change is inevitable

Nelson Mandela School in Berlin

2012-02-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I put myself out on a limb on 2 occasions. I am not a great public speaker as I get really nervous. I know that you are probably thinking who doesn't? , but I really am bad - my voice quavers and I sound like I might cry. The reason I take opportunities like these, even though I torture myself to death doing it, is because I want to get over this fear as I am sure that I am still young enough and if I reach the success levels that I would like to accomplish in my life, I will have to get over my fear of public speaking sooner or later.

I had the opportunity to go to the Nelson Mandela School here in Berlin on Friday. A friend of mine's son attends this school and once a year they have a Nelson Mandela day celebration on the 11th of February to celebrate Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990.

I took the opportunity to go to speak to the kids about growing up in South Africa. I was not sure what to expect and initially pictured that I might have to speak to the entire school and perhaps guests also attending the day, but the day was thankfully just more for the students. I prepared my presentation the whole night before and got up at 6am to prepare the rest of it. I was only half finished just before I had to leave- I had only rehearsed once so was going to rely on the power point presentation to guide me.

We were late and went to the junior school looking for the class. We ended up in a kid's classroom with little girls of about 7. We were in the room 101 that we were told to go to, but no one knew who the teacher was that we were looking for. After asking many people, we finally realized that we were in the wrong building at the junior school instead of the High School. We found the class eventually.

I told them about growing up in a small and sometimes fairly racist town near Benoni, where Charlize Theron was born and raised. I also told them about Gold and Diamonds and moving to Cape Town and bit about Mandela and Robben Island.

My friend Joe accompanied me and they were also asking him about Norwich in England where he was from, making the whole thing a lot easier as he was with me. The teacher was very nice- married to a South African for many years, she could really relate to what I was saying. We stayed and had coffee with her afterwards. She asked me to come back in a few weeks to speak to her other class. It was really great to speak bout my country as a huge fan of Nelson Mandela , I even named my cat after him, and a big supporter of anything South African. I loved to have this opportunity to talk about my home to these German kids.

Preparing for the project forced me to reread about our South African History and remember the days of my childhood. One blocks one's past out, but I had to dig into it again and also relearn facts and dates that I had forgotten. I was pretty young at the time of apartheid and the end of it in my country- I was a teenager when it ended, so did not know the full story - though I did know most of it. I retraced my steps through my life.

I have to say that it really made me homesick and I started to think again if living here was the best choice I could have made for myself. Luckily, I will be returning home for a visit soon, so it is great that I will not have to be too homesick for too long.

I have to say that it went really well. I was not afraid of speaking to the kids as I usually get when public speaking and the kids were really nice, thanking me afterwards for my presentation.

I was reminded of my special home country - its beauty, power and amazing leaders from the past who changed everything with their compassion and humility. I get so sad when I think of Mandela and how old he is and how much of his life he spent locked up. He is 94 years old now and still the Father of Africa. Madiba meaning father in his native tongue Xhosa. Love you Madibs!

Amandla-awethu!

The other opportunity I had to get over my public speaking fears also came up this weekend when I screened a movie called the Happy Movie, which was also a great success. I will post about it soon.

xoxo

Lee Chanel

Lecia Nel's photostream

2011-06-13T07:10:00.001-07:00

Lecia Nel's photostream on Flickr.

Pictomplasma Festival in Berlin

2011-04-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I have to say that my attempts at updating this blog once a day have failed, let alone one a month, but I have decided to give it another whirl.. once a day (ahem, maybe), I will post something cool that happens in my life, ok well at least I will try. In the words of Miley Cyrus, the exhibition last night was "pretty cool".

We went to the Pictoplasma , which is a FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY CHARACTER DESIGN AND ART.

Berlin is really cool for this sort of thing. I have lived here for over 2 years and I often have so much to choose from in terms of arty events, openings, concerts etc that I just give up and stay home, but last night was one of the rare occasions where I actually made it to an event, but it was probably mostly due to the fact that it was in the area around where I live, so this made it dead easy to get to. In fact many of the coolest exhibitions were right in my street.

