Modern Life is Rubbish

Poison Candy

2008-09-27T08:55:00.004+02:00

Poor chinese... Their everlasting huger for more money results in poisoning of the nations future.

The latest is that of my favourite chinese candy "White Rabbit" has been banned after findings of the cemical melamin.
A news link
I hope none of you who decided to try it here in Stavanger took any damage...

So far 6,244 children have become ill from the cemical melamin after drinking milk made of milk poweder. Four have died. The tainted milk powder has been isolated to the Sanlu Group, which is Chinas biggest maker of the product.

Summer is over, vacation here I come!

2008-09-22T18:15:00.012+02:00

Today my girlfriend went offshore again... This might be for the last time as she is going back to a landbased project. Good :-)
When she comes home we will go to Japan on vacation!

Here in Stavanger it is getting colder.. even though there is very little rain compared to normal I can`t do anything like this anymore.

I must say that this summer has been excellent! Ive never swam as much as Ive done this summer. I love it.

But during winter I can stay inside and make excellent food.
Like Baozi, aka kung fu panda training meal:

Or sushi(sorry, cant wait until I go to Japan!)

But I long for coffee breaks in the mountain

and

Relaxing summers at the cabin...

Peoples University

2008-09-04T08:15:00.003+02:00

Buhuu! For the second time in two years the peoples university, Folkeuniversitetet in norwegian, has robbed me from the chanse of learning mandarin...

Last year it was because I was the only one listed and they needed 5. Why don't they advertice?? It should be at least 5 people in the city who want to learn the language.

This year everything was going as planned until one day in advance. But then a email: Sorry, we are postponing it one week.

OK; fair enough cause I've heard through another guy that they had enough people this time.

Yesterday I got a phone; "Hi! I'm sorry but the Chinese teacher told us yesterday that he can only hold the course on mondays, not tuesdays as planned, hope it is ok with you :-D"

Finally half a year of planning to get that stupid tuesday free in order to attend a stupid language course, it is moved to the day I can't, the day I could have, but after rearranging my schedule can't anymore.

Thanks, Xie Xiè, from now on I'll do it myself.

Home Alone 4

2008-08-12T09:05:00.004+02:00

Say, that sounds like a good movie!

My girlfriend went offshore for two weeks yesterday and I'm home alone. Buhuu!

She went to the oil platform Frigg to work as an HSE Inspector. Two weeks on, four weeks off.

They are deconstructing the platform so there is now very little left of it. They have to sleep in a floating hotel that is connected to the platform with a bridge. Two weeks ago it broke due to bad weather, people on "the wrong side" had to stay there for a very long time... no life boat, no bed, no survival suit.... had to suck...

Well, here in Stavanger I have lots to do. Our matial arts center is being re-newed and the Karate club and the Taekwondo club do all the work together. A lot of hard work, but alot of fun.

I really look forward to training facility with a ventilation system that work...

28 days later

2008-07-29T22:40:00.001+02:00

Happy birthday Ragge! Thanks! :-D

Went to The Sola Beach yesterday to celebrate my birthday. What is better than bbq'ing, swimming and getting a tan at the same time? Very very nice. 22 degrees in the water, can't get any higher because the north sea is washing in all the time.

Also I had to bake a cake for my colleagues. Should have done it yesterday, but I forgot. Anyway; those who wait for something good.... and so on.

Blue Belt Graduation

2008-07-08T16:33:00.003+02:00

Graduated for blue belt june 12th.
Had to perform board breaking for the first time.

Sad thing was that one of the guys I normally train with failed to graduate and has to stay one more semester in the advanced 1 class :-(

I'll start in the advanced 2 class; a bit tougher, but then I'll get in better shape :-)

Ni hao! Ni hao ma?

2008-07-05T11:22:00.007+02:00

Hi! I got lost, but now I'm back.

Lots of things have happened since I last posted something here.

You might now think "omg! what has happened? Tell me please!"

Sorry, nothing like that has happened.

Well, I'll start off easy.

Last weekend I was in Haugesund. My friend Thomboy and me got together saturday. Since the weather was so nice we decided to go down to the shore and drink beer.

Everybody else were busy, except Erik! Yey!

So three youg lads went down to the shore and found an island that had become accessable due to the low tide.

We stayed there for a while, but Erik and Thomas got too afraid of not reaching back to work on monday if the high tide came, so we went to the "safe side". Phu! That was close.

We got abit tired of all the beer, but Thomas said: tam tam TAM! Espresso here we come!

Nothing like beer, coffee and nature

Eventually there came to many sheep and we were forced to go home.

Very nice weekend!

London!!

2008-04-08T11:22:00.009+02:00

Me and seven friends from Haugesund went for a five day vacation to London, GB, to relax and have fun. Here is a couple of pictures from the trip.

Inside the living room of the 100 m^2 apartment in Charles street. Everyone except me and Glenn.

Me, a fireplace and a bird

Thomas and Asbjørn on an escalator in a tube station.

A mummy statue at the British museum.

Chair Man Mao(1971) (hihi!) The window of a cartoon museum.

Cold and rainy in Bristol. Me and Thomas took the train for 2 hours to see a football match.

Me and Thomas finally find a place to rest and get dry. They had no food, but luckily they had beer and some pretzels :-P

Bristol City vs Norwich City!

Thomas under a very nice roof at the stadium

Thomas before we knew that we would have to run for 25 minutes to catch the train back to london by minus one minute. Haven`t been so tired in many years as we were when we finally got on the train without knowing if it was the right one...

Sunday morning, and it seems like I`m all alone:-) Nice and quiet.

Big ben and the houses of parliament!

..and me :-D

Tower Bridge

Beefeaters at the Tower of London

Lunch! Miso Ramen at a small resturant in Japan Town.

Mmmm!

Speakers Corner!

St. Pauls

Buckingham Palace

Green Park!

A squirrel eating in Green Park.

I got home that sunday at 23.45. Get a message from Thomas, who left London at 06.45, around 00.10, they've just landed. They had an ariport train break down and missed their plane and had to pay a lot of money to get home and it took as you can imagine 12 hours longer than expected... poor guys!!

Anyway it was an excellent trip and, I think everyone is looking forward to next years return.

