From his mother's memories

"Sam, I've just gone through the old wardrobe," the aging mother told her youngest son. "Look what I found!" The beautiful lady held out a white baby suit that seemed very well preserved. "It used to be yours," she told him with a big smile and two bright shining eyes. "29 years ago." The son looked at the little white baby suit in wonder. Had he really been so small that he could wear anything so tiny, so delicate? Holding the little piece of textile that was part of his mother's memories, not his, he said to himself: "This little suit some day will be the legacy of my unborn son, Adam."

Merry Christmas

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

~John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Childish excitement

When I woke up this morning at 8 o'clock, I noticed something I haven't seen in ever so long. Snow falling. Snow falling silently. Snow covering everything outside my window. Watching it made me feel energized, so energized that I couldn't go back to sleep. For the first time this year I've felt some kind of Christmas sensation. The idea of Christmas for people up here north will in most cases be closely related to snow. I must have spent at least one hour watching the snow falling. When the sun rose, it was still snowing. Then I started baking cookies. Oatmeal cookies and ginger cookies. Maybe you can imagine how nice that made my kitchen smell? I put on Christmas carols on the stereo and tuned into Christmas mode.

Pure delight

Sleeping in late.

Having breakfast and a glass of mulled claret in bed.

Watching a cartoon in pyjamas.

The awareness of not having a single commitment the whole day.

Pure feeling of relaxation and well-being.

⇒ Christmas vacations, I welcome you!

The science of Mathematics or Being an overenthusiastic exam candidate

Willow had a 6 hours literature exam. Coming to school, she was almost excited. Not just because the Christmas vacations were only 6 hours away, but also because she would be able to write several pages about her favourite topic, literature. Getting the exam questions, Willow smiled to herself - she knew she would be able to give good answers to all 4 questions. She actually enjoyed working with the task, and completed the 4 questions in only 4 hours.

When she was about to hand in the exam, she looked a bit closer on the exam text. It said: "Please choose two of the questions below to answer." Acknowledging her slight error, she couldn't help but break out in giggles. Then she chose to hand in the answers to the two questions she thought she had done best, and took the papers with the remaining two questions home.

Note to self: Read and RE-READ the exam text before starting up your creative solution mode next time - no matter how interesting and fun the questions may seem.

At the Beauty Parlour

I got up early this morning to make myself pretty. I took a long, steaming hot shower, removing excess body hair and scrubbing away dead skin cells. My shampoo has a rich scent that stays in my hair. Having dried my body with a large white towel, I put on sexy lingerie. Then I started putting on body lotion to make my skin smooth. Teeth were cleaned. Nails must not be forgotten either - cut, filed and polished. I blew my hair dry so that it would stay in perfect shape, combing it to make it look shining. In my wardrobe I found a brown, simple top that looks good on me and a matching pair of pants. No mascara, no lipstick, no rouge. I'm opting for natural beauty. Then I put on my watch, my ring, my necklace (which has a sun amulet) and my favourite perfume. Finally I put on my smile.

And all this for a digitally transmitted date with Tito in Titonia. Will my efforts be sufficient for him to call me beautiful?

An unnecessary casualty

Life in the jungle is hard. Feed is not always abundant and the animals live in a constant stress-state between getting their own feed and becoming someone else's feed. The yellow snake has not had feed in a week and it's a common fact that hungry snakes are highly dangerous. The yellow snake has become aware that there are intruders in the jungle. They are humans on expedition. The yellow snake starts its slow, controlled descend from its place in the tree. Its forked tongue is making a whizzing sound. The humans don't spot it until they are literally standing face to face with it. They freeze. The yellow snake makes more hisses. The humans don't know what to do, sweat breaking on their foreheads. There are no doctors in miles and miles. They carry no antidote with them.

The yellow snake keeps coming closer. Then it slips into one of the expedition satchels, containing apples and other fruits. The humans cannot believe their luck - the yellow snake has made itself an easy prey. The humans kill it with ease, along with their fear. What they don't know, is that the yellow snake was a non-venomous vegetarian.

Calligraphy

"When God made the first clay model of a human being, he painted the eyes, the lips, and the sex.

And then He painted in each person's name lest the person should ever forget it.

If God approved of His creation, he breathed the painted clay-model into life by signing His own name."

