Fodball og Seiling i Norge

I joined the company (Subsea7) football team the other night for my first game of Football (no one calls it soccer or wogball here). Our company sponsors the Stavanger Vikings who play in the Norwegian league (3 draws from 3 games so far this season) so our uniform was also the Vikings uniform - very flash!

As would be expected, my football skills are Ok when it comes to Aussie rules footy, but come up lacking when playing 'Euro' Football. However I managed to score a goal in our 4-4 draw and had a lot of fun. We played on Grus (pronounced Groose) which is a gravelly tennis court style surface. Plenty slippery and rips the hell out of you if you fall over, but with the amount of rain we have it would be a pretty good drainage system to maintain a good grass pitch. It was a warm 18 degrees when we played!

I'll try and play regularly but I think football occasionally clashes with some of the sailing races that I plan on taking part in of a Wednesday evening this summer. This will be on board 'Salt' which is a beautiful yacht owned by a husband of a lady Emma works with. I have been helping him out a little with some of his repairs and maintenance and he is a lovely guy who lives just up the road from our new house so it will be nice to race with him (and other crew) of a Wednesday evening in Stavanger.

Emma gets back from London tonight so we may head down to the Vågen for a beer if she is not too tired. The weather today and this weekend is meant to be perfect. See link to the right. Have a good weekend everyone.

Skiing videos from Easter

Here is some video footage that I took whilst skiing at Lillehammer with Emma, Mitch and Ryan. Enjoy.

We also met with the bank last night (Nordea) to set up our accounts and things. She wondered about my middle names (I have two of them). She said I sounded very royal to which I replied and convinced her that I was an Australian Prince! I even suggested that she should refer to me in all communication as His Royal Highness!

Ahhhh ... what fun!

Hellestø again

The weather last week was certainly very interesting. On Thursday I rode to work in the rain but as the day went on it started blowing harder and harder. I thought that would make the ride home tough, but then it got stronger again and then started snowing!!!!! In my 30-odd minute ride home I contended with Hail, Rain, Sun, Snow, then Hail again! I also had to lean on about a 20 degree angle as I rode over the bridge on the way home due to the wind. My bottom-bracket on my bike which has been loose for a little while now also started making some noise and got looser - luckily I made it home. I have now ordered another bottom-bracket from Bjarte at my local bike store Sykkelzentrum. Should be here by Wednesday and then I can get back on the bike again - at the moment it is the bus.

On Saturday morning Emma, Coobs and I went to Hellestø beach again. Emma hadn't been there before so this was a pleasant journey. Cooba also made friends with a lovely SAS airline hostess who strangely didn't mind having her entire face licked by Cooba (weird!).

Here are some pics from the beach.

We also had Mari and her Aussie boyfriend Kev over for a meal on Sat night. It was lovely and we had mussels for entre, veal scallopini (and mushrooms) for main, and double chocolate brownies for main. Very lovely. Sunday was spent walking 10km around the Stokkavatnet lakes where we stopped in at the rowing club (Stavanger Roklubb) for a nice varm sjokolade drikke!

Dusavik Arbeid

I got given some pics from a guy at work from when I was out at Dusavik. Dusavik is one of our vessel bases where our vessels come in to get fitted up for different jobs. This is called mobilisation and demobilisation (for when we 'mob' a vessel for a new job and 'demob' it when it is finished.

Anyway I thought some of you might like to see what I have been up to at work (particularly Jenny Guala who just loves oil rigs and ships (I think she must be the only female who does).

I am now back at my office in Tananger working on a tender so will be pretty busy over the next 3-4 weeks. Emma is also flat out with her work over the next 2 weeks so poor Cooby may get a little neglected.

Preikestolen ... again!

Emma's old job as Marketing Manager for Laerdal Australia was taken by a nice guy named Dean. Dean was visiting Stavanger this week at the head office doing some training and as he is reasonably fit and outdoorsy he was pretty keen to head up to Preikestolen. This is the big rock I took Cooba, Brad and Ryan up to about 3 weeks ago. It was another magical day in Stavanger on Saturday so we jumped at the chance. Emma hasn't had the opporunity to head up there since her visit in 2004 so was also very keen.

