Next live concert on the list

I can't really stop, can i? Sonata Arctica, also quite possibly the best band in the world, is playing at Rockerfeller in Oslo 1st of November. Of course i can't keep from buying a ticket. Actually, this time, i bought two. Already looking forward to this! Particularly if i get the person i want to come with me.

Somwhere back in time tour!

I've been almost at the front as Churchill's speech roared across the 23 000 souls, just before Iron Maiden blasted out with Aces High and tens of thousands of voices screamed out with pure pleasure-filled energy. The feeling of a live concert cannot be replicated, and seeing probably the best band in the world live was truly fantastic. I was really hungry before the concert and as the warm-up bands plaid (Steve Harris's daughter and Avenged Sevenfold), but when Maiden blasted loose the hunger was swept away, replaced by a in-the-moment feeling that i seldom get. Jumping, pushing, fighiting my way forward, trying to see if everybody around me is okay... Awsome.

They plaid all their best songs! Starting of with Aces High, continuing with The Trooper, they plaid their most epic song The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Wasted Years was in there, so was Fear of the Dark and The Number of the Beast. And Eddie was on the stage thrice! A small Eddie sitting on the side of the stage in the start, a giant somwhere-back-in-time Eiddie that came out of the stage looking like a 10 meter tall mummy, and another huge Eddie with a lazer gun that came out and walked on the stage, aiming hes gun at Harris and fiddeling with Murrays guitar. And there was pyrotecnics! As the air in the crowd was at its thickest and i most desperately wanted a breeze of cold air, giant fires blazed out on the stage and gave us all a stroke of heat. Just fantastic and perfectly awsome and unwelcome!

This was well worth the 850 km drive. Now I'm just looking forward to the rest of my vecation, and the next time Maiden goes on tour!

Speed limits

I've now spent my first prolonged time on the road. All of yesterday and half of today i drove from home (Steigen) to Trondheim along E6, the main traffic artery along Norway. That's about 850 km. One thing i've learnt is that there is a general consensus on the road that speed limits are there to be broken.

Why is it so that when the speed limit is 80 km/h, and i drive 80 km/h, i allways get a long cue behind me wich roars past me every time there is a stretch? I try to be persistant, and not go over the speed limit. But somtimes it feels like i allmost have to, because people are driving past me dangerously or sticking on my rear bumper. Sure i'm in the right, and the others are taking liberties they don't have when braking the rules. And i don't want to use more gasoline just to follow a general consensus on doing wrong. I have enough time! But this is a problem. Why is it like this?

Seems i have a job

I've been placing a lot of job applications for next year, so i can defend my car, apartment and schooling. Recently i got a phone call from Coop Mega, a grocery store, who said flat-out that they were interested in me. No talk of interviews or anything, just simply "we're very interested, call us when you know when you can come for initial training." So, scrap anyone that requires a interview unless they are particularly interesting. I've got a job! I'll quite likely be able to go the next year without gravely increasing my loan, and this henceforth is one big step closer to my freedom in living! Training starts 13th of august. 

I've thought about that selling alcohol in stores thing. I've, actually, already done something similar. Though i don't pour alcohol in peoples glass at the restaurant, i've accepted payment for alcohol that guests have already consumed or have requested themselves when i've been tending the register. This is not the active selling part, but more the control-part. This is where i check that they are of age. Though, in the store situation, it also is where the ownership of the alcohol is transferred. But it is not like me not doing this would make a difference to the positive. It could be someone in the register less vigilant about asking for ID. What i would not want to do, and this is a minimal thing that i am sure the store could be able to accept, is to restock the alcohol shelves in the store. That is actively making it more possible to sell alcohol, and something i would not want to do. If the store don't accept this, i'll probably be very displeased.

My car is home!

Finally! It's sitting in the driveway ready to be used. With a pretty blue color, 1.6 liters in the engine room and a very good fuel economy and driving comfort - it's all i could really want from a car right now.

Meet Anne!

Anne is a Mitsubishi Carisma wich has rolled on the roads for a meer 10 years. He is named after my grandmother, as i together with my grandparents found out that i couldn't give him a boys name. It is clear, however, that he is a he. I was thinking about what gender this car was, and as i fiddeled with the gearstick it all became perfectly clear.

He is a wonder to drive. I strongly prefer the experience from Anne to the experience of my fathers  Ford Mondeo or my mothers Escort. The only car that gets close in comfort is the Peugeot 406, but i would never trade this car for that.

Now i'm just looking forward to driving for hours on end down Norway to Trondheim and then to Karlstad. Whoop dee doo!

Next years school is setteled

Though i had no doubt i would be accepted, i've now got a confirmed schoolplace for next year. It'll be my last year of school for a while. I'll be going to the Kleiva school of agriculture, to get my certificate of apprentanceship as an agronomist. That certificate means, essentially, that i will be able to work for a somewhat higher pay, as a relay for farmers. This is a field where it is easy to get work, as there is a shortage of hands. The pay is quite avarage. I hope to work like this for at least one year, so i can remove my debt.

Kleiva is a boarding school, and this will be my fourth(!) year living in one. I'll be majorely discontent if i can't get an appartment there next year, and live a bit larger then the little holes that are most rooms.

