…our regular correspondence soon – tomorrow, I suspect, the holiday is almost over. But here’s the Friday Five in the meantime.

1. Do you remember your first best friend? Who was it?
T was my first best friend, I guess – two years older than me, he’s the son of friends of my parents, so we’ve basically known each other since I was born. We lived just a few hundred meters apart for a couple of years when I was 3 or 4, so we spent a lot of time together.

2. Are you still in touch with this person?
Occasionally, though it’s a couple of years since last time.

3. Do you have a current close friend?
Yes. A couple, in fact. I’m probably closest to L at the moment, though.

4. How did you become friends with this person?
We started fencing at the same time in Trondheim, and hit it off pretty quickly. The funny thing is that a mutual friend of ours had been talking for years about introducing us to each other, as she was sure we were long-lost twin sisters or something (equally batty, I suspect).

5. Is there a friend from your past that you wish you were still in contact with? Why?
I lost touch with Marianne who I met in Aarhus, and that bothers me. Anyone know a Marianne Jepsen whose family used to live in Tønder? Get her to get in touch, will you?

Sitting in Prestwick studying the map of Scotland I realised I was just a stone’s throw from Wigtown. Wigtown!

Disregarding such trivial details as “I’ve spent too much money on this trip already” and “my luggage is waaay over the 20 kg limit” and “I need more bookshelves, not more books”, four buses and three hours later and here I am.

To top it off, it turns out that Bladnoch distillery is just down the road in the next village, so in a few minutes, after having invested in a scetchpad (I’ve been reading about painting, that always makes me want to draw), I will be setting off on a ramble which will include the distillery visitors’ centre.

Voice in my head: James Baskett (is he the one who sings, I wonder?) – Zip-a-dee-do-dah

It’s definitely me. My wits are still scattered. So I’m not giving you a long nice travelog entry, I’m doing last monday’s Monday Mission.

When was the last time you said or were told the following, and more importantly, how did it feel to be you at that moment:
1. “It’s not you, it’s me.”
I’ve never said that, nor have I ever been told that. I suppose you could say that I have said it, just in somewhat different words. The “I’m choosy” line is practically the same, isn’t it – it’s an attempt at letting people down nicely, but it still translates as “There’s something wrong with you”.

2. “I love you, but I’m not in love with you.”
Nope. Never this one.

3. “You just don’t get it!”
Ah. That one’s been in use, and I’ve heard it too. Not in “romantic” connection, though. If the other person “doesn’t get it” I don’t bother telling them, I’m just outta there…

4. “Do I look fat…”
No. I have mirrors, I can tell for myself. No point in asking a question you don’t want an honest answer to, is there?

5. “I hate you!”
Hm. I think the last time I said or heard this must have been when me and my best friend used to have raging rows and one of us would up and leave insisting we would never speak to the other one again, and then half an hour later one of us would phone and say, as if nothing had happened, “Do you want to come over to my place to play?” We must have been ten or so the last time it happened.

6. “If you really loved me…”
Never said it, can’t imagine I’d ever say it, either. Emotional blackmail isn’t my game.

7. “Not tonight…”
Well, not in so many words. Not as regards the word starting with s and ending with ex, anyway, which I assume is the intended interpretation. I have said – literally – “Not tonight…” to suggestions such as “Oh, come to the pub/nightclub/party with us” or “Want to come back to mine for a nightcap”, either because I didn’t feel like it (usually as regards the nightclub) or because I thought it was getting too late proportionally to when I needed to get up in the morning.

Ok, I know it’s not Tuesday (in fact, it’s almost next Tuesday), but still…

1. Lemonade or Ice Cold Beer?
Not beer, but “english” cider (or Irish, if it’s going). Or simply water. Not lemonade, at any rate.

2. Swimming pool or beach?
For swimming, the pool. For general hanging about, the beach.

3. Long weekends here & there, or a 2-week vacation?
Both. Definitely both. But then we have five weeks of holidays to work with in Norway.

4. Destination: Acapulco or Hawaii?
Ahem. Neither as of yet, so I have no idea which one I prefer. Would you think me mad if I said: “Scotland”?

