alive

I was working for 5 weeks and then I had/have 2 weeks of prebooked holiday off. I am not sure if I want to go back. Holidays are too good and I miss all my lovely Norwegians, friends and family.

I am excited about  the new year and can’t wait to see what it brings. I hope that by this time next year at least a few of my goals have been reached. The two “goals” I feel most strongly about are me and my Person finding our own place to live and that I find THE job, the job I feel I could stay in, at least for a little while.

I hope to manage to stay strong and healthy, continue my chiropractic care and start exercising regularly again. (I just need the effin paycheck first…) I hope to continue maintaining strong bonds with my loved ones, no matter how near or far, and welcome new citizens of the world into a safe place they know they are loved and feel it every day. I hope to grow better and bigger with my Person and show him the same gratitude and appreciation he shows me, and that we keep sharing love and admiration for eachother in everything we do.

And I want a kitten….

My new life

Is it wrong that at the moment, I just loooooove bumming around the house watching Netflix and ‘Come Dine With Me’, going for runs and walks when the weather allows, eating greek yoghurt with berries (and the occasional cheeky sweet or chocolate piece…), just chilling in general?

Because I do.

It has been 3 weeks since I officially finished uni and 2 weeks since I moved out of London. It feels weird living in someone else’s house, but at the same time I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to stay and actually pursue my dream career. Just a year and a bit ago I had a completely different future planned, it is certainly strange how so much changes in such short time. It feels like it was in another life, literally.

The English ‘countryside’ is beautiful and at the moment I am enjoying the slow pace, the nature, having to walk everywhere (‘popping over to the shop’ takes about 1,5 hrs…) and learning the bus schedule. My only responsibilities at the moment are looking and applying for jobs (which takes up a very limited amount of time every day) and tidying up after myself, which feels looooovely after a year of giving a 110% constantly at uni.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Moving day

Tomorrow is moving day (at least for most of my stuff, I am staying until Friday myself) and today me and my lovely, wonderful flatmate have invited some people over for pre-drinks and then we are set on Oslo Bar in Hackney later.

I haven’t even packed yet, but I was planning to do that tomorrow morning. Hungover packing is a good idea, right?

Oh dear

I had people over this weekend from Norway, which was lovely. I got to see some sights again! My parents and other friends have been over several times so they have already seen all this, but this particular friend had never been to London before! When they arrived on Friday we walked through Bayswater, Hyde Park past Italian Gardens, Peter Pan, Princess Diana-memorial, Serpentine and out on Hyde Park Corner. From there we walked to Buckingham Palace and up Pall Mall, to Trafalgar Square and then Leicester Square. Then we took the tube to Holborn and our ‘usual pub’.

On Saturday we went to Notting Hill and Portobello Road, then Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and London Eye, walked along Southbank and to Waterloo Bridge, got on a bus to St. Pauls (to catch a little break) and had lunch and coffee near the cathedral, then walked through the City of London and to Tower of London, over Tower Bridge and to London Bridge station. From there we went to Harrods just to have a look. I am not particularly rich or into designer attire, but the food hall at Harrods is amazing and much kinder to your wallet (at least if you choose wisely)! I ended up buying the best macaroon I have ever had (which was huuuuge and tasted of coffee and hazelnut with a filling of rich chocolate and a salted caramel centre – heaven!) and three packs of flavoured black teas; strawberry, apple and mango (amazing as well). After Harrods we started to get hungry so we went to Piccadilly Circus just to have a quick look and then went and ate at an amazing chinese place in Chinatown called Plum Valley. When we finished dinner the shops on Oxford Street were still open for another hour and a half so we went there for a little bit. Then I had to go home as my back was literally killing me… Which is the sign of a good day where lots has been done! These 1,5 days were hard, but a proof that if you really want to, you can see “all” the London sites in two days. If we had a whole day on Friday as well, I would have taken them to Regents Park/Primrose Hill and the Museums in South Kensington, which were the only “famous attractions” we didn’t manage to see on the trip.

