New Year - new mistakes...or?

A new year has begun and with that comes the inevitable hopes for change. I have been able to keep some new years resolutions in the past, but I'm not totally convinced that anything will change in the New Year. Nevertheless I have decided on some resolutions, and I have decided to keep them "up-beat" and borderline fun filled. 

1.Drink more (this includes drinking more water and also trying out different types of white wine to increase my list of "preferable wines" to contain more than two.

2. Increase my blogging. For obvious reasons. 

3. Invite friends over for dinner. ( yes, same as last year, but since I failed miserably, I'll have to keep trying)

Wish me luck!

I dedicate this blog to my colleague Knut. When asked if he had any new years resolutions, he looked back at me with a confused but confident look and said "what's to change?" 

Love, 

E

Merry Christmas everybody!

Superersize me!

Yesterday my "worst fear" became reality. After months and months of tremendous pressure, one of my favourite jeans finally caved. The the button popped out of it's place... and landed on the floor with a tingeling leaving me alone with the shame and the final evidence that THIS is it, this has gone TO FAR! Pants after pants has been put aside because they are ot tight for my no-longer-slim figure and now the emergency-pants are giving in too! The fact that my boyfriend was a witness to the insident doesen't make the shame easier to bear. He kept up the fasade with a perfect pokerface, but I know that on the inside- he turned away in disgust. 

I should never have skipped yesterdays work-out!

Love,
E

Barcelona weather forecast....crap!

I have a lot of clothes. I do! But does that mean I have anything to wear? Sertainly not. So to fix that, I just keep buying more. This of course, has some side-effects; bad economy, no saving for tough times and lots more, but today I realized that the biggest problem is not enough room. My dresser has given me some hints for a long time, but today it had had enough- it totally broke down. Not the best timing, I'm off to to Barcelona in just a few hours and a wardrobe emergancy is the last thing I need. With some fixing and trixing I was able to convince my drawer to pull together and give it one last efford. Now the question is, will this keep me from shopping while I'm i Barcelona?? hehe keep an eye on my blog and you'll get your answer in about nine days. 

Love,
E

SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER

The summer is officially here.
I'm saying goodbye to this:

And focus on this:

Have a great summer everybody!

Love,
E

I'm in a tapas state of mind

I have two more days left before I officially kick off the summer holiday of 2009 and I can hardly wait. My summer looks like this: Barcelona - Tønsberg - Bergen and it's gonna be great! I have realized that this time of year is the greatest off all. You only have a couple of days left, summer has officially arrived in your hometown and a great holiday are just hours away. To make sure my faithful followers also acheive this wonderful summer-state I'm currently in, I bring you this cute summer photo ( as most of my photos, found by google - big ups to you guys) and hereby officially kick off the summer!

Love,
E

I AM a good driver...!

I just realized - my driving isn't that bad. I don't actually have a car myself, but I do have the licence to drive and evne though it's been a while since I've practiced driving, my sis trusted me with her new car this weekend while she was out of town. It was a nice gesture, and I do appreciate it, even though driving kinda scares me. But as you can tell by the headline, it all went well - or at least so far - so good. Aside from running the window wipers on full speed thorugh the city center a beautiful sunny summerday and almost crashing into another female driver I did pretty good.  So if only there were no other drivers on the road, no sunshine blinding me and  no need for parallellparking I'm sure I would be considered a wonderful driver!

Babysteps!

Love,
E

Best friends forever...or at least until the end of the day

I made a new friend today. It's been a while since I last made a new friend, so it was about time. This guy was quite charming. He just came up to me offering me some of his crackers. He told me he was three years old (underlined by holding up three fingers) and that he liked strawberries...and just so happens I had a box of strawberries on my blanket right in front of me. Surely that's not the only reason for him asking for my friendship, he didn't strike me as the manipulating kind, but just to be on the safe side, I didn't offer him any. Oh come on, I wasn't beeing mean, I was just making sure he didn't have the wrong motives. 

He did make me wonder though, do I have to high standards for my friends?? Could it be enough that they have a box of strawberries?

I dedicate this to a charming three-year old in super cool spiderman shorts.

Best friends 4 eva!

Love, 
E

Bad bird carma...Is there such a thing?

A bird took a shit on me today. 

it's a powerful statemet taking a dump in a strangers hair for no apparent reason. I mean there were three of us relaxing in the park, lots of people around us - louder and much more obnoxious than I was, but still, he/she singled me out. Why?? is there such a thing as bad bird carma? Does this mean I must prepair for a shitty summer? I surely hope not. It's been a lovely but somewhat strange start of the summer. But even though I am a bit traumatised after the attack...!, I take comfort in the fact that bird shit in your hair is better than no hair at all. 

