Cake, sweets and flowers

As it was my birthday yesterday and was asked by a friend whether at what time the apple pie was going to be ready, I decided to make apple pie and invite some people. But when I wanted to start on the apple pie, I found I had lost the recipe! Oh my. Fortunately it had come off the great interweb, so off I went to search. Well, I found a lot of apple pie recipes, but not 'my' recipe. 

In the end though, I found an ordinary apple pie recipe and adjusted the filling to what I remembered. And it worked beautifully. The cake was done a bit later than planned, but when it was finally ready to eat (only a few degrees below too hot), it was a gorgeous cake. I had used peaches as well and it was yummy!

Two friends came by to help eat the cake and both came with gifts. One gave me sweets and chocolate in the most adorable tin. The other friend was going to get me flowers and ended up getting me a ...

It's huge! And heavy as well!

Watermelon? Well, we had a good laugh over that and dug into the cake. More than half was gone by the time they left and they both took a piece home as well, to eat at work to make the other colleagues jealous!

It was a good birthday. 

Miss Oswin and Brom congratulate

She only had Christmas paper! So, that's what we used.
And two strings. Very important to have two strings!!

Miaow and coocoo

For weeks we were wondering what to get her. She has everything you know. Well, she would like some more Christmas films, but it's summer now, so we were not getting her that! Somebody suggested milkbones, or balls, or stuffies or a steak. Not really Mara's style you know, although the steak she said, would be nice. Somebody else suggested a gift card! How boring is that??? Or lingerie! Well, can you see us going into a lingerie shop to get some!? 

Well, after much deliberating (drumroll please): we got her a new flashy thing!! And a 500 kroner gift card (yes, yes, we know) for a one day photo course in September! 

Happy Birthday Mara and many many happy returns!!

A purr from Miss Oswin and a cuddle from Brom

Slag

So, that walk yesterday. The one with the massive anthill. That wasn't the only thing we saw. Right at the end of the walk we made our way over to the former smelting house. The whole area exists due to the copper and the mining and smelting of said copper. The mines have long since closed down and all that remains is a small museum. But you can still see traces of the copper industry everywhere.

As we got to the still standing smelting house, well, without a roof or rooms (see top photo), my friend also made her way over to the small beach close by and she showed me all those beautiful looking rocks that were there. They shimmered with all sorts of colours and looked like they had been dipped in oil. 

There were large blocks that were probably used for building the hut/house that once stood there, we even saw part of a wall that was still standing, albeit only one block up. 

But most of the rocks weren't actually rocks, it was slag. The remainder of the copper smelting that went on years and years ago. It was hard taking decent photos, but I think I got a few. It was a fascinating area and definitely one to go back to again. 

Photo on Sunday 2015-23

I went on a walk (not a hike, just a walk) today with a colleague. I needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air blowing away all miceniches that were in my head. She invited me to go on a walk and so, we did! As you do. 

On our walk she pointed out this ant hill. I didn't at first understand what she was talking about, but after a while I did. Well, of course I needed a photo of that! Far away and close up. 

It was quite massive and their were thousands of little ants working away to make their home as safe as they could. Aren't ants amazing? Well, unless they come in the house that is. Then I am not so enamoured!!

Miss Oswin gets "caught"

That flashy thing! That awful flashy thing!! And now she wants me to talk about what happened yesterday! I told her nothing, but she said that that was not what the photos were saying!! *Sigh*

But, I promise you: nothing happened! I was minding my own business in my own garden, not a care in the world, when the woman comes in with her flashy thing and starts taking photos by the dozen! I knew she was a bit mad, but this was just a bit much!! 

Yes, the photos show me a bit 'caught in the act', but what do you expect a decent cat to do? Throw up on the couch?? That woman would have a fit if I were to do that! So, I got rid of the grass and thought nothing more of it. 

Blast that flashy thing!!!

Back to normal

Well, a degree of normalcy would be nice!

That was the plan in any case. It didn't quite work out that way though. Unfortunately!

During a small chat with our personel lady, I started crying. Then after I got down to start work, I talked to my Dutch colleague and started crying again. I was taken off work, a meeting was set up with the company health service person for Monday and today I got in touch with my own gp and I have an appointment for next Tuesday. Hopefully he will be able to move me on to a psychologist as soon as possible.

I have been in touch with several people, both colleagues, friends and of course my father. Everybody is offering their support and I am very thankful for that. 

