We’re happy to announce a date in Halden, Norway. On the 27:th of march we’ll be playing at Rockehuset.

Hopefully we’ll add a show in Oslo on the 26:th.

If you know any awesome venue please mail us, info at leadersoff dot com.

I would say no but, some people think so.
This lovely person named Marie contacted me about doing a interview on her blog that is based on Norway/Østfold.
I did and it can be viewed HERE!

Hope it’s a semi good read and gets you closer to my cold dark soul.

I also have a ton of new stuff up in the shop .. Belly dancers and princesses.
So if you like that sort of stuff then go check out the gift shop a The Bootique.com

Boo

Bakgården Kaffebrenneri har fått egen facebook-gruppe! Meld deg gjerne inn her.

“Bakgården Kaffebrenneri er Haldens ferskeste kaffebar og kaffebrenneri. Du finner oss i bakgården rett rundt hjørnet på kvartalet tvers ovenfor bussholdeplassen ved Busterudparken, vegg i vegg med Bakgården Restaurant.

Vi har et bredt spekter av kaffedrikker, høykvalitetskaffe og te i både kopp og pose, kaker, selvlaget konfekt, drops og annet godt fra lokale leverandører. For den sultne har vi enkle lunsjretter som wraps, rundstykker og toast, og alt på Bakgårdens lunsjmeny kan også bestilles inn til vårt lokale.

Vi har fyllt våre to etasjer med kaffe, te, utstyr og små interiørartikler. Omtrent alt du ser rundt deg er til slags. Sjansen er svært stor for å finne noe som frister, enten til deg selv eller andre. Mange gode gaveideer, og vi hjelper deg gjerne å komponere en personlig preget gavepakke både på smak og visuelt inntrykk.

Selv brenner vi tre typer kaffe, både til filter og espresso. Columbia, Kenya og Tanzania. I tillegg har vi utvalgte kaffe- og tesorter fra Solberg & Hansen, den største leverandøren i Norge på høykvalitetskaffe og -te.

Åpningstiden er mandag til lørdag 10-17.

Velkommen inn!”

Her på Kaffebrenneriet vil jeg tilbringe mye av tiden min på dagtid fremover.
Vi har egenbrent kaffe, kaffe og te fra Solberg & Hansen, lunsjretter, konfekt og annet snop.
Åpningstiden er mandag-lørdag 10.00-17.00.
Velkommen inn!

I tillegg vil jeg jobbe litt som bartender ved Ankergaarden Pianobar.
Pianobaren har offisiell åpning i kveld med cognac-foredrag, og hver helg kommer ny pianist som spiller for oss.
Forrige helg hadde vi George Coby på besøk, en livlig og dyktig kar fra Bulgaria.
Aldersgrensen er 23 år og etter kl 22 er det 100 kr i cover.
Åpningstiden er 20.00-02.30.

Ved behov vil jeg også hoppe inn som hjelp i restauranten som har åpent mandag-lørdag 11.00-23.00 og søndag 13.00-20.00.

Hjemmeside Bakgården Restaurant og Kaffebrenneri

While the weather here in Adelaide is lovely and warm but not too warm (as I cleverly missed last week’s heat wave by being in Victoria), I have been keeping an eye on the Halden weatherpixie. It’s been stuck at minus 15 for about a month. Which has filled me with dread. And yes we should have left heaters on in our apartment because our landlady informs us grumpily that our toilet is frozen and our bathroom floor is covered in two centimeters of ice. At least we know for next time. Anyway, I noticed yesterday that the weather in Halden was -3. And today it’s -2. And while that’s not quite warm enough to melt the ice, it still sounds positively toasty.

The weather has been uninspiring, as have the extensive hours of darkness. At least it’s nearly the winter solstice and the sun will slowly start inching its way back towards us. Even better, I get to jump ship for a month and experience the summer solstice instead. Really looking forward to a holiday. Everyone in the kindergarten is exhausted. Also, Michael has been away for work forever and ever and it’s getting extremely boring around here.

Enough whinging. Probably just the December blues. I wrote a poem yesterday, which made me happy. And I just spoke to Michael for an hour on skype, which made me even happier.

Last weekend we had a Christmas market at the kindergarten! We sold things the kids have made, and put on a little concert. There was mulled wine, coffee, pepperkaker (gingerbread made with heaps of cardamom), and lots and lots of cake.

