The plan is on, and it will be how to end April 2019. Little bear to bed, the aquarium bubble maker is off, so the house is now for the grown-ups. Pour some wine in the glass, grab the kindle and continue the reading and try to find out who was the quad-killer 30 years ago. And tomorrow wake wake rise and shine and take the wheels out for a ride before the temperature drop close to zero. Bye!!
May it might be the best month in Norway for employees. There are several short weeks or with interruptions. 1st of May, 17th of May and 30th of May they all come in handy. The big problem is that most of our business is done with companies abroad, and they really don't care much. So, to my colleagues, just hang in there! Please have a nice week, and a nice 1st of May :)
After the excesses of food yesterday evening, nothing better than a bicycle ride to get rid of toxins and clear blood. Beatriz stayed in the neighbourhood of our apartment playing with friends and jumping in the trampoline. The days are really good, and we can enjoy the sun.
What is this? A Loppemarked is something like a flea market that happens in schools around Norway, where parents from the School Band sell things donated. So today we went to Beatriz school LoppeMarked, and it was a success. From a trolley for kids(5 euro), to books (2 euros), and nintendo DS game (1 euro). We like it and Beatriz loves to buy things with her money from the piggybank.
Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you... Today Eva got an upgrade. 41, so now she is officially 1 year older than me... (no) in fact just 2 months. We went for dinner for some pizzas and shrimps. Also Eva received a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon for present, in scale 1:60.. Better than nothing. :)
What is so special about this day? For Portugal this was the day that we kicked our authoritarian regime balls and got the people's freedom back. It was in 1974 and I was not born yet. However because I was educated properly, I value this, and I know how hard it was to live in that era. I clearly remember my grandfather talking about that they could not talk bad about the regime and if a state informer was present that would cost him a few years in prison and torture. Luckily I had no one in my family that was incarcerated, however Marinha Grande, one of my hometowns is full of peoples who's past was not that bright. The Carnation Revolution, as it is known for the symbolism of the flower used in the rifles, was peaceful without any blood or deaths.
Photos might have copyrights, but for me there is no copyright in history and we should not let the knowledge of the past die.
The good weather and long days are here. So beside the bicycle why not shoot some hoops? Last year my basketball was eaten, maybe not, chewed by a wild and savage wolf (not), just a regular dog, and I just got a new one. At work we have a few new colleagues, that also were basketball players, so beside the Portuguese Mafia, now we have more players... Who wanna join? Most likely we will play in the field in the backside of Vigeland Park in front of Skoyen Skole that gets some shadow in the morning.
After a bad slept night, a hard and painful return to work nothing better that a manly 3 cars wheel change. In Norway everyone has 2 sets of tires, winter and summer tires and wheels. The winter is over now, so back into the slicks :). Off course that we were also 3 Portuguese "Machos" with a very strong chinese electric impact wrench and a hydraulic jack. Right now I can go and rest... Goodbye...
I believe that the title and the image is self explanatory.
Tomorrow I need to go back to the office... after a very fast 10 days aways..
I am with Monday Pre-Work Depression (MPWD) as I write this sad and painful words... I think I need to visit a psychiatrist to see how I can treat this sickness....
Easter Sunday, yu hu... So today, we had a non-traditional Easter lunch. A picnic in the beach "Fornebu Stranda", aka, Tuga Beach, with some Portuguese friends that just took the entire day. The weather was so nice that the kids even got a bath in the Fjord, thought the water was freezing cold, but kids will be kids. There was time for volleyball, football, badminton, "jogo do lençinho", kizomba, egg hunt, ball fishing, escape from angry goose, and much much more. We cycled all the way and in the end of the day we totalled 11.2km, a new distance record for Beatriz, and Eva.
Well well, what can I say, most of the times I write before the day ends, and yesterday was not very different. I wrote before going to have dinner at friends's house from the north of Portugal, that prepared for us Francesinha. This is one of my favourite plates, and it can get you real full, and that was exactly what happened to me. I was almost bursting.
