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Three years, one month and counting

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 09:17:39 +0100

Just a little note to tell you that Sylvain and I celebrated our 3 year-anniversary one month ago today... We celebrated with a home cooked meal - duck confit and potatoes as the main course, and chocolate and coffee panna cotta for dessert, both accompanied by French wines (one "light" red one and a sweet white one).

Got a Mac

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:18:45 +0100

Last month, Steve Jobs at Apple announced the arrival of their new laptop computers. And in the beginning of November, I got one of them :) It's even more beautiful than my old 12" G4 Powerbook :)

Dry spell

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:43:11 +0200

I realize I haven't updated my blog in a while, very sorry about that!

Latest news are the arrivals of our new French dining table, which will go very well with the table cloths my mom got us in Provence.

It can fit eight people when it's at its smallest, and at least 12 people when the extensions are installed in the middle of it.

We also got a wine fridge to store all of our bottles at a stable temperature. Ours can be viewed here.

Besides the two new arrivals, we will soon have moose meat in our freezer, because one of Sylvain's colleagues went hunting earlier this autuman, and is sharing his "profit" with his work buddies... I can't wait!

Sylvain and I did try some moose sausage a couple of weeks ago, which, apparently, isn't as good as saussison sec d'Auvergne (dried sausage from the Auvergne region)... At least according to Sylvain... hehe...

The bedroom becomes office, the office becomes bedroom

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:57:31 +0200

I’ve been thinking about the layout of the house for some time, of which I wasn’t completely happy about.

Today, we switched the office and the bedroom around, and suddenly, we have a bit more space for all we need the rooms for. We won’t have our clothes in the bedroom, but that doesn’t really matter.

Joining the community

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:46:45 +0200

Last weekend, I contacted the Eidsvoll concert band (an orchestra including only woodwind, brass and percussion instruments), to see if they were intersted in getting another member. And Monday in the afternoon, a man called to give me some more information.

The man in question turned out to be working at the electrician’s company who had done some work at the house earlier, and he’d also stopped by our house on two occasions.

Band practice is Monday nights, so I went the very same evening. It felt really strange playing again after over a year’s pause, but I managed to follow the music, at least by looking at the sheet music.

This will be a good opportunity to get out of the house at least one night a week, and to get to know new people.

To seeing old friends!

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:33:39 +0200

As I was saying in the previous entry, my friend Nina was staying with us before catching her plane(s) to go back to school in Grand Forks, ND.

Thursday morning, we stopped by the supermarket to get some Norwegian chocolate for some of her friends, before going to Eidsvoll to catch the train to Oslo Airport Gardermoen. After checking in, we went to get an ice cream each, and chatted for a while. Then, it was time for me to get back home, to clean up the house, and to go shopping.

Saturday, in the late afternoon or evening, we are having a friend of Sylvain from France over for dinner, along with his family, and another family. For the past week, the seven of them have been driving around Norway, admiring Norwegian mountains and fjords, etc.

For the occasion, we’re serving "fårikål" (lit. "mutton in cabage"), one of Norway’s national dishes, so they will at least have tasted a small part of my country’s "culinary tradition".

Anyways, back at the house after grocery shopping, I get a call from K, a guy I’ve known since before he was born (I’m born in April, he’s born in August of 1983), because K’s parents came to visit us while he was still in his mother’s tummy. I hadn’t seen him in a little over two years, when I’d brought Sylvain to Homme for the first time.

Coincidently, he was staying at Gardermoen between flights, because he works part time as an air steward, and because his next flight would go from Oslo the next morning.

After all this time, I wouldn’t pass up the occasion to see him, and he ended up eating dinner at the house, before I drove him back to the hotel.

To going back to school!

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:08:20 +0200

Wednesday was my first official day back to university after summer vacation. When I woke up that morning, I knew I would have a busy day ahead of me:

Before getting on the train to go to Oslo, I was supposed to give my house keys to my friend Nina. She was going to spend the night at our house, because she was flying back to Grand Forks, ND, to start her last year of college.

In all the excitement, I’d forgotten to remind her of the name of the station, and so she didn’t get off when she was supposed to (Eidsvoll verk stasjon). Fortunately, the train turns around and goes back only one stop after (Eidsvoll), but I was getting on, and so I only had about 30 seconds to give her my keys before going to Oslo.

On campus, I was meeting one school friend for coffee - the coffee shop there makes the best white moccachino ever! - before she was going to the airport to get her kid. After that, I was having lunch - home made chicken salad by yours truly! - with two other school friends, before meeting with my MA thesis adviser.

