waiting and waiting

I don't like waiting. At work, with the kids, I have an unlimited amount of patients it seem. In other areas of my life, not so much.

We went to talk to Sami's doctor today. It was nice to see him an all, but he did not really have any news to tell us. They do still not have the results back from all the test they ran. They still have no idea what happen to Sami. They still have no idea if there is a high chance or low chance for us to have another child with the same problems. Basically we know just as much now as we did in August.

The results are meant to be back in a few more weeks and then the genetic specialist will see us to discuss what they found. So we are waiting...

After we had talked to Sami's doctor we went up to the cemetery so visit Sami's grave. We were hoping that they had put up his grave stone by now, but no. More waiting for us. They told us 4-6 weeks before, and today we were told it will take another 2-3 weeks.... waiting and waiting.

I really don't like to wait.

saving of daylight

daylight savings started last night, so now we have changed the clock one hour forward.

Here in Australia not everyone do the daylight saving. From what I understood from TV this morning, two of the Australian states do not currently do daylight saving. A few years ago I went to visit a friend of my sister in Perth. At that time Perth did not have daylight saving and she told me she had heard a debate on the radio about this topic. One woman calling in claimed that if they started to have daylight saving in Perth too, her curtains would fade in color quicker... another woman had an argument that is not suited to print on this blog... (hi mum). My sisters friend shock her head in amazement and said to me: "are they really that stupid, they are not getting any more or less sun.."

I have no idea. Maybe daylight saving do in fact have an impact on the color of the curtains. I have always lived in places were there have been daylight saving and except from 'losing' an hour of sleep I really don't mind it. I do really like the fact that we now have an hour more of daylight every night. Can you please remind my of that when I am tempted to hit the snooze button on my alarm tomorrow morning?

everthing goes to the cat..

The other night they were talking on tv about the importance of having a will. Here is the conversation we had about that:

Me: so did you write a will
Hameed: yes, everything goes to the cat next door.
Me: (smiling) the cat...hey what you mean about 'everything'
Hameed: my metcard collection
.....

And then he looked at me with his seriouse face and said: oh did you want that?

love thursday

even cold days are oki when you have someone to cuddle with.

living on a shoestring

well not quit so bad. But we have been trying to budget a bit lately and plan things ahead so we might spend a little less money. We are going through some changes here in the Hameed household (I will let Hameed tell more about that later since it mostly involve him). This change do require some money though, so we are saving.

We did very well this past week and it is actually sort of nice to have a plan for what we are having for dinner each night. Now we only need some ideas for what to make for next week. Any suggestions?

crazy John

Last night Hameed and I was watching a interview with this guy. His real name is John Ilhan. John started his own mobile phone business years ago when no one really believed they would become any popular. He was hardworking and also had some luck and he ended up with several stores which he called 'crazy john's'.

He came from a poor background and his school teacher was sure he would end up as a criminal. It was nice and amazing to see how his life was now as an adult. He had a great big house - complete with an elevator! He also had a loving wife and 4 young children.

I am writing 'had' because this morning John died of a heart attacked. According to the news story this was very unexpected. I know very little about John, but from what I have heard and read the last day it seems like Australia have lost a great man.

the tale of the giant bee hive

we had some action at work today. There was a giant bee hive hanging from the shade sail right next to the front gate. I have never in my life seen anything like it. It was probably about half a meter long. I took a picture with my phone, but I have no idea how to upload the picture so you just have take my word for it.

Since this was located right at our front gate we had to redirect all the kids and parents coming to creche to our emergency door. Now most people was oki going in the emergency door, but several seem to have lost their ability to think and read going out. We had put up signs everywhere telling parents where to go and even put a piece of furniture in front of the main door. It was pretty clear that the main door was not to be used (well at least you should think it was clear). The cook still had a very busy morning telling parents to not use that door. Crazy people.

it happen

Originally uploaded by dynamitt

summer arrived today. It was 30 degrees at noon today. Since this is Melbourne, summer might possible leave again tonight, but for now I am enjoying it. Enjoying being able to have windows and doors open and feel the warm wind. Enjoying being able to wear t-shirt again and I am even lucky enough to have a container of strawberries in my fridge. Yay for summer !!

pondering..

