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

End of hibernation

The sun is back. After a really good disappearing act, it's back. With the snow all but gone, that's actually a trade I'm happy to accept now. Mostly because after five months, I finally decided to get back out on the bike, and it was brilliant! :)

I'd been feeling unusually fidgety all day today. The weather was amazing outside, you could actually stand still outdoors for five minutes in a tee-shirt without turning into a popsicle. And I was hating every minute spent indoors. Finally I couldn't take it and bolted out of work a tad earlier than usual.

The bike seemed to have survived the hibernation fairly well, so I topped off the air, suited up and headed off. By the end of the hour, it was official, cycle season is back! And as a bonus, it seems I'm not too badly out of shape :).

Feeling: better!
Listening to: Mr. Probz - Waves (Robin Schulz Remix)

A farewell to snow

As it turns out, I did get my wish. One last proper snowboarding weekend to call it a season. And what a weekend it turned out to be! For a start, taking Friday off turned out to be a stroke of genius :).

I suppose a spectacular high speed crash on the very first long run wasn't the most auspicious start one could hope for. But since I didn't really need my shoulder and upper back to snowboard, it wasn't too bad :D. As it turned out, the weather was the best I'd seen all season!

On each of the three days, we had loads of sun. There was even a little bit of fresh powder! Every single slope was open for two out of the three days while wind shut down some of the upper slopes on Saturday. Over this one weekend, I managed to cover a distance that probably eclipsed my entire snowboarding experience prior to last year :).

That's the thing with a place like Trysil, you don't really count the slopes. You just keep going from one to another, playing snakes and ladders with an almost inexhaustible supply of combinations of slopes and lifts :). And more or less everywhere you end up, there's always hot chocolate with cream if you need a break!

There in the mountains, surrounded by white hills, pines and slopes, I could almost forgive this winter its brevity and general lack of snow. Blue skies and white slopes are a tough combination to get enough of, but after the last three days I am finally ready to pack up the board.

For now. Hopefully next winter will provide more snow and sunny days to get better, faster and braver :). It might be wise to invest in a helmet by then...

Currently: looking forward to spring!
Listening to: Klingande - Jubel

Shadows under water

Quiet time has been hard to come by, somehow. Even with no unwanted thoughts crowding in my head, problems to solve, worries to sort out and file away for later, there seems to be a weird white noise. Suffocating any thought I actually want to nurture.

So I've taken the other way out, just keep on going, getting outside the discomfort of my mind and drowning the noise, most recently, somewhat literally. I've taken up swimming again. The swimming laps to rack up distance kinda swimming. The kind that leaves you aching happily and stinking of chlorine after. And needing goggles to avoid going temporarily blind. After a gap of twelve odd years.

Yep, time flies. And it'll keep flying. And take away whatever snow there is left with it :(. This has to have been one of the shortest winters here in forever. Will I manage another proper week of snowboarding? That we will have to wait and see.

In the last month or so, since the fantastic Tromsø trip, I made a little trip down to Cyprus. No, not fun, all work. Stayed on a boat for the first time in over a year and realized I've gotten properly comfortable in my life, such as it is. Imagine that. Three quarters of a year, and close to a decade of conditioning all gone straight out the window.

I did manage to do a little bit of reading, most entertaining and fascinating of which, by some distance, was The Colour of Magic! For someone who's into fantasy and insanity as much as I am, it would surprise some to know that I'd never read anything by Terry Pratchett before, save Good Omens. But having started, I intend to carry on.

Time, as always though, is in short supply. And to be honest I'd like nothing better than to sort of just disappear for a bit. Land up somewhere I've never been. Hmm. Go diving maybe, just the thought of floating suspended under a mountain of water seems calming, somehow. But since that's unlikely to happen, for now working up to swimming 2km in a 25m pool will have to do.

Currently: de-chlorinated, but still aching happily
Listening to: Martin Halla - Illuminate the sky