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2,000 hamsters can't be wrong.

31 August 2005

The Mystery about the Vanilla Sugar 

It took me a short while to realise that vanilla sugar is something that is quite odd to any Brit, apparently. I need vanilla sugar for my homemade caffe latte, but the prospect of a nice glass of that seemed bleak. I went online (I actually paid for half an hour's internet time in order to check this) and wanted to find out if it was called something different. But no. All I could find was recipes where you'd either have to make the vanilla sugar from scratch (fat chance of my doing that) or just buy the stuff from Sweden. Weeks later we were in our local store (which we don't like that much anymore, thanks to a series of "Dispatches" on Channel 4); I was looking at some canned fish or something, when my flatmate (I don't know why we do the shopping together, but we usually do. She says it keeps her from buying all sorts of unhealthy stuff and I end up buying lots more because I'm waiting for her) stopped in her tracks and just stared at a glass jar of something. I grabbed it and smiled. It was a jar of so-called vanilla sugar...under the "International Food" section. Hooray! Something I use weekly is considered exotic. How refreshing. Now, the vanilla sugar itself was of course not entirely what I had hoped for, but at least it had vanilla in it and it worked well with the caffe latte. I just don't see how they manage to live without it. I use it for cakes and such, too. But then again, they think "prawn cocktail" is a nice flavour for crisps. And why on earth haven't they discovered paprika or salt & pepper crisps yet? It's driving me mad, trying to find a nice substitute for it, because there is none! I'm thinking of setting up my own import business; importing lots of Norwegian crisps to my flat...and eating them!

And then the other day a four-day-long fire at the local waste disposal facility was finally put out. That must be a record.

Here's to the people of New Orleans moving back home very soon, and hopefully not find out that thy have been robbed of everything they own while they were away. Cheeky bastards. (The burglars, not the owners.)

Current track: Nothing.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 03:18 

(1) confused specimen

12 August 2005

City Planning 

I'm not too impressed about the city planning here in London, to say the least. We have been annoyed at the enormous amount of litter bins and lampposts that are in the way all the time, rendering one third of any pavement completely useless. But this particular lamppost went further and actually made us laugh. Probably because we don't live in that house.

I think I'm giving up my plan about visiting Oslo this autumn in order to see Death of a Salesman, a play I have wanted to see for about twelve years now. The logistics are way too complicated and the whole trip will be too expensive. I always suspected Norway to be rather unfriendly towards its tourists, and I was right. The hotel prices are too high and I don't want to go by train between my hometown and Oslo twice in a weekend. Well, it's my decision anyway and I was the one wanting to move here, LOL!

Since I got my laptop I have been playing The Sims 2 quite a lot. My current family, started basically from scratch, as the father went all the way from toddler through childhood, acne-ridden teenager and university before landing a job as a UFO Investigator, is obsessed with adopting children. The mother, Barbara, who was Daniel's girlfriend already from their teens, is determined to keep her job as a counterfeiter, though (majoring in Literature obviously leads to a life of crime), and Daniel is so proud of his job he doesn't want to lose it, so they've had to hire a nanny. Unfortunately, taking care of three toddlers and three schoolkids has proved to be too much for her, so she has broken down completely and spends most of her time dancing in front of the family's brand new stereo together with any toddler who happens to be on the same floor as her. At least they're all happy. Who cares about food, right? The house is also rather spectacular, as it is basically a huge, floating metal cube (due to a bug). It looks very cool. I was desperate for a ground floor swimming pool, you see, so I had to use my imagination and engineering skills there for a while. Now that the house is filled with children, however, we've had to build a couple of extensions in order for them to have a room each. I'm really looking forward to all the toddlers growing up so that they can use the stairs themselves, because it's physically demanding even for me. No, wait, it's physically demanding just for me, isn't it, because the rest are just moving graphics made from a bunch of noughts and zeros...

Must get a life. (Strange. I seem to have said that since the release of The Sims (1) in 2000...)

Current track: Aerosmith - Kiss Your Past Goodbye

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 22:35 

(3) confused specimen

Have You Visited Engrish.com Lately? 

I hadn't. So I stopped by today. My personal favourite from the last couple of months must be this one. Nice.

Current track: BBC Four, I believe. Not a real track, though.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 01:28 

(0) confused specimen

11 August 2005

I'm Still Here 

No updates lately, I'm afraid, but basically it's too difficult to update when I don't have any connection to the internet. Our future broadband provider had better hurry up. I have, however, managed to get online through magic...or rather some unsecured wireless network. Let's just hope they're not clever enough to steal any of my passwords...they're obviously not computer literate enough to secure their own network, so chances are I'm safe.

I have to admit I bought myself a laptop last week and thus have been busy playing The Sims 2 the way it was meant to be played. Ahem. Well, what is one supposed to do when one finishes the new Harry Potter book within fifteen hours of having bought it? You tell me. The other night I actually dreamt that the seventh book was released because J.K. didn't want to see her fans turning into nailbiting zombies (can zombies do anything at all?). Unfortunately I believed it to have happened for another few seconds after I woke up and started planning on paying WH Smith a visit. But no.

Another dream I had was that a huge, blue hare kept pestering the neighbourhood with its massmurderous way of life. It was, however, very polite and didn't climb over fences or knock down doors or anything. This saved me as well as my dogs, as we were on the other side of the fence when we spotted it (eating all the rabbits that had mysteriously started grazing by the road), and managed to get indoors before it had gone through the gate and pushed the doorbell. We didn't open the door, of course. But later that day I decided to join the underground hare resistance, led by Tamsin Greig, together with much of today's British comedy elite. The politeness rule didn't apply there, however, so the hare quickly decimated the resistance until there were just a few of us left. The tunnel system that the resistance had built was enormous and we could easily get lost. I ended up in a caravan park somewhere, where I believe Ewan McGregor led a second resistance. By this time I was exhausted from having run away from the blue hare and basically just woke up. Oh dear.

Well, I'd better just log off before my neighbour does. Ta ta for now!

Current track: Nada.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 23:22 

(0) confused specimen

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