Fall in love with Autumn

It comes once a year, lasts for quite a while and it is wild, wet and wonderful. So why not enjoy it, even love it if you can.

Read:

Fall in love with Autumn or  http://astridjournal.com/

Chocolate Cake Caress

And then there was this recipe on sugar-, gluten- and milk free chocolate cake...

http://astridjournal.com/2012/09/chocolate-cake-caress/

Enjoy:-)

Fifty Shades of Grey

Hi folks, new post in http://astridjournal.com/

Fifty Shades of Grey, review. Would love to hear your opinion

on the book too.

Have an inspired day:-)

Astrid

For those of you who haven't gotten your act together and switched your subscription to my new site:

Get a Grip, Read my Lips, or rather my posts...:

Go to http://astridjournal.com/ and do what it takes (rrs-feed or enter your e-mail in the white box below "subscribe").

New posts are Peak Performance and An Old Panama Hat

(Cefalu text published anew by mistake due to temporary (I hope:-)  brain overload).

Now, after having done the above, get out of here, off the net and out to play, live your life!

Yours truly,
Astrid

astridjournal.com

Dear reader of my blog.

I now have a new site

astridjournal.com

Still in its infancy, still under development, but it's a new and exciting beginning for both it and me.

It is with a little sadness I say goodby to my dear blog, but AstridInTheWorld will go on living, albeit in a more laid back manner.

I always enjoy and learn from your comments and your feedback, and hope both will be easier on my new site

For those of you who subscribe to my blog pr mail, I will notify you here every time a post is "released". I appreciate any comment concerning content or nature of my new site, as I always hope and wish to improve both.

Some of your are my friends on many levels; personal, FB, Blog, Mail..., and I beg you to forgive me if I in my endavour to make people aware of my new site happen to notify you twice, thrice...

Astrid

Mon Ami La Lune

Mon Ami La Lune

… the moon

Hovering in the sky

Outside my window

Far away,

yet close

Watching over me

Friendly, familiar

No matter

Where I am

Wherever you are

Connecting us

Through time and space

Claire de Lune-Debussy

Fin Flapping In Cefalu

Cefalu  is well worth a visit. We did not, by any means, give it the credit it deserves as we were only staying for a few days and had some very basic needs to satisfy before starting to explore the town and the area: The need for soaking up as much sunshine as possible without getting our eyebrows singed. For two days, happily exposing ourselves to UV A, B, C and what felt like a fair amount of x- and gamma rays, we lolled like immobile skin-shedding sea elephants on the sunbeds in the beautiful Kalura Bay. Like the afore mentioned sea elephants, lifting a “fin” only to scratch our thighs, and unlike them to splash sun lotion on each other’s backs or lift our water bottle, not really caring that half of its content missed the target and trickled down our bodies.

Once in a hot while we would roll off our beds and into the sea, wallowing in the underwater world of colorful fish, shells and plants, before again retreating to our incubators.

When we after a couple of days eventually mustered the will and strength to lift our heads and look up, we discovered dazzling sights of mountains, rolling hills, and an amazing diversity of colorful trees, bushes and flowers. Rocks and cliffs were decoratively protruding into the sea, one of the closest ones occupied by remnants of a Byzantine fortress.

And from there it was all gloriously uphill: On my next swimming spree I went ashore and started climbing the stairs towards the ruins. Almost there, I was met with signs of Privado. Usually, that’s something I don’t take very personally, but being in the land of the Godfather...

Read more...Cefalu

Jaws

“Jaws” was nothing like I expected. Actually I hadn’t expected anything. I had merely accepted an invitation from a boy my age to see a movie, and neither of us really cared what it was about as long as we got to sit in the back row.

When I stumbled out of the movie theater a couple of hours later, I was so numb with shock, I couldn’t have cared less if I’d been with The Incredible Hulk or Pinoccio. No amount of sweet talk and kisses could shake me out of the zombie-like state I was in, and I hardly remember how I got home. My young and still fairly innocent mind was totally occupied with trying to digest the horrors that were now forever engraved in my brain.

