No Photo on Sunday 2017-43

Sorry! Even though it is snowing outside, the Christmas decorations are slowly going up and Miss Oswin is always a lovely subject for a photo, I have not found the urge to grab my camera and take an actual picture. 

Sorry again!

One week to go

I thought my parents and friends would arrive on December 22nd and my sister would arrive a day later. Turns out, my sister will also be arriving that day. Which got me a bit in a whirl: what time will you arrive???? Well, she will arrive after I (should have) finish(ed) work. So, we should be good. Fingers crossed...

Yesterday I did my first bit of shopping for the holidays. Over the past year I had saved up money and when I went to the Norwegian state-run off-licence yesterday, that was the money I used. I got some rosé, two different types of white wine and one red. Multiple bottles of each! I can tell you, the trek back to the car was very long! Talking about alcohol though: I found out I had several bottles of spirits and other drinks. Including brandy! I never drink brandy, so I don't know where that came from.

Hungarian Forints. Not much use in Norwegian shops

Fortunately there was still some money left and today I did my second shop. This time it was the foodstuffs that can be kept a while. I will get the perishables next week. Even though I did have to dig into my account a bit, it wasn't as bad as I originally feared. 

Next week will be a busy week. I have split shifts on four of the five days. During the breaks I will have to do some work (read cleaning), so the house will look fine and dandy and ready for Christmas and visitors. On Friday though, I will have to go to the police for a new driving note, so I will be allowed to drive also in the new year. For said driving note I need a medical test, so on Thursday evening I will go to my GP. 

Right. I will just empty another Christmas crate (only six more to get down I think) and then slowly prepare myself for a good night in front of the telly!

Christmas preparations

I don't think I have ever been so slow with preparing and decorating for Christmas as this year. I have a good excuse of course: I had a massive cold recently and I do work on occasion as well. Another hindrance to getting to it, is the fact that everything is stored in the loft. Which is 'easily' accessible, yet not so easy at the same time. The stairs to the loft are actually a sort of glorified ladder!

Anyway, after having gotten down my Christmas clothes last week, yesterday I got two more crates down. One filled with knit wear (ie my wreath and my nativity scene) and the other filled with hangings of some sort or other. The first one (and largest one) was emptied out and then filled up again as well. With lots of dvd's. What with family coming over (although not staying, apart from my sister), I need room. For Christmas decorations, dining table and a tree. 

Which meant that I would need to clear out some other things. Dvd's do take up quite some room, so now I only have the Christmas Dvd's out and some other films I wouldn't mind seeing again. All other films and series (apart from Doctor Who of course) have been crated up. Not sure where they will end up though. Since that staircase really is more of a ladder...

Ah well, so far so good and I have the first decorations up. Two weeks to go!

Photo on Sunday 2017-42

Oh wow!

You will probably know (I have been banging on about it often enough), that I knit and then sell mice. I always have a lot of fun making the small mice: picking the colours, trying (and often failing) to put everything on straight and eventually taking a photograph for them to be shown on my other blog Mice for Mama.

I am not too fond of making the large mice. They are exactly the same as the small ones, same amount of stitches, same everything. Just thicker thread and they turn out bigger. I just don't like making them. The thing is though: not many people like buying them either! So, I decided to only make them to order from now on. I still have two left for sale, but other than those: order only. 

The third type of mice I knit are the special mice. The seasonal ones. I made two for Halloween and I made two for Christmas. I love making them. Picking out a theme, thinking of what special attribute or look they should have and then finding everything I need to make that special mouse. So far, I have made a clown with big feet and pompoms, a Mouse of Frankenstein with spiders all over. A Santa Mouse with sack and teddy and an angel mouse with wings and halo. These however, I will NOT make to order.

As of today, all I have left for sale are two large mice and the two Halloween mice. Everything else was sold. The one colleague today who wanted a mouse couldn't choose between the five small ones I had left and took the lot! Which means that I basically have to get away from this computer and start knitting the first of next year's batch! 

Brom has a birthday!!

Coocoo!!!

Guess what! It's my birthday today. Unfortunately Mara was at work all day long, but while she was away, I celebrated with Oswin and Mouse! We had a ball. 

