Saturday 22 December 2001

Pic of the day: Outdoors picture, since I can't publish pictures of my friends, who are much better looking than this.

Just like a dream

First, I have to apologize for not uploading this diary in time. I habitually forget something whenver I travel; this time I forgot the external modem. My portable has an internal modem, but it is shot and I didn't feel like repairing it on such an old machine. But now I'm stranded here without a modem, so I may have to buy yet another (and forget two of them next time) or try to hitch a ride on one of the local computers, all of which have internal modems.

OK, so how was my day?

***

Well, I didn't wake up early. Mostly because I didn't go to sleep at all. I stayed up all night, mostly playing Dark Age of Camelot. Let me tell you, Paladins rule gloriously. It is great fun to play one, and it is great fun to have one in your team. Paladins in DAoC are like a combined warrior/bard. They can use any armor and weapon except ranged, but they also have holy "chants" that affect their entire group. At level 6 I already had 3 chants, and it bears mentioning that you cannot specialize as a Paladin until level 5. One of the chants let everyone in the group do a few points of extra damage each round. Another let everyone in the group heal 3 points every round. Granted, that's not a lot, but it affects the whole group and happens automatically; you may fight normally and the chant goes on. Unlike clerics, who can't cast spells when attacked. Did I mention Paladins rule?

So naturally I played all night and all morning until I had to call for a taxi (cab) to get me to the railway station. In fact, the taxi driver was slightly worried that we might come too late, because there is some road maintenance. I was not worried. It was 7 in the morning on a Saturday, who would work unless they desperately had to? And true enough, the road was pretty much deserted.

The train was one of those new ones, "Signatur". I have in the past written about how unreliable they are, how they are not particularly comfortable but have great food. This still applies. But on the brigh side, we arrived on time, despite having one stop for technical difficulties. The engines are far and away powerful enough to run in even a major delay, if they have a clear line. I hear regularity is improved, now that the childhood diseases of the new trains are starting to get rooted out.

Even though it is in the middle of Christmas travel, I had a double seat to myself. I slept some of the way, as is good and proper, but the mediocre comfort limited it a bit. (Too small seats for a man to lie down even when curled up, but just perfect for most women. I see they use them whenever they get a chance, too.) Anyway, despite poor sleep quality, it certainly passed the time.

In Oslo, the first thing I did was to seek out Burger King and buy myself a Whopper Cheese. I have in the past whined about the lack of a Burger King "restaurant" on the south coast of Norway where I live. McDonalds could certainly do with some competition, it is full much of the time, and the taste is rather bland. Burger King is more expensive, but also far more tasty. I try to get one whenever I am in Oslo or Bergen. I am sure there are other good burger outlets in the world, but they haven't come to Norway yet. The alternative is usually a street corner outlet where an immigrant family use a microwave on hamburgers from the supermarket deep freezer. It just isn't the same.

***

I did not come to Oslo for the food, though, and I recommend you don't either. After buying a 1 to 4 USB "hot" hub (which they denied existed, in Kristiansand) I took the local train to where my best friend the SuperWoman lives with her parents during the vacation. But she wasn't there. She was already at the mall, as is good and proper. I took the train there, after dumping near my own weight of luggage in their hall. (This included extra food and snacks I had brought with me from the local supermarket.)

My beloved was there along with a couple siblings, one of whom work there. And more family trickled in. Cutie was there already, and Great Earth Mother showed up after an hour or so to at the local McDonalds where we ate ice cream with chocolate sauce. Wow, she is just growing more and more radiantly attractive as the years go by. I wonder how long they continue to do that. She's like 31 or something now, I think. She's just beautiful, and her increased confidence really looks good on her.

But as always, SuperWoman is the center and most important thing in the world. This time it was her hair. It was so rad. It was, in fact, so red.

Yes indeed, after having spent well above $150 on the hair salon to cut, wash and stripe her hair, she woke up to inspect the finished work and find it rife with copper red stripes. She is certain that she specified blonde stripes (she has a natural color of indeterminable blond, and like to color it into lighter and darker stripes). But evidently the computer had told the hairstylist to use red, as she had once before had a few thin red strands in between the blond, and the poor woman applied red liberally. As instructed by the customers, she had used both dark and light ... but dark and light red, in between the blond, all cut and styled and shiny. It looked so rad. That's the only description I can think of. It looked like something a teenager might try out, not something a woman ripe for marriage (and a hospital G.P. to boot) would wear for Christmas. Not that it was ugly in any way, it was beautiful. And it was sooo not her style.

I am not particularly focused on small details of exterior decoration. What entertained me no end was the expression of shocked disbelief and confusion on my friendess' face. I am sure she believed she stood out like a quasar in a starless sky with her red stripes. Actually I did not notice it right away, but when I did, I kept snickering on and off for upward of an hour. That's what friends are for, right? (That, and giving her an advance gift of 1 hair treatment in a competing salon on Christmas eve at 1 PM to get the hair re-striped in a color of her own choosing.)

***

Well, to make a long story slightly shorter, we kept shopping until they started to lower the heavy metal bars while she was still inside (I wisely waited in the corridor at that time). There is still a bit left, but we did get some. Christmas gifts, I mean. We did get some Christmas gifts for her family.

We spent the evening playing music and chatting with her family (my friends) and her brother's highly unofficial fiancee. (He insists that he is not living with her, he is just renting a room in her parents' house. Yeah, right. But actually I think his sisters love her as much as he does, at least in the purely emotional sense.)

The night was the best, though. No, don't get any wrong ideas. I don't change my mind from one day to the next. Or even from two days ago. So we sat at the kitchen table, the friendly girl and I, playing Taipei on her father's portable PC "just one more time" until the batteries finally ran out. Then we stumbled off to our respective beds. What could be better than playing Taipei together with a warm, beautiful girl that you love? Just like a dream.