Author: ghetran

The meaning of cool

I´ve never been cool. For as long as I can remember I´ve been quite close to being cool, but I never made it all the way. As a little girl, I payed too much attention in class and wouldn´t swap my sandwich with other kids. As a teenager, I wasn´t allowed by my fanatic grandma to be en vogue and had to wear pleated skirts just over the knees. And as a young lady I tried too hard.

I stopped trying some 10 years ago and concluded that cool just doesn´t define me. And I have to admit that it was such a relief! I could stretch after more attainable things: I could try to be feminine, classy, well-dressed, well-read, a good cook, nice, whatever. Just not cool. This change of perspective eased my transition into adulthood. It´s nice to get to know who you really are. It´s ok not to wear Converse. And not to be the festival type. It´s ok to read magazines on a Friday evening instead of going to a concert. And you don´t have to go to parties if that just makes you tired.

Much of the blog world today is a reminder of the wanna-be cool days. I feel many wear the same clothes, promote the same brands and have an identical approach to fashion. I´m glad I´m not there any more. Nothing wrong with the perfect white t-shirt and the punk-inspired boots, but I can´t relate to them at all.

I´m taking you to yet another trip with me in wonderland! Enjoy!

Philip Lim

Continue reading →

Bucharest

Following up on my nostalgia and my missing the mother country, I decided I should write about Bucharest and share some hidden treasures with you. I´ve only lived there briefly, from 1999-2000, as a language student at the State University. That didn´t stop me from falling in love with the city, its dusty charm and its veiled grandeur. On the contrary, it might be the very reason I never get enough of Bucharest- I wasn´t given the chance to grow tired of it. Many people I know say that I would feel different if I actually lived there- between late working hours, the ruthless bureaucracy and the everyday struggle many Romanians experience, there wouldn´t be much enthusiasm left. This might very well be the case, but I choose to believe that you have to make time for a relationship, the way you do with your loved ones. Take your time and discover the city, go for a stroll in the newly renovated old town, have a coffee on a lovely terrace in the shade, grab a beer at a beer garden or mingle with the young and the restless by Herastrau Park, the choice is yours. And it´s not only about money, don´t give me that, I don´t buy it! As a student I had no money and still I loved the city. Fill a thermos with cocoa and get out in the open air if the money doesn´t stretch. Go to a gallery, it´s free of charge! Don´t just indulge in your feeling sorry for yourself!

Old Bucharest
Old Bucharest

Continue reading →

Home

Every fall I get taken aback by nostalgia. I´m an autumn gal, born in September and my whole being is very much like fall- always in search for colour, restless and melancholic. I have this recurring image that hunts me: I´m a skinny 14 year old girl, sitting under the quince tree in my grandma´s garden, in a t-shirt, it´s September and I´m happy. The quince tree died a while ago and my grandma moved into my brother´s old bedroom at my parents´.  I haven´t been 14  for 19 years now and fall will never be what it was that particular sunny day. Still, that´s the first thing that comes to mind when I think of fall. I love fall for its return to routine (virgos are known for our need for things to be as they have always been). I find joy in the freshness of the air, in starting wearing my autumn clothes, in meeting friends again. Summer is amazing, but it´s such a disruption of everyday life. And although I live my life suspended on dreams and plans, I feel safe in my everyday moments. Thought I´d share some with you.

Lazy corner

Continue reading →

A gasp of fall

It´s official! Fall is here, there´s no doubt any more, the calendar says so. And while I´m making lots of plans about how to get more efficient, find time to work-out and be cultural in the weekends, what I really enjoy doing is reading magazines and dreaming of new accessories. Call me superficial, but I get instant gratification. And this year´s fashion is better than in ages! Actually that´s how I feel every year. I collected some must-haves on my list, don´t think I´ll be able to afford anything for now, but the Celine bag is mine, no matter how long I have to wait!

http://www.tumblr.com

Lovely Celine bag- a classic

Continue reading →

Organic weekend

After depriving my body of nutrients as well as good flavours, I felt it was about time I should do something about that. So I managed to use the first window of opportunity to check out the organic marked in Stortorvet. I started doing that last year, enticed by the colours, smells and the jovial chatter the ´farmers´met one with. 2 kg apples, 1 bag of golden chanterelles and 3 corn cobs later, I was heading home with the promises of a real feast.

Chanterelles/halvtomtglass.blogspot.no

Continue reading →

Organizing

I´m not good at organizing things. I grew up with my grandma until I was 13 and she never threw away a thing. I collect everything from books and magazines to jam jars and porcelain cups. My husband put up with it for a few years, but is been urging me for quite some time now to make some changes. Our biggest problem is that we don´t have enough shelves and cupboard place, so things just clutter around. So while I dream of an antique cupboard just for our inherited china, I need to figure out what to do with all the mess around the house. For example we have a dog cage for Sam that´s half the size of our bed. And where do you think it is? Besides our bed, in the bedroom. We also have 40-50 pairs of shoes, many of which are in the hallway, helter skelter. Furthermore, all our books are in a horrible state of chaos, ever since we removed the wall between the kitchen and living and threw away our IKEA library. So here´s what I figure we need:

Ikea

Continue reading →

Being creative

Yesterday was a good day. I had a short window of time between jobs, so I  raided one of my favourite interior decoration shops- Norway Designs where I discovered Kristina Dam! A lovely Danish artist who combines graphics and modern art in enchanting pictures, I just had to have one! I´m fond of photography and graphics and definitely a collector in every sense of the word. At the same time I´ve never felt I could splurge on a certain art piece, so I go for prints in the shops and I trawl flea-markeds and thrift stores where you can buy many small pieces without ruining yourself.

Kristina Dam

Continue reading →

Almost weekend

This week has been mostly about accountancy (which I hate so much I can´t understand how anybody can put up with it as a full-time job), a little bit of work and lots of family time. With so much unexpected time on my hands, I was fantasizing of making apple jam, scones and healthy smoothies everyday, but instead we ate lots of instant noodles and other junk food varieties. I thought sharing an office  would be great- coffee breaks and quirky conversation, but forgot that my husband recently gave up snus (loose tobacco that you put under your lip), so his nerves were a wreck.

My office

Continue reading →

My Oslo

It´s Sunday and I need a rest. We´re eating out with some friends later, but for now it´s just coffee, newspapers, good music and cuddling on the couch with Sam and Beo. It´s a sunny day and Oslo is at its best. It´s a really nice city to live in, especially in the summer. If you haven´t visited yet, you should put it on your list. I´ll make you an overview of the best places I know.

Restaurants

Olympen

skjerioslo.dittoslo.no

Continue reading →

Too cool for school

Back to school for a course this weekend- multicultural perspectives in interpreting. I´ve studied something similar for a year in 2004, but this is a nice reminder of the fact that ethnicity is constructed and that togetherness is as excluding for some groups as it is including for others. This line of thoughts can never be discussed too thoroughly.

On top of that I get to drink lots of coffee with people I like. And practice standing in a toilet queue and chat, the way we did in ninth grade. Lots of fun.

I even found the time to check out three of my favourite shops and I thought I should share those with you.

Swedish COS stands for stylish clean-cut quality clothes.

hk.lifestyleasia.com

Filippa K- My all time favourite Swedish brand, delicate and timeless, with a masculin touch

Continue reading →