The aftermaths of the quake stayed with me for years to come. In the beginning I felt way in over my head in the ocean, but fine in swimming pools. Until I watched action movies featuring shark basin constructed for the sole purpose of taking care of any unlucky fellow who happened to cross the gangsters, and of course eventually the gangsters themselves if the movie had just a tinge of justice.

Now I started looking over my shoulder (a potential shark snack) in all kinds of bodies of water. And always having someone, friends, foes, unassuming strangers, swim next to me. I, of course, always staying closest to the shore. Not only “better safe than sorry”, but also “better them than me”, were my mottoes.

Great was my astonishment... 

read more... Jaws

Multitasking, lets beat it!

Happy Orange

If having breakfast, answering the call of nature, breastfeeding, washing the floor, taking a shower, baking bread, acting as diplomat and referee between siblings, planning and cooking dinner, counseling over the phone and jogging, all (well, not far from it) at the same time isn’t a dire case of multitasking, I don’t know what is.

That was years ago, it’s not at all like that now. For one thing I have stopped breastfeeding as the youngest one is now seventeen and hasn’t really been in to it for some time. As for the other stuff, some of it is still on the agenda, along with a lot of other things. However, due to the arrival of and increasing dependence on electronic work- and communication devices, I have taken the art of multitasking to a whole new level of exhausting, wuthering heights!

Happy Feet with Orange

For someone who practices yoga and meditation in a (so far futile) effort to obtain inner tranquility, it is amazing to what incredibly stupid lengths I can go in order to squeeze as many activities as possible into one day. Even though research shows that multitasking makes you more stressed and less efficient, l continue to preach water (mindful thinking and living) and drink wine (measure my own value as a human being in terms of my accomplishments).

The other day, though, I had a wakeup call.

It hadn’t exactly been a bad day. I mean I had not been run over by a car, I hadn’t fallen head first down any flight of stairs, I hadn’t been mugged, the house hadn’t burned down, none of the kids had been arrested...

Read more The Dying Art Of Multitasking

An All Time High

Sometimes        

The snow is deeper

The climb steeper

Than you ever foresaw

And making it

To the peak

Or anywhere near

Is no matter of course

And then

Out of the blue...

To read and see more...An All Time High

Of a Sound Mind

So, now it’s official: She is off her hinges, irrevocably deranged, mentally unsound. Bu that’s where you are so wrong. Crazy, yes, can’t run away from that one, but unsound, no. I am so full of sound, saturated with it so to speak, that I wouldn’t have believed it possible if I hadn’t actually been there...

...lying on a monochord, for about twenty minutes actually being an integrated part of an instrument with fifty strings attached lengthwise beneath a wooden resonance chamber. On the floor are metal bowls of different sizes, along with a couple of padded mallets. I close my eyes, and softly, ever so softly the Sound Therapist or, as he prefers to describe himself, the Listener, squatting on the floor, start plucking the strings, occasionally gently striking a singing bowl. The sensation is vaguely strange, unfamiliar, but pleasant.



The sounds come and go in waves, swelling, decreasing; one minute subtle, creating the most miniscule sensations within me, the next forceful, heavy tones reverberate through my body and the rest of the room.


The vibrations swirl through me, my cells now resonating with the instrument. I find myself relaxing, my mind drifting. It feels as if the composition of atoms that is me, disintegrates; every particle lifting off, like a flock of butterflies off a bush. They linger for a while, float in synchronized unison about the room, and then, as on a cue, sweep out through the open window...


Read more... Of a Sound Mind

Ups and Downs = Rock and Roll

Let’s get our act together

Break free from every tether

Be our own chief         

Life is so brief

Let’s take a bow

For here and now

And make the most

Of every toast

Ignore some rules

Behave like fools

Smile like a loon

Under the moon

Dare take a chance

Create our “dance”

Climb up a tree

feel we are free...

