i feel like..

I need a life..
I need more of something and less of nothing..

I don’t really know what I need, but I’ve been trying for days now to blog about something.. anything..
Nothing..

The weekend was spent watching tons of movies, going to with my housemate Leida to shop, well more like watching her shop, going out, leaving early and then watch a bunch more movies..
I mean it is great to be able to go to the gym whenever I want (resulting in 4-5 times a week)
But I’m getting sick of myself, of being on  my own, of not having anything to do.
I’ve even offered to help people with uniwork, because I’ve come to realise that not having anything to do doesn’t really suit me.

it rather brings me down, not even frozen yoghurt ben & jerry’s could cheer me up today
not even the fact that I could add more weight on the bar at body pump cheered me up, not even pita bread..

I’m 23 years old (24 in a month) single, jobless and bored out of my brains..
I also checked my balance the other day and that was a blow too, luckily i get paid for the work i did during christmas on friday, so i can spoil myself to some more froyo b&j for sunday when all the happy couples are out smooching and i’m sat at home watching sappy movies being bitter towards the most stupid day of the year!

but in all honesty, my life is good, i’m just having a bad day or two.
Hopefully spring is right around the corner to put a nice smile on my face again..

sorry for boring you with my silliness, i just wanted to post something so you wouldn’t forget about me.

Renate's Steven, and myself partying hard!

I also figured i’d add a recent photo so you’d all remember what I look like, and because a post without pictures can be even more boring than a post of silliness..

long overdue

This has been meaning to go up on the da deadly duo blog for quite some time, but i got bored of editing, and then i didn’t have time, so finally it has been finished.
I was feeling ugly while we were in london so no me on camera hehe, but you get to hear my voice a lot and you get to see a lot of Renate hehe.. so enjoy our short london vlog, to be honest we kinda forgot to film a lot of the time so it might not even be super interesting, but i’ve picked out what i feel is the most fun parts.
Enjoy.

Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

jingle….

Nope not bells..
sorry for spamming you with entries but very few of you know that me and the lovely Renate used to make brilliant videoblogs or vlogs once upon a time. We went under the name Da Deadly Duo (click to see old vlogs) and it is safe to say for quite a while we had too much free time on our hands.

Anyway since I am a currently jobless, not a student and insanely bored I took the liberty of creating a brand new jingle, so now we can make many many more vlogs, might start posting them on here, but with a fresher jingle..
Same self-made melody as before just updated our pretty selves a little bit.

whatcha think?

Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

blogging, comments, etc..

I’ve been thinking about writing this entry for a while, but I’ve sorta started it, then deleted it and stuff because I’m not sure if it is my place to say anything about it..

I love blogging, it’s been an important part of my self-development for over a year now, a place to release frustration, to let people get to know me a little bit, a place where I most of the time don’t feel like I have to lie about how I am doing and what I feel.

Early in January Ida wrote a great entry on quality of blogs, how it is important to be able to catch the attention of your readers and try to make your blog as interesting as possibly..  and how it is nice to try and reply to your blog comments, but don’t be generic about it.
Click here to read the full entry in Norwegian.
It is somewhat of an eye-opener really!

for me, this entry is not going to be about how to make your blog better, because frankly I am pretty sure lots of people find my blog generic and boring, I know I don’t write many deep and meaningful posts, I don’t open up to my deepest feelings,  if anything my blog is pretty average and I am suprised I’ve managed to capture this many followers, I must say some stuff that appeal to you all

but now over to what I wanted to talk about, it is something Ida mentioned, which is commenting..
I love commetning other people’s blogs, I love reading and putting my own thoughts to their ideas or feelings whenever they allow me. It also makes me happy when people are able to share their thoughts around whatever I’ve decided to post, but one thing I do not appreciate are comments strictly replying to my own comment to that persons blogentries. Sure it is ok to come back to my blog and give a reply if you want to..
But as a fellow blogger you could at least pretend to have read the entry your commenting?
I’ve had a few doing that on my blog, but I’ve seen it loads on others too..

if you’re going to take the time to reply to a comment, please have the decensy to actually read the entry you’ve decided to comment, it’s blog politeness. I know that’s a word I made up just now, but in my eyes it is only fair..
even if you find the blog boring and uninspiring, if you take the time to go to it and reply, it only takes you a few more minutes to read a little bit and make a quick comment.