Yes it is delicious. So this diet killer, looks like a sandwich and has two slices of bread, egg, cheese, a "bifana" that is a pork steak, sausage or "linguiça", ham, and a very secret sauce that takes forever to prepare. It was DELICIOUS, have I mentioned that?
Because of this extra high calories, this morning I had to burn them, so I went for an almost 31km mountain biking ride enjoying the view.
After this Francesinha killer lap, I came home and we prepared a nice lunch and had it outside in our new establish balcony.
Today I had that feeling that I gained an extra day. Beatriz and some friends she was playing with, just went with me to the storage in the garage to get the "Put@s", this is pillows in Norwegians, it is written "Pute" for single and "Puter" for plural, but the "Put@s" is much more dramatic in Portuguese. :) After this we prepared the outside living room. Yes Summer is coming, today we had 18 degC that with the humidity we have is good to stay outside shirtless and get some colour.
And Princess Beatriz made a huge tent that she decided to present in English. Yes, it is her 3rd Language beside Portuguese and Norwegian.
Somewhere in between I found out that friday it is, Party!!
Today we woke up full of energy, despite being back in Oslo and very sad. At least it is not a working day. So we started the day, by: - Unpack - This took a lot of time, as we had a lot of stuff - Get clothes into the washer - Yes, it takes time and several cycles.... - Take the car to wash as well. I am terrible, and only it is bad as hell I take it to wash. Because of the location of the cabin, there was so much mud... it looked my Suzuki Jimny back in the days.
- Vacuum the inside of the new car I have. It is the same car, but it looks 3x more value and shiny, and now much more light weight. It was terrible. - After all this hard-work me and Beatriz we just decided to have some "photosynthesis" outside... but we took precautions - 50 Factor...
- After all this it was time to start preparing the garden for the summer, take some weeds to trash, sweep the ground floor and add some more bolts to the pallet chairs. - And because the sun was high, 18 degC we went with some friends to the beach for a small pic-nic, some badminton and lots of fun.
Where are you going? - I am going to the party!! :) :)
Where do you come from? - I come from the Party... ;( ;( ;(
Basically this is it. Hemsedal is over and we are back in the city to spent the rest of the holidays, it is only Tuesday that we will be back to work/school so, it is not yet the end of the world.
Today we got full day at the slopes in Hemsedal. The snow was not bad, but lots of ice on some slopes. Really nice weather, lots of sun and a sunburn :).
This hytte is on the north side of the valley, so it gets sun the entire day.
We spent most of the day in the balcony in t-shirt enjoying the radiation and restoring vitamin D levels.
Later on the day, since we will not be here next sunday, we prepared a Easter Egg hunt for the smaller kids. It had a map, and in the end we missed one chocolate chicken, that most likely will be eaten by a reindeer.
Do you know you have a special driving license in Norway for snowmobile? Yes you do! So today here in Hemsedal we went for a road trip without any destination on a "Panoramic Road". So we drive, beautiful sightseeing, frozen lakes, high mountains, and in the end a gravel road. We decided to turn around, and on the way back we just saw "Snøscooterutleie" - Snowmobile rent... We decided to go there just to ask the price. When we arrived we were welcomed by 3 very sympathy dogs, and we arrived to the "machines"...
So we are 3 couples, totalling 5 kids. But we decided to rent just 3 machines for half hour. In the middle we would change mamma-pappa riding.
So we just got a briefing, we got on the bikes and Morten, the expert and owner, just attached a trolley for everyone not riding... (funny as hell)...
And Morten took us to the "track"...
Don't know how but the half hour went out really really fast... after that we stopped in the mountains for an ice-cream and some sun tan. Then we came down the mountain and we went to see one very nice waterfall... and the river... and the suspend by 3 wire rope bridge...
Very Very Nice... PS: for the persons asking for me to talk about them in this blog... I will think about that...
Finally some vacations. Yesterday I set my outlook away message for the first time in many many months. It was exactly 9 months. The date I had to return to office last time was 23rd of July, now it should show 23rd April. If you are sending me work emails you will find out. So for this first part we decided to come to the mountains, Hemsedal in particular. We are staying in "my" company Hytte (cabin/challet) with a mountain view. The weather is really nice, sunny, warm in the day, but chilly if you are not staying in the sun.
