I am one of them

Well, not one of those posing on the photo, but one of the 7.000.000.000 individuals on the planet Earth / Tellus.
This image is part of a group of more than five thousand who pose for the world-famous Art Photographer Spencer Tunick in New York. ( Photo: Greg Wood / AFP / Scanpix)
Since we reached 1.000.000.000 persons in 1804, we passed 5.000.000.000 in 1987 and 6.000.000.000 in 1998 according to UNFPA. Within 14 years another billion will consume part of the resources available on earth and in 2083 the prognoses say that you (not me) will count up to 10.000.000.000 persons with or without cloths.

The day after

Thanks to Gunnar og Ragnhild for a nice dinner party last night.
The Royal Blue Orchid they brought to our house is so beauty that a special blogpost this Sunday morning to honor the gift is natural and appropriate.

Update:
Sunday stroll to Aker Brygge, Akershus, The Opera House, etc. Finding a huge butterfly on the wall on a storehouse at Fillipstad Brygge.

Friday dinner and Christmas beer opening

Yesterday we opened the Christmas Beer season with dinner at Amundsen Bryggeri og Spiseri. Beerbrazed Lamb Shank with Root Vegetables accompanied with the brewery´s own Amundsen Jol.

The different beer brands can be delivered in bottles or as preferred as drafts. The price list shows the most popular proposals and according to an official newspaper scoreboard, Haandbryggeriets Nissefar is the winner of this year´s rating.

After some beers it may be a challenge to look at this image and feeling that the man of the photo is turning to you or away from you dependent of where you look. A really nice photoart from Kalazone

Why I gave my kidney to a stranger

I am receiver of a donated kidney (and a heart) and I know that the family of a dead person has given me a "Gift for Life". I have so far been able to extend my life-time with more than 13 years by these gifts.

It is also possible for persons to donate one of their kidneys (you know we have two) when they still are alive.
This story from the Guardian tells you some of
why the donator Luc Delauzun gave his kidney to a stranger

Luc Delauzun …'When I told my parents they were shocked. Now they are very proud'.
I am proud of you too, and we are many others that can thank persons like you for their lives.
Life is Great

Hunting for Rubber Boots in Esteli Nicaragua

Due to heavy rain and flooding in Nicaragua some Norwegians pre-school teachers have through their FaceBook Group Site started a campaign for helping the children by invite us to donate a small amount of money. It all started with this information on FaceBook:

Hello to all loved ones!  

Here in Esteli it rains a lot for the moment and the consequences are that most children do not come up in day care, or can play outdoor. Therefore we want, with your help, to raise money to buy as many rubber boots as possible to help these children. 3000 people in Esteli have lost their homes because of the rain, and it is expected more rain .. It costs 35 NOK for a pair of rubber boots.

We have an Norwegian account you can donate a free amount if you want to help us and the children: 

1607 41 55565

Note the transfer with rubber boots and your name

In advance thank you!  

Greetings Andre Brynilsen, Ylva B-H and Miriam Pozderka Brynilsen

 A week ago the amount donated was up in 3000 NOK and on Monday this week the amount has climbed to 10.000 NOK and still growing. Ylva and the others could go hunting for boots suitable for the children.

We all can share their happiness and feel proud of their initiative.

A new week and new challenges as time goes by

At least four important events will take place this week.
I will have to prepare for an interesting control at the National Hospital (Rikshospitalet) on Wednesday,
The Christmas Beer will be launched at Amundsen S and B on Friday,
The iPhone 4S will be out for sale on Friday and
we will make arrangements for friends coming home for Baccalao party on Saturday,
 As time goes by

Regarding the hospitalization I will return to that challenge later and after the best medical competencies have made their conclusions.

The opening of the Christmas Beer season will for us take place at  Amundsen Bryggeri and Spiseri on Friday afternoon.

Their "Amundsen Jòl" will be ready for tasting together with 20 other types of domestic and global Christmas Beers.

As time goes by, was of course the famous melody from the movie Casablanca, but in my time-line also  the images of my first grandchild Helene documents the process. From an almost impossible start by a very premature birth she has grown and developed, Today we really can see that time has gone, or as her mother says: "Where did my little girl go"

Helene´s mother Trine is also facing the running times through her vocal communication with SIRI on her new iPhone 4S. This phone will also be launched in Norway this week, Friday, October 28

Have a nice and challenging week all of you.

12924 km from Dakar

At Ullevålseter on our Sunday Marka-tour today we noticed that Dakar is far away in Africa.

