Operation suitcase: packed

My suitcase is full (and probably way too heavy), my clothes for tomorrow are ready, I've got my passport in my bag, the reference number to check in to the flight on my phone and I've printed out the Oslo Ess-tickets. My makeup is ready, the alarm is set and all electrical equipment are being charged. I have all seven Harry Potter books downloaded to the Tab2, so the fligh will, well, fly. Hehe. The alarm is going off in 3,5 hours!

I'm coming home.

Or rather, I'm coming to Kristine's home, but whatevs.

I can't wait now. Kristine and I went to see Oslo Ess in desember of 2012 and it's one of the best experiences I've had. Can't wait to see them again, this time performing from their new album, which is freaking great by the way, and at Rockefeller as well! I've never been there, but I've heard it's a good live concert venue.

I have some great news from today that I want to share! My friend Camilla who has cancer has been told that the cancer markers in her blood has dropped to normal levels! She's going to a meeting with the doctors in Trondheim, but hopefully, she'll be alright!

I also got some good news for myself today. There was this one module last semester that I failed an assignment in and that causes you to fail the module. However, because I got a first in the other assignment in that module, I passed! I aslo went to pick up the weekly wiki hate crime blog thingy that we did for intro to crim 2 and I got 65%! Well happy with todays happenings!

Now I'm going to go to sleep and dream about the stuff I'm going to buy at the tax free shop tomorrow. Extremely excited to go to Norway now! I'll have wifi where ever I go, I won't have to speak english (which I'm probably going to miss because I like speaking English) and I won't be financially dependent anymore. Being in charge of your own economy is exhausting. Kids, trust me, moving out is great, it's fun, it's everything you've ever dreamed of and more. However, it's the "more" part that's annoying. That "more" part contains all the responsibility that you get when you move out, so if you learn anything from this post or this log or from me or whatevs, I'm hoping it'll be this: DO NOT TAKE LIVING WITH YOUR PARENTS FOR GRANTED.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to move back home, I'd go crazy, but what I'm saying is that relying on your self for everything isn't easy. You'll miss home, I promise.

Right, I was going to bed, wasn't I? I was. Next time I blog, I'll be in Norway!!!

So many good things happening all at once!

I am actually in a right state at the moment. There are so many good things happening all at once, it's a bit overwhelming actually! I thought I'd list it all up for you, just to do my best to really explait the opportunity of rubbing my happiness in your faces.

• Camilla told me that the cancer markers in her blood has gone down!
• My last lecture of the year was on monday. No more lectures until september! That's like.. 6-7 months!
• I just finished the last essay due before easter!
• I've had confirmation that I am definitely changing course, starting BA Forensic Studies in September!
• The deposit on the house is payed.
• Plane tickets London - Oslo on friday and Oslo - Ålesund on sunday is sorted.
• Kristine and I have tickets to go see our favourite band, Oslo Ess, live at Rockefeller on friday night.
• I get to spend my weekend in Oslo with my favourite ginger in the whole wide world, with wine and girl talk and gossip and good food. Can't wait!
• Sunday, I finally get to go home and see my mum and brother! Haven't seen my brother since I left for England in January, so I really can't wait to see him again!
• I talked to one of my coworkers and there's a possibility that I'll be able to work during easter brake!
• on the 12th I'm going to Playa del Ingles with mum and lil bro' to relax and read and get tanned.

They say that life is like an arrow, that when you feel like you're being dragged backwards you just need to wait it out, because it's a sign that life's going to shoot you forward and that's really what's happening at the moment. I've been feeling lousy lately, being scared for Camilla, not knowing what's going to happen, not sleeping properly and so on. However, since getting the news that the cancer markers are reducing, and because I've finally finished the work load that was weighing me down, I really feel good. I feel 15 pounds lighter, like I can do anything. 

I don't know, maybe I'm just hopped up on spaghetti bolognese or something, but regardless of reason, I feel really great. 

Anyway! I've been trying to pack my suitcase the last few days, so all my clothes and makeup and hair products and, basically, the rest of my materialistic life, is spread out on the floor. My room looks like a tornado came in and took a shit before leaving again, which is lovely. Now I've got to clean up and hoover because later I'm meeting Liva at the pub, we're having one last pub dinner before going home, and then we're coming back to mine to have mini pre's before going back to the pub to drink and have a good time. 

Hope everyone's feeling just as good as I am today! :)

home sickness or not home sickness - that's the question!

Do I want to go home? Yes. Do I want to go home? No. I don't know, at the moment. Not that it really matters, I'm going home anyway, but I thought I'd write my thoughts down to figure out what I'm actually dealing with, since that was the original reason why I started the blog.

