Nadia and I went out to lie down in the park today. We were standing outside of my apartment when I saw lightning in the distance... I went back up to unplug my laptop.

One minute later probably the worst storm I've ever seen in Norway hit us! It reminded me of tropical typhoons. My room is on the top floor and has a panorama view and I was blinded by lightning and I thought all my windows would burst. Quite frightening!
My father called me from many many miles away and canceled our dinner date because he heard the coming storm. He would have had to come by boat to see me; I'm happy he didn't! The storm was pounding my windows when he called. The torrential downpour was unbelievable. The streets were covered in debris afterwards.

Should I have refrained from taking this picture?

• I *finally* found a ticket to Hong Kong that I could afford. I'll spend three months this fall gallivanting around in Hong Kong, Taiwan and possibly even mainland China, doing research for my thesis. (I could have saved NOK 1000 (US$ 195) on my ticket if I'd chosen Aeroflot over Finnair, but srsly, I don't wanna die.)


• I have a nice apartment waiting for me in Taipei, cheap, in a scenic spot bordering on the jungle, with a bike included, a good friend (who also got me the room) living right around the corner.


• the housing situation in Oslo is monstrous, and I was supposed to move out on Oct 1st because my housemate (who is awesome) was having her boyfriend move in. I had half settled on having to live in a cardboard box in the gutter, but recently she asked me if I would like to keep living here with both of them, paying even *less* rent. You wouldn't believe me if I told you where I lived, how big and awesome my room is, and how little I pay - renting a broom closet in the sticks would have you shell out at least twice what I'm paying. But the best part is, finding housemates that I dig living with is NO simple matter. They're wonderful and we all get along great! I receive death threats from friends currently looking for housing.


• I have an advisor for my thesis! FINALLY!!!!! We signed the contract yesterday.


• I was asked yesterday if I wanted a job as a Chinese teacher! I am very flattered. Even better, I couldn't accept it because I'll be in Asia. So I don't have to deal with angsty teenagers. But knowing they want me gives me hope for the future. :)


• I'm going to Russia on Monday! I got my visa yesterday. I have a tremendous crush on the clerk at the consulate. (slurp). I practice speaking Russian to this sweet Russian girl at the canteen where I work. She gave me a Russian dictionary as a parting gift. :) I'm so excited I could plotz.

In sum, w1n! :) Here's a shot of me demonstrating the w1n.



*toots own horn*

It never gets really dark here in the summer.



The blue hour just goes on and on. So lovely---



yesterday I had one of my best hiking days ever. I quit taking pictures because the camera just couldn't cut it. The immensity of nature just eclipses everything else. I again seriously consider just leaving everything for a sabbatical in the mountains. I should probably be wary about indulging my hermit genes. I'll turn into a mossy-bearded old crone with wild eyes in no time.

I'll resize a batch of pictures tomorrow. Stay tuned.

I've been faaar the fuck away in the countryside for the past couple of weeks, hiking and fishing. Absolutely mind-bending.

Yesterday's mountain top <3






on the top!


( panorama view )


(That's a big piece of marble I'm sitting on)

this is about as flamingo as I get. (seeing as I am not really the pink type)



Oslo in the summer is my favourite city in the world. In winter, however, it's simply murder. I don't think anyone loves the summer as much as Osloites: You just have to live through six monts of freezing sludgy misery to fully appreciate the fresh air, the mellow temperature, the city that blooms and blooms and the gorgeous half naked people carpeting the parks, slumbering half drunk in the evening sun, legs in the air, loving.

The scent of buckthorn and lilac everywhere... And it will only get better.

I took this wicked photo of Nick Cave the other day :) The show totally rocked my socks off. Best Cave concert I've been to.



After the show, Nadia and I RAN to Blå for an unexpected concert with my hero Daevid Allen of GONG!!! I mean, DAEVID ALLEN! of GONG! It was INCREDIBLE!! (We were even invited backstage, but the most obnoxious bouncer asshole I've ever met refused to let ut in. We were like "go talk with the band! they invited us! they ok'ed us ten minutes ago!!" but he wouldn't even go inside and double check. T_T)

Pics though.


( + )

Nadia is my regular partner in crime. Which is lucky for me, cos she's got legs goin' all the way from her hips to the ground! She's my mother and sister and wife all in one. She's the prime mover and the safe haven. She's the bee's knees and the prime time.



