*dies*

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

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!

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

Insanity streak

Or insanity vein, rather!

Thursday the Manchester International Festival revealed its 2009 programme, which includes (to no surprise for some of us...) Rufus Wainwright's new opera Prima Donna. Friday tickets went on sale at 10 AM GMT. 

At 9 AM (GMT) there were a lot of us anxiously waiting for it to open, typing messages to and fro as we did so, and laughing hysterically at anything. Really, you had to be there! (And you were, I guess, at least had the opportunity to, as this insanity went online...) Then it turned 9:58 - lines were open!

... For about half an hour or so, noone spoke (or "spoke", as it were), then messages started trickling in, where they'd got seats and so on. Neither of my browsers (Explorer and chrome) would let me do the final bank confirmation (aaaaaaaarghhh!!) so even though I got to reserve seats a number of times, I just couldn't buy them.

Panic time.

Then ... One of the boardies had bought too many! I got just the ones I wanted  :)  And then insanity really hit - all of us ticket holders screaming (silently, online) and shouting of gleeee! 

So much joy - and then we're all meeting up at the opera - next July...

Yes. I'm planning next year's summer already, and it does not include my family - but involves almost all of my "online family". It's not just the music. Or the man. It's what he means - and that's more than you might think or guess, even. If you have a look at these posts you'll know how someone's lives have changed forever! And if that's not insane, I don't know what is!  :)

Our view

for three weeks.

I wept like a baby when we were leaving. Can you blame me?

Last post from Scotland

I promise - it's the last for a while... (With facts from our excellent guide.)
The cows, now also in Edinburgh!



The thistle, as you may know, is Scotland's national flower. But did you know it's the Norwegians' fault? This happened a long time ago, and the Scots and vikings were at war. (Well, the vikings were at war with everybody, so why discriminate the Scots?) The Scots had made camp and had gone to sleep, ready for battle the next day. But those sleezy vikings ... they planned to attack at night! Such ungentlemanly behaviour!! The Scots were in luck, though, for two reasons: 1) The vikings didn't wear proper shoes, and 2) The Scottish camp was surrounded by thistles.


You do the maths...



This, though it may look like one, is no window. In the 1690's William III issued a Window Tax, and so people started bricklaying the former window openings - but were made to keep them look like windows for architectural purposes. Many places these have survived!



Leaving Edinburgh - heading north! If you've found your spectacles by now, you may see the Firth of Forth waaaaay over there...



The railway bridge. Quite a few workmen were trapped in one (or more?) "leg" of the bridge during construction. Due to structural defects, perhaps, and possibly the fact that water was so polluted, the workmen would only drink whisky and beer... There was no way of bringing them back to the surface, and in the end, the queen ordered that there be poured poison down the "legs" so the men could die peacefully, rather than starve to death. (Apparently there was enough to drink.) Think of that the next time you pass the bridge - there be bones underneath...


Stirling Castle. Which you may know from Braveheart. (Apparently, there is some historical correctness in the film...)

Up there - and beyond! - that's where The Highlands begin...

Ewan McGregor's home town Crieff. Or the main street, at least.

- And thus ends my Scottish tale!

How do you do, PWP?

Or, more intriguingly - how do you do it? I know you're out there. I've met a few of you. But I can't for the life of me understand what drives you. Or not, as it were.

Passionately posing for a picture, 1985

Now, I would walk 10 miles afoot, to look at the house of someone who once met Rufus Wainwright's neighbour. I admit it freely, I'm that sad obsessive interested. I would refrain from all other forms of shopping (that used to include food - before I had others to care for...) - for life, if need be - if that enabled me to get tickets to every Rufus, de Lillos, Sting or U2 gig there was - or to as many visits as I'd like to Berlin, Lisbon, Crete... I would give my right hand (and left arm!) for Liverpool to win another cup - let alone the premiership!

Passionately back in Greece! (I was 14 - what can I say...)


I would (and I have, in fact!) spend 8 months passionately wooing my chosen one until he broke down and promised to marry me...

But you, People Without Passion... You wouldn't even go next door to see the first alien-human offspring, would you? You like all kinds of music, you say. Any town you visit is as fine as the next. And caring about football is just plain silly...



