The Blatherings of a Buffoon: 2017

After 3 years of absence, I finally decided to grace my uni friends with my presence again.
I know. I am a saint.
I realise I should probably spread it out further, make myself more of a legend like... GOD!
You don't hear much from him (Him? Or by all means Her. No idea what the dude's name is. OH NO! Isn't it Ishmael or something? (Call me Ishmael! No thank you, buddy. I'm gonna call an obsessed sailor (Captain? I never read it. Yes yes. For shame. I'll get to it... Soon! (TM)) for an obsessed sailor and leave it at that!) Isaiah? Ikea? Irma? I don't know. I thought I did. I'll admit it. I was wrong.) do you! And s/he's riled up quite the following. People keep making them houses! I'd love for people to build me houses. There is a distinct lack of bedrooms in those places though, which is a bit of a drawback, but I mean, there is no shame in renovating!

I lost my train of thought a little bit. I went to London with Nicole, Philippa and Alun from 20-26th of august! It was heaps of fun! We did so much shit! Madness in a week!

Like we spent over 8 hours at the Harry Potter Studio tour. Next time I go there I will BREAK THIS RECORD!!! I vow this on my new Slytherin Scarf! On my house pride! House pride is extremely important.

I am getting ahead of myself.
I got up at 4.30 on the 20th and headed off to the airport. Cursing everyone and everything. I hadn't had any sleep. I was so excited to see th... I mean, I was practicing my WRATH face all night. One does not just SUMMON a legend like I (am) (heheheheh. I am legend. No? No. Nevermind.).
After I found out that they had lost my bags in Amsterdam (the shits), I trudged on towards Nicole. Nicole! Such a sight for tired, wrathful eyes!
We headed to a Primark and I had to buy shit to wear and sleep in. Fun times. I hate shopping.
We headed to our hotel and discovered we had to either walk or take the bus the last stop.
In hindsight I wish we'd have walked.
We got lost, of course. Had to wait ages and walked so much further (I am guessing) than if we'd had walked from the underground. Then we immediately had to head back out as we were meeting Alun and Philippa at a Medieval Banquet-thing. We were in a hurry. We went the wrong way around the Tower of London, so we made a BRISK CANTER around it. I liked that that stuck. :P
The medieval festival thing was so good! We got dressed up and they all looked like beautiful princesses! All of them! I found a peasant's ... bag...? I liked it a lot! :D I want one.
They had acrobats and shit while we ate. It was so good. And if we wanted the waitress, we needed to shout "WENCH!" which is awful, but hilarious.
It was so good to see them all again! I almost forgot my WRATH!!!

Day 2 was the HARRY POTTER DAY!!!!
We had ordered the 12.30 tour. Went from the hotel at 9.30 and got there at 11.30 I think it was. We had a nice muffin before we went in on the tour.
It was SO GOOD!! The Great Hall was probably the biggest thing for me... Apart from the HOLY FUCKING SHIT GIANT MODEL OF HOGWARTS at the end of the tour. I was pretty stoked about that too.
Everyone who likes Harry Potter needs to do this. It was so cool! So much fun! I loved every second of the over-8 hours we spent in there.
my LifeCycle says it was 9 hr and 20 minutes, but.. I think some of the journey was included in that. Doesn't really matter.
BUTTERBEER IS AMAZING by the way.
I spent way too much money there. But it was totally worth it.

Day 3, Sherlock Holmes day.
WE SPENT A FUCKING HOUR IN A FUCKING LINE!! The WRATH came back. I am joking. After spending over 8 hours in Harry Potter I was on cloud 9. We saw a house that was decorated the way Ol' Sher-Holm would decorate it if he had existed.
The coolest thing there was the ~300 year old Stradivarius. No doubt.
We went to eat. After we went to Piccadilly Circus for some candy shopping before followed Philippa to the bus. Was really good to see her. I had really missed all of them.
After that we had to sit down and just pass out a while. Our feet were thoroughly murdered.
We watched "The Comedy about a Bank Robbery" in the evening, which was really funny. I love my puns, so that was spot on. It dragged on a liiiiiittle bit in the 2nd half, but all in all, I really enjoyed it!
I will definitely want to see other plays from that company!

