Solli in Paris

Me on the beach in Malapascua, Philippines

Im organizing my photos from my trip in Asia and I’m trying to figure out in what way to write about my long journey…..hold on ;-)

Photo: Solli Kanani

It’s time to enter a new year and a new beginning in many perspectives…I hope this new year will bring you lots of love, joy and happiness!

Love, Solli

photo taken outside my moms house in December 2010

Merry Christmas! God Jul! Joyeux Noël! Hope you all are having a beautiful Christmas with your loved ones :-)

Christmas for me symbolizes family gathering, and I wish instead of giving and opening more presents…we should be better in giving love and open our hearts. Christmas should be a magical day full of joy and happiness, to spend time with the people you love.

Love to you all!

Solli (photo taken on November 27th 2011)

So this is it, I’m turning 30 years old! Right now I’m on the island Malapascua in the Philippines. I’ve always loved exotic islands…and palm trees. When I was turning 10 years old I wished to get a big poster on palmtrees and my mom bought one as my birthday gift. Now, exactly 20 years later I’m celebrating my birthday with my sister on an island…crowded with palmtrees :-) That’s happiness!

Another nice birthday gift must be that I finally will get rid of my braces (as you can see on the photo above) I’ve had them since October 2009. When I get back from my Asia-trip my dentist told me he will take them off, wohoo!

Tomorrow I’ll be leaving to Paris where I will be spending a whole day, that is LOVE! The next day I’ll be heading to Dubai…after my first stop I’ll be leaving to Singapore and I’ll arrive on Friday afternoon. I’m so thrilled! It’s my first trip to Asia and I’m so excited :-)

During my vaccation I’ll have a vacction from my sweet MacBook Pro aswell…we both need vaccation if you know what I mean ;-) BUT I’ve prepared blogposts that are time scheduled..so between December 1st 2011-January 6th 2012 my blog is updated almost every second day with time scheduled blogpost so don’t forget to stop by ;-)

Even though I will leave my laptop at home it doesn’t mean my camera won’t come along! He will be my partner during this trip and I will share my adventures and photos with you when I get back in January. Until then, take care!

I’m leaving to Singapore soon and I’m so excited! Can’t wait to see my sister :-) For the moment she is having lot’s of exams…5 in one week to be correct. Two of her friends, Sara and Cristoffer, also from Sweden study in the same University and live on the same campus as my sister, they have a blog where you can follow their journey in Singapore. They’ve been travelling around in Asia during their studies in Singapore and last week they did a videoclip on how it looks like now when they’re studying for their exams…. Thought I would share it with you so you can see how it’s looks like in the University and the campus. I wish them all good luck on their exams and now when I’ve seen the video I understand why my sister loves the canteen, imagine you pick whatever kind of exotic fruits you wish to have and then they chop and slice them for you..and also mix a fresh smoothie….love!

6-year old Eden Wood (image source)

Beauty contests for children in the US are a big industry with lots of money involved and what I’ve recently read in the magazines makes me wonder how the parents of these children can expose their children for this industry that mostly attracts pedophiles?

Eden Wood, a 6 years old girl, has since 2009 (when she was 4 years old) been featured in Toddlers and Tiaras (an American reality serie) and she have been winning prizes in several beauty contests for children, she have published her book “Eden Wood: From Cradle to Crown”, released an Eden Wood doll, she has appeared in two movies and released five songs. This girls is only 6 years old and it’s sad she is not enabled to enjoy her childhood. What I see is a parent who is exploiting her child. I don’t believe that a child in that age has that maturity to be involved in that kind of business….

3-year old Paisley (image source)

Paisley, a three year old child, got her costume made by her mom for a beauty contest, she was going to be Julia Robert’s character as a prostitute in “Pretty Woman”. Another mom put fake boobs and fake butt to her 4-years old child, Maddy Jackson, so she could perfom as Dolly Parton in a contest.

Obviously these mothers see no limits in exposing their children, either they’re trying to achieve what they never had in their own life and are trying to reach fame by their children or they just want fame and succes on behalf of their children.

What I see is that these children are missing a beautfiful childhood, their youthful essence are taken away by their parents. These parents are sexualising their children, they are abusing them in a very harmful way and exposing them to pedophiles who, I’m sure, are watching these contests on TV.

Another popular show in the US is the Jimmy Kimmel Live!, an American late night talk-show. He use to give missions to parents who are watching the show. One of them was to video-tape their child/children while they are telling them that they (the parents) just had eaten all the Halloween candies that the child/children had been collecting during Halloween. Many parents did this and sent the videoclips to Jimmy Kimmel Live! and some of them were picked and showed live. We all know how much most of the children loves candy. Imagine then how much effort they have put to collect candies during the Halloween, and imagine their reaction if you tell them you ate ALL of their candy? Most of the children we’re crying when they heard that their parents had eaten their candy and the audience we’re laughing to theses kids, even the parents were laughing behind the cameras. How cruel isn’t that? Since when is it entertainment to see children being hurted in that way? How fun is it to watch a child cry? For me that is not entertainment.

When I hear about these kind of shows and contests I just feel disgusted by these parents who are abusing their children for the public entertainment. But also all the producers and all the other people behind these kind of productions. Parents are supposed to protect their children, what we are seeing is the contrary. You need to have a license to drive a car, I believe you need to have a license to have a child. Obviously there are many people who are not qualified as parents…. And I wonder how these children will turn out like when they’re adults? I hope their parents will take their responsibilites and deal with the consequences…

Im going to Asia next week! My first destination will be Singapore to meet my sister who is studying over there. Two days later we’re leaving to the Philippines, first we’re going to Boracay, an island that just recently have been nominated to the Worlds Best Island by Travel & Leisure, there we’re going to enjoy the beautiful beach “The White Beach” for a couple of days.

