I’ve had a really productive day already. The time is only 3:57 PM and I’ve done a lot of things. I woke up a little before 9:00 AM, and that’s a first for me! The weather has been very shifting, from sunny to rainy to minor blizzard. Fascinating. First I had a meeting with two caseworkers from the local authority concerning my personal assistance. I really dreaded it. I don’t know why, it was more a formality than anything else, but I have such bad experience with the local authority from back home. I’m always anticipating a knife in my back the second I turn around – not a very healthy attitude, but it’s the bad experience I tell you. The meeting went well, or at least I think it did, and as I already knew it was mostly a formality. Feels good to have it out of the way, so the next thing on my agenda is to try to obtain an answer regarding my “little secret”. God, I hate waiting. I can’t understand why everything has to go so slowly? I need an answer, damnit.

Apart from all that we’ve finally managed to clear the living room of boxes. Yes, after living here for seven months we still had three cardboard boxes standing behind the couch, and they’ve been bugging us both for a long time. Now they’re all gone, and everything that was in them has either been thrown away, or put in its correct place. I even found my two Guinness mugs which I bought when I was in Dublin in 2006! Sometimes I think it would have been better just to throw away the boxes without looking in them first, but I would be throwing away a lot of things with memories attached to them – and I couldn’t handle that. I’m a collector, or maybe a hoarder rather. Let’s just blame it on the fact that I had to move from a house to an apartment, downgrading my space, which meant a lot less room to clutter up. And I’m not even a fan of knick-knacks, trinkets or ornaments!

It’s been a long day, so I’m going to bed.
Happy 17th birthday, Aleksander! Best wishes on your day.

The reason why my diary has been quiet for some time now is not that I’ve died or anything. I’ve been sick, and when I get sick.. well, I get sick. It really sucks having a non-functional immune system, and naturally I had to go and get sick when summer finally reached us. Last Tuesday I woke up to a scorching sun, and discovered that my throat was starting to act up. From there it went onto a high fever, heavy breathing, coughing and a terrible state all-in-all. It’s been a week now, and I’m still sick. Feeling a lot better though, but still sick. And I’m thinking that I’m going to get well the moment the sun decides to move on, bringing us a taste of the upcoming Autumn.

Since I’m starting to feel like living is a good thing again, we decided to buy ourselves a grill today. It’s not allowed to barbecue on charcoal here, so we had to buy a new one, and we went for a Weber Q 220 gas grill. It’s a damn shame, not having had a single barbecue in this incredible weather, but it’s really not fun to lack the ability to taste the food you’re eating. Especially not when it’s great food like barbecue! So as we speak Øyvind is outside on our porch, barbecuing lamb chops, some pork, sausages and vegetables like corn and onions for the very first time in our new apartment. It feel so good, and we haven’t questioned our buy one single time since we moved in – it’s just the perfect place indeed.

Life is good, and whenever I get well it’ll be even better!

During the last three weeks we’ve tried to buy ourselves a TV no more than three times. Yes, three times. Since we both love watching movies, and own a DVD collection with more than 400 original DVDs, we decided to get a Plasma screen. And since the apartment we rented before moving here had a 50″ TV, we also decided that there was no way that we could settle for a smaller one. So, that’s how we came to the conclusion to adopt a brand new and very shiny Samsung PS50B655 TV, and I’m quite sure it’s needless to say that I’m in love!

Now I’m sure you’re wondering why on earth we needed three tries to buy a TV? Well, to make a long story short(er).. the first one was bought from Elkjøp at a “discount” as it had been hanging in the store for some time. The whole purchase was kinda on impulse, but we were happy to have found such a nice TV. A few days later the TV was delivered, and as it turned out.. it had that famous “burn-in”. We sure as hell didn’t want our brand new TV to have nasty burns, so we returned it and got our money back. Later on we also discovered that the discount was a big joke, as the very same TV could be obtained elsewhere for a considerable less amount of money. The second time around we decided to get our TV from Pixmania. Delivery was supposed to take 4-7 days from France. Needless to say, it went straight to hell – and more than a week after set delivery date the TV finally arrived, seriously banged up. This time we didn’t even sign for it, and it went straight back to Pixmania. Since it had taken so long, and we had to get another TV anyway, we decided to cancel the purchase, and try to find a TV somewhere closer. The third and last time we did as the commercial tells us, we checked NetonNet before ordering, and finally we found our precious TV – and even at a decent price! Only two days after ordering it arrived in Trondheim, and thanks to a couple of friends of ours it’s already safely mounted on the wall.

As I said, I love it!

Her kommer endelig noen av de svært så etterlengtede bildene av den nye leiligheten! Kritisk som jeg er.. er jeg selvsagt ikke fornøyd med bildene, men det er så utrolig vanskelig å skulle ta bilde inne når man ikke har skikkelig lys, og lyset ute insisterer på å forandre seg hele tiden. I første omgang kommer det bilder av leiligheten som den var ved overtakelse, umøblert og uten rot – og etterhvert som vi blir ferdige kommer det fler bilder. Kjøkkenet har nå fått på plass komfyr med keramisk topp, stort kombiskap og oppvaskmaskin i børsta stål, og er blitt riktig flott. Soverommet har fått seng og sminkebord, men mangler fortsatt et romslig garderobeskap. Stue har fått en flott sofakrok i lyset fra den store verandadøren, og ymse hyller begynner å komme på plass.

Stua mot verandaen, soverom til høyre

Igår hadde vi faktisk sol på hele verandaen fra før 12:00, og da klokka rundet 21:00 var den fortsatt ikke helt forsvunnet. Snakker om luksus! Sol av dette slaget har jeg savnet siden jeg flyttet fra nord – sånn er det å være bortskjemt med midnattssol, og jeg er kjempeglad for at vi ikke lenger bor i skyggen av andre boligblokker. Vi blir bare mer og mer fornøyd med leiligheten etterhvert som dagene går, og jeg kan virkelig ikke beskrive følelsen av å eie denne lille skatten.

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Det var på ingen måte meningen å svikte igår, men planene ble litt annerledes enn vi opprinnelig hadde tenkt, og vi har nå sovet vår aller første natt i leiligheten. Så godt har ingen av oss sovet på kjempelenge, og jeg kan ikke få sagt hvor fornøyd jeg faktisk er! Igår kveld satt jeg i stua foran de store vinduene og kikket på drittværet ute, mens jeg tjuvlånte adgang til et åpent trådløst nett. Selv om regnet bøttet ned, og himmelen var mørkegrå av tjukke uværsskyer, måtte jeg smile – det var koselig nemlig. Vi har tatt bilder av stua, soverommet og kjøkkenet, og de kommer så snart de er overført til PCen. Kabelen ligger foreløpig igjen i den andre leiligheta, men fortvil ikke.. de kommer.

Ellers har Bring vært her med hvitevarer og TV, og tross småproblemer med installasjon av komfyr og oppvaskmaskin er det meste nå på plass. Det ble kjempetøft med børsta stål, og det brøt veldig med alt det hvite på kjøkkenet. For øyeblikket står TVen på gulvet, men vi håper å få den opp på veggen snart. Den er knallflott i svart pianolakk, og kommer til å passe perfekt inn der vi har planer om å henge den opp! Kaffemaskinen var det litt leveringstid på, så den kommer vel ikke før i neste uke en gang. Nå gleder jeg meg til dette styret er over. Jeg liker ikke alt kaoset som kommer i farvannet av flytting, og jeg ser frem til at man kan bo her på ordentlig.

Nå syns jeg bare at sommerværet kan returnere, sånn at vi kan ta i bruk verandaen!