My shoes were on the floor yesterday. Then my mom and I went to IKEA, and some hours later shoes were on wall instead! Those hours inbetween included

• getting lost, and being naughty by walking against the arrow marks on the floor
• eating Swedish meatballs and chocolate pudding
• forgetting our free coffee
• discussing whether the cashier was flirting with me or not
• explaining to a drunk guy why I did not want to help him call his wife in India
• feeling a bit guilty about not helping drunk guy with love
• and then finally balancing in my stairway equipped with only half of the tools needed – arguing about millimeters, and agreeing upon what I should write on my Christmas wish list (electric drill at the top)

It was very liberating getting the shoes away from the floor – and I am ready to stick scarves and hats and all sorts of things to the wall now. Hanging stuff up on walls is an idea I got from my ex-flatmate Jenni and her “capmania”:

Jenni is quite excited about stuff on walls too :)

…and I am ready for it now that I just received these beautiful wrist worms from a nice and talented girl in Gothenburg. Thank you, Sandra!

When I am not buying worms made of yarn

• I work and learn interesting things about life
• I listen to the radio (a new passion of mine) to learn interesting things about the world
• I go quizzing to make use of all the less interesting things I know
• I dance/cook/stare into thin air to clear my mind completely

I have never really been a fan of the show Sex and the City. I find the four female characters to be somewhat annoying – too exaggerated in a way. Lately, however, it seems all my friends are consuming the fancy shoe box of DVDs containing the whole series 24/7. This is required to be prepared for the big premiere of Sex and the city: The Movie the 6th of June.

Since my girlfriends and the TV-channels invite the sex addicted quartet to the screen quite frequently nowadays, I have watched a large amount of episodes myself the last weeks. Actually, I am starting to like the characters in the show now! Still, I don’t think I ever will become as shoe-obsessed.

There’s probably something wrong with me, but I think most shoes in the shops are ugly. Often disproportioned. And since it is so difficult to find nice shoes, I have decided to be obsessed with clothes instead. And then I just need my shoes to go with anything. And preferably be somewhat practical. The last pair of shoes I bought are definitely in that latter category. And they are actually a replacement for the pair I bought 4 years ago. The exact same model. Black. Leather. Suit both my baggy pants and my chic black skirts. Sun or snow. A perfect fit. Just brilliant.

Ecco Soft II. My brand new (and my very old) kicks.

Every time I see another lady with these fabulous shoes on, however, she’s at least three times my age. Last year I came to realize that I needed an alternative. I ended up buying a pair of shoes that would add some centimeters to my height. Though still; Black. Leather. Suit both my baggy pants and my chic black skirts. Maybe not my first choice in the snow, but still definitely a perfect fit. Just brilliant.

Sixtyseven. 60′s style. Lovely. And 8 centimeters added.

If I don’t have an endless supply of these exact shoes for the rest of my life, I don’t know what I’ll do. I actually think I should buy a new pair right now. Just in case.

Yikes. I sound really old.

Eurovision Song Contest 2008. Horrible. Just horrible. Probably as horrible as any other year – but I can’t say I have watched the show for years, so I wouldn’t really know… There was this one song that caught my attention, though. It definitely did not win – but my personal vote goes to Le France. Douze points! [Twelve points!]

Sebastien Tellier sings the song Divine with this quirky, laid-back performance while embracing a big plastic ball of the world filled with helium. Helium which he inhales during the song of course. Watch the performance:

…or the official video for the song Divine:

Other Tellier songs:
La Ritournelle
L’Amour et la Violence
La Dolce Vita

I guess I have to learn French now.

Now that I have my own HappyBook, I am constantly looking for new activities to put in my Activities list. Activities that would make me happy to do, that is. Not that I have that much time on my hand, but if I have some hours to spare, I want to make sure that I do something I really want to do.

In my Twitter-feed, I suddenly discovered that Kars learned to play Backgammon this weekend. I have always felt that I was missing out on something in the tabletop game department since I have never tried to play this game. I don’t know why the opportunity to learn it never has occured. When twittering to the world that I would like to learn the game, however, I got some nice playdate offers from friends that know this mystic game. Is it better than Ludo? Better than Chess? Does it make me happy? I will report back later about how it went!

Are there other things I should try while we’re at it? My Activities list is very location based so far, considering that there are tons of things I need to do here in Bergen before I move back home to Oslo. I have some mountains to climb (Løvstakken, Damsgårdsfjellet and Vidden), a couple of cafes to visit, and I want to take a swim both at Sentralbadet and Nordnes. But what else? Suggestions for must-see movies or must-read books or even must-eat food also appreciated. But please, shut up about the sushi. I really want to like it, but I just don’t. But I do love steak tartare and carpaccio, so I guess I’m covered in the raw food department anyway.

Well, bring it on! Fill my HappyBook – and your own for that matter :)

The old Prisma book above gave me the color palette, and I got the style of the pictures from a quilting fabrics shop called Volksfaden. The Volksfaden picture is better viewed in its natural environment where you’ll also find a bunch of other beautiful pictures and fabrics. I have also been quite inspired by a design blog I just discovered by Scott Hansen, ISO50. Any Californian guy who likes The Whitest Boy Alive / Erlend Øye is a friend of mine.

