On being a c gin na

Kids, so far there have been many who have come on the farm. Cato’s kids: Rebecca and Tor Alfred, Cato’s friend and his son, Cato’s 2 lady friends and 3 kids, and the latest additions, Julia and Aina, Unni’s 2 foster kids who had come to the farm for a short holiday.

Of all the times I have said how others are c gin nas, the ultimate karma has befallen on me.

I’m starting to eat and drink like a c gin na (translates to ‘damn kid’)…

We can start with the jam. As I would have posted earlier, the adults (other than me) here all love eating cloudberries. The ‘GOLD’ of all jams, but so far, I’ve noticed that the kids don’t really have a liking for it. It’s an acquired taste I tell you. The other time Bcc and I had been out picking blueberries and before we left, Rebecca told bcc to come back with her favourite blueberries. We came back with some, made some jam, and since then, like the c gin nas, my ‘GOLD’ has been the blueberry jam.

Bread here at the house has usually been homemade corn bread. You can imagine, it’s the kind which is really brown, like wholemeal bread. When Tor Alfred and Rebecca were here, Unni kept buying and making other sorts of breads and buns. Coz the kids were more used to and preferred the white breads. Even though I’m an Oprah fan, and whatever she says is like the word from the bible for me, I don’t listen to her when she tells the world to ‘stay away from the WHITE stuff’. Can’t resist rice, white bread, cookies, biscuits. So like the kids, I was happily munching away on the white breads and biscuits during breakfast, tea time and at night when there’s night food for the kids.

Black coffee is the drink of choice for many here, since I only reserve coffee for special occasions when I need to stay up, gotta find alternatives. As popular as Milo is in southeast Asia, there is none here. The drink which comes closest to is O Boy. A chocolate drink which you are supposed to make from taking a glass of milk (cold or warm is fine) and adding about 2 teaspoonfuls of O Boy to it. Coz there’s so much milk and only 2 teaspoons of the brown powder, the result is a grey coloured drink. Not even the colour of weak milo, but more similar to that of drain water. But it tastes good of course. And so the kids love it. They usually have it for breakfast and when they take their nightfood before they go to bed. I usually take hot coca in the morning. At night, Unni makes a big pot of warm milk for the kids and I to make our cups of O Boy and we happily sip while we eat our white bread and biscuits.



Brus is also popular with the kids. ‘Brus’ is the common term for carbonated drinks be it Coke, Sprite, or the drink that all kids enjoy having. Eventyr Brus, or translated ‘Fairytale Juice’. Fairytale indeed, coz it doesn’t taste like anything, not orange, strawberry, apple or lime. It’s just sugared water I bet, with the gas added into it. We had it at Tor Alfred’s big birthday bash as well as when we have BBQs on the beach with the kids. The adults usually drink red wine or beer, but my mental allergy to alcohol means I join the kids and drink our happy juice.

And of course there’s the biggest weakness. Candy. Unni usually has it hidden in the cupboard from the kids and candy is usually eaten on weekends, as a treat. But of course adults are not subject to such restrictions. So I get to sneak to the cupboard to feed the sugar cravings. The other day Unni, the girls and I went to the local shop to get some groceries. And I went for the sweet shelves to check out the candy that they had on sale. I was like ‘wha wha wha, imagine having this this and that!’ But I didn’t bring any money out with me, so like the kids, can see but cannot touch. So when bcc calls and ask me what I want her to bring for me when she comes visit, the number 1 thing on my list is CHOCOLATESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!
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Unni just gave me my pay for the 2 weeks since I’ve started work.

And I’m gonna spend it on CANDY!!!!


Woohoo!