Life can be wonderful! A Journey to enlightenment of the soul.

City or Country Living?

2012-01-03T14:00:00.003Z

A friend asked me if I ever miss the city while living in the country. The answer was no. Lately, being in Singapore for the last 2 months has reinforced that. Life is BORING here. Going to the shopping centre and walking around the same old shops, looking at the 'nice things' to buy. Eating at restaurants. Blah blah blah. So BLAH.

The other day, I watched on a BBC channel, a reality tv about a man and his wife taking on a garden project. It was a very ambitious project and the man was quite eccentric and optimistic about achieving his goal of creating a big beautiful garden with pond, mediterranean section, and a few other different parts to it. And all the work was going to be undertaken by just him and his wife. Both looked like their were in their 60s by the way. The tv show followed them throughout the year, showing how they worked and worked and worked so hard and though it was such hard work, it brought them so much pleasure to work with plants and flowers and in the outdoors. They looked alive! The wife painted as a hobby and sold some of her paintings to raise money for their project. And at the end, they werent finished. Actually they will never be finished as a garden is an ongoing project. But they were beaming with pride. And they are so happy knowing that this garden will continue to bring them so much pleasure in the future as well.

I actually cried when I watched that. As I know exactly what they were on about as we've experienced this ourselves living with so many country side dwellers with their own small piece of land they are in charge of. A small surface of this planet earth we all share to feel connected to. This couple will be able to watch their garden change with every week that goes by. They will be able to delight at the turn of colours, at all the life they live right next to. That infinite, deep, relationship created with our earth. So simple, yet so complex. That looks different when the sun shines, when the clouds roll over. In the full moon, in the new moon. Different in spring, summer, autumn, winter. Ever changing.

How could this be compared to a shopping mall? No comparison if you ask me.

So, No. I don't miss the city when I am in the countryside because there's just so so so much more to 'get into'. When I visit the city, yes I enjoy the fashion, the restaurants and the city vibe. Its fun. But I crave to go back to nature asap. And now, being in Singapore city for the last 8 weeks or so, is killing my spirit. 6600 people per square km in this country/city. Get me OUT!

Our wintertime in Singapore

2011-12-08T13:30:00.003Z

Although we are now back in Tropical Singapore, I still count this as my 'winter time'. What I mean, is that I am treating it like it's a time for reflection and going 'inside'.

I truly discovered the meaning of this when we were working on the farm in Wales, outdoors non-stop from March till September this year. Long long days spent outdoor working on the land. Physically, I don't think I've ever been in this great shape.

But I certainly felt very 'lost' during those long summer months. Lost because this was the first time in my life where I was outside SO MUCH. Both physically, mentally and spiritually. It was as if I was out of touch with 'me'. It wasn't an instant realisation. But instead, just a gradual strange feeling of just constantly being in the present. Being in experience mode, instead of reflective mode.

As Fran, our farm host describes it - No time to ponder and think about life... just constant do do do! work work work. The summer months on any northern European farm means a short window of time to get everything done! Grow all the veg, plump up all the animals. Hurry while the sunlight is still high in the sky. "Make hay while the sun shines" as they would say.

Honestly, I was exhausted all the time. I crashed into bed by 9pm every night, and woke up 10 mins before breakfast at 8, my whole body sometimes still aching from the work the day before. Where was all my energy? How was it that Fran and Kevin were going going going like machines? Where did all their energy come from?

I then learnt from Fran, how she lives with the seasons. Like how our energy levels are different during different parts of the day - Morning = high, Noon = Peak, Afternoon = Slow down, Evening = Chill. For her, and most farmers, the wave of energy dips and peaks throughout the whole year. She tells me, summer is a time when you just don't have a moment to think too far ahead, or too far behind! You're busy from one day to the next, making sure the onions are in the ground so they will be harvested in time! The tomatoes get their feed so we can eat them ripe before the first frost. Getting the sheep sheared before it gets too hot and they start getting fly-strike. Everything is literally back to back.

So our mind, spirit, body is directed towards these immediate necessities that need to be done. So that when the leaves fall, and the vegetables stops to grow, one will have stored enough food to last you another tough winter.

Then winter comes. And everything slows down. The sunlight, once given in abundance, suddenly so sparse, and the nights are so loooong. It's cold and you want to stay by the warm fire as much as possible. Snuggle up with your loved ones and conserve all energy for next year. Winter down time. Time to go inwards, consolidate the whole year, reflect and plan.

It's funny now, looking back, I can see why it was so difficult for me to update my blog while in the farm. I couldn't bare being in that cold, dark room for long when I know it's just so beautiful outside. So I usually just quickly check my emails, send necessary updates to family and then get out! And somehow, I just wasn't able to have any proper reflective thoughts. It was like my mind was always blank. (very good for yogic/buddhist practices)

So after quite a big summer, we knew, we'd better try and get our proper winter's rest no matter where we are and what we are doing. And so far, for the last three weeks in Singapore, I've pretty much been quite good at it. Am catching up on my sleep. I am slowing down my physical exertions, eating more (hehhehheh), and definitely given myself a lot more time and space to reflect. I was at first feeling guilty about being so piggish and unproductive. But instead of guilt, why not just surrender into the present, and just flow with whatever comes my way? In fact, my sudden spurt of reflectiveness is the productive engine at work now. Lap it up!

So while the rest of the country turn up the volume with the partying, shopping and festivities, For the sake of balancing out the whole year, I am going to pretend that I am still at Old Chapel Farm and have my own quiet winter. :)

Working with our hands

2011-12-01T13:48:00.003Z

I'm reading an awesome little book right now, borrowed from the library called "A Different Kind of Luxury. Japanese Lessons in Simple Living and Inner Abundance" by Andy Couturier. When I saw the title, I was immediately drawn to it. This is exactly what I think about all the time, exactly what we try to tell people why we do what we do, and exactly what we are striving for. Simple Living and Inner Abundance. I always admired ancient Japanese culture of respect and wisdom that we in Singapore, is completely lacking. We seem to be horrendously unwise. With all due respect to our parents and grandparents who love us and brought us up the best way they know how... a lot of it is really misguided. Don't want to get into a list of things right now. But definitely one of the things... is how we did not at all encourage our children to work with their hands, and instead, focused on just academia. Anyway... I will just quote this from the book which sums up what I want to express. The context here is the writer of the book, asking Osamu Nakamura, self-sufficient man who lives alone in the woods who does wood block carving and booking binding for enjoyment - if it nerves him that a small mistake he makes can mean he will have to start everything over again.

"A crafts-person's job if half meditation, half creation. It takes creativity to design whatever you are working on, but it takes meditation to do it right. Making things with one's own hands cultivates a certain generosity and openness of the heart. It nourishes that state of mind in the crafts-person themselves, which is intimately connected with an entire way of life." Hearing this I am reminded, with sadness, of the epidemic levels of depression in my own country, and wonder whether it might have something to do with the aversion we have to working with our hands. For people in industrialised socierties, perhaps the problem is not that manual labour is intrinsically unpleasant, but that we get frustrated because our attitude is one of resentment toward something demeaning. Viewed differently, however, such work presents us with an opportunity to know ourselves and the physical and natural world better by exploring this essential aspect of being human: our relationship with our hands. How funny it is that one of the fundamental definitions of being "modern" is the ability to avoid physical labour, when it might be that very thing that could provide us with such depth of connection to ourselves and to the world.""

Very well said.

And very sad indeed as well.

I just feel so incredibly blessed that I now know better. And I leave you some of the wonderful things we got to do by hand at Old Chapel Farm....

Picking dandelion in a field of... well, dandelions to make wine

Turning the bed over to plant fresh crops

Where do you think milk comes from?

Resting after planting this bed of young tomatoes

Green bean chutney I made

My gate almost finished

Posing for a photo after our 2 day basket weaving course

I just want to be able to sit on grass

2011-12-01T10:37:00.001Z

Singapore?
Bali?
Australia?
New Zealand?
and now... Canada?

The options are many. Decisions are hard.

But at the end of the day, I told Bjorn today..... I just want to be somewhere, where I can sit on the grass.

And that's something ... one just can't really do in hot, sticky, buggy, wet, pokey-grassed, Singapore.

Confused about the Good Life

2011-11-17T19:36:00.001Z

Feeling jetlagged and confused. Once again, back in our old room at our parents' place at Upper East Coast Road in Singapore. It's 3.30am and we cant sleep because its only dinner time, the day before, back in the UK.

Have been feeling a dull mix of emotions and thoughts in the last 24hours or so.

When we decided, four months ago to come back home to singapore/bali to start making a living for ourselves. A simple life that suits us. Not earn too much money, not too much stress, not too complicated. Just enough for us to live by and have a Good Life. We decided that we could not 'faff' around the UK any longer and was just anxious to get started on our own project. But defining the project has been the main trouble. A million and one ideas have been thrown around between Bjorn and I in the last few months. So many. But none conclusive because we weren't in the location where we were going to be in to start this. To know the demands and needs of a market, one needs to be there. Many people leave their home countries, go abroad and get inspired by some business idea in that foreign country then take it back home. Coffee shops in Melbourne. Donut shops in America. But farms and country living? If only we were Taiwanese or Japanese. Then we could just start looking for a small holding in the countryside right after we return, and then just start already! We are deciding to try to do that in Bali now. Many people have started businesses there and make their lives there. I suppose, Im just feeling the fear of the unknown. An uncomfortable, yet necessary emotion that will hopefully propel us into something useful.

Time to get some shut eye now.

Turning water into wine

2011-11-12T11:13:00.001Z

The biggest cost we can incur in our now very frugal lifealways comes down to providing ourselves with some form of entertainment, andentertainment in the countryside boils down to having copious amounts of booze.Making your own booze is actually not as hard as what many people make it outto be, fermentation is a natural process a gift given by god and a processundertaken by ancient civilizations for thousand of years . All it takes tomake some alcohol is to leave some sugary fruits alone and volia alchoal isborn! Making alchoal is easy, but making good booze is almost an art thatrequires a whole deal of work: getting the right equipment is the first step, demijohns,food grade fermentation bucket, campedan tablets, mashing bins, pressurebarrels. Then focus has to be put into sterlising the equipment making surethat the solution coats everything!! Getting the proportion right, heating themash, stirring it, straining it, pouring insane amounts of sugar, decanting it,racking it and bottling it. It is a long and arduous process and enjoying thefruit of your labour is still at least a year away, making your own booze is atrue test of one’s patience. But I had none and sneaking a drink from thedemijohn has left me with a groggy headache too often for my liking. Cheers toall!!

Picking dandelion for wine

Yummy flowers

1 more year, 1 more year

Beerfest

Yeasty mess

Green green vegetables

2011-11-12T10:17:00.001Z

My mission the next 6 months was to focus on the vegetableproduction on the farm. Old chapel farm has 12 acres of land but only 2 acreswere for vegetable growing, the rest of the land were dedicated to woodlandsand grazing. The hills of mid Waleswas one of crazy and unpredictable weather, which at times can be so harsh thatonly grazing of animals and potatoes stood a chance. Frost when the ground freezesover can happen as late as the 10^th of June. Vegetable growing thusis not an easy one to crack, the growing season was thus a short one and havingto be always aware and in tuned with the weather. There was only so muchplanning that we could do, but in the end our fate was determined by mothernature.

The glass-house was my garden, a place of great importancebut also one with much responsibility. Spring was a time where frantic sowingof seeds took place. I spent most parts of my days sowing the mighty brassicafamily, members of the solanace family bird eye chilies (hundreds of them) tomatoes,Aubergine, sweet peppers in pots, peasin toilets rolls, lettuce in succession, calendulas in modules and dwarfFrench, broad, runner beans. It was a mad house, but mine to enjoy, BBC radio 2in company I’m sure Ken Bruce added to the vitality of my little seedlings withhis ever so monotonous selection of music and his boring banter with theweather and traffic girl Penelope fudge. Damn turn that radio off!!!!!

And so the journey continues….Yurt living

2011-10-30T20:06:00.001Z

We return to Old chapel farm after a short wwoofing stint 2years ago. Apart from my college placement requiring me to work on a farm for awhole growing season, we were keen to explore what it takes to live off thegrid and as self sustainably as possible. The living arrangement one of themost important factor was the first challenge, we shunned the idea of sleepingin a nice country farmhouse bedroom with all the luxuries of expecting light toappear at a flick of the switch, demanding water to flow with a turn of thetap. It has always been our dream to live in a yurt, a round space, our ownspace somewhere to call home. It was by far the most realistic type ofstructure we could afford to build on our own little farm in the future and nowit was time to test this living space used by Mongolians’ nomadic tribes forthousands of years. These structures called Mongolian gers for those in theknow are round structures held up by wooden poles and a canvas to keep the rainout (that was what we thought!!). These time tested structures are built withsuch simplicity but with surprisingly accurate precision has given it theability to withstand the strongest of wind so common in central Asia.

We had 2 dry days forecasted and we set out to erect our 21ft yurt
within this short window of opportunity. The yurt decking has alreadybeen built on a gentle slope overlooking the green lush valley of old chapelfarm. The winds at this very exposed spot was a little daunting, doubts startedto creep in on the possibility of erecting a temporary structure came to mindbut it was quickly quelled by Fran (our host), they’ve been doing this for thepast 3 years with only some problems in the last few years. The construction ormore in reality the assembling of the yurt wasn’t as hard as we firstanticipated, but we (city folks) still struggled nonetheless. We fumbled with poles dropping on our heads (note: toremember hard hats the next time), the trellis not fitting together, grosslyentangled ropes which took forever to unknot, there were moments offrustrations with a tinge of motivation, small challenges crop up all the timeanyways. The entire experience and sense of accomplishment is not the same tobuying a home; the immense joy and satisfaction of putting up your own home isone that human beings has related to for thousands of years and today we feltthat.

Wrong pole for the wrong hole!!

Is it over yet?

Fumbling with poles

What is happening?

Poles again

Here comes the canvas

Our home lovely isn't it!!

The inside

Sweet

So here begins our journey of living almost off grid, withno on-demand electricity, on demand water and centralized heating!!!

But whoneeds all that when I see this view every morning when I open the door.

Recapping our wwoofing journey

2011-01-29T15:20:00.002Z

Hi there, Its me, Crystal. It's been a while since I've personally updated the blog. Bjorn, the real farmer now has been writing in it since mid last year and lots of stuff has been happening in our lives and our journey, that may confuse readers! So I am now here gonna try to describe all that has evolved from our wwoof journey - coz that's initially what this blog was about. Wwoofing.

We came back to Singapore in December 2009 after wwoofing in the UK and Spain for about 6 months. We felt lost. What to do now. We did the wwoofing. Should we continue? What was our goal? Must we need a goal? Was life just about living in the moment and going with the flow?

Then 2010 began. And what a year.

In Dec '09, we met Lai Hock and GUI (ground-up initiative) and we were introduced to the organic movement in Singapore. Lai Hock told us how he is on this path, because he feels that connecting with the earth is one way to find that 'spirit', that meaning of life, that bigger consciousness. We kindda knew what he was on about. But never had anyone really put it that way before.

In Jan '10 , my grandma died which was tough on the family. Then we went to Bali for a month - intending to find organic farms/wwoof places. But had no luck, instead, we went for this meditation retreat called Bali Usada for one week in the mountains. And there, we faced our minds, ourselves. And we found the stillness that we never knew we needed but realised we did. For me, this was a huge pivotal point in my life. The clarity just slowly started to sink in. The retreat was a gift from nowhere. And I don't know how ever to thank the universe for it.

Feb to July '10 - A few more close people in our lives past away quite suddenly. I found yoga after the meditation retreat and fell in love with it more and more. I started relief teaching at my old secondary school - St anthony's convent and found so much love there. Bjorn started on this project - GUI Pathlight school vegetable farm which a couple of posts in 2010 on this blog is about. Then after Bjorns grandpa passed away in July, he decided to sign up for the Biodynamic agriculture course in East sussex England. And I decided to go to India to get my yogas teachers training certification.

Sep '10 - Bjorn left for England

Oct '10 - I left for India

Dec '10 - We met again in Singapore, spent Christmas and New years with friends and family

Jan '11 - I came back to England with Bjorn. We now live on college campus. We will be in Wales doing his farming attachment from Mar to Sep this year. And back here at Emerson college in Sep for his second year.

So what happened to wwoofing? What's the point of all this updates?

Looking back now, I realised that going wwoofing after quitting our corporate jobs was the best decision we've ever made. The wwoofing in 2009 was like a process of cracking us open to discover who we really are inside. It was just like chiselling slowly. Creating more obvious lines aned cracks everyday we were out there working out in the farm. We didnt know what we'd find. But we just kept going at it. It was therapeutic.

But once we were 'broken' into, we did not know what to do with all this new stuff we were experiencing. Going back home to Singapore, was a process of coming to terms with our new selves, our new lives. Not really new actually, more like, we removed the obstacles and barriers that was built up throughout our Singaporean, modern lifestyles. We knew the old us, wasnt us anymore. But who were these new people? And what purpose did they have? And 2010 was the 2nd part of the process. It the peeling away of those little egg shells that were cracked open. And finding all these things that were possible. Finding new ways of looking at things. Becoming less mad at the world, and realising that everything and everyone has their place in this complicated web of life. But in this web, we are all connected. And that, will give us an answer for every question we sought. 2010 was like a realisation. It felt like a lot of loose ends were tied up.

So this Thursday, is the start of the New Year in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. 2011 will be all about building up. I sense that. I have a gut feel that 2009 was deconstruction, 2010 was laying it all out and 2011 will be about growing.

And that's where the wwoofing has taken us. We will go back to Old Chapel Farm this summer to 'wwoof' there longer term. Bjorn will hopefully play a bigger role in terms of helping with the planning of the growing. And I will be a wwoofer / yoga teacher. It will be quite an awesome year.

Community Supported Agriculture- Are we ready for that?

2011-01-22T21:55:00.003Z

I sat in on the 15^th year anniversary of the first successful Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in the UK which is incidentally based within the 2 farms around my college Tablehurst farm and Plaw hatch farm. The co-op was unofficially started in 1968 and formerly registered in the early 90’s and is one of the longest standing co-op in the UK today, incidentally wwoofing was also founded and started in these 2 farms which today led to a global movement.

There are currently 2 broad CSA models:

1) Being a Shareholder of a co-op and not expecting any materialistic returns

This is the basis of how many early CSA started and how the tablehurst and plaw hatch began, the farms were failing and wider community was concerned about the future of their food supply, the community came together and found a new model on saving and future management of the farm, they then started a co-op which allowed the community to buy a share into the farm with only a promise that the land will be farmed in an honest, organically and sustainable manner. Today the co-op has 600 members many who had donated much more than money but their time and sweat to the 2 farms.

2) Being a Shareholder of a co-op and getting something in return

This started the era of the vegetable box schemes. Support your local farmer by paying up-front for the vegetables you can expect to receive. With that upfront payment, the farmer will be able to farm the land and supply vegetables to you, sharing the risk with the farmer i.e. bad harvest= smaller share of vegetable for the week etc.

What would work for Singapore? Are we ready for model 1 where people are concerned enough that they will support a cause like that without being materialistic about it? Or perhaps a new model for our unique little culture? This is my take:

A community supported agriculture program simply means something created and maintained by the community. With over 300 community gardens in Singapore we have the opportunity to build up an intricate food growing system where these gardens are used for the production of vegetables for the community of a radius of a few HDB flat, they essentially form their own co-op to serve their own local neighbourhoods thus helping Singapore take that small step forward of becoming a little more self sustainable whilst creating jobs for our citizens and retirees keen on gardening and growing vegetables. This intricate web of community food gardens littered all over Singapore could provide a space or platform for educating our people about the importance of food and food miles, a place where they can come and learn, feel the soil and understand where their vegetable comes from. A place to foster relationships between neighbours something we can probably already see the benefit of in Singapore, a space for interaction, sharing and social cohesion. Seen in many successful models all over the world: Allotments and community garden projects in the UK have been used to rehabilitate refugees and integrate them into the community, why not use the space to help with our current social issues in Singapore?

A support function for the community gardens must exist or be in place so that this food growing organism can survive; agricultural know how, bringing fertility back into the land and education must be the cornerstone of this foundation. The survival of the Kranji countryside and existing farms in Singapore is also critical for the production and supply of fertility to these community gardens. The wealth of knowledge on crop growing in our tropical climate so eagerly guarded by the old time farmers could be released back to those that are keen to continue the work of food production.

We need to ask ourselves this: will this movement require the community to come together and drive it’s growth organically, each CSA program have to grow in it’s own way, at it’s own pace.

Would a government led, corporate sponsored model prevail?

What would work for our small nation state of 6 million?

I’m excited to see what will happen in the next 2 years with all the buzz happening around community supported agriculture in Singapore!!

A profound statement

2010-12-05T14:28:00.002Z

I share with you a statement we discussed in class this week. Reading it and typing it out again sends a chill down my spine. The great wisdom held by tribe people around the world may well be able to pull us all from this false reality we live in today.

‘In 1851 Seattle, chief of the suquamish and other Indian tribes around washington’s Puget sound, delivered what is considered to be one of the most beautiful and profound environmental statement ever made. The city of Seattle is named for the chief, who speech was in response to a proposed treaty under which the Indians were persuaded to sell two million acres of land for $150,000.

How can you buy and sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is scared to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries memories of the red man.

The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juice in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man—all belong to the same family.

So when the great chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The great chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you the land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children.

If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father’s grave behind, and does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does not care. His father’s grave, and his children birthright are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.

I do not know. Our ways are different that your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring or the rustle of the insect’s wings.