As usual, I wasn’t wearing enough clothes, and my feet slowly turned to blocks of ice. Need to get me some fur lined boots.

After the concert, the Julenisse led a dance around our outdoor Christmas tree. Before I joined in, everyone swirling around the tree reminded me of some kind of pagan ritual. I half expected a human sacrifice. Then I thought – what the hell, when have I ever danced around a Christmas tree before? And I joined in.

Jeg trodde det skulle bli vanskeligere å innfinne seg med tanken på å flytte hjem enn hva det er. Det siste året har jeg utviklet meg mye som person, og de siste månedene har jeg tatt noen modne valg. Jeg har gjort mye ugagn, men samtidig fått en økt forståelse for mange nye sider ved livet. Det har vært temmelig tøft både psykisk og fysisk, men på en måte ser jeg på den perioden jeg har vært gjennom som givende så lenge jeg klarer å holde den kursen jeg har nå. Med et godt grep om min egen nakke ser jeg nå hvor jeg vil befinne meg i fremtiden. Alle erfaringer jeg har fått ta del av her i livet kan vendes om til visdom, så lenge jeg har riktig utgangspunkt i hverdagen.

Sommeren spesielt var vanskelig i år. Jeg dro meg selv skikkelig langt ned. Nå står jeg fremdeles med et kne i bakken, men er på vei opp til stående stilling. Menneskene jeg har rundt meg nå er gode med meg, familien min er støttende i prosessen og jeg fylles stadig med positive vibber. En periode i helvete er over, og jeg vil ikke tilbake til der jeg var. Ikke igjen, for hvem vet om jeg kommer meg opp på beina igjen. Jeg står sterkt nå, fyllt med livsglede i årets mørkeste periode. Høyst uvanlig for en kvinne med igjengående vinterdepresjoner.

Min far skal bygge garasje til våren, og jeg har takket ja til forslaget om å bygge leilighet til meg over. Om resultatet blir i nærheten av skissen er det ingen grunn til å klage. Jeg overtar min fars Nissan Almera rundt jul og er på jobbjakt. Jeg har gode stabile mennesker rundt meg som jeg liker å være med. Jeg får den hjelpen jeg trenger, og føler jeg har det utrolig bra.

Faktisk kan jeg tørre å påstå jeg er lykkelig. Tusen takk.

Twilight seems to happen a lot around here right now. It would be a good town for vampires. It’s completely dark by four, and when I drive to work at eight, they sky is still only thinking about waking up. I’ve hardly seen the sun in a month. One morning I watched it rise from the window of the barnehagen – bright and orange and clear – but it was raining again two hours later. One mercy is that the icy weather has receded for the moment, so no scraping frost off windscreens or skidding on the roads. (The boardwalk by the river, however, remains treacherous.)

In less than a month I will be in Australia for Christmas. I can’t wait, though sunshine and beaches seem mighty improbable right now. But I am not wishing the time away. There are many things to do before then in my twilight world.

Jeg har en plan.

Ved drastiske hverdagsforrandringer må man legge en plan, så man har noe å jobbe utifra. Ingen plan, ingen fremgang er min tanke. For uten en plan vet man ikke hva man skal gjøre og bruker hver dag på å finne ut hva man skal bruke denne ene dagen på istedet for å vite det fra morgenen av. Det er kortsiktige planer og fremtidsplaner, og noe midt i mellom. Jeg liker best de midt i mellom, for da har jeg litt tid på meg på å få utført oppgavene, samtidig som det er nærme nok til å ikke bare utsette problemet til langt frem i tid. Derfor laget jeg en “midt-i-mellom-plan”.

Hva planen er? Ja, jo, det skal du få vite, men ikke alt, bare hovedtrekkene. Det er viktig å holde noen planer tilbake, for om ikke går det kanskje ikke etter planen allikevel. Men du kan få vite den umiddelbare planen, som består av at jeg skal hjem til Halden i morgen for å bo på hytten til mormor og morfar, lære meg å kjøre pappas bil med automatgir og feire livet med Halden i helgen. Neste helg skal jeg og M kjøre til Bergen, så herje verden med Helene i helgen, før det braker løs med 2 ukers arbeid og ihvertfall én champagne-kveld med Yvonne.

