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snow snow and more snow! this is the most snow i've seen so far, with about 40+cm of snow on the ground. And its still snowing quite constantly outside. Not too far from here, its almost like a blizzard though XD but they get very heavy rain and snowfall there due to the mountains ( pressure etc etc = precipitation)

lilo's extra cuddly this morning, coming to my lap to get some cuddles twice today, and giving lots of wet kisses. she's been having fun with Tobias, and saw them sleeping under the stairs together XD kinda cute,i managed to get a pic i'll put up eventually.

my sweater is almost done now. i have just 1 sleeve left to do and i'll go start on it... scouting around for more stuff to make XD

alrighty then, i'm off to knit!

Lilo

Lilo in the snow, still not liking it too much because its so cold. She actually went to hide in the woodshed beneath a whole stack of firewood for a few hours, refusing to come out because she was so cold -.- alex's dad had to dig her out so we could bring her back into the house. Silly cat, she played with Tobias outside before and should know how to get in... XD
Thats her with Tobias, abit more courageous to play with him properly now. Chasing each other around the house or outside, but Tobias is usually quite lazy. So this is how he amuses her while still being lazy, letting her bat his paw under the christmas tree XD
Lilo is also abit crazy, desperate for playmates. She went to Max. That cat is a little on the crazy cranky side, and hisses at her whenever she tries to play with him or even go near him i think. And thats the friendliest i've seen him act to her, just giving her the evil eye.
Smile!
Cat bullying in action XD

Xmas

Finally, the promised pictures!! Starting off with a present Raymond made for Hilde XD He wrote her name and address on an envelope, and put lots of fake money blended with 5 real notes and wrote the sender as the bank robbers who robbed a bank not too long ago in Norway XD

The notes were very cute too, he put her face on it, spelt 'hundre' as 'hondre' and instead of Norges Bank, he wrote Raymonds Bank if you look closely at the note XD thought it was a really cute idea XD
Of course, the pranking doesnt end there. Guess who got a lovely gift from Raymond and Hilde? Now guess who'll be the one happily using the towel. XD

Got a cool handmade pendent from Raymond, made out of tin. Its a cool dragon with its neck bent in a way so that the chain can go through it. Its a pretty cool gift, and Alex got an amulet which i havent taken a pic of yet. His is a moon with a feather, and the Elven letter for 'S'. Next cool gift! THE WAND OF SEVERUS SNAPE!! YAAAAYYYYY!

Gotta love the details :D

Got a pair of handmade socks from Mary's mother (alex's maternal grandma) which i like very much cuz the colour combination is cool XD got a pair of simple black gloves from her as well, which was very much needed since i left my warm purple ones at Paul's house. Hilde bought Raymond some fun pills, which mess up the taste buds XD What the pills do is turn all sour foods sweet for the next two hours! So me, Alex and Raymond had fun with those. The pic is me and Alex eating some lemons XD with that pill, it tasted GREAT ! it was like eating very sweet oranges. We experimented the taste of other stuff as well. Coke tasted bland, chocolate seemed normal (perhaps we didnt coat the sides of our tongues with the pill) and salt tasted slightly sweetish, abit off. Grapes tasted normal.
Alex got me some pretty nice gifts this year XD The first was a book on how to do photography, master class. Not only does it gives tips on how to take photos, but it also teaches you how to edit them ^^ Its gonna be a good read, and hopefully my photo taking skills will improve alot!

Next, he got me a silver ring with an amethyst stone. Its really quite pretty and Hilde said it was nice. Alex was worried it wouldnt fit, forgetting it could be resized if it couldnt XD But fortunately, it fits and i'm very happy with it.Lastly from him, i got a CARE BEAR! Which is quite funny really, cuz i was telling him i should make him buy me another carebear because the one i left at his house has loose threads coming out due to plays with the cat. This bear will stay in the box though, because its a collector's edition and released in 2002 to mark their 20th anniversary. I got more gifts i didnt take pics of, too lazy. Got a simple plain dress thing or long shirt (cant tell yet, gotta try it on), a woolen jacket, balls of wools + knitting pattern, chocolates, a necklace and cant remember if there's more from mary and robert XD

Then Alex's aunt gave us a nice pair of angels and two figurines. One sleeping and one standing. Alex's grandma and mom was saying the sleeping one was alex , haaaaahahaa. Got accessories from Alex's other aunt... cash from his grandparents( all the 3rd generation kids did i think XD alex, raymond , hilde and me all did at least) , and i cant remember if there's more.