I ended my day at the university with the first lecture of the semester...

Sci-fi conventions rule

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:45:23 +0200

July 31 - August 3, I volunteered at the Oslo Science Fiction Festival, mostly as a "door woman", but also performing other miscellaneous tasks.

It all started last summer, when I read a newspaper article about the festival in the national newspaper Aftenposten. At the time, I thought, "That might be fun!", but didn’t think about it much before I came over it again a few months ago.

The festival is a merger between Norcon and ShadowCon, two former annual Norwegian sci-fi conventions, and has been in its current form for the past two years.

After I showed my interest for volunteering at the festival, I participated at one initial meeting, where I got to know the (faces of the) people running the show. I wasn’t able to participate at the second meeting, however, because I was in the south of Norway at the time.

When I showed up at the festival last Thursday, I expected to be only working at the festival, and not participating in any of the events. My boss, however, encouraged me to find thing of interest, and we would work my shifts around these. And so, I was able, amongst other things, to watch some segments with the Scottish author Iain (M.) Banks, one of the guests of honor, including a book signing, where I got one "mainstream" (his word, not mine) fiction novel dedicated to myself, and one sci-fi novel to my dad.

The volunteers compensation was one "credit" per hour, which could be used for buying food in the cafeteria, a festival t-shirt and a reusable water bottle. We also had access to the "Ranger room", where we could relax between shifts, and make sandwiches if we were hungry. Those of us working late afternoons and evenings, were given dinners made by the "volunteer uncle" (a guy whose responsibility was the wellbeing of the volunteers).

At the festival’s closing ceremony, there’s a lottery, where the winners can choose amongst a certain number of prizes. Those who win first get the best ones, etc... Personally, I found nothing of interest amongst the prizes, so I didn’t buy any tickets, but some went a bit overboard, and bought entire lottery books... And of course, they won lots of things...

All in all, a good experience, despite the random train schedule, an the fact that the national train company NSB chose this period to start working on the rails going north from Oslo...

The vacation marathon part 3

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:37:57 +0200

Day 1

Friday night, with about an hour’s delay with their flight from London airport Heathrow, Emma and Sandy came through the gates of the ‘Nothing to declare’ zone at Oslo Airport Gardermoen’s custom’s area.

These two girls are friends I met during my stay in Cannes about six years ago, along with a fourth member of our foursome, Angelica, who was the only one who couldn’t make the trip, as she was stuck in California at the time... We were very sorry you couldn’t make it, Angelica, and have tried our best to document the weekend with photos found in the photo section (at this time, only the four of us have access to the album. I will give access to people with passwords later).

Sylvain and I picked them up at the airport, and we arrived at home about 11:30pm. We stayed up until about 1am before I collapsed. Before that, we got the two camp beds ready for the girls in the office, and drank some tea.

They had brought me, upon request, some tea. Sandy had gone to Whittard of Chelsea in London, and gotten me a small selection of English leaf teas (Ceylon, Earl Grey, Darjeeling and English breakfast), all gathered in a very nice wooden box along with a dip infuser.

Day 2

For Saturday morning, we had decided not to use an alarm, and woke up past ten. After getting ready, us three girls headed by train to Oslo. There, we first headed up to my university campus, which obviously was deserted because it was a Saturday. From there, we walked down to the Vigeland statue park in Frognerparken, where you can find, amongst other things, a statue for which my great aunt Tordis was a model when she was young.

After the park, we headed downtown again to buy lunch at the Subway sandwich shop at the train station. I know it’s not very Norwegian, but I hadn’t eaten there in a while, and wished to go there. Fortunately, Emma and Sandy didn’t object to my proposal.

When lunch was over, we headed up Karl Johans gate, the main walking street in Oslo, towards the royal palace. On the way, we went into a couple of bookshops because I needed to look for some post-its to use for my MA literature, and because I wanted to look for English editions of the Sisterhood of traveling pants series.

Before reaching the palace, we passed by the parliament building, where Sandy also massaged my back (thanks, Sandy :D).

Heading back to the station, I wanted us to take the T-bane to get to the station quicker, to be able to take the train that stopped at Eidsvoll verk. Unfortunately, my lousy sense of direction (and memory, and stress) caused us to take a train going in the opposite direction, thus making us miss the train. Instead, we took the train going to Lillehammer, and Sylvain picked us up at the station at Eidsvoll.

That night, we watched Music and Lyrics and The Whole Nine Yards while eating Sylvain’s homemade pizza. Sandy and I also did some yoga, which did wonders for my back.

