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