Bobo

Everyone I know has had some kind of stuffed animal when they were young (and some still do when they are old). Mine was this sorry looking thing which I called Bobo. My little sister found this thing online on a website for lost stuff. Now I'm not sure it's lost somewhere, I just don't know where it is. I asked my big sister about it, and she thought I still had it, lol.

I can't really remember why I liked this thing so much. My little sister loved this carrot she called Dingolingolansj. I bought it for her when I was on vacation in Crete I think. Stuffed carrots make great friends too. My fiancée has this cute thing called Momo, I think it is a bee of some kind.

I think I had an imaginary friend too, but I am not sure if it is a false memory or a real one. I would like to have one today, how do I go about it? Is there some place I can request an imaginary friend? There should be an imaginary friend repository somewhere, where you could apply for an imaginary friend. I did a search for it online, but I could only come up with a few definitions and personal stories. My theory is that if everyone had an imaginary friend, the world would be a much better place. You would always have someone to talk to at all times and they would always listen and even talk back. Of course, all psychoanalysts and therapists would be out of a job, but it's a small price to pay.

My fiancée made me a digitally stuffed animal by the way :D.

Who replace these precious "friends" when we grow up?

7 Wonders of the world

As you may or may not know, someone decided that we needed 7 new wonders of the world since 6 of the 'old' wonders of the world is gone. The only one left standing is the pyramids of Giza. The new list is as follows: Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer, Peru's Machu Picchu, Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid, the Great Wall of China, Jordan's Petra, the Colosseum in Rome and India's Taj Mahal. Apparently over 100 million voted for these.

I didn't vote for it myself, but I've been thinking about my list. What are my 7 wonders of the world?

In no particular order:

1. Me

That's right. I am a wonder of my world. Without me, this list wouldn't exist, this blog wouldn't exist. Can you imagine a world without me?

2. Kei

She is a wonder to me. You can have your pyramids, your machu picchus, your colosseums, but nothing can replace her. My world would be missing a wonder if she wasn't here.

3. My friends

Yes, without my friends, a big part of me would be missing. I need my friends and I love them very much. Some may come and go, but you will always be special to me.

4. My family

That's a given. Without them I wouldn't be here. Wherever I go, whatever I do, they will always be there supporting me. Their support means the world to me.

5. Music

What a lifeless boring world it would be if there wasn't music. I need music. It's my passion, my joy. Music can be everything. A time machine to the past and the future, a comfort in time of need. Music is magic.

6. Love

I can't explain love, but it is a wonder of my world. It is the most powerful force I can think of. Being in love is the most amazing feeling. What can be better than that?

7. Belief

You have to have belief. We all have it, but without hope, without belief I wouldn't be able to do what I want to do. It constantly pushes me forward, making me grow as a person. That to me is amazing. Belief can really move mountains. If you believe it, it will happen.

So there you have it. My list of 7 wonders of the world. But why limit it to 7? I have many more wonders like the sun, the forest, the mountains, the ocean, the stars; the moon... the list goes on and on. Right now I am listening to music, thinking about my love Kei (who is down with fever at the moment), writing this for all my friends and family, and with strong belief that Kei will be fever free soon.

BBQ in Stoke!

I’m thinking about a very good friend of mine who is in trouble. That’s the backside of having friends a million miles away. You can’t really be there for them, give them a hug when needed. Luckily I’m good with words, so I am able to do something to ease their pain. Still, I wish I could do more. Tomorrow I am going to look for some international call cards, because I want to speak to Kei more often, but also talk to my international friends. It’s good to hear a friendly voice once in a while. If I can do that, then I will.

It’s Friday, and my first week at my new job is officially over. It went very well and exceeded my expectations. I can’t wait to see what the next week will bring. Friday in one weeks time I have to go to the DSS office for an interview, because I need a national insurance number to be able to work here. I don’t anticipate any problems, other than finding the place. I’m still new with buses and stuff like that, but tomorrow I get to travel a bit. I will take the bus to the center of Manchester and then a train to Stoke. There my friend Katy will pick me up and we will go to her and her boyfriend’s barbeque party! Yeay, I’m so excited about that. It will be good food, beer, some football and a lot of new people to meet. I hear about 20 people might come, none of which I know. I’ll probably sleep over there and come back home on Sunday.