(image source)

After Boracay we will be heading to another beautiful island, but not as mainstream as Boracay…Im talking about Malapascua. A pretty undiscovered island, only 2.5 kilometres long and 1 km wide. There I’m going to celebrate my birthday, I’m turning 30…and what couldn’t be better celebrating that in paradise with my sister?

(Malapascua , image source)

During our stay at Malapascua we will also make a day trip to a smaller and more hidden treasure in the ocean…a small island called Calanggaman. There are no hotels or anywhere to stay overnight on the island so you can imagine how quiet and peaceful it will be :-)

In the middle of December me and my sister will leave the Philippines and go to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) in Vietnam. During ten days we will travel around in Vietnam which Im looking forward too since one of my best friends, Hana, have told me so much intresting things about Vietnam, their people and culture.

(Marina Bay Sands (the three buildings with the ship on top of it),image source)

We’re going to celebrate Christmas in Vietnam and in the end of December we will go back to Singapore to meet up our dad who will be coming to join us for ten days. We haven’t made any plans for that week..but I know my sister just made a reservation at the hotel Marina Bay Sands for their Chocolate Bar :-) We’ll be there during the New Year celebrating it together and I’ll leave Asia in the second week of January.

It’s my first time ever in Asia and Im really looking forward this trip and to see and spend time with my sweet sister :-)

Solli

In Sweden with my winterjacket….oh yes! That’s how cold it is here…brrrr. But Im not going to “brrrrr” for such a long time. In less than two weeks I’m leaving to some countries where the sun is shining…where I can lay on the beach and try to do the “il dolce far niente“. And I’m coming back next year, guess where Im going?

Solli

Life is unpredictable. It’s also very fragile…and at some point unfair. We’re sometimes born into circumstances we’ve never chosed to be a part of. Sometimes life becomes like a living hell and you don’t see any other option than cut loose from the suffering….leaving to a better place where to find peace. Peace that couldn’t be found here. Yesterday I was told that a childhood friend of mine just passed away. I was chocked. We’re the same age and he had a whole life in front of him…and suddenly he is not existing anymore. I only have good memories of him, a joyful, funny guy with a big heart and beautiful soul…handsome and charming. He was fearless, nice and I remember how he used to come to me and my friends defense if someone were acting bad to us in school. Like a hero, a real human being…. I guess that was the image most of us had of him. But he was suffering for certain things but I never knew nor I could imagine that I one day would recieve the news that he’s not among us anymore. It’s sad and it’s a tragedy. But I know, that he is much better off where he is now than here. This life never treated him good or fair and he simply had to leave to start a new life in a beautiful place.

I think we once in a while need to stop our high speed life and look around us. What are we acctually living for? Who do we love in our life? And what memories would we like to bring with us when we meet death? I think this high speed and over consuming society makes people rush towards something undefined. People are running after illusions. People are sacrifying themselves for things that acctually doesn’t gives what they NEED only what they WANT. It’s the people around us we need to focus on, live for and love. Life can be taken away from us when we least expect it and that’s why it’s important to make the right choices, before it’s too late.

Sources to the images:

“my heart is so tired” image from http://kushkrazy.tumblr.com/post/11333337910

“self destroyed” image from http://my-lovely-nightmares.tumblr.com/post/12799398821

“everyone leaves” from http://this–too–shall–pass.tumblr.com/post/12301934233

“lost” image from: http://www.muzic-world.com/Tumblr/Wallpapers/

Crystalized violets and rose petals

I love crystalized violets and while we were strolling around in the markets I found crystalized rose petals. It was the first time I tasted the crystalized rose petals and I loved it, so I brought back a bag with a mix of crystalized rose petals and violets. We also bought sea salt flakes that is one of the main local speciality from the isle.

Salt from Ile de Ré

Bangs!

Yesterday I took a scissor and after a couple of minutes I had created bangs in my hair :-)

Bangs!

Finally passed my French exam!

One week ago I had my written exam and yesterday I had my oral exam in French, and I also got to know my result immediately and I had passed :-) Best news I could get!

I’ve hardly had time to study since I had to move out from the apartment where I was living at, the one next to L’Arc de Triomphe (the landlord was going to renovate the entire apartment during the summer) and since then I’ve been moving around for three weeks…but I did my best to study during this time and succeed :-)

Flat-ironing while out at dinner

Not long ago when I went to a restaurant in Paris I found this flat-iron in the bathroom, very cool idea! Very convenient for us ladies who wants to adjust our hair. Would love to see more of these things in more restarants and even clubs ;-)

Hawaiian Tropic

Summer always means a large consumtion of Hawaiian Tropic bottles for me :-) This sun-tan oil has been my favorite one ever since I was a child and I completely love its scent of coconut….It’s without sun-screen and usually I use sun-screen lotions with SPF 30 for my body and SPF 50 for my face for a couple of times until I get a nice tan, if I don’t use a sun-screen and go for the oil first I will end up with wrinkles when I get older and I rather skip that part… So first high SPF until I get a nice tan and until my skin is used to the sun and then, the rest of the summer I use sun-oil…and IF the sun is strong I protect my skin with a sun-screen cream under my Hawaiian Tropic oil ;-)