Fig. 2 How To: Snowboard Off-Piste

Sacrifices

I'm not a winter person, really - I'm a summer girl! I do love playing in the snow, snowboarding or watching the beauty of Norwegian nature during the winter, but I can't say I am partial to it. Everything just takes so long in the winter. Dressing up in enough clothes to go outside, waiting for daylight, trying to get warm again after coming inside. Just walking short distances is time consuming because you are weighed down by layers and layers, even your layers have layers -- and heavy boots, and there's lots of snow and ice in the way so it's hard to move around as you like. 

But when summer comes and you can wear as little as you want without being too cold, and you are free to run about and play in the sunlight below the flourishing, green trees -- the whole of you becomes visible. Skin. Right? And so a lot of people are right now facing springtime with horror because we can't cover ourselves up the same way as in winter. We have to tighten up that slack skin, or lose those extra pairs of lovehandles and the extra chins. Right?

So we have to start sacrificing. No more pop, no more toffee, no more crisps - no more snap n' crackle, no more cake. More celery, more grapefruit, more light yoghurt, more water and more flavourless crackers with cottage cheese is what awaits us all. Including many dreadful hours of sweating on a treadmill, wishing we could rather sit and watch The Mighty Boosh and eat carrot cake to our hearts content. It is hard to sacrifice, and I don't think any of us live long enough to deserve it, or having to endure it. But in a way it is almost harder not to - as we will know we'll look like a whale and everyone else will look like slender nymphs when summer comes.

I tell you about music

Got a fat load of music to run through today, mister. YESS. Love new music, I'll be mentioning these albums as follows:

Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak

Slumdog Millionaire Original Soundtrack

And a few recommendations in the end! So, instead of beating around the bush - here goes!

Hot Chip's deliciously beachy upbeat album is full of ballad-sweet danceable, electronic tracks. You'd be amazed at the funk of Over and Over, the heartfeltness of Boy From School and the serial radio rapist Ready for the Floor - and how they in despite of their difference belong together to such an extent. There's nothing left to say, I recommend it for a good listen, and a rock out.

The Prodigy's fifth studio album will in all Prodigy'ness grab you by the tongue and rock your socks very hard. While as many prejudiced this release to be too soft and mushy to be true Prodigy - the album as an entirety has such amazing energy and contageous BANG about it, that you'd be deaf AND stupid not to let yourself be seduced into a rhythmic seizure of death instantaneously. My favourites are Thunder and Omen, though Stand Up is definitely the best song on the album (not surprisingly I liked the happiest one the most!)

Vampire Weekend is extremely different from the two above mentioned, being a sugar-sweet, melodic, toffee brit-indie, mushy-mushy and relaxing "punk" album. It sounds just like passionately french-kissing a meringue on a tropical beach to the sound of the ocean. A delight in many ways - sticky and different, with soft beats and slightly deranged melodies. You like it because it's quirky! Mansard Roof and A-Punk are ma faaavourites!

Kings of Leon's album is actually pure Rock n' Roll, something I rarely listen to. So needless to say it took me a while to accustom to their sound, I think it was Taper Jean Girl that convinced me to like them. Some of the tracks give the impression that you have heard it all before, but the vocals are so rasping, rough and different - that even the slightly familiar riffs gets a renessaince with tempo-changes, tickling rhymes and a wayload of subtle presence. This is real shit, right here, it's back to basics in a rural, rocked out way - it's beautiful. Razz has the energy.

Slumdog Millionaire (if you haven't already seen it - go flipping see it now) is if necessary to emphasize an excellent film. With my personal weakness for bhangra and bollywood tunes - it came natural to appreciate the brilliance of this soundtrack. There really isn't much to say about it, other than that it might only be suitable for a niche of music lovers, like most motion picture music, but so be it. You should at least listen to Paper Planes, because it has sampled some truly splendid FX.

