pets

This week is finally coming to an end

I can´t remember last time I´ve had such a shitty week. It´s been horrendous. And as it often happens when you´re under mental stress, you mood is precarious and so is your physical well-being. To sum it up, my week mainly consisted of working, sleeping, eating, walking Sam and watching the occasional movie on Netflix.

Yesterday however I was done at 2, which left me time to have a couple of much-needed Proseccos with my husband and a friend of mine and blow some steam. It was a glorious day in terms of weather, sunny as only early September days can be. The air was crisp, but you could still wear ballerinas and short sleeves. I´d bought some fresh local produce at the market and couldn´t wait to get the chance to make some seasonal food. We had lunch at Café Bacchus, they have a lovely garden and serve well assembled salads and summer dishes made from Norwegian ingredients.

 

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Hiking with Sammy

You´re probably fed up with my baby boy by now. Well, that´s too bad! `Cause I love him so much I don´t care to write of nothing else today. 😉 We went on a small hiking trip, you see, so I need to brag a bit about it, since I´m such a lazy wanna-be diva on a regular basis. 😉 haha! I had a coffee date with a good friend of mine I don´t get to see as often as I´d like to, so I suggested we should go for a walk in the forrest and get our coffee on the top of the hill, at Frognerseteren, an imposing café where you would meet you grandma for lunch a while ago, but that´s managed the transition between tradition and innovation well. So we talked and Sam ran and bathed and chewed on sticks and ran some more, we lost our way and we found it again and in the end we were on top of the hill savoring a cup of coffee with cream porridge (because I´m halfway back on my low-carb diet and I don´t want to turn into a heath freak!).

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Heat wave

These days have been so hot it´s crazy! Luckily, I spent them either at the beach, in the shade of the garden or sipping an ice coffee at the terrace. I can never tell you enough times: There´s no place like Oslo in the summer!<3

If in Oslo, you need to check out Delikatessen, they now have 3 locations, but the best one is still in Grunnerløkka, if you ask me. Generous salads, yummy tapas and cool cats serving them to you.

I´m still on low-carb, 8 days to go, on Monday I´m starting yoga and pilates again, after a couple of years´laziness.

I hope your July is FAB and feel free to leave a message if you care!:-)

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Living is easy

Although this is not always true and we stumble and fall more often than we can pick ourselves up, it should be summer´s general rule. Less clothes, less work, more spare time to do whatever we enjoy most, eat lighter, drink more, you name it!;-)

These days have been strange for my part, without needing to go into details. Today however I feel better than in a very long time. My thoughts feel clearer and I can breathe without restraints. I´m listening to the feel-good `Smart is the New Sexy´playlist on Spotify, drinking green tea, the cat purring beside me and life is simply good.

I´ve been dieting on low-carb for 9 days now and I´ve lost 3 kg, my skin hasn´t been this radiant in ages and I feel fit. 3-4 more kg to go and I can start eating what I want again, as long as I work out and stay away from buns and tarts on a regular basis.

We´ve been having amazing weather, although a bit too hot if one works or is too lazy to go to the beach. 😉 We went to the beach twice, though and it was so much fun for the dogs! I realized I´ve become a bit of a chicken, couldn´t bring myself to swim although the water must have been 19-21 degrees. Brr! Otherwise I can’t wait for Santorini, 5 weeks to go! Three more weeks of general staff holiday, better hurry and enjoy it! Prosecco is still on my list of groceries, even though I´m on low-carb!;-) haha! Have a lovely week!

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Talvi the Samoyed

Our darling friend Kjersti got herself a samoyed puppy and today they came to visit. Sam was absolutely delighted and soon they were chasing each other through the house! And in the end she fell asleep on the couch. Look at them, too much cuteness to take in!

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Sunny day

What a lovely day! And what better to do with it than go for a stroll with Anette and our dogs? We´re lucky to have many cosy areas around and Kampen is one of them. A former working class neighborhood, its vivid colors are refreshing and its wooden houses- quaint.  Almost free for traffic and boasting with a couple of real time charm coffee shops, it´s the place to go if the sun is shining and you have a couple of hours on your hands. Just have a look for yourselves!

