Trondheim

Distance

2009-06-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

About nine years ago I began participating in endurance events, with a few years involuntary break. Just mentioned as an excuse to explain my results. Anyway, I started with what I thought was long distance, like 90 km skiing, 30 km running, 300 km biking, just because then I didn't need to finish with a good time, for me it would be enough just to finish the race. Over shorter distances it's all about time. Now I find myself fighting for time anyway. And I'm looking for longer distances, with the exact same reason as before.

It's time

2009-06-06T10:45:00.001-07:00

Today I was in a shop for outdoor life stuff. A young shop assistant approaches me and asks if I need any help. I tell her that I'm looking for a sports vest, with a wind proof front and a net on the back. She shows me some vests, but she's not sure those are the only ones they have. So she asks her colleague across the room. He looks at us and asks: "Male or female?" My helpful assistant looks a bit embarrased when she answers: "Male..." To his defence he only saw my back. To my defence as well. But I think the female shop assistant was the one who were most bothered by the situation. I take it as a sign that it's time for me to go to the hairdresser. It's not the first time I'm mistaken to be a girl. Maybe that's it, I can outsource the decision about when to get my hair cut to the people around me. One thing less for me to worry about. As my friend said: "Oh, I miss military service, people told me when to wake up, when to eat, when to sleep... I didn't make a single decision in a year."

New blog

2009-05-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

I've just started up a new blog. It will be written in Swedish... This blog may continue to live, maybe not. The new blog is:

http://magni-puls.blogspot.com/

It will be endurance event related.

Role model

2009-05-09T11:33:00.001-07:00

Today I took a bike ride together with other people who think that a day on the saddle is a well spent Saturday. On my way to the meeting point by the ferry I passed a mother and her kid on bikes. I passed them just before arriving at a red traffic light. I saw there were no cars coming, so I thought about ignoring the light. Then I thought about the kid. Am I supposed to be a good role model and do what I'm supposed to do and stop? I decided I could live with the lost seconds and stopped. Just to be passed by first the mother, and then the kid. So much for my good intention. A few meters after the light the mother realizes something and says: "Oh, maybe we should stop."

We took the ferry over to Fosen for a great run in valleys, over mountains and by the fjord. From the bike saddle I felt this years first smell of newly moved lawn. Lovely. Smell of ocean. And while passing a small harbour village smell of fish. Although I'm not really fond of that particular smell, it gives a genuine feeling. Cliché, yes. But nontheless true. Why all this talk about smells? What about the other senses? Because, we are traveling at speed at which you don't want to slide against the pavement. And we're doing this with only a few centimeters of distance between us. In order not to cause a major crash I keep staring on the rider's in front of me behind. So that is pretty much about what I see during the run, and there really aren't that much to write about the visual impressions of a bicyclists butt. Not to talk about the smell. Once again, those words in the last sentence was just for fun. They have no support in reality. In fact, the other is not completely true either, I do see more, and it was a great nature to view as well.

Too hot

2009-05-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

While running my mind usually drifts around, investigating corners of the memory seldom visited. Yesterday I took a 20 km run along the coast line of the Trondheim fjord and my thoughts crossed an episode from 2006. I had run the Stockholm marathon in extraordinary heat. I was feeling a little bit of guilt because I hadn't spotted any of my family members cheering along the course. The matter of fact is that I pretty much didn't notice anything at all during the race, except from my heavy breathing and the refreshing water depots. My friend, who also took part in the race, asked me: Oh did you see the castle? Did you see this and that museum? I could only answer him no. So I could well have missed any known spectator. But my dad lightens my conscience but letting me know they didn't go into town to watch the marathon. And the reason: "It's too hot!"

Training and alcohol

2009-04-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

Training can have about the same effect as alcohol. Just enough of it and I become euphoric. Too much and I loose the fine control over my limbs, and becoming dizzy. A quite frustrating state. Both activities have made me unable to keep the contents in my stomach. And now when smoking is prohibited in clubs, the differences between a club and a training center have also diminished. So, if this is true, can you replace parties with training without loosing anything? Can you replace training with party and achieve the same effect?

Pseudo random thoughts

2009-04-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

I like traveling. But I don't like the packing part. It might be related to the stress of forgetting to bring something. So I postpone this activity as long as possible. Because as long as I don't pack, I haven't forgotten anything.

It can only be in Norway streets called North street and South street are located to the east and west of each other.

Northern lights and economy

2009-03-26T15:06:00.000-07:00

During lunch today we talked about northern lights. These are a very popular tourist attraction in the north. Some people travel across half the globe to see these light fenomenons. This winter, however, these effects have been quite rare. This is explained by less activity on the surface of the sun. We strongly believe this is because of the global economic turndown. They don't have enough money to fuel the sun.

