Lekaro

The other day we had a big thunderstorm coming through, and I was sitting in my window with my camera.

I took over 300 pictures and this is what came of it.

Not a lot but better than nothing

You know how sometimes the funniest things happens ?

Today I had such a  incident. I was walking on Aker Brygge when there was a sudden rainstorm, so I took cover under a small landing and since I didn’t know how long the rain would last I got my book out.

And then suddenly a woman comes across the plaza and asks me what book I’m reading. She was a publisher and she and some friends had been watching me from the other side trying to decide if I was a tourist reading a travel guide or someone else reading fiction.

I’m still wondering who won the bet

And my the way I was reading “Gone for good” by Harlan Coben. And I guess that’s the reason why I’ve yet to go to bed. Just had to keep reading.

It’s that day again.

Where people get out no matter if the rain is pouring or we got a bit of snow in the air. People dress up, are happy and celebrate our independence day.

I’ve hopefully been able to get up by now and is heading into town dressed in my marching band uniform and with my trombone ready.

Or at least that’s the plan.

And for those that don’t know it. Her is the lyrics for the Norwegian National hymn if you come across some Norwegians abroad. I know this one played a lot in Sydney when I was there

Ja vi elsker.

1.
Ja, vi elsker dette landet,
som det stiger frem,
furet, værbitt over vannet,
med de tusen hjem.
Elsker, elsker det og tenker
på vår far og mor
og den saganatt som senker
drømme på vår jord.
Og den saganatt som senker,
senker drømme på vår jord.

2.
Dette landet Harald berget
med sin kjemperad,
dette landet Håkon verget
medens Øyvind kvad;
Olav på det landet malte
korset med sitt blod,
fra dets høye Sverre talte
Roma midt imot.

3.
Bønder sine økser brynte
hvor en hær dro frem,
Tordenskiold langs kysten lynte,
så den lystes hjem.
Kvinner selv stod opp og strede
som de vare menn;
andre kunne bare grede,
men det kom igjen!

4.
Visstnok var vi ikke mange,
men vi strakk dog til,
da vi prøvdes noen gange,
og det stod på spill;
ti vi heller landet brente
enn det kom til fall;
husker bare hva som hendte
ned på Fredrikshald![3]

5.
Hårde tider har vi døyet,
ble til sist forstøtt;
men i verste nød blåøyet
frihet ble oss født.
Det gav faderkraft å bære
hungersnød og krig,
det gav døden selv sin ære –
og det gav forlik.

6.
Fienden sitt våpen kastet,
opp visiret for,
vi med undren mot ham hastet,
ti han var vår bror.
Drevne frem på stand av skammen
gikk vi søderpå;
nu vi står tre brødre sammen,
og skal sådan stå!

7.
Norske mann i hus og hytte,
takk din store Gud!
Landet ville han beskytte,
skjønt det mørkt så ut.
Alt hva fedrene har kjempet,
mødrene har grett,
har den Herre stille lempet
så vi vant vår rett.

8.
Ja, vi elsker dette landet,
som det stiger frem,
furet, værbitt over vannet,
med de tusen hjem.
Og som fedres kamp har hevet
det av nød til seir,
også vi, når det blir krevet,
for dets fred slår leir.

And another song that you might get to hear

Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått (Norway in red, white and blue )

Hvor hen du går i li og i fjell,
en vinterdag, en sommerkveld blant fjord og fossevell.
Fra eng og mo med furutrær,
fra havets bryn med fiskevær og til de hvite skjær.
Møter du landet i trefarget drakt,
svøpt i et gjenskinn av flaggets fargeprakt.
Se, en hvitstammet bjerk oppi heien
rammer stripen av blåklokker inn.
Mot den rødmalte stuen ved veien,
det er flagget som vaier i vind.
Ja, så hvitt som det hvite er sneen,
og det røde har kveldssolen fått,
Og det blå ga sin farge til breen,
Det er Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått!

En vårdag i en solskinnstund
på benken i Studenterlund der sitter han og hun
To unge nyutsprungne russ,
to ganske nylig tente bluss i tyve grader pluss.
Hun er som en gryende forsommerdag,
som farves av gjenskinnet fra det norske flagg.
Ja, så hvitt som det hvite er kjolen
og så rødt som det rø hennes kinn.
Hennes øyne er blå som fiolen,
hun er flagget som vaier i vind.
Han har freidig og hvitlugget panne,
og en lue i rødt har han fått.
Med en lyseblå tiltro til landet,
står vår ungdom i rødt, hvitt og blått!

De kjempet både hun og han!
Nå lyser seirens baunebrann, utover Norges land.
Mot himlen stiger flagg ved flagg
som tusen gledesbål i dag, for alle vunne slag.
Det knitrer som før over hytte og slott,
et flammende merke i rødt og hvitt og blått.
Som en regnbuens tegn under skyen,
skal det evig i fremtiden stå.
Se, det glitrer på ny over byen,
i det røde og hvite og blå.
La det runge fra gaten og torget,
over landet som nordmenn har fått:
Du er vårt, du er vårt, gamle Norge!
Vi vil kle deg i rødt, hvitt og blått!

Went looking through my pictures today and found a few that I’ve taken to do some HDR tests so I figured why not just get them on line.

Winter sunset in Herøy :

View from my window:

2009 is over and twenty ten is upon us.
2009 was a good year and I bet 2010 will be even better, at least it looks promising. Africa trip coming up and there are talks of going to the October festival in Calella, Spain with Soffa this year.

But all that is in August to October so I guess there will be a lot of fun before that to.

I’ve added a few pictures from New Years eve. Nice and quite afternoon at home and just our on to the veranda for some pictures around midnight.

[View with PicLens]

That’s where I spent my Saturday

This years airshow was blessed with nice weather and I returned home tired, a bit sunburned and with 1600 images to look through on my camera. And this time around quite a few of them was actually quite good.

I’ve uploaded a few to a new gallery and will probably add some more after doing another look through all of them

This years show was not as good as the one two years ago I’m afraid. The speakers wasn’t always on the action and I lost at least a few good shots because when listening to the speakers the show by that crew apparently was over when there still where a few passes left. They also seemed to have problems with the speaker system which was annoying.

But even so we got to se some spectacular flying. And I have to say that even if the big teams like the Patrouille Suisse and Aerostars YAK Aerobatic Team was impressive I’ve sort of seen it before

I was more impressed with the Norwegian Air Force tactical F-16 and chopper display. And there was some nice formation flying with De Havilland Vampire and two F-16. Showing the first jet fighter in the Norwegian Air Force and the current active fighters.
I’m hoping for a similar show in a few years where we’ll have the Vampire, F-16′s and the new F-35

[View with PicLens]

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.

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.

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.