Just wanted to post a couple of close ups from the first part of our trip to Italy
It was a bit cold, as you can see
Close ups from Italy
Reply
Week 15
This is the longest I have gone without blogging in a long while and it has been really good just to be completely disconnected. I will tell you more (and show pictures!), but I thought I’d give you a short recap of my trip to Italy.
We flew to Bergamo, just outside of Milan, where we had rented a car. The first day we stopped by Cremona and ended up in Parma. We spent a day in Parma, went to Florence to visit Victoria, then started a tour of Tuscany. We went to San Gimignano to see the towers, Siena to see architecture, Montalcino and Montepulciano for wine tasting. The last days of the trip we spent in Florence and a one day-trip to Pisa to walk up the Leaning Tower.
Yesterday we cleaned the apartment and went to look at even more apartments in the wonderful sunshine. It’s crazy how you only have one day to decide if you want to buy a house. This week seems to be a lot calmer than the weeks before Easter, I hope.
Today I’m back at work and tonight we have a meeting for all the leaders in the scout group.
Tuesday I hope to be back in the gym.
Wednesday is open, but we will see what happens.
Thursday I have to register all the scouts that are going to the national jamboree (landsleir) this summer and to all the paperwork.
I think I have to go to a scout seminar this weekend, but I am trying to get out of it. I have too much on my plate right now.
Oh, and this was the first blog post written on my iPad! We brought it to Italy and I am now completely addicted to solitaire (yes, I’m that kind of person) and really love this thing. I think it will definitely be worth the extreme price.
Do you know how to do computer programming?
Many of my friends with more technical backgrounds than I have re-posted and re-blogged this article about introducing programming in schools, so children will learn how our most important tool works. I think it is a really good idea, not only that children know how to use a computer, but also how to make one. It is important that everybody knows about IT and knows how it works. This is another good article about the same. The cool thing is that it is a grassroot initiative, that ordinary people are doing the work and getting organized.
As you know, I learned programming only six months ago after contemplating it for a while and after geting the final push from my boyfriend. Now I regurlarly urge others to do the same (mostly because I am around PhDs a lot). But I really think it would be beneficial for many (if not all). If you want to start you own business and need to set up a website. Or you deal with data analysis in some form (as I do) or something else.
I really recommend the python course I did at Udacity, but there are many places you can do it. Do it!
Tech freak
Ok, so I’m turning into a tech freak, or geek, maybe. Anyhow, you will never guess what I got for my birthday 🙂 This:
A shiny, new iPad! My plan is to use it to work on the train and when I travel. I have worked a bit on it already and it truly is everything you need in a box. I will keep you posted but I think I might start using it to blog as well. MAybe I will finally get back to posting outfit pics?
Holiday!
Today is he day! Right now we are well on our way to Tuscany in Italy. We are going to visit Victoria in Florence, see the tower in Pisa, look at tons of stones (architecture), nature, grape fields, eat wonderful Italian food, drink wine and drive around. Ten days of pure bliss <3
Internet gave me some nice pictures to illustrate 😉
Rainy Sunday in Paris
I ended up having almost a whole day of spare time in Paris after my meeting there. I didn’t have any “most dos” and not very much is open on Sundays, but it ended up being a good day. I tried to find a Sunday marked, but is was raining (we even had hail in the end), so nobody were out. And that city is really big, so it takes some time just to get around. I didn’t want to get my camera wet, so these are the only good ones I took.
José and Jón (and my suitcase) were my company for some of the day. Here we are hiding from a sudden shower of rain.
I found a flowering tree <3
I tried to find a street marked, but they were all closed.
My lunch. It was actually sort of a strange, because it was extremely difficult to chew, but perfectly done. And the chips were heaven.
What I saw of the Eiffel tower.
There is definitely something about the architecture in this town, it’s grandness, maybe…
Pretty lamppost
Modern art meets classic art
Stampøbb, del 2
Ettersom jeg har hatt en ny helg i Oslo, så har jeg nye anmeldelser av mulige stamsteder i Oslo. Som jeg tidligere har blogget om, så ønsker jeg meg et nytt stamsted, nå som jeg har flyttet til en ny by. Det er mange ting som kreves (transport, trivsel, matservering, ølutvalg, åpningstider), men man finner ingenting om man ikke leter.
