Recipe for 10 year fried Fish

1. Move to Norway and buy second hand fly rod, practice lots of casting on dry land before tying on a fly.
2. Buy books on fly tying and learn to tie your own fly, this takes ages and you will soon find yourself spending more time tying flies than fishing. You will also spend loads of money buying every type of feather.
3. Continue trying to tie a flie that looks like the one in the book.
4. Remind yourself that it was fishing you were interested in not tying bunches of feathers.
5. Teach yourself to cast again spend this year fishing lakes and small streams before venturing onto the big river.
6. Catch your first fish on fly, a small trout.
7. Your first day on the salmon river, you won't catch anything of course.
8. Buy more books and equipment, you don't have to read the books or use the equipment but having spent all this money will make you more determined.
9. Catch your first Salmon, put it in the freezer for that big celebration.
10. Fry the fish for a bunch of appreciative students on a Global Concerns day.

It wasn't really my first salmon by the way.

Frogheads

Someone anonymous asked me to upload a picture of the student with a bald head. Tried to track him down in the night but couldn't find him. Had to make do with this frog. It was trying to climb Norway house, well his head is about as smooth as the frogs.

Skinheads

Over the years there have been many surprise bald heads in the student community and there is one now. I've never shaved my head, i think it's something to do with a fear of skinheads throughout my youth. I guess they are still around today, more associated with the far right than football. When I was a kid they wore drainpipe trousers with braces, check shirts and Doc Marten boots. There were a few of them at the school I went to (a rough comprehensive) and they were to be avoided at all costs. I didn't like the idea of fighting and have managed to avoid it thoughout my whole life. At school I was friends with all the best fighter so no one ever picked on me. At the weekends my dad ran the youthclub that I went to so I was protected there too. When walking on my own I learnt to keep my eyes on the ground thereby avoiding any potentialy dangerous eye contact. This has proved very useful when looking for mushrooms. There was once some troble at a party when some uninvited guests started a fight, it is the only time I ever hit anyone, however the guy was already on the ground at the time, as I said I had some handy friends. I felt really bad about this for ages afterwards.

Video no input

For anyone here at the college more than about 3 years ago "video no input" was a regular announcement at the college meetings. In those days we had a huge ceiling mounted projector with 3 coloured lights at the front, it would be lowered whenever a video was to be shown at the college meeting. There would always be a minute or two to read the message "video no input" while those working it remembered that it didn't work. We now have a much smaller digital version with a different message, something like "searching for computer 1". There is a climb named after this message at the cliff, if I ever do my final project there I'll name it after the new message.
Read an article on training tips the other day. One of the tips for people training alone was to video yourself. Tried this last night and it works a treat, it's just like having an audience. Would post one of the videos but the quality from my phone is very bad and they all came out sideways.
Still haven't been into that new building yet (The Knowledge centre) I think I am now developing a phobia/obsession about going in there. I wonder if I can spend the rest of my life working at the college and never go in? Will see how long I can last. It looks very nice through the large windows, very bright, a bit like the inside of a LIDL store (another place I have never been inside). The windows are in fact so clean you can't see the glass. I walked into a glass window in Førde a year ago when the new shopping centre was opened. My kids were really embarassed not just because I walked into it but the way I played to the crowd afterwards.
Bang
"What the..."
"Who put that there. "
"Should have had a sign on it."
Should have had a sign on it? It would be like the Norwegian classroom, Vindu.

Kast Masken

Went to a parents evening yesterday in Dale. It was a special evening where the parents saw a bit of theatre about drugs and alcohol (mainly alcohol). Rowans class had seen the same thing the day before followed by some work shops. After the first 5min I realised thjat I had seen it before 2 years ago when Josie was in 10th class aargh... too late to escape and anyway I had cadged a lift so didn't have a car with me. 2 hours of the Norwegian version of how to teach young people about alcohol. The message was basicaly tell them they shouldn't drink. Hmmm, now I see why there is a problem.
There was some interesting statistics and some even more interesting conclusions.
1. Young people that begin to drink at an early age are more likely to develop an alcohol problem. Conclusion: If you stop young people drinking until they are 18 they are less likely to have a problem. Maybe it's not that simple?