We wandered far and wide, covering the best parts first.. some parts of the evening were just plain weird. At one place, we rang the bell and I guy with an eye patch told us that the exhibition had already closed .. he was well, 'Berlin different'. The other places we couldn't find or were also already closed. The one place we did get to, we could only see through the window and it was in a very small place with creatures made out of cardboard boxes, not doing very much- occassionally blinking or moving across the floor.. the small guy on the floor did remind me of Futurama a bit, so it was not a waste of time.

The best parts for me though, were literally right outside my front door.. I should have known I lived in the coolest part of Berlin, judging by all the hipsters, but I finally joined them, and it was a pretty good party. Oh I forgot to mention, there was also a band playing outside the pretentious skate shop, which had no name and when I asked someone they told me it was the featured artist of the exhibition performing and I found it a bit difficult to understand the english name of the band, when pronounced by a native german, but found out that they were called 'Wood'.

I met an artist though, who's work I have see before, which was awesome!! I got a newpaper and some stickers with motivational messages. The guy was from Australia and told me that he has been doing art forever- he is originally from Australia, but now lives in New York. His name is Jeremyville. We almost missed the exhibition as it is was in a side room of a clothing shop- we only went inside because there were just so many people entering, leaving and lulling about inside and outside.

My friend and I raided the stickers, which he autographed for me, and we got a cool collector newpaper of his work, all for free!

Example of the stickers:

I took a couple pics too.. they had this massive canvas featured on the wall .. it had a lot of the kid's cartoon chracters in it, with a dark twist of real life fatalism and truth.

Here are some examples of the canvas:

xoxo

Lee Chanel

Losing weight & Tea

2010-12-29T13:04:00.000-08:00

So, 2011- A new year with new possibilities and new challenges and all things unknown as they are still in the future. Well, it is already the 6th of January and my aim for this year was to write a blog a day, but I can already tell that this will not materialize at all, so not really going to bother. I think a more realistic goal would be to write 1 a week, and if I can not manage that, then 1 a month, but for now I will aim for 1 a week.

As a woman in my early 30's, I have been struggling for ages to shed a few more kg's. I was huge after a year of being in Europe and was once very thin, believe it or not (for those that know who I am), but I guess I was also 18 then and didn't eat as much so that could also explain why I was thin. I am currently not huge, just 'healthy', which is not a bad thing, but still, I personally would like to be a bit thinner. I find it a bit unfair though as I do not eat that much and I also eat very healthily when I eat, for the most part. If I even eat like one pizza or a couple chocolates these days I gain 2 kgs- it really sucks. I did a diet/ detox last year which I found kind of cool called the Dr,Joshi Diet, which I can highly recommend http://www.thejoshiclinic.com/holistic.php - it was for 3 weeks and although I did not stick to it 100%, I still lost 5kgs which I have managed to keep off since then, but I can not go any lower than a certain point on the scale no matter how well I eat or don't eat, or no matter how much I exercise.

Anyway in the quest for absolute health and weight loss that I have been on for quite some time now, I came across a number of cool things, mostly by chance, but I am now trying them and seeing how they go in terms of how much weight I can lose and how much of a health benefit they have.. I am kind of like a health reviewer. I have been researching over the past while and have found out just how good tea is for you. I think people really underestimate tea.. it is really one of the best things for your body.. (especially herbal teas) and can assist with many body functions including the breakdown of fat.. Green tea, White tea and especially Oolong tea are really good for dieting. I just bought my first batch of Oolong tea as it is supposed to be the best for weight loss, but naturally it would be the one that does not taste the greatest.. but such is life.. I will drink fairly foul-tasting tea if it means it will help me lose some weight. Here is some info about Oolong tea and it's weight loss benefits.. http://www.oolongtea.org/e/health/04.html.

I have been drinking Oolong tea for 2 days now as one is supposed to drink 1 liter a day to see the benefits of it after 6 weeks. My friend at work and I are trying it for 6 weeks. I will let you know how it goes.

Also, recently someone at work brought in a Jasmine Tea Flower, which I had never seen before and I was totally amazed. A friend of his brought him some back as a gift from Asia. They look like alien eggs or something..

I put one in hot water and couldn't believe what emerged..

