Of snow, sunshine, slopes and tracks

What qualifies as a good start to a year?

Yes, a bit of an odd question maybe, and more of a 'popped into my head just this minute' sort of thing rather than a 'I've been pondering this for a while' kind. Maybe because I thought back to the long New Year weekend spent in rather spectacular fashion up in a cabin surrounded by valleys and woods increasingly enveloped by fresh snow. And suddenly it felt like that was a very long time ago :). 

January's almost gone! And suddenly I'm wondering when it is that one might consider a year to be well and truly under way, rather than having just begun? Yeah, I'm full of these questions today, ones without answers. :) So maybe we'll go back to the more usual 'this is what I've been up to the last few weeks' format. And speaking of weeks, I think I've more or less settled in on the more sporadic posting. I'm blaming it on the luxury of being able to leave the laptop at work in the evenings and the lack of a properly usable PC at home. Not a bad problem to have, to be perfectly honest. :)

Right, that weekend up in the hills then! I have to say that has to be one of the more memorable ways to usher in the new year for me in the recent past! Sipping champagne in a heated outdoor jacuzzi in the midst of falling snowflakes and bursts of fireworks from across the valley. :) Not to mention the sheer volumes of snow that descended on us for the three or so days! A few walks in the snow and one trip out on cross-country skis punctuated an otherwise leisurely time spent relaxing by the wood fire, playing board games, enjoying lovely food or the aforementioned jacuzzi. :D

Since then there's even been some proper snow in Asker! So much so that we managed a fair number of cross country skiing trips right here! And I have to say I'm beginning to get the hang of moving my feet independently while sliding on snow. :) It's not so bad really, just very very different from snowboarding downhill!

Speaking of which, We managed to kick off the season's snowboarding rather properly as well, with one trip to Kongsberg and another to Tryvann. These being the more close-by locations where I learned to snowboard to start with. Somehow though, in the last couple of years I've spent hardly any time on those slopes, so it was nice to have the chance to compare. There's something of a world of difference now compared to my first attempts from back in 2008. Some of the formerly formidable, almost death defying slopes now seem positively mild! :)

It's been rather properly cold too! The last few weeks were hitting -12/15 degrees quite regularly, but now the mercury's headed north. Sadly that probably means much of this lovely snow's going to disappear. Might call for some cautious driving too. :) One hopes normal winter service will resume shortly.

I'm generally rather averse to New Year's resolutions. Never quite saw the point of them. But there are things I'd like to do this year. Maybe read a little more. Since moving back to a more settled sort of life (read: travelling a lot less), I've rather stopped giving much time to the Kindle. But then there aren't quite so many opportunities to meander around airport book shops either. :)

At least new and entertaining music continues to appear!

Currently: thinking I should take the car for a wash :)
Listening to: The Avener - Fade out lines

Sparkle, not fade

I've been looking forward to this :).

Another year, another recap. Another story of some things that went well, and others that went superbly :). I suppose at the end of the year if you can look back and smile, that in itself is a fantastic thing. But I have proof :D.

After a year of restricting my international travel rather zealously, I let go of that phobia a little. The trips to Barcelona, London and Hyderabad were brief and mostly rather hurriedly planned (or not really planned at all, beyond trusting in others to point me in the right direction). And such sights they provided! Such colour, architecture, life, and a chance to catch up with many many old friends.

But there was also the trip back to Kolkata in the summer. Mangoes and rain. And conversations with the parents. Connecting, reconnecting, sharing life. Letting people into one's life is a choice. Sometimes it's easy to forget that.

There was also the rather fantastic trip to Iceland. The land of ice and fire. Maybe one day I will write more about that than short superlative outbursts. Generally speaking when it comes to trips it's easy to remember the extreme bits. As such I remember quite a lot of Iceland quite vividly! The extremes kept on coming thick and fast :). And all that from having spent a whole week in effectively a tiny fraction of the southern valleys. Who knows what a broader exploration might reveal!

Finally there was the most recent trip to the south of England over the last few weeks. A more extensive trip. Getting to know people and places. A lot of new faces around a few familiar ones :). It was a mix of overcast skies, rolling hills and frequent blustery rain, but every now and then the clouds would part and then suddenly, sunshine! Beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Drives along twisting fantastic B roads. And barely less twisty but somewhat wider A roads. And a judicious avoidance of M roads altogether :). To say nothing of the cats!

