IKEA Dinner Tour!

Yesterday in the late afternoon J., L. and I went to IKEA to have dinner! We had planned to do something together again for some time, but we all the time had postponed it. Now L. had to move her car to recharge the battery, since it is standing around all the time here in Oslo, and so we decided to go to IKEA.

In the late afternoon we met up at J's place. I walked there since I needed some fresh air and some "exercise" in order to cure my hangover from the night before. I picked up J. from her flat and we went to the point where L. was supposed to pick us up. We waited there a bit and talked until L. came, we got in the car and went straight to IKEA.

I was so hungry, that when we arrived in the shop, I made it clear, that I wanted to eat straight away. The girls didn't have a problem with that and in the end it was good, that we ate before shopping. We stayed so long in the shop, that we would not have gotten food afterwards, since the restaurant was closed by that time.

Anyways, we went to the restaurant and ordered waited to order our food. J. took the compulsory Köttbullar and L. and I took both the 3-course (meaning including a salad and a dessert) menu with reindeer patties and steamed vegetables as main course. It was super tasty and we all really enjoyed the food. We were sitting long after being finished and talked about everything and anything.

After some time we got up and made our way through the exhibition part of the IKEA. Soon after we got up the food started to settle and we, well at least I, had to sit down for a while. Luckily we were in the living room section at that moment and we found a nice couch in front of a big flat screen TV, which was switched on TravelChannel. So we sat and lay down and relaxed a bit from the 2 minutes walking through the exhibition.

 

After a while we went on. It was funny, the whole shop was already decorated with all Christmas stuff and weirdly enough this actually created some kind of Christmas feeling for me. We walked around the shop and found a lot of cool, funny and sometimes, as we thought, totally mis-designed things. This is often the problem with IKEA, the design is more important than the functionality; Things might look good, but they are totally useless.

Nevermind! Soon we were through the exhibition and then the real part of the IKEA-shopping began. The girls didn't just wanted to go to IKEA to eat or to recharge the battery of the car, they actually, and I didn't know that before, wanted to buy stuff there. I didn't really mind, so I walked along with them, having a good time to see what and how they were shopping and was taking pictures.

 

After some time we were through with the sopping and went to check out counter. The girls payed all their stuff and after a short stop in the food section after the check out counter we went down to the car to put all the stuff in and go back to Oslo.

When we arrived, we were going around and around to find a parking spot. In the area, where L. lives it is very hard to get a free of charge parking spot and eventually, L. decided to leave J. and me at J's place and to continue her search alone. We didn't wanted to split up after IKEA and so we decided to watch a movie at J's place. After some time also L. arrived, she had found a parking spot and came by bike.

We then watched a movie with Hape Kerkeling, a German comedian and actor. It was funny, because the movie was about a roadtrip from Germany to and then through Norway. Especially J. & L. had visited a lot of the places shown in the movie and even I recognized some of them. After the movie I went home, had a shower and went to bed!

Now I am feeling great, I had a nice morning coffee and talked to A. for a while. I am sitting here in my room and just enjoy a lazy Sunday morning, what I will do today I dont know yet!

~M~

Bad hangover!

This morning, when I woke up at around 1 p.m., I had a bad headache. The reason for this is simple: I went out yesterday after work and was drinking quite a lot, although I actually didn't wanted to stay out so long!

It all started in the late afternoon in the office. After a rather slow day with not too much to do we were meeting up in our conference room to have a fika to celebrate the birthdays of two of our colleagues. We were sitting and talking and having a good time. As I mentioned before, I really like these fikas and the good atmosphere they create in our office.

We were staying quite long in the office and more and more colleagues left the office to go home. S. one of the colleagues who's birthday we were celebrating also went quite early, since she had to prepare the birthday party she had planned in the evening at home. We were all a bit disappointed, that she left and so she invited us to also come over to her place at some point.

We kept on chatting in the conference room with a couple of people and then decided to give it a shot and to go to S' party. We ordered a maxi-taxi since there were still so many of us and were brought up to Sagene, where S. lives.

