Its an exciting time though, despite the lergy. Joined a band recently – just realised I haven’t blogged about it yet. I’m playing bass for Infinite Loop, an alternative/indie band fronted by Spanish singer/songwriter Gorka de la Camara. Gorkas songs are excellent, and the other guys, Thor S on guitars and Arne H on drums, are really talented musicians and make me feel like a bit of a fraud. Been playing together for about a month now, and its really starting to sound good. Damn exciting.

Started my new job at Rubberduck Media Lab last week. Thats going well – nice people, and much more organised and professional than my previous job. Have lots to learn though, so aren’t feeling like i’m contributing much at the moment, but I suppose thats to be expected.

Went skiing last weekend. Sigurd and Marie treated us to a day on the slopes at Norefjell for my christmas pressy. Decided to try out snowblades (or wankerskis as my brother likes to call them). Had a seriously brilliant time, and am itching to get back on the slopes again now. Had planned on buying some snowblades yesterday, but what with the lergy it hasn’t happened yet. I’m really glad we bought a house opposite a ski slope now

And of course theres the arrival of Igneous, our wee puppy, in a few weeks, just in case things weren’t exciting enough.

But enough of exciting things.. I’m going back to bed, try and get some sleep and get myself well again. Don’t think sleep is gonna come easy tonight though….

Had a busy and tiring but quite productive few days moving in to our new house last week. Leif and Astrid helped Ollie, Matt and myself with the move (thanks guys!), and so it only took us Monday to shift in. Getting everything unpacked took us the rest of the week and we’ve still only done downstairs. We bought our first washing machine, a fridge and a ton of stuff from Ikea, some of which still needs to be put together.
We are chuffed to bits with our house It has lower ceilings than our previous place (which was a flat in a building built in the 1880s), and this makes it feel a bit more warm and cosy. Our new furnature, all our plants, a fire roaring away in the fireplace and a brilliant view of nice sunsets from our living room also helps of course

The other big bit of news is that I have got a new job. It is with a small company called Rubberduck Media Lab and they develop software that streams TV and movies to mobile devices. I will be working in their R&D department doing Java development. Looks like a very cool place to work – nice people, exciting projects, plus it looks like I can install Linux on my laptop there Their offices are located right in the centre of town as well, on Karl Johans gata. Will be nice to be based in the main street, especially as we have just moved out of Oslo – the bus that goes from outside our new house will drop me off just round the corner from the offices. Will start there in Feburary next year.
Will be a shame to leave Viz though – will miss the people there.

Ollie and I had a bloody lovely weekend up in the mountains – Ollie booked a wee cabin in the Gaustatoppen area, so we’ve spent the last few days wandering up and down lots of hills.

Will post some photos this week sometime.

Off to eat nice Italian birthday cake now (thanks Jose!)

My brain remembered everything from the course we did a month or so back – right up to the point when we got into the current. Got swept sideways over the rapids at one stage, and to my amazement managed to stay upright, although this was the only time during the evening I managed to do so. My rubbishness I think was was a combination of me being physically knackered, as well as (understandably) crap technique – miracles shouldn’t be expected when this is only the third time we’ve been kayaking (ignoring for a moment our little adventure in New Zealand, and of course the two years we spent learning to kayak in school [it was almost 20 years ago - it doesn't count! And anyway, you really can't compare Symonds Yat with the kind of rivers they have here] ).

The one suprise for the evening was that I was toasty warm the whole time we were on the river. So much so that I have lost my fear of cold water and now want to get myself a dry suit and start diving regularly as well. And despite the kayaking to swimming ratio still being a bit one sided (for me at least – Ollie was much more in control), we enjoyed it so much that we have booked ourselves on a trip to a river a few hours drive away for the weekend

Svalbard

The following morning we flew to Longyearbyen in Spitsbergen – the main town on the main island in the Svalbard archipelago. Landing in our wee plane, which was a lot less wee than I thought it would be, and full of people, I got my first glimpse of a ‘proper’ Arctic landscape. Since seeing Life in the Freezer back in the early 90s, I have dreamed of visiting the Arctic or Antarctic. It was so beautiful and exciting and managed to exceed all expectations that I had been harbouring for the past 15 odd years, as well as make me completely forget the hangover I had been nursing all morning. We got a bus into the town and to our hotel, which was not in the prettiest part of town, but very warm and cosy inside.

Considering its in such a remote, desolate and inhospitable place, Longyearbyen was suprisingly cosy and developed – it has several shops, a supermarket, a library, cinema (showing a film once a week) and several bars, cafes and restaurants. No-one actually comes from Longyearbyen. The average duration a person lives in the town is 2 years – and if you get pregnant on the island, you have to fly to the mainland and have the baby there. There is a big university teaching all manner of interesting subjects, and the state owned mining company, which employs many of the people living in the town, is actually making a profit for the first time in its history. You are not allowed to leave the town without a rifle, due to the fact that the surrounding countryside is full of polar bears.

We spent 5 days on the island. We took a snow scooter tour to the west coast, went dog sledging, ice caving and generally wandered around dressed like teddy-bears, most of the time with my jaw hanging open looking at the most incredible, most awe inspiring scenery I have ever seen. The day we spent on snow scooters had to be the highlight of the trip. We sped over ice and snow at up to 90km/hour, and managed to cover a distance of over 200km by the end of the day. We saw a polar bear over on the east coast, although he was out on the sea ice quite a distance away. But we saw him wandering about, doing his own thing, looking suprisingly yellow in amongst the bluey-white landscape.

The weather was great. We were there during the week the sun first comes back to Longyearbyen after months of winter darkness, so the days started with dawn, which hung around for a while, before skipping the middle of the day and going straight into dusk. My two favourite times of day are dawn and dusk, so this suited me quite well. The light was fantastic, giving everything a warm glow – at least, as warm a glow as you can get in the arctic. It was quite chilly – around -15′C most days with a nasty wind just in case -15 didn’t sound cold enough. The east coast, where we took the snow scooters, was decidedly colder – the Gulf Stream warms the west coast where Longyearbyen is situated, stopping the sea from freezing, and making it a slightly more pleasant place to live (the west coast is known as the ‘tropical arctic’). On the east coast, the sea is frozen and the temperature is bitterly cold.

I haven’t stopped being able to think about Svalbard since we returned to Oslo. I wouldn’t mind doing a masters degree at some stage, and I really couldn’t think of a better place to do it. Saying that, I think we were there at the best time of year. The girl that took us on the snow scooter trip remarked that the summer days are all the same – no dawn, dusk, no night time – and the winters are long, dark and depressing. Definately planning another trip there though – would be great to see the place in the summer. Photos from our trip can be found in the photos section.