Crazy, heady days of summer

Summer has hit Oslo with a body slam of no small force.

WHAM! and it's warm. In fact, it's not even warm, it's pretty hot. Today it's supposed to hit 30C. That's above 80F for you US types. Now, I know, 80F doesn't seem that hot, until you realize that generally there is no air conditioning here, except in office buildings, and so it gets pretty warm in people's homes. Houses and apartments here are designed to keep IN warmth, not breathe it out, so it gets really hot inside.

Last night, for example, I had the windows open full bore in the bedroom, but no air came in whatsoever, it was a breezeless night, and I was uncomfortably hot.

It lead to a sleepless night.

But I got up this morning, and insouciantly tossed on a white linen sundress, bounced out of the flat with wet hair,  got on my bike, and rode to work, the breeze drying my hair, the sun warming my skin.  I think that just that ease of getting dressed in 15 minutes and not having to layer on 40 different types of clothes, is worth a little bit of sleeplessness.

And yeah, you can see a LOT of skin around Oslo right now. All the women are using every excuse to wear their showiest, flirtiest sundresses, and all the guys are hard at work showing off their pecs and toned abs. It makes for a VERY pleasant atmosphere of beautiful people watching. In general, the people watching here is some of the best in the world, perhaps, maybe, Stockholm excepted. (GOD people are gorgeous in Stockholm.)

I went to the park yesterday (see previous picture of my little parking space) and the park was PACKED with bikini and shorts clad people, white skin everywhere, as far as the eye could see. It was the whitest place I have ever been. Almost everyone had 'engangsgriller' (one use grills) and were happily grilling hot dogs and meats, drinking beer or water, and playing soccer (oh and I found out too late there were RUGBY PLAYERS having a practice, damn I was in the wrong place to see that!). I was there for a few hours, wishing someone would bring me rose, (no luck) and finally left when the smoke from 1000 little grills got a bit thick, and also, made me hungry what with all that roasty food smell.

I decided yesterday I need a minion, preferably a nice, loin-cloth clad, strong-handed male minion, who can bring me chilled wine, rub sunscreen on the places I can't get to, bring me morning coffee or sushi when wanted, and generally act to smooth the way for me so that I may waft about oblivious and pampered. I would be nice to my minion, I really would. He wouldn't even have to be an evil minion, just slightly naughty. I'd never make him do anything too onerous, he'd mostly be there to take care of the small tasks I abhor, carry things, find places for all my shoes which keep escaping their storage, and do the occasional unguent-application and back scratching, and perhaps read to me and tell me stories. In today's economy, I wonder if I could get a minion at a decent market rate?