They make for great gifts, but are very expensive. If you get one, you should try it as it is an amazing tea experience. Also, if you get the chance and have an interest in tea, there is a great book I have listened to the audio book of called 'The Book of Tea' by Kakuzo Okakura to get a better idea of the culture and practices behind the art of tea.

Lee Chanel xoxo

Nearing the end of 2010

2010-12-12T04:51:00.000-08:00

I lost my Blog for quite a while, but I have been thinking about it a lot.. really want to Blog a bit- found it again by searching my e-mail inbox for it- not sure why I didn't think of doing that before.

Actually, the aim for 2011 is to do at least a blog post a day. A lot has changed for me in 2010, internally.. I am generally very angry inside, but I have been working on myself this year and have learnt to find a whole lot more inner peace, though I still fight with my anger a bit. I really believe that if one's soul feels unrest, you should really consider seeking a belief of some description- any one that preaches goodnss and light preferably, and you will find that things become so much better for you. Well, this is what has happened for me this year, which I think is a really great thing. I have realised that without exercise, I am also not as fulfilled as I could be to be at my best potential state. I have always been attracted to Yoga and have had the priveledge of doing Bikram Yoga over the past few years now although it is really expensive, but I really love it and can say that if I had the opprtunity, I would definitely do it all the time.

So, this coming year, 2011, I hope that I will somehow come across a method to do Bikram more frequently.. I am not sure how it will happen, as it is really a very high price which alo feels a bit wrong as it is totally a selfish thing doing it. It is making me healthy and changing me for the better, but what would it do for the rest of the planet? Well maybe the Universe will be good to me and provide an opportunity to do Bikram- this is really what I am hoping for. I have been so blessed to travel abit since being in Europe- last year we went to the South of France, which was freaking incredible!! as well as Barcelona, also absolutely amazing!! At some poit, I may go into detail about both these trips in this blog.

Also, I would love it if I could make more music in 2011 as I have been working with Carl Fremen on our dubstep project called 'Worm' for the last year. We are about to release our first 2 tracks on Carl's label 'Desert Plant'. So, really excited about this.. Really fallen more and more in love with dubstep and chilled out music in the past while.

http://www.myspace.com/wormdupstep

I have been well out of the loop in terms of my music career since I moved to Europe (I used to be a DJ in South Africa see: http://www.shejay.net/artistDetail.php?userID=3654 . But since leaving home, there is just too much competition to be a DJ here, and to be fair I have not really tried as hard as I could to get sets here- the clubs that have Drum and Bass nights in Berlin have really bad sound systems and the only regular night only takes famous people on that are really well known, although I gotto say that I am sort of relieved due to the bad sound sytem, though saying that, I have played on some of the world's worst sound systems in my time, so wouldn't say no to a set either. Just can't be arsed to go out to crap smoky clubs to meet people to get sets. But hopefully I will still be able to get my musical fix by making sets at home like I have been doing lately and producing whenever I can.

Here is an example of a dubstep set I made this year, which had had over 500 listens and 80 something downloads.. not bad for my second dubtep mix ever:

2010-02-21 dubstep mix by WORM DUBSTEP

It is really cold at the moment and due to the days being much shorter, we only have light from around 8 am till 16h30 at the moment, I will get much more done as the days feel so much longer in general, even though in reality the total opposite is true. The days in summer are extremely long too, but feel to pass by much quicker- I guess it has something to do with wanting to do more stuff due to the good weather then.. but then it gets dark around 11pm.. Europe is quite extreme this way. I have to say, I am loving the snow, although today, outside, the snow has melted and there is nothing but piles of grey sludge know as 'Matsch' in German. I am sure it will snow again though and I have to say I absolutely love the snow when it is all over the place and white everywhere.. it is truly gorgeous!

Pic I took on the way to work

They also have these amazing 'Weihnachtmarkts' (Christmas Markets) here, which is the stuff that childhood dreams are made of.. toffee apples, roasted nuts, 'Fladenbrots', cute little wooden things, ice-skating and funfairs. I would have flipped out as a kid.

So, yeh this is a bit about me and what I will be up to in the next while. I have been logging my ideas for this blog in a book on the meantime for quite some time, so hopefully will never run out of things to write.. I am not very good at sticking to routine, so may not be able to do one blog a day, but this could also be an excellent opportunity to work on some discipline.. I hope that 2011, brings good vibes for all.

