Olives

Both Jack and I have a passion for olives. Green olives, black olives, purple olives, stuffed olives, small olives, big olives, olives with pips, olives without pips - I think they're all yum yum. We did our week's shopping at Lidl today and came home with one tall and slender jar of really nice green olives stuffed with garlic cloves in salty brine, one average sized jar of green ones filled with paprika in brine and finally a HUGE jar of green olives also in brine and ridiculously good value. Our cunning little plan was to save the really nice ones for Friday when we're celebrating moving in slash our 6 months anniversary (or lunaversary as it technically is), have the mediocre ones as a reward for carrying our shopping from Lidl to Hillhead and up the stairs to the top floor and into my room. Usually this isn't a long route to complete at all, but with the heavy socket-popping load of groceries we had it was a little ordeal in itself. Finally the last and biggest jar of them all we planned to use for our own little experiment which turned out to be quite a success;

1 Wash an emty glass jar and fill about half of it with oil

2 Crush 3-5 cloves of garlic and mix it with the oil

3 Add spices if you want

4 Drain the olives in a sieve or frying basket

5 Put the drained olives into the jar of oil and garlic and shake it well

6 Refridgerate for 2 hours +

7 Eat - Mmmm!

Some of Jack and Malene's favourite things

I was reading my friend's blog (http://livet-etter-kreften.blogspot.com/) and felt like following in her footsteps, so I want to make a little list of our favourite things too. Here they are:

Jack's list:

* Irn Bru and diet coke

* My desktop PC

* My new flat

* Malene

* Mat Roberts and Nia Cound

* My X-box

* Olives ("I do too!", says Malene)

* Indian food

* System of a Down

* Mango (also known as "Malenes" )

* Holidays

* Clotted cream

* Jeffrey kjælepingvin (Jeffrey the pet penguin)

* Gin Gin (my doggie, but ya'll knew dat)

* English mustard (none of that French wank!)

* Wholegrain pasta

* My grey boxers (Jeff Bank's boxers)

* Lululu

* Mull of kintyre cheddar cheese

* Heroes, House

* Morgan Freeman, Samuel L Jackson, Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Ellen Page, Leonardo Di Caprio, Angelina Jolie

* My new flat

* AOE

* Dragonball Z, Gundam Wing

* Powerthirst

* Last Night of the Proms

* Liverpool FC

* Popcorn

* Roast dinner

* John Smith's, Mojitos, Lech, Abbot Ale, Morgan Spiced Lime and Lemonade (easy on the lime!)

* Sirlion steak with blue cheese sauce, roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding

* Cheesecake

* Socks with cool patterns

* bacon sandwich

* Complaining

Malene's list: 

* Avocados (hence quacamole)

* Olive tapenade

* Artichokes ( I even have a rule for artichokes: If I see it I buy it.)

* Asparagus

* Limes (I like it in singular form as well, but I have to say most of the time things that are in plural are even greater, with the exception of boyfriends or girlfriends if we're talking about having them simultaniously, deaths, essays or bills...)

* Fresh herbs (especially coriander and parsley)

* The smell of newcut grass

* cooking exciting and spicy food

* Soup (making, eating and inventing)

* Jack's surprises

* Musical instruments (especially string instruments, piano's, clarinets and small gadgets)

* Black and white postcards with obscure motives

* Sitting on a bus with my mp3-player and hours to kill

* Peckams, Little John's Restaurant

* Jack wearing the casual black shirt, the tight jeans and a three day beard

* Indian food

* Wok

* Zoom Digital Recorder

* Red Tablemixers

* The Beatles

* Aromat

* Jackfruit ( I haven't tried it yet, but it's still my favourite fruit!)

* Greek salad

* Mexican food

* Spaghetti with meat sauce

* Babycorn

* Ink pens

* My grey hoodie (surprise present from Jack)

* My sign language book for dummies (also a surprise present from Jack)

* Miriam (pusa mi)

* Sourcream and onion crisps (the norwegian/american kind)

* Pickled garlic and sundried tomatoes (Mmmm!)

* Rugsprø and Finn Crisp (Norwegian crispy bread)

* Inger Marit's homemade bread (best bread in Gjerstad)

* skinkebog (I don't know what that is called in English)

* Salami on toasted bread with gherkins

* Milk

* Water from Gjerstad

* The first snow

* Black Books, Heroes, House, Six Feet Under, Family Guy, Friends

* Ellen Page, Kevin Spacey, Kathy Bates, Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Dakota Fanning, Helena Bonham Carter, Brad Pitt,

* Disney and Pixar

* Thomas Newman (film score composer)

* "Brown paper packages tied up with string"

* My potato bag dress

* Scampi!!!