Going home - pros 

Seeing my family. If there's anyone who's been following the blog for a while, you'll know that my mum came to visit in february to give me the heart medication prescribed by my GP back home, so it hasn't really been that long since I saw her, but I really miss my brother! We have a good relationship, by my opinion anyway, and I miss hanging out with him. Not that I don't miss my mum, obviously I do, but you get my point. I am quite sad my dad won't be home, though.

Going to Spain. I'm going to Playa del Ingles, Spain with my mum and brother and I can't wait! I think it'll do me good to have a whole week without anything to worry about exept which book to bring to the beach. I'm going to leave electronics and so on at home and just relax. Do nothing, just recharge my batteries and chill out with two of my favourite people. Don't worry though, I'll probably bring the tab2 to take pictures and post on the blog. Besides, I'm not posting every day anyway, so you're used to it, haha! 

Work. I'll get to go to work again, which I actually look forward to! I can't wait to do night shifts and talk to people I haven't seen in three months. I'm looking forward to thepub being packed with people and feeling the stress of the beer taps running empty, trying to keep up with the line of people. I don't know what it is, but I love it.

Friends. I'm going to Oslo before going home. In Oslo I'll be staying with Kristine, the girl who came to visit a while ago. We're going to a concert with our favourite band and it'll be a great weekend. I'm looking forward to good food, some wine and discussing world problems like only we can. 

 

Doctor's appointment. I have an appointment with my GP and I'm looking forward to being able to ask my doctor the questions I have about my heart condition and get the info I feel like I need to maybe get my drivers license back a bit early.

Free food. I'm not saying I'm completely broke, because I'm not, but being a responsible adult who pays for her own food and rent and everything is fucking expensive to put it mildly. I've always hear grown ups saying stuff like "god, not again, the price for cheese has got up 30p..." and I've always thought they've been over reacting, but to all you lucky bastards who still live like kings at home with your parents without a care in the world: growing up isn't as great as you think it is. Sure, you get loads of freedom and independence, but the more freedom you get, the more responsibilities you get, so don't think living away from home is a breeze!

My mum's aunt's necklace. I know this might be a silly reason, but my mum's aunt became a sort of proxy-nan for me and my brother when our last grandparent died almost 11 years ago and she ment the world to me. When she died as well, I inherited a necklace she used to wear and I forgot it at home when I want back to England after christmas and I really miss it. I guess you could say that this is proof that family is really, really important to me, but I don't see that as a bad thing. 

Going home - cons

I can't drive. I won't elaborate too much on this point, since I know I keep nagging about this. However, I doubt anyone understands just how much driving means to me. I'm dreading the feeling of being stuck in that tiny little place, not even being able to get to work on my own.

Dad's not home. I haven't seen my dad since I drove him to the boat on the 2nd of January and, being a daddy's girl, I really miss him. I've been trying to email him, but since the new boat he's on doesn't have a very good wifi set up and calling over the satelite phone is really expensive, I haven't talked to him for a while. I feel like I miss him more now that I'm not home, because when I lived with my parents I always saw him until he went away and were always home the day he came back, but it's not like taht anymore and 5 months can easily pass without me seeing my dad and that makes me sad. 

All in all, I am looking forward to going home. I've been sat here for half an hour trying to think of more cons to going home, but I can't think of any. I have to say, the fact that I can't drive probably counts for 3, but I'm still looking forward to Norway, speaking Norwegian, eating Norwegian, seeing my family and going on holiday and all the other stuff. 

I love when I do stuff like this and it turns out I don't really have that much to complain about. After all, there are a lot of people that have is a lot worse than me. I'm lucky, really. 

My days with Kristine!

I know I haven't been writing a whole lot lately, but I don't have that many readers anyway, so I hope not too many people have been upset.

Anyway! the last few days has been a lot of fun. Kristine and I went to Southampton to shop, we went out drinking (she and Liva drank while I watched haha) and we've been out to eat, a lot. As I've already said (I think), we went to Southampton to shop on wednesday, which were a lot of fun, I think we probably cleared out about a quarter of all the clothes in Primark, haha! We went to Nando's for dinner that day, and if you read this, Sharleen, you are right, Nando's is heaven on earth!

In Southampton I also had my Conch pierced (I think I might have mentioned  this before), but because my phone has decided to act like an idiot, I can't show you a picture, unfortunately.. Some day, when I get a phone that works properly, though!

