Sparkle

Sparkle, originally uploaded by karlakp.

Wearing my favorite sparkly turquoise swing skirt to Plant/Krauss show tonight. Gonna 'Shine It All Around'. I am so excited!

lifelong dream, realized tonight

Tonight I will be in the same room as Robert Plant.

To say I am excited would be an understatement. I'm so excited that I am strangely calm and mellow. Like, past excitement into Zen.

In fact, no words can describe how I feel. His music (from Yardbirds to Zeppelin to his solo stuff and onwards) has been a consistent influence in my life. It carries me away and into a calm happy place in a way very few things do. Shine it all around.

I can't believe I will be in the same airspace as Robert Plant tonight.

I'm plotzing. And I am not even sure what plotzing is. But I'm doing it.

I am unreasonably jealous

Have you heard about this wedding?

I am oddly jealous about this. Some suburban girl from Canada gets to marry into the royal family? Her dad is an electrician? She's a 'management consultant', whatever the hell THAT is.

I mean, c'mon already! *I'm* supposed to be the princess here. I'm the one who has studied English culture and history since I was a kid. I'm the one who looks great in long dresses, corsets, and royal orbs, and honey, I can wear the HELL out of a tiara.

And some Canadian chick just steals my (admittedly never-gonna-happen) dream?

Bitch! Hate her!

17 May

Today is the 17th of May, also known as Norway's National Constitution Day. Everyone gets dressed up in their finest "bunader" and there are parades and much flag waving and national pride. It is always a very nice day.

Except, today? The weather? Absolute shit. I mean it couldn't BE any worse if someone had ordered the shittiest day on record. It's COLD outside (maybe 40F?), and bucketing down rain and the rain is mixed with SNOW. Everyone is dressed up so nice and marching in this shit and they are trying so hard to be happy when I know for a fact they all just WANT TO GET INSIDE. The plaza is set up with benches and band stands for an outdoor celebration, but anyone who sits out there right now is crazy. We had plans to join the festivities in central Oslo but everyone sort of wimped out. I am still in my jammies trying to keep warm from the draught coming under the window. All that nice weather of last week is a golden memory.

We were awakened at 8:30am by a barrage of loud dance music that came from the Russ buss pictured above. The bus parked itself on the road outside the town plaza (awaiting the parade to start at 9:30) and the girls all gathered on the roof and danced and sang and hollered and cheered during their wait. Very cute, except EARLY and those girls must have been so tired after a night of drinking, fucking and partying (which is what Russ do, for like, three weeks BEFORE their final exams) and very cold from standing in the shit weather. I was glad they were out there and we were inside and I wasn't 17 trying to prove what a hard partier I am. Seems exhausting. They managed to keep their energy up for the parade and gamely joined in with the wet bedraggled celebrants. The parade was quicker than usual this year

Luckily (for them and us, I imagine) Russ ends today. No more drive bys from loud busses and being awakened at 2am by screaming teenagers filling the fountain in the plaza with dish soap. (From now on I get to be awakened by kids on scooters with the mufflers removed, zipping around town at 2am and having races. Good times. Good times. )

Also, on a personal note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN! Here's hoping your Big 4-0 is a great one!

Not so much a blog post as verbal barf

Random today.

• Went out for a work gathering Tuesday night. Work gatherings almost ALWAYS contain the following: liquor. bars. laughter. an expensive cab ride home very late at night.
  
• This one was no different, with the addition of the following: snorting cognac.
  
• Don't ask.
• I SAID don't ASK!
  
• Ok, ok you HAD to know.
• You do it from a spoon.
  
• YES it hurts.
  
• And it's not very sexy, cognac running from your nose.
  
• My boss did it in London (on a dare from a bartender) and told me about it, so of course I made him prove that he could do it.
  
• Then it became, "If I do it you have to do it".
• So we did.
  
• Ow.
• My hangover Wednesday was not too bad, but I was tired.
  
• I went to work, though.
• Wanted to "work from home".
• Which is what my boss did.
  
• Hmmph. Smart bastard.
  
• I took a long nap after work.
  
• In other news......
  
• Got invited to a hen party in Ibiza yesterday.
• This is very cool for many reasons.
• Firstly, hello, IBIZA?
• Secondly, it's my cousin's fiance who invited me, which means she likes me enough to include me in her bachelorette party.
• Which is cool because I like her too.
  
• Thirdly, it's just cool to be invited to party in Ibiza (to leave from Gatwick).
• But I can't go.
• Because I am OLD.
  
• Like 10 years older than the other hens.
• And I really don't think I could party for three days straight without getting very, very sick. (Remember Amsterdam and the flu? Oy.)
  
• AND.....
  
• Don't have time off from work what with upcoming travel, which includes:
• Texas
• Tunisia
• Thailand
• London
• So Ibiza is out. But I am bummed to not go because I have always wanted to.
• Probably should have gone when I was younger.
  