I can't help but wonder - do you [not] have fun in the same way? Polite ha-has, no guffawing or even small giggle fits? And relationships, do you really care? "Sure, I loved him, but hey, I'll meet somebody else." Are you for real? Or are you lurking somewhere underneath, quenched by real life, chores and routines, and too weak to find a way out? Are you living, or are you just ... alive?

The royal mile

Now, if you like, walk the royal mile with me from Edinburgh Castle. We'll just walk straight out of the gate...

Then have to turn left into the alley to look at this flowerclad house, of course - Ramsay garden - before we continue.

You lazy pig! Just lying around all day...

Poor thing, I guess he couldn't take it anymore... "Pinocchio's now a boy who wants to turn back into a toy..."

How can we resist puns like these! Off the royal mile to the right, a little further down...

There's that piper again, Tony something. We go way back...

Closing in on the Scottish Parliament - and walking past it ...

... now looking back up at it

Another alleyway! Must go and have a look :)
Pretty!And it's stopped raining - that's nice.. (spot the rainbow!)

Queen's gallery, outside the Holyrood Palace (where the queen stays when she's in Edinburgh.) (In the palace, that is, not in the gallery) (I suppose, at least that's what they say. I don't actually know for a fact where the Queen spends her nights.) (Or days, for that matter.)
The gates ...

... and the palace itself.

Look! It's the bagpipe shape of Dynamic Earth! Means we've made it down the mile and more. Great exercise and good fun!

And here we are, looking up at the Salisbury Crags. Thanks for keeping me company!

Incidentally, if you felt this post was a mile long, that was intentional...

Famous whisky

Perhaps "cheating" a little, this isn't actually from Edinburgh, but we started out in Edinburgh... And our busride took us within sight of the Highlands! Then turned right and set us off by the Famous Grouse distillery at Glenturret. (Where it turned out they're not actually making Famous Grouse at all, but Glenturret malt whisky, but you could have fooled me...)

(See? Rufus was there with me...)

Loved, loved, loved these little explanatory cartoons...

Note to self: Don't try whisky chocolate mousse and whisky ice cream unless you've started to like whisky. Urggh.. But it did look nice :)

Edinburgh - at long last

A tad late, I'm afraid - I visited Edinburgh in September! But Edinburgh's always worth a visit... And we start off with the accompaniment of a bagpiper outside St. Giles!

Update - more wonders of the internet: After uploading this to youtube somebody found and commented on it. His best friend, it turned out, so now I know this bagpiper is called Tony, and he's now with the House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead...

Bits and pieces

Now in their 2nd year the kids are supposed to get "individualised" homework. Mathias' reading homework goes something like this:

[drawing of pig] How old can a pig be? A pig can be .. years. (no, it does state the number of years, I just can't remember..) Next page. [drawing of goose] How old can a goose be? A goose can be .. years. Next page. And so on and so forth.

Then, homework done, he continues to read The Hobbit...
*sigh*

Two days ago (16th) my blog was 2 years old! Poor thing, and already neglected...

And two days from now I'll be off to Edinburgh, which hopefully will lead to new updates - at least a few photo posts...

Vanished? Not without stain remover

devil mood tagged people like me to the following:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie

To make a film with a plot like this work, I'll need Orlando Bloom to star as me! But here goes...

Opening Credits: My Vision (Seal)
Waking Up: Beibi (de Lillos) – very sweet song about love-making...
First Day At School: Elskling (de Lillos) – what could have been
Falling In Love: Fragile (Sting) – well, I've been in love with Sting for a long time!
Fight Song: [track 07] (The The) – probably unknown title because I wouldn't fight
Breaking Up: Sne og is (de Lillos) – breaking up with Norwegians it would have to be
Prom: Mysteriet deg (Bjørn Eidsvåg) – extremely romantic...
Life's Okay: Misunderstood (Robbie Williams)
Mental Breakdown: The ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove (Dead can dance)
Driving: Vienna (the Fray) – ok, I'll get directions from viamichelin right away!
Flashback: This hard land (Bruce Springsteen)
Getting Back Together: Better Man (Robbie Williams) – they always say that...
Wedding: Papa Stone (Jørn Hoel) – was he?
Birth of Child: sanvean (Dead can dance) - way to name your firstborn!
Final Battle: [track 07] (Massive Attack) – as I said!
Death Scene: Mamma (Beckstrøm) – most likely word to shout out, yes...
Funeral Song: I cried for you (Billie Holiday)
End Credits: Where is my mind? (Pixies)

I can't believe no Rufus-songs came out! [pun intended]

*********

And apart from this?