People who don't know me, and still, for an unknown reason, happen to read this blog, might think I'm stupid. But this is nothing I worry about. The ones who know me, know that I am.

Safe transportation

2009-03-02T08:31:00.001-08:00

This morning I had the plan to walk to work. After a hundred meters of slipping and sliding I decided it was enough, I don't want to fall and get hurt. So I returned back home and grabbed my bike instead...

Draft for my memoirs

2009-02-03T09:25:00.000-08:00

This blog is a draft for my memoirs... Or not... It's just a draft. When starting to write, I'm usually in a Swedish/Norwegian mode. It takes some time to enter English mode. The transition time is about equal to the time it takes to write a post. Meaning the only part that counts for being English is the last punctuation.

Dresscode for spinning

2009-02-03T09:22:00.000-08:00

Biking is fun. When it's too cold to do it outdoors, you can do it indoors in spinning sessions. The lack of air resistance makes it very warm though. And the constant position allows all your sweat drops to unite into an ocean. At least if you're designed like me, with a very active cooling system. This fact puts some social restrictions on clothing. I noticed this last Saturday. I was wearing a white t-shirt and light grey shorts. Light grey becomes dark grey when wet, making it look like I wet my pants... Luckily the distance between the bike and the dressing room is only ten meters.

By the way, it will be interesting to see how indoor spinning sessions, threadmill running and weight training compares to bicycle commuting in Skåne, when it comes to race results. Will it be the training type or motivation that becomes the key factor...

Haircuts

2009-01-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday when I was walking along the roadside I slipped on some ice, landed on my hands, and started to think about haircuts. Last year I cut my hair four times, in four different countries. But I'm mostly surpriced it was four times, usually a haircut every sixth month is enough.

Traffic

2009-01-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

The weather has made traffic chaotic. Apparently it was so slippery at the sea so one of the Hurtigruten ships couldn't hold on to the water and grounded. Top ten reasons I don't link to the news are:

The page is in Norwegian
The link might be broken soon, and polute my blog
I don't want to be blamed for blog view fishing
I want you to practice your googling skills
I'm lazy
... to 10 I'll reserve for future use

Happy New Year

2009-01-03T02:47:00.001-08:00

Megalomania

2009-01-03T02:43:00.000-08:00

A short distance outside Trondheim there's a small village that might suffer from megalomania. They claim to have a gods expedition. The fact that they also call their place Hell makes it a little more interesting.

The upgrade

2009-01-01T12:19:00.001-08:00

After all the hazzle with moving one can ask what is the big difference? Was it worth it? I'll let the before and after images do the explanation.

Before:

After:

The F move

2008-12-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

A few Sundays back I changed my place of living in Trondheim. This is the story about that adventure.

It all started out with very happy feelings. The first time I set my foot inside this house I knew I wanted to live here. Which is not quite true, but as soon as I saw the view. I was the only one looking at the room, usually there's a whole bunch of people. And I didn't remember calling on this ad. He called me. Anyway I was so glad he offered me the room and I said yes immediately. A few weeks past, and I still hadn't heard anything from the landlord. Had it all been too easy? Finally I got a contract e-mailed to me. I signed, scanned and sent it back. I could move in last weekend in November I've been told from the guy leaving. On the Thursday I payed the rent and deposit, to a man I never seen, with a scanned contract.

My always so helpful parents were in the area in exactly the right time to help me move. Sadly though, my dad's elbow decides to malfunction. Imperfect timing. On Wednesdays we play some football, floor ball and basketball after work. This, the last Wednesday in November, that was our plan as well. When trying to enter the gym hall, a lot of young and concentrated people appears before our eyes, spread out all over the play field. It turns out they're have an exam. And apparently they don't want us to play ball meantime. Not even when we promise to shout with lowered voices. So we have to give the exercise up. While walking home in disappointed mood I have company with a colleague. I tell him about the coming relocation. He asks me if I have anyone helping me. I mention the father-with-disabled-elbow-story. He replies he can help me. I don't even have to ask. Very appreciated! On Friday I arrange the rental car with payment and contract before coming to work. And when leaving I walk by my helpful colleague to make more detailed plans for Sunday. Unfortunately for me he has to go to Cambridge with short notice on Sunday. So here I am, once again without help. Anyway I decide to try to move as much as possible on my own. And solve the rest some other day, some other way. My estimate is that I will be able to move everything except three pieces of furniture on my own. In those three the sofa is not included. I'm glad I bought a cheep low weight sofa.

