Skiing over a frozen lake

Today I wanted to do some cross country ski, so I woke up and send some sms to some friends and waited to see if there was somebody interested in joining. Last time I tried cross country ski was a week and a half ago and it was all ice so it was not very fun. Since it has snowed a little in Sognsvann I decided that I should give it a try.
I only got one companion and we headed to Sognsvann with our skis. Once we got there we found out the situation was not the best and that there was still a lot of ice and very little snow. We checked two trails and we decided that it was not worth it. So we left our skis and went for a hike instead. While hiking we saw lot of people skating on the lake and one or two skiing on the lake so when we were back at the beginning I told my friend that we should give it a try.
We walked to the lake, wore our skis and voila! It was amazing, it was very nice since it was all flat and I could concentrate in trying to get my rhythm right. We crossed the lake and came back. I realized that I almost got the right rhythm, although I fell a couple of times (whenever there was too many people skating they removed the little snow and left pure ice, so those regions were very slippery).
I look forward to do it again, although I would like to have some snow next time ;-)

Me, myself and I

I know I'm stubborn and I know I can be a PITA sometimes. I also know that I hate to make mistakes, and I get very angry with myself when I make mistakes. The problem is many times I don't realize the consequence of getting angry with myself and let that anger damage other people. Worst of all, I realize afterwards and it is kinda difficult for me to fix things up. To top it all, in the past two weeks I didn't do it only once but twice, to two different persons and in two completely different circumstances. Let's hope that next year I'll find a way to fix things up, otherwise it's going to be a very interesting year.

Maxbo sucks!

Two days ago I bought a small hose to connect my washing machine to the water supply. It seemed like a pretty easy thing to do, and something you will expect to find in a store the size of Maxbo. I went there after my work, and I asked for help. They told me they didn't have one, but that I could try the hoses for showers and bring it back if the size was wrong. It seemed like a good solution for me so I did that. When I arrived home I realized that the shower hoses are different since they have one side that is smaller than the other, besides they are not made to handle the pressure that a washing machine hose can. So, I packed it the best I could and today I went back to Maxbo to ask for my money back. Notice that I bought it on thursday, unpacked it and try to connect it to the hose I didn't do anything to the hose. The person handling returns told me that he couldn't accept the hose back because I had opened the bag.... I told him that I was told to do that and try to see if it was the right size and if not I should bring it back. He refused again and said that if I wanted to do that I shouldn't have cut the small ties they use to pack them (notice that those small laces are plastic, incredibly tight and besides they are cheap and they have them everywhere they need to pack hoses or cables). I told the guy how I was supposed to try the hose if I was not supposed to remove those laces. He refused again and told me that he didn't have the authority to refund me (hello, you are handling the returns section of the store...) so I needed to come back on Monday when his boss was around. Of course I asked at what time his boss was there and I'll go on monday to get my money back.
Of course, after all this Maxbo just lost a customer.

House warming party

Yesterday I finally had a proper house warming party at my apartment. We were around 20 to 25 persons and we had a great time.
I cooked four different main dishes: pancakes with ricotta, spinach and some spices, pancakes with an aromatic butter sauce and meatballs and chicken rolls with some stuffing. I'm thinking about posting those recipes on my other blog, but I'm too lazy to do it now.

La Bamba

Together with some colleagues, we have a small band and we play music from time to time. For instance we played for the company' Christmas party and everybody liked it. After our success there we decided to look for another venues where to play and since there is at least one bar in Oslo where there are Jam sessions, last tuesday we decided to go on a scouting mission.
Overall, it is very good. The music is ok and the people is very nice.
While there and listening to the music we decided to ask the bartender about how to do it in order to play music. He pointed to the drummer and said that we needed to talk to him. Since he was playing we waited for the break to talk to him. When the break came, we went and talk to him. Basically the requirements are pretty easy, come here and talk to me. They have instruments and you can bring your own if you want. For bands the only problem is to get there early to have everything set up in advance. The funny thing was that while talking to him, he asked if we wanted to sing something and he convinced me to sing "La Bamba". It was a very nice experience and despite me not being the best singer in the world I enjoyed it very much. So next week we plan to go there again and this time, we'll play a few songs. Stay tunned for more info!