: Going into the closet.

So! I'm working on fixing my apartment. I've emptied the "closet", or whatever it's called, in the back of my apartment, where I've been storing all kinds of useless crap for the last eight years, and more or less cleaned out the corner behind me, where stuff have been gathering since the "closet" got too full. 

The "closet" after almost completely emptying it.

I have also, with help from my grandfather (as I don't have a drivers license), delivered a lot of crap at the dump. I still have to go at least two more times, I think, just to get rid of all the stuff in my apartment that I have no use for. Not counting the couch and half-a-chair that has been in my driveway for more than half a year now. But my brother-in-law is going to help me with that, talked to him on the phone about it earlier.

What I'm working on now, is what to put back in the "closet". I had an idea of storing all my comics there, as there are quite a lot of them, particularly when I include everything that once belonged to my uncle Gustav. So I've spent quite a while now sorting them, putting them in chronological order. But I realize that I have no way of storing them that is easily manageable and easily accessible. I can put them in stacks, but there's no way to easily access them that way. I can line them up, but that can quickly turn into chaos if they fall over or something. I wish I had the skills and materials to make some shelf-setup, or something.

How it looks now, sorted but unorganized. Still a lot of comics not in here.

Oh well. I'll probably figure something out, at some point. If anyone has an idea, though, please tell me. I'd love to get this out of the way quickly, as there are quite a few boxes of comics in my living room and bedroom right now, and it's really the biggest issue right now, before I can go any further. I guess I can just move those boxes into the "closet" as is, but... That feels wrong somehow. I just really want to organize these comics for once. But, i guess that ultimately, that's not what matters here.

: Sugar Shock.

I don't really write a lot about my diabetes, mostly because I usually don't have a lot to say about it. But one thing I've noticed lately, because of my setback, is how my body reacts to getting too much sugar. Or at least too much sugar for me. And, I've noticed it before, it was just a lot more noticeable this time, as it's been so long since the last time I ate this much sugar. 

Headaches 

They're headaches. Not much more to say. Except that the pain feels more like it's on the sides of my head than anywhere else. It's weird. 

Blurry vision 

Don't know if this is because of the sugar itself or the headaches, but I do know that diabetes eventually, at least when untreated or ignored, can cause loss of sight, so I'm thinking it's because of the sugar. Basically, everything becomes sort of unclear and it gets very hard to focus. It's very frustrating, particularly when playing games. My eyes even hurt a bit, almost like when I've been awake for way too long. 

Muscle pain 

A short while after eating a big amount of sugar, my whole body, particularly my arms and legs, starts aching. I don't know if it's actually muscle pain, but it feels sort of like being sore after exercising, only... More sensitive, in a way. There was particularly one day where my leg was so sore I could barely use it. Tried stretching it, forcing myself to walk on it... Nothing helped. Another day my arm was so sore I couldn't even untie the belt on my robe. 

Stomach pain 

This one is actually not that common, believe it or not. But when it does happen, it feels sort of like my stomach isn't lubricated enough, if you can imagine that. Happens mostly when I drink a lot of something with sugar in it, particularly Coca Cola.  

Leg cramps 

I don't know if this is directly related to the sugar, but there are several times where I've had leg cramps, particularly at night, after eating more sugar than usual. There was particularly one night during the past couple of weeks where I woke up several times because my leg was cramping up. And during the day I had eaten quite a lot of sugar. So, yeah. They might be related. 

Foot pain 

I don't know if this is the same type of pain as the muscle pain, but it feels different. It's particularly in my toes, sort of a needle-sticking type of pain, like when your foot has "fallen asleep" and is "waking up". Again, I know that diabetes can eventually lead to problems with your feet, in extreme cases requiring one or both to be amputated. So, I'm guessing it's related to that. Not a very good sign, in that case. Heh.


Those are the most... Noticeable reactions. I know there's at least one more thing that I haven't written here, but I can't remember what it is right now. Either way, these should be more than enough to keep me from eating too much sugar. A little is okay. But what I've been doing the last month is not. Very much not. So, yeah.


On a very unrelated note; I know it's been quite a while since I've updated my other two blogs. When it comes to music, I just haven't had a lot to say for a while. I haven't really listened to a lot of music for a while now, actually. So, yeah. As for my games blog, I've sort of completely forgotten my Dungeon Siege project. And I haven't come across any new games I've wanted to play lately, or old games that I want to write about. So... Yeah. There will be updates there at some point, but I have no idea when.

: Setback.

