rain

Halfway through October

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Sitting here and waiting for the baccalao to be ready, thinking of this and that, as you do when autumn evenings are long and rainy and you barely get out of the house to walk the dog, who also hates this weather. The weekend was slow and unadventurous. I was supposed to go to a photo exhibition with some colleagues yesterday, but it was impossible to convince myself to step outside in the rain when I’d already been out with Sam for around an hour. So I made some pumpkin soup and we watched a Norwegian series, The Heavy Water War. Not bad.

Today we woke up at 10, rain drops whipping heavy on the window pane, outside as dark as a November night.  In spite of that, I managed to drag my ass to the nearest coffee shop with Sam to meet some friends, I tied him up under a roof not to get wet, but he wanted to be able to see me and so he preferred waiting outside in the pouring rain just to get a peep inside the coffee shop. Such a stupid rule not to allow dogs in! I felt so bad for my pooch.

Otherwise, I even managed to go to the gym, where I did the usual exercises with just as much enthusiasm as ever, read none, so I could have an excuse to put my feet up for the rest of the afternoon. How are you spending dark October evenings?

PS. I asked my mother-in-law for lessons in knitting, I used to be an ok knitter, but I could never read recipes, so I’m going there when I’m done with my photo courses to learn to make a dress for Madeleine. 😉

xxx, Alina

Fall

Summer is gone. Instead, the rain has come and washed over its last traces, making me cringe inside and not feel like leaving the house. Fortunately, Sam is with me and I have to walk him, otherwise, I would have invented any number of excuses not to get wet. I don’t have rubber boots any more, I threw them out when I moved, suddenly they felt ugly and dirty (they were red!) and I couldn’t be bothered to clean them up. haha! Now I need to find a pair of black ones, so the dirt won’t show.

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This days all I ever feel like doing is write, but it seems I have nothing to write about. It feels like stories are buried under my skin, where the thought can’t touch them, they need to be lured out and I don’t know how. Also I don’t feel like disclosing anything about anyone close to me, so all I can write about is me, but I don’t exist in a void, I’m a contextual person, so you see my dilemma.

The rain depresses me, I hate getting wet.  There’s a grey mist outside my window and the cobwebs are heavy with rain drops. Some days I could give up the whole city for the prospect of living in a house with a small garden. I miss having a cat and I miss having a garden. I grew up in a house with my grandma until I was 13. There were not many flowers to speak of in our garden, but we had the freedom to step outside and sit under the quince tree. In spring the lilac tree was in bloom and in summer we could pick sour cherries straight from the tree. And the quinces started ripening about this time of year. It’s amazing how that never leaves me, I have this recurrent memory of sitting under the quince tree in a T-shirt, dangling my legs.

I should get going. I have lots of errands to run and no energy whatsoever. I could sleep the fall away.

xxx, Alina

Fall in August

It´s freezing cold, it´s been raining for 4 days now, it stops for a couple of hours and then it starts pouring all over again. I hate rain so much I wouldn´t even get out of the house if I didn´t need to work and walk Sammy. And being as weather sick as I am, you can only imagine what an amazing company I must be! 😉

Yesterday I was in Ålesund, a pretty town on the Western coast of Norway, and not only was it raining, but the temperature was as low as 11 degrees. Brr! I´d put on more clothes than necessary in Oslo,  but somehow it wasn´t enough, not when you´re walking around in wet ballerinas. Luckily it was only for work and only for a few hours, but by the time I got back it was raining cats and dogs at home, too. Arghhh!

