"When thunder roars"

Photo: ask-alex.dk

Heard today at a National Geographic programm about people who were hit by lightening:

"When thunder roars, go indoors."

A few snowflakes

Today I haven't been out yet.
But outside my window, now and then, a snowflake slowly falls to the ground.
And melts.

Blood oranges become red oranges

When I was a child here in Norway, we sometimes ate Blood Oranges. These oranges looked the same on the outside, but were red on the inside, and rather sour.

Now I read that Blood Oranges in Norway come from Sicily, and that they have a fairly short season (January - April) and that they are not sour any more.

Norway used to import around 150 000 kilo of Blood Oranges.
Then the importer decided to change the name to Red Oranges.
Behold, that helped sales!
Suddenly they sold 255 000 kilo.
This winter they expect to sell even more.

Destressing on a day off

Photos I took in August walking along the shore of Mjoesa, Norway's biggest lake, in Hamar.

A day off work, like today, is sometimes very good for my physical and mental health.

How to destress?
An article in a magazine had a long row with ideas.

Here are some:

On your day off, sleep till you feel completely rested.
(I just did that - 7 hours of sleep!)

Learn to say no.
(I am getting better at that.)

Write down "This I have done"lists instead of "This I should do"lists.
(It shifts your way of thinking and feeling about yourself)

Journal 10 - 15 minutes every night.
(I try write down five good things that happened that day).

And some ideas I should use more:
Play some nice music.
Read a good book.
Email, phone or visit a good friend.
Watch a funny movie.
Visit an art exhibition.

Older ladies

I liked this quote by Cora Harvey Armstrong:

"Inside every older lady is a younger lady - - wondering what the hell happened."

But I also remember my neighbor's very old mother, telling me something like this:
"I look into the mirror and it is hard to understand how I who feel so young inside, look so old on the outside."

Injera in Oslo

On Sunday I was in Oslo to attend a cultural event and meet somebody I had only corresponded with through email.
On my way to the event, I suddenly saw a sign with RED SEA, which made me jump.
Then I saw it was a restaurant with Eritrean and Ethiopian food. I made a mental note that it would be interesting to go there for a visit one day.

Later that evening, as we walked along the street to find a place to eat, my companion took the chance when I suggested Ethiopian food.

So we ate INJERA and different vegetarian stews (WOT).
The Injera was not as sour as it often can be, and the stew not so hot as it can be. The injera was partly made with TEF.
It was a very pleasant experience for me, bringing back good memories.
Here is their visit card.

They had opened up two months ago.

Here are some explanations if you did not know the words I used above
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injera

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/recipe-injera.html

A typical Ethiopian stew is the chicken stew - DORO WOT.
http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-archive/41/220651.shtml

Looking for information about vegetarian Ethiopian cuisine, I found there is a vegan Ethiopian restaurant in Los Angeles......
http://www.vegparadise.com/dining75.html

Russell's teapot about Norway

My son sent me the following link from the States. I have shown it to friends and family here in Norway.

Now it is up to you to check if you find it funny.

http://russellsteapot.com/comics/2007/dra-til-helvete.html


PS. What Russell probably did not know:
In Norway there is a place called Hell, and Lonely Planet suggested you go there: "Forever after, whenever someone suggests you go there, you can honestly say you've already been there and it wasn't all that bad."

Sons of Norway teaching you Norwegian

If you want to try, here is their course. As a member you can also access the sound.
http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/languagelessons_index.jsp

Here is the first part with the Norwegian alphabet
http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/showlanguagelesson.jsp?Lesson=0

At least you should be able to recognize these three special written letters in Norwegian:
Æ æ
Ø ø
Å å

A crane moving containers

The huge metal containers can be used for transport and storage and are often made into living quarters and offices on building sites.
Next to my house is a huge building site. This morning several containers have been moved, one actually over my back garden and quite close to my kitchen.
What responsibility to sit in that crane!

Sirupssnipper - a taste from my grandma's kitchen

Photo by Ragge Strand on the website

http://www.aperitif.no/index.db2?id=77137

My Norwegian grandma (1883 - 1973) often served cookies when we visited her. One kind - diamond shaped, thin, crispy with a piece of almond on top - was called Sirupssnipper. Perhaps this was one of her Christmas cookies, though I think we also got them all year around.

