Setting sail for Stockholm

..or in this case rails. I was ready to boldly embark on my voyage where no Svenn has gone before, when a monkey threw a spanner at my head. I ducked, but it managed to hit my works and thus spoil my carefully laid plans. I thought I had double checked everything, but I quess I only single checked the bathroom, for on the counter my bag of toiletries sat quietly. You would think that it would give a shout when it heard me close the door, but no. Then again I don't blame it. It's has to be warmer in the bathroom than in my suitcase.

By the way, this will not only be my first time to The Snowball, but also to Stockholm! Me, who have been to Herräng seven times, which supposedly is in the same county as Stockholm, have managed not to visit the capital of Sweden. I am not very tall in my hat, as we say in Norway.

So I'm sitting in my parents living room waiting for the next train. It will only be an hour. An hour of food and eating.

På nett i Verdal

Det høres kanskje ikke så banebrytende ut, men for en nettvant, les avhengig, person som meg har det vært et stort savn å ikke ha muligheten til å koble ut på nettet. Du merker ikke hva du har før du mangler det er det noe som heter, og det er virkelig sant. Nå holder jeg sikkert ut litt lenger før jeg får følelsen av at å gå på veggen hadde vært et bra alternativ til å sitte i stua og gjøre mindre enn ingenting.

Nå sitter jeg i denne samme stua og er i tradisjons tro allerede fullstappet av mat, selv om det strengt tatt ikke er jul og julemat før i morgen. Men har jeg stoppet å spise? Nei. Det er visst jul nå, og da er det visst også lov til å spise så mye du bare vil. Påsmurte rundstykker, bløtkake, lukket valnøtt, brus, melk og whisky. Om ikke alt samtidig så i hvert fall tett etter hverandre. Jeg kjenner magen protesterer forsiktig. Oppvarming prøver jeg å kalle det, og motiverer magen til å jobbe litt hardere. Sånn ja. Flink :)

Melken var forresten av typen laktosefri.. Merklige greier. Smaker helt greit, men det er noe som mangler. Jeg fikk ikke så mye gehør for observasjonen min her i stua, men jeg står på mitt. Det er forskjell på vanlig lettmelk og laktosefri lettmelk.

Snart er det på tide å krype under dyna og våkne opp til at jula har kommet i hus. Jeg venter ikke på nissen i år, for han har jeg hørt er booka lenger sør, men om han sender en alv eller to så hadde det vært fint.

Der fant katta ut at det sikkert var kos å få om han bare legger seg i fanget mitt, og det har han jo rett i, så da må jeg avslutte her. God jul :)

It's that time of the month again.

Slightly stressed, anxious students with shifting gazes enter. They stop and and search for any clue of where they're supposed to spend at least the next hour of their lives.

Slightly stressed, anxious pentionists with shifting gazes enter. They stop and search for any clye of where ther're supposed to spend at least the next five hours of their lives.
There's examtment in the air!

The gereiatric generation are gathering for a brief time of socializing without saying much of anything to each other, but the prospect of meeting others in the same situation as themselves has fire buring in their eyes. It's the same groupe of people every year, with slight differences. Some have vanished from the face of the earth, just to take their place underneath that very same face, leaving room for a younger generation to have a go. The green horns of exam supervisors need to prove themselves buy ushering nervous students to and from the toilets, saying a few kind words of encouragement and politely asking about how the life as a student differs from what they experienced fifty years ago. If the head supervisor approves of their efforts, or so I guess, they get to come back next semester.

The students gather in ths non-verbal, social setting. To prove to themselves or their professor that they deserve to pass, or to postpone this particular exam by handing in a blank paper. It's not the same group every year, but there are those that appear time and again failing to have produced enough quality material to escape the dreaded F. They sit alone in a sea of hundreds more staring at the problems in front of them, feeling an odd sense of detachment from the world around them. Maybe except from the girl tapping her foot nervously against the chair leg. Tap tap tap tap. The sound echoes in the hall reminding everyone that the time is passing more quickly than they would like. If she would just stop tapping that foot, would the time slow down?

Soon they shuffle out one by one. First the students, then the old folks. Both groups having finished their task for this day. There's a sense of less stressedness now. Not so many nervous smiles or quick, uncertain steps. They all walk out with a bit more confidence. Why is that?

Oppdatert ønskesegtiljulliste

Etter store åpenbaringer og hallelujaopplevelser er dette en revidert liste:

-Korttriksteknikker:

(DVD) http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Card-Technique-Richard-Kaufman/dp/B000MDH620/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1227808985&sr=1-1

-Molecular Gastronomy, kul kokebok.

-Håndmikser, å piske marengs for hånd gir deg vannblemmer fant jeg ut.

-Stavmikser, gjerne med fancy tilbahør, men så lenge den gjør jobben bra så er alt gull.

-Brødrister, for pimping av tørre brødskalker slik at de kan spises likevel.

-Kjøkkenvekt, baderomsvekta funker så dårlig når man skal lage kaker til mindre enn 100 personer.

-Vannkoker, en sånn stor og fin en.

-Dirksett, det kan jo hende jeg låser meg inne en dag.

http://www.lockpickshop.com/C1510.html

-Superundertøy, Helly Hansen trenger jeg si mer?

-The West Wing, tidenes beste tv-serie.

-Steketermometer, finne tall i rute som viser om det er lokalt godvær.

-Gelncairn whisky-glass, fantastisk flotte glass for å glede en whiskyfanatiker.

-Sokker, allskens finurlige og kule sokker i kule farge.

The Snowball.. continued.

I blame my ageing mind, of which I've been reminded of oh so often the last couple weeks to great amusement for a small part of the not so general public, for failing to notice the error in the memory which I used to enter my credit card details on sj.se. New card = new CVV number = confusion and frustration in my mind.

Solution? Take out my card, enter the correct numbers.
It was that simple.

NOW I have tickets to Stockholm and back :)

The Snowball

I'm going to The Snowball! Yes, I really am going. After weeks of procrastination and uncertainty I finally took the leap.  A leap of faith? Not so much as a huge bound into the great beyond called action. But after an hour of trying to please the gods of the Swedish railways web pages, I was on the brink of sacrificing the neighbour's cat. "Click to see earlier departures" turned without  exception into "An error has occurred". I started again from the front page filling in the dates, destinations and a revised time for when I wanted to leave, and finally came up with a viable alternative. Now I only had to coordinate this information with a completely different, and not so unrelated web page, since I suspect there's one programmer responsible for both, called www.nsb.no. Yes. The Norwegian railway's web pages. Do you see where this is going? Well, to make a longer story shorter, I now have transport from Östersund to Stockholm, and Stockholm via Östersund to Trondheim!

The more observant readers out there may notice a slight flaw in my travel arrangements. And this is today's Christmas competition! No, not really. The flaw manifests itself by the lack of continuous travel from Norway to the great capital of Sweden, Stockholm, because I simply haven't decided wherefrom, oh how I love that word, I shall depart. Trondheim or Verdal, my backwater part of Norway where I spent my first 18 years living a trouble free life doing not much of anything that required me to move my body rapidly.

Oh I spoke too soon. The mighty railway gods in Sweden have foiled my plans."The transaction could not be completed"!

To be continued...