Another desert trip

Here's the recipe for a successful desert trip: take a bunch of lovely people, some food, wine, a couple of blankets and a tiny car.
Then just pretend that it's a 4x4 and head off into the desert...




There you might find an ancient Roman trading road - straight as a pencil, of course...



...or a sandstorm...



...and in the middle of the desert: a tree! - the only one in a radius of a hundred km or so!! And of course: it's a holy tree!!!
Legend has it that the prophet Mohammad PBUH took a rest under this tree on one of his trade caravans to Syria... so it lives forever. And it has such a very incredible feeling about it that somehow the Jordanian authorities felt a need to fence it in...



...and when the little "4x4" looks like this...



...then it's time to take a break, get out and go for a walk.



And most likely, you'll come across an old castle somewhere... and the Bedouins who live nearby might ask you: who built it?
"The Romans" you'll answer.
Then they might ask back:
"And where are they now?"



Then you just roll out your blankets, gather some firewood (this could be a majorly difficult undetaking - remember: you're in a desert!), light a campfire, reject the various invitations to rather spend the night in a tent with electricity and gas-heating, open a bottle of wine... and a few hours later the morning sun will tickle your nose.

Café do Brazil

It's been a few weeks now that I've more or less moved out of my house... since then I'm living mostly on my roof. Many months ago I had the idea of building a Bedouin tent on the large tiled roof of the house I'm living in - and about a month ago it was finally finished - a kind of urban Bedouin tent, you might call it - made out of recycled Brazilian coffee bags (hence the name), 5 x 4 metres big, closed on 3 sides and open to the north, where trees kindly grow over my house onto the roof, giving shade, green and happiness.

This is my new home. I sleep here and spend the few hours a day that I have outside work and theatre rehearsals. It's like camping without the trip, like nature in the middle of town, like weekend at the end of every day. I love it!

Ya reed...

"Ya reed" is an Arabic expression that means as much as "I wish"... usually used when something comes up in conversation that is out of your reach, yet close to your heart.
I use it a lot these days.