Birthday 27 December 2001

Pic of the day: Where it all began, sort of, 43 years ago: The yellow house is where I was born. (I was indeed homemade, not brought from some hospital or found under a cabbage leaf.)

Happy birthday to me!

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to Itland, happy birthday to me! Wheeee!

Indeed, it wasn’t bad at all. I slept till 9, ate breakfast with people who like me, and then off to the mall again. The first workday after Christmas. Here in Norway, we used to have only one religion until recently, and Christmas is still a pretty big holiday. Virtually everything closes down for two and a half day. When the shops open again, they tend to slash prices the first thing they do. As well they might, since few can afford the regular prices after Christmas.

I love to see the shop girls bustle around, changing signs and undressing the life-size plastic dolls. And I love the prices. But neither SuperWoman nor I bought any clothes, though Cutie and Lil did. I bought a CD for my beloved, after a bit of fighting in front of the cash register - she wanted to buy it for me. It was quite nice. Moon Safari by Air, a French group I think. Beautiful music. But you won’t find me harboring a CD where one of the tracks is named Sexy boy. There are limits. Both SuperWoman and I have this tendency to sing aimlessly while we go about other things. It’s better she sings "sexy boy" than I do, n’est ce pas?

***

We came back, ate chocolate and then a delicious dinner, whereupon we discussed fat and cholesterol with her mother and aunt. I tried to impress upon them that fish oil bought from obscure mail order companies are not necessarily superior to what you get at the local assorted grocery store or supermarket. On the contrary, the products in the store are occasionally controlled by the food control authority. If people sell through other channels, it is typically either because they have dubious production methods, or try to fetch a higher price. Or both of the above. Buy from the supermarket unless another source is significantly cheaper and of good repute, is what I recommend.

Also it seemed important to point out that eating healthy oils, like fish oil and plant oil, does not subtract from the total fat eaten. It adds. The body does not store these oils in the body as fish oils or plant oils; any surplus is converted to animal fat, since mammals are what we are. The healthy fat should be used instead of unhealthy fat, not in addition. This seemed to come as a shock. I hope it doesn’t to you.

***

All too soon I had to say goodbye to take the train home. A brief clumsy hug (huge backpacks don’t exactly add to graceful movement) where, if I could, I would have wrapped her in my arms, held her tight and told her how much I love her. But she already knows quite well how much I love her (or at least approximately - I am not even sure what side she errs on) and let us face it: Even if she did not suspect my motives for prolonged snuggling, I would. It wouldn’t make drifting apart any easier for us, I think. And apart we must.

Oh yes, the train ride home. It does have some entertainment value, especially because stuff like this happens almost every time. At least with Signatur trains. Actually, the train ride in to Oslo was an exception, working almost flawlessly. This time however things were back to normal. Even from the start, the toilets did not work. This was kind of disappointing, I just told you my departure was a bit more sudden than I had imagined. (Rumors had it that there were working toilets at business class, but I did not check that.) A bit later into the trip, the engine failed. Then the doors and the heating (it was like 20 degrees below freezing outside) and then the light. Finally, when they tried to apologize, the loudspeaker system broke down. Train personnel was running trough the wagons, ignoring passengers that whined. Eventually most of the subsystems came back online. Only the doors had to be clawed open and squeezed shut manually for the rest of the trip. We arrived ca 45 minutes delayed. I was home around midnight.

Some of the passengers did indeed whine, but I think a lot of people still prefer it to flying. Me, I read a Tolkien book and slept a little. It wasn’t half bad. My main regret was that I had somehow lost a small bag of mint-covered chocolates I bought at the railway station.

I had a 20 minutes wait in Kristiansand, before the bus came. I heard snippets of a conversation that made me reflect on how small and ignorant we humans really are. But that’s a topic for another day, I suppose. All in all, I think I had a great birthday, not least thanks to my friends and of course the wonderful SuperWoman. I have a good life when I’m alone at home. It’s just even better when I’m with her. That was the best birthday gift of all.