Lilli in Norway: Miscellaneous moments in 2017

Sunday, 31 December 2017

Miscellaneous moments in 2017

2017, yet another year is over! A year with many memorable moments - some of which I have already documented with pictures in a post. Posts of other (great) moments in 2017 are still missing as I haven't had time yet to make the selection out of the extremely many pictures.
And then there were single moments here and there throughout 2017 that I captured in pictures, but that don't require a post by its own. Those are published now here in this end-of-the-year post, as a little review for myself :-) It's always nice for me to look back at those little moments of the past year which aren't necessarily all of big importance or impact or of long duration, but it is moments that made me or others smile or happy or will simply stay in my mind for some reason.

JANUARY:
11/01: I started the year with an annoying water leakage :-( That was certainly not one of those moments that made me smile or happy, but certainly stays on my mind!
I came home that evening from work and found water dropping from the ceiling in the entrance hall on the floor and heard it dripping from the bathroom.

An emergency plumber came, took down/off the whole bathroom ceiling to find the source - which he couldn't.

First thought was of course that this was caused by the neighbour living above us, but eventually it turned out to be a small whole in a brittle tube of our old building. It took the workmen days to figure that out and even more days to properly fix the problem. Further days passed to get the ok that the leakage had only damaged the bathroom ceiling and that no other walls were affected (which otherwise would have been opened/torn down). That meant that the case could be passed on to the insurance to start the process of fixing our bathroom again. From that moment until we had again a bathroom ceiling, some 2(!) weeks passed! So for nearly 1 month we were without a bathroom ceiling, meaning without any isolation and thus a freezing cold bathroom (consider: it was January = full winter with temperatures around -10°C) for all that time, just because of bureaucracy, scarse availability of people/workers to do their jobs and staff not working 1 single minute extra to get things done. My God, I was so pissed off of everyone and everything! Only that if this is not your own apartment, everything has to go through the landlord and you can't do anything then just report and become angry.

19/01: Beautiful morning light (at 08:45 a.m.)

22/01: Of course, when it comes to pasta dishes, this is certainly Marco's domain, including the delicious lasagne he makes. But on that day - Marco was still in Italy - I just felt like preparing a lasagne by myself... and it turned out to be good - nearly as good as Marco's :-) Well, I learned of course from my personal Italian chef :-)

FEBRUARY:
04/02: Following the challenge of our boss ("if you run 10 km quicker than I ran 20 km, I'll pay you a beer"), my colleagues and I all subscribed for the eco-trail run in May. Never in my life had I been running 10 km before. So I had to get started with training for it...and beginning of Feburary I ran for my first time 10 km :-) Well, it was on a treadmill and it certainly wasn't a great time, but I was just proud and happy to have acheived this!

07/02: I went with my friends Ginta and Hadrien to see the ballet "Carmen" at the Oslo Opera. Really liked it!

16/02: We always have trainees in the office that help us through the year. In summer we usually have four trainees, in winter only one. And usually all our trainees are always French. This winter, though, was an exception. We had Adriana with us. Adriana is German (but speaks French!) and the daughter of a friend of my mum. She stayed with us until mid February. And for her last day I had prepared a goodbye card with this photo collage. Thank you, Adriana, for your great help over the winter :-)

18/02: Had to fix a quick dessert that evening as we had friends over for dinner and hadn't really had much time to prepare something (i.e. to bake something)... and this was the outcome :-) Not too bad, I'd say!

20/02: My friend Jana with her boyfriend Helder and their daughter Mila on transit through Oslo. It was my first time that I saw Mila since she was born! Such a cutie :-) Congratulations, Jana & Helder!

24/02: It was my aunt Herad's birthday. She had come by train from Sweden to Oslo from where she would leave on holidays the next day. That way she spent her birthday with me and her long-time friend (and my former flatmate) Mari that I invited over to our place for that occasion. Together we had dinner - with typical German "Kartoffelpuffer" (some sort of poatato fritters) - and a lot of time to talk and catch up.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HERZLICHEN GLÜCKWUNSCH, GRATULERER MED DAGEN & GRATTIS, dear Herad!

23/02: First baking of the year (more to follow later/below): "Amerikaner".

22-24/03: As every year in March I fly to Milano to attend a workshop. I used this business trip to also catch up with my dear friend Carla...

