sigh no more

over the rainbow

sometimes sad things happen and the world as you knew it, just.. stops..
sometimes horrible things happen and you forget sense of time..
sometimes words cant even describe well enough what your mind is thinking..
and now I just cant sleep.. the silence is so loud.

I´ve lost a close friend, a close colleague, a partner, an advisor.. a mentor.. so many things, and yet not big enough words to describe who he was to me.. and to so many others. The pictures in my mind wont disappear, especially the bad ones.. and yet your voice in my head keeps reminding me to stop being sad and rather just get on with it.. while you smile and roll your eyes.. then I smile again, and remind myself that I´ll never forget you and your sense of humor.

Thank you for everything you taught me.

someday

Im a horrible blogger..I know.. and its official. After not blogging for almost a year, I cant even call myself a blogger anymore. Then again, I cant really say that I´ve missed it either. Its just something about the whole concept, what to write about anyways? Another tasty recipe, great song to recommend, something that happened on the bus or perhaps the weather? Life in general should be more interesting than that, shouldn't it.. but my days filled with work, books, tea and travelling to Switzerland aren't really that mind blowing exciting... at least when reading about it.
So I considered deleting this blog, since I dont even use it.. and probably no one follows it.. but then again.. through this blog I found one of my closest friends.. and through her I found the love of my life.  If I didn't start writing this blog years ago, none of that would have happened.. at least not yet.
Seeing it that way, there must be a some hidden purpose behind this thing.. or maybe it already did its job, I dont know.. but I´ll give it benefit of doubt so far, more things could always happen.
Im such a sucker for serendipity and fate moments.. it doesnt necessarily have to be happy endings, like in the movies.. but it has to be a life lesson.. a life purpose behind everything.. it has to.
"If its meant to be, its meant to be!" This could probably be my life motto, but then again, I dont want to have a motto that probably millions others also have.. so I´ll rather stick with my own.. something something, eat cheese everyday.. something about sour cream.. and I think there also was something about friends and family, and that the whole mixture is important all together.

I might not be the most social person, but Im happy about it. People who know me well, know that I reward myself with social points if I´ve been social. And people who knows me that well, also knows that I´m their friend forever, even tho we dont meet once a week or talk on the phone everyday. In my mind, the best and the strongest friendships are those who never change, even tho time changes or people changes. I have few but never ending friendships around me, and I prefer that rather than having drifting friendships with people you're not sure if you can call in 3 months when you need advice.
I might sound like a total loner now. But hey, if you just look at everything in your life as time consuming things.. how to spend that time the best? I dont need to share my every moment on earth with people all the time.. In the end you're alone anyways, so why not get used to the feeling, and not be afraid of it when the time is right.

I´ve found love, I´ve found my closest friends so far, and I have a really big family and great workmates. I dont want to fill up my spare time with silly friendships or meaningless time consuming drama. I want to fill it up with slow mornings, tea, books, loving warm people, dance, african drums, cheese flavored foods, people in need that I can help, sour cream, photography, the scent of rain during summer, naps and some cozy hairy four legged pet to cuddle every day.

Maybe someday this blog will make it to that list, and talk about important things, but so far, this was todays wisdom. Hopefully more wisdom is yet to come.

been a while

yeah, it´s definitely been a while. I haven't been here in almost half a year!
Mostly ´cause I couldn't log into blogger anymore, for some reason.. but I just figured it out.. and also I´ve been busy.. with.. stuff.. you know.. work.. switzerland.. work.. socialness.. and some more work I guess. My summer has been a good one so far. After the horrible tragedy and terror in Oslo and Utøya a month ago, things is starting to fall back into its place and normal life has returned to Norway, in a maybe more proud, respectable, humanistic and nationalistic way of living. At least now I think people know where or what Norway is.. we were commonly best know as the neighboring country of Sweden to some people.