2. 65% of teenagers had drunk alcohol before they were 18. 65% of parents think their kids don't drink. Conclusion: since these numbers are the same all parents who think their children don't drink must be wrong (I can't remember the exact figures here but this point about the numbers being about the same was made). Well what about the 35% of teenagers that actualy don't drink, quite a lot of the parents are right.

3. Drinking underage is like driving a car underage. Not exactly, try driving a car past a policeman at the age of 16 and see if you just get told to stop.
On the whole they did a good job and I'm sure the kids got something out of it, certainly better to talk about these things than to pretend nothing is happening. I just wished they hadn't been so Norskcentric. Maybe they could have looked at what happens in other countries and tried to learn from it.
Just booked my ticket to Paris in November, going to have a few days bouldering at Font. Feel quite motiovated to train at the moment so maybe i'll manage something I haven't done before. Eclipse 7c would be great. Have found a website where you can watch videos of the problems, here think I'll be spending a few hours logged into that site.

Hands

This post is supposed to have a picture of my hand on it but my phone won't connect at the moment.(it's there now) Anyway, if you could see my hand (you can) it's all brown, looks like I've been to an Indian wedding or something. Not so many Indian wedings in Flekke so it's not that, in fact it's because I've been stoning plums again. Also the skin is peeling off on the first joint of my middle finger, I've been bouldering every day for the past 3 days. Superb conditions as it cools off in the evening. Am making progress on a project at Iglekjøn jumping for a sloper, caught it a couple of times but couldn't latch on hence the peeling skin. I've also been trying out some recipes, although you copuldn't tell from my hands, made a Tart Tatin (caramelised apple tart). Took a slice round to the potatoe man hope he likes it.
I'm supposed to be making a presentation about natural food for a Global Concerns on health. I think I'll start with something about bouldering. It's bouldering and walking Ben that first connects me to nature, the food comes second. Today I picked some mushrooms and we had them in a Rissotto for dinner. Sort of rounds off the day. I've been in the nature all day and now the nature is in me. I always say that when you eat food you've picked or caught the taste reminds you of the day you've had. Today it really did, I didn't clean the mushrooms properly and one or two of them tasted of soil and moss.

Tony Hawks

Last week a student (female) walked past me with a skateboard under her arm, good job it wasn't 20 years ago, she'd have been arrested. Skateboarding was illegal, they have some funny laws in Norway. There is another one, if you commit a crime, even murder, and don't get caught after 20 years then the case is closed and you can run around telling everyone about it without worrying that you'll be locked up. I read about that one in the local paper so I may have got it completely wrong. So if you had a skate board 20 years ago you can admit it now in complete safety.
Anyway, this student spent the afternoon trying to skate down the slope outside the Ekbo building, actualy she could have been trying to go up since the gradient was imperceptible. I was impressed by the her determination, it reminded me of when I started to surf, totally useless but determined. Next time she's out I'll get a photo.
Skateboarding is a sport that impresses me greatly, much more than for example olympic gymnastics. The difference is that skateboarders don't have coaches, training schedules, special diets, drugs (they probably do but not performance enhancing ones) , pushy parents or any of the other aids available to the main stream athlete. They just get out there and rip. Have you seen what some of these kids can do? I often watch extreme sports channel so I've seen it all.

30 years ago

An old friend sent this photo of me when I was at university 30 years ago.
I'm the one in the middle. Strange thing is I look exactly the same and am doing exactly the same thing. I think the last 30 years of my life have been just a long dream and I am actualy still 19. Or maybe the photo has aged.

Flitting or surfing?