On the M day I head of to pick up the car. When there I find it being trapped from other cars. Great start... I call a person working for the hiring company. After 15 minutes he comes and frees my car. One step closer to moving. Before getting the car I call the guy moving out to make sure he's really moved out. On Friday I got a message from him saying he was a bit worried he wouldn't make it. At that time I had already booked the car and arranged helpers. It was before I didn't have any help anymore. Anyway, now he assured me he will be out during the day. I drive this 15 cubic vehicle to my home. There I have to carry out a 180 turn on a rather limited area, involving a slope. An icy one. While trying to reverse uphill the wheels are just spinning. Hmm... Is this the place where this move will go down the drain? 30 minutes, cold sweat, and a lot of sand throwing later I'm finally back on the track again. Now I have two or three hours left before darkness falls. I had practiced my sanding skills so much so I felt confident I did a good job when sanding the stairs. I had prepared the actual moving of stuff by filling the hallway downstairs with as much as possible of my stuff. So filling the car was quite boring episode wise. And to be honest, in other ways as well. The moving out guy told me he leave the key in the post box. When arriving I find the post box empty. I made it this far, not too bad. So if it all goes wrong here, I can't really complain, can I. I start fiddling with my phone to call him. Just then he comes out from the house and hands me the key. Oh, it might all work out nicely after all. Emptying the car, filling the new room, drive back. There my very friendly neighbor offer me dinner that her boyfriend made. And she also offer him to help me with my last three big objects. For that I'm very very grateful. With a filled stomach and partly filled car I leave the old home empty and faces my new house again. The question now is how to get the big tree up the stairs now. I tend to solve problem as they come. I thought I liked to plan ahead. But apparently I can do without as well. Or, what choice did I have? I bother one of my new neighbors and she helps me. Gladly or not, I can't say. I'm just so relieved. And luckily for me she's strong and can keep it all steady up the stairs. At this time my arms pretty much have called it a day and thrown the towel.

11:30 pm I return the car at the parking lot where I picked it up this “morning”. It was actually about noon. All I have to do know is to cycle home, rearrange enough of the boxes to reach the bed and make it sleepable.

The title is of course referring to that this is the 15th move in my life. It is not a short form for any bad word, or any word at all. 16-based creatures should get it...

Trondheim trust

2008-11-27T13:08:00.000-08:00

There is a fight going on in Trondheim. It is autumn and winter who can't agree who shall rule the country. Poor nature is suffering. Cyclists as well. Before the weekend there had been snowfall. During the weekend some of it was melting just to freeze again, covering parts of the city in nice slippery ice. Monday morning arrived with heavy rain to top it. Anyway I decided to take my bike to work. It was a little bit wobbly, but I made it without falling. But when parking I realized I had forgotten my keys, so I couldn't lock the bike. Umm... go all the way back home and pick up the keys, or beleive in the honesty of the Tronds. I choose to be lazy and have trust.

At the end of the day... My bike was still there. Tronds - weather 1 - 0.

Photos of Trondheim

2008-11-08T05:13:00.000-08:00

There have been a few requests asking for photos of Trondheim. So here you go. Two months of Trondheim in 12 photos.

Some kind of plant, used for photos.

Kristiansten fort, has been used as prison and execution ground.

Cannons used by the fort.

Sunset in Trondheim, used once a day to transfer into night time.

Leiv Eriksson, used for finding America.

Rainbow, used for finding treassures.

Larch tree, used for covering grounds with needles.

Nature, used for hiking.

Nature, used for entertainment.

Mountainbike with studded tires, used for climbing the mountain.

Water, used for protecting the hull of boats.

Clouds, used by meteorologists.

Dead end geography

2008-10-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

This blog has a rather slow start. But at least something is happening now...

Today I learnt that dead end roads in Trondheim can actually be dead end roads. Usually when on foot or bike, those signs can be safely ignored. But today geography proved me wrong. I was out running, I ignored one of those signs, because I was longing to come home. I had already passed my planned distance and didn't really know where I was. Not the best time to do these kind of guessing, one might think. After one km run along this road I end up just 100 meters from the road I want to get to. Only problem is that it's 100 vertical meters. So horizontally speaking I'm just a step away. But I admit I'm wrong and turn around. After three and a half kilometer running I've covered my hundred meters...

By the way... blogging in English is hard...

Getting settled in Trondheim

2008-09-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

So... blogging in English... is it possible? Who knows... At least I will give it a try. Those of you who knows Swedish might be disappointed. I'm not as fluent in English as in Swedish. For some reason. Quite obvius. Especially hard is the different nuances in words. A fact that I usually like to use a lot when building sentences. Also I'm not to sure about my grammar. But anyhow... I will give it a try. I would have to iterate quite many times over the text to get it right. But most likely I will just write and publish, without iteration, with diminishing quality as consequence.

