Oslo Graffiti 5

Snapshot from the sea of flowers and teddy bears in front of Domkirken

It took some time mustering up the energy to go there. There are flowers all over town and apparently import tax on roses is lifted.

The government high rise seen from Youngstorget

Oslo Graffiti 3

I'm waking up very slowly, it feels like my mind could be returning. Maybe it is the mineral supplement :-D? My diet has been very poor lately. Will try to steam some green, orange and yellow stuff today, possibly make an orange soup -- and move a little, possibly jog. Maybe imagine the scary creature in the picture coming after me :)? Should make me move faster?

Seeing what people write in part of the blog sphere, makes me conclude that there is a lot of kindness, imagination and beauty in the world. Thank you very much for the  kind and encouraging comments.

Oslo Graffiti 2

Things have been tough here, but looking up now.

Barbar?

Oslo Graffiti

It is quiet here, both in town and in the house. People look serious. Not strange of course, after the attacks.

My mother is in the hospital with multiple, serious fractures after fainting from a heart murmur. She will get a pacemaker on Monday and hopefully get back home in a few weeks, but she has to learn to walk in stairs again, the house is full of stairs. I hope she is up up it, and I'm not sure how worried I should be about the heart murmur. It is the problem of knowing too much and too little at the same time. Today some friends are coming over to help me clean the house and sort out the garden. Take the carpet off the stairs among other things.

I'm worried about my mother, I'm not ready to let her go yet. I don't think I ever will be.

Graffiti from a passage way close to the hospital. I like it, but everything feels irrelevant now.

Beili Liu At Hå Gamle Prestegård

Snapshot From Stavanger

Snapshots From Stavanger

I've Been Doing The Mad Girl Thing

And so the madness begun; two pairs of jeans, three blouses, three pairs of earrings, a new scarf - the first one I'd really liked ever. Maybe I'm growing up, finally? I mean, a real scarf ... Then - wellies and the most fun shoes so far, or rather the most fun stilts, the heels are high, but fairly stable. Will be good if I bring a bike, then I don't have to walk in them. Does that count as common sense? A lot of it on sale, but I've gone girlie - mad, clothes mad and I don't know what. The strange part is that the clothes are all quite stylish and even a little interesting. It is quite the improvement from my grandfather's old under shirts.

These are the shoes (link)

Not Moving The Lawn Has Its Moments

Daisies

Oslo in summer is good. Most people are gone and the rest of us are left to move our lawns and sit yawning in coffee shops. Next Saturday some friends will come over, just before the big holiday project begins.

For me, it is enough that the trees are green, if it's rainy or sunny... We sit on the porch just talking, like old sailors from Southern Norway. And, I had my little flutter, ordering lots of cute earrings from ETSY. Life feels wonderful.

Daisies from way back then in Oz. Picture taken by my father

Graffiti

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting 

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver

(picture)

Today one of the nurses called me a promising specimen when it comes to bedside manner. "This one is not too bad ...." Made my day :-D

The Cute Fiat

From our after dinner walk

Somebody got this nice, little car, hopefully to restore it

Sofie's Mod Tulips

The Curse Of Being - Oh So Terribly - Practical

I'm considering becoming a "slimy" diplomat, the kind who's actually too professional, who takes a pill to stop caring. I'm terribly practical. If people vent, I try to help find a solution. That's not a wise thing if one wants to lead a nice, quiet life.

Lately I've spent some time in hospital, due to required practice in med school. There you meet a lot of people who could have much better lives, if they had had all the information needed at their fingertips. I get so angry. Not at the patients, but at the thought of them not getting the information they should have had. You see the smokers, the old guys who were the seamen and workers Norway was so proud of, suffering from illness. They're victims of misinformation. When they were young, smoking was a nice, social thing.

So I get angry, and I think of one of the characteristics of an excellent teacher: she gives information freely, whatever the pupil needs in his or her situation. And I vow not to hold back information, if I have it and think it may help.

But, I'm practical, and people don't want practical, a lot just want to vent. It's obviously not good form to give out facts, even if they seem asked for. I must remember that information is not necessarily everybody's favorite thing, even if it is mine, and you don't hear anything until your inner timing is right.

Now I'm venting, so I guess I have to stop writing. Sleep well and try to avoid the bedbugs.

(ETSY shop)

Spring

Perfectly Graceful Bach

My Best Friend

Concert, Practice & Exam

Today my pupils had their spring/summer concert. It is a lot of work, weeks of preparation and practice for the pupils. Oslo Music Teachers Association has a beautiful house where you can teach and have concerts.

(picture)

This year I decided to hold the concert early due to exams.

My office

This is supposedly Edvard Grieg, cut in wood, using a chainsaw - oh dear - "he" stands on a shelf and nobody knows what to do with him.

One of the old windows

It is strange changing one's practice, all of a sudden playing the piano is getting some of its old allure back, and I even use some practice tricks on my exam cramming (taken from a book by Burton Kaplan):

• be impatient - if you don't get it right when having tried three times in a row, change practice strategy
• success no matter what - have sensible goals, get rid of all traces/feelings of failure
• try a success rate of 5 out of 10, then 6 out of 10, 7 out of 10 and so on ...

Let's see if it works on this one.

And the concert went really well today.

Graffiti

May Cherry Blossoms

The colours on the tree feels like autumn, the light is still somewhat bleak

The Cutes

This pic came in an email, the kind people send around, but she's sweet and I wish our little commander in chief, Myrull the hamster, might meet someone like her .... or maybe not? We would have 60 hamsters in no time. Have a lovely day!

Obsession With The Camera On My Phone & Stay At Home Days

Today there was a lost guy in the tunnels of the underground/metro. The whole train system was stopped. So I'm home studying, and I bet it is a lot nicer than being lost in the tube tunnel and possibly rather out of one's mind. 

