books, glorious books

sometime ago, quite a long time ago, i bought and read the fifty shades trilogy. don’t judge me just yet.

i got carried away by the hype. i mean, they sold more than the harry potter books, right? these millions of people must be onto something. so i bought the books. all three at once. and i read the first book. oh my goodness. second book came next. ummmm… really? finally i got to the third book. people! seriously? seriously!

it took me quite some time to finish the three books and by the time i was done with them, i couldn’t stand the sight of a book. they officially put me off books. that is… crazy. reading was something that i loved. even as a poor student i bought magazines and books. nothing made me happier than getting amazon gift cards for my birthday/christmas presents because then i could buy books all year long without having to worry about using too much money on them. our three bookcases were getting full and i was wondering how i could redecorate the whole room to make place for more bookcases.

i can’t emphasise enough how much i enjoy reading books. until fifty shades.

for some months following the episode, i didn’t pick up a book. i tried reading before bed a few times but i couldn’t make it more than a couple of pages. i finally gave up.

it was a sad, sad situation. my postman/woman was probably wondering why there was no longer amazon packages to be delivered to our mailbox. i saw books next to my bed and i wish they would go away. far, far away. the last books i ordered from amazon was covered by junks on the living room table.

i watched a lot of tv. i managed to read magazines. but books? no. nonononono. i hated books. until yesterday.

yesterday, i told myself to stop being stupid and to please, please, please, pick up a book and read it. i did. and boy, am i ever so glad i did. i am now on page 298 on the book i started reading last night. it’s a decent book. i can’t wait to finish it so i can start on another book. and then another. and then another.

i’m heading to amazon to order more books this week. still got over 70 pounds to spend on amazon before christmas. until the next batches of books arrive, i still have these to read.

prude

my work has moved to a brand new fancy building. the locker room in this new building is very small compared to the old one with only one bathroom and one shower. i think there’s three or four in the old one.

anyhow. i change very often at work. i usually do this in one of the bathrooms in the locker room because they’re quite big. and i assumed that’s what everybody does. i mean, when you strip down to your bra and undies, you’d like some privacy, no?

the answer to that is apparently no.

i saw two ladies (in their fifties, i reckon) in their bra and undies in this new locker room last week. they just stood in front of their lockers and took off their pants and tops. i was all, what the hell!!! cover up! i don’t want to see that!

do people really do this? seriously? in front of people they don’t really know? is that not weird? but then again, what do i know. even as a size 8-10 (aust) teenager, i only wore one-piece swimsuits (because bikinis are bra and undies in different materials) and insist on wrapping myself in towel at all time when i’m not in the water. i’m such a prude, i know.

pirates

at a pirate themed party at a kindy.

kid: i like kaptein sabeltann. do you know him?

me: oh, do you? yes, i know him.

kid: jack sparrow as well. do you know him?

me: yes, i know jack sparrow. who do you like best? kaptein sabeltann or jack sparrow.

kid: jack sparrow. how about you?

me: ummm… i like jack sparrow best too.

bloody good thing he didn’t ask why i like jack sparrow because the answer would be, hello… johnny depp. hot. very, very hot. besides, while i have heard of kaptein sabeltann, i have no idea what his story is. how can i choose him over jack sparrow? how can i choose any pirate over jack sparrow? i mean, hello… johnny depp. hot. very, very hot. i don’t think saying johnny depp is very, very hot to a kid is considered appropriate at all.

two and a half cats

there is this cat who hangs around our place a lot. he (i think it’s a he) might be homeless. he’s hungry and he has bumps all over his back from his ungrommed fur (he’s long-haired).

i don’t remember when he first showed up but he’s always here now. i think we’ve kinda ‘adopted’ him. we feed him (we set a bowl with food and one with water for him on the balcony), he sits on our balcony a lot and he lets me pet him. MOH has even given him a name: scarface. not long after he started hanging around here, he turned up with a scar on his nose. the scar’s faded now but the name sticks.

our girls hate him. for obvious reasons. they growl at him. they hiss at him. they meow a hateful meow at him. they stand guard at in the living room when he’s out on the balcony eating with the door’s opened.

scarface isn’t allowed into our house but he’d managed to sneak in a few times. i once found him sleeping in the bathroom looking like he belonged there. one night, he broke in (how, i don’t know), found his way into the bedroom and parked himself on MOH’s back.

i kinda wish we could officially adopt him. but who’s to know whether he’s really homeless or just dislike the food he gets at his real home. besides, do i really want to have three cats? do i really want to pay 7500NOK for the cat hotel everytime we go for a holiday to indo? that’s another return ticket home plus a bit of spending money!

here’s the gorgeous boy.

ummm… excuses, excuses?

i fully intended to update the blog properly this weekend. honestly. i thought about what have happened. i went through the many pictures taken since the lat time i updated this blog. truly, i planned to do it.

