David's Journal

Up until a few days ago, the weather was excellent. Warm, summery, clouds painting the sky in beautiful, interesting ways. Not unlike in the picture below.

But now it's gone completely schizophrenic. I went for a walk today, left the apartment with the sun shining and then got caught in a hail storm half way through.

Yesterday was Norway's constitution day, a national celebration where many people dress in their traditional regional costume and head downtown for a big parade. Norwegian flags are everywhere and the spirit is really patriotic. It's a cool day. This one was the coldest in fifty years, four degrees and it snowed down to three hundred metres. A little more extreme that a New Zealand spring but no less unpredictable.

To be honest I didn't actually make it in for the parade, I was too busy sipping champagne and having a delicious breakfast in true Norwegian tradition. So thank you David (a Norwegian who visited us in NZ) for an excellent party. Then I met up with Tobias (another Norwegian who visited us in NZ) and we had a look around the city where there were huge crowds milling about in drinking establishments. Having decided it was really too cold to keep wandering round we headed back for a BBQ, which is another traditional seventeenth of may activity I believe. So thank you Tobias for another excellent party.

I've been out and about doing other things in the past few weeks also. They have just finished building an opera house here, a cool design incorporating angles, glass and white marble into an impressive structure that can be treated like a giant park. My pictures don't do it justice but you can see how the angles are slight enough that people can walk all over it.





I haven't actually gone to the opera there, or ever come to think of it, but I am assured that it's very nice inside also.

The next big adventure was my first outdoor rock climbing experience. I've been indoor climbing before but as I found out it is entirely different. Here you can see me attacking the first climb.



These pictures illustrate the bit that I found the hardest to get used to, which is trusting the friction between the almost vertical rock face and the rubber on the sole of the climbing show to support your whole weight as you push yourself up. Till I got that I was just tiring my arms and hands out trying to do everything with them. In the end though I was able to get up places that I seriously thought would be impossible for me, which is a good feeling.



Meanwhile, on Endor's forest moon...



It was a great day, gorgeous weather, amazing scenery and for days afterward I felt like I'd been beaten mercilessly with sticks. But in a good way.

I've been here now for a month, with two to go and it feels like the time is really flying by. I've finally figured out the bus ticket system, to my dismay as it turns out - I was saving heaps by using it wrong. Still, walking has its perks, like the picture below I took taking the long way home one day.

It's been a week now since I arrived in Oslo, Norway, and high time for an update. I landed last Saturday on a beautiful spring day after the obligatory thirty six hours of travel. The travel itself was fairly uneventful except for LAX of all places where I had a brain freeze for the security check. Normally I'm totally organised going into the security screening - I've got liquids in bags, water bottle empty, and everything remotely metal unceremoniously shoved into my backpack. Perhaps it was the warm, laid back atmosphere of California or the lack of sleep but this time I did none of it, calmly waltzing up and chucking my backpack on the conveyor. When they pulled my bag away for a security check I was slightly nervous about big brother America, mostly because I'd just been listening to Thom Yorke. But it all ended well, except for my half full pump bottle which totally got tasered. They obviously believed my apologetic, bewildered tourist story though and let me through. Most interestingly they missed my bladed Tandberg multitool which caused me grief going through Frankfurt.

So arriving in Oslo after the long journey was great, it was warm, sunny, and my Kiwi friends Pete and Kane were there to meet me at the airport. They also took me shopping which was a huge help to get started. As I was lying on the couch chilling later on, I took this pic of the view out my window:

And this is the couch:



The next day Pete took me for a drive to get me acquainted with my surroundings which was really helpful. We also went to the beach (pretty good effort for the northern hemisphere I have to say):



There's not many people because despite how nice it looks it's still a bit chilly, especially the water. I didn't swim but thats only cause I didn't have a towel.

So then it was Monday, and my first day of work. It was fairly uneventful, just getting setup, meeting people and so on. Then off to a party with some guys who were over from the U.S./Hong Kong/Japan. The theme was being some weird snack from your point of origin and we had some good ones. I was pretty sure the guys from Hong Kong had it sewn up with some typically weird tasting stuff, but then Andreas, one of the Norwegians (an R&D manager at work) came in with an entire vacuum sealed dried sheep leg. A knife was found, pieces were hacked off, and I have to say that he totally won. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely the most visceral treat on offer.

