Congratulation Oslo, The new Munch Museum (Lambda) to Bjørvika

Could my yesterday blogpost get a better timing? Probably not.
Today in the Munch Room at Oslo City Hall politicians announced an agreement making it possible to develop and build a new museum for Edvard Munch´s collection close to the Opera House in Bjørvika, Oslo. (photo by Fredrik Buer / NRK)

The museum will be the Lambda project and our city skyline will in 2018 almost look like this.

 It is an historical day for Oslo, Munch´s art and all lovers of this fantastic painter. Congratulation to us all..

Munch at the Cottage

This morning I received my new book telling about the life and works of the Norwegian great painter Edvard Munch. The book is in a way a biography of Munch, and an illustration of Munch´s background and process when creating some of the world´s most fantastic paintings.

The front page of the book which is a 270 pages "comic strips" by Steffen Kverneland produced by No Comprendo Press. A great book about how the genius Munch lived and worked in the artist bohemian environments in Kristiania (Oslo), Berlin and Paris.

I have myself made many paintings imitating the originals by Munch. Partly as training for the painting art itself, and partly to decorate the walls at my cottage. These three paintings are "copies" of: "Summer Night / The Voice" from 1893, "Ashes" from 1894 and the portrait of "Hans Jæger" from 1889 (here presented as my self portrait.)

On the wall in our "living room" Munch´s "The day after" from 1894 are placed together with some of my other paintings.

Kverneland´s drawings and text are a great experience, and the book-price 350NOK gives absolute a return of investment.

Flower day at the cottage

 Today we went to the horticulture to buy flowers for the balcony at our cottage. The result can be seen on these images. The cottage looks more and more as it use to look during summertime.

The negative gardening activity today is that we had to remove host of our Flammentanz roses. The hard and extremely cold winter killed most of them. That is the nature of Nature. Live and let die.

At the cottage

Today we started the summer season at Tullarbo, our cottage at Solvang. The winter / spring grass had to be removed for the upcoming  grass.

Sharing the mowing job between us feels great, but at you see below the activity to remove weeds from  the raspberry hedge is only for those capable to work at that ground level.

Happy 17th of May

We are ready for the May 17th breakfast.
Our Constitution day always starts with a large breakfast together with friends and family members. This year it it only the Bjølsen bunch that will be here so our thoughts goes to the Swansea bunch wishing them a Happy "syttende mai".
The same greetings goes to Calahonda, Ålesund, Moss and where ever you are. :)

An ordinary Wednesday or ???

It is probably not an ordinary Wednesday when a bomb threat was announced outside the Norwegian Treasury in Oslo. However, the suspect bag contained only cloths and personal equipments and our emergency and security personnel  did a professional job.

 More ordinary we may call the visits at the harbor when the newly built (2005) swedish East Indies Ship Gøtheborg could be seen at the Oslo harbor.

 18^th century ship is in full 1:1 scale without any of the original drawings. Tomorrow the crew invites citizens of Oslo to come onboard and see the ship

However, before 17th of May I want to give all my blog readers a warning. Take care of your valuables on the Constitution Day on Friday. A lot of pickpockets are around in the city; around the children parade and in various cafes and restaurants. This warning at our local "fru B" is seriously meant.

Yesterday rain, today sunshine

Same position different colors due to sunshine. The green leaves are still on the birch.

Spring 2013

I have many times during the last months mentioned the word Spring. Is it coming, Is it here, Is it never springtime in Norway anymore, etc
However this morning the real evidence of Spring can be found outside my bedroom window. The green leaves og the birch tree has decided to bounce out on the same day as a historical religious person bounced or ascent to the heaven.
It is Spring for real.

Spring, Summer and 17th of May

Today the temperature outside my kitchen window reached almost +22C and thus was one degree higher than the temperature I had inside my apartment. We felt it was summer, and I visited the Aker Brygge and the newly opened Albert Bistro for a pint of beer.

Some hours later the weather had changed. The spring decided that Summer in the City still was a song recorded by The Lovin´Spoonful.
The band from Uranienborg School was however marching in our neighborhood exercising for our Constitution Day; the 17th of may.
It tis still Springtime.

Sunday walk to the other side of Akerselva

Although my wife is in Swansea together with our family in Wales, I decided to make our Sunday walk  myself instead of sitting on the sofa or visiting the cottage at Solvang. A great choice.
9.55 km as seen on the map in nice weather and temperature up to +16 C. I also included a new area in my walk; Sørenga.

Sørenga is a neighborhood in"The Old City" of Oslo. It is located east of Bjørvika, west of Vannspeilet, south of the street Bispegata and Oslo torg, and west and north of the Alna River. South of the area the Sørenga-pier runs out into the Oslo Fjord.

