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It always felt strange that while we ‘invented’ time ourselves, we couldn’t get it right and have to adjust for approximately 6 hours a year by adding one day every 4 years as compensation, and even that is not 100% accurate…the following video explains it all:

If you want to know more about the history of time and the calendar, I suggest you read all about ‘Time‘ in the Book of Knowledge! 😉

Martha Beck: “The really potent part of love is that it allows you to carry around beliefs about yourself that make you feel special, desirable, precious, innately good. Your lover couldn’t have seen [these qualities] in you, even temporarily, if they weren’t part of your essential being.”

EASY! 😉

It has been fantastic weather this weekend! Nature called out for a hike and having Misha in the BabyBjörn baby carrier, the hike provided for some great kodak moments! (filled with white, blue and green combinations 😉 )

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Rodney Yee: “As we look deeply within, we understand our perfect balance. There is no fear of the cycle of birth, life and death. For when you stand in the present moment, you are timeless.”

I am not sure why (bad karma?), but I am again stuck in the office on a Friday night, trying to meet a deadline for a tender proposal for a customer (it is truly fantastic when deadlines hit me on a Friday night…NOT!! 🙁 )

Oh well, the good thing is that I have the opportunity once again to enjoy the ‘all day…all night’ song: Sak Noel with Loca People…WTF!!

Hehe, YESSS, this puts a smile on my face! 😉

My niece Amber has her first Birthday today!

Wow, one candle on the Birthday cake, already…time flies! We will celebrate ‘from a distance’ thinking about a yummie piece of cake with one candle. 😉

300.000 Norwegians move house every year. The short animation film below represents the pattern they follow, it is nicely done by Even Westvang.

The interesting part is that this is possible by cross referencing 4 million tax records: all data on taxes paid, incomes and fortunes of all tax paying individuals in Norway are made public every year! (consisting of the full name, year of birth, postal code and their attendant financial data)

I remember this being one of the strangest experiences of living in Norway at first, coming from a country where people do NOT talk about their earnings. Now I realize that this kind of openness lets the information become just what it should be; not so relevant really…

The sad part of closing the dutch office is that many of the great colleagues that I have worked with are leaving (/have left) the company. Those work-relations and friendships go back a long time, back to the days when I was still living and working in NL. Today one of the last ‘dutch’ (ex-)colleague and friend, Giovanni, came to Norway for his last business trip and we went out with a group for a farewell dinner with him.

The restaurant of choice was fantastic; the recently opened Onda in Aker Brygge, Oslo. The restaurant is co-founded by Terje Ness, the 1999 winner of the Bocuse d’Or (the world chef championship) and the atmosphere and food really lived up to the expectations!

An evening filled with great stories, speeches, some emotions and gifts…bringing back great memories from before and making me realize just how important *people* really are (for any company), they are the ultimate ‘asset’ and can never be valued and appreciated enough.

Interestingly enough, for many people, this only comes to the surface when someone is leaving…

Rebecca Beard: “The past is finished. There is nothing to be gained by going over it. Whatever it gave us in the experiences it brought us was something we had to know.”

It is turning out to be an a-typical Norwegian winter this year. Despite the ‘hopeful’ weather forecasts end January, the snow that fell and indeed ‘some’ cold days, winter did not come close to what we got used to in the past years…and the forecast for the remaining days in February tell me that winter is on its return; temperatures well above zero, up to +7C(!), amazing!

Oh well, so much for winter, time to move on…just like Misha is moving on; he managed to turn over from front to back for the first time today all by himself, HERO!! 😉

Unknown: “Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

(the quote is often attributed to someone called Frank Outlaw, but this source has not been confirmed)

TGIF y’all! Today’s Song of the Day is a follow up to last weeks QOTD, a message that cannot be repeated enough: BE YOURSELF, ALWAYS! 😉

The title of the song? Well, no surprise: ‘Be Yourself‘ by Ben’s Brother!

Heyhey, explaining the different types of Social Media ain’t all that hard when you use donuts! 😉

Misha is turning 20 weeks tomorrow (yet another milestone in his life!) and that means he is big enough to sleep in a real bed IN his own room, tonight! 😉 (haha, and the fact that he slept through the night for two nights in a row helps too btw.)

Just look at this little angel laying under his Ode to Life bed sheet, cute-alert!! 😉

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Henry David Thoreau: “There is no remedy for love but to love more.”

Another day in beautiful Kvitfjell! Still no skiing for me, instead I went out for a walk and had a wonderful trip with Misha in the pram…not too bad, eh? 😉

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King Whitney Jr.: “Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.”

While the others went skiing I have been daddy with son today, and enjoyed a more or less relaxing day in the cottage; more relaxing as Misha was *very* relaxed 😉 , less relaxing as people came in ‘continuously’ during the day to get some warmer clothes, I guess it was a tad colder on the slopes than anticipated!

Unfortunately I haven’t seen much of the outside ‘live’, so it was great to see the surroundings through some of the pictures taken today!

Yeah, it is beautiful out there as you can see…I might give skiing a try tomorrow!!

Ha, and I just *had* to add this picture of his royal cuteness Misha, having a great time in the cottage today!! 😉

Yessss, we arrived in Kvitfjell!!
After a smooth and not too long car trip, we were rewarded with *this* promising view!! 😉

I thought we would be would be here with a group of 24, but it turns out that we are with 33 (!!)…well, the more the merrier, it’s gonna be great!
Unfortunately I don’t think I will do much skiing myself as my hip is still not good…this map is as close as I get to the slopes…

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