Sweet Kei came online this morning just before I was going to get to work. She didn’t have much time because she was at the airport waiting for her plane to Kuala Lumpur. She just came online to tell me how much she loved me. Needless to say, I’ve been smiling as much, if not more than the employees at work today. She’s such a sweet girl. I’m so lucky to have her :).

Committed

I really don’t know what to write about today. I’m sure I will think of something to tell while I write this. I spoke to my buddy Knut today. He’s currently in Xi’an in China teaching English. Me and him used to work together in Ireland, but we haven’t had much time to talk recently. I’ve noticed that I haven’t been able to keep close contact with my real-life friends for more than maybe a year or so. Of course, maybe if I hadn’t moved around so much in recent years, then maybe I would have kept them closer. I wonder if my online friends will outlast my real life friends? Some of my real-life friends have now become my online friends. It’s kind of funny how much closer I am to my online friends than real-life friends; maybe it’s just a phase.

Tomorrow Kei will leave for Thailand for a vacation and I will leave for England to work on Sunday. Our picture project will continue in our respective countries though. It will just be new places, but we’ll stay the same, committed to each other. Just hope the cell phones work in these countries so we can text each other. I don’t know what my internet situation will be when I get to England, but I hope it’s immediately available. I wish to keep on blogging on a daily basis.

I have nothing more to write, really.

The final party

Yesterday, I attended my birthday party. The mood was unmistakable a happy one, but at the back of my head I realized that this is the last night out with “the gang”. In a few days I will move to England, and meet new friends and have new parties. I guess that’s the way it goes, at least for me.

I brought a Chinese girl, a Swiss girl and a Japanese guy to the party to make it an international one. I haven’t laughed so much in a long while. It was especially fun to go out with one of my best friends growing up. I really have missed that. It’s funny how we still have these inside jokes that works every time.

We went to this hip place called “The Tea Lounge”. I had never been there before, and I met a lot of new people. The music was kind of old-school 80s, and the atmosphere was great! I had a few beers, a mojito and a smoothie. There was even cake, made by the Swiss girl.

We all got safely home, and I’m happy to report that only a minor hangover is troubling me today. Oh, and I got this great gift my Chinese friend. A calligraphy pen with no need for an ink refill and she made this wonderful card with a picture of her. On the back it said: Dear Jørn, if the bounds between heaven and earth are broke. Prayer is not enough. Only a story can mend it. Keep going your writer’s dream!

Tomorrow is the day…

Today when I woke up I felt like I had a potato stuck down my throat. I couldn’t speak either, as I had no voice. However, thanks to some German medicine I have successfully recovered my voice and the potato is gone.

So tomorrow is the big day. It was supposed to be the most important day in my life, the happiest day in my life. I am of course talking about the marriage between me and Amy. Instead it will be just another day. It’s sad that it turned out the way it did. I won’t lie and say I am not disappointed in her decision. I’ve debated with myself whether I want to remove all of our past, like deleting parts of the 360 blog but I’ve decided to keep it all because that was real, this is who I am. She deleted our past from the day she broke up with me. I don’t blame her, it’s her decision. Life goes on, and what happened is part of my life, its part of who I am so I will not delete it.

Facebook is pretty cool. I decided to put up a profile there a while ago, and yesterday I was contacted by two people from my past. One who I worked with as a graphics designer in Ålesund and one I went to a course with in Tromsø. I decided to do a search for people in my past, and almost everyone is there. It seems that it is the place to be, although I read in the newspaper the other day that all this networking business is making people sick. I am not there much though, I just get e-mails whenever someone sends me a message or something like that.

Hope everyone is doing well.