The fortunate event of miss Hermelin

Christmas, Stockholm, New Year, New York and squirrels

2009-01-06T15:06:00.008+01:00

First blog entry in the new year and I am home sick. Seems like one day at work was all my immune system needed to launch a major cold attach and add a little eye infection on top if it. Anyway, I'll live...

At least I have time to give you a little update on what has happened lately. 19th of December we left Stavanger and headed for Sweden. Mum and Dad's place Bergholm outside Stockholm for my case and Ulf's hometime Västervik in his case. We both spent a lovely Xmas at home with the families. I had a very quite and relaxing Xmas with Mum and Dad, but we manage to fit in some riding as well, as mum just both her own horse, Abba, whom I of course wanted to meet. On Xmas day Gabriel, Karin and little Isak join us as well as Ulf who arrived from Västervik. Isak was responsible for the entertainment, has he made us all smile with his fasination for his new Xmas gift.

After a lovely time at home Ulf and I packed our bags again and headed for our most favorite city of all, New York, were we spent a week. We had a fantastic time, with sometimes fabulous (15 degrees warm and sunny) and sometimes not so fabulous (+15 and windy as hell, on New Year's Eve) weather. We spent most of days in a similar fashion, started off with some fabulous diner breakfast or sometimes quick Starbucks ones, then we walked and walked and stopped for coffee once and a while and found some great spots for lunch and then did more sightseeing and walking and coffee-stops and found a great spot for dinner and so on. C'est la vie!

Some of the major highligths were:

*The Sunday morning we spent in Harlem, were we started with a fantastic breakfast and then headed across the road to the Caanan Baptist Church were we joined the locals for a 2 hour gospel service. It was really and amazing experience and the regulars really gave us a warm welcome. Truly recommended for anyone who goes to New York.

* Going on a ice-hockey game at Madison Square Garden and seeing New Jersey Devils kicking New York Rangers ass and getting scolded at for doing so.

* Going over to Brooklyn and seeing Manhattan with the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge from that side. Truly beautiful, and then to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.

* Talking to new found friends at beautiful Campell Apartment

* Eating steak at Cipriani Dolce in Grand Central Terminal. We did not get the secret behind it but those steaks are amazing! Best even and better then we remebered them.... yumm....

* Jazz at Club 55 in West Village.

Some pictures are added, but more can be found on flickr.

Isak cheking out his new gift

Mum and Isak
Dad and Smila

Central Park
Grand Central Terminal
Me at Burger Heaven
Ulf at Brooklyn Brigde
Moon walker at Brooklyn Bridge

Me at Columbia University
New York Rangers doing yoga Henrik Lundquist, swedish goalkeeper for Rangers
Empire State Building
American Breakfast

Cookies at Dean & Deluca
5th Avenue
Swedish Fish at Dean & Deluca
Someone make and effor taking a pic in Central Park

Manhattan Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge

Me in Greenwish Village
Perfect muffins at Dean & Deluca cafe

Ulf claims that I take too much pictures is squirrels. Don't everybody takes pictures of squirrels? Anyway, he might have point. Here is the latest additions for my "squirrles around the world" collection, Squirrels of New York. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

2008-12-23T16:36:00.009+01:00

Here is a little summary of my 2008.

1. What did you do for the very first time in 2008?
I showed Ulf Paris, and luckely he loved it as much as I. I went to California. I became an aunt. I resigned without having a new job.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolution and do you plan to make new ones?
No, did not keep it. Plan was to finish wine course book by end of 2008. I am still on chapter 1 out of 12. Plan to just transfer the 2008 resolution to 2009 and hopefully do a bit better next year.

3. Did anyone close to you have children?
Yes, my dear brother!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No

5. Which countries did you visit in 2008?
Great Britan (London, twice), France (Paris, twice), Sweden multiple times, USA(twice, California and New York)

6. What do you wish for 2009 that you have been missing?
More then 5 weeks of vacation.

7. Which dates in 2008 will you never forget, and why?
None since Im really bad with remembering dates.

8. What is your major achivement of 2008?
Resigned just before financial crisis and manage to nail a better job with better pay within 6 weeks.