I have spent some time thinking about some fancy way to close the Korea blog. I've had some ideas, but discarded them all. Because of bad idea, or lacyness... nobody knows. So meanwhile I'll start my Trondheim blog. This is a summary of my first month here.

I arrive in Sweden Thursday August 21:st. Just in time to buy new shoes, and prepare my speech for my friends wedding on Saturday. My friend, who I chance run into on Friday in central Lund. I haven't seen him for six months, and just after a little more than 12 hours back in Sweden I run into him. Things like that happen in a small city.

It's Wednesday and I begin to feel a bit uneasy... On monday I will start working in Trondheim, and still I have no place to live there. I decide to book a youth hostel.
-Welcome to blah blah youth hostel.
-I'd like to book a room from last of August.
-I'm sorry, we're fully booked.
I start to feel some light panic. Have I waited too long? I call another youth hostel, and luckily for me, they have vacant rooms. One cause of stress down, still a few more to go.

The time passing from that moment up until now feels like the airplane scenes in Lock stock and two smoking barrels. I think that is the movie I'm thinking about. Another way to put it is life in fast forward button pressed. Yet another way is like there's someone stealing every second minute. To start over from the beginning again, with a condensed version of the first time:

August 21 (Thursday): Arrives in Lund and have the privilege to live in Stefan's kitchen.
August 22 (Friday): Buyes shoes for wedding and prepares speech for the same.
August 23 (Saturday): Enjoys my friends very beautiful wedding, still a bit jet lagged though.
August 25-29 (Monday-Friday): Back to work in Lund, saying hi and good bye to my friends.
August 29 (still Friday): My very nice and helpful parents comes down to Skåne and we fill up the 18 m3 with all my belongings. It's amazing how much stuff I have.
August 30 (Saturday): We drive the 550 km up to Stockholm, fills my boy room with all the stuff. Have time for dinner with my oldest sister.
August 31 (Sunday): Packing my suitcase with almost the same stuff as I had in Korea. But with summer sandals replaced with hiking boots. The plan was to meet my other sister in Östersund during change of trains. It was planned be a two hour change, but SJ manages to make this time vanish. With a clever use of delays, the change of trains is down to 20 minutes. 9 PM I check in to the youth hostel.
September 1 (Monday): 9 AM I enter my new work.
September 2 (Tuesday): I look at the first to apartments, west of the city centre. I get none of them.
September 3 (Wednesday): I put up an ad on internet saying that I'm looking for apartment. I don't feel like paying $580 per week for youth hostel longer than necessary. I look at the third apartment, south of the city.
September 4 (Thursday): I got an answer on my ad, looking at the fouth apartment north east of the city centre. He wants me to pay 4500 for 10 m2, in a shared two rooms apartment of total 40 m2. It feels expensive, but almost accept it. I request to delay my answer until saturday.
September 5 (Friday): 5 PM I get another respons from my ad. This time 12 m2 south of the city centre. I accept the offer at the same time as I enter. They tell me I can move in the coming Monday.
September 6-7 (weekend): I spend the last days at youth hostel, running along the fjord. Lovely view.
September 8 (Monday): I bring my luggage to work. Takes some of it to my new home to sign the contract.
-Do you have the contract, my coming landlord asks me.
-No, I thought you had it.
-Oh, then go and print it. Send it to me by mail and I will then return it to you.
-My plan was to move in today.
-Oh, my daughter is so optimistic.
-So am I.
-Hmm, I don't have the key now. You can get it the coming Monday.
I'm starting to feel a bit annoyed. But anyhow everything works out fine and I sign the contract and get the key during the day. So in the evening I drag my stuff to my new home.
September 9-11 (Tuesday-Thursday): I sleep on a mattress on the floor in my otherwise empty room. Oh, I almost forgot, I had the Hello Kitty album as well.
September 12 (Friday): I have rented a wreck which loads 15 m3. I drive it to the 280 km to Östersund where I finally meet up with my sister. One week delayed... SJ... We have a lunch before I continue the remaining 550 km to my parents in Nacka.
September 13 (Saturday): My parents and I pack the car. We fill it up this time as well. And we drive up to Östersund where we stay at my sister's place for the night.
September 14 (Sunday): We drive finish the last stage and arrives happily in Trondheim where we unload. My room becomes a real mess.

So, that is the story how I sort of settled down in Trondheim. I could make the stories a lot longer. But I'm lazy. I'll save them for the movie of my life. And my English part of the brain is still not fully functional, needs more warm up. As if that would be enough. More likely is that it would need to be fully replaced.