As I plot the details of a first trip to Germany, I have been hearing various tips on how to make the most of the journey. First, there are all the rules around international plane travel. First and foremost: avoiding any extraneous luggage. This sends me on a Robinson Crusoe style mental adventure of how clever I can be with my clothes, accessories and toiletries. I will bring only two outfits (the nice one and the invisible one). I once read in a Mademoiselle magazine in the 1980s that salt crystals were a great multi-purpose hygiene product to take camping.

Sweat is salt. What I like about sweating is how clean it makes me feel. Do not drink water from the ocean. We contribute so much to it. I clean myself organically.

I haven’t sweat like this in ages. I think if someone were to pierce me through my phalanges in an extreme magic trick, first of all I would feel relief rather than pain, like having a pressure point penetrated beyond mere touch, but second of all, the needle would dissolve in rust and sublimate into my body forever.