From Sørenga we have a nice panorama of the new Barcode area close to the new Opera house.

At the Sørenga pier the first step of the building project is finished, and some inhabitants have already moved in. The erection progress can be found Here

On the western side of Bjørvika the Art Nouveau building Havnelageret , the towers at Oslo City Hall and Vettakollen can be seen

Vettakollen is a hill and neighbourhood in the borough of Vestre Aker in Oslo, Norway. The hill lies west of Sognsvann and southeast of Voksenåsen and Holmenkollen, and measures 419 metres above mean sea level. The built-up residential area south of the hill is served by the Oslo Metro station Vettakollen. 

The name stems from the beacon hill's former use as the site of a beacon (Norwegian: varde). Before modern times, such beacons were set alight on a series of hills to constitute an alarm system. The naming is found in other hills, such as Vardåsen, Varingskollen and probably Brannfjell. Vettakollen is the hill rising from our cottage towards Holmenkollen.

The areas around Bispegata and Bispevika are still a building area, but this nice bridge gives an easy access to Sørenga from the Opera House.
It is also in this area that the new Munch Museum LAMBDA have to be located. (if only the politicians can stop discussing and start building.)
Lambda is also the L-letter in the Greek alphabet

The bridge gives you a nice view up the estuaries of Akerselva.

Akerselva, or Akerselven, is a river which flows through Oslo. It starts at Maridalsvannet in Oslomarka, and follows the urban areas Nordre Aker, Sagene, Grünerløkka, Oslo centre and Grønland, whereby it finally ends at Paulsenkaien and Oset in Bjørvika. The river is considered to be a part of the Nordmarkvassdraget, and has the watercourse number 006.Z. The entire river is about 8.2 kilometres long, and has a difference in altitude of approximately 149 meters.

On my way under Akershus Fortress the large yacht Mayan Queen is still at harbor. It was expected that the yacht should have left Oslo two days ago bound for Copenhagen, but as you see it is still here.
Maybe the Owner: Mexican yachtsman Albert Bailleres, 74 year old billionaire, who's inherited wealth (5+ billion dollars) originating from logging and mining enterprises, wants to spend some of his fortune in Oslo and Norway.

My last photo of today´s walk is from Albert Bistro stolen from their FaceBok profile. Congratulation with the reopening of a completely new restaurant. Not much is left from the old Albertine and I look forward to visit you another day.

Traveling to London with SAS and further on

After 83 minutes departure delay at Oslo Airport this morning due to malfunctioned airplane, the pilots made a great effort to catch up and was scheduled to arrive London Heathrow only 49 minutes after estimated arrival time.
However, that was without unexpected delay at Heathrow.
Circling 4 times north east of London before getting admitted to line up for landing ate up all the saved time plus a little more. Traveling to London with SAS can be a challenge.

When grounded at Heathrow as seen on this image from Flightradar24.com , the pace to get the luggage and the National Express bus bound for South Wales became another stressing challenge.

Swansea is far away.

Apple 1 from 1976 still working

According to MacRumors.com one of the 1976 Apple 1 computers are out for auction at $250.000 to $400.000 estimates.

The Apple 1 was originally priced at $666.66 when it was released in 1976, with only 200 units produced. It's believed that there are roughly 30 to 50 still intact.

Quality as always.

Saturday lunch with Maja and Mari

This Saturday we invited Maja and Mari and their parents to lunch at Cafe Sorgenfri. No comment about the children´s faces and the volume of food, but as usual it was delicious.
Herring, Chicken salad, Liver pate, Roast beef and Brie cheese together with Rye bread etc, etc. And not to forget the beers and aquavits (wine for T) made the afternoon a nice event to be copied another Saturday.

European Air Traffic

Do you think there is space for more airplanes over Europe in the coming years? Or what about the world? Go to FlightRadar24.com to see more.

Spring 2013 at last

At last we can document that springtime 2013 has arrived at our cottage. The snow has left, but the lawn is still wet and with frost in the ground. However during the upcoming week my wife´s white trousers will be swapped into garden gear ready to welcome every sprout that cam be found. We saw the Rhubarb´s pink sprouts today and we know that many others will be found next week.

Herring in Aquavit

At Cafe Sorgenfri in Oslo one nice lunch dish is "Sorgenfri´s Akebrett"(Three kinds of herring served with Danish Rye bread plus garnish).
Yesterday I got extra service when the Chef made one of the three herrings as the new published Aquavit-Herring.
In Norwegian the recipe is:

5 danske sursildfileter 1 dl hvitvinseddik 3 dl vann 2dl sukker Hele pepperkorn 2 cl Simmers akevitt 2 gulrøtter 0.5 sellerirot 1 rødløk i ringer 5-6 rød delikatesse løk delt i fire

The process is described at Sorgenfri´s Blog

Something to plan for till next Christmas or maybe already for the 17th of May breakfast.