Now I’m done with today’s rant, my room needs to be cleaned it’s a disaster area.
It is making me think less about my poor macbook who is with the appledoctor right now, poor lonely macbook going through surgery on it’s own.

call me miss stupid

I’ve injured my beloved macbook,
it had a fall from my bed to the floor which resulted in a cracked screen (or something similar)
Going to take it to the Apple doctor tomorrow, which is luck.

my poor baby is ill and i’m very sadface

Edit: it is costing me £168 to get it fixed, but im relieved because a friend told me to expect a grand:o
It’s expencive to be clumsy

Leeds with Ansa

As I told you in my last blog I went to leeds this weekend with ANSA.
We have our very own olympic Games,

me and Anja looking athletic

You’d think this was about sports and stuff, it was actually pure teambuilding.
We were divided into teams, and given a country to represent, my team we were Jamacia.
Competing in skiing, javelin throws, discos etc, with a funny twist and guess what, good old Jamacia came second, oh yeah!

silver medals

After a day consisting of teambuilding, norwegian waffles and lots of laughs it was back to our very cheap hotel to shower and freshen up and then out to pizza express for a nice meal, well when we finally got there, since we ended up walking to the wrong one, since none of us really new Leeds that well either we spent some time finding the right one, but when we did food was much appreciated.

at pizza express

Afterwards we went to TigerTiger for half price drinks and a stand up show by Sigrid Bonde Tusvik and Jonas Kinge Bergland. It was hilarious, and the evening continued with more and more drinks.
Sadly I had manged to catch a cold just before the weekend, so I wasn’t feeling too peachy, luckily neither was my roommates so we had an early night.
It was still a great weekend with loads of laughter and new friends.
Hopefully I’ll be able to go up to Edinburgh early march for the Annual Ansa UK meeting, and Astrid said she might wanna come with me, so this could be good.
Ansa weekends are always heaps of fun, alcohol and new friends, so bring on march!

All photos are borrowed from facebook!

life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan…

Still not sure what language I will write in, as I am comfortable with English, but I know several of my readers would prefer Norwegian.
After all I have just finished a bachelor of Arts degree, in English literature, meaning that English comes quite naturally to me, but I know that is not for everyone. Yet I somehow like to think that the fact that I do write in English is sort of my trademark?

Anyway, a few of you have asked me what my plans are now and what kind of jobs I am looking for etc.
it is hard to say, right now I am looking for everything and anything, I need something to do as sitting home alone is well depressing, trust me I’ve tried it a few times.
Finishing my degree wasn’t quite how I expected it to be, 3 years ago I choose English because it was my favorite subject in school and I was good at it. It was easy and I was hoping that by the time those three years had passed I knew which direction I was heading in, where my life was going to take me.

THEN!

Here I am three years older and just as clueless as that spring day I made the decision of going after my friend to new zealand.
some of you know I’ve studied one year in New Zealand as well, which was amazing.
then my decisions led me elsewhere, Wolverhampton, strange right?
Since I was a wee lass (little girl) my dream was to study in the UK, as a child the dream was becoming an actress, but that changed after doing drama in school. I still however wish I’d done a joint English degree, with drama or maybe Creative writing.
But what is done is done, and hopefully that goes for my bachelor too.
You see I have yet to get my dissertation grade (dissertation is very similar to the bachelor assignments you have to write in Norway when finishing. 10-12.000 words on a topic)

My point was that it was my childhood dream who took me away from the beautiful land down under to the not as beautiful but just as charming island in Europe.
I have loved and hated my 2 years here, I’ve had so many ups and downs here that I feel like a Yoyo.
my grades dropped drastically when I moved here, the course was a lot harder and making friends proved to be difficult when you’re doing the semesters backwards, everyone I started with graduated in september, but I will get to graduate with everyone I did my 2nd half of the course with this september (hopefully)

So what now?
to be completely honest, I have no idea, a job would be nice, but the aftermath of the creditcrunch is still upon us, might be lucky one day.
But untill then I will spend time at the gym and looking, there’s a friend of mine looking for work too, so I don’t feel as lonely in my quest. This weekend I am off to Leeds, with Ansa, I’ve never been so it should be heaps of fun.

NOW!

to sum up my post, i am just a clueless of my next move as I was three years ago, but if everything fails here I do believe I will move home to Norway and start fresh with a new bachelor, the question is: Which area and what type of future do I want?
I feel too young to decide and I am 23, I don’t get how 16 year olds are able to make that choice when they start high school.

Happy Birthday Døtta mi!

Someone very special to me is turning 21 today!
She’s been a very important part of my life for almost 4 years now and I wouldn’t wanna change those 4 years for anything.
Well maybe I’d spend less time abroad, but if I had then we might now have been the friends we are now!
She’s my best friend, my rock, she is a fantastic person and a brilliant blogger and I know a lot of you who read my blog read hers as well, so go over there and congratulate this amazing girl with her 21st bday!

