hey all!

Since I have arrived back in Norway, and I haven´t been updating my blog for a while, I´ll try to give you a run down on what´s been happening the last couple of weeks. It all started with an unfortunate incident involving my mac book computer and a coffe. Hence not touching the on-off key untill lap top was expected to be completely dry. It is now working, yet the coffe had some side effects. Like the arrow keys aren´t functioning. Try and not use them and you´ll see how dependent you are on their excistence. Anyways; I had 2 fantastic last weeks before leaving my dear Australia. Caroline and I went surfing with dolphins and a local (check the video, hey!) And I finished my placement at the mental health unit. They loved the cheese cake and our Norwegian apple cake. Hopefully I´ll get some pictures from Lillian, my co-chef on the night before our last day of placement. Our facilitator even took us to the pub for lunch that day. All University stuff sorted I was ready to leave. My dear friend Olivia came down from Brisbane to join me for a drive on the great ocean road. All excited we left tuesday after spedning as much time as one needs in Adelaide. After a beautiful drive we ended up in Mt Gambier for the night. I am not a fan of reading up all on my destinations-but I´m glad I studied my Rough Guide and found the old jail in Mt Gambier. I am not expecting to be able to stay a night in jail ever again-so this opportunity was one not to be missed! It cost us 25$ each. In a twin room. Well-a cell really. it had a toilet in the corner. And a massive cell door in which the locks had been changed around. yes we got our key. One thing I found rather strange, was that this jail had exit signs. Not sure if they had always been there-or if they were put in after the last inmates left in 1995, but exit signs in a jail? hm. Well-we had a great night sleep, praising the fact that we had a key. (Pictures to come...)

The next day was the day for starting our great ocean road adventure. Which really is close to impossible to comment. Driving and stopping along this exciting drive must have been one of the most scenic drives I´ve ever been on. Leading up to it was fantastic too-I saw a snake, an emu, plenty of australian cows and hundreds of windmills in australian dairy farm land. Tip for a long drive; bring music and start "spot-the-windmill-competition" Our first sighting of the scenery of the great ocean road was at Bay of islands. (Pictures to come) Our stop at the most visited spot along the drive; the 12 apostles (which consequently are down to something like 9 1/2 apostles due to the oceans errosions) happened to be the coldest along the road. BUT this was all our choice-we heard that penguins come out at dusk. SO we waited. And waited. For about an hour. Felt like heaps longer tho-it was freezing! Our efforts were awarded when 7 little fairy penguins waddled a shore. Down the beach. A few metres down there-spectators weren´t allowed on the actual beach (probably due to these vulnerable creatures) But-hey, we saw them! And we´ve got the pictures. They might not be the closest of close ups. But we saw the penguins! All content for the day we ended up in a motel in port campel. This little town of 2 motels an 8 phone boxes. For the next day of our road trip-we planned to do a tree top walk. Which as the name implies that you are walking at tree top hight. I have never felt as dizzy as I did after this. Gee! For the last stretch of driving after this we saw 1 koala high up in a tree, one koala further down in another. this one with a "joey" and last but not least; a massive (probably male) koala right in front of our Hertz rental car. The last Koala for the day seemed rather annoyed that we wanted to drive where he was resting. Reluctantly he moved to the side of the road and proceeded to take a dump as we drove past. (I think Olivia filmed it. Stay tuned for footage...)

We got to Melbourne ok. Was dropped of in the city by a shuttle service from the airport. One of my bags weren´t. In the hustle of leaving the bus I left one of my bags. Which happened to have all my clothes. I have NEVER run as fast as down that busy street of inner city Melbourne as I did to try and reach the bus before it returned to the bus station. I was not in luck that night-and had to go and get it. Ah-well, we made it to the bar where Andy, another Brisbane friend was waiting. Slightly late-but that made the people waiting for us even more entertaining. Saturday was the day for my departure for Singapore and Olivias return to Brisbane. Leaving Australia was weird-but in a good way. Like most times when I leave, really. I will be back one day. But it was time to leave. And I´m sure I was less stressed about leaving because I knew I was to meet my family again soon-and firstly stop over in Singapore to meet a dear old friend there. There´s nothing quite like traveling somewhere to meet a local. Vivek showed me town. We had food from a different country every night. And beer. The most decadent must be the fancy Japanese on Tuesday night. And I thought Japanese food was mostly Sushi. Asahi-the Japanese beer totally complemented the meal consisting of beautifully tender and tasting beef, fish and veggies provided by staff giving excellent service! I think there are photos from this night. Hm-I might have taken some piccies. Half-drunk and content with company and tastes taking the opportunity to play with my new camera hm. I must say it´s hard to summarise Singapore in a few sentences-it is so much more to this town than meets the eye. There are various groups of people from many nations and that´s really inspiring. However under the surface they don´t mix. People mostly keep to their own. Be that their fellow workers or the people from the same region of Asia. On the other hand Singapore is a great city for a short fling of experiencing various flavours and cultures because you know where to go if you want a taste of China. Or India. Or Thailand. Or just be a complete tourist. I stayed in a hostel in Little India, had food from various countries like Thailand and Japan, spent a day at the beach and had a (horrible tasting) Singapore sling at Raffles Hotel being very westernised. (btw: the drink of choice in Singapore is Lyché Martini, no Singapore Sling ) For my last night I had plenty of Gin&Tonics to the smells and sounds of the tropics before embarking on what must be the worst flight I have EVER been on. It started before take off. I was in the unfortunate position of having a 3 year old kid in the seat behind me. I don´t mind the occational screaming kid. I can take that. That´s way ear plugs excist. BUT ear plugs don´t help when the kid kicks in addition to the screaming. I wanted to talk to the mum and ask her if she had heard if ADHD. And proceed to tell her that there was treatment for such a condition. I love kids. I adore them and their spirit. Just not on my 13 hour flight. This kid just would not sit still. I got to watch 3 movies though. Whoop de doo! The kid would just not sit still. He wanted the tray table down when it had to be up. He was not happy with seat belts having to be on when thy had to be. And was not happy that his mum could not move when he shouted to her that he didn´t want her there during landing. Anyways; it is a possibility that the mum could´ve adminsitered some sort of sedating medication. Just this kid reacted really differently to it. Well-I had a rather interesting first day back in Norway. Landed in both 30 degrees celsius and 50 percent humidity less than in Singapore. Top that with a serious sleep deprivation-you´ve got a recipe for knocking over glass of wine to celebrate my home coming (luckily no Mac in sight) and not really making sense in conversation. Luckily the lecture and party for my cousins PhD graduation was the next day! I would not have understood much of the lecture on Nicotones effect on Paranatal Asphyxia if I had gone straight to the lecture after that flight.

I hope that you all are enjoying it no matter where you are! I know I´m loving being back. I experience cold crisp climate. Fresh air. Beautiful winter sunsets. Norwegian caviar. Goats cheese. Fantastic tap water. And my family&friends. Can´t wait to see y´all again! Stay tuned for photos and videos. PLease stay in touch and keep those emails coming!