I managed to close my suitcase!

My suitcase is very full. Hope it doesn't pop open on the plane. I bought a luggage-strap, so that should help a little.

I'm leaving at 3am tomorrow morning so I'm not going to bother going to bed, I'll just be even more tired if I do that. The last plane doesn't land until 11pm, so by the time I get home to my bed it's going to be 1 or 2am!

I have had a lovely time in England, I will write more about it when I'm back in Norway.

As geeky as it might sound: I'm looking forward to sitting down by my own laptop; looking through the photos I have taken during my visit on a screen larger than the one on my camera and reading the blog posts of the people I'm following.

I'm borrowing my friends netbook at the minute, It's a bit small for my liking, I'm not used to it, don't like it...

I really love Studio Ghibli films!

These are the four I've got:

- My neighbour Totoro

- Kiki's delivery service

- Whisper of the heart

- Howl's moving castle

I can't tell you which one is my favourite as I love watching all of them. Another one that I like is Spirited Away.

Before I knew of Studio Ghibli I never really liked animé. My only knowledge of it consisted of Pokémon and some rubbish series my ex-boyfriend used to watch that I can't remember the name of.

I was introduced to Studio Ghibli films by the family that I used to be an au pair for. Before that I had been in  love with Disney films, and I wan't really interested in watching any cartoons that weren't Disney. 

Until now, the only Studio Ghibli film I've not really liked is Princess Mononoke, but it's a while since I watched it, so maybe I would like it better if I watched it now. I think I just didn't realise it would be so violent and bloody. One film I would really like to watch is the new one by Studio Ghibli: Ponyo.

I still think Disney films are good, but at the same time I don't think they're the only ones or the best ones at making cartoons, or other films for that matter. The following clip kind of ruined Disney for me a little bit.

Warning: Do not watch the following clip if you want to continue watching Disney without judgement.

I'm packing my bags!

I'm going to England on Tuesday! I'm really excited!


It will be nice to see all my friends there again, I don't know when I'll see them again when I go to Australia. I've already made plans for some of the days I'm going to be there, it looks like it's going to be a busy week!


I've not told the people in the pub where I worked that I'm coming. I'm going to just walk in there on day and surprise them. "Miss me?".

The people I used to be an au pair for have invited me to tea/dinner one of the days as well. I'm really looking forward to see the girls again. From the pictures I've seen on Facebook they've grown a lot since I used to take care of them. Not surprising as it's nearly 3 years ago!

My friend that I'm staying with and I might go to York one of the days as well, if we can get cheap train tickets, and go to York Dungeon. I've never been to York Dungeon, I've only been to the one in Edinburgh, but that was 5 years ago, so I hope we're able to find some cheap tickets.

We also want to go ice skating. I've not done that since I was a kid so we'll probably spend the rest of that day in A&E.

I'm going to try to get some of this years Christmas shopping out of the way as well. I've already finished some of it. Yes, I know it's only January, but I want to finish it so that I won't have to spend lots of money sending the presents from Australia. I also won't have to worry about the presents not getting here in time, as they will already be here.

Shoes

I was looking through the blogs I'm following and I found this post at Pen and Paper by ...Petty Witter. After reading it I had to take a look at Kobi Levi's blog! He designs footwear, and I hope I will be able to buy a pair of his shoes sometime in the future! They are so cool and very one-of-a-kind.

Here are two of my favourites:

My feet are a bit wide though, so I don't know if any of them would actually fit. When I found out they had own shoes for wide feet in England I was so happy! I'm very picky when it comes to shoes and clothes, but finding something that actually fits makes it a lot easier.

Signs

I saw an article today about  a road sign, it's here (Norwegian) if you'd like to read it.

I think the sign is really funny, what makes it even funnier is that it's very close to a prison, which I guess is why they've put a ball and chain on it. The road traffic department says they're not going to press charges. Luckily they have a sense of humour, occasionally. Personally I think they should just leave it like that, but that's against regulation.

I think one of the reasons they're not pressing charges just because they're in the process of changing the signs anyway.

I don't like the new signs, it's just stick figures. They're supposed to be gender neutral, but just to be difficult I don't think they are: the stick figures are all men. They're all wearing trousers and hasn't got any breasts. I think the old signs were a lot nicer, and: there were both man and women featured on them.

Here are the old and the new signs, which ones do you prefer?