The recipe for 20 Sirupssnipper, my translation from a Norwegian recipe

Ingredients:

1½ dl whipping cream

150 g light molasses (syrup in Norwegian)

150 gram white sugar

100 gram butter

Around 450 gram flour

1 1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon anise

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon hartshorn salt ( try bicarbonate)

3/4 teapoon baking soda

almonds, blanched, for decoration.

The How to:

Cook cream, syrup and sugar.

Add butter and let it cool till lukewarm.

Add the dry ingredients.

Mix well. Knead the dough.

Let the dough rest in a cool place till the next day.

Roll the dough thin.
Cut out the pieces. My grandmother used a wheel giving zigzag edges.

Put half an almond in the centre as a decoration.

Place the cookies on a lightly greased baking sheet in the oven at 175 degrees Celsius for around 5 minutes.

Cool them on a rack and keep them in an airtight box or in the freezer.

If you brush the cookies with eggwhite before baking them, they will become more shiny.

Writing this I found a lesson in Norwegian with the subject "We Bake a Cake", published by Sons of Norway

http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/showlanguagelesson.jsp?Lesson=28

and there, behold, their version of Syrupssnitter

http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/showRecipe.jsp?document=CookiesSirupsnipper.html

COOKIES: SIRUPSNIPPER
9 T. cream

1/2 cup + 2-1/2 T. syrup

1/2 cup + 2-1/2 T. sugar

7 T. butter

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. anise

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. hartshorn salt

3/4 tsp. baking soda

Almonds, blanched, for decorating


Boil cream, syrup, and sugar together. Stir in butter and let mixture cool until lukewarm. Sift in dry ingredients and knead the dough to mix thoroughly. Chill overnight. Roll dough out to be as thin as possible and cut into diamond shapes. Lay on a greased baking sheet. Place half a blanched almond on each cookie. For a shiny finish, brush cookies with egg white. Bake at 350º F for 5 minutes.

Marilyn French : loneliness and fear

Somebody showed me a quote by Marilyn French in a Norwegian newspaper:
"Ensomhet er ikke en lengsel etter selskap, men etter beslektede sjeler."

When I looked it up in English it was "Loneliness is not a longing for company; it is a longing for kind."

Reading through a list of her quotes, I didn't feel close to most of them.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/marilyn_french.html

I did found this quote intriguing:

"Fear is a question. What are you afraid of and why? Our fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if we explore them."

Fog music

The last days have been fairly foggy.

I live very close to the harbor, though I cannot see the Oslo fjord from my apartment.
The ferry from Horten to Moss crosses the Oslo fjord and lets off the trucks, private cars and passengers in Moss harbour.
This also happens in foggy weather.

To make that a little bit safer, they use a fog alarm.
Actually two fog alarms, I am told.
One fog alarm has a fixed place in the harbor and helps the ferry to anchor in the right place.
(Though rumours say they also have more advanced instruments for that.)
The second fog alarm is on the ferry, and is used to warn other ships and boats in the fog that here comes the ferry.
Each fog alarm sounds slightly different.

So here I sit in my home, listening to this fog music.

Three big malls in Moss

Recently I told you a new shopping mall had opened in Moss, and yesterday the daily newspaper Moss Avis gave the following numbers for the three local shopping malls.

It is considered that Moss and the surrounding area has around 60 000 residents.
Can they support the following malls?

MOSSEPORTEN is the oldest centre, 21 years old, and is now being renovated. Last year they had 2 million visitors. The renovation will be ready by Christmas 2008. They will then have increased the number of shops from 50 to 100. This centre is at the entrance to Moss, right next to Highway E6 (that is the highway bringing you from f.ex. Oslo to Gothenburg).

AMFI is in the centre of Moss, a kind of building together of houses and shops into one unit, something that was done during the last years. They have around 100 shops and had four million visitors last year. The bus station is right in the middle of this complex.

RYGGE STORSENTER just opened. They are situated in nearby Rygge, just across the border between Rygge and Moss, and with easy access to the E6 highway. They have 50 shops and expect to have 2 million visitors in the coming year.

Super underwear

In this climate (and in particular when you are not feeling too good), your head revolves around how to keep warm.
So the idea of super underwear is already warming you.

Then, in the shops, you find out that covering your lower and upper body may cost around 800 Norwegian crowns (around 150 US dollars, I think) and that cools you down , quite a bit.

But super underwear is made by many different producers, and the prices vary.

Here in Moss, a new shopping centre just opened, so many old and new shops try to attract customers with lowered prices.
So for 100 Norwegian crowns I got a whole set of super underwear, both parts.
It certainly helps me keep warm, and I feel lucky with the price.

