I am taking the buss today and when I do I always drive pass the little ferry “Beffen”. Its a small ferry many commuters use across the port instead of walking around it. Its a fun little ferry, thought I’d share a photo I managed to take today, the bus finally stopped in a super position where I also could capture the Statsraad Lehmkuhl.
We visited Myrkdalen this weekend to slalom, a two hour drive from Bergen. It was my first visit so I was very curious about the place.
It is known to be most snow-safe place in our area, if the other alpine centers struggle with little amount of snow Myrkdalen will come to the rescue. There were almost 2 meter snow up there.
The slopes were incredible fun and the variety were great. We were a bit unlucky with the weather though, lots of fog and snowfall so we didn’t see much up there. It was fun hovering above the World Cup event, we got the chance to watch a few runs and we even got the chance to see the two finals. I think an American won but I can’t find the result lists anywhere. We also saw Kari Traa who arranged it, it was awesome to see that she still knows her stuff.
The drive to Myrkdalen were a bit tough, two hours were a bit much but our little one sang most of the trip and had a nice time. She is incredible.
I stood behind an old man the other day when I did some shopping. He asked for a pack of razor blades and the cashier had to go find it. She got 3 different packages of Gillette and asked the man which one he needed.
The old man stared at the packages and stood there thinking a few minutes, he apparently had no idea which he needed. I had plenty of time so I just smiled carefully when the cashier looked at me, probably to check how I felt about waiting, I just felt sorry for the old man. Especially when he finally pointed at one of them and slowly gave the cashier a 50-note (About $7).
The cashier told the man that it cost 160 NOK (about $24) for that package (it is the cheapest one!), the old man had problems catching it and the cashier had to point at the display. He slowly looked in his wallet and started to look for money, he had problems opening it and asked the cashier to help him. The cashier looked at me again, I just smiled – I still had plenty of time. The people behind me changed queue.
She found a 200 note (about $29) and carefully picked it up from the wallet and showed it to the old man, he looked at the cash-display and nodded. He got the cash return and moved slowly away. It got me wondering how long it was since buying razor blades, even I can’t remember when it was under a 50 note. And if it was that long ago I bet the blades he bought doesn’t fit his shaver. I felt more sorry for him and wished there was something we could do to help him.
When I payed and packed the stuff I bought I saw him again on the parking lot, he was moving slowly towards a car. A brand new SUV. That was a bit surrealistic, I pictured him driving a SAAB from ’67. Then I wondered, is it safe that an old man like that drives a car, he didn’t appear very ‘awake’. Oh well, I hoped he got home safe and wished him good luck with the shaving – not out loud.
Its snowing a lot today, I love it. Its wet and heavy though and people are struggling, embarrassing I think – they say Norwegians are born with skis on their feet which explains why many of us can’t cope with snow.
Our airport were closed this morning, buses got stuck and people were driving on worn down tires.
I remember sometimes in the 90s when New York had lots of snowfall, we were laughing at scenes on the news where Americans struggled on snow with summer tires. We’re not better, so we shouldn’t laugh so hard on others behalf next time. 
Oh well, I’ve been dreaming of tons of snow for a long while, I miss the white winters. Lots of the snow rained away last weekend but now its snowing again, if it could only be stable. Where is the ice-age someone screamed about in 92?
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Kids love it, I love it. And its fun to capture weird shapes that appear when its snowing like this. Especially when the snow is a bit wet and easily sticks to the plants.
I was hoping it would last a while but I checked the forecast now and noticed that it will become warmer on Wednesday. Can’t it just last a bit longer?
Yesterday Oslo had chaos on the roads, today is our turn here in Bergen – It humors me. As long as there are no severe accidents though.
What worries me most is the heavy transport from abroad. Drivers from eastern Europe who is trying our roads with 16 wheels and summer tires – they should be denied entrance if you ask me..
