Nina's Blog - Monday 26th January 2026

Monday 26th January 2026, 17:35

While musing on the failure of today's errand it occurred to me that at least this failure was not mine. This led me to think about all the things I have on my to do list and how I get so few of them done.

It further occurred to me that perhaps one reason for failing to get them done is that there are so many of them so I start every day overwhelmed with things to do.

Then I pick one of the easy ones, and do part of it. Then I feel guilty that I didn't do a more important one so I drop the first and start on something more important, but usually still an easy one. I feel briefly better and more successful but the feeling of not doing what I should be doing inevitably returns and with a feeling of discouragement I stop for a snack and watch a YouTube video. Of course one can't watch just one and I surface an hour later, if I'm lucky, feeling both foolish and that it's too late now to do anything useful today as I'm now feeling tired and out of sorts.

The next day I repeat the process.

So, as I have said to myself many, many, times, something must be done.

So now I'm going to try an experiment. Instead of confronting my to do list every day I will decide a day in advance which single item I will do and give myself permission to ignore all the rest for that day. I don't mean that the rest are forbidden merely that none are compulsory and even if I start one i am to feel no guilt at not finishing it because i will already have done, or at least made a real attempt at doing, that one item.

So I'll retrospectively declare that today's one item was the gas. I didn't succeed but I did make a reasonable try. Tomorrow I will answer an email from an old friend that I have been putting off reading for a couple of weeks at least. I might write up some of that here later as it is actually quite relevant to my life's journey, sadly.

If anyone is reading all this i do hope you don't find it too boring. Do feel free to weigh in with advice, criticism, ideas. I can't promise to heed any of it though, my to do list is already overflowing.

Monday 26th January 2026, 15:55

Well that was a waste of time. Today's errand was not completed!

After breakfast at IKEA and a walk along the snowy shore of a bay I turned for home intending to get propane at Bauhaus on the way. When I got there I saw that they have 'improved' things; instead of parking one's car by the propan storage shed and walking into the drive through part of the store there is a sign saying to buy a key inside the shop which you then use to open a container and swap your empty cylinder for a full one. So I drove on the main entrance, went to the checkout and asked for a key only to be told that I have to go to the drive through. So I drive back there and this time drive up to the automatic door and drive in. I then walked into the place I used to go to to buy gas and asked there only to be told that the two people who looked like they might be assistants were actually electricians and that I should speak to the person at the exit. When I get there I encounter two people on foot and four cars in a queue. The two people in forn to me were fobbed off with instructions to enquire at the place I had just come from; they pointed out that they also had tried there and been told by the two electricians to try where they now were. I didn't catch what was said next but the headed that way grumbling. I made my presence known and that I wanted propane and was told that three cars were ahead of me in the queue. So I decided that I'd not bother buying it there and got back into my car to drive around. When I got back to the exit in my car there was no queue and the woman I'd spoken to leaned out and looked in my car saw the 10 kg composite cylinder and announced that they were out of stock anyway!

I think I'll just cross them off the list of places to buy propane!

Not a total loss, at least I got of the house into the fresh air.

Monday 26th January 2026, 16:14

Today's outfit is a long velvet skirt, cuddly soft jumper, coat, hat, scarf, and gloves; it was briefly down to -13 C today along the drive to IKEA but only -5 C when I went for a walk by the fjord.

Here's the outfit, taken at IKEA

Monday 26th January 2026, 16:21

I intended to go fo a walk around the sculpture park but there wasn't a free parking space just there so I drove to the road that leads to a marina where there are almost always a couple of free spaces and walked along the coastal footpath. Saying coastal footpath probably evokes images of the sea lapping against sandy beaches or the bottom of remote cliffs. But in fact this footpath is structurally part of the E18 motorway south west of Oslo, possibly the busiest stretch of major road in the whole country.

Here's where I started my walk


Looking back toward my car

And turning forwards again there is an abandoned summer house

Monday 26th January 2026, 17:00

After that marina I walked back to my car along the actual coastal footpath, well not exactly, in fact I walked on the ice for quite a lot of it.

Here's the only Jason Taylor work that is visible here today unless you have scuba gear.

Monday 26th January 2026, 16:34

After the abandoned summer house I walked up to the bridge over the E18. At this point I'm not strictly on the coastal foot path.

And here's the E18

Walking down the slope on the sea side of the E18 I come to a different sculpture park

But I won't be able to see most of Jason Taylor's works because I don't dive, in fact I'm not much of a swimmer at all, and most of hist works are underwater. Pictures of one of them that isn't underwater later.

Not much further on I join the coastal foot path only to greeted with this:

For reasons that escape me I didn't take a picture of the actual footpath which is behind the temporary barriers and the sin saying Gangvei stengt. Gang is the verb to go, meaning walk, vei is road, path, or way. the reason I mention failing to take a picture is that the closure is a scandal and has been for at least six years. Here's a picture from the local newspaper's Facebook page (apparently taken in June 2025):

I walked through the open gate into the marina instead. I think it was only open because there are no boats moored in that part at the moment

It‘s snowing here, no sun to be seen. Lovely to see your sunny photos. Enjoy your day 🌞

Monday 26th January 2026, 17:06

After the statues I carried on walking on the frozen fjord towards Blommenholm. As I went I encountered the tracks of other people, animals, and I think ice skates.







And just before going ashore again

very pretty pictures, thank you for sharing that