Birthday resolutions

Tomorrow it's my birthday!

Only 3 short years left before I'll be turning 30, ai!

Last year before I turned 26, I made a list of 26 things I wanted to try to accomplish during the year I was going to be 26 ('26 for 26' I called it). I didn't quite get everything on the list done, but that's ok. It was never really my intention to actually do every singly thing, because a lack of money (and time) would probably have stood in my way of doing that. And if it turned out I didn't like something I had put on my list, why keep doing it just because I had put it on there? Anyway, it was still fun to dream up things I wanted to do during the year and to try to work on them.

This year I'm going to do things a little bit differently. I'm still making a list of things I want to do, but they don't necessarily have to happen in the year that I'm 27. They are just things I would like to do, either sometime soon or some day. A bucketlist if you will (although I must admit, I've never really cared for that word very much). I'm going to assume that I will be able to cross of at least a couple of things each year and than on each upcoming birthday I'm going to add a couple more. That's the plan anyway. Let's see how I like it! To make this unnecessarily long story a little bit shorter... here is my (bucket)list:

• Learn to bake the perfect brownies (o yeah, definitively putting that one first on my list, just to get my priorities straight)
• Find a better job (ok, so perhaps this list isn't in any particular order)
• Learn to make delicious homemade crusli
• Read at the very least one book a month (if I wasn't such a terribly slow reader, I would say I wanted to read at least two books a month, but I'm afraid that would just be wishful thinking)
• Keep running
• Run in a race
• Learn how to make a pretty dress (or any other piece of clothing really)
• Take more pictures and learn how to take better ones (perhaps even take a photography class)
• Go on a (small) trip by myself
• Get my drivers license
• Find my own appartment (I've been living on my own for years, but I currently have to share my kitchen and bathroom with someone, I'd like to change that)
• Try to always have flowers in my house
• Watch the news regurarly (I'm extremely terrible at keeping up with current events, I'm ashamed of myself!)
• Travel! (there are so many cities and countries I want to visit, I could make a list here, but I'm afraid it would never end)
• Learn to play the piano
• Learn to understand and speak French
• Get a completely different haircut (I'm open to all kinds of suggestions except really really short, I tried that once and I looked like a boy. And not like a boy but still kind of sexy, no, an actual boy!)
• Get a different haircolour
• Learn at least one new creative craft (definitively sewing - otherwise how am I ever going to make my own dress? see above - and maybe painting or perhaps bookbinding)
• Try to plant my own little vegetable garden (once I actually have a garden, that is)
• Make this blog look prettier

The best and worst places to be a woman

Last month The Independent wrote about The best and worst places to be a woman. It turns out the best place to be a woman is Iceland. "Iceland has the greatest equality between men and women, taking into account politics, education, employment and health indicators." The worst place for a woman to live is Yemen and currently the most dangerous is Afghanistan. Here are some of the other places the article lists:

• Best place to be a politician: Rwanda. It's the only state where the majority of parliamentarians are women. The worst places to be a female politician are Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Oman and Belize. These have no women in parliament.
• Best place to be head of state: Sri Lanka. Women have run Sri Lanka for 23 years whereas lots of countries, including Sweden and Spain have never had a female head of state.
• Best place to be a top dog: Thailand. This state has the greatest percentage of women (45 per cent) in senior management. In Japan only 8 per cent of these positions are held by women.
• Best place for economic participation: Bahamas. Worst: Yemen.
• Best place for the right to choose: Sweden. "Sweden permits women to have abortions without restrictions for the first 18 weeks of pregnancy and there are no mandatory consent requirement." States that have a ban on all abortions include El Salvador, the Philippines and Nicaraqua.
• Best place to earn money: Luxembourg. "When income is capped at $40,000, women and men are as likely to earn the same amount." In Saudi Arabia women only earn $7,157 when men get $36,727.
• Best place to go to university: Qatar. Six times as many women are enrolled in tertiary education as men. The worst state is Chad where three men are enrolled for every woman.
• Best place to leave your husband: Guam. "The Micronesian island of Guam has the highest divorce rate in the world, and Guatemala has the lowest."
• Best place to drive a car: India. "An NGO in the country's capital launched an initiative to train women in the first radio-taxi service run only by women." Saudi Arabia is the only state in the world where women are banned from driving.
• Best place for high-skilled jobs: Jamaica. Almost 60 per cent of high-skilled jobs, such as legislators, senior officials and managers in Jamaica are filled by women. In Yemen only 2 per cent of such jobs are taken up by women.

Something In The Water

Love this song! And love the video!

- Something in the Water by Brooke Fraser -

The Fade Out Line

I'm loving this song at the moment!

- The Fade Out Line by Phoebe Killdeer & The Short Straws -

(This live version is pretty great too)