The clatter only seems to insult our ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around the pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned by the midday rain, or scented with pinon pine.

The air is precious to the red man for all things share the same breath, the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days he is numb to stench. But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports

The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow’s flowers.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept. I will make one condition- the white man must treat the beasts of the land as his brothers. I am a savage and do not understand any other way. I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be made more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive. What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children that we have taught our children that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the son of earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.

Even the white man, whose god walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see. One thing we know which the white man may one day discover; our god is the same god. You may think now that you own him as you wish your own our land; but you cannot. He is the god of man, and his compassion is equal for the red man and the white. The earth is precious to Him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.

The whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. But your perishing you will shine brightly fired by the strength of the God who brought you to this land and for some special purpose gave you dominion over this land and over the red man.

That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires. Where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone.

The end of living and the beginning of survival.

Check and balance

2010-11-29T21:04:00.002Z

Organic farms, biodynamic farms, conventional farms, they are all the same!

Overworked farmers and farm hands, full of diesel guzzling tractors and machineries all aiming to increase crop and livestock yield, so that they can feed this ever growing and very demanding world. And in parts of developed society you have groups of people using their strength and energy perform activities like crossfit, or running on a treadmill in an air conditioned gym when they could be contributing their strength to pulling a plough, hoeing the land or simply weeding.

Sometimes this warped and misguided part of society just do not deserve the food they eat to just expend it on something mindless like this. Where is the balance?? Where are the checks and measures.

Oh wait, we do have one very bias measure: money

The farmers are tired, the people working on the farms are worn out, the machineries keep breaking down and the animals looks lost. Maybe it's just today, or maybe it's the weather, winter is setting in and now comes the time for self reflection and thinking, and so I conclude with this:

If everyone takes charge of growing their own food, and manage their calorie intake in accordance to energy expended on food production perhaps achieving a close looped system, the world may yet become a more balanced one, and you will get fit in the process of doing it ;-)

Products Of Mother Earth

2010-11-14T01:42:00.004Z

Interesting fact I learnt this week.

'We're all connected' humans, plants and animals, just look at the chemical makeup of hemoglobin and chlorophyll, the structure of the cells are the same, the only diffrence comes from the core of iron and magnesium.

If you put chlorophyll under UV light it will give off a red glow and vice versa for blood.

Uncanny isn't it.

Think about this when you drink your next glass of milk

2010-11-03T21:58:00.002Z

We go by everyday consuming food not being aware of what it takes to produce that piece of cheese or that glass of milk. What goes on in a dairy industry is away from many peoples general awareness, it's a ugly ugly industry and dairy farms are generally a very depressing place to be.

I spent the last 3 days working on an organic dairy farm, 200 cows cross bred between the holstein and freesia, this create a breed that is able to produce up to 7000 liters of milk a year from one cow! These cows are not the work of nature but a manipulation of humans growing demand for milk and milk related products, and the ultimate victims are the cows themselves. Most cows have lots of trouble carrying their huge udders around something whic was bred into them, they're more prone to injury due to the disproportionate body frames, many sprained ankles, tumor on legs and broken backs. They don't lead a particularly good life being forced through the milk production line twice a day they hardly ever get time out at the fields. The calves spend their first 4 days with the mother and are weaned off, this cause great stress for both calf and mother. The cows kept in a concrete floored barn literally swim in their own piss and poo.

I'm depressed, and very saddened by this whole experience, but very glad I was able to see and work for a couple of days in this dairy farm. If I do consider to continue drinking milk in the future I will be more aware of where my milk comes from before buying, but i'm leaning towards dropping dairy from my diet altogether.

Life on college

2010-10-14T16:27:00.013+01:00

Being surrounded by the seasons again is refreshing from the monotony of Singapore's tropical climate I've been surrounded with these past month. Weather is starting to get Chilly and the leaves are turning red then brown and finally will fall back onto the ground, the mushrooms are receding and the last of the autumn squashes are harvested and feasted upon. This is the season when the earth breaths in, a time when it rest and recover only to breath out in spring again and give life to all around.

Enjoy!

The grounds of Emerson College, really a place of outstanding natural beauty

Can't be in Agriculture school without a vegetable garden

College life with people, picking mushrooms and feeding people with it, I think the drummer had too one too many mushroom ;-)

Pepenbury an area for adults with learning disability where they do horticulture therapy, arts and craft and woodwork. They also work with animals which helps them keep in touch with nature and ground them to become more aware of their surroundings! A very special place!

Exact Sensory Fantasy

2010-10-01T14:23:00.008+01:00

The 16th century was a huge turning point for the human race, this was the period where the world moved from the golden ages where we were connected to the spiritual world to one that is driven by reason and sense and with that direction it has brought us to this day in the 21st century.

In the old ages people viewed the world as the centre, we’re the centre of the universe and the sun, moon, mercury were thought to be revolving around the earth, this was all based on what they could see when they looked into the sky, they had no telescope, they had no complex mathematics to calculate the projection of the stars and planets.

People during that time of what we call the golden ages in Rome, Greece, China, middle empire of the arab world viewed themselves as being part of nature, in tune to the rhythm of the seasons. They viewed the world by first understanding their inner self, they were subjective and full of sympathy and fantasised and dreamed, they walked among the gods in their own spiritual world. The art of that time distinctively represented this mindset of people of that time depicting goddesses and angels, they believed that they were part of the cosmos among the goddesses and gods and are one with nature.

During the turn of that century from the 1500 to the 1600, 3 distinct events happened in Europe that changed the course of human development forever. Copenicus and his discovery of the cosmos and how all planets revolve around the sun, the earth was no longer at the center and all that was thought of before where god was supposely suppose to reside is now revealed to be of nothingness, in 1543, Mercator developed the first atlas and created the first view of the world, a few years later Vesalius dissected the human body and documented it into a book, we were now seen as blood vessels, bones and muscles and have proven that we no longer posses a spiritual soul in our chest. These 3 development brought a new age of reasoning, gods and spirituality was being questioned, it has become a world dictated by sense and logic, people started to view the world from the outside in, no longer concerned about their inner being, but driven by objects and antipathy observing things from a distance hoping to form an exact view of something, never getting too close for any sympathy. This in turn brought about the age of science and the world as we know of today.

Something changed in the 1500, humans started to lose their inherent connection to the world and to nature. Has science and the age of reasoning really brought about progress? How do you define progress? Has this progress caused an in-balance in the world we live in today?

Osho says:'in this age of reason, we are masters of knowledge, but orphans in wisdom" humans have evolved now to the stage where we use our upper cortex of the brain more - the reason brain. and left the lower cortex, the feeling brain behind. We have to re-connect and achieve an equilibrium as floating too far right or too far left has it’s own circumstances; seen in Goethe work of Faust and Werther.

Perhaps this so called progress of the internet and mass communication would be a tool that would help the human race reach enlightenment quick enough to get us out of this mess and maybe bring warmth back once again into our lives.

You are what you eat: The danger’s of eating out of season

2010-09-28T22:25:00.000+01:00

Eating out of season has been something we never questioned, fresh salad in winter, spinach and fresh strawberries during x’mas. In the northern hemisphere this equates to the unnecessary luxury of imports, science and fossil fuel has also enabled us to grow vegetables in a heated greenhouse out of season for businesses to reap the benefits of economic value from these vegetables when supplies are low and demands is at it’s peak; carbon emission aside what is the true cost of eating food that are grown out of season?

To understand this we need to look at how a plant works. The plant extracts nutrients such as nitrates from the soil and stores this within the plant turning this into protein and sugar used by the plant for growth. For this to happen it requires sunlight for photosynthesis and in winter the hours of sunlight will decrease significantly.

Scientific research carried out in the 60s on spinach and lettuce (Spinach and lettuce are two of the vegetables that has the tendency to hold on to nitrates) has shown that these vegetables while grown in shade contain a higher level of nitrates than those grown in full sun. Imagine the growth of vegetable out of season in a heated greenhouse in just 6 hours of sunlight? The amount of nitrates in the spinach of lettuce may far exceed what has been deemed safe.

The truth to the matter is, consuming excessive amounts of nitrates have been scientifically proven to be one of the major factors that cause cancer; this has also been a huge topic of debate within the EU on the level of nitrates being discharged by the conventional agriculture industry into the water tables of Europe.

We cannot fool nature, trying to grow something that is out of season in a heated greenhouse powered by fossil fuel is a sign of humans excessive demand, we need to respect the forces of nature and live within the seasons and with this understanding and respect we may be duly rewarded by her.

You are what you eat: The Adam's Apple

2010-09-23T21:44:00.005+01:00

How many of us actually understand the food that we eat? Where it comes from? How it is grown and what quality they possess? Many of what we know are passed down by our parents, Television and now the internet and many a time we blindly fall into a cycle of blind faith and believing that something is actually good and safe for us!

We all love a good salad with fresh cherry tomatoes or perhaps a potato salad and this is more so in the west, whilst in tropical south east asia eggplant and chilli dominate many of our local dishes but what value do these vegetables bring to our health and are we actually eating the right stuff or are we slowly poisoning ourselves?

Potatoes, Tomatoes, Chili, Peppers, eggplants are all part of the nightshade family, infamous for it’s poisonous quality. They contain solanine a neurotoxic chemical used as a sedative that has varying effects on the human health. Try eating a whole bunch of potatoes for 3 meals a day 7 days a week, and you may start to feel sluggish, tired, a headache will set in, and as you increase the solanine levels in your bloodstream you will start to feel ill or depressed and hitting a few hundred milligrams can kill you in less than 30 mintues. But that’s not it, other chemicals are also present in potatoes such as scopolamine ,atropine and nicotine. Scopolamine has been used as a "truth drug"; atropine is a hallucinogenic drug also used to treat cardiac arrest; and nicotine of course is an addictive insecticide

Stenier through his study and his connection of the spiritual realm has classified potatoes with an intrinsic quality of causing general heaviness to the body creating a levity effect to the mental body and bringing it down to earth, the mental body enters a state of unconsciousness and drive people towards a false sense of security.

The tomato plant, a gorgeous vegetable producing sweet fruits high in vitamin C and other goodness. Again part of the nightshade family it contains most of the chemicals mentioned above. Stenier through his observation of the tomato plant realised that it is a self content plant that pulls itself away from the environment, it didn’t need to be rotated like other vegetable and can live in the same spot for many years without any degeneration of the crop. And if you were to use compost made from tomato plants, that is, if you were to let the tomatoes grow in their own compost, they would grow even better. Tomatoes have no desire to step outside of themselves, no desire to step outside the realm of strong vitality. That’s where they want to stay. They are the least social beings in the entire plant kingdom. They do not want anything from strangers, and above all, they do not want any fertilizer that has gone through a composting process; they reject all that. This is the reason that they can influence what works independently within the human or animal organism.” And because of this Stenier has said:’ people diagnosed as having cancer should immediately be forbidden to eat tomatoes, because cancer from its very inception makes a certain part of the human or animal body independent of the rest of the organism.”

Please don’t be alarmed with what I’ve shared here, life has to go on and a lot of the time these vegetables bring more goodness to our life than the poison within them, awareness is your best weapon and remember to always do things in moderation.

There is more than meets the eye

2010-09-20T20:30:00.004+01:00

It is strange returning to college again after being away from the classrooms for so many years. Being here at Emerson College where the Biodynamic agriculture college sits has been nothing but positive. The vibe of the college is something I can't explain with words, there is a distinct flow of energy and a buzz that you probably would never find in a typical school or educational institution, this is contributed mainly by the diverse and unique set of students doing courses from the visual arts to storytelling which is one of the most amazing and unique course I’ve come across.

Set in the idyllic countryside town of forest row, which incidentally is also a transition town the college is bordered by 2 community supported biodynamic farms, Tablehurst farm produces most of the meat that is sold to the local community, chickens, lamb, beef, pigs and turkeys which are fattening up for Christmas as we speak. Plaw Hatch farm which is more like a mixed farm with vegetable production as it's main focus. Walking through the farms today gave me a mere glimpse of the beauty of Stenier’s philosophy and how the farms are not only a place for honest food production but also a place where communities are fostered. The farm provides a space where they include community members with learning disability, adults with various aliments such as autism, down syndrome live and work on the farm giving them a purpose in life, a sense of belonging and defiantly works at integrating them into the larger community. This is truly a very special and unique trait of many biodynamic farms, just imagine the good it can do for society and it’s most neglected members!!

I’m truly excited to what will happen next, being around and studying with people that have similar interest in nature plants and animals, talking to the storytelling students and being amazed at how they structure their thoughts and speeches and mingling among the visual artists who views the world in shapes and forms;

I just have a feeling that this would be an experience that would change me forever!

The start of my new journey..

2010-09-09T19:18:00.004+01:00

So we’ve come to the end of phase 1 of the pathlight food garden project. We’ve now a functional food garden with 6 vegetable beds, a keyhole garden a clover shaped garden which was originally a pond, a zig zag border, a tepee trellis, a very rustic fence, an innovative door, composting set-up, the mighty worm farm and module 1 of the farming curriculum.

Throughout the project duration we constantly discover something new about our bodies and realised our threshold point for hard physical labour, working in the epic enter of the tropics has also been a real test at times when the sun refuse to budge. Hard labour has always been something I feel that many Singaporeans would out rightly shun. But I was proved wrong when we were able to assemble a team of passionate Singaporeans, together we planned, we designed, and we laboured and I’m mightily proud that this food garden has been built from the ground up with the help of the wider community.

So the time has come when I have to bid farewell, phase 1 has been a very fruitful journey for me!! I’ve learnt a lot from so many people and most of all I’ve learnt a lot about myself. Nature is a good teacher and has taught me: patience, respect and balance working on the land have brought me to understand life a lot more. This has made me realise that I now need to return to England and bring back a sustainable farming model; Biodynamic farming may perhaps be the key to a successful organic system.So I go back to school for a year and a half in the south of England where I will pursue my Biodynamic agriculture diploma.

I leave you now with a video i made that charts the progress of our unfinished journey:

Internet for people like us

2010-08-27T02:38:00.006+01:00

Whenever you're feeling a little down, maybe stuck in a rut. Maybe you're looking for inspiration, something to do. Or you know your heart is seeking something a little more in life. Something's just not right. Buddha called it Dukkha - a wheel out of kilter. Something's missing. So if you are feeling like this - here's a great site I recommend : www.helpx.net This is a wonderful resource and listing of all the wonderful rural places/farms/B&Bs in the world that need volunteers in exchange for food and accommodation. Its like wwoof, but this organisation has a really good website that wwoof doesnt. Simply because it has 2 things wwoof doesnt. Photos, and reviews.

We have already used helpx.net look for our 2 hosts in Spain last year and they were great.

Now am feeling a little out of it, so will spend some time browsing the wonderful places I could go to. Shall I start in Asia? Or shall I venture to Americas today?

Another resource fantastic for wanderlusts like us if you havent already heard of it

Couchsurfing - http://www.couchsurfing.org/ - A wonderful open community of the world that will lend you a couch (or a bed) if you need to crash for a couple of days. The usual paranoid questions like "Eh, safe or not?" will be answered by "It's actually quite safe because there are reviews of a hosts you can read, and also, u get to meet people who are usually of the same mindset as you. Likes to travel, meet new people, and are open to new things and new ideas.

The internet really is taking over the world in many aspects. But I am sure glad that its serving alot more good than we ever thought possible. People are given voices. And things are alot more 'open' and transparent than ever before.

My little Tropical Oasis

2010-08-01T03:37:00.024+01:00

Having a personal project is always a nice escape and definitely good for the soul. I've tried to create an escape on my tiny balcony, filling it with lots of plants a pond, trees, bamboo trellis built by my own hands, and a balcony composting operation! What have I learnt from this experience?

Impermanence of life: The garden changes almost daily, nothing is permanent a plant that thrives today may not do so well a month later. Flower comes and goes. The garden is just like

our lives, always full of surprises always changing never constant.

Listen to nature: Don’t try and fight it, go with the flow of nature. Some plants will do nicely in your environment whilst others won’t. Face it and accept it, don’t try and change it, because it just ain’t worth it.

Enjoy!!

Spearmint lemon balm and something from a marigold family and my proud lotus

A somewhat sweeping view of the balcony

Little clusters within the garden creates perception of depth

Compost bin

On the road to self sustainability

Finding beauty in the little things...

Having a BBQ =)

Singapore Farmers Party

2010-07-26T04:13:00.013+01:00

It's no royal show, but the singapore garden festival is as close as it gets to the royal show western farmers are familiar with. We were invited to the kranji countryside association farmer's party where we drank, ate locally produced food and made merry with hokkien songs which depicts the crux of the local farming scene.

Thank god for these group of people, without them...our country would be oh so boring Singapore, these down to earth group of people are the type of Singaporeans you have to meet and not the rubbish banker wankers you get sneering at you in downtown singapore.
Enjoy!!

The pathlight farm team from L to R, Bjorn, Denise Phua (The champion for all matters related to Autism and disability causes in Singapore, Respect!!), Chia chia and Lai Hock

With the famous Ivy Singh of bollywood farm on my side!

Xiao xi (frog farmer) and Kenny (plant nursery)

The GUI gang =)

Of Swales and Drains

2010-07-26T02:51:00.006+01:00

Freak weather, heavy rainfall during the traditionally dry months of the year is really hampering work on the land. With climate change and the global shift in weather patterns it seems like we're getting more rainfall than ever, whatever happened to the promise of dry and hot sunshine to compliment the rise in greenhouse gases is beyond me. But hey the only consolation is that as people working close to the land, any small shift in weather pattern makes us more aware of how fleeting nature is and how we’re just little minions of planet earth so very small and insignificant.

Putting in strategies in a bid to help soften the extremities of weather will be one of our greatest challenge. We’re in for stretches of hotter days with bursts of very heavy rainfall, the soil condition will suffer, the plants stressed, extremities are never a welcome sign for the agricultural sector which thrives on consistency.

Building a rubble retaining wall for our swales

A half dug swale flooded, well good to know that it works

The Soil chef

2010-07-15T08:24:00.008+01:00

The consistency of our local soil is less than desirable. Most available grassland around built up areas are once construction wasteland where rubbles are dumped and then buried, who really know what these irresponsible construction companies has buried into the ground. So far digging the land we’ve found lots of metal stuff, concrete waste, and god knows what other stuff leached into the ground with all the development happening around the area.

Getting the soil mix right is a fundamental step to the success of any garden or vegetable growing operations. Our local soil is clayey, yellow and acidic and not even a beansprout will grow once it gets compacted. My soil recipe aims to build structure, introduce air pockets, improve drainage while retaining moisture to create the ideal soil mix for any type of plants or vegetables, oh and yes don’t forget a pinch of gardening lime to push the PH to a more workable 7!

Here’s my seed starting soil recipe

2 parts compost

1 part perlite

1 part coco peat

1 part burnt rice husk

Mr Lim mixing up a batch of soil like an experienced chef

The finished product

100% germination rate testament to the soil mix and crystal's loving sowing skill

Woofing in Singapore

2010-07-14T06:45:00.009+01:00

It hard to imagine staying in Singapore and trying to lead a life that we’ve chosen, a more self sustainable life in a maddening city of crazy commercialisation and development. A city of little to no inspiration and motivation for people like us seeking a good life in a smallholding! Very suffocating indeed!!

I’ve however found a little piece of sanity within the last few months and in the recent few weeks I’ve had a most fulfilling experience. I’ve finally started work at Pathlight School, Singapore’s first school for children with autism. A social project by GUI led by me and a team of dedicated volunteers we’ve tilled the land and are working towards improving the lives of these children by imparting farming skills to them so that hopefully they can one day be employed by Singapores non existent agricultural industry, what an irony!!

I’m a man of very few words so I would let the pictures tell the story:

Mr Lim and Chia Chia measuring the Veg planter beds

Clearing the land Mr Lim in action, his muscles and dedication puts me to shame

Me! the noob farmer in action. Note to myself wearing flip flops while farming is not very smart.

A farm in the making: Our raised vegetable bed and a footpath by the side

No more pitter pottering around my small little garden and being excited with a few strands of lettuce, I've now entered the big time serious stuff haha

Stay tuned for more.....

Singaporean Kids Learn about Nature

2010-07-14T05:58:00.002+01:00

Getting Singaporean children to get excited about nature you can imagine – is quite a stretch.

Since I have been doing this relief teacher stint at my old sec school, I am slowly learning how children of our times are relating themselves to nature. Which is basically – not really. In their world of air conditioning and facebook, it is really a tall order to remind them again and again how much we actually do rely on nature for survival and how much they need to think about recycling, conserving etc. It’s like describing Earth to Martians. I feel more sorry for these children than annoyance. It’s totally not their fault that they are growing up in these conditions. They did not chose this life.

I showed them 2 photographs for Geog lesson last week. It was a lesson of “Natural Vegetation”

Picture A) One of a park with a bench and playground.

Picture B) The other of a lush tropical rainforest with a stream running down the middle.

Then asked them to state the similarities and differences. These were some of the answers:

1) I would rather go to Picture A than B because B looks scary.

2) Picture B looks like it may have dangerous animals that might harm me.

3) Picture A looks more peaceful

Ack.

This speaks VOLUMES of how these girls are already programmed to think. They want safety, predictability, comfort. The wild outdoors equals scary. The forest equals mosquito, sweat and discomfort. While the lovely park promises tranquility in a safe environment. No wild animal to be fearful of.

I compare our kids to the few Scandinavian people I’ve met in my travels. They live in very harsh climates but they are hardcore outdoor people. They love their mountains, their lakes, their nature. They spend most of their summers basking in the sun at the lakes, and most of their winters skiing around in the snow. And look at them. The Norwegians and the Swedes. I don’t want to generalize, but they are essentially quite progressive and successful nations despite their small populations. They have very good quality of life and people take care of each other (high taxes, good benefits). It’s almost as if there’s a link between connection with nature & being good human beings.