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London part 2

Today was a strange day. That day of the month again (God, I need to change my traveling dates soon, it´s starting to get on my nerves!) when I can barely stand myself, let alone others. Luckily, I didn´t have a lot of plans for the day and the few plans I had didn´t include people until 7 pm, when I met up with Lavinia for drinks and pulled pork in a Texas burger joint. 😉

So I woke up in physical pain at 6:45 am, took a pill and a shower, made myself some tea and waited for the house to wake up. 😉 The toddler and Camelia appeared half an hour later, both cutie cute, searching for his milk bottle around the apartment. 😉 We had breakfast, in turns, then they left for his baby sitter and her work, while I went back to sleep for 3 more hours. Praise the Lord for freelance life! 😉

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Normandy

Five years ago we were in Paris for a meeting my husband attended with his work at that time, Le Palais des Thes. And since it was summer and we´d heard so much about Normandy, we decided we should give it a try. It´s only a 1,5 hour train ride away from Paris and the accommodation not a bit as soaring as in Cote D´Azur. We´d seen for us lovely food, sunbathing by the sea and Indian nights. Such poor judgement! The food was amazing in every way and so was Honfleur, where we chose to stay at our friends´ recommendation. The truth is it was lovely in every way, but not exactly what we´d imagined.. After a couple of days of rain, the sea was agitated and swimming not allowed. I think we might have ended up going to Greece after all that summer, just to get our dose of sunshine.;-) Living in a Nordic country means one should take one´s intake of vitamin D seriously! 😉

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An expat´s confessions

I always think in terms of an expat, I wonder how come I didn´t write about this topic earlier. I was inspired by a friend of mine, Lavinia, whose blog I get to read every once in a while. She lives in England and mentioned a couple of things she had to change since she´d moved there. So I thought I should explore the topic myself, since Romania and Norway are two very different countries, indeed.

First thing that stroke me here was the weather. I´m sure that´s no news to the ones of you who have been reading my blog for a while now. 😉 You see, I´m from Southern Romania where we get temperatures close to 40 degrees C in summer. It seldom rains (or I chose not to remember rainy days) and I´ve always felt like staying inside when it does. In Norway, rain is just an everyday phenomenon and even though Oslo is much drier than the West Coast, it´s still too much rain for this cutie! After 13 years here, I went and bought myself a pair of rubber boots and a rain coat last year, to be able to walk my Sammy without swearing and fussing about. Yesterday it poured though and I ordered a cab. I just couldn´t bring myself to get an umbrella and risk getting wet.

Another thing I didn´t managed to change entirely is my way of dressing. I don´t wear as much makeup any more and my clothes are definitely simpler (I adore Scandinavian wear!), but I´m still overdressed for most occasions. Haha!;-) I stopped caring long time ago though, instead I just enjoy every opportunity to shine. 😉 haha!

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Waiting for winter

Fall is here, it´s been raining for a couple of days, both the drizzle and the heavy rain you associate with dark, cold days. Days when you don´t feel like getting out of bed. When only hot chocolate helps. When you start lighting candles again.

I´m back in court and I love it for many reasons, but being able to wear office clothes is the main one. Call me superficial. So if in Oslo, you´ll see me bouncing around and being super busy in my preppy dresses or my androgyne trousers. I love Brooks Brothers shirts, my husband introduced me to them. And I love everything that´s silk or leather. Right now I´m loving Burberry Prorsum´s Pre-Fall Collection.

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Monday blues

Today has been a strange day. In a way I was besides myself with joy that nobody needed my services since it´s been raining cats and dogs all day, but on the other hand I had to sort a lot of boring invoices and stuff I never get around to do.

My better half left for Paris for the Première Vision fair and being alone has never been my strongest side. I wanted to go, too, but I have a couple of work appointments which I have to keep in order to make my tax payments. Besides, I think I would have gotten bored at the fair and ended up spending money I don´t have in Galleries Lafayette. Sounds familiar?

Right now I´m in the living room with cat and dog and keep hearing sounds. Fear of loneliness is so strange- instead of being happy to have all this time on my hands, as I usually am when I know he´s just out for a beer, I feel almost scared. How will I fall asleep?

This is so ridiculous that I need to think of something else, so I´ll show you some lovely pictures from the new Max Mara collection.

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