Lack-a-day!

Yes, it's been a long time and I know my public await me with a frenzied fervour. Now the whole humourless tumorous episode is over it seems rather difficult to come up with anything profound. I received some information putting it very plainly that recurrence is rare and total resection is generally considered curative. Really better than I had ever hoped for. Perhaps because I hadn't really taken in the whole drama of the situation now I can't really let it go either. I am trying, however. Goodbye Ganglion! Part of me still dares not be relaxed and lackadaisical about the whole thing, so I won't. It's over but it wasn't cock-a-hoop, as they say.

Notwithstanding all this, I had rather hoped that my life would be imbued with a greater sense of profundity and material goods would be nothing but meaningless folly, but to be brutally frank I'm still as interested in hats, shoes and bags as ever. Incidentally, I am still not entirely back to my cool and collected self. I was trying to buy some Yves Saint Laurent L'Homme Healthy Look Moisturiser in House of Fraser earlier and I completely forgot my PIN number. I mean, completely forgot it. I had to walk away empty-handed. I was saved from myself, really.

So, I'm about two years behind on my law course and it's only a two-year course. Bit of an issue.

It looks more or less certain that I'll be moving to Norway. Looking at the weather forecast I am questioning the wisdom of this decision. It's not even as if one can do the British thing and say to oneself "never mind, let's just get through January and February and it'll be balmy by the end of April". Oh no. A lifetime of ceaseless drizzle and humid bone-chilling cold is all that awaits, with perhaps one Thursday afternoon every other July where it might touch 17 degrees for a quarter of an hour if you're in a sheltered spot and your back is to the wind. It's not that bad really, but I always thought that if I were to leave this country it would be for warmer climes. It's only temporary. What's two years when you're young, free and the whole world is your oyster?

Moving abroad is also a logistical nightmare. How does one house-hunt abroad, for example? The internet has made it somewhat easier, although www.finn.no is no Rightmove, I can assure you of that. Lots of lovely properties with wood-burning stoves and loft rooms and mountain views and under-floor heating, but going to view them involves a schlep via the Place Where The Scum Amoebae Of Every European Nation Gather To Travel (Stansted) and then you only really have one attempt to find something unless you want to spend an absolute fortune and can face another sojourn toing and froing amongst the velour-tracksuit-clad peasants. How does one get one's furniture to a country to which one is not connected by land? One drives onto a pikey ferry in a Transit van and then spends a couple of hours trying to work out whether the rising nausea is seasickness or the primal horror of being entirely surrounded by French teenagers with no visible means of escape. One then proceeds to drive for about two thousand miles through a further five countries for four days at great expense, overnighting in motels with bedsheets that seem to have been woven from Ryvita. That is how one does it. Then one has to drive the van back for another for days when one has deposited the furniture. Not a walk in the park.

Scandinavia's saving grace is its music. I'm just discovering more and more. I might try to be clever and post a video of Maria Mena's Just Hold Me. Hang on. OK I tried I'm not clever enough, here's the link. I think she's miming but you get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV3YYV1kpkI

Yes, all of the women do look like this in Norway. Most of them more towards the blonde end of the spectrum. Unfortunately quite a lot of the men look like the drummer and the pianist. You can't have it all. Actually here's To Let Myself Go by Ane Brun who I'm going to see on Thursday, in fact, in Islington, of all places. She recently did an amazing cover of Cyndi Lauper's True Colours which was used on the Sky+ HD advert, FYI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7tQiDHSe5E

The video is nothing to do with the song, but both are rather good, independently. So two singers, both good, both Norwegian. It bodes well. And my new Nano arrived today (woo-hoo! thanks Mum!) so I've got plenty of excuses to sit around with a vague expression on my face feeling dreamy and pensive whilst listening to doleful Scandis, wondering if I'll ever see the northern lights or the midnight sun. I suppose if it's too depressing to go outside there's nothing for it but to sit around writing doleful music (the television isn't really an option, it's just endless subtitled re-runs of Midsomer Murders).

Well I had so many thoughts that seemed scintillating, but I've honed my prose style enough for one evening. I've got to listen to an e-lecture about Co-Ownership of Land. Given that prospect, I could quite possibly be back later with more musical revelations....