We started at Frognerseteren, passed Tryvannstua and Skjennungen where this snap-shot documented that the snow still is waiting to cover the earth. A really foggy Oslo autumn weather today.

From Skjennungen a steep walk down to Ullevålseter for a hot chocolate and waffle with brown cheese before we continued down to Sognsvann to catch the metro back to Majorstuen.
Bach home my legs hurt and one of my shoes was damaged. Tomorrow I have to visit a shop for buying shoes for next Sunday stroll.

Ørnulf Opdahl at Gallery Haaken October / November 2011

Living at Frogner in Oslo the walking distance to popular galleries is very short. This evening one of the returning artists at Gallery Haaken opened an exhibition of paintings from 2009 to 2011.

Ørnulf Opdahl born in Ålesund 1944 is among Norway´s most famous painters. His works at Haaken today follow mostly the traditional Opdahl style, but for me some "new" expressions caused strong feelings.

 One of the paintings is called "Winter Light Alnes". Made in 2009, 175 x 175 prize 200k nok. The exhibition´s most intriguing painting. On his website a smaller version called "Alnes Autumn"(40 x 40) can be found.

The second best work through my eyes is "Fjord Landscape" 2009, 70 x 240 prize 165k nok. One of the exhibition´s most beautiful paintings, and could have decorated at least one of the walls in my apartment.

Congratulation Ørnulf, you have made it once more.

Oslo Beer Festival once more

Testing Jacobsen Rose Wit which was Tullen´s favorite (she normally does not like beer), but my own favorite was Jacobsen Brown Ale.
However, Brooklyn Brown Ale is absolutely an alternative.

 At peace and a beer from Schous Mikrobryggeri in hand. Life is great.

Now we are waiting for the Oslo Wine Festival 2nd to 4th February 2012.

Autumn gathering in Norwegian Highlands

Last weekend the Old Bunch (Gamlegjengen) had their annual autumn meeting at the old mountain farm "Søre Knipa" Lesjaverk, Oppland.
On Saturday we went for a picknick at Lorkvenne close to the river Lora.

"Lorkvenne" is an old mill, located in the estuary of the Lordal river in Lesja municipality. The mill was used from before 1326 to 1943. At the turn of the millennium, Lesja Historical Society decided to restore the mill. Today the mill looks as it did several hundred years ago. Ditches and dams have been dug and dammed up again like they once was. The mill is partially notched up again with a new water wheel, but the same old stones still do the job of making grain into flour. Both the stable and several houses have been restored. There is also built a new water-driven pestle.

At the mill we met a local guide who took us around and talked about the different activities that now have been restored and in operation for demonstration.

The water flow and wheels showed us that high quality engineering has been part of our culture for hundreds of years. Improvements in science educations for pupils in the Norwegian school system must therefore be done to catch up with our ancestors up to 500 years ago.

Rumors of Bear observation and visual contact with Eagles in the sky accompanied us during the lunch although the temperature was around zero C.

This painting of a Reindeer Buck can be seen in the millers cottage. If possible, make a visit and learn more about Lesja

Hunting Moose

Anne, one of my blogfriends, called for a hunter last week. Not for the person I understood, but for the antlers. I can only offer this photo of the moose head. Have a nice weekend.

The Cathedral in Oslo

Another beautiful day in Oslo.
The clouds and autumn rain showers have taken another break presenting the blue sky and a sun giving  warm rays make the day perfect for city strolling.
The tower of Oslo Cathedral (formerly Our Savior's Church) is catching rays when sunbathing among the trees at The Cathedral's lower end, surrounded by the Bazaar (Basarene ved Oslo domkirke), a curved long building with a tower covered in green copper like the Cathedral.

The cathedral became extra famous both domestically and internationally through the flower ocean after the 22/7 terror attack in Oslo and at Utøya.

A Chatelet in the City

 Compare to the Castle in my previous blogpost, my own cottage (or Chatelet) in the city of Oslo must be called rather small. However the lawn cutter has been on her last promenade this season. Now Tullarbo is ready for the white cover.

See you next spring.

A Castle in the Mountain

While we are touring the city facilities and participate in Oslo Beer Festival, some of our good friends spend their weekend at their farmhouse up in the Norwegian mountains Lesjaverk.
Looking forward to visit them at their Castle next weekend for a happy party including mountain walking, dining, singing and laughing as always with the old bunch. Hopefully the snow will stay away for another week although the weather forecast shows temperatures just above zero C.

