Sinsen, Julebord and xbox.

Sinsen

Sinsen is an ok place to be. Good people, local transportation and the heating is free. The flat now has full lighting, curtains are up, furniture is in and all we are missing is the rest of the boxes. There is a few more things that need fixing, but the landlord has been more than compromising with us. Still, I cant wait to get my teeth stuck into improving this place...
Muahaha! But now we can finally have our house warming party with snacks and stuff!? Did I mention Ive done the choosing a curtain thing now? It was a horrible but necessary ordeal. Hot coals was looking good. Still, now their up we have privacy which means I don't have to squat while I run around half naked.

Julebord

Had my first julebord yesterday. For the uninitiated, julebord (translated as christmas table), is a work party set strictly around three tenants. Christmas, cheap beer and free food. I indulged in all of it. Including much dancing, verbally abusing my colleges in the parlance of my people (read scouse accent) and somehow tearing off my birthmark on my hand.

Strange night. Yet, it was a delightful experience and I was well looked after by good friends and colleagues alike.
Word of warning though, watch the akuvitt. Bloody stuff hits you like a double decker buss filled with WoW players.

xbox

Lastly I just want to briefly rave about my new old toy, which my gorgeous girl got for me, the classic xbox. I know, its old, (not that old, but old). Still, something has to be said about the purity of retro gaming. Plus, my girlfriend hasn't played KOTOR before (if you know what that means lol), so she has been playing it nonstop today. I thought that thing was for me.....

Sniff.

Anyway, still busy, going back to do some more volunteer work at the barnehage tommorow, then some much needed christmas shopping before IKEA trip!
Busy but better. Still waiting for that blogger meet! Come on people!

Thanks for reading.
x

New flat, new problems...

Far from another moan, the expression "may he live interesting" times comes to mind. On my birthday I got a few presents, non more surprising than to be told by our new landlord that we could move in that evening.
Right there and then, I new something would go wrong. Though bless her, my girl Ingrid was an unstoppable supply of smiles and small giggles.
The single mother who left did so with speed. I can understand why, with two kids, 32m2 was no place for them.
Within five minutes I had already worked out what I affectionately call a "shit list." This is a list of "shit" things that need addressing. One of which was a lack of working lock.
Thankfully the next day I stayed in the flat for seven hours while a locksmith was called and new locks installed. I met the landlord, but did not get a chance to tell him about the other problems:

• shower and taps coming away from the walls,
• toilet seat broken,
• shabby and unsafe shelving in the cupboard,
• painted over light switches,
• exposed electric socket,
• exposed bell (talking visable electric contacts)

The list goes on.
Still, we managed to fix the toilet seat, locks are good meaning we can now leave the place. Then of coarse the hot water stops. Now I realise we are on the top floor, but after leaving the tap going for around five minutes? I could hear Bob Geldoff screaming.

Meh. Ingrids mother keeps telling me to stop moaning and work on it and I am trying to do just that. I think maybe that I am just sorely disapointed with the disapearance of Norwegian high standard of living you know?

Anyway, its cheap, free heating, good position and the kitchen? Oh dear gods the kitchen is awesome. Very Ikea.

Oh, and theres this very strange thing attached to the wall that noone can Identify. Ill get a pic of it for you but it kind of looks like a small slate screen attacthed to an exposed (albiet painted over) cirtcuit board.

Thanks for reading.

R

A curse on both your plumbing!!!

HATE PLUMBERS! They make chains of badness!

Allow me to explain. As you might already know, me and my girl are currently living with her parents. Its not so bad, but we have been led along. Led along by people being led along. Unfortunately for the young mum (two kids), who is currently waiting to move into a bigger home, she is at the un-tender mercies of plumbers.

Ever heard this line?
"Oh yeah, it will be finished today/tomorrow."

We'll they've told her this nearly five times now, and as a consequence she has told us this.
We still have no certainty other than the finality that we will at some point in the near future be moving in!!

ANyway, this post is more of a moan than anything else. Obviously it could have been much much worse, but it isn't, so I'm moaning about this. So there.

Well I feel much better.

On the good front, I got paid recently! With more coming! Its not much, but coming from nothing its a hellalot!!

xx