talk to the creators instead of as most of the times hear the view of the actors. It gave me a much better picture on how movies our made, what enormous job is put behind it and how long time it takes.

Unfortunately my interviews will only be featured in Swedish.

If you travel often, it's highly probable that at some point in time, you've forgotten to pack your mobile phone charger.  

If you are like me, then you've probably forgot to pack it several times, and you now own multiple phone chargers, that are collecting dust in your home. (like these 3 to the left collect dust in my home)

Well, good news has come to the forgetful traveller.... This week, the International Telecommunication Union announced that they had approved a "universal phone charger standard."  To make a long story short, a universal industry standard will be developed for all handsets. 

This is a huge win for both the forgetful traveller, and the environment. The union predicts "a 50 percent reduction in standby energy consumption, elimiation of 51,000 tonnes of redundant chargers, and a subsequent reduction of 13.6 million tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions each year."

Cool. 

In the meantime, don't forget to pack your phone charger for your next trip. And be thankful that pretty soon, you'll be able to borrow a charger from anyone.  

 

Waiting in a queue to buy a ticket for Table Mountain is a thing of the past. The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway people initiated an online ticketing system that allows you to buy your tickets online and save some time.

You can buy your tickets from www.tablemountain.net - unfortunately they are only valid for seven days after purchase. If you decide not to go during the seven day window period they will give you a full refund, or you could extend your ticket for a another three weeks and do without a refund.

If you are a female and really want to get away from the male species, you can do so next year April at Queensgate Hotels & Leisure’s Upper East Side Hotel in Woodstock, Cape Town. Here women can stay in one of 14 ladies only rooms with double locks.

Security personnel, cameras in the lifts, lobbies and corridors will keep you safe. The workers will be all female too!

The Pretoria Zoo is big, really, really big... 85-hectares with over 3000 specimens of mammals, birds, fishes, invertebrate, reptiles and amphibians - and trying to see all in just a day really takes a toll on your feet. (I would recommend hiring a golf cart for the day.)  I have seen animals in there I forgot even existed.

I also took a ride on their cable car track – this is something I would not recommend to the faint of heart. It was the most terrifying experience ever (counting that I stood at the top of the Eiffel and walked down the stairs of the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona). The cars are very small and the wind just swings it around as if it is nothing!

You can also visit their Aquarium (very nice specimens to be seen here) and Reptile Park that are part of the Zoo facility. They claim their Aquarium is the largest inland marine aquarium in South Africa but I think Ushaka Marine is (don't quote me on that though!).

Tree huggers and eco fanatics will love the Pretoria Zoo as it boasts a large collection of exotic trees.

(photo courtesy of Swami Stream)
 
I'm a relatively tall fellow, and every year I take long haul flights between 9-15 hours. 

There was a time when I used to dread these flights, but with a little practice, I have developed a routine that allows me to handle them comfortably. Here are my Top 10 tips for surviving a long flight. 

10. Sleep as little as possible the night before your flight. The more tired you are, the easier it will be to fall asleep. Time of course passes quickly while you are sleeping.  

9. Drink as little as possible before and during the flight - going to the toilet in-flight is almost always inconvenient. 

8. Take a book, but be sure that it's a fictional page-turner. Don't take an intellectually challenging, technical or non-fiction book. You need light entertainment for your flights. I have a habit of reading Douglas Adams books, or travel novels, when I fly. 

7. Sudoku. If you don't know what it is, learn. Sudoku has the ability to turn hours into minutes.  

6. Watch a movie or explore your music collection. (sorry, this one is a bit obvious) 

5. Don't watch the clock. Remove your watch if you have one. Time moves slowly when you look at it.

4. Wear several layers of clothing. You want to be a comfortable temperature throughout your flight, and sometimes cabin temperature can fluctuate during long flights. 

3. Read something about your destination. If you are on your way to a country or city you have never been to, take something to read about the place.   

2. Meditate or contemplate. Life is busy, and it's not often we are forced to sit in one chair for 12+ hours. Use the time to relax your mind, and take time to think about things you've possibly neglected in your day to day life. Think of the past, present and future. 

1. Write a to-do list, or do things you sometimes put off. For me, I never take the time to write family or friends post cards, so I always take a few postcards for long flights.