Easter, Kongsberg

2008-04-06T16:56:00.008+02:00

For the easter holydays Li and me drove from Stavanger to Kongsberg. We finished work on wednesday and started to drive on thursday morning. A very nice drive even though it snowed the whole time I was driving.

During the first night it snowed 45 cm!!!

The small birds needed some help collecting food :-)

Saturday: a lot of snow and sunshine.

The view from Blefjell

The view from Blefjell2

The view from of Blefjell3

I fell, and so did Li, my sister is behind my ski...

Sunday: A husky on top of the mountain, brought up by the Red Cross.

Li and my sister. Hehe, someone found some eighties ski clothing :-)

Think it is the first time someone has served sushi in jondalen

Family dinner!

Taekwon-do graduation

2008-03-17T18:43:00.007+01:00

Last wednesday I graduated for 5th gup! Best in class :-D Highest ranked in my class :-) Yey! Soon half way to Black Belt 1. dan :-) 把把

Wednesday Sushi

2008-03-09T14:40:00.002+01:00

Ahh... one of my new favourites; California Roll.

Li made this for a good bye dinner we had for one of her colleagues. My job was to cut it, and make it look nice in a sushi bowl. Think I managed...

Ski Trip to Sauda

2008-03-08T09:39:00.003+01:00

Last weekend my companys sports club arranged a trip to Sauda, a town into one of norways many fjords.

Four out of 68 people went cross country skiing :-)

Li and Me and lots of snow!

Mark, Nada, Li on the ski bench we made while havinig a well deserved brake.

Li and Nada at the bottom of a hill.

I had to try some offpiste downhill with my borrowed mountain skies

Impressive ski track going around the lake, and over a dam!! Scary!

Ice Hockey Match

2008-02-04T07:58:00.000+01:00

Me and Erik went to the ice hockey match between Stavanger Oilers and Stjernen.
So much fun to stand just next to the plexi-glass :-)

Then, in the newspaper the next day: ME!

Erik is to the left.. outside of the photo... poor him!

Season Greetings from Aker Kværner Offshore Partner Inspection

2008-01-18T11:42:00.000+01:00

My departments season greeting photo to one of our colleagues who was forced to go back to Venezuela. Four of my colleagues could not attend at the photo shoot. Location: Video Conferanse room.

Weekend!!

Bad taste party and Kjetils birthday

2008-01-16T19:55:00.000+01:00

Christmas 2007 Kongsberg

2008-01-13T12:11:00.001+01:00

Graduation from Green stripe to Green Belt

2008-01-08T20:38:00.000+01:00

Graduated just before cristmas.

Found out that someone had been taking som photos from the session, so here they are ;-)

Ap Cha Bussigi, front snap kick.

A block..

Some fixed sparring..

Time for grilling in front of the main instructor..

Happily explaining some pattern..

Ehh.. trying to explain it one more time...

Passed :-P :-D

Visit by Harald and Kari

2007-11-05T21:19:00.000+01:00

Had a visit by Harald and his wife Kari this weekend. Luckily this weekend it stopped raining too. Now it has started again...
Will go to the dentist today, have to get rid of a wisdome tooth. Did I tell you? Three weeks ago I went to the dentist for the first time in 11 years...
I had two minor "holes" that had to be fixed. And the dentist said: "When we already have you here we can take two of your wisdom teeth :-)" Help :-(

Harald and Kari.

Li, Harald and Kari and Trivial persuit at a cafe downtown.

Kamerat Lenin!

Our electronic dart board is always a winner :-) I lost big time...

Bore beach just south of Stavanger

Li and sunshine

View north

Surfers and the light house

View south

Harald and me at the Kult Cafe.

Sushi!

2007-10-29T16:22:00.000+01:00

Hey! Then the weekend was over and two days closer to christmas. Yey!

Chose to stay in Stavanger for the weekend, even though there was a big birthday party in Haugesund... But we made sushi! Yey! Second time we we made it now and it is only getting better.

Seaweed with rice on top. Then a stip of salmon and wasabi.

Roll it firmly together.

A good selection of different types. We used salmon, shrim and cucumber. We also bought advokado, but it was not ripe at all... You can also see a soup called "clean soup" that is supposed to clean and warm your stomace before eating sushi. Very nice.

Mmm...!

COLD!!!

2007-10-18T09:50:00.000+02:00

Yet again, winter has come. 5 degrees and very windy on my way to work this morning. Luckily no snow as they forcasted monday.

Anyway, I can finally dig out my big russian bunny hat from the closet :-D

Wish you all a nice day!

And remember to put on enough clothing...

Birthday

2007-10-14T20:52:00.000+02:00

Hey
I'm a Very bad blogger these days. Sorry.
Celebrated Li's birthday this weekend. Very nice!

What is a birthday without a couple of shrimp kings?

Wish you all a nice week!

Rebusløp and Red Shirt for Burma and two happy boys

2007-09-28T08:12:00.001+02:00

Me giving my rebusløp suit the final touches. Beer, 9 seater car and co-workers all night.

Why a red shirt for burma? I have NO red clothing what so ever... so, if you look closely you can see the red peace of tape at my ID-card.

browsed the news this morning. And what is that?!?! Asbjørn and Håvard in Haugesund newspaper! Haha, nice work guys!

Wish you a nice weekend!

Please don't laugh 2

2007-09-26T21:01:00.001+02:00

Yup, started sparring now...

Had to pose for the masses :-)

Taekwon-do is fun.

Please don't laugh 1

2007-09-26T20:50:00.000+02:00

Haugesund FK won the semi final!! We are going to Oslo to win the kings cup!!

Then I went out to buy me some food. As I closed the door I suddenly remembered I din't have my keys...*CLICK*...

HELVETE!!! Li's in Paris, the girl that has the spare keys is out sailing...

Finally three hours later the girl with the key arrives. But, none of here keys fitted... then we found out that I probably had one of those new locks that she didn't have the spare key to... it would take days to get one of those...

"can we just try once more for the heck of it?" I asked...

Door opened.

Lucky one dollar bill strikes again!

Elevator

2007-09-25T07:22:00.000+02:00

Stupid people!!