Namaste.

I leave you with a Track of the day...

Lee Chanel xoxo

World Cup Madness is over- what now?

2010-07-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

I may live in Berlin for the moment, and really love this city with it's wide spaces, green trees and parks, it's multi-cultural, artistic coolness and it's melting pot of cultures, but there are parts here too that are tough eg. (although I have to remind myself whilst writing this, that I complain a lot about things that some would consider bloody luxury, so please excuse me)- I miss my home, South Africa, like crazy and this past soccer world cup really awakened this in me once again.. Not that I would be able to go back now, I think, actually know, that if I went back, I would be frustrated once again, like I was after a year or so, and will probably want to spread my wings and fly to another destination once again. This happened to me both times I returned home from America. Maybe it would be different if I went back to and lived in Joburg, as Cape Town (apart from it's political problems) is like living in paradise- as it is extremely beautiful, but because it is quite a small place and everyone knows eachother there, the politics can get quite intense, well, at least I found this. Also, in Summer, the few beaches near the city really get too packed.. o.k, now I admit, I must sound like an absolute snob!

Husband and I toy with the idea often though, and would love to go home to be closer to our friends and families. Some things would have to change first though, before we would decide to take the leap.

One- after spending a fair amount of time in Europe and seeing what it is like to have constant, really fast,cheap and uncapped internet, it wld be really hard to regress back to the slow, expensive and dismal state of our internet in S.A. I hear that bc of the recent World Cup, they improved the internet.

Two, if people would stop wanting to kill eachother because of lack of money, this would also help- Xenephobic locals wanting to kill eachother for the few jobs that are around for the less educated, black old school apartheid thinkers still not over the past and wanting to kill anyone who isn't white (Yes, this is STILL happening) and visa versa, and less priveledged poor people with no hope who will murder you for R10 or less.. if these things would change, it would make S.A a much more livable place. Though these are not really small issues to tackle as they are so old and deeply ingrained in South Africa's past.. it feels like the tallest,widest and deepest wall to get over.

Whilst living here, well, in Europe (and also saw in America) I see the sheer ignorance of some people that really have no clue about what 'Real Hardships' are about. They complain that the government doesn't give them enough money whilst they look for jobs, or some don't even do that. They live off the money. Now don't get me wrong, I do understand that life can be hard for everyone in different degrees, but in Africa, and I am sure it cld even be worse in India or some other countries, people are living on less than €1 a day- can you even begin to imagine this?

It is no wonder then, that they want to kill you for R10 (Rand- South African currency= less thana Euro) because that is literally survival money for them when they can't find a means to help themselves. In africa, people don't get any money from the government, and if they did, I think that it would be really tough to control as it is like suddenly giving candy to a 3 year old baby who has never had it before.. they will probably want more and more.. and this in itself could cause drama with toi-toing or riots for more money- pretty much what happens in Europe already, except probably with more violence.

I recently lived through a really good example of what I mean personally- and not to sound like a Martyr or Saint or anything, but I started a project in which I get african art made in South Africa by a local person lving there who moved there from Malawi and now sells hand made african beadwork on the beach. It went pretty well for the most part, but she was very bad at telling me how much to pay her for the goods and once I had paid her, she was always telling me that this was just not enough. So, the communication was really bad and I just could not giver her more money without losing money myself leaving me witha feeling that I had not really helped, yet I know that in fact I did and it was merely a case of her wanting more money as I did not pay her unfairly. In the end, I agreed to give her more money and after a lot of endless explaining, she is happy with the outcome, but I have lost a bit of money. I think this example could be the kind of possible outcome that would happen if there was some kind of social care system in South Africa. So, it is a really tricky one- not that our goverment even has the funds or structure to even consider such a thing as govermental funding for it's citizens.

During the world cup, I saw so much Unity and love between the South African people that I know is there between the people, but gets buried by hate from wrongs done to one another by a very small minority of people. There were so many bad things said and planned to take place as soon as the world cup is over. After seeing the people unite like that it would be a such a shame to go backwards again. The local people have threatened the foreigners to either go back to Zimbabwe or which ever other African country they came from or they will be killed and the white people vowed to get revenge as the leader of the white supremacy party from the apartheid era group was killed earlier this year. Both of these options sound like a very near step towards a civil war and or more bad international press.

