May 31, 2008

no wonder

Australia have a weight problem. I bought a chicken sandwich and a bottle of water for lunch today and had to pay 7.30. If I had bought a can of coke instead of water it would have cost me 5.00..

May 30, 2008

its a giraffe*

*apparently there should be an ' e' at the end of giraffe

"my" kids are for some reason become totally into giraffes and since our program is supposed to follow the kids interest I thought I give them a giraffe to look at.

In one of my more creative modes I decided that the tall window was perfect for a giraffe. I am not however creative enough to draw a giraff, not even a funny cartoonish one, so I tricked Hameed into drawing it for me.

He drew the giraffe on a big piece of butcher paper so all I had to do was to sticky tape the paper to the window on the outside and then paint the outline. I started the painting yesterday and finish up with the yellow parts today. The kids though it was cool and all day they have been telling us: 'its a giraffe'. And that is were we as staff have fun and say something like; oh I thought it was a cow - yes we are mean.

The giraffe turned out very good. She is still in need of a name though, any suggestions?

May 28, 2008

suits him



Hameed has to wear a suit for his job interviews and such and really I am not complaining. I think he looks great. He on the other hand is not to keen on this suit thing and would prefer wearing jeans and a t-shirt. He changed his clothes pretty quick after he got home.The only reason I got the photo was because I jumped in front of him with the camera as soon as he got home. Aren't you glad you got to see how good he looks?

Please don't look at the mess behind him...

May 27, 2008

tuesday thirteen

I have seen several blogs having thursday thirteen. I figured I change it a bit and do a Tuesday one instead. Here is my list for today.

Thirteen things I miss from Norway

1. my mums freshly baked bread.
Nothing is like coming home and be able to eat warm bread with heaps of nutella.
2. chocolate. Norwegian chocolate just taster better.
3. the first day of spring. We have spring here too but it not quit the same. I really miss the feeling of that first day when you realize it is warm enough to not have to wear your big coat.
4. 17 of May celebration. I'm proud of that the national day celebration in Norway is mainly focused on kids. It is always lots of fun too.
5. small candy. I really really miss being able to go to the store and buy a BIG bag of small candy.
6. Hot dogs. Norwegian hot dogs are better.
7. being able to go into a grocery store and buy a bag of sweet buns and chocolate milk for breakfast or lunch. This was one of my staples when I was a student.
8. dialects. I love that if I talk my dialect properly people who live in other parts of Norway have trouble understanding me. My dialect have lots of special words.
9. be able to go home to my parents house when ever I feel like it. Even when I lived in Oslo they were still only abut 30 min plane ride away. It was always nice to land on our local airport,Sola, and feel 'home'
10. dolly pizza. THE best pizza in the whole world.
11. annoying my sisters. Don't think that one need any more explanation
12. blueberries. There is blueberries growing in the forest in Norway( well at least there were)Pancakes and fresh blueberries is just sooo good.
13. christmas. It has been 5 years since I had a 'proper' Christmas at home. I miss the food and all our quirky traditions.

May 26, 2008

memories

I made baked ziti for dinner tonight. Baked ziti was one of my very favorite dishes when I was living in America, so eating it again brings back some good memories.



Even as much as I like it, this is only the second time I have made baked ziti. Don't ask me why. It is defiantly not a difficult dish to make...

Hameed got to taste it for the first time tonight and I believe I got approval to make it again later.

****************************************
Good job Rick for giving a go at the idiot test. You did pretty well. The answers is as follow:

1. Yes.
2. One.
3. All of them (12).
4. The beggar is her sister.
5. He can’t be buried if he isn’t dead.
7. No — because he is dead.
8. They aren’t playing each other.
9. 70
10. White. The house is at the North Pole so it is a polar bear.
11. 2
12. 50 cent piece and a nickel. (One is a nickel, the *other* one isn’t.)
13. The match.
14. Half-way, then he’s running out of the woods.
15. 1 hour.
16. 9
17. None — Noah took them on the ark, not Moses.
18. Meat.
19. 12
20. yes (number 6)

May 25, 2008

the idiot test..

1. Do they have a 4th of July in England?

2. How many birthdays does the average man have?

3. Some months have 31 days; how many have 28?

4. A woman gives a beggar 50 cents; the woman is the beggar’s sister, but the beggar is not the woman’s brother. How come?

5. Why can’t a man living in the USA be buried in Canada?

7. Is it legal for a man in California to marry his widow’s sister? Why?

8. Two men play five games of checkers. Each man wins the same number of games. There are no ties. Explain this.

9. Divide 30 by 1/2 and add 10. What is the answer?

10. A man builds a house rectangular in shape. All sides have southern exposure. A big bear walks by, what color is the bear? Why?