From The Pillow Book

[Untitled]

Once I entered a small chapel. It had two wooden benches, an altar and a large wooden cross. The cross consisted of three parts that were held together on top. On each part one could read names. Hundred of names. Maybe a thousand. I lit a candle in silence. This chapel was situated in a Catholic hospice run by volunteers. Its residents were AIDS victims having reached terminal stage. I was introduced to one of the residents. He used to be a big, handsome, black man. When I met him, he looked like a skeleton, and his beautiful colour black had turned to grey. Sadly I have to presume that his name will be on that wooden cross now.

Today, on the world AIDS day, my thoughts go to the man I met three years ago in the hospice and to all who are affected by this disease.

Just say no

NO!

No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day -
No sky - no earthly view -
No distance looking blue -
No road - no street - no "t'other side the way" -
No end to any Row -
No indications where the Crescents go -
No top to any steeple -
No recognitions of familiar people -
No courtesies for showing 'em -
No knowing 'em!
No traveling at all - no locomotion -
No inkling of the way - no notion -
"No go" - by land or ocean -
No mail - no post -
No news from any foreign coast -
No park - no ring - no afternoon gentility -
No company - no nobility -
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!

By Thomas Hood

Crushing prejudices

Up until last Thursday, I wouldn't in my wildest dreams have thought I'd ever go to the opera. For as long as I can remember, my perception of opera have been the idea of something incredibly boring, some fat lady screaming so loud that her horrible caws would break every breakable glass in a miles radius, with words I would be completely unable to decipher.

Then Thursday happened. A childhood friend of mine and I had bought discount tickets to Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. Being on my way to become a promoter of culture (high culture, low culture and everything-in-between culture), I thought I'd give opera a go. It must be added that I suspected I would not enjoy it.

But I did enjoy it! In fact I loved it! And the following day I bought 4 hours of opera "favourites" in the music store, that I have been listening to ever since.

A book-lover horror story

Exams are getting closer, curricular books are to be read. Developing library and information center collections by Evans and Saponaro can be considered a nail-biting thriller for delicate souls. The following excerpt about finding the suitable person for deselection (and purging) in libraries made me shiver:

"The [collection development] teacher insisted that there was only one possible test to determine a person's suitability for becoming a collection development officer. Candidates would visit a doctor's office, where office staff would immediately take the candidate's blood pressure. The doctor would then hand the candidate a new book and tell the person to rip out one page and throw the book in the wastebasket. If the candidate's blood pressure rose above the initial reading, he or she would fail the test."
(Evans, p. 302.)

I feel a strong oncoming nausea every time I see someone bending the covers or the back of a book into any unnatural position, and if I see someone making a dog's ear, be sure I'm close to fainting!

Collection development officer suitability test result for Willow: Failed.

A thought experiment

A Buddhist monk has no money. Not by injunction, but by choice. He owns a very limited number of things: a robe, a pair of sandals, a rice bowl, a walking stick and a straw mat to sleep on. He spends hours and hours meditating, sitting on the same spot in the shadows of a banyan tree. Nothing can bring him out of his spiritual travel. He's balanced. He's pacifist. He's wise. And if he gets hungry, he walks with his fellow companions down to civilization where the population sees it as their duty and an honour to help by putting rice and vegetables into his rice bowl.

This kind of lifestyle could probably not be lived in the western world, because paradoxically one would most likely starve. Jumping off a way too fast-spinning life, admittedly sounds tempting. I'm not convinced I would be less happy if I gave away everything I had and started a life more in pact with nature.

A plant with long prickles. Sometimes used as a hat

"Can anyone see what this man wears on top of his head?" Willow asked the kindergarten children after a successful picture book theatre presentation. Her teacher had sent her and the rest of the librarians-to-be on a self chosen fieldtrip to promote a piece of contemporary literature.

"A cactus!!!" The boy with the superman shirt exclaimed. "It's a cactus," another boy repeated thrilled. "Willow, what is a cactus?" A girl with long blond hair wanted to know. Naturally Willow could not compete with the velocity of two enthusiastic five year old boys who were more than willing to explain.

"It's a plant with long prickles. One time I hurt myself touching it! Ouuuuu!" The girl didn't seem to listen to him. "Wiilloooooow," she screamed. "What is a cactus?"