I have not been home in good old Norway for almost 5 years. Just for fun I tried to do a search to see how much it will cost us to go there for a Christmas holiday. The weird thing is if I search for tickets from Melbourne to Stavanger it comes to more then 22000 for the two of us. But if I search for a ticket to London and then from London to Stavanger the total only comes to some more then 6000 - that amount we might be able to find one day..

losing it

I have been trying to lose some kilos the last weeks. At first I thought that I would lose weight quickly if I only stopped eating a pound of chocolate every night. That did not make much difference suprisingly enough.

So I thought myself about calories and how much I should eat each day. After some trail and errors I found a system that works for me, basically eat boring and very healthy food in the morning and during the day, so I that I have room for that sweet treat after dinner which I always seem to need no matter what I had during the day.

Now the last weeks I have been very good and I have lost some weight too. It is going slower then I like, but it is going down. The last night though I have been eating a fair bit of chocolate (we are talking a big bar all to myself here)and the weight still seem to go down. I'm not complaining, but I just don't get it.

love thursday

The first birthday card I gave to Hameed I wrote him a silly childhood poem. We were at that time best friends and had only known each other for a few months. The poem start like this:

I must have been born under a lucky star
to find a friend as you are..'

Later it turned out I was not only born under a lucky star, Hameed is the star in my life.

more poop

poo is a big part of my work. Lucky for me is not all gross stuff all the time. The other day I had a conversation with Jackson 2 1/2 years old while he was sitting on the toilet and I was changing one of the younger babies nappy.

Jackson: whats that on her butt
Me: its poop, she pooped too just like you
Jackson: why?
Me: well...you both had lunch and then you poop after.
Jackson: why?

(now I'm thinking very hard how to explain it better and then I remember that his mum often takes him to the library to get books)

Me: Maybe your mum can get you a book about poop at the library so you can read more about why.

(long pause)

Jackson: I have a book about Bob the builder
Me: oh yeah?
Jackson: Bob the builder does not poop.

the weather is like a swedish joke..

Being a Norwegian I grew up telling jokes about Swedes. Norway and Sweden have a bit special relationship. We love to joke about them being a tad bit stupid and they like to think of us a a bunch of farmers.

A Norwegian was having trouble with the turn signal in his car. He asked a swede if he could help him figuring out if it was working or not. The swede agree and the Norwegian asked him to stand behind the car and see if the light came on or not. The Norwegian switch his turn signal on and ask is it working?
The swede goes:
"its working"
"not working"
"working"
"not working"...

Melbourne weather is pretty much like this joke. If you ask me how the weather is I would probably say:
"hot and sunny"
"cold and rainy"
"sunny again"
"cold and windy"

Its a tad bit frustrating. All though the last days we have had pretty much the same weather for a whole day - so that is an improvement...

the big 30

Today there is 90 more days until my sister, Annette, turns 30. And since she loves so much that I keep talking about it, I figure I should make a whole post about the big 30.



It is almost 3 1/2 years since I turned 30 and I really can't remember not wanting to turn 30. Hameed says I was indeed not looking forward to my birthday that year... I guess I that is one sign of me getting old and senile since I can't remember.

Anyway. I was looking through my photos and found some from my 30st birthday. That was my second birthday here in Australia and I got a big party. There was cake and chips and coke and presents and quit a few guests. I did at that time share a house with 23 other students and I think most of them and some other friends came to my party. Made me feel very special.

Here I am with my friend Adrienne


and a very blurry shot of Hameed and me.


Now when I am the very old age of 33 I can honestly say that the thirties are way better then the twenties. I am a lot more happier now then I was when I was 23. So Annette, you have nothing to worry about. Enjoy your last 90 days before your big birthday and also a big congrats on being a owner of your very own flat.

love thursday

My mum is very good at crafts. She is an expert in knitting, but she can also handle sewing, crocheting and do needle points. Basically she is very talented.