As I was walking home that night, about eleven thirty, dark and still as anything, a young wild deer crossed my path. It was a small buck with little antlers, obviously very lost. In case you're now imagining I live in some kind of Hans Christian Andersen forest in a log cabin, connected to civilisation by dirt paths, let me explain where I live. The nearest forest is miles away, and on the other side of a large highway, which it must have gotten under somehow, as I have to do every day on the way to work. It's not unheard of, but pretty rare and was a cool experience. I tried to take a photo on my work cellphone camera, but night vision isn't it's strong point.



Tuesday night was soccer, as I've joined up with the Tandberg Leisure Football team. Don't be fooled, there's nothing leisurely about it, it's serious stuff. Particularly as it's played on gravel. That's right, gravel. It seems to be the social soccer pitch covering of choice over here, and it's every bit as dusty and abrasive as it sounds. It's not as gravelly as, say, a country road, it's more like a fine grit. Still, falling over on it isn't advised as my knee can testify. Fun game though, probably more so once I can understand the Norwegian for...well, anything.

So after the game I'm wandering through Oslo to the bus with blood dripping down my leg, still in my soccer gear, hoping desperately that I can find an open Apotek. During thing time two different people approached me asking for directions. This is my fourth day being in the country, and I'm sure I didn't look that decisive so I can only conclude that people think soccer players generally know where things are. I let the side down unfortunately. My gory bleeding injury also served as a conversation starter with a random Swedish guy at the bus stop who wanted to join the team. For the record the Apotek had just closed and and I had to make do with scrubbing the grit out as hard as I could and slapping on some disinfectant cream I brought with me. I'll spare you from a photo for this one.

The best news of the week for me probably comes on Saturday, on which I ventured into town in search of a guitar. I'm lucky enough to be working in a team with some musos, and one of them pointed me to the right area of town. The first shop I went to was Norway's version of the rock shop, there were some nice guitars, but pricey for what they were and the one I liked had a weird action. So the guy there pointed me down the road and I went to this great instrument shop. It was crowded, cluttered, and smelled like wood. In addition to guitars they had mandolins, lutes, harps and all sorts of weird and wonderful instruments. There were many guitars there of differing qualities but one stood out straight away. It was a cutaway classical guitar, the exact sort I was looking for. I picked it up and it was beautiful to play, great action, great tone. I found out it was a handmade spanish guitar, solid top cedar, the same as my Maton CW80 back home which gives it a really sweet characteristic which will keep opening up the more I play it. Long story short, it is now mine. It's a beautiful instrument, solid but delicate, tonally gorgeous and just such a sweet thing to play. Lest my other guitars get jealous let me say I love you all, there's room in my heart for everyone. The pic doesn't really do it justice but here you go:



Another cool weekend find was a long walk that took me out onto the peninsula where I live. There is miles of track along the coast with great views of the Oslo fjord. A few fishermen were out braving the wet weather (oh yeah, after a few gorgeous days the weather packed in a bit).



So that was my week, it was a good one.

January was spent entirely overseas. For work we went to Oslo and Lillehammer for about a week, then a bunch of us took annual leave and tripped around. I ended up going to Sweden, France, Switzerland, Italy and England. It was a fantastic, amazing experience. I both saw and ate some memorable things, one of the best being a chocolate éclair from a bakery in the back streets of Lyon.

February was spent moving into a new place. I'm renting an awesome two bedroom house in the country, about ten minutes out of town. It suits me great right now as I like to make music at strange times, and the peace and quiet and greenness of it are very relaxing. This is the view from the lounge/kitchen/deck bit (its rather open plan):

And the house itself:

So I'm very happy about that. There's even a small garden around the back where pumpkins have self seeded and are taking everything over. So come over for pumpkin soup sometime.

Reading:

Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury
The October Country, Ray Bradbury
Judas Unchained, Peter F Hamilton
The Best New Zealand Fiction Volume 3, Ed. Fiona Kidman

Playing:

Final Fantasy XII

Movies:

Hot Fuzz, Edgar Wright
Ghost Rider, Mark Steven Johnson