The wheels on the bike go round and round

July in Norway :). That time when people disappear and the best weather appears :D. Except this year. Because a lot of people are staycationing or travelling not very far, and it feels like it's just been raining the whole time. Still! There was the occasional highlight!

The biggest highlight of the month for me was the amazing cycling weekend we spent in the Grimsdal valley. Tucked away between the Dovre and Rondane national parks, it's a fantastic piece of Norwegian landscape. Wide valleys, high plateaus, mountains with snow in the middle of summer, rivers - sometimes rushing down rapids, sometimes gurgling past grazing cattle...

Early on Saturday morning, we took the train up to Hjerkinn with our bikes, a good five hour or so ride. As we were sorting ourselves out after being dropped off at the little train station, we realised that it was a very good thing we'd packed the right clothes for cold cold wind :). That aside, the weather was fantastic the whole day! Enough sunshine to keep us happy, enough clouds to keep things interesting :D.

By late afternoon we had made our way to our overnight stop at Grimsdalshytta. A cabin maintained by the DNT since 1923! And in good Norwegian tradition, serving a full 3 course dinner with amazing food in the midst of the most amazing views :). We were too tired to do much, but a little walk up the closest hillside helped loosen up the legs a bit!

The Sunday was even more spectacular as that was when we climbed to the top of the plateau before plunging back down into Gudbransdalen. There was also some rain, and a lot of wind! But the views from the top were definitely worth it! Given the number of mountains ranged around us, it wasn't that top of the world feeling, but the sense of awe is hard to describe. In this case, the photos don't do the place justice :).

The rain was starting to get somewhat serious by the time we were cycling into Dombås. But with hours to go before our train back, we enjoyed a very relaxed lunch at a restaurant popular with people driving through. Then it was another five hours on the train back home :).

The trip was also made memorable thanks to a group on electric bikes who we had been repeatedly passing, and being passed by, for the better part of the weekend! I was grateful for the kind comments from several of the group as they overtook us :). And really happy that on both days we reached our destinations not far behind them :D.

There have been other cycling trips when the weather has allowed. And a very interesting visit to the Kistefos Museum. I think I enjoyed the buildings more than a fair bit of the art. Especially liked exploring the old paper mill with a lot of it pretty well preserved!

One of the somewhat sad things about July in Norway is that by the end of the month you really notice that the light's fading quite rapidly in the evenings. It's all relative of course, and 10 pm is still a very good time for sunset :). I guess it makes it all the more important to appreciate the nice sunny days!

Of lilacs in early summer evenings and fading dandelion clocks

I feel like saying it's been an odd summer so far. But actually, I don't think it has, really. This is probably a bit more like what summers should be. Some sun, some rain. A few days so bright and sunny that life seems to be almost too good to be true. And then days of overcast skies and the occasional dump of water :). I remember my first couple of full summers living in this apartment, getting really tired of the grass just growing and growing and growing :D. Takes both sun and rain, doesn't it?

It has been pretty warm though. Hitting nearly 30°C on a few occasions. So much so that most of the cycling over the last month has been done after 6 pm, or before 11 am :). Yes, there has indeed been some amount of cycling! After three years of practically being in hibernation, my bike's finally getting to stretch its legs a bit :D. In fact, I've already done more distance this year than in any of the four previous years since I bought this bike!

A lot of it has just been re-visiting some old favourite routes. Taking it easy, just enjoying the views and the feeling of the kilometres just sliding by. Well, as much as the Norwegian landscape allows... But the climbs have been feeling progressively less mountainous. Which feels great!!

On the book front, I was definitely happy to be done with the thrillers! In what may have been a surprising choice, after finishing off The Thirst (with overall positive feelings I must say, the grimness did abate somewhat.. or maybe I just eventually got used to it), I decided to continue with Nesbø. Just a different genre. 

A couple of years ago, when I was at the peak of my enthusiasm to learn Norwegian, I decided to buy a few second hand books from a jumble sale. All in Norwegian. All by Jo Nesbø. I'd been told his language was not only quite modern, but also very much of the Oslo dialect and thus most easy for those of us taught by denizens of this region. Most of the books were his usual Harry Hole thrillers, but there was one slim collection of short stories. 

I'd figured short stories were probably the easiest thing to start with, but then had given up when even that had seemed a bit too much for my nascent grip of the language :). Fast forward to now and either the passage of time or the new workplace and its higher proportion of Norwegian use, or both, have made Norwegian a lot more accessible. So I thought why not give it another go!

Karusellmusikk was quite a cool experience! Yes, I didn't understand every single word, but enough to gather not only the content, but also a feeling for the stories. And such variety! I guess that's one thing with short stories. One isn't bound by a long arc. Just brief explorations or explosions. Sometimes mere musings, incomplete, but no less enjoyable for being unfinished, so to speak.

