Friday Joke - A good dose of WTF

Easter Weekend

Now that Katharine has moved back to the UK there is no long Easter holiday for her! So I worked until Thursday and she came over that evening.

Friday we lazed around the house and got some jobs done before going for a walk on Sotra. Saturday morning we headed down to Rosendal with the goal of doing some ski mountaineering in the Rosendal Alps. Got off late, then arrived at lunchtime, didn't really matter since the days are pretty long now. Drove up to Myrdalsvatnet, with a plan for a peak called Omnentinden then another called Melderskin. About two klicks from the parking the track got a bit hairy and we found a car in a ditch, so we decided to walk from there.

Walking the last bit

The first bit of the ascent was pretty grim, crashing through a tight forest with just enough snow to fall through into the holes. I was on snowshoes but even Katharine was struggling on skies and there was plenty of evidence for previous parties having removed skies and waded. Eventually we got out of the trees and the landscape opened up and things got a lot better.

Better out of the trees

The cloud level was high and the views were stunning. We came across a couple of other parties and everyone was friendly and surprisingly sociable. The party ahead of us turned back and we met another couple of guys coming down who said it was very windy on top. We carried on up but as we got onto the top of the first peak, it was super windy so we found a sheltered boulder and had a late lunch before heading down. Had an excellent run into a bowl and down at least half way through the trees before it got to tight. Had been worried about the avalanche conditions before going up but it was extremely benign. Was glad to have the snowshoes for the final walk out the forest and we were back at the car by 8. We had planned to camp and do another tour the next day but the weather was closing in fast and the forecast was crap. So we submitted to the siren call of the hot tub abd a comfy bed and headed back to the lair.

Great run down with enough snow to be fun, but not enough to be slidey-dangerous

Spent the last two days doing lots of jobs around the place, finished the bar; painted a load of bits; built a sink stand - all very rock n roll! But it was relaxing and great to get it all out the way while the weather was crappy.

Would definitely go back to Rosendal, really nice mountains

Thursday Fashion

More insightful comments on the wonderful world of fashion

This week - "Wellington Boots"

There are four reasons to wear wellington boots, 1) you are less than 6 years old and planning to go puddle jumping; 2) you work on a farm; 3) you are at a festival and, 4) in fact no, there is no other legitimate reason for wearing rubber boots. That especially means around town, at a bar or restaurant, to the shops, on a plane, or in fact anywhere where it is not extremely muddy.

Another Easter and another whale boat at the bottom of the harbour in Lofoten

I was very pleased to read in the Norwegian press today that not everyone was on holiday over Easter. Agenda 21 attempted to sink two whaling boats in Lofoten and were successful with one, the "Sophie", which was badly flooded in Svolvær Harbour. They did the same thing last Easter to the Skarbakk in Henningsvær and another one, two years previously. This is the seventh since 1992. Links to articles in Norwegian on NRK here and here. The second one says that the Police doubt whether Agenda 21 was behind it, but they don't have any other ideas who was.

The local Police are screaming "terrorism" and trying to pass on the responsibility for the case to a national level. The press and the pundits are up in arms and everyone is pissed off. I guess you can call that a pretty good result!

I know this is an emotive issue and I know that it might upset some of my Norwegian friends for me to celebrate this sinking. But my good friends also know that I feel very strongly about this. I don't accept the argument that whaling is critical to the economy of these communities. This is the richest country on the planet. There are plenty of better ways to make money that don't involve mindless slaughter. No this is an integral part of the national psyche that has been passed down through the generations. The image of a group of heroic guys, desperately trying to harpoon a whale from a rowing boat to feed a starving community - that's brave but its also a long way from the modern reality of a bunch of high school drop outs, with stupid moustaches, sitting on a diesel powered, steel ship, tracking with sonar and GPS before casually firing grenade tipped harpoons into defenceless marine mammals. Its pathetic. "Culture" is not an acceptable excuse for brutality. It wasn't with slavery and it isn't here.


Do I think sinking boats will stop the Whalers? - No, I don't. I think it will make them more entrenched. I do think it will increase their insurance premiums and I think it will remind them that the World thinks they are cretins, but I doubt if it will stop them.

So am I glad that the boat was sunk? - Absolutely for the simple reason that one less whaler means a few less whales get murdered this spring.

Wednesday Movie - On the Ben

Great movie on winter climbing in Scotland that really captures the essence of the experience can be found here

Courtesy of Jamie...

Good Friday Joke

Since it's Easter Friday this weeks Friday joke takes a quick look at evidence for sex abuse in the Catholic Church...

Have a good easter weekend

Thursday Fashion - One piece suits

Fashion advice from a middle aged man


I was in the supermarket on Saturday and I saw a teenage girl in an apricot coloured, baggy, one piece, fleece suit. It looked like an an adult in a baby grow and I figured that she was either on her way to a fancy dress party or severally retarded. I tried to sneak a photo for failblog, but she moved away. Ten minutes later I saw another, this time it was a teenage boy in a grey version of the same. A bit later another girl, in a similar orange version and the abject horror dawned on me. Dressing like a baby is an emergent fashion. Nooooo!

This is THE most ridiculous thing I have seen in years. This is worse than deliboppers and leg warmers, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, good to be said about it. This is not a look that will work on a very pretty girl but fail on a fatty, this is bad, in every way. I predict that it will become very popular amongst a certain type of person, the same people who adopted the shell suit as a uniform, because like the shell-suit its effortless. So here is a thought, the reason we put babies in one piece fleece suits is so that when then they piss, shit and vomit all over themselves its easy to clean up. So maybe this will work for the shell suit crew after all...