The SCARY meme.

A special Halloween meme from Sunday Stealing. Join in the fun!

1. What do you think is the best costume for Halloween? I think there are so many great costumes. I love to see pictures of people that have really made an effort and actually look scary and not just girls dressed "trashy".
2. What would an alien think of humans if it came to Earth on Halloween? How would I know?
3. Who would you haunt? Not sure I would haunt anyone. I hope that when I die I don't have anything still holding my soul back.
4. Are you afraid of the dark? no, but when I've watched scary films I'm a little bit nervous about what might be hiding behind me where I can't see it.
5. Do you pass out candy or hide with the lights out? I pass out candy, Halloween isn't that big in Norway though and the one time I can remember passing out candy I remember I was shocked at how rude the kids were! Not even a thank you!
6. What scary movie do you like best? I used to love watching scary movies when I was younger, not so much now, I scare more easily. I like the ones that play on your psyche instead of just throwing heaps of blood on the camera.
7. If you had to wear a costume for a week, what would you be? Maybe someone out of a Jane Austen book, Elizabeth Bennet. Not scary, but I love the proper old, OLD, clothes!
8. What do you think of Ouija boards? Never tried one, but I think they look interesting and a great way to connect with the spirit world for those that can channel through one.
9. Have you ever told ghost stories around a fire? Not around a fire, but I used to write short ghost stories when I was younger and tell them to my cousins in a dark room. My aunt told me to stop because I scared them so much they couldn't sleep... *evil grin*
10. Trick? Or Treat? Treat!!
11. Have you ever been in a haunted house? A real one? I don't know, maybe. I've thought a house has been haunted many times but I can't remember even being in one that I have been told is haunted.
12. What would you do if you saw a ghost? I would probably be quite scared because it's not something I would expect to see.
13. Question 13, should we have skipped this and jumped to 14? ...Yes
14. Are you brave enough to walk into a grave yard after dark on Halloween? Sure, why not?
15. Do you like chocolate? What kind? I like Cadbury's Double Deckers, KitKats, and other chocolates that have something in them, plain milk chocolate can get a bit boring, but is nice on occation.
16. Who would look better in a clown costume? Obama or Romney? Don't really care.
17. Are you in the path of Frankenstorm? No.
18. Post a link to any other blog: A Spoonful of...

Autumn is here...

It might be getting colder, but when the sun is shining autumn is so beautiful with all its colours!

Saturday

I've never been to Aas before. It's a really small place. If the university wasn't there it would probably be smaller than where I'm from! It's a really pretty place though and only half an hour from Oslo by train, so it's fairly central. You'd think that because it's such a small place it would be cheap to live there, but because of the university and the proximity to Oslo it's apparently quite expensive.

Anyway. It seemed like a nice place. It was raining heavily on Saturday so we didn't really walk around much, we'll save that for another time I go to visit her. We stayed inside and watched a few movies until it was time to head out for the Royksopp concert.

When we were heading toward the place where the concert was held we bumped into some other student that were going to the concert as well, but they were stopping by a house party for a few minutes first, and they dragged us along with them. We only stayed for a short time, but it was really cool. It was a choir of girls and a choir of guys, both dressed in special "uniforms" and singing to each other. It was a lot of fun listening to them and it reminded me of when I was studying music.

There wasn't that many people at the concert when we got there, which was just when it started, but I think a lot of people did like the choirs and had a before-party and then just showed up whenever since the doors didn't close.

The concert was okay. I'm not really a bit Royksopp fan or anything, but it was fun to do something other than just hang out and watch a movie, which is what my friend M and I usually do. But part of me wish I had just saved the money and hung out with M during the day and gone back home Saturday evening. I think if I go to a concert again it will have to be someone that I actually like performing. I'm not good with crowds, and after a while we moved a bit closer to the stage and people were practically standing on top of me. I didn't like it. I don't really like people touching me, especially strangers so when I have to stand so close to someone that we're touching I get really uncomfortable. Oh well, all part of the concert experience I guess.