The party was really nice. A cool get-together with loads of interesting people, good talks and a large amount of drinks. I had really good talk with many different people and simply had a good time the whole evening. I had such a good time, that I stayed until 3.30 in the night and then took a taxi together with T. & L. back to town. They dropped me off directly in front of my door step.

It was a good evening, way longer than I intended to go out, but totally worth it! Right now I am working on getting rid of my hangover and then in the late afternoon I will go to IKEA with L.& J. to have something to eat!

~M~

Back to work!

Today was an average day, not good, not bad! I was doing normal day-to-day business and was teaching L. a little bit about the daily operation. There was not so much up today at work, the day went by very slow and I was occupying myself with a lot of gap fillers.

After work I went to the shop quickly, bought some stuff and filled up my supplies here at home. Then I talked to my parents for a while over skype about this and that. I got quickly tired and then decided to eat. I made the fresh tortellini L. brought me from Italy and they were delicious! Now I am just sitting around and I am super tired! I dont know what's up with me!

~M~

I'm back!

And I am not happy about it! To be honest, I really enjoyed the time in Stockholm and coming back to a rainy Oslo and even worse, leaving A. made me really sad! As I wrote earlier, my job is nice, I am happy about what I am doing, but the city and also my living arrangement as well as my social life are not what I want!

Anyways, I had to get up early today to catch my flight to Oslo. I took the bus to Slussen, the T-banen to Centralen and walked to the bus terminal. There I met up with G., who I was working with the time in Stockholm. She was also coming to Oslo to visit the office and to meet suppliers. It is quite common, that the people, who work for the whole company and not one specific department are based in one office, but visit the other on a regular basis.

We took the bus to the airport, checked-in and went through the security check. We had a lot of time left and had a coffee in one of the cafes at the airport. It was quite nice and we were talking a lot about this and that. I like G., she is a good person and very communicative.

The flight was without any special incidents. The only weird thing was, that we were flying in 10.000m inside of the clouds and while approaching Oslo never came out of the clouds. Just a couple of meters above the ground the clouds ended. This made me realize, that there were about 10km of clouds above Oslo, which explains, why it was so dark today.

We went from the airport straight to the office and I started my normal work again. I was in contact with clients and was helping L., the new employee, with some things. Otherwise nothing special happened!

Now I am back at home and have to come back and really arrive here again! It's weird how difficult it is to get into your routines again, even after such a short time of absence!

~M~

Last day in Stockholm!

Today was the last day for me in our Stockholm office. Tomorrow morning I will be going together with G. back to Oslo and back to my normal job with Authentic Scandinavia. Although I like the job I am a bit sad to leave here. On the one side I really liked my job and my working with G. and also I already got used to be with A. again. This will be the hardest part, to be apart!

The day started normal: Getting up (way too early), having breakfast together with A., fixing ourselves and making our way to town. Today A. and I wanted to enjoy the good weather a bit longer and instead of walking from T-Centralen to the offices, we already got off in Gamla Stan. We walked through the old town and along the palace and along Drottninggatan.

The morning in the office was normal, as usually. Nothing special, I was helping G. with some work, we were talking a lot and then I started to visualize the work G. taught me. In practice this means, that I was creating flowcharts for all different parts of the job of a purchasing manager, which helped me and will help me to understand the job so much better.

For lunch I met up with A. again. We took a detour to enjoy the sun a bit before we went to the supermarket to get some food. We bought some prefixed salad, which is surprisingly cheap here in Stockholm.

We went back to A’s office and ate together in the lunchroom. I really like the office as such, but somehow the atmosphere is a bit impersonal. Nobody cares that you are there, nobody greets and nobody asks who you are looking for or if they can help you, not even the receptionist! It’s a bit weird!

Anyways, in the afternoon I was going on with my flow charts and some small assignments G. gave me during the day. The day passed by fast and soon I was done with work and met up with A. again. We walked through the crowded city to the supermarket to get a snack. We needed to have something small, since we wanted to go to Fotografiska, a photo gallery, in the late afternoon.

