Hi, I hope everybody have had a nice Holiday whether you travelled or just stayed at home. Did you make decorations, prepared for a special meals or baked?
This Easter we have done a few things and taken it easy.
Category: miscellaneous
Hipp hipp hurray, congratulations Norway!
10 scores and two years ago Norway’s constitution was signed at Eidsvold and that was the beginning of a very nice tradition. Norway constitution day is the country’s National day and mostly known as syttende mai (17th of may).
The celebration of Norways national day is non-military in nature, the children and the flag is the central elements of the celebration.
I was woken up at 07:30 this morning as one of the local marching bands just passed playing a 17th of may tune. As a little girl I can remember waiting in anticipation for the marching band to pass our house playing marches and festive music.. They stopped by the local community’s flagpole to play the national anthem during the flag ceremony. The bands are often followed or preceded by the chant or honking of car horns from local graduates that either is coming from or going to breakfast( HERE is a little general description of the highschool graduates celebration).
I can remember waking up with excitement, knowing there were going to be festivities, balloons, ice cream and if I was lucky I would get a toy or two. Laughs were shared and sometimes a tear or two was shed as i watched the helium filled balloon disappear into the horizon. Dressed in our fineries we would go to downtown Oslo and see Norways largest parade, where most of the citys elementary schools with their bands would march up the main avenue towards the royal palace where the royal family would wave to the passers-by. I remember singing and chanting and I could not wait to start school so I also could join the parade. These days over around 100 000 people travel to Oslo city center to participate in the main festivities.
This mornings marching band is probably on its way to the local institutions for flag ceremonies before it stops at its designated school. At the schools all its students prepare for the parade. Here where I live now the schools starts to march and join up with the other schools when they get to the main street.
And then let the party begin:)
Customary you meet up at the school afterwards to eat, play and socialize.
Normal practice for many Norwegians is to invite to a 17th of May breakfast, then watch the children’s parade. For families with school children you get together at your child’s school for the after noon or you get together at a friend’s place for a late lunch or early dinner. The parade is not over yet, late afternoon around 17-18 or so the graduating highschool students start their parade. Some finish the day with more get together and others have fun at traveling carnivals/amusment parks.
HERE is a link from Wikipedia so you can read a little about the day.
Happy Valentines day! Did you know that in some countries only the girls are expected to give gifts on this day?
Happy Valentines Day!
Hope everybody will give attention to someone they hold dear as well as receiving.
In South Korea and Japan, it is usually the women who give gifts and attention to their special man or male friends on this romantic day, it is to express their love, tenderness, courtesy, friendliness or social obligation.
Handmade chocolates are preferred by the receiver, it shows sincerity and effort from the giver. I can remember stores filled with everything you need to make chocolate treats, tools, molds, ingredients, and boxes.
Some told me during my stay in South Korea that girls usually gave gift to as many male friends as possible.
Why you wonder?
The reason is that there is a day called White Day and it is celebrated on March 14.
All men who got attention on February 14 must reciprocate the gifts they received and the norm is that the gifts should be worth two to three times more than what the women gave. Ha ha ha, In other words you should not have to many admirers.
It was the business community in Japan that started the day and the first one was celebrated in 1978.
Color themes around this day is white. White cake, white chocolate, etc.
On April 14, Koreans unofficially celebrate a day.
Can you guess what kind of day that is?
The day is called Black Day. This is the day for those who did not receive anything the other two days. If you are single, you are supposed to wear black, eat and drink black, and then complain a little about being single.
Otherwise this day is part of the liturgical celebration in honor of the many Christian martyrs named Valentin.
The Christian celebration of this day may have roots in Roman celebration of the goddess Juno, who represented women and marriage, and the beginning of Lupercalia festival, a fertility celebration that began February 15th.
The valentines celebration we know today began in 1700s England, the day was used to express love and affection through gifts like flowers and chocolates and Valentine cards.
Again have a nice Valentines day 🙂
Magnolia flowers
What makes you smile?
A little over a week ago I found magnolia branches studded with buds, and I bought some hoping they would bloom, and as you can see they did:)
I love magnolias, delicate flowers on bare branches blooming in early spring. The flower also reminds me of my time in South Korea, where the trees grow in the wild. Week-end hikes during spring you happen to pass a few of these threes in full bloom, they always got me in a better mood.
Hope the flowers made you smile, they make me smile:)
Take away dinner party
What makes a fun and informal dinner and how would you do it?
Last week end I had some friends over for a little dinner party, and I wanted it to be loose and informal, just 8 gals hanging out.
