Latest adventure

It's been raining so much,

Internet connection still sucksssssssss,

And my trip to the land of the rising sun has left me broke...

*bleh bleh bleh*

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will blog more about the latest adventure overseas when the internet connection recovers

10 Favourite shots

3 Oct 2006
Hoven in autumn

22 Aug 2006
Svolver

29 Sept 2006
Cow house!

30 July 2006
Going down from Hoven

27 July 2006
Ferry ride on way to see sperm whales

12 Sep 2006
Silly Billy No. 3

4 Aug 2006
Setting sun

7 Oct 2006
Mitzy

10 Aug 2006
Preparing for Tor Alfred's birthday party

10 Sep 2006
Grazing cows

Weekend meals

Sat and sun has gotta be my favourite days of the week for meals. Coz saturday is Grot day!!! Delicious rice pudding. Grot is typically eaten on Saturdays and when Unni and i go to the local shop on Saturdays, i usually see people buying cartons and cartons of milk. But i bet we've got the best Grot around, coz the milk that is used is straight from the farm. *Heh*

When i first started work on the farm, Bcc had told me about Saturday Grot day to kinda prepare me in the event that i may not like it. Coz apparently some working guests hate it and don't eat it at all.

To my surprise, the first time i tried it, i lurveeeddd it! Creamy and thick. It's like baby food. The usual way is to eat it with a big blob of butter in the middle, a generous sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon and tuck in. I dressed my Grot up and proceeded to eat. But in the midst of all that excitement, i had forgotten what Bcc had told me not to do. Don't stir it up.

Bcc had told me before that the first time she ate Grot, she too had put in all the stuff and then stirred it up before she ate it. Unni was surprised, coz the usual way to eat it was to leave everything as it is and just eat systematically round the plate. Well, opps, too late, coz i had stirred mine up so well to make sure that every grain had a little sugar and cinnamon. I remembered Unni made a comment when she saw that, she must think the stirring thing gotta be a strange foreign habit of eating meals... well from that day on, i never stirred my Grot again...



Loading my Grot with lots and lots of 'O Boy' is my favourite way of eating Grot. It all started when i first saw Filip, the Czech working guest do it. He said that was how they ate it back home. So i tried it too. Everything's the same, just add a generous covering of 'O Boy' (Milo similar) on the top. The result is like eating chocolate flavoured rice pudding. After Filip left, i was the only one who ate Grot this way. When Rita and her foster kid dropped by one Saturday afternoon to have Grot with us, both of them were laughing when they saw me packing on loads of O Boy on the rice pudding. Ha, it's their loss not mine!

Saturday's also special coz we get to have TV dinners!! Coz we have Grot in the afternoon around 4, we usually eat dinner around 8.30 after we've come back from the cow house. Saturday dinners are eaten downstairs at the TV area with fancy plates and glasses. What's even better is that Saturday is snack day!! So together with the regular dinner, bring out the potato chips, sweets, chocolates, wine/beer and BRUS! (brus is the term for soft drinks).

Every Saturday when we go to the shop, Unni will tell me to get my favourite pack of chocolates of potato chips so we can have it at dinner time. Then i'm like some crazy kid in a candy store, standing there surveying what to choose. The rationale of having snacks during the weekend is coz it's like a reward for the hard work done during the weekdays. So it's kinda like something special to look forward to. Which explains my crazed behaviour when it comes to Saturday dinners. Damn gin na or what.

Sunday dinners are special too. Coz we get to have peeled potatoes! So instead of having to peel our own potatoes, they are already naked when served to the table. Bcc's usually the one who peels the potatoes, coz she does it damn fast. Experienced or what. The dinner is usually more fancy (= longer preparation time required). Such as that of salmon and bacalao.


When the weekend's over, it's then another 5 day wait to the next weekend fantasy. Which is pretty good, coz there's always something to look forward to.

Post dinner desserts =)

Dessert comes after every meal. Confirm one. Basically anything which is sweet goes. Be it some fruit, left-over cakes or just a stick of ice-cream.

Multebaer (cloudberries, handpicked of course) and cream
this one only when special guests come over only


Green apple, cinnimon, with a generous topping of whipped cream, all swimming in delicious vanilla sauce


Blueberries (handpicked of course), sugar and purple milk


Cherry cheesecake (homemade of course)


Strawberries and cream


Marzipan cake (homemade of course)


Creme brulee (homemade of course)


Kiwi cake (homemade of course)


Blueberry meringue (once again... homemade)


All time favourite: Chocolate pudding and vanilla sauce

With all the delicious homemade sweets, dessert has to be one of the most looked-forward part of dinner! Enjoy first... then come to worry about the consequences... =p

Whaa!