I´ll write more another day. I have to do some other stuff know. yeah, thats right, stuff.

finding gold

oh how the meaning of days can suddenly change.. from being too many of them.. too long and just bothersome.. after you´ve reached what you were waiting for.. the days are shorter.. and all you wish is that you had more of them.  Mhm, needless to say, Im in switzerland back with my hunk, and oh how loveydovey it is.. (sorry, #1 side effect of it all: kitchyness).

upcoming days: conserts, beers, slow mornings, movies, embroideries, snuggling and cups o tea, and more great food, and we got great weather, and swimming, and all in all totally mindblowing awesomeness.
Yeah! I said it!   Olooloo... oolooo (to all you Star Wars freaks)

take it easy

Aah, how I just love this song :)    Have a great weekend, folks!

I got buns

I just baked an amazing cheesy bread, and oh how Im gonna bake more bread in the future! Mhm. It was my first successful bread ever, (incl. improvising with recipe that is) and now I have lots of new breadish ideas for the next ones. Oh and yeah, yesterday I made hardbread with lots of sesame seeds...
(mmm... sesame seeds..) so I guess Im becoming a real housewife, huh? And no, that´s not the worst part.. the worst part is probably that Im doing embroideries in between baking, and I dont think the term "housewife" is a bad one anymore.. and embroideries are fun!
Sigh.. Oh well, Im still cool. Like, totally. I am!!

slow show

with a new year, I needed a new blog template and some new colors. i´ve also deleted lots of old posts, and oh it feels great indeed. i know i cant delete history, but at the moment i just love the future more :)

christmas was nice! I celebrated 2 times with family and then once with my british neigbours (lovely english christmas food!). and then I worked a lot, went to switzerland, met mr.amazing, celebrated the best new years ever and then had a week of chillout before I went back to oslo. cant really call oslo home anymore, but its still a part of my life n all.

nowadays Im juust working again, counting down ´til the next take-off, editing photos, meeting up with friends, and.. eating too much raclette (damn.great.christmas.calendar.gift.with.portable.raclette.thingy). I plan to be one of those gaining weight after new years instead of loosing it.. well I dont exactly plan it, its just..eh.. that.. friggin.stupid.lovely.raclette.addictive.cheese!.. but soon I´ll start swimmin a lot. mhm. i will! just.have.to.finish.the.cheese.....

I also plan for this year to maybe be a lil´bit more active in here.. maybe even post photos now and then and be really interactive and stuff. yeah. like. totally. seriously.

but! until then, cheerio folks! and keep on holding those newyears resolutions!
(at least for another couple o weeks?! hehe)

white christmas

its christmas time! and yeah, besides the great food and presents and all that stuff, i must say i´ve totally been spoiled by the daily giftcalendar (and parttime presence) from mr.boyfriend. december has never been so great. being the type of person who loves to never go to sleep.. and then sleep for long the next day - the calendar has been such a great motivation to get up early, tiptoe and reach for the present, turn on webcam and then open presents together. mhm. daily small surprises is lovely... and oh how spoiled i feel, in every way possible : )

to sum up christmas: food, presents, food.. uhm.. food?.. and workin.. and food.. workin.. presents again.. more food, and hm.. workin again.. and during the days up ahead im expecting some more food.. more workin... and then: writing packinglist.. packing.. and uhm.. continue a more intensive countdown ´til.... departure back to switzerland!! aah.. !! the lovelyness about that fact has totally brought me through these really busy christmasdays, and its still my big motivation for hangin in there, ´til i finally can relax in the arms of mr. handsome. well deserved : ) mhm.

and i suppose this will be the last post this year, so with that; happy new year everyone! to all my fans and non-fans, groupies, stalkers and whatnot. you know who you are.

hugs

baby elephant walk

so, its been a while, huh. I myself are a bit frustrated/confused what i should write about in this blog nowadays. cant really talk about big news, and i dont want this to be a diary or anything political-ish, so then - what are blogs for?