Day 4,
We got a little "lost" in the beginning on our way to Leicester Square, which I at least, really like to do when visiting a foreign city. We were on the right course, but then I mixed up Leicester square and Trafalgar Square. So WE ONLY NEEDED TO GO BACK ONE BLOCK, NICOLE!!!! :P
It's true! I was in control! My sense of direction doesn't suck, I swear!!!! :P
Nah it does a little bit. But it's ok. I like getting lost and finding new places. I don't think Nicole does. Haha!
We met up with Alun who had headed out before us and ate before we went to the Natural History Museum! Which was SO COOL! There was a hallway of animal skeletons hanging on the walls (or maybe they were fossils? That could have been it actually. But they looked so freaking cool!).
We entered a giant hall where there was hanging a gigantic whale skeleton in the ceiling. The whole place was just magic! I got a bit of a Hogwarts feeling in the skeletons-area as that was the older parts of the museum.
After the museum we rushed away over to Leicester Square again, to a place called the Comedy Store.
If and when in London, go there. To the Comedy Store. Do it. Just... Do it. Trust me.

It was so good. Impro theatre can be very hit and miss. But this hit the nail right on the head. It was so fucking good! I want to go again. Next time I go there, I definitely will. They improvised a freaking musical, like. I was very impressed by it.

Day 5
We went to Camden Market and strolled around the stalls. I was very proud. I didn't buy anything. Apart from a gift. I did struggle a little with all the people. But then again, I was kind of prepared for that. It is London after all. And Camden is very popular... But again. So many! So many! Crazy!
There was a weirdly confident tea-lady selling us tea, so I guess her confidence worked.... The others got some stuff, but none of us went crazy.
Nicole and I also owned the Cyberdog pokemon gym. So that is cool. #Cool, #Deep.
In the evening we saw School of Rock, which I was really impressed by. The kids played their own instruments. Insane!
If I had a thimble of their talent I'd probably be the next... Uh... Who is popular now? Shakira?
.... Probably Shakira.

Day 6
I spent tons of money on games. Which was fun. I can't wait to try them. Cheery games called "Gloom" and such. I think they have the potential of being hilarious, but then I never tried them, so I don't know. The place was called Orcs Nest, which was cool. Had loads of roleplaying books and shit there too, in addition to boardgames. I was drooling on the Cthulhu roleplaying books. But they were kinda steep, and I don't have roleplaying groups anymore, unfortunately, so I didn't get them.
We headed over to the Harry Potter graphics designers, Minalima, who had made all the newspaper clips, book covers and all that fun stuff. It was really cool to see everything they had made in such detail.
After that I thought I had thrown out the receipt I got when buying clothes (I was given 100euro to buy shit with from KLM and needed the receipt to get the money.) as I am an idiot sometimes and just throw stuff away without thinking. So I was in a mood. I went back to the hotel alone and FOUND IT, which I was praising all the (other) Gods for. I had a relax-session, just enjoying being alone for a bit and the others came back after a bit. Nicole was meeting a friend, so Alun and I went to the South bank and just walked near the Thames and owned the pokemon gyms there. Yes we are cool, thank you for asking. It was very nice just strolling around. That is what I like to do when "getting lost". We found a festival grounds and a dude climbing a precarious looking scaffolding whilst juggling some fiery-death-shit, and we headed for Big Ben. But then Nicole called and we headed back. Apparently the faire was where she had met her friend. Which was a very hilarious, yet creepy coincidence. Her friend was super nice. We had a good ol' chat before we headed back to the hotel.

The final day, I needed to go back to Primark and swap some stuff I got too small/too large. We went to eat and met back up with Alun. A lot of the day had already been eaten... aten...? Ett up? Is "eaten" right? It looks weird. Anyway, I got my bags, gave Alun and Nicole a good big hug and left.
Sad times.

Sad.
I was so happy I got to see at least these three feckers! <3 I love and miss them all so much, and 3 years is a lot of time to not see someone! So glad they had the opportunity to do so now.
So grateful they all wanted to! :)
My little jellybeans! <3

4 months later on the 25th this month my grandmother followed my grandfather and aunt.
I suppose she never really got over their loss. Well, I mean, how could she, it's only been 4 months since they died.
It was cancer again.
I'd be happy if I never have to deal with it again.

I was lucky enough to spent New Year's Eve together with her and my other grandmother as I needed to take care of my sick cat when the explosions started. I think they had a really good time, as they were gabbin' on like nobody's business.
I remember this summer when my aunt invited me to eat crabs with her, grandma and grandpa. It was such a nice afternoon. We sat on their veranda afterwards and just relaxed in the sun, sighing over all the food we just ate.
I also remember whenever I popped over to their house she had always some sort of cake ready from the freezer. She always made a fuss even though I told her there was no need.
She also took me to Kristiansand sometimes and we went to cafés and did a bit of shopping. It was so nice spending time with her.
She was so sweet. So caring.

I sat with her on the night before she died and I held her hand for most of that time. She was so warm. I will miss her. She was such a beautiful and kind person.
Such an awesome grandma. Below she is often to the left in the picture.