Merry christmas

Tis the season to be jolly and stuff.. So merry christmas to all.

Haven't found that christmas spirit yet, not sure if I'll find it this year at all. It's always like that when I'm working through the holidays.

The curse of working where I do I guess.

I've actually decorated my tree already, it looks lovely.

My boyfriend got me the tree. I was pondering wether getting one or not, then found out I'd give it a go, and it was too late to get a normal one. So I got a black and silver tree instead. It doesn't look too bad, I've got plenty of diode/led lights on, home made shabby chic cones and white/red balls. Not half bad, in my opinion.
Even got my gifts placed neatly underneath, all ready for christmas eve on friday.
But still not feeling that spirit.



What do you think? Is it any good?

My big fat greek holiday

First of all I apologize for the lack of blogs lately. I've had a serious case of writers block.

Well, that and the fact that I really feel like there's been nothing worth blogging about, mostly because I've been worn out from work.

Now I've had 3 weeks holiday, and am partially rejuvenated, so I'll give it a shot again.


First holiday week was spent in Oslo. I had an idea that I should eat more sushi, so off I went. Booked hotels and all, 3 nights in one, 1 at another. Spent too much money, didn't feel very relaxed at all, because the first hotel room was at a noisy street, and the second one was a smoking room, and all night I felt like throwing up at the smell.
Went to the Øyafestival for a day, to see a couple of gigs and pretend to be young again. It was raining cats and dogs that day, and I stood there, mid mud, but managed to get through 10 gigs before the day was over. So was pleased with that.

Then back home for a week. Attended a friends wedding, which was really nice.



Decided it was time to spend some days with my boyfriend, so packed my suitcase and headed to Narvik.

He was still working, so I just hung around there, doing nothing. Then on saturday we got up bright and early, and headed to the airport. Ahead of us was a week in the sun sun sun, which we sadly can't say we have had much of up here this summer.

Destination Crete

The place was tranquil and awesome, I really enjoyed every minute of the week there. Sun, warmth, hotel pool, beach, downtown with restaurants and all kinds of crazy gadgets..



We ate, we bathed, sunbathed, caught a few freckles, a burnt wrist and a few fried shoulders.. (everything quite normal), but most of all, we relaxed and loved every minute of it.
I can honestly say I felt like a new, fresh person after 1 day down there. Exactly what the doctor prescribed.

Will now put a few photos from my trip, didn't take many, but I guess a select few are suitable for blog posting.


Our hotel area


Downtown Chania


Market with all kinds of wooden instruments


Restaurant street and my man


Sunset


The Chania lighthouse in the Venetian Harbour

Nights again..

My energetic eurosong blogging fell through due to lack of interest, I tweeted through it all instead. I had my favorites, they didn't win, but ended up pretty high in the rankings anyway. Which was great.

Norway didn't do very well this year. Partly because the song was super dull and 10 a dozen, partly because the performance was a bit shaky.
Don't think anybody really was too sad anyway, they were probably happy to not have to dig into the wallet of the state of Norway one more year hehe.

Anyway. One week has passed since the final, and it's all forgotten.

What's next?

Well, currently I'm on another nightshift spree. 3 nights in a row. Even though it's now 6 weeks between them, they seem to come far too often. I don't want to complaint of course, people are far worse off than me, and I have a job I love and cherish. But the nights are what sucks about it.
I've read it cuts years off my life.. we'll see about that. I'm not planning on becoming 230 years old anyway.

I'm not very active in my bloggings these days. Not because I don't have stuff happening nor don't have time. It's just a regular draught. One of those "blast, do I have to turn on the pc again today-draughts".

It might get better, or it might not. Time will show.
At least I'm not blogging to say I've nothing to blog about, like some. Because that's just silly.
Don't you have anything to blog about, then DON'T BLOG! And if you don't have time to blog, don't blog "I don't have time to blog". You're already there! Instead, put something useful in there.
Ok, rant over.

Now offski to find a random pic to put in my post, because every posting deserves a picture.

Another eurosong final approaces..

Tomorrow it all starts off. One year ago from about now, Norway was extatic, because we had finally won. It had happened only 2 times before. Actually, we're more used to getting the infamous NIL points than winning.

The consequences were of course, that this year the final is in Oslo. This has caused some controversy, because the money to pay the party has to come from somewhere. My boyfriend is especially annoyed, because NRK sold the rights to the FIFA world cup to afford Eurosong hehe. I'm not that bothered, it's not like we can't see fotball on any other channel if neccessary.

Just about every newspaper, online and the street editions, tv and got knows what has Eurosong material more than just a bit.

What makes me laugh, is the recaps of horrible songs through the years. Like this one..


One of the 5 songs voted MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENTS by an expert commentator on an online newspaper.

Some "experts" goes a bit overboard too.. Some aren't afraid to use themselves in the promotion for sure!!

So tomorrow it all kicks off, the first semi final, then the next one on thursday, and the big final on saturday. Will try to watch it all, although the quality of the songs are absolutely varying hehe. There's a chance I might do a follow up blog later this week, if I feel up for it, to recap the semi finals. Don't have much else planned so.. Enjoy! Here's Norway's entry. Not a big fan, but it's ok to not win again hehe.

