Rompe

Dagen i går var litt av en dag.
Startet tidlig. Veldig tidlig. -I alle fall i forhold til vanlig Tonje-standard.
Var på jobb så tidlig at jeg fikk spilt igjennom mesteparten flere ganger før prøven, veldig deilig. Burde bli en vane...
Deretter var det generalprøve, og så gikk dagen slag i slag.
Måtte innom den ene av orkesterets fysioterapeuter for et intervju (du vet, et sånt "vet du hvaslags risikogruppe du tilhører, hva du kan gjøre for å unngå belastningsskader, hvaslags skader pleier cellister å få... etc.etc), hjem for å spise litt, hvile litt - og så hive på meg konsertfiller før en times musikkskolehjelp (ministryk fra 17.30-18.30) - møte Jon Are kl.19 for avlevering av billett og så klistre på et fjes før oppvarming og konsert.
Etter konserten var det duket til fest "backstage", resultatet av bratsjprøvespillet - og første tilbakemeldingsmøte for Jaakko og meg. Grøss!
Superskummelt.!
Men, vi overlevde heldigvis begge to. Noen ting jeg skulle ta å jobbe litt med (litt overraskende, men ok.) men ingen store greier. Heldigvis.

Dagens morsomhet fant jeg på ICAnær på Stavanger Storsenter. Leser stadig vekk i "Broken English spoken perfectly" som jeg fikk av Eivind for noen år siden, så var inne i tankegangen.
*knis*

Saturday walk

It's been a while since Mum, Eivind and I went for a saturday walk. Today we went from Skytterkollen to Brunkollen. It was great - not too warm, but not cold. And we were almost alone in the forest. The weather was changing a lot, so I guess the other ones didn't want to get wet...
Up at Brunkollen they had closed for the day, but the summer subs were enjoying their afterwork with a glass of wine. And the dogs were dozing in the sun. The cat, a fat, old black one, were SO cozy. It came for cuddles, and its paws were walking in the air all the time. And purring.

Otherwise, my days are filled with food, rest and friends. Wednesday, after coming to Oslo again after weeks of Stavanger summer, I spent the evening at Amandas (at last!) - we had a great talk!!
Grandma has finally got to some adventure; up to the cabin with Astrid, and friday I was looking at a car for Robi and me.
A blue Citroen Xsara Picasso. Quite a catch, at least in my eyes. Now we're just waiting for the contract to be sent to Robi, and then we'll be car-owners again. Iiiii!

Location: Mums livingroom
Mood: ok, but not too happy with all the change in the weather. And I could do with my boyfriend around too
Listening to: Mums knitting

Kjerag

Treat!

Eivind and I are out in the city to get stuff for our mountain walk tomorrow, plus additional paint for our terrace. We passed by Sjokoladepiken for a treat. Yum!

Revenge

This is Eivinds amazing beginning of his revenge in this Snake game. Great weather at Solastranda! Aaah, summer!

Wild strawberries!

What could possibly taste better after an 8 hour long drive (Oslo to Stavanger) than wild strawberries? They grow in our tiny garden, so I'm not sure the term suits them very well... But incredibly yummie!!
It is great to have my little brother for visit! :)

Solastranda

Kvetas last day here, and we took a trip to Solastranda. It was quite windy, so despite the sun we had to wear a lot of clothes. First we took the bus towards Sola (I always laugh when I think of this name. The Sun!), but Robert forgot to push the button - we got a bit longer walk. Then I figured Kveta would like to see Sola Ruin Church, I saw the sign and we walked. Quite far. It was warm (suddenly) and we passed lots of farms. Not what I remembered of my previous trip to this church. We decided to turn back, and guess what we saw next to the road, app. 100 m from the sign? Yup.
When we finally found our way to the beach I got a strong sence of deja-vu. I am positive I was there once before. Can it possibly be from the famous car vacation down the south-west coast of Norway? (The only thing I remember apart from looong hours in the car) was a face I drew on Eivinds foot!

Yum!

I can't really say anything but: YUM!!
Eivind, I think I know which one would be your favorite...

Charlottes iskrem

Birthdayparty

And I asked them all to gather around Grandpa like an oldfashioned photographer. Anders and Anne came later.. Grandma had booked a room with equipment like cutlery, plates and coffee machine. Mum and Astrid had made snitter and Grandma had baked kringle. And then it was Astrids cream cake with cloud berries (picked up around Grandpas cabin). I know I shouldn't eat any dairy products, but it was so yummie! And I know Grandpa enjoyed his 90th birthday tremendously.

