You know how I tend to complain about the constant lack of action? Karma’s a bitch. OK, it wasn’t really karma, but remember to be careful what you wish for. At almost 1:00 AM early this morning a rock flew straight through our bedroom window. It left a pretty good hole in the window, which shattered into a million tiny shards of glass. All over our bed. The rock itself first went through two layers of glass, hit the wall (left a mark), ricochet into the bed post (left another bump), went back into the wall (left a third mark), before settling.. under the bed (of course leaving a mark on our hardwood floor).

What the f*ck, you say? Yeah, me too. I heard some people hollering outside – which is quite common on weekends since people seem to have a somewhat primal urge to go out, get shitfaced and act as if they have absolutely no brain activity whatsoever – before we heard a loud crash. At first we didn’t understand what had happened, but we quickly discovered that our bedroom window was broken and instantly went outside to see if we could spot anyone. We didn’t see squat, so we called the police to notify them of the incident, and then started looking for whatever it was that had gone through the window. Øyvind found a rock under the bed after a little while, and we didn’t quite know what to do next. What if we had been gone to bed already, or if we’d been sleeping at the time? Our bed was covered in glass, not to mention being hit by the rock itself which was about 12 centimeters and 415 grams. Believe you me, for the first time in my life I felt lucky to be a night owl – and even more glad that Theo wasn’t sleeping on top of the covers by himself, as he usually does at that time of night.

The police came, saw and left. We were told that someone else had witnessed what happened and reported it in just before we did. Naturally there wasn’t much for the police officer to do since the cretins were long gone by the time he arrived, so we were told to file a report when the morning came – and naturally get our window fixed. We then called Falck to have them come up with a temporary fix, and after several hours a man finally arrived with some Plexiglas, silicone and glue. He finished around 6:00 AM, and at 6:30 it was at last possible to go to bed. All of our bedclothes went straight into the trash, glass shards and all, and the room was vacuumed at least three times – just to be on the safe side. Since the world apparently stops turning during weekends we won’t get our window fixed before Monday. At the earliest.

*sigh*

Photo © Øyvind H. ’10

In January 2009 I bought my very first pair of Converse ever, and I got them off eBay. I always thought they would be horrible to wear since they look so flat, but I was amazed by how comfortable they felt. When we were in Paris I bought my second pair, a pair of Chuck Taylor All Star Lo-Top Navy as they would be perfect with any type of jeans. I was planning to get a pair of their famous red ones before we left Paris, but I kinda suspected they were fake so I ended up with a pair exclusively to France called Chuck Taylor All Star Lo-Top Monocrome Ox Blanc instead.

And here’s where I need your help, people! We all know that most brands are being counterfeited today. eBay is overrun with fake product sold as the real thing, and people keep buying them because they don’t know any better. You never have any guarantee that the items you buy are actually authentic, and whenever you buy a counterfeited product you also contribute to the business of supplying the world with crap.

Personally I don’t care much for wearing expensive brands or names on my clothing, but in addition to not supporting counterfeiting I really don’t want to be wearing cheap copies unknowingly. I’ve googled and googled to try and find some kind of guide telling me how to spot a pair of fake Converse Chuck Taylor All Star without any luck. Sure, I found websites with information, but I don’t really need a website telling me that a pair of All Stars with a marijuana leaf instead of the star is counterfeit. I’m not dumb. I did find a tiny little guide with some interesting information which I based my purchases on, but I later found that not all of these little tell-tales are consistent. One of these tell-tales were the little ® mark below the All Star logo on the fabric tag. I went to a shoe store yesterday to double check their Converse for these tiny details, and found that several of the shoes didn’t have the ® mark – so I e-mailed Converse in USA and asked if they could tell me how to spot a pair of fake Converse. Unfortunately they couldn’t provide me with any information, but they did confirm that they stopped using the ® mark and ™ mark in their company name and logos in early 2009.

I now have three pairs of Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars in my possession, and I’m completely in the dark when it comes to whether or not these are actually authentic. I did check all the little tell-tales I could find online, doing my very best to ensure that I didn’t buy fake ones, but unfortunately there’s never any guarantee when you don’t buy your products from an officially licensed store.

My question is therefore:
Do any of you know how to spot a fake pair of Converse Chuck Taylor All Star?

Photo © Converse Inc.

If you are anything like me, you feel kind of spellbound every time Urban Decay launches a new palette. I’m usually taken by their gorgeous packaging, but ever since I first tried Get Baked Shadow Palette I became a complete sucker for UD palettes, and they kept accumulating. I was actually just about to order their newest addition to the UD family, Summer of Love Shadow Palette, until I suddenly realized that the names of the shades sounded familiar. I decided to cross-check with my other palettes, and guess what I discovered? I already owned all four shades.