But thats about it, i'll blog again very soon since i have pictures to post!

A very quick post

a quick one since i hooked up my laptop to send my knitting pics to raymond to help me print so i can continue my sweater. i have the seeves and front of the sweater left to do, so it should be complete by the end of the week i HOPE.

its christmas eve, and tonight will be the lovely xmas dinner with present opening! YAY! this year's present pile is huge, i'll take a pic of it later because there are even more presents to come! they wont fit under the xmas tree anymore and have begun to spread out XD

i promise tons of pics later to make up for the lack of pics!

the kitty scratches on my face are gone now, no marks i think. but the cat is still being evil, she's rubbing herself all over rugs or blankets and becoming electrically charged. so much that you can hear sparks as she rubs herself. then she decides its fun for you to touch her. i hate static electricity.

alrighty, back to my knitting!

A reply to the bintos

nope, i'm not scratched out too bad, the cut doesnt seem to be as deep as i thought. i'd say its the traumatic experience of having cat claw stuck in your face for a few seconds that made things seem a hell lot worse. extremely unpleasant sensation, lets hope no one who reads this ever gets to experience that. its not long scratches. just think puncture holes.

its gone warmer here now, -6. and yes kas, extreme winter sports. good thing there shouldnt be any reason to walk far again for some time, just gotta go grab some xmas gifts for his family today or tmr and we're all set. we actually have some gifts, but tons more is always good. up here people give more than 1 gift in his family XD

i got lazy with my lipbalm, thinking hey, its just a 5-10 minute walk right? i ended up with nicely chapped lips, and after brushing my teeth in the morning, the result was hilarious. i could literally rub a layer off my lip XD

as for the hat, as long as its below zero i think i'll wear one, my tiny ears might just freeze and drop off. plus its the wind that messes my head.

yup, art, its pretty much like sugar right now due to the below zero temperatures. powder snow! very light and fluffy. you can start throwing flour all over your house and tell your mom you just wanted to experience snow. XD

apparently my mom reads my blog too btw, thats great because then i feel abit more compelled to blog more. seems like putting it as the homepage on her internet explorer works wonders. how i found out? my brother told me he had a list of naggings for me first thing in the morning XD waaaahahahaha

maybe next time i'll teach her to use the 'comments' or the tag board XD

ouch.

It snowed quite abit yesterday, and today there's about 8-10cm of snow on the ground. I thought it'd be fun to bring Lilo downstairs for a little fun in the snow since she hasnt gotten out since winter started i think.

She had quite some fun, making kitty prints in the snow and occasionally stopping to shake the snow off her legs. i brought my camera down but left the memory stick upstairs, so didnt get any pics of it.

but i just took some pics from the window upstairs nowyou can see the cute prints.

one thing about soft snow is, it will clump under your shoes and becomes the evil ice i detest so much. even more now that right after lifting up the cat and going onto the pavement without snow, i slipped and fell right at the foot of the stairs. -while holding the cat.

result?

frantic scrambles with claws.

where?

my face.

it was the most unpleasant sensation to have a claw stuck dug in and stuck in your face for a couple of seconds before it got out.

so yup, that concluded my little excursion with the kitty.

Avatar!

I went to watch avatar today at midnight, in 3D! It was a pretty good movie, very nicely created world which was brought more to life with the aid of 3D glasses. However, i had to walk in lovely -10 degrees celcius to get there X) and it was... hmm.. equivalant walking up and down orchard twice?

went to mien trung ( now renamed Phu Yen, since the original owner has moved to Oslo) for dinner, which was really nice. We havent eaten out as much as the previous times, which is a good thing as it meant more home-cooked yummies.

was about to go on about how people seem to notice on the posts with pictures, but then i saw kas commented on my text-only post, so i guess i cant continue complaining. but yesssss i want my soft-shell crab handroll.... i want to actually go to sakae sushi. ( shut up, those who says it sucks! its FOOD ON A CONVEYOR BELT)

soft shell crab handroll.... ahh.... and the lovely garlic prawns at CSC.... AHHHH...