However, that said, I am a little encouraged. Because the government and schools are bringing across the ‘green’ message no matter how contrived and fake it might seem. Our leaders realize that to stay ahead and be progressive, we need to be jumping onto this bandwagon. Be the good guys. We’re like Exxon Mobil, doing corporate social responsibility. And I see this through the ‘reflections’ we’re always asking our kids to write. (Which by the way, I am a big fan of). In the reflections on their Sungei Buloh school trip, our sec ones wrote about their concern for the environment. How disgusted they were with the litter they saw in the mangrove. How excited they were seeing all these strange animals and plants they never saw before. Yes, they complained a lot. But I am actually thoroughly encouraged. The seed has been sown in these 13 year old girls. And I am so so proud to have been a big part of it.

Tribute to Michael

2010-07-14T05:38:00.002+01:00

To commemorate Michael Jackson's one year death anniversary (Yes I am a couple of weeks late), here's a beautiful short video of Michael reading a poem called Planet Earth. Co-written by Deepak Chopra, my latest inspiration, spiritual body/mind author. Enjoy :)

I showed this to one of my Sec 4 english class last week. And asked them, if they felt this poem had more meaning now that Michael is dead. And one of the girls said "Yes, because its as if he is now in heaven, looking down on earth, telling us to appreciate earth and its home." I was very moved by her answer. To me, I saw it as more appropriate now coz Michael himself has gone back to the earth. He has returned home. And I am happy for him. Because he was a guy that loved. And he gave so much to humanity. And with all that love, and all that good karma, his soul is bound return to the universe and live in eternal bliss.

Bless you Michael.

Singapore Garden Festival - The most contrived piece of crap

2010-05-27T14:54:00.004+01:00

Another on of our sad Singapore stories. Its Singapore Garden Festival and I saw these people setting up this showcase garden in the middle of Orchard Road. Of course, who do we have setting up this lovely garden? Foreign Labourers probably from Bangladesh. Singapore's take of gardening is nothing like the gardening we experienced in the UK. The English LOVE their gardens and its not just enoying the end product but its 80% about the process. The loving, pruning, watering, feeding, loving.

Singaporeans dont want to get dirty or hot or anything. We just want to point and let the servants do the work. Its disgusting.

Saturday, we are leaving for Bali and I'll be there for 3 weeks. This 4 months in Singapore is the longest we've probably ever been in Singapore in a long time. So its going to be quite a change when we get there.

I cant bloody wait.

Avoid oil

2010-05-26T05:18:00.000+01:00

http://www.good.is/post/good-instructions-things-you-didn-t-know-were-made-of-oil-and-how-to-avoid-them/

Mountain Pose....

2010-04-29T16:08:00.004+01:00

I was making some changes to the layout of this blog by moving the links of our wwoof hosts into a separate section when I had the chance of going to their websites once again. I remembered all of them with fondness, Phantassie in Scotland, Old Chapel in Wales... But the memory that grabbed me the longest and with the most profoundness was our time in Canary Islands - Fuerteventura, Spain. Those brown sandy mountains, so enormous, so commanding, so everlasting. I remember my eyes stuck out the window whenever we were in a car for those 2 weeks we stayed with Silverio and family. I just could not take my eyes off these magnificant things of nature. Mountains.

I understand now why in ancient times, people worshipped mountains. LikeMount Fuj, like Mount Agung in Bali. Uluru in Australia. Not only do they give life (water and irrigation) but physically, they are the oldest permanent features in the world as we know it. Oceans are constantly moving, our land is mostly covered by earth and vegetation that change and grow and layer upon each other.

But mountains, especially the old ones, are physically frozen history of the world. Imagine, some of these mountains were formed like 500 million years ago. That means, 500 million years ago there was a big techtonic shift in the earths crust and a mountain range is created. So mountains are like the earth's crust being shoved up from beneath into the sky. It must have been spectacular. But also, these mountains are living things as well. They absorb energy from millions of years of being exposed to energy. Thus we have crystals right? So if you think what a little crystal filled with energy can do, imagine living next to these gigantic gigantors of mountains? Mountains are filled with energy of the earth & all the people who lived on it for millions of years.

It makes so much sense now if you think of it. Why do people like to climb mountains? Mountain climbing enthusiasts try their best to come up with a sound reason why. Things like, it gives u a wonderful sense of well-being. Or getting to the top releases endorphins. The views are spectacular... These are all true. But seldom people explain further or say what causes the wonderful sense of well-being? Why does getting to the top release endorphins? What so great about a real view when I can see the same on tele? Climbers tell you its not the same. Just like how diving-enthusiasts will tell you watching the underwater ocean on tv is nothing like the real thing.

Its the energy of these mountains. Its the wisdom. Its being surrounded by mother nature's oldest wise men. (I came up with that myself!) I can feel the age of these mountains. Like the mountains of Bali, I could feel its wild youth. Its crazy lushness of thick bright, almost luminous green foliage. Its fertile rich land, like a teenage mother, nursing her baby. While in Scotland, the mountains are so bare. So worn, so old and tired. Reminding us of Scotlands tragic pasts. So much war, pilaging, death on those hills. From the viking days up to the victorian age. But its rivers (or as they call it, Lochs) glisten in a silvery sheen, like the silver lining. I remember trying to channel my inner William Wallace whenever we were walking in those hills in Strontian. Takes my breath away just thinking about it.

And then, the Fuerteventura mountains. Hauntingly bare. Its cocao colour whispers tales of the past to me. Although I dont know the stories exactly, I am feeling its energy so strongly just from my memory.

So this post is dedicated to mountains. Bjorn and I are so so glad we discovered this wonderful activity. It has impacted us in deep deep ways we probably havent realised. Its been about 6 months now since we left our european wwoofing/climbing trip. And reminiscing now, is making me realise how much it has changed me, particularly my understanding of this confusing world around me. Crazy huh?

Atalaya De La Rosa - a view from the top of the mountain we climbed of our hosts' house. Look at that mountain range in the background. It was just magnificant being there.

During our first climb up a Scottish Mountain, we took a wrong early turn and ended up taking 8 hrs to reach the road instead of 5hrs. Was scary like hell but we made it. This was a shot we took just before we took that wrong turn. I was amazed at the view of this valley as the mist lifted. Endorphins were being released at a high rate here.

Shot of Bjorn at the top of Ben Resipol, after which we got lost.

Walking somewhere in the Cairngorms, Scotland. Descending and 'buay tahan' the view here man. Stunning.

Think this was Spain, north, close to the Pyranees. It was a successful self climb for Bjorn and I. We got a map and everything and had to make a few hard decisions in terms of direction when the markings or map was not clear. All the decisions were right (well almost) and we made it back to the village to catch our train back on time. 16km worth it.

The vegetables tastes earthy - post earth day rant

2010-04-27T14:19:00.004+01:00

This evening, our mom told us that the organic vegetables that we bought for her to cook had an earthy taste which the normal unorganic vegetables she bought didnt have. My sense of taste is generally quite poor. So everytime someone tells me about how something tastes like which I dont get, I get curious and tend to ask a lot of questions on it.

So anyway, she says that the organic vegetables had a 'soil' taste. And the only obvious reason for it of course is that it was grown in soil! Unlike most of our 'normal' vegetables, which are grown hydroponically in chemical nutrient solutions. Thats why you never see an insect hole, they are all perfectly shaped, not a blemish in sight, bright and almost neon green sometimes.

Come on, how can anyone not notice the difference in vegetables we all ate in the 80s and the ones we eat today? I remember how I'd find a caterpillar in my sambal kang kong once in a while, and how the kai lan were always holey. The rice definitely have a lot more weavils. Nowadays everything looks so darn perfect.

Some people call it R&D, I call it a stupid, careless, selfish, short-sighted con. A con that most people fallen for in the last decade. We have been conned by the chemical industry, the processing food industry, the pharma industry, supermarket industry. And the con is simply that we've been made to believe food that looks prettier & lasts longer is better for you and the ones you should spend your money on. Even though they have poisons in it (which u helped pay for) that will cause your very slow and painful death.

So the next time someone says the veg tastes 'earthy', tell them congratulations, they are one meal less from being slowly poisoned to death. And that they are eating vegetables, grown on earth (the planet), on earth (the soil), the way it has been for the last 12,000 years - the tried and tested way. Until some 'clever' people decided about 100 years ago that it was a good idea to use new experimental poisons to make them grow sans earth/soil - so that the brainwashed people of the new consumerist world can buy them once a fortnight so they can store it in their fridge and still look pretty after 10 days & not die of shock of seeing an insect in their 'earth' - food.

We're earthlings. We can only eat food that's produced on earth. No where else.

Updates!

2010-04-07T10:52:00.004+01:00

Apologies for being quiet for so long. Just that, we've been busy! Yes.

Ok, so as not to bore people, I'm going to place some photos here and narrate a little of what we've been up to.

Here are some images from Fireflies Organic farm in Lim Chu Kang. We went there 2 weeks ago with a french journalist, Alex who is covering a story about the farming side of Singapore. Is there one? Yes, albeit small, there is a thriving community of about 150 plus farms in Lim chu Kang that do fish to veges to goats, mushrooms and even frogs.

The next day, we were busy working as station masters for a team building event we're doing with GUI and Gardenasia. It's green themed so we drew pretty eco-friendly messages on the ground with coloured chalk. It was a bloody hot day (as usual) so we were dripping buckets of sweat at the end of this. But it was nice and we took some photos.

A couple of days ago we were back at Bottle Tree Park and check it out! The ground nuts we sowed barely 2 months ago are all almost ready for harvest.

Before pic (2 months ago)

2 days ago pic - check out the lush foliage in the BG!

Close up of the ground nuts

And finally, after suffering for so many months without a proper pillow, I bought myself one of those foam support pillows that my neck and shoulders craved so much. The scary thing was that the sales lady told me to air it out for a couple of days before using as it has a 'new pillow smell' due to it being in its plastic casing for too long. Bullshit! More like my pillow was dripped in friggin cancer-causing flame-retardant chemical and inhaling it too soon will lead to some kind of brain damage. I dont even know if airing it for a couple of days will help the situation. In anycase, Im putting it out here on our love little balcony garden which Bjorn has been working so so hard on, hoping that loving kindness meditation and the positive energy of the plants will have a good effect on the pillow. *cross my fingers*

Pillow being aired out at Upper east coast road

our new life

2010-03-29T01:47:00.002+01:00

Its now one year and 12 days since our last day in the office. One year and 12 days of freedom, of not forcing ourselves to do something we didnt believe in. Doing stuff we didnt care about. And we are still alive today. We did not starve. We discovered how little we can survive on. All those stuff we thought we needed. Cab rides, new clothes, new stuff in general. No need. Travel was still a priority and we would do whatever it takes to do it. But its like we got our priorities right this time.

What is it about working in the city that makes use forget the basic things that make us happy? Its like everywhere we turn, we see people depressed about their jobs. Complaining about how they hate their bosses, their work. Too stressed. No time for family etc etc. And they say this while driving around a car they took a 70K loan on, living in a condo they took a 600K loan from, paying 800 for a maid to wipe the shit of their childrens bum. We all create our own commitments. We all put limits on our own lives. We do. Most singaporeans I know do. Come on. Its not as if we are struggling villagers in the 3rd world earning US100 a month and supporting a family of 8. We're lucky enought to not be those. We are the ones who have to have our regular spa visits, our handphone upgrades, our big plasma screen tv and shopping extravaganzas in Bangkok and Hongkong. We are the ones who for the sake of impressing the boss, stay in the office till 8 or 9 o clock, forsaking our children at home while they play and bond with the maid. So we can keep our decent paying jobs to afford our regular trips to coach, nine west, and once in a while trips to LV or Prada.

COME ON LAH!

A friend of mine today commented on how much money is at the top of most singaporeans priority in lives. I mean, we need money to survive. But how did it come to be that we let money dominate our lives? We have become so blind to whats important that we just follow social norms without listening to our hearts anymore. I just really hope that more people will wake up to matter, live life instead of just getting flushed through it.

The story of stuff

2010-03-14T14:54:00.003Z

A very succinct, clear explanation to what is so incredibly wrong with our mass consumerist world today.

Click here to watch The Story of Stuff
http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Wake up people!

we are earth

2010-03-11T06:45:00.004Z

I just read something really beautiful from this book 'The Atlas of Body Mind & Spirit' by Paul Hougham:

"Our bones are rocks, calcium and phosphorus, chalk cliffs of our internal scaffolding. Our body fluids are 70 percent of our weight, just as the oceans cover 70 percent of the planet's surface. Our breath is matched with incredicly accuracy to the specific compositions of the planet's atmosphere. Yet we rarely stop to think of the sheer strangeness of physical existence. The focus of our concen often ranges from everyday issues to ongoing dilemmas and challenges. In order to appreciate the human form, it is useful to contemplate its wonder and absurdity."

Basically what it says to me is reiterating what all the yoga/meditation/earth books/Avartar film and learnings are also saying. Which is... we are not apart from nature. We are part of it. And that everything that surrounds us is just an extension of ourselves, and we are an extension of the universe. Its as if the liver thinks its independant from the rest of the organs, not realising that its needs all the other organs, as well as the cells, the fluids, the bones and every other part for it to survive. Seperation between things is just a notion we learnt from childhood. An illusion. And if we are able to be awake and see past this illusion, if we are able to let go of attachments, desires etc, we will be able to face life fearlessly.

Our journey since we left our jobs about a year ago now, has just been about putting together little pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle. And frighteningly, they are all fitting together somehow. From our initial discovery of the beauty, sublime of nature in the english country side. To living side by side with nature in growing organic food. To learning how to tread more softly on this earth by watching what we consume. To realising the pleasure of living frugally and simply. To awakening our inner selves through meditation and yoga. And to realise the lightness of one's heart through helping others in need.

I find it incredible that all these experiences are culminating into one truth. Which is we are not separate from the rest of the world. We are part of it. Part of the earth, the weather, the animals, and so intrinsicly connected to one another.

Some people found Avartar's plotline predictable. I'm not sure what else was there to expect really. The message is and was clear. And yes it may have been said before in other stories and films, but it's one that requires reiterating over and over until we all get it. One should know that the film isnt really about some far away planet named Pandora. But it's about the last precious nature we have left on earth. James Cameron deliberately made Pandora daytime an unmistakable resemblence to a rainforest. Probably the Amazon as thats one of our biggest 'lungs' of our planet right now. And at the Oscars, the visua effects people who won the Oscar for visual effects said in his thank you speech which I say to everyone as well 'The beauty you see in Pandora is actually here on Earth!'. And when I watch Jake Sully fall in love with the magic of the forest, I remember how we fell love as well with the forest back in England. Its almost primal, comes right from within. With every breath you take of that fresh air, to the range of sounds you get closing your eyes and listening to the creatures. We are all just energy. Flowing from here to there. We are all really one.

And yeah, lots of people go - Aw thats nice. But how do I apply that to my 'normal' everyday life?. That's the problem isnt it? 'Normal' everyday life is actually quite distorted. Normal to us because thats all we know. But not normal at all. Take travel for example. Sitting in a metal box, going 60km per hour while you yourself only need to gently step on a paddle, while the machine is burning liquid fuel extracted unbashedly from this earth (depleting fast too) is erm... not normal. The result is a nation grossly overweight from not walking anywhere, ailments all over, legs the size of tree trunks from no movement. So my advice... do the 'normal' thing and walk. Or cycle. When we walk or cycle. We experience the natural air around us. We are not separated from the outside world. We are reminded how much we are connected to one another. Also, we have the freedom and flexibility to stop, go, turn around, wait almost anywhere want. And that's life. We have the ability to change our lives and we need to remind ourselves of that. In cars, we follow stricts codes of conduct, rules, traffic. All required of course but when we are stuck in a jam, cant go forward, too late to turn around, hitting an ERP gantry that will make we pay more money, we feel like we're stuck. Unable to have any control. No flexibility to go sideways or do something different. We conform. We become robots. And we die slowly. Either of fumes, stress, obesity or just emotionally.

So yes, thats one example of 'normal' life where most of us deem as normal is the very thing that will kill us.

But can we all go back and live in trees like the N'avi people? Absurd question? Perhaps not because I wont be surprise if one day, whoever's left here on Earth would have no other choice anyway.

Here and now

2010-03-03T01:01:00.003Z

So..............

We've decided to stay in Singapore. At least for this year, 2010. Ask us 3 months ago if we would ever decide this, it would be an easy NO. But things change, nothing is permanent. We are not who we were even just a few moments ago.

But staying here doesnt mean that wwoofing has stopped. In fact, we're still doing it, here on our home soil :)

With GUI, Bjorn is working on designing, implementing and maybe running a rooftop organic farm in one of the schools here in Singapore. That's like - all Bjorn's ever dreamed of doing. Urban farming is perhaps the only option for us to be more self sufficient than we currently are (about 5 to 10 % only at the moment) so this opportunity to work on it here is like a dream come true literally. And for Singapore, it will perhaps be something no ones ever seen before. If it works out, it can be a template for all our rooftops on our island. Imagine the mindsets it can change once we realise that its possible to be close to our food again. And not rely on air flown, pesticide & chemical laden, unfresh fruit and veg. Once urbanites taste the freshness of their own labour, smell in the intensity of their own herbs, feel the difference in their health and diets, more and more things will start changing as well. We've lost so much of it in the last 100 years of history. And we're at the epoch of getting it back again.

Today we're going to be helping to deliver left over organic veg from pasir panjang veg market to an old folks home. So instead of it going to the bin, it will go into the dishes of our elderly, who perhaps already have accumulated chemical and toxins in their bodies from living in Singapore for the last 70/80 years. It will do them good.

And oh, I discovered while reading this enlightening, yet alarming book - The Hundred-Year Lie. How to Protect Yourself from the Chemicals That Are Destroying Your Health by Randall Fitzgerald. That flouride is poison. Its been tested to kill rats in labs, give cancer and and whole load of other diseases. Most of western Europe has banned it from their waterways because of this. But America and SINGPORE has it in our tap water. Claiming it prevents tooth decay. Now, applying it on your teeth via toothpaste, it makes sense. But ingesting it..., unless u gargle your water each time u drink it, doesnt make any sense?! Also, the aluminium industry & ther fertilizer indutry benefits from flouriding our waters coz the by-product of factory smokestacks operated by both industries is a toxic waste called silicoflouride that contained lead, cadmium, arsenic and other toxins (today an estimated cost of $8000 a truckload), flouridation enabled both to make money by selling the waste for use in public water supplies. HOW GROSS. So if u drink your local tap water, pls find out if it contains flouride, and swiftly get a filter that removes it if possible, because we are indeed slowly poisoning ourselves. (Or rather, our government is poisoning us)

And I leave u with a seedling of a bean that we sowed 1.5 weeks ago, and planted out 4 days ago at Bottle Tree Park, GUI's base for now.

May all beings be happy!

Bali Usada features my Testimonial

2010-02-13T16:01:00.003Z

When our meditation teacher Pak Merta asked me to send him my testimonial in English so they could put it up on their website, I didn't expect that it would featured on the HOMEPAGE!

So here it is folks... www.balimeditation.com Gee, I feel special :)

View from the lotus pond at Saranam Eco Resort

A Singapore earth encounter

2010-02-08T06:29:00.006Z

Lai Hock and some of the GUI members. One of the best kind of Singaporeans you can meet.

We spent 2 lovely mornings (one for me, 2 for bjorn) with Lai Hock and the GUI members at Bottle Tree park in Khatib planting seedlings.

I think I mentioned before, GUI stands for Ground-Up Initiative and is a 2 year old NGO in Singapore that focuses on sustainable, organic living in our ever so urban Singapore.

Its the first time for us Singaporean, doing 'wwoof' work in Singapore! How ironic. And though we werent deep in the country side, the park is peaceful and green enough for soul-searching people like us to connect with the earth.

We met other volunteers, Singaporeans and residents from different walks of life. We started first at sunrise with Agnihotra which involves burning of a cow dunk cake as offerings, spreading the good energy with a short meditation to the seedlings. Definitely not a sight you usually see in the middle of a basket ball court in a park in Singapore! But it was a sweet and beautiful ritual the GUIers learnt from their trip to India in December.

We then did 30 mins of standing up yoga. Great stuff. A quick fruit breakfast and then its straight to good ol muddy, sweaty digging and planting!

After the 17 of us (a nice good number to get lots of planting done!) finished almost 2 rows of the terraces planting peanuts, black eye peas and other legumes, we sang Rasa Saya to them and called it a morning. (it was almost 11am and scorching hottt!)

The most delightful thing about it all, is the people that we meet. Usually in Singapore, its so difficult to get a smile or even an acknowledgement from strangers. At restaurants, lifts, even at your regular yoga classes. But here at Balik Kampong (the weekend farm work GUI calls it, which means 'back to your village' in Bahasa Melayu), smiles were generous, sincere and heart-warming. Truly and utterly non-pretentious, good people. We knew we all shared a common bond. That bond of wanting to find meaning in life. The desire to slow down and smell the roses.

Bjorn and I are so grateful we found this group here in our hometown, Singapore. And we'll always heart you guys!

