Tromso - 7

Before the post, updates.

I upgraded my XR to the iphone 16E - cos ANYTHING is better than the XR at this point, and I don't need a super fast super big super feature phone. The down side is that it took some doing trying to get it up and running properly. Logging into things is a bitch with all the security features. This password here, that verification there, etc etc. I ended up having to visit one of my banks today to sort out an issue with my email address on file. Thankfully it got done very quickly.

I've also been dealing with getting some of my walls repainted. The guy came in two days ago to sort out ONE section of the kitchen, and then since he was here and he had enough paint - and time - we both got carried away and he ended up dealing with 4 sections of my kitchen and living room. I'm very pleased with the outcome. 

Also, I had a cracked tooth that decided to give up the ghost. The outer back corner of my first molar (see graphic below) chipped off today. I cancelled my lesson and went in search of a dentist. She said I needed to have a filling done. So I did.

BIKSS be like "That's not a chip, that's a rockfall."

That corner broke off. 

The bad news is, I'm $170 poorer. The good news is, it's not sensitive anymore. :) 

And now, more photos. Today's post is going to be a Photodump. Enjoy The Lights! 

Breakfast @ Vervet bakeri

Oat muffin, cardamom bun, and a pear and cranberry confection. BUT LOOK AT THE VIEW

The Polar Museum had a temporary Queering Polar History 

exhibition (in addition to their usual stuff) which we found most interesting.

You're gonna have to expand the pictures to read.

We visited the Arctic Cathedral which was really unusual looking.

Then traipsed to Bengts Bistro for some local fare for lunch!

Traditional meatballs (pretty good!) and Reindeer burger (nothing exciting there... 

more of a been there done that kind of thing... but it was decent and edible)!

I was glad to be seated by the window where the heater was mercifully blasting warm air. It was so friggin' cold getting to this restaurant - we walked 15 mins in the snow/hail/rain.

Then we took a bus back to town cos we had a Northern Lights bus tour that evening!

On the way to the pick up point for our tour we walked past the Cathedral of Our Lady, Tromso.

"The Cathedral of Our Lady (Norwegian: Vår Frue domkirke), also commonly known as the Church of Our Lady, is the Catholic cathedral of the city of Tromsø, Norway, and seat of the prelature of the same name. It is the northernmost Catholic (and Christian in general) cathedral in the world. It is located on the Erling Bangsunds square."

That's all there is to the inside of the church. This pic was taken from the last row.

Got me a cardamom bun with frosting to take on the trip out to see the lights. 

We drove 2 hours southeast of Tromso to a place near the Lulleelva river - 

Lulleelva is a river located in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It is situated in the Lulledalen valley, within the Lullefjellet nature reserve, near the village of Skibotn in the municipality of Storfjord. 

The area is known for:

• Being one of the regions with the lowest precipitation in Norway.
• Its beautiful natural scenery, including rich flora (especially orchids) and fauna, which can be explored via the Lulledalen Forest Trail.
• Being a location where the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is frequently visible. 

Tada!

They set up a little fire and provided us with hot chocolate, coffee and tea, as we milled about and took our photos.

And did we take photos!! OK, my XR couldn't do shit. So these were all taken by BIKSS. 

I'm thrilled that he managed to set up his phone camera so as to be able to capture the lights! ENJOY!

(This one was taken directly overhead!)

(No aurora here, just a pretty view of the moonlight behind some trees)

And if you didn't already know, you can't see shit with the naked eye. It appears silvery or greyish/whitish in person, but point a camera at it and the green appears - yes, even my crappy XR with no exposure or aperture settings. 

This is what it looks like with my XR - 

Now imagine those green wisps in a very faint grey-white colour. That's what it looks like in person. So we would see some whitish streams of fog/cloud-like trails, then BIKSS would point and shoot... and then we'd hold our breath (mostly because he had to hold the camera still) and wait 10 seconds for the camera to capture it, and then flip to the picture to see if there was any aurora in that spot. 

It was kinda fun. "There Daddy.... Ok, let me see (the pic)... Yay! WOW! How about there! See? Oh, no? Oops... Here, turn around, your 9 o'clock, quick! Ooh...  nice one!" And that went on for 3 hours.