Love,
E

I did it!

Yep, you heard me, I did it! I am no longer single! I am officially in a relationship and has been for soome months now. How did we meet? Well, people always said that he'll come around when you least expect it, but to be quite frankly, after 2,5 years, I was getting a bit tired of waiting. My best party-pal was slowly pulling away from our happy-go-lucky lifestyle out on the town every weekend, and had desided to focus more on her studies. Guys were not exactly quing up outside my door so I had to take matters into my own hands.

Friends friends? Well, there were not that many to choose from. Getting a hobby to meet men? Isn't that just the wrong way about it? I could potentially end up climbing mountains ofrgo kajakking the rest of my life and I don't like either! Meeting someone out on town? Well, I had tried...for a LONG time. No, new methods had to be considered, and everything was pointing thowards online dating. Scary, yes, I know, but quite entertaining too.

You won't believe (or maybe you have checked it out for yourself...admit it, you HAVE looked!) how many strange people are on these sites. Why would someone choose a picture of themselves where they are totally sunburned..or even worse, a picture where it's quite obveous that the x-girlfriend has been cut out of the picture - so to speak. And it's quite strange how many overly-sporty people are on these sites. They all looove to walk in the mountains, looove the outdoors, skiiing, climbing mountains, jogging and the list just keeps going. I doubt many of them can keep this up in real life.

When I saw a profile that had a more realistic, funny and different approach, I was intrigued. Enough to copy the consept actually. I ended up describing myself as lazy and a bit strange - of course with a positive spin on it and some other great qualitys too... don't want to scare them all off either. Well, after reading the 80 e-mails that found their way into my mailbox after only two days, I ended up chatting with this one guy... He stood out from the others, funny, smurk remarks, a quick wit, and good values. Well, long story short, the first date was a success, and so was the second and third...and so the story goes. And it all started with me copying his site...

I dedicate this blog to Kidrobot - my inspiration. 

Love,
E

The joy of reading...?

I'm in a book club. It's probably the best club I've ever been in - althoug I'm not sure I've ever been in a club before... still! I started it with two friends of mine for the single purpose to read moore books. We take turns choosing a book and meet up, eat some delicious homemade food and discuss...everything from the book cover, the reason for choosing that exact book and of course the content. Not many people believed we would be able to keep up the strict rules of the book club

1. No talking about the book with the other members prior to the meeting
2. No talk of other hot or boring personal topics before the book of the month has been out-debated. 3. Everyone must share their opinion and roll the dice to grade the book from 1-6.
and last but certainly not least:
4. Everyone must read the book before the meeting.

So far I'm proud to say that all members have honoured and respected these rules - much to the surprise of our surroundings. I think the secret behind the great success we've had with our book club is that all it's members are chosen carefully based on integrety and hard work. We all have taken risks along the way - at some point we have all had an intense reading-period right up til the meeting - some of us as close as 30 minutes before the meeting. Ice cold calculating of course - but we finish in time and we "graduate with honours".

Many people have pushed, begged and even tried lurking their way into our club, but we stand strong. The rule is - if a new member is let into the warmth, an existing member must leave - and as long as everyone follows the rules, that would be plain crazy! On spesial occations we have let guest members join in on our sessions. Once it was a relative visiting (who offered to wait in another room in respect of the book club rules) he was so sweet of course we let him join in. The other was the five day old son of one of the members. He seemd to be calmed by the discussion and the harmoni in our club because he slept through the entire meeting (not that he was bored, but all that discussions are tiering for someone that small).

Anywho. There is not really any point to this story, just wanted to share my wonderful club with you and let you know that even though you are not welcome to join our club, I DO reccomend you joining a book club, or even start one yourself.

Sweet reading,

Love,
E

Women are from Venus - Men are from...a totally other planet!

It is what it is, because of what it was.I did what I did 'cause it does what it does.

Although I have never been a huge fan of The Roots, I have always had a soft spot for rap and hip hop as a genre so when I heard The Roots were entering center stage at Grieghallen in Bergen -of course I had to attend. I alerted my co-hip-hop enthusiast C, we reserved tickets, and then the preparations could begin. In the days before the concert I listened to The Roots at all hours of the day; at work, while doing the dishes and of course while I was sitting in front of my computer totally wrapped up in the wonderful world of facebook. At one point I found myself quoting The Roots during one of our Monday sales meetings at work:

Somebody's gotta be there when it gets ugly
Somebody's gotta be there when it gets bloody
Somebody's gotta get their hands dirty
Yo, it's a fucked up job but somebody's gotta do it

OK, I have to admit, that never really happened, but it would be kinda cool if it did... Anyway -

My three CD-s were playing non-stop for days so I felt pretty confident I would know most of their reportoar...although I was painfully aware of the fact that singing along would never be an option - these guys talk faster than I can think!