Growing up I think I pretty much took her talents for granted. I did not think much about the fact that me and my siblings seems to be some of the few that were wearing clothes our mum made. We had endless supply of warm sweaters, jackets and socks to mention some.

Some of the things my mum made, I brought with me to Australia. Among them is a nice blue jacket, which I wear a lot (Australia is much colder then I expected). When I wear the jacket (or something else my mum has made) I get comments from people about how beautiful my jacket is, and when I tell them that my mum actually made it I always hear 'oh wow, she is so talented'. And yeah she is. It took me a while to realize that many people do not have a mum that can knit you new socks when your feet are cold. I am very lucky indeed.

Today is on honor of you mum. Happy love thursday!

countdown update

I am back to working fulltime as of today! Seems like my boss missed me..

PS! it is now 94 days until Nette turns 30..

counting down

There is 4 (or 5) days to Eid

There is (hopefully) 7 days to we hear from Sami's doctor

There is 18 to 32 days left to Sami's grave stone is finished

There is 23 (I think) days left to I start working full time again

There is 54 days until we celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary

There is 77 days left to Christmas

And 84 days to New years eve

Last, but not least, there is 96 days until my sister joins me in the thirties. (And I know she really look forward to that).

How I say it

I noticed today that my pronunciation is getting better. As you probably have understood (if you didn't know already) english is not my first language. Hence I struggle with proper grammar, spelling and pronunciation in english. I do speak well enough so that people understand what I am talking about most of the time. My approach when I don't know how to say a word is:
a, switch to a simpler word that means about the same (this also goes for spelling)
b, just pronounce it like I think it should be

When I do' b' I many times come up with my own words, which to some people (whom I might be married to) find amusing.

People do every now and then ask me to parrot back a word they say so I can get it right, but that do not always work, don't ask me why. What comes to mind right now is the name 'Hugh' - I just can't say it. To me it sounds like I'm saying huge..

I'm not sure why I have so much problems. It could be because Norwegian have pretty much the same letters as the english alphabet, but even with almost the same letters the sounds of many letters in Norwegian are different from the sound of the same letters in english.

(Are you still following?)

Say you try to make me write down letters while you spell to me. You might say "e" and I would most likely write "i". See how it gets hard?

I am getting better, I noticed that today. I was at church and for some reason they have all their songs in english (could be because it's in Australia). I love to sing, really really love it, so I will sing along even though I do not know the song. I just listen to the music and pay attention to the people around me and sing away. Many many times I have (pretty loud too) pronounced words very wrong only to realize it half way through the word when I hear people around me singing it differently. But today (make a mark in your dairy) I noticed that I actually sang the words the same way as the rest of the congregation...

So there might me a little bit less free entertainment for certain people (not mentioning any names here..) in the future.

a bit about this and a bit about that

Last night when I was trying to fall asleep there was something flashing outside our bedroom window. It almost felt like someone was taking our picture (we live on second floor so I doubt it). I never figure out what it really was though, it was way to cold to get out of bed to investigate.

************************************

I was awaken this morning to birds singing outside my window.
Birds: *kvirevitt* (its spring)
Birds * KVIREVITT, KVIREVITT* (IT'S SPRING)
Birds: *KVIREVITT (IT'S SPRING)
Birds: *KVIREVITT, KVIREVITT, KVIREVITT (IT'S SPRING !!! now get up already)

(short break and then I guess for good measure)

Birds: *kvirevitt* (it's spring)

and then they moved on.

*******************************

My husband have been spending some time (actually a lot of time) using 'stumble upon', which is a application that let you randomly surf internet sites without having to search for spesific things. (If you want a better explenation you can give him a shot here). When he find something he likes he will email me the link to the page. Here is my favorite so far.

(link)

oh the joy

I don't write much about work. I work in child care and my work can be quit... em... interesting.