So yes, we got to see the lights. And I was an extremely happy (if extremely cold) camper! And then it was time to go back home and crash because we were both freezing and exhausted from the long-ass excursion.

That's me making my way up the driveway to our Air BnB after our tour.

Of course we managed to do some supermarket souvenir shopping too!

And this is my favourite thing to eat from Norway. 

Pity I can't find ANY place here that brings in the stuff. 

I might have to look for a recipe and try to make my own lefse.

(Yes, I still have half a pack in my fridge... I'm trying to make it last!)

Yes, we have TONS more fotos... but I thought those were the prettiest. If you get a chance to chase the lights, GO WITH THE BUS TOURS AND SKIP THE BOAT!

Well then, that's a bucket list item I wasn't sure I'd be able to check! But I'm so glad I did, and I'm SUPER glad it was with BIKSS!

Till the next post.... have a good weekend!

20 Seconds of Fame and Other Nonsense

So I've just concluded a video interview with a media channel that wants to interview me for their Youtube series on caregivers (to Alzheimer's and dementia patients in general), and I suspect the producer enjoyed our chat so much that she offered me a spot almost immediately on their in-person panel event. Woot! "I really like how you engage with your audience, you don't sound at all like you're giving a lecture, it's so enjoyable to listen to you talk, like I'm listening to a podcast!" she said.

I'm not sure what lke listening to a podcast  means... but since I ENJOY listening to podcasts I'm gonna take that as a good thing. 

And so that will be my 20 seconds of Youtube fame. LOL. 

In other news I've been setting up a new lappy cos my old one gave up the ghost (I'd only gotten it about a year ago but it WAS already 9 years old by then, just underutilised in its old home) and it's been a bit tedious trying to work out what's what. I really dislike setting up new tech. Sigh. 

And since I was lappy-less for a while, and couldn't finish watching Reacher before leaving for Kuala Lumpur with BIKSS last week, he set up his streaming account on my phone where I have been getting my fix of smash bang crash! It's not the greatest acting, but hey, I'm not watching it for talent. Just the action. I love me a good car chase and some fake blood! 

Meanwhile I'm off to Genting Highlands with the sister this Friday (click here for a very brief youtube video showing the highlights)... but I'll unload the fotos from said KL trip before I leave. That's the thing tho, about going on frequent trips (because I'm a declutter freak!) - I really don't like having mixed vacation photos on my phone LOL. So I think I'll clear up the gallery tomorrow and post those as I save them to my backup drive. 

Stay tuned!

(That crazy colourful hotel is where we'll be staying!)

Also, post-steroid jab, the shoulder has been good. I can manage taking BASIC care of myself, altho I still can't reach across to scrub my left shoulder (I bought a long handled bath brush for that) or wear a bra the regular way cos I can't get far enough behind myself. But for most other things (washing dishes, doing laundry, sweeping the floor) I'm killing it! 

Well, at least I have a washing machine and a dryer to help with the dirty clothes!

In HRT news - we switched me over to Livial. Tibolone. And despite it not being a cyclical direct estrogen/progesteron medication with expected withdrawal bleed, I got my period last weekend. The doctor says give it 3-6 months to settle down. Okay then. Let's see...

This means I need to start watching my dates and weeks all over again... and here I thought I was done with that. Well, at least the NEXT trip we're planning won't clash with the next cycle. If the cycle plays nice and sticks to the plan that is. 

One can hope.

How am I Spam?

 

It has only NOW occurred to me that some of my messages / comments (and yours) have landed in the spam folder. It's really weird that Blogger would flag my own replies as spam. 

If you have commented in the past but it hasn't showed up on my posts, I do apologise.  What a mess. 

A Bit of This and a Bit of That (2)

They put this post under a warning too. Let's try this again. (where s-- is you know what... - when did that become a bad word?)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Mooncake season is officially over. I received a total of 9 mooncakes from various people and (gasp) my brother was one of them. 

I'm glad I didn't overdo it. Most of them were shared, and/or eaten over a few days and not all in one sitting. 

The jaw continues to annoy me. For a whole week there was no clicking and no pain. And then last Wed it began hurting during a session of Roger-worshipping. And I wasn't even vigorous or nothing. 

