Pixelsphinx may not have intended to start a meme, but I suspect it’s one now. Anyway, you know me, a list has got to be completed (via Melissa):

Favorite Color: A sea-green, sort of turquosy thing
Favorite Flower: Tulips
Favorite Scent: Any Laura Biagotti scent
Favorite Cocktail: Single malt whisky! Oh, sorry, coctail you said? Long Island Ice Tea
Favorite Wine (if any): Billecart-Salmon champagne
Favorite Soda/Drink: Farris (sparkling water)
Favorite Food: Pasta with garlic and cream sauce (any variety), pizza, tacos, chicken kashmiri, uhm, ok, I’ll stop there.
Favorite Restaurant: The Old Black Lion, Hay-on-Wye
Favorite Treat: champagne
Favorite Candy: Freias milk chocolate or Non-stop
Favorite Number: 4
Favorite day of the year: 17th May
Favorite Season: Spring
Favorite Holiday: Christmas
Favorite Game (video/board): Tetris/Trivial Pursuit
Your addictions are: Books, single malt whisky, chocolate, coffee, Beat for Beat and Martin
If you had a whole day to yourself, alone, and you wanted to treat yourself, what would you do?: Curl up on the couch with a blanket and plenty of tea, coffee and chocolate available and read and perhaps watch a good movie or two. And I’d order a Peppes pizza for dinner.
If you had an extra $200 that you didn’t need to spend on bills or debt, what would you buy with it?: Right now? A bed.

Not entirely sure how much I have to say to the Friday Five questions this week, actually.

1. What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?
While living in Manchester I’d walk alone at night, which I was repeatedly told was a very risky thing to do. I suppose meeting up with people you’ve gotten to know over the internet is quite risky, too, in a way, but I think a little common sense will probably keep you safe enough.

2. What one thing would you like to try that your mother/friend/significant other would never approve of?
My mother’s not overly cautious and neither are my friends. I’d like to try stuff that Martin might not want to try himself – ride all the world’s largest roller coasters, for example, and hanggliding, possibly – however, I hardly think you can claim that he’d disapprove.

3. On a scale of 1-10, what’s your risk factor? (1=never take risks, 10=it’s a lifestyle)
Somwhere around the 5 mark – boringly enough.

4. What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you as a result of being bold/risky?
Getting to meet Roger, Sarah, Glenda, Donna, Rachel, Jane and Lyn.

5. … and what’s the worst?
You know, I can’t think of anything bad that’s happened to me because of taking risks – unless you count such things as having to pay for excess baggage…

I was trying to remember when the Norwegian Mother’s Day is (it’s this Sunday) last night and started thinking about bringing my parents breakfast in bed. I used to do this fairly frequently as a kid. I assume it must have started with one of my parents helping me (my father at Mother’s Day my mother at Father’s Day) or me helping whenever one of them had a birthday, but once I was old enough to work the coffee maker I was allowed to get on with it. And at some point I must have decided that waiting for special occasions to come along was not really necessary, and so my parents would get breakfast in bed whenever I felt like it (apart from birthdays I’d stick to Sundays, though). I learnt the importance of checking the time the day when they were somewhat unappreciative – it was half past five in the morning, as far as I can remember – but other than that I can’t recall any major mishaps.

Then, when I got to around 15 or 16, my parents stopped sleeping in, even on a Sunday, and I started, and the timing, therefore, was no longer in my favour.

Nowadays, I myself get breakfast in bed almost every weekend – and proper breakfast, too (bacon/sausage and eggs) rather than the coffee or tea and odd bisquit which seemed to be enough to please my parents first thing in the morning.

I seem to have done rather well, boyfriend-wise.

Note to self: As my parents are back from Thailand on Sunday, I suppose I ought to send a card.

Voice in my head: Shania Twain – From This Moment

WOULD. IT. PLEASE. STOP. SNOWING. NOW.

I mean, really.

More madness!