so since i dont really know what to say; i can give you the latest.. here goes:
switzerland back and forth.. amazing visits and lovely company.. shishas, beers, new great british neighbours, movies, studies, minus degrees, woolen socks, cups o tea, shopping for christmas, counting down for highlights, ipod gaming, friends, family, candlelights and photoediting. what a great way to sum up the last couple o months! sorry tho, that it may be boring to read :)

until next time.. enjoy the winterish temperatures and keep in mind its only one month left ´til christmas!
peronally im looking more forewards to new years tho.. in switzerland.. ah, imagine the amazingness. mhm :)

me and armini

i love this fall! its just so beautiful with the colors and hardly any rain (at least this week), and i cant wait to walk around and listen to the crounchy sound from the leaves. maybe next week :) and the good thing is that it gets so dark nowadays.. so candles and cozyness becomes a must in the evening..
in the meantime im occupying myself with studies, reading, ehm.. and lots of skype (what a great invention).

mhm, dunno what else to say really. all is good, im doin fine and every day is one day closer :) mhm.

rabbit heart

it´s strange how one can feel at home at so many places. and how the feeling might change with the years. i just found out it has nothing to do with the place itself, but more about who else is at that place. i have a new place on my list, and it´s just lovely.
the days goes by with both my mind and heart at this place, and indeed thats different, but its then again kinda nice...

not much else is going on. im livin´with a smile, workin´as usual and juust enjoying it all :)

aftermath

its been a while since my last update. and to sum up the latest: everything is fantastic! so yeah, i´ve been kinda busy i guess..
tho´unfortunately christina was sick a while after we arrived home, we both agree we had a nice trip together, but its even better to be home again with our loved ones, hehe. i for one can at least say that its never been so nice to land back in norway after a trip to africa.
had some amazing summerdays in oslo after the arrival, also at the cabin, barbeques at the beach with shisha and music for hours. happy times, and neverending times :)

now im back at work for a couple of weeks before the next trip goes to switzerland very soon. i love counting down to great things. aaah...!

35 hours..

yeah I know, it may seem a bit strange to count hours until we land back in norway, yet we just can't help it. we're probably at one of the most beautiful places on the planet (according to several internet sites), and believe me, we are enjoying! it's just... that.. we also .. kinda wanna get home :)

ok, so, since my last blogpost we've been social again. that same evening we got to know two masaii guys 'round our age, and they were probably one of the first guys here not trying to sell us anything and not bothering us. we met them during sunset. we had talked with them earlier that day, so now they stopped up to say hi while we were taking sunset pictures (of course). we talked a lot, laughed even more.. and it turned out that christina challenged them in a jumping competition. and not the type of jumoping up and down (kinda hard to measure that), but jumping length. now, masaii's are kinda well known for their jumping skills, but hey, our exessive need of competition (lack of computer games the last 3 weeks) made us challenge them. and it was so much fun.. of course we lost, but then again, they had shoes and we were barefoot. I rest my case..

yesterday we were supposed to swim with dolphins (!). we drove to the other side of the island, got swimming-gear, lifejackets and a small - ish boat. the waves were huge.. (huger than huge, but I lack a word for that), so I got kinda nervous about being in the rough ocean with the dolphins.. while christina had her leg out of the boat many times, asking if she could jump in.. that was before she felt a bit sea sick (luckily for me.. it was kinda scary imagining sitting there alone with my snorkel and mask on my head while struggeling to let go of the wooden bench we sat on). sadly there were so many waves that we didn't see much dolphins.. maybe only 5? yet, so beautiful to see them "in the wild". didn't get to swim with them either, but hey.. at least we had a boatride aand saw dolphins, it's a least something! on the way home our driver hit a dog. that was so terrible.

last night we got to know some more masaii's. they weren't as good in english, but yet real fun to hang out with. these guys taught us how to dance.. masaii style.. I laughed so hard I cried many times.. chris and I looked like stiff trees, compared to their funky moves.. and singin.. (we tried making the same sounds, but figured it was impossible). but they a such great people, the masaii's. so playful, and not afraid to make a fool of themselves.. we're not either by the way.. and oh how many oppourtunities that brings us to make friends :)

today we're leaving! flight from here to nairobi, then we'll stay there at the airport 'til monday morning and fly home. we'll land during that evening.

