How would you feel about life..

.. if Death was your older sister?

Best back cover ever! :D With the parental units in town for a couple of weeks, it appears I finally have some time! Go figure. But between trips around the fjords and the World Cup and sundry other things, I did manage to get my eyes over The Sandman vol 1.

What madness!! What glorious insanity! I'm not saying that I didn't go a bit 'whaaaaaat?' every now and again, but this is Gaiman, so that's more or less par for the course. But as far as opening instalments go, I was mighty impressed!

Currently: unimpressed by Spain
Listening to: Thomas Newman - Kill them first

Summertime madness!

There are orders of magnitude to cover everything on every scale I suppose. But every so often something so outrageously fantastic happens, as to be truly off the charts of awesomeness :). Our road trip to Åndalsnes, for example.

Four days of pure brilliance, and it began with a ten hour journey through landscape that was a constant reminder just how beautiful Norway can be! I hadn't actually been on a proper road trip in quite some time, and what a way to get back to it. The brilliant thing about driving here is that if you have the weather for it, there isn't a dull moment. I mean that in a good way :D.

500 kilometres is a long way to go, but it went by unnoticed, especially as the views got ever more spectacular as we neared our destination. The town is right on the edge of the fjord, but surrounded by precipitous ranges. We had planned on hiking along the ridge on top of one of these the next day, Romsdalseggen. The views, we expected, would be amazing.

Unfortunately, a sky blanketed by low clouds greeted us when we woke. It wasn't looking pretty, but we decided to go for it anyway. Climbing a good 1200 metres through damp clouds doesn't qualify as the definition of fun for most people, but we were egged on by a couple of people heading back down, with promises of sunshine further along the ridge.

I cannot say how glad I am that we kept going, as before long, we went clear through the clouds and could see the highest of the surrounding peaks piercing through a sea of white all around! The feeling was rather indescribable :). The following several hours were spent trying to find a proper vantage point (read highest spot in the vicinity) and hunting for views as the sun eventually burned off the clouds, revealing quite the vista.

It would have been difficult to beat that hike, but the drive down to Geiranger the next day came pretty close. Again, the weather started off overcast, especially the valley down from Trollstigen. To be honest though, I was entertained enough by the roads to mind too much, and anyway, things got way sunnier in the subsequent valleys, so all was good.

The final day brought the brightest morning, so we decided to explore the views a bit before heading homewards. I think we got a little carried away, but eventually managed to leave Åndalsnes by midday :). All that remained was another few hundred kilometres of twisting spectacular Norwegian B-roads before we were back in the now familiar crush of Sunday evening traffic converging on Oslo from all directions.

The hiking and driving had taken a bit of a toll, and my legs weren't very happy climbing down stairs for a few days, but by the time the next weekend rolled around (another long one) everything was feeling more or less ok. So what did I do? Ended up cycling over 100km in a day for the first time. What can I say, good weather here makes one do strange things :).

Currently: almost there!
Listening to: Craig Armstrong - Gentle piece

O time, where art thou?

Should I admit the obvious? That my blog, after close to nine years of steadily trotting along, has finally lost steam? I think not!

Life though, has been a mix of polar opposites. On the one hand there's work. We'll leave it at that. And then there's everything else :). In the last month (jeez, it has been that long) there were a few more trips on the bike. It's finally getting warm enough to dispense with the zillion layers and just go with shorts and tee-shirts :). And with that, hiking season's back too!

Then there was the Holmenkollstafetten. This time, I ran the main team, not because I'd finally got the courage, but because there was only one team :P. We did pretty well though, so that was nice. In the mean time I've finally hit a steady 2km on the swimming, which feels pretty good. Only took three months :D.

The National Day weekend this time was just that unfortunately, a weekend, just the two days. Having said that, we did make it to Oslo and had quite the fun day. I can honestly say it looked like everyone in the country had showed up! I've never seen so many people in Norway!

So there that is, the last month. And now I'm looking forward to the next four days. Decided to make it a long weekend and head off to Åndalsnes for some hiking. I hope the weather stays awesome, fingers crossed!

Currently: psyched!
Listening to: Ask Embla - September

Sun days, fun days

I think it is safe to say now, that spring is in the air! A sudden spurt of vibrant green all over the countryside is a very welcome change from the months of absence of colour :). Luckily, since my last post, the weather has been more often nice than not.

That included the extended weekend over Easter, which was a good thing, as I had a friend visiting! For four whole days, the weather stayed on absolutely best behaviour, which, at this time of the year, translates to pretty stunning!

We travelled around a fair bit, including quite a few places I'd thus far neglected in my year long residence here. Verdens Ende, for instance. While it isn't exactly the end of the world as the name would suggest, situated as it is at the mouth of the Oslofjord, it sure does look the part!

We made the obligatory Oslo visit, including places like the fantastically shaped Oslo Opera House and beautifully located Akershus Fortress among others. And since no trip to Norway can be considered complete without a good look at the lakes, fjords and twisting narrow roads alongside them, I clocked a few hundred kilometres of mostly aimlessly driving around said twisting narrow roads. It was a blast!

It was also a really fun way of breaking in my brand new summer wheels that had been waiting unused for the last six months :). Not to be outdone, the bike is now properly out of hibernation. With the good weather, I did make some nice long trips, but the best one so far was the over six hour long trip along Drammenfjord and Oslofjord yesterday!

Of course, that included a picnic of sorts and lying on a grassy bank out in the sun for what must have been well over an hour :). Admittedly, having cycled for over two hours the previous evening over some pretty steep bits hadn't left us in the best shape. And getting lost never helps, but a hundred and thirty odd kilometres in a weekend is a pretty decent tally to start off the summer.

Question is, how sunny will the next few weekends be?

Feeling: optimistic!
Listening to: Mr. Probz - Waves

Weather tantrums

It gets better, then worse. Unbelievably, after a week of spectacular sunshine, it actually snowed this weekend!! I mean come on! Seriously? Winter, go away already! To add insult to injury India go and lose the first cricket match I find being broadcast live on Norwegian TV :(. The commentators' attempts at explaining the rules of cricket on live television did provide some light moments though :P.

Before that however, I made something of the sunshine and went exploring bits around the fjord I'd never visited, a couple of islands halfway between here and Oslo. Turned into a fantastic ride :).

Unbelievably enough, it's already a week into April! And that makes it a full year of my move here. Guess what? It's scary how fast it's gone. Not entirely surprising, I suppose. Next thing to do would be to switch over to that brand new set of summer tyres.

Assuming this stupidity with the weird unwelcome snow stops.

Currently: sleepy
Listening to: Hardwell ft. Matthew Koma - Dare you