I didn’t take the day off for the Cambridge wedding, but I’m enough of a royal watcher still to take today off at work and spend the day in front of the television set. I’m fortunate enough as a royal watcher to have the transmission going on in two channels, with both Trond Norén Isaksen commenting for NRK and Kjell Arne Totland for TV2 Nyhetskanalen. Royal experts on both channels.

 

I’ve chosen to go with NRK for this – if only for the lack of commercials.

And now the royal family have appeared, and Beatrix is getting ready to sign her own abdication.

I’d say it is a once in a lifetime occasion, but as the Prince of Wales would argue (he was also present at the investiture of Beatrix) in the Netherlands it happens more frequently than that.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

Last summer, when I was in Paris with my sister, we took the train to Versailles. Although the sheer magnitude of the palace, such as the mirrors and chandeliers in the picture below, is undeniable, there were something else that also caught my attention. 

Like my 90 year old grandmother, I’m a chocoholic. There is an Angelina there, and we basically went fairly crazy with the sweets there. But we also had the hot chocolate.

And it felt like drinking liquid chocolate bars.

When I later discovered that there were bottles of Angelina chocolate for sale in a grocery store in Paris, I picked one up.

It’s taken me until today to actually crack it open at home, for various reasons.

It tasted good, but I suspect part of the allure of it before was drinking it in Versailles, and sharing with my sister.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

Conference living part of this week. Must admit I don’t get the appeal of dry biscuits in the breaks, though they do improve when dunked in tea.

But the content of the conference is good, and the lunch includes nommy food.

Nice.



Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

As a foreigner, without a good dataplan abroad, I’m very thankful for the multitude of free wi-fi spots everywhere in London. Well, save for McDonald’s. Couldn’t get that working. But everytime I walk past a Waterstone or a Starbucks… I’m up and running.

Although yesterday, I had two hours in a Starbucks with just writing. I can’t remember the last time I did that. Very nice.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

There’s inevitably one clock I forget to change to daylight savings time. This is bad in spring.

Like when I get down to the car, and suddenly realize that I’m up and off to work an hour before I usually am.

On the positive side – I also forgot to change my wrist watch, and I won’t have to, since I’m heading to the UK.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

April marks the third year I’ve been working in a corporate library. It’s different than a public or a university library. Not so many walk-in patrons. I kind of miss that.

But, I don’t have teen girls (or anyone, really) asking me for books about hot vampires anymore, either.

So there are positives.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

Why us it that in autumn, 8 degrees celcius is cold – but when I’m looking at the weather forecast for the conference I’m attending next week – it feels warm in my mind?

Certainly, Easter break in the mountains where -15 probably was the average temperature makes the -2 I returned to feel warm.

Anyone else ready for summer?

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

Fandom March Madness for me, is that they've set a limit on how old a show can be. If it's been off the air for two years - no go. (No Buffy, Veronica Mars... And someone tried to get MASH on the ballot this year which is a definite no.)

And I haven't been very good at catching up on new shows for the past couple of years, so the majority of the shows there are completely unknown ot me. So naturally, I'm just throwing out votes left and right without any clue. Kind of like how I voted when I lived in Denmark.

But I then also intend to vote the hell out of those fandoms I do know. Harry Potter is on its last year there if the current rules continue. Castle is still on. Sherlock... Cougar town...

Maybe finally get into some of those shows I've been missing. 

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

I’m much less enthused by snow falling in February than I am by it doing it in November or December. By February the snow has lost its magical powers.

It is just cold and white and a sign that spring isn’t here yet.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

I’m playing from afar with a team in Minnesota, yet again. 50 hours of utter trivia madness. From the first year I played, I have progressed to the point where I’m actually planning to do a fair bit of sleeping the first night – the rest of it will be quite horrible if I don’t.

And suddenly the classes I took in information seeking and retrieval are completely worth it.

http://www.kvsc.org

I wish I could go to Copenhagen to play with the rest of my satellite team, but unfortunately the calendar this Friday filled up before the trivia dates were scheduled.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

I’ve been trying out Once A Month Mom cooking this weekend. I now have a lot of delicious-smelling dishes in my freezer.

It’s breakfasts, lunches and dinners – and you get the shopping lists for all the dishes as well as recipe cards, and the order of cooking to maximize time.

Lessons learned (remember this next time):

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It’s only six months until I turn 30.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

The announcement last night that Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is abdicating on April 30 is also changing things further down in the line.  Unlike the most lines of succession, the Dutch line of succession deals with how closely related a person is to the monarch. As a party game, it is even fewer people who can play it, than Six degrees of Kevin Bacon. It is three degrees of consanguity from the current monarch, going up and down in the hierarchy counting the births between each level.

