Let's talk weather

 28th May 2012, Monday

3rd June 2012, Sunday

 29th May 2012, Tuesday

(day after I came back from scorching London)

3rd June 2012, Sunday

(we had dinner outside, and cake outside, until 9 in the evening when it started to get chilly)

That's all.

Falmouth III

 Who is this Emma-person I see before me? MY Emma-person. So many hugs.

 English Sunday Roast is amazing.

 Tony, Karla, Mak, Maja, Emma, Jenny, me, Lucy (thanks, Henrik)

 Emma and Lucy

 Kimberley Park looking all right

Grumpy man, presumably enjoying the weather, the park and the ice cream he's eating

Aaaand we saunter (on a train, not really possible, but who cares) towards Brighton!

And nooow

I travel to Setermoen where my sister lives (have a look at the map now), where in winter they have minus thirty, and in summer they have plus thirty (Living away from the sea, that's what you get), and at the moment we (meaning me and my dad) are unsure whether the roads there are wintery or summery (seeing that it snowed yesterday) and we (meaning my very kind dad) have changed back to winter tires. That's right.

I'm going to see my sister and niece and brother-in-law-though-not-in-law-quite-yet-because-they're-not-married, of course, but also to pick up my aunt and family from Germany, who are visiting the North of Norway for the first time in four years. They go to Nesodden, near Oslo, every year, but now they are coming here and we are all very excited and cross our fingers for no snow and lots of midnight sunshine.

Falmouth II

 Met up with Anders, who's also from Tromsø, but studies Press Photography in Fal, and caught up on Tromsø/Falmouth

 Lucy resisted all my photography attempts

 Drying your clothes in the middle of a parking lot? Splendid idea.

Not sure when my interest in gravestones and cemeteries will turn into unhealthy obsession.

Not yet, surely?

Falmouth I

 Caipiroska-deliciousness at Eight Bar

 I know you, Falmouth

 The Princess Pavilion - to watch Freya's Oklahoma!-show

 Children on the grass drawing... the gardens?

 Falmouth Falmouth Falmouth

Man-made shell patterns inside tiny caverns in the Pavilion's garden

Going back to Falmouth was odd. On the way there I was scared I would meet friends I haven't seen in almost a year, and all of a sudden have nothing to talk about. Or not get along. Or this or that or something bad would happen. Instead I had an event-packed weekend, where we went to all our old pub haunts, watched Much Ado About Nothing by my old housemates' old drama society, watched Oklahoma! with my old housemate Freya, went to an engagement meal, went to more pubs, saw the Olympic flame go by (carried by a running 12-year-old), ate toast, drank tea, ate pasties and ice cream and fudge and a pub lunch and discovered break-ups had happened as well as people getting together, and all in all the weekend went too fast - I was suddenly on my way to Brighton. More photos from Falmouth to come first though. Nothing like a bit of nostalgia.

Norway Day, 17th May II

 Peoplewatching people watching the parade.

 Volleyball club

 Amazing nurses

 My mum, dancing with her dance club (wearing my sister's Tromsbunad)

 Tromsø Fire and Rescue

 Just hanging around this old fire...waggon? What ever do you call it?

 I want to be this kid.

 Hellooo Red Cross again

 I don't know why, but there was a tiny pony there and it needed documenting

Caught up with this beautiful person after a whole day of

"yeah, we'll meet there. No, there, ah, well, we'll bump into each other".

So that was Norway day, y'all, until I ran home and got changed and jumped on a plane to Oslo and stayed with Maja and went to England the next day! Photos sooooon.

Norway Day, 17th May I

 Britt Cristine at the Red Cross house, with a more northern bunad

 Tromsø main street, I just noticed my sort-of-godmother Eva in the middle there,

didn't see her when I took the photo or on the day...

 Ingrid and Christine

 Bruno (France), Carlos, Ingrid, Christine and Xiomara (you know my Colombians by now, I'm sure)

 I get to be in the photo as well, happy days.

Ingrid wears the country-Nordlandsbunad (green), while Christine and I have the coast version (blue).

 Now: The Citizen's Parade, where all the local societies show off.

Here it's the Hurtigruta cruise ship I think, with lots of German and English tourists who look confused.