The last month and a half, and particularly the last two weeks, have been a big setback for me. Ever since Wenche and I broke up, my self esteem has slowly gone down again. I guess that's normal after a breakup, though... Meh.

What bothers me the most is how I've sort of "fallen off the wagon", when it comes to sugar and more or less everything I've changed about my life during the last year. My weight has gone back up quite a lot, although not so much as to get back to where I was, fortunately. I feel like I'm back where I was, though, but hopefully that will change relatively fast if I only go back to doing what I've doing the last half of 2011. It's amazing how quickly things can go bad, though.

Anyway. Starting today, I'm gonna try to go back to the new me. Wish me luck.

: Netherlands, February 2-6, 2012

My mom, her boyfriend Hans, and me, went to the Netherlands for a few days.

Thursday, February 2nd

There isn't too much to say about Thursday, really. We arrived at Schiphol sometime around 21:30, I think, got our stuff, and met up with Aldert, one of mom's cousins. He had to go get the car and told us to wait inside, and that he'd come back inside to get us when he was at the pick-up point, or whatever it's called. Instead, we went outside, walked over to where he might park, and waited. Which in itself wasn't such a bad idea, as he did show up there. But... Damn, it was cold. Or, the actual temperature wasn't so bad, but the wind was just... Freezing.

Well, anyway. Aldert showed up with the car, we drove to Alkmaar, and he dropped us off at his brother, Ronald's, place. It was already rather late, but we still stayed up a bit, talking to Ronald and Yvonne, and their son Myron. Aldert also stayed for a bit. 

We eventually went to bed. All three of us had to share a room, me in a single bed, mom and Hans in a huge blow-up bed. I have to admit, when I first heard that we had to share a room, I wasn't too happy about it. But, it was all right.

Friday, February 3rd

When we arrived on Thursday, it was cold, but no snow anywhere. At least not that I could see. When I woke up on Friday it was snowing heavily. More than what they're used to in the Netherlands, according to everyone I've talked to. Compared to what we get in Norway, it wasn't much, but this wasn't Norway.

Ronald had planned a walk in the dunes today. I wasn't looking too much forward to that, as we had gone for a walk in the dunes when we were there in September as well, and walking in the sand was a bit too much for me. But because of the snow, the walk was pretty nice this time. We also walked in a completely different part of the dunes, so it's hard to say what it would've been like with no snow, but still. I wasn't half dead when we were finished.

Snow-covered sand-dunes.

When we finished our walk, we went to a small restaurant nearby to eat some pea soup. It was good.

Pea-soup; Very good. Whatever that meat is; Not so good

Didn't do much for the rest of that day. I went up to bed shortly after we returned, as I was extremely tired, for some reason. I hadn't really planned to either, I was just going up to our room to check something on my laptop, and just sort of fell halfway asleep. Mom wasn't too happy about that, tried making a big deal of it, saying it was impolite not to come back down and tell everyone that I was going to bed for a bit. Maybe it was, but... Eh.

Came back down to dinner. Had some kind of traditional Dutch meal called hutspot. It's not that different from what we in Norway know as lapskaus, to be honest. Either way, it was very good. After dinner Myron, Hans and I went to the store to buy some stroopwafel-icecream for dessert. Stroopwafels are delicious, icecream is delicious, and stroopwafel-icecream... Is double-delicious!

I went back to bed not too long after that. Was still dead tired, even though I had a Monster. Made sure I told everyone this time. =P

Saturday, February 4th

Was woken up very early by an SMS from Chess, saying I had used 80% of my monthly quota of data-traffic when outside Norway. When we landed, I got an SMS saying that I could use no more than 80NOK a day, which was equal to 50MB, and that I'd get an SMS when that quota was used. As far as I had calculated, I was nowhere near that amount, and particularly not that early in the morning.

So I started checking things out, and it turns out the SMS I got when we landed wasn't even from Chess. Why the hell I got that SMS I have no idea. The actual price was 19NOK per MB, with a monthly limit of just under 500NOK, which is way too expensive. If I had known that was the actual price, I wouldn't have used my mobile net. Oh well. At least I didn't use it anymore after that.

Spent Saturday with Aldert, mostly at his place, but also went out to buy some typical dutch food to bring home, like stroopwafels and hagelslag. Unfortunately, we didn't plan ahead, and forgot to take out enough money before we went to the store. For some reason, Dutch stores doesn't take VISA. Who knows why, but it's damn inconvenient. Fortunately, Aldert's wife, Josée, came to the rescue and paid for us.

After we were finished in the store, we went to eat some herring. Apparently also typical Dutch? I don't know, tasted very similar to Norwegian herring, except for the pickles on the side. Either way, it's not something I'd pay to eat. Wasn't bad, but just... Not my thing.