We walked again through Gamla Stan, were passing Slussen and walked to the gallery. We strolled around the rooms and I really enjoyed the pictures. A. told me that Fotografiska didn’t open that long ago, but is already really successful.

After 1 ½ hours we were through and decided to go home. We had to walk a bit to the bus stop and when we came there we realized, that we still had to wait quite long. This however gave me the opportunity to take some long exposure pictures.

At home we made cooked and had a nice dinner. Now we were sitting on the couch watching TV. I really don’t want to leave tomorrow. I still have to pack and will do that soon I guess!

~M~

Seems like normal life!

This Monday felt like as if it would be always like that. A. & I got up together, had breakfast and made our way to the offices in the city. I had the feeling, that this was and should be every-day-life. Living together, getting up together and going to work together. 

We met up for lunch again, since the offices are not far away from each other and had a good time talking. Although this is not normal for most couples, I reckon, it is really nice to have the opportunity. Unfortunately this is just a short period and tomorrow is the last time we are going to have lunch together.

The work was good today again. G. is telling me loads of things and it is really, really interesting. She was giving me again assignments to do and I feel, that it I am a good help for her, too, to double-check her work; it’s always good to have input from another person and to approach problems together. 

After work I picked up A. and had to wait a bit in her office until she was ready. I spend the time drinking a hot chocolate and reading a magazine, or rather a catalogue. This catalogue was for photo utensils, like cameras and lenses. I was looking through and again finding many things that I would have liked to have, but each one of them was simply too expensive.

When A. finished we made our way through the crowded city back to Finnberget. We were relaxing on the couch and watching TV. Since there was nothing on, we decided to have dinner. We put out everything and were preparing things and suddenly we had a quite luxurious dinner with wine, nice cheese and a good salami, that I got from my colleague L. earlier last week.

Now we are sitting on the couch again, relaxing and watching TV. Again there is nothing proper on, but we are both super tired from the first working day of the week and don’t mind! I am really looking forward to tomorrow to work again with G. and learn a lot of new stuff! I really like her and also my job right now!

~M~

Being Cultural Active!

This day started again with sleeping long and a lazy breakfast. It was raining and the urge to go out and maybe go to town was basically non-existent in both A. and me. So we were sitting around, A. was surfing the internet and I read a book. We listened to chilled music and the rain drops splashing against the window.

After a while we decided to actually fix ourselves and go out. We took it slow and took like 1 ½ hours to get ready for going out! We took the bus to Slussen and from there the T-banen via T-Centralen to Kungsträdgården. Our destination was the Moderna Museet, a museum for contemporary and modern art. We wanted to take the bus from Kungsträdgården, but then decided to walk the couple of meters instead of waiting 15 minutes for the bus.

We left our jackets and the wet umbrella in the cloakroom and got into the exhibition for free, since we had the Key of Honors cards of A’s company. We strolled around the different rooms and were looking at the pieces, which are considered art.  It was very interesting and exciting, but sometimes also strange, due to the weirdness or “complexity” of the exhibits. 

After two hours or so we were both tired and decided to leave. We took our stuff and went out into the rain. We didn’t wanted to walk again through the rain back to the metro station. So we went to the close-by pier instead and were lucky, since the small ferry was about to dock. So we took the Djurgården ferry to Slussen, where we missed the bus by a minute or so. 

Since we had to wait for half an hour we went into the coop supermarket, where it was nice and warm. We bought some things to eat and two Choklad bollar for a fika at home. We were strolling aimlessly around the shop and were killing successfully some time. When we came home we had a small fika, were sitting on the sofa and just relaxing again.

After some time I started preparing dinner. I made baked feta cheese with oven vegetables. It was delicious and so much that we both fell into a food-coma. Now we are sitting on the couch and enjoying the evening. It is awesome to be together and basically live together. A. is applying to jobs in Germany right now and I am really hoping that she finds something good. I just  cant wait for her to come to Germany.

