The last Monday Mission ever. We wave a fond goodbye.
1. In the last week, what happened that made you feel loved beyond your wildest dreams? [ from MM 1.0]
Beyond my wildest dreams? Do you have any idea of how wild my dreams are? Ok, sorry, will be serious and answer, hm, that Martin followed up on his promise to play nursemaid to me this weekend despite the fact that he was quite as ill as I was. (I’d decided to declare myself an invalid for the weekend to see if 48 hours with my feet up would help the remaining nagging pains in my legs. As it turned out, we both ended up with sore throats and colds anyway.)
2. What was the last audio CD you paid money for? [ from MM 1.3]
I bought Åge Alexandersen’s “Eldorado” and a “Best of…” second hand on Friday. The last new audio CD I paid for was, hm, a Christmas compilation album some time in December.
3. Has someone you know ever told you they had a terminal illness? What was it like for you when you found out. How did that change your relationship with them? [ from MM 2.45]
Yes. No one very close, though. It made me sad, obviously, but only in a somewhat detached way (more of a “How terrible for his family” than any regrets on my own part). I tend to try and treat people decently and fairly whatever the situation and not change my attitude based on what I know about them (I tend to assume there are probably things I don’t know), but I guess I was probably a little more patient and careful in what I said to him after I found out.
4. Do you have an accent? Are there any phrases or words you say that tip folks that you aren’t from around these parts? [ from MM 2.38]
Yes and no. When I speak English, my accent has been described as “mid-atlantic” and people have a hard time placing me. Everyone can tell that I’m not “from around these parts”, but they can’t figure out where I’m from either. In Norwegian I have a dialect of sorts, but it’s so mixed up that all people can normally tell is that I’m from eastern Norway somewhere, except when I speak to people with a heavy dialect when it can get quite easy to place me in Hedemark due to the odd phrases and pronounciations that crop up (this is more obvious when the person I talk to also has a heavy Hedemark-dialect, but any heavy dialect tends to make me exaggerate mine).
5. What’s the difference between being a Father, and being a Daddy? [ from MM 3.25]
In so far as there is a difference (which really depends on which word you’ve grown up using), I tend to use “pappa” (daddy) when speaking to my father directly or when I talk about him in general – it’s what I’ve been used to calling him growing up. I tend to use “far” (father) only in situations where I’m (in the subtext) stressing the biological/social relationship. So it’ll be “pappa ringte” (“dad phoned”), but “faren min jobber for NINA” (“my father works at NINA”).
6. What is the most recent thing guilt has motivated you to do? [ from MM 2.50]
Tricky. I would have preferred to go to Trondheim for Christmas with Martin rather than spending it at my grandparents, but I’m not sure “guilt” is the correct description of my motivation in not doing what I wanted – “a sense of obligation” is nearer the mark.
7. How do you feel about tips and tipping? Do you feel obligated to tip even if your service is bad because you know the servers don’t get paid much? If you’ve ever relied on tips for your income, how do you feel when you don’t get any? [This is a new one, had to throw in at least one more hot topic before I sign off]
The system in Norway is somewhat different, because the people who serve you actually do get paid a proper wage. It’s still customary to tip, though, to some extent, but only yesterday I was wishing that there was a more definite system. I tend to tip somewhere around 10% in restaurants unless the service was really bad, but because the servers aren’t dependent on tips to get by a lot of people simply don’t tip at all, which means that even if I refrain from giving a tip because the service was bad, there is no guarantee that the server will take it to heart – most likely they’ll just dismiss me as one of those people who don’t leave tips.