Dear reader

I'm so terribly sorry for not updating, it makes me feel bad. Believe me - I spend several waking hours thinking "I should update my blog". "No, really. I should update my blog". That's what it's here for, yeah?

These days it's hot in Oslo, and everybody is at the beach or at their cabin, or in Spain or Greece, or whatever. Except me of course, I'm stuck here, smelling and rotting away like a partly digested carcass in a mildly damp ditch. Actually it's not that bad. I took Torstein to see the new Opera house, surprisingly it wasn't as ugly as I was suspicious of, but we should've worn shades because it was so white and bright and shiny.

I work though, that's what I do. I work and sleep and eat. Especially the latter. I have nothing better to do, we don't even have BBC Food, So I eat. I've done a drawing over the past few days, which was nice. Not necessarily the drawing, but the meditative aspect of concentrating on something. I'm also looking forward to starting school. I think it is the first time in my life that I'm actually looking forward to that. Not that I've been treated bad at school or anything, but I've never had a subject I've actually liked.

Hmm. Except perhaps art. But that is not really a subject, is it? Now that I've burst the un-blogging bubble, there's suddenly so much to say! Fab.

I wonder what would happen to my family if World of Warcraft suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth...? Probably nothing good. Maybe we'd explode. Not me in particular, but I bet I'd be pretty near when it goes "Boom!". Wops. Just ignore all the present tense. Your router is safe with me <_<

Made in Italy

Remember when I was so excited about Giorgio Locatelli adding me as a friend on MySpace? Well you probably already know that my religious views are generally about food, and that I worship Gods like James Martin, Gordon Ramsay and the Goddess herself, Nigella Lawson. That in general I have the opinion that the way to a girls heart is usually through her stomach, and that there really isn't much of a party without butter.

Well I thought I might recommend some literature for you (not because I am obsessed with making you believe the same things as I do, or in any other way become convinced about the same things as myself. But simply I'd rather give you a tip for something nice to read. Honest).

In fact I gave this book to my aunt for her birthday - because hopefully she could treasure it as much as I do. It's very easy to read. It's packed with delightful stories that make you smile and feel all warm and fuzzy, accompanied with series of magical recipes and pictures that will make your mouth water. In many ways it's not the most practical cookbook, seeing it is rather great in size (not a monster of a book, but close) - but on the other hand it contains so much to know about olive oils, cheese, bread, prosciuttos, pasta, vegetables, ice creams - well, simply, everything.

Every now and then "Made in Italy" takes a short break from the informative side and has a little story about Locatellis life for you. Absolutely wonderful. I have had to restrain myself from devouring it instantly. In a lack of better words, this book is fantastic. I think you should read it.

Top Ten Fabulous Tellybox Shows

1. Black Books


2. Green Wing


3. Mighty Boosh


4. Red Dwarf


5. South Park


6. Coupling


7. That 70’s Show


8. Nigella’s Kitchen


9. James Martin Sweet


10. Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares

Smile! SMILE!

I built a tower of coins!

This weekend's been blinking and great. I feel okay now, at least. We had tons of raclette on saturday, so during the night when I watched my cousin and brother play Super Mario Galaxy, I felt like a bloated taxidermy victim. At the most I walked around the kitchen in small, gentle, therepautic circles in an attempt to digest all that cheese. Gods.

At work on thursday my personal strategy was to be sure that every single customer I served left with a smile on their face. This because it's such a delight to make people smile and it seems everyone needs a bit cheering up these days. Whatever floats my boat, right? At least it makes the time pass - and we are not nice enough to each other in Norway, everyone is too busy looking at their own shoelaces to notice that there's other norwegians around. Horrible, it's like we totally failed on communication.

At least by the end of the day I was in such a great mood that it became irreversably contageous. It's a tough task trying to make people smile without being bothersome, you know. To safe it on the rougher ones, I talked about the weather. I love talking about the weather, didn't seem at all fake, no problem at all. One customer was in my shop for almost an hour just discussing cutlery with me, I don't think I've been that nice to a person in a very long time. She did buy cutlery for 3000,- kroners though, which wasn't my scheme really, just tried desperately to make her smile!

I made roasted chicken with pancetta and spring leek served with yorkshire pudding and a tomato/avodaco salad on friday. Best yorkshire pudding I've ever had, the only one I've ever had to be honest, so to be fair, not many to compare it with! It was Gordon Ramsay's recipe, delicious! Yeah, and I thought it was about time I made BBC Food a tag of its own. Mahaha!

I would just really like a serious chocolate fix

I made a delicious Vanilla Castle Pudding for dessert on Sunday, one of James Martin's recipes. it was golden, sweet, soft and delicious, served with a frozen raspberry sauce. Fan-tastic.

Only moments ago I watched Nigella Lawson bask in the luciousness of towers of chocolate brownies and chocolate cheesecake, made me crave to eat my own weight in just chocolate. Right now I am considering to make something really divine out of chocolate, while I know that I'm probably going to read, re-read, re-read and re-read (while revising) my flippin novel. It's taking aaages I tell you. It is getting somewhere though, still about a chapter and a half missing - but it's getting there, and I've removed a few excess characters as well. Pretty crude actually. Got sick of rewriting and rephrasing myself - so felt a little drastic.

Also I have got my phone again, which is a deeeeeelight! I keep forgetting I have it though, so I never get to answer it. But it's growing on me. Elin's even had it properly pimped with some glitter bling and a small pink duck with a bell inside of it. Looks like a bhangra taxi. Brilliant.

Terribly cold in Oslo again, the weather is just dreadful - sunny, but freezing still, and windy as well. Obviously, this is something that brings extra delight to just sitting in and be cozy. Hmm. With some chocolate- oooh!