Shopping!

I managed to convince these two to accompany me on my shopping today. I wanted a summer dress, some shoes (light ones, no heel) a wedding gift for Sigurd and Anne Sigrid, and on top of this: not be alone. Eivind is somewhat allergic to shopping, but with this treat I think it was worth it...

More 17th of May!

Grandma made cake - both with and without cream (I can't eat any dairy products...).

She even decorated them according to the day! Eivind did a heroic job by grinding coffee beans by hand. (well, almost anyway.) And so we had a great 17th of May evening coffee :)

Morning coffee

Eivind made coffee today, and Granny came down to join us. Oh, and I have given E a new addiction too. Oooops

Šišky, tea and movie

Mum and my brother left today, leaving us lost and bewildered. Now we're comforting our selves with these slovak doughnuts, tea and a movie. Eivind, this fantastic picture is a tribute to you! Isn't it just artisticly amazing? ;)

Spring!

I'm delighted!!
But can't enjoy it fully yet, because I woke up with the stiffest neck in history this morning.

Location: Bærum
Eating: Waffles soon!
Drinking: ...with additional coffee
Mood: sad and frustrated! Want to be fit for fight - and easter. Not feeling like an old woman.

Hyttetur

The title is a tribute to the song "Hyttetur" and I think all Norwegians knows how it goes. It wasn't any sister who was sour, but a grandma who was complaining. But that was mostly because her equipment didn't hold together.

My brother is at a folkehøyskole (some kind of school in-between high school and uni. Voluntarily.), called Bjerkely Folkehøyskole, where they focus on photography. And this Saturday they had all the families gathered to see what the young, aspiring artists had done during their excursions abroad. Mum wanted to go there, and dragged both me and Grandma with her. Since the school is much closer to the cabin than home, we slept over there from Friday to Saturday. The only problem was the 1 meter of snow we had to conquer. At least Grandma. It's been over 15 years since last time she used a pair of skis, and the last one to use her shoes was me some 3 years ago.
We didn't really plan anything, just packed some food, clothes for one day, skis and the key. Called aunt Astrid to get the code to a gate-lock, and we all took for granted that everything was ok - only worrying about Grandmas skiing skills.
A mistake.
Her shoes started to fall apart the moment she put them on at home, but we only realized it when we got out of the car 300 m. from the cabin. (That was almost 3 hours drive from home.)
As a result: we spent a few hours to get from the car to the cabin.
We left Grandma's skis in the car, and let her walk instead. Mum left us to find some snowshoes that should be at the cabin (according to Grandma, who hadn't been there for some years), and I stamped my skis into the snow so the old woman would have somewhere to walk without disappearing into the whiteness. It was not really successful. Sometimes I heard "Noooo I don't want to" behind me, turned around only to see her falling SLOWLY into the snow. Tilting, is probably a better word.
Mum didn't find the snowshoes, but Grandpa's old-old skis. They didn't fit, of course, but at least they had a string Grandma could have around her shoes to keep them from falling off.

Finally inside, a cozy fire in the fireplace, soup in our stomachs, tea and burning oil-lamps made the effort worthwhile.

Saturday morning, mum and I woke up with the smell of coffee in our noses. Grandma had gotten up with the sun, heated up the house and came up to the attic with sweet buns and coffee. It was such a nice morning!


Grandma, the early morning bird.


I just woke up - but the coffee was nice and strong :)

After breakfast it was time to pack, wash the dishes and figure out how to get down to the car again. It was still a lot of snow, or more even. After a lot of searching around, we found a second set of keys. They led to a shed mum didn't open yesterday - and what did she find in there? Snowshoes!
I gave Grandma my shoes and skis, and took her old, broken shoes and the snowshoes. Both mum and Grandma fell down a few times (mum due to a heavy backpack, Grandma because of not practised her skiing for a while but blaming the equipment) and we had great laughs at it. I felt like a rescuing party.


Snowshoes!


Grandma on skies, and my footsteps next to her.

To get to Bjerkely, we had to drive through Elverum centrum. It was really crowded everywhere, lots of people - and animals. A market! Every year there is a market there, but we didn't know what date it was (didn't check) so we missed it. Arrgh!
But I'm very happy we didn't miss the show at Eivinds school. It was great! Quite long, but so many fantastic images. How I wished to have enough time and money to go to Cuba, Venezia, Kambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Amsterdam.


