Helene

On sunday I went with a couple of friends to Korketrekkeren which is a sledging hill in Oslo. I had never tried it out before, so naturally I was excited. It was a sunny day and perfect for some childlike fun. To get there we took the metro to Frognerseteren, except that the metro didn’t go that far. There were some upgrading being done. so buses where set in between Besserud and Frognerseteren.

When we got up there me and Anders rented sledges from Akeforeningen. Those sledges were awesome. They were robustly built for speed. They were heavy (iron all the way, baby). The steering mechanism was the rope you can see Anders is holding in the picture below. By pulling on one end, you get the sledge to steer that way, and no breaks: that’s what your body is for – one way or the other your body will stop moving.

Those sledges screamed speed, and they delivered. Boy, did they deliver! It takes about 6 minutes to get down the hill. The hill ends at a metro station, so it was just to wait for the metro (that arrived after 8 minutes usually), and do it all over again.

The weak link in this threesome was Einar. He brought his own sledge where the seat was duck taped!! We had the batmobil of sledges – Einar had the slowmobile. We rushed ahead, stopped sometimes, and sat waiting for some minutes for Einar to arrive. He refused to trade in the slowmobile for the Ferrari of sledges, no matter what we said. He liked the speed of his duck taped misery – chicken!

I will not recommend going to Korketrekkeren on a beautiful, sunny sunday when the metro doesn’t go all the way up. The buses showed up quickly, but there was always some people that didn’t get into the buses, it took some time to get to Frognerseteren, and the sledge is heavy.

Secondly, there was a LOT of people on Frogneseteren. It seemed like half the population of oslo decided to visit that day.

We had a lot of fun that day, and I will certainly do it again.

How to get there: You take the metro nr. 1 to Frognerseteren

Finally, I had a complete day at home with no plans except relaxing and chasing my own tail. For some reason it feels like a really long time since I’ve had it, but my life has been very busy the last two months. So I have been catching up today!

I’m writing on this blog again, which have been in great need of updating.
I started subscribing on Aftenposten some months ago, and finally I sat down and read one newspaper.
Tidy up, except that for me it involves to mess up even more before it looks cleaner.

In the evening I got a visit from my cousin, Vibecke. It was really nice, we had homemade pizza and chocolate mousse… yummy!

It has been fantastic and I went right back to that happy-place where I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, doing exactly what I’m supposed to do, being the one I’m supposed to be.

I’ve been sick, just lying in bed for some days and I needed to get out. I packed myself in, and took a small walk into the forest. The sun was shining and it was reflected in the tall trees and leaves.  As I walked, a young boy in his early twenties came jogging towards me. As he passed me, I smelled a weak and fresh scent of cologne…. and I was lost.

Life is beautiful.

This year Sjakk matt, a cafe in oslo was refurbished. The result is a more open and customer friendly cafe with tables one can actually sit at.

What makes me really like this café is that it’s a place where I can get a decent cafe moccha AND lunch/food. Their torta’s (sandwiches) are really good. If you ask for a vegetarian option, you get it (even though there is none on the menu) and it’s delicious. Moreover, they have wireless internet connection (just ask for the password). These things have made this cafe my favorite one that I visit every sunday. I always go there alone, and I’m not the only one, sitting there reading books, newspapers, surfing.

I can also recommend the brownies…

This is the ONLY cafe in oslo (centre)  that has met my needs for good mocca, food and wireless connection. If you know of another cafe’s that are just as good – let me know.

A couple of weeks ago, I started working at a new company (sorry, I will no more work on Alfresco for those that comes here for that information) and I’m settling in nicely. My colleagues are very easy to talk with, the chatting just flows effortlessly and I love it. It’s so important to work with people where the communication works, especially now when I’m working in a small IT department where we will work closely together all the time.