Wednesday night, we had a quiet night in my room with some girl talk, facials and other stuff. Lots of fun and the sort of thing I wish we had the time to do a bit more often, just hanging out looking horrible together! 

Thursday, we went to my lecture. It was fairly interesting, to be honest. It was about female criminals and how they are treated very differently to male criminals. The bad thing about the lecture was the fact that the lecture room was so hot you could fry an egg on the chairs in there.. Anyway. Afterwards we went home to mine to get ready and go to the pub. Kristine got to meet some of the very, very special people that hang around in there sometimes as well as some of my closest friends. All in all, a good night, I think!

Me and my ginger before hitting the pub! 

We also went to Southampton saturday night for a night out. We started at the Hobbit, a bar that's inspired by the Lord of the Rings. They have 8 pint sized drinks named after characters and such from the movies and it seemed like a really fun place to hang out! I had a Gollum, which was really good! I'll write down the recipe for it in the end of the blog post. We then went wandering around looking for a couple of places that Live had been reccommended, but we couldn't find it and ended up getting the bus to the train station and then we went home to Winchester. Finally back, we headed down to Alfies, one of my favourite pubs in the whole world! We had a lot of fun and I love that Liva, who's one of my best friends in England and Kristine, who is one of my best friends in Norway, went along with each other so well! I love them both to bits and being able to hang out with both at the same time was amazing!

At Alfies, you can buy these wristbands (the pink one was for last semester, the blue one is for this semester) that gives you a lot of great discounts if you show then to the bartender when ordering drinks! I'm collecting them, haha!

From saturday when we went out in Southampton. 

This is the dress I was wearing! Got it at Primark in Southampton, 

think it was £7 or something. 

Yesterday we didn't really do much. We ordered some food for breakfast and then we slept for another 2-3 hours. I was really tired since we had been up all night and Kristine was really hungover, so it took a while before we were able to function properly. However, when we finally did, we went down to Queens to ask Liva if she wanted to hang out and then we went to Wetherspoons to have dinner. They have the most amazing double bacon cheese burger and I know that I'm supposed to be eating healthy and all, but I really needed that! When we finished dinner, we went down to Alfies again just to hang out and wait for the coach that Kristine was getting to Gatwick to get there.

All in all I've had some really great days with some of my favourite people, so I'm very happy at the moment! Really looking forward to visiting Kristine for a few days in Oslo before going home for easter, we are going to see Oslo Ess live at Rockefeller, it's going to be AMAZING! We've been to see them once before and they have jsut come out with a new record, so that's going to be one fantastic night!

Today I've been trying to be a bit productive. I've cleaned my room since two girls in a single room creates a lot of mess. I started taking all my clothes out of my closet to fold them so that they'll be easier to find in there when Liva sent me a message asking if I wanted to go to Cyber Italia with her around half 5-6. I then abandoned the clothes on the floor and went to make dinner. I thought I'd post the recipe for this amazing little dish on here, so that you guys can try it out for yourself, because this is simply too good to keep to myself!

Looks amazing, right? It was! 

Chicken stirfry with mango chutney sause

What you need (2 portions):

Stirfry

1 pack instant noodles, chicken flavour
4-500 g chicken filet
300 g oriental stirfry mix (peppers, onion, sweet corn, bean sprout, sweet peas)

Mango chutney sause

2-3 tbs mango chutney
4 tbs soy sause
2 cloves of garlic
1/5 lime
rosemary
ground cumin

What you do:

• Put on the noodles like it says on the package.
• Dice the chicken filet. When you're done with this, the noodles should be done (especially if meat knife is as dull as mine..)
• Cut up the garlic and mix with mango chutney, soy sause, the juice from the lime and spices in a bowl. Put the vegetables into the bowl as well and mix it all.
• Fry the chicken in two batches in a frying pan until it's brown and crispy. when the chicken is done, put it in a pot.
• Put the vegetable mix and noodles together in the frying pan to mix it and heat it up a bit. When you've done this, if your frying pan is big enough, put the pieces of chicken back into the frying pan to mix with the sause and vegetables. If your frying pan is the same size as mine (too small, that is), put the vegetable/noodle mix into the pot with the chicken to mix it.
• Serve! 

If you want to serve it with a really cool drink, here's how you make a Gollum! 

This is what you need:

Bols blue

Orange juice

Sprite or lemonade

Ice

Here's what you do:

• Put ice in a big glass (pint)
• Pour 2 oz (or as much as you want really) of bols blue into the glass.
• Throw in some orange juice until the drink has a lovely green colour.
• Top it all with lemonade or sprite.
• enjoy! 

