Out of the way

Norway is one of the few country that still kills whales. Allegedly, I believe it is still for research. In practice, it seems that it is for food.

I am not convinced that whaling is intrinsically evil (any more than eating cows or calamari, at least). I do believe that we need to be careful of the environment, but I do eat meat and I find it hard to figure out the basic difference between eating different animals (except that some don't taste good), as opposed to differences based on the effective management of resources to minimise the damage to "the environment" - particular species, and particular ecosystems.

But there are not a lot of whale recipes about. There isn't that much whalemeat about, either - I have seen it in the supermarket, and in the odd restaurant. But a book of whale recipes doesn't seem to be the thing that people give you when you turn up in Norway. I know people eat it, but they seem a little shy about it - a little like not owning up to smoking until you are sure that people will not ostracise you.

So, how do you cook a whale? It's red meat, but that is about as much as I really know. I was pondering the idea of a whale cake (based on the marginally less scary idea of a meat cake).The best idea I have at the moment (with input from Claudio and Eira) is to make a cake shell with 50/50 almond meal and flour, and then put maybe some parsnip mash, some quince paste (dulce de membrillo), and sour cream.

Or maybe it isn't the best idea. Anyone got a suggestion? You don't have to actually eat a whale, just think about food...

Today I got a new visa in my passport to prove that I can stay in Norway for another few months.

It's actually not that useful. I applied for it ages ago, and thought they would write and tell me about it. I never got any news, but last week I left Norway to go to England. At immigration control they just looked it up and said "yes, it was renewed on such-and-such a date. You probably should go to the immigration office and get it put in your passport".

So I did. A whole work-day spent waiting in the office for my number to come up, but then I simply had to present my passport. And a photo. It's one of the worse photos of me around (and the standard wasn't that high to begin with), but it doesn't matter that much to me.

I did get about halfway through the book I am reading - "Krig" by Knut Nærum, about how a war starts between Norway and the Netherlands over an ice-skating incident. I'm also trying to read "Ut og stjæler hester", which is a bit slower. It got rave reviews, and I enjoyed the first chunk of it but it seems to be slowing down a bit. It looks likely to be the third norwegian book I finish, after Krig. (It was the fourth I started, but two of them are going to be even later...)

But now I have a permit to live and work here for a while longer which should give me time to get into them

That's the sound that I like to hear. It used to be a constant noise coming from under the stairs, but it has been years since I heard it at all.

Living in Oslo, the price of beer is extremely high. Norway seems to think that it can discourage people from drinking and smoking by adding enormous taxes, and heavily restricting sales.

The result is apparently mixed. I was told by a colleague, but haven't checked, that while Norway has the lowest official per-capita alcohol consumption rate in Europe, it has the highest rate of alcoholism and is suspected to have one of the highest rates of moonshining.

It's about a year since I squeezed my beer-brewing equipment into a suitcase and brought it to Oslo. And finally, a year later, and 7 or so years since I last did it, I have a brew bubbling away in the kitchen. Bitter, but mixed with honey, so could take a while and turn out interesting. Original gravity 1040, quantity about 20 litres. I guess I will know by Christmas how it turned out.

In the meantime, I can go into the kitchen and listen to it slowly bubbling away.

It's been a long month travelling. Lots of fun, lots of hard work, seeing friends and colleagues and meeting people and dealing with both kinds of challenges (the ones that are interesting and the ones that are just frustrating). And now I am back in Oslo for the weekend, before going to Australia.

It's not how it was when I left. There is no snow. The grass is green and thick. It doesn't quite manage to get dark - even when I went out at midnight last night there was clearly blue sky looking north, and only a deep twilight. The sun is shining and it is warm, people seem to be getting back to summer smiles (after a few hours it is hard to really tell).

Next time I come back the days will be getting shorter (although they will still be longer than they are now), and the country will be moving into serious summer holiday mode. Meanwhile I will have been in southern Australia's wet chilly winter, and New York's icky-sticky summer, and have a whole new string of challenges faced.

...life goes on. Maybe I'll get to play cricket tomorrow. That would be fun.

It's really not winter any more in Oslo. The last bits of snow holding out in dark corners seem to have gone. It starts getting light about 4am. It doesn't freeze, and the bits of dirt are growing grass on them.

Spring is here. People seem happy about it, after the winter. Some people were positively pining for it.

I didn't go skiing, I didn't go skating, I didn't see the endless night of the north or even the northern lights. If I am in the north next winter, I hope to do a better job of these things.

Happy spring everyone.

It's strange, how the world is filled with vice presidents. In American companies I get the impression that they like to have dozens of them, although there are probably only a handful except in enormous organisations. The United States itself, is really a pretty big organisation, despite the various cries for "small government" coming from conservatives. Over the years, they tend to approach the problem by appointing a few well-qualified people (for example, they went to school with the minister, or they play golf with him...) to a standing commmission to examine why there are so many standing commissions.

