What I did at my 29th birthday!

This is what I was doing, together with Alexia!




And afterwords it was birthday spaghetti and some cakes to the coffee. Banki joined in too, of course

I'm slow

But that's old, old news. I'm thinking of getting my phone-blogging going, then I don't have to worry about the chord, and HOPEFULLY I'll be able to update a tiny bit more often.
Just now, I'm so happy about all the snow which is everywhere. Especially today!
A short resume of what I've done recently:

-Bryhn Terfel concert with the Opera Orchestra
-Aunt Tove came for a weekend, she visited Grandpa at the home, kept Grandma company and joined a pre-birthday dinner for me downstairs
-Had premiere of the Nutcracker at the Opera, and Banki joined in!
-Learned a lot about the new Star Wars game for DS by Alexander (who also gave me a lot of birthday hugs since Helene is a bit far away for this kind of sport)
-Tried to help Pauline with her massage machine. Afterwords it felt like I'd been applauding for too long.

I think I'll show Alexia how to build snowmen, and lighthouses :)

Location: At dad's house
Mood: Very happy, got a lot of sweet greetings, and I've got a WHITE BIRTHDAY!!!
Listening to: Nothing yet
Eating: Mandarin
Drinking: Coffee

Great friends!

I woke up this morning to find yesterdays headache still hanging about. It is not a migraine, just plain headache. I think it has to do with a wisdom tooth which is moving a bit. My whole jaw has felt bruised and tender, my throat quite sore (but I have no problems with swallowing) so I'm pretty sure it's my tooth who is nagging at me.
The baroque ensemble had rehearsal from 2 (or 13.30, since the orchestra finished early) and we locked the door around 5. Carole, Laima and I walked together to the city. Laima had never walked the seaway, so we took her there, and later to the "Husfliden" so she could buy some more knitting yarn.
Carole looked at me, and decided to take med to her house to feed me and have a little chat over a cup of hot tea. One of her sons, Torkil, had made some dinner and had to do some homework. It felt really nice to be in a real home and do everyday stuff like listening to his guitar practice and talk about molecules, and be fed without having to go to the shop first.
After a while the house filled up with more boys, and Harald came too. He had been to an after-audition-dinner but had to go out again for some milk so he drove me home.

Thank you for taking care of me!

Now I'm just home waiting for Rob to finish his work :)

Social Tonje :)

Friday was Rob's day from hell at work. That means, he had a whole-day-shift (10-23.30) in the kitchen. I was off, if you don't count my practice hours..
I'm still trying to get to know the baroque cello (it feels better every day), but this day I got to know that a violin maker was in the building. He had brought some good bows with him so I was eager to try them. It turned out to be quite ok, but not much better than what I have at the moment. Still searching! (Helene, it was orange. Orange!)
And at 17 I had an appointment with Arne, our previous house-owner. He was to pick me up in front of the gate to Bjergsted. In stead, I found a car just behind the gates (inside the park) with Arne's son behind the wheel. We were both invited for dinner (Rob too, of course, but...).
This was my first visit to their new flat (they sold their old, big blue house before the summer vacation) and it is great! It was already dark when we arrived so I couldn't see the surroundings very well. But, Rob and I popped by today as well, and the view from their balcony is AMAZING!!
The whole evening was just really great. They are almost like an extra set of parents :)

Saturday was quite the same. Rob didn't have a marathon at work, but started around 14 until 22. I joined him to the city so I could practice a bit, and at 18 I was supposed to be at a dinner party at Merethe's place. It turned out to be a waffle-gløgg-make:choreography:to:"I feel good" party with Merethe, her teacher friend and me. Nice, and quite fun! (Merethe, you have to tell me how the 20 guys did it with their mooves!)

A day off!