In better news however: the bills for my holiday to Scotland just went out to my parents and sister. I pay for the whole thing, so they have to pay me. Also the programs (both the generic and the specific with dates, times and directions and such) are done. The kilt is moving along as well: the basis is done, now it's just a case of making it look pretty. Or prettier than it is now. And without pins preferably! 

Wow

I knew early on that stroking a cat is good for you

Now, that was unexpected wasn't it? You all know me as quite the easy-going person, sweetness personified (overdoing it here?). And then out of the blue this incredible, quite combobulated rant. I wrote it about an hour after I had watched that news program, even if it only appeared the morning after. 

In the day since I have had the chance to reflect a bit. It's still a sore point, but I am trying to work through it. I hope to be able to talk to a confidence person at work or a psychologist (like Miss Vavoom three years ago). Because there are are a fair few things going on in my head now and I am not altogether happy with that. 

I won't bore you with those thoughts, although knowing myself, I will probably do so to some degree in due time. In the mean time I will be going on as usual. Like going birthday present shopping on Friday. It's someone very special who is celebrating next week and she deserves something really nice! Any ideas anybody?

Angry

I came home from work last night and wanted to watch some television. As I was zapping, I landed on a British channel that had the news on. I hardly ever watch the news. It's so depressing. This time however, it didn't depress me. It made me angry. 

As some of you know, nearly three years ago I had an accident in France. A quick scene-setting: middle of the night, quiet motorway, large coach filled with people. Suddenly I see a silhouette and the next second an almighty bang. It was an illegal immigrant that had tried to cross the motorway to get to his 'camp'. He never got there. 

I was in shock. Spent the day as a guest of the French police (who were very nice to me by the way, definitely helped by my command of the French language) and was eventually let go as it was a regrettable accident, but not my fault. 

I was helped by family, (blog)friends, colleagues and company psychologist to get over it and nearly three years later I was. And then I saw that news report. 

Port workers in Calais, France were on strike and lorries were backing up nearly 30 miles! And in between those lorries were hundreds of young men from so many different countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Kurds from Turkey and many many others. They were trying to get in, on and under the trucks. Threw stones at windshields, tried to force themselves on the drivers. It looked scary! One female Czech driver was scared! 

And I got angry. So angry! I had felt a lot of things right after the accident and later on, but never anger. Yet now I do. Angry at the young man that got killed. Angry at all those young men endangering the lives of hard-working folk doing their job. Angry at those French officials who don't do anything. Just F%$#&*@ ANGRY!!

Cold

Last year's June was fantastic. Lots of sunshine, lots of warm weather. July was even better and people who had booked a trip to the South (Spain, Turkey) were quite miffed: they were paying for something that came for free here in Norway!!

This June? Not quite the same. As in not at all the same. It has been cold, it has been dreary. Rain, wind. Yesterday however, the first day of the summer holidays, was fantastic. Sunshine, only a little breeze and nice temperatures. Today? We're back to normal. Cloudy but dry, windy and fairly cold. 

Which is probably why I now have a cold. Sniffling just now, but I know that that can soon turn into sneezing, red nose, watery eyes, headache. It's a good thing I stocked up on tissues!!

Photos taken at 1.30am June 23rd, 2015

Three

Remember the exam I took a few weeks ago? Well, on Friday night I got a text message telling me that most grades were now in and I was to check the website to see whether mine was. Since I had already shut the computer down for the night, I didn't do so until Saturday morning however and once I did, I quickly found out that...

I didn't have a clue about whether I had passed or failed! My grade was a three, which if it would have been in the Netherlands, would have been very bad and a very big fail, since grades range from 1 (worst) to 10 (best) and you need at least 6 to pass. However...

Here in Norway they don't use that system. Over here they use 1 (worst) to 6 (best). But when do you pass? Turns out the only fail is 1, everything from 2 and above (apparently) is a pass. I had a 3, which means I am 'quite knowledgable'. It mightn't be the best, but then I hadn't expected that either. 

I knew I had made several mistakes, I had not mentioned any specific laws and such. I had miscalculated the distance and then the amount of time it took to drive said distance to a city in Norway. And even the way I wrote might have been a bit confusing, although they largely see through that apparently. 

The good news is however: I passed the theoretical part of my exam. Now there is only the practical side of it, which involves driving for real. Not really sure about how and when as yet, but I will let you know in due course!

PS: the photo at the top is not me at school, it is my Mum! Isn't she adorable??