Rituals

When I visited my friend Daffym a while back I totally fell in love with the scent of the Rituals of Dao series. Rituals is a brand of signature fragrances for body and home. So I had to look into this brand. When looking at the website I found that Rituals have several series. But the website does not give justice to the different scents that are in the different series available. Not until it will be possible to smell thru you screen.

So when CasaR went to Kiel this fall holiday, I had to make a trip to the Rituals store in the Sophienhof shopping center. Don’t get me wrong, there are stores here in Oslo. I just haven’t prioritized to spend time visiting one. The store is set up with a very zen feeling which in turn promotes peace and traquility. DaddyO even commented that he was surprised that in a store with so many fragrances he didn’t feel bombarded with the different smells. Though with kids along I felt a bit like an elephant in a china shop as many of the containers in the store were made of glas or porcelain. I found several Ritual series I also liked and wanted to try. Needless to say I left quite a few $$$ in the store.

My favorites so far...

- Rituals of Dao

- Rituals of Sakura (you were spot on Daffym)

- Rituals of Karma

- Rituals of the Happy buddha (not sure about this one yet, but the girls loved it)

I opted for the room perfume option to get the fragrance in house. Unfortunately not all the Rituals series I liked, come in the home perfume variety. So I thought I would give the hair and body mist variety a try. Unfortunatly there’s a big difference in size and pricepoint between the two varieties...

Home fragrance in 500ml vs Hair & body mist in 50ml

The plan is to use these perfumes with the humidifier we have at home. We have several at home, but this is the one I have tried with the Rituals fragrance today. I bought this one on Aliexpress here.

I have the one with the dark wood look

This specific humidifier has a 550ml tank. That’s several hours of operation without needing to replenish the water. And with a few sprits of the home perfume, my home was filled with the Rituals of Dao in no time. My friend Daffym has gotten the perfume genie by Rituals. Being an Asian geek this should be right up my alley. A gadget that makes everything smell nice and can be controlled wirelessly using a smart phone (only for Android OS, so won’t work for iphones). Since CasaR is in Norway and we have a fireplace we use frequently, we need a humidifier to add some moisture to the air. The winters in Norway are dry enough...

A screenie fra the Rituals website

In the time to come I will try the different fragrances I picked up...maybe it’s time to figure out the different buttons on the remote control for the humidifier?

I’ve only been using the on/off button =D

- have you entered the world of Rituals?

- do you have a home fragrance?

First signs of Spring

and what a better way what with a glass of refreshing Sangria?
When I visited Portugal many years ago I was introduced to Sangria, a refreshing drink based on red wine. During the trip I found variations with white wine, rose and champagne! We quickly realized that the sangria based with rose wine was our favorite.
I had yet to try to make it myself though. So when I got the chance this past weekend, I gave it a try…
According to my Portuguese friend, the Portuguese version is usually made with Portuguese liqueurs, most commonly “Licor beirão” (flavors of seeds and herbs) and “Liqueur de Laffon” (orange flavors). And Sumol (Portuguese sparkling water) to top it of. These liquids are not available here in Norway, So I opted for liquids with similar qualities. I ended up with “St.Hallvard” for the herbal liqueur and “Cointreau” for the orange liqueur . To replace Sumol I just used a cheap lemon/lime soda.
To give it the Sangria look and feel, I added some sliced fruits. Here is the ingrediencies I used:
- an apple
- a lemon
- a lime
- an orange
- a bottle of red wine ( I just used a bottle of Italian red wine I had laying around)
- 4cl St.Hallvard liqueur
- 4cl Cointreu liqueur
- 1,5l lemon/lime soda
(add a tablespoon or two og brown sugar if you want the cocktail even sweeter)
I was recommended to mix the fruits and alcohols together and let sit for at least a few hours. Add the soda just before serving.

Chilling….

A short getaway

When DaddyO told me he had a bunch of frequent flyer miles that were expiring very soon, he booked us a weekend trip to London! How sweet. In my 30+ years I have still to experience the city of London. The most I had seen of London was in the nighttime from a bus…

So on Friday we dropped the kids of at kindergarten and headed for the airport. The girls were stoked to be sleeping over at their grandparents while we were away. It was a smooth flight to Gatwick and before I knew it, we were checking in to our hotel located in the Kensington district.

So a few days with shopping and enjoying each others company, we are back a little more rested. I admit I might have gone a little overboard when shopping at Primark….clothes for the kids are really cheap when you don’t have to pay VAT. And if you shop other stuff for more than 30£ and flash your passport, you get a tax refund slip you can show at the airport when going home. Just remember to do that before you check in the baggage.. There’s a 100% chance they will want to see the goods you are taking home.

no pictures of my very full suitcase,

Oh and a last minute tip if you ever visit London…check out Oyster card (there is one for tourists) if you plan on using public transportation in London. Way cheaper options than buying the tourist cards. Eventhough it is a pay-as-you-go card, it is capped at £6.60 per day.

I “heart” NY

Just a few days ago I wrapped up my annual New York (US?) trip with mummy dearest.

This time around we actually had time to both do some sightseeing and shopping. Not like last time, were my suitcase suit case tok a few rounds extra around the world (read its story here).

