My Life in Oslo - Part 1

I haven't been keeping up with my blogs.. Honestly, I have recognized a bad pattern of starting projects and then slacking on the follow up, but here I am to work on that. Granted, I should actually be writing on one of a series of articles that are due fairly soon but are a bit less interesting to me at the moment. I'm sure there are a dozen other tasks I am also procrastinating from just now, but I had the idea to begin a small virtual tour of my life here for anyone interested - but especially with those in mind who can't come and visit so easily/cheaply.

I'll start with the living room of the apartment Rolf and I share. Our apartment is technically only two rooms, the bedroom and the main room which is half a living room and half a kitchen (/everything else) in use. There is also a bathroom and small entry foyer, but those aren't especially interesting. Standing in the entry foyer you can see the whole apartment, the bathroom would be in front of you and turning your head left is the main room, right is the bedroom. It's not a huge space, but it's comfortable for two people, centrally located, and we like it plenty for the time being.

Our furniture is a bit of a hodgepodge of Ikea products and pieces of Ikea products that I've redesigned in some fashion. The coffee table is an awesome hand-me-down that Rolf's parents gave us (they had had it since the 60s or 70s) - it has a funky pattern on the top which I love. The wine bottle in the center of the table repurposed as a candlestick holder. It would be more interesting looking if the candles here were the kind that made drippy wax, but mostly here candles are dripless - somehow evaporating as they burn. I've learned to appreciate the quality of candlelight, especially during the long, dark winters here. Still though, between the two of us, Rolf is the more candle-romantic one.

The wall on the left of that photo is intentionally left blank. We have a projector which we use in lieu of a tv - mostly to stream the news from the internet or watch movies/series from time to time. The last wall in the living room I've left to Rolf's new hobby of painting (photo below). Somewhere between the size of the pieces and the old, not-completely-level walls in the room, none of the images are quite straight, but I think this will be resolved as he fills in more of the space. The central frame on the wall is his first published interview, where his company's national publication deems him "Young and Promising" as the byline.

The cornerpiece is a real wood burning stove - likely from when the building was first built in the 30s. It's quite lovely and functional though we haven't used it. Appropriately, when I took this photo there happened to be a ball of yarn in the floor - remnants of another project that I haven't quite completed just yet!