It’s now been five years since I discovered this wonderful lady, and I love introducing others to her. Here are some of my favourite songs (one from each album), and I hope you have the time to listen to them. Some of them are live versions, others recordings; I picked the one I liked best.

Translated from Mari Datura:

This is a somewhat odd colour combination, that I can’t help loving. Long-sleeved top and jeans from H&M, shoes from Din Sko, and top from Ichi. The snow is from crystallised vapour in the atmosphere, and we’ve gotten tons of it lately.

Just so you know, I feel slightly embarrassed posing for my self-timer. I would however feel ten times as embarrassed if I had to ask Cecilie (whom I live with) to take the picture. She started wondering what I was doing, by the way, running up and down the stairs with my camera.

Now she’s playing this song, which is one of the most beautiful things I know:

Actually, my updating of this blog has always been slow, so no one probably noticed my absence.

Anyway. I’ve recently started blogging in my native tongue. And now I’m unsure whether I’ll be able to keep two blogs. Especially as I’ve discovered that I find it much easier to write in Norwegian than in English.

I’ll try, though, because I’m very fond of this blog.

They are flyers for the pharmacists’ analogue to Doctors Without Borders. I’m sure they do an awesome job, but that acronym never fails to make me giggle.

This semester, I’ve decided to spend more time with friends, exercise more (it helps both my mood and the previously mentioned stress level) and, just, do more of the things I like. Last semester sort of drowned in studying, or stress over lack of studying, and I don’t want that happening again.

It helps that one of my classes this semester is quickly turning into my favourite ever, and that’s even before the lectures have started. It’s called “Molecular Driving Forces”, and I know that doesn’t exactly sound like fun, but I’ve always been interested in why things happen. In this subject, it’s all about the whys: why diffusion, pressure, elasticity, etc… happen. I just hope my lack of advanced maths knowledge won’t be a problem. The (awesome) textbook has a lot of “Math Tool Kits”, but those chapters aren’t on the syllabus, and I’m not that good a student that I read outside what I have to.

In other news, I decided that this was the semester I would colour my lab coat red, a long standing plan of mine. But then the washing machine decided to go on strike. As I was trying to colour the coat. It came out looking like I’d killed someone, and after an attempt to bleach it, it’s now spotted pink. Which is not a look I want to sport. So I’m currently hoping my boyfriend will let me use his washing machine to colour it again. And if Murphy decides to rear his ugly head once more, I’m going to punch him in the face.

My bunny is clear proof that I really should stick to science, rather than art.

The wonky colours are the result of me taking a picture of the drawing, rather than scanning it.

Anyway, the rules for the meme are:

• Draw a Bunny (or several)
• Post it to your blog with the rules
• Name three other bloggers that should draw a bunny

I hereby tag Kaylee, Regine and Wendy.

Standing Stones in Cornwall
Image from timetravel-britain.com

It’s still in the early planning stages, but I’m really looking forward to it. I am, after all, a bit of an anglophile. We’ve decided we want to visit Tintagel Castle (King Arthur!), The Eden Project and to hike in the countryside. I hope my spoken English is a bit less rusty than I think it is.

This will be my fifth visit to Britain, but only the second after I became old enough to actually care about the sights. My dad has a nice story of how my sister (five) and I (seven) were more interested in ice cream than seeing Stonehenge. And later, at ages seven and nine, more interested in ice cream than seeing Westminster Abbey.

I think I need to do an Amanda and tour England by myself at some point, seeing all the stuff I missed. But Cornwall first.

Red top from Gina Tricot, grey skirt bought at a market in Los Angeles, shoes from Euro Sko (I think) where the heel is partly destroyed by the cobblestones in Bergen. Ladybug clock pendant from Ebay. In the choice between different decorative bugs, I had to choose the ladybug, as it’s Norwegian name is “Marihøne” (Mari-hen).

What made the situation particularly scary, was that the care home was adjacent to the retiring home. In the care home, most of the tenants were capable of moving around on their own; in the retiring home, there are a lot of bedridden patients. For my sister, my dad and me there was the extra worry of my mother being at work in said retiring home. Especially when we could see the fire clearly from our home, and we live on a hill 200 m above the town.

My mum got home three hours later than she was supposed to, and could tell of a high scale evacuation. Today we could read of a couple of guys who saved five tenants from a balcony by scaling the side of the building, before anyone could think to look for a ladder. From what my mother has to tell, and from what I’ve read, many volunteers did an awesome job, and the staff at the care complex worked tirelessly to get people out. Health personnel that were off duty quickly made their way down there to help.

Thankfully, the retiring home was untouched by the fire. The care home, however, is severly damaged. But no one was killed, and that’s what’s most important.

I’m very proud of my home town today. I only wish I could have done something.