I got a new laptop (Thinkpad W500), and I could choose my own operating system on it (or as my department manager said, quite accurately: I would probably have done whatever I wanted anyway). That resulted in putting ubuntu on it, and I have enjoyed getting ubuntu to talk to Windows Active directory, setting up the mail towards exchange, getting access to the shared folders, set up citrix client. It has been surprisingly easy. The only downside have been that editing documents in sharepoint using firefox doesn’t work (even though MS claim cross-browser support).

So far I really like the new workplace. I even got my own office, which I haven’t had in a long time. I can look outside, see the weather and the trees. Some of the fun part is watching all the trailers that come here to load and unload goods. Sometimes (everyday) there are so many trailers at the same time, that there is space issues. One bad part though – my butt hurt! I have to take a 10-minute bicycle ride to get to the office, and I have to dress for the weather. It’s going to be interesting to see how I’m going to like it when the winter sets in and the snow piles up.

I had an extended vacation (3 months) before I started at the new job. The time seemed to just flow for the most part, but in the end I was ready to start working again. I used to go to the city, find a cafè and enjoy a mocha everyday. I used to sit there alone, looking at people and reading self-development books. I really loved those moments, and I received so much inspiration (also called juice) making the days fly by. I always had things to do.

Now, when I get back from work I can’t seem to get back to that inspiration. Setting up Linux, learning a new job have given me inspiration on work, but I don’t extend it to my spare time (I don’t want to be too much on the computer during my spare time). Enjoying a mocha and reading self-development books at home doesn’t work since I started working. I have to figure out a new way to get my “juice” after work. I still haven’t been able to figure out what it takes, but I have some suspicion I have to use more time on my spiritual activities. That have worked before. May be that means that the inspiration I get is different from when I work opposed to when I have a vacation.

This year I’m starting a new tradition where I will save memories from this year and the years to come. The small events and the big, and I found just the right box for it. This year I bought a diary that I write about everything – from days that will quickly be forgotten, events I will remember, things I have struggled with, areas where I have needed to grow and learn and written about it in my journal. That diary will be in the box.

In 08/09 I worked as a volunteer for Red Cross, and one of the activities we went to was to paint our own cups. The cup I painted will go in there. I even made sure that I got a diploma for the work I did there and a letter speaking about the activities and discussions we had (those documents were meant for the girls, but I wanted one too ).

Just before new years I wrote a letter to myself about my expectations for this year that I will open in late december. I wonder if anything I wrote in there will apply – I’m guessing that a lot more happened than I expected or even thought of.

Patricia gave me a personal astrology reading for this year, that have been surprisingly accurate so far.

And I will write a summary of this year, of every month and keep in there to remember the year of 2009 which probably will be titled “New beginnings”. And I will probably need to put some photographs in there as well, for what is all of this without pictures to remember it by. People and places.

I want to be able to use this box to go back in time and remember things that have happened with fondness, and to see how my life progress.

My story…

How do you know when you have met the love of your life?

Many years ago I remember speaking to an acquaintance, and he told me about this new girl he had met.
“It feels like I have known this person for a long time”, he said. Later on they got married.

Ingrid met her fiancé online and when I asked her when she knew her fiancé was the one, she responded: “Only after 2/3 days”. When I asked her how she knew he was the one, she answered: “It felt right”.

I asked the same question to Merete which is happily married and I got the answer “It’s impossible to know if I had met the one, but it felt right at the time”.

These are only three people, but it strikes a cord with me. I have noticed a theme in my life and that is that everything that happens to me (even bad stuff) happens at the correct time. Especially for the last six months I have noticed that every event have felt right, like it is suppose to happen and in the end will turn out to be a good thing. I had the impression that the feeling I’ve been having could be translated to all aspects in life, including meeting Mr./Miss Right.

This has had a special effect on me, because I’ve become so relaxed. I know that everything will turn out good in the end, all I have to do is “ride the waves” and whenever something feels off (or right) I do it. There is no need for me to stress, thinking “what if”,  “I have to do this”, or “I have to press this issue” because I know everything will happen when the time is right.

And it feels amazing.