More photos here from Soo Pin, GUI's resident photographer (and a great one at that!):

06 Feb: Transplanting seedlings of peanuts, black beans and black eye peas

- 20 people came

http://picasaweb.google.com/shinobi77/EcoEducationGround_06Feb10#

07 Feb: Transplanting sweet potato leaves

- 18 people came and 10 of them were Scouts

http://picasaweb.google.com/shinobi77/EcoEducationGround_07Feb10#

PS: Lai Hock, see I got link the site from my blog hor!!!!!! :)

Bjorn and Crystal meet their Harmonious Minds

2010-02-04T14:27:00.005Z

The last time we left you, about 2 weeks ago, you can say that we were more ignorant than we are today. But that’s the premise of this blog anywhere isn’t it? The road from ignorance to enlightment.

From the 24th Jan to 30th Jan 2010, we were in the mountains of middle Bali, staying at the peaceful Saranam Resort with Bali Usada, not speaking, reading or writing for almost 6 days. In very clear, simple instruc, we were taught how to train our minds to stay in the present. To be aware of now.

It was a very powerful and profound weekend, where we awoken to new concepts about how to face life. Learnt to control our forever straying minds, and we listened to many many beautiful stories from Pak Merta Ada, our teacher.

There’s so much to say and describe, but I feel probably its best to leave you with a
testimony that I have sent to Bali Usada for them to hopefully upload to their website:

Crystal Tan Age: 29
Nationality: Singaporean
Occupation: Still searching Bali Usada 1 Tapa Brata student, 24th to 31st January 2010

Peace and Happiness needs to be found from within and not always from external environment.

I guess I can say that life is not going to be the same again after going for 7 day 6 nights Tapa Brata. It is so clear to me now that Tapa Brata is so essential to life, The learnings from it, I truly believe is as important as how a child needs to learn how to read and write. In fact, if it were up to me it should be introduced to all school curriculums.

Let me tell you a bit of my life background. I’m 29 years old, and my husband Bjorn and I were working in the advertising industry for seven years when we decided that what were not on the right path. The job was life-draining. It was hard work and stressful during the day, sometimes the challenges were so impossible, deadlines so tight that we used to say “I’m losing the will to live” quite regularly to each other in the office. The salary was good though, and the parties were abundant. So our lives were basically work work work, then drink party party. On the weekends, we had no energy left for anything and usually slept through it or watched mindless TV just to ‘rest’ our minds and body. Life was essentially just flashing right by us. We were depressed and spiritually sick, knew we had to get out before our bodies give in too sooner or later.

So we quit our jobs and with our savings went travelling around the UK (we were working in London at that time so it was convenient) through WWOOF – Willing Workers on Organic Farms where we went to 10 different little organic farms around the country to help in exchange for food and lodging. The experience was indeed very healing to our souls. Working with plants, the earth, the outdoors filled our hearts with life.

But then, we had to go back to Singapore and face life in the city again. Singapore, as you may know, is a thriving dynamic city, as much as I love it and call it home, it is very competitive, intense and filled with modern technology, skyscrapers, crowds rather than peace and nature. Soon, my husband and I became unpeaceful again. We constantly got agitated over the littlest things and we were constantly distracted by tv, internet, people that we weren’t mindful about things. I became extremely forgetful, and most of all, we were confused about what to do in life. It was then, we met new friends who urged us to try meditation. They both meditate regularly and we could see that even though we all shared the same self-sufficiency/organic food ideals, they both seemed a lot more calmer, more peaceful and more accepting of life, even in Singapore.

So Bjorn and I travelled to Bali and chanced upon a positive news feature on Bali Usada. We decided to sign up for it, not knowing what to expect, especially since we’ve never done any meditation at all before. What we got from the 7 days 6 nights Tapa Brata (Usada 1) was incredible. We were all not allowed to talk, read or write for the next 5 days. As a result of this ‘quietness’, I was able to get my ‘harmonious mind’ by Day 2 afternoon after a few sessions of constant mind drifting and aching back. My body felt light, my spirits and senses heightened. In beautiful garden of Saranam Eco Resorts, it was as if I was seeing nature for the first time. Every leaf, caterpillar, bird, flower was more beautiful and filled me with so much happiness and bliss. I was much more in the present than I have ever been in my life. It’s so sad that for most people in everyday life, this beauty passes us by because we are never in the present, always somewhere else.

In the following days, there were sessions where I was distracted and filled with pain in my legs or back, but there were sessions where I felt calm and bliss which was wonderful. It was “Anicca” – the state of constant change, where everything is impermanent – what Pak Merta Ada was teaching us the whole time. Further to the meditation sessions, the day was interspersed with lovely talks given by Pak Merta. He shared with us many many stories, some of his patients and students, plenty from the teachings of Buddha, Islam, Christianity and especially Balinese Folk stories. They were beautiful stories and some moved me to tears.

What really impressed me about meditation and tapa brata is that the learnings are all essentially logic and science. We were healing our bodies and memories, not by some supernatural way, but merely with the power of our own mind and how its connected throughout our body. This was not magic, it was science.

The climax of this experience for me was on Day 7 when we went to visit Forest Island, Bali Usada’s future centre. A really special place where the energy from the earth is very powerful. It was there, Pak Merta told us the story of how only very few times in his life, he’s asked for something from the universe and it came true and that while we meditate there, it is ok to ask for something. At this point, I had been obsessed for the past few days about this family problem that have been on for almost 8 years now. It is not resolved and it brings me pain to think of it. During our “love and kindness” meditation sessions in the past few days, I sent love tediously to my aunt who I know needs help and also refuses to speak to my mother for the last 8 years. My mother pined for her, but my aunt was not moved. But I came to terms with it on Day 5 as I had to accept the ‘Anicca’ in this matter. But at Forest Island, I knew it was my chance to ask for it once more. Right after the session, I received an sms from my mother that my aunt had reached out and sent her a text. I could not believe it. I could not believe it. For 8 years, my aunt had not communicated with my mother despite my mother constantly asking for her. But that very day, on Day 7, it happened.

This was amazing. Of course, I burst into tears as I was so completely emotional and ecstatic because it was what I wished for. Pak Merta said to me – congratulations and was happy for me. My fellow students showered me with hugs and shared my happiness with me. Although we had spent 5 days in silence and only 1.5 days communicating and speaking with each other, we had unconsciously created a strong bond amongst ourselves. I think simply by being in the same room, meditating day in day out together, our energies merged and we all ‘felt’ each other more than we thought we would.

As an atheist, I used to believe that life is just filled with random things happening to random people. But since Tapa Brata, it seems like everything was falling into place in my life. Even if it was just little things during the day. Possibly, it was that my outlook changed and, if I remembered that everything was ‘Anicca’, I’m facing life positively anyway, that’s why everything seems fine! In our lives, we are all really seeking for one thing at the end of the day. And it’s to find that inner peace inside ourselves. So if you keep putting off the things that you know will equip you to face life in a more happy and peaceful way, you are just putting off life as a whole. So do yourself a favour, take one week off and sign up for Bali Usada 1 right away!

Pak Merta Ada and ourselves at Forest Island

Bali – 18 Jan 2010

2010-01-21T12:05:00.004Z

Bali – 18 Jan 2010
Munduk, Bali, Guru Ratna

So after one week break, returning to Singapore for my grandmas wake, we’re back here with my mom and we’re seeing Bali together on a budget and with new open eyes.

In this entry, I wanna talk about spirituality. This topic has been on bjorn and my minds for a while now. It stemmed from the issue we’re facing right now of – what now? Before, we would tell people about our UK wwoof plans and so forth. Now we’re 2 month short of being ‘unemployed’ for a whole year, and what do we have to show for it? What are our plans now, people ask puzzledly, trying to figure out what the hell are these 2 bums up to, how are they going to continue to ‘enjoy life’ while the rest of us slog it out. Others aren’t the only ones asking us this question. We were asking ourselves that too. Our savings isn’t going to last forever. Are we being the praying mantis who sang and laughed and played his music all summer while the ant slaved away and saved its food for a rainy day? …

Those have been the sort of thoughts eating away at us since we reached home to Singapore mid December 2009. We worked with the idea of starting a business – but we so sucked at it (I particularly couldn’t feel it at all) and we were just forcing our way through making something out of this journey we’re doing. What was initially our ‘story’ to bjorns grandparents i.e. starting a business in the organic food industry, became something we so strongly felt we had to pursue asap as to not to waste time. I never felt totally comfortable about it. Importing exporting, shipping, air-flown, logistics, storage etc. All foreign to me and sounds like a lot of carbon footprint. Doesn’t sound local or ethical or anything we learnt and thought we strived for in the first place. Just sounded like a whole lot of business to me.

So we were in a confused place for a long time. And I asked myself a lot, what do I want out of life? What is my purpose? What are we meant to do? They say a good indication of what really drives you in life, is what is the first thing you think of in the morning and what is the thing that gets you leaping out of bed.

I also considered writing a whole list of potential occupations I could be, then listing the pros and cons and eventually come to a decision of what I want to pursue. Teacher? Cook? Yoga instructer? Professional Surfer?

But before I got round to doing that list, one night, it came to me. It came to me like a ball of lightning never so strong before. So clear, so clear. I was so happy I cried. Cried tears of joy that I finally know what I want and why we were so confused for a long time.

The leaping out of bed exercise helped me lead to my revelation. Because random, non-specific things came to mind…like knowing that I’m going to spend a lovely day outdoors, meeting a good friend etc. Then as I made myself really consider deeper, really domestic, mundane things came to mind, like knowing I will have a busy day preparing meals, keeping the house neat and homely for us to live in etc. Keeping my body fit and balanced with good healthy food, fresh air and working out the body. Reading great books, speaking to inspiring people about life, finding beautiful nuggets of thoughts and expressions of our connection to the natural world. These were the things in my life that make me leap out of bed to do.

My whole life, it’s been ingrained into my psyche that one needs to become ‘something’ or ‘someone’. A doctor or lawyer was the top occupations all parents wants us to be. Earn loads of money of course, but more importantly, make your contribution to the world via a job, a career. Make your family proud, make yourself proud. Achieve something, build a small empire. These were all your typical goals of people’s lives in many stories you hear. Rags to riches, nothing to something, qualifications, accolades, awards, etc etc etc. The pressure to become something usually drives people to make wrong choices in their career, their lives and you end up doing something you never really like in the first place, but because it’s prestigious, brings in the money to pay that mortgage or your family’s debts you stay on. And some people die, still thinking they needed to achieve something in life and when they haven’t, they die regretfully.

Why bjorn and I have been so call ‘confused’ is because we were trying to put ourselves into a box. A category which people can easily grasp straight away. Are we on a sabbatical? No, coz we’re not going back. We’re also not really farmers right now, we’re travelers for now. But people will ask – how long are u going to do ‘this’ for. As if we were going to stop. People ask – are we going to ‘buy a farm’. Which is the first thing normal people will assume once we say we want to become farmers. But who says we need to buy anything? Buying will immediately put you in debt. When your heart is in the right place, when your motivations and actions speak good in itself, money and ‘wealth’ will come to you. When you direct your energy in the right places, good will come to you. I am only beginning to understand what Lai Hock means by all this. Only meeting him and Paul 3 short times, I am able to see what they mean. Bjorn’s so anxious to start something now now now. But cannot for the hell of it, figure out what. I say, we are on this life journey together and we will come to it when we come to it. Don’t rush it, don’t hurry. Focus on the road ahead too much, and you’ll miss out on the present days’ moments and joys.

So what was it that became so clear to me on 13 Jan 2010? What was I destined to be, what was my purpose, my calling? What do I want out of this life. Understanding my strengths and weaknesses, my interests, my passions and situation? I realize… I just want to be a housewife. That was it. I want to take care of our own small holding, grow our own vegetables, raise our own animals, have a beautiful country home, be close to nature. Have time to raise some children, some pets and animals, go for walks in the woods, take the family out in the caravan on the weekend, cook delicious healthy meals, sometimes hold parties for the friends. Discuss life & films and music, play some music and being one with mother earth, and just live my short life with my husband, my family, hopefully up to 99 here in this earth, accepting the fact that I don’t have to be anybody or have a career in advertising or politics etc etc etc. That’s our shared goal, Bjorn and I, and as long as we just keep that vision in our heads and make sure that in every action we make, every step we take is going in that direction and not backwards, we are safe, sane and will be happy.

I am super sure of this because I see so many people my age, 30 years old around me, working in their soul destroying jobs, depressed, sad, miserable, life just flashing by them only really living a small portion of it, youth just passing by. And I picture myself maybe 60 years old, retired and living in my fancy condo in Singapore, fat and unhealthy, and looking back at this time, 30 years old, which would I regret more… travelling and seeing the world and changing my life? Or staying in advertising in one place? The answer is a no-brainer.

We need to start living life the moment we feel we can. Not be dragged through it with an invisible ball and chain in the office. Going for meetings, replying emails, staying back late, eating unhealthy food, sitting in air conditioning, missing out on the real world.

We need more of Jack Johnson to tell us that seeing a rainbow is more beautiful than a job promotion. And the Beatles to show us there’s so much creativity in the world, if we only have space in our lives to pursue them. More Pauls to say we’re ahead of the game, quality of life! More Lai Hocks to tell us if our motivations are right, we will receive. More Robert Dunns to assure us that we are the sane ones, others out there are the ones that are mad. And for me, the very first inspiration of this rebelliousness – adbusters. Thank you so much for showing me that the norm as we know it isn’t the only way.

So after all that, we realize we need to listen to our soul’s voices a lot more. As a lot has been revealed to me just by being quiet and listening what it is I really want. Feeling the inner peace inside of us – what Sergio said at GUI’s talk that day. There can be no permaculture, no saving the planet, without spirituality. It’s all in our hearts, we need to discover it. That’s why we’ve signed up for a one week meditation retreat in these Bali hills beginning next week. (Its nice I don’t even know what day it is today). That’s an action, a decision to do something that will contribute to our future end-goal. We hope that we will have clearer perspective of our next steps by learning how to meditate and finding inner peace.

Singapore has the wrong environment for any of these. I don’t get to be the housewife I want to be as it isn’t my house. We are apart from nature almost completely. We are merely existing there. Here in Bali now, albeit not our permanent home, we are living. We are learning, discovering, exploring, and interacting.

Next week, Bjorn and I will be attending Bali Usada meditation retreat in the mountains in central Bali. We have never attempted anything like that before, but it seems that we are drawn to it, curious and hungry to learn wisdom from within. We’ll let you know how it goes…

Listen...

2010-01-13T09:21:00.003Z

Never stop being curious. As long as we are always curious about life, we will never stop learning and growing and improving ourselves. I am blessed because I was born with this innate sense of curiousity. I've always seeked to find the meaning of things, understand what the hell everything is all about. We need to listen more, say less and pay attention to our own body, mind and surroundings. That's key to a life that's more authentic.

Musings from Bali

2010-01-08T05:05:00.003Z

Just got back to Singapore and did the night shift at grandmas wake so feeling a bit zonked.

But here's a copy paste of stuff I wrote on our last evening in Bali on MS word and didnt have internet connectino to update:

6 Jan 2010
Senu Pension, Umekuta village, Bali 6pm to 9pm

Sweat

I think we perspired more in the last 5 days than we ever did in 2009. But that’s most forgivable because we were in Europe for most of it. What’s scary is that when working full time in Singapore, I actually remember avoiding perspiring for almost all of the year as well (2006 perhaps). I slept in air con, took the air con cab/bus to work. (very little walking in the open air in between), ate at an air con food court for lunch, drank at an air con pub at night (some times open air, but by evening time its cool already), then dinner at home in air con or cool fan and the whole thing repeat. What about exercise? Yes only if I visited the gym perhaps. But our gyms are blasted with so much air con, you don’t sweat for very long and very much.

Living in an air conditioned world divides us further from the natural world. As if buildings and roads isn’t enough. We don’t even want to breathe the fresh air. Oh but Singapore is so hot everyone says. Yes it is, we’re bang on the equator. But what I really think makes Singapore unbearably hot is that most of the time, we’re surrounded by too much concrete, too much traffic and too many people. I can’t speak for all Singaporeans (there are a lot of Singaporeans who still don’t use air con at home and do lotsa outdoor activities like my own mother). But for me, and I speak for many ‘office workers’ like me who work in the city, it’s truly horrible being in the heat in Singapore.

This time in Bali, we decided to rent a little cottage in a rice farming village near Ubud, we are surrounded by so much and I really mean, so so so much green it feels amazing. Rice padis, coconut trees etc. I still feel the heat, (and am enjoying the company of creepy crawlies of all sorts), but being surrounded by nature cools me down. The sun will set eventually, the breeze will come if you wait and the rain will give away to coolness. There’s a balance that’s already programmed in nature evolved over millions of years. Yeah, we know how hot it can be, especially at midday, so don’t go walking in the sun at midday! We know there are mozzies around, so cover up and wear loose cool clothes and grow natural mosquito repellants! There’s a natural and easy solution to most inconvenience we experience in nature. The short cut is using air conditioning that sucks up so much energy we rape from mother earth just to pretend we’re in Europe for a while.

Benefits of an air-con less world

- Tons of energy saved from NOT producing aircon units, shipping them around the world and power to run them.
- Sunshine and being tanned is healthy and native people need not worry about skin cancer because of years of evolution and adaptation
- Fresh air (applicable only if you are in an area with fresh air outside!)
- Air con air is not fresh, it is recycled and therefore gross!
- One gets disconnected from the ‘outside world’ and becomes dependant on feeling cool artificially. Lose innate ability to cool oneself down
- Not perspiring means the body doesn’t release toxins it wants to.

Advantages of air con in a tropical humid place.
- Keep ‘comfortable’ and cool, so one can forget what an ugly atrocity of a city they live in.
- Clothes won’t stick to you.
- Body odor under control
- Ability go without shower for longer periods of time
- Keep mosquitoes and creepy crawlies out.

I live now with my in laws in a new-built little condo apartment on upper east coast road. And its obvious that whoever designed the house took no consideration whatsoever in ventilation of air. It doesn’t take a building expert to tell that the place is an oven. There is absolutely no air flowing through the apartment in all rooms and the concrete walls the & glass doors boil in the midday heat.

Right this very moment, we’re experiencing a powercut here in the cottage. Powercuts are common in Bali and its especially intense now as the sun is setting fast, natural light is fading and we don’t have the whirl of the fan or the noise of the tv distracting us from the sounds of nature. A cow is mooing ever so longingly for something im not sure what. Perhaps she’s bulling. We heard the cute ‘cukoo’ of the gecko I think Henny told us about. She says they are worth millions of dollars apparently! Coz the Balinese believe they are very spiritual or something. Now the dogs are going off, I hear a motor bike and even voices of men, perhaps 100 or even 200m away. And then there’s the orchestra of frogs, crickets and other insects singing away. This is the song of nature and how ironic that one can buy a CD of the ‘sounds of nature’ to distress and fall asleep when there are so many rural parts of the world one can experience this already. If we were in this exact spot, but sitting indoors in aircon, we would never be able to experience all this.

Wise words from Made, our Balinese herb walk guide cum herb grower, he said these all within our 3 hour tour and I recall all these by memory:

* Balinese believe that sky is man and earth is woman. When it rains, sky and earth meet like a man and a woman. But when you pave the road and put concrete down, you divide the two.
* The 3 tier philosophy – Good from human to human, human to environment, human to god.
* Most rice farmers are also artists. One reason is to supplement their income as rice farming will not make you a very wealthy man. And also they are just artists at heart. They gain inspiration from nature. All nature inspires Balinese art. Like the fluttering leaves of the coconut tree, it is mimicked in the traditional Balinese dance. Destroy nature, and inspiration will be destroyed.
* Trees that are taller than human are sacred and should not be cut down. Big temples usually have a very large tree that will protect and give shade and protection to the people and the gods/shrine.
* Ducks are nature’s cleaners, organic pesticides for farmers. Balinese believe that when you eat an animal, you take on a little bit of their characteristics. And to eat a duck is to take on wisdom and intelligence, because they work so well, eating all the insects and being an overall good animal.
* All Balinese make sure their heads face north when they sleep, as they pray to the 3 big lakes in the north that provide their land with irrigation for rice, and thus, for life. When they pray, they face north. A charming evidence of how the western concepts of geography has not touched these people - for people living in the north, they still say they face ‘north’ when they pray, when technically speaking they are facing polar south. That’s because their lakes are the centre of their world, it is their ‘north’. Not what westerners tell them north is.
* If you have human on one side and nature on the other, and you live your life always in the middle somewhere, you will be a happy and good person.
* Frangipanis – We asked Made what he thought of the Frangipanis getting this rust disease all over the island. Apparently, it’s a problem. But Made said that its happening because there are frangipanis everywhere when there used to be grown only in temples. He said when there’s too much of one thing, disease will come and take them away. Hinting again, that this is nature’s way of preserving balance in the world. It was an Avartar Jake Sully moment there, feeling like the ignorant child, focusing about only one small problem I see before me, not acknowledging the bigger balance in our world, and how we all need that balance to survive.
* Everyone has their choice. Everyone chooses their path, you cannot chose it for them.
* There is never 100% good in anything. In everything and everyone, there’s a good part and there’s a bad part. And therein lies the struggle in life, to try to have good triumph over bad.
* Life is 90% your own work and decisions, 10% destiny.

Earth's KY

Tasha, the lady we're gonig to stay with and help her build her cob buildings (mud & straw) is this real cool chick originally from New york but has been ‘stuck’ in bali and decided to just live in the land with her daughter and mother. It’s so cool. She says that taking all that oil from the earth is like taking the KY from mother nature. All this stored energy on earth was perhaps put here for a reason. We discovered it and now can do amazing things our ancestors never dreamed of.

