Advanced maths

Fifteen 12-year-old boys finish 8 pizzas in approx 6 mins 34 secs. Each pizza is divided in 12 slices.

a) how many slices per boy per second?

b) how much football cake can they possibly eat after that?

*dies*

I was in England recently, London, to be precise. There was this concert... And I'll leave you to guess... :)

Reading - and readers

I think I've become a horrible reader. I didn't use to be, in fact - one of my favourite authors once signed his book for me by saying "I wish I was as good at reading as you are" (this wasn't the first time he signed a book for me)!

When I was in school, especially up till I turned lazy teenager, I would read a book a day. At least. At 11 I was let out to the town library once a week when my classmates went to the school library - I had read all the books there.. (No, not the encyclopaedias from A-Z (or A-Å as it were!), but you get my drift!)

I consumed books. (Not having five children did mean more sparetime...) Some I found enchanting, some horrible, some funny, some unbearably sad - but it was always about the book, the story, the characters, somehow.

Now, I don't know. Lately it seems my liking for the characters completely decide whether I like the book or not. Example - I really didn't like The Kiterunner. At all. "Everyone" says it's fantastic and amazing and possibly the best book ever written and so on and so forth. But I ... Well, firstly, when I'm told by masses of people to read a book, I rarely do. (Except when recommended by favourite authors, in person, of course!) But this one I did. And for 2 reasons I decided I didn't like it - I didn't like the main character, he was a coward and a liar; and secondly, after a while I could guess the entire rest of the book, give or take a detail or two, but on the whole - no surprises. At. All...

But does that have to mean it's a bad book (no pun intended)? I mean - the language was flowing, I obviously felt the characters were extremely true to life, as I disliked one of them so much? So perhaps it was actually a brilliant book?

I don't know anymore... What makes a book a good read? That you want to read more of the same author / about the same characters? That you can't put it down once you've started reading? That it'd be worthwhile reading again?

I'll just keep reading until I find out - and beyond.

bloggers come to life!

On 3rd March 2006, at 01:00, I posted a quiz I'd made, about me (selfishly!). There were a few comments, and one was from a new blog friend / bluddy / blogling -

At 19:05, kimananda said...

Hey, considering I don't actually know you, I'm pretty pleased with myself! Now, I'm off to look around your clearly very hyggelig blog a bit more... :-)

We visited each other's blogs from then on, Kim and I, and at some point figured we should get together! After all, she lives in Copenhagen and it's not _that_ far away.

Well, it took us more than three years, but last weekend Kim and her daughter got on the boat, travelled right here, and we got to spend a day together! Here we are in all our splendid togetherness... It was wonderful meeting live (though we blog less, these days, and hang out more on facebook) - and it surely won't take us another 3 or 4 years to meet again!

one of those mornings...

I woke up this morning... Which in itself is good, considering the alternative! But I crave my few minutes alone in the shower to wake up. So, three kids up while I'm grabbing the shampoo is not ideal. Same three kids demanding me to find them clean clothes, that apparently being impossible for 8-year-olds to manage themselves, I had to muster up enough motherly spirit to do just that. Then dry off...

One of the 8-year-olds actually managed to find clothes alone. Go figure.

Now, there was to be another blow to the general well-being of the world, as it were. Jakob woke up. And before I knew it, and had said hello, he was back in bed, furious! Yesterday, he'd lost his first molar. Quite unexpected

ly, but he was very pleased about it. So, as tradition has it, we put the tooth in a glass of water, and waited for the tooth fairy to visit...*

*) Jakob is 11, he doesn't believe in the tooth fairy. But he likes it that way still...

And we the tooth fairy had forgotten to visit! He refused to get out of bed. I said 'maybe we can coax the tooth fairy to visit the kitchen...' and took the glass upstairs. Then realised I had no cash... So, instead of making breakfast, as I'd usually do around then, I had to sneak around and see if any of the kids had any money I could borrow. Found it! And if you're wondering - the current rate for first molar, plus extra for late payment i

s NOK 50 (a little over €/£ 5, or $ 7.5)...

So, time for breakfast, right? Nooo... It turned out, as I was making the beds - one of the kids had had an 'accident' that night. Tried covering it up with the duvet, resulting in everything being wet. Even the pillow... So I had to drag it all to the washing machine, undress the child in question, as clothes ha

d mysteriously appeared on said person's body (no names mentioned!) without my help earlier, and give said child a proper washdown. So much for independence...

Finally, breakfast. Which on Fridays include yoghurt. Hurray! Note to self: yoghurt on trousers and socks and floor comes off more easily if not hurled by the gallon. *sigh*

And it has started snowing again.

How was your morning?

This is why I'm going to England in the summer...

Everything is amazing, and nobody is happy...

When I was little we didn't even have a rotary dial - we just wound the phone up and were put through to the operator...

This guy makes a lot of sense! And yes, I still think technology is pretty amazing!  :D