I was at a school which was organised into houses, like classic english "public" schools (so-called I think because the public aren't allowed in). We had two vice-captains in our house. One was appointed, and the other was elected. The elected one was unofficial, and got his post by convincing everyone that he had engaged in more vices than anyone else in the house (about 75 boys from 14-18). Most of these vices were against the rules, and a number of them, given he was not a legal adult, were also against the law.

Norway is a society that seems fairly down on vices. Alcohol is not illegal, but high taxes, and limited availability seem designed to discourage regarding it as part of everyday life. In Oslo you can get beer up to 4.7% alcohol content in supermarkets during the week until 8pm, on saturday until 6pm, but in some places only the nearest "vinmonopolet" - a government-owned monopoly that is the only place allowed to sell anything stronger - has beer, along with fairly short shopping hours, and in many cases just a counter where you ask for the assistant to fetch what you want from an invisible store.

Drinking in public is illegal. Someone told me once that there is a law that prevents people drinking in the park. But you only have to visit the park to realise that while it may be illegal, it isn't a very well-respected law. Smoking is prohibited in all enclosed places with public access, or which are workplaces. As far as I know they haven't gone as far as Melbourne, Sydney, or Los Angeles, forbidding it in various open public spaces such as beaches. But tobacco is extremely expensive, as is anything associated with smoking.

Prostitution is, I think illegal. Which, like everywhere else, is a law that apparently makes no difference at all - Oslo has an unofficial red-light district which is neither as "picturesque" as Amsterdam's, nor as depressing as those in Italy (which are generally a gloomy stretch of highway near town). Whether the prohibition actually provides the basis for a framework of corruption and protection, as it used to before Australian states legalised it and began to try and make it a clean, if not actually amazingly respectable or respected, industry, I have no idea.

Australia is a nation of gamblers - although in fact most people only gamble on being able to pay a ridiculously large mortgage one day (the dream of ownning a home is getting further and further from ordinary people , even those prepared to take on this huge financial burden), and on the Melbourne Cup. Like most places, Norway has a lottery, where the government takes money from people who probably can't afford it, and it has horse racing, trotting, and so on. There are also poker machines in pubs, although I don't even know if they have entire casinos.

Sex shops are legal (I presume there are assorted laws about pornography, but I have never really bothered to find out). Norwegians are meant to be, at the same time, extremely open and easy-going about sex, and extremely uptight about personal relationships. Actually they are just people.

As a western society, various companies are trying to sell things we don't need, and a fair proportion of those seem to think that adding a picture of naked or nearly naked women somehow conveys the message that, for example, one brand of plant food has been developed with a better research process than the other. (It's a made-up example, although I am sure that somewhere it could be discovered to exist).

More respectable businesses show naked people of both sexes. A recent poster campaign for a shopping center followed a naked couple as they had a baby, I guess to symbolise the impending (re?)opening of this lovable place.

They're either fooling themselves, or trying to make fools of us. Almost all the research says that women are generally not particularly interested in photos of naked people, and men are particularly interested in photos of naked women. So by adding some stuff that nobody cares about (the bloke), they appear to be respectable and about balance. Although it doesn't take a lot of thinking to realise that it's a cover for doing what everyone else does - using photos of naked women to appeal to a market segment.

I am not especially averse nor immune to pictures of naked women, in general. (I don't know if it's genetic, marked somewhere on the Y-chromosomes that inhabit my body, or a leaerned behaviour, or something else. I'm not that concerned about finding out). Unlike tobacco, alcohol, foie gras paté and electronic gadgets, sex is a fundamental requirement for humanity. Which is why social interaction is almmost universally considered necessary. That doesn't make it always wonderful, mean that anything that can be done should be done, or anything else. It doesn't seem at all clear to me why it is something that should be dangled in front of people to convince them to switch brands of lawnmower, or buy a ticket that statistically has no possibility of bringing untold wealth which can somehow compensate for a broken relationship by providing the guy/girl of some advertising fool's dreams. Although I understand why people seem to keep using it like that.

George Michael, Pope Benedict the latest, and Hugh Hefner, are all famous people who have suggested that (at least in certain circumstances) sex is a good thing. I'm inclined to agree with them about it being good, at least in certain circumstances. I am not so sure I agree about the particular constraints or freedoms each would suggest are important, but society is a balancing act.

But it is intriguing how often those who seek to impose their control on us, and particularly those who seek to impose some ethics-based system of self control, focus on sex as one of the important vices that we should be circumspect about.

And where does all this waffle come from? An article, in which an English sporting body changed its mind (having originally said it was OK) about allowing a club to be sponsored by a legitimate business, which has its retail outlets in prominent public places, because it is a "sex shop". (No, it doesn't sell sex, just things you can use for sex. Although there is probably not much you can't, with a bit of imagination - yet this has become a massive industry taking millions of dollars, euros, roubles, crowns, and so on).

I suppose it is reasonable to set some standards about what is an appropriate sponsor for a recreational organisation that involves children as well as consenting adults, especially one based on something as important as cricket is to the English. It just seems, as the quoted club official pointed out, a bit inconsistent coming from a league sponsored by various alcohol businesses and a gambling outfit.