My friend and I fighted our way to the front row full of anticipation and we were not disappointed. From the moment The Roots entered the stage and until they left it two hours later, I had a permanent smile on my face. MAN these guys know how to make good music! Their energy on stage was amazing and oh so contagious. There is no doubt in my mind, these guys really love to play music, and it shows. The crowd was going crazy and I could swear the roof lifted more than once. It was truly one of my best concert experiences.

Respect The Roots, they grow deep!

Love,
E

Sweet mama what a lovely holiday!

Yes I have returned. The two weeks in lovely Rethymnon is over and I couldn't be more bummed. I really had a great time with my friend in the hot, hot, Greek paradise. OK, this may be a bit over the top, but seriously, this has been one of the greatest holidays ever.

We had a bit rough start. As our plane left Norway at 12 at night, and the plane did not provide enough comfort for a good nights sleep, we were quite tired when we arrived at six in the morning. Still, sleeping was not an option - we were here to get tanned, so we headed right for the beach. A scenario that repeated itself on a daily basis.

I will not bore you with the details so let me just summarize: The hotel was great, the beach was lovely, the local wine was...consumable, the free shots were many in numbers and impossible to turn down and we never got exactly the tan we were hoping for - just as projected.

This was not a holiday where sightseeing and cultural events were in focus. We opted for relaxation and fun, and I have to say we reached our goal. To me a great holiday has never been defined by sights and cultural events, but more with the people you meet and connect with. In that respect this holiday was excellent. Not to say we made friends for life, because we didn't, but the people we met most definitely coloured our vacation and made it memorable.

I dedicate this blog to our wonderful "friends" from Rethymnon;

- The cute and oh so young Swede at the worst disco in all of Rethymnon - "very horny every night".

- The bartender at our favourite bar who always provided the much needed free shots and who knew how to appreciate good music.

- The charismatic and somewhat strange Italian guy who made me "pasta ala Milo & Elisabeth" and let us in on the secret of the Da Vinci project.

- The danish Pamela-copy who showed us how to have a good time with all the wrong people

- The local sailor who drove miles after miles to enjoy "our" company.

- The power-walker at the beach that never missed a days workout.

- The waiter at our favourite Italian restaurant who were always there for me whenever I needed him to be.

- The oh so charming girl from Arendal who without knowing it became our Rethymnon favourite.

- " Skiatos", the hot, hot, hot guy at the strawberry bar who taught us a new favourite expression- Poof!

- The three Norwegians who were constantly sunburned and drunk.

- The cleaning lady who I'm sure "we" made quite an impression on.

- Chubby-Kjellis and Gay-Kjellis.

- The lovely Miros who taught us the importance of looking good on the beach.

And last but certainly not least a special tribute to my travelling companion who picked me up when I was down, fed me when I was hungry and never ever said no to a free drink. You are the best!

We love Crete!

E

My new favourite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTsk_R90iEM

Ahh... summer is here!

Yes, the day has come. When I left work today I though - I'm not coming back here for four weeks! It was a great feeling. Tonight I'm off to Greece for two weeks of fun and sun in deliciously hot Rethymnon ( or Rethynjemi as my co-traveler insists on calling it - I have no idea why she would insist on calling it something that makes me think of Finland - Matti Nykenen and pale skinny boys with gold necklaces... but she does. ) Our hotel is located on the beach (OK, there is a road dividing the hotel from the ocean, but it doesn't show on the pictures, so I'm pretty sure it's just made up by competitors or something). The hotel has no jacuzzi, no swimming pool, no breakfast and no friendly receptionist but we have two beds and an ocean view, so it's all good. 20 meters from the ocean and about 200 meters from downtown with shopping, restaurants and bars...I think we'll enjoy ourselves. My friend keep getting these warnings - be careful, the Greek boys can be quite charming... it makes me laugh. There is nothing we want more then meet some charming, local Greek fellas that can show us a good time!! I would be lying if I said we went to Greece for the good food and to get to know the culture...!

As always the goal for me packing-wise is to bring just the right number of party-tops, shoes and bikinis, but I'm pretty sure I've brought with me way to much this time to. But instead of re-packing, I will set my pride in wearing all five bikinis at least once! Oh well, time to do the last details of the packing and get going. My friend will be here in just about one hour to pick me up and we'll head for the airport and charming Rethymnon.

