Office with a view

So this is what is taunting me whilst I slave away at my thesis. This country is stunningly beautiful at the best of times, but in the sunshine it's truly delightful!

The view from my desk!

Every few days we get a beautiful one like this, but inevitably it turns nasty. Each time this happens several people will make the same joke:

 "Did you enjoy summer?"

 This is usually accompanied by a self indulgent chortle, but the Norwegian summer appears resilient to me as it keeps fighting back!

Nuances of Norway

I thought it might be fun to do a series on the cultural differences I encounter. So many times now I have been really shocked (usually in a good way!) by some ways of life here- I thought it would be fun to document them.

The "sharp intake of breath"- at my interview, I was giving a ten minute presentation and every few minutes a man on the panel would inhale sharply as if, to my mind, he was about to say something. I would stop my presentation and look at him expectantly for a few seconds, decide he wasn't going to say anything and then continue. This happened a few times until I decided to just ignore him! Turns out this is a popular way of agreeing with a point, saying "okay" or generally being the norwegian version of the "uh huh". Lot's of people do it and it's quite difficult to get used to.

Forspillet- I was out with some new friends one evening, enjoying some drinks, when a girl asked me if I wanted to come to foreplay at her house the following Saturday. I was a bit gobsmacked and had no idea how to respond when a fellow Brit jumped in and saved me, all the while crying with laughter. Forspillet is used to mean "pre-drinks/party", where you congregate at someones house and have a few drinks before going out to a club. However the literal translation of "forspillet" is "foreplay"!

Hot alcoholic drinks- it's pretty normal to drink irish coffee with whisky or baileys, or this horrific mint liquor I forget the name of with hot water as a tea at said forspillet. I am not used to drinking hot alcohol at this sort of social gathering. Christmas- yes. After a nice meal out- sure. Pre-drinks!? I'm not sure I'll get used to that one.

Eating lunch at 11am- just what it says on the tin. I got used to this remarkably quickly, I am starving by 10:30.

Saying it's an hour later then it actually is- e.g. It's 20:30 when it's actually 19:30- I don't fully understand this one yet, I just know it's not accidental. I'll get back to you!

Cake Friday- if it's your week and you forget, there are serious consequences!

Office hours- many people, including myself, work 08:00 to 16:00- it's great because you get the full evening to yourself. Last Thursday, making the most of the good weather, I was climbing till 23:00!


That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure there will be many more as the days go by!

Salmon fishing in the...Melhus

About 30 people from my department quit work early and headed in convoy to a river just outside of Melhus, approximately 30 minutes drive from Trondheim. When we arrived some of the keenos (including the big boss) had already set up and started fishing- there was an enormous, bleeding salmon hanging from a make shift teepee. It was impressive and revolting all at the same time. I was really surprised they had red blood for some reason. I'm still not sure whether it was actually caught or bought and strung to provide hope as they didn't catch any last year.

One of two fish caught. The other was 6.2kg!

There were waders, wellies and rods galore. I had a mortifying exchange with one man. He gave some lame excuse for not catching a fish and I said sarcastically "oh yehhhh, you didn't catch a fish because the water is too deep" he laughed and gave one in return and then bam...I knew it was bad as I was saying it but couldn't stop myself "and your rod's not long enough!" This is one time I really hope the language barrier wasn't overcome.

Downstream. Imagine this with men spaced 10m apart all the way down. They were eating when I took this.

We had BBQ fish (purchased, the supply from such a group is not dependable!)- everyone took a piece of aluminium foil, put a piece of fish in with whatever vegetables and seasonings you wanted, you sealed it up- a bit like a french poisson en papillotte and then watched it like a hawk on the BBQ to avoid picking up one of the other 30 identical packages 17 minutes later. It was delicious with some sour cream.

The 6,2kg catch! And my ride home is holding it. Unfortunately this made him very enthusiastic and the evening stretched much longer than what I would consider optimum "standing in the cold, watching men fish" time.

I chose the wrong car to go in though- suddenly everyone was gone and it was just me and some serious fisherman. Everyone evaporated- otherwise i would have bagged a lift back earlier, as it was I didn't get home till 20:30.

All in all a great Norwegian experience!

Mulkholmen (M)adventure

Munkholmen is a small island a short boat ride from Trondheim harbour- it is a former prison, fort and monastery. When I told my colleagues over lunch that I was going at the weekend- they competed to be the person who had lived here longest and not been. It didn't exactly set it up to be a brilliant day out...