What was I going to serve them, finger food, place everything on the dinner table and everybody could just walk around and pick a little bit when ever they felt like it.
A sit down dinner and a set table.
Then I happened to look through my stash of disposable things that i sometimes use for styling my photos and thought why not an asian take away theme.
I served them
I have to confess that I was short on time and when I went to buy some of the ingredients I happened to see a few ready-made items, but the recipe that are linked I did make either before or after for this blog, and some of them that day.
It was a nice evening and the last guest did not leave until past 3 am in the morning.
Yes, I did confess to my guest that some of the items were ready made.
Frost smokey morning.
Early morning walk and quick trip to the store, when I walked out the sliding doors I happened upon this view. Frost smoke covered water in the morning sun. I just had to share it on instagram, snapchat and here on the blog.
The few seconds I took to whip my phone out and take pictures, I almost froze my fingers off, it surely felt like it. I am max 200 meters from home and had to stop 3 times, drop everything I carried and try to get my fingers warm. It was Fu….g cold, it was so cold that my car wouldn’t start and yes I had forgotten to bring gloves, but it was just a few meters.
I must have looked silly for the ones who passed me this morning, sticking my hands under my jacket and under my sweater. I do not know what was worst, icy cold fingers or trying to reheat them against my skin, but it did the trick.
What do you think, was it worth making an as out of myself for this picture?
Well, when you are on social media, you got to do what you got to do 🙂
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- A fog of minute ice-needles, resembling smoke, observed over bodies of water in a time of severe cold. At times the fog is observed lying close on the water in eddying wreaths.
Next time I guess I’ll keep my hands in my pocket.
A day as a TV star
Early morning pick up, driven to location with a little detour, MiniMe was driven to school first, lunch delivered, I even had an assistant, the only thing missing was a chair with my name on, a chair for the star. Diva, who me?
Last friday I was on a set filming me decorating a cake or more actually my hands decorating a cake.
The day began as I said with an early morning pick up, so early that I had forgotten to drive MiniMe to school, the driver was kind enough to take a little detour. I thought I had an extra hour before he came to pick me up. My fault I had mistakenly thought that it was an hour earlier. So he had to wait till I got MiniMe ready and all my things packed.
I had spent moste of the evening before making marzipan and sugar fondant flowers, making sure I had enough for the cake, so that I did not have to make them all on the set. This could be one of the reasons I over heard the first alarm or maybe I just needed my beautisleep.
I had so much to prepare and think about and yes some of them on the vainer side, what to wear and so on and since my hands and the cake was the main focus, my nails had to look nice. I painted my nails a few times trying on different nail polish and by the time I was finished it was passed midnight.
Spoilt little me, being chauffeured to the set and I even got an assistant doing the heavy work for me. Kneading and rolling out marzipan is quite exhausting, so I do what I am best at, point and command.
I sound a little arrogant, but the truth of the matter is that the cameraman lives in my area and instead of driving two cars, he gave me a ride and he only had to wait for ten minutes. Since there are long waits between shooting the director gave me a hand in kneading and rolling the marzipan to a manageable thickness.
No, I’m not really a diva, just sound like one sometimes and it makes a more interesting story. I had fun on the set and maybe I should do this more often 🙂
The decor ordered was supposed to be light and pink, but I had to throw in an orchid as my little signature.
I do not know when this is going to air, but they promised me a copy that I can share on my blog..
Tesla the family car
Did you know that Tesla model S can be a 7 seater? I have a big family so I test drove a Tesla S P90D. As a mum I drive my kids everywhere even the ones who have a driver’s license sometimes, among a parents job it is to be a taxi driver.
I am not very interested in cars but this time I got very exited when I test drove this Tesla. This electric car that hardly makes a sound practically drives and parallel parks by itself
The autopilot in the car allows it to steer within a lane, change lanes with a tap of the turn signal and it can manage speed by using active traffic-aware cruise control. The digital control of motors, brakes and steering helps avoid collisions from the front and sides, as well as preventing the car from wandering off the road. Model S can also scan for a parking space, alert you when one is available, and parallel park on command.
I have no trouble driving or parallel park, but I love technology and I fell in love with this car.
Autopilot features are progressively enabled with software updates and from what I understand you can download the new updates yourself. The current software is 7.0 adding automatic steering and parallel parking. Read more in their Tesla blog.
I picked up the car on a friday afternoon and got a few instructions on the cars features. To really test the family friendliness of the car I said yes to drive the kids around all week-end.
