Freedom Of The Seas

Freedom of The Seas, Royal Caribbeans new star is in Oslo today on its maiden trip. It is the worlds largest cruise ship. And it is BIG!!!

Check out this web-TV report from VG Nett. You have to watch a small commercial first. The reporter speaks Norwegian so if you have not heard my mother tongue before – this is it.
Also some pictures here.

The ships website is also pretty cool. It is among the best I have seen. You need broadband to watch it.

The Azores

Yesterday I flew to the Azores. It was a long day scheduled to 13 h and 20 min. It did not make things any better that I found a tear in one of the main wheels when I did the walk around. We had to replace the wheel and we were 50 minutes delayed when we finally pushed from gate.

The trip itself was uneventful. I got to try the HF (High Frequency) radio for the first time as we flew into an Oceanic Clearance area. The cabin crew served us snacks, drinks (non alcoholic :-) ) and hot meals on the way down and up.

The real challenge on these long flights is to keep oneself alert and keeping the body from getting to stiff.

I should rather fly long haul. Their flight legs are not much longer than what we produce in a day, and they are flying with extra crew to get some relief enroute. Plus they end up at some exotic destination where they hopefully get a nice and relaxing stop. We just end up dead tired back in Oslo again ready for a new days work in 12 hours.

On the positive side I got to practice some of my newly learned Portuguese with the radio controllers at Santa Maria.

Hafjell

Interactive map here


This Easter I tried downhill skiing for the first time in my life. One should think that being a Norwegian born with skies on my feet I should have done this a long time ago. But, no! The only downhill skiing I have been doing has been with XC skies. To my surprise it was not difficult at all - quite the opposite. But then - maybe I did something wrong?

Anyway, I stayed at Lillehammer (Winter Olympics 1994) for some days and went skiing at Hafjell. I have some pictures on my cell – maybe I load them up at some later date. :-)

Best weekend ever?

Aside from a lot of work this weekend was among the top 10 - ever. Enough said!

Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian flag

I have picked up a copy of Pimslurs ”Learn Brazilian Portuguese”. So today I started my attempt to learn the basics of a new language.
It is based on learning by listening and repeating conversations. No writing necessary. 30 minutes a day.
Let us see how it goes.

Old photos

My parents were visiting us last week when K celebrated her 10th birthday. They had some old photos and negatives with them. I scanned some and here are a few of them:


This young man is my grandfather on my dads side. The picture is taken in August 1939 when he was 19. It is cut from the photo below.

He later went on to marry my grandmother - the lovely lady sitting in the middle of this picture. My grand uncle is sitting to the right.

My father is the lovely looking boy to the right. Notice his pants.

My grandparents and uncle on my mothers side.

My parents in the 60's.

A early photo of my mother.

Me when I was 12 or 13.

Shakira, Shakira

"I never really knew that she could dance like this
She makes a man wants to speak Spanish
Como se llama, bonita, mi casa, su casa
Shakira, Shakira" Hips don't lie