It feels incredibly good to be able to sleep in, not run around in the kitchen in the morning to grab some food before chasing the bus (which may or may not come. It seems to me that the timetables here are only for giving the impression that they exist. They don't really have anything to do with the buses, except - of course- when you are late.
Despite my morning exercise and bus related anger, I've had a great week in SSO. I didn't play the Schnittke Concerto Grosso, so I had actually quite a lot of spare time. I listened to the performances, and Benedicte and Kristina did a great job!! (They were the soloists this week)

I don't think the first half of the concert was appealing to every concert goer, and the lack of audience kind of proved that. Roberts comment was also confirming my suspicions. (Mum, can I say this??)
I was very touched when I came to the dressing room and found my locker. It still had my name on it!! Awww, it felt very much like coming home then.

Yesterday we had concert number 2, in Tysvær. So, another bus trip for almost two hours, with a 20 min. ferry crossing in the middle. Hanako was not very pleased with that after the Kyrkjelyd project. She usually get car sick even on ordinary bus travels in the city...
We left the concert hall ca. 16.10, but when we came to the feery, we had lost sight of the second bus. We decided to board the ferry anyway. The second bus was of course not on the ferry.
It all ended up with the concert being 15 min. late, and our seat rehearsal (for testing sound and repairing flaws from the day before) got cancelled.
Some pre-concert-excitement :)

Time goes fast when having fun...

I have lots to put down in my blog, so now it'll all come in one big one. I think it'll be A' la Helene...


After coming to Stavanger on Monday I started to get acquainted with the baroque cello. I thought I had a mountain of time to spend on it, but on Thursday night I got a phone from a very stressed singer in Bodø who needed a cellist for their Sunday concert on "All Saints Day" (Allhelgensdag).
So, I left Robert back in Stavanger (I think he feels a little forgotten some times, since I leave him all the time...) and headed for the city who is a little north of the polar circle. On Friday I had a rehearsal with the Baroque ensemble at 12, but 14.15 I had to run off to catch the 15.30 plane. Unfortunately I didn't have a seat for my cello so Anders Moberg (a cellist in SSO) was so kind to lend me his flightcase. A cello to send always takes time, so I was very stressed to get to Sola Airport in time. Luckily the Friday rush-hour had not reached its peak yet (it usually gets pretty jammed on the roads around that time...) so since Robert offered to drive me there it was no problem at all.

I have to say that I find it a bit strange how they think about dangerous artifacts in the security check. They had absolutely no problems with 5 knitting needles...

18 I was in Bodø, got a ride from the not-anymore-so-stressed-singer to the church and warmed up before the evening rehearsal for "Kystrequiem". (Coast Requiem)
It turned out that a lot of my colleagues from the Music Conservatoire in Trondheim was playing in the orchestra (small ensemble, only 6 violins, 2 violas, 1 cello, 1 double bass, piano, perk, flute and trumpet), even the composer! And not to forget Ingvild. I was so happy to see her!!
Our conductor was a bit nervous; she had never conducted an orchestra before. I must say she did a lot better than many of the more experienced choir-conductors I've seen before. She did a great job!

When I was in Bodø, I thought I could drop by Paulines aunt and cousin. Aunt Arnhild was quite well despite her back problems, and she was very talkative. On Saturday night I went to eat with cousin Mart and his wife Tatjana. I had never met her before, and it's long time since I've seen Mart, so it was incredibly nice to talk to them! I learned a lot about "hellerisstninger" in caves around Bodø, about the Russian language, problems with Norwegian and music.
Later that night, all the musicians were invited for a bacalao party at Sveinars (the pianist) house. He had an amazing flat - it looked just like it was cut out of a magasine where they show a great retro style or how to make a flat feel open and full of space but at the same time keep the atmosphere warm.

Sunday before the concert, Ingvilds parents invited me to have dinner with them at their house. It was a super thing to do before the requiem. The concert wouldn't have felt as good as it did if I had to try to find a restaurant on my own (or with the other musicians in the hotel) and then probably stress about the time... Ingvild, you have a great family! (Just missed Margrete, but on the other had, I had lunch with her the week before.)

