Seriously funny

I found it over at Josh and Josh's place!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

randoms

Ireland's President is in town - Oslo is full of Irish flags, and flowers in Irish colours - I love it!

And Monday Martha Wainwright was in town! (Yes, she's Rufus' sister, but her music is her own!) Her concert was truly amazing - what a voice! You can see her perform on her own blog, if you want a sample... And afterwards, there was a meet & greet. See, we're practically sisters ! And yes, that's an R.E.M. T-shirt I'm wearing...

Another German invasion!?

There are German soldiers in the street... Looking strangely familiar - but then I have seen a lot of films from & of the war... (Incidentally, the white building at the top of the photo is where I work.)Now, I'm not that dumb... I realise they must be making a film of sorts (some streets were blocked and parking only by permission by the police - besides, the cameras sort of gave it away...) - but this still gave me the creeps... Closer up ... This is the Norwegian Storting (The Parliament) - and except for the crane, this is just what it looked like back in April 1940...
And a jolly good morning to all of you too! Or should I say - Guten Morgen?

The 'film shooting'

This Monday the film team showed up as we arrived from school / work etc. The interviewer / director, the camera man, the sound man and the producer. The director had stopped by a few days earlier so the kids knew her a little. I still won't pretend the dinner conversation was free and easy as there was bright lighting, microphone and camera in between the pots and pans... After the dinner we all left, and the film crew first came with Anna and me to her ballet class.

From the filming of the ballet class


Afterwards, they went off to film Thomas, Mathias and Filip's football practice, while I went back to get Jakob and his best friend (who's with us most days after school). And they continued to film Jakob's training while I brought the other one's home.

Later, when everyone'd returned, and the kids were in their pyjamases, they were interviewed about "life, the universe and everything" - and more specifically, what life was like in a big family like ours.
The kids being interviewed downstairs - the sound man (by the wall) had an excellent sense of humour, and the kids loved him :) After spending the last few hours with them, the kids weren't really nervous about the interview either. And when everyone was in bed, they interviewed us about the same things.

The programme will be sent sometime this autumn. We'll be on for something like 6 minutes - so a few hours of shooting, 2 visits to us and calling the parent of every child on ballet and football (about 60) - quite a lot of work for so little! The whole programme is about half an hour, and is about children and stress. Apart from us, there'll be a sociologist talking about this, and a feature from the States (where else...) about personal coaches for kids, to make sure they'll end up super stars. Or something...

Anyway, it was a fun experience! Everything was so professional and well-planned and all, I'm impressed with the production team :) And we'll be able to see the programme when it's put together - to see if we approve. When it's finally aired, we'll let you know!

Ok, we went for it

The television company will be at our door in about 45 minutes. Better get home from work! Tell you all about it later...

Looking dignified on a Harley

Door bell at work, this afternoon: "I'm the Polish interpreter" "Ok" I said, and let him in. A few minutes later I was looking at a, to me, very un-Polish & un-Norwegian looking, black bloke. Now, even though we're pretending to be modern and international over here, most natives are still blond. This fellow, though, spoke Polish fluently and Norwegian with a slight accent.

The lawyer who'd requested his help was totally flabbergasted, and said: "do you really speak Polish?" To which his new friend replied "do you really speak Norwegian?" Our Norwegian-Pakistani lawyer grinned. Need I say there was general good humour all around...

Meanwhile, during all of this, I didn't bat an eyelid. I've been trained to look dignified on a Harley.

Many years ago I spent four months in Crete (Greece!). Apart from every other blessing living in paradise, I also made some new friends. One was an Englishman who had settled in Chania, working as an English teacher. I can tell you largely about his many wonderful qualities later... But he was also the owner of a Harley Davidson.

I have no idea why, I'd never even met anyone with a Harley before, but I just love them. Not perhaps the extreme type where you lie backwards, and the front wheel enters one town while the pillion rider's still in the last... But his was a Low Rider Convertible, and it was - Perfect. The back seat was like a comfy chair :) (I would of course post pictures of me on this bike, if only our scanner would fix itself... His bike was exactly like this one, though.)

We spent days travelling around Western Crete, visiting remote villages and secluded beaches. There is no end to where you can travel on a Harley! We got lost and were invited in for wine and biscuits (Greek philoxenia is not just a myth). We were running out of village. Frequently.

And most of the time I was grinning like a madman, enjoying myself beyond sanity! Even in the remotest mountain village, people would nod appreciatively, and even old black-clad widows would put their knitwork aside and come out to study the "Xhhxarley Dayvitson"... I was beaming with pride!

Then The Englishman told me my grinning wasn't quite in style with the Harley... I agreed. So I practiced looking dignified on a Harley. I would get on or off the bike with a suave, world-tired look, as if this was an everyday experience and frankly, quite boring. (Then I'd run around a corner and GRIN for an hour until I could wear a straight face again...) We enjoyed ourselves immensely, managing to scream with laughter on the inside while still looking bored...

This lesson has proved valuable many times later in life. Like this afternoon at work! (See? There was a point to all this.)

"Looking dignified with a quad pram" went like a breeze... The pram looked like a small fleet, and attracted a great deal of attention. But we were unimpressed... The crowd would be talking - rather loudly - about how the babies could possibly all be the same age etc, and we'd always pretend not to hear them. (My hubby turned out to be a natural dignified-looker!)

"Looking dignified with a prominent client" - piece of cake! Bring on the celebrity drunk-driving clients, I'd lead them to their lawyers without even letting off that I recognised them. And bring their coffee without spilling any - not even mentioning autographs :)

There's just a little Grace Kelly in us all...