- Schrøder, St. Hanshaugen: mer restaurant enn pøbb, var der en søndag og spiste middag. Veldig rimelig dagens middag, deilig mat, ikke prøvd ølutvalg. Blandet klientell, men koselig og helt klart mulig å være der en hel dag. Må testes ordentlig senere.
- Crowbar (kråka), sentrum/Youngstorget: mikrobryggeri, med noe matservering (veldig godt hjemmelaget potetgull!), både eget brygg og andres brygg, alt på tapp. Svært godt utvalg, men kun øl. Koselig sted, fint både for små og store grupper. Denne har kommet langt opp på lista.
- Bushwick, sentrum/Youngstorget: i kjelleren til Rockefeller, lite lokale, men fint, passe godt utvalg flaskeøl og veldig flinke på drinker. Kul DJ, meningen mat. Bedre sent på kvelden og om man vil danse litt.
Jakten fortsetter!
Week 13
It feels like it has been a while, but it was finally time for another perfect weekend. Friday we went to Little Saigon just around the corner from Youngstorget for dinner because Erik and Morten were going to see Louis CK (the comedian) and then I met up with Una at Crowbar (anmeldelse senere) and tried a lot of their self brewed beer before we moved on to Bushwick (in the basement of Rockefeller).
Saturday we had yet another pancake breakfast, tried to figure out what surf board (iPad or similar) I want and I did yet another round on finn.no for a flat. Oh, and then I went shopping! I bought two pairs of pants, pants! You know, I never wear pants, but that’s just because the ones I own are terribly uncomfortable. So now I have bought two pairs with crazy patterns (I am growing more colourful and crazy the older I get). Oh, and I finally got a pair of pointy pumps with metal tip, they’re even burgundy and kost m only 200NOK, very happy. The most important thing though is that I managed to find a bazer too, which was the reason why I went shopping… We had chicken and bean tortillas and Tone came over for beers. We had a laugh over the impossible quiz of Morgenbladet yet again and realized we are way better at American presidents and revolution than Norwegian mountains.
Sunday was all about apartment hunting. We first decided on where to go (which is the hard part, really), then went to see five apartments. We came home, talked and analyzed and finally decided that we didn’t want any of them. There was no trip to the gym, but some laundry, lasagna and Poirot. Oh, and detailed reading of Lonely Planet Italy 😉
This week is Easter holiday here, but I will work for three days and then we are going to Italy!
- Monday we are packing and mom is coming over to talk about money and things.
- Tuesday I have a skype meeting with the project leader of Explorer Belt 2014.
- Wednesday we are invited to Erik’s uncle and aunt for dinner. I haven’t met them yet, so it will be nice to finally meet them.
- Thursday morning we fly Ryanair ( 🙁 ) to Bergamo! We haven’t decided everything we want to do yet, but we are stopping by Pisa, Parma, Florence, Siena and a couple of wineyards. I can’t wait to go. Travelling with Erik is my favorite thing in the whole world.
Paris (or planning, really)
I went to Paris last weekend. I didn’t notice it much, but I was there. I knew Mary, Jón and Radu already, and Mary and I share a love for all things pretty. Especially dresses and skirts and pretty colours.
On our way to the office the first morning.
We used two rooms in the offices of the French scout association.
This is the only picture I have of any of my outfits that weekend. Notice the summer shoes!
Radu in action. White boards <3
Hand support is important for thinking
Part 1 of ‘the creative team’! (I am the second part)
Lunch the French way
Notice how consumers are doing what Coca Cola tells them; Radu with Zero and Mary with light.
A normal lunch in France, coq á vin with veggies on a straight line. Very tasty!
Mary had chevré salad
My crazy sized and truly wonderful lemon merengue pie
Happy southerners (they’re from Partugal and Greece)
The Paris I saw sort of looked like this
Outfit pic of Mary before dinner
The gals, red lips and grey 😉
They talked about football a lot
We talked about interesting stuff 😉
When in doubt, have steak. Ask for “bleu”, it means blue. I think it is the best thing about French, they don’t have a word for “rare” (as in “how do you like your steak”), they say blue.
