Holidays for me are time for soul searching, you have all that time on your hands to just breathe, eat, sleep and read. I seldom stay at home during holidays, mostly because I want to see new places and one can never trust Norwegian summer to be real summer. On second thought, I should definitely do it more. It’s an entirely different pace, there’s no need to discover anything, you can throw in a coffee or a beer with your friends from time to time, or just turn off the phone and doze off on the balcony under a blanket. 😉 Or make some great food when inspiration seizes you, like these eggplant towers with pesto, chevre and ruccola. So good! 😉
Sam
Pre-Christmas Days
Hey, peeps! How are you? I’ve been way too busy for my own good lately, but now that the weekend is here I have little plans to do anything else than relax, bake a little, clean the house and buy a cute Christmas tree.
Sammy turned 5 on Tuesday and since that day was horrendously hectic for my part, he only got a longer walk and some liver pate as a treat. But yesterday we finally bought him a new toy and he was ecstatic, he carried it around everywhere and asked us to keep it, so he could pull it from our hands. 😉 haha! You should have seen him! So cute!
I’m done with the gifts, except for one last extra present, now I only need to bake a bit, fill up the cookie jars and wrap the presents up. What about you? Are you “en route”? Have you done the Christmas baking, too?
These pics are from our neighborhood, where I’m taking Sam for walkies three times a day, listening to Sidney Bechet, Nat King Cole and Madeleine Peyroux. With my condition, I cannot overwork myself, or else I come crashing down and lose my will to wake up, so I need to plan a day off here and there or a couple of half days, to cope with the pressure. That’s exactly what I did yesterday- after wrapping up a couple of things with the accountant and delivering some small presents, it was just me on the agenda. I had a Prosecco with a close friend, then a couple more on my own, under the pretext of feeling sorry for myself on account of the pain ( apparently you need a couple of vaccines for Morocco). 😉
Yesterday evening we went out for pizza and beer, just me and my boo. It felt like ages ago we did anything together, just the two of us, and it’s oh so important. The town was teeming with drunk people already at 5 o’clock and again I felt ashamed of this stupid Christmas party tradition here where people seem to lose all common sense. Do you have the same wherever you are?
Leaving you with a couple of endearing pictures of Sammy boy, guarding the neighborhood. Fancying a bath with a glass of cold Christmas soda. 😉
xxx, Alina
Almost July
Hey, folks, what have you been doing lately? I was in Bergen last week and although the weather was crappy and the trial drove me nuts- both the defendant, the lack of professional curtesy from the judge and the acoustics- it was good to see friends and catch up a bit.
Now I’m back home, counting my blessings, doing a bit of work, walking Sammy in the woods every day and eating strawberries for lunch. 😉 I have a tough time in store, with moving out of my apartment on the 1st of August and needing to sell/give away/throw away lots of stuff and then find a storage for the remainder of my things. I can’t even begin to think about it, it makes me sick to my stomach.
I’m starting to get restless about my job again, I’m working with so many twats (lawyers, prosecutors, judges and defendants) that I sometimes lose faith that I’ll ever be able to get the respect I need to feel professionally fulfilled. But then I usually work 20h/week, instead of 40-50, as many of my friends do and at least I have no boss, neither any reports to fill inn, so I shouldn’t complain. Still, it gets to me every time. Few people care about quality, everybody wants you to jump out of bed at any time of the day when they need you and as soon as you don’t, they trade you for a hungrier colleague. And I can’t live like that.
But first things first, we’re going to France on the 9th and I can’t wait. I just need some sun, a beach, French food and Mediterranean vibes. Walking hand in hand with my love on a cobblestone street, making plans about our new home, sipping coffee on a terrace, reading a good novel in the shade, need I say more?
I’ll be sure to take my camera with me!
xxx, Alina
Almost there
Hi, peeps, what have you been up to lately? 😉 This week I rented my apartment to a Marketing School and they’ve been filming something so loud that my neighbours were asking if I had a Swingers party in there. Haha! Can you even imagine?
So we’re staying at F’s and we have a balcony! Yesterday we even got half an hour of sunshine on our faces while sipping some beer. Sam is mostly outside, he even stayed on the flower bed while it was snowing, I don’t know why I’m even surprised, he’s a regular polar dog! 😉
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Midweek Already
Sending happy thoughts and hoping for spring! 😉 This week has been good to me and I’m hoping for a fabulous weekend to top it! 😉 So far I’ve had lunch with Gordana in one of my favourite restaurants- Taste of China, that recently moved to new and beautiful premises by the Oslo City Council-, I got my Sammy back yesterday and we’ve cuddled lots and now I’m making some yummy couscous with marinated chicken just to celebrate I’m alive and still very much in love with my guy. 😉
Advice against Seasonal Depression
As I’ve often mentioned in my posts, I suffer from chronic depression. It’s not the “worsest” kind, meaning I’ve never been sectioned, I’ve never not gotten out of bed and I’m pretty well-functioning when on medication (which I sometimes forget to take, but for which I’m otherwise grateful as hell). Nevertheless, I have a condition I have to take into account in my daily life as it often makes me tired, have little patience for things and people I don’t care for too much, renders me short tempered and often struggling to give a f*. haha!
On top of my regular and manageable depression, I have this seasonal depression. Or my already existing depression gets worse in winter. Which wouldn’t be such a problem if winter wasn’t never-ending in Norway. It’s no secret I don’t like winter- It’s cold and dark, I don’t ski and I don’t enjoy being outside too much, as I easily freeze and I’m very vain, so I never put on enough clothes. haha! Consequently, pretty much everything I do in winter is because I have to. I have to walk Sammy, I have to get out of the house, otherwise I know I’ll get crazy, I have to buy groceries, I have to go to work. But every once in a while, the sun comes out and life is so much easier. It’s not a question of “have to anymore”, but of “want to”. So I’ve made a little list with things that aid me see the world in prettier colours, also on a grey winter’s day, hoping you’ll find it helpful, too:
- My dog, Sam
Sam
We´re going on a 10 days´ holiday tomorrow and although we know our baby will be in the best of hands, our heart is bleeding for him already. 😉 haha! I know he´s always in my blog entries, but today I felt I should dedicate him an entire story, since he´s brought so much joy into our lives. This picture is from today, he “tried” on a cap in the store where his pops works part time. Don´t you just love him?!!
life in a bubble 