Så begynner “midt-i-mellom-planen”, heretter kalt The Master Plan. Når jeg kommer tilbake før jul skal jeg ta tid og være med familie og venner, søke jobber og nyte hverdagen. Matinntaket begrenses til normal konsumering, og ikke den kjente julefråtsingen. GK-trening skal fortsettes på morgningen minimum 5 dager i uken. De dypeste demonene skal hanskes med fra nyttår av, de overfladiske demonene er arbeidet nemlig allerede i gang med og skal selvfølgelig fortsettes. NAV skal kontaktes når jeg kommer til Halden, må få et opplegg med dagpenger til jeg får jobb. For jobb skal jeg ha, og så fort jeg har jobb, skal jeg søke om lån til leilighet og bil.

The Master Plan går hovedsaklig ut på å roe ned i Halden, kjøpe en leilighet og bil og nyte hverdagene med opp- og nedturer (for de kommer begge to).

Jeg krysser fingrene for fremgang, for oss alle.

The Master Plan Motivational Soundtrack

We bought a house! It is very cute. And that yellow ’sold’ sign? It doesn’t mean someone else snapped it up before we got our act together. That’s us. We did it.

It was nerve-wracking. We made the offer yesterday morning, then had to wait twenty-four hours to see if anyone would up the offer, and if the owners would accept it. (That’s the way they do things here – each house sale is potentially a twenty-four hour auction.) The wait ended at 9am, but I start work at 8. Today we had a planning day. I tried very hard to concentrate on a Norwegian discussion of which I understood, oh, about ten percent, while watching the imperceptible inching of the hands of the clock. I kept looking at the second hand to convince myself time was actually moving, but it wasn’t ticking as fast as my heart.

I was steeling myself to wait until 9.15, but Michael rang at 9 on the dot. Having apologized in advance for answering my phone in a meeting, I raced off to one of the empty kindergarten rooms.

‘So what do you think’, said Michael, ‘did we do it?’

‘JUST TELL ME!’

‘Yes.’

It’s walking distance to town; it has a garden and a deck and lots of lovely windows; the rooms are square and friendly and full of life. It’s an old house, but it was completely renovated four years ago. We can move in at the end of January.

We are very happy. Mostly about the house, but also about the fact that we can stop house-hunting now! Hurrah!

I still can’t quite believe that we really get to live there.

Some other excellent and totally unexpected news capped off the day, but I won’t tell you about it yet because it’s not set in stone and I don’t want to jinx it. But the waiting and the hoping aren’t over quite yet.

Last Friday, on a rare blue day, I walked across the bridge, through the town, and into the park.

This autumn is so nearly over.

But one tree was incandescent.

Its branches were like fiery rapids,

like all the warmth one could ever need.

Jeg dro fra Bergen, planene var svært uklare. En dristig del av meg ville til Barcelona, en annen del av meg visste det var en form for flukt. Jeg flykter og forrandrer, både på omgivelsene og meg selv. Det har jeg gjort det lenge. Nå er det på tide å ta tak i det, og derfor drar jeg hjem til der det hele begynte, Halden. Jeg skal grave i meg selv med alle redskaper tilgjengelig og finne roen i meg selv som jeg vet er der.

I følge min far er dette ikke unaturlig, man drar tilbake til røttene for å søke det man ikke fant der ute. Og sjansen er stor for at man finner det i kaoset man forlot hjemme. Jeg merker allerede roen senker seg over meg ved å tenke på en fremtid i Halden. En fremtid jeg har vekslet mye på å forholde meg til. Jeg er kvinne, tro det eller ei.

Jeg tar nå tak i ting jeg ikke trodde jeg skulle bevege meg i nærheten av. Jeg drar hjem, noe jeg trodde var langt frem i tid. Jeg vil finne ro, jeg vil ha en trygghet rundt meg, noe godt å forholde seg til. Man kan allikevel ha hverdagslige krumspring, livet trenger ikke bli kjedelig bare fordi man har faste omgivelser, faste mennesker å forholde seg til og stillhet.

Jeg trenger ro og stillhet, og det finner jeg der jeg kommer fra. Derfor drar jeg dit, ingen mer flukt.

