Oh yes.

Argh. Trying hard to be supportive of Eilen/Monsoon/Oeinao and write some heartfelt and supporting words in her blog, but feel like all's been said already. Feel like all the things I've planned on writing would be repeating myself. That Bob should better do what she's been told. I think he has. I hope he has. Both of them could use some closure now. Alas, the pangs of love... *sigh*

Trying fervently to build up my regular cheerfulness again despite this. Not easy, but am determined.

Shopping with Sara today, plus a long chat about what seemed to be everything! Finally I managed to do it. Man, if shopping was a sport... Anyway, went all around Oslo and had a gooooooooooooooorgeous sushi lunch. Yeah baby yeah! :-D Cost me 176 kroners, but it's just once in a blue moon, innit? Will most likely live on stale bread the next couple of weeks (huge overstatement), but it was worth it! Haven't had sushi since the Food Festival in Stavanger (i.e. around the start of August, I think?), so I really enjoyed every single tidbit. Aah. Sushi. Could practically live on the stuff!

The thing about sushi is that in order to avoid making a mess on your plate and at the same time use your chopsticks in a non-malevolent manner you have to gulp down even the largest pieces on your plate in one go. Usually biting off a smaller chunk will result in your plate looking like Hiroshima and the rest of the sushi bit (can you say that?) will fall apart. Not very helpful, especially if you're new to the whole chopstick idea. So what you have to do is basically to simply put the whole blasted thing in your mouth and hope your friend sitting across the table won't make you laugh in the middle of the munching. Oh yeah, and be careful with the wasabi. It can clear your sinuses quite well if you're allergic to pollen or have the colds or whatever, but it can really knock your socks off if you use too much. I speak from experience.

I'm one of those people who'll try anything once. Anything in the food department, to be more specific. As long as it isn't life-threatening for either myself or others (for the latter I refer to gathering ingredients for a certain bird's nest soup), or will damage my budget too much. Heck, if I was told that an insect was a delicacy, I'd have a go at it. Yes, I'm serious. I might not necessarily like it, but I'd try it. Yes, I'm still serious. :-D

Hm. Don't have that much more to write.

Oh, yeah, hang on, I do, actually. Stumbled over this quote from a certain author who'd won a "Princípe de las Asturias" ("Prince of Asturias") literature award for his book called "Letters" (don't quote me on this; I watched his speech yesterday. Memory may fade slightly):

"The very uselessness of art gives it its value." - Paul Auster

After which he further argued that man has a need to be creative; man has a need to dream and use their imagination. The need for literature and other artforms are needed almost as much as we need doctors, farmers and others who have more "essential" professions. Man needs not only to feed its body, but also its soul. Or else, I reckon, we'd go insane. According to Auster, this is what literature does.

Dude. That was deep. Notice how the tone of the blog post shifted from slightly guilty to perky to deep and contemplative. Dude... I'm weird.

Statement of the year, right there. :-P

Elise