Read more...Ups and Downs=Rock and Roll

Go-Nuts Tart ...with berries

Here is, on request, a gluten-, sugar-, dairy-free tart. Like most recipes on this page it is only a suggestion, leaving room for your own creativity and preferences. The only problem with this cake is that, even though it is supposed to last for several days in the fridge, it very rarely makes it through more than an hour. It is very rich, but you still keep nibbling till you swear on your live mother’s grave that you will not eat anything for the next 24 hours. And then, five minutes later, you find yourself half through another piece.

Just like in life, you can’t stop nibbling. And just like in life, you may stick to the same ingredients, the same procedures, playing it safe, killing yourself softly with boredom.  Choosing alternative ingredients, stirring things (up) in a different way, makes for new flavors and exciting experiences, adding to your repertoire and your Joix de vivre.

See recipe Go-Nuts Tart ...with berries

You fill up my senses/Mainau

Mainau, the Island of Flowers, is like the most precious pearl in the beautiful necklace of towns, villages and pleasant havens surrounding the body of the ever charming Lake Constance. In a Germany I up till a few years ago associated with nothing but the industrial Ruhrgebiet, and excellent freeways with famed German efficiency carrying you through the country towards other and more alluring destinations.

Visits to different Bundeslände quickly upsided my and many other people’s misconceptions about a country which features so much more; Wonderful river valleys with vines clinging to steep, rocky sides, whose 

seemingly inhospitable surface provides the very minerals that distinguish and set apart the wines produced there. Quaint little villages with half- timbered houses, windowsills overflowing with pelargoniums. Rolling hills and mountains, and dark forests in which many fairytales were born. To travel over land and sea, everywhere being told and retold, often leading us to believe that they originated on our own door steps. Connecting us in a way we may not be aware of, as people’s emotions, fears and joys are basically the same, wherever we may come from.

And so we may  connect, in experiencing the beauty of Meinau...    
Read/see more....You fill up my senses/Mainau

Evening in Konstanz

As soon as I got off the train, it hit me. The sensation of being on a more southernly latitude. Even though I had left a warm, sunny, spring-rushing-into-summerTrondheim, this was a different thing alltogether. It was already evening, but it was still warm, and the town was teaming with people. Konstanz'  main communication artery, a wide pedestrian street, lined with outdoor restaurants, was full of people enjoying the evening, the pleasant atmosphere, a drink or several, each other or a comfortable solitude.

On my way to the hotel I passed a particularly inviting place situated, along with several others, on a small cobblestoned square featuring palms, several gas fuelled fireplaces, a fountain, and on this particular occasion; an adept Spanish guitarist. I promptly seized a waiter by his collar (well, almost, I would have if needed, I’m a sucker for such places) and asked him to reserve a table for me. He smilingly obliged me, and I quickly checked in to my room, freshened up in a jiffy and headed back, equipped with purse and my beloved travel computer.

The guitarist was still there... 

read more An evening in Konstanz

Goals and Birds of a Feather

Goal is a word having an almost unlimited range when it comes to scope, and an equally limitless diversity when contents are concerned: For a depressed person a goal may be getting out of bed in the morning, forcing down a piece of bread and setting one foot in front of the other in order to reach the mailbox twenty meters down the driveway. For an experienced and fit mountaineer the peak partly hidden way up in the clouds is the target of the day. For a contortionist, fitting into a medium size hat box may seem a feasible achievement, and for a lion tamer simply not being eaten is a pretty sensible goal for any day.

Our lives are immensely diverse in many ways; we have different jobs, backgrounds, experiences and roles. Furthermore, what happens to us, what we seek out, what we look for along the way varies a lot; while some are adventure seekers, going out of their way to explore new territory in all aspects of life, others are satisfied spending most of their time within their mental and physical comfort zone. Some unfortunate souls tend to be especially attractive to falling bricks and shattering earthquakes, others are seemingly invariably showered with rose petals, gentle spring rain and lottery wins...  Read Goals and Birds of a Feather

Still My World

At times

I wish

you could wrap me

in your arms

hold me  close

not letting go

Willing

my world

to stop spinning

Time

to stop passing...

