Christmas & New Year 2012

Christmas 2012 - very calm! This year there wasn't all that hassle with travelling between the countries: Norway-Germany-Italy-Norway or v v. within short time. While Marco went home to Italy, this year I spent as much as 16 days entirely at home in Germany :-) Time just for me, myself, my to-do list and last but not least for and with my family :-) I haven't even really spent much time with friends. Also the fact that we had agreed on not making presents this year turned these holidays considerably to stress free days.

Just before leaving for Germany on the 18th of December, I had spent 4 days with the girls on a Christmas market trip to Leipzig in Germany (click here for the post), the evening immediately after my return to Oslo Marco and I had tickets for the Nobel Peace Prize Concert here in Oslo (here is the post) and in addition to that we were in those days taking over our new common flat - which meant a weekend of moving. All that right before Christmas. So the tranquility of the festivities and the days off was really welcome.

Christmas eve was as usual at my mum's place. This year we had invited a couple of dear friends to join us on Christmas eve. Their children are living all very far away (2 in Australia) and thus they were going to have a lot of company. Christmas started with some tea and freshly baked Christmas cookies.

Later in the evening we switched over to some yummy meat fondue. Always a great thing to have on Christmas.

 

In the past the 25th and 26th of December were celebrated with the bigger families from my mum's and my father's side including grandparents. On my mum's side, since my grandmother's death 9 years ago, there were no longer the big family gatherings. However, at least on my father's side we had always gathered to celebrate Christmas together. But this year all was different as my grandmother had just died in October and my father left with his wife on skiing holidays over the festivities. So I even spent both Christmas days at home.
While my brother celebrated the 25th at his girlfriend's place, we didn't do anything big, especially we were all three (my mum, her husband and me) not really in top form with reg. to health.
On the 26th, then, we had my mum's husband's kids with their partners over and we had - of course, it's Christmas! - a lot of food: warm apple strudle with custard and ice cream in the afternoon and even more good food in the evening (potato dumplings with red cabbage and roulades plus Lebkuchen ice cream).

The day after the Christmas celebrations there was a nice concert in the beautiful Cologne Cathedral. It was the famous Christmas Oratorio of Johann Sebastian Bach - which I had just attended to a couple of weeks ago when I went with Jana, Audrey and Sarah to Leipzig. However, it's a very classical concert and nice to listen to - and even to compare the two concerts.

Between Christmas and New Year I celebrated with my friend Sarah her 31st birthday. Since in previous years I had always left Germany after Christmas to travel for the end of the year down to Sicily, I had never been there at Sarah's birthday. But this year I was finally able to join her party :-) It was really a pleasure for me.

For New Year's Eve I was a little uninspired about what to do. Also my brother had no plans of travelling as he usually had in the past years. Since he was really eager in having me with him and his friends - thanks, Max :-) - I joint their celebrations at our place. My parent's had left us the house to celebrate with friends of theirs so Max had invited a bunch of friends over. Though the girls were pretty much going for the idea of having raclette that evening, they were overruled by the majority of the rather carnivorous males in the group. Thus on the menu we had: BBQ!!!

In the course of the evening we entertained each other with our vocal talents and the help of PlayStation SingStar and even gave it a try to the Gangnam Style.

Well, what else to say about the celebrations of young people on a 31st of December...?!

Thanks, Max, for having me with you on this nice evening!

Only 3 days later it was time to leave and get back to Oslo. I had my flight on Thusday 3rd of January. I knew I was going to buy some things and take some things from home in Germany back to Norway, but I had arrived in Germany in December with one mid-sized suitcase with a weight of 7kg - and I found myself on the way back to Oslo with a totally new set of three suitcases, filled until their maximum with new clothes, shoes, and tons of household articles (among others: waffle baking machine, pans, a scale, serving cutlery, kilos of baking utensils, cooking books and much more) weighing some 50 kg in total... No wonder I had to take a taxi when arrived in Oslo...

However, it all found its place in our new apartment :-)

So, let's start the new year 2013! May it be a good one for everyone of you!!!

From Ruseløkksveien to Seilduksgata

After sooooo many years I'm going to live together with amore mio :-) Marco decided to leave Italy and in the beginning of November he had moved to Norway!
I had been living now for 3,5 years together with my lovely flatmate Mari, but now that Marco was coming up we would need a place by our own to live. So in autumn I had started looking for flats. We needed something from beginning of November, latest from the beginning of December. Furthermore I would love to stay somewhere in/very close to the city centre. Of course I would have loved staying in the area of Vika where I lived before as it was just PERFECT! But there was nothing to be found at that period. Instead I eventually found a flat in Grünerløkka, a fancy, alternative and popular area in the Northern centre of Oslo.
It's a pretty small flat (41m² only) that I found and prices are at the moment unfortunately pretty high, but well, we'd be in two to share the rent. And on top: the flat is partially furnished - a pretty considerable argument given the fact that I have no furniture here at all. Everything I had at Mari's flat belonged to her, with the exception of 2 pax closets and a simple desk. So not having to buy a bed, sofa, closet etc. would save us some money in the beginning of our adventure.