And then we threw a frisbee in the sun.

It is, all of a sudden, cold. There is something exhilarating about the swift change of season. We swapped lapping up the sun in Berlin parks for scraping ice off the windscreen at 7:30 in the morning. The trees are swiftly turning gold, and I drive through wreaths of mist to get to work. All week, the afternoons have been shiny-bright, and at the kindergarten we’ve been making the most of them, bundling up the babbies in layer after layer and spending hours outside. On Friday we had an impromptu outdoor disco. One my co-workers, sitting on a grassy slope with a babbie on her lap (the babbies she’s responsible for are too old for extensive cuddling and lap-sitting, but she usually steals one of mine), watching the rest of us bounce about and flail our arms, said: ‘this is really quite a good job, isn’t it’. And I had to agree.

The best things we brought back from Berlin were two hot water bottles Michael asked his parents to buy for us. They have little blue and red fleece suits, and they are great. Soft and furry and warm, they feel exactly like kitties curled up under our duvet. I keep expecting them to bite my toes.

Aside from that, we’ve been looking at houses. We’ve seen so many houses. And so many reasons for leaving. Old people moving to smaller apartments, young families needing an extra bedroom because a third (or a sixth) child is on the way, a messy divorce, people who bit off more than they could chew in terms of the renovations required, people climbing the property market, and people falling off it – there was at least one case of insolvency. One house was a little spooky and rather sad – the deceased estate of a teacher, with gifts from her grandchildren still on the walls.

Every single house seems to have a fatal flaw. They’re a bit like people. Last week we fell madly in love with a house out in the countryside with amazing views and a balcony flooded with sun, but we decided we’d feel lonely out there, and as we only have one car and cannot sensibly afford another, commuting to work in opposite directions could prove a big problem, especially in winter, when the car is prone to dying at short notice. Topping the list at the moment is a funny little house that looks like a shoe box, or, more precicely, a lego man’s shoe, perched precariously half way up a rocky outcrop, with stunning views of the town and the fortress and the harbour. We haven’t seen inside yet, but wandered up there last night. A full, flat moon hovered above the fortress as though on purpose. The problem with this one is access – you have to park at the bottom of a slope, and clamber up a steep narrow driveway. This isn’t a problem in summer, but in winter we might need spiked shoes and an icepick.

Hei ):

Julerevyen Hva har De her å bestille? vil etter planen settes opp på Vrangsiden avd. Black Box i Halden medio desember 2009 ):

I den forbindelse ønsker vi kontakt med folk som kan bidra som frivillige. Dersom du kan noe fint og nyttig ganske godt, er vi takknemmelige for en mail med kort beskrivelse av deg og dine evner.

Vi kommer også til å trenge medvirkende til roller i selve  revyen, så send gjerne bilde med i mailen dersom du har lyst på litt eksponering.

Bruk gjerne smittet@gmail.com for henvendelser.

Vi trenger sikkert særlig mennesker med erfaring fra teaterproduksjon, noen med peil på lyd/lys og foto- og videodokumentasjon av forestillinger/konserter, MEN vi er interessert idet meste; vi har nokså innfallsstyrt interessefelt og fokus, så Jordbærdyrking kan slå Graphic Designer en lang gang.

Smitte har den siste tiden vært preget av forsinkelser og avlysninger, men nå blir det altså juleboller.

Håper å høre fra deg ):
):

Med smittsom hilsen

- Dj Schmitztika

Vrangsiden
vrangsiden@gmail.com
www.vrangsiden.wordpress.com

Smitte
smittet@gmail.com
www.smitte-vrangsiden.blogspot.com

Hei.

Mot slutten av året ønsker Smitte å invitere Haldens befolkning til en julerevy – i både velkjent og fremmed drakt. Vi ønsker å servere en kombinasjon av klassisk underholdning som er velkjent fra sjangeren, som sang og sketsjer, men samtidig utfordre publikum til deltakelse og refleksjon gjennom noen mer problematiserende perspektiver på julen. Vi lever i et samfunn der høytiden fortrylles, og da er det desto viktigere å gi den noen skråblikk; for mange er også dette en vanskelig og ikke minst forvirrende del av året, og vi ønsker også å gi disse oppmerksomhet.