Lilo apparently has a change of habit since i got here, and thats no longer going to the door whenever people come in. i told alex its because mommy has come home and she no longer needs to check XD

we're going to his parents house soon, luckily not today as it is still somewhat cold at -5 and its SNOWING! *cheers* its heavier now, so i'm gonna go enjoy winter wonderland.

bully!

What do you do when its -9 degrees and you dont feel like freezing your butt outdoors?

you bully the cat of course!
just cant miss the "i haaateeee you so much right now" look



her tongue kind of got caught while licking this. For thos who havent figured it out, its a jacket thingy i made for fun for her while i was in Singapore XD very interestingly though, she hasnt tried to get this jacket off , unlike the dress i shoved on her once.

Last night, simen and joco came over and we had a japanese dinner!
well... it was supposed to be a bit more varied, but we ended up making just maki rolls XD the initial idea was to make sushi, maki rolls and onigiri, but somehow.... didnt happen. Perhaps it was the illusion that there was too little rice. (there might've been actually)

so anyway, it started out by putting the rice to cook before coating prawns in batter (down here, they're sold already peeled and cooked XD ) and deep frying them. i coated the stuff in batter, joco did the deep frying. hot splattering oil is not the most appealing thing for me . those prawns turned out great though, couldnt help snacking on a couple after.

after the prawns were fried, joco cut them up while i cut up some cucumber and avocado. then came the fun part, making maki rolls! turned out it was relatively simple, just placing rice evenly on a piece of seaweed, then adding ingredients before rolling it up firmly. had to use water to 'glue' down the seaweed, and to make sure we could handle the rice easier. so joco made maki with wasabi, and i made maki without. WASABI IS EVVVVILLLLL

advantage of being the maki makers? we eat the results that dont look look so pretty, usually just the ends ;D

took a couple of pictures, but will have to look for my cardreader somewhere. or i could get some from joco. the guys had sake and i tried some, but dont really like it. they seemed to like the food though, which i'm glad ^^ oh, we didnt make sushi because we couldnt find raw salmon. not a loss for me, since i dont like the raw stuff... XD

maybe i'll get to make onigiri later sometime. i hope i do , making sushi rice itself was pretty interesting XD forgot to mention it earlier, but we had to take out the rice, spread it nicely on a tray and sprinkle japanese rice vinegar mixed with an equal amount of sugar and some salt on it. solves my mystery of how the rice got its taste. which makes me crave for more jap food now... like ... soft shell crab handroll.. ohhhhh.. *drooling*

Xmas Dinner

This year, i actually got to have a christmas dinner really early! Paul (a friend of Joco's introduced last summer as well)and his gf Michelle (shorter form of her name, there's another syllable in front i cant remember) invited me,alex and joco over for a christmas dinner at his place. It was a pretty damn long walk...........................but it was a pretty nice dinner :)

As far as i know for now, there are 3 types of Norwegian christmas dinners. There is :
1: Pinnekjott , or dried lamb meat thats boiled and then eaten with potatoes and other stuff
2: Lutefisk , or some icky jelly-like waterlogged fish. Eaten with melted butter. Its basically been soaked in stuff for days, which reduces the protein content to perhaps 50% which makes it turn jelly like. *has this idea norwegians keep mutilating their fresh fish*
3: *insert some norwegian name* Porkchops essentially, with VERY nice crispy skin on top! its abit like the roast pork we get in singapore at chicken rice stalls, but the skin is thicker and CRUNCHY! Its eaten with some sort of sour cabbage thing, berry thing, potatoes and sauce.Last night's dinner included sausages and some meat cakes as well as christmas soda (literally translated XD) . it was goooood. A very nice experience for me, because at alex's parent's, we eat Pinnekjott (no complaints there though, its nice*drool*). Now that i've sampled 2/3 of Norway's xmas dinners... i'm pretty much content. i dont think i want to eat waterlogged fish...