The view of Trondheim from the boat

However, it was quite a surprise. We did a little tour of the tower there, which was way bigger than I expected. It was a jigsaw of rooms built to accommodate the islands various uses. The cellar was initially used as a gunpowder storage room- but it was too wet for this, so it became a mass cell. Only prisoners that it was never intended would leave the island alive were ever sent down there. An English doctor was one of them- he got sick of listening to his maid whinge so he cut off her head.

All the seats and gears etc. are still inside...I imagine the crucial parts are safely removed.

It was lovely and sunny, but pretty windy- the garden of the cafe/restaurant was walled though so it was a great sun trap for ice-creams and wine.

A mish mash group of visitors, summer students, employees and Alice and I.

We headed back to the mainland as no one fancied the "Pølser"  It's on the list of "must trys", but I think I'll spread them out. Reallllly far apart. We picniced by the river.

The boys are their bankrupting Burger King.

Later we had the same gang around for drinks and the football- it was 5 Frenchies/French speakers to three non-french so there was a good atmosphere.

As an aside, Alice who has diligently been looking for a second hand bike on the online second hand market everyday found one and bought it- and it turns out they had another perfect for me. Jammy or what, no searching required. It is a pile of junk but it will do for the few weeks pre first salary. I am borrowing our mystery occupants helmet- (his/her stuff is everywhere in the flat, but we have decided we haven't broken into someones apartment, however it was an edgy few minutes coming to that decision when we first moved in!). My pile of rust is bright red, and will not be stolen. Bonus!

xox

Arrived in Trondheim!

The view from the "Gamle Bybru"- the old city bridge!

We have arrived! Our apartment is in the building on the right hand side, it's the yellow one just past the middle. It's a huge apartment, 3 bedrooms, a total of 30 chairs (we counted them all!) a big TV and an xbox included. There is other peoples stuff randomly distributed about the place...economics textbooks etc. It's an excellent location, that photo is the classic Trondheim postcard.

Our living room. Note our duty free on the bottom right, we spent way too long choosing and re-purposing a piece of furniture to keep it in.

Went to get supplies from the supermarket and that's a laugh on it's own. Classic Norwegian delights of brown cheese, rotfiske and aquavit all await me- for the moment, we bought loads of fish. My favorite thing was the prawn freezer- you just scoop up as many as you want. Meat is too expensive, but salmon is great value! And potatoes- they're the only vegetable you can't import because it's pretty much the only thing they grow here and they're fiercely protective and proud of them!

The prawns were my favourite until it came time to prepare them...they're covered in eggs and the faff to flavour ratio is way off.

So far so good!

"Farvel" for now!

xox

New beginnings

Some big news- I'm moving to Norway! Initially to do my masters thesis over Summer, but on November 2nd I will be a fully fledged employee there.

As you can see, to mark the occasion I am changing the blog name, and also diversifying a bit. I'm still going to write about cooking etc. but I'm also going to try and document my new life here in the hopes that friends and family can see what I am getting up to. Potentially my experiences could be helpful to someone planning a move here themselves. 

As for the reasoning behind the new name- I believe that Bjørn is Norwegian for bear, so my regular nickname is just getting a Nordic makeover. I think the rest is fairly self explanatory!

Patriotic pimms and pavlova

Just that really :)

Patriotic pimms and pavlova. Say that times fast!

I am back at home and my old school friends came around for what is fast becoming an annual BBQ. The sun was shining, and the company was great. The cups are actually leftover from the royal wedding, but as I am going to be missing the Jubilee weekend (an announcement about that to follow tomorrow!) I thought it would be nice to do some patriotic drinking today instead.

Someone's playing tube tricks...

This is what greeted me this morning on the tube. I was tired enough that it took me to page 7 to realize! Can you see what the issue is here..

Hint: look at the date!

I saved it from a paper snatcher (the people who tidy up the tube at the end of the line- I thought this was obvious but I have been informed that unless you get on at the end of the line as I do, you may not be familiar with this miserable lot) so it is pretty amazing that this is the one I grabbed!

I only realised when I started reading a piece about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge supporting the idea of a day off for their wedding- I thought to myself  "that's odd, it has just been their first anniversary...what an odd time to suggest this?!"

Well whoever you are, I don't know what your thought process was, or what you hoped to achieve but if it was to put a smile on someones face, well done, you made my morning!

Keratin Brazilian Blowdry

Now I know I can't be be the only one who's first thought was something along the lines of:
Surely a correctly executed 'brazillian' wouldn't leave much to...erm...dry?