Initially we were supposed to move into our new flat on the 1st of December, but that date was postponed. The people living in our flat before (which are also the owners) had problems to finish the rennovation works at their new flat. So Marco and I would only come to move in by mid December.
Through the help of Jana we had ordered a cheap van for the moving on December 15th. Jana, her boyfriend Helder, and Vanesa (another friend) were helping us that day. Helder was the one driving the van as he loooooooooooves to drive in snow - and right the night before the moving it had actually snown quite a lot. So the streets were totally unprepared in the morning when moving out.

Helder and Jana searching for the pick-up place of the van.

 Eventually they found it and everything's packed. So the moving can start.

 

  And there I go - leaving my room in Mari's flat behind. Empty...

Thanks Jana, Helder and Vanesa for your help with moving! I know it turned out to be a lot of stuff which I had and which needed to be brought into the new flat! So thanks for your helping hands and also for organising the van.

I'm sad about leaving - despite the time in a common flat with Marco which is lying ahead. I had a very good time living in that flat with Mari.

Thanks Mari for having me had in your flat for all those years, for the great time, the pyjama breakfasts, the chats and everything that made this time so great!

So now a new time starts, in a new flat. Pictures will of course follow - but only once we are a bit more settled in there.

Julebord 2012: Office Christmas party at HamanGroup

It's Christmas time - also for us in the office! So time to celebrate, time to have our company internal annual "julebord", which means Christmas dinner/party :-)
As every year we close our office already at around 2 p.m. in the afternoon. We start decorating the table and to gather all the food. Usually every colleague prepares and brings along something, preferably something special e.g. something typical from that colleague's country - since we are so many nationalities in our office.
And once more so much good stuff was brought together, once more so much delicious food!!! The party can begin!

 

Also a tradition: our "Secret Santa" game. Sometime before the Christmas party we have to draw a colleague's name from a hat. We then have to buy a little present for that colleague.

 Time to unpack all those little presents from our secret Santa:

My "secret Santa" - which turned out to be my boss Franck - was actually quite a big present: a very warm and fluffy blanket for the sofa. For cosy TV or cold winter evenings :-) Merci, Franck!

From our CEO we got this lovely box, filled to the top with Christmas stuff (Christmas chocolate, tea, candies, pralines and much more).

Well, and then the evening took its course: a lot of chatting...

 

...singing...

 ...drinking...

...dancing (always nice, because with Franck - the only guy in the office - one can dance some disco fox, something which I don't get many occasions for to do so)...

 ...and even juggling :-)

Unlike all the previous years, i.e. totally against the traditions, we were all so extremely tired by already 10 p.m. that the party ended relatively early this year. Also the plans of some to join a colleague's husband on a pub-crawl tour weren't realized anymore.
Well, despite the early end, it doesn't mean we didn't have fun! It was still a nice party, with fun and good food. Looking forward to the next one :-)


So MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!!!

Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2012

Every year on the 10th of December the Nobel Peace Prize is conferred in Oslo. As by tradition, this is always followed the next evening, on December 11th, by a concert in honour of the laureate(s).

This year, 2012, it was the European Union which received this award for having "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

As some of you might remeber, I had attended the concert already in 2010, together with Jana and Moritz (click here for the post and pictures from that event).

Even though the artists are only announced step by step and shortly before the concert, I had decided to get tickets also for this year, for Marco and me. It had been Marco's birthday in October and he would have just moved to Norway by the time of the concert. I thought it would be a very nice gift for him, a great welcome to his new "home" as this something typical for Oslo which doesn't exist anywhere else.

A friend of mine, Vanesa, was interested as well in joining this special event and thus it was us three to be part of the Nobel Peace Prize Concert hold at the Oslo Spektrum arena on December 11th 2012:

 

Right among us:

the Royals :-)

 The hosts:

American film, television and fashion celebrity Sarah Jessica Parker & Scottish actor Gerard Butler

 

The artists throughout the concert:

Australian pop singer

Kylie Minogue

Grammy award-winning singer, composer, producer,  and actor 

Ne-Yo

The legends of Gypsy brass from Romania

Fanfare Ciocarlia

Hip hop duo and one of the most popular acts in Norway right now:

Karpe Diem

The British soul and R&B singer-songwriter who has won numerous music awards:

Seal

Norwegian singer, pianist and songwriter Susanne Sundfør

(I didn't like her at all, so I had no motivation to take a picture of her!)

 

Still there: the Royal family (with Princess Mette-Marit in white)

 

20 minutes BREAK

The second part started with the young Italian pop vocal trio

Il Volo - not very know, though, in Italy, I guess.

Multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer

Laleh (of Iranian descent) - possibly Sweden’s most well-kept musical secret

Belgian pop artist

Milow

The vibrant Portuguese band

OqueStrada

Academy Award-winning actress, Grammy Award-winning recording artist and best-selling author

Jennifer Hudson

A visit of the hosts together with José Manuel Barroso at the Nobel Peace Prize Institute in Oslo the day before

 Representing the Nobel Peace Prize laureate the European Union:

José Manuel Barroso (President of the European Commission) & Martin Schulz (President of the European Parliament)

In memory of previous laureates:

Finale

In my opinion it was a really nice evening, both with well-known and rather less known artists, each of them contributing in their own special way to this event full of music. I hope Marco and Vanesa and enjoyed it was well.