This weekend it was time for the trip to Kvamskogen (1 hour drive from Bergen) with the sport school, 31 kids from 5th to 7th grade and 7 grownups. I prepared myself for a bit chaotic trip but the kids were awesome, no fuzz what soever and the kids had a great time.
We started early on Saturday and went straight to the Furedalen, a tiny alpine center with 2 t-lifts and 1 trainer slope. It was a bit cloudy but the conditions were perfect. Some started in the trainer slope to practice a bit before they moved on to the bigger ones, after a while the bigger slopes became the most popular ones.
I’ve always enjoyed Furedalen, when I was little my family used to go there to ski, I remember clearly how difficult it was the first time my father and I were going up the t-lifts, lets just say we struggled a bit. My father and skies with some difficult metal-edges, his skies wanted to go separate ways. I think he was seconds from started to swear some. 
Unfortunately the engine on one of the lifts started to fail so the queue started to grow. Suddenly people had to wait an hour to go up, that is a lot for most kids. Its kind of weird, I seem to remember those engines from when I was a kid – I wonder if they ever got replaced with new ones, that is sad. I guess they struggle with the economy, they don’t get as much snow now as they did when I was younger. Now they are dependent of snow-machines all over the place.
On Sunday a think mist covered the upper parts, I couldn’t see much but that didn’t stop most kids, they had fun anyway – full speed downwards no matter how little they could see. Some decided to go inside to relax, talk and drink hot chocolate instead. I think the owners had problems with their slope preparing machine, since it had snowed a lot we started to build small bumps when everyone turned downwards and suddenly the ice came forward. Some of the kids enjoyed the bumps but I think I am getting too old for that.
In the mountain hut we had a great time with competitions and good food, the kids had been looking forward to this part, I might be wrong but I think they thought it was more fun than the skiing. Its nice for them to meet classmates this way, outside the school’s world. I had to smirk when I heard them from the floor above, it was like a small society up there. Playing, watching movies and debating. At midnight things started to calm down and everyone went to sleep – I thought that was impressive.
Saturday night we had lots of snow, like the real winter we remember when we were kids. The hut were properly built so we had no problem with keeping it warm inside with only one fireplace.
I look forward to see what event the sport school has next , I hope I can come with them again.
This bring back memories. I got this error when I visited bt.no our local paper this morning, how fun to see that again. Guru Meditation is from the Commodore era, when the Amiga 500/1000 crashed it came out with something like this :
For å stoppe Mac-folkenes latter så fant jeg denne fra gamle-Mac’en :
Isn’t it wonderful sometimes to have someone to blame when something happens? In the papers today I read a lovely story from Sweden in 2006. A now 23 year old driver were caught driving while drunk, but he refused being responsible for driving. He blamed Skybert/Molgan, Alfie Atkins’ secret friend. (picture of him to the left)
Most times the police would laugh such things off, but in this case they couldn’t prove that he was lying – yesterday the court in Varmländ dismissed the charges due to the lack of evidence. Isn’t it surrealistic? Now the young man has filed a complain for being hurt economic while the police kept his drivers license. It is kind of funny, yet tragic – I have nothing left for drunk drivers..
It remind me of another story where a couple were out partying, the husband didn’t drink – he was the night’s driver. The wife had a good time and had plenty to drink. When they were about to end the evening the husband twisted something in his back and couldn’t move so the wife helped him in the back of the car, she decided to drive home. Halfway home the police stopped them, the officer leans toward her through the window and looks in the back seat and says ‘ah, someone had too much to drink here – please go on and get your husband home’. I love that story.
Johan Wejedal is in my opinion a design genius. I love the way he is able to create futuristic crafts. Check his latest illustration, a Koenigsegg Speedboat :
I’m a bit unsure if this will ever become real but I think what he did was incredibly cool, who would dare compete with this boat?
He also designed this awesome police car :
Koenigsegg CCX by Johan Wejedal
You can see more of Johan’s work at his Myspace.
Other Koenigsegg cars :
I found this at VG.no.