...and to bring to Oslo what an Italian (and I) misses outside of Italy :-)

APRIL:
11/04: Easter care package from my mum :-)

13/04: The Easter holidays were also a nice occasion to invite my colleague Peter and his wife Gry over for lunch and playing "Settlers of Catan".

16/04: Easter spirit

17/04: The traditional "gold and silver Easter cake" after a recipe of my great grandmother.

21/04: Lilian cloned? No, Marco playing with his camera :-)

22/04: First time running outside - still in preparation of the eco-trail run in May! I met with my friends Ginta and Hadrien that use to run and offered to take me with them. We met at Sognsvann metro station, ran one round around the lake and then all the way down to Torshov. In total: 8,7 km!

22/04: Northern Lights hunting at Sognsvann lake close to Oslo - only that Northern Lights eventually didn't show up. The evening before solar activity was that strong that Northern Lights were even visible in Oslo. The forecast for that evening was pretty good as well, so Marco absolutely wanted to try his luck. So equipped with his camera, tripod, warm clothes, a sitting padding and a thermos filled with warm tea we made our way up to the lake (where I had just been already in the morning) to spend some 1,5 hours waiting for some aurora to appear. Unfortunately, aurora never showed up. What a pity, but at least Marco managed to take those nice night shots.

23/04: Found that recipe on the internet for a mango-yoghurt dessert which I absolutely wanted to try, because it just looked good on the picture. It was ok, but looked better than it eventually tasted.

MAY:
06/05: Preparing my balcony for the summer :-)

JUNE:
05/06: A "special occasion" dinner with friends at our place.

10/06: "gnocchi with pumpkin seed pesto" - a recipe that I saw on the internet that looked yummy...and was yummy.

12/06: On that Monday evening two of my colleagues and me had the pleasure to be invited for dinner by "Den Glade Gris" restaurant which we book for lunch for our bus groups in Oslo. That evening they invited their good clients for a yummy dinner (whale carpaccio & smoked salmon & shrimp cracker // porc knuckle with mashed potatoes and root vegetables // rhubarb-strawberry "soup").

24/06: We regularly meet with my colleague Wiebke and her husband Øystein for playing board games - like on that evening. We usually meet at their place as it's easier for them with their little lovely girl Hanna.

24-25/06: On that weekend in June, Marco participated in a photo exhibition at Sagene Parken *proud* - with these eight pictures (of which his even sold two) :-)

26/06: Already in June I had to redo, i.e. replant my balcony. The flowers planted in May didn't really appreciate our week's absence when we went to New York.

JULY:
08/07: Very special moment in 2017: enjoying a Kölsch-Cola in Oslo that my mum and Engelbert had brought along when they came to visit us beginning of July.

14/07: Together with my friends Ginta and Marina we had decided on a hiking weekend up to Gaustatoppen end of August [click here for the post]. We gathered on that Friday afternoon with some wine and snacks to plan this trip a little bit more in detail.

AUGUST:
18/08: I never had all my colleagues (together) over at my place. So it was time to change that and invite them over for a dinner. Unfortunately Franck had to cancel last minute.
Everyone brought some snack along and I made a fruity cake. Summer time is berry time!

22/08: Cake for the office - without any particular reason. Just saw accidentially a video of that recipe and just HAD to try it out. Made straight two of the cakes to bring to the office - and the result was pretty good, I'd say. That one can definitely be repeated!

SEPTEMBER:
01/09: This day was another very special moment of the year! For many many many years I always wanted to see Riverdance (or Lord of the Dance) and now I FINALLY got the chance to see this amazing step dance group on tour in Oslo!!! The story around wasn't a big thing, but the DANCING is just AMAZING! It's just incredible how these guys (and girls) are moving their feet so quickly in absolute synchronisation of difficult steps. And of course, Irish/Celtic music is so lovely as well! I really had a great evening and am so happy that I finally managed to get tickets for them.

02/09: When I came home that day I found that lovely present from Marco as a thank you for giving him the possibility to guide for us this summer :-) Grazie mille, tesoro mio x questo bellissimo regalo! Non vedo l'ora di mettermelo quest'inverno!