Day 3

After getting ready in the morning, we headed out of the house for a few hours. Our plan for the day was to visit the Eidsvoll manor house. This was my third time there, but first time with an English-speaking guide. Before going in, Sandy got her picture taken with a man who turned out to portray the Danish prince Christian Fredrik, who had wished to become king of an independent Norway in 1814. During the tour of the manor, we “ran into” him again in the prince’s private quarters, where he gave each of us a copy of the access pass each representative had been given to be able to attend the elaboration of the Constitution.

After the visit, we spent the rest of the day back at our house, first outside on the terrace in the sun, and afterwards watching a series called Medium, which I’d started to watch about a week earlier. Both of them seemed to like it, and also seemed to get caught up in the storylines of each episode. We also watched Robbie Williams’ concert at Royal Albert Hall, which accompanied his “Swing when you’re winning” album.

For lunch, we ate pieces of bread with a kind of sardine paste (mashed sardines mixed lemon juice and butter) which Sylvain had made while we were at the manor. For dinner, we ate pieces of salmon marinated in a soy and lemon sauce and accompanied by tagliatelle pasta.

Day four

This was the only day we woke up with the help of an alarm clock.

For lunch that day, we had decided to make banana and chocolate pancakes. So, first thing we did after breakfast was to head down to the supermarket to get the needed ingredients. There, the girls also got some Norwegian chocolate to bring back to England.

The girls made the pancakes from scratch, whisking the batter by hand, and frying them on Sylvain’s hotplate, which we can also use to melt raclette cheese when we’re eating Swiss.

During that time, I made them some “mixed tapes” (actually CDs, but oh well…) with some French songs, some movie sound tracks (Legally Blonde and Music and Lyrics amongst others), and Robbie Williams’ Swing when you’re winning album.

While waiting for Sylvain to get back from work, we watched some more episodes of Medium, which we continued to watch while eating. All, except vegetarian Emma, had fried chicken for dinner that evening. Emma had a veggie omelet, and I think Sylvain had a piece of that, too, although I’m not sure about that.

After dinner, it was time to bring Emma and Sandy back to the airport. This time, I had to drive, because Sylvain had drunk a glass of wine by mistake while eating.

We made it to the airport about an hour before the plane was scheduled to leave the airport. After the girls had checked in, they wondered if we should go get a coffee or something before they went through the security. Unfortunately, my tears started to appear at that moment, and I thought I wouldn’t be able to make it if we stayed together any longer. So, Sylvain and I watched them go through the metal detectors and towards their gate before heading back to the car and back home.

I cried all the way home, and then some, while watching the ’50’s movie High society and checking the Gardermoen and Heathrow websites for Emma and Sandy’s plane’s flight status. As they did coming to Oslo, the flight to London was delayed for one hour.

Emma sent me an SMS when the two girls arrived safely at the airport. Her boyfriend Johnny picked her up at the airport, while Sandy, apparently, spent the night in London with her boyfriend Sam before heading back to Cambridge.

The vacation marathon part 2

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:02:16 +0200

My dad left Friday afternoon, after spending a few days with us. We didn’t get much rest, however, because that same night Sylvain’s dad arrived for the weekend.

His visit started with a delayed flight from Paris, and a "lost" suitcase upon arrival in Oslo. It ended with him finding his car with a flat battery, but the middle was, apparently, worth all the trouble.

On my request, he had brought four bottles of red wine (Cahors and St Nicolas de Bourgueil), some smelly cheese and some French sausage for his son. Sylvain wouldn’t see these gifts before retrieving his father’s suitcase at the airport Saturday morning. That day, I had planned for us to go to two of Oslo’s many museums; Norsk folkemuseum and Vikingskipmuseet on the island of Bygdøy. For those of you also reading Sylvain’s blog, his impressions of the weekend are coming up, he just has to get the time to sit down to write an entry about it...

We also climbed up on the roof of the new opera building in Oslo. One word of advice for those wanting to do the same; bring sunglasses, because you risk going "snow blind" from the reflection of the sun on the white marble.

Returning home from Oslo, Sylvain showed his father the building where he works, as well as the bike trail he uses when going back and forth.

Sunday morning for father and son was spent at Eidsvollbygningen, with a "private" tour in English, arranged by yours truly. I will arrange for another "private" tour this weekend, when my friends Sandy and Emma are coming from England to visit us (see The vacation marathon part 3).

