The World in Tonevision

what happened with the sugar thing

mini cupcakes, originally uploaded by tonbel.

yes, you guessed it, my thirty days on sugar turned out to become three days of sugar. Love it too much, and I have so very few other vices (if indeed any at all).

And cake is so pretty...

Children and animals

trio, originally uploaded by tonbel.

are reputed to be the hardest things to work with because they don't have that politeness thing down where they kind of grin and bear it until the photoshoot is over. I do believe it.

I was trying to do a happy family shoot with one of my friends and her two boys, the sort of shot you'd send to grandma for christmas, you know what I mean. And they were very cheerful and patient, but just not at the same time as each other. Or at the same time as me actually having a nice shot with all three in the frame and in focus and with a pleasing sort of light on them.

After about an hour of alternatly tempting and (very mildly, mind you) threatening the kids we called it a day, and this, taken right after that point in time, was my favourite of the whole photoshoot (although a couple of them turned out more like something you could put on a teamug if you're into that sort of thing). Maybe not the one you'd send to grandma, but interesting in its way, and real.

My number one lesson of the day was that I need a lot more practice shooting portraits. Anyone else fancy being subjected to tests of patience and promises of icecream?

The loneliness of the underground-passenger-counter

I spent my morning doing something a little different: from 5:13 -7:33 AM I was located at a near-empty tubestation, on a mission: to count every passenger walking into a tube carriage. The idea that some 150 other people from my company have been doing the exact same thing in all the tubestations in oslo for the last few days is fun. Standing around in a chilly tubestation in the middle of the night(ish): a little less exhilarating, but I came prepared with all the warm clothes I could muster (I've tried this before) and cake baked by a fantastic colleague. Plus an audio book on my iPod on brain function that turned out to be pompous, technical, self-righteous and mildly interesting in turns - but at least I used my brain which according to same book is crucial in order to avoid alzheimers and loss of brain function in general Gee, I must even have paid attention. Excellent!

second day off sugar

Kept extremely busy at work today, which helped, but have entertained fantasies about: almond cake (the kind they sell at baker hansen, really sweet and with perverse amounts of pretty, yellow butter cream. Mmmmm). coke. Ice cream with peanuts and caramel. Chocolate cake frosting. Cookies. Cake again. It is no coincidence that my fantasy football team is named fc cakeeaters, I think. Be that as it may, two days in I'm still going strong, and since I have an exciting day venturing outside of the office tomorrow I will not be subject to the lovely but deadly cream-filled sweet temptations the lunch lady tends to bring our way on fridays. Lucky.

Quitting sugar - day 1 of 30

After having a bit of an epiphany upon noticing that I had ingested around half a kilo on sugar yesterday (you think I am exaggerating perhaps? I wish I was) I made a decision to break my sugar addiction. So after quite the feast polishing off all the candy, crisps and coke I could stomach I actually threw away the rest of the candy, poured several deciliters of perfectly good coke down the drain and braced myself for going off sugar. I've done it in the past. I've even survived on Atkins for months and months on end with completely weird eating habits to show for it (in addition to the weightloss, mind you, there was some of that as well) - perhaps most notably pork chops for every meal and some memorable experiments with sugar free chocolate and candy the results of which I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy - yuck. I'm not ready for another round of that, but the sugar addiction has to go. So I decided to go cold turkey for a month starting today to break the spell.

My local kaffebrenneriet must have somehow found out what I am up to since they are celebrating the event by giving out free samples of merangues, my favourite. The bastards. But hey, it's not a challenge unless it's challenging, now is it? I am proud to say I did not have one.

1 down, 29 to go.

What I learned about myself while cleaning out my kitchen cupboard:

1)The blatantly obvious: that allegations about me being a well-organized person are completely false.

2)That although I think (or have at some point imagined) that I like and eat the following foods, this is not right:

