Lekaro

Or at least that was tonight’s plan.

I bought a new lens for my camera today, a Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC Macro, nice piece of kit So i thought I’d go out and take some pictures. A few weeks ago i found there is a path down along Ljanselva and I decided to walk it down to Fiskevollbukta, a nice 2.5 km walk along the river in the woods.

When i got there i got the bright idea that a walk into Oslo wouldn’t be to bad so I set out. So my little stroll ended up at about 12 km when I caught the buss from the National theater.

I just wish that I solved some world problems along the way, but thinking back i guess my brain was blank for the most part. Zombie walking, living in my own little world watching time fly by.

Guess that’s the story of my life

And i got a few photos. Thought I’d post my first attempt on a HDR image, so here goes.

Guess I’ll have to use some more time on post processing, and selecting a nice motive for such an image seems to take some practice to.

So what has happened ? A lot

After Muskeldundermarsjen to Verdalen I had a great time  with all my friends from Sørkedalen. The week after my trip to Verdalen I went to Tallin for a few days. Working. But still got some time to have a look around and find some GeoCaches. Yes I just got my self a new hobby. I guess Geocaching is the nerds way to get fresh air, or perhaps not.

Geocaching is a way to find places and read stories that you might have missed if you were just passing by. All over the world people hide geocaches, containers which at least contain a logbook that you can sign when you find it. You then get the GPS coordinates of the hiding place and post it in the Geocaching website other people can the locate the cache, and learn a bit of local history. Bigger caches can contain track able items that you can pick up and drop in another cache somewhere else, leaving a trail across the world on the Internet.

I guess it might fit just as well as a family hobby as a nerds hobby

The week after I came back from Tallinn I went to London for a few days to do some Blackberry training, and since the training was set for Thursday and Friday I got the weekend in London. Doing some more caching while seeing the sites and did a bit of photography. I’ll see if I can upload some more photos soon to. I’ve been experimenting with HDR images.

And the finally last weekend I went to Gothenburg with Lilleaker Janitsjar which was fun to. I guess that was the last of my concerts before summer

I guess that’s it for tonight, I better start writing a bit more often.

Muskeldundermarsjen 2009
Sørkedal’n – Verdal’n
597,2 kilometer
Inkludert 0,1 km pissepauser

Det ble en flying start på årets store internasjonale muskeldundermarsj. Rett fra
barnefødsel kom Lommedalens store datter Leahmus Agrolica svevende over startstreken
med den nyfødte hengende i brystet. Fra Sørkedalen brus og edruskap stiller
hurtigkar og supersjarmør Speed Date Rennafart. Verdalen stiller med skistjerna
Hjørdis Rappen fra Fishølet turn og idrettsforening. Ingen internasjonal turmarsj
uten innslag fra vår nabo i øst; Søtabror Svensson har funnet toppformen etter lang
tids gangsperre.

Med på marsjen følger Oppmuntringskorpset Sørkedalen Homp & Blæs som vil bidra med
oppmuntrende toner i hilldur og valsetakt. De vil også fungere som notelesere for
sin sambygding Speed Date Rennafart, som er kjent for å hoppe av i svingen.

Turmarsjen følger Pilegrimsleden som for anledningen er forlenget til Verdalen
Folkepark. De konkurrerende har allerede passert Krokskogen og er rapportert i godt
driv mot Hønefoss. I tet ligger Søtabror Svensson etter at Leahmus Agrolica rotet
seg bort i ammetåka. Speed Date Rennafart skar over krøn, men håper å nype seg
tilbake rundt en stein på ytter. Vi følger spent med på den videre utviklingen i
marsjen.

Den store målgangen vil foregå i folkeparken i Verdalen, sånn rundt regnet klokka
etter lunsj lørdag 30. mai. Ryktet vil ha det til at Vømmølfestivalen arrangeres i
samme tidsrom, og deltakerne satser derfor på å bli feiret med et stort og vømlende
opptog.

Med vennlig hilsen markedssjef Sigfrid Sainndøla Svingtrapp

So what has happened since the last time.

A whole lot, it’s been a busy week and weekend before that.

