As I was walking to work this morning some kids I walked passed said: “Excuse me, can you tell me what time it is?” Wearing a watch I was able to give them the time before continuing on my way with a smile on my face. I smiled because I remembered how many times children (and sometimes adults also) would come up to me in Brazil and ask what time it was, clearly not needing or even wanting to know the time. Their aim was to find out if I spoke Portuguese. How can I know this? Well, apart from the giggles as they reported back to their friends, and the shocked expressions on their faces when this blond-foreign-looking woman understood and could answer their question, some of them actually wearing a watch while asking sort of gave them away.
Tomorrow is the 17th of May. But for any Norwegian, this particular date isn't like any other date in the year, it's the 4th of July of Norway. And this year I am actually here. However, some preparations had to be done to get ready for tomorrow. One was getting my national costume down from the loft. I got it a few days ago and tried it on. It's a wee bit tight, but I think it'll be fine. This evening I ironed (or rather started ironing) the blouse which is hand embroydered and made of linnen (so those of you who have a clue about fabrics, know that linnen is the opposite of no-crease material). And the second part of the preparation was polishing the silver. I tried the "foil-in-hot-water-with-salt" method, but I don't think it worked too well. I did a bit of polishing with toothpaste after that and it looks alright. At the end of the day I'm the only one who will notice the level of polishedness of my silver. I have also got my camera on charging re...