Most Entertaining So Far
Despite the fact that Julie riddled did not show up for lunch, my day has been remarkable nice. Especially the train ride home from work was quite entertaining, if also a little annying. But let me start at the beginning. This morning, even though the incredibly tall man was not there, I met not only two childhood friends' fathers, but also one of the girls. I had to run to catch the train, and she was going in the opposite direction, but I managed to find out that she was just starting to work at an old people's home in Asker; Vilde cosmic_bambii have also work that kind of places, maybe they will meet. That could be interesting. Not that I do not think they will not get along, they are born the same year even, I was merely wondering what they would talk about, and so on. Exactly. Right, but that was not what I was going to write about. The train ride back home.
Oh, and by the way, Norwegian youths are not as bad as I first thought. I was indexing avtalegiros today, a paper allowing the bank to wihdraw a certain amount each month for someone else, for instance if you tend to forget paying rent, the bank can remember that for you. Or if you regularly give money to an organization for charity. And people do that. First, I came across a man or boy if you will, two years younger than me who had just signed an avtalegiro to give NOK 400 to Médicins Sans Frontières monthly! That is like, imagine having a tight budget while studying and then suddenly that on top! I admire the kid, though, it is a very nice thing to do, of course, no offense. But I am still surprised that he could afford it, or wanted to spend rather a bit large amount on Médicins Sans Frontières when he could spend it on clothes, or computer games or drinking, anything. Noble man. There was also a girl who signed for giving money to World Wildlife Foundations, I think I love her, and actually quite a few others my age giving money to charity. Wow. At least they managed to make me feel bad about myself. I got enough money to get around, but I am not just giving it away monthly even to a good cause... Maybe when I have set a budget for living alone, maybe I could do something then… It would be WWF, that is about the only thing I know yet.
And while I am at it, I want to add a little riddle for you to solve: which number is this? Zero to nine. That is the sort of thing we have to cope with at work, when we are going to type in the personal number for the customer. If this was a person working for Nordea or the customer her/himself is unknown, just, some people need to learn to write!
Now for the train home. I guess it will be most interesting for those with a slight knowledge of local geography from Kongsberg to Oslo. There were a group of young girls, they could be as much as fourteen years old perhaps, somewhere between that and eleven. And they had obviously not much experience with trains. They were waiting for a friend to come on Lysaker, but they completely messed up. Talking with their friend on the phone, one of the girls was telling her to get on the train now, hurry, hurry, they were sitting by the window, she would see them. Then the train left Skøyen (exactly) without the friend anywhere in sight. But she had done as she was told: got on the train. Panic spread among the girls as they slowly realized their friend was on a different one. Oh yes. Oh my God, how could this have happened, would they ever see her again. The one that took charge called the other friend again, telling her to get off at Sandvika, there our train would catch up, she would be waving from the door. Only, as I had realized somewhere between Stabekk and Høvik, the train the friend was on was the train to Skien, and that does not stop in Sandvika. The friend had found out as much; not that it was going to Skien, but that the next stop was Asker. Her friend on my train could not believe her, she must be mistaken, it was ridiculous until the train person man actually told her that not all trains stop in Sandvika. More panic. The friend was told to get off at the next stop whatever it was, just get off as soon as possible. Come to think about it, that was a pretty crappy advice. What if the station had turned out to be the size of Skollenborg, or the like? Tiny, tiny little thing. The friend could be stuck there for hours without seeing a train. Luckily for the girls, though, next stop was Asker. Not a very large station to get lost in, but obviously big enough for them. And when Asker was mentioned one of the girls exclaimed: “Asker! Men det er jo langt ut’ i gokk! (mild translation: “But that is so far away!”) I was staring wide-eyed at them now. Asker is not that far, I thought, I guess these people have never been outside Oslo on their own before. Only then I overheard; they were going to Mjøndalen!
[Pause for dramatic effect]
So Asker is far away, is it? The girl in lead showed some surprisingly bossy skills, along with an impressing knowledge of geography around Sandvika and ignorance. She was not at all surprised that the train did not stop at the small stations between Lysaker and Sandvika or that it actually stopped at Billingstad (oh yes, it did, pretty,) but was quite alarmed when we passed Slependen without stopping. Her brother lived there, after all! I feel sorry for the train personnel man. They never understood where they were, every half minute they would shout for him to ask what the next stop was, even though we had not stopped at all since last time they asked. By Sandvika, the friend had already got off at Asker. But she could not find her way. I honestly started to believe if she could read. I mean, there are plenty of boards and information screens around Asker train station. But their friend was too stupid to read them. So she kept looking around and by Billingstad she had realized she was waiting on the wrong platform. Oh, no, disaster, she would never find the right one in time! Like Asker is so very big and she still had almost five minutes to walk down, read on the screen what platform the train would be leaving from and walk up again. I guess it could take three minutes, top. But the girl on the phone would stick her out the door and shout when they came to Asker, other friend must not worry. Alright, Asker is not that small again. I was almost sorry I had to get off and was therefore unable to witness their reunion. And I still wonder; did they actually manage to get off at Mjøndalen train station? I would have liked to see their faces when they did.