9. What was you biggest dissapointment?
The stockmarket.

10. Have you been sick or hurt?
No

11. What was your best purchase?
My travels and Karo Bio (a swedish stock)

12. Who deserves credit for their behavavior?
My dear brother and his girlfriend for being fantastic parents to Isak

13. Who has behaved in a way that makes you sad/angry?
Can't think of anyone. Think I surrounded by pretty great people in general.

14. What did the major part of your money go to?
Besides the normal like taxes and morgage, did put a lot of them in stocks and travels.

15. What made you very happy and excited?
Becoming aunt and booking travels (California, New York, Egypt)

16. Which song will remind you of 2008?
American boy - Estelle feat. Kanye West

17. Compared to this time last year, you are...

a. Happier or more sad? happier
b. Skinnier or fatter? same same
c. Richer or poorer? richer

18. What do you wish you had done more of?
Travelling

19. What do you wish you had done less of?
Worrying, critisazing myself and others.

20. Where will you celebrate Xmas?
With the family at Bergholm

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Kept in love

22. How many one-night-stands did you have?
0

23. What was your favourite TV show?
Dexter

24. Do you hate something you did not hate this time last year?
Can't think of anything

25. Which book is the best one you read 2008?
Hard to choose one, but think I have to say Twilight, even though I know it is patethic.

26. Which was the best musical discovery of 2008?
Too hard questions! Can't think of anything! Maybe Kimya Dawson through the Juno soundtrack.

27. What did you wish for - and got?
My new job

28. What did you wish for and did not get?
Can't think of anything. Feel pretty fortunate in general.

29. What was the best movie of 2008?
The wackness and Juno.

30. What did you do on your birthday?
Had a lovely dinner at parents place.

31. Which thing or person made the year much more fulfilling?
Ulf

32. What defined your style?
An increased amount of colourful V-neck sweaters and polo-shirts with little horses on them

33. What have kept you in a mental balance?
Travelling, Ulf and books.

34. Which celebirty did you like the most?
Obama

35. What in the politics has annoyed you most?
I find Lars Ohly very annoying in general, since he talks so much crap.

36. Who did you miss?
All the friends and family I don't see as much as I want to.

37. Who was the best new person who entered your life?
My god son Isak

38. Tell one important lesson of life that you have learned in 2008?
It all works out in the end.

From both of us to all of you, Happy New Year! We are having a grand time over here in the big apple, and hope you also have some grand New Year's celebrations!

See you in the new year!

I just have three things to say

2008-12-18T17:18:00.003+01:00

Im going travelling again and I just have three things to say:

First of all:

Secondly:

And last but not least; Marry Xmas and a Happy New Year! Next update from me will from lovely Sweden or glorious New York!

Current obsession

2008-11-25T19:16:00.002+01:00

I'm with team Edward!

If you try to rip this girl off, it will backfire and you will regret it to the end of your days

2008-11-20T21:09:00.004+01:00

At least I really really hope so!

So basicly I come home from treambuilding event, totally exhaused as one is after these things, and find a nice little bill from my mastercard waiting for me. Well, this bill wasn't as nice as they usually are, since I don't hardly use this card. This bill had about 25 taxi trips on it. With Rogaland Taxi and Norgestaxi. The stupid f-s must have skimmed it when I took Rogaland taxi last time, in January (!) and decided to try to rip me off now. But they didn't really do it wiht any finesse. I mean seriously, would anyone not think it was a bit wired when they get a bill for 5 taxitrips of the exact amount of 120 nok in the same day? Anyway, thanks to the lovely people at the bank, seeems like they won't get any money from me after all.Feels quite amazing that after all the travelling Ive done with no hesitation what so ever to use my card, this would happend in Norway!

So this is a warning to you ppl out there, keep a track of your card billing....

California, London, new job and more travelling

2008-11-15T17:03:00.004+01:00

I'm back!

Lots have been going on here, so I'll start where I left off; California.

To avoid writing an epic about it; California was fantastic! We had an absolutely awsome time, and I really hope we get to go back there in a not too distant future! After San Fransisco we drove up to lovely Sonoma, which was like a Stars Hollow with nicer climate and gormet food, and if it wasn't for the property prices, we would probably still be there... We went on a fantastic wine tour and tasting and hade a great meal at "The girl and the fig" and left our hearts in the town when we headed south again towards highway 1 and LA. We did some stops on the way down; Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, the latter with we really liked, and enjoyed the beautiful drive, before arriving back in Canoga Park and spending a day there before or flight back. Have uploaded a lot of pictures on Flickr. They can be found here.