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I´m back!

In case you´ve missed me, I´ve been down with a terrible cold with fever and sneezing and the whole shabam. And since I had some work to do instead of  nurturing my cold it took me ages to recover. Now I´m back on track and ready to roll!;-)

Anyway. Let me tell you about the week that passed. It kind of started on Wednesday, before that I was too sick and too tired to care about anything else than work and sleep. To sum it up, it was all about eating and socializing, as I was lucky not to have too much work on my agenda.

Wednesday- lunch with my lovely friend Elif at The Nighthawk Diner, burgers and fries. Chit chatting and chilling, the perks of being a freelancer finally pay off.

Thursday- out with my friend Kristin, dinner and margaritas at Taco Republica. It´s a fairly new and trendy eatery in Oslo, where they only serve organic food in a cosmopolitan environment.

Friday I had lots of time for my beauty sleep, but also for a walk with Sammie, his girlfriend and a couple of friends. In the evening we attended a fare-well party for a Danish friend who´s both moving back to Copenhagen and getting married. Now that´s what I call a wonderful excuse for social get-together and some bubbles!

Saturday greeted us with sunshine, Vuong took Sammy to the woods while I saw The Forsyte Saga. We then met some friends for coffee, had Chinese dim-sum  at Taste of China and made some pizza for a couple of friends in the evening.

Today was for a good day for soup and reading The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak. It´s a compelling book, but not really my type of writing, so I can’t wait to start a new one.

Here are some pictures.  Hope you had a good week!

xx, Alina

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Tales of spring and hope

Although it´s still February, we´ve seen the sun a couple of times, it snowed  and the snow melted again, in a few words- I´m in the mood for spring. Thought I´d share with you a couple of pictures of our apartment and our life while waiting for spring. 🙂

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2013 in pictures

2013 was a good year in many ways. I established myself as an interpreter and worked hard, so hard that I needed almost a month´s break to realize how burnt out I was. I won´t repeat that mistake in 2014. Besides, I alienated many of my friends because I didn´t even have time for myself, let alone for others.

On a personal level, we´re still going strong, trying to have a baby one way or the other.  Meanwhile, we decided to get a dog and that´s how Sam the samoyed entered our lives. We got him in February and he´s been filling every day with pure bliss ever since. He´s such a good natured pup and so affectionate, I never thought you could love anybody as much as we love him! He even befriended our 9 years old cat, at least at a frenemy-level.

Family-wise,  I rejoiced in my niece´s presence when I visited my family in Romania for Easter, as well as in everybody else´s. My parents visited us in July, when Norway showed itself from its best side, it was hot and not a cloud in the sky. Christmas was spent with friends and my husband´s family.

Travel-wise, I savored Palma de Mallorca during our summer holidays, unfortunately we didn´t think of bringing the camera with us, so only Instagram can tell the tale. The fall was busy and stressful, but a short break to Berlin for a conference made it bearable. To get into Christmas mood we went to Tallinn for 3 days and it proved to be a terrific idea. Christmas break was long and lazy, I indulged myself in doing as little as possible.

2014 is the year! I´ll get my driving license, travel outside Europe and work my body in good shape again. And be kind. I´ll start with myself. Have a good one!

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Christmas at the Tran residence

This year we´re celebrating Christmas in Norway with our friends and my husband´s family. Although it´s nice to go back to my mother country, Romania, which we do every other year for the holidays, it´s kind of comfortable to be at home and go about things my way. So my man brought a Christmas tree and we decorated it with Sam and Beo prowling around it and sniffing the forrest smell, I baked and cleaned and bought some pretty light chains and the imperative hyacinths, the only thing missing is a Christmas wreath, which I´ll make after taking Sam for a walk in the woods. We´re done with finding and wrapping the gifts, what´s left is buying the food and the drinks and finding the pajamas and Home alone 1 and 2. Meanwhile, I´ll be spending time baking some more and making some Christmas chutney while listening to Christmas carols. How are you spending the holidays? Merry Christmas to you all!

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