Wednesday 5 September 2001

Pic of the day: Daybreak at Drammen railway station.

Travel

I ran to the bus. I had not only known of the date and time in advance, I had chosen them myself. And I still had to throw the last few things in the backpack and hurry to the bus. Yes, that's me.

The train was a quarter of an hour delayed before it even started from the station. It was quite dark, only a few nightlights revealed the vague outlines of my fellow passengers. The coupe was less than half full. For some reason it seems that almost everyone except me was young and androgynous. My sleepy brain thought "yaoi!" and "Ancient messages". (Ancient Messages is a webcomic in which people tend to look very very androgynous. The author has later forsworn yaoi, though.) (Yaoi is bishie + bishie romance. Bishies are androgynous prettyboys in Japanese comics and cartoons. Or at least this is what I gather from the ravings of the yaoi fangirls.)

I fell asleep shortly after and dreamt for a while that I and two girls were making online yaoi webcomics. After a while, the discomfort of the old seats overcame sleep, and I spent the night hovering between sleep and wakefulness, aware of my own body but little more, without dream or thought.

***

At 6:45 in the morning, the Narvesen food and literature kiosk in Drammen was open. Yay Narvesen! There were many delicious looking pre-packaged meals. But they contained very perishable food like shrimps, chicken and pork. I would not risk food poisoning, so I stuck with breadsticks and cheese instead, and some chocolate milk. I do not need much food while travelling, so this would have been enough. I bought a sandwich on the train and ate it too, but regretted this later.

On the train from Drammen to Bergen, there vere numerous delays. One of these must have been half an hour or so. Despite this, we arrive nearly on time. I am impressed. These old train sets may not be comfortable, but boy can they run!

***

So I had plenty of time in Bergen. I bought a small gift to the family. After all, I eat their food and sleep in their bed. Not that I eat a lot, and there are plenty of beds yet, but it would still be unfair to invite myself for several days and not do anything in return. I didn't go for something big and memorable, though. Actually, I did the trick of imagining that SuperWoman was with me, and imagined what she would have looked for. I've used that when shopping clothes in the past, with good results. It worked well this time too.

On the west coast of Norway, it is now the rainy season. I had brought an umbrella, but it did not rain enough to make it worthwhile. It was more like a very humid fog. The boat trip from Bergen was similarly foggy, but there was little wind and the trip was uneventful. In Askvoll my father was waiting for me. After shopping some groceries, we drove home to the farm. My two nephews were very excited, probably because of The Sims which I had played with them the last time I was there, half a year ago. The oldest of the two would like for me to live there permanently, but I am not sure how much of this concerns me as a person and how much is about The Sims ...

I also have thoughts about a couple online comics, and about the less than nuclear family, and about the effect of food poisoning on a nation's economic growth and competitiveness. But I think this is enough for now. I have slept very little in the last 40 hours.