Later we ate dinner at Aldert's. Something called nasi, which was basically some sort of rice and chicken thing with peanut putter sauce. I remember being very skeptical to the peanut butter sauce when we visited back in September, but it's actually very good. Weird, but very good.

Mom and Aldert, at Aldert's place.

After dinner we went back to Ronald's place for his birthday party. I have to say, Dutch customs for birthdays (and other similar occasions) is a bit weird to a Norwegian. Basically, everyone congratulate each other. Whenever someone new arrived at the party, they went around shaking everyone's hand (and did the kisses-on-the-cheeks thing), and congratulated them. Here in Norway, we really just congratulate the one actually having the birthday. The only time where people congratulate everyone, is when someone has been born, I think? Only thing I can think of.

I once again went to bed rather early. No wonder, as I was woken up so early by that damn SMS. 

Sunday, February 5th 

Got to sleep in a bit on Sunday. After breakfast, we didn't really do much other than sit around and talk, and get ready for Aldert and Josée's 25-year anniversary party.

At about 4pm, I think, we went into Alkmaar and arrived at the party. It was quite nice, despite the fact that I couldn't really understand much. Fortunately, Myron and Imara, Aldert's oldest daughter, sat down and spoke English with me for a while. It was rather nice. The only problem was that it was slightly cramped where we were, which made the noise-level a bit much for me. It's not that I can't handle the volume, it's just that with that much talking going on around me, I'm almost unable to focus on what the person I'm talking to is saying. Even if everyone else is speaking a language I can't really understand yet.

After a while we went into the dining room and sat down for dinner. I sat at the end of the table.

Left to right: Hans, Mom, Hans (oldest brother of moms cousins), Yvonne (Hans' wife).

Right to left: Ronald, Yvonne, Imara, Mirgina (the daughter of the oldest sister of moms cousins), Wesley (Hans' son), and Michelle (Wesley's girlfriend).

These are the best pictures I got of the people at the table. =P

In front of us, as we sat down, were a menu, with three appetizers and three main courses. I went with tomato soup for appetizer and chicken sate for the main course. The tomato soup was really good and spicy, probably the best tomato soup I've had. The chicken sate was also very good, although I think we ate almost the same thing at Aldert's place when we visited in September. It was basically chicken-pieces on sticks, with a "vinegar-marinated" salad and peanut butter sauce. Sounds weird, but it was really delicious.

I went more or less straight to bed after we got back from the party. Or rather, I went straight up to our room and changed back to regular clothes, and stayed there, in the silence, until I went to sleep. My head, and my ears, were really tired from all the background noise at the party. 

Monday, February 6th 

Once again got to sleep in for a while. Then had to pack after breakfast. Left Ronald's place at around 3pm, I think? Ronald drove us to Abcoude, to moms brother, Lex. He had invited us to dinner before we went back home. 

Ronald on the left, Lex on the right.

Had something called boerenkool-stamppot, which is some sort of fancy version of sausages and mashed potatoes. The mash consisted of potatoes, boerenkool and bacon, and was very nice. The sausage was delicious, very different from what we're used to here in Norway.

Also got to say hello to Saskai, Lex' wife, and their children, my cousins, Daan, Floor and Jeroen, before we had to leave for the airport. The oldest child, Charlotte, is on some kind of trip around the world or something? I think she's in Australia atm.

Got very disappointed when we got to the airport. Checking in and going through security went rather fast, despite the guy in front of us who had lost his luggage or something like that. But when we got past security, we ended up in some kind of really small area with no real stores, just a tiny tax-free kiosk consisting of just a couple of shelves, and some sort of cafe. Not the same place we were at in June and September. Huge disappointment, as I had planned to buy a couple of things there. Oh well. 

Future plans 

Mom and I have been talking about sending me to my great aunt's place for three-four weeks, hopefully later this year, so she can teach me the Dutch language properly. She lives alone in a place called Exloo, and she used to teach immigrants Dutch, so it will hopefully be a lot more effective than any of the trips down there so far.

We haven't talked to her about it yet, though. I'm first gonna speak with Nav and such, see if they have any objections to it, for any reason. I don't want to risk losing my money by going to the Netherlands for so long. I don't think it will be a big problem, though, as long as I keep working on my health while I'm there. But we'll see.


I'm pretty sure I have forgotten to mention quite a lot. But I forgot to write stuff down every day, as I had planned to, so... Yeah. =P

Also; Yay, a post with pictures. =P