As of now I own six palettes from Urban Decay: Book of Shadows Vol. II, Ammo Shadow Box, Get Baked Eyeshadow Palette, “Alice in Wonderland” Book of Shadows, Preen Shadow Box and Deluxe Shadow Box, and I’ve listed the names of all the shades within these six palettes below. First is the name of the shade (I’ve listed the actual names of the ones in the “Alice in Wonderland” box), then how many duplicates I have, and lastly the name of the palette where you can find the shade.

• Perversion (BoS II)
• Gunmetal (BoS II)
• Ecstasy (BoS II)
• AC/DC (BoS II)
• Nylon (BoS II)
• Sellout (BoS II)
• Mushroom x2 (BoS II, Alice in Wonderland)
• Sphynx (BoS II)
• Half Baked x2 (BoS II, Get Baked)
• Twice Baked x3 (BoS II, Alice in Wonderland, Get Baked)
• Midnight Cowboy Rides Again x2 (BoS II, Alice in Wonderland)
• YDK (BoS II)
• Jinx (BoS II)
• Flipside x2 (BoS II, Get Baked)
• Homegrown x2 (BoS II, Alice in Wonderland)
• Misdemeanor (BoS II)
• Flash x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Preen)
• Painkiller x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Preen)
• Baked x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Get Baked)
• Last Call x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Chopper x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Polyester Bride x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Maui Wowie x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Grifter x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• X (Alice in Wonderland)
• S&M (Alice in Wonderland)
• Sin x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Oil Slick x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Smog x2 (Ammo, Preen)
• Mildew x2 (Ammo, Preen)
• Shattered (Ammo)
• Snatch (Preen)
• Toasted (Preen)

That’s a total of 33 different shades whereas 18 of these have duplicates in one or several of the other palettes I own. Rather depressing, don’t you think? I don’t know about you, but I seriously hope Urban Decay stops pushing out palettes without adding at least a couple of new shades in each new addition. I guess this means I won’t buy anymore palettes from UD until something changes then.

Disappointed? Hell yes.

Nowadays I realize that little is needed to stress me out completely, and today is another one of those days. See, they called me from St. Olavs Hospital to let me know that they had set up an appointment for my annual check-up on Wednesday, April 5th. First of all, my last check-up was in December 2008 which doesn’t really make it annual, and second of all.. May 5th? That’s two days from today, for crying out loud! The woman was nice enough, explaining that they had been so busy they hadn’t had the time to call me before, but seriously, what person can just let go of everything and say yes to come stay the night at the hospital with two days of notice? I know I can’t.

And again with the blood tests. I mean, they have my medical records from years and years back, and they know I become vile as soon as they start talking about those damned blood tests. Nonetheless they have to try. Every single time. And every single time I end up feeling like a baby because I stand my ground, saying no to the tests. I mean, if I’m near death I’ll agree to the bloody tests – no pun intended – but until then they better leave me alone. I can’t take anyone poking around in my arm with a needle, when I know that it’s almost impossible to find a usable artery. And when I also know that they have another apparatus which does the very same thing, not involving any needles or even blood, I really don’t understand why it’s so difficult to bring out the machine at once, without having to argue about it first. Why do they have to stress me out with all this blood test nonsense? And all of this is because on a near 100 year old shivering doctor and his inept nurse, one time at Rikshospitalet many years ago. If it hadn’t been for those two I wouldn’t be scared senseless, cramping up every time I see something resembling a needle which sole purpose is to draw blood. I can’t take it.

So I tried to stay calm, even though my heart was hammering inside of my chest, explaining to the woman on the phone that it wasn’t going to happen. The blood test, I mean. And I told her as truth is, there’s no way I’m able to make arrangements to meet the appointment this forthcoming Wednesday. It took me several hours to calm down, I’m not kidding. At least she told me that they have the apparatus needed for measuring my blood levels of O₂ and CO₂ without the torture.

The whole thing ended with.. absolutely nothing. She said she’d talk to the doctor and call me back some other time to reschedule. Thankfully, I worked myself up for nothing, but I can’t help it – the thought of going to the hospital freaks me out, even if it’s just the annual check-up.

Talk about screwing up my entire day!

Jeg leser nesten daglig blogger som tar for seg shopping på Internett i en eller annen form, og dermed kommer jeg også over endel praktisk info om hvor mye “man må betale i toll”, og hvorvidt man kan handle der og der uten å betale noe som helst. Jeg rister gjerne på hodet fordi jeg vet at veldig mye av informasjonen som florerer er feil, siden folk synes å blande toll og merverdigavgift til en eneste stor smørje. De aller fleste sitter nemlig med den feiloppfatningen at man må betale toll på det man handler fra det store utland, men i de aller fleste tilfeller er det man handler faktisk tollfritt. Joda, man må som oftest betale mer enn man trodde når man endelig får pakken levert, men det folk flest ikke har fått med seg er at dette er merverdiavgift og eventuelle gebyrer, ikke toll. Det er for meg veldig tydelig at det hersker stor uvitenhet rundt dette, og siden jeg har svart belte i shopping på nett har jeg bestemt meg for å skrive et innlegg hvor jeg tar for meg korrekt informasjon rundt hvordan det hele foregår. Det kan virke både skremmende og komplisert, men til syvende og sist kommer man ikke unna at det er en fordel å vite hva man ender opp med å betale til slutt, ellers kan det hele ende opp som en kostbar affære.