Hunger

I’ve notice a different experience of hunger when in Singapore and when not. When wwoofing, the hunger is real. Its not funny, doesn’t kid. My body screams for energy replacement and it better get it. Of course, great wholesome organic fresh food is just delightful to the body and the continuous exchange of energy is harmonious and balanced. Not to mention shiok. But coming back to Singapore where I miss so much of our Singaporean food, the experience is kindda disappointing. Yes I do get hungry, but it’s the weak, pathetic kind of hunger. Definitely guilt has a part to play in there somewhere. Eating all that unhealthy food and not burning it at all anywhere is horrible! Sleeping in aircon then coming out to eat, then sitting in aircon car driving somewhere, then eating… all totally undeserved and fake. And now here in Bali, with all the sweating and walking in the blazing sun… the hunger I feel here is wicked. And eating the street Balinese food, perhaps despite being not super healthy and a tad too spicy, is probably fresh and if its good for the locals, its good enough for me. The portions are small too, so I haven’t yet felt the horrible guilt bulge of binging on too much too rich. All the waste and toxins released through the pores of my skin almost brings me closer to my peasant ancestors who probably toiled the farms for centuries in southern china. I’ve always attributed my love for rice (and my scary appetite for huge portions of it) to my assumed peasantry roots. My whole family is the same. We friggin love our rice and it feeds our soul.

Why should I care?

The challenge I face is not listing the ways we human kind are killing the earth. A lot of people already know plastic bags are bad, using too much energy is bad, driving car is bad. The challenge for me is when as I am explaining and listing all these things to people, I am returned with either a fading attention, or a ‘so what?’ kind of response in one way or another. A ‘I’ll be dead by then’ attitude or a ‘there are so many causes out there right now, save dafur, aids, Cambodia etc, why should I care about the environment and my so called evil corporations?’

I need to approach the world cautiously when explaining this whole new me. How shall I explain it? I need to declutter the messaging:

Being with nature, getting closer to my food, my environment gives me balance and gives me pleasure. I am jaded by the modern city world.

It’s absence of reminders of our place on earth, which is to live in balance with the rest of our related extended family (nature)

Its constant hum of consumerism – urging on to work harder and harder so we can buy more more more. It’s emptying me of my soul and physically exhausting me. Children? I shudder to bring up my children in this world, so I want to seek out a better one for them a more balanced one.

I am not against modernization and technology. Yes I am using a computer that was put together by an underpaid factory girl in China and owned by a giant Japanese tech brand. But I’m using it to good use, will not throw it away just coz I want an upgrade and that already sets a new balance to everything if everyone does the same.

Farming and permaculture is one way we are exploring this more stainable, back to basics lifestyle we want to pursue. Growing our own food is one step to a) reduce carbon footprint on the planet as we don’t need to get it shipped and flown. B) You don’t support the unecessary giant food growers, packagers, processors. C) You don’t support chemical industry that destroy the land in huge acres and acres. D) There’s just something in feeling the dirt between your fingers, seeing your plant grow and bear fruit that is so healing and rewarding. E) Health, you know exactly what you put into it and no or little processing involved.

5 days

2010-01-06T06:31:00.001Z

I love travel because it always brings about heightened senses. The dulled brain suddenly awakens to everything foreign and different.

We've been here in Bali for 5 days, and already, our lives are not the same anymore. We have been staying in a little cottage in Umekuta village, 25 mins drive from Ubud, with no hot water or air con. But already its luxury compared to what the Balinese farm life is all about. And we've met a few incredible people already. It's amazing, the speed of which one can find people who are like minded and like hearted. Gede and Darsi from Bai runga farm, Made from Utama Spice, Tasha building her cob house, and Lenkong & Lisa from Fair Trade Indonesia.

But alas, we have to go back to Singapore for a short while, my dearest grandma has passed on, her soul and body returning to the earth and we have to get the next flight back home. So our journey is put on hold for awhile to take care of family for now.

Will elaborate further on the 5 days we've had so far. Leaving this wifi cafe to get back to pack.

Bali begins 2010

2010-01-01T08:33:00.005Z

I think this is the first time that the 'new year' and its celebrations, resolutions, wishes etc dont really mean much to me. When we were studying or working full time and all that, this was a time of reflection of the year gone by and it was also a break from work. I think also, I've never before looked back at the year and said - what an awesome year it has been. It truly was.

One year ago on 1st Jan 2009, we were already on the path of moving away from our old lives and into the new. We were already serving our resignation notice and planning for the great wwoofing adventure ahead of us. I remember waking up in our Camden flat, with a throbbing hangover from a bit too much the night before (HH and Birdy, thanks for that wonderful NYE we spent on Primrose hill where HH saved my life from an oncoming car). I just felt so relieved that the awful 2008 had past and we were on our way to salvation. But today, I look back at 2009 and know that it was a year we learnt so much, grew so much, changed so much for the better. We didnt just let life flash by us in a blurry daze. We took life into our own hands, got out there and lived each day fully, savoured the gifts of nature and wonderful people and new experiences around us. We were slaves to no one but to our own priorities. We were free.

In a couple of hours, we will be on a plane to Bali. Our beloved Bali. The charming, magical island that Bjorn and I fell in love with and at, took so many of our holidays and get got married in. We will be wwoofing with Gede, a young Balinese farmer in his organic farm, and helping Tasha, a Helpx host build her cob houses in the country side. Although we've been to Bali several times, this will be the first time we'll not be staying in the touristy places but instead, be in the villages with the local people. We are staying a month this time, not a measly couple of days. There's so much we want to do there in Bali besides wwoofing though. I want to learn to surf. Take some yoga lessons. Maybe even try detoxing (never done it before and really should). After wwoofing in Europe for the last couple of months, we're so happy to be closer to home and learning more of what our gorgeous part of the world has to offer. South East Asia. All my life, I never really appreciated what it means to be here. But I think now, lots more people, especially Singaporeans are more curious to discover the beautiful corners of our region.

I hope I havent bored you guys with endless words and no photos. We just havent been all that on the ball with photos. Bjorn's dad passed me his old iphone with a camera which should prompt us to take more photos!

Happy new year to everyone.... and here's wishing you the courage to pursue your dreams in 2010!

Will I ever be cured of this insanity?

2009-12-28T16:00:00.007Z

For the first time in my life, I think I am more in tuned with how my body and mind and spirit feels and how external influences affects it. I never did before and never understood people who did.

We just spent Christmas and 5 days in Hong Kong with Bjorns family and my whole self is so much more affected by the experience than ever. For one, we just ate too damn much. And it wasnt just the huge quantities of food, but also the excessive rich nature of it all. Steak, foie gras, goose, lamb, sashimi, I dont know... everything indulgent you can think of that we can get in a wonderfully gastranomically leading city like HK. 3 huge meals a day, and between that, we just negotiated the madness crazy streets and shopping malls. Some say its ok to eat so much because we 'walked alot'. Makes sense, but I still didnt feel good. My jeans got tighter, my body heavier, more tired more sluggish. By the time we were on the plane back home, I was feeling edgy and was almost in tears every hour or so for no reason. I knew then, that I just wasnt feeling good. I felt disgusting. I felt I let myself down and made a pig of myself. I ate so much rubbish, unethical, rich food and gave nothing back. I didnt earn it, I didnt deserve it. It was all about getting to a restaurant, stuffing our faces, then waiting till the next time we're hungry enough to repeat the same. To think we were looking forward to this so much the whole 6 months we were wwoofing. We imagined all the delicious chinese food we'd be able to have and salivate. But now that we have it, I am feeling shit.

The other thing to do in HK is shopping. We didnt shop really, but we spent lots of time in shopping centres just walkinng around and waiting for the next meal. I got to see how people shopped, how I used to shop. Women in all shapes and sizes all trying to fill their lives with new nice things that will surely make them look prettier, express their personalities more, or whatever. At the swish 5 star hotel we stayed in, there were mirrors ALL OVER the room. Every possible surface was a full length mirror. Sure, it made the room look bigger, but it also made my thighs look bigger, my tummy rounder and everything else I was fine with before look not so fine. How clever, I thought. Put mirrors in these rooms to make women who just had a buffet lunch feel shitty about themselves so they can go out and shop themselves out of their misery. It was genius. For the economy. Wwoofing for the last 6 months in farms, we had so little access to mirrors and how wonderful that was. Sarah, our wwoof host in Cornwall said she prefers not to have mirrors in her house because she rather see her own reflection reflected back at her through the people in her life instead of through mirrors. I am only beginning to understand how that works now.

Back to food. For the last few weeks (and especially the last 5 days) ... I had no idea where all the meat, vegetable, rice, noodles I ate came from. I dont know which country they were flown from, how old they were when slaughtered, how they were slaughtered, whether they were male or female, how they lived. Whether the veg we ate were sprayed with what kind of insecticides, what kind of chemicals were added etc etc etc. All I know is that it tasted really really good. But it was good in a way that wasnt the same kind of goodness in knowing where it all came from. It was tasty, salty, fragrant etc. It was delicious, in the kind of familiar Singaporean way of describing good food. It was just about how it was cooked. Any information or background prior to the cooking method was not important. Inconsequential. Who cares?

Now I sit here, on our bed, writing this post, past midnight and I dont feel tired because I didnt and havent done any vigirous physical activity for a while now. Today I had

a) Pork chop curry with rice at the Char can tang this morning
b) Stir fried chicken with fungus and some greens with rice on the plane (the veg looked frightfully bright green. Almost luminous)
c) Bak chor mee (mee pok soup) from Bedok for dinner

GROSS.

But I had a choice! Why am I lamenting and bitching about what I put into my mouth when clearly, I can say NO THANK YOU and just eat a fruit or something. Of course I can. And I knew if I did, I probably be in a better off position right now, feeling great about myself. And that's the thing isnt it? I am not walking the walk. I can talk talk talk about saving the planet and all. But look at me. Look at us. We've been super eco sinners. I wanna cry. This is how we've been brought up. For most years of my life, this has been the way. My taste buds cant just change overnight. I crave this shit and I gave in. Its going to take time to unbrainwash ourselves. And I quote from my lastest favourite move - Avartar "We will teach him the way of the N'avi people. And we'll see if we can cure him of his insanity."

I see now that this so-called "normal life" we live of constant bingeing on excessive good food we think we're entitled to and shopping to fill our half-empty lives and nurture our insecurity is INSANE.

Today's Straits Times Home section talked about how wayward teen problems are rising. And it says that alot of teens from low income families turn to gangs and crime because they need to support their desire for branded goods and going drinking and clubbing. My heart sank. How different is this from turning to crime to support a drug addiction? The difference is that the ones that are benefiting from this isnt some drug lord but corporations that own those stupid brands and the government earning tax money from the alcohol and ciggarettes they buy.

These teens, were not unlike Bjorn and myself when we were kids. They just come from less privileged background and were misguided by this materialistic world they see. The only world they know. The only world we knew as well. This insane world.

Didn't expect this post to be so long. I'm not good at short and punchy I guess. But I had to get it off my chest. I think I feel tired enough to sleep now. I hope for dreams of the N'avi people as I sleep and maybe tomorrow morning, I will crave fruit and water only.

Singapore is a Freak of Nature

2009-12-21T18:23:00.004Z

For all nature's history it was never possible for our species , or any species for that matter to be able to occupy a geographical space more than the space can sustain the people. This means we could never be more people on island than there could be food in that area to feed it.

That was until the industrial revolution changed everything, and made transportion of goods and trading a thing of norm. Thats the only way Singapore, a size of our island can 'sustain' all 5 million of us.

Without our airflown fruit and veg and meat from all over the world (more and more from further and further away like Australia, a good 5 hour to 9 hour flight away depending which part), Singapore would never be able to get so dense in population. All our food (and everything else) arrives in our airports and at our port. We're literally a freak of nature. No other country is really like us, we're the one of a kind. And 100% man made. And I think our accolade of having the largest man made waterfall in the world says alot about who we are and what we take pride in.

Most big cities are freaks of nature as well, but super metropolis like London and Tokyo at least still can probably get their food by trains, by bicycle or even by bloody foot if other oountries won't (or cant) sell us stuff anymore. But us in Singapore, we have no resources and we have no where to run if everything suddenly stops working and we stop receiving what we ordered.

Singapore is like the Titanic, an independant floating vessel carrying too many people than health and safety should allow, and surrounded by water. Both, too ambitious for its time. Charging forward too fast for its own good.

And seeing how we're developing recently, feels like the moments just before the Titanic sinks. All glitzy and flashy... hosting the Formula One (first night time formula race), buildings like the Singapore Flyer (biggest one at the moment) and ION (tallest residential building in the world), and opening 2 Integrated Resorts at the same time. Everyone living it up, oblivious to the disaster nature is about to unleash on us.

We gotta grow own food man. Who wants risk relying on the delivery guy for all the days of your life? It's crystal clear that to ensure a sustainable future, we got to quit relying so much on the whole import export thing. We're living in a very precarious situation here man. Dense as hell. 200 families living in one block. We're vertical slums. Even if we made every rooftop garden to grow food, every football field to veg plots, every green patch, will that we be enough?

If we're not careful, if we're not far sighted enough, Singapore might not survive the next 500 years. We did well for the last 150 or so. Will we just be short bright spark instead of a long warm fire in history books of the far future? I wonder. And how much longer will the spark be alight?

All I know is that I dont want to be around when we sink.

Guilty...

2009-12-18T07:06:00.004Z

Tsk tsk tsk.

Since we've been back, we've not been very good. Here's a list of bad things we've been up to:

1. Have been driving the car everywhere.

2. The only walking we've done has been in shopping malls. (and to and from the car to our house)

3. Have been eating anything we see we like without any concern for its impact on the world. Lunch today was the 'freshest' salmon airflown from Norway.

4. We've been 'hiding' in our air conditioned bedroom at about 21 degrees celsius, showering with hot hot water at perhaps 40 degrees celsius.

However, the good stuff are:

1. We havent really spent any money yet, not buying into the whole consumerism shit. Next week we're going to Hong Kong and that will be a true test of our will against the glitz of the shopping malls.

2. Not sure if this one counts, but bjorn has sworn to quit instant noodles and me, to quit luncheon meat. Yes... those yummy delicious guilty snacks we grew up with. Our minds brainwashed to love and our tastebuds to savour. Gone, quit, never ever.

3. Im having trouble looking for another point here. Sad eh?

We need to not forget all the stuff we've learnt. We've only been back a couple of days, so will not start a revolution yet. I suppose.

We might have a chance...

2009-12-15T17:27:00.005Z

So we just got back to Singapore. Days are mixed up with nights and we're jet lagged like anything. We've been following the rhythm of nature so closely for the past six months... working when the sun shines and resting when its down... I think recovering from this jetlag will take a little longer than usual.

Meeting interesting inspiring people is the best thing about travelling and best thing about this new life we're entering. The last 2 weeks with Jordi Pedro has truly been educational and we've taken away so much from the man.

This evening we met Lai Hock at sempang bedok for teh allia. He's the founder of GUI - Ground Up Initiative and one hour wasnt enough to hear him tell us about the whole organic/ self sustainability/ reconnecting with the land movement in Singapore. Friendly, easy going and most generous with his time, he left his IT job of 11 years and backpacked all over the world for 4 years before coming back to Singaopore to start this. He shared with us what was happening locally, his plans for an educational centre and the prospects of enlightening everyday Singaporeans of an alternative way of life without killing oneself with consumerism and soul destroying jobs.

Today my mother asked me today - Is the work hard? I replied... its no harder than going to the gym for an hour's kick boxing or puffing away on the stairmaster. The difference is that instead of paying a company, spending airconditioning, electricity etc to work out where the energy i output just goes nowhere, the energy output from me goes into producing healthy wholesome organic food for my body, and the earth/soil benefits from the work. Yes wheelbarrowing soil and straw and sand and rocks from one place to another is back breaking. Weeding for hours on end strengthens the thigh muscles (from all the repeated standing and squatting). Harvesting olives while in a tree helps my balance and core muscles. Turning compost definitely brings the heart rate up. And what do we get rewarded with? Fabulous, fresh, organic food.

You know, there hasnt been a single time, or a single thing in my whole life that I can wholeheartedly say... I love doing, feels complete, and feels whole and truly good for me and good for this world. Hahaha... I know at some point I've got to be less whimsical about describing this new way of life we're carving for ourselves. But I just cant help it! Lai Hock explained what the ethos of GUI was today... essentially... Reconnecting people with the earth, Healing the land and the human spirit. Coz that's what's happening to us. Bjorn and I. In the process of connecting with the earth, in the process of healing the land, we're healing ourselves... body, mind and soul. You may ask --- why do we need 'healing'? Were we sick? No shit, of course we were. In so many levels as well. Not just health wise with the highly processed chemical foods we're eating (I'm quitting luncheon meat as of today and Bjorn is quitting instant noodles), but we were so diseased with this modern life of excessive spending and consuming, ignorant of the impacts our daily actions have on the environment, exploitation of people less fortunate countries we cannot 'see'. The whole out of sight, out of mind attitude most Singaporeans were brought up with. Dont give a shit where my rubbish goes, as long as its gone. Dont care where the oil comes from to drive our cars, where the electricity comes out from my wall. Dont care who the underpaid bangladeshi lady who sewed my H&M jeans is. Dont care how the chicken lived or how much antibiotics was injected in my chicken wings or how patheticly paid the rice farmer was paid for my bowl of rice today. We need to change all this. We need to fucking care, and if not to care, at least be aware.

This 'farming' thing isnt just about farming, growing food, gardening or plants. It's much much more.

The evolutionary reason of why humans seem to feel better and have their spirits uplifted when being close to the earth and being with nature/plants is coz we used to rely directly on our crops for our survival. Most people on the earth for thousands of years were directly reliant on the land. In the last 100 years, immigration to the city means that now more than half the population on this planet living in big cities. More than half! The direct connection is no longer there. Middle men, factories, processing plants, resellers, traders, ports... they are all now in the middle. Thus... the need to 'reconnect'. We have to remind ourselves that city living and apartments and supermarkets is only a recent phenomenon in the history of human kind. Half the world's population has gone 'sick'. And we need to quickly start the healing process, otherwise it will be too late.

We hope the Copenhegan talks this week will make a difference. I'm sure very exciting things will happen in our lifetimes.

Climbing trees, harvesting olives...

2009-12-07T18:13:00.007Z

The last week at Jordi's in Balaguer, Catalunya of Spain has been really really fantastic. Olive harvesting is not as backbreaking as I had anticipated. But we've only done 4 days of it... 5 hours each. If you had to do it for 2 months straight I guess it takes its toll. The method we use is with a 'comb' and we brush the olives off their branches. Its quite a sweet, elegant and nurturing process if you ask me. And time goes by really quickly when you're working a tree. I also get to climb these 300 year old (estimated) trees like a monkey. Always loved climbing trees when I was little, but I never really had many chances to in Singapore. Human evolution have probably given children instincts to climb trees as it was a way of getting out of harms way of predators and floods (or parents). Overall, its enjoyable. Considering its the ONLY thing we've done and will be doing for the coming week.

Jordi is one good guy. He's a teacher, speaks almost perfect english, and french as well as spanish and catalan. He volunteers at a hospital once a week taking care of cancer patients. He helps with blood donation drives. He grows about 80% of this own food and food for us. Is an incredible cook (really really). And grows these cancer curing plants calls - Kalanchoi all over his small apartment. There are probably heaps of other things he's involved in as well, but one things for sure. He's a good guy and we enjoy doing work for good people.

We're at our final week of wwoofing now. In a week's time, we'll be back in Singapore. So many dreams I've been having, strange ones of us coming back home and its all weird. We're definitely looking forward to the food. We've already made a list of places and things we wanna gorge on when we are back. Muthu's curry, fei fei wan tan mee, siglap mee pok ta, katong laksa, the list goes (painfully for us no) on and on. Anyway,... hope to see u all soon. :)

One week, two cities

2009-11-30T22:51:00.003Z

Where have the days gone?

We left Fuerteventura, leaving the safe haven of our surrogate spanish family on a beautiful island into the big bad world. Yes we flew to Madrid last Wednesday, intending to spend a couple of days there when we got pick pocketed in the Metro on the way to the cit centre from the airport. Some champions league football game was just over and the metro was spilling with people. Shitty thing was that we just withdrew money from the airport so we literally lost the spending money we took out for the few days. So shitty we felt, honestly. We just felt like a couple of country bumpkins first time in a big city or something. We were not on our guard like we should be. Saavvy travellers we thought we were... NOT.

But we got to our hostel in Sol ... and the people there were really friendly, staff and fellow travellers. We settled into the noisy Madrid craziness really quickly and got stuffed with lotsa jamon bocadillos, tapas, gambas, tortillas, vino tintos and cervezas. It's easy to forget ones troubles in the flurry of good food, good drink and street buskers. Madrid was a little too mad for me. I think we're starting to discover really how the city life thing just always doesnt work out as well for us.

Anyway, after 2 museums, 1 palace, 5 tapas place and lotsa walking around, we left madrid for valencia to the east. The temperature rised a little, it was about 12 degrees in madrid and 16 degrees here in Valencia. Our room in Home Hostel was quiet, cosy and the beds are sooo comfortable. As a traveller, you just never know what kind of bed you are going to end up in when you go to someplace new. And here, its soooo nice and soft and the duvet is soft and cosy, and the sheets feel expensive.

We've had paella 5 times in the 2.5 days we;ve been here. Yes hardcore I know, but we freaking love paella - chinese people la, like to eat rice, what to do?. The food here is super. After being in northern europe - specifically the British Isles for so long, I've forgotten what its like to be in a country where food is a big thing to people. Its what I've grown up with in Singapore, eating to live. Its a given. 95% of people I know i Singapore are foodies (shout out to the 5%... I dont know how you guys can live with people talking about food all the friggin time if you guys are not into food!). There's a real connection when you meet people who love food too. At the cafes we've been, tapas bars,... when you bite into something, they wait for you to react to it. Coz they care what the food they serve tastes like. Its pride. Good food. My tummy is happy in Spain.