As well as discovering the various ways Norwegians have used wood to build houses, I also urged Sylvain’s father to taste a local speciality called "lefse", which is a kind of soft flat bread folded in two, with a mix of a little butter, sugar and cinnamon in the middle. He liked it so much that we found some for him to bring back to France...

The vacation marathon part 1

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:38:58 +0200

We came back from France last Sunday night, and arrived at the house a little past midnight Monday morning.

One of the bitches of traveling by plane, is the weight restrictions - in our case, 20kg of checked in luggage and 10kg of cabin luggage. Because the excess kilos cost an arm and a leg, we decided to send a lot of stuff by mail. Even by getting rid of about 25kg divided into four prepaid boxes, we were still quite close to the weight limit... One of the reasons for this might have been the four bottles of wine we had in each suitcase, but still...

We had a very good time in France, seeing members of Sylvain's family again, some after a one and a half year wait. The weather in Argelès wasn't as good as it could have been, but we still managed to go swimming and get a tan (and a slight sunburn...).

When we got to Evry and Sylvain's mom, we went to see the Chateau of Vaux le Vicomte, which supposedly inspired Louis XIV to build his Chateau at Versailles.

Monday afternoon, Sylvain's friends from Rennes came, and spent the night here, to be a bit closer to the airport. They got to see some of our life here, amongst other things, the house where we lived before, and where Sylvain works.

Wednesday (yesterday) afternoon, my dad and Anggun (the cat), arrived by train from the south of Norway. Anggun will stay with us for a few weeks, before we bring her with us back south. Dad returns to the south tomorrow afternoon, after which The vacation marathon, part 2 begins...

1/4 of my MA is over

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:59:04 +0200

I had my last exam yesterday. Man, it is good to be done! Especially when I haven’t had classes for the past few weeks...

I’m spending today vegging and washing clothes. Tomorrow, my mom and a friend of mine are coming for a two day visit. Then, on Friday, Sylvain and I are off to France. Hopefully, the weather there will be as good as it has been here for the past couple of weeks. I’ve even started to get a tan! :)

Pictures

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:10:46 +0200

You can see pictures of the house on Sylvain’s photo page.

The latest addition(s) to the house are curtains for the kitchen and the living room, which I bought in Sweden a few weeks ago with my mother.

I have also acquired some dessert bowls and spoons. My mom gave us six ice cream bowls which have never been used in our household because of the small quantity. We bought the spoons in Sweden.

The desert spoon size is between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, and which makes it perfect for eating cereal. In a couple of weeks, we will also receive a 68 piece steel cutlery set, and then we will be well equipped, at least cutlery-wise...

We still need some more shelve space for books and DVDs and such, and a small "entertainment center" to store what is needed for evening entertainment...

Another duck breast that definitely didn’t go to waste...

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:13:50 +0200

We had Sylvain’s boss, and his wife, over for dinner Saturday. They brought us flowers and an Italian sweet, sparkly red wine called Brachetto d’Acqui. Unfortunately, my allergies has forced us to put the flowers out on the terrace...

Sylvain had prepared a very nice (French style) meal, as usual, starting with snacks and aperitifs. The main course consisted of delicious pieces of duck meat, a potato and apple mix and a mixed greens salad. Then followed a "cheese course", and the meal culminated in a home made pear-and-chocolate cake, accompanied by the wonderful, Italian wine.

The evening ended where it had started, in the couch area. Our guests had placed themselves in the armchairs, leaving the couch to us. Sylvain’s boss didn’t seem to want to leave his seat, as it seemed exactly right for this hight (he’s quite tall).

Overall, a very enjoyable evening!

Vacation cont.

Anne-Inger H. Rage — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:33:56 +0200

We have a few more additions to our schedule.

When we come back from Argelès, we will probably spend at least a couple of hours with Nico and Sophie, two friends of Sylvain’s from Rennes. They are visiting Sophie’s sister Hélène who has been in Oslo this past semester with the Erasmus exchange program. For those of my readers who speak French, Hélène’s blog can be found here. We will only have the one day to see each other, because they are going back to France two days after we come back.

Secondly, Sylvain’s dad is coming on a weekend visit the weekend after our return.

Thirdly, I have two friends coming from England for a long weekend in the end of June.

But before all this, I have to finish my semester. I have to hand in a second term paper in a little over a week, and an exam in the beginning of June. On Friday, we are having Sylvain’s boss and his wife over for dinner, and next week, we will also have electricians come fix our electrical system, and a locksmith to reinforce our locks.

I will also slowly begin the work for my Master’s thesis...