But then Mara came home again and she gave me my gift. A very good gift, since I wanted something that showed I was Dutch for a long time. 

She got me clogs! Now I can clog dance!!

Happy birthday to me.

It's Calendar time!!

Miaow

Guess what, Mara had me pick this year's winners of her calendar! A bit of a consolation prize I think, but I did the job and now here I am to tell you all about. 

First of all, Mara wrote out all the names of the commenters on little pieces of paper. Then she scrunched them up and came looking for me. 

She threw all the little balls of paper in the air and I immediately caught the first winner. A very deserving one as well. 

Then she did it again and I sniffed another winner out! Again very deserving. Both of them have won before, so I hope they like this year's version. WITHOUT ME!!!!

Oh, and congratulations to Yamini and Janice Adcock. The calendars will be sent this week Mara says.

Quiz

I enjoy a quiz. I really do. I watch University Challenge and sometimes I actually understand the question. Even more sometimes I can answer it! I have a knowledge of a lot of things. Useless knowledge mainly, but on occasion it works. When watching a quiz for example.

But I also like to participate in a quiz. In fact, in my younger years, while living in England, I was part of the pub quiz team. Every Sunday we would drive to another pub for our weekly fix. We weren't very good, but then again: we were mainly a group of young people who knew nothing about the world yet. And the fact that we ended in last place? Fine with us! During my second year I couldn't do it anymore: a different job meant I wasn't free on Sunday evenings anymore. 

Recently I have been taking part in three quizzes. The first one was during the union course. Our team won. The second one was again during the union course. We won again, but some said we had cheated and when the deciding question came: we came up with nothing. So, we lost. 

I was the only there who had 'dressed up' for Christmas.
Dress, earrings and headband

The last time was last Friday. A local radio station had organised the Big Christmas Quiz at a local hotel. I was part of one of the 67 teams that took part. My colleagues felt that my knowledge of all things Eurovision (don't know that much really) would help us secure a win. And if that failed: my knowledge of Christmas films. 

It turned out I didn't know any of the answers. All the questions were on local people, sports, events and places. No Eurovision, no geography, no flags, no useless knowledge. And no Christmas, which I found to be quite strange since it was the Big Christmas Quiz! 

Halfway through we were right in the middle with our 14 points. The top team at that point had 28. And then the strangest thing happened. Even though we only got 12 more points (according to us anyway), we won. We actually won! We got the cup and we got the prize (five-course dinner plus a sleep-over plus breakfast for two for each of us). 

We still don't know how it happened and we may never know. But it was a nice way to start December!

Update: Late Sunday night (I wrote this post on Sunday afternoon) it was announced that there had been some problems with Excel, which resulted in the wrong team (ie us) winning. In other words: we did not win. Not even close to winning. I wonder whether we can keep the cup though?

Photo on Sunday 2017-41

It was cold in Haugesund the past few days. Freezing in fact! 

Unfortunately the tap had not been turned off inside and the drip drip drip had frozen over into a popsicle!

Give-away and charity

It's the last stretch! Only a few more days to have a chance of winning one of the two desk-top calendars. Make your way over to THIS POST and leave a comment. That's all you need to do, if you haven't done so already of course!

In other news: several charities have been mentioned to me for next year's Mice for Mama charity, either through this blog or through Facebook. If you know of any other ones that fulfill the criteria for next year, please leave a comment with the link. 

The ones so far: Guide dogs for the Blind (Norway), suggested by yours truly. People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (UK), help sponsor a sick animal when the owner him/herself can't afford it, suggested by Yamini. Dueker Ranch Therapeutic Horse Center (USA), suggested by Christine S and Paws to People (USA), finding cures for illnesses that hit both humans and people, suggested by Sue S. More are welcome. 

The criteria for next year's charity are: 

• Interaction between animal and human. 
• It can be any type of animal (dogs, horses, cats, guinea pigs, elephants, spiders to name but a few)
• It does need to be a trusted charity, location is of secondary importance. 

The final charity will be picked out by my Mama (and yes, Papa as well) at the end of the year. 

PS: if you have any trouble opening any of the links to the charities, please let me know.