 In the meantime a Hybrid City Bicycle can be used for another beautiful day at Aker Brygge.

Have a nice weekend wherever you are, and speedy recovery to Maja with chickenpox.

Sunset over Akershus Castle during Oslo Beer Festival

The ongoing Oslo Beer Festival had a gathering at Lekter´n Aker Brygge this afternoon and evening. The sunset from the restaurant towards Akershus Fortress was a snap-shot between different beer tastings.
Thanks Helene and Atle for your hospitality.
Tomorrow it is 25 years anniversary at Hannibals Hybel with a prize level at 25 non per pint. See you.

Thanks Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs has passed away. this article at MacRumors will give you all you need to know.
Thanks for my Mac and Apple experiences. You have made my IT-world better more fun and more secure and easy.

Interested and inspiring links about Steve Jobs:
Wired.com/epicenter
How you live before you die

Read this. Translated from Norwegian by Google

Et valg for livet

Da Anne Liland bare hadde minutter igjen å leve, fant hennes 23 år gamle datter trøst i tanken om at morens død kunne berge livet til syv andre mennesker.

(A Choice for Life. When her mother had only a few minutes to live, the 23 years old daughter Astrid Marie Liland made a choice that could save the life of seven other persons)

This article in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has I translated to English through Google. Read it and pay homage to her decision. The reference gives you the original text in Norwegian.

