Yesterday was such a lovely day and we sure made the best of it. Since V had a day off, too, we decided we should have a city day. And what better way to be urban than walking around with our fluffy polar bear? 😉
oslo
Sunday mornings
Sunday mornings are holy. I seldom work during the weekends, but on the few occasions I do, like today, I make sure we have some quality time afterwards. So I was reunited with my man and Sammy at around 13:30 and after some jumping and smooches from Sam´s part, the three of us went to our neighborhood café to sit in the sun and sip some coffee. I had only eaten some blueberries by then, so I was hungry as a wolf. Soon after, Ryan, our neighbor, appeared with Emi, Sam´s girlfriend and we talked for a couple of minutes. We had bought a small beanie for their newborn girl and so we were happy to see them. Besides being boyfriend girlfriend, Sam and Emi are best friends and they show lots of affection in public. 😉 They play, kiss and lick each other non-stop. 😉 Just look at how cute they are together!
Spring
Spring is coming at last and it feels so good! I brought a couple of peach blossom branches home today and the white cuties bloomed, so the apartment looks festive and warm. Sammy boy is enjoying his walks, mostly with his pops, since I´ve had a major flu for some days now. He keeps finding gloves and stuff and is ever so happy to carry them around in his mouth.
Work is steadier now and I guess I´m relieved, although I´ve been enjoying my lazy couple of months, too. But now it´s a good time to be busy, the weather makes is easier to get out of the house and just savor a cup of coffee in the sun. Finding an outfit to wear is also more pleasing when you don´t have to think about being warm all the time. 😉 I´ll be sure to post a couple of pictures about that later on this week.
I hope you have a great week! I´m slowly recovering and looking forward to salmon sashimi with white rice and cucumber salad, although I have absolutely no taste or smell whatsoever. 😉
A Sunday in Oslo
Today was such a bright and beautiful day it would have been a shame to spend it anywhere else than outside. Although we´re heading towards the end of February, the weather is still quite crisp and we had to go back for gloves, to put it like that. 😉 We live in the Eastern part of Oslo, the multicultural “old town” and love it! It´s such a nice and friendly place, a brisk 10 minutes walk from the city center and only a stone throw away from Grønland and all its colorful (and extremely cheap) eateries. 😉 So we walked to Punjab, as I mentioned in my earlier post, but couldn´t settle for a potato nan, so we had the whole shebang- Chicken Karhai. Oh, yum! If you´re ever in Oslo, it´s a must!
A Quiet Weekend
My plans this weekend boiled down to a date with my couch. I´ve been watching Bosch on Netflix and it was good enough pass time for me. We´ve been so busy lately, either entertaining, visiting friends or partying, that I needed a complete break from any social activities. So I spent my morning online, then baked cheese and ham horns for brunch. Afterwards I got a new haircut at the corner hairdresser for a ridiculous amount of money (v cheap) and promised I´d step in as her model on Monday. I´ve been told I have Wella-hair ever since I can remember, I guess I was just waiting to be discovered for commercials. Bahahaha! Kidding! 😉
Colorful apartment in Oslo
I still like looking for cool apartments from time to time and on the days I´m truly miserable, there´s nothing like a colorful space to cheer me up. Let´s face it- this winter has been too long and too grey and I´m oh so fed up with it! But back to cheerful places, take a look at this ingenuous apartment for sale in Oslo! I love the light and spacious rooms, the touch of bright colors here and there, as well as the hardwood floors. Hope you see what I mean.
Snowy weather
These days have been slow and good for the soul. I´ve been cooking, decluttering and selling a few items on the internet, walking Sammy and dreaming of sunny holidays.
Friday I only worked for a few hours and it proved to be a lot of fun, we were several interpreters waiting for an hour or two in the Court House lobby and had a blast discussing beginner´s errors and such. Later on I had some drinks with a friend at Café Amsterdam, discussing professional pitfalls (how you can avoid laughing when the situation is soooo comic), Norwegian-born husbands and Romanian inhibitions. I wrapped up the day with Mr Selfridge on Netflix. I love that series! 😉
Saturday we went for a never-ending hike (6km) in the snow with Sam, part of it on the ski-lane (no fun), but it was so beautiful it almost hurt my eyes! Istagram doesn´t do it justice, I´ll give it a try anyway. We walked and walked and it felt we´d never get there. In the end it was so foggy we couldn´t see more than a meter in front of us, so we had to ask hundreds of times for Frognerseteren, where we had dinner and a beer. 😉 Tired and beat, we took a nap before some friends came over and we had some laughs over take-away pizza and Prosecco.
Saturday
Yesterday I was out for a stroll in the neighborhood with Sam. We stopped by Reprise, my favorite second hand shop in Oslo, where I found a gorgeous cashmere shawl from UK and chatted with the owner about reviving our street. We then crossed the icy park without falling (actually Sam did, but I was lucky not to), heading to Kampen, a quaint area with small and colorful wooden houses, where we bought a birthday card in a pretty flower shop. Further up the street, I had cauliflower soup at Lille Kampen, while Sam waited patiently outside, since dogs are not allowed in eateries in Norway. It was dusk time and the colors were so pretty I almost failed to notice the cold. We should do this more often, we told ourselves.
Christmas Day
I hope you had a lovely Christmas Eve and that Santa was good to all of you out there. We had an amazing day, ate a lot of wonderful food and got cuddles galore from our pets. We had a walk after our nap and although “only” minus 5, it was freezing cold out there! Luckily we could slide on a frozen lake for a bit of fun and Sammy was in heaven!
For dinner we had lobster mayo (and no, I didn´t kill the poor thing myself, it came already boiled!), duck breast with Brussel sprouts, orange sauce, my famous mashed potatoes and a quick chocolate mousse for desert. We never got around to the desert, way too stuffed by then! I´ll be sure to post a couple of posts on Christmas food the coming days.
It´s officially Christmas
Although I didn´t work a day last week and only a couple of hours this morning, today is my first official holiday. I can finally unwind, do the rest of the preparations and start enjoying myself. Vuong bought the tree and set it up yesterday, we were able to find one of the decoration boxes (out of two), I managed to make some cookies and will bake some more today. I also bought the last gifts and will make some chutney and sugar coated almonds as go-to gifts. 😉
It snowed a tiny bit yesterday and although it turned the sidewalks slippery, it also means the ground is not entirely bare. 😉 White Christmas this year, too! A couple of trips to the woods with Sam are mandatory and so is ice-skating in the city center, if it´s open for renting skates.
Yesterday we celebrated Christmas with our friends Franck and Marion and his kids. We had a lavish brunch of yummy pancakes, scrambled eggs, ham and all the cheese and marmalades you could think of, followed by the gift-opening session where Sam gets to tear the paper once the wrapping comes off. 😉 It was a lot of fun and we felt like being with our second family. What else would you call very good friends, if not family?:-) On our way back, we had a stroll in the Sankthanshaugen park with Sam and it was delightful! All the pretty lights, the snow and the majestic buildings, plus people playing with their children and dogs in the snow..
In the evening I saw “Boyhood” with a friend at the cinema. What a fantastic movie! I´ll write a review soon, but you need to see it if you have the chance! Afterwards we had a chat over a couple of beers and a yummy pizza at Hell´s Kitchen, absolutely recommended.;-)
I hope you enjoy my pictures and that they bring you in the mood for Christmas. 😉
life in a bubble 