Downhill Mountain Biking in Åre

I went to Sweden again on Sunday for a few trips down a mountain on a hired full suspension downhill bike. Here's the route we took down from the top including speed and distace! I'm loving how easy this sort of thing is to track with my new iPhone!

The big mountain trip

Last weekend I went to mid norway with Marianne's father, Hjalmar and Sten. We had a fantastic time, lots of walking in some amazing scenery and not enough whiskey!

Here are some of the pictures:

I'm enjoying working from my home office setup today! Getting lots done with few distractions :o)

Snowboarding in Åre March 2009

I went to Åre again this weekend in Sweden with a few guys from work. I got the train over from Trondheim which is about 2 and a bit hours. We had some great conditions on Sunday morning and I'm getting more and more confident on the board. So much so, I have the bruises to prove it!

Here's a bit of the action:



And some of the photos:

World Cup Skiskyting in Granåsen, Trondheim

Yesterday Marianne and I attended the World Cup Skiskyting in Granåsen, Trondheim. Skiskyting is called Biathlon in English and comprises of cross country skiing and shooting on each lap. The race we watched yesterday was five 2.5km laps with shooting after each lap (so four rounds). For each shooting round there are five targets, if you are lying down and shooting (easier) you have to hit the centre of the central target, if standing, then you just have to hit the outer target. For each discipline, both must be completed twice.

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biathlon

The greatest part of the day was definitely the atmosphere. The Norwegians love to cheer apparently, for anyone who is winning, shooting, taking part or losing! The hero of the day was (as usual I’m lead to believe) the Norwegian Ole Einar Bjørndalen. He’s quite a winner, five Olympic Golds, more than any other in the history of the sport!

Anyway, enough chat, he’s a video from the day with a little of the atmosphere.

MK Go Karting

Skiing today

Crashing in Åre

First use of my board!

Links from my presentation

Here are a list of useful links regarding SQA

Richard Feynman, the Challenger Disaster, and Software Engineering

Appendix F - Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle

http://www.finalbuilder.com/

http://www.nunit.org/index.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_quality_assurance

Visiting Oslo for work and pleasure

I’ve been in Oslo this week on a course with work. It’s actually been very interesting, informative and unlike anything I’ve experienced before; it really feels like they are investing in all of their consultants and giving them the right tools to do the best job available. It was mainly in Norwegain but I think I’ve now got to a stage where I can follow the main themes and the pictures were all very pretty! However, enough of the advertising! I took some photos!

On my way to Oslo from Trondheim there was a stunning sunrise, as seems to be the norm everyday here. My favourite example of this can be seen below, taken from the park at the end of our road in Trondheim. More follow later in this post.


Click to see it's exact location

Continuing with my trip, there was snow on the ground while rushing through the farms North of Oslo where Oslo Gardermon airport is situated (Not to be confused with Torp, near Tønsberg, where Ryanair fly to cheaply). The trains run on time, they are fast, clean and reliable (compared to my previous British experiences).



I was sitting waiting to be called into the training by 8.30am on Monday morning – very little hassle.

The hotel I was staying at was basically opposite the office and so I could afford a bit of a lie-in and in the evenings it gave me the opportunity to explore a bit of Oslo centre.

Whilst attempting to grasp Norwegian I’ve been using a very good book called, helpfully, “Teach yourself Norwegian” by Martha Danbolt-Simons. It offers a very good basis for conversational norwegian and if I were a little more disciplined, I’m sure I’d be even further ahead than I am now. It mentions a place called Frognerparken during some of the dialogs and it made me want to visit.

Gustav Vigeland spent a lifetime creating some stunning artwork that now resides in a park named after him. The light was fading as I arrived but I still managed to get some pretty good pictures, showing off the statues, the monolith, the sunset and the moon!

Unfortunately, I’ve had the chance to write this post while sitting in Oslo airport waiting for my flight which has been delayed for an hour – Perhaps I’ll become a little more regular with my posts one day!

You can find all of my Oslo trip photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8041060@N02/sets/72157608729657743/

The hunt is over!

I had my laptop with me today when I went to the police station to register at last with the police. So as I type this I have a view of the fjord with mountains as a backdrop.
It’s been quite a exciting few weeks really. My patience has finally paid off with a job and I couldn’t of asked for a better opportunity in any country. It sounds like they really look after their own and I’m hoping I'll get the opportunity to do some training and have the chance to lead in the future.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I’m popping in to see them and hopefully get some more information on what sort of projects they expect me to work on. So far I know they are interested in putting me to work in a compay who do insurance and finance. Fortunately their office is across the street from my company, probably with an even better view.

