My town Kristiansand

For most of you a place where you call home is where you live.  Well here is a description of my town where I have grown roots as here I live with my fiancée and our son.  I live in Kristiansand the fifth largest town in Norway, with a population of 85,681 persons as of 1 January 2014 located in southern Norway.  I have lived here for more than two years.  Before that I lived in a small village outside of Kristiansand with population of about 200 which was my first location after my immigration from Iceland.The city was named after its founder King Christian IV in 1641. Many nick name "Palmekysten" or palm coast ( of course there are no palms here). Nick name is due to the fact that kristiansand is a vacation location for many locals and good tempreatures in summer ( most of the time). 

  

 

Here in Kristiansand are located some of the larger Oil rig service companies.  I work at National Oilwell Varco as a project manager in vertical pipe handing.  National Oilwell is the largest of the oil service firms here due to the fact that it is American company based here in Kristiansand with 3500 employees here in Norway.    Kristiansand has what most towns have to offer with some more extras such as the country’s largest Zoo and the largest shopping center in Scandinavia (mall). The town is not very densely populated such that most of the inhabitants live in private homes located in two main suburbs.  

 

 

We have a small airport with some few international departures ( quite small actually) and train station down town. There is also a large ferry that sails between Denmark and Kristiansand daily. So transportation is okay antough the airport could have more departures direct to other european cities. Perhaps in the future.  For now we have to use the travel opotunitiese we have here locally with conections from Oslo norway and Amsterdam Holland (most common direct routes from here).  

The town center has some nice cafés restaurants both with traditional Norwegian cuisine and also international type restaurants.  My favorite is actually Indian Mother India www.motherindia.no and the Food Asylum Japanise sushi resturant www.foodasylum.com/. The town center is at its best around Christmas time when the streets are teaming with life of shoppers before Christmas and in the summer when the cruise ships arrive.
   We have some many other towns; cinema, theater, library, a football team ( FK Start) and so on.  Kristiansand and the local area is also called the bible belt by many Norwegians due to many Christian parishes of many types here in the southern part of Norway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kristiansand is a wooded area as most of the southern part of Norway and you do not need to go far to have a picnic with the family.  Think last Sunday I drove 5 minutes with my daughter took with us some firewood and hotdogs sat by a nice local lake in the local woodlands.   For the outdoors person this is heaven as from here you can hike, ski and fish just a few minutes away from my neighborhood.

 

 

 

Normally in summer we stay in the shore line cabin located just 30 minutes from Kristiansand and enjoy the costal life and in winter we take ski trips and hike in the local woods.  I have never been so much out side in nature as here.  Maybe because I like living here and enjoy the opertunities that I get to see and experience the area and place I call home, Kristiansand and Kristiansand municipality area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have not been so active skiing the last year due to infant parenthood, but I think that time will come soon. In fact I had never been cross coutry skiing until I moved here. Altough I come from Iceland skiing is not so popular sport where I come from. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here pepole have it in theyr blood to enjoy what the seasons and nature gives you and I like that.  Kristiansand and Norway is a nice place to work and live.   

November settles in

The autumn has been warm this fall. 12 degrees green grass and no frost. Now that we are closing to the holidays we are preparing ourselves to the cold that we are used to here in Kristiansand in winter.  I remember when I first came to Norway, more snow that I have ever seen In my life and I come from Iceland.   The temperature was minus 15-20 and the snow was here until end of May.  I remember seeing a person on skis on the frozen Mandal River. Now almost five years later it is warmer.  Global warming or not this is not normal either.

I always get a sense that Christmas is near when November begins.  Christmas presents need to be organized and finance around Christmas planned.

Yesterday it was father’s day.  I am so lucky to be the father of a ten year old girl and a six month old boy.  Got a father’s day gift delivered to me when we woke up with some nice things to our little one to enjoy.   I then spent the afternoon with my oldest one ( that lives with his mom) in the woods hiking for few hours.   We stopped at a local lake and made a bonfire and grilled hot dogs over the fire. That I have not done for a while. Warmed my heart and enjoyed the company.  

I wonder why we don’t celebrate thanks giving.  So many reasons why we should be thankful:

• I am thankful for that I have a family. Not all do appreciate their own.  Remember some people have no one.
• I am thankful to be living in Norway and appreciate all the freedoms we have as a society and here in the Nordics we are free to live our lives are we best feel fit.
• I am thankful to have a roof over my head and food on my plate. So many in the world have to eat to survive. I however have never thought of food as survival but as a given right. Roof over my head is not something that all have.  We must remember that. 
• I am thankful that I am a father to two and have a spouse that I appreciate more and more every day.
• I am thankful for my health. Remember to appreciate yourself.  Treat yourself with respect and treat your body as your temple.  You only have one, now take good care of it.
• I am thankful for that we have not experienced war where we live. Today millions experience war every day. Thankfully we don’t. Appreciate that.
• Be thankful for the people that have made a positive difference and or helped you and had a pisitive influence in you life.