04/09: Yet another spectacular evening filled with music! The famous Italian musician Zucchero came to Oslo where he gave a concert at Sentrum Scene. For musicians at a scale like Zucchero that manage to fill even large stadiums Sentrum Scene, with maybe 700/800 seats I'd say, is a pretty small venue. This, however, allowed for a pretty intimate atmosphere and we even managed to be in second row, right in front of the stage with Zucchero :-) His voice is just amazing and his songs - nearly all of them known (to me) - really beautiful. That was really a fantastic evening!

OCTOBER:

20/10: R.I.P. my dear uncle Jan!

He passed away on the 20th of October, just a few days before his 68th birthday. So I flew to Belgium to his funeral; he wished for his ashes to be scattered into the sea for the sea to bring him to the many places in the world he'd been to. In honour of Jan (those who knew him understand why we did this), in the morning of his funeral, a few of us ran into the freezing cold sea at the beach of Ostend where he lived when not living in his lovely house in Sweden (or elsewhere around the world during his diplomatic services).

Jan, we'll miss you!

21/10: Again I came across a recipe on the internet that attracted my attention and needed to be tried out. "Brownie cheesecake". It was an Italian recipe. In Italy, though, cheesecakes are not made with "Quark" (=kesam in Norwegian) that we use in Germany as it doesn't exist there. Instead they use Philadelphia cream cheese, which - in my opinion - makes cheesecakes super heavy. Using "Quark" makes them much lighter. So this cake looked nice, but didn't really convince me from the taste.

23/10: Ricardo and Marco getting crazy at Ricardo's birthday surprise party.

NOVEMBER:
14/11: Good morning message for tesoro mio.

18/11: Another games evening at Wiebke's and Øystein's place. Always nice :-)

19/11: My parents had brought me the roasting pan in summer when they came up by car. And we still had the thin sliced meat in the freezer from some grocery shopping in Sweden (as you cannot find it in Norway). So it was time to make use of both and make beef roulades for dinner. Unfortunately, they turned out to be slightly too dry.

22/11: The first snow. Not much, but still.

25/11: In occassion of our Christmas dinner with friends at our place [click here for the post] I started already end of November with the Christmas decoration.

DECEMBER:
03/12: Oooops, I did it again. I ran again 10 km :-) It happened more accidentially. When I went to the gym I definitely didn't have in mind to spend over an hour running. But then the TV series that I always watch when running (I need that distraction, otherwise running is simply too boring!) was so captivating that I absolutely wanted to know how the story continued... and thus ended up running another 5 km to watch the next part of the series.

06/12: Christmas time without a Christmas concert doesn't feel Christmas. My friend Sonia agrees and asked if we go together. So we got tickets for a Christmas concert at Sagene Church. It was nice, but I was missing some more known songs. Hardly knew any of those they sang. Not even my absolute favourite "O Holy Night" was on the programme - which is usually part of the Christmas concerts here.

16/12: Also MUST for the Christmas mood: baking German Christmas biscuits. This, however, was already my second round of baking. In a previous round I had just baked enough for the two Christmas dinners with our friends. Mari and my colleagues hadn't had their annual share yet (and were already waiting for it), my friend Audrey was coming for a visit to Oslo and should get a package as well and maybe I would have some biscuits left to bring to Italy for Christmas.

17/12: I had seen Audrey just the week before for our Christmas market trip to Aachen [click here for the post]. But already a long time ago she had planned to show here new boyfriend the city where she had lived once. So I had the pleasure to see here again :-) We went for dinner and had time for some short sightseeing together.

19/12: My last working day before the Christmas holidays and I won a weekend for 2 to Amsterdam :-) It couldn't have been a better start of that day! That morning the hotel chain Rezidor/Radisson Blu invited their clients (like us) for their annual Christmas breakfast. During the 2-hours breakfast with concert they also have a drawing of three prizes: 2 nights for 2 people in a Radisson Hotel in Amsterdam, Rome and Paris, with flights sponsored by KLM/AirFrance. I was the lucky one to win the trip to Amsterdam - among estimated 300 attendees :-)

20/12: Holidays :-) On the way to Sicily for Christmas and New Year, meeting friends (and their kids), enjoying the beautiful (though occasionally quite windy) weather, walks along the beaches under the sunshine and eating well... and A LOT!!!