but we all know how it goes when we make plans.

so. something upsetting happened on friday. i cried when it happened. i cried driving to work. i cried telling MOH about it. i cried myself to sleep. i cried watching glee. i cried in the shower. my whole weekend’s pretty much ruined.

it’s nothing serious, just something that frustrates me and i don’t know any other way to release the anger and frustration. so i cried. nothing wrong with a bit of crying, right. i always feel better after a bit of a cry.

anyway. it’s sunday evening, i’m about to call it a night and i’m still too pissed off to blog. hopefully i’ll get over it soon. i’ll try this whole blogging thing again then.

i eat meat

not eating meat isn’t exactly difficult for me. once i decided i didn’t want to have meat as a part of my diet anymore, i just stopped.

christmas dinners, barbecues, rome, london, singapore, indonesia. no meat.

 i’m not saying it’s always easy but i have no problem sitting at a christmas dinner with beautiful smelling pinnekjøtt right in front of me and not eating it. i happily munch on buns with salad on them at barbecues.

MOH had a spinach and sausage pizza in rome and i said, ‘i’m so jealous, you have spinach on your pizza.’ i got my revenge later on with a beautiful dish of gnocchi with spinach so i was happy.

proper english breakfast in london. MOH had the whole package. i sat across the table from him with his bacon and sausages and thought my mushroom and eggs with toast were divine.

 i went to singapore with my mum and my sister. the first night we were there they ate rice with barbecued pork and i, having not eaten anything other than airplane food since midday, sat there with no food and still i wasn’t tempted.

i have gone home to indo three times since i stopped eating meat. the last time, in august, was brutal. my siblings were there so there was a lot of eating done. siomay, bakpao, martabak, kroket, jalangkote’, kompiah, fish soup with chicken broth (i know, how weird), ayam goreng, yum cha, pangsit, bubur babi just to name a few. not to mention mum’s cooking. trust  me, there were times when i was pretty sure i was insane for not eating meat. but still i didn’t eat any.

so all in all, i’m pretty good to sticking to vegies and seafood.

however.

there is this food that contains meat product that i still eat. i can’t give it up. i’m not willing to give it up. i don’t think i can give it up. good thing i never claim to be a vegetarian anyway.

here it is in all its glory.

 

my much loved indomie goreng. impossible to get in norway so we brought plenty from indo and my brother is going to bring us more from germany in december.

is there anybody out there who had tried indomie goreng and not like it? that’s not possible, is it?

indonesians and their blackberries

my cousin had her first child saturday morning indonesian time. yaaaay!!! a gorgeous baby girl, already loved and adored by many.

she was delivered through a c-section and three hours before her mum was scheduled to go into the surgery room, she sent me a blackberry message. she couldn’t sleep and, i guess because i was the only person she could think of who would still be awake at that hour, she messaged me.

and so we talked for hours until it was time for her to get ready for her c-section. her baby was born less than an hour after she said, ‘we’ll talk again later’. my workmates couldn’t believe she was on the phone with me until half-an-hour before her surgery.

less than a couple of hours after the baby was born, a picture of her was uploaded to our family blackberry group. comments started pouring in. this first photo was followed by a few other. you can literally see the change on the baby’s face from a few hours old to a couple of days old.

new mum sent a message to, i think, most of her contacts to announce the bub’s arrival. several family members promptly changed their profile picture with the baby’s photo.

i think it is so totally awesome that we get to keep each other so up-to-date with whatever it is happenning in our life. yes, there is always the internet but internet in indonesia isn’t exactly the most reliable thing. so to MOH and all those around me who like to mock me about my relationship with my blackberry… mock away, people, mock away.

i’m freaking glowing. apparently.

friday last week

workmate: have you done something different to your hair today?

me: no.

workmate: hmmm. your hair looks different. like you just been to the hairdresser.

me: nope. i washed it and let it dry.

 

tuesday.

another workmate: you look different today.

me: huh?

workmate: you’re… prettier.

me: awww, thank you. (playfully flicked hair and batted eyelashes)

workmate: are you in love or something?

me: hahaha

 

i need to trace back my steps and write down what i have done, eaten, drunk lately because obviously something magical is going on here. i just know i’m going to wake up tomorrow with zits and super frizzy hair as a punishment for being so vain.

nine

a workmate: so you’re married?

me: yes.

workmate: how long have you been together with your husband?

me: seven years married this year. nine years together.

workmate: whaaat???  how old exactly are you?

me: old enough to have been together with someone for nine years.

MOH and i are celebrating our nine years together today. not bad, huh…

back to work

i went back to work four days after i came back from indonesia.

while on holiday, i enjoyed having long, unbroken nails and bruise-free body.

on the second day back, i got these:

i showed it to some workmates and they said, ‘welcome back!

i also have bruises on my right knee, left arm, right leg and tummy. it’s like i was never away.