Chocolate and custard cupcakes

September 10, 2011

These are my mother’s chocolate cupcakes. Yummy and chocolatey, and the custard filling makes for a nice surprise inside. In my opinion, they’re also exceptional when eaten slightly frozen – when the custard is ice-cold and the chocolate is deliciously chocolatey.  I’ve actually frozen almost all of the cupcakes from this batch – it stops [...]

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Book Review: A throne in Brussels

September 9, 2011

I picked A Throne in Brussels by Paul Belien up in London this summer. I have been fascinated with Belgium and the internal struggle there for a while, and finding this seemed a great way to get a bit more thorough into the subject. The book deals with the history of the Belgian monarchy – [...]

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Want(ed): Sofa

September 7, 2011

 When my sister M and I first talked about moving in together, there was a lot of planning prior to the actual moving. A lot of the time was spent discussing how we were going to decorate the place. One of the things we agreed on was that we wanted a comfortable sofa. I watched [...]

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Elephant Parade

September 5, 2011

I noticed these elephants around in Copenhagen, and fell completely in love with them, thus taking the pictures below.  When I was in London earlier this summer, I noticed an elephant close by Oxford Street.   It is part of a project to get funds for the Asian Elephant, and the project is called Elephant Parade  [...]

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Video: Manic Monday

September 4, 2011

Growing up, my Dad had some summer tapes from the late 80s, maybe early 90s, in the car. I grew up listening to those, to the degree when there was a popular music poll in my 6th grade class, Manic Monday was on my favourite-list. This in a time when Gangsta’s Paradise and Boombastic were [...]

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Cinnamon and raisin bagels

September 3, 2011

Back in July, watching the television coverage from the Oslo bombings and the Utøya shootings. I was sitting in front of the television set the entire Saturday… and in the evening, I felt like I had to do something else. Being on the other side of the country, unable to help anyone on the Eastern [...]

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Book review: Young Prince Philip

September 2, 2011

Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life by Philip Eade The book’s prologue is the story of  the death of the Duke’s sister, Cecile, in 1937. From there, Eade goes back to the origin of the Greek monarchy, to give a bit of background, and to bring it out from obscurity, or so he says. He [...]

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A prickly September ahead…?

September 1, 2011

Picture from Kew Gardens earlier this summer

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Want: Umbrella

August 31, 2011

Summer hasn’t happened much in my part of Norway. As usual, it has been wet and fairly cold. And the umbrellas have been out in full force already. But for autumn, I like the design of this umbrella from Stormy Weather. It looks like fun, and a bit different than all the umbrellas that I [...]

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Video: Robin Sparkles

August 28, 2011

I love How I Met Your Mother, and Robin Sparkles is a good part of the show’s backstory. It’s very 80s, but then it is meant to be just that. Enjoy.

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Cinnamon rolls

August 27, 2011

I got this from Beantown Baker who remade a recipe from Pioneer Woman. I’ve adapted the recipe to metrics, and modified a bit as to what works for me. However, I do recommend taking a look at the other two to see what may or may work for you. I’ve made it twice, and the [...]

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Book review: The final curtsey

August 26, 2011

Prior to this release, there were a couple of articles in the Telegraph, about revelations from this book. I don’t know if it was just me, but the articles made it seem like it would be quite a substantial book in size. It isn’t. Just over 150 pages, the book is actually rather small. But, [...]

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Royal Media: Med Kronprinsparet på hytta

August 25, 2011

The second royal programme of the evening is on TV2, and the concept is that two Norwegian television evening-show hosts visit the Crown Prince family at their summer house outside Kristiansand.

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Royal media: The Wedding Speech that wasn’t

August 25, 2011

It is not only the three books that are coming out around Haakon and Mette-Marit’s anniversary. Two television programmes are airing today, on their wedding anniversary.

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Want: 2 1/2 men coffee mug

August 24, 2011

I am not a huge 2 1/2 men fan – if I am in the right sort of mood, I find it slightly amusing. If not, it falls very, very flat. However, what I do love about the show, is the props. (Oh, and the house on the beach wouldn’t go amiss either.) More specifically, [...]

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Book review: Haakon og Mette-Marit i 10 år

August 22, 2011

The last book reviewed for now in the category of books released for Haakon and Mette-Marit’s 10th anniversary is this book: Haakon og Mette-Marit i 10 år, by Liv Berit Tessem. Unlike the other two books, this one is chronological. It has one chapter for each of the ten years they have been married. I [...]

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National Day of Mourning

August 21, 2011

21. August will be a National memorial in Norway. There will be an arrangement later today. The song below is another of those songs that have really been the “soundtrack” so to speak, for getting through this tragedy. It was written as an ironic approach to the European Union referendum in Norway in the 90s, [...]

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Chocolate Dump Cake

August 20, 2011

Every now and then, I need an easy thing to throw together for unexpected visitors. This time, it was a friend of mine who is getting her PHD in Vienna, who is home for a brief time this summer. I had been offered dinner at my parents before she was due to arrive, and so [...]

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Book review: Mette-Marit – Prinsesse av folket

August 19, 2011

As I said in my review the other day – there have been three books released to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Haakon and Mette-Marit’s marriage. This is the second one I’m reviewing. It is called Mette-Marit: Prinsesse av folket. En illustrert feiring av Norges kronprinspar, (Translation: Mette-Marit, Princess of the people. An illustrated celebration [...]

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Book review: 10 år med Kronprinsparet

August 14, 2011

This August, ten years have passed since Crown Prince Haakon married Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby in Oslo Cathedral. A slew of books (okay, three, so far) are coming out, two television specials are coming later this month, and the couple are also being interviewed left and right about the past ten years, and their causes. The [...]

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Norwegian elections

August 10, 2011

Even though the Norwegian election campaigning has been postponed by the Utøya shootings, I have still managed to vote as the election itself is going normally. Election day is September 12, but they open up for distance voting a fair bit before that. And this year, they’re also experimenting. 10 municipalities in Norway are offering [...]

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Life has begun to return to normal

August 2, 2011

Albeit slowly. It was a shock the first time I turned on the television after the attacks at Utøya and in Oslo 22. July – and noticed that the programme did not cover those attacks. I think it was the Wednesday after. Life goes on, even for the television channels, who emptied all their programming [...]

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Til Ungdommen

July 26, 2011

This is probably the song that has been used the most in memorials across the country. It is written by Nordahl Grieg in 1936.

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Why dementia is extra bad in these situations

July 24, 2011

My grandmother has dementia. It runs in the family. Her mother had it. Her mother’s father, allegedly, had it. (I’m choosing to take the positive here that my grandmother didn’t start getting bad at remembering things until she was 86.)

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Update from Oslo

July 23, 2011

Cripes. A press conference states that 7 are dead in Oslo – but that the buildings haven’t been searched extensively, so those numbers may rise. Currently 84 are dead at the Youth Camp at Utøya, but they’re searching the lake around the island with divers, etc. so those numbers may rise. In a country with [...]

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Oslo today

July 22, 2011

Just to let everyone know, I am fine – and am not in the Oslo area at all. No one in my circle of friends/family appear to be in the area and be injured. (The brother of someone I know, who is rather high up in the Labour Youth Party and who would normally be [...]

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