Apparently there's an album to accompany the book. Would I want to get it to listen to? Doubt it to be honest :). Why spoil the experience? Speaking of songs to go with stories, I decided to follow up one collection of short stories with another. And it so happens, that Fragile Things, in fact, has a bunch of stories, or poems, that were written to go with songs, or entire albums in some cases!

As with any Neil Gaiman creation, it's a wild and wonderful ride :). But I've been thinking lately... You see, it's been some time since I read anything particularly long by him. (Although, now that I've looked through my Goodreads history, turns out I've read quite a lot of stuff by him in the last few years {aside from the Malazan obsession, of course} that's longer than short stories :D. So maybe I should rethink this a bit.) American Gods or Neverwhere or Anansi Boys... or The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I've been thinking about reading Good Omens again, but my copy is still in New York... 

I guess what I'm getting at is maybe this. Since the last time I read those books, I feel I've read and heard a lot more of the man himself than his creations. Read a fair bit of his non-fiction. And while I am sure I know nothing of what Neil Gaiman the person is actually like in real real life, I feel I have a much more fleshed out image of who he is in his non-fictional (aka real) words. And somehow, this seems to trip me up a bit when I then end up reading his fictional words.

Happily lost in some story, I suddenly realize that I'm automatically assuming the protagonist is Neil himself. That I've been subconsciously projecting much of what I think of the author onto the character. There's even a whole bunch of the stories where I imagine the protagonist looking a bit like Dream of the Endless =))). It's a sort of pocket-sized madness :D. But here's the thing right, isn't the protagonist always at least a little bit in the image of the author? I suppose this is more true of some stories than others.

Regardless, I've been enjoying myself immensely :).

Which I suppose is something that could also be said of the summer at large :). Yes, it's different. Yes, there is much uncertainty in the world. Yes, we can't go see family for who knows how long, and I miss them. But at the same time, it makes one realize that the present is all we really have. And even that is really not something to be taken for granted. Because of course, one day, we wont. But while we do, it is important to appreciate and enjoy it. In whatever way works for each day.

It would be remiss of me to not mention the somewhat seismic news of Liverpool finally, finally, winning the Premier League :). I honestly think there was no part of me that was completely and utterly sure that they would win it till I got woken up in the middle of the night last Thursday by a friend's messages :). I don't call that a lack of faith. It was more an attempt to not project pressure :D. But now that they are Champions of Europe, the World and England, I can honestly say, this has to be the best time to be a Liverpool fan since I started following them in 2005 \:D/. Long may this continue.

The sparkling beginnings of summer!

May really did go by fast! I mean it's not gone yet, but pretty much. And the last four or so weeks feel like a bit of a blur! For one thing, the weather's definitely been looking up. Then down, then up again :). We've been out on the bikes! And I've even started cautiously heading back to the office to work! Then of course there was the Norwegian National Day that will probably remain one of the most talked about 17th of Mays for some time!

As the mercury has been creeping up, the numbers of Covid-19 infections in Norway have been dropping. To the point when eventually all kids are allowed back to schools, sports activities are starting up and people are no longer being actively discouraged from workplaces. Social distancing, of course, is here to stay.

It's been kinda nice going back into the office. Even if it's only once a week. (And even then I avoid the rush hour and have generally had plenty of space on the train.) Discussions are really so much better, easier and fulfilling in person. At the same time, there's plenty of good things to be said about working from home too! A lack of distractions, for example :). But there I'm probably in a minority. Either way, the last few months might have some long lasting effects on how we work. Whether for better or for worse of course, remains to be seen.

The weather has been inviting more often than not. And we have definitely made use of it :). The fact that the sunlight now stretches far beyond end of work time helps no end! It has been pretty windy quite a lot of the time though.

The National Day weekend suffered no such blemish! Forced to abandon the usual children's parades all over the country, people came up with all sorts of new ways to celebrate, from classic car parades, boat parades, balcony parties and even the Royal family taking to the streets in open topped cars to greet often completely surprised people. The list is long. And I wonder, if some of these new ways of celebrating might just stick around!

We celebrated by heading out for a walk in the neighbourhood. We watched the band from the local schools parade around the locality being cheered on by people from their balconies or doorsteps. One of the car parades wound its way nearby, so we went to watch that too! Waved at some classic, and some not quite so classic cars :). And then of course, there was the obligatory ice-cream :).

It's been nice being out on the bike again! So far it's only been a few trips, but it feels promising :). Having seemingly exhausted the opportunities of exploration within walking range, it's only natural to take to some wheels! And I'm already starting to feel my legs, shoulders and well, everything in general, beginning to get back into the rhythm of cycling :).