I had snails (escargót), risotto and some bubbly.
I will show you the pictures from the (rainy) Sunday later!
In the news
Good news! H&M have decided to make their production chain and their suppliers public! In the (Norwegian) article you can see that another company too has done this. This is the beginning of something good. When everyone can know where their consumer goods come from, they have the possibility to choose the brand or company that fit their moral compass the best. And I hope it is the beginning of a better work policy in many countries. we who live in countries that have gone through the process of work hours per week and worker’s rights, should help those who haven’t.
Then two more Norwegian articles:
‘Din kropp, min ære‘ gir et godt perspektiv på å bestemme over andres kropper, spesielt kvinners. Vi har jo hatt diskusjoner i Norge om både prostitusjon og hodeplagg for kvinner og jeg synes det er mer kaos enn gode argumenter der ute. Men jeg liker denne artikkelen, fordi den belyser det faktum at enhver må få lov til å gjøre det de vil med kroppen sin, også “ydmyke” den. At det må være lov både å være prostituert, gå med skaut og være en “myk mann”. At å forby hodeplagg er like teit som å fysisk straffe mennesker som “ødelegger sin families ære”. Les artikkelen!
Og så har VamPus skrevet om tidsklemma og å være hjemme. At det er ingen genrasjoner før oss som har sett så mye til barna sine gjennom livet og det har aldri vært viktigere å betale skatt, allikevel er det noen som klager over at de ikke får sett barna sine nok og som mener det er en menneskerett å ikke jobbe. Det er så mye vi tar for gitt i Norge nå, at diskusjonene havner i et slags rart parallelt univers. Takk, til Erik for å ha linket til det 🙂
Forskningsformidling
Jeg fant denne artikkelen om endringer i et trekk (fenotyp) i en fugleart i Nord-Amerika, mest sannsynlig på grunn av seleksjonspress fra økt biltrafikk i området der fuglene bor. Det er en god artikkel som belyser saken helt korrekt og uten å trekke forhastede slutninger. De er flink til å vise at det ikke er tydelig akkurat hvorfor det er skjedd, men at det er godt mulig at biltrafikk på noe vis har påvirket vingelengden i populasjonen. Det er en morsom artikkel og dere bør lese den. Men det jeg virkelig likte med artikkelen var et PS til slutt:
“PS: Før noen vil rase fra seg i kommentarfeltet eller på e-post: Ja, tittelen er noe unøyaktig. Det er selvsagt ikke akkurat de fire fuglene der som har lært seg å unngå å bli påkjørt. Det er én bestand som har tilpasset seg. Men noen begrensinger er det i en tabloidtittel. Men hvis noen absolutt vil, er det bare å rase i vei om både dette og annet dere måtte ha på hjertet (innenfor rimelighets grenser, da, f eks ingen hitling av fugl!). Og ja, det var en pinlig skrivefeil i første avsnitt (bil, ikke fugl), takk til dere som har sagt fra :)”
Kjære Sindre Granly Meldalen, du er akkurat nå min absolutte favorittjournalist!
Erik got a year older too
It was a really good dinner and a nice evening with gifts and friends when we celebrated Erik’s birthday one week in advance. So, as always, in reverse order: 
Gin and tonic
K-pop in the background
Our pretty champagne glasses
And wine/beer glasses
One of Erik’s presents, a crayon for his telephone
My outfit for the evening. It was terribly hot in our appartment because of the sunny day and the three hours the steak needed in the oven. Loose summer dress, new red earrings, Ruby Woo lipstick and some dramatic
Bubbly!
The making of coffee. Our kitchen only takes two and a half.
Birthday dinner! Steak, chick pea salad, Greek salad and roastes potatoes and sweet potatoes. Yum.
Hobbies and time
No, not hobbits. Hobbies.
Without noticing I have aquired a new hobby, but as I didn’t know it was coming, I haven’t made room for it in my shedule.What hobby, you wonder? It is of course apartment hunting. I didn’t realise how much time it would take and that it was really like a new hobby. And as I don’t really have any free time slots in my life, something else will have to stop. The last week it has been exercising and I’m not happy about it.