Of course the little girl already knew what a cactus was; she just wanted Willow's attention. Like most of the kindergarten children did. Before she got to answer, a whirlwind had taken the curious girl away, and she could be seen jumping in the corner with some of her friends. The thought of cacti had apparently disappeared.

A trip to the kindergarten means lots of noise, lots of questions (and incredible stories) at high speed and a great deal of fun!

Morning ritual

The old fisherman turns on his portable radio. He eats his bread and drinks his coffee in silence. He doesn't seem to notice his wife who is doing her kitchen chores.

"The Vesterålsbank: Variable for 4 or 5. Rain. Moderate. From this evening westerly force 6, Tuesday becoming southwest near gale force 7. Scattered showers, otherwise good."

The monotone voice on the stately channel number one has the fisherman's full attention.

"Outer Vestfiord: Becoming westerly force 6, later near gale force 7. Rain, later some showers. Moderate. Tuesday becoming risk of westerly or southwest gale force 8. Scattered showers, otherwise good."

The fisherman puts on his woollen socks, his rubber boots and his oilskin. Lighting his old-fashioned tobacco pipe, he tells his wife good-bye with a small nod and leaves the house.

The weather forecast is never indifferent to a fisherman.

Presumption

My cellular phone rang on Saturday evening. The caller's number was not familiar to me. "Hello?" I answered. "Hi, is this Willow?" a female voice asked. I had to admit it was. "I have this really great thing to offer you," she exclaimed energetically. "Do you have any children?"

Obviously she had done some cross references between my name, my number, my age and what she considered the appropriate moment for having children.

The lady wanted to offer me this marvellously wonderful super-fantastic-special-price-for-you membership in a book-club for children. When she heard my answer and discovered that sometimes cross references don't give you the desired result, she almost sounded sad. Lost profit for her. Maybe even a waste of her time.

I guess you could say this was my debut at motherhood. Sudden and unexpected. The magic works of time.

Fire!

04:17 am. Willow was fast asleep. 04:18 am. Willow was woken up by a repetitive loud noise. Being halfway sub-conscious, she didn't first understand what it was. Then she gathered that it was the fire alarm. She asked herself why on earth they needed to have a fire-drill in the middle of the night, and that even on a Saturday. Putting on some clothes, she ran down all the 183 steps to the main floor. Getting down to the second floor, she smelled (and saw) smoke. Gathering with the rest of the tenants outside the building, she realized that it might not be a fire drill after all. And that she had made a big mistake forgetting that it was winter outside in her sub-conscious choice of clothing... Two large fire engines filled with smoke divers arrived, the police came and even the ambulance. At 04:51 Willow (now having turned blue with cold) and the rest were allowed to go back inside.

Cause of drama: 2 burning sausages that someone had left on the stove unattended on the second floor.

She told me that they had had something divine together. They had loved one another like they had never experienced before. The last time they had met, they made love under the stars at their special place. Then he disappeared. He couldn't live with the pain of his lost soul anymore. He couldn't live with the fact that he felt he was a burden on everyone he knew. Even love wasn't enough to save him. Some time later the police found him at the same, special place where she had been with him the last time. But then it was too late. He had left this world for good.

I feel so much for you, my friend. I wish there was something I could do to relieve you from your massive sorrow. Nothing can ever be compared to loosing the most important you have, it's just plain impossible to grasp. You're in my thoughts and I cry for you.

Weather forecast: Wet Wetter Wettest

Rain in the morning
Rain in the evening
Rain in the night

Drip
Drop
Drop
Drip

The sun has rained away

I need an umbrella

Inspiration VI

Evening.

Your quest has come to an end. You have the egg, and nothing is going to stop you from opening it. All the way you have followed your instincts, gotten yourself into difficult situations, but you have also managed to get yourself out of them.

Struggling a bit to find out how the opening mechanism works, you finally get it right. The egg is unlocked. It only remains to lift the upper part up. Are you ready to see what it contains? Off course, you are. Silly question.

You open it slowly, and as you do, you notice a bright yellow light coming out. And then the secret is revealed. It's so much more than you had ever dared hope for. If not being the answer to your life or to your dreams, it certainly comes close. You've been looking so long for this. Your morning adventures have truly paid out. You feel rich. You feel honoured. You feel awed.