1. I probably spend about an hour on the computer every day. Outside work, that is.
2. It always takes me five minutes to get ready in the morning. It normaly takes longer, of course, but I don’t really need more than five.
3. I would rather go to the dentist than go to a nightclub. Seriously. I don’t mind the dentist (apart from the bills).
4. My favorite dessert is creme caramel. At least right now, I had some Saturday night and it was delish and made me decide to try making it myself soon.
5. When I go to the store for one item, I always walk out with about three or four, at the very least.
6. If the statement, ‘You are what you eat’ was true, I would be a humongous pork liver patê. Uhm, yeah.
7. I set my thermostat to ‘off’ in the summer and 20ish (?) in the winter. I don’t actually have a thermostat. I have central heating which tends to be off or on and no air conditioning.
8. My favorite outdoor activity is walking. Preferably combined with photography.
9. My favorite indoor activity is reading. And various things involving Martin.
10. When I’m feeling down, I usually read. Or snuggle up to Martin.

Voice in my head: Avril Lavigne – Naked

The Anti-Valentines are back!

(Hence the above button.)

Now all I need to do is figure out which one(s) to send. I might go with the hypocrite one, because, well, though Valentine’s Day really is a completely stupid concept and given a choice I’d much rather be surprised with “romance” than have it when expected due to the pressures of world consumerism (it’s not even a Norwegian tradition), I’d obviously still be miffed if the day was completely ignored, wouldn’t I?

“Happy Saturday” is good, too.

Voice in my head: Bruce Sprinsteen – The River (which was on the radio this morning)

You have just won one million dollars:

Oh, I get it. Hypothetically, right?

1. Who do you call first?
Martin, obviously.

2. What is the first thing you buy for yourself?
A bottle of really good champagne, like this one (I could just go and ask for the most expensive champagne, but what would be the point, I know this one is good). And then I’d pay off my student loan.

3. What is the first thing you buy for someone else?
Well, I’d share the champagne with Martin, of course, but perhaps that doesn’t count? Ok, tickets to Scotland for Martin (oh, and myself, but ignore that for the purpose of the question).

4. Do you give any away? If yes, to whom?
If I won a million dollars I’d probably pay off my brother’s student loan, too – though I might wait until he’d actually finished his studies (as the interest on Norwegian student loans only start running once you’ve graduated – or dropped out).

5. Do you invest any? If so, how?
I’d pay off my mortgage, too – in fact, I’d probably sell my flat and buy a larger one outright, which is an investment, right? Following an initial spending spree (mainly in Scotland), I’d talk to a financial advisor and invest the rest to ensure a steady income (so, safe rather than high yield).

Well, if Tinka can do it, so can I.

Please ignore if you’re not interested in what I might have read from the previously mentioned BBC Big Read list.
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Another ‘fill in the blanks’ from Monday Madness:

1. The one kitchen appliance I just could not live without is my fridge? Cooker? I wouldn’t want to do without either of them, really.
2. My desk always looks like a bomb hit it.
3. The clocks in my house are always zero minutes fast. With the exception of my alarm clock which is generally a minute or two fast. The others I try to keep accurate.
4. The one television program I just can’t stand is most that fall into the category ‘reality’.
5. The one television program I try to never miss is Beat for beat.
6. When it comes to housework, I really hate cleaning drains. Other than that, when it comes to housework, what I really hate is vacuuming and ironing.
7. If I could re-design my living room, the first thing I would do is make it larger. Unfortunately that’s not really possible. I’m pretty happy with it otherwise, and if there were other things I’d like to do, I’d probably just do them.
8. I wish I had a bigger ‘broom cupboard’ in my house. I need more storage.
9. When someone points a camera at me and says ‘Smile!’ I usually smile. Obedience is my middle name ;)
10. I expect I’ll have my income tax done by whenever it’s supposed to be done. In fact, in Norway they do it for us and mine is straight-forward enough that I will probably just accept whatever they say (unless they claim I need to give them lots of money, in which case I’ll probably check the figures…).