~M~

Relaxed Planning!

This Saturday was just super nice! We slept long and had a nice breakfast. We were sitting around a bit, but then actually quickly fixing ourselves to go out to the city. The weather was good, when we got up, but quickly some clouds came up and it wasn’t that nice anymore, but we wanted to go to the city.

 A & I went with the bus to Slussen and then with the T-banen to Gamla Stan. From there we walked through the narrow streets to Drottninggatan. We were strolling aimlessly through the city and were just enjoying the crisp air and all the people around us. We strolled back over Gamla Stan along the Palace to Slussen and Södermalm. 

On Södermalm we went to a mixture of an indoor flee market and secondhand shop, where a colleague of A. had a stand. A. just wanted to go by and say “Hi”. From there we went on to some kind of a farmers or autumn market. We tried a lot of different food and were looking at all the exotic and unusual products the vendors were offering.

After strolling around the city for three hours or something like this we took the bus back home. On the way A. bought some Kanelbullar. When we came home we had a small snack and the bullar and coffee.

The rest of the afternoon we spend relaxing on the sofa and planning a trip. A. will come to Norway after she finished her internship here in Stockholm. We wanted to use the time to go to the fjords and Bergen. We considered many options of the tour and finally, after a lot back and forth, we decided on one alternative. We will both talk to our colleagues to see if we can get special prices for the trip and maybe some parts even for free or sponsored by someone!

Then we both somehow got restless and decided to go out for a walk. We both were not really hungry, yet, and just wanted to get some fresh air and exercise before dinner. We walked through Hammarby Sjöstad, which is an old industrial area, where now new and fancy apartment houses were built around a small lake. We took a small ferry over to Södermalm and walked back to Finnberget, where A. lives.

Now she is cooking dinner, Köttbullar and mashed potatoes. This will be really good food and I am looking forward to it, since I am pretty hungry. The rest of the evening we will relax on the couch in front of the TV! Sometimes you also have to do this instead of going out!

~M~

First Snow!

Today was my first day in our Stockholm office. I arranged, that I could work with G. our purchasing manager for a couple of days, to get an insight into her job and the purchasing department. I flew into Stockholm yesterday late in the evening and came by bus to Cityterminalen, where A. was already waiting for me! We went to her place, I had a quick shower and we were fixing ourselves to get to bed, since we both had to get up quite early today!

This morning, when we got up it was snowing heavily. The first snow of the year here in Stockholm. I had told A. before, that this weather was forecasted, but she didn’t believe me. It was snowing so much and soon everything was white.

We headed out through the snow, down to the bus station. We went to Slussen, then to T-Centralen and walked from there along Drottninggatan to our offices. A. walked me to my office and kissed me good-bye-and-a-good-day-at-work. 

G. picked me up at the front door and showed me around the office. She presented me to everybody in the office and funnily many of the colleagues said something like: “Are you are the one…” or “Ah, I heard about you…”! I was amazed, that somehow the people in the Stockholm office heard – seemingly positive - things about me although, I am just one of the numerous trainees coming through the company.

Anyways, G. and I spend the morning talking about the job of the purchasing manager and were talking about this and that. It was really, really interesting and I learned a lot. G. gave me small tasks and “case studies” that I had to solve. It was so good, I can totally understand, why she loves her job!

I met up with A. for lunch and we walked along Kungsgatan to a Lebanese place, where we got some food. Then we strolled around the busy streets and after some time and a visit at the supermarket, where I bought some chocolate for G., we both went back to our offices. 

In the afternoon, I was again doing some “case studies” and also updated some prices, which was more difficult than I thought, due to the weird price list of the supplier. Then we had a fika, which is the Swedish word for having coffee & cake. It was nice to get to know the colleagues from Sweden a bit better.

After work A. and I went to the shop to buy some things for the weekend. We went home, had dinner and now we are sitting on the couch, both super tired from the working week. We will relax this evening and do nothing at all! FYI: I love this city!

~M~

Being Excited!