(Digression: It was fun to drive right handed again. But the car manufactures have decided to keep the European positions for the wiper and light switches, which is rather annoying. As is driving diesel. For the foreseeable future, therefore, I shall stick to petrol, thankyouverymuch. And don't even get me started on digital speedometers! End of digression.)

I suppose I was a little lazier this year, preferring long lazy afternoons/evenings in the sunshine over long cycle rides or swims in lakes or fjords. But it was such a nice way to spend the hours of sunshine :). A bit more time to talk things over. Or just to enjoy fantastic shapes in the clouds :). I suppose we did a bit less of Norway itself, with just the one summer road trip, but one hopes there will be time for more exploration.

Life at work changed for the better. Although such things are best seen in the context of life in general, but no, no complains. A little more time and breathing space at a time when it is really helpful, what more could I ask for.

It has been a week of reflection in some ways, through circumstance I ended up working these last three days of the year. A time when the office is ridiculously, if understandably, sparsely occupied. It kinda lends itself to introspection. Anyway, enough of looking back.

It's time to look forward to what new things come my way in the new year. Who knows what further surprises, twists and turns might be in store :).

Happy New Year!

Currently: grateful and hopeful
Listening to: Kygo - Here for you (ft. Ella Henderson)

New places, old faces

Since I've moved to Norway, Novembers have been a quiet month. The weather is generally pretty depressing (if one were to be blunt) and there seems to be a lot to finish up with work before the year runs out. While it's no different on both counts this time around, partly through spontaneous-ish planning and partly through circumstance, this November has turned out rather differently :). In this case, different is better. Vastly!

First there was the weekend trip to London. A.k.a. my first proper visit to England :). And I have to say, it was at once jam packed, yet leisurely. The best sort of combination of predetermined things to do and see, and people to meet, with almost totally on-the-fly planning on how to achieve that.

We ended up watching a rowing race on the Thames near Hammersmith, walking around Notting Hill at night, getting nearly blown away by rain and wind along the river in Fulham, watching the fantastic Guy Fawkes fireworks from Greenwich, shuttling back and forth across the city on the tube, ambling through Hyde Park, meeting up with a couple of old friends I hadn't seen in years and years :).

That wasn't anywhere close to an exhaustive list. And we even missed a few things we'd thought we might want to do. Mainly catch the Memorial Day parade. Still, there was enough to give me a sense of the place. It is easy to feel familiar in London in some ways, what with there being bits that you might have seen in different cities the world over. In many cases, the original was probably in London! :)

As with any city there are vast contrasts, Victoria and Canary Wharf for instance :). But in all of that, there seemed something common running through. One rushed weekend isn't the best way to judge a place, but this is for sure, I'd love to go back! For one thing, there are more people to meet and catch up with!

Then there was the other, rather more whirlwind trip. All the way to Hyderabad, for 3 days and 2 nights. But what can you do, when friends decide to get married at short notice? :) (It of course helped that there were miraculously cheap and convenient flights for pretty much the exact dates I needed!) Added bonus, an opportunity to meet up with friends I hadn't seen for anywhere between almost three to over ten years!

Hyderabad isn't a place I'd ever visited before, but besides the wedding, the only other thing we did was find examples of awesome biryani :). Even a view of the Charminar was had only incidentally! But then again, what can beat hours spent catching up with old friends? :)

Meeting people after many years can be interesting. Especially people you knew well before time and distance stretched the gaps in the knowing. Sometimes though, it can seem almost like old times. It isn't, of course, too much has changed, too much life. But enough to be able to find some of the old familiar pathways of conversation.

Promises of keeping in touch are less about planning in advance and more about making use of opportunities that come by I guess.

And in the four days that I was away, the weather here seems to have changed completely! As the flight came in to land in Gardermoen this morning, everything was covered in white! The first snow of the season. :) Of course, this will all melt away as the temperature yo-yo's around zero for a bit. But who knows, maybe there will be some proper snow this winter!

Currently: letting the past few days settle in
Listening to: Zara Larsson - Lush life

Trapped between autumn and winter

If I were to keep with the last post heading then this one would end up called sleepy and cold drizzly greyness. But that wouldn't be entirely fair. Since my last post, there have been some really lovely days :). Beautifully autumn coloured and bright. 

