Discovered!

Nina, you really made my day! I am incredibly honoured by receiving the Excellent Blogger Award. It feels great that someone's actually reading my daily ramblings (apart from Prince Charming - I've made my blog his starting page and I'm not sure if he knows how to change it). The moment I realized I knew that the award must go on to the blogs I visit on a daily basis. And it's extra fun to have an award like this come from someone who's blog I read every day. So I hereby award the following blogs the Excellent Blogger Award (in addition to Nina, of course :) :

UnderbaraClara (in Swedish)

StyleBytes (in English)

The Glamorous Librarian (in Norwegian)

Haustljos (in Norwegian)

Ylvan (in Swedish)

The top four already have tons of readers - they are really good blogs. Y I write about all the time here. She's the girl I'm going to Nepal with and she's much better than me to write about our preparations.

Have a great day - I will!

Queens Of The Stone Age in Oslo

Yesterday Prince Charming and I saw Queens Of The Stone Age in Oslo Spektrum. It was fun but I got the feeling it was just another job for them. They did what they were supposed to do, and that was it. The whole concert had a feeling of being very professional. The songs were the ones I expected (hadn't heard all of them before, though - I'm not a blood fan). The extra number was of course their biggest radio hit. It was all just what we expected. And nothing else. So I think the concert was a four out of six. A good concert, but nothing mindblowing. You can see OsloPuls' critique here (in Norwegian).

The weight freak takes over!

Today I purchased these Bivouac Boots (Camp boots) from 40 Below. I expected them to be 285 grams but when I got home and weighed them they were only 246 grams! I'm not sure if I'm going to keep them, though, as I heard it's very easy to walk around on the blue fabric instead of the sole since they are so soft around the ankle. I don't know what to do.

A typical walk

I had decided on going for a little stroll in the city to try to soften up those sore muscles in my legs mentioned earlier. Of course I ended up in the shopping centre that is open until 22:00.

But when can you find a Triumph bra for kr 49,- (US$ 8.50)? In the correct size? I got a black t-shirt bra too, for the same price. I feel that the bargain here justifies the shopping. Actually, I don't. But I'm telling myself this.

Forward! To the pole!

Today I got a hold of two pairs of these babies, Leki Carbonlite, for Y and myself. I weighed them as soon as I got home (I'm turning into a freak! Help!) . 368 grams. Now I'm very pleased with myself, especially since I got them cheap.


My legs ache from using unusual muscles crosscountry skiing yesterday, so tonight I'm just going for a walk to try and soften things up. Or maybe it's the cookie monster in my head finally getting an excuse for not going spinning this evening. Well, I don't care. Or rather, I'll try not to worry about it.

The weight of things

Photo by Y

Y came over to my place on Saturday and we had our first go at packing our backpacks. I've never been a weight freak but now I dragged out the kitchen scale and weighed every little thing. Y has also a post on this session here (in Swedish).

I knew the Sloggi Hot Hips underwear I purchased earlier was light, but at 14 grams I'm very impressed. The wool Icebreaker ones I received from a contact in the outdoor business weighed in at 28 grams. Still acceptable.

I haven't completely resolved the sweater / jacket issue, though. The softshell jacket mentioned earlier is definetly staying at home, with it's more than 500 grams. The Icebreaker sweater I can't make up my mind on. It's 366 grams, which would mean I could take 26 underpants instead (I won't), or bivouac boots (they'll come anyway). Some things were however determined by the kitchen scale. My Gore Tex Pro Shell Jacket is not coming. When that weighs over 500 grams, and a Paclite weighs 300 there's not a doubt in my mind I have to invest in that.

Healthy Norwegian Youth (Sunn Norsk Ungdom)

Today Y and I went skiing in the woods around Oslo. You can take the subway for 40 minutes and you're in the woods. Oslo is a small city. Neither of us are any good at crosscountry skiing but we had a nice couple of hours skiing. It's really fun to watch all the other people out skiing so close to the city on a Sunday afternoon. The man pictured above is very classic and with that certain old style. You meet lots of old people out skiing on such a day. It's great that they keep in shape and spend time outdoors!