was nice to actually have a nice dinner with friends, sitting around a table all warm and cosy and having fun talking about funny things in our lives, christmas.... hmm.. as alex put it, it was nice to be away from screens and technology abit.

then some of us had coffee afterwards, some of us coke and cookies. me and alex got this nice chocolate chip twist thingy for dessert, its like long croissant with chocolate chips? YUM. i'm so gonna get more today, and michelle wants to get some too XD

very thankfully, we took the bus back home. its been raining quite abit lately, which i dont quite like although it actually seems warmer when it rains. good thing it isnt cold enough for the rain to freeze on the ground and become evil ice.

gonna have a Japanese dinner tmr with joco and simen *having abit of guilt for not inviting paul, but i planned this way early and have a dinner set for 4 only*. We'll be making our own maki rolls, onigiri and sushi! i'll take some pictures definitely, but whether they get posted up or not is another story. Perhaps we'll have time to make japanese curry and invite paul and michelle over in return for the yummy xmas dinner.

hope we do!

arrival

ahh, my 101st post since i started this blog.

lets see, its been some time since i arrived in norway (doesnt feel that long actually) and things have been going nicely for me. plane trip was really great, the first long flight was barely half full, so they made an announcement that we were free to change seats, and that each passenger could have two seats to themselves XD so i went to the 3rd last row in the back of the plane (which i think normally you have to pay an extra 30 euros ( $61 SGD) for, which instead of the usual row of 3 seats, it was only 2. i forgot to take a picture, but its very cosy, and abit more private as one of the other passengers i briefly talked to said.

that mentioned, i didnt actually socialize much with people on the plane this time. was contented to lie down and watch my movies, sleep for 5-6 hours, and eat my PLANE FOOD! ohh i did take a picture of my BEEF PASTA plane food. it was pretty nice too! tried 'french toast' for breakfast instead of scrambled eggs ( i never knew they had french toast, it was either eggs or 'something sweet'). french toast turned out to be pretty diabetic, but not too bad ^^

contrary to my previous trips, the transit time for this december was just 2 hours! previously, the flight was at 10+with a transit time of 4-6 hours. this round, it was a 1am+ flight with a blissfully shorter transit time. so i had time to go to the toilet to freshen up abit, get through customs again, and sit for a few minutes before starting to board the plane.

finally touching down in Trondheim, i was pretty happy to find out the temperature was a nice warm 7 degrees (its warm for winter to me). my new jacket i bought for just $50 at uni-qlo at 313 is pretty good to use afterall ^^

lets see, when i opened the door, my cat greeted me with an extremely stunned expression. she just froze in her tracks. XD but after some sniffing and some awkwardness, she was happily rolling all over the floor wanting to be rubbed :D she's grown twice her previous size now, but still in her 'kitten' year. growing soon out of it, by the time i get here again, she'll be an adult.

so now in the morning, she comes to cuddle on my lap abit, then jumps over to alex for more cuddles XD

anyway, i have no clue where my cardreader for my camera is, so posting pictures may not happen for quite some time. which suits me, really. less troublesome, faster blogging time, and i've always had the impression people came in, looked at pics and ignore the text. that said, this blog is also for me to remember things by if i felt like looking back.

Departure!

Once again i'm leaving for norway, but this time its a 1am+ flight! On the upside, its a shorter transit, with only a 2 hour wait in amsterdam :D (it used to be 4-6 hours)

i hope i've got everything packed, i've been a bit lazy. The hand luggage is packed at least, and half of the main luggage. i'm hoping to stuff my laptop into the main luggage this time because i'm bringing fragile stuff in the handluggage, which wouldnt allow me to have my laptop in and still meet the weight limit. Besides, it saves me the trouble of having to dig out my laptop at the customs.

spent most of the day just chilling abit, going out with mom for some shopping at Giant and having lunch. i think i've bought most of whats needed.... hmm..

i guess i'll go pack a little more XD

Wishlist

Once again, the egoistic birthday wishlist!