Pedestrian crossing:

Footpaths:

Schoolchildren:

Another reason why they're changing the signs is so that they will be easier to read, and because they want them to be more like the rest of Europe. I think it's just charming that they're different, as long as they're understandable I don't see the problem.

"Keep in touch"

This is something I've heard a lot of times, especially when I left England. And I have tried to keep in touch with people, mainly through Facebook, and also through handwritten letters.

I'm not always very good at keeping in touch, especially if people doesn't reply to my letters or messages, and I feel really bad about this. But lately I've kind of realised that keeping in touch is a mutual thing, it goes both ways. It doesn't work if it's only one person that tries to do it. This makes me feel a little bit better. Don't get me wrong, I won't stop talking with someone just because they're not making an effort, I just try not to worry if I haven't sent someone a message in a while.

Some people think that if you haven't talked to a person in a long time, there's not really any point in still being "friends". I can agree with  that to some extent. It depends on how your relationship used to be, if you were close friends or just work-mates or whatever.

One of my best friends, M, is very good at being logged on to Skype. I'm not. I'm good at writing letters. She's not. I guess I'm always kind of waiting to get a letter in reply before I write the next one. I should have learnt by now that that's not happening. Si in a way neither of us is very good at "keeping in touch", but we're still close friends.

I was her maid of honour at her wedding last summer. We got our act together when she asked me and we e-mailed and Skyped a lot since I was still living in England when she asked me. Even now that we live in the same country we don't really call that much or text each other.  But she's still one of my best friends and I will always be there for her, and I know she'll be there for me.

Another close friend of mine, S, is currently living in Poland studying to be a doctor. We spent a lot of time together when I lived in Oslo, she was one of my few friends there, I was mostly just bullied. I still don't like Oslo. We've not seen each other for nearly 10 years, but we still keep in touch through Facebook. We send each other birthday, Christmas and new year messages and sometimes just random messages.

We've tried to meet up several times over the years, but never managed. After I moved from Oslo, I went back down to visit her once, after that we've hardly been in the same country at the same time. S moved to Wales before I moved to England, then when I moved to England we were both to busy, S with her studies and me with settling in and work, or we didn't have enough money. Then S moved to Poland, and there's the same problem there. I hope we manage to meet up again some time in the future.

Friends

Have you seen those statues on Facebook that some people post? Something like:

I'm cleaning out my friend list, if you're a real friend then comment/like this, 

if not I'll take the hint and delete you. 

Shouldn't the people you've got on your friends be your real friends to begin with? I don't understand people that add anyone just because they want to seem popular. And anyway, the people that put this as their status doesn't usually delete any of their friends anyway, so why put it up there in the first place? I've never commented or liked one of those statuses. I won't be bullied into keeping a friend.

I have 130 friends on Facebook. And proud of it. Most of these are either family, friends I've known since before Facebook came along, people I went to school with and people I've worked with. Out of the people that I've worked or gone to school with, I've only added the ones that are actually my friends, I don't add people I don't want to spend time with outside of school/work.

I have been friend requested by people that bullied me in school, people I don't know, people that know some of my friends and people that I might be related to but have never met. I usually don't accept them. Why should I accept people I don't actually know or like. I don't see the point. The thing is they hardly ever write why they friend request me. Why do they want to be my friend on Facebook but not in real life?

The video I've put in this post almost made me want to delete my Facebook account. I won't though, because for me Facebook is a nice and easy way to keep in touch with family and friends, and show them what's going on in my life. Especially when I'm living abroad.

Language barrier?

Some months ago, before the snow came, I was getting the ferry back home from Molde, which is the nearest city, when this lady came over with a baby in a pushchair. I have later found out the lady is an asylum seeker. Anyway she came over to me:

Lady: I no car, no money for bus. You help? You please drive me to town?

Me: I'm sorry, but I don't have a car either.

Lady: Please, I no money.

Me: I would love to help you but I'm riding a bike, there's no way I'm able to give you a ride.

Lady: I no car. I no money for bus.

Me: I'm sorry, you need to ask someone else, I can't help you.

At this point she was giving me the full on evil-eye. I'm not sure if she just didn't understand me or if she thought I was lying.

The discussion went on for another couple of minutes with both of us pretty much repeating ourselves, until she gave up on me and moved on to someone else. I would have given her some money for the bus if I had had any cash on me, but I only had the ferry fare. The lady kept giving me the evil-eye every time she walked past me, which since it's a 35 minute ferry-ride was quite a few times.