Still, society is a balancing act. There are plenty of people who are offended by the existence of shops selling things whose purpose is, in their eyes, repulsive, unnatural, or exploitative. Although myself, I find pubs can be a positive influence, as much as they can be a destructive one. I suppose the same might apply to sex shops, although as far as I can tell they are neither, just more places that turn titillation into tills ringing as the punters put down their pelf in pursuit of a mostly delusionary dream. (Or was that betting outlets, or blogging sites selling an unlimited audience?)

Yippi. Etter en uke uten snø, er det tilbake. Jeg er glad. I gar, så jeg på TV at vi skal kanske ha det nå, men litt etter middag når jeg var ute var det bare lite, og jeg trodde ikke at vi skal ha nok - som skjera i gar.

Uten snø er vinter mørk og ikke så bra. Det regner nok alerede i Melbourne og andre steder.Hvorfor bor i mørk hvis det er ingen nytt?

Hmmm. Jeg må til norskkurset litt mer, ikke sant?

Today I came to work early, about 7h45. For people who know me well, that will seem odd. I was going to try and get my urgent to-do list clered and go swimming. I got the list cleared, but too slowly. It was before dawn, and cold. But at some point I noticed (thanks to Claudio saying so on IRC - my window shutters were down) that it was snowing. So I opened the window shutters to see Oslo turning white.

Like me, Moose is apparently a bit of a kid when it comes to snow. Well, he said it, and it seems true enough. Despite being more used to it than me. So we were outside and he was taking photos of the first October snow he has seen. I did what I generally do when it snows - make a snow angel on the Opera balcony. (Thanks Moose for the photo used here).

And right now I have to get in a bus, and leave Oslo again. I guess it won't be snowing in Copenhagen though :-( Maybe raining instead. Now my shirt is dry...

It's getting to be winter. I closed my window this morning, and changed to a warmer jacket. I even packed my scarf, on the off-chance, and forgot to dig out my gloves.

On Saturday, the norwegian Hydro company had a birthday party. They invited all of Oslo to Frognerparken, for an afternoon of activities and an evening of music, with the feature act being Norway's great musical export success A-Ha!.

(They sang a song called Take On Me that was a world-wide hit in the mid 80's. They also have other songs). I had a quiet day at home, and spent the late afternoon and early evening in the office. But eventually I decided that a walk would do me good and sitting in the office wouldn't, so I wandered across town to Frognerparken.

So had a lot of other people. There were perhaps 100,000 which is impressive for a city of about 1 million. The entire park, as far as I could tell, was full. And it is quite a large park. I did in fact get close enough to see the people in the band (although still from a distance). They sang songs that people knew (including the one that I knew), they were lively and enjoyable, they got the crowd singing along. They came back for the obligatory encore before people started to drift away (although plenty of people were streaming out when I arrived, in order to get home or go to dinner, or just because they found something more interesting). But while a lot of people left after the encore, a lot stood around singing one of their songs. After quite a while they came out for a somewhat surprising second encore.

And finally it was over. Standing in shorts, shirt and sandals, I noticed that when the crowdd was around I was warm, but when I breathed into the night air I could see the condensation. No stars tonight, I thought - Oslo was once again clouded over.

Walking across the park to leave, it occurred to me that there must be something like my annual salary in "pant" - the deposit on most bottles and cans in norway - lying on the ground in the park. Sadly, a lot of it was being crushed and broken to add to the general wear and tear on the park, and make it harder for the various people who collect containers for the pant.

We thought about going for a quiet drink somewhere different afterwards. We ended up at the Evergreen once again. But when I left, late, it was cold, dark, and clear. In St Hanshaugen, the big park near where I live, and again in the back yard, I could see stars. More stars than I think I have seen before in Norway. And I even thought I saw the Milky Way. But it might just have been wistful thinking.

When I was a kid I read a lot of books about european things. There were hedgehogs and moles, and things I had never seen. It was much rarer to find books with wombats and echidnas and platypus. The Muddle-headed Wombat, Blinky Bill, The Magic Pudding were among the rare classics that did have animals I actually recognised in the wild - I am not sure how much that contributed to my enjoyment of them, but it certainly was a factor. Maybe Storm Boy, too, although for me that was mostly about a place that is all over Australia.

Tonight I was walkng home past a park, and saw a little lump like a broom head. Arve noted that it was actually a hedgehog, and sure enough after a minute is started waddling away. It really doesn't look like an echidna at all, although it has a walk that is a bit similar. At night, with my phone playing up, this is all the description there is - like in the olden days, when a platypus sat briefly in a friends lap while she was sitting in the Howqua river, or the wombat Andy and I saw in the snow when I was a little kid.

For that matter it was like the first time I saw squirrels. Everyone around me though they were like rats - more of a pest than anything. They don't seem to be very different to really skinny possums with even furrier tails. But when they are a brand new experience of something you hav heard about your entire life and never actually seen they look pretty cool.

When I was a kid hedgehog was a kind of flat heavy chocolate cake thing. I have no idea what the connection is having seen one of the animals.