Yesterday I went for a bike ride up to Bymarka, where we went when Ma and Pa were over in March. The scenery has changed somewhat but there was still snow.

Half way up to Bymarka

Ma and I in a snow hole in March followed by the same hole yesterday!

My new bike :-] with a view

You can see the tower from the top (with a monocular!)

Note the fortress as a tiny spec!

This is a lake on the right and the road up to the top on the left

Remember when you droped your glove when we were at the top Dad? Well I jumped on a frozen lake apparently!


A glorious day

Our footprints form March - we climbed the armco barrier here!


30 mins later (1.5 hours up) I'm at the tiny spec of the fortress. 6km downhill! Woo hoo!

It was really satisfying to cycle all the way to the top where we managed to get to in the car and then an hours’ walk or so. It took me about and hour and a half from home to get there and about 30 mins on the 6km back down. I was quite surprised to still be in good form for spinning this morning at 6.45am!

After my workout, I headed to the police station where there was a queue already even though I was an hour and three-quaters early to even get a ticket to queue! I had a stroke of luck however and sat next to the ticket machine while the queue continued to grow until 10am. By the time it did open I’d say there were about 120 people waiting. Being next to the machine I was third to get a ticket (7th in the queue because a Russian guy made sure he sorted out his 5 friends first). In the end I was in there for about 20mins after my wait for the ticket. Last two times I had been (futile) I had waited two and three hours respectively!

Next stop the bank to apply for a temporary D-number so I can open an account. I found out I could probably have done this as soon as I arrived becaue the residence permit from the police is likely to take at least three months. Anyway, another 14 day wait for this number, then I can open an account and get paid! So, it’s all coming together.

In town and at a loose end I decided to pop in and give the recruitment agent a visit – he’d said pop in if I was about and he’d buy me lunch! I’ve obviously made his week dropping into his office a couple of weeks ago by chance, and he mine! I was going to buy him a bottle of wine, but I’m not made of money just yet. He was too busy though so we might have some lunch on Friday...

While in there I mentioned I might head over to the beach, just out of town and he recommended a place called “spunhuset” which is where Sten and I have been running once. So right now, I am typing all this sat in the garden of Spunhuset with a fantastic view of the fjord. The sun is out and if I stay here a while longer I may even look brown!

So, at last I can relax knowing I have a job to start soon and I'll be able to afford to live here. All in all a whirlwind couple of weeks and I’m a very happy chappy.

Jane comes to visit

Jane came to visy last weekend and the snow fell as if to schedule! Jane didn't miss a flake and totally exhausted me running around in it! We went boarding, made a snowman:





and another:

Fun in the snow

Interview!

I had an interview at Gintel today at 9am and it went really well. They have multiple positions available but once again, like CommuniGator, they are looking for people who could fit into multiple roles. There is also some talk of world travel in Australia, Argentina etc, but hopefully not too much. It would basically to gather customer requirements and perform training on the product. The product is mainly written in Java which I'll have to look into over the next few days to get some sort of understanding again. I did do it a bit at uni but it never really stuck!
I won’t get to excited yet and will try and go to the cafe later today to see if there is anything else in the area. I doubt there will be anything 10 mins walk from the flat though!!

Landing in Trondheim

Leaving England

On Tuesday I got dropped at the airport by Ma and Pa. This point in my goodbyes I had been dreading but it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it could be. That was thanks to Ma and Pa making it as normal as possible and not making it a long goodbye. When I was on my own, that was the hard part. Sitting on in the departure lounge watching planes take off. A bright spark that kept me going was the excitement and smile I knew I’d receive at the bus stop at the end of my journey.

The flight was beautiful, stunning mountains, the flat Norfolk broads glistening in the sunlight was stunning. Nothing to be compared to the Norwegian landscape though – ice cube mountains with virtually no inhabitants. Then as we made our descent the pilot took us over the city and the sun caught all the major landmarks of Trondheim; the Fortress, the bridge at Solisiden, the cathedral and the winding river Nidral. We even made a second pass because of ice on a runway.

I got off the wrong bus stop which was a good lesson on carrying my bag – something I’d get very used to over the next day or so. I met Marianne and we went and got some food straight away, followed by a bit of time to just relax.

We then went up to the flat for my first look around and I was very impressed. The previous owners had left it in spotless condition but the heating was definitely not working! In fact – there is no heating so we went and got a convection heater on Thursday. Not quite enough to heat the hall, kitchen and lounge but once the fire gets going, it warms up nicely.

Road through the hills of Derbyshire

Oli and I took an amazing drive to his folks house in Buxton. This video is a whirlwind tour...