Tomorrow we're going to take 2 coaches to Balaguer, 150 km west of Barcelona to stay with Jordi Pedro and we're going to help him harvest olives in his orchard near by. No idea what to expect. One thing's for sure... they hardly speak English in Valencia. I think I speak more Spanish than they do English sometimes (scary). So in Balaguer, town of 15000 people, itwill certainly be more challenging. We'll see... the final section of journey part uno begins manana.

No words are needed - Our brilliant wwoof at Fuerteventura!

2009-11-20T16:26:00.005Z

What a sweet November we´re having in Fuerteventura.
Despite the language barrier with our hosts, we´re being treated just like family, which is certainly living up to the Canarian/Spanish reputation of ´Mi casa su casa´culture.

Last weekend, we had one of the best weekends ever. No exaggeration. Silverio took all of us, Cati his wife and two kids Oma and Nora in their family caravan up North to a remote beach where we spent the day swimming, sun bathing, playing with the children, trashing in seaweed, looking for strange sea creatures and fishing (inlucing gutting and scaling and eating them!). And sweetest of all, we got to camp at night under the stars. Bjorn and I counted about 9 shooting stars during our first night of star gazing together ever.

The Lopez family has captured our hearts with their generousity and warmth. Its hard to explain how priceless these kind of experiences are. No money can buy being invited into a glimpse into a typical Canarian family´s lives. We´ve even fallen in love with this strange flour cereal type thing that they cook with milk. We have it for brekkie every morning its delicious!

Yesterday it was Bjorns birthday and Silverio baked a cake for him and we had a sing song and candle blowing and everything. It was really sweet.

Here are some pics again... of the weekend before we go.

Here´s Nora holding 2 little fishies shes about to scale and gut (terribly). I´ve never seen a tiny child so unqueasy about slimy fish before. It was impressive! Mommy Cati is on the right side of the photo.

Oma and his morbid collection of slimy seaweed to impress Gorgor Bjorn

Kids go crazy with fish!

Bjorn bathed in Sunset

Beach

Happy Nora posing!

Nora took this photo of Silverio ... U can see from the angle it was a little child looking up at her Papiii.

Oasis in the desert mountains

2009-11-11T13:44:00.006Z

We´ve arrived in our new hosts´place and wow what a difference to the UK. Our friendly host Silverio picked us up at the airport with his 2 darling children and we drove into the desert mountains where they lived. We were delighted to find out that we were going to stay in the cottage usually reserved for his paying guests! Shiok la. Click here for his website to see our accomodation. Luxury!

The views - we can say is achingly beautiful and nothing I´ve ever seen before. And their house, simple, handmade and painted, what a real honest casa.

Our first job (and I think will be our main jobs for the next 2 weeks!) is picking up stones from the mountain and building stone walls around his garden. Trust chinese people to build walls! Its in our blood isnt it? Haha. But dont underestimate how hard it is picking up stones and moving them. Bloody hell, our bodies were screaming in protest after about half an hour. Not used to physical work after our almost 3 week rest. But today´s better.

Oh and it like doesnt rain here ever. Last year, it rained 3 days and I think it hasnt rained yet this year. Its a struggle to water his plants and prevent them from dying totally. In England, when the sun doesnt shine, the plants will still grow, albeit slowly. Here, no rain means no life literally. The whole house is powered by solar panels and wind turbine.

The conversations are a little more difficult because of the language barrier but we get by. And the whole family has just been super welcoming and hospitable. It feels a little like we´re in a Spanish foreign film in the desert. With howling dogs and random cactuses here and there. We wont be able to update the blog as often as there´s no broadband or wireless in this rural area. So we will try our best. Here are some pics for now!

Crystal building a stone wall thingie

Our little cottage and a tiny green oasis (that treats & recycles our waste water)

Chillout area with a view (excuse the unsightly mop)

Bjorn pointing to our very first wall we made in our lives!

Back to work!

2009-11-09T12:39:00.002Z

Today, our wwoofing break comes to a close! 2 and a half weeks of eating anything we want, waking up anytime want, doing whatever we want, catching up and being hosted with great old friends are over for now. And we are on our way to Fuerteventura -to stay at Atalaya de la Rosa del Taro with our new host Silverio and his family for 2 weeks. Cant wait actually!

But before we leave - would like to say thank u to Lavina, Bharat and Shaira (And little snoopy) for being such wonderful hosts in the past week in their lovely home in Gran canaria. What a gorgeous island with gorgeous weather and people. Awesome.

Here they are at the beach yesterday. Thank u guys! Smoochies.

The canary Islandssssssssss...........

2009-11-04T19:22:00.002Z

We're here in Gran Canaria for a week, staying with an old friend from Poly days and having a lovely lovely time in the hot weather! Here, we're able to go to the beach, lie on the sand in our swimming gear and when the wind blows, it isnt freezing. There had been only one week of this weather we had in the UK this summer, so this feels niiiice :).

Loads had gone on since we paused our wwoof adventure. We havent got much to report here on the blog simply because, despite the acitivity filled days, we dont have much to say about it really. For me, being in nature, the wild inspires me. And the concrete of Amsterdam and London has left us with not very much interesting things to say. Of course, it has been awesome to catch up with so many people. But in terms of anything inspiring or life-changing wwoof blog - worthy.

We did for a while, contemplate returning to London again to return to the rat race. Get a job, a flat, a life and all. There are so many people now we know in London. Its so so easy to just fall back into that. And just thinking of our own little space in the city again, makes me feel like we should totally do it. It will be our new Singapore. But do we really want that? Or was it just a distraction? What is the distraction?

And just to make everyone jealous, here's a pic of us bathing in the sunshine in the Canary islands where we'll be spending the next 3 weeks at, while we contemplate our future.

In transition....

2009-10-28T14:05:00.003Z

After a slightly crazy weekend in Amsterdan, this week in London will be nice and busy! The whole world is in London these days. Meeting up with people from the past, the future, the present... all strange and true. For once, London feels a bit like singapore. Where having friends, means you have a life. Or does one really? Socialising every day outside work seems to be the most favourite past times people generally have. But over-socialising also means you leave little time for other things.

Anyway, it's just one week. And after this, we'll be in Spainfor 6 weeks, with 5 of those week again meeting new people, introducing ourselves over again and again. Then after, its back to Singapore!

Goodbye Phantassie, goodbye Scotland

2009-10-21T11:53:00.003+01:00

And after 3 weeks and a bit, it's time to leave again. :( We really had a great time here. We're so happy that we had the opportunity to work with the local full time staff here. Liz the head gardener, who lives in a cottage on the premises as well. Rose, the assistant gardener also living in the caravan nearby. Tony, a part-timer and wwoof mom who just took care of all our wwoofers needs during our stay. He even got us extra pillows when we asked! Very grateful. And there's Fiona, & Louise, the stables ladies who pack the orders, Rory the very hilarious egg man, Luisa who does all the admin, Addie driver come cool music studio guardian, Cameron also driver come food forager (picked us some delicious mushrooms once!), Douglas our eccentric 70 year old chicken man who doesnt stop working, David who takes care of the grounds, James the handyman and mechanic... all wonderful East Lothian folk that we got to know and enjoy each other's companies. There's a lovely little comradery amongst everyone. A mutal understanding and feeling that we're just all in this together and let's get along and have a good time doing it. 'This'- meaning life in earth in general! Phantassie Organics is an unintentional community. And maybe that's the best kind, as it just grew out of different purposes and organically (excuse the pun).

Feeling sad we're leaving Scotland in general. It just dawned on me yesterday that we're leaving Scotland. Didnt expect that the land would have this affect of me. We'll be back.... we will.

This kind of completes our UK wwoof journey for this year. Started 15 June 2009, and wrapping up 22 Oct 2009. Started with the sun set at 10:30pm at night, and from next week, it will set around 6pm. The autumn leaves are stunning right now. And I feel a little bad for 'abandoning' this land we've been living on and travelling on for the past couple of months. I feel bad for not 'seeing through' nature that we've been following so closely for so long. And a little hypocritical to escape to Spain after this. Just when we were getting ok with the cold. Maybe thats why people don't plan ahead when they travel, but instead, just plan as they go. Then you will do what you feel like doing best. Next time... maybe next time.

Twinkle twinkle little stars

2009-10-17T22:27:00.004+01:00

If I had to pick just one reason, only one reason why I prefer to live in the country and not the city... the reason has to be - the stars. Might have mentioned stars before in the blog, but it's truly one of those things thats quite out of this world (almost literally!) and worth mentioning all the time. In fact, its a wonder how we can forget about them during the day. When we look up in the sky, like in today's sky, we saw the bluest sky blue, and a few clouds made by aeroplanes. We dont see the stars because the sun's light overpowers. We forget that there are billions of other planets, galaxys, quite possibly intelligent life other than ourselves out there. During the day, we're pretty much thinking we're all alone in this. Going about our busy day, working, living, etc. Then at night, on a clear night, without any light pollution, the most spectacular show is put on display. More stunning, heart-grabbing, profound than any other 3D, special effects, fireworks display etc can ever try to create. The stars... oh my god. And if you have a wider sky above you, with less buildings and such,.. you get wider angle view of it all.

Think me whimsical, think me idealistic and foolish. But if you are not able to be astounded as a clear sky with stars, so clear u can see the white glistening band of the milky way, containing the billions of planets and solar systems, just like ours all sharing one galaxy (I think I got that right) and feel complete wonder, then I feel sorry for you. Coz that feeling is so real, so immense, gives me tingles from head to toe just thinking of the power I see before my eyes. We need star gazing once in a while to just set everything back to perspective. It does that very very well.

Tonight is one such night. So was yesterday. If it was less cold, I would lie outside to look at it for ages.

Singapore has no stars. You know what I mean,... we can't see them. We never do. There are probably 3 shining things we see, and they probably satelites. It's a sad thing to go through everyday life without seeing stars. And maybe we are the way we've become, is coz we don't get the chance to put things back in perspective as often as other places.

John Muir, bowls and brownies

2009-10-15T18:02:00.004+01:00

We had quite a nice day off today... we went to Dunbar, one of the East Lothian coastal towns here. Had lamb biriyani at the indian local - yums. Then went to John Muir's birth place which was very inspiring! He's an american but scottish born naturalist and conservationist. He friggin loved nature and best of all, a great writer. He dishes out wonderful quotes about nature like 'I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found was really going in.' and 'What is the secret of the mysterious enjoyment felt here - the strange calm, the divine frenzy?' - he says about some wonderful woods or some mountains or something I'm sure.

Then in the afternoon, Ralph showed us wood turning, and we made 2 little bowls from blocks of 80 year old local ash tree. They are gorgeous! Heres a photo of them before we oiled them with olive oil:

Then I made brownies which I need to go check now!!!!!!! tata

An apple moment.

2009-10-13T18:23:00.004+01:00

Today we pressed 1000 litre (or as Ris low might say 'little') of apple juice! It was fun, apple-y and juicy. We got to do some cider tastings as well. Yums. Our camera is completely f*$#ed. So no photos. But ahh if only I had a camera. Apples - a wonderful representation of autumn. The few weeks when the leaves turn crispy and fall down to the ground. Lots of rakes come out and start sweeping. It's been quite an apple-y 2 weeks with picking, sorting, pressing. I even baked an apple crumble myself for the first time in my life! Very easy.

It's crazy to remember how only a year ago, we moved into our little camden flat where we had a lone apple tree in our wee garden. And it burst into fruit in a week of us moving in which is really about now last year! (We moved in 3rd Oct last year). It was the first time I bit into an apple that only just fell from a tree. It was a pretty cool feeling. I've been having alot of those lately... that first experience of doing something you've never done before, and it etches a vivid memory of that precise moment forever and ever in my mind. And I was standing by the doorway of that little kitchen, I bit into the green apple, the crisp sweetness hit my tongue and I pulled it back into vision away from my mouth, looked at it, remembering the kitchen marble top in the background and with pure delight and amazement, I said ' Wow' this tastes friggin awesome! And what made it super sweeet, was that we didnt have to buy it with money! It was freeeee! weeeeeeee

Well, of course, nothing is really free. There's the cost of rental, soil, the original cost of buying the apple tree etc. But it felt nice that there wasnt a transaction of cash at the fruit level. I was 'closer' to my food that I would be if I bought it at Sainsbury. There was no orchard owner, no chemical fertilizer company, no machines to pick them up, no waster to wash them, no packer to pack them. No aeroplanes that fly them across oceans, no wooden crates needed to carry them in, no trucks to drive them to sainsbury, no staff to shelve them, no plastic bag manufacturer to package them. Just the apple tree a few feet from my door, the apple, and me. It is a quiet intimate feeling people have when eating the food we grow. The time & effort spent taking care of them from seed, to planting, to feeding it with good organic matter, sunlight & water. All the energy you put into it, you take it back when it goes into our bodies to nourish us. Being 'close' to your food doesnt just mean being physically close to them, but also in quite another level. It's not an emotional level, its something else. Could be spiritual? I think this is fundamentally why the foodies are the ones who want to grow their own food. It flows in your blood. The food we eat. amazing how people aren't bothered much about where it comes from eh? We've become so used to accept that it's ok to live your life at the end of long line of process and steps. The industrial age is at the most dangerous times now, the scariest thing being that majority of the world is oblivious to all that is so wrong! Just living our lives day by day, still accepting plastic bags at supermarkets, not recycling everything we can, eat junk food, because its so easy not to care. To ignore what doesnt matter right now...

What a rant... its only 7pm and its completely dark already. Summer is OVER. But this year, we're not feeling the depression of winter coming on. N-o-i-c-e.......:)

Finding a manageable path

2009-10-07T19:25:00.007+01:00

Life should just be manageable shouldn't it?

I mean, the reason why there's so much stress, depression, mental breakdowns etc is essentially because life has become unmanageable. Whether it be your crappy soul destroying job, rising prices of everything except your own pay, illness of a family member, earthquakes or typhoons... there are heaps of things that can cause life to become unmanageable.

But basically, there are things that are in your control and things that aren't.

What's happening in today's world where Corporations (I use a upper case C because they are now more powerful than any one person or even God) run everything, have influence over everything like world policies, how much things costs (including our very basics like water, food, and of course property), how much we earn. Things have become too big, too unmanageable for little people to figure out what the hell has gone wrong. Issues have become so intertwined – politics, climate change, the banking mess. It's pretty hard for any one individual to know how to get out of this huge global mess we're in. Unmanageable.

Therefore, what we're probably trying to do is try our best to see k a more manageable life. Smaller scale stuff you know. In the words of Robert Dunn (our mushroom wwoof host) – 'Aspiring peasants'. I like that very much. But empowered peasants.

I probably will be looked down upon in Singapore if I decided to give up my career and become a housewife. its seen as a waste in a university education. But education shouldn't just be about getting a good paying white collared job. It's also very much about growing one's own ability to think and be critical and make choices in life that suits you best, finding your own voice and discovering what you believe and stand for in life. And there's so much joy, I've discovered in the simplest, manageable things in life. The freshness and smell of just-washed clothes. Baking muffins. Going for walks. Lying in bed in our caravan with your loved one. Making things with your hands. A warm fire. Writing. I would be content in my life if I earned a living doing manageable, enjoyable things and have extra time to pursue other interests like books, maps, travel, films, world injustice and equiping myself intellectually to make right choices for me and my family.

You must check out this book – Life Inc , I mentioned it in one of my earlier entries, but it's one of those light-bulb moment books. Read it! Or watch the streaming movie on the website.

Eric - our first scottish friend, said about us in the first hour of chatting - that Bjorn and I are Pathfinders (very world of warcraft i know!). Ones who always try and seek out their own paths and unwilling to comply with mediocrity. Lucky ones we are as well, as we are finding our own manageable paths right now, together. And having the opportunity, wwoofing now, to do so.

Its way more common for people in western europe and america to take a year's break from study and work to travel. And for people to live 'alternative' lives like having part time jobs instead of fulltime. Live in mobile homes across the country, moving when a place gets old and unexciting. Affluence in a society brings about choice and diversity. And is Singapore there yet? I believe we are economically, but our asian values and PAP-work-till-you-drop-so-you-can-get-your-5Cs brain washing makes it hard for people to do anything other than what Singapore has to offer. Which is to shop, eat, work, watch tv, party, get hdb flat, 2 kids, frequent short flights to bangkok, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, die. Wherears a care-free, simple life is deemed a wasteful, ungrateful and meaningless life...?! Do we need to become another Japan and wait for suicide rates to soar before we get people taking a break from life and doing stuff they actually want to?

What I'm saying, is that if there is a real real reason to be miserable and live a life you dont like (like u need to stay in a place to look after an ailing parent), then too bad, we feel sorry for you and you're doing the best you can yeah. BUT if you actually can control your life, but still not go for it and instead, blow loads of cash & go into debt for stuff like a car, plasma screens or that LV bags, then I say - Screw you. Dont say you're envious of what we are doing coz we dont need envy that isnt deserved.

Moon gazing, bikes and the lovely Scots

2009-10-05T17:48:00.003+01:00

We've been here at Phantassie one week now and how time flies when you're having a good time.

The weekend was lovely. We tried to ride the bicycles to Haddington – a nearby village but the wind was so strong and bjorns bike had no gears or something. So we turned back. So what did I decide to do then? Take a nap! How lovely. We havent had a 'day in' for about 4 weeks now and its time we deserved one! Hear this – we're not just 'enjoying life' and 'relaxing'. We actually do hard physical work almost everyday and when I have a snoozy afternoon nap on a Saturday, its definitely well deserved!

That evening, Tony, our 'wwoof mom', said it was a good idea to go to the beach with the full moon! And what a brilliant idea it certainly was. There's something really magical about the moonlight falling on nature. The sand, the beach, the trees, the woods. Is all different at night time, yet the same. More seductive and alluring I would say in the moonlight. Only moonlight, no street lights! It was only the next day when I got an email from Mom that I realise it was friggin Mooncake festival! This festival is one that I always always forget when I am overseas. Its coz it doesnt havea definite date on the western calendar. But anyways, I am glad that we spent it gazing at the moon on a remote beach in Scotland. The same moon our dear friends and family gazed at all the way across the globe, eating their moon cakes and lighting their lanterns. Awww...

Pic of Tony, our wwoof mom – from Yorkshire and me:

Phantassie Organics feels like a well oiled machine. Its wonderful. The lines of vegetables are all straighted and they are on top of their weeding almost all the time. The rows are planted just far apart for you to walk on, or crawl on all fours to weed. Perfect system if you ask me. They definitely have something for us to learn and take away. Very inspiring.

And the Scots... oh the Scots. How lovely they all are really. I love the Scots. I love their accent, their friendliness, their warmth, their niceness. Their down-to-earthness. English people can be quite (I now risk offending any of my loyal English readers – please don't, we love you too, but there are differences!) polite and reserved. Especially at the dinner table sometimes. All the proper use of forks and things, how its not right to use your hands to eat and all that. Today, one of the phantassie drivers, a Scottish guy whose name I haven't learnt yet (with a lovely scottish accent) drank soup straight from the bowl and then grabbed a cracker and used it directly to scoop margarine from the tub. Love it. Utensils sometimes just come in between our mouths and the food. Why do we need them for? Lol. In our time here in the UK, it has been the Scots who were always first to strike a conversation, ask if we needed help for anything, open their homes to us, offer to beat anyone up if we were in trouble. And they don't just say it, they really mean it.

I hope this isn't going to the our only travels to Scotland, because the country is beautiful, and the people are beautiful. I'm quite smitten, and had my breath taken away a few times now on a few occasions. And that's quite a lot to say about a country. I feel.

Day one at Phantassie

2009-09-30T17:20:00.003+01:00

What a brilliant first day.

We are totally inspired again! We started the day harvesting the pumpkin patch. Pumpkins of all sizes and shapes - wish I got a photo of it. Its definitely the quintissential autumny thing to do on a farm isnt it? Just feels so good doing real proper farm work again. Working on a big area, breaking our backs, knowing that this delicious food is going into someone's contented belly.

Phantassie is a really nice, chill place with lotsa perm staff working along side wwoofers. We eat together during lunch and have tons of break during the day. Good stuff. Their walled garden is sooo quaint really. Apparently its 150 years old! and here's a picture of farmers then:

We have our own little private caravan and its thefirst place we make our own supper - a nice change, and we can get our rice and noodles / asian food fix as often as we like :)))

Moving on again

2009-09-29T10:22:00.004+01:00

Updates!

Last Friday we left Fraoch Lodge after almost 3 weeks and moving on again...

Stayed in Edinburgh for the weekend as I had to do my IELTS test (stupid english test that cost me 100 pounds to validate my standard of english for our aussie PR application). We stayed with Eric and Alison at his cool pad in Muirhouse - apparently the film and novel Trainspotting was based in that exact building in Edinburgh! Have to watch it again. Anyway... it was a great weekend, staying with our first ever Scottish friends being showed the local ways. Lovely.

Our camera is busted. Sand or soil got into it and it couldnt zoom in or out. So bjorn took the whole thing apart and now the screen doesnt work! So its like taking photos in the old days now, just pointing and shooting and only when we go back and slot the card into our PC, we will see what the hell we took. Quite fun. But sometimes it just doesnt work. ARGH.

Arrived in Phantassie yesterday and it was a very positive welcome! People actually knew our names already when we arrived and everyone was so friendly. We have our very own very clean and comfortable caravan and icing on the cake - every wwoofer has their frst day off! So here we are, just woken up not too long ago and wondering where shall we wonder about on our first day...

