persian sweet lemons
couldn’t help but notice a large pile of “iranian sweet lemons” outside a middle eastern store today (strangely they were all individually wrapped in little plastic bags), so I bought one to try at home. unlike a lemon, there is no acidity at all (even less than in an orange)… and it’s not very sweet, but rather delicate tasting. refreshing!
ski vm, part 2
just to prove my point about two-year-old skiers, less than 10 minutes after writing my last post I found a little promotional ski area set up by telenor outside the Nobel peace centre: they even set up a little hill (to mimic a ski-jump?)–and all the kids were lining up to try it: I then spent part of the afternoon … Read More
ski vm 2011
today is the last day of what is probably the event of the year in Oslo: the Nordic World Ski Championships. the mania on the streets is only understandable once you know that most Norwegians begin cross-country skiing at the age of 2 (and I’m not exaggerating here). only because Norwegians talk about it all the time did I discover … Read More
taste of krakow
food findings from a short but sweet visit to Krakow: ok, it wasn’t *really* cake in a can, but only the filling (to my disappointment–sort of like discovering poutine in a can is actually only the sauce). this time it was definitely lard on bread. not too bad, but I should have added some salt. I later found a bottled … Read More
norwegian = really old english
I learned from my first Norwegian teacher that the English and Norwegian languages used to be very much the same, but then went divergent ways over the centuries. Today I found on my bookshelf (it must be G’s) a book called The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson–and while skimming through it I found … Read More
chinglish: tender grass
Fāng cǎo yīn yīn Tà zhī hé rěn (near the Water Cube in Beijing)
landskampen billboard
one last battle for the nation’s honour! LANDSKAMPEN premieres Thursday the most important is to beat the swedes! (tv3.no)
mala xiangguo (麻辣香锅)
Mala xiangguo is a new dish I discovered on my last trip to China; and I’m hoping someone just recently invented this, because I don’t know how I could not have tried it before! After seeing people line up for this dish at different food courts, we finally tried it at a sit-down place called… yep, the name of the … Read More
mega transit sign in Oslo!
Today I happened to pass by just as Trafikanten was installing a brand new transit sign at Oslo’s busiest interchange, Jernbanetorget. This totally made my day! Since every single bus/tram/subway/train in Oslo passes through this station, all their different platforms are spread over a few blocks, both above and underground. Which can be annoying when, like last week, I was … Read More