The other day I let one of 'my' girls run around in just her nappy for a minute so I could attend to one of the babies. The girl had her nappy full of poo, nice runny poo... and she decided to get ride of the nappy all by herself. It is oki to leave it on the floor, right??

But I guess you really did not want to know about that part of my job.

love thursday

The picture is from a tv ad here in Australia. The ad shows a fairy tale prince and princess but instead of living happily ever after they part ways after one date. The ad end with these birds singing 'forever is overrated'.

I have had this line stuck in my head the last days; 'forever is overrated' and I think, no scratch that, I know that this is not right. Forever is not overrated, forever sounds just about the right amount of time.

When doing my daily ' avoid doing as many chores as possible' routine I came across this blog. And reading that made me feel so lucky. Yes, I have suffer a terrible loss in my life, but I do still have my husband and for that I am so grateful. Many people have comment on that I am such a strong person. The truth is I am not. I am just able to appear strong because I have such a great man holding me.

On one of the most scary days in my life, when we had to do an amino, he did not only force me to look at him so I would not see anything of that big needle going into my tummy. He also found out that this particular day was the day we had been married for 400 days. Which of course meant we had to celebrate that fact so the awful day turned out to be a bit good too.

I never knew I could love someone so much or feel so depended on someone as much as I feel about my husband. I guess I should keep that in mind next time he wrestle me down and tell me he is going to lick my eyeballs...

Forever is just right. Happy love thursday.

the coolest thing since sliced bread

Originally uploaded by dynamitt

We got a new food store right across the street for our regular supermarket. This new store specializes in fruit, vegetables and fine food as they call it. I check it out mainly because I was hoping to fine some nicer looking fruit then what we usually get from the supermarket and because they have pretty flowers (see my last post).

Well I am definitely going back to that store and it is not because of the fruit or the flowers. Oh don't get me wrong, both the fruit and the flowers were pretty and great and all that, but what really made me wanting to go back is this neat trolley thing they have there. It sort of like a bigger shopping basket with wheels and a handle to pull it with. I loved it. Yeah, I am really a big kid - there is a reason for why I work in child care.

Anyway I went back today because I needed to take a picture of this great thing. The picture is not to good, I had to take it very quickly as I was worried about getting question about why I was taking pictures. Somehow the truth, that I found this trolley thing so cool I needed to take a picture, did not sound all believable.

A flower, a flower

footy fever

(finally figured out how to change the time, yay!)

This weekend was Grand final weekend, meaning it was the weekend where the Grand final in Australian football, also known as 'footy', was played. I grew up with soccer and footy is a bit different. I guess it can best be described as a mix between American football and Rugby - yeah it is as confusing as it sounds. Some of my Australian friends tried to explain it to me, but I did not really get it(thruth be told I did not really care to understand it).

For Australians though, footy is a big deal and we do often see people walking around in footy shirts, hats and scarfs. The kids I work with too are already huge supporters and I have several times got the question about who I 'barak' for. From what I have gather 'barak' is and Australian term for supporting or cheering for. And the kids don't really believe me when I tell them that I don't barak for anyone. I have not dare to tell them yet that frankly I don't get the game at all, seem a bit wrong to admit that to someone almost 30 years younger then me.

Well this weekend, this grand final, we actually sat down and watch the match, most of it at least. It is possible that we saw it because there was absolutely nothing else on tv.. And maybe we also saw it because it was a bit special this year. There was a Victorian team in the final and said team had not won a final since 1963. So it was a big deal.

Watching the game, I actually learnt a bit (shocking I know).
1.There is some similarities to soccer.
2.You get either 6 or 1 point for scoring a goal, depending on where you shot the ball.
3. And last, you are allowed to act like toddler; meaning you are allowed to lay on top of the ball so you don't have to share it.

It is all much clearer for you now, right?

The Victorian team won the game (or can you call it a game when they won 163 -44?). Judging by the fuss afterwards they might possible celebrate the victory for another 44 years. I guess they deserve it. Go cats!