5. Destination: Mountains or Beach?
Beach, but I like my beaches wet and windy, or windy at any rate.

6. Hotel/motel/B&B or camping?
I am not a camping sort of girl. I don’t much like hotels/motels, either, though, much too impersonal – I defintely prefer B&Bs

7. Carefully planned vacation, or play it by ear?
Sometimes one, sometimes the other. We’re playing it majorly by ear this time, which has resulted in some hicups (the sailing not happining being just the least of it) but as we’re having a wonderful time anyway, I still think it’s a good way to travel. If I were ever to get a tattoo, it would have to be the word “serendipity”.

8. Sneakers or sandals?
Sandals. I have new sandals. I love them.

9. Air-conditioning or fans?
Fans. Air conditioning creates such a fake atmosphere, and when you’re going from the cold, air-conditioned interiors into the hot, humid exterior all the time you get a cold very easily, and it’s not pleasant on the whole.

10. Concerts in the park or baseball games?
Well, not baseball games, anyway. Not sports at all, in fact, so I guess it’ll have to be concerts in the park.

Voice in my head: “Why do you build me up – build me up – darling, just to let me down – let me down” and so on, you know the one.

I find myself in Aberdeen, though “Why?” is a relevant question as there is no Spirit of Islay on the horizon (due to several crewmembers falling ill they had to break the race). Oh well. We are enjoying the city, and will make our way in a somewhat sedate pace down to Prestwick on Tuesday for L’s flight home. After that I have days and days to spend before I have to catch a plane from Stansted on Sunday (which I’ve just booked – no boat obviously means no sailing for me and so a plane ticket seemed like a good idea).

We’ve had an absolutely cracking time in Ireland – I will try to collect my wits (which are, quite frankly, a bit scattered at the moment) and give you a short run-down before we leave this B&B tomorrow (it has free internet access, can you believe it?).

The friday five does it again…

1. What were your favorite childhood stories?
My favourite book was one by Philippe Fix called “Serafin og hans makeløse mesterverk” in Norwegian. It’s still one of my favourite books, in fact. A little later C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia were read and reread and reread and… – I used to read them at least once a year until recently, lately the frequency has dropped a little, mainly because I know them practically by heart.

2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children?
Well, the above, obviously.

3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything?
I’m sure I have a good example for this one, but I can’t quite think of it – I’ll get back to you…

4. How old were you when you first learned to read?
Six – the year before I started school – my grandmother taught me to read with the help of one of those kids’ blackboards.

5. Do you remember the first ‘grown-up’ book you read? How old were you?
No. I was reading ‘grown-up’ books from a reasonably early age. At home I could basically pick anything from my parents’ shelves, and though we were not allowed to take any out at the library before the age of 12 (or was it 14), we were free to roam the grown-up section and read in situ as long as we didn’t disturb anyone.

L has just checked her bank on this internet terminal, and since we paid for several unecessary minutes, I thought I had better use them… I’m so stressed out now that I can barely stand still, but as we’ve checked in I should start to calm down soon. Only a few more hours and we’ll be in Britain.

Will check in later, but for now, hope you’re all having a fine time without me.

To dissipate some of the reisefeber, I will do the daily double today…

1. Do you have any hidden talents?
Eh? Not that I know of, but then I wouldn’t would I?

2. Do your offline friends know about your website?
Yes, most of them do, and if some don’t it’s not for lack of me telling them about it – I just have a few offline friends who don’t actually use the internet much (weird people), and are therefore not particularly interested. I certainly don’t try to hide the fact that I have a website, or that I blog.

Voices on the stereo: The Bee Gees – You Win Again (hence, additional voice in the room: My own, singing along)

One of my new rules of travel seems to be: Before visiting a country make sure to read up on blogs written by its inhabitants.

So that’s what I’ve been doing on and off for a few months, though it’s obviously somewhat pointless. What I’m looking for is “local colour”, you know, names of venues, descriptions of local attractions and so on. But expecting to find that in a “local” blog is just silly – I mean, how useful would my own blog be as a guide to anyone visiting Norway (answer: Not very). Still, I ‘ve been reading some, so I thought I’d mention a couple that I’ve enjoyed in any case.

The leptard, whatever that is, is also a fan of Joyce, which has to be good, and also, incidentally, has a completely non-blog-related link to a friend of mine, which is always interesting.

Stunned.org does actually throw up some localised stuff every now and again.

Heart of a poet – currently resposible for most of my Moon River humming.