Feelings

I am sitting listening to Christmas songs and finishing wrapping some of the last Christmas gifts.

The songs make me somewhat sentimental and I think of all the nice people I know, and who I have known, who have shared their lives and feelings with me.

I miss some of them so much – unfortunately some are not among us anymore…

My thoughts go out to them tonight!

Crash

I just watched Crash.

What a great movie!

I recommend it to all!

Gardermoen Airport Runway 19R

Another "dark" picture.

I should be so lucky...

The photos below

A few photos down you can see some of the lights from what I believe is Brussels.

It was taken a fortnight ago on an evening flight into Brussels. The air was crisp and not a cloud on the sky.
One could see the lights from most of Western Europe – billions of lights scattered all over - a wonderful sight!

I wish you all could have been there with me.


The two top ones are taken on a morning flight into Oslo Gardermoen Airport.

There are so many beautiful sights to bee seen from the air. Unfortunately we see so much of it that we get somewhat blasé.
But once in a while we get truly stunned by the beauty of the world.

Sunrise

Sunrise over Oslo

Test1 BeNeLux by night

Test2 Benelux by night

Harstad

I am in Harstad in Northern Norway.

Came from London this morning, and via the West Coast, ended up here. It was a beautiful approach into Evenes airport with the moon over the snowcovered mountains. We arrived at the hotel at 5 pm and it was completely dark by then.

I have now been around the corner at a local pub were I and two colleagues had "The Hot" pizza. It was not very hot - but it was good. We have an early pick-up tomorrow so the others have gone to their rooms - but I believe the night is still too young...

Facts abot Harstad: My parents got engaged here in 1965.

HALLOWEEN and the first snow.

We have just ended our Halloween party. K and her friends have partied and gone 'Trick or Treat'.

And the first snow came today. Brrrr. Thailand here I come!


.

.

K.

Table of witches.

Some aliens arrived too.

.

Ol' Roger.

Trick or treat and the first snow.

Canceled Flight

I am sitting at Gardermoen Airport. The flight I was supposed to fly has been canceled. The word is that no less than seven of our aircraft in Norway are grounded at the moment due to technical problems. Well, I have been enjoying myself surfing the web...

The last months have been busy. The summer has been wonderful, great weather and many welcome summerguests. It seems like my location close by the airport has highly increased the likelihood of getting friends and family over for one or more days. I appreciate their visits. It is always nice to meet them.

K and I also enjoy the company of our new au-pair. She is very nice, helpful and pleasant to have around.

This weekend I visited Rognan and my parents. I believe this was only my third or fourth visit up there this year. Luckily my parents fly South once in a while to visit.

Today I end my day in Alesund, on the West Coast. I brought my training gear and hopefully there will be some spark left in me so that I will get the will power to go running.

New car

Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi

I bought myself a new car yesterday - Panther Black! Yippee!

Alt for Rognan – Everything for Rognan

Norwegian TV2 has announced a new reality TV show called "Alt for Rognan" (Everything for Rognan).

Rognan is my home town – a small town just north of the Arctic Circle with a population of about 2000.

"Alt for Rognan"

The plot is as follows: A theatre director from one of Norways’s most famous theatres (Chat Noir) gives two brothers from Rognan the opportunity of a lifetime. They are to find eight people from the community and write, rehearse, and finally perform their play at Chat Noir in Oslo.

The two brothers, Håvard and Paul Gunnar Jansen, have earlier been part of the amateur theatre group "Låverboys" which has represented Norway at international festivals. And they are GOOD!

The filming has already started, and the first program airs September 27. The premiere at Chat Noir is November 16.

I am looking forward to see old friends and my beloved hometown on TV.

Life in outer space

New research has increased the likelihood of finding planets with life.


M81. Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI

An article published in the journal Science today shows that “more than a third of the known systems of giant planets may harbor Earth-like planets”.

Until now one has thought that life was most likely to occur in solar systems like our own, but this research shows that Earth-like planets may be much more common.

Taking into consideration the number of solar systems and galaxies the number of planets with life should be awesome.

This made me think of a post JonBen had earlier this year. Almost everything you see in the photo below is a galaxy.

From JonBens blog.

Bound for Glory

Montana 1942

These two photos are from the 1940s.

They are part of the Library of Congress’ collection.

Right now they have an exhibition with some of the photos taken by the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information.

Usually one associates old photos with black and white so it is almost like time travel to see them in colors.

Texas 1942

Summer

Test reply

Here are some links…

Who is the dude that keeps on posting comments like ”Here are some links bla bla bla…”?

I would like to get my hands on you! Get a life!

Tønsberg

K and I have been visiting my sister for some days. She lives in Tønsberg, a couple of hours drive south of us. Tønsberg is known as Norway’s oldest town.

She bought herself a new apartment earlier this summer and I have not been to visit her since then. Bad brother!


Castle Rock Tower

In the evening we ate at restaurant "Havariet" at the harbor. At first we were a bit concerned that we would not get our food within reasonable time since just after we had ordered, two of the staff was literally thrown into the sea. They emerged a minute later soaking wet. I was told later by our waitress that it was some kind of ritual they did with their summer employees. One of them had already been thrown "overboard" once more earlier that day.

After completing our meal in the late evening sun we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean II. It was not as good as the first one - I think.



I and K

K and Rakel

The second day we drove to Sandefjord where I lived for two years, way back, when I still was a young pilot student. It was nice to see old areas again. Here is the Whaling Monument (Sandefjord is an old whaling town):

Paris

Earlier this week I was back from another overnight, 25 hour, stop in Paris. This was my fourth stay there during the last two weeks. As always it was a nice trip.
Here are some photos:



The Louvre.

The Eiffel Tower

Friday I went for a four hour walk into the more suburban areas of Paris. No tourists and a – shall we say – more ethnic population made into a fascinating trip. Here is a portion of a wall not to far from our hotel.

At night I went to a club with a DJ and danced the night away. The French are so easy to make contact with. The younger generation speaks English fairly well, and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves.

This is from the same Friday walk. I like this picture because of all the concrete, and then - in the middle of it - this building that seems to have been moved here from a completely different area of the city.

A close up.

SK4122/29July

This is from a flight into Bodo, North Norway. The air was calm and crisp. Few other areas in the world are as beautiful as Norway on a sunny day.

Sunflowers

We were feeding birds on a bird table last winter.
One of their favourites (or at least so I thought) was sunflower seeds.
The feeder was placed in on of our flowerbeds and as spring came hundreds of little sunflowers started growing beneath it.

K moved some of them and here she is yesterday busy tying them up so that they shall not break when the winds get too strong.

Vacation

I have just arrived from work. And my SUMMER VACATION has started!

It’s gonna be so GOOOOD!!!!

Oslo

Spikersuppa, Oslo

On Akershus Fortress, Oslo.

Paris

K and I have been to Paris for some days. We brought along one of her friends from Bodoe.

It was a very nice trip! Great weather and lots of stuff to do.

Below are some pictures from Paris and Disneyland Paris.



In front of the Eiffel Tower.

On Champs Elysee

Arc de Triomphe from below.

In front of Radisson SAS Disneyland

Disneyland Paris