Friday evening I drove over 200 km and without worrying about having to charge the car. I picked up my oldest sons friends, drove them to a party, picked up a my youngest son and his friends at a birthday party and drove them home. After a little rest I drove to pick up the party goers and since I was driving the Ludicrous upgrade with a 90 kWh battery I had to test it acceleration on a deserted stretch of the highway, it is stated that the car goes from 0-100 kilometers in only 2,8 seconds. I do not know how long it took me to get to 100 km since I was already driving, only that it was fast. This car kicks several hundred horse power that is hidden somewhere an it is certainly not under the hood that space is reserved luggage and other carry ons.
After my little fun I then picked up the teens, dropped them off safely before I could head home, recharge the car and finally go to bed and get some Z’s before the next days excursion.
Saturday morning I packed the car with kids and luggage and drove to the cabin, to test the car on narrow winding roads. It was a smooth drive to the cabin, quiet and the only thing you could hear was the tires rolling along the asphalt and the kids chatter in the back seat and trunk. The car felt stable on the road and it really felt nice to drive this car.
MiniMe loved sitting in the trunk of the car where the two extra seats was located. These seats that are turned towards the back are not ment for other than children under 140 cm, so this car is only ment for a large family with smaller children. 
I do not know if it was the novelty of it but MiniMe loved to sit in the back and where ever we went that was where she sat facing the back. In the trunk of the car there was a button so she could open and close the trunk when needed, luckily it had a child safety feature and could only be opened when the car was parked.
How to charge the car, Teslas can be charged at home plugged in the wall or at public charging station as any electric car. Teslas service though extend as far as that they have built super chargers around and they are no more than 200 to 250 kilometers a part. At these superchargers all Tesla owners can recharge their cars for free. HERE is a map over and planned superchargers in Europe.
One of the other things that I like about this car is the large touch screen panel where you can control all the different features of the car, navigation, radio, which mode you want the car to be in, standard, sport or ludicrous and so on. The car is also equipped with a sim card so it is alway online if you want to.
Another thing that is unique with Tesla is that you can not go to a Tesla car dealership and buy one, you can test drive one, then order a car to your specifications on-line and then you can pick one up.
Here is a little fun facts, whether it is a Tesla or another electric car Norway is leading way internationally when it comes to driving electric cars. If you want to read more about it you can got to The Norwegian Electric Car Association HERE
So after driving this car that week-end I am putting this car on my wish list or maybe a
Tesla Model X their SUV. So dear Santa I’ll be very good this year:)
Yule tide greetings
Hi and Merry Christmas to you all
In the English speaking world this is the day. The children jumping out of bed, running in anticipation to see what Santa left them in their stocking, then the different Christmas must do’s before opening presents with their family.
Here in Norway Christmas was celebrated yesterday evening, a day before everyone else. I did also celebrate yesterday, but at work with the geriatrics. Today I celebrated with my family, my children, mum, brother and niece.
A different Christmas for me this year, this is the first time I didn’t get to celebrate Christmas eve with my children, plus it is 4 C degrees outside a warm and snowless Christmas. Reaaly strange this weather we are having. I can’t remember Christmas in Norway with temperature above freezing point.
Even though I did not get to celebrate with them yesterday, this day really made up for it. Young and old playing around and enjoying spending time with eachother, even though modern technology is a big part of their habits.
The children even showered me with gifts, one from each of them and one from all of them.
Practical gifts and maybe hints to what they would like to eat when they are here:)
Did you have a nice Christmas celebration?
I hope you did and happy holidays
How to maintaine your weight during the Holydays
Merry Christmas Dear Readers.
It’s not that many days before Christmas and many of you have probably started the festivities with Christmas party’s with family, friends and colleagues. Many people worry about gaining weight during the upcoming days, but should you? There are always on going discussions about dieting before, during and after the holidays. Why ruin your Christmas celebration with needless worry.
As a foodblogger I could probably come up with a nutritional diet plan for your meals for Christmas or some of your meals. But think about it, how often do you celebrate Christmas and weight gain is caused over time. If we gain anything over christmas it is more likely water retention and maybe som excess food the body hasn’t processed yet.
I believe in enjoying myself during the Christmas holidays. It is not what you eat between Christmas and New Years Eve, but what you eat between New Years eve and Christmas that matters.
So dear readers this is what I recommend Enjoy your selves for a few days and then go back to normal, but if normal is festivities around the year then there is a problem. Remember calories in calories out, for every morsel you eat you have to move. It is as simple as that.
If you think I don’t know what I am talking about, you can read about my weight loss HERE
DO NOT FEEL GUILTY FOR ENJOYING THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS.
Analiza Gonzales 