Monday (3rd of November) I had a very early flight. 6.50 is not really my favorite hour..
And when I got to Oslo airport it was foggy so of course the planes were not on time. Bjørn Pettersen called me when I was sitting there, half asleep."Hello Tonje. Where in the world are you?" I seriously got a fright. Did I miss the rehearsal with Kyrkjelyd now? It was originally planned to be from 10-13 and then again from 16-19 but it was postponed to 15. I thought I remembered this. But with that kind of call you don't feel secure about it anymore.. No, I wasn't late. It was Sirkka-Liisa whose plane from Krakow was late so he wondered if it would be ok to have rehearsal from 19-22 instead. Phew!!!!
It was a pretty pale cellist in the quartet that evening, even though I had a few hours of rest between my flights and the rehearsal. But it was great fun to play the Yano-Yanovsky piece!!
We were only the string players, so we made all these great plans that Mona (our soprano) were going to conduct us a bit. She got pretty anxious about that when we finally told her Tuesday morning. "..to ask a soprano to do such a thing! Yes, they are really known for their sense of rhythm..." She managed pretty well! I know for my self that I would have been lost quite a few times during our 5 concerts if she hadn't. To swap between 3:2, 6:4, 5:4 and 7:4 is not always very easy without conductor.

Wednesday, time for our first concert. It was to be held in Sola Ruinkirke, and all the players were put together in a tiny bus which Bjørn drove. That was the first time I saw all the musicians in the project. Well, I had met the Libaneese singers for 2 minutes before our first rehearsal in the Dom, but I don't count that one. There were 5 of them in the Byzantine Music Group of Lebanon, an American percussionist, and then the 5 of us. The bus was absolutely packed, and with an extra person (a sound-engineer student) with loads of equip ment and my huge cello case it got pretty crowded.
We had 5 concerts all in all, and with a lot of travelling time we got to know each other quite well. The churches were all very sweet and small, cold (with a slowly working heating system) but cozy - and we got some food and hot drinks for the break between rehearsal and concert. The numbers of audience was not very great, but never less than 24. (I counted!) And absolutely everything were documented, either by digital cameras, video cameras or stored as audio files on a computer. Sirkka-Liisa baptised this project as "the paparazzi-project". This was all due to the sweet Libaneese singers. They have a church choir at home (Libanon) with rehearsals 1-2 times a week and sings for sunday mass. (They are christian arabs! I got upset when I learned that they are not allowed to enter Jerusalem because of being arabs.)
Here you can see some of the ads for our project:

Music from the Middle East
Aftenbladet

The last concert was held in the Stavanger Dom. And quite a lot of people came to listen! Ilmari, Petro and Ivan came too. They are very supportive! (I know there might have been other musicians there too, but these were the only ones I saw...) And Robi of course! I was so happy that he liked the concert. I was a little ancious about it since it all were quite meditative, but I had nothing to worry about. Afterwords, we had to gather together at the restaurant calle Bevaremegvel. 21.45 came the waiter and asked to get all the orders straight away because the kitchen would close exactly at 22. Since we were only 4 people there (Sirkka-Liisa and me being the only musicians) we thought it better to move to another restaurant. Robert fixed it so we could be at the Italian one across the street. They held their restaurant open only for us (only demand from them was: only pasta or pizza to be ordered. Or salads. Which was fine by us.)
It was a grea t fare-well party. I'm only sorry that Hanako missed it, and that Carole, Robert and I all had to be at work early next morning so we couldn't party for long.

I know I have got some new friends for life, and a little bit wider horizon.

Thank you!!!

...and now I'm back in the Scandinavian mood again with orchestra rehearsals, rain and other every-day tasks. But it feels also incredibly nice to be back in SSO, even for only 1 week.

(pictures will be uploaded when I find my chord..)

Location: Stavanger, in Roberts borrowed flat
Mood: Nostalgic, but happy
Eating: Should have eaten hours ago
Drinkin: Nipping to coffee which I bought for Roberts birthday
Listening to: The fridge. Sounds tempting!

