From the cab of a 26-ton truck, Fabrice sees ordinary streets from a different height. The view is better. The responsibility is heavier. And what looks easy from outside is often anything but. A Different View. Janita asked me what would surprise her first if she climbed into my truck tomorrow morning. She has been…
Just when you think winter is finally packing its bags and heading out the door, the universe decides to change the locks. We were all coasting along, waiting for the calendar to tick over to the first of September, expecting those first warm hints of spring. Instead, the weather page turned and said: Not yet….
On Friday morning, The Mayor sent a message: “I will send you a message later. Nothing dramatic or serious, don’t worry.” Naturally, my mind went into an immediate spin. What could this possibly be about? But after spending the entire sunny afternoon on a cricket pitch—watching seven-year-olds bowl a ball and smack it as hard…
Four weeks in Bangalore. Four weeks in Campo Grande. The real question was not what to see, but how to live in somebody else’s world. Imagine that Ritesh and his wife leave Bangalore and spend a month in Ismar’s apartment in Campo Grande, Brazil. At the same time, Ismar moves into their apartment in Bangalore,…
Fruitloop sent me through five impossible worlds. Somewhere between melting chocolate, mechanical gnomes, argumentative gods and a magic mirror, I discovered that the point was never really to find the quickest answer. A Fruitloop University Story Episode 59 of Peeling Potatoes began with five mysterious doors. This is the sort of sentence that has become…
Sometimes the biggest changes in our lives begin with something surprisingly ordinary: asking, “Why do we do it this way?” Curiosity is often described as something children have in abundance, but I think adults need it just as much. In everyday life we become used to routines. We work, cook, clean, organise our homes, help…
Curiosity often begins with a passport, but it doesn’t always need one. Sometimes a new world is only a conversation away. The conversation began, as many good conversations do, with the weather. Monica described a chilly Australian morning, Fruitloop laughed about frozen toes after South Africa swung from two degrees to twenty-two in just a…
What if another world begins with a seat at a table? Next week, Brida is travelling without requiring passports, luggage or an early arrival at the airport. We will discover worlds carried by other people: their habits, questions, experiences, communities and ways of seeing what we thought we already understood. Ralf and the Swimming Club…
At two o’clock in the morning, the music stopped at the Crémant Festival in Cleebourg. For many people, that was probably the end of the evening. At a village festival, around a fireplace and over thirty apple trees, Fabrice discovers that curiosity depends not only on the question, but also on who is asking it….
Hoorn is a historic harbour town in North Holland, beside the Markermeer. It grew from a small settlement on the water and received city rights in 1357. Its old centre, harbour and former trading buildings still show how closely the town’s life was shaped by ships, fishing and international trade. My final postcards take us…
