New Zealand's Nambassa Music Festivals...

The Nambassa Music Festivals were,
in the 1970's and 80's a social, cultural and spiritual renaissance.
The largest of their kind in the world.
These were the years of the Free Range Hippies and  their beautiful housetrucks.
Here's just a few.
The festivals, in addition to the popular musical entertainment, featured workshops on holistic health, alternaive medicines, clean and sustainable energy, self sufficiency, unadulterated foods and issues of social conscience.
The festivals held on farms in and around New Zealand's Waihi and Waikino areas.
Those were the days my friends...

The World's Smallest Car On The Road Again...

The world's most miniscule cars, the Peel P50 and the Peel Trident are back on the road again.
Neither of the tiny cars that boast a 3.35 horsepower engine, capable of a speedy 28mph have been manufactured since 1966.
The slightly bigger Trident can fit two not very big people and the P50, only one.
Now the adorable little cars are back but with a monster of a price tag. 10,000 pounds in the UK and  $16,000 in the US.
And if you don't feel like driving or run out of fuel, you can take it for a walk...

A Tiny Trailer Home That's Big On Style, Form And Function...

I found the Tiny Tack House over at Kent Griswold's Tiny House Blog.
The story of Malissa and Christopher Tack and how and why they built their very practical tiny house.
Very much a traditional tiny house in the style of Jay Shafer's Tumbleweed homes, the owners particularly like the idea of complete independence, living off grid with only solar panels for their power supply, a generous amount of water in storage tanks and not having an albatross around their necks in the form of a thirty year mortgage.
They've put together a delightful blog of their tiny home planning, building and living experience.
It's worth a visit.
They are now looking forward to their future with the freedom a tiny house of only about 200sq feet gives them to live.
And living's what life's all about...

Amazing Avant-Garde Architecture In China's Beijing...

After nearly eight years of construction with obscene costs estimated at US$1.8 billion, the 44 floor, CCTV headquarters with its five million square feet of floor space is now complete.
It's an amazing piece of design appearing to defy gravity and it will need to do more than that if and when it encounters some of the area's seismic activity.
The exciting building comprises two leaning towers connected by an innovative cantilever that seems to support itself.
I'm not sure if they used bamboo scaffolding for this amazing structure.
There's more about it here...

Beautiful Creative Handmade Bohemian Houses...

There's nothing quite like a handmade home fashioned from the good and local earth, whether in the cob style or mud and straw bales, or earthbags and plenty of recycled timbers to enhance the character.
There's usually a semblance of a plan but that often goes out the window when it's decided to put one there instead of there because the view's better.
Handmade houses just evolve spontaneously too when someone helping for the day has a bright idea or often from a happy accident when something that's gone possibly wrong happens to be wonderfully right.
Very Wabi-Sabi.
Here's a few to brighten your day...

Solar Airplane Begins Its First Transatlantic Flight...

An experimental solar-powered airplane took off from Switzerland on Thursday aiming to reach North Africa next week.
Pilot Andre Borschberg has successfully flown the single seater, jumbo jet sized Solar Impulse plane with its array of 12,000 solar cells on its first leg flight to Spain's Madrid and his collegue Bertrand Piccard will helm the aircraft to the Moroccan capital of Rabat.
The journey is expected to be fraught with many delays caused by fog or clouds or just the weather generally but the huge plane with its 63 metre wingspan reached the French city of Lyons at a cruising speed of 70 kilometres per hour.
For more flight information, have a look here. And here.
This flight is being regarded as a final rehearsal for a round the world flight in 2014.
The world's a better place by using clean renewable energy...

The Time Is Now!

This is the watch for anyone who needs to know the precise time at any given instant.
For the person living in the moment...

The Origami Paddle Board.

It's a great idea, the easily transportable paddle board that folds.
Up till now, stand-up paddle boarders have had the option of a stable solid board or an easily transportable inflatable.
Each being desirous of the other's features.
The Origami Paddler, is designed by Tim Niemer, the man who invented the sit-on-kayak and founded Ocean Kayaks back in the 1970's and is a new option that transports easily while giving a solid platform to ride on.
The board works using clever locking hinges. Just unfold it, float it and ride it.
It's that easy.
Paddle over here for a closer look...

Wild, Wacky, Wonderful Housetrucks...

I've found these wonderfully wild, weird and wacky housetrucks on my travels in recent times.
I thought they'd brighten up your day too...