Related content:?

The Dutch abdication (a 100 things #7) British succession – what if… Princess Benedikte, biographies My life with horses

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Tonight, Queen Beatrix announced that she is abdicating and that her son, Willem-Alexander, is taking over the throne. The abdication will be final on April 30, The Queen’s Day, and Willem-Alexander will take over the throne on that day. (I presume this means that the day will be called The King’s Day for the duration of Willem-Alexander’s reign.)

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Monday, almost two weeks ago, I wasn’t feeling very well. I assumed it was the beginning of the flu, and went home. I stayed home on Tuesday and Wednesday, and went back to work on Thursday as the flu hadn’t broken out.

Cue: Extreme dizziness and nausea at work when I was standing up or sitting. (It’s really not that fun to wonder if you’re going to make it to the bathroom at work without fainting, I’ve come to realize.)

I went home to Mummy (because I didn’t want to go home and be alone when I was feeling dizzy) and got properly taken care of for the weekend. By the following Monday I was better, but still dizzy and nauseated when walking or sitting.

With an office job, it is especially the latter part that is slightly impossible to live with.

A trip to the doctor’s on that Monday, and it seems like I had a case of Benign positional vertigo. One factor, my doctor thought, that was making it worse for me is that I’m a lightweight in terms of how much I can take before I get motion sickness normally, and so standing up or sitting have resulted in motion sickness.

For the past week now, I have been in a horizontal position as much as possible and it seems to have improved further and I’ll be back at work on Monday. And I can’t wait to start working out again.

Fortunately I have been fine when horizontal, and I’m currently on season 8 of Frasier (started at season 1) and working my way to the end.

It’s very odd how suddenly the body changes a function.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

In a fit of good intentions and cleanliness, I joined Flylady last year. I stopped before the famed sink cleaning, but I still get some of the emails that come through the filter I set up. From time to time they inspire me to make my bed.

I won’t deny that there is a special pleasure in returning to recently-fluffed pillows.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

How do you know you’re visiting a bachelor’s dwelling and not just a minimalistic one?

The minimalistic decorated living spaces tend to look a bit more coherent. Also, the one flower pot does look like it’s mean to be there and not put randomly down on a massive speaker because he was expecting guests.

Question to said bachelor: How long have you lived here?
Answer: Four-five years, maybe?

I would have thought he had moved in a month ago.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

I cleaned my desk before heading off for the Christmas vacation. Now – four work days later, it is almost as messy as it was when I abandoned it.

But the feeling of coming back to a clean desk made it all worth it.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

Wonder when I’ll stop thinking “this is the first time I’m doing this in 2013″?

Probably in 2014.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

Very basic thing to do in Paris – stop at one of the stalls along Champs Elysees, and get a crepe with nutella, or lemon and sugar.

And then gobble it up as you sit on a bench and watch the traffic pass by .



The Nutella might drip if you’re not careful enough…

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

Ikea in December is a dangerous place if you’re trying to be healthy.

They have a gingerbread and gløgg-stand every five minutes, and even if you just ate… You will be inspired enough to partake in goods from all of them.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

In November, I got the bright idea that I would make my own advent calendar this year. Instead of being sensible about it, and looking for 24 useful things, as some would, I bought 24 different candies that I either remembered from my childhood or that I never had tried – and wrapped those up.

After I wrapped them in gift paper, I mixed them well before I wrote numbers from 1-24 on the packages.

I have 24 packages that I don’t remember the content of – but presumably I must have thought well enough of it to select it in the first place.

It will be interesting to open the packages at least.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

Last year’s Gingerbread house, seen from the top. Although the houses were successful from an aesthetic perspective, they were less good to eat a month after they were made, when they were as hard as Hagrid’s rock cakes.

This year, we’ll use the pre-made versions and decorate them instead.

Mirrored from Norwegianne.net.

but I plan to get on again at some point. It turns out the story I started writing was actually the second story in a series, instead of the first, which I originally thought. Also, medical stuff including a hospital staff which require more research than I'm comfortable with during Nano. (Yes, I'm a librarian and can do my own damn research, but it would require internet, which in turn distracts me from my initial purpose and... *oh, shiny*)

And also, I've been hit with a case of the November blahs so I've been struggling to get the energy going to care about things outside my job, exercise and family stuff. I tend to get the November blahs each year, or so I'm coming to realize, and I begin to get my coping mechanism in place. 

I'm going to try working out in the mornings instead of the evenings as I go forward, which should leave me slightly more ready for anything but bed when I get home.