My recommendations for today are Tread Softly by High Contrast (really excellent drum and bass), Burial by Miike Snow (so danceable, so happy), Glittertind by Todd-Terje and Sandoz by Blackbelt Andersen, the two latter being Norwegian electronica. Ultimate sweetness!

I bid you farewell (it's snowing looaaads, who ordered all this? I'm NOT paying for it!) And forgive me for the mentally disturbing image I threw together, I just needed some colour in here!

Memories of summer

Summer more than anything is standing in the shop right here and looking at the sunlight shining through the windows in the ceiling and having cold toes because I'm wearing flipflops - but really it is quite cold inside.

And on my way to work - and from work- I listened to Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" album, and when at work i'd stand around, staring into nothing and drinking Twining's peach & Passion Fruit, fruit flavour infusion tea. That's pretty much (with a couple exceptions) how I spent last summer. And right now I am drinking that same tea and it reminded me of the summer.

It's snowing HEAPS, I really can't remember last time it snowed as much as it has now. It HAS to be some kind of record. Can't wait for the summer.
//Coco Chicken

Ice ice baby

It is taking a hilarious amount of time to clear the streets of Oslo of snow. It has been snowing heaps and loads and there's still abundances in the streets. In addition it's been down to -16 C here. I beg to differ - I must insist that it must've been colder at some point, but according to the weather database http://www.yr.no/ - the coldest day in Oslo the last 30 days was February 12th (at -16 C). Obviously it's been way colder in northern Norway where the current record is around -34 C on February 8th in Karasjok. Brrr!

Despite a few erratic blinks of sunlight that have caused some snow to melt - it has pretty much been freezing for months. The problem with this is of course that the amounts of melted snow turns into ice and the streets into slippery slides of death. Now take this shiny, black layer of cold death and sift a thin layer of dry, white snow over it - the result is teeth crushing and cranium bashing. Really. It is so dangerous. Not to mention the icicles that hang like piercing, frozen needles above the sidewalks - ready to split a face in two. Just a few days ago a woman was actually struck by one and was sent to the hospital. She got away with a lesser cut in her head, and was luckily not seriously damaged. Firemen are clearing roofs of icicles and snow - meanwhile, most of the snowed down sidewalks are secured and therefore only half their usual width.

I saw the icecream van today. Isbilen.
And I wonder what on earth it is doing here.

Tonight, at work

I told him about pans and about cauldrons and pots, and he asked politely and was curious about everything. When I stopped talking, he still wanted more - so he said, "tell me about pans." and I said -"What do you want to know about pans?" and he said "Everything." So I told him everything, or at least all that I know and all that I could think of. So I talked about the quality of different pans, and that after a while a teflon pan will wear off no matter what, that in the end it will start to shake off the teflon like dandruff, and that this is poisonous. he said -"The entire family's got green, festering boils all over, maybe it is time I get a new pan!" I hadn't caught him as a man with a sense of humour previously, but then he had only been my customer for five minutes. I remained serious and I said -"This often occurs, you better wash them all with salt and lemonjuice." Then we made jokes about high-fashion cooking and cuisine and how snotty it is. Then I told him about chicken and how to handle the chicken-pan ratio. He bought a good pan, but I wanted him to stay for a little longer, because tonight I was in the shop all by myself, and it was lonely.

In the sportswear shop I tried the pink skiing jumpsuit that is insanely awesome, and almost as good looking as the guy who works there. He offered me 30% off, but it is still shit expensive though. We then talked about snow and about snowboarding and he was really cool.

Axolotl and the rain

All the snow is raining away today, like expected. But it was a good thing that we got a lot of snow as a warning for winter. Because as usual everybody are totally unprepared for snow. Cars and people sliding about on the ice just like Bambi, and whining about how cold it is.

But now we have got a taste of winter, people will recall what snow is like every year, and so we have some time to unpack our giant coats, the boots, the hats, the mittens and the spiky tyres, right? I blew my nose in a napkin, but it was full of cinnamon, now my head feels weird.