Some sightseeing tomorrow and ski on Monday, let's see, no plans it is the good thing about vacations.
Today Beatriz rode the bicycle for the first time to school together with me off course.
We left home, a bit chilly, but nothing special.
It was not the first time we did the way, but the first time on a school day. There is a big hill that we need to climb, that Beatriz walked, but even the kids from 7th grade walk with the bicycles by hand.
After leaving Beatriz, I rode to work, and got a brain freeze. Downhill with the speed, it was much harder... COLD, bloody Cold...
In the afternoon it was the opposite way and it was hot! very hot.
So 8km for me, 4km for Beatriz.
After arriving home, because I was not happy, I decided to go for a proper ride.
Snow at 150m altitude, so I rode a lot in the snow/ice, really nice, warm sun, refreshing.
The Easter is coming, and here at the office we are initiating the celebrations. Our management left us an egg full of candies, that lasted.... 3 hours until there was only egg. So everyone is sweet!
About to reach the 3 digits post, the first. There could be a lot to say today, but there isn't. Boring life, work, home, home work. At least I know that Friday I will take a week vacation, and just reset the system. T minus 3 days.
Normally I hate Mondays, but today on the peak of my bicycle ride, I met someone. I was starting to ride down and he/she was looking at me. Eyes wide open, great attention and apprehension. I braked to a full stop, and he run away downhill. He stopped a few meter ago and number 2 it goes, strait in my direction (far away off course). (click)
You are looking at me, but I will take my sh1t anyhow.
Then he just went back, and I used my Technicolor to full power, 24 frames per second, 3 x 70 mm reel wheel and ACTION! (not) just the iphone...
Writing 4 days in one day, looses the fun of what this should be, but it was what it was possible. The previous post are not rich, but have some nice pictures, and I will try to include more pictures. So today we had 3 and 4 marker challenge, left or top (sorry I am too lazy to rotate the pictures) was mom painting, middle Beatriz and bottom Pappa. Who won? Talking about pictures, today I was caught in a sofa wearing my daughter sunglasses. Damn you guys...
It it finally came the day to take one of my teams (or part of it), unfortunately not everyone could participate. We went out to a Escape Room in Oslo, that was AWESOME... hard as hell, really for twisted minds, but we made it, great team work.
After that we decided to have some pizzas & beers. Thanks to everyone for the participation :).
Shame on me again, almost 4 days without writing. But getting a flight at 7:40 means 6:40 in Oslo, so I think it is understandable that there was not much strength to move the fingers on the keyboard. But even before go to bed I managed to take to bicycles so that I could ride with Beatriz after her school. So basically after that Kaput...
2nd day on the Road...After leaving Turku this early evening, and after some 2 hour sight seeing in the highway, I finally arrived back to Helsinki. Helsinki is nice (from the pictures I have seen)... I have heard so many time from friend.. "you travel a lot, you see so many places"... Who knows what it is travelling in work, knows that there is no time to see sh1t. It is probably my 7th or 8th time in Finland, and I know the high way to Turku and to Lahti, and thats it. Of Helsinki, I know the roads around the airport, the airport, and the road to a company I visited a few years ago not even close to city center. Today I am here and sleeping here, but in a Hotel in the Airport, why? Because I arrived at the hotel 9pm, and my filght is at 7:40 back to Oslo. Well, I know hotels, inside the companies I spend the days working and the wonderful highway.... Goodbye....
Back in the road again. Today (cof cof), I am writing on the 3rd... I had to come to Turku in Finland. Turku is a nice city, 2 hours driving to west of Helsinki. The main reason I come here is because I have a client here. Turku is a city with several shipyards, so no wonder I have clients here. So, this was the second time here but as last time, no time to go for a walk, just dinner (not much selection at the time of arrival), and go to bed. The sight-seeing looks nice, maybe next time...
We are in Blackout, nothing to say. Really... We just spend the sunday rolling from left to right in the sofa... We also don't reply to the Media... Stop calling and texting. We are close. Really Really