 So why are we complaining? Some one does not have all the good things in your life. 

Now surprise your nearest and dearest with an invitation for a good turkey dinner and warm welcome although this is not a local custom in some places. 

 

Back on track new beginnings

I have not blogged for a while.  I decided that I will write mostly in English as I have family and friends in the US, Norway and Iceland.  So to make things easier for me I will write in English as I know most of you can read English ( I hope).

Well much has happened last couple of years.  The last couple of years has been like 2 seasons of Dallas with losses and peaks.   I survived the storm and here I stand.

Recently we were in Italy.  It has been my dream to come there for a vacation for years.  Finally we decided to take a trip to Toscana.  We (me and Tonje ) took along with is our five month old son Mats and my in-laws.  I got to experience Italy at its best.  We drove through Chianti and visited wine yards and experienced the Italian fall at its best just after they harvested wine grapes and olives. The smell of wine production in the air in almost every small town in Chianti.  Food!!  what can I say, I love food and good wine and the local food did not disappoint at all. In the Montagliari wine yard (http://www.fattoriamontagliari.com/  ) we had a wine tasting and dined at the restaurant.  Wild boar pasta I had for main course. That was excellent.  Wild boar is one of Toscanas specialties boat in steaks and pasta dishes. Almost every day we had some Italian icecream ( Gelato) that is exceptional. If you ask for a coffee at a café you alwas get espresso.  The espresso was one of a kind.  We came home with a peace of Italy in our luggage, Lavazza coffee, local olive oil, chianti wine and local special pasta. I look forward to visit Italy again.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning the windows of our car was frosted and winter slowly settles in.  I like the fall here in Norway.  I am use to the Icelandic fall where windows are often frosted in the beginning of September so this is just fine as it is here in Norway. 

Now our little Mats has almos begun to crawl and we now are child proofing our home before he actually begins to crawl around.  This little felow has so much energi.  Some times i wander if I would hold out all the movements he performes if I would imitate his movements for an hour.  

  

 

Sunnudags morgunn í Noregi

Í dag vöknuðum við snjókomu.  Við skelltum okkur á lappir og fíruðum upp í arninum til að koma hita í húsið.  Svo er borðað heimalagað norsk brauð með áleggi(pålegg) og tilheyrand. Það er búið að sjóa stanslaust í tvo daga.  Það er allt að komast uppúr kössum.  Ástrós fær reyndar ekki inni á leikskóla strax.  Þurfum að finna eitthvað út úr því.  Mynda plássið er að verða búið hér á blogginu þannig að ég skellti bara inn mynda safni á Picasa Web.  Þar mun ég setja inn fleiri myndir.

 

Í gær var íslenskt nammi kvöld.  Fengum okkur íslenskar súkkulaði rúsínur, Lakkrís og Tópas.  Það féll vel í kramið hjá öllum.  Ástrós er búinn að vera að sveima fyrir þessu alla vikunna.  Í dag ætlum við að fara í heimsókn í Laudal hér stutt frá.  Ætlum að heimsækja local fólk sem að Hulda hefur ekki hitt lengi.

Hér fyrir utan er mikil og stórfengleg náttúra. Húsið liggur í dalverpi sem að tilheyrir Mandal.  Hér liggja hús meðfram ánni sem að heitir Mandals Elva.  Húsið sem að við búum í liggur einmitt við ánna.  Í ánni er bæði lax og silungur.  Einnig Elgir og Dádýr sem að rölta um í skógar þykkninu.  Skógurinn hér er allstaðar má segja frá fjalli og niður í fjöru.  Við erum umkringd skóg á alla kanta. Fyrir ofan húsið er skógur sem að við eigum eftir að kanna.  Hlakka mikið til þegar snjóa fer að leysa og ís fer af ánni.  Þá sést allur dýrðar ljóminn betur.  

Þetta er hrein og bein náttúru paradís.

Norðmenn endurvinna og hér meðframm ánni endur vinna allir.  Erum heldur betur farinn að finna smjör þefinn af því.  Hér er allt endur unnið.  Plast þarf að flokka í sér fötu.  Matar afgangar í sér fötu. Málmur og annað er sett í sér fötu. Svo er pappírinn notaður til að kveikja upp í arninum.  

 

 

Kominn inn í land / Logged into Norway

Jæja núna í morgun kom póstur frá Norsku hagstofunni (folkeregisere) .  Við Ástrós erum kominn með norska kennitölu.  Hulda var með sína fyrir enda hálfur nossari.  Fór síðan niður í bæ og fékk mér norskan bankareikning og debetkort hjá DnbNor.