Speaking of playtime, last Friday after a particularly delightful (we ate too much of course!) dinner out in town we got back home and while I was playing with Roger under the waistband of BIKSS' pants, I remarked that he should take his pants off. "The whole way?" he asked. "Well, how else are you gonna have s--?" I retorted. 

BIKSS then went on to ask ME "And how are YOU going to have s-- when you're on your period?"

Ladies and gentlemen, the day has finally come when I must officially declare myself forgetful. 

I clear forgot that I was on my courses. DUH! 

"Well, what are we to do now?" I asked in mock dismay (actually, there was some REAL dismay on my part cos I was pretty keen to get some lovin' on, tbh). 

"You have two choices," he declared matter of factly, "a h a n d job or a b l o w job". 

And so some massage oil later, a h-job it was. 

Hopefully we'll get ACTUAL action going tomorrow! 

Um, what else is there this week... oh I got a text message from what I think is a scammer - They sent it from my actual mobile service provider's official channel, which made me panic. Apparently I'm to be charged $5.99 per WEEK for something. I rang them up and they put a barring service on my number effective immediately. They don't seem to see anything suspicious on my account so far, so I've been advised to monitor my bill and let them know if there is a charge I didn't sign up for. Good gawd. 

In other #techfailsme news - I tried sharing my Fever Up code with a friend who wanted to sign up to get some tickets... and all she got was a voucher for $10 AUD. Which can only be used in Australia. Which is kinda useless to her cos we DON'T live in Australia. 

But since the customer service rep can't do anything except say they're sorry and give me a voucher code in my home currency, here's a link if anyone in Australia wants to sign up for a Fever account or pick up tickets for a show there. 

https://use.fvr.to/eLh0grS9xIb

I don't know why this is the case tho, when my account is registered to my actual home address and the city that I'm in (under location services) shows my home city. 

I suspect it's because the first ticket I purchased was in AUD. But even then, it should pick up the location I'm in presently (or my registered address) when generating a link no? I guess not. 

Sometimes tech frustrates more than it assists. 

In good news, we've booked our flights to Bangkok. We'll be going at the end of October. There really isn't a whole lot of stuff to buy from there that I can't get here. Except sanitary products.. They used to be less than half the price of what I would have to pay here. If that's still the case, it looks like my luggage will be just THAT and chips. They have Lays chips in flavours that we don't get here. Spicy squid, tom yum etc. 

The weekend before that I'll be in Malaysia for 2 days to attend a conference. So I might get some shopping done then too. 

Look at me, jet-setting all over the place and feeling very adult to be doing so. Speaking of which...

I sent an old jade pendant that belonged to my father to my jeweller's on Friday. (Again, look at me, having a jeweller even!) It's a carving of a goat - my father's Chinese zodiac sign - on a traditional red string necklace. 

The problem with this is - 

1. That red string thing is a really old-fashioned way of wearing jade. 

2. Strings (and chains) are a no-go for me cos I'm very susceptible to skin tags around my neck. 

So I asked if he could lose the string and attach a clasp to it (in white gold) so that I can pull some ribbon through to wear as a choker. He said yes, and showed me a sample that looked something like this one - 

The goal is to have it worn in a fashion resembling this - 

As for it being a goat? Lucky for me, I was born under the zodiac sign of Capricorn. How's that for appropriation! 

Back to Bottega, Mum's Latest Gadgets, and The Quest for Pretty Nails

Bottega Dupes I mean. Not the real deal. I don't got that kind of money. 

Betty is getting me this pair on the left for $25 for Christmas. Not quite the same as the originals, but close enough. 

All because BIKSS got a real actual BV wallet in his DnD lucky draw. 

And the fella was like - apparently it's expensive, heard of the brand? 

Me - Are you fucking kidding me? You know those braided / padded sandals I've been on about? 

So he finally figured it out. My advice was "Use it, or sell it. Don't keep it till the leather starts to peel and crack... cos then it'll be worthless." 

He's gonna use it. And that hippie outfit I curated for him for that same DnD? Bagged him the 3rd prize for best costume AND a $100 voucher! I'm taking ALL the credit.

We had part one of Christmas feasting at our favourite French place. I bought BIKSS dinner and next week he's buying ME dinner.

Fusilli ratatouille, chicken fricassee and avocado on sourdough.