As you might have noticed, my life is pretty packed and the last month has been the worst in a while. I think it is just because I started saying ‘yes’ again. If you have followed my blog for a while, you might know that I started saying ‘no’ two years ago when I was going into the final part of the work on my master thesis. I realised that to be able to actually get a good master, I needed to spend some time on it too…
And all the while when I was applying for jobs and didn’t know where I would live, I still didn’t say yes to anything. But after getting a job I have become a troop leader, said yes to two new years in Komité Speiding, have started working with the 50 year jubilee of the student scout cottage in Trondheim and have started working with the RoverNet 4.0. And I have also finally managed to excersise at least twice a week, which I have never done before. So you see, not really time for this apartement hunting hobby.
I really don’t know what to do. This doesn’t work. I hate telling people that I can’t be a part of a project after all (I don’t think I have ever done that) and I pride myself in keeping my promises. Especially when it comes to working in groups and being part of a team. But I have realised, during the last couple of months, that I have really enjoyed my life the last year. To have more than enough time for spontaneous visits, dinners and theater shows, that not every single day is planned. I think I have changed. I used to like all the activities, but not anymore. Maybe this is a new phase of my life.
But I think I have to drop out of something, because this is too much for me. I think it might be the troop leader position, because there is also trouble with one of the leaders all the time. It really drains me. Oh, well. I will have to think on it for a while. I’ll see what happens.
Mer kvinnesak
Kvinnesak er ikke bare enkelt, men jeg synes at ting blir ekstra klare i tegneserieformat.
Når folk spør meg (som biolog eller som “vanlig”) om hvor viktig jeg tror genetikk er for kjønnsforskjeller så sier jeg “ingenting!” nettopp fordi vi oppdrar gutter og jenter så forskjellig. Jeg tror ikke de små kjønnsforskjellene som kommer av gener kan hamle opp med den massive forskjellsbehandlingen som skjer ellers.
Stripen heter Zelda og er en veldig god arvtager til Nemi. Dessuten er vi veldig enige i mange ting… Du bør absolutt sjekke henne ut!
Week 12
Wow, this 2013 is really coming along nicely. I am still stuck in 2012, that is, I’m still not used to writing 2013, but maybe I’m just getting old…
The whole weekend was spent in Paris or travelling. But I managed to take some pictures! I went straight from work (early, even) on Friday and spent the rest of the day travelling. Saturday we planned the RoverNet 4.0 that will be in Malta in May, ate wonderful French food and planned some more. I really can’t decide it I like France or not. The food is wonderful, but I hate the breakfast. And with no breakfast I turn into a grumpy bugger. The dinner(s) was nice though, and the people I work with on RoverNet are great. Sunday we only had a short session, which gave me a whole day in Paris. But all I wanted was to go home, so I wasn’t as happy as I probably should have been. Oh, well. I walked around, had coffee, saw the Eiffel tower again and flew Ryanair home.
This week I’m doing a PhD course in Oslo and I’m trying to empty my to do-list and inbox before Easter.
- Monday we have yet another flat to look at and I have to say hello to my inbox again. Maybe I’ll even have time for the gym.
- Tuesday I will donate blood at Blodbanken in Oslo. I usually have too low values, but I go anyway to try and to get a new wine glass 😉
- Wednesday I’ll try and visit the scouts and their patrole meetings, we have to tidy the apartment because on Thursday we are having someone over to clean the flat for us! Yes, we are contemplating paying someone else to clean our flat and now we will try and see how it works. Other than that I probably have some reading and writing to do.
- Thursday it is the annual general assembly of my region in the scout association and I am going to do my duty. You know, vote, talk and try not to get any new positions.
- Friday Erik has plans, but I don’t (which almost never happen), so I don’t really know what I want to do. Maybe I’ll go shopping. I need a new jacket (or two) to wear over dresses at parties.
