S (nearly 3) and his dad are looking out the window. Neighbour walks by with staggering little boy by her side (unknown age, but younger than S).
S: Dad, I want to push that boy Dad: No but S, that's not nice. S: Yes, I want to push him so that he trips and falls over. Then he will cry, and I will comfort him. Then he will be happy and like me a lot.
SERIOUSLY! We all live in these square houses, but who decided that everybody had to live in more or less a CUBE? Why can't we think a little more "out of the box" - literally?
Since I first visited Amsterdam - at age 5 - I've had a romantic dream of living in a houseboat. But apparently the dream hasn't been strong or sincere enough. Or else I'd be living in one now. Which I might have been - hadn't it been for my terrible tendency to sea-sickness.
I've recently started to feel claustrophopic confined inside this concrete-cage of four walls with a glass front at one end. A box stacked on top of another box with other boxes over it - forming all together one big box divided in smaller cells. So I started searching my mind for memories of spaces which I had enjoyed.
TENT was what came to my mind.
As a child I've spent hundreds of nights in tents with all the other kids from our 'hood. I had agreed to sleep closest to the exit in order not to hurt the other kids so much with my violent nightly movement (some people are sleep-walkers. I'm a sleep-fighter it seems). Result: 5 kids cramped up at rear end of tent and me taking up the remaining 3/4 of the space...
But that was a stray thought. Back to serious talk of alternative housing now.
I figured it would be nice to have a tent for a home. Tents don't have to be like small triangular 2x1m with a faulty rain-cover types. People have been living in tents for thousands of years all over the world.
What - you think the hunter-gatherers of the Stone Age all lived in caves? Well no. There were more people than could be housed in caves even back then. The rest of them lived in TENTS. And did they freeze to death there? I think not. If they had, neither of us would be here today...
It is a myth that tenting is too cold in the North European climate. In Mongolia where the majority of the population live in tents (Yurts/Gers/Ghers) the temperature easily drops to minus 20C during the night. And the aboriginal Americans (also known as American Indians) of the prairies were erradicated by other means than cold from living in a teepee I tell you.
So - the logical thing for me to do was to conduct a search for tent-living information on my almighty oracle; the internet. The oracle informs me, that there are in fact communities dedicated to yurt living.
Yurt villages, yurt "enthusiasts", several D-I-Y yurt sites and books and even yurt web-shops. Unfortunately these communities are located on the utmost outskirts of the world seen from a Copenhagenoncentric point-of-view. California (of course), Mongolia (naturally) and - of all places - Tasmania. Closest community must be the UK, but still too remote for commuting daily if working in Cph...
There goes my luck in finding fellow tent-enthusiasts. Nobody to help me convince anybody that living in a tent all year is a good idea. From a comfort-point of view, as well as an echo-friendly one. Imagine all the building material saved. All the Co2 saved from truckloads of brick and concrete NOT being driven back and forth and the money saved on repairing roads damaged from all the heavy transport. And all the space saved - even a big tent will always have a smaller circumference than a house because it's walls are thinner.
So my dear urbanized fellow human beings - let's start thinking out of the boX. And check below how nice living in a tent can be if you still don't believe me
Nordic cuisine is the new buzz. All over Scandianvia, elite chefs are rediscovering and reinventing fine cuisine with the use of aboriginal ingredients. They even sign manifests witnessed by politicians, philosophers and major business leaders.
The new gourmet is now rye bread pudding and oatmeal (honestly; oatmeal is the favourite dish of chef Søren Ledet at the renowned and Michelin star rewarded restaurant Geranium in Copenhagen).
Recently, the gourmet restaurant NOMA in Copenhagen has received 2 whole michelin stars. And it is on top 10 of the 50 best restaurant in the whole WORLD for 2008. I do understand why. Surely it's the only restaurant in the world featuring SNOWMAN on the evening menu. The "Snowman from Lammefjorden" is one of the dishes on the 7 course menu served for the mere price of 900 dkk (appx. 130 euros). It seems to be served au naturel, as no accompanying weeds or roots are mentioned with it. And don't get me started on the wonders of the lunch menu, which spots equally spectacular ingredients such as "seawater", "overripe pear" and "crispy breast". Sounds yummy, don't you agree?
Now if you'll excuse me. I'm going to have my night snack: thin shavings of dried pilot whale on a bed of arctic forest moss topped with a caramellised foam of parsnip. I'll sprinkle it with just a slight toss of juniper barch to add some texture to the flavour.
Just the old traditional Scandinavian snack you know.
