Working Class Narnia
Today was a pretty good day. Imagine that.
I got a haircut. It was about time again. I never used to care about my hair. And now that I can barely see it in the mirror, I really don’t care. But it’s still nice to shed it every once in a while.
After the haircuttingcuttingcutting I went and spent some time with the goats. It was great, as it always is. They were in good shape and enjoyed the treats and scratches that I so generously provided.
A dad and his little son came by and looked at the goats.
“What do the goats say?” the father asked.
“Moooh?” the boy said.
“No, the say Maaaah” the father explained.
The boy looked back at the goats.
“MOOOOH!” he said.
Luckily the goats were not insulted by this.
Later that day, I was sitting at the computer when my doorbell rang. Once. My dad has a special way of ringing the bell so I can tell when it’s him. This was not it. And I wasn’t expecting any visitors. So normally I wouldn’t open the door. But I was expecting a package from Amazon… so I decided to take a chance and open the door. And luckily it was the mailman with a whopping big package from Amazon. It’s a little unnerving to open the door when you can’t see who it is. And you can’t make eye contact. And all that. But I could make out the red postman jacket. And when he said “I have this package for you” that was my second clue. I even managed to sign the electronic signature thing. And now I have a bunch of DVDs lying on my bed. Entertainment and escapism that will last a long, long time. Assuming I’ll keep my eyesight for that long.
I am still quite excited by my Amazon deal. Saving 800 dollars. Wow. I feel tempted to go back and buy more stuff. They had the complete Black Adder collection. The complete Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. The complete Frasier. Etcetera. Think of all the money I could save with 60-70% off. But maybe next year. I have been good to Amazon this christmas. In addition to the 300 bucks or so that I spent on myself I have also bought presents for the same amount of more. I have gotten some people some expensive stuff. More than was appropriate really. But oh well. It’s nice to have this financial freedom of sorts. And being able to make others happy. That’s a good feeling. It is much easier to be generous when you have enough to spare. Sugardaddyplume.
Oh yes, I also bought an audibook on Amazon. Did I mention that I had to delete a bunch of books from my wishlist there? Because I can no longer read them of course. Well, it occured to me to see if they had any of them as audiobooks. And I found Craig Ferguson’s autobiography, American On Purpose. I immediately bought it. I love Craig, I still listen to his talkshow every time I ride my exercise bike (which I’m trying to do twice a day again now by the way). So I knew I really wanted the book. I couldn’t buy it through Amazon though. They own another site, audible.com. So I had to sign up for that. Normally when signing up for sites and spending money and so on I do extensive google research. But I figured that since it was owned by Amazon it would be ok. So I was a little disapointed when I found out that I wouldn’t get a nice MP3 download. They have their own proprietary file format with DRM. If there’s something I hate then it’s proprietary file formats. And DRM. Add to that you have to install an audible download manager and a media manager to even get it to work. I also hate having to install surplus programs. I prefer to keep as few things as possible installed on my machine. So I kind of regretted not googling audible.com before signing up. I probably wouldn’t have done it if I’d known about all this. But after a couple of days I caved and installed it all and downloaded the book. And luckily their software works with my MP3 player. So I transferred the book onto it. And have been listening to it for a few days now. The quality isn’t that good really. But that’s what you get when you compress a 7 hour book into a 50mb file.
But all technicalities aside, I am really loving the book. It’s great to have that feeling again, of wanting to go to bed soon. Not to escape into dreams, but because I can’t wait to do some reading. It’s a nice way to end the day.
Now I am joining the Danish library service for the blind, Nota. I can get free audiobooks there. For keeps. So if that works well with my system and needs then that should be good. Maybe I’ll still buy some stuff on audible, for the more specialized, foreign stuff. They do have Stephen King books on Nota, I saw. So I’ll probably be doing some of those I think. It’s nice to be reading again, even if it’s not quite the same as physically having the book there and turning the pages. I will probably always miss that a little.
Oh yes, there is hospital news as well. I got a phonecall from the lady doctor specializing in lasers. Instead of a checkup on Tuesday I’ll be going in Monday morning for another laser treatment. So I was right in thinking I’d need that. Hopefully it will work and my right eye will depressurize and then things will be “normal”. Yes. It will be under local anesthesia again, so it will be over pretty quickly. But it’s not fun. That injection in the eyelid really hurts, albeit shortly. Then aftewards the doctor sort of massages the around the eye, I guess to spread the anesthesia. She did it pretty forcefully last time. It wasn’t nice. And then you get numb in the face and I’ll probably be banged up on diamox and tired and so on. I’ll probably be out of it for a couple of days again. But at least we’re nearing the end of things, presumeably. Laser the right eye and oil out of the left one in January.
And whatever else comes along.