Innlegget er basert på flere års erfaring med drift av eget firma, handel med norske og utenlandske leverandører, samt overdreven shopping på Internett – i tillegg har jeg innhentet informasjon fra Tollvesenet og Posten Norge.

Hva er merverdiavgift, og hva er toll?
Merverdiavgift (heretter kalt moms) er en avgift som er fastsatt av staten. For tiden betaler vi 25% (sist endret 1. januar 2005), og dette er en avgift som er lagt til prisen på alle varer vi handler innenlands. Dette er grunnen til at mange mennesker liker å handle på “Tax-Free”, fordi man her ikke betaler moms på varene man kjøper, og det blir dermed endel billigere enn å handle i butikkene hjemme. Deretter har vi toll som er skatt på vareflommen over en landegrense. Det finnes fler ulike typer toll, men det er egentlig irrelevant i dette tilfellet, og jeg velger derfor å konsentrere meg om innførsels- og transittoll. Jeg kan nevne at innførselstoll også gjerne er beskyttelsestoll, en skatt som tar sikte på å verne innenlandsk produksjon ved å gjøre konkurrerende utenlandske varer dyrere. Det finnes også varer som er helt avgiftsfri, som f.eks. sendinger fra utlandet med verdi inntil 200,- NOK, eksklusiv frakt- og forsikringskostnader, og alle bøker som importeres uansett verdi.

Hva skjer om jeg handler for mer enn 200,- kroner?
La oss si at vi bestiller varer som til sammen har en verdi på mer enn 200,- NOK. Denne sendingen må da fortolles, og toll og avgifter beregnes ut fra summen av varens verdi, fraktkostnadene og eventuelle forsikringskostnader for denne sendingen. Det du må betale, avhengig av hvilke varer du bestiller, er derfor toll, moms, eventuelle særavgifter og fortollingsgebyr. De aller fleste varer er tollfrie, med unntak av klær, tekstiler og næringsmidler (mer info finnes på toll.no), men du må betale moms på 25% på alle varer som importeres. Moms skal betales uansett om varen er tollfri eller fritatt for særavgift (mer info om særavgifter).

Klikk her for å Tollvesenets egne eksempler på beregning av moms og toll.

Men.. det heter jo “fortollingsgebyr”?
Overraskelsen kommer som regel for de aller fleste sammen med regningen, når de da oppdager at de har blitt belastet for et fortollingsgebyr. Dette gebyret inkluderer ankomstbehandling, registrering av sendingen, samt pliktig tollagerregnskap ovenfor Tollvesenet – hva nå enn det betyr. Om du lar firmaet eller speditøren som fraktet sendingen din til Norge fortolle varen(e) for deg må du som oftest betale for denne tjenesten. Det betales ikke til Tollvesenet. For å finne ut hvor mye gjeldende gebyr er på må du kontakte firmaet som fortoller varen for deg, dette har ikke Tollvesenet informasjon om. Som regel er dette Posten Norge, og deres gebyr for forenklet tollbehandling er i skrivende stund 108,- NOK (mer detaljert info her). Andre speditører som FedEx, DHL, UPS osv. opererer med andre satser, og det kan derfor være lurt å dobbeltsjekke hva du faktisk må betale for varen(e) totalt, før du bestemmer deg for å handle fra utlandet.

Siden jeg er fullstendig klar over at dette ganske kan virke grusomt komplisert skal jeg forsøke å oppsummere kjapt ved hjelp av en punktliste. Dersom du fortsatt sitter igjen med spørsmål må du gjerne legge igjen en kommentar eller to til meg, så skal jeg forsøke å svare på det du måtte lure på.

HUSK!
• Svært få varer er tollpliktige, med unntak av klær, tekstiler og næringsmidler.
• Du slipper å betale moms dersom verdien på varen(e) din(e) er mindre enn 200,- kroner. Frakt- og forsikringskostnader inkluderes ikke!
• Du må alltid betale moms om verdien på varen(e) din(e) er mer enn 200,- kroner. Da regnes det også moms av frakt- og forsikringskostnadene. I tillegg påløper et fortollingsgebyr, avhengig av fraktfirma eller speditør du velger å bruke.
• Sjekk alltid med firma eller speditør som frakter pakken din om de tar fortollingsgebyr og hvor mye det blir ekstra, så slipper du den ubehagelige overraskelsen når pakken endelig ankommer.

* Jeg er ikke ansvarlig for evt. endringer av priser og/eller regelverk etter 10. februar 2010, og tar forbehold om skrivefeil.