After arriving home a week went by and I had a new job (did resign before going to Cali, so only had 3 weeks left at work at S Club 7 when we came back) so started there 2 weeks ago. Basicly the same kind of company doing the same kind of stuff, but a bit of a different role for me, and a lot better location. Now I'm saving like 50 minutes of travelling time a day, which is just fantastic, and I also work right next to Ultra, which have turned out to be the answer to all my grocery-store dreams I've been having since moving to Stavanger. So all good!

Last weekend me and Ulf went away on a little romantic gettaway to London. It was just as rainy as Stavanger, but it was London, and we had a fantastic time! Did a lot of dining and wining and strolling through markets and some shopping. London is just such a fantastic city!

And travel addict as I am, as soon as we got back from London, we booked a new trip (one always gotta have at least one, preferably two or three, trips to look forward to, especially now when the rainy and chilly and utterly depressing season is upon us here in Stavanger), so in March we are of to sunny Egypt for a week! Another Lonely Planet was added to the inventory after the London trip, so we can already start planning and daydreaming!

Well, all for now, I'll try to be better at updating! Until then, seek happy days and happy nights!

Last update from San Francisco

2008-10-07T06:42:00.002+02:00

This is the last update from San Francisco. Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Sonoma and Napa Valley, then we will spend a few nights along the coast on our way back to Los Angeles. If we have wifi in our hotels we will update, otherwise next update will come when we are back in Norway again.

San Francisco has been great! It is a beautiful city, got a bit of a New York feel over it, but more relaxed. Like if New York is Ralph Lauren San Francisco is Marc Jacobs. Good good, but different. We have seen a a lot, eaten great food and manage to get good sleep in our dump of a hotel room. Today we biked over Golden Gate bridge to Sausaulito. It was awsome!

Anyway, we are about to start packing for tomorrow. Hope you are all good back home!

Cheers

Pictures part 2 - Still totally random order

2008-10-05T05:48:00.003+02:00

Ulf at Hoover DameValley of Fire
Me and Ulf in Valley of Fire
Weirdo at Fremont Street in Vegas
Death valley
The necklace as requested!

The fabulous view from Top of the World at Stratosphere
Luxor Hotel where we stayed
The DJ at Hawaiian Tropic Zone
Ulf at Hawaiian Tropical Zone on the Strip where we drank too much G&T and smoked waterpipe

Pictures part 1, totally random order

2008-10-03T17:55:00.004+02:00

Me at Newport beach

Psycic napkin holder at Summit Inn Diner

Never-ending trains on our vay to Grand Canyon

Lunch at Taco Bell on way to Grand Canyon. Worst food ever tasted! Can't see how anyone could ever pay money to eat that! Truly disturbing!
Roy's on the way to Gran Canyon was closed for a film shot
Malibu pier
I have the worlds best boyfriend

The car

Ultra quick update

2008-10-02T23:51:00.004+02:00

We are in San Fransisco. Arrived this morning and have found hotel (realised it was not a great idea to arrive without hotel, big convention in town) and parking after quite some time and quite some painful driving in a not that driver friendly downtown. Are now starving so are hitting town to get at bit and some sights, but have finally find a hotel that does not lie about what great internet connection they have, so updates will come, with pics and everything! I promise!

Cheerios!

Update from Sin City

2008-09-28T01:07:00.004+02:00

Hej folks

Here comes a short update from Sin City, Nevada. This place is smoking! It is so freaking hot we are struggling to motivate ourselfs to leave the air-conditioned indoor for the pool, but we are just about to give it a try!

We are on our second day here, and have realised it is a lot bigger then we thought.
Coming here yesterday afternoon from the tranquility of Grand Canyon almost got us into a shock. Talk about contrasts! Grand Canyon was quite, grand, almost empty and absolutely beautiful. Vegas is, well, it is Vegas. Just like you imagine it and better and worst. Yesterday I managed to get my feet all blistered by beliving that the Strip was a lot shorter then it is and attempting to walk it with high heels. Today we know better, and plan to take a cab right up to Stratosphere for pre drinks and then work our way down to Luxor and our dinner at Cat House. We also know better then to not have a dinner reservation tonight. The downturn in the economy here that that has been more evident than we could ever imagine druing our trip, is without trace here.