Stavanger, sweet Stavanger

I have been in Stavanger for almost a week now, and it feels SO good!
It was incredible to see my boyfriend again, and then also get a warm welcome back from the orchestra made it all even better.
I had the most fascinating travel over here on Monday. Early morning train, quite a lot of people - even in the "comfort" wagon, luggage (one bag with wheels), normal bag and two - 2 - cellos. One modern and one baroque. I felt like a very demanding traveler.
The instant I boarded the train, I was blocking the way for someone who had to walk past me. After that I didn't know how to organize myself and all my luggage. A very helpful man came to my rescue. He turned out to be the head of "Hove festival" (a huge rock-festival in the south of Norway). Apparently he had seen forlorn musicians travel before...
When the train was at its final station - in this case Stavanger - I had equal problems getting off the train. I didn't want to leave any luggage in the train, but on the other hand I didn't want to put any of the cellos, or my luggage, on the platform unattended either. Yet again I got help from a kind soul. This time a sweet girl who was getting home for a week of rest in her studies.
And then Robi came, and it was all ok.

Ah, I was thinking the weather in Stavanger was almost only wet during fall, but this morning we had to scrape the car-windows free from ice. Winter is coming! Feels great, but - oh so cold!

Location: Robis place in Hillevag
Mood: Exhausted after todays practice
Drinking: Nada, should have some water...
Listening to: The silence of the clock on the wall

Autumn colors

Mum, Eivind and I were having our weekly walk, when it struck me how incredibly colorful it all was around us. Sadly enough I only had my phone with me. (My brother, studying photography at the moment, was of course carrying his pro camera with him... Looking forward to see his pictures soon!)



Location: Home, in the "office"
Drinking: Coffee (I'm cold)
Mood: Happy

Just a small thing...

but nevertheless incredibly sweet!
Just look at this postcard that a friend of mine sent me:



Thank you!!
I'm still smiling :)

Gardening

My mums garden needs maintenance - it's old and it's not very well kept. One of our old apple trees fell down this summer (very sad, it was a Åkerø-tree) and now we need to cut it down properly. We don't have a motor saw, so we used the little one we have. I'm sure my arms will hurt tomorrow!!




And then we realized we had a lot of illegal plants too, so mum cut the dry remains of them down and I burned them in mums outdoors fireplace. Unfortunately, it smoked A LOT. Don't think the firemen or police would have approved, but hey - we got rid of some nasty plants! (Gullris and Lupiner) And just last year we all thought they were just very pretty looking flowers...




Otherwise it has been a very nice Sunday - practice, family dinner and calm music from the radio. Just missing Eivind and Robi.

Colours!

Almost forgot...
When Dad and I was at the bus the other day (after a performance, so it was a little late) we saw this:



Fantastic, don't you think??

In Kristiansand

...and it rains here too! It feels like it has been raining for weeks - constantly. The good thing is that we're picked up at the hotel by a maxi-Taxi every morning. (We get the ride back again too, luckily.)
But you need the raincoat anyway. And the hangars at work are quite exclusive!


And I'm so glad - there are lots of other freelancers in the orchestra this week so we have our own little club at breakfast, lunch and for coffee...
And this fellow is my former violaplayer (in the Swedish Quartet "Hebe")



We found a very nice-looking, smelly (yes, it smelled - not very pleasantly - of too much incense) Indian restaurant with very good tasting food. Spicy'n yummy! (Although, we'll not recommend the garlic-fish dish.)

Ooo, should try to practice some in my tiny little hotel room now. The neighbor was playing guitar just now so I should take the opportunity to make a real war! Mwoahahahaaa

Garden-rabbits!

