Drawings coming along…

Spoke to Katrina and Kamilla this morning..the girls are making more drawings for me, so Løven i kjøleskapet (The Lion in the Refrigerator) will have more pictures…marv..the girls are so clever at making pictures …and it is such joy to work together like this…with them visualising my stories in their own way…makes it all come alive, it does too…love you guys…

Early to bed, early to rise

Some things don’t really change, do they? Like this one. And if it’s late to bed, it’s still early to rise, because the body is wired like that..okay, not so early but still I can only get in six and a half hours of sleep if I go to bed after midnight…prolly something to do with the midnight sun..not the “too much light” theory..but I guess the body is getting used to living in the arctic..oh well..could have been worse….

Docu Film Ideas

Been all over city centre with Moses to get ideas for a docu-film on Tromsø. Quite fun. Moses is new to Tromsø, and this being his first summer, he asked if the trees on Tromsdalen had sprouted overnight as all he had seen all winter was snow and greyness. This little city is amazingly colourful and multicultural. More so in summer. Sounds, Sights, and Smells…I love the city in summer…we’re still waiting for the sunflower man to arrive..every summer, he is there in the city centre, harmonica in place, big drum tied to his toe, banjo lower down his chest and one more musical instrument I have temporarily forgotten…

Oslo

Feels like I’ve been away a long time..it wasn’t that long..four days, five? Oslo was warmer and wonderful..I have been able to appreciate it so much more now, the old houses, the many streets near Nils Juels gate and Thomas Hefteyes gate …spent a glorious afternoon laying in green grass in the castle park..away from conferences, et al…when you lie down, your whole perspective of things change…the sky is farther away, the trees hover over you, the birds are more curious, three white-gray birds with funny red beaks came close to examine me..lol

What do you do?

What do you do when you get a 4000 kroner telephone bill? Take a flying jump into the fjord? Nah..you’re already quite hanged by the bill, in any case. What do you say when your progeny uses the telephone for one-hour plus long distance calls?Is there a fix-it-yourself manual out there somewhere?
The sun is streaming into my window after three days of rain, does that mean things will get better? One can hope, can’t one? Time to go and buy another lotto….

The Lion and the Elephant

“Stop doing that!” said the Lion.
“Doing what?” asked the elephant.
“What you keep doing, stop idolising me, I’m not a hero.”
“But you are,” said the elephant, “Look at you, you’re the king of the jungle and you are strong and brave.”
“I’ll tell you my secret then,” said the lion in an irritated tone,”I may be strong but I am not brave. I am frightened of mice and lice. Furthermore, I am mortally ashamed of something I did to my brother. When we were younger, we fought over a marble, and I bit off his finger.” The lion hung his head in shame and guilt. “It was in anger but I have regretted it ever since.”

In the Loft!

For the first time, we went up to the top floor of this three storeyed house that we live in. Wonderful! The roof slopes in where the corners are and Arne, our landlord, has kept his childhood home very much the same way as he had grown up in it. Like something from a century ago. And bannisters that curved so deep into the wall you could’nt slide down them. Lodve and Phillip live there in hidden alcove rooms: cubby-holes, sort of, only much bigger and roomier yet incredibly cosy…