* After Eight chocolate

* Miniture sized things

* Unnecessarily large things

* Svovelkis and kråkesølv (I don't know what that is in English)

* Turkeydinner at Christmas Eve in Gjerstad

* Homemade orange and raspberry juice

* Wild strawberries (normal strawberries as well)

* Alfalfas

* Sorting things by colour and size

* Skinny dipping

Flat viewing #2

I woke up this morning freezing because it was SNOWING outside - can you believe that? Snow in April is not a particularly unusual thing to happen in Norway, but here in Scotland it is. It was so warm and sunny yesterday. Weird.

Jack went to class but I have mondays off so I had a nice long shower, listened to some girlpower music (á la "Respect", "Think" and the like), and made a salad lunch like a good little housewife just in time for when Jack came home from University. But I'm not complaining; Jack and I both enjoy life in the kitchen and most of the time the cooking is a team effort (though Jack has to bear with my being a bit of a control freak).

We only had 20 minutes before we would have to leave, but that was just enough time. Salad always makes me happy, that's how much I love salad. Andy, our future flatmate, was supposed to come with us today and look at the flat, but he got caught up by a tutor who wanted to look over some things about his essay, so he couldn't make it. A bit of a bummer since Andy is the only one who hasn't seen the place yet, but ah well - that's just life I guess.

After lunch we walked to the place which is about a fifteen to twenty minutes walk from Hillhead and got there at four o'clock sharp. The couple who is selling it to us were still doing a bit of last minute tidying and vacuuming so there were some random things lying around, but still it was fun to see the place more or less empty. I forgot how big the rooms really were, so at least we won't have to worry about fitting everything we wanted. The fridge/freezer, washing machine, lamps, bathroom mirror, cupboards and blinds were included in the original deal. But today we made an extra good deal with them in both Jack and my opinion. They had a couple of things they weren't going to need so they asked us if we were interested in buying any if them. Two wardrobes (one normal sized and a bigger 1,5 sized, both wooden), a microwave and a dining table with chairs (all wooden). We got the whole lot for puny £50 so that was practically a give away to be frank.

Jack went to a cash machine just around the corner and I stayed behind to take some pictures in the meantime, but ended up just chatting with the previous owners...

Jack and I agreed that they were really the cutest couple, a mexican woman with an accent, a british guy with a peculiar shaped nose and their adorable little baby girl. I wish they were our neighbours. We walked home giddy as ever struggling to control the broad smiles upon our faces. Such an overwhelming feeling of happiness and exitement. We can't until the 30th!!!

Smoking

Had a really lazy week since coming back to university, has been a very good week though a binge of Disney films and a mass of excitement about finally getting the key to the flat. I must say though I think I may have set a record as a first time buyer, there was a week between my viewing the property and the sellers accepting my offer. Was a nervous week though, as the offers over system in Scotland baffles me.

I have recently given up smoking (I smoked for about 4 and a bit years), I decided to quit smoking due to the obvious health and financial set backs it has. Its coming up to 3 weeks now and still managing to fight off the temptations, there is an incentive though, Me and Malene are putting money into a holiday/fun-stuff account for each day that I don't smoke. The thought of our first real holiday together is enough motivation for me to stop smoking. There are some penalties that I'm subject to; if I smoke then Malene gets 50% of the fun account all to herself to spend as she sees fit. But that's not the worst of it, I've made a deal that if I smoke and lie or don't tell her about it then my Christmas holiday might be more lonely than desirable. Yep! If I smoke I'll be staying in Aberdeen over the Christmas holidays ALONE!

University starts up again on Monday not sure if its something to look forward to considering my complete lack of productivity over the 3 week Easter break. Fortunately the system at Aberdeen is wonderful and the first two years is based on a pass or fail system at least allowing for one to not have to preform at 100% for everything.

Jack and Malene''s first blog

Jack and I are currently watching "Julie and Julia" and were inspired to make this blog. We've just got a new place to live. A real place, not just somewhere to rent - we can do what we want and stay as long as we want. Now that is what I call freedom. Friday the thirtieth of April 2010 we will be handed the keys (from a young couple with a little baby girl who love the place but who need more space for the unexpected increase in family members...) and we are so excited! We don''t have much furniture yet, but we'll bring over some blankets, a big duvet, pillows and some winebottles for candles so it will be almost like building a fort. Besides, we've decided to celebrate our 6 month anniversary the 30th instead of the 28th since we'll have such a nice place to stay in - yay!