And she's got crazy legs! Oy caramba! =)

For necrognosis mostly, but other metallers out there may also enjoy (or shrink away in horror from) the newest tattoo of Nattefrost (of Carpathian Forest fame). That's a serious tattoo if I ever saw one!



( one more )
Taken on a night of flowing beer and hangover debauchery with necrognosis and company at Unholy, being "entertained" by Nattefrost's homemade porn videos starring himself, "admiration" of his penis (mostly by himself), and hilarious conversations with the lot. I nearly lost a lung laughing. Good times. :)

I'm a "legs" woman.

My own legs are quite unimpressive. But I could follow a long pair of legs through the city without thinking. I can think of few things I find more aesthetically pleasing; it's not really connected with sex, lust... Just aesthetics is all.

My bedroom is across the street from one of the most popular "in" clubs in Oslo. The longest legs. the blondest hair. the bluest eyes. the snuggest dresses. the lowest cuts. The tallest heels. In short, the richest bitches.
Smoking is not allowed indoors, so the patrons invariably go out for smokes; mating rituals are performed on the dancefloor and the bargaining is done outside.
This should be paradise for a "legs" woman such as I. I could lurk behind the curtains, gawk at the girls, ogle the smooth strutting on heels too high for mortals. Flocks of them. All stretching their Scandinavian legs like bling-studded flamingos right underneath my window.

It's hell.

There comes a time, at about 2 AM, when they've reached a level of intoxication where communication is only conducted through yelling. Then squealing, shrieking, screaming, whimpering, howling... The men reply in style; roaring, bellowing football songs, wallowing, punching cars that honk when they stumble out into the middle of the road; the women crying, the men fighting, all of them vomiting.

I am so sick of listening to their inane babble, hystrical fits, the men who impress potential mates by beating their chests, bickering, bellowing, smashing glasses, losing the ability to talk and just roar like baboons with inflated egos and pulsating asses, drooling gorillas with glazed eyes and primal minds,

crying women in Versace dresses vomiting over themselves and crying, crying, crying; the men passing out kerbside with kebab smeared over their elaborate 'dos and expensive suits.

And me - right now having a bad fever and desperately longing for some rest and quiet; wanting nothing more than to pour boiling oil over all their blonde heads and motherfucking limousines.

okay, a "before" shot has been requested and I think this picture demonstrates nicely how much hair I've cut off. Mette and Haire also flaunt their shiny plumes.

For the first time in 17 years, I went to a hairdresser and got a proper haircut! :)


the corkscrews just appeared on their own accord.


absurdly short!

I get comments on how healthy my hair looks! Haaa! I think it's been at least ten years since I heard that.

For World Fairtrade Day, I was asked to decorate the sidewalk in front of the Fairtrade store and the backyard where the concerts would be held. Crouching and bouncing back and forth makes for very good butt excercise. Especially when wearing heels. I walk like an old crone with a cactus up my arse still.
I had a really good time chalking up the pavement, however, and got to talk to many curious and interesting people. Payment in beer, Ubuntu and fairtrade coffee was had. Seeing as I'm mournfully broke these days, goods in exchange for services does me all kinds of good. :)



Coo and I, halfway through. The letters may look a bit wonky, but YOU try to make even letters the length of your body! ^_^ I am actually quite pleased with them, as I drew them freehand, which was more complicated than I thought.

A glorious weekend; friends, booze and sunshine, great times with gilt edges. Golden sunsets and mellow wines. Perfect.

Nadia (oh, you'll hear more about her soon) took me to Tea Lounge a while ago and said she would kill to have one of the painings there on her own wall. So yesterday, on a stream of iced lattes, dinner, apple cake and smoothies, all homemade by Super Hostess (blessed Egyptian hospitality)I whipped up a lady not quite unlike the original. She paid me 200 nok with a ticket to the upcoming Nick Cave concert on top. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and later the twins came over for stories and laughs. Mellow mellow mellow. :)


Sketchy hos. har har har arf!

workin' on it
( progress shots )

Voila!

Intense days.

The sun is rising already and I have so much left to do!!!

Arrrghhh!!!

You know that semi-post-orgasmic feeling you get after first working out like a star and then buying sushi from the hot local Vietnamese sushi maker with the smoldering black eyes and enjoying said sushi with a double cortado in the grass of the old cemetery with a mellow May breeze lifting your hair with small birds eyeing the sushi and the leaves just popping out of their buds like whoah in the sunlight? Know what I mean?

Pretty damn nice.

snagged from somewhere.