There, inside the egg, lies one single, golden leaf. And only you know why this leaf is so special to you.

THE END

Inspiration V

Early afternoon.

Running away as fast as you can from that dreaded house, you finally run out of breath. Frost mist is coming out of your mouth, and you feel it might begin to snow. You find a bench and sit down. Looking down on your leg, you see that you are unhurt. The crocodile must have got hold of one of the wooden bench-legs inside the building and missed yours. Calming down with the egg on your side, you let the soothing effect of trees take you away. Coming back to reality some time later, you realize you need to make a new decision.

Should you open the egg? You are well aware now that it might be a new Pandoras box. Should you throw the egg away and go have a drink at the nearest pub and forget about everything that has happened this morning, assuming that you actually are capable of forgetting? Or should you simply keep the egg, without opening it?

Inspiration IV

A few minutes past midday.

Time seems to have frozen like water-puddles in December. For all you know, you might have been inside the abandoned building for days. Without a doubt you've put yourself in a difficult situation. Did you actually think? Had you anticipated consequences of a nature this delicate? Or had you just followed your childish curiosity and urges of me-me-me-me? The egg is still glimmering.

Belated wisdom never does any good, so you need to deal with the things as they are. You've gotten yourself into this, so you're the only one that can get you out.

Let's take a look at the options you did not choose. Although you'd never know in real life how your life would have turned out if you had chosen alternative directions, you will today.

Option 3: Lie down, play dead (hope whatever is in there with you is not carnivorous) and wait until it goes away.
Consequence: Your company happens to be a runaway South-African crocodile that hasn't been feed in 2 weeks. It's absolutely delighted to see you, imagining you on a silver plate with thick gravy on the top. Lets face it: you don't stand a chance. Your life passes backwards before your eyes before it gets completely dark.

Option 1: Panic, forget about the egg and run the hell back out (hoping you'll find the door unlocked.)
Consequence 1: Your escape takes the crocodile off guard, and it gives you time to find the door (which happens to be unlocked as we all know crocodiles cannot lock doors with a key). You save your life, but your mind never lets you rest because you blew your chance at getting your egg. It becomes an obsession and you are later admitted to the local psychiatric institution, never to be let out again.
Consequence 2: Your sudden moves makes the crocodile's instincts kick in, and you end up a lovely supper.

But you didn't choose any of these options, so you can congratulate yourself. Or should you...?



Option 2 (which is the one you actually chose!): Keep your head cool, take the egg and slowly tip-toe out, not turning your back to your company.

Starting to tip-toe towards the closed door with the egg under your arm, you keep eye-contact with the hungry crocodile. You have one secret card: your newly acquired super-hero-kung-fu-moves. Whether or not they can actually be useful in the situation you have now put yourself in, no one knows, but it's all you've got. Tip-toeing backward as if floating, you actually reach the door. But you make one mistake. You turn your back to the crocodile upon reaching out for the door handle.

Wosh, wosh, wosh. *Snap* It's got your leg!!! Or has it? You feel no pain? Managing to get out, you shut the door behind you as hard as you can. Your heart is racing faster than a racing car. You've got the egg. You're safe.

Where do you go next?

Inspiration III

Midday.

Your instincts has won the battle over your reason. Victory to your curiosity! Entering you feel very excited and a little bit scared. Is anyone wathing you? What will the abandoned building covered with read autumn leaves reveal? It's quite dark, but rays of white light enter through the gothic shaped windows and the door opening enabling you to see a bit. The feeling that someone is watching you is soon suppressed. Marvelled you enter a big open space. Apparently there is only one room in the building. The ceiling is very high. The few benches all facing east has a thick layer of dust covering them. Walking a bit further in, the glimmer that you saw before entering captures your attention. It seems to be something quite small lying in the innermost corner of the huge room. You pass the benches, and realize that the item glimmering looks like a big Easter egg. Knowing that it most likely stores something you really need to have, you take a step closer. You must have this egg!

*Bang*

The door closes.

*Snap*

You realize that you are not alone. Someone or something is in there. You hear a weak noise of something moving on the floor. You think it's coming your way!