The macaroon (and my diseased-looking hand!)

Sunday my visitors wanted a ‘couples day’, which meant chore-time for me…… I had to start packing for my move next weekend (!!) so I had to get boxes and storage boxes. I also did some food shopping. Went to the gym, my last day at the gym was this Sunday… Now I have to struggle to stay fit, haha. Made dinner, talked to my mom, did some work for the exhibition at uni this Friday. Then watched a movie called ‘Chef’ (it was good!) and slept. A very ordinary day, sadly.

Last run at the gym and test run without orthotics (which went very well!)

Yesterday I had to take a quick trip to uni in the morning. Then I met my visitors at Oxford Circus. We walked down to Piccadilly Circus through Soho, and on our way we had lunch in Kingly Court at Whyte and Brown. Yuuum! We also had a quick look in Choccywoccydoodaah – a shop where everything is made of or covered in chocolate. We walked from Piccadilly Circus to Covent Garden, had a look around, bought macaroons in Ladurèe, and then it was time for them to leave and me to go back to uni…. I finally finished my exhibition (just have to print, mount and hang it today) and then met my boyfriend to have dinner at Five Guys. Oh dear lord, that was fantastic! A proper messy, sticky burger designed by me, with fries and bottomless drink (I chose raspberry coke zero and made the rookie mistake of filling it up completely, so I only tried that one flavour – haha!) is not frowned upon on a Monday eve. The rest of the evening was spent in bed watching Parks and Recreation, the perfect start of the week after a superbusy weekend!

Delicious!

I have my life back!

FINALLY I have my life back! On Monday I celebrated by lugging all my superheavy folders and books on the Circle line around to Cannon Street, and proceeded to sit outside my boyfriend’s job for 40 minutes (I didn’t even realise it was that long because I was listening to Insurgent on audiobook – oh my god, it was nerve racking!) waiting for him to finish. Walked to the train station and arrived to an absolute utter madness, as half the trains were cancelled and the other half delayed. Finally managed to get on a train after wrestling a dozen people out of the way, went to his place and ate candy and watched Parks and Recreation until it was time to sleep.

Yesterday I did nothing worth mentioning, really. I had to stay at my boyfriend’s because we had ordered some furniture to be delivered. I was woken up at 6.30 by my boyfriend going to work, which in itself is annoying because it was my first actual day off, but it got even more annoying when I couldn’t go back to sleep. Managed to go back to sleep for a bit after putting CBeebies on (lol??) and the rest of the day was spent tinkering on the computer and watching TV. Finally the furniture arrived, and people started coming home from work, put wardrobe together, argued (mandatory when building flatpack furniture) then slept.

But today. Finally. I got to do some London-stuff again. So I went to Greenwich.

all pics by me

The City of London viewed from Heron Quays on Isle of Dogs, underneath a DLR bridge.

And I got to take a look at the oddity that is Canary Wharf. It is just so.. Strange! And the whole concept of the DLR.. It has to be experienced to be understood.

Glass and metal at Heron Quays station.

I decided to go to Cutty Sark and all the historical buildings, Royal Naval College, The Queens House, Trinity Laban and Royal Maritime Museum, just to mention a few. It was a gorgeous day, almost summer again, warm and sunny.

Domes of The Royal Naval College.

Contrasts. View towards Canary Wharf.

Royal Naval College.

Silhouette.

Gorgeous!

Greenwich Park, walking up to the Royal Observatory.

View towards Canary Wharf from The Royal Observatory. The Queen’s House in front.

Then I walked towards Blackheath, another beautiful green lung in London. Both Greenwich park and Blackheath are places I warmly recommend for a stroll. Greenwich park even had a deer enclosure! If it wasn’t for my plan to go to Richmond park soon to see deer I would most definetely have gone to have a look at them.

Now I am sitting with my sketchbook and planning for my meeting with the tutor tomorrow about our end of year exhibition. And then it’s finally my daily excercises and bedtime! Zzzzz….

Hope you had a greaaaat Wednesday!