I am shortly home, just to eat something and grab my stuff to head to the airport! I am flying still to Stockholm tonight and will work there in our office tomorrow and Monday and Tuesday! I have all my stuff packed and after some time I actually use my backpack again!

I am really excited about this "excursion" to our Stockholm office and I reckon that I will learn so much new stuff during these three days. I will be coming back on Wednesday morning together with G., who I am going to work with in Stockholm. She is coming to our Oslo office for a couple of days and will have supplier meetings and so on. However, I might be able to also work with her here in Oslo then.

Today was the day, when T. came back from her holiday in Mexico. We were doing some catching-up and sat long in the conference room with the new team member L. to talk through stuff, but also for T. to get to know L. It was somehow a really nice and relaxed day. We were chatting a lot, she was telling us about her trip and was making us jealous.

In between I went to the Opera and picked-up some tickets. Somebody from Stockholm has a group coming and they needed the tickets, but for some reason they could not pick them up themselves. So I went to the Opera and on the way back passed by the hotel to leave them there. It was a bit complicated and I ended up going twice to the hotel. It's now too complicated to explain why, I dont have enough time to explain it. Anyways, so after work I had to go to the hotel again and then rush home.

Now I am here, had something to eat, wrote this blog post, will publish it and the pack the rest of my stuff and make my way down to the train station! So looking forward to the next 6 days!

~M~

This is it!

This is it, my days as "boss" are over! Today was the last day of my - extended - period in charge of the company! It is good in a way, but somehow I will miss it, I guess. It was a nice experience and I learned a lot about time management and how to organize my working day! Normally I do thing how they come, since T. was always sending me work to do, but now I was on my own and had to prioritize! It was fun!

The view from my room this morning!

The day was good, there was loads to do and the time passed fast. I got everything done on time and didn't leave anything, what could have been done today, for tomorrow. It's a good feeling! In the lunch break I quickly biked home to take out my laundry and put it up and after 20 minutes I was back in the office and was working again!

Now, when I came home I looked out of the window and there was this huge moon again. I simply had to take a picture! I am going to start packing now and after that I will have to write an e-mail to G., our purchasing manager in Stockholm, to prepare my stay & work!

~M~

Autumn Clean-up!

This was a good day, with an even better ending! I had a lot to do and was busy the whole day through! Although I had one extremely annoying clients who was changing the itinerary literally every 30 minutes, it was a good and very productive day! I got my things done and had nothing left in the end of the day!

In the afternoon, when I was processing all the payments when had received over the weekend I looked out of the window and just saw the FedEx guy walking over the street towards our building. I knew directly that he was about to come to our office. I was so desperately waiting for my power pack, that my dad had ordered for me on the internet! Now finally I have it and well... it's working!

When I came home there were a lot of people in the yard of the house. I didn't know what was going on, so I went upstairs to the flat without asking. When I entered the flat, my flatmate T. asked me if there were many people down there and explained, that they were about to clean-up before the winter. He explained, that this would be an annual event, where all the tenants would prepare the yard for the winter.

I agreed to help, since I am living here half the winter. We were cleaning out the basement and the attic, were throwing away stuff and were cleaning chairs and tables, that were standing in the yard. There were so many people, everybody was helping and after an hour the list, that had been so long, was simply done. It's always like this; when everybody is helping it goes so much faster.

As a reward for the work we had beer and pizza in the yard. We were all standing there, drinking and eating. It was good, I was talking to our neighbors and they were really nice. I liked it, that everybody came along with each other so well. Where I was living before in Germany, while studying, all the neighbors basically hated each other and something like this would have never happened. We simply worked together, had a good time and some drinks, food and a chat afterwards.

Now I just put on some laundry and talked to A. a bit. I miss her so much and am really looking forward to going to Stockholm at the end of the week! I can't wait for T. to come back to finally take over the company and to finally teach the new team mate, L. Since I was not allowed to teach her anything, she could not help me with the operational work. When T. is back there will be so much less work for each of us!

~M~