It has been getting darker though. The change out of daylight saving time only serving to accentuate the early onset of evening. Inevitably I've started hoping for snow, but of course this is way too early for that :). It's not even that cold yet, although the time is ripe for winter tyres...

Looking back through posts from the last couple of years just confirms the feeling I have about this bit of the year, that once the colour's faded from the trees things get a bit despondent. Fortunately though, I've managed to get some time out to enjoy said colours before they all ended up on the pavement.

One good thing about this sort of weather is that it's perfect for running :). Once you've managed to calibrate the layers of clothing correctly to the temperature that is. Somehow between one thing and another I did very little cycling this summer. Well, 800 km or so isn't exactly nothing, but not quite the same as the last couple of summers. More often than not I found myself opting for lazier walks in the sunshine than cycle rides. I suppose a change of pace is not a bad thing from time to time. But it's meant that I feel the lack of fitness somewhat :).

On the upside, there's a fair bit of travel to look forward to. Short trips, weekends really. And that ends up meaning more time spent travelling than enjoying the travelling... Oh dear, this is beginning to sound like a bit of a distressing post isn't it?! :D I blame it all squarely on the weather!

On to other recent activities, finally got around to watching some of the less spectacular cinematic offerings of late, namely the new Hitman reboot and the latest Mission Impossible. I guess with such films it's good to have appropriate expectations :). For me they turned out to be the perfect combination of silly story lines and mindless action :D. I am hoping for a bit more from the new Bond though! Although in many ways I'm more excited about the bespoke Aston and Jag cars the film features than the rest of it :).

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Ever have the feeling your head's somewhere else? I've been having that feeling lately, although in this particular case it hasn't left a forwarding address. Well, it's left behind a minimum necessary contingent to maintain basic operations. Hibernation seems like a good idea. Luckily the weekend is almost here :P.

Currently: sleepy
Listening to: Tove Lo - Talking body

Sunshine, blue skies

I've managed to get a bit stuck again... It's that awesome Iceland trip, more details of which I haven't yet managed to find the time to collect and distil onto the pages of the blog. But in the mean time, life's been going on. In some ways different, in others the same as, say, twelve months ago. Or maybe fifteen.

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It's been raining a lot. And mostly I've used that as an excuse to not really get out much on the bike. But when I did, it was pretty nice. Although, as someone put it this week, summer is officially over. The leaves have started changing colour and the temperatures have taken a dive for single digits. What's more, this time around it feels like they aren't coming back up till the snow's cleared.

There's still some longish days of sunshine and blue skies left though. I guess it would be nice to make some use or them. Haven't been doing too badly on that front.

--

I've been listening to some online mixes these last few weeks. Rather than my own playlists that is. At work. Which may not sound like much, but ends up being most of my hours that aren't taken up by other audio inputs of greater import these days :). I guess it's just a question of something new and different. So far I've settled on Liquicity. It's going interestingly.

I haven't really been watching too many films lately. Been meaning to, but just haven't managed to get around to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. And now I think it may have left Asker Kino. Oh well. What I did watch last night was About Time. And loved it! It's not often that films do such a good job of balancing funny, pragmatic sort of life/stories with tugs at the heartstrings, so to speak. It was refreshing, and quite thoroughly entertaining :).

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One of the things I have managed to do in the mean time, was attend a friend's wedding on the west coast (of Norway). Little place, the description of which starts two levels away. You know I'd say I grew up in Asansol, but have to explain that it's sort of close to Kolkata. But then if pressed I'd say when I say Asansol, I actually spent my childhood in a place called Dishergarh a few kilometres away from Asansol. So a bit like that.

First taste of a Norwegian wedding, although I must say, since half the relevant couple is from Angola, it was probably a bit of a twist on the theme rather than a completely representative example :). Was great fun though!! Not least of which were the many speeches, an emotional yet jolly mix. The driving around twisting, narrow fjord roads in a massive VW van (when we'd asked for a Polo or 'similar') was a distant second. The brief, yet profoundly satisfying stroll away from the crowd as disk fell probably tied for second place, thanks especially to the rather large and happy/inquisitive dog we met on the way :).

One other thing was getting my UK visa! I've managed to visit two European countries this year that I've never visited before. Now maybe it's time for a third :). Question is, when?

Feeling: sleepy after a long day's hike
Listening to: Liquicity - Liquid drum and base mix