I had in advanced ordered the New York Pass. These passes are great if you plan on doing some sightseeing over a few days, or even just one day. If you download the app, you can plan in advance. The app had a nice feature for setting up an agenda for the day and gives a calculated savings overview. Great to check if it is worth investing in a pass at all. I recommend starting out early the sightseeing day(s), a lot of time is wasted in ticket queues and (airportlike) security checks. Oh and pick up your pass in advance! so you don’t waste time queing for the pass. The pass is activated upon the first attraction.

The case of the travelling suitcase

This past Summer I went on a short trip to New York with my mummy. I was thinking this could be the start of a yearly mother-daughter tradition. I’ve always envied my friends that had such a tradition with their mothers. Better late than never to start such a nice tradition.

Our trip started as any other trip…at the airport. It was very anti climatic to board a Norwegian plan without wifi…as Norwegian informs of on their website (here). After several trips to Singapore with Singapore airlines, I’ve been accustomed to pretty nice inflight entertainment. So in my eyes, Norwegians offer was pretty poorly executed.

Due to heavy showers in New York our flight landed later than scheduelled. And to top it off, my suitcase hadn’t made our transfere flight. Due to the dreaded SSSS. I didn’t realise at the time, but my suitcase had been check in under my mothers name, and she had been tagget with SSSS. For those of you who have never heard of the SSSS-tag. It is a extra security check for travellers to the United Stated.

Long story short….my suitcase spendt an extra month travelling after I had finished my four day trip to New York. This weekend I FINALLY got my suitcase back. Only to open my locked suitcase to find that several things were gone! If only my suitcase could talk and give me the whole story….

Now to go thru the loops and formalities of making a claim…

- How was your experience with delayed baggage?

Lately…

I haven’t been my usuall productive self. My head has been full of thoughts regarding my upcoming Singapore trip. With two toddlers and all of my extended family, there are lots of thing to remember and an equal amount of questions. Four weeks in wonderful Singapore…

This past weekend I started packing for the girls…I’m very happy with our decision to rent an apartment that has an in-house washer-dryer machine. This way I don’t have to pack four weeks worth of clothes. I look forward to spending four weeks @8 on Claymore…

- a few sets of summer clothes, from top to bottom
- swimming clothes (well UV suits)
- toiletries
- diapers for BabyL (lesson from my last Singapore trip – diapers are very expensive compared to the prices in Norway)
- shoes for hot weather (there is still about half a meter of snow outside our house)
problably a whole lot more..but still have a few more days to mull it over.

Travelling with two toddlers, it was time to buy a suitcase for the girls. We have been very happy with our old, trusty Samsonite hard case suitcases. So we looked into getting a similar one for the girls. A visit to a local store that sells Samsonite, we landed on a Samsonite S’cure. SweetieS chose the color, a very girly dark blue (not what I had expected when we gave her the options). So far SweetieS enjoyed pushing the empty suitcase from the store to the parking lot, not sure she will enjoy it quite as much when it is fully loaded. I’ll try to post our experience with this model when we get back.

In between preparing for our trip, we have had time to enjoy all the snow

hard at work building a snow castle in our back yard

Our previous attempt at building a snow man got buried in all the snow that has fallen lately…so we also had to make a new one…

No new knitting projects lately..but I have finished the knitted gift for a baby that’s right around the corner. Not to reveal too much…

a little teaser

I’ll post a picture of the finished project when it has been delivered to its intended recipient.

- how do you prepare for an overseas trip?
- how are you enjoying the Winter?

Babyfriendly Singapore?

As I mentioned in my previous post, we spent our Christmas and New Years in Singapore. Being BabyS’ first trip abroad and travelling so far I was expecting the worst. Everything from a screaming baby from Oslo to Singapore to BabyS not handling the heat. As they say, “Hope for the best, expect the worst”. The long flight went beyond expectation and BabyS slept most of the flight, wohoo!

Arriving safely at our destination we went to a department store to stock up and get an idea of what was available. Especially stuff we have never bought in Singapore before, like diapers and babyfriendly food. Along came our first shock….diapers in Singapore are expensive! I know that the “war” between department stores here in Norway has left us spoiled with diapers costing next to nothing. But wasn’t prepared for such a big leap. I had been warned that BabyS size might be hard to find, especially in countries where potty training starts early. Size not a problem….especially since BabyS is quite small for her age.

An issue we had to find a solution for, was a stroller. Do we bring our own? Rent? Borrow – from whom? With a well-stocked cousin I got to borrow a stroller for BabyS. Thank you Janet! After a few days use I did notice a few things when it comes to use of strollers in Singapore.

- There are elevatores everywhere, just expect to wait for your turn. The elevator is always full up! Escalators are a good option.

- Public buses require you to fold up your stroller before boarding. (So not used to that from Norway! In Norway you can just roll onto the bus, provided there is room – which is up to the driver) Having money for a taxi is an option as taxis are cheap and always available.

- Most eating places we went to had high chairs for toddlers. (You know, the cheapest one from IKEA –  called “Antilop”) If they didn’t have a high chair they could stack chairs to provide the hight needed – but not a very safe option if you have kids that don’t sit still while eating . We have a Sack’n Seat – but we didn’t always remember to bring it with us.

This is turning out to be a longer post than I initially thought….so I think I will bring to a halt here – or I’ll never get this post out. Let me know if there is anything you want to know about my experience with bringing a 19 month old to Singapore. After fire weeks I think we covered the basics.

- How do you prepare for a long haul vacation?
- Have any experiences you wish to share?