Checking the internet, I found that the Norwegian daily VG had made a comparison between six different kinds of super underwear. (Mine is not there.)
Here you learn the name of the producer, the price, the material, suggested temperature for washing, their rating of how comfortable it was on, the design, etc.

If you read Norwegian you may check out
http://www1.vg.no/helse/artikkel.php?artid=181888
And if you don't, you may like to look at the photographs, to see what Norwegians wear under their clothes to keep warm.

The seasons are changing in my back yard

"Kuldefall" : where to place my electrical heater

When I moved in here, two and a half months ago, this electrical heater was standing in the corner, just like now.
It should be mounted on the wall, but I was trying to decide exactly where.
In the meantime I bought two freestanding radiators, keeping my apartment and me warm.

So where should I put the heater on the photo?
I thought I should keep it away from the windows because of the curtains.
In my imagination curtain and heater means fire.
I was seriously contemplating using one of the "free" inner walls, with no curtains.

Now one of the locals told me, the heater should go under one of the windows.
He explained that cold air "falls" from the window down to the floor,
and the heater prevents that from happening.
He said the curtains will not catch fire.

So now I have switched on another heater under my kitchen window (below).
Originally I thought I would have to shorten the curtains first.

A Norwegian cold

It is now about a month since I acquired my Norwegian cold.

The first days my whole body and particularly the joints hurt so much I stayed home from work. The doctor ordered some blood tests and all came back OK.

As I started to cough and it seemed like a "normal" cold, I went back to work. Two and a half weeks later I was feeling so lousy , I visited the doctor and got a sick leave.

I have rested in my trusted bed (see photo), under my new thermocover (blessing!), walked around my heated apartment, drinking hot beverages, writing a few emails for soul comfort, but - as for today - I am feeling worse than I did a few days ago.

I still hope I will be up and going on Monday.

Tfu, tfu!

Forty men and eight horses

At the Railway Museum at Hamar I took this picture.
I cannot tell you the exact size of that railway carriage (it seemed fairly small) and I don't even remember the time period (WWI or earlier), but I have been thinking about the eight horses and the forty men sharing the same space.

Or perhaps they didn't?
Perhaps you either put eight horses or forty men in that carriage?

Probably that is what happened!
Why didn't I think of that till now?

Chickened out on cheese

I have already told you I bought some Norwegian cheeses my grandmother used to eat.
One kind, Pultost, I ate the other day with a friend. It wasn't delicious, but we both ate our sandwich with Pultost. I threw out the rest.

Still in my fridge - two versions of Gamalost (=Old cheese).
My friend did not dare to taste it, so I did not open it yet.

I chickened out on cheese!

At least I should taste it.

Perhaps it will be the wonder cure for my bad cold?

Report:

After writing this, I decided to try.

I made a sandwich with butter and spread some of the Gamalost on top.

I did not vomit.

My cold did not get better.

But tasting it once, was enough.

Bye, bye, old cheese!

Norwegian expression for a long weekend

When I grew up in Norway, the week consisted of six workdays and one day of rest - Sunday in this country.
After I left Norway, the week was changed into one of five workdays and two days of not so much rest, but time off work. As far as I understand Saturdays and Sundays became busy days for shopping, travelling, surplus housework, house maintenance, gardening etc.
I think that this was when the expression "a long weekend" started. You would go away on Friday after work and come back on Sunday night.

Today I was told that in Norway they have invented "the oval weekend":
You take Friday and Monday off work.
Leave home after work on Thursday and return home on Monday night.

Alanya Turkish restaurant in Moss

This place in Klostergaten was where

my mother once took care of her hair.

Now it is a Turkish restaurant where they also

have some tasty alternatives for vegetarians.

From their website, in Norwegian, I could copy their three vegetarian dishes:

Menemem – vegetables fried with egg, very spicy. Served with bulghur, haydari and salad. 119kr (around 22 US dollars)
Vegetarian grill – squash, aubergine, champignon, paprika, salad, yogurtsauce. Served with bulghur. 129kr (around 25 US dollars)
Vegetarian Alanya – cauliflower, broccoli, champignon, paprika, covered with cheese, baked in the oven. Served with rice and haydari. 139kr (around 26 US dollars).

I have eaten Vegetarian Alanya during my visits. Very tasty. Generous portions.

Haydari, I found out, is a yogurt sauce. Before the meal I was served some delicious bread.

http://www.alanyamoss.com/index.htm

Cafe Halina in Moss

Cafe Halina in the center of town is a good place for
a cup of coffee or tea or hot chocolate (my favorite).
Her cakes taste delicious.