Came to work this morning, decided to take the elevator. One guy is already there waiting. After a while I see that he has pushed the down arrow... I reach out and pushes the up arrow. He turnes his head my direction, and then back.
His elevator arrives. He steps in, I'm still waiting. THen I see that his elevator don't go down, it goes up!! ARGH! Why don't you tell me that you pushed the wrong button!??! I have to of course wait two more boring minutes.
Where is this going to end....?

Berlin

2007-09-16T19:34:00.000+02:00

My cousin, her boyfrien, Li and me went one long weekend to Berlin.
Here are some photos :-)

The Norwegian Election

2007-09-11T08:22:00.000+02:00

Those who didn't wote can shut up for four years!

Congratulations!

2007-09-10T14:08:00.000+02:00

Håvard and Guro has become parents to twins! :-D

Finally sunshine in stavanger!

GOtta work...

Argh....

2007-09-06T09:20:00.000+02:00

Sorry people... been a fucked up week with a lot of work...

Will be going to Haugesund this weekend. ANyone else?

Have a nice day!

Two notes; past and future

2007-08-21T12:26:00.000+02:00

-My dad got his green card in golf yesterday! Maybe I should do the same? What do you think?

-FK Haugesund is in the semi final in the football cup! I will definately try to go to the game the 26th or the 27th of September.

Tuesday morning blues

2007-08-21T07:19:00.001+02:00

Hey! I'm really tired of having this cold... but it's getting better, and I'm hopeing to be able to attend TDK practise tomorrow.
This weekend me and Li drove to my mothers cabin in Kongsberg to attend my grandmothers 80th year birthday. Lots of family, and I even got the chance to see Harald and his wife as they were at his grandparents cabin just five minutes away from ours.
Monday I took the plane to Bergen. Had to get some drawings in order to do my work.
Met Erik in the afternoon, ate dinner and had coffee.

The nice thing about living in a hotel, is having the time to just lay in bed watching TV, taking a long warm bath, yeah, doing nothing, and not feeling bad about it. Nice :-)

Got up at 0600. Went down to eat breakfast at 0615.
Got this nice holiday feeling when I saw all the tourists al ready up and deep into the food trays.

Got outside to wait for the taxi, freezing cold, well, only 4 degrees, but sunshine. Think they said it would be 22 degrees today, well, we'll see, I'll anyway go home to Stavanger at 1600. And to Berlin on thursday... nice!

Wish you all a nice day!

Last weekend and some more :-)

2007-08-14T09:59:00.000+02:00

Hey! Had a very nice weekend with a lot of happenings :-)
Jazz festival, my mothers birthday breakfast, new bed and a bachelor party.
But start off with some photos from my birthday.

Birthday dinner! Tacos!

Birthday cake! Apple cake; with forms which my mother gave me, hehe.

Last week we went to the bech, a bit cold because of the wind, but very nice.

I went for a swim, very cold, about 15 degrees... brrr.

My mother and stepfather visited Haugesund and the festival this year and we met them at my oncle and aunts consert.

My uncle playing his giutar.

Dinner monday; Lambgai and sweet potato noodles; thai and chinese combined. Very good!

Had nothing to do, so made chocolate cake. Nam nam, hope taekwon-do practice starts soon or I'll be the next person Jerry Springer has to help out of the house...

Remember that clicking on the photos makes them into full size!

My new shoes

2007-08-09T10:11:00.001+02:00

Harald bought me a new pair of shoes in Oslo yesterday! Yey! I'll get them when we meet in Kongsberg next weekend :-D

Aren't they nice?

Will take a small trip to Haugesund and Sildajazz friday, will go back for a bachelor party in Stavanger saturday.

Wish you all a nice day!

Lost Weekend Part 2

2007-08-07T09:17:00.000+02:00

Ah! The tiredness after the festival finally caught up with me this morning... Yawn! Well, only four days until weekend! :-D Here are some more photos from the festival:

BART (one of top three)

Kakkmaddafakka

The Low Frequency in Stereo (One of Top Three)

Tommy, Asbjørn, Thomas and Håvard

Cloroform

The Lost Beach Concert area

Grant Lee Phillips (One of top three)

Kjetil and main camping area

Tommy, Thomas and me making dinner at the beach

Trowing frisbee with the Police! :-D

Me with sunburn and beer

A crazy guy and Asbjørn

The Lost Weekend Music Festival

2007-08-06T08:27:00.000+02:00

Wow, what an excellent weekend! Me and six friends went to Bergen to attend the Lost weekend music festival this wednesday. Five of them went early to get the best camp site possible. Me and Thomas came six hours later. Beer, rain, sunburns and rock, nothing beats that.
Here are some photos:

Asbjørn, Tommy, Thomas and Anders

Asbjørn on the stone beach

Nice to be inside a dry tent.

First consert; Japanese girl band called Ex-Girl. Started the concert dressed out as lobsters.

Me at "Rocket to the sky"

Big Bang

Sunshine! Kjetil and Asbjørn

Thomas, Håvard, Tommy and Anders

Tommy

Anders (and Asbjørn)

Base Camp, and BBQ on the beach.

China part two

2007-07-31T11:35:00.000+02:00

Some more photos from our vacation in Sichan, China:

Cats sleeping in the reception, Chengdu

Bridge in Yibin

Tomorrows dinner

Farm land

Peanuts, corn and rice

Waterbuffalo

Small homeless cat

Gubai main street

Fish!

A boy who watched us fishing

First white table tennis player in the town, and the first one to touch the basket ball ring :-)

China

2007-07-31T08:43:00.000+02:00

Hey! Some of my photos from our trip to Sichuan, China.

Chengdu

Ice cream in the hotel hallway

CHengdu traffic

House with lights

The start of the great river, Yibin, and our resturant boat.

Fish hot pot and Li's cousin.

KTV/karaoke after dinner is a must!

The factory city inside the city, Wu Lian Ye, Yibin

Back in stavanger

2007-07-20T17:56:00.000+02:00

Li, sunshine, shrimps, beer and a balkony... Mmm...

Met Erik in Bergen. Very nice! Coffee, relaxing, talking and Boston Legal.

Wish you all a nice weekend!

Day five

2007-07-20T07:42:00.000+02:00

For some reason I didn't get to sleep yesterday until very late, my eyes still hasn't opened all the way up.. but.. managed to get some breakfast before I had to check out.