Julerevyen Hva har De her å bestille? vil etter planen settes opp på Vrangsiden avd. Black Box i Halden i midten av desember 2009.

Smitte har den siste tiden vært preget av forsinkelser og avlysninger, men nå blir det altså juleboller.

For oppdateringer – send en epost til smitte.info@gmail.com

Ah, the beauty of traveling…If you go somewhere and stay a while, hopefully you make some good friends. Especially if you are taking a some sort of course and/or live with them. I was in Canada in July,2005 and made some lovely friends. It was before Facebook. We had email and messengers. My best friend was a Mexican girl named Paola and we had so much fun together. We laughed, enjoyed Vancouver, partied… Of course the gang was huge and multi-national. After the month was over and everyone went back to their countries, e-mail traffic was incredible. We sent each other messages, shared photos and talked online. Then of course everybody had jobs, school and native friends/relationships to tend to, so the traffic slowed down considerably. I know it is a normal process and everything but it is still sad that everyday life just adds to the miles and time differences. But of course you get jealous of the ones who got to stay in the city you love so much. Or if people are leading more fun then yours. My less than satisfying internship at a PR firm certainly made me miss everyone and everything about the place even more.

Some places make it easier to be 100% yourself. Vancouver- for me – was definitely one of them.

But that year gave me much to look forward to: I was going to be an Erasmus student in Halden, Norway. Imagine the exciment. A full-time student life. You get to live with your friends, your neighbors are your friends. You can get lazy, party your ass off, have movie/karaoke nights…It was a bliss. Complete with crushes, romance and amazing and hopefully everlasting friendships… You see, the reason I said “hopefully” everlasting is that; even though I know we will remember each other (Hell, we spent a whole year together and had an amazing time). It was the best year of my life…

I can’t believe it has already been 4 years. Of course a lot happened in everybody’s life. Some of the Norwegians scattered around to do master’s, some internationals stayed in Norway, an “Erasmus” couple got married (a French guy/ Russian girl that met in Norway during Erasmus). And there have been a couple of reunions.

But inevitably, we started to lose track. There are many ex-neighbors that I haven’t heard from in years- which is a shame because I was really close with some of them. I had a really great German friend named Franka. We got along really well. We had fun and it looked like there was only one thing that separated us really: she was a hard-worker. I was not. Let’s just say if I can get away with passable grades, I do. My grades there would not affect me academically at all as long as I passed so why bother more, right? But her hard work continued after she went back to Germany and eventually, we lost touch completely. The ironic thing is, though- while in norway, she dated one of my best friends there. He broke it off as erasmus time grew closer, she wanted a long distance relationship. He did not. I can’t really imagine how she could pull it off; no one the erasmus gang is in contact with her- due to her busy life.

Oh then, you have your neighbors that you are really, really tight with- spend most of your time with and have such a laugh. But then you leave, new neighbors come abroad and you are forgotten. Well, maybe not forgotten. But I prefer to be remembered often and well I definitely prefer keeping in touch, rather than remaining as a distant memory, eventually to be forgotten. Here is the thing, I don’t care how many friends you have. It is not about how close you live. It is about how close you are. Lack of communication and life sure get in the way, but I sure wish things didn’t work like that. It is weird turning into strangers after everything. Oh don’t give me the move on speech. These are not  romantic relationships. You ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO GET OVER YOUR FRIENDS.

Of course, I realized when you are life gets on the faster track, you are the one to communicate less. And hell, I can’t blame the ones who are deeply in love, deep into the party life and have less time to spend on lineIn fact, it is highly encouraged. I, on, the other hand- am a writer/freelancer. Computers are my good pals. Internet is a must. And it feels good connected to the rest of the world when you are in a transition period like me. You know- when you have figured out what you want and you are ready to fight your ass off to get it. Hell, after I do get what I want, I will just pay them all a visit- wherever they are…Until then, we have the memories, right?

Halden, Norway

Nothing beats a roman holiday with your best friend...