• Eek, first time I ever said THAT. First old age regret!
  
• I actually have very few of those.
• Because my motto is try anything once, and if you don't like it you don't have to do it again.
  
• So I've tried alot of things.
• Which explains the Unfortunate Incident of the Cognac.
• Which I have now learned I won't repeat.
  
• There's some lame movie set in Roman times on TV.
• I keep thinking that their gladiator sandals are SO FABULOUS!
• Even on old Roman warrior dudes.
• I think it's time to eat. I'm hungry.
  

Coffee!

Coffee!, originally uploaded by karlakp.

My morning coffee. Strong black and sweet with an extra shot of espresso. And people at work wonder why I bounce around so much!

Beauty

Beauty, originally uploaded by karlakp.

Went for a long walk today. Beautiful blue sky and clouds pointing to the horizon. Look closely at the upper middle sky and you can see the moon. Norway is so fucking beautiful in summer it literally makes me teary eyed at times. Just mind blowing. I am so glad to experience it!

Tveter Gård

Tveter Gård, originally uploaded by karlakp.

Old Norwegian farm on the Semsvannet (Sem Lake).

Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood, originally uploaded by karlakp.

Waterfall

Waterfall, originally uploaded by karlakp.

$10 beans

$10 beans, originally uploaded by karlakp.

Just had to post a pic of the world's most expensive baked beans!

Poor girl

Poor girl, originally uploaded by karlakp.

She forgot her pants today!

At least they are warm.

Somebody at BBC has a seriously wack sense of humor.

Funniest thing I've read in months.

Today! Good day! Happy!

It's so freaking gorgeous outside I am smiling like a goon. So is everyone else. Everyone in this part of Norway is friendly, happy and talkative, dare I even say, chatty? STRANGERS are being nice to me. That alone should tell you how good the weather is. It might seem a bit psychotic to be so happy just because it's nice out, but in a place where winter and darkness can rule your life for 7 months a year, a day like today is nothing less than a little slice of heaven!

 

AND!

 

Rich booked us an anniversary trip for this summer.(All on his own. Without me doing anything!)  It will be our 15th, though I can't really believe we are old enough to have been married 15 years (plus the 4 years we were together before that!) (maybe I should say we got married at 16, huh?)

 

Anyhow, we are going here. For a week!

 

I am so excited I have to pee. I've been wanting an island in the sun holiday for AGES. Woo! They filmed Star Wars there. I'm gonna see where Luke grew up!

---

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

glass

glass, originally uploaded by karlakp.

Today was another beautiful day.

I freaking LOVE summer in Norway.

In which 'Project Runway' has been RUINED and Iron Man RULES!

They've just wrecked Project Runway forever.

 

It will now be based in Los Angeles.

 

Seriously, LA? New York is the fashion capital of the US, NOT Los Angeles. Heidi Klum ruins one of the best shows EVER so she can be closer to her family? Ever heard of an AIRPLANE? They get you places fast, and honestly, how much time did she put in anyhow?

 

I bet Project Runway's rating will go straight down the tubes from here on out.

 

In other news, I saw Iron Man last night and it effin' ROCKED. LOVED it, mostly because of the intelligent and ironic way that Robert Downey played the character. (The nicely built up biceps and shoulders didn't hurt.) Great music, too, no new rappy hip hop crap.... just good ol' rock n roll.

 

GO SEE IT, yes, even you girls! You'll like it! It's fun!

---

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

Old Norwegian barn

barn, originally uploaded by karlakp.

A very solid abandoned barn that we passed on our walk today.

The ramp in front is MASSIVE and built of rocks. At one time there was a wooden bridge that would have connected it to the upper level of the barn. This picture shows only the first half or possibly third of the barn. It's really big.

Who would abandon it and why? The whole farm was obviously built with love and care and quality, so why leave it? There has obviously been a farm there for a long long time. It's right by the old Viking areas, with trails all around and even some small burial mounds (though my friend Kristin says they aren't burial mounds but just old rock and wood heaps, but the shape of them and the fact that it is an old Viking area makes me think otherwise. I have been told I can be overly romantic, though.) There is a map on a sign nearby that shows the whole area peppered with Viking trade routes, lime kilns and settlements. For sure there have been people around here for over 1000 years.

outbuilding

outbuilding, originally uploaded by karlakp.

An outbuilding near the abandoned barn and houses. I like the rocky feet of this building. The rock on the bottom left is about the size of a large suitcase.

blair witch trees

blair witch trees, originally uploaded by karlakp.

A row of trees on the abandoned farm we saw today. There was a spooky vibe there, I would not want to go at night.
It's obvious local kids used to go there and hang out. There are signs on the doors warning to keep out and any possible entries are pretty well boarded up and secured.

abandoned farm house

abandoned farm house, originally uploaded by karlakp.

There was a whole abandoned farm on our walk, with a big house, smaller house (this one) a huge barn and outbuildings. I wonder what happened that it got left to rot like that.