This is just some of the rubber Grandma's shoes left behind in the shop...

Location: Mums livingroom
Eating: Dinner, soon
Drinking: -----
Listening to: Grandmas adventures of the day.
Mood: ok

Det snør, det snør, tiddelibom

Directly translated: it snows (is snowing), it snows, tiddelibom. (Winnie the Pooh sings this song together with Piggy when they are building a house for Eore. Yup)

When I had come at peace with the idea of a cold winter without any snow, had bought my skates and was ready for my challenge on the ice - it started to pour down like cats and dogs. Well, not really, since it is snow and not rain, but I'm not aware of any English saying that fits. I guess they don't really have this amount of snow anyway.

I had my daily practice when Mum and Grandma went to visit Granddad, our dinner were simmering on the stove (pinnekjøtt (stick-meat. haha), we're trying to eat the last remains of Christmas out of the house so to say), and the snow were starting to pour down. Eivind had left for Vietnam a few hours before (around 12.30) and then the ground was completely bare. When Mum and Grandma came back, there were app. 10 cm. of fresh snow. Grandma shoveled the courtyard. Then we ate our precious west-coast Christmas food, watched the news and then it was time for another round with the shovel. I'm not kidding - there was around 30 cm more snow! Eivinds car had changed colour - AND shape... Well, at least it got washed ;)


Grandma, the caretaker. She's a heroine!!


Our courtyard


And the high voltage mast

Location: My room
Mood: Happy
Eating: Apple from when the Opera were in Sandefjord
Drinking: Nada
Listening to: Nothing, but I've heard the high voltage mast in the corner of Mums garden

Skating like the Swedes do!

Amazing!!! It was great to be out on the ocean today. The ice was hard, quite even (though somewhere there were humps and bumps to make the walk more exciting...) and with 5 cm of snow to stabilize us beginners. Mum and I had a great walk from Strand to the Henie Onstad Art Museum, where we had a coffee and a muffin, and back.
We met quite a few people who were asking about our skates, some people fishing, other skaters and kite-users. The weather was "tjukt tåkeføre" -really thick mist, quite cold but not freezing. We experienced one fall, hosted by mum, and a lot of fun trying to understand the dynamics with our new skates.



At home, I found my brother who had lots to tell about his school - and he got the whole walk in words...
Robi - you'd have loved this!



Location: Mums livingroom
Mood: happy
Eating: Chocolate and licorice (our proviant, eaten at home)
Drinking: Not yet.

Home, sweet home

I had to get up a little too early yesterday to manage to do my packing AND enjoy the breakfast at the hotel before the bus left Kristiansand 08.00
As a musician I'm NOT used to such early hours... (especially not the day after a concert)
The bus travel was actually really exiting, thanks to the Olympic-final in handball between Russia and *tadaa* Norway. The bus-driver put the speakers on so we all listened to it.
I was pretty tired when I stepped out of the bus with cello, bag and rucksack with computer and clothes, but heading off for my a "hot-dog-birthday-party" (pølsebursdag) at Ingvilds place. Her son turned 1 and me and Robert were invited. Rob being in Slovakia still had some problems showing up ;P
They had decorated their backyard with balloons, tables with paper cloths and a big hot grill. They served hot dogs, cakes and jelly. It was so nice to see all the guests - family and friends (both with and without children) gathered together. And the wasps. I also managed to proof that yes, you can actually buy friends (with candy...).

When I finally came home I was totally dead. Struggling on and off buses through Oslo with all my stuff - especially my cello - is not easy. The local bus was crowded, and it's quite narrow. Of course there was a baby carriage there too. I ended up pretty jammed, and had to move my cello out of the way every time someone entered the bus...

Just now, I'm so happy to be sitting on my mums homemade terrace (she made it herself!) looking at the way-too-old apple trees who thought the burden of the summer rain to be too heavy and writing this new entry. Mum is soon finished with todays "Porgy and Bess" and Eivind is going to pick her up. He came home on a short visit, which took us completely by surprise. We were on our way up to Østernvann (you know Norwegians, always out for a stroll on sundays!) when he called. The whole family minus Rob will be home for dinner!
Home, sweet home!


Mum by Østernvann. It was a lovely day for "tur"


The terrace!


Here are the two unfortunate apple trees. I'm so sad because it's "åkerø" trees (they taste delicious!)