On the other hand, reading seems to have taken a bit of a darker turn. I'm blaming this squarely on the books. First there was I am Pilgrim. I mean, the whole terrorist thriller thing should have warned me of course. I'm generally not a huge fan of the genre. Still, it was a pretty fast read. The first person omniscient narrative style really had me missing Steven Erikson :). But what can you do? At least now I've knocked off yet another unread book from my bookshelf!

And then I moved on to The Thirst. So, I have read Jo Nesbø before. Two of his Harry Hole books, in fact. But it's been a few years. I'm not sure if my taste for grisly, gritty thrillers has just deserted me or it this one is way darker than The Bat or The Redbreast. Anyhow. I'm about a third of the way in. And while I've definitely been pulled into the plot and really want to know what happens next, there's a part of me that will be quite relieved to just be done with it :|.

In the mean time, there's all the sunshine and cycling (fingers crossed :D) to keep life happy!

Of blues, greens and an alternative red planet

Somehow, (Well, I actually know how. I was entertained by the endless number of people who end up on my blog searching for "Kirk O'Bane", so I had a look at the post that causes them to. Then ended up reading some other dozen-year-old posts, marvelling at the amazingly obscure yet seemingly apt titles I had the ability to conjure :D. And eventually..) I came across my recollections from the first summer I was in Asker!

A month short of twelve years on, a very different summer is unfolding around us. But somehow not that different. As I was reading the post, I recalled my feeling of loneliness here, in a country where I knew very few people. The friendships I would develop that would last till this day were yet to take shape. So social distancing wasn't as much a decision as an inevitability :). I also still more or less vividly recall the shock at the "everlasting" light :D.

Of course life is very different now. Yet, the pictures of empty streets felt like a bridge across the years. (It must be said, I generally avoid people in my photos. So, for all you know, I waited for the opportune moment when no one else was in shot before clicking :D.) Anyhow, in the last month, we have been doing quite a bit of walking in the sunshine! Managing to explore parts that we'd never actually walked in, even though many of them are within an hour or so's walk from home!

Working from home is something I'm getting more and more used to I find. It's not like it doesn't have its problems, mainly when it comes to getting work done collaboratively. But I am enjoying the upsides of having more flexible hours, less travelling and more "home time" :). I suppose I might as well make the most of it while it lasts!!

No commute doesn't mean no reading of course! And I've managed to work my way through London Rules, after finishing up with Spook Street. And as with the other books in the series that don't keep River Cartwright in focus, I thought the former was cool, but somewhat more blah than the latter. Yes, as I keep being reminded, the series is called the Jackson Lamb series, not the River Cartwright appreciation club, but I guess we all have our favourite side characters who we'd rather the author spent more time on...

The next book on my list was a bit special. I'm sure at the time when I bought it, I thought it was a great idea. I just can't remember quite why! Over the last few years I've come across my copy of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and invariably thought, "Hmm, looks interesting, but why did I buy this?" Anyhow. It felt like lock-down (Although I should add that, strictly speaking, Norway is not really in lock-down. We can go shopping when we want, walking around when and where we want. The local shopping centre is still open. Just all with social distancing in place :).) was an appropriate time to find out what it was all about.

It was a bit weird. But it was also fascinating! I have not read many other books written in the nineteen-fifties. Definitely none that were set in what is now the present! The idea of chicken pox brought in by exploring humans killing most of the inhabitants of Mars was certainly ironic. I tried very hard to not get caught up in the many anachronisms. The sense that mankind is somehow, accidentally or otherwise, misusing technology, and this is giving all of progress a bad name, is probably one of the more relatable themes.

I was also fascinated by the imagery of the martian world and its inhabitants! Although most of the time I had to keep reminding myself that at the time the book was written, people didn't really know as much about Mars as we do. So mostly I ended up substituting Mars with some nameless planet beyond our Solar System, and that kinda worked! But yeah, for quite a bit of the book I just focused on the externals of the imagery than necessarily letting myself get too immersed in the deeper social themes that seemed to be playing out.

Which led me to another book that's been sitting on my bookshelf unread for many years simply because I wasn't quite sure what to expect. In this case though, fan that I am of Tina Fey, I definitely knew why I'd bought it :). Bossypants has, thus far, not let me down :D. It is hilarious, insightful and constantly entertaining. It's one of those books I'm enjoying reading out loud so we can share the jokes :D.

So life is going on. And slowly and carefully, Norway is opening up. Tip-toeing towards a new normal. As if in encouragement, up until a few days ago, the weather was absolutely wonderful! It felt like summer was almost starting early! Now it's taken a bit of a turn for the wet and gloomy. But then again, a little bit of rain does help the garden :).