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Uhhh for this summer, shall we all try to avoid that our *shadow* is having more fun than ‘the real us’?! 😉

I ‘found’ some new series to spend the dark Norwegian nights: Lie to Me and Person of Interest (have to hurry though, soon those dark nights will turn into bright light nights 😉 ). Both series are highly addictive, similar to other series that I watched  in the past years during these long and dark norwegian winter nights; 8 seasons of ’24’ (2007 – 2010), 6 seasons of ‘Lost’ (2008 – 2010) and 4 seasons of ‘Prison Break’ (2011 – 2012), oof! 😉

Season 1 of Lie to Me is done already (only two more to go 😉 ), and I am halfway Season 1 of Person of Interest (season 2 is still running on TV in the USA, so I won’t be able to ‘find’ it  completely…yet 😉 )

Ha, it is couch potato time once more…and I love it!

It was hard to miss today; mainstream news, as well as Social Media (read Facebook & Twitter), have been filling our news feeds with items related to International Women’s Day (IWD).

It is celebrated every year on March 8 with a more personal and traditional touch mainly in Eastern Europe and Russia, where men honour their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts, as well as in a wider perspective, where women’s economic, political and social achievements (and need for improvements of those) are put in the spotlight.

This year, the UN theme for International Women’s Day 2013 is “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women“, while International Women’s Day 2013 has declared the year’s theme as “The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum“.

And all I can think is; why don’t we make everyday International Women’s Day? (and while we’re at it, let’s make everyday International Men’s Day, International Human’s Day, International Animal’s Day, International Earth Day, and so on… 😉 ).

I finally saw ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ tonight (hehe the movie has only been out since December 12 2012. 😉 ).

The Hobbit is the prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Lord of the Rings and it follows a similar setup; a trilogy released over a three years period, and each movie is about three hours (that’s a lot of ‘3’s’! 😉 )…that is pretty amazing considering that the book is about 1/5th of the full Lord of the Rings trilogy. And once again, Peter Jackson managed to make the book come alive exactly as it lives in my imagination, fantastic! Can’t wait for Part II (The Desolation of Smaug) this December, and Part III (There and Back Again) the year after (oof, that’s a mightly long time).

Though we celebrated my grandmothers Birthday last Sunday, today marks her actual 93th Birthday!! Hip hip hooray for grandma, let there be many more to come! 😉

Today was granny’s day, ‘the’ reason to be back in NL with Misha; the celebration of my grandmothers 93th Birthday day! Can you imagine, being born in 1920?? That seems suchhh a long time ago…(well, uhhh, actually it is! 😉 )

The whole family gathered together for an extended brunch, verrry nice to see everyone again! And my grandmother, of course, she is still going strong, in good shape and enjoyed herself heaps! Pretty special that Misha is able to be with his great-grandmother still…hope he has the chance to do this for many years to come.

The little angel had a busy day; running around and exploring the restaurant, the hallway, trying to close the automatic doors there, hiding in the ladies room, crashing other parties and so on…for five hours…oofff, pretty tiring, perhaps more so for daddy than for himself hahaha!

Yeah, we had a blast, granny’s day was a fun day!!

People often claim that “Norwegians are born with skis on their feet“, so one can expect Misha having skis on his feet too as he was born here. 😉

The Norwegian Ski Federation tested this ‘fact’ at kindergarten and was happy to hand out certify Misha as snow-lover and potential ski champion…ha, quite an achievement for a 17 months old! (nearly…on February 29, and due to the lack of a leap year, this exact 17 months moment falls between today and tomorrow! 😉 )

Some songs are perfect to be used for a parody and Carly Rae Jepsen‘s ‘Call me Maybe‘ seems to be one of them (almost 25,000 hits on a ‘ “call me maybe” parody ‘ YouTube search). I earlier posted Steve Kardynal’s hilarious (yet freaky 😉 ) ‘Call Me Maybe’ (Chatroulette) parody, and below is another one…what if the hot babes in the clip turn into hot marines (this all depends on your definition of ‘hot’ though 😉 ), would you Call me…Maybe? 😉

Today was a bit similar as yesterday, cross country skiing with Misha in his sled, still it was fantastic and unique!

The trip I took today was much longer and we took some time to stop, play in the snow and have a late lunch together…I can’t describe how special it was…

Since Misha saw his father pulling the ‘pulk‘ he reckoned he could do the same, SO much fun to see him actually succeed in pulling it! (next year he will have his own skis! 😉 ). It has been pretty tiresome for him though, as you can see below…on the other hand; the little angel just LOVES snow; eating it, dropping himself in it, and laying on his back enjoying the beautiful sky (with moon 😉 )…

Yesss…another FANTASTIC day, I am grateful!!