The Birthday girl herself looking smashing as usual

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RENATE!

Today we’re going to spoil you at Nandos, with good food and presents and good company!
Hope you’re having an amazing day because you only deserve the best!

Love you loads my precious best friend.

busy bee?

Not really, so I apologize for not updating my blog much recently or commenting
I am really happy to see the responses to my blog about Ida and her wonderful work, she appreciates the support too.

There’s a few things going on here,
I am looking for a job, got 2 out of 4 grades, did alright, one slight disappointment but oh well i can handle it.
Ole Jørgen asked me a while back about what I was doing now. I will write a post to sum up my plans etc.
But atm me and my lovely housemate Renate have visitors. well mostly her since it is her sister Monica (with boyfriend) who is here, enjoying the low prizes on everything. I assure you it was a happy Monica who returned from Bham on friday with a lot of new look bags

we’ve also had an early birthday celebration for Renate, turning the big 21 on wednesday.
Showed them cheekys and introduced them to a lot of our friends.
Yesterday was chinese, A LOT of it.
Today they’re with Steven’s (yes Renate’s boyfriend) family and I am left to guard the house, hehe..

Other plans for their stay is nandos, possibly cinema, more shopping (not for me obviously since I’m skint) and possibly a bit more shopping:P

I am also going to leeds on friday, so there might not be a proper update before after my weekend up there.
Oh and also, I’ve noticed that most of my lovely English readers seem to have lost some interest, so therefor I am playing with the thought of writing my blogs in Norwegian?
what are your opinions on that?

The Dunstall girls know how to party

A real life hero

Nope this blog is not about me:P hehe..
Still don’t have internet properly, but we do have connection when we use the cable, so we might end up buying one of those each, at least it’s internet:P

Anyway, this blog is about a very special girl who I have the great honour of knowing.
If anyone is a hero, an inspiration and a real and true human being it is this girl.
Her name is Ida Jaarvik Hetland and I had the pleasure of meeting her in York in 2008 for the first time, and that was the year I really understood how hardworking she was. She was of course elected the leader of Ansa UK (association of Norwegian students abroad)

This is Ida

I knew already then how kind, caring and giving she was, and I wasn’t at all surprised when I found out that it went beyond those tiny compliments.

she went to Guatamala for the first time in 2007, and it is safe to say she fell in love with the country.
summer 2009 she went again, this time she wanted to help people and not just enjoy the scenery so to speak.
She had been in touch with charity organisations in Norway and the UK, but it is kind of silly to have to pay to do charity right? with all the big well known organisation taking a minor % of the income to finance paperwork etc. But Ida had her own sulotion, and found her very own project she wanted to support. CASA JACKSON.

you Norwegians can read about her trip, summer 2009, HERE!

But it does not stop there, of course Ida wanted to go back, and she did:)
on January 4th she left cold Norway and went back to Casa Jackson, She made a facebook group:
Ida trenger DIN hjelp, where she daily tells us all about what she’s bought and what she’s done.
So far she’s raise more than £5000, which is more than just amazing. 100% of these money go to the children, she finances her own accommodations, the flight, everything.
If you want to donate a few £ or NOKs, here’s the account number: 3325.37.38397.

She’s heading back to Norway next week, but she’s already planing the next trip, and all the money that is left, will not be touched untill she returns.
She is also blogging about her experience this time, after a lot of hosting problems she’s finally landed on THIS blog You Norwegians should really check it out.

I really wanted to share some of her story with you all, because it think what she is doing is such an amazing thing, and I wish there was more I could do to support. I’ve given a little bit myself and I really hope at least a few of you faithful readers would like to contribute and make life a little bit easier for these lovely children. Or help me spread the word about her by mentioning her on your own blog or link this entry, make this know. When she went down this time she also brought a lot of toys and clothes etc that people had donated, so if you have anything like that you want to contribute with, I’m sure you can arrange with Ida how to sort that out, also you english readers can probably contact her and find a way to contribute in one way or the other. Guatamala is a cheap country to live in, probably especially for us norwegians, so Ida has really managed to do a lot with the money contributed so far, but there’s always more that can be done right?

shopping

Keep inspiring people Ida and people, please donate, even if it is just £5 / 50 NOKs, every little helps.

Edit: Ida just posted on her facebook group about Jessica, the girl in yellow with Ida, she is 9 and had never learnt to walk or speak. She and her siblings were left by their mum when they were young. But with the help of the money Ida is raising she can get a new family and the right training to learn to both talk and walk, Ida needs our help to help jessica!

3325.37.38397.