Aaand I'm back

After travelling in Singapore and Vietnam I'm back home to reality. Well, not quite. Before Christmas I ended up going to an audition at a youth/culture center, and before you know it I had gotten the part. So now I'm going to try out acting, which I've wanted to try out for a good while, there just haven't been any amateur possbilities in my town (as far as I've known about anyway). 2014 is going to be the year where Myrull does things Myrull doesn't know how to do...

The play being set up is Closer by Patrick Marber, also made into a movie in 2004. i play the part of Anna (the Julia Roberts part in the movie), a divorced photographer trying to figure out now what? when it comes to men and relationships. The whole play is basically about relationships and infidelity (and a good pinch human psychology).

We're taking pictures for our own poster next week, and I'll post that when it's ready.

The whole set up is based on volunteer work, no one's getting paid for anything, but that doesn't matter. It's brilliant fun! I must say, I did not expect to enjoy acting this much. And my coplayers are really great folks. The director and driving force behind the project is a young Macedonian fellow, and he is good, he is really good.

We have a month of rehearsals now before putting on two shows in the middle of February.

Short and almost boring update

Not much blogging lately, but that's mostly because I haven't done much worth writing about. My last three or four weeks have (mostly) consisted of working out, reading about travelling, packing, and buying Christmas presents. Packing because I'm moving after Christmas, and planning to pack stuff for my first trip to Asia. Hurray!

So, yeah, going to Singapore and Vietnam for three weeks, leaving on Friday this week. That's also probably means no or little updates here on the blog the upcoming something weeks. But I'll be back, with lots of pictures!

 

Bought me Lonely Planet: Southeast Asia on a shoestring so that I'll something to read on the plane. My travelling companion already has the specific books for Singapore and Vietnam.

The particularly blah Monday when my pink friend broke

After almost nine years of service my trustworthy vibrator, aka my pink friend, broke. I bought it at Ann Summers in Cambridge after having watched the Sex and the City episode The Turtle and the Hare (season 1, episode 9), where we are all introduced to the "The Rabbit". I remember the package said "as seen on Sex and the City". Yeah, no consumerism here....

So now I either have to go shopping for a new one, or I'll have to go back to manual labour.

Friday night lectures

I love going to popular lectures (I ended up watching a bunch on youtube yesterday and went to bed way to late), and tonight I went to a little series of them given by Paul Rose, Børge Ousland, and Christopher McDougall. (Yeah, I know, the wonders of phone pictures again....)

Now, Paul Rose I had never heard about before, but apparently he's a BBC presenter and polar explorer. He gave a good enough lecture.

Then it was Børge Ousland, a Norwegian polar explorer. He gives absolutely brilliant talks. I been to his lectures two or three times before, so if you ever come across an oppurtunity to hear him speak, go for it. He is a proper inspiration.

 

  

Lastly it was Christopher McDougall, the writer of the book Born to Run. It's been some years since I read it, and his talk was mostly the same story, with a couple of extra bits and bobs, but it was wonderful to hear him tell the story himself. A wonderful speaker I must say.

I ended up talking with him briefly afterwords, just asked him about pain in my shins when running. His answer was simply that I was probably tensioning up and not relaxing enough in my legs when running, and my guess he's right. He recommended the 100-up exercise, which I remember reading about ages ago, but never really committed to trying out.

So there you are, I can now say I have gotten running advice directly from the Christopher McDougall!

Storm's end

The storm "Ivar" has been raging the town this evening. A bit of damages here and there, trees fallen, cars tipped over, garbage bins spread all over the neighbourhood, bits and bobs here and there.

All the busses were stopped at one point, which was particurlarly unfortunate as I had planned to take the bus to the Red Cross house at that exact point. Well, ended up running home and taking the bike instead. I have yet to put on the studded tires on my bike, but I figured it would be fine as most of the ice melted away the last couple of days anyway. Biking was no problem, just a bit too much side wind at one point.

