07/02/16
This is going to show my true nerd colours.
I woke up at 5am with my heart racing. I’d been waiting 6 months for a meta
article to be published, and it was set to be released today. I spent the first
three hours refreshing the authors website, desperately wanting to read it.
Nothing. I had some breakfast, showered, edited some stuff, skyped my sister,
paced the house, and refreshed to find nothing. Lacking all self-control I
emailed them and asked when it was going to be released. Which I know, is the most annoying thing you can do to
another human being under pressure. I got a “soon” reply, and immediately began
freaking out again.
I’m going to cut what I could make into an
incredibly longwinded post short – because my day was incredibly longwinded and
painful – it wasn’t published today.
That’s because I’m in Norway, and the author is in America. Time differences
will be the death of my meta-loving heart. Especially when I cleared my entire day to make the most of reading
it. Ah.
08/02/16
So I read it. The meta, that is. Isn’t it funny when you wait so long for something, and it isn’t at all what you thought it was going to be? I was so so so disappointed. It felt like a cop out. I messaged one of my closest friends, whom actually researched meta within her thesis, just to talk out my issues. She agreed with me.
Sidenote: When reviewing this post I realised it looks incredibly pathetic, so I was considering re-doing it and adding something else in to make it more interesting. But I was so blue this entire day all I did was shower and binge watch Youtube. Reality in the highlife.
09/02/16
Have you ever gone to the store in search
of something a little ‘sensitive’, only to find after much searching you can’t
find it? Imagine that, but in a country where you can’t read the labels. For my
own embarrassment levels, I’ll let you decide what you think I was looking for.
Now can you imagine the look on the poor
Norwegian lady’s face when I asked if they stocked said-item? She didn’t
completely understand what I was saying, so then, oh my god, so then, I had to
describe the purpose of the object. I have never seen a face turn red so
quickly. I held my tight-lipped smile, as she said no, they didn’t stock it. I
thanked her, left, and then died in the street. Can’t wait to go back one day
to do my grocery shopping again.
10/02/16
It was pouring down rain yesterday – an
absolute hurricane. But we needed some more food, so we went. But now, this
morning, the weather is beautiful. So
stunning, I recorded a time-lapse of the sun rising. Why could it have not been
this beautiful yesterday when we were soaked to the bone?
I’m a bad influence. We woke up early to
catch the best morning light for something I’m working on. Half way through, I
suggest we take the rest of the day off because the weather is perfect. Susan
frowns, because she knows I’m going to win this one. “Fine,” she says.
We gear up and leave. I’m almost giddy
walking the forest path to the city. We figure out where the Fløyen departs
from, and make our way to the old building. The Fløyen is a glass cable-cart
that takes us up into the mountains. We passed on our coffee this morning,
deciding to get one up the top.
The views are sublime. We made the right
decision coming out today. I asked Susan to take a photo of me with the view. I
want to send an email to my grandma with some photos of our trip. It is for
this reason, I laughed so hard when I saw the picture she had taken. Susan is
afraid of my camera, and I need to teach her how to use it for these rare
occasions when I need my photo taken. I’m not photogenic, which is something
I’ve learned to laugh about. One day I’ll dedicate a post to candid photos of
me, just so you can’t pull the “Rubbish!~!~” card. The image I was met with was
of me standing with my hands glued to my sides like a wooden doll, appalling
lighting, and looking dead behind the eyes. It was so funny because as she was
taking that exact photo, I was thinking I
hope my grandma doesn’t frame this. I hope she doesn’t.
The café was closed, and the gift shop was
only selling instant coffee. I scoffed. We went for a hike around the Fløyfjellet.
I’d never seen a frozen lake before. It’s exactly what you’d imagine it look
like – a frozen lake. We found a bench next to the lake to sit down on. It was
wet from the snow, so I took off my coat to use as a waterproof cushion while we
ate our bananas. It was just as romantic as it sounds.
We got some coffees and people-watched back
at in the city. Susan has had her eye on this one homeless person since we
arrived in Bergen. She brought in an apple and banana to give to him today. His
face when she handed him the food was of pure gratitude. As she linked arms
with me after committing her good deed, she proclaimed that we would be feeding
him each time we come into the city. Remind me again how I managed to trick a
saint into loving me?
11/02/16
Talk about a ‘slay day’. I think my most
productive days are when I lower my expectations and really get into a good
place of flow. Recently we’ve been trying to coordinate a trip with another
couple for the start of 2017 (99% sure they don’t read my blog haha) but it’s
been a bit of an uphill battle. Travel is expensive. But I am determined for
them to come. So this morning I accidentally did an entire financial breakdown
of the three weeks we’re hoping to get away for. Then made a killer lunch
(vegan burritos, my current obsession), took a few Skype calls, did 4 hours of
work-work, edited some logos for Susan, and spent the rest of the evening
writing and prepping for this post.
12/02/16
It seems this week is the week for me to
pose rhetorical questions in hopes of easing my embarrassment at failing in
social situations. Have you ever asked someone a straightforward question, and
then they reply with the ‘wrong’ answer? It happens a lot in retail or
hospitality. Here, let me give you an example.
Pretend you work in admin and you need some
basic information.
“Can I please have your date of birth?”
“Smith.”
A communication breakdown ensues. Some
people are just hell bent on not listening. They hear you. They just don’t listen.
This happened to me today. But I’m going to
give myself some slack. A cashier was trying to make small talk with me at, you
guessed it, the same store mentioned a few days ago. She asked me if I wanted a
bag, and I smiled and shook my head, signaling ‘no’. It only dawned on me as I was packing away my
avocados, that she didn’t ask me if I wanted a bag. She asked me how I was doing,
and I said no. Again in my defense, she was speaking Norwegian.
Now I’m afraid of getting an aloof
reputation at that store.
13/02/16
Do you ever just accidentally delete all of
the photos you were going to use this week? Because I did. In a moment of
mental lapse I deleted all my ‘good’ photos and kept the crappy ones. This is definitely
testimony to my headspace this week. Woe. Oh well. Fingers crossed you haven’t
noticed, and it’s only now in my telling that you’re critical.
Before this happened I sat outside on our
balcony in -2c watching the sunset. Fresh air is refreshing and exactly what I
needed before finding this out.
14/02/16
Before I get into how “un-romantic” and “un-Valentines
Day” today was, I just want to set a quick disclaimer. I think the whole thing
is silly. Yes, it serves as a good reminder to appreciate and dote on your
partner, but I don’t really agree with the surrounding materialism you need to constitute as a ‘good’ girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife for a single day. It’s gross and endorses
gifts as a way to measure the value of your relationship – which is 110% wrong.
Now if everyone thinks I’m abusing Susan by
neglecting to ‘celebrate’ this most auspicious day (please hear the sarcasm
dripping from my voice), we’re going away next weekend in protest. Just
kidding. We’re going because we’ve got cabin fever and I’ve been dying to visit this tiny country (hint: not Iceland).