My cooking skills are improving

Two years ago, i lived at a boarding school where we had a chef that made our food. Some days i didn't like the food, and i had to make my own. Every single time, i made the same meal - boiled sausages, mashed potatoes and melted butter.

This summer I've decided to take things a few levels up, and now that i actually try I've discovered something - ether making tasty food is easy, or i am very, very good at it.

Here is part of my self-made menu as of late:

Pasta with pasta sauce and fried picnic-ham.

Spiced chicken fillet with rice and chicken sauce. Spiced with pepper, salt, seasalt, white pepper and/or sometimes curry.

Joikabuns (meatball with a bit of reindeer) with mashed potatoes and green pea stew.

Fried minced meat, mashed potatoes and pepper sauce. Surprisingly splendid!

And occasionally the simple omelet with ham and sometimes cheese.

A summer to look forward to!

Summer plans is pretty much decided now! So far this summer I've mostly worked, but with a lot of niceness in between. In a bit under two weeks, though, starts the part of summer with only sheer niceness!

About the 17th I'll buy my first car. About the 20th I'll be on the road southwards. The 22nd I'll be in Trondheim to see Iron Maiden live at lerkendal stadium! From the 27th to the 3rd of august i'll be at Actives summercamp in Ransberg, Sweden! After that i don't know. Perhaps Oslo for summercamp afterparty? Perhaps visiting some of my family or friends here and there? This leaves time for any spontaneous traveling-urges. School starts sometime mid or late august.

Maiden will be positively orgasmic, while summercamp will be a unmeasurable prolonged pleasure moan afterwards. I'm not sure wich one i am looking most forward to. Just, yay!

I draw my own lines

Because i think that i am the one who should choose what is right for me, and not nececerily norms and society. Allignment unlawfull good? But, i'm asking myself right now, is it really worth it for being myself, if i end up breaking a heart because of it? I just hope i've not, but i shall probably be more careful in the future.

Hiking Kvarven

Since i started working here at Kjerringøy, i've been wanting to climb the nearby mountains. It took me a bit over a month before i managed to get so far as to climb Kvarven, but man was it worth the wait! Now i've had two trips up there, one überperfect 9-hour trip and another far less perfect, far faster trip where i also went to the second, taller pinnacle.

Normally the 9-hours trip would have been a 2 hour one. You are free to guess what prolonged it. I'll just leave it at saying that there is nothing more perfectly romantic then a mountaintop view.

The walk up to Kvarven is a particularily nice one. It starts out with a lot of forrest walking on a relatively good path. There is the odd bench to rest on, and after not too long a time walking you reach the first good views, where the forrest has a clearing or starts thinning for good. Perhaps two-thirds of the way up is Kvarvkjonna, the Kvarv-puddle as it translates to, wich is a small but stunning mountain lake. 

(Fullview)

Max, my sisters Cairn-terrier, is stick-crazy; hes favourite thing to do is fetching sticks that we toss. He is not, on the other hand, too happy about water. It's clear though, if it is craving or loathing that wins in hes mind;

Yes, we threw a lot of sticks! Poor Max wanted us to throw more and more, but eventually was so tired that he could hardly manage to get them. The last stick we threw he went underwater with twice before he finally had to give in and let go of it. 

There was a lot of insects. None of the particularily nasty biting buggers, but enough to make a unplesant buzzing at times. But there was one pequiliar thing there, that i've never seen before. Using my human encyclopedia, i found out it was a (in norwegian) Bjørnespinner, wich translates to bearspinner. Cool name, eh? Googleing now i find that the english name is none the less cool - It's called ether a tiger moth or a garden tiger.

Upwards from the Kvarv-puddle was the last and steepest part of the climb to the first pinnackle. No more trees, only rock and heather. But at the top was a soft green patch just in front of a steep plunge, wich provided a perfect spot to lay and rest for three hours.

(Fullview)

The secound day of kvarven the hike went on to the taller pinnacle close by. That meant climbing down a stupidly steep slope, maybe 100 meters, and up another long and steep slope. The top picture is the view from the first to the second pinnacle. I took my sweet time on this part of the climb, it was not possible to rush it or i would have risked a deadly roll.

Finally i reached the top, and it was epic! If the plunge on the first pinacle was awsome, this one was proper ninety degree, and i doubt that i am exaggerating if i propose a height of 400 meters straight down. It's not possible to photograph these plunges and make the scale visible, but this might give you an idea;

(Fullview)

Epic, eh?

There's one more particularity worth mentioning about this trip. The first day as we went down, one of the forrest benches wich we were looking forward to resting on had ben conquered by a herd of particularily giant, feroceous and rugged cattle. I'm used to cows, but most of the time they will run away as you approach. These ones sure didn't! We tried to make them move so we could reach the bench. I had to apply all the guts i have to make my way to it, and when we finally were sitting there the most furious of the cows repeatedly attacked poor Max who had been trying to seem tough towards the giant beasts. Lucky for Max he can run the fastest. Such ill-tempered cattle i have never met before! We had to eventually evacuate and settle for the next bench.