Goodbye youth delegates (and see you soon)

 Samantha (from Zimbabwe)

 Arati (from Nepal) and Sammy

Me, Arati and Sammy

This Monday, I was in Oslo to attend an evaluation seminar with the youth delegates, both the Norwegians who have stayed abroad, and the delegates who have stayed in Norway the past year. I had to say goodbye to the Nepalese and Zimbabwean delegates, whom I will probably not see again in... who knows?

BUT NEWS I am going to be a youth delegate myself, and will travel to Colombia in September, so I could at least say "see you soon" to William and Willian, who are the delegates who were staying and working in Troms before Christmas.

I've got my tickets now, and I'll be leaving for Bogotá in the beginning of September. I really am.

This has been a dream of mine since I first started in the Red Cross Youth at the age of 16, which is now close to nine years ago, which means forever/a third of my life. I've been working hard on fulfilling this dream the past three years, and now it's happening, and I don't quite believe it. And I do realise how lucky I am to get this chance, that there are a lot of chances to travel and discover and exchange in my world.

Family times

 Andreas has gotten so much bigger since last time - two months of his life is actually quite a bit

 And he's getting up, falling down, walking about, climbing, fidgeting and enjoying himself

 not to mention throwing soap bubble containers into coffee cups and laughing

 While Dina and I had an entertaining show for "the adults" (I don't count as one of them).
Said show consisted of singing, playing drums with spoons and drinking water from a bowl

We also had slightly creepy mask scenes in the middle of the day

As these children seem to have a neverending energy. That never ends.

While the rest of us fell down into chairs and sofas and dozed on every available surface at different points of the day, these two kept going until a little past bedtime. I love my niece and nephew, but I must clearly build up some stamina.

Borough Market and Greenwich, that's all

 with my sister on one of the bridges (I'm in the reflection of her sunglasses if you look closely)

 we went to Borough Market, which has all the brilliance

 And Greenwich Market, and as we were so close, we might as well walk up to that line

 But, refusing to pay to stand in front of a line, we snatched a photo outside the gates (mum looking as casual as can be)

And looked at the park and sat down and ate grapes

So, these are all my photos from London. Really poor show this time, as they were all taken on our last day there, really. Having a phone with a relatively all right camera means I keep leaving my heavy, proper camera at home, which is a shame for my photography and a blessing for my shoulders.

Abney Park, the Green Cemetery

 Yes, I went back to the cemetery I went to in January

 Because it's too beautiful (and sad) for words

 It's like a lost, secret garden

 Where plants and flowers seem to grow however and wherever they want

 Covering the paths.

 I brought my mum and sister

 Who also share this fascination

 about how people are buried, and when, and why, and how old and far too young they were

 and how peaceful it feels, at least in day time

 and how much history you can read from the stones,

only guessing at what's true and what's not, and how much you're misinterpreting it

So, yes. Most of my London photos are from a cemetery. Slightly odd. Then again, cemeteries to me are peaceful places, with hundreds of forgotten or hidden stories on the gravestones, some still being kept by families who care, some by families who don't know the entire story, and many seemingly completely forgotten.

*Ta-dah*

(Summer 2011, some beach in Cornwall)

I have a new laptop! Or, new second-hand, but it feels new. And it's better than my old one, which was going on it's 7th year, and slowly collapsing. My new laptop makes me happy because it fills these criteria:

• Keyboard has all the letters in the alphabet, and they work
• Can be used without being plugged in, because hey, the battery actually works
• Will follow my commands, instead of deciding to make it's own and do the opposite of what I want
• Is shiny
• Yet has a matte screen which makes a photographer happy