Cottage Maintenance almost finished

As mentioned last week, we have performed some maintenance works at the cottage now when the staying season is over. Rotten panels have been removed and the balcony is now rebuilt.

The colors are still white-white with tar-brown edges and the painting job will end tomorrow if the rain stays away for some more hours.

The tool-shed / toilet appendix had a bad soil and is now rebuilt  with a new foundation and stair fall.

The results seems very satisfying so far, and within end of this week the craftsmen have done their job.

Thanks to Krzysztof and his men for once more helping us professionally.

Norsk Derby Horse Racing and Headwear Parade

 At invitation of "fru Burums" we and friends gathered this morning around tables at Øvrevoll Racecourse for free eating and drinking while "some" gambling for fun was done. Tullen ended up with a small positive cash, and her first win at 14,38 in odds was highly commented at the tables. The friendly company with others made the day,

 The Headwear Parade is one of the top entertainments during the day, but there is a way to go until we can compete with the Ascot creations.

At the start and half part of the Derby race Tullen´s favorite was in the lead, but ended up fifth. Gunnar S. had a triple but as long as he went for the official race favorites, the premium became rather low.

Tullen is the winner

With 14.38 in odds Tullen picked the winner

Norsk Derby

Hatte Mona is here

Aiming for a CEO position in USA??

Mac Roumors informed yesterday that

In connection with Mr. Cook's appointment as Chief Executive Officer, the Board awarded Mr. Cook 1,000,000 restricted stock units. Fifty percent of the restricted stock units are scheduled to vest on each of August 24, 2016 and August 24, 2021, subject to Mr. Cook's continued employment with Apple through each such date.

This stock award is worth just over $383 million at current prices.

$ 384.000.000 is over 2.050 mill nok! A challenging job but a great bonus for doing exactly what he loves, would I say.

In 2010, as COO, Tim Cook received $58 million (ca 300 mill nok) in salary, bonus and other stock awards.

If you have no / some aspirations for your children through the Norwegian public school, do you think they may aim for a similar position in the years after 2030?

Maintenance at the cottage and Taco dinner

 After visiting the maintenance people at the cottage and seeing that the development is running according to chedule (here the new walls in the basement entrance) it is time to visit fru Burums and relax with many of out Friday´s friends. Today the teachers from Oslo Handelsgymnasium were back after the summer holiday, and the outdoor terrace were full of nice people; locals and Friday´s guests.

Well back at our apartment at Briskeby we enjoyed a delicious Taco dinner.
Tomorrow friends are joining us for a card-playing evening and on Sunday we have the Oslo Derby at Øvrevoll.

Steve Jobs resigns

A challenging development for IT business and a sad day for us that has benefitted from Steve´s job (works)

Not Extreme Makeover: Home edition but Cabinet Clearing

The American series Extreme Makeover has not arrived to our kitchen this afternoon. We have however made some clearing of our cabinet containing shopping bags, and please do not ask why the volume of used bags filled a large black garbage bag. All sizes, colors and brands are now on the way to recycling.

Among all the bags a shopping note from Summer 1997 occurred, meaning that some of the bags are over 14 years. Overdue time to throw away the trash, is just the first letter. Do you have another cabinet to clear?

Monday morning

 Last week some of my blogfriends posted some comments about Oslo and called it "urban jungle". Jungles can however be extremely beautiful  and walking down town this Monday morning gave me some opportunities to document the beauty of my loving city.

 These two first photos are from the Royal Garden, open for us all to visit and find tranquility.

 The flower arrangements at the castle and nearby locations tell us that the autumn is just around the corner, although the temperature outside my windows at the moment is +21 C.

Take a break from your ordinary locations and visit Oslo and the city life from morning to night. It will be rain again from Wednesday, but after three grey days the remaining days of August will be nice and sunny. Looking forward to see you.

Sunday with Maja (and the others)

 A rainy Sunday in Oslo. With umbrellas two good friends are moving from the garage to our apartment. I do not think any of them enjoyed the walk.

Everything is better when we are at home.
Maja´s cousin, Helene fell in love with our piano when she was two and a half year, and Maja has already copied this tradition under guidance of Mormor.

Oslo JazzFestival closing concert

Last Saturday Oslo Jazz Festival 2011 opened with the parade at Karl Johan. Yesterday it was over for this year. The closing concert at Saras Telt

Ski Storband with Majken Christiansen hosting Big Apple Big Band with Stephanie Gudmundsen from Denmark made a great performance from 2 to 4 pm.

The leader of Ski Storband Biørn Barlo on sax, Majken C. vocal and BABB´s leader Bjarne Thanning performing "Bring it On Home to me" in front of two very good orchestras.

The audience at Saras wanted more after the formal program was over and the musicians followed up with Jeg er Havren, Jeg har bjeller på in a really swinging style.
See you next year.

PhotoFunia once more

In February 2009 I became aware of the site PhotoFunia.com.

I remembered this site when I saw that Gerd Hønningstad (a colleague from late 1960s and Facebook friend today) had changed her profile picture.
So easy is it to become a star, and a cover"girl" in one of the most prestigious glossy magazines in the world.

Maybe Vouge was interested because some of my artworks lately "has been" on exhibition at the National Gallery.
Have a nice and photo fun weekend.

A morning in front of the easel

This morning I had nothing on my schedule. Visiting my daily blog-friends and surfing through my friends at  Twitter  and  Facebook  was only a wake-up activity in addition to read various news bulletins.

