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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!

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Let me tell you about my weekend

Long time, no see. Hope you´ve missed me. 😉 This weekend was exhausting, I swear!

On Friday we went to a party in town and I was confronted with my lack of social skills- I don´t dance, I´m not good at mingling (unless I´m drunk or I know everybody there), I don´t hear very well when the music is loud and I´m terrible with strangers. Hahaha! So after trying to look cool and glam and a citizen of the world for an hour and a half, I suddenly felt the urge to go home to my couch and Twin Peaks. 😉 Bahaha! And that would have been fine, had I not forgotten my keys and spoilt V´s party, too. 😉 Tough luck.

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Thursday off

I had a couple of days in court outside Oslo, meaning I was away from home for 10-11 hours, and now I´m beat. Although that used to be my daily routine, I reckon I´m getting too old for that. 😉 Today I only want to take Sam for a longer walk, make myself a spinach salad with chicken and parmesan and read a book by the fireplace. Hoping it´s the winter blues, I long for lighter days and more sunshine. Here are some pictures from our latest “adventures”.

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Family Gathering for Christmas

On the third day of Christmas we were invited to a family gathering at Våler, where Vuong´s sister recently moved with her husband and child. Although the Trans are Buddhists, they do find a day around Christmas to get together, eat good food and do some catching up. And yesterday was that day. 🙂

Since interethnic marriages are not very common in Norwegian-Vietnamese communities, that´s given us some heart-ache along the years. In the end we all had to admit we were stuck with each other and make the best of it. So now we meet once in a while and smooth things over for the sake of our nephew, who is one gorgeous and lovable little guy!

Today we went for a walk in the woods and had the best time ever! Sammy was super happy and so was Benjamin, who slid like a pro! After taking in the fresh air and the amazing landscape, we felt our cheeks flush with blood and our feet ache with cold. So we went in for cakes and coffee. Take a look!

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Monday off

I´m starting to get old- if I´m  too active in the weekends, I need an extra day off. 😉 This weekend was particularly rough: drinks and dinner with an awesome couple from Australia on Friday evening, Christmas market with Sammy and friends, dinner at friends´house later on and an unplanned party at our house and that was just Saturday. Yesterday we had pancake breakfast with our other friends who stayed the night, did some washing up afterwards and saw the Hobbit at the cinema in the afternoon. So today I was dead: When the alarm rang I thought it must be Sunday morning! Fortunately there isn´t lots to do at work this time of the year, so I was able to cut myself some slack and take Sammy to the woods. 😉 It´s been so dark lately anyway and I haven´t felt like getting out of the house, so the streak of sunshine I could spot made me feel besides myself with joy! And because we were in luck, we got a friend to meet us at Frogneseteren, the restaurant on top of the mountain. I and Sammy took the subway half the way and walked the rest. I had cream porridge and Christmas soda, my friend had a Danish and we both walked back with our lattes. 😉 I fell on the ice and almost chipped the camera, but the latte only spilled a bit. 😉 haha! Enjoy the pictures!

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Saturday treats

Yesterday was harsh on my granny self. Had I not known better, I´d swear I was born tired!;-) We left the party at 11, after drinking some coffee, so I wouldn´t embarrass myself too much by leaving at 10, when the others just started to arrive. haha!

I was Morticia and my husband and Sam were Dexter. My friend, Dragana was a holy cow and her husband, Alex was Cardinal Sin. 😉 We had Nicki Minaj, a beduin, a lion (who Sam fell in love with!), a creepy doll, Marie Antoinette, a scary clown, pretty much the whole range of cool costumes. It was lots of fun, but I´m so much of a couch potato that when everybody insisted on standing and dancing, I started feeling out of place after a while. 😉

Today we woke up late and I treated Sammy to a really long walk in the drizzle. The reward for walking that distance in the rain was the prospect of buying a big cup of coffee on our way home. 😉 When the time finally arrived, however, it turned out I had the wrong pin (it´s a card I never use). I was feeling so embarrassed and angry with myself that the barista said I could get the coffee and pay for it another time. 😉 Now that´s what I call a true Samaritan! 😉

Fire in the fireplace, a snoring cat beside me and lots of magazines are today´s recipe for a perfect Saturday. Tomorrow I´m baking American pumpkin pie, stay tuned! What are your plans for the weekend?

