Helene

Some weeks ago I took a walk with my boyfriend in Stavanger. It was a beautiful day and we saw this boat with the name “Sea cougar”. It took me back to when I first met Espen in a wedding. Espen is 7 years younger than me, and we were both aware of it. After the wedding he followed me to the train station. I bought a ticket, and it was 10 minutes before the train would depart. I didn’t really know what to say to him and I felt awkward. There are some people and situations where my mind just goes blank, and this was one of them. Suffice to say the conversation didn’t flow of itself. We had been flirting on and off during the day, but when it was only us two there wasn’t much we had to talk about. So in this uncomfortable setting, waiting for the train to depart, it’s usual to get to know people by what their interests are. It’s a fairly easygoing question, but he manages to ask it this way:

“So what other interests do you have, except picking up younger boys?”

Seriously?????

And then, just before the train left he manages to tell me that I was totally uninteresting for him because I’m a vegetarian. When I got on that train I was so happy to get rid of him and had absolutely no interest in seeing him ever again. Good riddens!!!!!!

Somehow we still managed to get together. The cougar me

I came across these two handsome fellows the other day, but how decent of them to stand there in the windows with a towel around their waist. Otherwise I might take offence of viewing their  nakedness… all out there in the open!

I have noticed that I’m happier if the space around me is clean, tidy and light with as little clutter around me as possible. I get more tasks done, I get more creative and more importantly is the feeling of happiness, harmony, being in charge and that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I’m aligned with the universe-feeling.

When I let things slide I quickly get a feeling of malcontent. I’m unbalanced, out of harmony, unhappy.

The last couple of months I have had this feeling because things have just been piling up:
Christmas time and presents
Bills I haven’t dealt with immediately
My closets that needs cleaning up
My bedroom where I spend most of my time have been messy.

It’s surprisingly easy to fall into a state where I don’t deal with something immediately, like take up my clothes instead of letting them lie on the floor.

Now I have started on a new mission: Tidy up my bedroom. I actually love to spend time tidying up – I’m just not so effective when I’m doing it. I started it some days ago, and already I feel the benefits are showing up. I have dealt with my bills, thrown out magazine’s I have read or never will read, dealt with some to-do tasks (like paying bills, stop newspaper subscriptions etc.).

I’m going to take a critical look at my bookshelves and start throwing away DVD’s I’m not going to see again, books I will never read (and hopefully can purchase as ebooks).

The result is more space around me, it’s lighter, and I feel more inspired and energised.

How do you like your surroundings to be?

On sunday I went with a couple of friends to Korketrekkeren which is a sledging hill in Oslo. I had never tried it out before, so naturally I was excited. It was a sunny day and perfect for some childlike fun. To get there we took the metro to Frognerseteren, except that the metro didn’t go that far. There were some upgrading being done. so buses where set in between Besserud and Frognerseteren.

When we got up there me and Anders rented sledges from Akeforeningen. Those sledges were awesome. They were robustly built for speed. They were heavy (iron all the way, baby). The steering mechanism was the rope you can see Anders is holding in the picture below. By pulling on one end, you get the sledge to steer that way, and no breaks: that’s what your body is for – one way or the other your body will stop moving.

Those sledges screamed speed, and they delivered. Boy, did they deliver! It takes about 6 minutes to get down the hill. The hill ends at a metro station, so it was just to wait for the metro (that arrived after 8 minutes usually), and do it all over again.

The weak link in this threesome was Einar. He brought his own sledge where the seat was duck taped!! We had the batmobil of sledges – Einar had the slowmobile. We rushed ahead, stopped sometimes, and sat waiting for some minutes for Einar to arrive. He refused to trade in the slowmobile for the Ferrari of sledges, no matter what we said. He liked the speed of his duck taped misery – chicken!

I will not recommend going to Korketrekkeren on a beautiful, sunny sunday when the metro doesn’t go all the way up. The buses showed up quickly, but there was always some people that didn’t get into the buses, it took some time to get to Frognerseteren, and the sledge is heavy.

Secondly, there was a LOT of people on Frogneseteren. It seemed like half the population of oslo decided to visit that day.

We had a lot of fun that day, and I will certainly do it again.

How to get there: You take the metro nr. 1 to Frognerseteren

Finally, I had a complete day at home with no plans except relaxing and chasing my own tail. For some reason it feels like a really long time since I’ve had it, but my life has been very busy the last two months. So I have been catching up today!

I’m writing on this blog again, which have been in great need of updating.
I started subscribing on Aftenposten some months ago, and finally I sat down and read one newspaper.
Tidy up, except that for me it involves to mess up even more before it looks cleaner.

In the evening I got a visit from my cousin, Vibecke. It was really nice, we had homemade pizza and chocolate mousse… yummy!

It has been fantastic and I went right back to that happy-place where I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, doing exactly what I’m supposed to do, being the one I’m supposed to be.

I’ve been sick, just lying in bed for some days and I needed to get out. I packed myself in, and took a small walk into the forest. The sun was shining and it was reflected in the tall trees and leaves.  As I walked, a young boy in his early twenties came jogging towards me. As he passed me, I smelled a weak and fresh scent of cologne…. and I was lost.

Life is beautiful.

This year Sjakk matt, a cafe in oslo was refurbished. The result is a more open and customer friendly cafe with tables one can actually sit at.

What makes me really like this café is that it’s a place where I can get a decent cafe moccha AND lunch/food. Their torta’s (sandwiches) are really good. If you ask for a vegetarian option, you get it (even though there is none on the menu) and it’s delicious. Moreover, they have wireless internet connection (just ask for the password). These things have made this cafe my favorite one that I visit every sunday. I always go there alone, and I’m not the only one, sitting there reading books, newspapers, surfing.

I can also recommend the brownies…

This is the ONLY cafe in oslo (centre)  that has met my needs for good mocca, food and wireless connection. If you know of another cafe’s that are just as good – let me know.