Snails. Expired 2005. Maybe not that surprising. as I recall they were bought on a very optimistic early morning shopping session while on a booze cruise to Denmark, probably around 2003 some time. Tunafish: the illusion that I like and eat it must run deep, these are only two of three cans uncovered, but the last one still has a couple of years of taking up shelf space before I throw that one out, too. Saving it for a rainy day of course. Pineapple: now that is surprising. I could have sworn that I actually like pineapple except of course not eating it on pizza, which any other sane person would also avoid. Corn: now that is shocking, I was absolutely certain that I eat corn and did so only last week, but not this can for some reason. Interestingly that has moved with me from my last apartment, which makes my misconception all the greater. I thought that 6 kroner can of corn was important enough to lug down from Lillehammer, yet four years later I still haven't eaten it. Wokmix. Fair enough. The picture on the can makes it look like something I would be hard pressed to open except on the rainiest of rainy days, evoking worms crawling across a wet road and indeterminate roots. Brekkbønner. I think this translates as green beens, which is something really do eat all the time (fresh though, not canned),  but there is something about the Norwegian name that makes them so utterly unappetizing. It could translate directly as either snap-beans or hurl-beans, and of course the latter is stuck in my mind - although I suppose the former is the one meant by whoever named them to begin with. Fried Bean Curd. Well the tin looks interesting and exotic and contributes to my self image as an adventurous cook and ditto eater with eclectic tastes, but let's face it: when I haven't eaten it in the last seven years (sell-by date 2002) I am certainly not going to do so in the future. Pears: That is really sad, they have  been taking up space in my cupboard for years and years and they would probably have been just lovely with whipped cream, but alas, that was two years ago. I'd better not even go there.

It all adds up to one big note to self: do not buy and carry home cans of stuff you aren't going to cook and eat.

Which leads me to my third conclusion

3)I really don't cook often enough. I eat, sure, all the time, but I don't cook much. When I do cook, it's mostly pork chops, meat balls at a stretch. It just seems wrong. A person more than 30 years away from her retirement age basically subsisting on pork chops and meat balls? Peculiar, and just not right.

There was one lucky find among the antiquities: a can of fish balls, best before october 28th this year. I love fish balls! LOVE THEM! Yet apparently have not had them once in the three years I've been living here. So that one lucky can is now residing on my square foot of kitchen counter, ready to fulfil its destiny and become my dinner some time the coming week.

remains of a good start

remains of a good start, originally uploaded by tonbel.

had a perfect start to the workday today: went to kaffebrenneriet at Aker Brygge and enjoyed my americano in the sunshine while reading an interesting book about reward systems (well, I am interested in that kind of thing). The experience was further improved by the fact that my americano cup was placed on a oh so pretty vintage floral saucer, which I found really endearing, and the fact that a C-list celebrity that I kind of admire was seated at the next table looking all cool and admirable. Jeez I'm easy to please.

A Nemesis walks through life... OR: View from my office window

A Nemesis walks through life..., originally uploaded by tonbel.

In summer, this space is filled with wicker chairs, tables at which naive tourists are being served beer at extortionate prices and experienced bikers are being served the same beer at the same extortionate prices. There are blond swedish waiters huddling in fleece blankets in the rain. When it's sunny they bring out the ice cream stall and sell fake real italian icecream to a seemingly neverending line of fake real italian icecream-loving folk. It is an alluring place, brimming with temptation and always reminding me that I could have been outside doing nothing in stead of inside looking out at people doing nothing.

Now the chairs, table, bikers, tourists and fake real italian ice cream are gone, and in stead I am left with a beautiful still life consisting of a man reading his newspaper in the chilly autumn sun, the peaceful pattern made by the shade of trees that still have leaves and the sun gleaming on an Ibsen quote. Exquisite.

Soon I will have the even better version with yellow and brown leafs cascading to the ground, and then the very pretty snowglobe version when the trees are decorated with christmas lights. All of them so much better for staying in, looking out, than the summer one. It's all good.

just a perfect day

a certain slant of light, originally uploaded by tonbel.

saturday was. The sun was out, and my supercute and extremely good-humored nephew Sverre came to visit:
Norli had some excellent Norwegian books for John and it was warm enough to sit on the grass for perhaps the last time this year. Other people thought so too.

Also, Arsenal beat Wigan 1-0. Oddly enough, I kind of care.

Flow

I find it very peculiar how I've spent all day at work trying to get going on a number of different projects but never really breaking a hole in any of them and then suddenly, just about the time (eight hours or so in) when I was planning to go home and make some dinner I get sucked in for real. Now it's four hours later and I'm absolutely starving but have accomplished just about a full spring-cleaning of my computer and the bits of the server I share with my field management colleagues, and time and place has all but disappeared while I was moving and deleting, renaming and editing.

I notice it's dark out, and the last person leaving the focus group facilities said goodbye some time ago. The friggin grocery store is about to close! I'm lightheaded and I missed my pilates class. Gotta love flow.

Now if I could only accomplish the same with regard to cleaning my appartment or sorting out the sock drawer we would really be talking.