Lisa does things you never thought she would

Everybody who knows me, knows that kitchen is not my area. Sure, I have my safe things I can produce, just because I have to eat. But I'm hardly ever doing anything from scratch.

But for quite some time now, I've been thinking of making this cake. I got the recipe of a friend of mine over a year ago, and not being a top chef, it's been sitting on my fridge for ages.


But finally I got around to testing it. Originally it was meant for a family gathering on friday, but that fell through, so instead I made it for yesterday, our national holiday, 17.mai.


Here's the picture story of how Lisa tried to make something out of something else hehe.





First I purchased a bunch of various ingredients, this is for sure no cheap cake. Think I paid about 300 NOK for the ingredients, or about $50 and then some.
There's creme cheese, 700 cc's of it actually. Organic sugar, eggs, vanilla sticks, cinnamon, vanilla sugar, butter and digestive crackers. That's what I remember.

The first thing I had to do, was to crush 15 crackers. I don't own a food processor, so went to my folks to borrow some of their utensils.
It was easier said than done.




Then I mixed in some melted butter, and spread the dough on the platter. In the oven it went, and after 15 minutes it looked like this



Time for the creme cheese. I poured it all in a big bowl, put in the vanilla sugar, the seeds of a vanilla stick and sugar. Found my old hand mixer, and started blending it all together. Then eggs went in, one by one.









Poured it on top of the baked cracker bottom, and into the oven it went again.







I'm not very tidy, so stuff filled up on my bench while I was doing my "magic" hehe.



When the cake was in the oven for the 2nd time, I realized that I only had bought half the amount needed for the topping. Thankfully the stores were still open, and the cake had to bake for at least 1 hour. So I went on a storm spree.
I came back, still had 15 minutes to wait, and then the cake looked like this.


By the looks of it, I'd went a bit overboard with the butter haha.

Then it was time for the sourcream/sugar/vanilla mix






5 more minutes of baking, and here's the result of the ready baked cake.




So now, just dig into it, you say? Oh no!!
Now it had to cool down, then spend 3 days in the fridge to set. And to wait for may 17th to arrive. I spent the days sneaking on it, trying to remove what's around it, with the result that I kind of wrecked the cake.

I bought some physalis decorative berries, and was finally ready for the big day.

Took the cake with my down to my brother, had a nice barbecue, and then it was time for THE cake.









I made strawberry coulis too, so we could have with the cake, to bring a bit of sourness into the sweet that's in the cake.

Looking nice, doesn't it?

Good times

Another nightshift upon me, this time last out of 3. Seems that's I only blog on night shifts.. Guess I'm more creative at 4:45 in the morning than any other time of the day.

I was watching the Sectional episode of Glee yesterday before I went to work, and this song at the end stuck in my head. Then I realized I actually have heard it before.. (not only the first time I watched the episode, 6 months ago..)

Because in the video beneath I was in the audience! And we heard the songs numerous times throug the day, as we were hanging out when they rehearsed.. think I actually have it on my mobile cam as well. but that was before my iphone, and whatever is stuck on my old mobile probably will stay in silence there forever hehe.

So the song of the night I first of all dedicate to my travel partner Beate.
but also to someone who means a great deal to me, and who I never see often enough. And he knows who he is :) xxxxx (know it's not your kind of music, but I don't care ;) )

The night is young..

And I feel old. Head is aching, body is numb.

This could have been the beginning of an awesome poem, but it's just the way I feel right now.
Because I'm working night shifts. One of my least favorite activities ever.. Only beat by shovelling snow, doing dishes and cleaning the house.
Domestic goddess, me? I think not.

My lack of blogging is a symptom of my life, because there's really not much going on there that I feel comfortable sharing with the world.

The days come and go, and I guess these are the days of our lives. Only problem is, it feels like what I do with my life is wait for the weekends. For obvious reasons.

I should make it my task to turn every day into a weekend, so that I'd enjoy it more. But that's not possible.

I hate being negative, but sometimes I can't help myself.

There's is one thing that cheers me up though, and that's looking at utterly weird things on youtube. So tonight I bring you this clip, someone playing the most peculiar instrument I've ever seen or heard of... The theremin. Shaped as a russian wooden doll...

Enjoy. Heheh. Or have nightmares. Your choice!

Perspective

These days of the olypmics, the press seems to be extremely into every kind of winter sports. Of course, the odd crime gets its share of attention. But they're creating a public storm over the lack of Gold Medals for Norway.

Personally, I don't really care that much. And even less now. Medals are nothing compared to the big things in life.. Like living or dying. Yeah, I'm deep, but this video made me emotional, if anything ever did. Please watch, share with friends, and get the message through to as many as possible.

And, last but not least, remember to live life to the fullest, cherish every hug, every smile, every beam of sunshine into your life. Cause you never know what tomorrow will bring.

How do you rate the morning sun?

Soon there'll be another single out from mr Robbie Williams. March 15th to be precise. This one is my personal favorite from his album Reality killed the Video Star. It's called Morning sun, and has been selected the official Sports Relief single of 2010. Good choice!

the video seems to be derived from the quote of the song "it doesn't take an astronaut to float into space, it's just a thought". It seems very tranquil and with loads of great shots.

Tell me what you think of it.. Here it is, enjoy!