 This is the banner of the gymnastics society (?), probably a very old one as well.

 Theatre for children and young people

People with instruments...

I don't actually know, I just wanted to photograph the man wheeling the massive cello (?).

GPOYing it up

 The day I left (17th May)

The day I came back (28th May)

Top photo is me showing off the beautiful linen shirt that goes under my national costume dress, it makes me wish I lived two hundred years ago and could dawdle about in big white linen shirts/night dresses all summer long. Bottom photo is me showing off lipstick which I never wear, but thanks to Boots at Gatwick I now do, apparently. I have some three hundred photos to look through and edit and choose from (Norway Day! Falmouth! Brighton! London!), so today you will have to do with this.

I am home. I intend to sleep.

LANDAN

I am here, I am well, I am sneaking internet at the Apple Store after days and days of shopping. Back on Monday.

Brighton

This is me, sitting in Kayung and Kyle's back garden in the sunshine (and a bit of wind), drinking tea and taking it very easy.

The past week has been exhiliratingly busy, with Norway Day on Thursday, flying to Oslo on Thursday, flying to London and taking the train to Cornwall on Friday, spending the weekend in Falmouth (not sleeping much), taking the train to London on Sunday and sleeping a few hours at Ina's house before heading to Brighton this morning.

Now I'm chilling with tea and sunshine and lovely Kay who is writing her uni proposal, which suits me good since it gives me an excuse to lazy about and do nothing. I probably won't post much this week, but I wanted you to know I'm alive and happy as a lark.

Mientras tanto

"El Hobbit" - maravilloso

I am reading all the London blogs I can, to find strange places to go and eat, planning Falmouth, trying to remember Brighton in the middle of everything, reading Fellowship of the Ring + Mark Reads Fellowship of the Ring, listening to Coffee Break Spanish and Show Time Spanish podcasts made by Scottish people, watching Todo Sobre mi Madre and reading/translating El Hobbit - all in a big muddle of English and Spanish and video and sound and text and dictionaries and rot13. Oh, and it's the Norwegian national day on Thursday, which means I'll be busy waving flags and stuffing myself all day long before flying down to Oslo in the evening. Happy days indeed.

Nordlandsbunad

 Beautiful shirt which I wish I could wear daily

 Flowers, not sure whether we have these flowers in the north, but oh well

Little odd purse that fits almost nothing, but it's pretty and full of embroidery and silver

Finally got my bunad to my flat - this will be the first year I attempt to put it on without my mother around, and I'm scared I'll get it wrong. There are all sorts of silver brooches to be put on, and since this is a traditional national costume, there are different versions with different clasps in different places, and I can never seem to get it a) right and b) logical and c) nice-looking. Will try.

Mine is a Nordlandsbunad, meaning it's from Nordland, the county south of Troms (yes, it means north-land, and no, it makes no sense that it's south of the two northern-most counties). There is a Tromsbunad as well, but it's very recent, and a lot of Troms/Tromsø inhabitants use the Nordland - on Norway Day in Tromsø I will blend in like an American wearing stars-and-stripes-clothes on July 4th. I also have the blue, which is supposed to be the coast version, while my friend Ingrid has the green inland version.

I love my national costume. My mother got married in hers (which is Follo, which is near Oslo, and very different). I got mine for my confirmation, which is very common. I never took it to England because it's worth way too much, so this will be the first time I wear it on Norway Day since 2007. Looking forward to it!

Weekend, weekend

 Started The Lord of the Rings, realised I haven't read this in at least three years, probably four...

 Went to parents, helped wash the car, watched The Holy Grail, had wine and brie with syrup

 Went to two art installationy things for the student newspaper, will edit photos soon,

introduction out in the SNOW (zoom in (that is not rain, that is snow))

Met Ida, had wine, looked at art

I also went to a photography talk at a photo fair with my dad, went to Hella for a walk with Christine and her neighbour's dog Zenta, went out with Dixie and ran into my latin-americans and also my cousin, did lots of laundry (the day after, of course), planned London, and went for a walk with Viktoria. And still I managed to slump around catching up on Mark Reads LOTR (only the chapters I've read), drinking hot teas and toddies and generally doing as little as possible.