I just hope that we can as a nation, rise above these things and unify like we did so well during the world cup as now we are at the same level as other countries in terms of international exposure. We have two choices now: revert back to our old school ways of violence, ignorance and hatred, or use this opprtunity to prove to the rest of the world who could invest in our country and improve our current state of affairs that we can be civilized and loving towards one another. We should let our african heart shine. I hope that we have seen what is possible and will improve together as one nation- most of us already really understand this and are living it, but some of us still need to learn to bring on the Ubuntu.

xoxo

Lee Chanel

A tale of a blow up pool in Berlin

2010-06-27T06:18:00.001-07:00

Up north, in Berlin, we are not blessed with the greatest weather all year round, but when it is good, like today, I really appreciate that I live here and not somewhere else, like London, one rarely sees the sun and in some countries, like further up north from here, there is literally very little sun for 1 month only in some parts. At least here, we have clear skies and hot days like today. It is a perfect day in Berlin, with just a light breeze. The weather report says 25 degrees, but it seems hotter. Anyway, not to brag, but my man and I pay out of our asses to stay in an apartment with a roof garden in the centre of Berlin and it is so awesome on days like this. I was writing this blog whilst tanning on the roof, but I had to come downstairs to watch England vs. Germany.

So, we have blown up the pool again. We bought it for the summer last year. It served us well last year. It is just so nice to lie in when it is really hot and look over the Berlin skyline. Around this time last year , and about 3 days after we bought the pool, I was at work, when I heard a crazy storm brewing up. The thunder was so loud it sounded as if we were actually in the thunder cloud. It was the craziest storm I have ever experienced.

Husband and I had been sleeping in the pool as we did not yet have a hose pipe to fill the pool up and the weather was so great the night before that we thought that we would sleep beneath the stars. Before I left for work, I asked him to please take the bedding that was in the pool out in the morning. When I hard the crazy storm begin, I tried to Skype and phone him to remind him to take the bedding out of the pool. He didn't answer for like 15 mins and then when he came back, he told me all about what had just unfolded with the pool.

When the wind picked up, husband heard a sudden 'Swish' sound coming from the roof, ran upstairs to find out what it was and found that the pool was gone.. clearly it had blown off the roof. So husband ran downstairs and could not see it anywhere. He saw no one but one guy sitting outside the african food store in our road. So he asked him, "Dude, have you seen a pool?" He stared blankly back at him and after a while replied.. "Ahh, yeh.. I did see a pool- it's in there." he said, pointing toward Kaffee burger- a famous bar in Berlin that has been around for bloody ages. And has seen even the likes of Madonna gracing it. So husband was like where? And the guy pointed him to the door of Kaffee Burger- as he opned the door- there was the pool, intact except for a few scratches, having a drink at the bar. I think the manager and staff were hoping to use it for a party coz they looked quite dissapointed when husband asked to have our pool back. He then lugged the entire 3x2M pool up the stairs by himself. I was pretty impressed.

So, this year, we decide to take the pool out again as the weather got much warmer again. So, we blew it up only to see that the bottom panel kept slowly deflating every time we blew it up.. we did the soap puncture test with no success- we found no puncture. Yet, it kept deflating. So we came to the conclusion that the air was escaping from the holes from which we blew up the pool.

Anyway, eventually we gave up and thought we would just make do with the 2 panels which still remained inflated. This held the water fine for about 2 days until one day husband was at home again and heard a rush of water which sounded like rain. When he went to see what was happening there was a wall of water gushing past out kitchen window. The phone rang a couple minutes later and it was the landlord concerned and checking that a pipe hadn't burst.. It was the bloody pool again which had just collapsed.

It has been lying flat upstairs ever since with bricks on it, but today husband was adamant to revive it and used some tape and super glue to fix the punctures. He also glued the air hole together, so I guess this will be the last time we will be using the pool.. I tried to tell him not to bother as I think it will not last long, but he insisted that it was a waste if we don't try to fix it. So it is upstairs now without water in it, looking rather battered.

