One could almost climb into his sentences, one could almost fall asleep in them. 

Zadie Smith: White Teeth

beginnings

I'm fine, I'm just not happy. You know?

It's just there are too many things to do, studying above all, and I just. Can't. Bring myself. To do it.

(But being fine is something to be grateful for of course.)

I feel dingy and tired and keep pressing my cold fingertips onto the blue veins beneath my eyes to stay awake. I hope things'll be better soon; in the meantime I'll probably be staying offline for a while. Just to wrap my brain around my history books.

amsterdam

My mother took a picture of me talking about the architecture, hence the Silly Hands of Enthusiasm.

Example of aforementioned architecture.

Me trying on the most beautiful shoes in the existence of time. (Far, far, far too expensive. Unfortunately.) 

Amsterdam was everything I'd dreamt of and more. My first day was spent in consistent awe. (I've seen beautiful cities before, but this? I was not prepared to lose my heart so fast and so permanently.) My mother and I kept stopping every few metres to sigh at the beauty of everything. Winding our way through narrow streets, incredible winds and the incessant tolling of church bells, dodging the most reckless cyclists I've ever seen. It was, in short, spectacular.

(Now it's all school and studying again, long days spent girding my loins for revision. It was the best thing possible to get away from it all for a few days, to visit Van Gogh and Anne Frank and then return feeling a bit more like a person than before.)

(My mother took all the pictures, I was too lazy to bring along a camera. 

So thank her, that is if you indeed wish to thank anyone, for the visual evidence.)

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself. 

Neil Gaiman 

(The weird thing about this new year is that I have absolutely no idea where it'll take me. 

After the coming May, all bets are off.)

amsterdam

Tomorrow my darling mother and I head off to Amsterdam.

(Things I'm most looking forward to: seeing all that Van Gogh up close and authentic, ambling about the streets and enviously looking at all the houseboats, visiting the Anne Frank House, stuffing my face with food every chance I get and maybe doing some shopping too.)

Oh, Amsterdam. Don't you just love the way the name rolls off your tongue?

2011: a musical retrospective

Adele: 21

Alex Turner: Submarine EP

Arctic Monkeys: Suck It and See 

Bon Iver: Bon Iver 

The Decemberists: The King Is Dead

James Blake: James Blake

Noah and the Whale: Last Night on Earth

Regina: Soita mulle

Scandinavian Music Group: Manner

St. Vincent: Strange Mercy

tUnE-yArDs:  w h o k i l l

Veronica Maggio: Satan i gatan 




(Honorary mentions: 
Asa Masa, King Krule, Azealia Banks, 
The Antlers, Beyoncé and Eleanor Friedberger)