We're booked this Tuesday at a Peranakan restaurant that's supposed to be really really good. I actually wanted to try it when we watched a play last month (same venue) but the roads were so congested on the way there, we detoured to a burger place and picked up some food to eat in the car instead. Good thing too. Cos we got there just in time. 

But it's not all fancy foods and uppity restaurants. One of our favourite places is a little local fried chicken chain. It's good prices for greasy fried up stuff. 

Not-real cheese and mayo on a chicken cutlet on a salad

Chilli (it's underneath all that yellow stuff) cheese fries with an egg over top. It was pretty darn good.

Halfway decent lamb chops - tasted lamby but not in a bad way. We chucked out the bread. It sucked.

The new CG is workin' out just fine. (I'm hearing a Texan drawl with that. Cos I've been watching Young Sheldon. It's hilarious.) She's very pleasant. A little round and tubby, has a good disposition, speaks English, and feels more like a friend than an employee. Pretty much how I feel about CG1. So it's going well. I do hope that the agency manages to place that other one in a new home soon so I can get my damned refund from the unused portion of the fees I paid for her. AND so that I can get a refund from her insurance (mandatory insurance policy we have to pick up for our caregivers) - they've told me that once my name is off her work papers as official employer here they'll automatically send me a partial refund. Ugh. I'm still waiting. Should be any day now cos the agency says it won't be longer than 3 weeks. And it'll be 3 weeks this Wednesday.   

I've also been listening to 99% Invisible (Ninety nine per cent invisible) - check out their website and look for their podcast anywhere you listen... fascinating stuff, and no, it's not ALL about architecture, even tho that's what their intro implied to me. It might have been, in the beginning, but it's evolved. 

This week we got mum's hospital bed in. There was a lot of moving things about but it's finally sorted. Managed to give away the bed rail that we installed last year on a local recycle app, along with an old portable air cooler that's been sitting in the room untouched for 5 years. One of the mattresses and bed slats from mum's old bed were taken off my hands too. At least we didn't have to throw it all out. 

 

I wish I had gotten it sooner, to be honest. It's so convenient and a whole lot easier to adjust everything so that mum is more comfortable. The air pressure mattress really helps too. We don't have to worry about turning her (manually) through the night cos the alternating inflating and deflating columns prevent any one spot from being in high-pressure contact for any extended length of time. (I only learned about these last year!) You can read about these mattresses  HERE. 

I've just about recovered from a lousy cold and cough. It got me pretty bad the whole of last week. I was sleeping half the time. 

I've also been experimenting with nail polish. And have found the holy grail of quick drying top coats - it does contain toluene so if you're not a fan of having that in your nail formula, skip this one.

I have discovered that the Sally Hansen's Miracle Gel top coat works best with their Miracle Gel (colour) polish. When I tried the top coat on regular (other brands') nail colour it wasn't impressive in the least. But on top of the Miracle Gel colours it really does give a rather beautiful finish. Not quite gel finish (like in the shops with the UV lamp) but about 70% of that. Which, since I've sworn off UV gel polish, is good enough for me. 

I've been getting my nail polish on the cheap - resellers on that recycle app I mentioned. It's awesome. I even managed to get a bottle of Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Blood Orange. (This brands isn't sold in the shops here.) 

Isn't it so cheery and bright? That's the other thing. I'm purging my nail polish collection of the darker colours and veering towards lighter, as well as brighter, fun-ner ones.

(This one's called S-teal the show!) 

(Love me Lilac)

It seems like I'm spending a small fortune testing this shit out, but really, it's not as bad as one might expect. When you pay 4-6 bucks for something that costs 15 at the store, it doesn't seem too extravagant. And all because I'm determined to get the glossiest most gel-like manicure without exposing my fingers to UV light. Besides, all the stuff I've gotten so far hasn't even come close to what ONE gel mani would cost me, and that's not even counting the soak-off I'd have to pay for after. 

AND I have also found a new place to park some of my money for 3.8% interest. No minimum sum. 6 month lock in period. It's a pretty good rate as far as local interest rates go.

I'm still eating my way thru the Marks and Spencer chippy loot. This evening I nibbled some cheddar alongside my lightly salted tortillas. It was good. Koff koff.