Anyway, we are hitting the pools so will add pics later tonight. Oh, and by the way, we have also seen tornados live! How cool is that!

Bye

Update from Lalaland

2008-09-23T05:36:00.002+02:00

Hey folks

Just a quick note to let you know that we have arrived, safe and sound. Trip went great, 5 hours at Heathrow passed in a flash almost, and the 11 hour flight passed quite quickly as well thanks to great onboard entertainment.

This morning we picked up a rental car which of course was not a Mustang, but a crystler sebring, but it looked pretty cool anyway. We tried to do some laptop shopping, but failed so we will try that tomorrow as well. Manage to squeeze in some sightseeing today as well. Had a lovely lunch at the pier in Malibu and then went to Santa Monica and Venice beach. Have just had a lovely mexican dinner with our great hosts Judith and John, and Im about to hand over the compuer to Ulf so he can fear a little over the stock market. More updates with pics after we buy the lap top.

Cheers!

Guess where we will be tomorrow!

2008-09-17T18:52:00.002+02:00

So what has this slacker been up to lately?

2008-09-17T17:51:00.002+02:00

So what has this slacker been up to lately you may wonder. She has obviously been too busy updating the blog, but she know she is really testing you poor regular visitors patience and at least she will have some more interesting (even though maybe not the frequent, wouldn't count on it) updates the coming weeks, which she will spend in the sunny state of California!

Yes, it is true, the time for my long longed after vacation is finally arriving! Can't wait! Luckely I have stuff to do at work, or else I would spend my days stare dreamily out of the window. But... I will write more about sunny Cali when I acutally get there.

So back to what this slacker has been up to the last weeks. This slacker has been on vacation in Sweden for a week! Had a fantastic time and got to spend most of it with my darling family. Of course I was there for Mum's 50th birthday party! It was a great sunny day with a lot of friends and family showing up at Bergholm to celebrate her. Unfortunately I have no pics from this event since the camera totally slipped out of my mind. To compensate for this I took an extreme amount of photos on the baptism if my nephew and godson Isak the weekend after. He was probably the happiest baby even to be baptised! It was a great day as well. Happy babies, happy people, great organised with food and the lot by the parents and even the weather was nice! And now I am a fairy god mother! How cool is that!

Anyway, added some pictures below but you find more on flickr

Guess where I will be tomorrow evening!

2008-08-28T19:15:00.001+02:00

In the most fabulous country in the world of course!

New Soundtrack

2008-08-26T20:57:00.002+02:00

Things are on the move and I need a new soundtrack. Thank God for my instant crush on Paulo Nutini. Briliant guy!

Current soundtrack for the fortunate events of miss Hermelin

The danger of going offshore...

2008-08-24T09:28:00.002+02:00

... is all the catching up you need to do when you get back home.

In transit

2008-08-22T09:25:00.003+02:00

Most cherished civilisation, I'm on my way back!

Are currently in transit from Troll Field. Destination Rosenberg, Stavanger. Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA !) 1500. Friday evening, just in time for weekend!

Most cherished and deeply missed civilisation, will be grand to see you again! With your fantastic people who I truly miss and who makes me feel truly missed, a great feeling! And with your cosy indoor evenings in front of good movie at massive TV with my dear next to me, on rainy evenings in Stavanger. With your fantastic wine and cheese and coffees from 7/11 in the mornings. And your sleep-ins on Saturday mornings followed by croissants and strolls in town and the rest of your fabulous world that I get to see occasionally, Stockholm, Paris, New York, London and Istanbul. And not to forget your beautiful shoes and books that I can't resist buying and travels I can't resist booking and urban life I am missing!

Most cherished and deeply missed civilisation, see you over a G&T in a couple of hours!

Finally some pics!

2008-08-16T06:34:00.009+02:00

All good here. No groundhog day anymore. Tings are moving!

Finally some pictures. Credits to Survey-Pete for lending camera and nerdstick.

Seven Seas, the monster vessel I'm on

Troll platform through binoculars

The spy

Sunset over Seven Seas

Acergy's Far Saga rolling around next to us

Far Saga. Looked tiny next to monster vessel Seven Seas
All for now. Over and out

Groundhog day

2008-08-14T07:32:00.002+02:00

Remeber that movie? Feel a bit like I'm in it.

