My birthday was celebrated downtown at an Italian restaurant (which we will probably not return to) for dinner and Garfunkel's for dessert and coffee before sauntering across the road to the Trafalgar Studios in order to see Lee Evans and (especially) Jason Isaacs in The Dumb Waiter. The one-act-play (by Harold Pinter) was very well performed. We had a laugh before the play when someone suddenly said "shh!" and people stopped chatting, expecting the two actors (who had already been on stage for quite a while) to stir and start the play, only causing the usher to begin laughing. The play didn't start for another five minutes or so.

Then we went home and I entered my room to start packing for my trip the next morning. Or I would have entered my room, if it hadn't been filled with 100 balloons. The perpetrator had to spend the next 45 minutes helping me moving them into the sitting room. It was fun, though.

Thursday was a day of waiting and travelling, basically. I eventually landed on my parents' doorstep and got to meet the new member of their family, the long-haired dachshund who had managed to turn nine months by the time I visited them. He was as ecstatic about my arrival as of seeing me every day for the next four days. Incredibly happy all the time. The other dog was also very happy to see me (he was the only one who actually knew who I was--of course, my parents know me too) but was a bit more dignified and didn't try to nibble my heels every time I went somewhere.

On Friday I got to see the town's brand new shopping centre (well, extension to the old one, that is), and it had grown to a rather amazing size, at least compared to other Norwegian shopping centres. Finally found some sheets and linen for my bed. Impossible to do that here. No DVD's of the Seks som oss series, though, so I will have to buy them online later and ship them via people in Norway. My aunt and uncle came for a visit during the evening and watched telly with us. Which was nice.

Saturday was brilliant in that I visited Oslo, which was nice, cold and smaller than I remembered, and finally met up with Torill for the first time in almost two years. We went to our...uhmm..."favourite" cafe, which had not changed much. The service was crap, the coffee was lukewarm, the furniture questionable. But hey, many a good idea has been produced there, usually followed by an even better plan. We then went on to have pizza at Peppe's Pizza, and I am pretty sure that was my last meal there. I swear they must have forgotten our pizza, because it was delivered only a couple of minutes before the pizza for the people on the table behind us, who ordered 30 minutes after us. It took them more than an hour to actually come up with the pizza, and it was barely warm by the time it arrived. We ate it, paid for it and left them an extra 5p, more as an insult than anything else.

The rest of the evening was spent at the Oslo Nye theatre, and I must say it feels good to mention that theatre again. Hopefully I will be able to re-visit it within a year or so. I went to see Fiddler on the Roof, which has very deservedly received much praise. I was a bit scared it would drag on forever--even though I secretly wanted it to--as I had a train to catch, but after three hours the curtain was lowered and we all had to leave. I was thrilled all the way through, but especially pleased to discover that Anders Hatlo and Dennis Storhøi had a long scene together. Just do a search for "La Cage" on my blog and your memory will be refreshed.

After that highlight of my trip, Sunday was a bit of a let-down at first, but then I got out of bed and went to visit my grandmother and later to my aunt and uncle for a family gathering of sorts. We spent some hours there chatting and drinking lots of coffee (only after two hours my aunt told me it was caffeine-free and I almost fell asleep that instant). And watching telly. I re-watched an episode of a documentary they showed on BBC1 a few months ago.

Monday was supposed to be another highlight of my trip, but as I woke up with a sore throat and didn't want to risk giving anyone a nice cold, I stayed at home and chatted with my mum instead, until it was time to go shopping for sweets and crisps (yes, I actually go to Norway to get proper snacks) and then have a lovely meal (fish, naturally, we were in Norway, after all) before another large number of hours waiting and travelling.

I was as secure as can be on my way to Norway, as they did everything but a full cavity search on me and my stuff, but on my way back they were a bit more relaxed. One funny thing happened, though, apart from the flamenco dancers sitting next to me in the departure lounge--as I went through the passport check, one of the police officers recognised my middle name and asked me if I was related to a certain someone who happens to be my mum's cousin and the local police commissioner. When I said yes, they both smiled and told me to say hi. It's a bit more chummy when you're a local, for some reason.

The best thing about the trip was that I was kept so busy I didn't even think about the computer games waiting for me at home.

One day I am going to earn enough money to afford going by British Airways instead of the low-price companies.

Labels: anders hatlo, animals, dennis storhøi, holiday, jason isaacs, musicals, Norway, theatre