Another 6 tablets flashed so almost back to full computational power in the Physics lab. I've been playing with google web creator, think I might make my own physics web pages. Quite alot of effort uploading all the diagrams and pics but will be much more fancy than the subject pages. The subject pages on the college intranet are a great but very under used facility at present the college has two systems for teachers to share files with students, a web interface (w3) and a system of folders on the internal network. It's difficult to convince people of the benefits of using a web based system as opposed to public directories. It's a big problem with the rate of progress in the ICT world, once people get comfortable with one system they don't like to change to another so you end up running two parallel systems (three actualy, I forgot about paper). By the time everyone is using w3 I'll have got bored with that and will have moved on to my own web page.
Have decided to run a surfing project this year instead of my usual climbing trip to "the beach". One of the sudents has a kite board hopefully get a go on that if the surfs not too big, never quite worked out how yoou're supposed to come back to the beach with one of those things so may have to continue to Shetland. My first board was bright pink and yellow stripes, I think I looked a bit of a sight battling through the waves with my home made wetsuit and matching pink and yellow hat (I have a pic somewhere that I'll scan). I was so fanatical that every holiday, even in the winter, I dragged Hilary and the 3 babies round europe visiting all the hot surfing spots. The problem was I wasn't exactly a natural talent so spent the first two years being tossed around occasionaly being hit on the head by my or someone elses surfboard. Broke my nose in Brittany, almost broke my neck in Biaritz and am sure that I died and came back to life at Hossegor. Eventualy I got the hang of it and had three great years surfing several times week then I moved to Norway.......
So I never refer to flitting from site to site on the web as surfing, that is something altogether more difficult.

Flekke Party

So we had the first Flekke Party of the term and I suppose some people want to know how it was. Well pretty good actualy. There was a nice cafe downstairs selling food to raise money for humanitarian projects in Lebanon, the main disturbance there was when the ceiling started shaking due to excessive dancing on the second floor. Over 150 students turned up some drank alcohol but a lot didn't, all arrived orderly and sober and left orderly and happy. A couple maybe wished that they hadn't had so much but 97% gave a good demonstration of how to drink to have fun rather than how to drink to get drunk. We were all given a very good demonstration of how not to do it by a group of lads whose names do not appear on our student database. The demonstration was fairly comprehensive starting with the tiresome and obvious attempts to get through the door, followed by the over friendly approach. A skillfull switch in tactics enabled one group to get a free lift to another location leaving the remainder to continue their persistant attempts to score. After the inevitable half hour sleep in the car park the final act was predictably a rather pathetic punch up between members of the same team. Enough of the Norwegain approach.
So it seemed like a great success, the return to campus was quiet although I can't comment on how it was for the room mates that didn't go to the party. I'll be making a simple questionaire later today so we can try to quantify the succuess.
I tried to take some pictures but they didn't come out to well, I've included one anyway, just think of it as one of those blurred arty sort of photos.
Apart from that I have been reinstalling everything onto my new bigger, faster hard drive. I can't believe how quiet the computer is. Got another bag of plums. Since I'm on duty I have been eating in the Kantine, yesterday was the students favourite, chicken and rice. Dry Chicken and very dry rice with no sauce. It was certainly edible but I derived no pleasure from it. Hmm my next project..........

Landmat

Landmat is the name of the catering company Are Morten and I are setting up. The name is derived fromLandmark , one of the families who lived in Lilingstoheim where we will be serving food. Although it isn't a real Norwegian word if it was it would mean food from the country which is what we will be making, the slogan could be:

Landmat
Food fromthis land
Recipes from another

Now we need a logo. I was thinking that we should find an old signature of one of the Landmark family and use the same style but change it from mark to mat. We could also use a picture of one of the old landmarks under the writing, or maybe an outline of lillingstonheim. Not very good at this sort of thing anyone got any ideas?

We have made a rough calendar for the year, the first will be a sushi to start flowed by Crab with fresh bread and real mayonaise. For Desert I'm thinking of Tart Tatin, this is an apple tart baked upside down so the apples caramelise and the pastry stays nice and crisp. An excellent autumnal desert.
By the way, if anyone doubts how seriously the students consider policy cahnges at the college here is a picture of some of them during the last Althing discussion. Is that serious or what?