I wonder what it will do next?

Laid Back » Berlin Street Art Safari

2009-12-02T14:52:00.001-08:00

Laid Back » Berlin Street Art Safari

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intro.. Burning Man/ Dreamtopia.. Berlin

2009-11-13T07:57:00.000-08:00

I am going to start my first entry with an art exhibition/ interactive performance art exhibition that I attended recently, which I absolutley loved!! I live in Berlin, and as you may, or may not know, Berlin is a melting pot of art, music, culture and events.. A perfect playground for a young and vibrant wannabe or established artists, writers, producers etc etc

I live right in the Mitte of it all, smack, bang in the centre of Berlin, and guess what? I never really go out.. I often sit and wonder what the hell is wrong with me? as I sit in the house all day and night, when I could be outside exploring the wonders of Berlin.

So, I ventured out one Sunday, come hell or high water.. I was so sick of being lazy at home and never exploring the turf that I took it upon myself to at least attend an art exhibition which looked really interesting called: Dreamtopia..

Here is the same info that I saw before I went, which totally sold me..

http://eplaya.burningman.com/viewtopic.php?t=23658&highlight=dreamtopia

http://berlin.unlike.net/event_occurrences/107152-Checkpoint-DreamYourTopia

I got my lazy ass out of the house and met with a friend and we took a train and afterward I was so glad that I did, coz it was a very memorable and even life changing experience for me.

So, we went down to an abandoned swimming pool in Wedding. A friend of mine has an office there, and what an awesome venue.. 2 large, empty abandoned swimming pools and plenty of space..so cool.

Anyway, when we got there, we tried to enter and were asked if we had passport photos?? When we didn't we had to get some from an old school photo booth for 2€ and we missed the first photo coz it starts like almost immediately after inserting the money.

We took a really random pic of my friend's arm and jacket bc we were not ready for the first photo and the guy at the door chose that one and cut it in half and attached it to a form. We were then allowed through to the waiting area where we could write our details onto the form which had many interesting questions such as age and then mental age.. and many other strange and interstingly fantastical made up questions .. Of course you did not have to answer them truthfully, for eg. my friend said mental date of birth: 0 b.c and I answered:- origin: Restaurant at the end of the Universe. On our way into the room, the very strange guy that registered us in the beggining slipped us some imaginary dream money and told us to hide it and not to tell anyone about it..

The room was very dream like already with many people sitting in front of a big pink skull and bones shaped gate with soft mysterous music playing in the background. We waited to be questioned about what we filled in on our forms which had a lot to do with our dreams.. and what we imagine and want from life..

We waited around for ages to be questioned and then, on our second attempt at trying to pass through the gate, we made it through to another smaller room, also blocked by another gate, where a man was again asking quesions, but at that gate, he was asking questions about our ideas about god and our ideas about dreams.. we waited for another 45 mins or so after already waitng for about 45 already, until we were allowed through another door.. we got through to a tiny room then with a crazy guy who also asked us many more questions about our dreams and told us that we are the masters of our dreams..

We then had to stand with our hands on our hearts and and say together into a microphone which was broadcast out of a nearby speaker that we were the dreamers and that we can shape our destiny as we hold the passport.. He then issued us with our dream passports and we were allowed into through 'the doorway to our dreams'. We climbed a ladder, slid down a slide and went down a dark tunnel where we then found a DJ playing techno or something of the like, and a bar, where we had a drink and chatted about how great the 90s were.

I must say, I have never been to an exhibition that left me with such a lasting impression. I have the passport now, and can make any of my dreams come true.. I like the way it made people question what they were doing with there lives and if they were truley following there dreams or not. I also liked the way it took the piss of the boundaries that are placed by humans on eachother by governements and bureaucracy and the necessity to conform in our every day lives.

I would recommend this exhibition if you get the chance to see it, or, now that I have told you about all of it and ruined the suprise, you could also just take heed to the msg that it is portraying and follow your dreams..

More info:

http://www.dadara.nl/checkpoint/index.html

http://dreamyourtopia.blogspot.com/

See pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/modart/sets/72157622781810992/show/

xoxo

Lee Chanel