Gail Sher writes about "stay at home days" in one of her books as a way of feeding one's practice. I know nothing I like better. I even got to walk a few stations as the tube was stuck. All exercise is good. It is a way to feed one's body. I miss running, will take a run on Saturday.

The camera on my phone is fun, even if the Canon 50D is wonderfully crisp and soft at the same time. Here are a few pictures from the walk:

Somehow I find graffiti interesting. Is it possible to be fined when voicing an opinion like that?

Not beautiful, but nice way to use an old tree

Just a tree, but with the sound of children playing and running in the background. Tveita is not posh. I like not posh.

Snapshot Of My Favourite Building Close To School

Doctor School & Trying To Be Vegan

Med school is really looking up. Finally I got into a couple of study groups with a bunch of terrific people. Exam in six weeks time, but life feels pretty good now. There are approximately 100 people in my class and after a leave of absence it takes time to get to know your new fellow students. Things are looking up and we got spring, wonderful, sunny spring, at last.

The vegan project is progressing nicely, but I've decided to see a dietitian to fine tweak my diet, just to be sure I get all the essential amino acids. Mostly to save time, but I'm not that knowledgeable yet when it comes to putting together a perfectly balanced vegan diet.

School

Spring Music

 

Delightful, energetic Mendelssohn conducted by George Szell, the Cleveland Orchestra playing the first movement of his Italian Symphony. This is one of my favourite recordings.

Georges River

With my father - Georges River - imagine, summer in December. We used to go to outdoorsy places a lot and my father drank tomato juice to get salt. I still love tomato juice.

Vintage Kimono

 

Secondhand kimono from Ichiroya (link)

Happy Easter

(pic)

Birthday Carrot Cake

For the very strict vegans out there, this might be a slight shock, as I claim to be vegan most of the time, but on birthdays we have cake with an occasional egg in it. It is, however, ecological. This one even had cream with some cheese added and butter. Somehow I think three times a year, maybe four, having egg and some cheese isn't such a terrible thing. I will check out alternatives in time. I'd like to solve the carrot cake problem, it is a favorite treat. This recipe is with healthy rape seed oil instead of butter.


2 ecological eggs
200 ml. ecological sugar

Whip together until light and creamy


150 ml. rapeseed oil
1 tea spoon grated ginger
grated peel from one lemon (only the yellow part)
1 tea spoon cinnamon
300 ml. finely grated carrot
50 grams finely cut walnuts

Mix together in a bowl


150 ml. all purpose flour
1 tea spoon baking powder


Mix with the rest of the dough

Pour into round baking tray


Bake in 175C for approx. 45 minutes, cool


Glazing:


50 grams butter
75 grams Philadelphia cream cheese
200 ml. powdered sugar
1/2 tea spoon vanilla sugar or (even better) seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod


Pine nuts or maybe grated dark chocolate to decorate.

For the carrot cake addicts, this is a good recipe. I'm enjoying sugar poisoning as I write. I was a nice birthday cake. Enjoy!

Birthday Mess

Roses from my mother, vase from my mother-in-law, mess made by me. It was a great birthday, mess and all! Thes roses from my mother were so her, with a beautiful scent. I want them to keep forever. What I really want for my birthday? Time to spend with the people I love.

Somehow I Hope For Some Greenery Soon

Near Carl Berners Plass

Spring Near Majorstuen, Oslo

Still obsessed with the camera on my mobile phone

Doctor School

Every day I know I need to communicate better. It is a hard lesson, but when teaching you can't think that if you know the answer, the student does too. No half sentences, no unclear explanations. I thought I was pretty good at talking to people until I tried it in a hospital. Infinite skill in communication is needed.

Sweet Buns

1 package dried yeast (50 grams fresh yeast, if available)
some sugar to taste, organic is good here, I never know how much, I just taste the dough
5 table spoons approx. of rape seed oil 
1/2 liter rice milk, oat milk or soy milk, 37C warm
wheat flour to make a nice dough, approx. 1 kilo?
a pinch of salt?

Mix yeast, milk and sugar, add rapeseed oil and flour, leave until the dough is twice as big, make buns, bake in oven, approx. 200C until golden. If not vegan, cover with mixed egg before baking. Enjoy!

Computer Trouble

Today, I actually manged doing som repairs the computer on my own, it is so great. I'm not really that into the technology bit and get easily irritated if it doesn't work.

Maybe it is like the great Anatolian philosopher, mystic poet Mevlana says
"You consist of thought. The rest remaining is the flesh and bone. You become rose garden if you think of rose, you become thorn patch if you think of thorn"

Slightly Spring

Near Tveita, Oslo

At the Bird Reserve

I'm obsessed with the camera on my mobile phone, my friend here has more sense

Chickpea and Coconut Cream Soup

1 medium onion in thin slices
3 table spoons of grated ginger
3 cloves of garlic finely cut
2 pieces of celery
1 carrot in thin slices
1 can of coconut milk (will check how it works with soy cream soon, not that delighted with the amount of saturated fat you find in the coconut milk, but coconut milk is tasty)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can chickpeas
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
a little chili powder
salt or vegan stock
a little lime juice
some chopped parsley

fry the onion and the carrot in rapeseed oil, add the garlic, ginger and sliced celery, fry for a minute

add coconut milk, tomatoes and chickpeas, add spices while tasting, limejuice and parsley

boil for 15 minutes, if too thick add a little water, next time we actually decided to serve it as a casserole with couscous

enjoy!

From this web site, but with a few modifications: http://veg-veg.no/mat/middag/suppe_kikerter_kokosmelk