At last I could get of the ferry, I went over to my bike and unlocked it and I saw the lady getting of the ferry as well. I thought I would see some understanding in her eyes when she saw me get on my bike, but she was still giving me the evil-eye. I'm sorry, but what was I supposed to do? Have her on the back while she was dragging the pushchair after?

Our cat is scared of being on his own

I don't know why. I came upstairs one morning and the cat, Asterix, was running around and jumping up on things. After that day he usually doesn't like to be alone in a room. He even follows us in to the kitchen at tea time. Although that might be because he hopes to get some leftovers.

This morning there was a storm. I went upstairs a few minutes after my sister had left for school, so that Asterix wouldn't have to be on his own. But when I came upstairs I couldn't find him! He usually always comes when someone walks in to a room. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back out after a couple of minutes Asterix was practically climbing up my legs. I still have no idea where he was hiding, but nothing is broken or clawed apart so at least that's good.

Can't sleep...

It's raining. I don't mind listening to the rain, but it's dripping somewhere. Probably from the roof or veranda. It sounds kind of like when you haven't turned a tap off properly. It's just annoying. And it's keeping me awake!

I'm a chicken!

Well after all those sweets (even though there's still lots left) I felt I should do some exercise. Unfortunately I haven't got winter tyres on my bike so I couldn't do that. And I didn't really want to hike up a mountain with all the snow we've got at the moment. In the end I settled for my Wii Fit Plus, and played on that for about an hour.

It looks like my Mii's got short hair, but it's actually in a ponytail. For some reason it's very important that you know that.

I've got Wii Fit Plus, Wii Resorts and Wii Sports on my Wii, all of them came with it when I bought it. The only reason I bought my Wii is because I wanted to use the Wii Fit Plus to exercise, but I don't really use it that often any more. I tell myself I'm going to get better at using it but that only last about a day. This is why I don't make any New Year Resolutions, I know I won't keep them.

Sometimes I want to get some other games like Super Mario on my Wii, but then I remind myself I usually get tired of games after about a month and I stop playing them, and also I'm going to Australia and I'm not taking the Wii with me.

I need to use the Wii some more now though, my sister beat my high-score on one of the games.

Got some!

Sweets that is. If you didn't read the post I wrote earlier today (or yesterday actually as it's past midnight), go here. 

I just couldn't not. I noticed at work that we had some Christmas sweets at half price, so it would be criminal not to buy some. And anyway it's my co-workers fault, she pointed out to me what we had and that they were half price and that there weren't many left.

I've only had some chocolate balls so far, the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

Sweets!

I want sweets! I almost always want sweets. Except when I'm actually in the store to buy sweets, then I look at all the sweets they've got, and I don't fancy any of it. You would think this was a good thing as it would mean that I won't buy any, but I still buy it because I know I'll want it later. I don't eat as much as I used to a few years ago, which is good I guess. Or actually I might be eating the same amount, only slower.

Sometimes pistachio nuts can satisfy my sweet-craving, but I haven't got any of those in either. I bought loads the other day because I was thinking that I could have them in my room and every time I wanted some sweets I could just eat those instead. I don't think they're that much healthier though as there's loads of salt on them. But that plan didn't work out anyway, I ate them all on the first day...

Maybe I'll get some sweets later when I go to work. Or maybe I'll wait until after work tomorrow so that it's Saturday... I won't have time to eat it after work tonight anyway. I'll see how I feel when I get to work. I'll probably get some, just because I can.

Aloha Oe

I'm trying to learn how to play the Ukulele. I got one for Christmas and it would be really fun to actually be able to play it.

The first problem: tuning The ukulele. I was going to get an automatic tuning box when I played the guitar a few years ago, but never got around to it. And I don't have enough patience to tune it by ear, although I should be better at doing this as I studied music for 3 years.

First problem solved: I found a free tuning device on the internet, I have to sit by the computer while I'm tuning it, but that's fine. If you want to download the free AP Tuner you can do so here.

Second problem: playing it. I did get a book with the ukulele and I know there are loads of videos on YouTube, but I don't like to just watch and learn, I want to sit down with someone that teaches me how to play, so I can get corrected if I do something wrong. It's so much easier.

Third problem: I don't know if there's any room in my brain to learn how to play another instrument. I used to be very good at learning new instruments when I was studying music, but I've not had much interest in music after I finished, so I've kind of just repressed everything I learnt during those three years.

