Pilaris - blog

After 9 weeks, I finally got my telly today, the telly I won on a radio contest (see the entry called Yippie from July 20). The disappointment is because of the size…it’s only 19″. The old fashion telly I’ve got is 26″, so there is no way that I’m getting rid of that for a 19″, even though it is a flat screen. So I’ve been checking out what that kind of telly costs, and I’m going to sell it. There is lots and lots of things I can use with that kind of money…bills have to be paid, there’s a wedding coming up, Christmas presents to be bought…or I can just save them for something for myself. But I have to sell it first, just let me know if you’re interested, it’s a Grundig Lenaro and I want NOK 3.900,- for it 🙂

I’ve got mice everywhere! They’ve been running around on the kitchen for months, eating Arkas’ food. I can hear them behind the fridge in the morning. I can hear them in the wall between the kitchen and the livingroom at night. They run around in the basement (not in the guest room). They run around in the floor between 1. and 2. floor. They hide Arkas’ food in my shoes.
And today I discovered that they have gotten into my car! I use the headset for my cell phone for listening to the radio while I’m at work, and I leave the headset in the car when I get home in the afternoons. When I came to work today and reached out to the passenger seat to take the headset, it was in a million pieces, and they have also enjoyed some other things.
I’m about to go grazy! I hate mice!

Nothing much has happened this last week. Have just spent time online or watching telly while working on my cross stitch.

Yesterday my mum and her boyfriend A came over to help me with some work in the garden. A cut down lots of bushes and mum and I took the smaller things. The hardest work was to clean all of this up, so my back is particulary bad today, and all of my muscles are screaming.

My friend C’s daughter A turned 2 last Sunday, so I was with them tonight for celebration. Ate dinner with them and had a lovely evening.

On Thursday afternoon, I was watching Brothers & Sisters that I had taped the night before, when suddenly Arkas started barking and I heard someone opening my front door. I ran after him trying to get him to stop (absolutely not successful), and when I raised my head, I saw H standing in the doorway! Arkas was flying high in joy over seeing her again, and I was in shock! But a pleasant shock it was 🙂 She had gotten her new car the day before, a Volkswagen Touran (in English: Volkswagen Touran), and now she’s able to go places on her own, and not having to depend on her husband, her parents or her friends. I’m so happy for her! This was her first time at my place after the stroke, and it made things feel a bit more normal again. Lovely feeling!
H’s mother sent in an application for a contest in the weekly magazine Hjemmet a few months back, where you had to have a special story to tell, and the winners would get a trip with Hurtigruta (in English: Hurtigruta) from Trondheim (in English: Trondheim) to Tromsø (in English: Tromsø). H and her husband didn’t know that her mother had sent an application, but they won. They left for Oslo Lufthavn Gardermoen (in English: Oslo Airport Gardermoen) this morning, flew to Trondheim and then Hurtigruta will take them to Tromsø during the next two days. One of the reasons H came over on Thursday, was that she wanted me to help her dye her hair before the trip. I helped her a few months back, not with a very great result, so I’m impressed that she asked me again. Think it went a bit better this time, not easy to see just an hour after finishing.
H has gained motion in her right hands thumb, and that’s great progress! It’s just the outermost joint, but added together with all the other progress she’s done the last 9 months, it’s wonderful. I’m sure that the rest of the thumb and the other fingers will follow soon.

Three months and one day after my car didn’t start, I got it back on Friday. It was strange driving it again, but it felt good as well, like “it’s mine, not a car I’m borrowing”. Everything seems fine with it, the brakes haven’t been this good since I bought the car. But there is a squeeky noice when I start the engine, might be the fan belt. And the outside mirror on the drivers side is somewhat broken.

Had an extremely lazy weekend, just watching telly, spending time online and working on the cross stitch.

S came over yesterday evening, we hadn’t talked for quite some time now. But with two huge tea cups and lots of candles burning, everything was ready for a few nice hours with filling eachother in on what’s going on. The terrible weather (strong wind and rain pouring down) made it even more cozy really.

Saw a fox when driving to work this morning, thankfully it looked healty.

If Santo, my first dog, was alive, he would have been 13 years old today. I
gave away a big piece of my heart to him, and he still has it, wherever he
is.
I met his brother last spring. It was strange to see a dog that similar to Santo 9 years after his death.

Still miss you Santo, happy birthday!

I finished cutting the grass yesterday! My arms and shoulders still hurts, but it was worth it! Hopefully it will be enough with one more round this year, if the weather allows it. 15 minutes after finishing yesterday, it startet pouring down water from the skies… I also put down the crocus’ yesterday, so it’ll be fun to see how it turnes out when spring comes.

Today I’ve done 4 machines with laundry, worked on my cross stitch and read a lot. Tonight I spent a few hours at C’s, celebrating her birthday. My mum and her boyfriend came home from Denmark, and they had bought lots of meat for me, so my fridge was full when I came home. Can’t tell how much I appreciate this, since I know that money will be short during winter. Thank you mum!!!

Monday: Got to cut a bit more grass, but since I’ve been lazy the last weeks, the grass has gotten too long, so when I cut, I have to take one step back for every two steps forwards. No wonder it takes me so long to finish!