Right! I'm heading down to Cyber Italia with Liva in a little while, so I'm going to put my face (mu make up) on and then go do some real work. 

Southampton with Kristine!

Kristine is my favourite ginger in the whole entire world. We went to school together for three years and know a lot of the same people and I'm really grateful that we've been able to keep in touch as well as we have, even though I've moved to England and she's moved to Oslo. Yesterday evening, she came to visit and she's staying until monday morning, and I think we're going to have a lot of fun! 

Today, we've spent the day in Southampton, shopping. Love shopping. Can't really afford it, but who gives a shit, I can starve for a month or so, no problem! I think the thing I'm definitely most pleased about is the dress I got. It's black, blue and white and I would post a picture but it's in my dresser and I can't be bothered getting out of bed, haha. Also got this pyjamathingy, look how cute!

Yes, the camera on my phone makes everything look green... I'm having it fixed in june, though, so hang in there! 

Kristine got a penguin onesie, and looks hella cute, wouldn't you say?

I also got my conch pierced today! Haven't taken a picture yet, because getting a new piercing has kind of stopped being that big a deal, to be honest. Not that I'm not freaked with exitement over it, because I am, but it's a usual thing by now, if that makes any sense. 

When we came back to Winchester and had put all our stuff away, we changed and did our makeup and then headed down to the pub. I think it's some kind of curse or something, but the people I have had visiting me have had to meet the weirdest people that Winchester has to offer.. I mean, the originals give the place a bit of charm, but it's a bit too much charm in one go, by my opinion. 

Tomorrow we're going to my (favourite) lecture and then we're going into town so that Kristine can see the beautiful place that Winchester really is. She came yesterday evening and today we've been to Southampton, so she hasn't really seen that much yet. 

After a day of walking around Southampton, we're both really tired, so I don't think it will be that long until we turn off the lights and say goodnight. 

My days with mum! And some other stuff.

I know I haven't been blogging this weekend, but I really feel like I have a good excuse! As I said last time I posted on here, my mum's been visiting this weekend. We've had a lot of fun and I thought I'd tell you a bit about it!

Yesterday I met her at the trainstation at about 11. We went back to my flat, where I showed here around for a bit and then we went to County Arms to have lunch! That's just one great thing about having parents visit, you don't have to pay for food! I mean, the best part of her visiting is obviously that I get to see my mum and have her all to myself for a couple of days just to talk and catch up on everything that's been going on here and at home, but free food is definitely a great perk!

Anyway.. I showed her around basically everywhere. Campus, the neighborhood I'm moving to before 2nd year, city center and everything in between. It was nice telling stories and showing her a bit of "my world" (as cheesy as it sounds). We had dinner in town and then we went back to my flat where we just talked about everything that's been going on both here and at home to catch each other up on everything that's been going on since I went back to England a month ago.

Today, we did basically the same thing. Went to town, did some more shopping and then we went to see the Winchester Cathedral. I've never been inside before and I regret that! It's really beautiful and it's so rich in local and not-so-local history! Hoping to go back, preferrably with a camera, to check it out again!

When we came back from the cathedral, we sat in my room talking for a few hours before I was going to walk her to the B&B where she's staying. When we were almost there, we met about half of my friends and decided to go to the pub with them! It was a bit awkward but a lot of fun and I got to show my mum that I have friends, haha! She also got to meet some of the "originals" of Winchester, which I hope didn't scare her too much! Hopefully, she's had a good time here, even though the reason for her coming over weren't all that great.

My mum! :D

We ordered chocolate cake for dessert after dinner today 

and it was every bit as delicious as it looks! 

This is from yesterday! Cocoa and coffee at Costa in town :)

Over to something else, then! I just finished todays part of the 30 day challenge. Obviously, since I'm supposed to rest every four days, I didn't have a work out yesterday, but todays was a pain. The cardio and push ups are still fine, but the abs are getting harder to do and the squat challenge is a real pain! However, I can already feel a change in the muscles in my legs and (I might be imagining it) I think it's a bit easier to walk up the hill from campus to my flat, which is definitely a motivation! The progression in the programs are hard, but hopefully I'll be able to see it through! 

This was todays programme:

Cardio

60 high knees

40 climbers

Abs

30 sit ups

12 crunches

12 leg lifters

20 sec plank

Squats

70

Push ups

5

I was expecting to feel a difference when doing the work out programme now that I'm on beta blockers, but I didn't notice anything. I'm quite glad I didn't, because if they made it harder to work out, I would have to will my self that much more to do it.. Anyway, thought I'd try to explain how beta blockers work (as far as I've understoof). Since I'm going to be on them for a while, they'll probably be mentioned on here sometimes.