As you might have understood from my prevous post, there are three things that matters out here: 12 hour work, 4 hour eat and 8 hour sleep. Oh, sorry; of course I have to mention the 24 hour with safety.

Waiting for the helicopter back to Bergen/Flesland. It leaves in half an hour.

Will go up and watch the safety presentation now.

Wish you a nice day!

Day four

2007-07-19T07:48:00.000+02:00

Argh.. why can't I learn. I need sleep!

Last full day. I'll have to finish my work, and I think I'll manage with a good margin.

I told you yesterday that the weather had changed and that is was raining and blowing, well.. one hour later it was sunshine and wind still.
(When it's talking to you, talk of the weather will do. -Norwegian saying)

By the way; here is a photo of the legs of the platform I'm visiting. My stepfather was actually involved in the making of it in 1979.

Wish you a nice and safe day!

Day three

2007-07-18T07:41:00.000+02:00

Yawn... tired today... Got up at 0545 as yesterday, but what sleep I didn't need yesterday I needed today, and I almost went back to sleep unvoulantarily.

The weather suddenly changed yesterday from partly sunny to rain and wind at 50 knots. Luckily I was working mostly under "roof".

When I came here two days ago I flew for the first time a Super Puma:

Normally we fly a Sikorsky S-92 like this, but.. there had been some problems.

Stationed out on the platform they have a Sikorsky S-76C+:

This a SAR helicopter(search and rescue), which they also use for personel shutteling between the platforms. I took this from SFB to SFA last time cause they had overbooked the platform for the night. Much fun to fly! (Like airwolf :-P)

Wish you a nice day!

Greetings from Statfjord B and the North Sea

2007-07-17T09:02:00.000+02:00

Hi! I'm now sitting at the office for inspection at Statfjord B. Very nice weather outside compared to normal. Came yesterday after waiting 6 hour for a delayed helicopter... boring!

Will be here until friday. And then I'll hopefully meet Erik in Bergen the three hours I'll wait for my return flight to Stavanger.

OK, time to go out and work. Climb around in the pipe jungle down there.
Have a nice day!

PS: My coputer mother board died saturday. Seven days after my three year next day garantee ended. #¤%&§!

PPS: A seawater pipe just got ripped off cause of corotion, water everywhere!! Who needs to go to the swim park?

Internet at home!! And a china teaser

2007-07-13T20:34:00.000+02:00

Hey! First post from our new apartment :-D

The sun is shining and I'm inside.

Now the china photos is near by. I'll start with this short movie showing the view from inside a Jeep grand cherokee. Very bumpy road, very bumpy... I'll never complain about Norwegian roads again after being a passanger on the main road from Yibin to Gubai.

Wish you a nice weekend!

Back from China and moved in to the new appartment

2007-07-06T14:23:00.000+02:00

Hey! Sorry... very bad at posting as usual. I'll try to make a report very soon :-)
Wish you all a nice weekend!
Going to haugesund now. Bye!

Teambuilding, Tau, Eirik Blodøks

2007-06-08T09:23:00.000+02:00

Here are some photos from my the Inspection Teambuilding at Tau:

After the serious working: Everyone get beer and are briefed about the dinner.

BBQ! We made our own food.

Some of the activities: Cognac-tasting, the local brand. Very nice!

And this photo had to be taken. My colleague has found his place in the bar :-D

Spring rolls, Norway, Hungary and a visit from Haugesund

2007-06-08T08:26:00.000+02:00

Hey!
Thomas came on a visit wednesday. Very nice! He helped us making spring rolls, and helped us eat them. Nam nam!

Afterwards we watched the norwegian national team win 4-0 over Hungary. Best match in ages. This match was followed by two rounds of PES of course :-)

Will be going for China in two days! Yey!

Slow

2007-06-06T08:59:00.000+02:00

Yeah, things are going slow here... sorry...
Lot's of stuff happening and I stopped my internet 1st of june.

Since I'm going on holyday the tenth of june, I couldn't join my TKD clubs graduation on sunday. But my master, thank you for great service, graduated me alone during the black belt training this monday. Yey! I'm now a green stripe 7th gup in Tàikong-dào!

My master

This weekend we went to Oslo. Took the plane friday. Had a family gathering with coffee and cake saturday, and went to Kongsberg/Jondalen later that same evening. Yeah, I got my "new" car from my mother. Soooo nice to drive compared to my darling Volvo. Sunday we drove for Stavanger. Used 6,5 hours, and then it was nice to have Thai take away; phad tai and Lamb gai.

my car, just make it a little more green :-) and yeah, mine is a 5 door...

Ups! Have to go to work!
Need to finish early. Getting a visit from Thomas and have to clean the apartment.

To Facebook Hell and Back

2007-05-24T13:03:00.000+02:00

Hi...

Ehm.. Yeah, sort of had a break from blogging for, lets say, one months.

I got hooked on facebook, but have now tried to quit it, or at least take a break :-p

I'll try to start blogging again, just have to think about something to write.

How are you doing?

Have fun!

70's party

2007-04-22T12:32:00.000+02:00

Here's a movie from the dance we performed at the 70's party... didn't go very well did it?

Think we made a good buy :-)

2007-04-19T09:54:00.000+02:00

My sisters new appartment

2007-04-18T15:52:00.000+02:00

My sisters new appartment:

http://www.sem-johnsen.no/prospektobjekt.php?id=17694750

She bought this on monday.

Iiiik!

2007-04-18T12:35:00.000+02:00

Bought new appartment!!

Help! I'm now a debt slave!

http://finn.no/finn/realestate/object?finnkode=9661188&sid=6a7LICjk1415055&pos=10&tot=13

Easter 2007

2007-04-12T08:31:00.000+02:00

Hi! Back in Stavanger after over one week of vacation. First five days in Haugesund and then five days in Kongsberg.
Will post some photos later, but feel free to look at these two movies:
The first one from sking on the mountain somewhere near my cabin, and the second one from a break we had on the mauntain on the way back to haugesund/stavanger.

Wish you a nice day!

China

2007-03-28T09:14:00.000+02:00

The 10th of June I'm going to China!

:-D

18 days of vacation!

Yey!

Yellow belt!