I wish you all a fun summer holiday. I will try to blog directly from Greece (Don't wanna let my hordes of fans down) but can't make any promises. Just rest assure that if you don't hear from me, I AM having fun! I can guarantee it.

Love,

E

The Foo keep on fighting - and they do it so well!

Last night Foo Fighters visited Bergen and me, my friends and about 20.000 others (here represented by the weird guy with writing on his forehead) went to see them live at Koengen. An outdoor concert is always risky, especially when it's been raining all week, but the weather Gods were kind and kept the dark clouds away. As I'm not a huge Foo Fighters fan, I didn't have big expectations to the concert, which made it even greater when the concert turned out to be energetic, entertaining and fun! They played a lot of songs from the one CD I have (...) so I could actually sing along to some of the songs - this may not have enriched the concert experience for my fellow consertfriends, but it made it a whole lot more fun for me. I have seen from their music videos they have a good sense of humour, but I was still surprised by the vocalists ability to make the audience burst out in laughter. Truly a funny guy. My favourite quote: "Oh my God, you guys are crazy... are you aware of that you just applauded to an triangle solo???"

The music is one part of the experience, but this night it was just as much about all the other little things... hanging out with friends eating and drinking working eachother up talking about the concert and what fun we are about to have. Flirting with the cute guy a couple of meters away while The Foo were working their magic onstage. And of course the visit to our favourite club afterwards. It was a Wednesday a bit out of the ordinary for me - staying out until four in the morning knowing I had to get up early the next day and do an honest days work for ohh...about 8 hours... I must admit when the alarm went of at 7.30 I didn't really feel well rested, still I wouldn't be the experience without. And the Foo Fighters have got themselves a new fan.

Love,

E

"The movie"

Yes it's here - Sex & the city - the movie. I am a great fan of the TV series so when I heard they were making a movie to get the big closure I was quite trilled. So, last night I went to see it together with my sister. We came well prepared - dressed to kill (or amuse at least) and with a couple of home-made cosmopolitans ... Our shoes were not exactly Manolos but the heals were high and thin - just as they should be. Our fear of being a bit overdressed - I mean, we were just going to the movies - were completely unnecessary . As we got close to the movie theater we see girls - lots of them, and they are all in high heels and cute dresses. Obviously this TV-series has a lot of fans and they were all here to see the four fashion freaks one last time.

Then: Now:

I have to say, I was not disappointed. I got all I had hoped for - laughter, tears, great lines and lots and lots of fashion! And the girls were just as fabulous as they were when the series were on, not much had changed - Charlotte who has always been lousy at playing the "mad" scenes actually made the audience laugh when she was at her most angry - of course all the botox doesn't help the mimic...

The one who had aged the most in my opinion was actually the absolute hunk - Smith. What?? Of course, a picture is in order...! But I go for the early-day one... you can blame me if you want, but it won't make a difference.

Jennifer Hudson was a fresh new face and she was lovely in the role as Carries assistant - also the series needed a black character - they are in New York for heavens sake! I liked her so much that I chose to ignore the question that kept popping into my head whenever her character was on the screen - does one really hire a personal assistant just because one is so heartbroken one can't stand the thought of unpacking?? I guess in New York one does.

OK, so I mentioned the broken heart, so of course I should include a picture of the beloved and hated Mr. Big - "I curse the day your were born" He IS handsome in a devilish kind of way and a natural part of the movie.

All in all I really liked the movie, as I had seen the trailer there were no big surprises. It was not all sunshine and happiness, but that's never been the thing in this series. Even though the characters in this show are a bit (I could say "tiny bit" but I would be lying) prettier, richer and more successful than me, I do recognize myself and my friends in the characters and I guess that's why I'm so fond of them. Sex and the city is one of my favourite shows ever and it's great that they managed to pull of the movie in such an entertaining and emotionally way. Indeed a worthy closing.

Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

Love,
E

Holiday kick-off

it's important to have something to look forward to. That way it's easier to cope with the everyday hassle. So when my friend suggested we have a holiday kick-off to mark that "the holiday is one month away, and we are getting exited -now!" my immediate response was "YEEEY! I'm in!"

As it turns out, the kick off is not all that different from an ordinary vorspiel with wine, good music and good friends, but I'm still exited. In exactly 27 days I'll be on board a plane taking me to sunny, joyful Greece. We are guaranteed sun, we are guaranteed strong drinks and we are guaranteed flirty, tanned guys - all important ingredients in a summer holiday!!