And then, save off at Billingstad, this random man holds open the door for me and tell me to go through first. Huh
Oh, and by the way, Norwegian youths are not as bad as I first thought. I was indexing avtalegiros today, a paper allowing the bank to wihdraw a certain amount each month for someone else, for instance if you tend to forget paying rent, the bank can remember that for you. Or if you regularly give money to an organization for charity. And people do that. First, I came across a man or boy if you will, two years younger than me who had just signed an avtalegiro to give NOK 400 to Médicins Sans Frontières monthly! That is like, imagine having a tight budget while studying and then suddenly that on top! I admire the kid, though, it is a very nice thing to do, of course, no offense. But I am still surprised that he could afford it, or wanted to spend rather a bit large amount on Médicins Sans Frontières when he could spend it on clothes, or computer games or drinking, anything. Noble man. There was also a girl who signed for giving money to World Wildlife Foundations, I think I love her, and actually quite a few others my age giving money to charity. Wow. At least they managed to make me feel bad about myself. I got enough money to get around, but I am not just giving it away monthly even to a good cause... Maybe when I have set a budget for living alone, maybe I could do something then… It would be WWF, that is about the only thing I know yet.
And while I am at it, I want to add a little riddle for you to solve: which number is this? Zero to nine. That is the sort of thing we have to cope with at work, when we are going to type in the personal number for the customer. If this was a person working for Nordea or the customer her/himself is unknown, just, some people need to learn to write!
Now for the train home. I guess it will be most interesting for those with a slight knowledge of local geography from Kongsberg to Oslo. There were a group of young girls, they could be as much as fourteen years old perhaps, somewhere between that and eleven. And they had obviously not much experience with trains. They were waiting for a friend to come on Lysaker, but they completely messed up. Talking with their friend on the phone, one of the girls was telling her to get on the train now, hurry, hurry, they were sitting by the window, she would see them. Then the train left Skøyen (exactly) without the friend anywhere in sight. But she had done as she was told: got on the train. Panic spread among the girls as they slowly realized their friend was on a different one. Oh yes. Oh my God, how could this have happened, would they ever see her again. The one that took charge called the other friend again, telling her to get off at Sandvika, there our train would catch up, she would be waving from the door. Only, as I had realized somewhere between Stabekk and Høvik, the train the friend was on was the train to Skien, and that does not stop in Sandvika. The friend had found out as much; not that it was going to Skien, but that the next stop was Asker. Her friend on my train could not believe her, she must be mistaken, it was ridiculous until the train person man actually told her that not all trains stop in Sandvika. More panic. The friend was told to get off at the next stop whatever it was, just get off as soon as possible. Come to think about it, that was a pretty crappy advice. What if the station had turned out to be the size of Skollenborg, or the like? Tiny, tiny little thing. The friend could be stuck there for hours without seeing a train. Luckily for the girls, though, next stop was Asker. Not a very large station to get lost in, but obviously big enough for them. And when Asker was mentioned one of the girls exclaimed: “Asker! Men det er jo langt ut’ i gokk! (mild translation: “But that is so far away!”) I was staring wide-eyed at them now. Asker is not that far, I thought, I guess these people have never been outside Oslo on their own before. Only then I overheard; they were going to Mjøndalen!
[Pause for dramatic effect]
So Asker is far away, is it? The girl in lead showed some surprisingly bossy skills, along with an impressing knowledge of geography around Sandvika and ignorance. She was not at all surprised that the train did not stop at the small stations between Lysaker and Sandvika or that it actually stopped at Billingstad (oh yes, it did, pretty,) but was quite alarmed when we passed Slependen without stopping. Her brother lived there, after all! I feel sorry for the train personnel man. They never understood where they were, every half minute they would shout for him to ask what the next stop was, even though we had not stopped at all since last time they asked. By Sandvika, the friend had already got off at Asker. But she could not find her way. I honestly started to believe if she could read. I mean, there are plenty of boards and information screens around Asker train station. But their friend was too stupid to read them. So she kept looking around and by Billingstad she had realized she was waiting on the wrong platform. Oh, no, disaster, she would never find the right one in time! Like Asker is so very big and she still had almost five minutes to walk down, read on the screen what platform the train would be leaving from and walk up again. I guess it could take three minutes, top. But the girl on the phone would stick her out the door and shout when they came to Asker, other friend must not worry. Alright, Asker is not that small again. I was almost sorry I had to get off and was therefore unable to witness their reunion. And I still wonder; did they actually manage to get off at Mjøndalen train station? I would have liked to see their faces when they did.
And then, save off at Billingstad, this random man holds open the door for me and tell me to go through first. Huh