When it comes to the photo I’ve used as an illustration, it’s a part of a series of photos from Bologna where I spied (sorry!) on some cute kids playing in a public park. The footer picture shows how one girl tries to distract the girl in the red (blue) dress, while another one drops an apple on her head. A classic! The original photo was this:

As some may have noticed, I’ve started writing in English now. Hard decision to make, and I actually don’t know if I want to quit writing in Norwegian all together. We’ll see how it goes. The framework for the blog will be in English no matter – I’ve already updated the About page with some delightful lines about myself. The CV page might need some extra work though. As I still will link to Norwegian sites and my own earlier posts, I’ll mark them with an [N] so you’ll now the language is changing. Not the perfect solution, but it’ll do for now.

I know I haven’t been the eager blogger I once was. Now that I’ve kicked that awful bottle out of the sidebar, at least you can follow my life through Twitter (microblogging) if nothing much has happened in the main column. And it won’t until next week, anyway. Tomorrow, I’ll be on my way to Copenhagen for the weekend, leaving my Mac behind, but including my camera and my HappyBook[N].

Den finnes i masse fine farger, med et utvalg forskjellige deilig brede seter å velge mellom. Og så må jeg følgelig ha kurv, så den vil se omtrent slik ut ute i det fri:

Og dette er altså en ABICI. Høyst sannsynlig kommer navnet fra en lek med ordene bici (sykkel) og amici (venner). Konseptet ble nemlig utviklet av tre gode venner, Giuseppe, Stefano og Christiano, over en flaske lambruscovin og en dose pasta på deling i den lille byen Viadana.

ABICI è la nostalgia del futuro,
la bicicletta nella sua pura essenza concettuale,
perfetta miscela di ieri e di domani,
da pedalare oggi.

ABICI is future memories,
a bicycle in its pure conceptual form,
a perfect combination of yesterday and of tomorrow,
to pedal today.

…sier de tre vennene så vakkert om sykkelen de har utviklet.

Hvem blir med meg til Italia for sykkeltur i kollene med påfølgende import?

Da jeg i fjor var med på redesignet av BI.no, la vi opp til et design som bugner av lykkelige, lærevillige studenter. Heldigvis, med tanke på nevnte bugning, er det BI selv som ordner bilder til sin løsning. Og i stedet for å dykke ned i bildebaser med alskens anonyme modeller, har de like gjerne gått for faktiske BI-studenter, så godt det lar seg gjøre.

Arbeidskrevende selvsagt, men kanskje er det ikke så dumt å holde på prinsippet om ekte vare? Det er i alle fall mange fallgruver å unngå dersom en skal la modeller pryde nettstedet sitt…

En kar ved navn Maddox har reflektert litt over hva anonyme modeller fra bildebaser kan brukes til, og hva de kan lære oss om verden. Ta en kikk på 9 things I learned about the world according to anonymous stock photo models. Er du allerede bevandret i bildebaser vil du kjenne igjen alskens kleine motiver. Det eneste som mangler er vel det evinnelige bildet av den dresskledte businessmannen som sjonglerer med frukt, jordkloder, eller det han kunne finne etter et dypdykk på kontorets rekvisitalager…

Fjonge, særdeles korporate bilder kan du finne blant annet her: GettyImages, iStockphoto, Stock.xchng, mens den svenske bildebasen Johnér faktisk kan tilby annet enn menn i dress (men krever at du kan svenske søkeord som f.eks. ‘man’ og ‘jonglera’).

Maddox har for øvrig mange andre fine lister. Sjekk for eksempel ut Fashion tips for women from a guy who knows dick about fashion – og ta deretter livet av dine dyrebare Crocs.

‘Hver sin verden’ av Marianne Fredriksson er visst varmt anbefalt av både min mor og min tante. Om anmelder Guri Hjeltnes i VG er like ekstatisk, er jeg ikke helt sikker på… Sitatet fra anmeldelsen hennes er behørig plassert som eneste sitat på forsiden av paperbacken jeg låner:

“Enhver som er glad i Marianne Fredriksson, vil finne noe i denne boken.”
Guri Hjeltnes, VG

Nettopp. Jeg som ikke en gang vet hvem Marianne er, vil kanskje også finne dette noe i boken. Hva dette noe er, og om det gjør at jeg blir glad i Marianne, spørs jo på. Om vi derimot skal ta for oss de som allerede er glade i Marianne, som i følge Guri, så definitivt vil finne dette noe i boken… Er dette noe noe de Marianne-glade er ute etter?

Egentlig spiller det ingen trille. Jeg kjeder meg, har varm te med akkurat passe masse sukker og melk i, og er jo i bunn og grunn bare på jakt etter noe som kan oppta tiden min en stund. Og jeg har faktisk allerede på side syv funnet noe som kan bidra nettopp der. Guri er lur, hun.

De kokte potetene var altså gitt, uavhengig av tilgjengelige råvarer og annet tilbehør. Gitt var også da at sannsynligheten for pasta, pizza og taco og annet digg gikk drastisk ned til fordel for mer potetvennlige saker som fiskegrateng og kjøttpudding.

Man tar kanskje med seg en del vaner og uvaner hjemmefra når man flytter for seg selv. Det foregår akkurat like lite gjærbakst, like mye hybelkaninoppdrett, og like mye tedrikking i min ringe bolig som det gjør hos mitt opphav. Men poteter ser det ut til at jeg har fått nok av, selv om jeg gjør et spedt forsøk på å holde tradisjonen ved like nå og da. Det siste forsøket på potetfronten må imidlertid være en stund siden, med tanke på hva som plutselig møtte meg i kjøleskapsskuffen…