I must say, I love the wind. The way it tears at your body and makes you utterly aware of the powers of nature around you. Makes me feel very much alive. Also, it reminds me of Svalbard. Lots of wind there. Picked out some windy and weathery pictures of a few of the people that were in my geography class on Svalbard. 

Oh come on!

The thieves have struck again! The nerve they have! Now, last time I wrote a little note directly on the jar that explicitly told them to "Fuck off" (see picture for method of execution). This note obviously only provoked them more, and now less than half the jar is left.

I have taken demonstrative action, and removed the peanut butter jar from the kitchen. It will now sit safely on my desk until emptied by me (unless the thieves actually go into my room for further provocation. You never know).

The next time the thieves go into my kitchen cupboard however, they will find this note waiting for them:

Haha! I have cut them off at the source!

Improv rolls

I've become a bit of a fan of slightly more improvisation when it comes to cooking. Not that I make up fantastic new recipes or anything like it, but it's nice when you can use only what you already have in you kitchen, instead of having to run off to the shops because you're missing a cup of something.

Today it was rolls, or scone like thingies. And I must say, they turned out quite well! Pleasantly surprised there. Only thing was that I added too much salt, but it worked as long as a used sweet spreads, such as banana or jam.

So, what I did was: Mix together a bit of oat bran, oats, wholemeal and fine flour, milk, cottage cheese, erythritol, one teaspoon of salt (too much), and three teaspoons of baking soda. Bake them for 15 minutes at 230 degrees Celcius (maybe a bit lower next time).

Aaand watching QI again.

Fjellmedisinkurs

Okay then, having recovered from the shock of the peanut butter incident last week, I was off to Ustaoset last Friday for a weekend course in mountain medicine, held by the Norwegian Society of Mountain Medicine (NFS).

I went there as a sort of delegate from out local Red Cross alon with two others, but I also had friends from the NTNUI Ski og Fjellsport group who attended the course.

The course is a one-and-a-half day thing built up of many short lectures and practical workshops and demonstrations outdoors. Subjects covered were, among other things, history, equipment, stabilisation and evacuation, hypothermia, frost bite, altitude sickness, avalanche medicine, allergies, medication, fractures and luxations, bleeding, heat preservation, and other bits and bobs.

All in all, a smashing good course, and I would recommend anyone Norwegian speaking who enjoys spending time outdoors to take this course next year.

Most of the time it was so interesting that I forgot to take pictures, even though I had my little compact in my pocket all the time, but did snap a couple here and there.

Og forresten, hvis du ønsker å selv bidra og lære om førstehjelp, så pågår det nå intervjuer til opptak av vårens grunnkurs hos Trondheim Røde Kors Hjelpekorps. Det er ennå ikke for sent å sende inn søknad, bare klikk deg inn her.

Thieves. Thieves!

Who the fuck steals peanut butter out of an unopened jar standing in somebody else's food cupboard?! Makes me wonder what else has been stolen from my food. And of course, who did it. Because there are five possible candidates, or maybe even more if you count anyone who has visited said five candidates. The candidates are not equally likely though, and in theory I could just ask, but I don't like open conflict, I prefer locking it all up and squinting at everyone entering the kitchen from now on. Also, I'm moving in a months time anyway, and I have good faith in my new co-inhabitants being non-thieving peanut butter-loving people.

I mean, it was even the fancy, expensive type....

Cake and QI

Tuesday evening I made the worlds best chocolate cake (mum's recipe, and it ain't healthy!) for an event that took place on Wednesday. The cake pans I had were either too small or too big, so ended up with a small one pluss a bit in a bread pan. 

 

Anyway, that's not what my point was going to be. While I baked I had BBC's QI on in the background, the most brilliant comedy-quiz show there is. I've seen everything before, several times, but it's excellent for just keeping on in the background anyway. Often I've forgotten the jokes from last time I watched. Consider this a proper recommendation! Unless you're one of them that don't like Stephen Fry, then you may fuck off.

You can see almost all episodes on youtube, just search for, well, QI. I'll guarantee you a good laugh.