had a fantastic trip. we're still good friends with silly humour, and the whole trip has gone oh so smoothly. thank you chris, for everything.

the last fantastic days...

since my last blogpost I've gotten a great sunburn.. typically on feet, knees and stomach.. great.. makes one really appreciate -not- having a sunburn, hehe.. but luckily its getting better tho'.
zanzibar is wonderful. we live on the beach, kinda.. in our own bungalow (don't remember if I already told you this). white beach, crystalclear water.. and nice people (most of them). the american guy tried hard to be our close n'shit friend, but we struggeled a bit with that. he was nice. he was! when he was talking about working for his non profit organization, being a photographer and how much he wants to help people here.. thats great! but in the next minute he's rude to the staff here, complains a lot, misses his swimmingpool and three cars at home and gets really annoyed when his masaai friend wants to use his pictures here to boost the tourism to his masaii village, or whatever, without him getting a profit from it.
but we put on a smile, laughed of his jokes.. and we even went to dinner with him some day also.. he left yesterday, and we kinda like it. a lot.

besides this (drama), we have explored a tiny corner of stone town. twice. we always have a huge ambition about seeing everything of it.. yet we just have to stop up every minute to take another picture. its such a beautiful town.. the word beautiful doesn't even cover it for me. I've taken like 200 pictures today.. from town. just while walking around. at a point we were almost lost...ish.. and then we found such a wonderful building. I just had to go in there.. and it turned out to be the high court. hehe. couldn't walk that much around in there before we were told to go out again. so we just continued walkin... (secretly happy about all the nice pictures we got in there..). we stopped outside an art gallary.. tho' it didnt really look like one.. yet all we could see was lots of black and white photos on the wall. we stepped inside and met this indian fellow behind an old counter.
he was a photographer.. just like his father were.. and this was his fathers old photostudio/gallery.. so amazing talking with him about pictures and his father. lots of old pictures in black and white shots from here.. we bought some of them.. hard to resist so amazing pictures. and then we were invited to see his studio.. it was so old fashion retro ish.. but really cool. old lamps.. chairs.. arragements.. back from the 50's when his father shot pictures there.. he took a picture of all three of us, stating the beginning of our friendship. what a wonderful spirit and fantastic guy. we exchanged contacts, and I felt that there's something with this meeting we'll treasure.. just don't know the purpose yet.
we walked further, got some help from some local schoolboys to find the fishmarket. and then we found the fishmarket, but decided to walk around instead, holding on to our cameras and smilin'.. such a great day :)

countdown is finally at its end very soon.. and I've never looked so much forewards to a monday before.. not even when the show E.R started with a new season. its not that we don't like it here.. but we know we'll really like it a lot at home also.. somehow.. ish.. a lot :)

that's all folks! maybe the next update will be before we leave this place.. more to come. and here's a teaser... : dolphins..

dar es salaam, funky hotel, rats and zanzibar

so we arrived safely to dar es salaam with a very nice (!) bus. exiting the bus tho', was a chaotich experience... everyone shouting at us, offering taxis, asking where we're from, where we wanna go and our names. luckily we held on to another couple of white people who knew someone, so we managed to get a great price for the taxi to the hotel we had booked. the car is the nicest one we had ever seen. i told the driver: "you have a nice car!" and he said.. kinda unaffected: "of course.."
then i asked, to lighten up the mood.. "hows the weather here? do you think it will rain tomorrow also, or will it be sunny?" and he answered: "yes".. christina struggeled with not laughing.. while i felt like asking more questions. he was great. tho not very good in english..