1: Ticket to norway in december!

2: Sony ZA/ Zeiss 16-80mm (3.5-4.6) lens, which costs about $750 brand new . tried to find one that was 2nd hand, but no luck yet ...

3: canon 1000d!!! XD

4: moolah to buy myself clothes

5: an upgrade on my laptop ram to 4gb, and an upgrade for more memory.

6: A toy cat that looks like Lilo...

7: an airtight camera box, which costs about $30 in best denki i think?

the end!

slug porn!

island house

went to the island house yesterday, and visited a nearby island with an old lighthouse while at it... pretty nice trip, with lots of seagulls nesting there, and other birds... there was some ram as well, which was very interesting because of their colours. i'll put a pic of them next time though XD oh and we saw the world's smallest species of whales.... but only the backs as they came out of water for air .
biologist! tell me what this is! its some red lump on a rock, firmly attached, i'm guessing its seasnail eggs since its just by the ocean...
thats a seagull chick, hiding amongst the rocks. they turn away from you... cool colours on it though!
this is my cute little kitten once again, i have cute pics of her but they're taken with my handphone, cant get those out yet till i get back to trondheim... and no, her eyes arent blue... they're yellow with black pupils, its just the flash. anyway, she was hiding in my bag of shells, making a racket tumbling around inside XD
and thats her once more, curling up and covering her face on alex's lap and arm....

we've given her a name now, she's called Lilu.

still trying to get her properly toilet trained now that we have a litter box ... she's learning fast enough i guess ... had to clean up a few piles of shit though.

slug mating!

i think by now, most people will think i'm some pervert stalking animals and insects , hiding in bushes with a camera waiting for them to mate...

but in this case, these pair of slugs were crawling on the house wall outside, and alex saw them on his way in and told me about it...

so i didnt wait in bushes... but i did wait out in the cold summer wind , about 14 degrees (cold for singaporeans XD) and wait for them to finish. XD

so first up, one slug will follow the other's trail of slime, which secretes something which indicates they wanna mate if i'm not wrong...

then they curl up like that...
then they start doing the cool twisty dangly thingy , the start of which i missed because i wasnt about to sit out in the cold watching them chase each other in slow motion... oh, and their sexual organs start coming out of course.

and they start REALLY extending...
if you look closely, you see that one of the tubies has a dark thing in there, i suspect its eggs going to be fertilised... in the next pic you see why...
that bulbous looking thingy holds eggy looking stuff... and if i were to zoom in, you'd see white creamy liquid (geeee i wonder what) . they're all drippy and covered with viscous slime afterward, dripping off abit like water.

and that concludes my little insight on reproduction!

because i like my kitty

*kitty-obsessed*

kitty2

starting off with a pic of the finally completed sweater i made for alex! :D so proud i managed to finish it !

now, its just more pics of the kitty X)
thats alex bringing it out into the garden so it would do its business, but it didnt like the garden it seems, it just ran for the bush... it liked the flower bed though..
she's going abit psycho trying to take that bit of cardboard on a string XD
thats daddy's little girl... hahaha... the first day she was here (yesterday) she was afraid to be left alone i think.... we put her in a box so we could go eat dinner, but she mewed alot... then we moved the box to the kitchen, hoping to quiet her and she jumped right out and freaked, ran under the counter and hissed. Alex had to pick her up and calm her down, and spent the rest of dinner with her sleeping on his lap XD
you can see how comfortable she is XD
i like the tip of her tail, the white tip... funny though, cuz she'll end up chasing her own tail..

kitten!

cute little kitten me and alex found on our jog :D

this doggie belongs to the neighbour of alex's grandparents. she's quite friendly, loves attention and thankfully doesnt whine or cling when you leave. took a pic cuz she reminded me of my old dog

now on to some flower pics :D

( i think these just looks so cheery)

purplezorize!

warning! arachnophobics, be prepared for the next two pics



thats a spider eating a fly btw. its easier to see if you enlarge the pic by clicking on it :)

sea gull prints on the beach!

and a feather...
find the flounder!!! :D