For the regular readers I guess I don't need to get too verbose with the description of the hike up to the top, but needless to say it was again very enjoyable. There was actually almost no snow or ice to be seen this time at the top (apart from the surrounding mountains of course) so it was a very different hike.

Anyway we got to the top and found out that Dean was scared of heights! Well sitting on the edge of a vertical rock hanging over the water 600m below is probably not on height scared peoples 'to-do' list. But Dean did muster up the courage to have a look over the edge.

Emma, Cooba and I also had our photo session.

As you can see the rock and obviosuly the view is absolutely stunning. Even looking at the photos I enjoy it again.

I took an additional short hike up higher than the rock itself and the view down to the top of Preikestolen was truly amazing again. It was a bit sketchy in parts coming down as I needed to get some good angles for the photos so got into some precarious positions but was definitely worth it.

We finished up by going out to the Vågen (Harbour area) in Stavanger for a couple of nice drinks and a meal. It was jam packed being such a beautiful day and there were no shortage of Norwegian ladies out in their bra's soaking up the sun!!!! Ahh the life of an expat Aussie in Norway!

Easter Holiday

What an Easter! Here in Norway the locals love a holiday, the Easter break is from lunchtime on Wednesday until Monday. We (Joel, Emma and Cooba) packed our little VW Polo to the brim with supplies and headed off at the crack of dawn for the long drive to Oslo. One of Joel’s lecturers from the AMC in Tasmania, Jan Søholt – a native of Oslo who currently resides in Launceston, kindly loaned us his cabin for the weekend. It’s about 30 minutes north of Oslo near a town called Lillestrøm. It was Emma and the boys – Cooba, Joel, Ryan and Mitch. Most of you who read this blog will know who these people are by now.

The drive was very loooong – nearly 9 hours (with the easter traffic and long windy mountainous and coastal roads) but we arrived in one piece and were pretty excited about our rustic little cabin. Jan warned us that it was very basic – “you might prefer to spend Easter at Guantanamo Bay instead” I think were his specific words, but we found it charming. Keep in mind though no running water, no electricity, very little insulation and a long drop perched so precariously on the edge of a cliff that it took us 2 days to work up the courage to use it! It was pretty much camping but with a roof over our heads and a fantastic wood stove that we kept well stoked the whole time we were there. Here are some lovely pics of Coobs that we took on the weekend with Joel’s new camera.


Joel quickly went to work (within about 5 seconds we reckon) baptising his new purchase – a chainsaw – cutting down some trees for firewood. The cabin is situated amongst loads of fir trees and Jan said that the way to heat the cabin was to pick out a nice fir tree blocking the view and chop it down … so we did! It is a very picturesque area with a beautiful view of the lake from the cabin. The boys were pretty impressed with camping ‘norwegian style’ – we grabbed some nearby snow and added it to a few buckets for a ready made esky – although it was somewhat colder than the Aussie ones. The snow remained frozen the whole time we were there. Sure beats dropping into the servo daily for ice! The Cloudy Bay Sauv Blanc and Nøgne Ø Wit Øl never tasted so good!

The highlight of the weekend (apart from Emma’s Homemade Hot Cross Buns – they are not available here so we had to make our own) was no doubt our day trip to Lillehammer. The name may ring a bell – it was the home of the 1994 Winter Olympics. We had perfect conditions and went to Hafjell skifield where many of the Olympic events were held. Blue sky, no clouds, no wind, and reasonable snow coverage were an ideal way to test our new skis out – and we were very happy with our purchases. Here is a pic of Joel on Lillehammer with the very famous backdrop of the Olympic man cut out of the trees as well as a pic of Ryan Emma and Joel in the luxurious gondola lift heading up to the top of Hafjell for the first run of the day.

Back at the cabin we quickly made friends with some of the other locals in nearby cabins including Frøde, Geir, and Peder. Cooba also made great friends with Frøde’s Airdale Terrier Freda whom he had a bit of a crush on we think. We even got invited up to our Kjempeflott friends cabin for some drinks and a tour of their lovely renovated cabin. Here is a pic of our cabin with Mitch and Ryan cracking the top of their first beer for the weekend.