..also need care!
Before today's dress rehearsal for Mahler 2nd with Zubin Mehta (!) I brushed the rabbits. They were not so interested in getting rid of superfluous hair, but very interested in each other. (They are mother and son, but also parents to several healthy little ones so there you go.)
Banki helped too. He was a little disappointed over the fact that I didn't let him come with me to reheasal to see our world-famous conductor. I think he got some comfort from little My...



Banki also had some fun listening to the other house-monkey here, and he got so inspired by the jungle guy that he began to ask for bananas. (Videos will come soon!)

Location: Dads livingroom
Mood: Tired, excited about tomorrow!
Listening to: Alexia in the bathroom

Amazed!

In the bus on my way to work the other day, I saw yet again this curious phenomenon:
Young girls in the very hot new fashion: Sweater (preferably a little shabby) and tights. Only tights. To me it looks like they just forgot to put on a skirt or something.

Anyone - please explain me this! ..or am I just getting OLD??

Location: Paulines kitchen
Mood: Amazed, pre-performance
Eating: Rice and springrolls

Sunday!

This sunday was a little different from other ones. I became "gressenke" (grass-widow. I'll bow to whoever who gets the origin of that Norwegian saying!) - seeing my Robi off to Stavanger again. Quite melancholic!
The house was still full of people though, because Eivind was home for the weekend after a schooltrip to Paris. And then, of course, we ended up going for a walk. We decided to walk around Semsvannet.



It turned out to be very exiting, just look at these ones:
(the first one is mainly for Robi, but also for Helene in case she gets too homesick)

New favorite bakery! ...and seeing friends from Stavanger

I've found my favorite bakery in Oslo! (I think)
United Bakeries, located at Karl Johan. I just love their bread, and the muffins are yummi :)



The same day we met up with a very tired couple from Stavanger. (Well, they are not exactly from Stavanger, more American I'd say, but for me, I connect them with SSO!) They had taken the night train, but since they tried the chairs instead of getting a bed, they were exhausted from the journey. We met them at Aker Brygge (Audun was very immobile, and it was short way to their ferry) for a nice cup of tea. I recognised that I miss them a lot!


Naho and James, fresh from the train... Vivian and Audun

Curious incidents at work...

Lately I feel very privileged to be a part of the first opera production in the new opera house in Oslo. It's Verdi's "Don Carlo" and we have a great Italian conductor. The singers are fabulous, costumes incredible and the stage breathtaking. But - (there's always a but, especially in a new, hightech house...) things happens all the time.
First of all, it's very hard to get around in the house without feeling you get lost. I have a great idea for them: why not just give out a map together with the substitute-access card?
We have been waiting for the technique to be ready for the rehearsals and run-throughs a lot. I have no idea for how long we've been waiting. The scenes change have been problematic, they don't have enough surcuits for the lights, the whole setup for the performance dissappeared the other day and half of the pit lost their lights on the music stands. Poor technichians! I feel so sorry for them - they're struggling with the technich who seems to be sabotaging everything they do, and then all the artists are complaining too.
From big trouble like this, we (in the cellosection at least) have the minor problems with our music. Mum and I (we actually share desk!) have music which has been written in way too much - not only with ordinary pencil, but with both blue and red as well. It's not funny! Lots of crossed-out parts (which we do play) and it's hard to see what we've written among all the other "kråketær" (scribblings). A plus is that they smell kind of nice. Gunpowder!
-Oooh, almost forgot that we were missing the conductor too... (for a while) I was wondering if he had been lost in the building somewhere.

Totto with a very describing t-shirt! (Vi beklager teknisk feil, meaning "we're sorry. Technical problem)


Lene: Thank you for such a great time with you - even it was short! Pictures will come soon!



Helene: HAPPY 18!!! Love you lots and lots! Banki is sending you all his love (but I guess you already know that he is all yours...)

Migrene

http://www.migraine.org.uk/content.aspx?cid=1

I found some really good information about migraine, for those of us who has them...

The wonders of nature!

