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!

Today’s training log from my watch.

I had a quick look at my watch after the boxing class today and saw that my maximum heart rate was set to 180, so I thought there must have been a glitch somewhere. Because I didn’t feel like I’d worked that hard.

But I guess todays class was a lot more fun that I thought since it seems I’ve been up to that hart rate a number of times.

Guess this shows how much easier it is to do a proper workout when you are having fun.

Thanks a lot for a great class Merita

And I’ve even been able to play a bit on my trombone tonight, struggling with that  high C *hmpf*

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:

Only two weeks late, well shit happens

Two weeks ago I spent the weekend at Årvoll skole where we were part of something I really enjoy.

Bands Crossing Borders is a cooperation between NMF in Norway and the Field Band Foundation in South Africa. Since 2001 there has been an exchange of musicians between Norway and South Africa. Four or five South Africans come to Norway and some Norwegian go to South Africa to teach and learn music.

In Norway the South Africans travel around the country having seminars with different band where they teach South African songs and dance to Norwegians. Or try to

The playing of music usually works out good, but getting stiff Norwegians to move is another matter At least when it comes to the older generation like us. I guess the kids are easier to get moving.

But still it’s a lot of fun, you learn some new tunes by ear and play beats and rhythms that are a bit different from what we are used to.

This is the second time I’m part of it and I’m hoping it’s not the last.

I guess this picture sums up a bit of how it can be

But no picture just yet, I’ve got to get rid of a old cupboard and do some painting first. And it seems it will be a little while until I’ve got that sorted.

But I’m getting there

I decided a few weeks back that I needed to do some changes to my kitchen. Get it a bit brighter. And I found that getting some mirrors on the wall should do the trick.

And today I’ve got the first one up, and the second should be along shortly. This one needs a bit more work, got to do some painting and replace some old cupboards on the wall. So I guess I’ll return later with the result on that one.

But here you can see the before and after of my first wall at least

I hope you see which is which. I struggled a bit with the after image since my camera go a bit disorientated on where the focus should be

And a bit more so than planned.

Today I went to the gym for the first time this year and in my head I figured that doing a 45 minutes cycling class followed by a bit harder 55 minutes class would be a great idea.

I got to start reading what I sign up for. The 45 was good, and the following harder class was great. Except it wasn’t a 55 minutes class. It was 75.

But I got through so perhaps I’ll do it again one day, just not tomorrow

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.

Well it wasn’t meant to be quite such an adventure that it ended up being.

On Wednesday I went to North Cape to do a training session for one of our customers. Quite an ordinary deal, just going up on Wednesday and then back on Thursday

Flying up there on Wednesday morning was wonderful, clear sky all the way and nice snow in Honningsvåg. Training went good and I was hoping to be able to take a few good photos of the northern light. But in the afternoon the wind picked up and it started to snow a bit.

Still not to bad.

During the night the weather did a total 365, from cold, calm and clear to warm, windy and raining like crazy. When I got to the airport I had to wait for a while before we got the message that the flight was canceled due to the bad weather.

Which wasn’t to surprising.

We were told to get on a bus that would take us to Alta which has better weather and a larger airport and we would fly from there, something that happens a lot at these small airports.

Then the adventure started.

The roads were covered in thick ice, it was raining and we had very heavy gushes of wind.

Our bus had snow chains on two of the wheels, one for traction and one for steering.

Apparently it wasn’t good enough.

After about an hour a strong gush of wind took hold and literary just blew the bus straight off the road. We rushed down a 10 – 15 meter incline and came to a stop about 30 m from the road and less than 10 meters from the sea. I guess the drivers reflexes saved the day.

If he hadn’t manage to turn the buss a little one the way down we would have gone into the sea. And if he had turned it to soon we would have tipped over. In any of those cases we would have had to abandon the bus and someone might have been injured.

Not to mention that I cannot imagine how it would be to be outside in the freezing rain for the hour it took to get help.

But we were lucky and the bus skidded to a halt on dry land and on its wheels. And with the engine still running the wait wasn’t to bad.

After an hour a minibus came to pick us up. Then it got messy, getting up the bank to the road was a real pain. The bank was made of round stones, frozen, with snow on top. One slip and you would just slide all the way back down. Which I did at least 4 times, and then when I finally got to the top and walked over the road the wind kept pushing me back and almost over the edge again.

But we got into the bus and got going. By now we were all wet which isn’t particularly nice. Especially when you know it’s still at least three hours by bus to Alta. And of course we would miss our flight again.

When we got past the worst part we transfered to a bigger bus and thought that we were home free.

But it wasn’t to be.

When we came to Olderfjord where the road starts over the mountain the driver found the road to be to slippery to get the buss over the pass. But a scheduled services bus was due i not to long and that bus was properly configured to get over the pass.

But I guess that this was the day when nothing went right. The weather was so bad that this bus had to stop and mount equip more snow chains.

This meant sitting another hour in the bus, even if the bus is warm it gets a bit chilly when you are wet.

Finally the buss arrived and we managed to get on to Alta without any more delays, except slow driving across the mountain, passing a snowplow who had hit the ditch to.

By now we were way past the last flight from Alta so we were lodged at Rica Hotel Alta for the night, and for me the trip went on back to Oslo on the first flight today.

Which was blissfully uneventful.

Except I ended up in the seat next to a “reindeer mechanic” or as the rest of us would say, a vet

Well at least next next August.

I’ve finally got my stuff arranged at work and booked my trip. I’m going to go to Tanzania and hike Mt. Kilimanjaro. I got a tip from a friend of mine about this particular trip and I figured that it would be great to be able to do it.

The whole trip is arranged by Rosa Bussarna which is a Swedish travel company that specializes in adventure trips around the world. The one I’m going on is a 18 days trip where we’ll visit the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar. You can read more about the trip here. (Swedish only)

I’m really looking forward to this. Except that I’ve got to go get a bunch of vaccinations, I really can’t stand taking shots. But I guess I have to

And if the preliminary dates are kept like today I’m probably going to have a long weekend in Stockholm too prior to leaving.