On the last night of our stay we had a fantastic dump of snow and awoke to a beautiful white soft forest. Here is a pic of the cabin the night when it started snowing and another posed shot.





We also found this ski jump 5 mins away from the cabin which actually has these polished porcelain dimpled tile tracks for use in the summer. God knows why anyone in their right mind would do such a thing (it was very scary at the top – Ryan commented he found it more scary than Preikestolen!) but it was a good climb to the top and this pic hopefully gives some perspective on how tall it was (Emma is a vague dot all the way down the bottom to the left of a green shed). We also found a bum-sliding-toboggan-thing which of course we put to good use.

We had a fantastic time and really appreciate Jan for lending us his cabin for Påske (Easter). His red shed is now fully stocked with stove-sized fir tree firewood! Hope everyone had a great holiday, we're thinking of you all.

Snakkes!

Emma and Joel.

Pics from Kev and Mari's

Hi,

Just thought I'd post a couple of extra pics that have only just come to light from the weekend we had at Kev and Mari's in Sauda (about 3 or 4 weeks ago). Don't miss the posts that Emma posted and updated about the house and her trip below this post. Just as an aside I also bought a new digital SLR camera and really good lens with some prizemoney so hopefully some of the pics will be pretty fancy from now on.

(Em and I at one of the many waterfalls that fall down the cliffs of the fjords alongside the road)

(Em near the waterfall on the other side of the road)

(Ryan near the waterfall at towards the top of the cliff. It actually looks scary when you are there with all of the water just pumping down - almost looks like an avalanche of water that is about to take you away.)

(Em and I doing what we did most of that weekend. Sitting relaxing on the couch.)

(This is a pic of Mari on the weekend just gone in Sauda. She went home again with Kev and went skiing. Its hard to believe it is the same place with blue sky - it rained non-stop when we were there!)

New House

Well guess what, we bought a house. I go away for 2 weeks and look what happens...! I haven't actually seen it yet, just the outside, but Joel has great taste and so I'm confident I will like what I see when I can look inside.

[Joel comment: I am very happy with the house. Emma Coobs and I visited it on Saturday and Sunday and I think they will both like it very much. As will any visitors who get their very own bedroom as well as option for another bedroom in the loft for other simultaneous visitors!]

Its a rekkehus (row house), one on the end. It is a couple of kms [Joel comment: actually exactly 1.5kms from the lake in the middle of town for those that know Stavanger at all - should be about a nice 15 minute walk to town - less with Cooba dragging us along!] from the centre of town, just near the hospital in Stavanger. There is a psychiatric clinic right nearby, which Joel believes is quite handy for when he manages to drive me crazy!

It has 3 bedrooms (one is configured as a study), a large living room with pot belly fireplace, a newly renovated kitchen [with integrated fridge, freezer, dishwasher] and bathroom [with varmekabler - means hot cables in the floor - so nice on cold winter nights], a terrace out the back [where coobs will have his kennel, we will have our BBQ and outdoor setting and we will probably extend it later on] and a good sized back yard. It also has an attic [they're called lofts here hon] and cellar [which is actually almost completyely renovated with plaster and downlights so we will finish this off and this can be another spare bedroom or nice storage area - we will also keep our aussie fridge down here which can be converted to a beer fridge - might even hook up the homebrew to a keg system and have the tap out the front of it]. We sign the contract on 10th April and hopefully move in at the end of may [the sooner the better]. We can't wait! All of a sudden our little flat seems so cramped!

There will be a few little improvements we can make, fence in the back yard, extend the terrace, paint and some plastering in one of the bedrooms, sand and polish the floorboards in the living area, but it is really ready to move straight in.

Very exciting!!! Here is a link to the website, it shows the same pics but you can click on the 3D section and see a bit more:
http://www.finn.no/finn/realestate/object?finnkode=9667486&sid=13apGu7XgW583914&pos=1&tot=274

Terrace

Study

Master Bedroom

Living room looking out to terrace

Living room looking to kitchen

kitchen, breakfast bar

Kitchen looking to living room

Bathroom

Bathroom

View of back of house