I need to learn to not pack a handbag, it's usually just in the way in events like this, no matter how small it is. Another problem was my shoes. I was wearing winter boots because it's getting quite cold, but they are a size too big for me so I was a bit uncomfortable.

After the concert we went to a different part of the student community where there was like 20 small bars. It was quite cool, all the bars had different themes and some had different music (depending on how far away from each other the bars were). It was fun but after an hour or so I'd had enough and we went back to my friend's and went to bed. It was still about 2am by the time we left though, which is the latest I've been out in AGES!

It was an okay weekend, but I'm glad I went back to Oslo early today so that I can chill out and spend some time alone.

Röyksopp!!

I'm actually doing something this weekend! 

I'm going to visit a friend in Aas. I've not seen her in a while so I'm really looking forward to seeing her again. I've felt like a crappy friend for not visiting her sooner as it only takes half an hour on the train to get there.

There is a festival in Aas this month, and a guy at work, that also lives in Aas, told me that Röyksopp is performing there today and that I should go to the concert. I wasn't sure I wanted to go at first, I'm not a huge Röyksopp fan or anything (I'm not sure I've actually listened to anything by them) and I want to save my money for my holiday, but then I had a look online and the tickets were fairly cheap, so I called my friend to ask if she wanted to go with me. Luckily she could afford it even though she went to a concert last weekend (CC Cowboys) and is going to another one next Saturday (Timbuktu). It's something to do together and also I've never really been to a proper concert, so I'm really looking forward to it. Not that this is going to be a proper concert, apparently it's a DJ-set, I'm still looking forward to it though.

I've also never been to Aas, so I'm looking forward to seeing a new place.

Eple - one of the few Röyksopp songs that I've actually heard and know is Röyksopp and I quite like it. It's from 2003 so it's fairly old.

Almost party time!

I feel like I have no life lately... I don't really do anything after work or have anyone to hang out with after work. It's my own fault of course, I should find something to do outside work, I'm just too lazy. After work all I feel like doing is just plonk down on the sofa and watch some telly, same with weekends. I actually feel like a really crappy friend as I have one friend fairly close by and I've not been to visit her yet since I moved to Oslo. I will try to see her next weekend.

I did get two free concert tickets from my dad for Friday, not for someone I'm actually a fan of or anything, but if I had had someone to go with it would have probably been a nice night out regardless of who was singing. Unfortunately one of the people I wanted to invite was away and two others that it would have been nice to go with was working late. So I just told my dad to give the tickets to someone else at his work. He got them at work in the first place, and before you say that I could have gone with my dad; we don't really have that kind of relationship so it would have had to be a concert with someone at least one of us really liked for us to go together.

All of the above is just making me look even more forward to my holiday. Only two more weeks now and I'm going. It will be nice to see friends again, and to actually DO something! That was the nice part of moving around so much for the last few months in Australia, I got to do lots because I just had to since I was in each place for such short amount of time! It will be the same now. I'm going to 4 different places in two weeks so of course there won't be heaps of time in each place.

I am just finished arranging two events for when I'm in Chesterfield. Going out to dinner and drinks with my friends there. I am REALLY looking forward to it. Even just going for a proper night out again will be nice.

I will also visit the family I au paired for there, it will be nice to see the girls I looked after again. I've not seen them for nearly two years! I wonder if they'll remember me.

Mockingjay

The Hunger Games - Mockingjay
By: Suzanne Collins

Outer back cover: Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But she's still not safe. A revolution is unfolding, and everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans - everyone except Katniss.
And yet she must play the most vital part in the final battle. Katniss must become their Mockingjay - the symbol of rebellion - no matter what the personal cost.

I am so glad I didn't know about this trilogy until all three books were finished! It would have been torture to have to wait for the next book to come out. This last book is just as good as the other two!