Will try to update some more later this week.

OH! Before we forget, we got mentioned in the Wwoof independent's enewsletter! Check it out here - the link might change next month when they archive september's issue but for now it should work. :)

Snaps from Edinburgh:

Eric's pad in Muirhouse...

Old statues

Old buildings

Us halfway up that hill in edinburgh

My 29th year, our first munro!

2009-09-21T18:33:00.004+01:00

For my birthday today, we took the day off and 'bagged our first munro'! A munro is a term for a Scottish mountain above 3000 ft. And the one we went up today, Cairngorm, is about4000ft! But we started quite high already so it was not that long. Still, it was a bloody windy day, a tough climb to top, but once again, well worth it!

Me doing a model pose about 10 min into the hike. Still looking fresh and ready to take on the munro!

Bjorn precariously balancing in the wind!

The painful last bit to the summit!

Finally! Munro number one!

Having a well deserved birthday lunch of a can of tomato sardines and a bun.

So many things to do, so MUCH time!

2009-09-18T17:47:00.005+01:00

Not being employed, not working in the office 5 days a week, 10 hours a day plus 2 hours of commuting, does wonders for the brain and spirit to think and consider other pursuits in life.

When I was employed and being remunerated each month, I didnt feel compelled to 'improve' my life with other skills. Since starting work after university, I have not done any language courses, crafts courses, picked up any new sport (dabbled in wake boarding a bit once, which was where bjorn and i met!), or learnt anything new. All 15 days of my annual leave was preciously reserved for beach holidays where I could veg by the beach/pool, work on a tan and be mentally retarded for X number of days. Weekends were spent just recuperating from usually a 'big' Friday or Saturday - which meant lotsa comfort food, aircon, naps and TV. It was almost like, slaving away in the office & being paid for it is enough to validate my short temporary existence on this planet. Employment filled my life with stuff so I didn't have to bother need to think about what I reeeeaaally wanna do in this life.

Of course, this is just me and that part of my life. There are plenty of people in this world that have good work life balance. That participate in non-work activities like sport and volunteering etc. And I am only making a generalisation based on me.

But now... we have so so many things on our to do list! And we have to prioritise!

1. First aid course - being alone on ben resipol made me realise how ignorant and foolish of us to think that we were capable of taking care of ourselves when we didnt know the first thing about first aid.

2. Bushcraft/Survival skills - If we want to do more outdoor/camping we need to learn basic things like making a fire, building shelter, wild food foraging etc. Think Bear Grylls!

3. Cooking classes - Hopefully cheap and good ones in the neighbourhood comminuty centres. I want to see how people teach cooking, so maybe in the future when we set up our small holding somewhere in australia, we can grow our own organic asian veg and i can hold asian cooking classes from our farm

4. Knitting / Sewing - A lady who stayed at Fraoch lodge was knitting woollen socks and they were gorgeous! And apparently really easy to do. Definitely want to learn this one real soon!

5. Pottery - I love food. And recently, after staying with Tyr who is a super potter and eating off pottery at her place and some other places we've been to, makes me reeeeally keen on finding out more about how to do this. Apparently its not that easy, and u need lots of kit/room. But we'll see!

6. Hill-walking / Trekking - Bring it on! After a couple of hills we have done in Scotland, we're hooked BIG time. Love the exercise, fresh air, nature, stunning views, the streams, the solitude and mostly, the time Bjorn and I get to spend talking and chatting and enjoying each others company while being all alone in the 'wild', one with nature. According to Trail magazine, 'Walking does wonders for the mind, gives people a sense of betterment, and uplifting sense of achievement when you reach a summit and the chance to marvel at the sheer raw beauty of our natural hills and mountains.' - So true lor...

7. Language courses - I feel silly and awful that we're going to be in Spain for about 6 weeks and we hardly know any spanish besides 'Hola' and 'Gracias' and 'Paella' and 'Mi casa su casa'. If theres a way I could do a crash course before we go... hmmmm I'll need to check it out.

8. Travelling..... Oh oh oh, to go to someplace new, to try new cuisine for the first time, speak to locals about their homes, their land, their lives. I find it hard to find words to describe how important I think travel is to build character, expand our views, and humble ourselves at the same time. More more more please!

9. Read more and write more - Have been quite pleased at the number of books I've managed to read in the past couple of weeks. All completely life-enriching books, I'll name a few here that has been particularly good:

- The Omnivore's Dillemma - Michael Pollan
- Life Inc - Douglas Rushkloff
- Confessions of an Eco Sinner - Fred Pearce
- The Ultimate Heresay - John Seymour
- A Brave new world - Aldous Huxley
- No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
- The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

Alrighty, I think there's more to add on this list, but my shower is calling and I say this to those who are employed.... Have a lovely weekend! :) Coz you're going to need it.

Peace out...

Exciting Spain ahead with HelpX!

2009-09-17T09:46:00.002+01:00

Oh so exciting! We just got a reply from a Helpx host (www.helpx.net) that we can come to his farm near Barcelona in early December for Olive harvesting before we head home to Singapore! Olive harvesting!! Always wanted to do that in the mediterranian somewhere but didnt expect we'd get a chance this year! WOW!

Here's a link to the description of the farm: http://www.helpx.net/host.asp?hostID=904&network=3

Unfortunately u can only see photos if you are a member of Helpx. Its a wonderful online community we were recommended by a lady we met in wales that lists volunteer work all around the world! A membership of 18 pounds give u access for 2 years to the whole world's network! Certainly cheaper than wwoof that only lets you get access per country. Even better, you get to read all the reviews of people who've been to these places so basically you can get a sense of whether a place is good or not.

Shroomin' & Walking in the Highlands!

2009-09-15T17:16:00.006+01:00

We've been here at Fraoch Lodge/ Mountain Innovations, in Boat of Garten, Inverness-shire for one week now and its been quite good so far! Highlights have been:

Mushroom Foraging! Andy, our host whose a mountain guide cum mushroom enthusiast took us on our first even into the nearby woods to collect a giant cauliflower fungus thats located in a secret place at the foot of a pine tree! What we discovered is how many varieties there are in these woods! Some are so beautiful fairy tale like toad stools, some just yummy looking and the definitely edible ones we've picked - porcini & chanterelles. Yummeeeeee...

While we didnt pick EVERYTHING we saw, I definitely went on a photo hunt with my camera! To europeans who live in the countryside all their lives, its probably no big deal, but to us, this is WOW amazing!

Edible chanterelles!

Another highlight so far, is on our off day, we got to join in on a hill-walking in the cairngorn highlands! It was a briiiiilliant day. Almost too hot actually. Super blue skies and fantastic views. The ascent wasnt too bad, decent was a little harder, but overall, great day, great group as well!

A group photo at the summit. From left to right.. Bjorn, Andy (our host and guide), Andy (yes another one), Kris, Gee, Amanda, Sheila)

View of Loch Alvie in the background

Being spoilt at Ardna Mushrooms!

2009-09-10T10:08:00.001+01:00

When you move around so much and you leave just when you get to know people, everything feels so brief, without continuity almost. The thing about wwoofing is that you get thrown into the unknown pretty much every couple of weeks. And you learn to adapt. But the most beautiful part of it is that you get the chance to collect so many precious experiences to remember for life.

And that's definitely what our experience at Ardna Mushrooms was to us. For almost 2 weeks, we lived with the quirky & coolest Dunn family (though they will argue that they are not that cool lol) in the most amazing spot on this island so far - the west coast of Scotland. We've been quite spoilt as well, coz we were only allowed to work 4 hours a day! Not a minute more. Sweet eh? So most afternoons we just tinkered around here and there, go for a walk with Marmite (the Dunns black labrador), cycle up and down the loch etc...

Robert and Justine almost live the good life, so to speak (I say almost because we would have pigs not just hens, which they used to but not recently). They have a beautiful house which they restored themselves in a remote beautiful part of scotand, and bringing up 4 children the best possible way they can. From the moment they said that when the children all grow up and leave the house, they want to start becoming more fuller time activists and their passion lie in non-violence protesting. And would happily go to jail in pursuit of justice and equality. It was then, we knew that these 2 nutters and us probably had quite a few things in common :)

Here are some excerpts of our time in Strontian... its so excruciatingly beautiful, with people in the village, equally lovely, we'd definitely go back there again in a heartbeat.

Bjorn harvesting Shitake from 'loafs' of 'logs'. A daily task we do every morning! The aroma of the shitakes is just incredible!

Dinner time with the Dunns! From left... (after bjorn and me) Sam, James, Angus, Justine and Robert - the 'crazy mushroom man'.

Our cozy little caravan.

Having a cuppa at with local compost community club members. We said we'd post this photo online so here it is! From left to right (hope i get this right)... Robert, Johnathan, Robert, Bill, Bjorn.

Taking Marmite for a walk just at the back of the house. Amazing views only 10 min walk away.

Robert showing us how he makes biodiesel from used vegetable oil which comes up to only 12p a litre!

Henry the barman, ex-wwoofer and guitar player entertaining us at the local hotel/pub - Ben View Hotel. We had really nice memories there as well as we visited it quite a few times during our stay!

Beinn Resipol

2009-09-05T20:52:00.000+01:00

It's almost been a week since we climbed beinn resipol (2700 ft) and got lost on the way down.
WHat should have been an invigorating, challenging, yet pleasing 5 to 6 hour hike became 8 hours of grueling, spirit-testing, stomping through uneven peaty ground, bashing our way down a steep downhill through the woods.

Being in the wild, with nature, with no body else within miles radius except our townie selves, made us realise how incredibly vulnerable we are. I have never ever felt so alone and scared before. Other walks we've ever done in britian all had few but some people around or at least... sheep or cows!

The slightly scared and panicky feeling came about actually way before we got lst. It was when we were approaching the last steep cliffs up to the summit. It was pretty darn steep and we were climbing it like spiderman u know, using our hands and edge of our boots to grip the edge of the mountain.

The view of below started to fade away as we became enveloped by clouds. It started to become a little claustrophobic as I knew we were way up high on this mountain, but the cloud was so thick we couldnt see beyond 10 metres ahead. We were ecstatic of course, reaching the top, screaming at the top of my lungs yeahhhh!!

But also, I just felt so vulnerable that nobody else was around. No guard, no ranger, no other walkers. Just me, bjorn and marmite (our hosts 6 year old labrador). What if something happened? I kept obessing about. What if I fell and died?

The wind was also so strong and cold it was quite nuts. I even grabbed bjorn and gave him a huge hug and said how scared I was. Of which of course he thought was silly (but better to have one person scared than 2!)

Taking the wrong turn and getting lost increased my panic. My legs had no feelings anymore. At one point, when we faced a tall deer fence and not sure which way to go around it (plus we had a dog who couldnt climb fences), my heart couldnt stop pounding and my hands were shaking. All this I didnt tell Bjorn at that point coz I knew we needed to stay focused and calm. And of course, I was just getting all panicky for no reason. We knew, just going south will evnetually take us to the road.

What was most worrying, was how I became obessessed about the whole event for the next few nights. The first night, I was tossing and turning in bed for many hours before I tricked my self to go to sleep. The next night, I wouldnt stop talking about what we went through over and over again with Bjorn. Finally on the 3rdnight, I tried to write down why I was obssessing, and came to terms with it.

I couldnt sleep because I was coming up with excuses and reasons for making that wrong turn. Inexperience in the wild certainly was the main reason. Bad weather.. etc. Getting lost with such clear instructions, and with a map and compass seemed so foolish. So 'townie' and foolish. Proves how really useless we are with the real natural world and how we really dont know how to survive the easiest of highlands.

And realising how our transition to become country people still has such a long long way to go. Yet, we are too far from our original, previous world of consumerism. We're hanging in between. In between different paths in life. We havent fully left our old world of shopping and love for chemical food and not being great at recycling. We havent become fully fledged 'hippies' we thought we could be.

And getting lost in the mountains... man that was horrendously a slap in the face of how we might not be able to make it out here. What I was mostly freaked out about was how alone we were. I thought about falling and dying alot. That... was the true, Singaporean in me showing its true colours. I was afraid. Irrationally afraid perhaps. All our lives, we have safety nets everywhere we went. This time, we didnt really. And I shudder at that thought. Was I really ready for a life without safety nets?

Maybe its like how a coutry kid would come to a big city and be overwhelmed by crowd, sounds, people, lights, and fear of being hit by a car or something. Irrational as that. Being lost, all alone, with only my legs, my strength and will to carry me back to civilisation humbled me. Nature humiliated me, and humbled me. It has the power to swallow us whole, make us feel shit scared, cold, tired, hungry, at the same time could make u feel triumphant and incredible.

I didnt want this experience to put me off walking ever again. It had the potential too. But writing and reflecting on why I was feeling regretable and shitty about the whole thing helped. Its been one week now, and Bjorn and I are ready to take on Beinn Resipol again. Especially after watching Mel Gibson as William Wallace on dvd running freely on the very same ridges of the Scottish highlands, confidence came back. Whatever it is,... I have learnt even more now, that we, humans are not above nature. We need to be respectful of it, admire it, use it for our suvival but not to exploit it. We humans have come so far in evolution that one could go through life with never feeling this vulnerable, terrified, panicky feeling yet, instinct for survival once. I should be grateful for this opportunity to have shared an experience with what our hunter gatherer ancestors probably felt daily. We didnt have any luxury here for unesscesary complaining about hardship or tiredness. We just kept going, descpite my panic, so we could be home, safe. Survival instincts - I so know why they call it that now.

Scotland........

2009-08-26T20:00:00.000+01:00

We've been Scotland now for only less than 24 hours, and what a fantastic timne its been so far!

Arrived in rainy Edinburgh last evening and after climbing up a hill to our hostel overlooking the castle, we found outselves int he middle of the Edinburgh fringe festival! An array of scottish celebrations lined the moody, coal stained streets.

We saw a young folk band jamming away, and then came across this really hearty scottish bagpipe/drums group that utterly stole our hearts with their long haired, kilt-wearing, william wallace like roar and spirit! My oh my.

Then out of nowhere, this middle aged man stole a photo of bjorn and I having a beer on the street and we started chatting. We then met his partner who was a free artist and then proceeded to spend the rest of the evening having beers and chatting with lovely Eric and Alison from Edinburgh about travel, genetics and the greatness of women!

We have not yet, in our 2 and a half years spent in the UK have ever had strangers come up to us to chat, let alone then spent the rest of the evening sharing and chatting, with an offer to star at his place the next time we come to edinburgh.

That night we stayed in our very uber cool hostel - Castle Rock hostel, my first time ever staying in a hostel with 8 other people sleeping in one room, was probably one of the best sleeps ive had this whole trip. Clean, dust free, lovely soft mattress my body just sank into. And our hostel mates were very considerate and friendly.

Now we're on the west railway from glasgow to fort williams, and the scenery, albiet the gloomy wetaher, is stunning. I spotted a deer staring back at me on the train, we've past waterfalls, lochs and lush hills.

We're going to be in Scotland for 8 weeks and I cant help but feel that perhaps, scotland, and its charm, comparing to more glamorous european counterparts is delightfully underrated. Good for us. Im excited to spend my 29th birthday in this historical land filled with passionate blooded people. - Crystal

Cefndeuddwr experience

2009-08-25T00:24:00.000+01:00

We spent the last 2 weeks at the most special place in North Wales called Cefnddeudwr (still not sure how its pronounced but its something like kevin-day-dew). It was the only place perhaps in all 5 of our wwoof trips so far that provided us the enrivonment and vibe for us to really reflect on our journey so far.

This was the first time, we got to wake up to a view of mountains in this land. Literally surrounded by the amazing snowdonia woods that is now protected and few mountain bikers and walkers use the place for pleasure. On a few evenings, the stars shone so so brightly in the nightime sky, once again brings me a sense of wonder and awe of the world and how we're occupying such a small part and small time in history. Star gazing, I believe is so essential and healthy for all of us and all of life. Puts things in perspective without the need for any use of words.

We got to share the company and love of the few farm pets that were so endearing and everybit as human as a human can be. My whole life, I've never really enjoyed the company of a pet or animal. And in the last 2 months, we've had such wonderful pleasure playing, petting, cuddling, talking to the animals. They might not have the same brain capacities as us, but in comparison, they're so innocent. And I think about how we're all connected in this world (we're all distant relatives anyway) , the earth is for all creatures to share, and knowing how vulnerable animals are in the hands of man... We should all try our best to befriend an animal, get to know them a little bit, and u realise how incredibly reliant they are on us to ensure we dont fuck up this world any more than it already is. We met Peeper the gorgeous goose, Rosco a friendly lovely fun puppy & said goodbye to a wise old dog, Ratty.

From feeling the love at the Cefnddeuddwr home, we felt the love both Tyr and John had for each other, the land, the world. And it was with that, we both feel so much stronger than before to go out there to get what we want in life.

Our host Tyr and Rosco!

Peeper!

Clear signs in the compost loo if you feel shy about using the woods instead

Dextor cows enjoying the sun...

Bjorn and Rosco taking a break from pulling bracken to have a little waltz.

We've been in London for the weekend, leaving for Scotland tomorrow! Its was as usual, fun but hectic. And although I've lived in a city all my life, and London for 2 years... it was a definitely a slight shock to the system to come from so much green, hills, sheep, skies to buildings, concrete, and signs! SIGNS everywhere! That was the thing I felt the most the whole weekend. London is just full of signs and words and messages! Posters, advertisments, shop signs, its overwhelming. I love London for its eccentricity, its diversity in race and culture (Its very comforting to see all colours, shapes and sizes of people in one place). For its history everywhere. Buildings, roads, shops and pubs etc. But I think people were always meant to be part of nature, and not apart from it. And we're happy that tomorrow, we're getting closer to be part with it soon!

2 month wwoof anniversary

2009-08-15T20:02:00.001+01:00

We've been wwoofing for exactly 2 months now. 15 June was when we began. We're currently in Ganllwyd (pronounced gan-clue-id), north wales, south tip of snowdonia in a small holding called Cefndduedwar and internet connection is not great here, thus the slow updation of the blog. I've written so much though, in my notebook, on notepad, and havent had a chance to enter it here. So much to say....

We're heading back to London this Friday and after a weekend of repacking & dim sum binge, we're heading to scotland for another 8 weeks - the end of summer and the beginning of autumn!

I decided I dont like summer all that much. Apart from the long days, it rains all the time anyway, and everywhere is just too overgrown and too green! Yes I must be mad. But im looking forward to autumn when the colours of the foliage turn all sorts of orange, yellow and browns. Love it.

Bjorn and I have been discussing heavily on the future. Of what our next step will be. We desperately want a small holding of our own eventually one day. But where? And also, I want to see the world more before we settle down. In our travels, we have met many people travelling as well, and most people are 19, 20,... early twenties at most. All exploring while they are young and energetic for life. We feel like we're a little behind, doing this so late! hahaha. Whilst our parents think we're being 'good for nothings' for seemingly wanting to 'retire' to farm life before we even reach 30. Oh well... what can u do, generations are brought up with totally different ideas.

When my mom was a young woman, feeding her family was everything. When she brought home her first paycheck to my grandma (she gave 70 dollars to the family out of her earnings of 75 dollars that month in the factory she always always remind me), she felt a huge huge sense of satisfaction and pride for being able to do something for the family, make a difference. But now, we work and work and work, not just to put food on the table or to pay the bills, but so we can dine at nice restaurants, buy stuff we dont need and could never fulfill our appetites, pay back loans we took to buy that over priced car. Where has the meaning of it all gone? I dont come home and hand over a stack of money and feel proud anymore. I feel a little disgusted with myself really most times. I mean, im happy Im making my mom happy... But I know that money will end up in some mega corporation's hands. And I would have supported sweatshops, unfairtraded, environmentally- disastrous businesses out there in some way. Whether its that new mobile phone, or the topshop dress, or the budget air ticket me or my family would have bought,... with what I believe in and what I've read and seen out there, the money feels as dirty as if I was a drug trafficker.

Anyway, I will continue to rant later... supper time for me now! (Supper is what the brits call an informal dinner. Its not the meal eaten AFTER dinner like we say it in singapore)

How could we ask for more?

2009-08-05T22:30:00.000+01:00

More and more as the days go by, it feels like our dream of escaping to the country becomes more and more real. Here, when people hear that you used to work in the city, in front of a computer all day, they feel so sorry for you. And when we see for our own eyes, people really doing it. And I mean, getting up each day, tending to the animals, prepare what to do in the garden that day, whether its sowing, weeding, harvesting, repairing etc. Then preparing each meal yourself, eating with your family and enjoying the beauty of your home and its surroundings. What more can you ask of life really?

Old Chapel farm has been a big inspiration for us. The building work especially for me (Crystal). What Fran and Kevin is doing is what we wanna do too. Their glow of positivity and calm (not chaotic) energy definitely rubs off people. I can spend all hours writing and blogging about it. But it defeats the purpose of being out here, surrounded by all this 'free' beauty. So i'll let pictures tell the story...

Meal times in the dining room.... wwoofers and family and friends all eat together.

Fran and her lovely kitchen which a perfect washing up view of sheep on the hill.

The 17th century barn they are restoring. We plastered this outside wall with lime & just painted it yellow today. Will finish up tomorrow and take down scaffolding!. Love building work!

Cheerful Kevin and his tea chilling out on a wheelbarrow after a days work.

Fellow wwoofer Shine from Taiwan & Julian from France drying the potatoes they just dug up!

Quirky thatched roof shed that a Taiwanese wwoofer who stayed 6 months built last year! Plus yurts in the background.

Bjorn and the barn we've been working on...