How wrong was I! If it works as I am assured it does, it will revolutionize me. I have enormous hair. It's voluminous and unruly, an unattractive midpoint of curly and frizzy. It's the antithesis of sleek. I spend a good hour a couple of times a week taming it into submission- not much compared to some, a bonus of curly hair is that it doesn't get greasy too quickly. Where it really makes things tricky is on field trips where I spend all day outdoors and don't have regular access to electricity, when it rains between my home and my destination and when I spend any time somewhere humid. Unfortunately that tends to be on holiday when the number of pictures to document the "birds nest" sky rockets...

It is a very expensive treatment- between £150 and £250 and you need to repeat it approximately every four months. If you're like me and can't face paying that to see if it even works, then Groupon frequently have offers for the London area. I got a groupon for £59. I would not recommend the salon I went to- although the job was done, yes, it was quite a traumatic experience and I came out feeling cheap instead of happy! I won't go into it, but i'll give you one example. I was told my friends must be lying to me, that they must see how grey I am going, and she proceeded to pull them all out and leave them in a pile in front of me, whilst refusing to give me the haircut I wanted as it wouldn't keep "our little secret very well".

Something else I'm looking in to is buying the chemicals and doing it myself- works out at £8.50 (ebay!) a pop for short-medium length hair. I would recommend having it done professionally at least once before you give this a go though! If I go this route I will do a review.

I'll get some before and after photos up once I have my second treatment done- (I have left it a bit late to document the first, sorry!).

Procrasti-baking: Macaroon Madness

Procrasti-baking v. art of baking instead of studying. The more complicated, time consuming and distracting the better.

Yesterday was a glorious day here in London, I had a less than glorious morning (read: exam) and I was in dire need of a pep me up. I couldn't face the stuffy room I seclude myself in to revise, and the sun had come out. More than that- it was shining! The doom and gloom of the past 10 days of April downpours had abated and a few pals and I sought our cheering up in the form of a picnic with tasty tidbits from Wholefoods in Hyde Park.

Wholefoods was a whole new world for a foodie like myself, it was downright painful choosing lunch! I was cursing the girl who had suggested it. The only thing I knew I definitely wasn't getting was plain grilled tofu from the healthy bar. In fact I knew I would stay well clear of that entire area. Disclaimer: Wholefoods is insanely expensive however if you're not feeling too flush don't rule it out- instead "dine out" on the huge range of samples.

On a recommendation I found myself perusing the macaroon cabinet. Until this day, they'd been on my radar, as I'm always looking for a baking challenge, but they hadn't taken hold of my imagination in that way only a recipe can. I think that's because I'd never tasted one before- it's the only way I can explain this slip, this lapse in judgement. That's 22 years of macaroon munching I've missed out on. I loved how shiny they were and much to the (short lived) amusement of the server I spent quite a while on my choice and changed my mind mid order once or twice. I settled on a bright orangewater and a fauny caramel one. And my god- the path of my day changed in an instant. I ate both on route to the park, pre-lunch I might add, and was reserving an electric whisk to pick up on my way home 10 minutes later from my spot on the grass.

Later in the day, I began to doubt myself. Was making macaroons on a Monday night at 9pm really a good idea? They're the pinnacle of a pastry chef’s career! Was I setting myself up to fail? I'd had quite enough of that for one day. Was embarking on a quest to create macaroon perfection really a clever idea during exams? Would I catch macaroon madness and spend hours pulling out flat macaroons and crying over them instead of my text books? I needed reassurance so turned to my favourite macaroon enthusiast- Raspberri Cupcakes, who's so blasé about "macronage" she uses them as decorations. She in turn sent me to Brave Tart who rightly reminded me that "we're talking about a cookie here, not the Heisenberg uncertainty principal". After reading her ten commandments I set about making her basic recipe, and they came out perfect:

Look at those beauties!

My only "failure" is that I had dyed the mixture green...but considering they're filled with a simple lime buttercream, I can call them citrus and return them to the pedestal of perfection in my mind that they deserve.

Too long, didn't read (tl:dr) - I made macaroons for the first time today and they came out awesome. Try it for yourself- they're delicious.

.

Minny's Caramel Cake

I read the bestselling novel "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett just recently, and even though it was only referred to a couple of times, I had to make Minny's caramel cake. Having enjoyed the book so much, when I finished it, this was a way to keep it going a little longer!

Minny's Caramel Cake

I found the recipe that Kathryn Stockett based her cake on here. My frosting came out like more of a sauce and I'm pretty sure that was due to some US-UK translation issues, but it still tasted delicious. That and the frosting method was new to me, so maybe my technique was just wrong! The sponge itself had a different texture to what I am accustomed, probably due to the buttermilk. It was soft and light, but dense and comforting all at once- I really don't know to explain it.

I suggest you go out and buy the book and ingredients, make the cake, cut a generous slice and sit down to read. In that order. You won't regret it!