These are a few of my favourite things

At this moment, what is your favorite…
1. …song?
Bee Gees – You Win Again, and has been for some time (pretty much since it first came out). Don’t ask me why, though, as I have no idea.

2. …food?
Mmmm. Pizza. Proper pizza, that is. Home-made, preferably, or from Peppes (or from Flemings in Worthing, Sussex, but that’s going a bit far – literally).

3. …tv show?
Beat for beat, tone for tone – a musical quiz show on Norwegian television. It’s also on Swedish television under the name ‘Så skal det låta’ and I think the concept is originally British, but I can’t remember the name of the British show.

4. …scent?
Not much. I have a heavy cold and can’t really smell anything ;) Once I recover, though, it would have to be… Are we talking “perfume” here or just smells in general? If the former, any of Laura Biagotti’s perfumes. If the latter, I have three answers: freshly brewed coffee, Ardbeg Uigedail and Martin‘s hair.

5. …quote?
I think it would have to be the Groucho Marx quote I use in my e-mail sig: ‘Outside of a dog a book is a man’s best friend. Inside a dog it’s too dark to read.’

Sniff

Overnight sandlund.net has moved server. Everything seems to be in working order, but if you find anything suspicious (beyond what’s usually here, I mean), please let me know.

Jane, get in touch. You need a new password and new URLs for mail and MT and I’ve lost my address book and I obviously don’t remember your work mail correctly as I get “delivery failed”.

Naming things

So, Norway has a new princess and heir to the throne (born yesterday morning). The name has just been announced, and I must say I approve – Ingrid Alexandra. Now, don’t get me wrong, I really don’t care much what they call the kid and I have no particularly warm feelings for either Ingrid or Alexandra, but one of the hottest tips prior to the announcement was Ragnhild, and see, there is something I really cannot approve of. I. Do. Not. Want. To. Share. My. Name. With. The. Heir. To. The. Throne.

So, thank you very much, Haakon and Mette-Marit – I wish you all the joy and happiness your hearts can hold.

Oh, and I approve wholeheartedly of the fact that it’s a girl. It’s about time we had the chance of a reigning queen in Norway.

Oh, for the love of…

Come join the lynch mob.

Customised Romeo & Juliet – Now also available in a “happy ending” edition!

Can they really be serious? Let’s hope not, especially as the happy ending is available in “classic” or “irreverent”:

Romeo What the heck was that big scene all about?
Juliet Who knows? I just passed out for a second and everybody’s losing it. Luckily the dagger wasn’t sharp.
Romeo And the apothecary screwed up big-time! What do you say we head home?
Juliet Sounds like a plan, my medieval man!

(Herren fri og bevare oss.)

“Irreverent”? Why not call a spade a spade? “Heretic” is nearer the mark.

Truth or dare

Ok, so “true or false” and “truth or dare” isn’t quite the same thing. Nevermind.

1. I often wake up before my alarm clock goes off.
False. I don’t often wake up before the alarm goes off. It happens, though.

2. I love to drive; in any kind of weather!
False. I hate driving. Which is why I can’t (seeing as I don’t have a license). I love riding in cars, though – and yes, in any kind of weather as long as the driver is comfortable.

3. I’d rather have to worry about staying warm than staying cool.
True. Ish. I don’t take too well to really high temperatures, mainly because I tend to have problems sleeping. On the other hand I’m not exactly thrilled at the current Well-Below-Zero-Degrees-Centigrade temperatures we’re having at the moment, but I guess I do prefer it to +20 at night (at least as long as I live in a place with no possibility of a proper airing out).

4. I wish I lived in another state.
False. I’m quite happy living in Oslo at the moment. I wish Scotland were nearer Oslo, but I don’t feel like moving just now.

5. Multi-tasking is what I do best!
True. Insofar as that I rarely do just one thing at a time.

6. Flying is the only way to go!
False. I like flying but I also like cars, trains and boats. You might conclude I like travelling…

7. Budgeting my money is one of my downfalls.
True. Though shouldn’t that be “Not budgeting…” because surely that’s the problem?

8. I wish there was 8 days in the week!
True. Provided the 8th day was part of the weekend and not the working week. I could do with more weekends.

9. I get at least 7 hours of sleep a night.
False. I try to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night, but I am rarely successful. If I have at least 6 I can function, anything less than that tends to affect my ability to think.

10. I’m a night owl.
False. I would be if I didn’t have to get up for work every morning – I have to stick to something like a regular rhythm or I won’t get to sleep at all. My natural inclination is to stay up fairly late and sleep in, though.

Too much time on my hands

Well. Not really. Quite the opposite, in fact.

But despite having no time to spare, really, I am playing with the possibilities for actual content – in addition to the gallery – over at sandlund.no. What I’m planning at the moment is to use Moveable Type to publish notes relating to the ingestible pleasures of life. There will be tasting notes for whisky – and for champagne, calvados, cognac and even chocolate. There will be descriptions of pubs, cafés and restaurants “all over the world” (read: the places I visit). There will be reports of occasions where food and drink were consumed. There will be recipes. There will be links to other sites of interest.

And all, naturally, internally and externally linked appropriately (and on occasion eccentrically) through the wonderful medium of hypertext.

I say will be. At the moment the basic file structure is in place and I’ve created the appropriate blogs in MT. I have exported and imported the recipes I have already collected. I also have a vague idea of what I want the site to look like. Now all I need to do is sit down and create the actual design, using css and web standards to the best of my ability, and then fill the “blogs” with content.

Oh, and think of a name. That’s the difficult part, of course. “The Good Life”? Descriptive, perhaps, but bland. My creativity has called in sick. Honour and… – well, honour anyway – to whoever comes up with a good suggestion.

Words

Yay! Friday! Friday Five!

1. What does it say in the signature line of your emails?


‘Outside of a dog a book is a man’s best friend.
Inside a dog it’s too dark to read.’
— Groucho Marx
https://www.sandlund.net

2. Did you have a senior quote in your high school yearbook? What was it? If you haven’t graduated yet, what would you like your quote to be?
Well, we don’t have yearbooks in Norway. Nor are we ever seniors in high school, really. But we do have these cards – like business cards – that are exchanged when we’re finishing college (or whatever), and my quote on that was “En sunn sjel trives i ethvert legeme” (A healthy soul thrives in any body).

3. If you had vanity plates on your car, what would they read? If you already have them, what do they say?
Bibliophile. If I could get that to fit. Something to do with books, anyway. Not that I’m ever going to have vanity plates (or, indeed, a car).

4. Have you received any gifts with messages engraved upon them? What did the inscription say?
Not as far as I can remember. I was given a glass with my name engraved on it once, but that’s all.

5. What would you like your epitaph to be?
A long way away.