Dunk.Dunk.Knock on the door?
Dunk, dunk, DUNK, DUNK! But it's five o'clock at night ...?
The 23-year-old woman who sleeps with her girlfriend a few miles outside Bodø, wake up. On the stairs is the woman's aunt. She has a serious expression on her face.- Anne is in hospital! Your mother has a brain hemorrhage, said his aunt.
"Mom," thinks Astrid Marie Liland.She is roaming around the apartment to find clothes. It's dark, they hung a black sheet in front of the window to block the strong Nordland light out, and she gets palpitations, she struggles to breathe while she finds a shoe here, a sweater there, and the bag with her things in.Her uncle is waiting outside. The 23-year-old woman sits in the back seat.In a blue Volvo driving through the deserted streets of Bodø, Nordland Hospital, where they do not know what awaits them. But Astrid Marie Liland feel that her 58 years old mother will die.What if I need an organ ever? What if I need it to live? - Astrid Marie Liland What if it's me?The night is Anne Liland been affected by a brain haemorrhage. She has complained of headaches and bought tablets from a pharmacy. The pain goes away. But only for a few hours. When they return, they are so strong in the right side of the head that a friend who is with her call for an ambulance. It runs Anne Liland straight to the hospital.When her daughter Astrid Marie arrive a few hours later and take the elevator to the intensive care unit on the 8th floor, she finds her mother surrounded by sophisticated machines that monitor blood pressure and blood circulation. She receives oxygen through a plastic tube in his mouth.The doctors say it looks bad. Blood circulation to the brain is gone.Astrid Marie never get more contact with her mother.Surrounded by doctors, nurses and relatives realize and accept that her mother will die, and she heard her own voice say:"What about organ donation?". The first thing she talks with is a female nurse. "Am I insensitive ...», she begins. "No. It is absolutely right thought ", replies the nurse. Norwegian law is such that the doctor who treats Anne Liland's duty to take up the theme. But Astrid Marie Liland is the hospital ahead.23-year-old knows a lot about organ donation. When she lived in Australia, she became friends with a woman who donated her late husband's away the bodies. Astrid Marie filled out donor cards, and she has written about the topic on his blog. "Why should I let my bodies rot in a grave, while some people need them to save lives?" She wrote. Not long ago, she has discussed the issue with her religious mother. First, Anne Liland quite the contrary. 23-year-old asks, "What if I need an organ ever? What if I need it to live? "- Eventually she had to admit that there were good arguments. I was never completely out of her if she was for or against, she says.Would save livesWe all have potentially seven organs to donate: Heart. Lungs. Liver.Pancreas. And the two kidneys, where waiting lists in Norway are long.One donor can at best save seven lives, but it happens rarely. The average is four organs from each donor.Nevertheless, it is thought Astrid Marie thinks - one donor, seven life! - While weighing for and against. She spends all day to decide. Trying to block out the emotions."Mom is gone. I can not call her and ask her what she wanted done, "she says to herself. She is focused, but still think "what if mom is sitting up on a pink cloud and see his body being operated on?". To themselves and others argue that the mother she had lived her life as a generous person.Her mother would have wanted to save lives. Daughter talking with a priest. He gives her more support. Finally she says to herself, "if anyone should ask me to facilitate this, I can defend it."Duty section chief that night, Sven Haakon Urving, said he was impressed and touched by Astrid Marie's behavior.
Some months after Marie Astrid Liland mother died, meets 23-year-old section superior in charge that night, Sven Haakon Urving. In Nordland Hospital, she know what she had hoped for: All of the mother's organs could be used.- She was so mature. It was very special to see how she took control in such a tough and difficult situation. I have since used Astrid Marie's behavior as an example in my teaching, he says.Over 12 hours after she was awakened and was told about her mother's acute illness, collect Astrid Marie doctors and relatives in a hospital room.The decision filled her with a fierce energy, "as if I were to have drunk five cups of coffee and made lots of happy pills", and when she tells the others about it, she is convinced that she is doing the right thing.When she goes to her mother again, it is to say goodbye. The room is cleaned to the memorial. Only relatives and a priest present. It is completely silent on the ward. The daughter stroked his mother. She puts her nose several times until her skin. Astrid Marie will remember the smell of mom.It has rained all morning, noon and afternoon. When 23-year-old is out of the hospital at 19.30, it has stopped. Outside she saw the brightest rainbow she has ever seen.Long-awaited phone About the same time turns a maxi taxi into the main gate to the airport and drive directly to the fly-street. It brings a heart / lung surgeon, two bukkirurger, two nurses, one anesthesiologist and one transplant coordinator. The team from the National Hospital has chartered a jet to take them to Barcelona.They know everything they need to know about Anne Liland body. It works three men and two women who transplant coordinators at the hospital.One of them is always on duty. When the phone from one of the 28 donor hospitals in Norway comes, they begin to collect information about the potential donor. This experienced party knows Anne Liland height and weight. They have had a blood sample from Nordland Hospital and knows the blood group and tissue type her, they have analyzed the kidney and liver functions, they have seen x-rays and obtained descriptions of the lungs, and they know her heart.They use more than one and a half hours to Barcelona. Some sleep. Other eating. They know that there may be long until the next time they get the chance. One quarter after landing in Bodø, they promote the hospital. The time is approximately 22Where is Anne Liland pronounced dead after X-rays of the head (cerebral angiography) have shown that blood flow to the brain is non-existent.Doctors in Bodo provide supportive care, with a breathing machine, monitoring of cardiac and pulmonary function and drug treatment to preserve her organs as possible.There are some who have an intense need for them.For while Astrid Marie Liland go home in sorrow, and Rikshospitalet experts traveling on assignment, begin ill men and women to move to Oslo and Rikshospitalet University Hospital, the only hospital in Norway that perform transplants. Long have they lived on hold, with a mobile phone near them, day and night. Finally the bell rings. We have a heart for you. A kidney. Lungs. Liver. Pancreas. Transportation plan their've been ready a long time: Those who live close, is executed. Those who can catch a plane, book a ticket. Last resort is the ambulance. In Bodø start the team from the hospital to work. The two bukkirurgene opens Anne Liland stomach. They spend a few hours to free the kidney, the liver, so that the organs in the end just stuck in their veins. Heart surgeon takes over. He opens the chest and do the same with the heart and lungs that his colleagues have done further down in the body. The three surgeons counts, one, two, three, and so they put on a pair of pliers to throttle the flow of blood to the organs.While organs flushed of blood and cooled by ice-cold fluid that is transported in blue frysebag-like boxes from, start the countdown.Every minute is important.And next time you think you have a stressful job, think about the heart surgeon who is now bent over the operating table.He knows that a heart at any time should not be outside the human body for more than four hours. It takes five minutes to cut out the heart and all the other organs, and pack them in ice and cold water. A new district used to travel to Barcelona Airport, the plane is waiting. Over 90 minutes spent on the flight south. There awaits an ambulance on the runway to bring the heart and cardiac surgeon at the hospital. The rest of the team, with the kidneys and liver and pancreas, travel by taxi. With blue lights use the ambulance 25 minutes at 52 kilometers. It gives a rate of almost 125 kmh.Per Arne Bakkan leader Hospital Department of transplant coordinators.From here, he keeps close contact with the 28 donor hospitals in the elongated Norway. Short deadlines, stress and long hours are important keywords for the job.When the surgeon enters the operating room at the hospital in excess of three hours after the blood supply to the Anne Liland heart was stopped, and said "here is the heart," only then will the weary heart to the receiver stopped. The patient is connected to a heart and lung machine, is opened up, everything is ready, but no surgeon in the world will take out an old heart before he has checked that the new is intact. What if it had ended up in an accident on the road from the airport?The wreckage of the receiver's heart, the patient could no longer live with, is cut out. Then the new sewn into.Over one day after Anne Liland head pain was unbearable and less than 12 hours after her daughter coat and smelled of her mother and said goodbye, begins the heart that had belonged to Anne Liland in 58 years to turn by itself again.In the body of another human being.Time for answers Anne Liland funeral will be held in Bodø Cathedral a week later. She collected angels while she was alive. Now Astrid Marie decorated the church with them, it is full of angels and flowers. Her daughter keeps speech. She dreaded to speak in front of many people, but it's important for her to do it. She talks about organ donation. She wants the funeral should not only be a blessing, but also a symbol of new life."When I picked out the flowers to the funeral, I fell immediately for those on the coffin now. For me it symbolizes the new life, like my mother was convinced existed. Another reason I chose them was that the mother's organs were donated, so up to seven others could get new life. The thought of my kind, generous mother has given more people an amazing gift - life - give me a great comfort, "she said.Positive reactions In retrospect, she tells Aftenposten:- I have received many positive reactions to my decision. It has "triggered" more people decide to donate, and even more to talk about it. I believe that people must make a choice about what they will do with his body, making it easier for them to come in the situation I was in, she says.23-year-old has long waited to find out how it went with the mother's organs. Did they ever? What was used? Who were they, these people who traveled to Oslo, while his mother was dying in Bodo? Yes, she might well have thought to meet them.List of upcoming believe that it rarely comes something good out of the giver and the receiver is connected. On his website asking the Foundation urged the media not to print the exact timing of a donation or a transplant.But now Marie Astrid Liland finally get some answers. She is summoned to a call.
Astrid Marie Liland and his mother Anne."What if ...?»A rain-soaked and gray Wednesday a few months after her mother's death 23-year-old returns to England Hospital. It is strange to take the elevator to the eighth floor again: It was here that his mother died and her daughter took her life's most important decision. She is nervous. "What if nothing could be used?," She thinks anxious. Section Chief Sven Haakon Urving look seriously at her. "Yes ...», he says, and browse the papers.So he starts to tell.He tells of one who got lungs. If he who received kidney. If he had both kidney and pancreas. In the liver, which was sent to one of our neighbors to be there. And if the heart valves that are now open and close with another person. As he speaks, cries Astrid Marie Liland. She wept for joy, because all the organs could be used, and because she is so fond of the five people who got a second chance. She cries because she knows she made the right decision. And she cries because it is still so painful that the mother is dead, and because she feels so alone in the world.We go together from the hospital to a cafeteria in the center. After his mother died, had Astrid Marie Liland so many practical challenges that she was unable to feel sorrow. The explosion came after a few months. She had to take sick leave from the hotel she works at to get into.-It was so good to know I learned today. All the organs could be used! It is strong and strange to think of how many she has helped. My uncle said something nice about it. He said: "Imagine, Anne now live on in others.

