Ok, so it’s not a very long one, but I am actually having a holiday this weekend – and taking Friday off, too! Me and two girls from work are going to Stockholm – flying extremely cheaply with Ryanair – something of a spur of the moment thing. Well, we booked the tickets about two weeks ago, but for international travel (hey, we get to do tax-free shopping!) that counts as spur of the moment. We have no plans, beyond plane there Thursday evening, plane back Monday morning (at some unholy hour) and room booked at a reasonable hostel-type-thing. Oh, and “paint the town red”, of course. That’s definitely the plan.

Actually, AK had an offer from someone in Stockholm to set us up with “ungkarer i en alder av 34-37. Alle med jobb og lang utdanning……. – men de er svenske.” (bachelors between 34-37. All with a job and seconday education…… – but they are Swedes. That last bit’s a bit of a joke – Swedes and Norwegians tell jokes about each other, so being Swedish could be considered a serious drawback in any potential blind date situation.) She said “Do we want to?” and I replied “Never” in a tone that so obviously said “Yes, please” that I made her laugh out loud in the middle of a meeting. Oops. Anyway, I don’t know if she’s heard back yet, so maybe nothing will come of it, but it could be good for a laugh, and nice to have company one evening who could potentially show us some good pubs.

Talking about good pubs, I wonder if there are any good whisky bars in Stockholm? Probably. Must do some research.

Voice in my head: Di Derre – Faren til Ivar

This or that?

1. TV or radio?
Tv. I don’t have the patience for a medium that makes use of the mute button impractical.

2. On the radio: talk or music station?
Music, until something I don’t like comes on, then I switch off and put a CD on instead.

3. Actual books or books-on-tape (or e-books)?
Actual books (need you ask?), but I enjoy audio books, too. I can’t just sit and listen to an audion book, though, I have to do something as well – so they’re good for when I’m painting or on the train and that sort of thing.

4. Actual newspaper, or web version?
Web version. It’s free. While I still subscribed to a paper version I hardly ever got around to reading it anyway. The only thing the paper versionis better for is the tv guide and flea market ads.

5. Wall Street Journal or National Enquirer?
There you go being US specific again…

6. TV news…news channel such as CNN, or your local broadcast news?
Local broadcast (as in NRK, the national channel). Local news broadcasts in Norway don’t just do local news, though (whereas in the US I got the feeling even CNN spent most of their time on local news).

7. A movie you’ve been looking forward to seeing gets bad reviews all around. See it anyway, or pass?
See it anyway. I frequently disagree with the critics. It does depend on the sort of movie and who the reviewer is, though.

8. See movies when they first come out, or wait a few weeks for the lines at the theater to get shorter?
I go when I get around to it. So if I happen to get around to it on the day it opens, so be it. If I think “No, it’ll be too crowded, I’ll go later”, by the time I get around to it again, it will almost certainly have been taken off.

9. TV: cable, satellite dish, or just plain old antenna?
Digital cable. Love my digital cable. That’s only because it’s the only way to get BBC Prime, of course.

10. Thought-provoking question of the week: If you had to choose only one form of media to come into your home, which would you choose…print (newspapers, magazines) or electronic (TV, internet)? Why?
If books don’t count as media, then electronic. If books count… well, you know the answer.

The monday mission questions, I mean.

1. Are there any confrontations you have been avoiding that you know you will eventually have to deal with? What’s that all about?

Not that I can think of at the moment. Except the potential one with Him if I decide he really is a “Him” not a “him”, but that should potentially be pleasant, though possibly stressful, rather than unpleasant, and “confrontation” sounds quite unpleasant, really, doesn’t it? Am I rambling? Yes, I think I am.

2. When was the last time you surprised yourself by being more brave than you ever thought you could be?

Uh? I dunno. When was the last time I surprised myself at all? I’m not sure whether I’m just suffering from “mind like a sieve” syndrom here, or whether I really know myself that well. Probably the former. Oh. I know: Telling F to his face why I wasn’t really interested (or rather, that I wasn’t interested, don’t think I went too heavily into the why) instead of slipping a note under his door (which was what I was tempted to do). That was kinda brave, for me. One the other hand, it would have been seriously awkward if I hadn’t, so maybe it wasn’t so much courage as “no choice”.

3. You know that sickly feeling you get when are speeding and out of the corner of your eye you realize you just passed a hidden police car?

No. I don’t drive.

4. One of the things I’ve had to do recently, is clean out my attic. I have an amazing amount of things I’ve collected over the years, and I am almost embarrassed that I still have so much of it. I realized that I may as well sell it, since it does me no good in the attic, and when I die, my family will probably sell it for a dollar a pound at a garage sale anyway. May as well enjoy the money now. Do you have any things stored away that you just can’t get rid of but will probably of no sentimental value to anyone once you are gone? Why do we hang on to that stuff? Do you think you could sell or auction it off?

Not much. Most of it would not even be worth a dollar a pound to anyone else.

5. I’ve become the resident Handler at the house. Got bugs? Call me! Flies, ants, spiders, I’m your man. Vomit? Dog Poo? Toilet overflow? Yep, I get it all clean. Not much bothers me in that area, and I am glad really to be someone you can rely on. But the one thing that does make me squirm are injuries. Stitches, incisions, bloody puss-laden bandages, heavily scabbed areas, all that just about does me in. What are some of the things you have a strong stomach for, and what are some of the things that can turn your stomach?