View from the top scaffolding of Old Chapel Farm! The 'old chapel' is actually right in the middle of the 2 long houses. Restoration work is also going on there.

Bjorn's new obession... hunting for rabbits (still unsuccessful)

Crystal's new favourite thing to do... cut and arrange wild flowers. I mean... they are free!!!

Campfire, beers & star gazing with fellow wwoofers. What else can we ask on a Saturday night?

Beazel, the 3 year old golden retriever sitting by the pond...

Old Chapel Farm

2009-08-01T11:39:00.000+01:00

We're here in Wales since Tuesday at Old Chapel Farm and its been GREAT!

There has been about 5 - 6 other wwoofers and its all been set up real nice.

First up, our sleeping accommodation is LUXURY. We're in a room part of the main house and its got so much room, comfy cozy beds and a wonderful view/window thingie. WOW. There was even fresh cut flowers in a vase.... awwwww.

Wwoofers have our own little kitchen where we eat breakfast and hang out during break times.

Working times are real nice and relaxed. 9 to 10:30. Tea break from 10:30 to 11. Work again from 11 to 1. Lunch at 1, then work again from 2 to 4. And thats it! Relax time the rest of evening!

Each wwoofer has their own 'garden' that we are in charged with during our stay. I think thats a brilliant thing as it gives us each a sense ownership and all. Mine (crystal) is quite a nice big area with a polytunnel as well. We spend each moring in our gardens and pick the veg thats ready etc.. then in the afternoon we do other things ilke maybe animal/sheep work or building work.

The views from this valley is storybook breathtaking.

More on Old Chapel Farm later.... its watering in the polytunnel time & a walk before the lunch bell rings!

Farewell Cornwall 2

2009-07-29T18:18:00.000+01:00

So here's more photos of our 2nd placement in Cornwall, Little Meadows farm. It was a very different experience there (its all been different!). For one week, it was Sarah our host, me and Bjorn. There was no family, no other wwoofers, even no animals! So you can imagine the environment is just... much more quiet and serene. Sarah, being a more 'matured' and wise host, and being only the 3 few of us, we had much more serious deep conversations about life etc.

Bodmin moor was also apparently a really harsh place to farm in. The land/soil is not great, really acidic and the winds stronger, and it rains more coz its a bit higher up than most places. Less people, more remote. We got to see wild cornwall really. Weather was so-so... it's been a really sad wet July, coz June was amazing.

Sarah treated us like guests more than just wwoofers. She made an effort to fill our week with different activities like working in the other farm shop one morning for fresh veg, took us to the coast for a picnic and a swim and a walk, brought us to her friends at a biodynamic farm down the road, and even drove us to the bus stop etc to go to the eden project. In a nutshell, she was fantastic.

And here are some snap shots!

This is the resevoir which Little Meadows overlooks:

The next few beach shots are of Lundy Beach... which I think really, is the most beautiful beach I've ever been to. Its only at low tide where you can actually have a beach. It's got thousands of mussles all over its beautiful rocks where people can collect and eat! There were so many little nooks and crannies to explore too. Definitely a big highlight in our cornwall adventure. (lady in blue is sarah, shes camera shy)

Then we went for a coastal walk....

Overall, I felt Cornwall has its stunning natural beauty. Mainly, its its long summers and beautiful beaches that lures people here. But what perhaps I feel is missing, is calmness. Well, at least for me... I never felt a sense of calmness, stillness... which is what I like about the countryside in the first place. The weather changes every 10 mins in Cornwall. Its either too windy, or too sunny or too rainy. At least here in Wales,... it will rain for a good few hours before it gradually turns.

When our train left the borders of Cornwall yesterday and rolled into Devon, near the station at Saltash, I actually saw an otter, or a sealion! Its bald head popped out of the sea and its eyes followed the passing train as I fixated my eyes on its cute little face, feeling otterly (haha) lucky that I got to see him. And as the train chugged on and my brief encounter with the little creature passed, I bade goodbye to wild Cornwall.

Farewell Cornwall

2009-07-29T17:40:00.001+01:00

We havent updated the blog in a while coz internet connection was not great at Little Meadows in Bodmin moor.

We just left there yesterday after staying a week at Sarah's. And she was really an inspiring lady. Coz she was almost 50, she could look at us and tell us that its ok to be where we are in our lives. At the beginning of our journey towards a much more meaningful life. And she was a wonderful host. We were actually her only wwoofers this year! (She is choosy she says :)). She was attentive when appropriate, gave us our space when we needed to. And we had a nice loft in the actual house!

However, I'm not sure about Cornwall. I (crystal) fell sick 3 times in the 3 weeks we were there. That's not usual for me at all. And I dont know what it was really. The experience wwoofing there, the landscape, the winds (its way more windy there) or what it was..?! But there was a stirring that wasnt quite right during my 3 weeks there. Bjorn thinks I'm mad. And most people who've been to Cornwall say its beeeauuutiful. It is i know... But... funny, Sarah was telling us about how she believed in reinarnation... that our souls might have lived different lives in the past etc. I never thought much about it before. But if we use that theory... perhaps in my previous life, I was an enemy of the old people of Cornwall? In west cornwall, there are so many iron age (12th centure BC!) ruins all over the place. Apparently in the whole world, that part of cornwall has the most density of iron age ruins scattered in that small area. So I dont know... maybe I once lived there and experience some kind of trauma? Or maybe in another life more recently, I was one of the many pirates that landed in Penzance? Who knows. All I know is that we're here today, in North Wales, in perhaps (its a bit early to say i know) the best wwoof place to be yet - Old Chapel Farm and though its been raining today, my spirit suddenly feels so much more at ease.

I realised I havent put any photos of cornwall yet on the blog.... so here goes. Here's west Cornwall first... (plan it earth wwoof place). I'll put pictures of Little Meadows (North cornwall) in another entry:

A bunch of staring cows. So cute arent they? We chanced upon them while trying to walk to the nearest pub from Plan it Earth. Bjorn so thought they were going to charge and trample us! Hahaha. But we learnt that would be very rare for a cow to do that.

A try- hard artistic shot from Plan it Earths Veg garden

Plan it Earth's wonderful family kitchen.

Veg garden again with the Biodome in the background

The stunning Porthcurno beach

The 1mile walk from Lands end to Senna Cove on the most southern western tip of Britain.

wwoofing, meadows & gyms

2009-07-22T21:31:00.000+01:00

One of the really cool things about wwoofing is that you get to live in people's homes for the time. Not a hotel, a hostel or B&B. But you get to learn about how people store their things, cook their food, their routines, rituals and habits.

Its something i definitely didnt think much about before we embarked on this journey. Small example, is that we've always had our butter in the fridge. Obviously habit from Singapore coz u have to!

But in the 3 homes we've been to now, their butter sits outside! which makes so much sense coz u need it softish to butter your toast! And how silly of us to have our butter in the fridge all this time in London. Oh well, we didnt have that much toast anyway.

Also, because we wash our clothes at each different home, your clothes will smell of the place its been at last. that strange. Now they all smell of the detergent from Plan it Earth. Which is the same smell of the duvet that we used there. Its sorta like bringing something from the place before to a new one.

We're here at Little Meadows, a little more north Cornwall, on Bodmin Moor, which is harsher weather, winds and really really remote. THere's definitely no pub or store nearby, just sheep and quite a nice smallish reservoir.

We're sleeping in a room in the house finally! Not that a caravan was not cosy, but its like living in the wild for a while, and its nice to be like, really inside, with brick/stone walls. When we were in the caravan, the winds or rains outside felt so close.

Sarah, our host has bee really really lovely. It feels that in the last 24 hours, we shared and exchanged so much more than we had with R&D in the last place. I know its not fair to compare, but it is what it is isnt it! She's a vegetarian so we've been eating really wonderful healthy vegetarian food. Which i welcome so much as we were honestly had a lot of pork in the last week (so much I puked alot of it out).

Today, our big job was to move the new shipman of wood into the wood shed. For the first time in 2 weeks, I feel about 100%. Fully recovered from flu, and not weedy anymore. Bjorn workd the chainsaw (i hung around like a little worried mom) !. Sarah also showed me (and i helped qiute a bit) to make bread, and we also had gooseberry crumble for pudding, from the gooseberry I picked in her garden. Those thorns are to be wary of! I must say, its the first time in a couple of weeks where I feel invigorated again. As we were moving the wood this morning the wheelbarrows, the physical labour made me feel great. I now think how silly it is to be in the gym, and trying to 'get the heart going' by sprinting on the cycling machine etc. I cant bring myself to go to a gym anymore. The thought of giving a place money, to expel your energy. It doesnt make any sense! They should be paying me money perhaps, and maybe the cycling machines can be hooked up to provide electricity or something. You know what I mean? Gyms are sad mark of city life. An ec0-unfriendly place in the first place with all the lights and the air conditioning,.. where people go to spend more energy that goes into nowhere, trying to burn those calories accumulated from gluttony. Here,... I eat the food that grows close to me in this land, food turns to energy which I spend helping the place grow more food. Its a closed loop cycle.

Anyway, I digress. Im glad to be here now. Its a long day, and a busy day ahead! Tomorrow the 3 of us are going to a nearby farm to work in the morning, in exchange for veg that will hopefully feed us for the next week! Cant wait :)

good bye plan it earth

2009-07-20T17:18:00.000+01:00

I really am not sure how to do this journal entry.

Tomorrow we leave chy ena after 2 weeks here. And overall, some highs but many lows for sure. My flu lasted a good week and a half, and then last night, after a sunday roast, i got sick and puked half of it out. Today my body feels tired and useless. Thats just one part of the lows here. The family we've stayed with, are a nice young hippie couple with 2 handsome kids. But I definitely felt that there was no room (emotionally, intellectually, etc etc) for us in the house because their lives were already so thick with getting through each day. Its so ironic, that this place with a curative healing well, bushcraft courses, singing with the wind courses, is the place that i feel the most negative vibe from. I wouldnt go as far as saying that we didnt feel welcomed. I just felt, that they didnt have time or energy to get to know us. And when I tried to get to know them, I dont get further than superficial facts before they get distracted with something else (usually the children or giving us more tasks to do). This was a definitely a strange wwoof placement. The location is/was stunning to be in. So unique and quirky in many ways. Penzance, St Ives, St Just... the beaches, quite incredible. Unfortunately, the experience was tainted with my illness & our unavailable yet quite demanding hosts. One thing Im grateful for is that Bjorn and I got our alone time. He has been soooo good at taking care of me when I was sick, delivering food from the house to the caravan when I was banned from infecting the rest with my germs. And tolerating them all by himself when I am not there.

I hope Im well enough to leave tomorrow.

Plan-it-Earth , Cornwall

2009-07-12T18:28:00.001+01:00

So I've been sick for the last couple of days (crystal). We arrived here at beautiful Sancreed, Cornwall on Tuesday. Worked on Wednesday, then fell ill with sore throat, fever, stuck nose, headache and everything on Wed night all the way through to yesterday (Saturday). I feel so bad coz I'm obviously not going to do the hours required here, and still eating all their food. (I have this ability to be dog sick, but still eat full meals :))

Its Sunday evening now, we've been here5 days, and we havent left the farm! Feeling a little weird about that. I always wanna go exploring, but obviously I was too weak to even get out of bed. I definitely havent been this sick in a while. I really really hope Bjorn doesnt get what I had.

So a bit about Plan-it-Earth, it began 6 years ago by Rachel and Dave Smart Knight and they've got a nice thing going here. Decent size market garden, holiday yurts for rent, and lots of evironmental sustainability programs that they run. Location wise its a beatutiful place. This evening , i could see the black and white cows in a nearby farm in the distance. Picturesque.

The work here has been different! Lots of harvesting. Strawberries, rasberries (lots), black currents, mange tout (too much), peas, broad beans. Last night we had a nice veg stir fry all from the farm! The above mentioned plus carrots, beetroot, celery, courgette, chard, spinach... I know. Coz i stood in the miserable rain harvesting them!

They have 3 geese here, which are really funny. They kindda hissed at us when we arrived, and have this evil look in their eyes. What characters. Apparently they are good lawn mowers. You dont really have to feed them anything much, they just eat all the grass.

Have been eating super healthy. Apart from the flu, I feel great about myself. Am I'm really starting to get a farmer's tan. Which is ... my face, neck and forearms are really dark, and the rest of me, fading into yellow again. Lol.

Rachel and Dave's house is lovely. Thy have the most cozy kitchen with fariy lights and everythings rustic and woody with pots and pans all hung up and quirky door knobs etc. I wanna kitchen like that next time.

Oh! And the kids have a trampoline! On Wed night, me, Rosie (the very smart 8 year old), Jacca (the charming little 5 year old) & Bjorn jumped up and down the trampoline with gorgeous views again. We looked at clouds and pointed out to each other what they were. We saw zeus on his carriage, a guy giving the thumbs up (although, i thought it was the other finger up but not so appropriate to mention to young children), a dog.... it was gread fun.

Im still missing crooked end farm though... Maybe its because the past three sickie days has just been awful. We have 2 days of freetime ahead. Yippieeeeeeee. Hope the weather holds...

The end... at Crooked End Farm Organics

2009-07-08T17:40:00.000+01:00

We left crooked end farm yesterday morning. And we're here now, in west cornwall (most southern west tip of the uk) and its so different! Penzance is the nearest town and it reminds me of australia as its a seaside town with seagulls flying around. English people here own tank tops! And some are actually tanned! (amazing).

Last night, I actually felt so suddenly homesick. For crooked end farm! I didnt realise how much I'd miss the place until we left and is in someplace all new and foreign again.

Crooked end farm organics were like a huge family to bjorn and I for 3 weeks. They were really. Im not saying this new place is not great, it seriously is. Its a gorgeouslandscape and views, their house very warm and charming. Love the kitchen too!. But we really started to get really comfortable at crooked end.

I miss the hens roaming around everywhere, in the back garden, in the barm, poking their noses into everything! Pecking at me when I'm lying in the garden and then running away when I try to catch them! hee hee. I really loved the hens. Here, there are only 7 hens and they dont get to roam as wildly as crooked end. And they are agressive the ones here!

I miss the three black dogs with, all with such different personalities. Celine, who didn really like to run or make any fast movements, lovely shiny coat and loves being massaged. Jess, the sheepdog who was quite annoying coz she barked at everyone (esp men) but was in the end, a sweetheart who was abused by her previous owner. And sasha, who just like to steal celines food all the time!

And I miss the children... Lottiieeeeee. oh what a sweet child, I miss her. James, whose smile and baby garbled words melted my heart every single time. When we arrived, he could hardly crawl, when we left, he was crawling everywhere! Even Theo, our alpha male little boy who loves to chatter endlessly about his collection of toy swords and his peter pan alter ego. Ahhh.

Of course, our fellow wwoofers who we got to enjoy each other's companies so much. callie's off centre humour and similar love for alcohol, erin and her gorgeous sincerity and love for life, raphael's frenchness. hahaha, pia's enthusiasm and laughter, ciaran's experience, knowledge and later on we discovered, his wicked sense of humour.

We also of course, miss our lovely hosts, bruce, brenda, anya, barry kate. They were our surrogate parents, always taking care of us.

I can go on and on about all the other things we miss. The pub, the general store, our caravan, the pigs, the horses... but...

But crooked was only the first out of the 8 places we'll be wwoofing at in the UK. And like all first loves, we'll have a special place for crooked has we had no yardstick to compare it with when we first got there. And what a great first place.

If the rest of our trip will contain such incredibly great overwhelming experiences, wont my heart burst trying to contain so much good stuff?

Its much quieter here now at Plan-it-Earth (Chy Ena). There's only one family, with 2 great kids. But no dogs, no other wwoofers, no hens pooing and pecking around our caravan. Maybe we just need to get used to the change. I was looking forward to a quieter time. More us-time, more me-time.

More about this place in up coming blog entries - i have a feeling its going to be awesome! There's limited internet so less photos, but I guess, we'll have to paint them with our words instead....

First KILL

2009-06-30T17:32:00.000+01:00

Done like a newbie but hey it's my first time. Hope the chicken didn't suffer too much!!

Feels good killing and preparing your own meat and getting involved in the entire process was indeed a very fulfilling experience.

If you want to eat meat, you have to be able to do the deed yourself, if not you probably do not deserve it afterall =)

Rantings on the farm...

2009-06-27T21:28:00.000+01:00

The weather has been gloooorious since we've been here. Except for maybe 2 to 3 days of rain/cold winds/overcast, it's been warm, sunny and blue skies. Is this England?

I havent been writing a lot I know. It's probably coz its just been so social here at crooked end farm! We've gotten to be really close with fellow wwoofers here, Callie, Erin & Raphael (the au pair). Apart from working all day together, we cook and go to the pub a little too often. Hahaha. Its so wonderful to sit in the garden of a pub, gulping down a pint of local cider for the mere amount of 2.40 pounds and having seconds, and maybe thirds. We have even started to play the name game! (Apparently, the correct name is called 'Celebrity'!) Its just been heaps fun. We also started to sit in the garden in the long summer evenings, with the chickens strolling around us, playing with Lottie and James while we wait for dinner. And of course, moan together about our little trials and tribulations on the farm. Everywhere has its politics its so funny. hahaha.

Working 5 hours a day, sleep for about 9, and the rest... just resting our tired bodies in the great summer outdoors. Bees buzzing around, chickens pooing on the ground, birds of all sorts twittering in the distance, pigs milding grunting away... I think I am really liking rural life.

Today, we went with Brenda to Chepstow farmers market in south wales! It was quite a scorching day and the 2 children came with us so it was quite intense. Bjorn and I gave out organic apple juice samples and leaflets of the farm to people on the high street and it was tiring but also nice. People in small towns are more likely to stop and do an apple juice tasting with you than in London for sure.

Tomorrow, Barry is taking us to the river and dropping us off with a canoe! Then they will pick us up down the river in 3 hours by the pub. How delightful, I cant wait! And its going to be hot as well! Apparently, next week.. there'll be a heatwave! Woohoo!

I'll end off here with a photo of Bjorn, me, Erin and Callie at the Malt Shovel Inn - Ruardean's local 900 year old pub. (It was said to be founded in 1110!). The Horlicks brothers were born in this village and malted their first Horlicks here! Talk about a slice of history... who doesnt like Horlicks!

The crooked end farm children!

2009-06-26T17:25:00.000+01:00

Introducing.... the crooken end farm children! These children are so adorable, so well behaved, sweet and charming, I had to blog about them.

Lottie! The darling 2 and a half year old who remembers all the wwoofers names and is the most delightful child I've ever ever encountered! Loves colouring, singing, dancing, laughing and smiling...

James. Lottie's 7 month old little brother. Smiles for the camera every time. What a beautiful child.

Theo. The almost 4 year old little talkative rascal who just loves being a naughty but adorable little boy.

Arthur.. 5 weeks old brother of Theo who doesnt really do much, and I'm guess someday will become a cute toddler like the rest.

Long summer evenings at Crooked end...

2009-06-23T19:13:00.000+01:00

The late summer sunset at different times of the evening...:

8:45pm

9:45pm

10:45pm

11:15pm (still not totally dark!)

Three Counties Farm Show & our upcoming wwoof plans

2009-06-21T21:00:00.000+01:00

First weekend off ! And our other hosts Barry and Anya took us to the Three Counties Farm show, a massive fair/convention of all things farm-like. Animals, tractors, food, crafts, they had it all man... I had reservations about going to a farm show. Coz you'd imagine all these red necks farmers staring me down, like what the hell was I doing here. But it was nothing like that at all.

Highlights were definitely the different breeds of animals. Here are some of them:

Alcapas - so cute! From south america, but growing in popularity in British farms for their fleece.

Saddle back piggies...

Doesnt he remind you of Zhu Ba Jie? The pig man from the chinese legend, journey to the west monkey God? Apparently this breed is actually orignally from China!

This duck should be in commercials for fabric softner or something. So preeettttyyyy!

One of the many exotic breeded chickens. This one just looked like he's lost all dignity.

Also, here's our wwoofing plans as of today for the next couple of months that we so last minutely set up. You office people reading this... droool. We're virtually spending almost no money doing this. Love it!

Midlands...

15 Jun to 6 Jul - Crooked end farm, Ruardean, 15 acre organic farm with farm shop (now)

Cornwall...

6 Jul to 21 Jul - Chy Ena, West Cornwall, a small community of people living on 7 acres of land, endevouring to live within the question of 'what does it mean to live sustainably?'

21 Jul to 28 Jul - Dont know yet...

Wales...

28 Jul to 10 Aug - Old Chapel Farm, North Wales - 70 acre holding with courses in prehistoric arts. Love to meet people from different traditions.

10 Aug to 24 Aug - Cefndeuddror farm, North Wales - A 500 year old farm set in the magic forests of spectacular southern Snowdonia.

Scotland...

24 Aug to 7 Sep - Ranachan Glebe, Strontian, west Scotland. Large family who renovated an old house to be fossil fuel free. Main income is production of exotic funghi. Surrounding area known to be stunningly beautiful.

7 Sep to 21 Sep (crystals birthday!) - Froach Lodge, Inverness (Highlands), Scotland. Guest house and guided walking business with 1/3 acre of a garden.

21 Sep to 11 Oct - Phantassie, East Lothian, 1 hr from Edinburg, Veg box commuity with 25 organic acres. Great walking and cycling & beaches.

11 Oct to 1 Nov - ???

Spain...

1 Nov - 1 Dec - Semila Besada, Malaga, Spain.

1 Dec - 1 Feb - Just joined the Spain wwoof network so we need to figure this out!

I dont think I have felt this positive about life in a long time. It feels wonderful.