Read Still My World

Have your marzipan and eat it too

The Norwegian national day, the 17th of May, is soon coming up. The day is much loved, partly because it’s an excuse for Norwegians to gorge themselves with a year’s worth of goodies.

The constitution, which is what we’re actually celebrating, says (I’m pretty sure) that on this particular day it’s every kid’s birthright to down a minimum of 6 soft drinks, and to devour 5 ice creams, 7 hot dogs and 9 pieces of cake. 

Which is why all kids get up at 5, behave as stark, raving mad rascals for a few hours, before happily and quite disciplined walking in parades, waving their flags, shouting ”hurray” at the top of their voices and singing something that at least vaguely resembles the national anthem. Knowing that afterwards they are allowed to eat there little hearts out. After which, surprise, surprise, they go home, if they make it that far, and get violently sick!

Due to the upcoming event, a friend of mine requested the marzipan recipe that I for a long time have promised several people to ”post”. The recipe is so simple, the result so delicious, it’s an affront to any serious, hardworking chef:

Marzipan , sugarfree

5 dl almonds

1-2 dl dates

Grind the almonds till they start feeling... Read Have your marizipan and eat it too

FoodStuff (March 18th) now has a working link.

Click on "Mars" to the right, or read FoodStuff

Sugarfree Marzipan soon coming to a blog near you...

50/50 The Must See Movie

If I’d known which movie we were about to watch, I would have run screaming and kicking in the opposite direction of my friend’s house. Illness, hospitals and the likes are things I, if I have the choice, shun like the plague... I don’t know if it’s because I’m a coward or due to the fact that I’ve had a little too much experience in the field. Maybe it’s a combination of the two. 

And I have been to hospitals, blessing their existence, hundreds of times (no kidding, we have veery active kids, whose doings at times have necessitated frequenting the local hospital so often that we, as parents, were afraid of being imprisoned, suspected for I don't know what), bringing or visiting family members, friends, collegues, students... But voluntarily sitting down to 100 minutes of malady, evolving around a guy getting his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent fight to deal with and conquer it, is something I simply DON'T DO.

Usually. But my good friend, whose house I was at, together with other people, had with usual care and skill (she has great taste in books and films) chosen this particular movie. So who was I, to refuse watching it. I braced myself and sat, or rather lay, down in one corner of their very comfortable sofa, in front of their very 50" plasma TV, with its very B & W surround sound system. Between me and the screen was a beautifully laid table with crackers, a great selection of cheeses, fruits, tea, wine... Chances were I would survive the evening.

But I did not. I did not survive the evening...  Read 50/50 The Movie with link to trailer.

Spring Fever

Spring in our little corner of the world arrives in most the same manner each year. It usually takes place around midday on a weekend: The previous evening I go to bed, snuggling under my duvet, relishing in its soft, warm comfort, having struggled through a blizzard, feeling colder than even some of the deep frozen grocery I've just purchased. The next the morning, still half a sleep, I put on the kettle, light a fire and the usual umpteen candle lights and settle down with whatever I'm up, or in to.

After a while, on an impulse, I look up, noticing the sun shining outside.  I set down my cup of tea, tentatively opening the window and feel an unexpected, but vaguely recognizable warmth on my skin. I realize that the bird twittering I've been hearing is not coming from the radio, but is actually made by  birds fervently shake-rattle-and-rolling their hips and feathers, singing their little hearts out in their effort to get a potential mate's attention.

Dazed, I get up, open the door to the patio and step outside: Oh What a Beautiful Morning!, What a Wonderful World! Spring and bird Love is in The Air! and I Feel Fine! The only thing.... 

