I'm a Magazine Addict

I love magazines. I don't know why but the idea of sitting in a cafe sipping coffee/tea while reading a magazine is just divine in my mind. I don't do it often, but as you can see, I did get the magazines this time... but just didn't get around to sitting in a cafe and devouring them.

Sigh, this is this month's pile of not-completely-read magazines. I hope to catch up.

So many things to do, so little time. I spent most of my weekend catching up on laundry, playing around with my Nikon 35mm lens (love it!), cooking, and watching heaps of Fringe episodes. The colours are beautiful with the lens. Now I just need to re-read parts of this book on the Nikon D40 and I will be a little bit more aware of what my camera can/cannot do. Photography is a lot of fun but I really wish I spent more time on it sometimes. I'm not good with the technical aspect, I'm more of the "fiddle around, take 5 shots and pick the best later" type of photographer. I'm a hobbyist after all.

Started packing for Venice. I'm a bit worried because I've been thinking about sweaters, singlets, jeans, tights, coats, scarves for the past 6 months. After my KL trip last October, I have been dressing up purely in winter clothing that warmer weather is a little 'too good to be true' in my head - hence I'm worried I'm not going to pack proper stuff for the trip.

Oh well, there's always the possibility of buying something there, wearing it and looking 100% tourist. Argh.

I apologize if my blog posts are less and less structured these days. They reflect my mind ;) I'm kind of "everywhere" sometimes..not sure why.

3rd Anniversary :)

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of my living in Oslo :) I am quite happy - but life has its ways of showing me that there is always more to achieve.

I'd really like to learn Norwegian.

There. I have said it. Learning this language has been pretty tough for me because I am a technical writer. I spend a good 8 hours a day reading and writing and trying to convince engineers to read my work and provide me with some feedback. It's a job that is definitely a lot easier than Medicine, Law, Firefighting, and so on. But it has its challenges - like how it gets difficult to read normal novels because you always start analyzing sentences. What's also tough for me is to learn Norwegian. The Norwegian language is actually quite cute. If I learned it, I could be so much more comfortable living in Scandinavia.

But two things stop me from learning it:

1. The cost - the courses are not cheap. They are approximately 2000+ Ringgit each course and you need a good 5 courses to be able to sit for the govt test. I could skip the test, of course, and just focus on reading, writing, and being able to converse.

2. Irrational fear - I am afraid that if I learn another language, I will lose command on one existing language. I am a firm believer in balance. I'm afraid I will lose my command of Malay (or what little there is left after not using it for the past 5 years). Even worse, I could lose my command of Tamil. God forbid, I hope that never happens. Already my Tamil is so rough and choppy. I can barely understand pure Tamil anymore (Aayirathil Oruvan proved that :()

I am really hoping that I will just throw #2 and save up (for #1) and just... get it done. Take at least 1 course this year and start speaking Norwegian.

Actually I did take the introductory course in 2007 and it was not useless at all. Instead, it is what helps me understand my tax papers, banking, and of course all the shop signs ;) I can order food and stuff in Norsk, but its not enough to converse. I usually know the gist of other people's conversation but I blink blankly when they try to speak to me in Norsk.

See I never thought that I would turn out to be so stubborn about learning a new language. In some ways I am disappointed in myself for not putting in enough effort to learn Norsk. I always thought that I wanted to learn a new language - I really did believe that - until I realised how difficult it was (in 2007) to go to work and read + write technical papers, then go for classes after work and attempt to concentrate for a good 2 hours. Gosh, it was not easy.

I shall find a way to fix that this year.

I have to...

Success

So I actually manage to wake up early enough this morning to fit in a 30 minute cardio workout in the gym. Phew.

I'm kind of glad, because I still managed to get to work at 9.25am... but we'll see how active I actually am today.

14 days to Venice..time to book the tour to the Doge's palace!

Little Miss Greedy

Greed. I really feel greedy. I seem to want everything I see, everything around me.

Before even setting foot in Venice, I have already booked my next vacation - Stockholm. I've been living in Oslo for almost 3 years now and have not yet been to Stockholm which is only 1 hour by flight.

My friend P and her husband are leaving Oslo soon, so I suggested we go somewhere before they leave. We narrowed down the options to Stockholm. Leaving on April 17th, back on April 19th.

Strangely my horoscope for this year did mention that I will travel a lot. I usually scoff at horoscopes, but this time, just this once - it may be true.

I should probably start taking more photographs - or at least uploading them - but then I will lose my anonymity (or what's left of it). Tough call :)

Striking the right balance

Everytime I travel, I come home in vacation mode - buy anything I like, eat anything I want, waste as much time possible. Then it takes a good two weeks to get back into the swing of things - gym, eating healthy again, and practicing some self-control.

Contrary to the popular belief (among my friends): I am not a shopaholic :) I'm more of a bargain shopper who almost never buys anything on full price. Of course this involves a lot of window shopping (painful!). However, post Malaysia, my goal for this month is 0 shopping till March 31st (that's when I leave for Venice ;)... though I don't think there's much to buy in Venice. Now if I was going to Milan, then it's a whole different story!

But, I digress. My point is that I am a tad upset that I have not gotten back into my routine. I'm actually dreaming (because a lot of people + articles I read keep saying the same thing) of going to the gym every morning for 4-5 times a week before work. This will actually be a great routine for Spring + Summer. I'm not sure if I can do it - but I should probably try. I have tried to wake up at 6 am but I never get around to getting into my gym clothes and leaving the apartment. I always make some silly excuse and not do what I should do. It seems if you exercise in the morning before breakfast, you can tap into your fat stores (in this case, my belly :().

So, let's see if I actually manage to get out of bed Friday morning and hit the gym before going to work.

*Fingers crossed*