Celebrating Fastelavn

I love tradition and I get slightly hysteric when things are not as they always have been. For instance, the table cloth on our national holiday, the 17th of May, HAS to be blue. Another colour would simply be wrong. Yes, we all have issues.

So I decided to celebrate Fastelav and teach these ignorant Aussies about this wonderful day. First of all I needed the ingredients for Fastelavns buns. That was quite a mission. With no one at home I had to walk to the shop. In pouring rain I struggled (okay, it might have been a drizzle, but my flip flops got wet and slippery and it was sort of hard to walk). But I did get there and after an hour of searching I had located flour, sugar, milk and feathers! Very proud of myself I started the journey home.

Baking was no drama. I love spending time in the kitchen. The next part of the preparations included finding some sort of branches to stick my feathers on. I went into the garden; not without fear. It's been weeks since the grass has been cut and my vivid imagination pictured all sorts of dangerous animals just waiting for an opportunity to attack. I found a nice little tree to break some branches off, but after a bit of thinking I decided to pick another one. I guess the owner of the house would not be too happy if I destroyed their still very young tree. So I broke some branches off the neighbour's tree instead and attached the feathers.

Everything was now ready, so I forced Liam and Barry to come celebrate with me.

Liam: Mmmm... This is the best eva!

Barry: I'm so happy. I wish it was Fastelavn everyday.

HAPPY FASTELAVN EVERYONE!

4 Days in Sydney

I love Sydney. It truly is a great city with lots of nice buildings, parks and turisty stuff to do. I guess one of the reasons I prefer it to Brisbane is that it's closer to the sea. Brisbane has its rivers, but it's not quite the same. Left Brisbane freakishly early Friday morning (the plane left at 7am and I'm still trying to recover from that horrible experience). Spent most of Friday walking around in the city eating ice cream, visiting the opera house, etc.

Visited a a Greek friend of Vas in the evening. I think I'll never quite get over these people's fridges... They had like 4, all filled with all kinds of goodies. Coming from a home where the selection in the fridge consisted of some jam and cheese and sometimes milk; this was truly an experience.

Saturday was a friend of Vas's 21st. Turning 21 is a big deal here, and this girl had a rather big party with family and friends. Almost all of them were Greek, and so was a lot of the music and food. I refused to join in on any traditional dancing. I haven't abandoned my Viking pride.

Sunday we took a ferry to Manly. Very pretty place with scenic walks and beaches. I had my first triple cheese burger from McDonald's there. Mmmm... Ate ice cream, and more ice cream and even more ice cream.

Monday we went to Bondi beach, a quite well known beach. Paris Hilton was observed there not too long ago. I know, very exciting. Had calamari and chips for brunch by the sea. Went for a walk along the beach before we ended up in a posh shopping centre where we spent our last hours in Sydney.

Beach time

Holdt nettopp på å totalskada tastature mitt med ein boks vaselin. Planen va å gi lippene et lett, glossy preg, men som eg nettopp oppdagte – vaselin blir tynnflydane når der e varmt.

Temperturen ligge på 30 tale, någe så e glimrings så lenge eg befinne meg på ei strand, i et svummebasseng eller lignande. Probleme e bare at der e ingen andre så bryr seg om disse aktiviteane. Eg har vel alltid hatt et litt difust bilde av Aussiefolk som surfeglade, bronsefarga strandslaver, men eg begynne å lure på om disse bare eksistere på Home and Away. De eg kjenne vil i hvert fall helst bare sitta inne med air conditione på fullt og spela WOW. Visste dokker forresten at der nettopp kom ud ein utvidelsespakke så tilføye 10 nye levler eller någe sånt? Mhm...

Sutra meg vertfall te å få me Vas te Gullkysten i går, og tilbragte dagen på strandå. Øvenatta hos sustera hans og dro hjem igjen i dag me Tim.

Guttane i huse ska ha sitt ukentlige matinnkjøp i dag, så eg tror eg joine nå. Komme sikkert te å ta evigheter. Stoooore matbutikk, også går de heile runden på ein ufattelige systematiske måde. Tar nok vertfall ein time.

New adr

Hey, as I mentioned earlier I have moved. My new adr is:

350 Fairfield Road
Unit 3
Yeronga 4104
Australia

Back in Australia

Do YOU wanna get rid of the extra xmas-kilos? Well, I have the perfect solution. And it only takes a week.

1. Get some sort of stomach virus, etc (anything that makes you nauseous )
2. Travel for 42 hours - eat and sleep as little as possible
3. Walk and shop a lot while waiting for all your flights, make sure to carry a heavy hand luggage
4. Go to museums, take trains - make sure you pick a destination with high temperatures
5. Have a day of throwing up
6. Spend the next 3 days sleeping, only eating small portions of rice cakes, yoghurt and grapes

Trust me, it works.