I did it again

I've launched a new blog. again.

But there's a diffenrence this time, although it clarely shows how I struggle to find my "home" on the net.

Sometimes at work or in other social settings I get the question "Can I find you on Facebook?".
Well you can, but I don't use my account there so even if you find my profile, you wont actually find me.

So I explain this, and get a reaction like "So you're not at the web at all?"
I am.
But how do you explain to frengers (not quite strangers, not quite friends) that you have a blog where you do nothing but exclaim your feelings in your second language, and that you don't really want them to read it?

So I've made a "serious" blog in Norwegian. (!!!?)
One I wont be embarrassed to share with colleagues or acquaintances.

So, to the readers of this blog, who I consider friends and therefore are allowed to read both blogs:
Mitt hode er lastet med...

And because it's a new start with clean slates; I'm hoping I'll be more active there.

Grüß Gott

So I've been on vacation.

First we took the big boat to Kiel and the we drove to Rothenburg where we spent a night.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a lovely little town. People tell me the town in both "The Brave Little Tailor" and "Pinocchio" is based on Rothenburg. We spent only one night though, so I didn't see that much of it, but I wandered some of the streets and I got to visit the Christmas store there. Which felt strange. You're out in the streets in the beginning of July and then, suddenly, you're in some Christmas wonderland.

Then we drove to a Vinyard near Lindau by the Bodensee (Lake Constance) in southern Germany where we stayed for almost two weeks. Here's the view from our balcony:

The mountains to the left belongs to Austria and the ones to the right belongs to Switzerland. We visited both countries briefly, but stayed in Germany most of the time and visited small towns around us.


                                                                                          Lindau -->


My favorites were Meersburg, a loveley medieval town with a proper fort and plenty of small trinket shops.
 

And Wieskirche, a beautiful rococo church that was apparently saved from WWII bombings thanks to an Englishman refusing to follow his orders.

And the most beautiful of all:

the wonderful Neuschwanstein Castle which I've always wanted to see. I didnt get to see the inside though because the people I was with can sometimes be kind of lame and I'm too shy to tell them how much I wanted too. My siblings and I are planning a future road trip though, so I will see the inside one day.



AND THEN

the highlight of this summer, in my opinion:

We spent two nights in Riquewihr. An adorable little town in France. Surrounded by vinyards and full of tiny timber framing houses in bright colors.

And what do you know! The Christmas store chain has a shop in Riquewihr as well so I visited christmas twice this summer.

We rented a small cabin from a very French man and his wife. I made the mistake of answering all the polite phrases you know, like "ça va" and such, and so the man was convinced that I knew French even though these few phrases are the only thing I remember from French class ten years ago. (I understand politeness, food words and when something is beautiful). Luckily my Mother-in-love (I changed law to love because we're not married) speaks French fairly well.

pretty, pretty little town. I'd like to come again.

Then we drove up north trough the Moselle Valley and slept one night in Bernkastel-Kues and one night in Cloppenburg and then we were back in Schleswig-Holstein, where we always are, and spent one week before we went home.

"Grüß Gott" is a greeting some people use in the south of Germany where Catholicism reigns. It means "May God greet you".

band-aids and poetry

                                                                                                 08.March 2014

Have you ever watched "Music and Lyrics"? It's actually one of my favorite romcoms. mostly  because of the 80s music video at the start.




Anyways, in this movie they discuss how music and lyrics make up a song together and which is the most important. Of course the answer is none. They are equally necsessery to build a good hit song.

But I personally value lyrics the most.
Of course the music has to be there when I want to dance or just, you know, bang my head.
And the music is important for the presentation of the lyrics and can both empesize or ruin the message of the song. And sometimes I fall in love with a song purely because of the beautiful music.

But I have discovered that if the performance of the text is good enough, you don't need the music for it to be captivating. And I surprise myself by listening to this poem on repeat as if it were a song.
I didn't even know that I cared for poetry, but then I remember that lyrics are just that.

Wanna hear a somewhat awesome story?

                                                                                                           03.february 2014

It's from last summer. And I didn't think that much of it then, but my mother keeps retelling it to people so it occured to me that maybe I should tell it to people too. It is, after all, kinda cool.

In the summer my neighbor's dog managed to break free from her leash and chase my cat. Said neighbor chased the dog at once and stopped her before any damage was done, but my cat zoomed off like a rocket and we couldn't find him anywhere. I looked for him around the house, through different neighbors's gardens, up and down the street, and I started to get really worried and frustrated.

After a while I just stood at our terrace and called for him, almost ready to give up.
Right then, this common magpie lands at a birch-branch right next to me. And I mean right next to me, I could almost touch him. And I was like "well, hello old neighbor, you're awefully intimate today, what gives?"