This year I'm travelling with a very good friend of mine - she is blond and pretty as most of my friends are..! We have never been on holiday together before, but I'm pretty confident I wont discover any weird habits I don't already know about (charming perhaps, but not weird). She has told me that she needs eight hours sleep but that she's willing to do parts of the sleeping on the beach (there's no need to take it out on the late-night-partying) and that she's not a fan of dressing up when she's on holiday. In return I have told her that my sense of direction is terrible and that I'm not a light packer, ( actually my sister told her these things...still). So far so good. These are all things we can work around, the rest we'll have to take as it comes.

None of us are new beginners when it comes to travelling abroad and we are strong, healthy girls with just the right amount of decency and good sense, so just because we're both blonds I see no reason to fear any big mistakes or tragic outcome..... still this is what I told myself and everybody around me last year and that didn't quite turn out the way we planned...

Ahh...you want the story from last summer don't you. Fine, I'll tell you! Last year I went to Barcelona with another friend of mine. Also blond and very pretty. We got the warnings; be careful, don't drink to much, don't be naive to friendly strangers - a friend of us even called the Norwegian embassy in Barcelona telling them we were coming and to please keep an eye on us... (OK, he SAID he had done that, I haven't really got confirmed that it actually got done. Anyway). We took in all the friendly warnings with a sigh and responded to each and everyone of them: "Come on! What's gonna happen??" Now in the light of the afterwisedom (if that word makes sense) I see that they all had a point. Anyway.

Just to get the most out of our money and make sure we had a nice long travel, we ordered the trip with two in-between-landings. The first one went OK. Had some lunch at the airport in Copenhagen, did some long-distance-flirting with some Italian guys (what?? Come on, that's part of the trip and you know it!) and arrived safely at airport number 2 - Hamburg. We checked out the gate - number 21 - the flight was in route so we headed straight for the tax free. As we got caught up trying on various perfumes - we lost track of time and had to run to our gate. Luckily we knew exactly where it was so we had no panic even if all other passengers had entered the plane. We strolled to the gate and handed our tickets to the friendly woman at the gate. She smiles and in a friendly voice she asks "are you girls going to Barcelona?" , we smiled back and responded cheerfully- "yeah!". Her response "hmmm, yes, 'cause WE are going to Berlin" quickly got us back on the ground and we hasted towards the right gate. No panic - we made it in time and all was good.

When we landed in Barcelona our baggage arrived just as planned and we go towards the custom. My friend went first, and got right through. Me on the other hand was stopped by the elderly guard asking me " where did you come from Miss?" My head went totally blank - and all I could think was that the last airport started with the letter "H" - could it be Honduras?? ( yeah, geography is not one of my strong sides) The guy was starting to look at me strangely and in desperation I call out to my friend "where did we come from??" This ridiculous question (yes, you don't have to tell me, I know I should have known! ) just made her laugh and as she couldn't stop laughing and help me out, the guard decided to lend me a helping hand by offering me some alternatives (what a nice guy) He says: "Oslo?" "YES" i replied happily. This whole incident obviously convinced him that I was not able to smuggle anything so he let me pass.

Great start I thought, this can't get anymore embarrassing...Man was I wrong. We had decided that even if it was a bit hassle, we should take the buss to the metro and the metro to the hotel. We find the bus-stop, the bus arrives and I enter. I turn around to see if my friend needs help with her two(!) pieces of luggage (which her boyfriend had ensured her would be no more hassle than one- boy was he wrong) but as I turn around, the door closes and the bus starts moving. I'm yelling to the driver to stop and my friend is trying to push all kinds of buttons to open the door, but the bus keeps moving and I desperately see my friend get further and further away.


By this point I'm starting to panic a little and starts talking to myself in Norwegian - "What an idiot". "What is he doing" "This is NOT happening". Caught up in my own furie I hardly notice that the bus stops, and all passengers get off. Relieved by the outcome of this strange situation I start laughing and get of the bus. I run back to find my friend who is standing at the bus-stop laughing, laughing and laughing. I think we stood there almost ten minutes before we could stop laughing and stand up straight. And this was just day1...

Like I said - what could happen?? Obviously a lot, but as long as it ends well there's no harm. And, not to forget, we have lots of good stories to tell our friends. I mean we spent two whole weeks in Barcelona and didn't get robbed once! I think that's pretty good. And the part of the holiday where we got drugged by some strangers are all forgotten now....! Really!

Man I can't wait for my next holiday!!

Love,
E