Read Spring Fever

Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, and an occasional Piece of Insanity

My system was craving, screaming, begging for endorphins, in as huge doses as possible! My mind was working overtime, making my heart pound, my breathing shallow and my head and body ache. I had a thousand things I needed to deal with, some of which I had no idea even how to begin tackling.

But how to get my shot of endogenous morphine? It was the middle of the week (mind you, I am keeping myself on a strict regime), it was 9.30 in the morning (you don’t need a strict regime not to start your day with alcohol), so a glass of red wine or two was out of the question. Raiding a pharmacy was not an option, and all other ways of obtaining what I wanted were either illegal or immoral, so I settled for what almost invariably works for me: A workout, on this particular occasion, a swim-in.

There was not a second to lose...

Read  Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind and an occasional Piece of Insanity

The Inner Game of Taekwon-do

The «language» of Taekwon-do is foreign to me, in any connotation of the word. I don’t know the first thing about Korean, even though I over the years through two of my offsprings have been exposed to a fair share of yop cha jirugis, ap cha oligis, ap cha busigis and not to forget a whole bunch of momchau makgis. Fortunately, all merely in a literary sense.  When it comes to the inner language; the history and background, the hows and whens and dos and don’ts, I am but an infant; interested, but still only vaguely aware of the contours of an unknown world.

The little I have gleaned has revealed an organization with strong emphasis on respect for authorities, i.e. anyone superior in “rank”, and reverence for the sport and its origin. “Standing” is signified by an easily deciphered dress code, at a glance identifiable for The Initiated, rendering it simple to do the right thing, e.g. bow in the right direction, at the right time to the right person.

The sense of respect so thoroughly permeates the atmosphere that even I on occasion have instinctively inclined my head along with everybody else, instantly afterwards shaking my head, wondering what the heck I’m doing.

The high ranked coaches are in TKd contexts confident, solemn, serious and strictly business looking. That, together with their physically fit stature, intuitively convinces you that these are people you want to stay on good terms with. Even though I have been informed time and again by “insiders” as to the human qualities of the above mentioned, I have always played it safe, staying at an arm’s length plus a little more, away from the in-attitude-Samurai-lookalikes.  All the greater was my surprise...   Read The Inner Game of Taekwon-do

Surfin’ USA

I was just going along for the ride. Never been surfing in my life, had no intention of starting now. The sun was shining, the skies blue, smiling people in wetsuits were coming and going, their board on top of their car, sticking out of their trunk, tucked under their arm, or in some cases haphazardly secured to their bikes…, I couldn’t help myself: I wanted to be part of it all, and before I came to my senses I jumped right in and asked if there was room for one more. Sure enough; the ocean is big, the surf store guy didn’t mind earning the extra money: I was in. Way over my head, I feared, but feeling a thrilling sensation in my stomach.

It really was a gorgeous day; the color of the grass, the sky, sea and sand…, it was all quite breathtaking. A sensation that would be experienced several times during the next couple of hours, although in a more concrete way…

Our instructors were friendly and welcoming, looking just like surf instructors are supposed to look; lean, tanned, hair bleached by year round exposure to sea and sun. In this area there is no such thing as off season; it never gets really cold, and with a wetsuit you are prepared for most kinds of weather conditions.

Donning the darn suit was surprisingly difficult, though. We struggled to get into the uncompromisingly stiff, unyielding  and heavy contraption, helping each other as best as we could, occasionally getting pointers about which way to wear the thing, how to close the zipper in the back, pulling the collar over the head and closing the whole thing at the neck without suffocating (yet another sensation that would become fairly familiar a little later).

When we were all eventually properly dressed for the occasion, we nodded and looked approvingly at each other, and as best as we could, ourselves. We felt pretty smart and perky. How hard could this surfing thing be? I mean, after all, we were Norwegians, practically born with skies attached to our feet.