Tings take time, and time flies by, and offshore life is treating me pretty good. I have a totally unhealty intake of danish pastries, like 4 times the recommended daily doses, but I spend my days walking up and down 6 flights of stairs between the deck and the bridge so I can still get into my jeans. No signs of seasickness since we where in transit, even though we are rolling around a bit here. I work long days, but get some time inbetween for tea and chating with the crew onboard, and have also learned some scotish (may come in handy some day).

Yesterday we had a helicopter landing on the helideck to pick up a crane tech. Spent the evening up on the bridge waiting to see it, then got tired of waiting and went down to deck instead, and manage to miss it altogether.

Would have uploaded some pics, but computer is still being ignoring my attempts to upload some pics, so will just have to wait til I'm back on land again I think.

Anyway, all good out at the Troll field!

Offshore terminalogy

2008-08-07T09:04:00.002+02:00

TWA - Three Word Abbrivation.
Commonly used in offshore industry. Examples:

TTT - Things Take Time. As in Things take time, more time then you plan for and anticipate since things brake down, things needs to be fixed, things are not as easy they look, and sometimes since the thing called weather don't give a crap that you are to install something. Currently used on vessel not due to weather but do to break downs and unanticipated occurences like things getting stuck and so on.

ROV - Remotely Operated Vehicle. As in robot used for subsea work. Often associated with frustration as well as patience. Has a tendency to have break downs once and a while, but can be used to retireve stuch things from pipelines.

FPE - Fucking Project Engineer. Used condesending to complain on work performed and planned by project engineers. Commenly used among riggers after extensive use of abbrevation TTT (see above) among project engineers. Fortunately not been used on current vessel up to this stage.

Offshore again

2008-08-03T20:11:00.002+02:00

Hey folks

So it is this time of the year; the sun is shining at least once and a while, it gets reasonably warm and people walk around smiling, and I'm going offshore. Since Friday I am onboard Seven Seas, new flagship vessel of Subsea 7, and quite an impressive one.

We are currently still in Stavanger mobilising, but we will be start crusing soon, but will stay inside the fjords, so I will most likely not have to hug the toilet and wish the world would do without oil as I did offshore on Skandi Bergen last year.

On this job I have done lifting analysis for a big z-spool, and today we lifted the whole big thingy on. It was my baby, so I feel a bit proud, since it all worked out fine. I would have showed you some pictures of that so that you could get a bit impressed, but the flash-card thing on this very very shitty computer doesn't realise it actually has a card in it, so I'll add it later.

Anyway, my shift is over and I'm doing to call my baby now and then hit the bunk-bed.

So long land-crabs!

Yes, I have an addiction

2008-07-19T17:33:00.003+02:00

But it is a pretty one!

The last weekends

2008-07-12T10:29:00.004+02:00

Hey folks

Here comes an update on what we have been ut to the last weekends;

Two weeks ago it was time for the yearly Beach Volleyball World Tour to make it's visit to Stavanger. As last year, the weather took no consideration to the poor volleyball players who are used to heat, sunshine and dry sand (or to the crowd who payed hard earned cash to see some tanned skin) but through some sixth sense or just good luck, me manage to time our day at the volleyball court with THE day with clear blue skies and nice burning sun. It later showed on my left leg and right underarm, and made me look like a raccoon. Charles and Louise joined us for the Volleyball and we had a lovely time!

Amazon

Me and Ulf

Charles and Louise

Ross and Boss or Boss and Ross?

But it doesn't end there! Last weekend we had my brother Gabriel, his girlfriend Karin and there little baby Isak here visiting us. It was great to see them all! We had a great time and the Stavanger weather really behaveds, made the other ones golden and made me more raccoon-ish. We had a quite relaxing weekend with lazy 2 hour croissant breakfasts at the balcony, long walks along the Storhaug beaches and in town. Here are some pictures for there visits (naturally the little one got the most camera attention):

Gabriel, me and Isak

Ulf and Isak

Isak eating his bunny

More pics from both events can be found here.

Now I got to go and get ready to join Ulf in town!

Have a good day!

We are having visitors this weekend

2008-07-05T16:39:00.003+02:00