Squirrel nutkins

Was at Raudbua the other evening just seeing if the routes were dry, Ben spotted a squirrel up on the cliff. Ben frightened him and he shot up one of the unclimbed lines (Lisa i Li). Very impressive to watch especially the huge jump from the last hold to a tree hanging over the top. Have started having lunch at Raudbua, I just like sitting there, maybe I'l move into the Lavvu.
It's the first of the new style Flekke Parties this weekend, hope it goes well, very impressed with the organisation so far.
Have 6 tablets working at last so feel more at home in the lab again, Projector stopped working this morning considered going home and abandoning class. Turned out to be a loose connection. Probably because of all the vibration caused by the building work outside. It's the new boathouse that's being built to house the new boats.
Getting into Google Mail but still don't like the ads. I reckon it could solve all my problems. What I want to be able to do is to open an attachment ammend it with my tablet pen (i.e mark) then send it back without having to download and re-attach. I can then use google mail for storing all my marked work. What do you reckon Thomas? possible?

Very Sad

Just to test out google mail (see previous post) to see how good it is at finding relevant sites based on email content I sent myself the following message:
"I am very sad and need to find a friend"
It's not true, just testing a theory.

These are the sites that I was refered to:
Novi Sad Putnik
Love Quotes
Dostawa do domu i biura
Punjabi Sad Song

Well I'm afraid all I can say to that is Dostawa do domu i biura.

Plumming the depths

Regular readers might remember I asked my neighbour (the potato man) if I could have his blackberries, he said he wanted them but I could have some plums instead. I'd probably never have this conversation in English but when speaking Norwegian I seem to be able to say pretty much anything and get away with it. On my way home today he jumped into the road waving for me to stop (remember he's about 80). Since I was on a bike and not exactly speeding along (thin legs) I managed to stop in good time. He told me the plums were ripe and we arranged to meet at 7:30. He wasn't sure if the message had gotten through so he visited another neighbour to ask where he should meet me, neighbour two then came round to make sure that I had understood. This is getting rather complicated so I'll stop there. The point of the story is that it's not only the foreigner who is confused by the locals but the locals are equally confused by the foreigner. Any way I got 6kg of plums and another mm into the local community. I made jam.
So we've now moved to Google Mail, very flash perfect for someone like me who never organises mails into files - no need now I can search - and never deletes mails - huge capacity. There are a couple of things I don't like though. I don't like cyberspace googling my mail and telling me which sites I should look at based on the content of my communications. I don't like being told when I have no mail that I could always read the news, I'm just waiting for the dating sites to start apppearing after a couple of days with no mail. (I wonder, if my name is mentioned does a link to here appears, probably not since I'm not paying google anything) But what I really hate is the fact that the back button doesn't work, that's cruel.

Presents.com

Still a positive feeling about the flekke parties hopefully we'll only have owls and no vultures. It's interesting this idea that if someone sees another person breaking the law then they are also breaking the law. Lock me away.
Ordered a new hard drive for the hp hope that sorts the problem, this tablet keyboards is just to small, think I should but a lamp for my desk too, can't see what I'm typing. Internet seems to be off more than on hence the lack of posts of late.
My new climbing shoes arrived today can't wait to try them on my new (bolted today) super hard raudbua project. One good thing about being grown up is you can send off for things that arrive in the post, it's like having a birthday when ever you want, actualy it's better since you are not sure exactly which day the parcel will arrive so the excitement goes on and on. Just thought of a new internet idea for lonely people. You enter in all sorts of personal details, pay some money and you get presents sent to you. There could be different options like birthday and christmas, random, on demand, one big one, lots of little ones etc. etc. If you want to do it just go ahead I won't mind the idea being stolen I'd hate having to wrap all those presents up.
Checked out if the domain was in use, seems to taken by a black page.