2007-03-24T17:01:00.000+01:00

The graduation went very well, had a hope for double graduation this time too, but no, maybe next time :-)

Finally rid of the thin narrow white belt. The yellow one is much nicer ;-)

3 X Yellow(happy)

My former instructor to the left, to the right; self defence between a blue belt and a red belt.

Blue belt plank braking; missed the first time, but made it here:

Red belt with flying side kick to break plank.

Will drink beer tonight to celebrate. THe other two in the photo on top will come and join me.

Wish you all a nice weekend!

Wish me luck!

2007-03-24T08:33:00.000+01:00

I'm going down to graduate now. A bit stressed as I'm struggleing a bit with the Korean.... Although the first thing I thought when I woke up by the alarm was "Yop Cha Yirugi!". I'll ask if I can start saying everything in chinese in stead....

Well, hopefully the last day with only a yellow stripe :-)

Wish you all a nice day and a nice weekend!

Edda Fonn

2007-03-22T07:12:00.000+01:00

Got a call from Glenn the other day. He was in stavanger due to the bad weather in the north sea. Asked if I would come and have a guided tour on the ROV-vessle "Edda Fonn". Yeah!

Me at the Bridge:

Glenn in his officers cabin enjoying a Munkholm alcohol free beer.

Cool! So this is how the rudder-propeller works:

London Part Two

2007-03-22T07:09:00.000+01:00

Håvard and Thomas! The end of st. patrick's day. Five hours until we have to get up and take the airplane back home.

Very early at Green Park station, alone in the underground... spooky!

London

2007-03-21T08:01:00.000+01:00

Hey!
Back from London; had an excellent time. Thanks people!
Here are some photos, Do they need to be commented?
If so I'll do it later. Cheers!

Sorry Håvard!! Your photo didn't make it this morning, but it will be there soon! :-D

Click on photos to get the super size!

Clear and Present Danger

2007-03-14T11:31:00.000+01:00

My colleague has just bought this one :-|

Hope this usb controlled missile launcher doesn't kill me.

Going to London tomorrow!!

Think I will take the whole thursday off, and not only four hours... Need to rest...

Well, have a nice day people!

Winter Rain

2007-03-12T07:19:00.000+01:00

What a sad day.

Was raining all the way to work. Tired, but the stomach ache sort of surpasses that.

Starting to get lighter in the morning. This is where I work at 0700.

This from the inside five minutes later.

Had a very nice and exhausting weekend. Taekwon-do training gathering and a visit by Thomas saturday.

Saw a very bad movie friday. Unless you are a superfan of the book, don't see running with scissors...

Hope you all have a very nice day.

Women day!

2007-03-08T08:39:00.000+01:00

Congratulations on the big day!

This years topic:

More women into company board of directors
&
All house wives should have the right to get a job.

Wish you all a nice day!
Cheers

PS: 7 days to top secret meeting in London!

I wish you all good in your new life dear Volvo

2007-03-05T08:31:00.000+01:00

I actually feel a bit sad.

Think I'll buy a new bike for the money I got.

I wonder how a life without the fear of not getting it to start or that the electrical system will shut down will be...

Wish you all a nice week!

The Bad Conscience..

2007-02-26T10:19:00.000+01:00

I'm going to London! :-D

We managed to achieve our goal during the overtime campaign one month before the deadline and my boss allowed me to take the two days off :-)

And; my car is for sale! :-D :'(
The Ad

Sorry for being so bad at posting and replying to comments.... I'm very sorry for this. Thanks for not stop visiting.

Wish you all a nice day!

Kim Jong Il Celebrates 65

2007-02-16T13:03:00.000+01:00

What if King Harald V could celebrate his 70th birthday with such elegance?

It's friday! Have fun!

London

2007-02-14T07:56:00.000+01:00

Got these photos from my sister yesterday. She'd been to london with her work team.

I want to go there too! Rumours say that our overtime campaign will finish 20th of ferbruary...

I was told I couldn't go to London the 15th of march...

Somewhere there has to be a misunderstanding :-(

The weekend

2007-02-12T18:16:00.000+01:00

Hey! Back to work. Three hours overtime today, will go home in five minutes.
Had Asbjørn on a visit from Saturday to Sunday. Started the day with collecting him at the quay, went home, had some coffee, went to play squash.

Will say it was pure luck that made me win one of two matches we played...

To Øystein: Because Aker Kværner has a deal with the squash center I pay 110 kr for one hour on one court (devided by two...). If you are not a member and want to play I think you pay a sicko amount of money for each half an hour, can't remember how much. What's the price in Oslo?

Anyway, got home, had some food (bread) and a beer. Then we went to the city and drank more beer.
Then we met Li and a friend for sushi. Think Asbjørn liked it ;-)

Afterwards we went home. Listened to music and drank more beer. Went to town again for beer and "Coffee and wiskey and sugar".

It was an excellent day!

Sunday. Relaxing. Squash (again). I lost big time.

Have a nice evening!

Friday!

2007-02-09T12:34:00.000+01:00

Finally friday, I'm more tired than usual..

Asbjørn is visiting tomorrow! Yey! Squash, sushi and Sake is one the menu. (You can swap sake with beer, but I thought it would be nice to have words starting with S)

Had to go home to let in the power guy to change my electrisity meter. My car didn't start because of low battery. Had to run home. Stress. Dropped the coffee maker in the floor as I was about to leave. Didn't have time to clean up cause the el-guy wanted to drive me back to work.

Tried for fun to start my car just before one of my colleagues was about to pull start it. It started at once... :-p Strange.

Will get an internet guy to look at my internet today, most likely during work time. Hope my car starts this time...

Things I've learned from todays NEWS:

-Anna Nicole Smith is dead.
-The "Se & Hør" book is sold out.
-A student finally fell out of the window at the trondheim student community building.
-Se & Hør paid Sivertsen 5000 Kr to take off his hat.
-Believers have more problems in bed.
-8 year olds can easily be eaten by anacondas.

Wish you all a nice weekend!

One year in Stavanger

2007-02-07T08:09:00.000+01:00

Who would think I'd make it, but yeah, I've been working in Stavanger for one year now.
This is me one year ago, first day at work, the flu, trying to smile :-p

Was exstemely cold when walking to work today, wind and degrees below zero is a killer at the coast. But then it is good to have a half an hour coffee break when arriving :-p

Have a nice day everyone!