December 11th, 2009 at 22:55
Arthur says “cockadoodledoo” when asked what a dinosaur says. Who knows, though – he might be right!
I had a haircut on Monday! Much needed as well and looks fantastic if I might say so myself! Very expensive, though, which is why I don’t have it done more than twice a year! I always ask for a cut that’ll grow out nice ;) I know it’s cheaper for guys, but then, you have to get it cut more frequently as well, so I think it kinda evens out.
So lovely to have an upbeat update from you! Not that you’re not allowed the down updates as well – it’s just nice to know that there are good days – because you deserve them, Plume. You’re the bravest and kindest Plume in the whole world and every good day you have is hard earned!
Speaking of which and as you say; you are much, much too generous, my sweet, dear, plume!
But I must say, you might think you’re rusty, but you actually did a very good job of dividing sun and wind equally very well!
They’d both love Songs from Sodor.
Raven is the one hooked and the ambulance. No idea what’s up with that, but anything medical and poorly and hospital, and she’s game. She LOVES being poorly or injured. ;)
Anyways – I digress.
The backpacks are Arthur’s idea, ‘cos Raven has loads so when he saw the Postman Pat and Thomas ones, he was all fire and flame as they say. Despite his arguments, though, he doesn’t need two – to be fair, he doesn’t actually “need” a backpack at all, but he loves putting his little dinosaurs and Arthur BRIO train in Raven’s backpack and then he walks around looking very important with the backpack on. :)
The Elefun – I don’t think they know what it is, but Raven’s seen it advertised and tells me it’s JUST the kind of thing that would keep her out of trouble. Not sure whether to laugh or to cry, really. ;)
Anyways, been out for the work Julefrokost and although I had to come back early due to transport issues and only had one LARGE glass of wine due to calorie issues, I am quite tipsy and quite ready for bed. Oh, and I should warn you – you might have to open the door to the postie again in the near future!
Have a lovely weekend, Plume, and all the best next week! I shall, as per usual, be keeping my fingers crossed for you!
Oh, and also: YAY to seeing the goats!
December 11th, 2009 at 23:36
You and I will be quite a pair then on Monday. You with your “laser eyes” and me with having my wonky tooth pulled.
Sure it will be deadened, just like your lasering, but it’s still not high on my list of procedures to have done. So if you hear screaming Monday morning, don’t worry. It’s just ME.
Yes, just keep that door opened for the postman. I have it from quite a good source, my goatzie boys and donkey girl, that you will be getting a package in the mail from Santa or was it a nisser?
I wondered where those goatzie had gone. Guess they ran down to the post office with a really big package. (Well, big for a goatzie anyway!) I can’t image Billy running very fast. More of a goatzie waddle. Hee, hee.
December 12th, 2009 at 0:40
And the ever popular: “Carol of the Goat Bells”
http://www.goatbiology.com/carol.html
December 12th, 2009 at 7:14
Hey there. Glad to hear you had a good day! I have an audible account. They charge a bit more per month (for the amount of books you can get) but its still a pretty cool service. My offer still stands too, by the way. Not that my reading voice is as cool as that of paid professionals! Yay for you & getting all those DVD’s. Amazon really is the best for Christmas shopping. I got everyone’s gifts from there this year – I hate going out in crowds & its exciting getting packages in the mail, even though they are for other people.
I had never heard of nissers or nisse or whatever before your post the other day. They seem way more interesting & cool than the American version of elves. What kind of holiday traditions did you have in your family growing up? Now that I’m on my own I want to get in the habit of doing holiday stuff so when I have kids oneday, we’ll have fun traditions =)
December 12th, 2009 at 17:51
POOR DEBSTER! Sending you heaps of hugs, too, m’dear! I HATE going to the dentist and it is my greatest fear having to have something pulled out one day. I reckon it’s inevitable, but for now I pretend it can be avoided with flashy toothbrushes and very frequent brushing…
December 12th, 2009 at 20:27
Desirée – Oh Arthur. He’s a character alright. But who knows indeed. We can only speculate. Maybe Arthur is way ahead of his time. I suspect he will grow up to be a quite brilliant dinosaurus forsker.
And Raven to be a doctor. Or ambulance driver.
I can believe you look fantastic. I do not doubt it. You get a haircut to look fantastic, I get one to get the annoying hair out of my eyes. I wonder if that’s the difference between the genders, or just between you and I :)
I have put in the amazon order, so hopefully you’ll be getting the package in good time. If you think two backpacks are too much for Arthur in one go, you can always save one for a birthday or some other festivus. I hope it will be a wonderful christmas for you guys.
Debster – Fingers crossed for the both of us. Let’s hope they don’t get things mixed up and start lasering your teeth or pulling out my eye! Nah I’m sure we will be fine.
I’m going to end up being best mates with the mailman. Maybe I should invite him in for coffee. If I had any. That would probably help.