When you have a mum with a huge garden, then the autumn is like a playground. Or a paradise for seeing new wonders. Like this little siamese twin-plums:



I think they look a little suspect though...
Or female examples of a much-hated species like this:



(I deported it from the outside wall. Didn't get myself to kill it, so now it has a new home somewhere else. No-one knows where. Mwooahaha)

And well, then you have all the work which has to be done: relieve the trees from the huge amount of apples, plums and pears. Remove all the fallen fruits from the grass, which also has to be cut (but because of all the rain it has been impossible to do that yet). We try to send a lot of apples to a juice factory, and also make jam out of most of the other things we don't manage to eat raw or put in a cake..
And then there is also Grandma. We try to entertain her sometimes so she doesn't get bored or feel too lonely now without her husband but a strange vision. (One eye with 60% vision but weird colours, and one blurry eye.) Banki practice cello in case she wants to hear some live music. It is too big for him, so he can only do pizzicato in 4th position... I think he is cute!


The eager cellist!


Isn't she just adorable?

Autumn...

Came home from a rehearsal and found Robi, under a cover in the sofa feeling quite shaky. He's probably getting ill. I'm not surprised - the weather has changed a lot recently and I too felt I was on the verge of caching a cold. Guess we're not the only ones.
It just made me long for the summer - and this summer we spent a lot of time in Slovakia. In the video here you see some of it, accompanied by the now deceased Hollywood actor (whose voice I think everyone who has ever seen a movie, will recognize..). After spending warm days by the foot of the High Tatras, you get spoiled by the view. And the heat.
Fairyland
Now I have to (and actually also look forward to) get used to crispy, fresh air, woolen sweaters, cold feet and hot chocolate in front of a crackling fire.

A completely ordinary saturday

...in Norway means that you go for a walk. Preferably a long walk. We had a shorter one because mum had to go to work around 17, and also visited Grandpa at the hospital (he's just living there for the moment while we're waiting for my Grandma to get her eye operations done) first.
I managed to get Rob with us, even though he didn't actually want to go out. The weather was not really good (it was cloudy with some showers now and then) so I don't blame him. I think he was happy afterwords when he saw that we were going to walk on asphalt (not very Norwegian, but..) and that we intended to go to a place with incredibly nice cakes! Gupu. They're known for having a delicious chocolate cake - and it is very yummi! Still, I prefer the carrot cake, I think.
On our way back down to the car, we found lots, and lots of mushrooms. We didn't have any basket to put them in, so mum's hood had to do. And look at all we found!


Two very happy mushroom-lovers!

Rob made us a fantastic dinner of beef with mushroom sauce and baked potatoes. We had picked up Alexia just after mum left for work, so she had a plate too. ("I'm not especially hungry" she said, but ate a huge portion nevertheless.)
And since we had the house to our selves, we got a film (bought a film for 45,- instead of renting it for 55,- Good deal, don't you think?) and snack, put some wood in the oven and made the living room really cozy. Even Banki joined us! He misses Helene so much that we thought Sweeney Todd would be a good choice. Two of her favorite actors, and Tim Burton - it had to be a success. And it was! Just see how happy he was to get chocolate bananas and see a Helene-movie:



...but I think it'll take a while before I eat meat pies again.

Location: The Kitchen
Drinking: Jasmine Tea
Listening to: Robs computer who tells him "no, I won't do that"
Mood: content, glad I'm indoors! (The weather is very autumny)

Banki's new hobby

Yesterday I introduced Banki to Rob, and they really hit it off! It was so nice to see them together, like two old friends meeting each other again after a long time of separation.
Banki thought it was so nice to meet Rob that he has spent some time reading the English-Slovak dicitonary :)


Best of friends!


Banki with the dictionary


Here he's looking for a familiar word. Can you guess what?

The little house in the forest

Mum was going to have string quartet rehearsal. This meant the house would be occupied, and since Rob and I didn't have any program for the weekend Mum came with the brilliant idea: Why not take the car to the cabin?
(Robs car didn't leak any oil, by the way. We had an adventurous trip around Bærum to find a garage that could look at it. After a looooong time they told us they had a big problem with the car; they couldn't find any leakage anywhere. Hooray!)