Long days

2007-02-06T08:15:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody! Hi Dr. Nick!

My blogging has reached a record low, and I'm sorry. Hmm... guess it might have something to do with this overtime campaign, I'm just too tired these days to write anything...

Friday I will have an Internet guy over to look at my connection at home... hope he can fix it, but I doubt it.

Last Wednesday a project leader at BP killed his wife and two children before killing him self some blocks from where I live. It was so tragic and I was so sad for many days. People at my work place had met him and his wife the same day as the murder. He sent an email to his colleague the same night saying he couldn't take it any more, and telling what to do with his family. Horrible...

Brighter things:
Had a short visit by Thomas and KM :-D It was very nice. We all went and ate Italian food and then had a visit to a sort of oil museum. We even got to taste some of it. Very nice evening. After they had left I went to a bar to meet my colleagues and drink beer. Got a little bit drunk.

Saturday I was at work from 1900-2000.

Sunday I went to work from 12 to 15. Then Thai restaurant and then the cinema. Saw Perfume, the history of a murderer. Wow! That was an excellent movie :-)

Now to today's question. Is this kid doing this because he wants to or because his whole family is pushing him?

Wish you all a nice day!

Today is a Happy day in many ways

2007-01-26T09:04:00.000+01:00

Hey!
Congrats to Tommy and Anna with their first born!!

Lot's of work, gotta go!

Wish you all a nice weekend!

2007-01-24T14:47:00.000+01:00

Today is a sad day in many ways. Thomas and KM's cat was found dead after being hit by a car two days after it disappeared. I was not allowed to take one and a half day off to go with my friends to London mid-march. Think maybe my easter holydays will be in danger as well, because of this two months overtime-campaign.
My colleagues has decided to go back to play squash on tuesdays as we did before christmas after trying to play on wednesday instead, because I had to change my TDK practise to tuesdays and thursdays. Today will be the last squash day for me... Buhuu..

Took over my neighbours internet yesterday after he moved. I can't make it work. Crappy stuff.

The weather has (finally) turned here in Norway. A lot of snow and freezing cold. Now I can a last start to use my nice hat from Russia. But the cold weather due to irregularities around the world might be disastrous for many. Like this guy. Sort of a funny photo, but there is probably a good reason that drove him to this drastic way of getting to some warm clothes...

Wish you all a nice day.

Personal HSE commitment

2007-01-18T10:29:00.000+01:00

Yeah, we had to write this personal hse commitment at work (we get a reflex vest for doing it). Anyway, as for my commitment at work I wrote among other things that I would start drinking less coffee.

But, in order to do that I have to monitor how much I really drink. And that I will try to do here. One cup is 2 dl.

So far today: 4 cups of coffee.
Time: 1035

OK, I think I might be drinking too much...

How many cups do you drink?

Sushi!

2007-01-16T10:04:00.000+01:00

We made sushi this saturday! Haha, never thought I'd ever do that..
The complete book of sushi came very in handy.
So after finding the best piece of raw salmon at the quay, and buying all the other ingredients we could start.

Makeing the sushi rice was actually the most complex and time consuming. After cooking it in a rice cooker together with some sea grass, it had to be cooled down with a fan at the same time as it was mixed with a mix of sake and sushi vinegar.

Time to put the rice and "filling" on the see weed and roll.

Then cut the roll into eight pieces. These are filled with cucumber.

Then cucumber and salmon:

Then salmon on a "ball" of rice.

Ah! Looks very nice!

And tastes very good!

By the way; to answer a question: The meaning of the expression "good thing the houses are hollow" is that it is good to be able to go into them when the weather is very bad...

Have a nice day everyone!

Hurricane On The Norwegian Continental Shelf

2007-01-16T08:39:00.000+01:00

This is photos from the Oseberg A platform in the North Sea. My technical leader sent me these:

At the time these photos were taken the wind was measured to 60 knots(111 km/h). Later it was measured to 100 knots (185 km/h).....

If you see some gray rings on the shaft, that is the 30 meter mark. (from platform deck)

Good thing these things are placed on the sea bed...

Full Storm, Hair Cut and Sushi

2007-01-15T08:07:00.000+01:00

Hey!
Then it was monday again... not so tired though, but that might be because of the two cups of coffee I've just drank.
This weekend almost blew away, full storm here, and hurricane back home in Haugesund. I have to go back home on friday in order to help my father fixing some of the garage roof. The naighbours fence also blew away, but it was kind of rotten, and I had to clean up from all the garbage containers...
Anyway, as they say in Arendal; "Good thing the houses are hollow!".
If you don't get the meaning of this, tell me and I'll tell you.

Saturday I got a hair cut. Kind of strange as my hair was very long. I has become about 5 degrees colder outside and I can hear thing I didn't knew mad sound.

Saturday we also made sushi. Haha, never thought I'd ever make it my self, and the strangest thing is that the result was excellent! Just like in the resturant :-)

I forgot the photos at home, but will post them here tomorrow.

Wish you a nice week everyone!

Aker Kvaerner at Guantánamo Military Base

2007-01-11T12:15:00.000+01:00

The Guantánamo military base is a very bad place and yeah; I know I work for AK, and might not be able to comment on anything. But here is the internal press release:

Aker Kvaerner dismisses Amnesty claims as wrong
Oslo, January 11: Amnesty International Norway has today informed Norwegian media about the conclusion in a legal evaluation ordered by Amnesty, with focus on Aker Kvaerner's previous project at the Guantanamo Bay navy base. Aker Kvaerner has dismissed the allegations as incorrect.

Amnesty's legal evaluation claims that torture and violations of human rights have taken place at the prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo, and that Aker Kvaerner indirectly was complicit because of the company's project at the base.

Aker Kvaerner's comment to the media on this case was: ”In the middle of the 1990s, the previous Kvaerner corporation started on a contract for various maintenance and upgrading tasks at the 100 year old US navy base in Cuba. When Aker Kvaerner was established, this was one of the contracts the new corporation inherited, and the contract was ended already in 2005.

We register that Amnesty wishes to use this as a symbolic case, but conclude that we disagree with their claims that our activity had anything to do with violation of human rights."