The hypothalamus in the brain sends signals to the thyroid to produce hormones. The hormones then gets released into your blood flow and attach themselves to receptors where they cause reactions. The beta-blockers take the hormones place on the receptors around the heart so that the hormones can't create a reaction. This way, since my condition is stress triggered, the hormones cause signs of stress in the rest of my body butu because the hormone receptors around the heart are unavailable, the heart won't react to the stress. Somewhere in there are also the explanation to why the beta blockers slow down the heart rythm, but I haven't quite figured out that bit yet, I just know how they stop the heart from speeding up due to stress, so I'll get back to you on that one. Anyway. I think the reason why I can't drink too much on these pills are because the heart rate isn't at it's normal speed. Since the heart isn't beating as fast as it usually does, the blood flow is slower and the cells get's less oxygen thereby slowing down metabolism. Since the uptake of alcohol in the digestive system is the same, I'll get drunk as fast but I'll get sober slower. Therefore, if I drink as much and at the same speed that I used to, I'll get drunker faster. However, I don't know if the beta blockers can cause me to have some sort of reaction if I drink too much, so I'm not planning on pushing the limits where my drinking is concerned. 

I guess there were some use in taking biology after all, haha! 

Before going to bed, I want to say one more thing. Today, actually for 56 whole minutes this far, it's my best friends birthday! She turns 20 and are now allowed to buy alcohol above 22% in Norway! So, happy birthday to the most awesome girl in the world, I love and miss you like crazy! 

She's coming to visit in just over a week, so I have a feeling her picture will be on here sooner or later, but here she is anyway, the birthday girl! 

I love you, hope you have a fantastic day! <3

My mum is in England!

Tomorrow (technically today) at 11.05 my mum is going to be at Winchester train station! I haven't thought about how much I miss my family, since it's only been four weeks and I know I won't get to see them for another 8, but now that there's only 8 hours left until I get to spend an entire weekend with my mum, I'm buzzing with excitement! I'm not too happy about the fact that she wouldn't be coming if it wasn't for the fact that you're not allowed to send medication in the mail, but I'll take what I can get.

I can't wait to show her around in Winchester. Last time we were here together was the first time I had ever been here, and to think that we walked past so many places that day that I have come to love so much is nothing but surreal. Like when we walked down the high street, past all the shops and pubs that I've spent so much time in since I moved here! Or the fact that we had dinner at County Arms, not knowing how many hours I would spend there, starting just a few months later! I'm really looking forward to going to all of those places again and being able to tell her stories and show her what my life is like here. I'm also hoping she'll be able to meet all my friends so that she can see that I'm doing okay, that I have people around me that love me and that I love. Not that she thinks I'm a loner, but introducing her to all the great people I've met here will be really fun!

My mum! 

Today I haven't really been up to much. I had a lecture at 3pm so I got to sleep late and then I went home to change, because I had a date! But then it turned out that someone had jumped in front of a train so all the trains were cancelled, so we had to reschedule. Not that that's the saddest thing about that whole situation, I mean, someone took their own life just a few minutes walk from where I live, but there's nothing I can do about it, so I wasn't planning on thinking too much about that, however harsh that might seem.

Right now I've just finished doing the last bit of cleaning before tomorrow. My mum is coming by the flat, so I thought it might be nice if she didn't have to think that her daughter lives in a pig sty! Anyway. Before cleaning, I did todays part of the 30 day challenge. I think it's going well, but I'm definitely a bit sore from yesterday! Weirdly, tho, I'm not sore where I thought I would be. My arms, abs and legs are fine, but my back is killing me! However, that means that I'm strenghtening the muscles in my back, so I'm not too worried about that.

Todays set looked like this:

Cardio
20 high knees
60 climbers
Abs
25 sit ups
10 crunches
10 leg raises
15 sec plank
Squats
60
Push ups
5

The squats were really hard today. As I said, my back is really sore from yesterday already so I'm really glad I have tomorrow off! The push ups weren't too bad, but I expect that will change in a while. The abs work out are definitely getting worse, tho. Leg raises has never been my favourite exersise, and I really felt the 10 I had to do today, but I'm trying to think positive and came to the conclusion that even though they feel horrible now, and even though they probably will throughout this whole challenge, at least I'm doing them and at least I'm giving it my best!

Right, it's half four and I'm still wide awake. Getting up at 10, so I guess I should go to bed!