We ran through the grocery store to buy some food, ran home to pack some clothes and then headed off for the cabin. We got directions from Mum and key from Grandma, so it couldn't go wrong.
I have not been at the cabin since I was maybe 15, and I know my aunt have made some changes - i.e made a road all the way up to the cabin. We found the new road (this is, mind you, in the middle of the forest, far away from anywhere...) and took all our stuff out of the car and walked up towards the cabin. The road was pretty wide, flat and free from grass. I was quite disappointed, because I remember the path as a narrow, little path full of ants. I was even more surprised when we found a barrack next to the road too, and then Rob saw the cabin. Or more precisely, he saw the three houses there. We had taken the wrong road!
We turned back to the car, drove some 50 meters back and found another road. I was so relieved when I saw the "road" (it was more or less a path which you can drive on), found the cabin and unlocked the door. (Didn't have any problems with it, even though Grandma told me it was ok to bang it a bit..) It was still the cabin I remembered! They'll expand the cabin with one more room, but that's on the back so I'm ok with it.
Anyway, we put our stuff in the cabin, got the fireplace started and then headed off to get some water. There is a well between the main road and the cabin, but in the darkness it was a little problematic to see the little track. To make a long story short - we had a great adventure! And we found lots and lots of mushrooms :)
Back home, with several litres of water, we thought a slice of bread would be nice. Well, we had both kaviar and liverpate in tubes, but no bread. We had forgot bread!! I found some flour, salt, sugar, cumin and baking soda (no yeast) in the cupboard so we made some bread for breakfast. A little hard, but still tasty.
In the morning (after making bread) we got out to pick up mushrooms. We found a lot of them, mostly too old and moshy ones, but also a lot of good ones. We also found tyttebær! (lingonberries, if you think in Swenglish) After that, a gourmet dinner of duck (made completely without any oil or butter, we'd forgot that too) with potatoes and fresh tyttebær-jam, outdoor, tasted incredibly yummie!



Our two days at the cabin were so refreshing! We had great walks in the forest, I practised and we had more than enough food (we even brought back the ingredients for tomatoe sauce. We thought of having it to the pasta that we forgot to buy...). I can recommend bacon and potatoes in the fire! (Put the potatoes, with skin, in the glowing coals and leave them there until they're done.)


Rob's making bread


A random Tonje-peeking-into-the-cabin-picture


The well, or "olle" as Mum say.


The view from the toilet!


My practice-room


Our drying-mushroom-carpet!

Outdoor Salsa concert

And today was the big day, the opening of Sandvikafest!!
I was supposed to be there around 13-14 for sound check and maybe some go-through of the music. I turned up around 13.30 and found no-one from the band. I found a stressed sound engineer, and a very smiling car rental guy. What to do? My sweet Rob was there to calm me down in the middle of all the confusion; *Thank you!!!*
I ended up calling mum to get hold of some phone numbers (lost all of them when I had my little phone-in-the-toilet-incident.) and tried to call Hector. He was, of course, too busy to even notice my calls and frantic sms... After a while I met the incredibly happy bass player and the violinist, so it all came down to be quite calm. (phew)
I got a short sound check and no go-through...
The festival starts with a parade that goes through the whole city, and ends up 1 hour later in the park. There everybody can relax, buy something to eat and/or drink and look at the band and the dancers. (Pretty tired after 1 hour parade-dancing.) The whole thing was pretty chaotic, but still very nice!

Sorry Nee-chan. I didn't dare to bring Banki even Robi would have held him the whole time. But he's got a full resume!

Cars...

Yesterday mum left with this car:




and came home with this one:


Isn't it cute?



...and Robs car i leaking oils again. Annoying!!!