Document Owner: Torbjorn Andersen Created: 10 Jan 07 22:44 CET

Friday

2007-01-05T09:16:00.000+01:00

OK, it is friday; time for something totally mind dead and fun. Seen many of these before, but I can't get enough of them. One of the norwegian news papers are serching for the all time worst album cover. Here is one of my favourites.
Haha :-p
I apologise to those that might be offended.

You can see more of them here:
www.vg.no/asdfadsf
And of course:
http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/

Wish you all a nice weekend! I'm going out for beers right after work.

Things you didn't know you didn't know

2007-01-04T13:22:00.000+01:00

Hmm.. did I tell you that I graduated the 12th of december? Don't think so, but anyway, yeah, I'm now the proud owner of a 1 inch thick stripe made of electrician tape. Almost double graduated, but no.

Ahh.. I need writing inspiration.. I want a new camera to take photos.. But life is good.. I'll try to keep my new years resolution..

2006 and counting

2006-12-29T07:41:00.000+01:00

As I walked home last night after eating sushi down town, I went passed the small lake in the middle of Stavagner. There I suddenly saw lots of blue lights and guys with flashlights. Then I saw a couple of divers. Then there came another fire truck. And then an ambulance.

As I continued walking I became quite sad.
Reading in the newspaper today; it was a search operation triggered by a abandoned dog and an abandoned bag with clothes and toilet requisites. The search had been without any finding and probably nothing happened.
Poor dog though.

The sushi was good by the way. Will go back soon.

Our technical assistant came over to me yesterday and said; "My new year resolution will be no alcohol and no cigarettes". She had been out two days ago and someone had most likely put something in her and her sisters friends drink. She went home from work half an hour later. Creepy.

My new year resolution will be "stop worrying". But I won't be able to keep it.

God Jul

2006-12-22T14:39:00.000+01:00

Sorry, been hell of a lot to do lately, and I'm still at work after everyone else has left.
Hopefully I don't have to work overtime today, the last day before christmas holydays.
I will go to haugesund tomorrow.
Will be back and work the 27th.
Then I'll go back to haugesund the 29th for the amateur dj party.

Have a nice time everyone.

Sorry for not answering comments and so on. Will do as soon as I got time. IE. tomorrow hopefully, but then there is my sisters birthday so who knows.

Haugesund in the christmas time with no snow:

Corrosion

2006-12-07T10:49:00.000+01:00

Hmm.. this is a photo that make me think..
This is the outter shell on a high pressure tank in the system I'm planning inspection on now.

Click to enlarge.

Russia; Part four

2006-12-06T12:18:00.000+01:00

Got some photos from Thomas: Three of them is appropriate to post here :-p

The guys, outside the wedding palace:

Three Russians:

Me, tired, fed up with vodka, at the train station in St. Petersburg, Monday morning.

Weekend

2006-12-04T08:26:00.000+01:00

This has been a very nice weekend.
The friday started with me still abit drunk went down to work. I hated everything until 16.00. After that Everything was nice :-)
Saturday morning I drove to Haugesund. Relaxed in the city, had a look at the world largest jack up drilling rig. Later I got a phone call from Erik. We went out and had a coffee. Nice to talk to him again. Goes too many months between each time.

Then the birthday party x2 slash house warming party at Asbjørn and Kjersti. Had a great time.
Spent the night at the visitor room at Thomas and Karen. Got an excellent breakfast sunday morning.
Finally got my self home to my father. Ate dinner. Then I went out to change to wintertires. I hate spikes. Hope it will be summer soon again. It was raining like hell. And of course it was storm. I almost flew away.

Got home around 1730. The drive was hell, almost got blown off the road two times. The ferry was like a rollercoaster with a loop. Had a nice relaxing evening.
Now I'm ready for a new week with a lot of stress and a lot of work. I will BTW hopefully get my yellow stripe thursday at 2000 :-p

Have a nice week!

Work Night Out

2006-12-01T10:30:00.000+01:00

My work group went out to eat and drik last night as we all had gotten 800kr to do what ever we wanted with from the project. We all went and saw "Borat" first. Haha, crazy guy..
Then we all ate tapas at a Spanish resturant, lots of whine, beer and kanonjakk. Later we went to a place called Gnu to drink some more.

An excellent evening and night.
Got home at a fairly christian point in time and managed to get to work at nine.

I'll go to Haugesund tomorrow.

Have a nice weekend!

Remembering the good old days

2006-11-28T15:08:00.000+01:00

ÅSS:
Kårstø

How to end a perfect afternoon

2006-11-26T16:32:00.000+01:00

OK, besides getting to the Taekwon-do training gathering twenty minutes late cause me and the driver got completely lost,(used one hour in stead of 20 minutes) the five hours went really well. Except for the ending of course.
All 120 people stand in a salute position in order to salute the flag. One of the black belts says the command to salute and everyone does it and says the word "taekwon". The instructor(4.Dan) turns around and says: "Nobody says anything while saluting the flag! One more time!"
We do it all over again, everyone bows and nobody says a thing. Except for me: "Taekw...!" HAHAHA, we all had to do it one more time. I struggled not to laugh loud even though it was very embarrassing. Luckily I was standing way back in the corner, so not many knew it was me.

Another strange thing; while we were having a session on self defence I was called up to demonstrate for the rest of the group. Strangling. This was very weird. The assistant instructor tells me to strangle him. Hmm.. I wasn't really sure how hard I was supposed to do it. I start rather loose, but the AI tells me to do it harder over and over again even though he in the end can not speak properly anymore. Help! I was strangling a man as hard as I possible could! But, luckily he got easily loose and threw me into the crowd of people standing to the left. Haha, I don't recommend strangling anyone to anyone.

Well, well. It's Sunday. Tomorrow is Monday. I'm veeery tired as usual.

Bye!

Break

2006-11-23T17:12:00.000+01:00

As you might have noticed, I'm taking a break from blogging. One reason is that I don't have internet, and posting at work takes too much time.
Not sure when I get my own net, but then I might get started again.

I suspect that this will wear off, and I'll start again soon. Who knows.

Have fun.

Death and Life

2006-11-20T12:37:00.000+01:00

China sells organs from executed prisoners.
This photo showing the last cigarette, made a strong impression.