we arrived at the hotel -new continental.. sounds very fancy indeed.. and even the pictures from internet where great. i must say my expectations were very high.
the lady in the "reception" said hi, then guided us upstairs to find a room.. looked like she didnt quite know who we were or where we were going to stay.. so she just picked a room, randomly. was'nt quite the ensuite two single beds room we had ordered, so we tried to tell her.. tho she wasnt that good in english. so she put on bedsheets.. and the aircondition, turned on the tv and told us to just wait there for a moment.. we used that "moment" (like 45mins?) to call around for a different place.. and luckily we found one.. (thank god for the lonely planet book).. we walked down to the reception to tell the lady that we didnt want to stay there.. and she just sat there and said: "ok". hm.. it was so strange.. we hope to get our deposit back.. sometime..

jambo inn was great. shabby, nice and lots of backpackers. that evening we went for libanese dinner at a restaurant we were recommended... and yeah, the food was great! but noone told us about mice, dead lizzards on the floor and bugs on the wall.. hehe. but hey, we hadn't eaten the whole day and we knew we were in africa.. soo.. we wasnt that bothered really.

next day we took the boat to zanzibar. met an american guy and shared a (45$!!) cab to our hotel at the north coast. we have our own bungalow, the beach is fantastic.. and the american guy talks alot when he finds us.. so we try to be social/polite while we sit there with our shisha playing cards.. hehe.. indeed i just love it here. everyone is moving in slow motion, and just the sound of waves makes me relax.

mhm.. im fine.

safari and wonderfulness..

we have had the best time at our 3 day safari with our guide ally. we went to lake manyara, ngorongoro crater and tarangire national park. so lovely breathtaking.. everything. the nature and of course the animals.. at one point we had 3 lions close to the car (a land rover defender!) and they were just chillin'... imagine.. the animal on top of the foodchain out in wilderness.. just chillin' next to us.

we came back to moshi yesterday.. so tired-ish. and today we have had breakfast.. bought a bus ticket to dar es salaam.. and had milkshake. holiday is good. in african style.. pole-pole (slow).. tonight.. well, soon actually (woops) we're invited to a family dinner at ally's place. that'll be nice.
so about dar es salaam.. we're going there tomorow. think its like an 8 hour drive.. so in african time thats like.. 10 hours maybe? we booked a great hotel there yesterday.. and close to our hotel.. there's a shisha rooftop - bar thing.. *hummina hummina hummina...* can't wait :)
on saturday we'll attack zanzibar with our pale faces.. and just enjoy solitudeness for the rest of our stay. i certainly can't wait!

(feel free to comment, guys!)

moshi

after a quite bumpy-but-happy-my-organs-still-are-at-their-places busride, we safely arrived to Moshi yesterday afternoon. if that kind of a travelling wont make you get to know one another well, nothing does. hehe, but thats also the nice (and sweaty) part of it all.
it's so lovely to be back. I just love this place.. the african vibe and the swahili everywhere, gives me goosebumps. our feet are dirty from dusty roads.. white clothes turn brown during the day, everyone are moving in slow-motion and are so nice. today we've been around a bit in town, but its a sunday, so most things were closed. the temperature is so great tho', not too hot, yet warmer than nairobi.. during the afternoon we met up with Ally, our guide from when I lived here 4 years ago. sp great to see him again! he's taking us on safari tomorrow, so we had to plan things. he took us home to his place, where we played with his gorgeous daughter sonja for hours before he drove us home again. hehe.. african vibes..
the safari will be awesome. we're going to ngorongoro cratewr, lake manyara and tarangire (google it), and he has this typical safari range rover with a rooftop to stand in! and huge tires! so I cant wait to just drive around in the middle of no where in that car.. while spotting hippos and buffalos far away. we'll be back from the safari on wednesday. spend some more days in moshi, before heading off to dar es salaam and the finally zanzibar.. aah..

by the way, i had the coolest dream last night.. I dreamt that my dad bought me a rechargeable living giraffe! one had to pull the plug when it tried to run away, then it stopped running.. after the lamas.. which also ran around there.. but they weren't for sale tho'.. aanyways, I love having african-gadget-dreams.. such a great start of the day.

to sum it all up; we're still fine! and really enjoing it all...and im still geeky