I think Collins has done a great job with writing about the revolution in this book and the war, as well as the emotions that Katniss is going through. there is so much happening all the time and so much excitement that it was really hard to put the book down, I had to give up trying to read on week nights before going to bed or I wouldn't have gotten any sleep before work.

There is especially much happening at the end of every book in this trilogy, which is nice because it makes it difficult to know what the outcome of the book would be. When this book was nearing its end I was worried that I wouldn't like the ending, that it would leave me wanting more, but as it turned out it was a great ending to the trilogy.

I'm not really sure who my favourite character is... I like Katniss but she'd not really my favourite, maybe Peeta. I just really like his personality, what his character stands for and reading about his problems in this book was really touching.

I would recommend this trilogy to anyone, I will definitely read the whole thing again!

Sign language

Ever since I lived in England and worked as an au pair I've been wanting to learn British Sign Language, especially Makaton. I used to watch a program called "Something Special" with the youngest girl I was looking after, and I did use some signs with her before she could speak and it was really fun to see her actually learn them and sign them back to me, like for example "finished" when she was finished eating.

I had forgotten most of the few signs that I learnt while I lived in England, except for please and thank you (Never forget your manners!), and I've been wanting to learn some more for a while. I know I won't be able to use the signs in Norway since the sign language here is different, but it will open up more windows for me if I get to move back to the UK, and allow me to get to know more people.

It is a shame though that sign language isn't the same all over the world, it would have been cool if it was, then everyone could have sign language in school and that way you could talk to people all over the world even if you couldn't speak or write their language! Of course it's not really doable since a big part of sign language is lip reading, so everyone would have to mouth the words the same as well. There is also the "problem" with for example holding up two fingers both for two and to because they rhyme, you can't do that in a different language because those words aren't the same. But one thing that is doable is to have sign language in schools, so if you didn't want to learn French, German or Spanish or anything like that you could choose to learn sign language instead. Is that a thing in any countries? I've never heard of it being like that in Norway anyway...

There is actually a British guy at work, L, and he grew up in a deaf home! He learnt to sign before he learnt to speak, so BSL is his first language, English his second. So the last few weeks he's been teaching me some sign language. I don't know much yet but I know how to sign "how are you today?", "what's up dog" (just because of the fun factor), and a few other short phrases and words. It's really fun to learn something new, maybe it'll even come in handy in the future.

The hard part is actually mouthing the words with out making a sound. Usually I just say it out loud while I sign, but to make sure I will make myself understood to someone that is actually deaf I will have to be able to make the right amount of facial expression and mouth movements.... So when I try to sign without speaking I either hold my breath or I'm kind of whispering it. I can understand why some deaf people make sounds while they sign even if they're not saying the actual words since they don't know what they sound like.

Do you know any sign language And if so, which one?

Pumpkin soup

I've been wanting to try pumpkin soup for a while now, and when I saw some pumpkin at the local fruit and veg store I just had to buy some. 

I did try to find a recipe online, but in the end I mainly just threw something together, I did look at this recipe but mainly just for the method. I've only lately started making soup from scratch, it's SO quick and easy, and the ones I've tried so far have been really yummy as well.

Here is what I used, which was a perfect portion for just me:

Some pumpkin, diced

1 carrot, diced

1/2 small onion, diced

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 small chilli, chopped

1 cube of vegetable stock

a bit of oil

a dash of pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat.

Combine the pumpkin, carrot, onion, garlic and chilli in the saucepan. Cook until the vegetables begin to caramelize and slightly change colour, then cover with water. You want them to be completely covered, but at the same time be careful not to use too much water.

Bring the liquid to a boil, add the vegetable stock cube, then turn down to a gentle simmer and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the pumpkin is soft and breaks up when cut with a spoon.

Put the cooked pumpkin soup in a blender and blend until smooth.

I did put some pepper in the soup, but I didn't really need it since, because of the chilli, it was quite spicy. I will definitely make this again, but with a bit less water as it was a bit too thin for my liking.