Prawn, Shrimp or Scampi for dinner

One of our favorite Tapas Bars in Malaga is named Pepa y Pepe where we can get boiled prawns almost like we do it in Norway:

The bar is located in a side street of Calle Marques de Larios (behind Stradivarius) in the historic center of Malaga. It is quite large and allows for sitting outdoors. It is quite famous for its seafood (mostly small fish), and traditional tapas from the coastal region. However all kind of tasty Tapas should be tried. They offer tapas (small portions), and semi-raciones and platas (these are larger portions). There is also another PyP bar in a street near by, but be sure to find the right one.

I had boiled prawns for dinner today. Due to my wife´s allergy to shellfish I have this kind of food when she is away, and a bowl like this is more than enough for me.

An artistic image of peeled prawns decorated with the original large shrimp.

Annual survey of transplanted heart

Five years ago I published a blogpost describing the Annual process we heart transplanted people have to go through. Today I finished my 15th annual survey of my donated heart. The gift for life is still in operation and as good as it was 5 years ago.

The first image show an ultrasound screenshot of my heart when stated that it works in a pace producing 5.2 cardiac output.

This image gives the cardiologists a documentation of the flow through left coronary artery. Very good.

This third image is from the right coronary artery, with the same good flow.

On the photos you can also see the remaining wires after the operation used to bind together the sternum which was divided during the open surgery. The thin wires are the electrodes from my pacemaker replacing the AV-knot which is totally blocked in my new heart. The pacemaker-battery will live for over two years more.

LIFE IS STILL GREAT.

Norwegian football season in operation

The present standing in the Norwegian Elite Football League after 4 matches, showing that my favorite team AaFK (Aalesund Football Club) is topping over Rosenborg (Trondheim) and Strømsgodset (Drammen). Great.

I do also need to mention that the team from the other town (Molde FC) has nil points after four matches.

Helene´s World and Plato

It is always intriguing to see your children and grandchildren grow up and develop.
I often think about what I did when I was at their ages, and must admit that was not at all close to reading philosophy like Helene (9), here doing schoolwork about philosophy like Habermas (Public Sphere), Kant (Critique of Pure Reason), Heidegger (Being and Time), Aristotle (The Ethics) and  Plato´s The Republic

The Republic is Plato's best-known work and has proven to be one of the most intellectually and historically influential works of philosophy and political theory. In it, Socrates along with various Athenians and foreigners discuss the meaning of justice

I gave Helene the book Sophie´s World some years ago, but she did not like it then. Maybe she now are more mature to read this novel from 1991 written by Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder

Sunday walk and Hedda´s art

We continue the positive trend from Costa del Sol, and have just done our 10,25 km around Oslo´s Golden Triangle and along the harbor coastline. A break and coffee at Hannibal´s Hybel Aker Brygge (5km), a chat with old friends at Karl Johan made the walking time around 2 hours.

While sitting at Hannibal an artwork arrived on our internal family communication platform "Path". Our grandchild Hedda Emilie (3 years) has made this spectacular drawings and I see already now that a new artist is born in our family. Her creativity is great and she loves drawing. Maybe this work will be sold at 6 digits numbers around 2050 :)

As in Spain, have nice evenings

When we are in Spain we often have an afternoon drink of Cava supplied with some Strawberries. The same procedures are adopted to our living room in Norway. Strawberries dipped in creamy Balsamico is one of out favorites. The Cavas are replaced with Cremant de Loire or Bourgogne. Nice.

Sculptures at Tjuvholmen

 Friday afternoon we strolled down to the coastline and the newly built area at Tjuvholmen. Tjuvholmen has developed into a Sculpture park and a motorized reindeer can be found in an opening between houses.

 I would say that the houses are sculptures themselves, and I would liked to have an apartment for example in this building. The prizes are however not corresponding to my budget.

This sculpture is called "MOONRISE.east.november". made by Ugo Rondinone. Imean to say that the sculpture is to the left on the photo.

Easter 2013 is over - The sun is still here

Easter 2013 is almost over. People are sitting in heavy traffic on their way from the hotels or mountain cabins to their homes. The weather in southern Norway has been fantastic and over Oslo the sky is still blue withouts clouds. Temperature is a little too low during the nights for the Spring to get the grip on the growing nature.
But the beauty of our neighboring houses is worth a blogpost this year as many before.
From today we talks about April 2013.