Trips planned: Edinburgh in September (with my colleagues), de Lillos concert in September (with my hubby), Berlin in October with my hubby! -- and see Rufus Wainwright live while we're there! And then Rufus is coming to Oslo in December... Have I got tickets? Duh... (While we're away, the kids will be here, there and everywhere. Hopefully, we'll find them when we get back home...)

Status: one-armed. Well, tendonititical [it's not a word, but it's tangible..], at least. You won't believe the time this epistle has taken me to type.

Status II: 6 kilos lighter than 5 weeks ago. Yay! And not even hungry :)

Status III (continual): Happy! Just extremely unproductive blogwise...

Going up north

In 24 hours, exactly, we'll be sailing in this harbour. According to the weather forecast, it will stay like this for a while still - hopefully they're right!
Looking the other direction, also at 9 PM, you can see the sun is still high. And it won't set until July 22nd - sunny weather or not...

Haven't been 'home' for three years! Can't wait to be back and breathe properly again...

RIP, beloved iPod

Sunday, while my friend M and I were jubilantly receiving the body of Rufus in Gothenburg, someone broke into our car and stole - my iPod. And M's money, credit cards, keys (to everywhere, basically), driver's licence etc. etc.

I miss my iPod. And the 4,000 songs in it. And the cover Filip had once made for it... I'll get some insurance money back, but not this iPod, of course. M will have her things restored - eventually. But the hassle... And the annoying bit of walking through all of Gothenburg at night only to find the main police station was closed. *Sigh*

Through it all, we were never completely discouraged. I even held my spirits (and eyes!) up while driving home, shipping M off with the 05:30 boat from here and returning home as hubby was getting ready for work... After all, Monday was my first day of holidays.

And Rufus ... was absolutely fabulous!

Powers of modern life

My mum is in Aegina with her husband these days. (In the sweltering heat. They survive, they stay in the water, I've been told...) And she sends me photos from her cell phone. Instead of just cards (because we still get cards!) we get to see how they are - just this moment. It's pretty amazing, really.
Sunset seems unbelievable, every day...
... and tonight there's a wedding celebration at their hotel, in case you wondered :)

The Castro

Walking down 17th Street from Haight to the Castro - and getting thereIt doesn't really show on the photo, but this local cinema was having a "Grease - singalong" night. I felt that was very appropriate :)

Rufus sings about 14th street - and even though I don't know for a fact that it's this one, I think it's a fair assumption. I forced my sister to stand in the middle of the street just so she could take this one. Fortunately, traffic was low... Just after she took this picture, a little old lady walked up to us and actually straight onto us. Pushing us aside as she walked. My sister commented on this in Norwegian. The little lady turned around - really slowly... "I've got a steel knee and I have to walk in a straight line", she explained. (Q: Did she understand Norwegian??) Then continued - "I'm 81 years old, I've lived here all my life. Tomorrow will be another fine day like this, and then the temperatures will drop". (Q: did her steel knee tell her this?) "What did you want to photograph here? There's a nice church just down ..." At this point she waved a hand in the general direction of Mission Dolores and then left us, trying to make it across the street on green...
We'd already been to Mission Dolores. Unfortunately, it was closed for some reason (though the sign stated the opposite), so we only got to see the outside.
Quite pretty on the outside too, though!

- is that bullet holes...?

Bagdad café, where we lunched. And learnt that "small portion" is actually ample...
So, was the Castro really different? Of course, there were rainbow flags everywhere. (Incidentally, last time I was in Rome, a few years back, there were rainbow flags everywhere there too - only they were symbols of peace, and used by the 'Americans out of Iraq' movement...) I saw 4-5 couples (one female) holding hands or holding their arms around eachother. I know I saw two guys in drag, possibly a third one but it could have been a girl... And there was that giant poster advertising family planning; two hot guys holding eachother and a woman standing discreetly a little way off - the tummy mummy? Other than that, it was just a really nice neighbourhood. Beautiful houses, clean, friendly, with some great bookshops (I didn't visit any other kinds of shops, come to think of it), and a lot of cute guys walking around...
Really don't see why this would have to happen only in the Castro, though. I'm all for people holding hands, whatever their preferences may be. And I really dislike people making out right in front of me even if they're as straight as nails...