I’ll take the spiders, bugs, bees, what have you, and I can patch up a pulsing slashed wrist or clean up a bruised knee with the best of them. I need a big, strong man to deal with the vomit, though. The smell makes me want to vomit, too, which would defeat the object of the “cleaning up” just a bit. (I suppose a teeny-weeny woman would be just as good at the actual cleaning, I’d just rather have the big, strong man.)

6. I am at the point where I am going to have to make some tough decisions about the future of this blog. I think this sort of moment comes to all bloggers at some point. For me, I am not very good at managing my obsessions (read as: things I enjoy passionately). Eventually they get too much focus and something that once was good begins to impact my life in negative ways. Something’s got to give. Have you ever been involved in an experience that started out as something good and enjoyable but eventually became destructive and bad for your health (mentally or physically)?

Not that I can think of right now.

7. Do you believe in evolution or creationism or something else?

I believe evolution happened – I also believe someone was in charge and made it happen. I want to eat my cake and still have it.

Voice in my head: Prefab Sprout – Cruel

he had no capacity for the sort of conversations which were not supposed to be meant

There are few thrills like the thrill I get when I read a sentence or a fragment of a sentence where a few common words are put together to create something extraordinary. It’s like a shudder down my spine. I don’t know why this one pleased me, but it did. Ten points if you can guess where it’s from (actually, I’d be seriously impressed – not many clues there, really – you’d probably have to check my bag – I’ll give you one hint: It’s huge – the copy I’m reading has tiny print and 1074 pages).

Voice in my head: Jon Bon Jovi – Blood Money

Having finished Parsons, I am, naturally, listening to “The Best Sixties Love Album… Ever!” (I hate those titles). As L said, the last time I visited, “Is it any wonder we’re completely hopeless at this dating thing?” It isn’t. This is the stuff we listen to and believe in. This is what we want it to be like (I believe we had “When I Fall in Love” coming from the speakers at that point), and real life is bound to seem a bit tame in comparison.

‘(…) She could handle things the way they were. But for some reason, I couldn’t.’
‘Because you’re a romantic, Harry,’ Eamon said. ‘Because you believe in all the old songs. And the old songs don’t prepare you for real life. They make you allergic to real life.’
‘What’s wrong with the old songs? At least nobody thinks it’s clever to be a bitch and a lover in the old songs.’
‘You’re in love with love, Harry. You’re in love with the idea of love. (…)’

That’s it, isn’t it. In love with love. But then, as Harry realises, and I have known all along – or at least believed all along and will continue to believe:

And I knew that Eamon was wrong. If you are always craving, always wanting, never satisfied, never happy with what you’ve got, you end up even more lost and lonely than you do if you are some poor sap like me who believes that all the old songs were written about just one girl.

I want the stars and the fireworks and the “where did the orchestra come from”. And if it can’t be like that, then sod it, I don’t want it at all. But then, of course, I grew up listening to Fairground Attraction. So what do I know?

Voice on the stereo: whatsisface singing How Do You Do What You Do To Me?

Your Evil Rating is: Neon Green
Like the colour neon green, you, uh, are neon green. Are you sure you filled out the form right? I mean, how can anyone get a rating of neon green? Sheesh, I’m really not getting paid enough for this.

Okay, okay. Neon green. Well, like neon green, you’re, um, interesting, I’ll say that for you. Uh. Like neon green, you also have a tendency to blind people, am I right? I am, aren’t I? Yeah, I’m good. This whole blinding thing would tend to make you kinda evil. I mean, whoever heard of a superhero causing people to cover their eyes, and drop to the floor yelling ‘Get it away! Get it away!’?

Exactly.

You can put the following snazzy thingamajig on your website if you want. Tell the world just how evil I say you are.

(Well, I though that text was funnier so I put that here instead of the snazzy thingamajig.) It might not make sense, but I thought it was kinda funny.

This has been a pretty lazy day. I did go outside, despite the snowstorm (I am not kidding you), as I had to get some more bits and pieces for the bunad and meet my mother, who was in town for a short visit. None of this was particularly strenous, however, especially the long lunch at The Dubliner.

Continuing the laziness when I got home, I wanted to veg out in front of the telly, unfortunately there is, as per usual, nothing on at all. I find I am watching much less television lately than I used to. On days like these I would normally be able to switch my brain off and watch some sitcom/soap/series thing, like Charmed or Frasier or Gilmore Girls and so on, but I find I can’t anymore (or not just now, anyway). I have lost patience with them and their irrelevant and petty concerns, as if my concerns were any less petty (well, I suppose at least they are real). So I’ve been ripping CDs for the Crenjuz and reading a bit here and a bit there (too restless to really concentrate, too lazy to actually do anything).

I made a great find in the bookshop today. Sitting unassumingly on a shelf was Benny Andersen Samlede Digte. I’ve been looking for single volumes of Andersen’s poetry on and off for years and never found any, now, at least, I have all of the poems in one place. If I ever find any of the original volumes, I will probably still pick them up, but there is no urgency about it. Finding the book made me very happy, particularly as I could then put up one of my all time favourites, Udflytter, in the commonplace book.

Voice in my head: Prefab Sprout – All the World Loves Lovers