These are your options:

1. Panic, forget about the egg and run the hell back out (hoping you'll find the door unlocked.)


2. Keep your head cool, take the egg and slowly tip-toe out, not turning your back to your company.


3. Lie down, play dead (hope whatever is in there with you is not carnivorous) and wait until it goes away.

What will you do?

Inspiration II

Late morning.

The sun has fully come out, but it's just for light, not for warmth. The questions you asked yourself several hours ago have not been answered. You're still standing outside the same building with gothic windows and leaf-covered walls. Your instincts tell you to go ahead, enter the mysterious building and get the answers you're looking for. Your reason, however, tells you that you can get arrested for breaking into a place or trespassing.

Walking usually helps troubled minds make themselves up, and that results in the discovery of a barely visible door. The strong growth of the red-leaved ivy has covered it nearly completely. Leaving your reason behind, and acting on pure instincts, you reach for the door handle. It's stuck... you think. Trying a bit harder, you surprisingly see that there is movement, and the opening is just big enough for you to slip in. The rays of light touches something glimmering on the inside, but you cannot see what it is.

What do you do? Do you follow your reason; closing the door and escape before anyone sees you and calls for the police to arrest you? Or do you go with your immense curiosity and instincts telling you that you should go into the abandoned building because it may contain something you might be looking for?

Your choice.

Inspiration I

Early morning.
For Risa

It's freezing, the sun is barely up, the pigeons are still yawning and you're out on a mission. You're looking for autumn leaves, and not just any kind of leaves, no. They have to be special. Walking quickly to keep warm, you observe. Trees, bushes, dead flowers. Leaves, leaves and more leaves. Red-orange-yellow-greenish. Leaves on the ground, leaves sticking to your boots, leaves in the air. But not the kind of leaves you want.

Then you get to an abandoned brick walled building with gothic shaped windows. Its walls are covered with leaves; mostly red ones. Suddenly you find yourself forgetting about your leaves. What is this place? What's inside? Is anyone or anything inside? Why is it abandoned? Should I try to get in?

And that's what might happen if you start looking for leaves one good autumn morning.

3rd anniversary

It happened on a Wednesday. Willow was walking to work as usual, being totally unaware that her life was about to change forever. She walked at a regular phase, watching the people going to the busy market. There were colours, movement and noises everywhere. She tried her best avoiding diesel-fuelled cars, school busses honking and a number of bicycles. Turning the round, yellow corner, she greeted the guard as usual. He gave her a smile from his place under the guava-tree. She entered the office, and there she saw him. Her future.

"Hiding love is just as impossible as hiding fire in the desert."

Love you always, Tito.

Ginger me up!

Recipe of the day: Gingertea

Ingredients:

Fresh ginger pealed and cut into pieces

Fresh water

Cook and leave to simmer for a little while.

I thought ginger was good to combat colds and throat aches. However, it supposedly has a whole lot of other nice effects as well. It can prevent nausea caused by motion sickness or morning sickness, it may help upset stomachs, avoid heat cramps, regulate natural inflammation and joint pains in the body, ease headaches and possibly help treating heart diseases. It also has a great deal of antioxidants. Source: Wikipedia

Time travels

There she was again, my little girl. Greeting me from her special place by the ocean. Last time I saw her, she was a little baby, with no one but me to rely on. Her trusting eyes had given me a strange feeling of well-being. Of being important. Maybe even of motherhood. Sitting there by the ocean, she had grown a lot. I guess you could say she had become a young lady, and her beauty made me marvel. Her long, darkly curled hair. Her tanned skin. Her green summer dress. She wanted me to come sit by her side, to feel the soft breeze caress my wrinkled face and listen to the comforting sound of rolling waves. A sea-gull flew over us. Everlasting peace. I told my little girl about her childhood, her father and her little brother. She listened with a smile. Then we hugged for a while, and she was gone.

A short glimpse into a different place

They were sitting on the porch without talking. Maybe they were enjoying the silence, knowing they didn't have to say anything. He sat behind her with his arms tightly wrapped around her. She held an empty coffee-cup. Their faces were expressionless, as if they had difted away to a new place. A place where they could be alone while being together. A place where they didn't need any words.

I saw them from my window. I was alone. Solitude has a sad beauty attached to it.

So, what happened then?