It’s not christmas without the goat carols!
Traci – Maybe you should get a career as a narrator! I’m sure you could do it. Keeping in mind that I haven’t heard you read at all… but my recommendation stands!
I think now that I have the free audiobooks from nota and an audible account I probably won’t be needing your services, but I do still greatly appreciate that you made the offer. Actually there’s one book you could read for me.. the official book of ultima. I still want to buy that, even though I know I probably won’t be able to read anything in it. I’m pretty sure that doesn’t exist as audiobook. And I’m also pretty sure it will be pretty damn boring for someone who isn’t an Ultima fan. So I’m not going to ask you to read it :)
It is one nisse, and several nisser. I think they may be a scandinavian thing. In olden times the farmers thought there lived nisser in the attic. And they had to put out porridge for them or something like that. Like milk and cookies for santa. If you didn’t keep the nisser happy then they would play tricks on you. Sometimes they’re portrayed as little troublemakers and sometimes like christmas ambassadors, sometimes working for santa etc. One of my favourite christmas tv calendars (I think that’s a pretty scandinavian concept as well) was “the nisse gang). They were nisse detectives. I especially loved the second one “the nisse gang in Greenland”. Beautiful snow and ice and funny nisser. Good times.
I’m not sure how many christmas traditions we have in my family. The christmas tree of course. In the center of the living room. With presents underneath. And the christmas dinner. The big bake-off, when we’d make christmas cookies and marcipan treats, that was always a favourite of the kids. I think we’d eat more marcipan than we ended up making hehe. And we decorated with “kravlenisser”. Crawling nisser. Basically pictures, paper cutouts, of nisser. Small ones that you could hang on walls and sit on shelves, in picture frames and all around. Some nisse dolls or figures too, sitting in the couch or wherever.
But I don’t think we were ever that big pn traditions. And most of them have fallen away. We don’t even have a christmas tree anymore. There were some years when I was really, really low on christmas spirit. Hating it almost. I didn’t mind the tree disappearing. Now it’s a little sad without it almost. Christmas is a lot nicer when you’re happier and getting along with your family.
But ok I have gone on long enough now!
December 12th, 2009 at 21:23
About Nisser: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomte
December 12th, 2009 at 21:50
Desiree – Aah! Most excellent. I had forgotten more about nisser than I knew I knew.
December 12th, 2009 at 23:41
Desiree: thanks for the nisse info! No more urinating in the barn for me, I don’t want to offend the nisse. hee, hee
Time to go set up a “Yule Goat” in some unsuspecting neighbor’s yard. Won’t they be surprised. They wouldn’t know what it was anyway.
We do have a small town north of us, Swedeburg, that has a big straw yule goat as an attraction to their town. It was burnt down last year, but I think they have rebuilt it.
In our area, people put out a flock of pink plastic flamingos in someone’s yard. They do it as a fund raiser. When the “pinked” person donates money to the charity, the flamingos magically fly away to another person’s yard! Good way to raise money for a charity.
December 13th, 2009 at 0:44
Hei hei!
Sorry for the radio silence, but things got really busy around here! I just finished my massive Norwegian exam, and on Monday we’re heading out on our Christmas vacation. I was going to send your Christmas card today, but then I realized I don’t have your address written down anywhere. Could you e-mail it to me? Sorry I am so disorganized.
Oh, and I have learned about nisser — they are adorable. In fact, I have one of those nisser decorations you can get at various stores around here — he is basically a bean-bag with a long grey beard and a long red hat. He was so cute I decided to name him Borg and set up a facebook for him. Heh.
I’ve been reading through the entries I’ve missed, and I am so glad to hear that you’re heading back to the playground again and enjoying new audiobooks. I need to read something entertaining again — I have been doing so much studying/writing (preparing a PhD proposal) that I feel like I need a hobby to get my mind off of it all sometimes.
*HUGS*
Valja
December 15th, 2009 at 4:17
How did your lasering go? My tooth pulling went very well. No problems at all. I won’t be eating any hay on that side for awhile, but that’s how it goes! hee, hee
December 15th, 2009 at 19:27
Debster – Pink flamingos. Hmm. Do charities ever get a lot of money around times when there are lots of parties and people are drunk a lot? Just wondering..
I hope your teeth are still doing fine. My eye was fine at first but then it started hurting. I’m okay now though. No worries. Do you feel like a taffy?!
Valja – Resistance is futile from the nisser! I hope your exam went well. And that yule have a nice vacation.
I suggest reading something about goats!
Hmm is there any good fiction about goats? MAybe I should write something. Become a famous goat writer. As opposed to ghost writer, you see.
December 16th, 2009 at 5:11
Taffy? Taffy? Someone sounds a bit “daffy” if you ask me! You goat writer, you!