Halden recently noted a post by R. O. Flyer about an article by Nicholas Healy critiquing the so-called “New Ecclesiology” of Hauerwas, the RO crew, and the Catholic crew (not that they are so different). Now I haven’t read the article so I am going on Flyer’s take on things. Perhaps I am a card carrying member of the – as Tony Jones puts it – “Hauerwasian Mafia;” and perhaps I’m reading through a Milbank essay as we speak, but I wanted to disagree with their patently Reformed critique that these ecclesiologies lack the ability be be judged by God’s Word and that they are in fact “reactionary.” I wanted to also turn the tables and say that it is the idealism of a “spiritual” ecclesiology that is in need of concrete judgement.

First off, the accusation that these ecclesiologies are “reactionary” needs to be let go right away. All theology, be it ecclesiology or whatever, is done by people; that is to say, theological discourse takes place in history. Being historical we neither come to the task objectively or untraditioned by our own circumstances and upbringing. Perhaps this seems an elementary observation but it begs the question: “Is there any ecclesiology that is not situated ‘for’ and/or ‘against’ the prevailing tendencies of the day?” Obviously not, as the Augustine example makes clear (funny to put in a story that doesn’t much build up ones case). Indeed it is perhaps a the unconcrete ecclesiology that is idealistic, looking to the sky for the “Spirit to act.” Yes, it is the height of irony that Hauerwas et. al. speak “idealistically” of the Church and proceed to judge the Church for remaining in sin but are being accused of being unavailable for such judgement. How might we expect the Spirit to judge the Church but by its own preachers? And it is a categorical misunderstanding of the RO critique to say that the Church must be “saved” from evil “modernity” or the “world.” It is exactly the message that the Church has compromised itself with modernity and the world’s secularity and is in need of a “return” (ie-judgement) to theology, to being itself and proclaiming the Gospel on its own terms and not those of “the world.”

To refuse to speak of the Church idealistically is to refuse to be an escatological Church, who is “already” perfected by the act of Christ. By not living up to this accomplished ‘ideal,’ the Church continually places itself under judgement and because of its concreteness can be sanctified. It is the individualized radically free ecclesiology of Reformed Protestantism that resists judgement and who in the face of struggle inevitably chooses schism over reconcilitation, who in the name of “necessary reformation” chooses a shrunken orthodoxy over a generous catholicity thereby rendering such ‘reformation’ null as the ‘reforming’ group is continually multiplied and pluriform.

Et lite filmklipp fra fredagskvelden i Halden. Jeg har den liggende både på Youtube og på Vimeo. Det er bedre HD-visning på Vimeo og lenka dit er denne.

Because I know you might when you hear about my plans for this coming week..
I’ve hoped for something like this to come along for quite some time..

on wednesday I am flying down to oslo, and then i’ll travel to Halden to be in the audience for a show called “Allsang på grensen”.
Why you may ask me?
well only because the teenage musical love of my life is reuniting..
Yes I know it is silly and kinda pathetic of me to travel all that way and spend that money.. but it’s a1

Yes on wednesday I’ll get to see my fave band from my teenage years live one more time.. and that 6 years after the last time I saw them together.. fingers crossed Paul will be there too.

Hei igjen. Det begynner å bli en stund siden jeg skrev noe her, så tenkte jeg skulle skrive ett eller annet.

Det er åsåmt å ha sommerferie. Endelig litt tid til å slappe av! Jeg kom hjem for snart en uke siden, etter å ha reist litt rundt om kring. Først var jeg en liten tur i Roma. Det var varm det. Alt for varmt! Men jeg fikk tatt rundt 800 bilder, som jeg nå skal legge ut her på min fantastiske blogg.

Italias italienske is <3

Jeg var innom Vatikanet også >:3. Yay!

Etter jeg var ferdig i Roma, dro jeg til besteforeldrene mine i Halden. Der var jeg et par dager før jeg dro til Oslo *-* Norges store by! Yay!

Og etter to uker, er jeg hjemme igjen <3

Orange-fringed clouds at ten pm. A break in the rain. The grey, swollen river. I walk slow so as not to slip on the boards. At the harbour, a rather good band pump out melancholic Norwegian pop songs to an almost empty tented pavilion. The lead vocalist is the drummer. He is mesmerising. Families stroll with dogs and children. The ground is shiny and wet. The air has that beautiful cold smell of autumn. The restaurants on the harbour are still fairly full but the mood is muted. As I walk back over the bridge, the sheen of the streetlights on the drenched ground reminds me momentarily of snow.

Har oppdatert fana med Halden-nytt i dag.