On Friday i went to my friends wedding in Moss, an event that almost got spoiled when i suddenly got a call telling me that there was a forest fire in Vestby and that we were needed there. Luckily I later got a message telling me that the fire brigade got it all covered and I didn’t have to go after all. Which was both good and a bit sad. I feel that we need to get some action soon, not just exercises.

Then Sunday was the 17Th of May, which as always is a long day. Getting up at 5:30 to be at Slurpen by 7:30, doing our round playing when the flag was hoisted around Sofienberg and then back to Lakkegata at 8:00 and our traditional 17Th of May breakfast.

The we got some time of before we marched down into town to join the 17Th of May parade up Karl Johan and past the royal family at the palace. I guess we finished off just about 12:00 since we heard the last of the gun salutes form Akershus festining just as we marched past the city hall.

And then some of us ended up at Tempest having a beer as we usually end up doing

The rest of the week has been a little of this and a little of that. i had Monday of, Tuesday in Trondheim, Wednesday on Grorud on a civil defence officers exercise, where we were part of some planning concerning the large three day exercise that is taking place in June.

And of course today I’ve got the day of. Just slept in a bit and went to the gym and just now came back from town where I’ve just lingered outside reading my book until it started raining.

Today was one of those blæh days at the gym. It started out good enough with a decent round of strength exercises, and then i was going to do a 55 minutes spinning class.

Well I actually did do one, but i was empty just a few minutes after starting. Not good.

Better get to bed and have a good nights sleep and hope it goes better tomorrow.

This weekend we had a bachelor party for Oskar, a friend of mine from college.We started out by going to the airport at Kjeller where he got to ride a Harvard T-6G LN-TEX which is a old WW2 era fighter trainer. This particular one was built in 1944 and served in the RAF until 1949 when it was sold to the Belgium air force. It has been in civilian hands and was equipped with guns by the portuguese air force and served in Angola. In 1979 it was bought by Anders Sæther in Scandinavian Historic Flight.

After the flight we went to Våler where we did a bit of paintball in the woods, which culminated in Oskar getting a bunny suite on and we went rabbit hunting

After the paintball and some giant boxing we went to Petters cabin at Foten and got Oskar drunk, as planned

So all in all it has been a great weekend, and on Friday it’s back to Moss for the wedding. just hope the bruises have healed on the groom.

And a long one as well

On Friday i got up early and went up to Lamberseter to play there and then we went down to Slurpen where we spent a few hours before marching the city center to be part of the 1st of May parade. As I was busy doing that Susan and Alwyn arrived in Oslo.

After we finished playing i went to Traktørn a small pub just up the road. I was supposed to have one beer and then go to meet Susan, but as everyone know .. there is no such thing as one beer .. so I ended up having two before I left.

Then I meet Susan and Alwyn at the central station, and we went home to my place and did a quick change around before going back into town.  We went to Aase and Jeanettes place at Frogner, where we meet up with some of the other people from my band. All in all i thing it was a good 1st of Mai.

On Saturday the weather had deteriorated some but we still decided to go to Kjelsås and do the walk down by the Akerselva. And with only a few drops of rain on the way down i guess we should say that we were lucky. On the way down we also dropped in on the market at  Olaf Ryes plass where we got some lunch.

We then went to Majorstua and took a stroll through Frognerparken and had a look at the statues by Vigeland

Then we went back home for dinner and spending the rest of the evening just relaxing at home.

Susan and Alwyn flew back to the UK today but we still managed some sightseeing. We took the boat out amongst the islands from Vippetangen, jumping off at Hovedøya where we had a look around. Then we went and had lunch at People & Coffee in Rådhusgata. I’ve been there before for coffee and not been to impressed, but now the place has changed and I enjoyed it a lot. I’ll most likely end up there at other occasions.

After lunch we had a stroll on Akershus fortress before walking up to the Castle to see if the king was home. And judging from the flag he was

Then it was time for Susan and Alwyn to catch their bus to Torp and the end of their Norwegian adventure for this time. But I guess they’ll be back to have a proper look at Norway later. Meaning going up north I guess. I’m just pleased that they seems to have had a nice weekend here in Oslo and that the weather Gods seems to at least partly be playing along.