But after many months of low or very low art-painting intensity I felt ready for my colors and paintbrushes. The motive had been in my mind for a long time so it was just to line up in front of my easel, select the paint tubes, begin and finish some hours later. The motive is from the street where my grandparents held their Christmas parties when I was a child in Ålesund.

Roses here too

 Everything in Norway these days is about roses. At our cottage some of the flowers are still interested in showing their color and beauty. Many years ago I knew the name of these roses. Now I only look at them and copy them to the blog so you too can enjoy the wonders of nature.

Since tomorrow is the 40th birthday of Hilde Zimmer she can choose one of them as greetings from us.

The aftermath

Oslo is still marked by the terror against the Government quarters and the youth camp at Utøya.
The windows at Hight Court and the Finance Ministry are still covered with wooden plates in the window openings, and the recovery work is in operation.
 
However, the political life has to return to normal activities in an election year (12th September) , and the Election campaign started in Oslo Centre (Spikersuppa) at noon today. Here from the opening show by Høyre.

Prior to this opening campaign the Oslo Jazz Festival opened with the traditional Dixy Music Parade up the main street of Oslo: Karl Johan.

After lunch we gathered at Perrongen Sports Bar, Majorstuen for some hours of Love Jazz together with Gunnar S. ( at his drums) and a lot of other friends. The trumpet on the photo is from 1929 and the same style as Louis Armstrong used.

As part of the Aftermath activities in Oslo international artists have been invited to Oslo for decorating house walls. This is from Majorstuen (vinkelgården) where the Rose Symbol has been "forever" placed to our awareness.

Autumn is coming closer

Today we cut the new branches of the Apple Tree. The Transperent apples are harvested.
I love Paris in the springtime
I love Solvang in the fall.
Andalusia in winter and Oslo city during summer.
Life is Great.

Commodities or/and High Tech

Mac Rumors presented yesterday night an interesting note:

Here in Norway we are completely dependent of commodities from the oil industry.
We have for years TALKED about entering the High Tech industry, but the volumes of oil pumped out of the North Sea, has been sent as investment to shares abroad instead of being used for investment in  education, research and development plus modern infrastructure. We have always heard that our values cannot be used inlands because of inflation danger.

We see now that Apple´s value is fully on level with Exxon´s.
When will we start to plan for the post-oil industry here and aim that another company than Statoil will be our flagship.
Start investment in the Brain Industry NOW.

Solvang - City of Adventure

I have very often made my Blogposts from our Summer Residence, the small cottage at Solvang 4. Solvang 4 has its own web-site and among the around 90 small houses, you may find our Tullarbo
 In a break of the red-current harvesting today, I took a trip to "Cafe Utsikten" where these photos are shot. Plassveien on the first and Poppelveien and Vestkroken on the second. The sky has turned grey. What to expect.

From a blue and sunny sky over Oslo / Frogner and + 20C it quickly turned colder (down to + 12C) and 0,8 cm hail fell from the dark clouds. Overflow in the city streets and we became soaking wet when moving from the shop to the car ( < 5,5 meter)

Mari was not hit by the local thunderstorm, she was at another part of the city. As you can see, she has started her exploration of the world she has entered into.

Loving Norwegian Petrol Prizes

I use unleaded 95-petrol on my Toyota RAV4 Vanguard. I use lots of petrol per km compared to other cars like Toyota Prius. The petrol prizes in Norway are therefor of concern. Last week we visited Stockholm and bought petrol from Statoil stations there as we do here in Norway. The prizes in Norway are ab 22% higher than we paid in our neighbor country Sweden.
Why?????

Norway is a oil-exporting country. Norway has billions of NOK from the oil industry placed in The Gowernment Pension Fund in countries and companies all over the world. In a parliamentary White Paper in April 2011 the Norwegian Ministry of Finance forecasted that the 2030 value of the fund would be NOK 7,400 billion ($1263 bn). A worst case scenario for the fund value in 2030 was forecasted at NOK 2,667 billion ($455 bn) and a best case scenario at NOK 19,556 billion ($3,337 bn). A lot of money!

But petrol prizes have nothing to do with this, or have it?

At least this documentation of NOK per liter in 2010 figures can give you an idea of how the Norwegian petrol prize is build up (source: Norwegian Petrol Institute):

International product cost = 3,38
Gross profit oil companies and petrol stations = 1,37
Petrol tax to the state = 4,54
CO2 tax to the state = 0,86
VAT to the state = 2,54
SUM = 12,69

State tax about  63 %

Although we are facing a local municipality election in September, and petrol prizing is part of the government responsibility,  your participation and  decision can have long term consequences.

HOTEL MYRAMAR FUENGIROLA

From Carlos Cano, Director at our winter residence we received a mail today stating that they miss us down there. I promise; We miss Andalucia ourselves, and promise to arrive within some months from now.

From the reception / lobby area.

Towards the children pool and block 3.

The 8500 sam shopping centre in the background only 3 minutes away.
At the moment it is somewhat too (?) hot for us. The long term (ten days) prognosis are:

Stockholm good but Oslo best

 Well back home in Oslo after some days in the Capital of Sweden, STOCKHOLM.

Normally we prefer Copenhagen for these annual short city visits, but this week no hotel rooms were  available. At least not at a rate we accepted. We therefor made a call to Scandic Sergel Plaza and received an offer we could not resist.
The weather has been fantastic and even the street musicians had limited clothing when performing Eleanor Rigby from the Beatles` Revolver album in the Old City.

Prime Minister of Sweden Olof Palme was murdered after shots from a revolver, and the sign at the sidewalk with the date of the assassination, makes me remember that it is 24 years since my first Stockholm visit. We will return. Stockholm is good, but Oslo is still our home town.