Finally over...I've come to the conclusion that i can only go 10km. Coz the first 10km was pretty good. The next 5 was just a mental game, coz i'd just lapse into this period of feeling damn pissed and sorry for myself... bleh... before the motivation comes at around 16km when the end is near. But by then, the legs were kinda gonna give way ald... double bleh... I think it would have been worse if ah peng and mong-na weren't running with me the whole way.

And kudos to Cheeling for finishing the 42km in 4hr 32mins, that's more than an hour faster compared to her timing last year. Woohoo! That was damn fast and faster than many many men i dare say. Not to mention women lah. She even ran past a few dgnbt guys on the way back somemore. With all the training she's put herself through, of course lah! woot!! so proud of her! Great job done!!

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adidas' been the main sponsor for the run the past 2 years. This year, they handed out extra bibs to the runners to write their reasons for running. Pin it on their backs and if it's photographed, they get a free photograph sent to them.

D-day

Blogger's eaten up my post... bleh...

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anyhow, the big day's tomorrow.

double *bleh*.. i've concluded that being in a foreign land makes you impulsive and sign up for things which you wish you didn't months later.

even cheeling who's having exams has been running every day, then again, she's going for the full 42k. But still, i haven't been training as much as i know i should the past 6 weeks. needless to say i'm only 2kg lighter now, so gravity is so not gonna be in my favour tomorrow...

plus my biological clock's so screwed coz i've been sleeping at 7am and getting up at 3pm for the past few days. In desperation, i'm not sleeping from now till tonight so i can get up at some ungodly hour tomorrow and get my ass to the padang for the flag off at 630am.

I should be so glad to even make it within 3 hrs.

See you guys at the finish tomorrow... don't eat anything funky today and drink more water tonight ah!

Dinner I

Dinner is usually served around 5pm. Coz shortly after we gotta head out to milk the cows. But when you have no cows to milk, dinner is served around 7-8ish pm.

Unlike Singaporean dinners where you've got 4-5 dishes, 1 meat, 1 fish, 1 veggie, 1 soup, Norwegian dishes have only 1 main dish. With it's accompanying side dishes which is usually some vegetables and potatoes. Side dishes are very specific. A certain main dish goes only with particular side dishes. Rules rules and rules!

I only managed to get a few pics of the dinner, coz i couldn't possibly go around each dinner snapping away at the food. So here are just a few of the traditional Norwegian dinners.


Fårikål (okay, pic is from google). One of the first Norwegian dinners i had. It's mutton or lamb in cabbage stew, cooked in a big pot and served with potatoes. Traditionally eaten in autumn. Fårikål is a national dish and even has a Fårikål Day in October.


Pork ribs. The pig's bred and killed on another farm on Gimsoy. Not the regular pork you get which comes from a slaughter house where the pigs are stressed and freaking out like crazy. Which results in very juicy and tender pork. *yummy*

Lamb. As usual, goes with sides of mixed vegetables (mixed vegetables can be bought from the supermarket, comes in carrot, broccoli and cauliflower), potatoes, tyttebaer jam and some brown sauce for the meat.


Kjøttkaker. Meat cakes. It seems that all Scandanavian countries have their own version of meat cakes/balls. Well here, it's eaten with potatoes, mashed peas and tyttebaer jam.


Bacalao. Made from salted cod, olives, tomatoes and onions. There's tonnes of tomato paste in there as you can tell, very strong tasting. Eaten together with flatbrød (flatbread, you can see a little piece of it at the top of the plate)

Lapskaus. This is a stew with diced beef, potatoes, onions and different root vegetables. Traditionally eaten together with flatbrød.


Lutefisk. It’s a traditionally Scandinavian and is eaten during Christmas. The season lasts from autumn to about early spring. Lutefisk is actually codfish treated with lye. The result is a rubbery fish which is almost tasteless. It’s eaten with fixed side dishes, mashed peas, bacon, potatoes and a sauce made from sour cream, mayo and mustard sauce.

Of course there's Norwegian Salmon. Wrap it in foil and stick it in the oven, then serve with vegetables on the side and potatoes.