11. If there are 3 apples and you take away 2, how many do you have?

12. I have two US coins totaling 55 cents. One is not a nickel. What are the coins?

13. If you have only one match and you walked into a room where there was an oil burner, a kerosene lamp, and a wood burning stove, which one would you light first?

14. How far can a dog run into the woods?

15. A doctor gives you three pills telling you to take one every half hour. How long would the pills last?

16. A farmer has 17 sheep, and all but 9 die. How many are left?

17. How many animals of each sex did Moses take on the ark?

18. A clerk in the butcher shop is 5? 10” tall. What does he weigh?

19. How many two cent stamps are there in a dozen?

20. Did you noticed I skipped a number?


I'll give you the answers tomorrow...

May 22, 2008

love thursday

Love is having a husband who buy you a big block of chocolate just because.. (which you of course finish up in 10 minutes flat)

True love is when said husband the next day just smiles and shake his head when he find HIS block of chocolate on your desk like this:


And then he laugh some more when he sees how you carefully left the wrapper on his desk in hope he would never suspect anything..



Happy love thursday

May 18, 2008

let them eat cake

sometimes I get struck by lightning... something which turns me into a domestic goodness. Well sort of. I yet have never got to urge to clean anything - doubt it will ever happen. But cooking. Sometimes I love cooking.

When I cook it mostly goes wrong.I have to many plans and try to make the most complicated recipe I can find... the result are more often then not bad. Very bad. Unlike my husband I do not have the gen that makes me able to just throw something together and it taste great. That is actually totally unfair. I had cooking classes at school. He cooked his first meal EVER in February 2003... A few times though I seem to get it right. Yesterday was one of those days.

It did not start to good. I had planned to make an easy dinner and then make a cake for dessert. I wrote a shopping list and went to fetch what I needed. Well home again I discovered that even with a list I forgot to buy half of the things I needed. My husband asked why I even bother writing a list... I can see his point.

Anyway with a bit of thinking I decided to make a pasta salad for dinner instead. Looks pretty right? You can find the recipe here



Hameed was not to fond of the idea of pasta salad for dinner. Basically he is not a salad lover. And then I read the recipe and noticed I forgot to get tomatoes and oops I also forgot to get dressing... I am not to big an of tomatoes and figured I could mix something together to make up for the missing dressing. I also added chicken to the salad instead of ham. That was totally planned though as my husband is not a ham eater.

I cut everything up and cooked the pasta. Mixed it all together and drizzle a bit olive oil and balsamic vinegar on top. And it was good. Actually it was more then good it was GREAT. Even my no salad loving husband like it and asked for seconds.

And then there was cake... Unfortunately there is no picture of said cake as my camera got left at work and we have manage to swallow the whole cake in less then 24 hours...

Yep, the cake was good too. I was on a roll last night. The cake is made after a recipe from my mum. It has nutty base and hazelnut chocolate mixed with butter and icing sugar as a topping. I was wondering how it would turn out as being here in Australia I did not have the *right* chocolate and sometimes a slight difference in ingredients make it taste 'wrong'.

I was worried for nothing. I did accidentally spill a little pepper on top of the cake (I had to do something wrong) But it still tasted very very nice.

The cleaning on the other hand... I'm a messy cook so there are dishes almost up to the ceiling in our kitchen. I. am.to.lazy. It is a shame there is no cake left, or I could have bribed someone to do the cleaning for me...

May 12, 2008

just

have to start writing something - anything - to get back into this blogging again. So whats new? This weekend was mothers day here in Australia and I felt pretty down about it. It was hard to be reminded about mother's day and the fact that my son is not with me to celebrate it. I did not get any cute little present he had "made". Hameed did his best to cheer me up. He took me out and bought me lunch and cake. And then we went shopping. It was alright. At least it made the day go faster.

Work have been very busy the last weeks. The cute boy is not so cute at the moment. He have started to throw things. Anything really, toys, bikes, big wooden blocks. and if it happens to hurt another child is seems to be even more enjoyable. Talking to him has not help at all. In fact it seems like giving him any attention for all this throwing just makes it more fun... Well fun for him it is. I am about to sprout a heap of grey hair soon if he do not stop it. I had a talk to his mum and dad last week and hopefully by using the same strategy at creche and home we can get the cute boy back.

Diva at No chick trix linked to a news story about a 3 year old who have never fallen asleep. I can't even begin to imagine how that must be like for his parents. The 1 hour nap 'my' kids take every afternoon is so needed and I think we would have gone insane if they did not sleep.

I talk to my parents yesterday and I find it a bit amusing. They had 22 degrees there and were feeling so warm. We had 17 degrees and were freezing out butt of... I have already got my scarf and beanie out it wont be long before I need my big warm winter jacket too. Lets hope this winter goes very quickly.