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Yay, we had a fantastic first day in Kvitfjell! It started with an extremely relaxed start this morning; hehe, it is fantastic to have a son who loves sleeping in as much as his dad! 😉 Later, in the afternoon, we went for our first cross country skiing adventure! The first time on my new skies, and right away with the sled (‘pulk‘). We didn’t go too far, still far enough to have a great time, some fantastic outlooks and becoming pretty tired (up hill with a pulk the  is tough… 😉 ).

All in all a LOT of fun, can’t wait for a second turn tomorrow!!

The yearly traditional ski trip with Per & Ingrid (and some more 😉 ) is about to begin, yay! Kvitfjell it is, as last year, and Misha is coming along! Living partly in Norway he obviously should have at least one trip to the snowy mountains per year, eh? 😉

Unlike last year, when I had hip pain, couldn’t ski and stayed in the cottage with Misha, I feel stronger than ever this year; skiing it will be! I borrowed a special sled/toboggan (‘pulk‘) so I can go cross country skiing with Misha, grrrroovy!! Downhill skis are with me too, just in case there is a possibility to enjoy some powder…woohoo, I am *really* looking forward to this trip!

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The YouTube clip below poses an interesting and intriguing question; ‘Is your Red the same as my Red?’.

I LOVE that question and ‘discussion’ and have used it often to play with someones brain…or my own! 😉 What if I define Red while you see a color that I define as Green…blue skies turn up brown? Snow is actually yellow? (well, in some cases that is true, and one should NOT eat yellow snow hihi)…crrraaaazyyy! Oh well, in the end it doesn’t really matter as we simply agree on the definition for one color or another and we ourselves stick to that. 😉

Speaking and understanding English ain’t all that easy for some, hehe… 😉

Unexpectedly I got invited to join a clan of Norwegian cheeseheads (fellow dutchies in Norway) at the World Championships Speed Skating in Hamar today! It is fantastic to be part of a spectacular atmosphere (speed skate fans are crrrraaaazyy! 😉 ) in an *amazing* ice skating ‘temple’, the Vikingskipet in Hamar, never been here before…

And…it is very special to to cheer for two *dutch* speed skaters on their path to victory; Irene Wüst and Sven Kramer both became World Champion, 4th time for Irene and 6th (!) time for Sven, woohoooo!!!! 😉

It is partytime in the Vikingskipet!!
 

Hahaha, it can be quite challenging to find your car in wintertime after snowfall at night. The YouTube video below shows it as no other…HILARIOUS!

Hellooooo winter! 😉

After all the sun I have had so far this year it is (about?) time to BE and live in the time of year; wintertime… 😉 In Norway that means, play with snow or, more respectful, go cross country skiing! The main thing holding me back in going for more cross country ski trips than I did in the past years has been my shitty wax-free skis. The served a purpose ‘back in the day‘ when I wasn’t sure if I would like this sport, and became a big fun-downer afterwards…So, about time to buy some new skis at ‘the’ ski-shop in Oslo, Oslo Sportslager, where a very friendly and knowledgable guy (called Raymond?!) made me a great deal for the Madhus Birkenbeiner Classic Carbon Ski including shoes, poles and uhh wax! 😉

Ha, I can’t wait to try them out, which will be this Sunday, cross-country skiing in the forest that starts in my backyard!! 😉

I love it when  a plan comes together… 😉

Just over a week ago I decided to buy Apple’s new, stunningly beautiful iMac. They told me that it would take 4-6 weeks for the iMac to arrive, but…Apple’s delivery times are way better than they project, yay! (similar to when I ordered my MacBook Air last year, which was delivered the day after ordering instead 3-4 weeks)

So, my coming back in Norway and being home alone for the first time since December 6 (!!) is matching perfectly with some intense days filled with ‘geeking’, w00t!! 😉

(for my fellow geeks, it is the 27″ iMac (late 2012) loaded with *all* the options: 3.4GHz i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB graphic card and a super fast 3TB Fusion Drive…iLoveIt! 😉 )

Gladiators unite…we are READY for the last night! Reigning the dancefloor and dominating the bar…boring people, please beware! 😉

Day 2 of carnival 2013 started with a typical ‘the day after the night before’ feeling; low on energy and pretty slow. 😉 A fun show by the ‘Gebroeders Ko‘ (The Ko Brothers) this afternoon brought some energy and party mood back, so we are ready to reign and dominate the bar once again tonight…gladiatorssss, gather together: da bar is ours! 😉

Quite  a culture shock, coming back from Marrakech yesterday and finding myself in the carnival festivities in NL today…keep on smiling and just having fun!! 😉