If I were to sit down and play the guitar, piano, clarinet or flute now, I would have to relearn loads of it. I don't think I can remember a single chord on the guitar right now. I might remember how to do a regular C-scale on my E-flat clarinet and possibly the flute. I don't believe the piano should be too much of a challenge if I sat down by it, but I would be very slow.

It's a little bit embarrassing to admit to all this, but it's my own fault for not regularly playing any of the instruments for about 6 years.

Let's hope I learn how to play and don't just let it lie somewhere and collect dust.

Michael McIntyre

I do believe Michael McIntyre might be my favourite comedian ever! Does anybody else like him? I bought his DVD: "Hello Wembley" a while ago and I'm watching it again, and I'm laughing so hard there are tears streaming down my face and my tummy hurts. Which in my eyes is one of life's feel good moments, it's nice to feel that happy. Even if it's only because of a DVD.

One of my friends is going to see Peter Kay at the end of the month, he's another comedian that I like, and I'm really jealous. I've never been to see any comedians live, I've only watched them on telly on programmes like "Live at the Appollo". I hope I get the opportunity to see one live sometime, preferably a good one.

I think everybody should have a DVD with a comedian that they like, that way, even if you're having a crap day, you can just sit down with that DVD and it will make you smile. Laughter is good for you you know, you even burn calories when laughing so it's a fun way to lose weight!

Who's your favourite comedian?

My 2010

January

My flatmate wanted to move back home as a way to save money, and I decided I wanted to go to Australia and therefore would have to move back to Norway. We were both happy the other one of us wouldn't have to go looking for a new flatmate or anything when our lease ended in May.

I haven't got any photos for this month as I broke my camera in October 2009 while on Holiday in Marmaris, Turkey, and it took me a while to get a new one.

February/March

I started sending some of my things to Norway as there was no way I would have room for it all in my suitcase. My online search or a job in Norway started.

I got a new camera, but all my February/March photos are of people so I don't want to publish them.

April

We finally had a Christmas party at work, the first one in the two years I worked there. We went bowling, which I love, and I managed to throw the ball behind me for the first time ever. Typical.

A hot air balloon flew right past my flat.

May

I had a couple of leaving do's with work and friends and got very drunk several times, before I moved to Norway.

Even though I still wanted to live in the UK, it was nice to see my family and friends in Norway again. And I went hiking with my mum for the first time.

The cake I got for my leaving do at work

The view from my first mother-daughter hike.

Our cat, Asterix, enjoying the sunshine.

June

I went on several more hikes with my mum, great exercise, loads of fresh air, and free. My legs were shaking after some of the hikes, when we had gone on a very long one or up a very steep mountain.

I arranged a hen-do for my friend, which was tricky as it had to be in a Trondheim, which I'm not very familiar with, but it turned out ok.

Rekdalshesten

July

Hiking again. I told myself I was going to keep hiking as it's such great exercise, which obviously mean I've hardly been hiking since.

I was the maid of honour/Chief bridesmaid in my finds wedding, along with her sister. I still can't really believe she's actually married.

The Jazz festival in Molde took place as it does every summer and I went and was disappointed at how rubbish it has become, like most years I've been there.

Home made Oreo Wedding Cake, which I helped decorate.

Molde Jazz Festival

Jazz Festival

August

I went to Turkey with my family, you can read more about that HERE.

My legs desperately trying to get a tan

September

I started this blog, applied to a university in Australia, read loads of books, went to my cousins 3rd birthday party and booked a ticked to London for November. Oh! And saw a triple rainbow! Which I have to admit even I was impressed by.

Can you see that there's three rainbows there? You might have to enlarge it.

October

Got accepted to Griffith University Australia, I gave myself a headache thinking about how to get the financial support and I went to my cousins christening. Also, the snow came.

Think I might have a dandruff problem?

Asterix doesn't like visitors.

November

Went to London and wanted to move back to the UK, became best pals with a Hyde Park squirrel and finished all my Christmas shopping while I was in London.

December

Got "locked out" of my phone and had to get a new one, enjoyed(ish) celebrating Christmas with my family for the first time in three years, got a ukulele, went to a Lutefisk party and met some Kiwis and bought a new fabulous handbag with a gift certificate I got for Christmas from work. I have to say, a lot of the time, money and gift certificates are the best gifts as you can get whatever you want with them.

So that was my 2010. Did you have a nice year?