The style is fairly informal.
You can observe both young mothers with their babies
and businessmen and businesswomen
taking a break, often reading a newspaper.


The building itself is in FUNKIS style, a "modern" style
popular here in Norway between 1930 and 1940.

Relief

Today, November 15th, the SMS and the email told me the time had come.
My mother went to the store where my PC was placed on October 30th for repair
and received my precious virtual friend/ secretary/brain - my PC.
So far everything seems OK.

The time it took the firm(s?) to bring my PC from Moss to Oslo and back says something about the service.

How far would my PC get with the help of UPS during those same 16 days?

But now that is a closed chapter, as I hope life is back to normal.

Murdered in Norway 2000 - 2007

The Norwegian newspaper VG has investigated cases where women in Norway were murdered by their husbands, ex-husbands, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends
during the years 2000 - 2007.

72 women were murdered by those they at some point shared bed and life with.
4 men were murdered by their female partners during that same period.

37 % of the men used knives as the murder weapon.
28 % shot their female partners.
17 % strangled the women.

In my head, a couple who does not have a reasonably good life together, go separate ways.

For these 72 men, at least, their heads worked differently.
In one third of the cases, these murderers then commited suicide.
Before that, some of them had also murdered their own children.

I am not in favor of death penalty.
Murder is in any case a terrible way to solve any problem.

But it would have been of some advantage if these men had taken only one life - their own.

A tiny bit of snow

Three weeks ago I stayed at home a few days - no fever, no cold, just the whole body aching.

After going back to work, this became a usual cold - coughing , aching, but no fever.

Now, more than two weeks later, when I have used the weekdays to work and the weekends to recover, I knew the time had come to go to the doctor, get a sick leave and crawl under my new thermo cover.
As I left the doctor's office, a little bit of snow fell on my coat.

My thermo cover ( a synthetic "dyne") is great.

Somebody I know thinks the Norwegian "dyne" is Norway' s gift to the world - no matter if the filling is made of eiderdown or of synthetic material, this lightweght bed cover keeps you warm and comfortable.

Amen!

A woman in black

A belief is an idea you have adopted either conciously or subconcioisly, I once read.
One of my beliefs has been that black clothes are only for funerals.

After I came to Norway I have decided to challenge this belief.
It started when I bought a black dress for my son's wedding in May, and I haven't stopped yet.

It is like I have to erase all the colors in order to rediscover the colors I would like to dress in.

PC repair in Norway

My PC broke down on October 29th.

It was given to the shop where it was bought back in January on October 30th.
From the website and a number I was given I could follow my PC.

On November 5th it was still "on its way to the repair shop in Oslo".

On November 6th it had arrived, and some missing component had been ordered. The same day, I wrote a special email and was promptly told that this component was expected to arrive at the repair shop on November 9th.

On November 8th , surprisingly, "the PC had left the repair shop, as it had been repaired".

On November 9th the shop in Moss told me that the PC would probably arrive in Moss on November 13th .

I imagine this turtle walking back and forth between Oslo and Moss with my PC attached to its shield.

December 31st 2007

When your soul and belongings are in more than one country,
you sometimes have to travel back and forth.
Either to nurture your soul.
Or to move some of your belongings to the second country.

So on Dec 31st I will come to my second country and stay for three weeks.
I have a fairly long list of assignments I must do, but also hope to meet some of my friends.

It is the first time I have used the internet to buy a ticket.

Puddles covered with ice

At 11 o'clock today I ventured out.
The sun was shining.
It was a little bit cold, but not too much.
A little boy coming towards me was playing with a stick,
pushing it into the ground.
Getting closer, I realized he was poking his stick into the ice
covering what had been puddles of water yesterday.
It is getting colder!
Quickly I bought a warm cap and a scarf for coming days.

A coffin in the dark

Yesterday at 17.30 I was waiting for the bus to go home from work.
It was already dark.

Several cars came down the road, one after the other, slowly.
The first car, black on the outside, had a white cross on the roof.
The cabin was lit and I saw a white coffin partly covered with wreaths of flowers.
After that first car, another eight cars passed, each with a small sign with a cross on the roof, indicating they were following the coffin.

Taking into consideration the hour, this would be the transfer from the hospital to the chapel with a funeral today or a few days later.

The procession in the dark nearly looked like a film to me. Unreal in some way.