It turned out it could be hard, really hard…

The beginning was encouraging, and just a tad misleading, though: The first few times we, more or less elegantly, managed to get up and stay upright on the board for quite a while. We laughed and smiled confidently at each other.

Then it was time to hit the water…

Read Surfin' USA

Beach Boys Surfin' USA song and video

Peace, Pelicans and Papercup Ponderings With Working Link

Peace, Pelicans and Papercup Ponderings (Thursdag April 5th) now has a working link

See the blogpost or read here Peace, Pelicans and Papercup Ponderings

Is that all there is

I ask myself

in the face

of ignorance

my own and others

in the face of

indifference

passivity

negativity

hurt

violence

friends struggling

with life
each other

unlived lives

unloved loves

wasted opportunities

 

And then...

Read...Is that all there is

Dissilutionment Thomas Mann

Nature Boy, Nat King Cole

The Blind Side (film, feel good, fun, inspiring, well acted)                                                             

Head wiggling

I am reading yet another book set in India. Even though it’s now “A major motion picture”, it is, in my opinion, not a particularly good book, content- , structure- or language wise. The story is quite superficial, the characters are difficult to identify with and the research not impressive. 

Still, there is something about it, maybe reminding me of other tales I’ve heard or read, or possibly even experienced, stirring something within me. Something elusive, yet real, that makes me want to go there, be there, become absorbed in its overwhelming non conformity, where the improbable is the norm, the unique the standard, and  the average nonexistent. I feel like losing myself in a society unfathomably rich in people and diversity, in culture, religion, language and geography. A country developing so fast in some areas that it is hard to keep up, in others so backward it is hard to comprehend, let alone accept. 

The smells… of decay, sewage, funeral pyres…, the scents… of skillfully prepared and tasty slow food, of trees and flowers…. 

Read Head Wiggling

Peace, Pelicans and Papercup Ponderings

The day was stretched out before me, and when I cast a glance at my bed stand clock, seeing it was 5 o’clock, I realized it would be a long one. Outside it was pitch dark. Just the lights on the other side of Mission Bay bore sign that there was life out there, although all life with an inch of sense in it would still be asleep.

There was no chance, though, that I would be able to go back to sleep. I had been up at 6 the previous morning, travelled the whole day, in the process cutting through 3 time zones in a westerly direction. So by 7.30 PM I felt a little drowsy and lay down on my bed, fully clad, as I was only planning to close my eyes for a few minutes.

…I woke up at 11 PM, ready for a new day…As Day wasn’t really ready for me yet, I slipped into something more comfortable, brushed my teeth and just barely made it back to bed before I was out like a light.

So now, here I was, fit as a fiddle, well at least as a base guitar, at 5 o’clock in the morning, with a soon to be bright day ahead of me. I didn’t have any definite plans, other than getting better acquainted with the Mission and Pacific Beach Area... 

 Read more...  Peace, Pelicans and Papercup Ponderings

Go Amish

One of the reasons I enjoy travelling, is getting away from all the clutter. Even though I am a minimalist at heart, in an active family of five, things tend to accumulate over the years. The fact that I have a “one thing in, one or more things out” policy, doesn’t seem to have any effect on the situation at hand.

Some of us hang on to stuff because it one day may come in handy, if nothing else as an outdated rarity in a curiosity collection.

Others have yet to discover the practicality of drawers and cabinets and like to have their stuff scattered about them. Thus believing their belongings easily accessible, but instead hopelessly irretrievable in the frantic moment when a certain object is a matter of life and death, at least judging from the frenzied behavior of the persons in question.

Admittedly, I am not without blame, having several weak points of my own. Holding on to, and acquiring things I know I can, but do not want to live without…

Not even on vacation; Again, in principle, I am a light traveler, but the scale in the Baggage Drop repeatedly proves me wrong; I can actually almost swear I on several occasions have heard it moaning when I’ve heaved my suitcase on top of its already heavily tried “belly”...

Read more... Go Amish