Grønt lys og medvind er utgangspunktet for en bra dag

The past few weeks have been really good. Most of all because of the sun and hot weather which transform cold, shy, reserved Norwegians into cheerful, chatty, happy individuals.

I came to think about it.

Here's a few things that's given me a huge smile across my face lately:

- The sun: I know, every Norwegian would say that, but it's true, the sun makes everyone happy. I've only ever met one person who did not enjoy the sun and that was an Irish guy on a sailboat at the Whitsundays. He sat for three straight days with his red hair, milkywhite skin, a sunhat, large t-shirt and was beeing pretty miserable.

- Music: Some songs just makes you laugh. We went to Edinburgh last weekend and at a pub they played Blondie's Maria. Helga got it on her mind. Now she has downloaded it and blares it out into the office landscape a few times a day.

- Unconditional love: aah, you thought you had me there, but then you should stop and think about it. Is that really me? Nope. I don't mean the clishé stuff your boyfriend might give you, what I mean is individuals that loves you for what you can give them. Like my dog Kajsa who adores me because I'll scratch her behind her ears. And my 5-year-old cousin Filippa who thinks I'm the coolest chick around because I wear nice skirts and play dart with her.

- Green lights: I can't take the credit for coming up with this, but if you bikeride to work and you get green lights at every intersection you'll be three minutes early for work and will have the time to get a coffee before you start. The wind part applies mostly in Denmark where it's flat as a pancake and wind in your favour will give you time to stop at the bakery as well as get the coffee. But definitively a mighty fine start to the day.

- Flowers: self-explanatory. Who doesn't like flowers? One of my happiest flowermoments where all from my mum and dad actually. Once on a birthday when I was a kid and dad wasn't home and I got my first flower delivery (of course a special moments). They were pink and had silver bands around them. When I graduated from uni I found an enormous bouquet outside my flat and when I broke my ankle there were also flowers waiting for me.

People: most of my family and friends actually makes me extremely happy whenever I'm with them, so there's really nothing to complain about. My dad always makes me laugh. My grandma is the coolest lady going around always making me feel special. Ex-flattie (to be again?) Trude is a sunbeam herself and of course that affects people around her. My siblings are fun and when we don't fight we laugh. The people I've travelled with I've had so much fun with and we can still sit around and chat about funny, hilarious and often slightly embarrasing times.

So my suggestions to all of you this summer is: Laugh your hearts out. That's what they are there for, and that's what I intend to do.

No further explanations should be needed.

The good is always in minority

Place: Strøget, Copenhagen.
Time: When I really should have been at work.
Who: Maxine and me.
What: Maxing out my credit card, second month in a row.

After some eventful weeks with lots of Australian influence after a long visit from Melbourne I am now situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. I took today off work and caught the bus down last night. I slept most of the way, only woke up now and then to tell Maxine to go to sleep too. She didn't.

It actually felt like I was back in Central America and we were heading on a bus through the continent. Because I spoke English I wasn't immediately looked upon as some xenophobic Norwegian and we soon started to chat to the Indian guy next to us. He was studying in Trondheim, but now on the way to Århus to play music with his friend. We quickly shared our life history and I was wishing it was like this every time I got on a bus, if you felt like talking to the person next to you, you would instead of just quietly whispering sorry when you crawled over him to go to the ladies room.

But we made it to Copenhagen and what a fantastic city this is. Not only for the great shopping, but the people, the buildings, the Royal Family, the Little Mermaid, H.C. Andersen, Tivoli, it all makes Denmark a good place to be. Cristina bugs me for moving to Århus and some times I'm even considering it. Not sure what I would do there, but it would be nice to be closer to my little sissy.

On the Central Station in Copenhagen we went to the bathrooms to freshen up and the old little lady in the control booth (which very conveniently was filled with g-strings and lacy underwear, it looked like it could have been a brothel at some stage) yelled madly at us for only having Norwegian crowns to pay with as she only accepted Swedish and Danish. She let us quickly go to the toilet and wash our hands (see below) but threatened that if we wanted to brush our teeth it would cost us. I wanted to brush my teeth so ended up going to get change and rightfully then spent a quarter of an hour getting ready to meet the daylight.














As the Indian guy said "The good is always in minority." I felt really bad, because he's actually right. There are a lot of arseholes out there. But there is only one thing to do about it (and this is for you nazi-control-freak-bathroom-lady):

Don't be such a BIAATCH and do to others as you wish they would do to you.