- As everyone are usually going away for Easter, we haven’t made any plans, but we are both working next week as well, so it’s just an ordinary weekend. We will probably meet nice people, get some fresh air and just plan for Italy 🙂
Slottsparken
I was lucky enough to have time and light enough to walk through the park with my camera in hand. There is nothing more beautiful than a sunset, so that is what you get.
My Fair Lady
Vi var og så My fair lady på Folketeateret for en uke siden og det er mye å si om opplevelsen. Først skal jeg si at det var en veldig god forestilling. Skuespillerne og danserne var veldig flinke og jobbet veldig bra innen musikalformatet (dvs med å synge, spille og danse). Regi og alt det tekniske som jeg ikke vet hva heter, fungerte også veldig bra. De hadde valgt en tradisjonell framstilling av stykket og etter å ha vært i operaen og på teater og sett mange kule moderniseringer, så føltes det nesten litt kjedelig. De norske tekstene var også veldig gode og scenene med alle sammen på scenen fungerte veldig bra.
Og så må det jo sies (for de som ikke vet det) at Folketeateret er der hvor opearen var før, på Youngstorget. Egentlig ser det nesten helt ut som det gjorde før, det er bare blitt pusset på, fått ny maling, draperier i rike og varme farger og så ha den moderne og kubiske (eller hva det nå heter) arkitekturen igjen fått oppmerksomhet. Det anbefales absolutt å ta seg en runde og bare se på alle detaljene.
Det eneste jeg ikke likte var at det var obligatorisk bemannet garderobe, som betyr at du er helt nødt til å betale 30 kr for at de skal henge opp jakken din. Når billetten allerede er dyr, så føles det litt gnient. Men men, vi fant en forlatt, men full flaske med crémant i et hjørne i baren, så det ble en bra kveld allikevel 😉
Om du ikke har tid eller råd til å komme deg til Folketeateret, vil jeg så absolutt anbefale filmen med samme navn der Audrey Hepburn har hovedrollen. Veldig god filmatisering!
Faren til Eliza var også veldig godt spilt.
Husholdersken var den aller kuleste karakteren.
Tekehtopa
De hadde litt forskjellig utvalg, men bartenderne var så travle med matservering, at de ikke hadde mye tid til å prate.
Har nye, røde øredobber jeg har fått av Erik
Pene folk
Jeg fikk telefon til å plugge i telefonen min 🙂
Dat smile
*roar*
Det var så mange folk som kom! Jeg er kjempeglad for at så mange hadde tid til å komme å drikke øl med meg.
Noter!
Jeg tvitret om disse notene i forrige uke, og nå så jeg at landsleiren 2013 (dvs den nasjonale speiderleiren for Norges Speiderforbund) har skrevet en artikkel om dem. Det er tydeligvis et roverlag (dvs 16-25 åringer) som ville gjøre noe ‘ganske imponerende’ som er tag linen til leiren til sommeren. Og da har de laget kunst fra fjordisen som man ser veldig godt fra toget. Jeg synes det er kjempefint og håper jeg får møtt roverne på leiren til sommeren 🙂
Skoleveien min
På tide med noen natur- og landskapsbilder igjen. Nå som jeg ikke går til jobb og for det meste befinner meg i asfaltjungelen blir det ikke så mye naturbilder. Men fredag 1. mars hadde jeg med meg kameraet hele dagen og fikk tatt noen bilder at den vakre naturen jeg ser hver dag.
Dette er kontorbygget mitt. Det er altså ingen tvil om at jeg jobber på landet.
Dette er over veien for kontoret mitt. På dette jordet er det preppa skiløype.
😉
Tog i solnedgang
Det var veldig bra vær. Jeg hadde tydeligvis vært snill jente i år.
Solnedgang over fjorden.
Furu i solnedgang er spesielt vakkert, synes jeg.
Det er mye fine hus på veien også, fra alle tiår.
Jeg synes de ser så majestetiske ut, som stålgiraffer.
Eller dinosaurer, kanskje?
De famøse barcode-byggene. Jeg liker dem, jeg. Det er kanskje teit å ta fjordutsikten fra folk, men utseendemessig er de bra.
Spesielt dette, som ser ut som om det er en hellegang eller flekkene til en giraff.