Núna er hulda inni í eldhúsi að baka brauð fyrir okkur úr einni af brauðblöndunum sem að við keyptum úti í búð. Arininn mallar þar sem að hitinn er -5°C. Fórum í kjörbúðina í dag REMA1000.  REMA1000 er svipuð og krónan á ísland.  Þarna færst ýmislegt á góðu verði brauð nauðsynjar og fleira í þeim dúr.  Fyrir matgæðingi mig er matvöruverslunin REMA1000 hér hrein paradís.  Mikið og margt sem að ekki fæst á Íslandi sem að getur verið spennandi að smakka.  T.d prufuðum við í gær í matinn "Lapskaus" sem að er eins og þykk kjötsúpa með smá kjöti sem að var bara ágætt.  Eigum síðan eftir að prufa Elgskjöt.  Grunar að það líði ekki að löngu þar til að ég sé kominn með byssu í hönd að veiða slíka bráð sjálfur.   

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Well the mailman finally dropped the letter of all letters to our mail box.  Our Norwegian ID numbers have been issued.  Hulda has one as she is half norwegian but me and Ástrós needed new ID numbers. In the morning we whent to the bank and applied for a norwegian bank accout and debet card for me with the local DnbNor bank.

Hulda is now in the kitchen baking bread from one of the bredmix from REMA1000.  The fire place is slowly warming our house as the heat out side is falling below zero to minus five to ten degrees. We went to the supermarket today REMA1000.  There we can buy things we are not use to as common comodities. For a food lover like me this is paradise as there are many things to sample and test that I have not tasted before.  For example we tried yesterday "Lapskaus" that is a norwegian potato stew with vegatebles and meat.  Then we have to try the local Moose meat that I look forward to as I like that type of food. 

I suspect that I will do like the locals start game hunting and get a riffle and hunting license.

 

 

Norge

Við erum núna kominn til noregs.  Ferðalagið gekk vel.  Flugið með Icelandair var mjög gott.  Við tókum svo lestina restina af leiðinni til Kristiansand.  Ferðalagið var eitt æfintýr fyrir prinsessuna á bænum.  Hún fékk góða þjónustu um borð í flugvélinni (Guð blessi Icelandair) og svo bókuðum við okkur í vagn í lestinni sem að var með leiksvæði fyrir börn.  Halldór bróðir hennar Huldu flutti okkur svo til Mandal þar sem að við eigum nú heima (u.þ.b 45 mínútur frá Kristiansand). Stuttu seinna eða daginn eftir fórum við á "Folkeregistere" og skráðum okkur inn í landið.  Þar sóttum ég og Ástrós líka um nýjar kennitölu fyrir okkur (norska) sem að við bíðum enn eftir.  ´

Gámurinn kom sl föstudag og það tók okkur um 1 1/2 tíma að tæma 40 feta gáminn sem að kom með þessar tvær búslóðir.  Ökumaðurinn sem að kom með gáminn sagði okkur að innihald gámsins hafi verið um 4 tonn að þyngd!!!.

Veðrið hér hefur verið í kringum -1°C undanfarið.  Það var bara fyrst í dag sem að hitinn fór upp fyrir plús skalann eða í 5°C.  Við höfum kynnt húsið með "við".  Það eru tveir viðarofnar sem að við höfum sett við í á kvöldin og morgnanna.  Það hefur dugað til að það er sæmilega hlýtt í kofanum.

Við erum núna að vinna í því að fá okkur vinnu hér í noregi og koma unganum okkar á leikskóla hér sem að er ekki langt frá.  Myndir koma á morgunn eða í kvöld.

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 Norway

We are now in norway.  Our travels whent well.  The flight with Icelandair was exellent. We travelled with train from Norway, Gardermoen to Kristiansand Norge.  From there Hulda´s brother Halldór drove us from the airport to our new home in Mandal Norway.  The day after we whent to "Folkeregistere" and applied for Norwegian id numbers and got registered into Norway.  The container arrived last friday in the afternoon.  We emptyed the 40 foot container with in two hours. The driver told us the container content "búslóðin" weighed over 4 tonnes.  In the container was our belongings , furniture etc and Hulda´s mothers furneture and belongings.  The last few days it has not been cold.  The tempereture has been around -1°C.  Only today the temperature crawled over to the positive side of the celsius scale or 5°C.  We are now working on geting local jobs and getting our daughter to the local kindergarden.

Signing off – New sunrise to morrow

Last day at work for Icelandair today.  Now begins my new life in Norway.  Icelandair has been a major part of my working life.  In fact I have worked in the Icelandair Flight Operations Department from September 1999 until today 15.January 2010.  These have been a enjoyable 10 years working for Icelandair.  This has been a learning curve throughout my career.  Each day with new a assignments. Looking forward to each working day is a feeling not many people can experience during their career.  I have in fact had the pleasure of this feeling for the last 10 years.  Not because I have a boring personal life ( have a joful family life to be exact) but because of the projects, collages and the working environment Icelandair has offered for the last 10 years.  For that I am grateful. All good party´s must come to an end and life can show you new opportunities. Norway is exactly that.  A new start with a new sunrise in the morning.

