A poem

While eating my toast
I was approached by a ghost
Five inches tall, at most.

With acknowledgements to Des’ree “Life” – I was mindlessly watching VH-1 last night until this video came on and I started to pay attention to the lyrics. “I don’t wanna see a ghost, It’s the sight that I fear most, I’d rather have a piece of toast”. I thought it would be possible to get a more interesting result, given those three words.

Come to think of it, regarding the line ‘I keep a rabbits’ tail’ – surely it’s the foot you’re supposed to keep? It’s not as if it rhymes with anything else, so why not put ‘foot’ instead of ‘tail’?

Whatever.

Voice in my head: Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

As if I needed another one…

Anyway, I have, somewhat to my amazement*, become a knitter (on a small scale, at least). I have knitted my first sock (Yay me!) which will grace the picture log as soon as I get the picture transferred from the camera to the server. Everyone I know might as well prepare themselves, you’ll all get socks or similar for Christmas.

While waiting for my pictures, take a look at Theresa’s 4 March entry, with a couple of photos from the S&B at her house on Sunday.

———
* Which is as nothing compared to the amazement that would be evident on the faces of the various well-meaning but hard-tried teachers and relatives who have tried to get me to knit at various points of my life.

My mind seems to be gone. I have a list in front of me with four things that really should be done by yesterday, and I can’t focus. In fact, I literally can’t focus, my eyes seem to have lost their job-description and are consequently running round like headless chickens, mostly crossing each other.

Tonight will be my first non-sociable night for over a week. I knew there was something odd going on.

I need solitude.

Voice in my head: Shania Twain – I’m gonna getcha (oh dear, oh dear, I’m losing it)

So. I was at work until midnight yesterday, which means a working day of pretty much exactly 16 hours. Is that good, I wonder?

Hence, very little sleep. Bed at one, up again at six. I need more than four-and-a-half hours…

On the other hand, my father’s in town for a two-day meeting, which means cider at The Dubliner and a good meal this evening. Yay.

Voice in my head: Avril Lavigne – Nobody’s Fool

comercial lyrics
scandinavian accent
car childhood old age

I dunno.

Voice in my head: Billy Joel – You can have this heart to break

Norwegian lesson, a bit on the late side, or what do you say, Theresa?

delbar, adj. divisible, dividable. Essential word if you ever want to buy a zipper, for example. A zipper which is not “delbar” is useful for cushion-covers and trousers and a lot of other, no doubt highly practical, purposes, however, for a zipper to be useful for jackets it needs to be “delbar”.

There are no people in the UK sharing my name (“There are 0 People with the name Ragnhild Sandlund. That name doesn’t exist. Are you secret service? Don’t hurt me I’ve seen Enemy of the State.”). Odd that. On the other hand, some other people I know also show up as 0, so maybe it’s not all that dependable. (From Joh.)

Voice in my head: Smurfene “Det finn’s en smurf i oss alle” (it’s all Ireen’s fault)

I would just like to state, categorically, once and for all, that I accept no responsibility whatsoever for any distress inflicted on you during the Eurovision final in Riga in May due to the dismal Norwegian contribution. I watched the Norwegian final on Saturday night with Tone (who came for a weekend visit – Yay!), Solveig and Arve and the winning entry was the only one which had a total score of zero in our run-down. The entry we had as number one was somewhere near the bottom of the list once the Norwegian people had had their say (the result being decided via phone polls). It’s somewhat reassuring to be so squarely in the minority, but that does not make the winning entry any less cringe-worthy.

Even if Jostein manages to sing in tune in the international final (his track-record of 1 in 3 times on Saturday does not bode well), I have my doubts for the song’s chances, it being a pretty dreary sort of ballad sung in English with a pretty appalling Norwegian accent.

Never mind. In fact, there is an obvious benefit to doing really badly in the European final, as we are then excluded from participating for a year, leaving me free to revel in the awfulness of the other nations’ entries unbothered by the embarrassment the Norwegian entry normally provokes.

Come to think of it, the ones we cheered for weren’t exactly keeping in tune, either. But at least the song was pretty good, even if the rendition left a bit to be desired.

Voice in my head: Ainslie Henderson – Keep me a Secret, kind of apt, I think. One of the benefits of watching Fame Academy on BBC Prime is that we are getting it a lot later than the Brits. Hence, this song, which has been on my mind since Friday, is already available as a single, which I’ve just ordered from Amazon.

1. What is your favorite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc.)?
Novels and some non-fiction. Also plays, poetry, newspapers, magasines… In fact, pretty much everything. If there is nothing else to read I’ll read teh back of the cereal box or the milk carton.

2. What is your favorite novel?
Ah, now, dear me. Difficult question. In order to give an answer I will say Jane Austen’s Emma, however I reserve my right to change my mind every few seconds.

3. Do you have a favorite poem? (Share it!)
Several. But I’ll pick one:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e.e.cummings

4. What is one thing you’ve always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read?
I wish I had more time to read, period. I wish I could read more newspapers without having less time to read books…

5. What are you currently reading?
“The Far Side of the World” Patrick O’Brian

I’m also in the middle of a couple of others (I’m very rarely in the middle of just one book at a time) George Eliot’s “Middlemarch”, Harold Bloom’s “The Western Canon” and Bj�rn Ranelid’s “Min son f�ktas mot v�rlden”, to mention a few.