Now I've always thought of the common magpie as a fairly dull bird. But I read somewhere that they can get over 10 years old and that they are intelligent enough to recognize themselves in a mirror (wich makes them, not only the most intelligent species of birds, but one of the world's most intelligent animals). They also, apparently, have a very strong family bond. And I realize that the bird I found in my company must have grown up alongside my 13 year old cat and that this bird's parents must have been the ones chasing my cat across the lawn when he, as a young'un, had been raiding their nest.
Anyways, this bird flyes up and sits down on a telephone line outside our garden.
And he waits until, it seems, he's certain my eyes have followed him.

He then flyes up again and this time lands in a tree next to my neighbor's garage. A tree that also contains my, still terrified, cat. It took us an hour, but my brother and I managed to lure our cat down with some tuna and he's now living happily ever after. Hopefully; so is the gentleman magpie.

True story.

The bling method

                                                                                                                               14. december 2013

Some years ago a classmate spotted my lunchbox. The one shaped like Hello Kitty's head.
this one:

 There I was, 20-something years old with a Hello Kitty-lunchbox, a pen featuring Little My and stockings with colorful ornaments.
My classmate proclaimed loudly that there were two methods for dealing with reality and it's grayness and blahness. The first one included ignoring it and otherwise trying to escape. The second one he called the Bling Method. This method works by surrounding yourself with lovely objects to cheer you up and make things seem lighter. And I was apparently nailing this method.

I think he ment it to be a humorous comment as well as a compliment on my lunchbox (he is that type), but it really stuck to me. And I think he was right. I think there are more than two ways of dealing with life, but I definitly think the Bling Method is one of them. And I seriously think I'm nailing it.

When I choose bling to work my magic, however, it can't just be any lovely object. It has to bear some meaning. Like the ring my mother gave me when I was younger. She said it was a magic ring and if I wore it I wouldn't be so scared when I tryed to ride the bike. And it worked! (I was really slow at learning to ride it, 'cause I was so scared of falling) I still keep that ring. And to really work, it has to be things like that.

Some people read bibleverses, I carry stuff with me.
(I don't really use that ring anymore, it does no longer fit my finger, but it's a good example for explaining what kind of stuff I use as talismans, if you wanna call it that.)

Also. When I'm stressed I make rituals for myself. So that when I feel like I'm loosing control I can pretend I'm in control by making tea in my tea-dedicated cup, and sit at my tea-dedicated sitting place and drink tea the way tea is supposed to be drunk.

Lately I've been kind of tense. And things have been feeling out of my control. And sometimes when old rituals wont do the trick you have to make new ones. And even though I have a cup dedicated for feel-better-and-in-control-tea, I didn't have one for This-too-shall-pass-coffee.
But
I did.
On my shelf there was a cup I got as a present many years ago. I used to keep spare change in it because I was afraid it would break if I put it in our overloaded cupboard. It has "number 1" written on it and is bought at a well renowned ceramic studio in Finland. My friend gave it to me and said I could choose what I wanted to be number 1 of.

Gifts are the perfect talismans because they carry with them the care of the giver. My friend found this cup and thought of me. And I know that when I hold the cup.

And I hope my friends know this and know how much they matter.

I want you to know that when I feel down I wear that cool Legend of Zelda braclet I got for christmas that year.
I want you to know that when I'm nervous I wear my sweet Night Fury you got costum made for me.
I want you to know that I still keep that colorful beaded braclet you made for my birthday when we were 13 years old.
I want you to know that the toy tiger we bought together with your toy unicorn still sits on my bed every night.
I want you to know that when I'm feeling defeated I escape into a book, using the dragonfly bookmark you stitched for me.
I want you to know that it warms my heart every time I light tealights in the green tealight holders you bought for me as a thank you when you were young and scared.


For I am the number 1 bling magician.




 and speaking of such.
Here's a song by Placebo.

Setting fire to our insides for fun

Sometimes (or actually most times) I write elaborate blogposts and then at last minute it feels wrong to post them.
I wrote three during this winter/spring without daring posting them, but for some reason it feels ok now, when some time has passed.
I don't know what I'm scared of, but that's just how it is.
But I am trying to clean up this mess that is me, and I will post those blogs.

I am going away on holiday for four weeks. (madness. four whole weeks. I'll be dead tired when I return.)
So I thought I would schedule said posts to appear on the sundays when I'm away.
When I return I promise to write (and publish!) a post about southern Germany and my adventures there. (we'll be taking a quick quick stop in France too, I'm really quite extatic about that part.)

I'm also working on a post about my absolute favourite cities around the world, inspired by my trip to Turku this spring, but it's not finished yet.


Oh, and here are some wonderful music. Daughter really makes the most beautiful music I know of right now. I love the lyrics. And I love how the sound builds up with the guitars and the drums. It's so simple and yet so massive. (and yes, it's the one from the Widerø-commercial).

Seriously

Listen to this. We all need to listen to this.