For some reason I ended up looking at pictures of Mudkips today, and randomly I cam across this creature called Axolotl. I didn't even know there was a creature named Axolotl. But I like it. It is on the brink of extinction though, but I hope it survives. It looks nice, doesn't it? It has a friendly face.

First snow!

The first snow fell last night! So beautiful, the sounds are all muffled by a soft whiteness. In Norway we have a "saying" about the first snow. And it goes something like this: "It has to snow seven times before the snow settles" (or stays, you know - not melt away again). It's not always true obviously, but the first snow is rarely permanent.

Elin gave me a star shaped egg pan, so Skjalg and I had a star shaped egg for breakfast.

On Friday Hans-Jørgen gave me a bouquet of roses!
I am such a lucky person!

April - NABOF Month

April will be my NABOF month. Not Actually Blogging On Food month.

I have done some excessive research on my head. Which didn't honestly take a lot of time. But my conclusion is that I need to take my mind of things like that. I will attempt -- to for an entire month -- not blog about food. I might keep a post I will fill with my thoughts on food for later, but I will try not to. I mean, it's too much of an obsession, and I'm doubting that it's very interesting.

Actually speaking of danes I had to rescue a dane the other day, she had a horrible fall on her skiis and lost one of them. She kept rolling down the slope, so I had to do hit the brakes on my board and pick her ski up. Then when she'd stopped rolling I gave it back to her and helped her up. I don't think she understood me, our languages are slipping apart like a poorly stirred hollandaise. But either way she seemed grateful. Those danes have no business up in our mountains, the mountains are too dangerous for them! They should return to their levelled homeland and ride their bike to the bakery and have some pastry and beer. That's what I think they should do.

Starve the feeding world

Even though a blogger reach a certain point where one is bound to discover ones RSS feed is actually fully potent of feeding a small third world country, like Malawi or Ghana, there is this little squirming seed of inspiration that will eventually force you back to the keyboard again.

It is hard getting rid of old habits, especially habits which are addictive as well, addictive or fun.
Today I held a full bottle of "Flaggpunsch" in my hand, I could not buy it because I had forgotten to bring my 21 yr. old ID-card, which is a shame, honestly,
You see I have been in Sweden, in Kläppen in fact, snowboarding, and it was straight out faaaaaantaaaaaastic. It is a wonder I have yet to develop diabetes 2, because I have been eating an amount of sugar which is approximately equal to the amount of snow in which I have tumbled around in.
I realise now that it will be extraordinary difficult to wait for next winter, it is too long, and I am going to miss snowboarding this year more than previous years seeing I love it more now than ever ever ever ever before.

In Sweden I have also through my ears indigested an unhealthy amount of "High School Musical" and Phil flippin Collins, which can quite frankly go straight to Blokksberg and never ever come back. My ears are bleeding and weeping in a mixed soup of depression, anger, sadness, sickness and incredible frustration, I can't believe people expose themselves to such pain on purpose! They actually sit down and devour such utter shitty and horrible music, it is a disgrace for the music market as a whole, an insult to every instrument and certainly a form of speaker-system repetative rape. Some of the worse songs I have had to sit through, hating every second, damning every little annoying note and swearing to never do such a gruesome thing to my precious ears again! SERIOUSLY. Well it is not as if I had much of a choice, it was all forced on me, pressed down my throat like rust down a drain, scraping out my soul and leaving it fleshy and open. So much for socializing, you just realise that in the end, other people are just people with repulsive taste in music. Ain't it?

This weekend I am going to Bergen, there it will probably rain. Thank God I appear not to shrink in water.

The slopes are open!

Yep, the snow is falling, it's the 1st of December, the slopes are open, and I'm gonna wear this
when I snowboard for FREE all night. You heard me, it's flippin FREE! -hah!

http://mibib.blogspot.com This is an excellent blog, a most fabolous friend of mine made it :D

(read on own risk, yes sir, I flippin DID warn ya, don't come crying back to me when all your braincells are dead)