Life was so good. The summer sun was shining. There was nothing I had to do. I could read all the books I wanted. Tito was here. I felt really great about things.

Then.

Life has turned way too busy. It's getting darker, it's raining and the leaves are changing colour. I don't have any time to do nothing. I have no time to read the books I want to read. Tito has left Willowlandia for now. I feel tired and melancholic.

Now.

Love is in the warm summer air

Tito & Willow

Away until further notice

Closing my eyes, I open my ears. I hear the wind caressing the trees, birds singing and the neighbour's grand-daughter complaining loudly she's hurt her toe. Then there is just the sound of the wind and the birds again. I open my book and let myself slide into the turn-of-the-century México where a man marries the love-of-his-life's sister, because it's the only way he can be near her. My garden, my sun bed, the wind in the trees and the singing birds all fade away. This is summer vacations to me.

Home, sweet home

The circle is closed. One year abroad has come to an end. It sort of seemed sudden, although I remember it passing by at a snail's phase when I was living it.




Speaking of snails, I've had them. They were sort of slimy, and their tentacles were rather terrifying. But down they went. And I've got witnesses to prove I actually did swallow them.

Coming home, all the colours greens have breath-taken me. I knew my country was beautiful, but I don't think I've ever really noticed how wonderfully green it is. Looking forward to spend a nearly endless summer vaccation here. Books, walks in the forests, lazying and meeting up with good friends....

This is the beginning of a really great time of year.

A dog-life

The dog is lying on the sofa - depressed. The only part of him being seemingly alive, are the sad eyes looking up at you when you enter the room. Lifeless, depressed, abandoned. The dog howls his most heartbreaking howl, expressing himself the only way he can. The dog's owner has left the building. The dog is being bossed around by the other dog. She won't leave him alone! She gets him nervous. The dog needs to go out. The dog isn't taken out. He takes a piss on the kitchen door. He takes a new piss on the leg of the living room table. The owner returns hours later and screams at the top of her lungs: "Bastard, what have you done? I'll give you, I'll give you...." The dog runs away, hiding himself under the innermost corner of the bed in the innermost room of the hall. The other dog is grinning, thinking "I'm such a good dog, I bet I'll get petted and baby-talked around now." The owner picks the other dog up and starts to baby-talk it and kiss it. "I-love-you-I-love-you-I-love-you." The dog feels bad. The dog starts barking. The dog is punished. Again. New dog-pee on the floor. And the whole process starts over again.

The dog is taken out (for a change). The dog is frenetic, trying to be everywhere at the same time. The dog knows he's only got 5 minutes to pee and mark the territory. That's how much his owner allows him. The dog seems confused. The dog has been outside for 15 minutes. The dog sees that the people having taken him out do not include his owner. The dog starts smelling a new place - a park! The dog is going crazy with all the new smells. The dog is running back and forth. The dog has been outside for one-and-a-half hours. The dog starts to relax. The dog feels good. The dog feels dog.

A weird state of mind

I'm not sure how I feel today. Happy? Sad? Both? Is it possible to be both happy and sad without being either happily sad or sadly happy? Normally one is either sad or happy, and has no problem distinguishing the two. Have I been caught in the limbo?

Send me some kind of stimuli that will send me either which way, please.

¡Viva Cuba!

Two girls alone at the cinema. Two bottles of coke and a bag of plantain chips. And a Cuban movie that leaves both of them with tears in their eyes in the end. This is a film I really would recommend to most everyone.




"Malú (Malú Tarrau) and Jorgito (Jorgito Miló) are friends who fight every now and then. It's part of the territory when you're ten and trying to make your mark on the world. Only their families don't see it that way. Her mother is a devout Catholic with strict ideas of who she should associate with. His family are die-hard Castrofans, card-carrying communists with a deep sense of party loyalty. Both families are too absorbed in their own travails to take much notice of the children. Her mother is trying to leave Cuba to join her partner and when Malú finds out that her mother is about to take her away, she escapes with Jorgito armed with the savings from her piggy bank. Their search for Malú's father involves an extensive (and enterprising) tour across the Cuban landscape with plenty of adventures along the way. Soon enough, however, the two realise that life on the run is not all they thought it would be and a kind of homesickness begins to set in. Rooted in two charming central performances, Viva Cuba is a quirky coming-of-age road movie that will appeal to both children and adults alike."

