Sandy and Helen tie the knot...

... on a mountain in a storm

This weekend we were at Sandy and Helen's wedding which started at 2pm on Friday in St Jorgens church. The interesting thing about the church is that it is not the one I thought it was! So we picked up Ross and Fiona and then spent a while driving around confused, fortunately people wandering the streets of Bergen in kilts are rare enough that we were able to home in on the right church pretty easily.

After the service we headed through horror show traffic to get the cable car up Fløyen. Last time I was in the cafe at the top of Bergen's highest mountain it served pølse and crappy pizza but it has since been renovated and turned into a rather excellent restaurant. The food was good and everyone, especially the visiting Scottish contingent loved the view. There was lots of speeches (as is traditional in these parts) and as the evening wore on the weather closed in. By the time the non-dinning guest arrived at 9pm it was a full on storm. Everyone was having to much of a good time to care that they might be stuck for the night and the band played on until after 2. We exited about 1.30 and the cable car was running at half full and quater speed! Somehow everyone managed to get home that night.

Next day we reconvened for more drinking and dancing in an old wooden warehouse in Sandviken and that party went on til 1.30. All in all they put on a fine spread and their guest, both local and from afar rose to the occasion in good fashion. I think they got a good send off...

All the best for a great life together

Karmasotra

Karmasotra has just hit a bit of a milestone. When I looked this morning it had just reached 25000 hits - thats quite a lot of people reading crap jokes, rants and the occasional piece of news.

Its being going for two and a half years and there are now almost 500 posts - thats lots of accumulated compost. had its been lots of fun writing it and reading all the comments.

So who ever you are , thanks for the support, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you keep coming back. There is lots going to happen in the next year so there should be plenty to write about.

Friday Joke

Jack decided to go skiing with his buddy, Bob. So they loaded up Jack's minivan and headed north. After driving for a few hours, they got caught in a terrible blizzard. So they pulled into a nearby farm and asked the attractive lady who answered the door if they could spend the night. 'I realise it's terrible weather out there and I have this huge house all to myself, but I'm recently widowed,' she explained. 'I'm afraid the neighbours will talk if I let you stay in my house.' 'Don't worry,' Jack said. 'We'll be happy to sleep in the barn. If the weather breaks, we'll be gone at first light.'

The lady agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled in for the night. Come morning, the weather had cleared, and they got on their way.

They enjoyed a great weekend of skiing. But about nine months later, Jack got an unexpected letter from an attorney. It took him a few minutes to figure it out, but he finally determined that it was from the attorney of that attractive widow he had met on the ski weekend. He dropped in on his friend Bob and asked, 'Bob, do you remember that good-looking widow from the farm we stayed at on our ski holiday up north about nine months ago?'
'Yes, I do' Said Bob.
'Did you, er, happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to the house and pay her a visit?' 'Well, um, yes!' Bob said, a little embarrassed about being found out, 'I have to admit that I did.'
'And did you happen to give her my name instead of telling her your name?'
Bob's face turned beet red and he said, 'Yeah, look, I'm sorry, buddy. I'm afraid I did. Why do you ask?'

'Well it seems she just died and left me the farm and all her belongings'

Geek Day

The picture below was taken using a home made pin hole camera over a six month period. The view is the Clifton suspension bridge in SW England. The camera was made by putting a single piece of photographic paper in a coke can with .25mm hole, taped to a telegraph pole. The lines are the tracks of the sun from the winter solstice to the summer solstice.

The original is from here where there is lots more.

Wednesday Movie - Sport

I have never been a very big fan of the overpaid premadonna fest that is football. But even I have to say that these guys are pretty impressive. More of the same here.



I prefer my sports to be a bit less about competition and more about personal performance, with a dose of adrenaline thrown in - a bit like this


And to prove andrenaline sports cross borders and cultures - check out these guys

Eventful Weekend

It was a somewhat interesting weekend. I had planned to have a quite one and work on a project that we are trying to finish up. Hmmm
Thursday night (cos the weekend always used to start on Thursday) was Sandy's stag bbq at his house. Ten guys, a fridge full of beer and a couple of bottles of whisky, what could possibly go wrong? Enough said I think!

Friday night I was home alone, recovering from Thursday. Took photos of the meteor shower, did a bit of work, watched a movie and headed to bed at midnight. Woke up at 2.30 to the sound of somebody breaking into my house! For fucksake this is Norway! This isn't supposed to happen here. Anyway the were rather suprised to see a naked and very angry me in the corridor which was enough to ensure they beat a hasty retreat! Couldn't really give chase with no clothes-on so I had to let it go. Bastards had climbed in through the very small window in the washing machine room. Obviously thought the house was empty! Scum.

Next morning up neighbour took it on himself to deliver 10 tonnes of stone which he had promised months ago for my garden. He dumped it at the top of the stairs so I had to get it all moved. Fortunatly Sandy and Helen were keen to help and after a very long day of moving barrow fulls of stone down 25 steps the job was done. Very grateful for the help! That would have been hell alone. Stayed in and worked Saturday night, no visitors in the night this time.

Sunday went for a kayak trip with Sandy. It was a lovely day and we headed out to Turøy in Øygarden (north Sotra). Paddled out and once we got into the open ocean the swell was gnarly. Not so big (c. 1-2 m ) but really choppy and broken up, coming from all sorts of directions and breaking over us. Lots of concentration required and I was convinced I was going to fall out. Headed around the island and just as we turned the south west corner and headed around, Sandy got hit by a oblique wave from behind which sent him for a swim. We got him back in the boat pretty quick and all was fine. We surfed in and then headed back north on the sheltered side of island. A more eventful trip than we had planned.

Got back and feel asleep trying to do some of the goddam work! All in all a rather eventful weekend. Back to work on Monday

Big News

There is already a lot of things going to happen in 2011, getting married, moving to the UK, buying or building a new house, some great projects at the Uni and lots of wells finally getting drilled by the company after 5 years of preparation. So when Katharine told me 2 months ago that she was pregnant I was surprised but pretty relaxed about it.

It's fantastic news, a whole new adventure and while the timing could have been better it's amazing and we are both very happy. We went for the first scan a few days ago and just seeing this little alien like thing wake up and trash around like a real disco dancer made it all hit home. I finally feel like a grown up.

Events like this lead to lots of introspection. I always wanted kids but always at some point in the future. Now the future has caught up with me and I feel ready. I will be older than many fathers and while it may be tough I have absolutely no doubt that waiting was the right thing for me. I have travelled the World and done loads of cool stuff. While I am sure there will be lots more adventures I feel totally ready to slow down a little and focus on different priorities. The person that I am now is a much calmer, better equipped individual to deal with the responsibilities that this will bring. I would not want the dickhead I was at 21 to be charged with such an important task. So I am ready and I am excited and its going to be an amazing adventure.

I am a bit sad that my Mum isn't around to see it. I am happy that everything works ok, but its sad to watch friends who are really keen for kids trying hard while it happens unexpectedly for others. But then maybe too much navel gazing is not such a good thing and its time to just get on with it.

Katharine is doing great, a bit tired but dealing with it all really well and after all the test this week the little alien inside her is also doing just fine. If everything goes to plan it will be born on the 16th February.

Blimey!