4 happy long living Norwegian transplanted All first within their organ receiver areas in Norway (Troels heart, lungs and liver, Nina heart and lungs, Bente heart and myself heart and kidney) In the middle our special beloved doctor Svein Simonsen."2011 record year for Norwegian organ donation- 2011 will be the best year ever for organ donation in Norway, says Per Arne Bakkan, head of the Hospital's Department of transplant coordinators.- In the mid-1990s, organ donation was a taboo area. Now it's something we can talk about. People are proud to have taken a stand, says Hege Lundin Kuhle, general manager of the Foundation Organdonation (). She refers to the 220,000 "friends" foundation is on Facebook.2010 was the peak year, with 102 Realized donations. Rikshospitalet has Aftenposten updated figures this week showing that it has already been carried realized 100 donations this year.- In relation to our population, we are far ahead of them, we can compare ourselves with. After the first half we had 30 donations each. every million who live here. In Sweden and Denmark were the same number 14, and in Finland 19, says Bakkan.The reason? More publicity for organ donation. TV2 series Life on hold, which was sent early in the year, has played a major role. Norway was also the first in Europe with a donor card application for smart phones.

HOPEFULLY THIS TEXT IS READABLE FOR MOST OF YOU AND A MOTIVATION FOR STARTING TO DISCUSS ORGAN DONATION IN YOUR OWN FAMILY.


Thanks to Astrid Marie Liland for sharing her story with us.