Vehicle Mileage

I track my mileage. When entering a gas receipt today, the mileage on my Opel Astra here in Norway surpassed that of my Honda Civic in Canada. The Astra is manual transmission, and has mostly been driven with summer tires. If I only look at summer driving, the Civic is still better, but the Astra is a much bigger car!

Apartment Sunset

Just taken:



I finally downloaded pictures from my camera. Here are some pictures from the last few weeks. The first one was taken on my way to work:



No wait, wrong picture! The NEXT one was taken on my way to work:



That's a lot better. Taken at a small horse pasture along my commute.



Taken while bicycle orienteering last Sunday.



Also taken while bicycle orienteering. Huge cruise ship parked in the harbour. At first, I thought it was pretty funny that all the tourists had shown up on a Sunday, and because it was Norway all the booths were closed. Later I realized that the booths were being put up for the food festival which started today. Doesn't make cruise-going tourists any less silly though. "You mean I can go to the pool, the movies, the restaurant and the gym, but it's all four times as expensive as normal because it's on a boat? Where do I sign up?!"



Taken during my parents' visit while at Preikestolen.





The two preceding pictures were taken a few weekends ago when a coworker and I helped a woman from work get her shed ready for painting. She took us on a tour of the surrounding hills and the small cottage marina.

In other news, I may be going for offshore training as early as next Tuesday, since I may be going offshore as early as the end of August. Exciting stuff...

Quick Update

Last weekend, I went for a longish bike ride following a map of way points all over the greater Stavanger area. The map was put out by the Stavanger tourist association, I guess as a way to get people to explore the bike paths. If you find all 8 posters and answer some questions, you can enter into a draw for a bike. After the 5th poster, I got a flat tire, my first ever! I walked home from there.

There are a number of events going on in the next few days/weeks:

Gladmat Food Festival (this week)

2009 International Tattoo Convention (this week)

Blink 2009 Roller Skiing Competition (next week)

International Chamber Music Festival (mid August)

The Watchmen

"The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save us!' and I'll look down and whisper 'no.'"

-Rorschach, The Watchmen

Parents Visit

My parents visited last week, and I took them on a whirwind tour of the Stavanger area. Here is what we did::

Tuesday:
arrival flight
walk around Mosvatnet
walk up to Valandshaugen
walk to the downtown area at night

Wednesday:
drive to and hike up Preikestolen with views of Lysefjord

Thursday:
walk downtown to the port
Stavanger Domkirke
shopping area with small shops
fish market
gamle (old) Stavanger
walk around Mosvatnet

Friday:
Sola beach
WWII bunkers
interesting rock formations on the beach
Domsteinane (stone circle)
Ullandhaug
Botanical gardens
walk around Mosvatnet

Saturday:
Hanne Sørvaag concert
Oil museum
walk to Stokkavatnet and get lost

Sunday:
hike to Dalevatnet, Dalsnuten and Lifjell with views of Stavanger and the Gandsfjorden
walk around Mosvatnet

Monday:
departure flight

Next job?

Maybe... There's a huge upgrade going on and they are looking for contractors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan_pipeline
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Deniz

Another Weekend

I spent Saturday afternoon helping a lady from work get her summer house shed ready for painting. She took M and I on a walk in the surrounding hills, and down to a private beach.

I spent Sunday around the apartment, cleaning in prep for my parents arriving on Tuesday. I also went for a run. The perfect weather is coming to an end it seems, and I'm noticing the darkness coming a bit earlier.