~A review written by Maria Delgado

Directed by	Juan Carlos Cremata
Written by	Juan Carlos Cremata, Manuel Rodriguez
With	Malú Tarrau, Jorgito Miló
Country	Cuba-France
Year of Production	2005
Running Time	80 minutes

Philosophy on a Thursday

I have a luxury problem, I believe. And that is that I have too much time until my next exam. It would be impossible to fill all of it by studying the same texts over and over again, so I have started reading a new book.

It's an introductory book about philosophy (who would have thought?) called
The Questions of Life : An Invitation to Philosophy. It's written by the Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater. To be honest, it's the first philosophy-book I've ever opened and actually intended to read. The reason I have it in my custody is that I bought it for Tito. Being the wonderful man he is, he has allowed me to read it first, so this is what I have started on.

Chapter one is about death. Depressing? Well, not really. For instance it refers to Montaigne who said that we don't die because we are sick, we die because we are alive. The author has given me some new ideas and perspectives, even though I've only completed the first chapter. I like the way he writes, so I'll without a doubt finish it. My first book ever about philosophy. And not a day too early.

Joke of the year

(And I sort of loved this picture.)

Going to the last class of the year yesterday, there was a new face among us. No one had seen her before. The teacher obviously hadn't seen her either, so he went asking her if she was in the right class. "Yes", she said, "it's just that I haven't had time to come before now." (There have been 4 classes a week ever since February, and the students have been able to pick the ones best fitting with their scedule.) The teacher gave her some explanations of the subject, and wished her good luck. This is Spain for you.

One day left

One day left of classes. I've been waited for this day ever since January. And now it's finally here. No more copying down word by word of professors' monotone speeches, no more endless boredom and "anywhere-but-here" games, no more definitions of the definitions of the definitions...... In short: I can see the end of it. And it makes me smile broadly.

Guitar and pancakes

Today I touched a guitar for the first time in my life, and I actually played a bit on it as well. I learned two cords and did manage to play on four strings. Impressive, ay? And then there were pancakes with peach-jam and banana for lunch. What a great day!

Good morning, sunshine!!

Happy Constitutional Day to all the Norwegians!!! Here it will be "celebrated" with classes at school in nearly 40 degrees. Looking forward to some real tasty Melkesjokolade afterwards!

P.S. It did actually reach 42 degrees today. Hottest 17th of May I've ever experienced.
P.P.S. Thanks a lot to AJ who brought the most delicious fruit salad for lunch. Yum!

The Catty Hairball

I don't really have a story today, but I found this wonderful photo. It expresses how I feel today; being inside, curling up in the sofa listening to the rain pouring outside. How nice it would have been having a cat for company!

The art of indulging oneself

First day of Spring (according to the calendar). Pancakes with banana and raspberry jam for breakfast. Watching cartoons on TV in pyjamas. Going up to my personal paradise at the mountain. Reading a book, enjoying nature and having a sandwich for lunch. Just staying there; relaxing, breathing, feeling good. And then taking a hot bath in the end of the day.

What's your May 1st like?

Getting there

Although we still have one month left to go with classes before the exam period begins, my mind has started going on imaginary trips to whatever place in the world. AJ and I have started playing "Anywhere but here" to make time and deadly boring classes pass. Sometimes, I've found myself back home, skiing in the forest by the lake, going for hot chocolate at a wonderful café called "Bare Jazz", I've even imagined being back to my old university, enjoying classes there. And that's sort of bad, isn't it?




Then all of a sudden I find myself on the other side of the planet. In a tropical forest listening to exotic birds and insects. Enjoying the purity of life, I'm using all my senses. Tito is with me, and the people that have invited us to this place. I can see it so clearly, and I know this trip in particular will be realized in a year. So, the trick is to be patient, daydream all one can, and perhaps study a bit on the side. But I'll get there.

One year and one day...

...that's how long Willow's adventures has been around. A year of blogging, who would have thought. Although not as frequent as it used to be, I'm still going up that Blogging World Escalator!

I'm marking the big event with a new counter from NeoWORX, an idea stolen from Call if you need me. Your site is hereby recommended, Risa!