Russia, Part three

2006-11-16T10:26:00.000+01:00

OK, after resting for two weeks now, I can start enjoying my memories from the trip. And I guess I might taste vodka again some time. Here are my last photos that I will post here. The rest is for my eyes only. Sorry, but think some people will be happy.
Still have no time to comment the photos, but I urge you to look at the lovely wedding couple some photos down :-)
Have a nice day!

Red.com.: I've taken away the two last photos in this post.. Haha.. sorry.

Russia, Part two

2006-11-15T08:01:00.000+01:00

OK, I'll continue posting photos before commenting on the the preveous ones.
Do I have to take away some of them? Tell me.
PS: I have not started smoking again :-p, the tobacco in the last photo is not mine :-)

Russia, Part one.

2006-11-14T08:21:00.000+01:00

Hi.
These photos has been through a strict sensur. Just like the russians would do it.
I'll try to comment later, but have no time just now.
Enjoy!
PS: Because of the large amount of photos I've used a new photo uploading thing. Click the photos for a larger size.

Onshore, Stavanger

2006-11-12T13:03:00.000+01:00

Back on land. Had a very nice trip back from the oil rig. We took off with 48 knots of wind, they close the Heli-port at 50 knots.. And even though there had been two emerigancies the day before, we got home safe.

Some photos:

This is where I sleep. The living module is now always built on the oposite side of the flare and not abowe any process equiptment, like on Piper Alpha...

Statfjord C, where I was the last time, in march.

The waves was about 10 meters+

One of the new life boats installed in 2002. Much quicker to get away in these than the old ones you had to lower down with wires.

If you look closely you can see a supply boat closing. Must be hell to stay on your feet in one of those in those waves.

The so called Chirstmas Tree. This is the top of the well, I spent almost my hole trip checking if the drawings of the pipes from the x-mas tree to the production header was correct.

Oh, so you only came for russian photos? Hmm.. I have them, but there are so damn many. I'll try to post them later.

The weather, Statfjord A

2006-11-10T07:12:00.000+01:00

"When it's talking to you, talk of the weather will do" -Buildt to Spill

It's a storm building up outside. It is already winds up to 20 m/s... Looks like my helicopter flight might be cancelled.

My helmet almost flew into the sea when I went outside five minutes ago.

Can't help it; I like bad weather, one my favourite background noises.

Location: Upper red dot:

Statfjord A

2006-11-09T17:07:00.000+01:00

Hi!
Greetings from Statfjord A in the middle of the North Sea!

I'm sorry I haven't answered any comments in a long time, but I will when I get home.
Few "public" computers here and little time to sit down and write like now.
So; wish you all a good evening!
Cheers

Pit Stop Stavanger

2006-11-07T09:30:00.000+01:00

From Russia with love! No; no love. Only exhaustion. And memories of an excellent trip. But I seriously need a brake from everything that starts with RU and VO.
Came home yesterday. My luggage dissapeared on the way. It's found now.

I'll travel into the North Sea in two hours.

I'm still tired, I need sleep.

Pit Stop Oslo

2006-10-31T11:46:00.000+01:00

Hey!
Arrived from Berlin yesterday evening. It was an excellent long weekend.
Have many photos I want to post but I will only upload one small one 'cause of the slow internet connection I've got.

This photo is showing me and Øystein at Rodrigo and Anna's place just before we leave for this private theme party down town. Haha, great fun.

OK, can one ever be ready for Russia? Hmm.. I don't think so.
Have a nice week!
Cheers

Grand Theft Bike

2006-10-22T16:09:00.000+02:00

AARRRRRGH!!!!!

Who the hell would want to take my bike???!!!

It's gone...

I can't believe it...

It was hid behind a big SUV out of sight from the street...

Three theories:
1. A drug addict walks around peoples houses to see if there are some bikes that can take him to town.
2. One of those money collecters came to my door, but instead of asking for money he/she took my bike. (That means it is the medics without borders fault.) Probably not.
3. Most likely; someone from work was pissed off by the fact that I was leading the most days by bike to work competition. Shame on you!

Argh... black clouds are gathering above my head.

Yesterday

2006-10-21T10:36:00.000+02:00

OK, you might think I'm starting every post with a beatles song title, but no, I really mean yesterday.

Yesterday was a really crappy day.

Went home from work around seven. Tired and hungry as hell.
Took the elevator for a change.

Down in the basement garage. This is my CEO.

Thought I'd make a pizza when I got home. Thought I had enough wheat flour. Nope. Had to use oatmeal. Didn't look good.

Then I found out that my can opener was in my car down at work. All I had was this english pipe wrench. Not good at all. Made a tiny hole after 10 minutes. Got it all out.

This will never work.

But it did. Mmm!

Even though it ended well, I'm afraid I lost a star in the michelin guide.

At work today. Feel I have to get ahead in order to take my vacation next thursday.
I can't wait! Berlin, Russia and Statfjord A!

I am the walrus

2006-10-20T15:24:00.000+02:00

Sorry, yet another off topic title, but it is taken from a very nice beatles song.

Wednesday: Met some people from work after taekwon-do practise. Was only supposed to have two beers and then go home. After all it was 1000 in the evening. But no, I was home at 0200. Drunk.
Thursday: Woke up at 0918. Shit! Got to work in 20 minutes. First time I've overslept and come in late after I started (we have core time at work from 09-15).
It was a painful day. Had to take a brake from 1530 to 1900 to play indoor hockey. Managed to twist my ankle, but fortunately not as bad as one and a half year ago. Went back to work. Went home at 2100.
Friday: I can still walk, but my foot's kind of stiff. Think it'll be OK. Had a meeting with one bank today. Wanted to ask for a loan. Scheduled a meeting with two other banks as well while I was at it.
Hmmm... Looks like I kiss my own apartment good bye for now. I couldn't get more than 1.2... Looks like I have to get a girlfriend and move in with her. That was, according to the banks, the best solution.... Maybe it is.
Anyways; because of my mid day excursions I have to work late. WANT TO GO HOME! Blah...

I'm all alone in the office landscape now... I'll go and get another cup of coffee and maybe sing a song.

Hope everyone will have a nice weekend.
Cheers