I will keep you posted.  Stay tuned.

  

Jólasveinninn og útreikningar

Var að hugsa ef jólasveinninn væri til hvernig getur einn jólasveinn farið heim til allra barna á landinu og gefið þeim í skóinn á einni nóttu? Svar( nördaði svarið sjálfur): Á landinu eru um það bil 50.000 börn 12 ára og yngri.

Ef við hugsum okkur að jólasveinninn hafi í mesta lagi 6 klukkustundir (frá 2300-0500) til að færa þeim öllum gjöf í skóinn á meðan þau sofa þarf hann að setja gjafir í 138 skó á hverri mínútu(2,3 skó á sekúndu). Jólasveinninn þarf að ferðast á milli staða. Ef við gefum okkur að það sé að meðaltali 100 metrar á milli staða í þéttbýli er jóli 0,43478 sekúndur á millistaða sem að er 828 kílómetrar á klukkustund.Jóli ber meðsér 50.000 þúsund gjafir til barna sem að hver vega um 100 grömm sem að gerir 5000 kg. Við það að draga þessi 5 tonn á 230 metra á sekúndu myndast orka eða 132250000 joules, sem er um 69638 °c. Sem að þýðir að jólasveinninn og hans stóri poki brennur upp á nokkrum sekúndubrotum.

Hef séð útreikning fyrir Ameríska jólasveininn hann brennur upp hraðar því að hann ber meira með sér og okkar jólasveinar nota ekki sleða.

Desisions

The gut feeling tells me that what we have decided as a family is the way and the future. It is sad to leave everything here behind, but on the other hand an adventure of exploring and self motivation.  In our natural essence we are explorers, explore the world explore your limits.  I personally have come to the point where I must look past he horizon and take the leap of faith and my gut feeling tells me that is the way this should be.  

I have taken some what a long time to come to this conclusion.  I have a good career in wich has been a good one.  I have risen from the man who loads the bags to the airplane with in our company almost 15 years ago until now as a the assistant to the director and chief pilot and the manager chief pilots office.  This country (Iceland) of mine has made me take the hardest decision of my life the decision to leave the island to find a better meaning full lives else where as ends do not meet financially here any more.  I have thought hard about this and this has been the once of the hardest and toughest decisions I have ever made.  If we stay we would quickly be engulfed by the flames of the decaying remains of the economy here (read the news and check my wallet).   I am generally stable and very earthbound person, for instance we have been working for the same company for many years. As Mark Twain said:

 "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream”. 

Our journey has started, the compass has been tuned and heading has been set.  My wife is half Norwegian and it is a good opportunity for her to get in touch with her inner self the other part of her she needs to know and for me to seek new opportunities and seek what we all desire, the answer to the meaning of life.

P.s they have some good fishing down there too!

(to be continued) 

 

...The saga continues / .. Áfram heldur sagan

I woke up this morning by the sound of my daughters voice " Dad I want breakfast".  I pulled my self out of bed and made breakfast for us all.  I even decided much to my wifes amazement to bake Croissant’s for breakfast.  She has told me some times that I am as romantic as a brick.  I surprised her by bringing breakfast to bed ( one point ) and baking Croissant (*tji zing* one point again).  Not bad getting freshly baked Croissant to bed.  Two points for me yeah!!!

Afterwards I drove our little princess to her ballet lesson.  While she was doing her thing I decided to pamper our car a little bit.  Clean in side out.

Some times I amaze my self even though I can be as stubborn as a log some time and act as the dad in "According to Jim" show.  And I found out that I still can be a little romantic some times.

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Ég vaknaði snemma í morgun við hljóð.  Röddin hennar ástrósar braust í gegnum draumhúmið.  ´”Pabbi ég vil fá morgun mat”.  Ég ákvað að búa til morgun mat handa familíunni.  Ákvað að baka Croissiant fyrir okkur.   Hulda hefur stundum sagt mér að ég sé jafn rómantískur og múrsteinn.  Ákvað að leiðrétta þann misskilning og koma og vinna mér inn nokkra rómó punkta.    Kom henni á óvart með því að koma með morgunmat í rúmið (eitt stig þar) og bakaði Croissiant.  Ekki slæmt að fá ný bakað bakkelsi í rúmið.  Tvö stig fyrir mig. 

Eftir á keyrði ég prinsessuna í ballett tíma.  Notaði tímann til að gefa bílnum smá dekur.  Þrifinn að innann og utan.  Stundum kem ég sjálfum mér á óvart með frammistöðu þó svo að ég geti verið jafn þrjóskur og trjádrumbur og láti eins og pabbinn í „According to Jim“.