Salsa rehearsal

Sunday evening, my school-orchestra conductor came to visit my mum. Since mum was not home, it was me who ended up doing this little gig. There is absolutely no money involved, but what don't you do for your old school-orchestra?? (string orchestra, red.anm.)
I have got no music, didn't know exactly when it was or who it was going to be with. I knew where, but not where "where" was located. Did this make sense? (Sandvika Vgs. red.anm.)
I was picked up outside my house around 18, and we were supposed to start 18.30. A violinguy and me found the salsa guys in a dark classroom, and were sent to the gym hall for a string rehearsal before joining the band. It turned out to be a cooperation between the music school, the teachers there and some professional salsa guys. It was great! I thought at first it would be, sorry to say, a typically Norwegian salsa. No groove. These guys knows their stuff! The rehearsal was filled with quite a lot of smalltalk between band members, until one of the more quiet ones said:
"Silence, I KILL you!" -link no.1


Now, this band with all its eccentricities, can be experienced Thursday in Sandvika Bypark. It's the opening of Sandvika Byfest (a festival!) with Bolivian salsa to start off with. A parade through the city starts around 15. Enjoy!!




www.sandvikabyfest.no -link no.2


The band (almost all...) Some of the stringplayers

Location: In bed
Listening to: Sequences of fifths
Mood: Sleepy but happy

A normal day, so to say

Mum is always on the run. It's either students, work, errands for the grannies or shopping of some sort. Today was no different. This was our schedule:

• Breakfast, then did the dishes (no washing machine!)
• Planned tomorrow with my grandma, who is going to have an eye-operation.
• Went to the opera to buy some tickets. Here we took our time, running through the house. I found my first payslip from them so I got very exited! and then I was exited again when I visited the public toilets
• Ran up Karl Johan (our main shopping-street) to get a book I've ordered.
• We managed to stop by some of the more expensive shops to have a peek at the things for sale, and mum bought a very sweet dress. For work. 70% off and *hepp* she has a designer dress from Karen Millen for what you usually pay for a dress form H&M! I found a really nice winter jacket, woolen, with a great cut! I feel Ive been shopping a little too much lately but my mum said "I'd buy that straight away". Thank you mum!!
• Home to make dinner, checked out the car policies and then she ran off to have students before work.
• I'm home, practicing a bit, and now sitting in the kitchen (wireless broadband. Fancy!) drinking tea and writing.

Ah, and I'm quite frustrated with the high-tech mobiles!!! Why, why can't I download another language for my phone?? Just because it's not a "smartphone" (like any phone can be smart...)
Arrrgh! I'm struggling to write Slovak messages (with a language not much better than a 1 year old) through the Croatian T9. How fun is that?


Here's the fantastic toilet at the new opera house. It's small, but still great. The tiles at the walls are actually art!

Location: Home in the kitchen
Drinking: Green jasmine tea
Mood: Content but annoyed
Listen to: Cello-music in my head
Tribute to Helene!

The two I miss!

My sister went to Japan.
I really admire her for actually going there! (Dad says he's not too happy about it, but I bet he actually feels very proud!) We can all follow her journey through her blog, and I feel I'm part of it even though I'm not there. Helene, now you can see what I do too!
She has a little friend that she cares for more than any of us can ever understand. Banki. She is so anxious about him that she made me promise to babysit him - and give him a lot of cuddles. He has already found my little Bass, and they are having an afternoon snack - apples and sugar peas from our garden :)


Aren't they adorable?

Anyway, Nee-chan is off and I'll long for more pictures like these:



And the other one I miss is Robert. He's still in Slovakia but will drive home (!) during the week. I'll have him here for only a short time I'm afraid, because he'll go back to Stavanger and his old job. Changing jobs every 1/2 year is not very stabilizing... I'm really glad we had a great and long summer together (although separated a few weeks because of Ingvilds wedding and me going to Dads cabin while Rob had his apartment-project.)


In Spain, the two of us..

*Stay! COME Stay! COME*
And don't forget to phone home!!!
Love you <3