Today I’ve been in the woods with my FIG at a Civil Defence exercise. And I guess it couldn’t have gone much better.

We started out at 9 at Grorud where the base of Civil Defences in Oslo and Akershus are based. As we arrived we were directed directly to the depot to get new boots. I’ve been looking forward to testing the new boots and after a day of walking, running , splashing in water and carrying stuff I’m very pleased.

The new boots have a good fit, are soft and flexible and not to heavy. Yet they offer good support for you ankles and cot a composite “steel cap” to protect your toes. And they’re gortex. Which at least initially is a good idea, we’ll just have to see how well it works after a few years of abuse

Then we had some time getting to know some of the new members that has joined the group and to re familiarize our selves with the firefighting equipment that we got on our car. We opened a manhole, went down and attached a  valve to the hydrant and the a 2.5″ hose to get the water out of the hole. And then everyone took turns going down or practising the attaching of the valve in a training rig.

Then we went to  Steinbruvannet, a little lake just a few minutes from the base. We started by getting out what we needed for the exercise from our own car and from a larger truck. And we finally have some useful equipment to the ATV that we have. They now got a small trailer for it, big enough for one fire pump (Ziegler Ultra Power) and some hoses and other equipment that you would need. This is great since the ATV can get to places where out ordinary truck cannot go. Which means less carrying for us Which is good considering the pump weights around 190 kilos.

Then we split the group in two and have a hose connection relay race. We started out by laying out a 4″ hose (25 m) and then a branch pipe, which reduces the 4″ to 3 x 2.5″ from there we had one 2.5″ hose (25 m) to a new smaller branch pipe which is split into two 1.5″ connectors, and then finally one length of 1.5″ hose (20 m) and a nozzle at the end. Then each team member had to start by attaching the hose to the pipe then running to the next connection and do that up and so one all the way to the top, of course the track ran uphills, and then on the way back down he/she would disconnect all the connections again preparing for the next in the relay.

Out group was one short so in the heat of the moment I decided to take a second run in the end just to be fair. But the few seconds of hesitation caused us victory. Shit happens

After that we did some drills on how the pump works, starting stopping, running on full auto and we simulated a feed hose breaking to se how the pump reacts and what to do when this happens. And i guess that when we are in the woods pumping like mad that will happen from time to time.

The last part of the exercise was to lay out a standard fire fighting hose arrangement to see how it works and how well we can wet the bushes and threes. One pump can pump around 2000 l each minute and the nozzles will handle about 500 l each so a standard layout have three nozzles connected to one pump. Then we have something in backup if we need it.

All of this in brillinat sunny weather, couldn’t have been any better

But now it’s time for bed, tomorrow is going to be a long day to.

Up early to play and the Susan will arrive later to spend the weekend in Oslo.

Today’s been the spinning day, three hours of it in fact. And all in all it worked out quite good. I was worried that it would be a lot harder than it was. But then again that might mean I didn’t try hard enough

But I’m happy, looking at my pulse graph after i got home shown that i managed my pulse rather good.

I managed an average of  145 bpm over the three hours which i think is good.

And now I’m getting ready to go to Marabella in Prinsdal to have a few beers with some of the people from the gym. should be good. if not I’ll just have to see whether i should go into town or not. It’s such a nice day today, sunny and calm. Kind of a shame that I spent most of it inside on a bike.

But shit happens.

Next weekend I get visitors all the way from Australia. Susan and her boyfriend are coming to spend the weekend here. I’m looking forward to that.

Just hope the rest of my OZ friend find their way to Norway to some day

And it’s back to the good old daily activities. And starting to look forward to my next break

I’ve been really bad at blogging my training the last few weeks, and not to good at doing it either, but now I’m back for a while. Today’s trip to the gym was great, i had a lot of fun and now I’m exhausted in a good way. And I’m loving the weather tonight , you can really feel spring coming today and I’m hoping that tomorrow will be a great day. The weather services are not as positive as I but I’m hoping to prove them wrong

And here comes today’s little chart.