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Monday again

This weekend has been a bit overshadowed by the fact that I´m working out of town this week. Not only is it an ugly trial, but I´m living in a small town with literally nothing to do after hours. I was hoping to do a bit of reading, but taking my laptop with me was uninspired, there´s so much on the mighty internet more alluring than Shishkin. I really don´t like Shishkin, the way I don´t like many of the contemporary writers that everybody else is so crazy about! Makes me wonder if there´s something wrong with me. I just don´t buy anything beyond reason, call me sad, but I really don´t. I need people to stick to whatever normal people do and feel and books to depict just that. Surreal is no good in my book. Does it make sense?

Anyway. This weekend was uneventful, but cosy, we had lovely weather and took our mandatory trip to the woods with a happy Sam, made some good food and watched a lot of Netflix. On Sunday it was time to be urban, take Sammy to the Botanical garden and have coffee with friends in lively Grunnerløkka. He´s such a sociable soul, he loves being outside with us and our friends, even if that only means sitting beside us and barking at the passing dogs. 😉

Last night I arrived at my hotel at 11:30 pm, so there was no time for sightseeing. Today was a splendid day, the court room was spacious and had thousands of windows overlooking the sun and I literally died in my cashmere sweater in our little interpreting box! (but it was from Paris!!) No time for much sightseeing today either, although I did spot the city center walking back to the hotel. By the time I´d lunched on a nice sunny terrace, all the shops were closed. The whole town seemed to have gone to sleep, it was so depressing I went in for a nap myself. It seems I should be done here by Wednesday, so I might as well try to enjoy tomorrow as much as I can. Maybe I´ll get a haircut and a massage. Or maybe I´ll just buy a sandwich and soak up the sun. 😉

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Birthday picnic in the woods

Yesterday was great. The sun was shining yet again and our friend, Hege, celebrated her birthday with a picnic trip in the woods. We took the subway and met the crew at Frognerseteren, a venerable restaurant on the top of the hill. After enjoying a coffee or a glass of wine in the sun, we started walking towards Songsvann, our final destination for the picnic. We were 6 adults, a child and a dog. Sammy was happy to explore the surroundings, he jumped up and down, drinking water from small creeks, engaging us in his silly schemes and sniffing every dog we couldn´t prevent him from meeting.;-) On the way I picked some blueberries and served them to the others from Sam´s drinking cup. 😉 They were sweet and tasted like summer. When we finally arrived to a table in a sun, everybody started unpacking the goodies. Food never tasted that good, I tell you!;-) We had bean salad, cheese and bacon pie, cheese and fig jam, chocolate cake, banana bread, chips and drops. Yummy! After filling our tummies, we tok the subway back to the city. We were tired and our feet had started aching when we realized we´d been outside for 6 hours! Now that´s what I call a Sunday trip!

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An autumn Saturday in Oslo

Oslo on a sunny day is like a dream come true! Although it´s mid September, the weather Gods still had some summer in store for us! It was such a glorious day to go for a walk and of course we brought Sam along. First, we walked to Grunnerløkka for coffee and breakfast and had a break in the sun to enjoy the view- colorful people on their Saturday stroll, fashionistas as well as young parents with strollers, dogs and their owners, you name it. Sam behaved himself for once, happy to have both his parents with him, he sat by our feet, squinting and drooling, getting the occasional petting and “Awww, that´s such a pretty dog!” I couldn´t have been more proud!

 

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Saturday

My favorite day of the week finally arrived and I made it count. 😉 We had a long breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon and tomatoes with the mandatory coffee. Later on I pretended Sam was not a polar dog, but an urban one, so I dragged him to a flea market and the farmers´market. Needless to say, he wasn´t pleased and he barked and howled and scared the bejesus out of both kids and smaller dogs. Silly mom, why couldn´t she just stick with the woods!

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