Tuesday: A came over. I don’t have more than three crocus’, so I wished for more of those from her for my birthday. Since they have to be put in the ground a bit earlier than when my birthday is, we decided to get it done now, exactly a month in advance. But she surprised me, instead of crocus, she’d bought tulips, something called pearl flower in Norwegian (don’t know the English name) and a third flower I can’t remember the name of. So we spent about one and a half hour with this and the rest of the evening talking and drinking tea. Great evening!

Wednesday and Thursday: did nothing out of the ordinary.

Friday: It’s a small world. J (that I’ve been working with for about 5 years) and I found out a few months ago that his second job is helping my ex boyfriend (V, we were together from 2000 to 2002) with his job from time to time. Today, V came over at work to pick up something from J, so the three of us ended up talking for nearly an hour. It’s been years since I last saw him, so it was great fun to catch up, even though we talk on the phone and send text messages now and then.
Tonight will be spent in front of the telly, this years Idol is starting tonight, and so is Senkveld.

The plans for the weekend is to continue struggling with the grass, putting down the crocus I’ve bought myself and to visit C on Sunday as it is her 35th birthday.

First week at work after vacation is over, and I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed it. Can’t even remember that I’ve had a vacation really…

Woke up to only 2 degrees C on Tuesday! Couldn’t believe how cold it was, and that was in August! So on Friday I had to start heating the house with the fire place, still in August! Can’t remember last time that happened. I thought we’d have warmer weather due to global warming, but this summer has proved that wrong, with a rainy and cold summer and fall coming much too soon.

Startet cutting grass yesterday, but it started raining, so I had to quit. Ended up vacuuming the first floor instead. But if it doesn’t start to rain later today, I have to continue dealing with the grass.

The cross stitch is getting on quite nicely. Lots of details, so it takes some time, but I know it’ll be wonderful when finished. Won’t be finished this Christmas, but then I’ve got something to look forward to next year.

Tried calling the radio station on Friday to find out when my flat screen will arrive, but there was a possible fire at their head quarters, so I said I’d call back next week. But when I got home, I’d gotten a letter from them saying that it hopefully will arrive next week. Fingers crossed for that!

C came over for a little while on Friday, she needed gourmet salt which I had. Had a nice chat.

Updated at 17:00:00:
It didn’t start raining today, but I didn’t cut the grass either 😉

Updated at 20:25:00:
It’s obvious that I have to wait writing my blog just before bed time, because I always remember more things that I should write…

Had a nice web cam chat with SV and B earlier this afternoon, but my computer gets slow when using web cam, I don’t know if it’s actually the computer or the internet connection, but I have to remember not to do anything else while using it.

I’m getting visitors from Australia next year! I’ve known it for a few weeks now, but I’ve forgotten to write about it. T and M have been traveling in Europe a few weeks a year for the last few years, and next year they’ll visit Northern Europe including Norway. It’ll be great fun meeting them for a few hours, and I’ll try to show them the best of Halden.

S-E surprisingly knocked on my door this evening. He got his driving licence for motor bikes just a few days ago and is trying to drive as much as possible before winter sets in. He stayed for about 30 minutes and got some heat back before he drove back home.

Well, this is the last day of my vacation for this year. I’ve had two great weeks, doing mostly what I wanted to do, and a few things I had to do. But I can’t complaint at all.

I guess the things I’ll remember best from this vacation is visiting E and her daughter E, giving Arkas a bath and the goshawk.

My next vacation will be in the middle of November, when I’m off to Haugesund (on the west coast of Norway) for the wedding. I’ll drive over on Thursday (takes about 10 hours), try to relax on Friday, then the wedding is Saturday. Sunday will be spent mostly on someones sofa I guess, and Monday I’ll be driving home. So I can’t call it a vacation, besides the fact that I won’t be at work.

Tomorrow it’s back to work again, can’t say I’m looking forward to it, but if I want to be able to pay my bills and buy food, I have no choice. I’m one of those people that happily wouldn’t work if I could afford it.

Well, it’s strange how weeks and months can pass by without nothing happening, and then suddenly everything is happening all at once…

Today I was about to watch some telly, when I suddenly heard a noice that seemed to come from the basement. Arkas started barking, and I (somewhat scared) went to find out what was happening. I took a look down the basement stairs, and suddenly saw a goshawk sitting in the grass outside the window, pecking at my window. I saw that his right wing was damaged, so I rushed over to the next door neighbour to find out what to do. I can’t stand seeing an animal in pain, but I’m not able to put them down myself. He suggested that I’d call Viltnemnda (a group of people who’s responsible for managing the law that protects the wild animals and also to give advice and assistance to authorities, organizations and persons). I couldn’t find the phone number online, so I called the police, which gave me the correct number. After describing the problem to the man, he came over after about 15 minutes (he lives not far from here), and he captured the hawk with a net. He assumed that the bird had been hit by a car, and he was pretty sure that it had been borned this year. From what he could see, he didn’t give the hawk much of a chance, but he would take it home and take a better look. If he thought that it would have a chance, he’d keep it at home and do whatever necessary, but if nothing could be done, he would put it down. I almost asked him to keep me updated, but I guess the man has got enough to do if not calling around to people.
I thought about getting the camera, but I decided against it since I didn’t want to stress the hawk too much, and the wound was terrible to look at. In a strange way I feel good about myself, since I did the right thing and took that phone call (not calling was never an option), but I still keep thinking about that poor bird who obviously was in pain and I hope that he makes it.