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Good, I have driven the first 2500 ‘electric’ kilometers with the LEAF, it really feels as having a taste of future; (still) a fantastic experience! (and yes, this is just about a car and indeed, very un-‘important’… 😉 )

The one thing about driving cars in Norway in wintertime is the sh*tload of dirt they get on them in no time: so, black LEAFs turn into gray (and red/silver/white/blue LEAFs also turn into gray for that matter). Luckily the sun was shining this afternoon as if it is summer already, and a hand wash turned grey back into black! 😉

Misha turned 22 weeks today, the fast growing angel is now exactly 5 months (+ one nonexistent day) old! 😉

All is good with his royal cuteness, and also the doctor (or whatever her ‘title’ is 😉 ) was happy with his development; length, weight, ability to turn over, responses, etc.

Just look at this big guy in his ‘bink‘ shirt! 😉

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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! 😉

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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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…

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!! 😉

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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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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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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Never a dull moment here in Norway; after some intense days, we move on and have friends visiting us: Rob and Marko arrived this evening after a longgggg drive from NL! 😉

The reason? Besides being delivery boys for a loads of baby goodies and other dutch specialties, they will join us (and 20 others!) for  five days of skiing in Kvitfjell (leaving tomorrow), ain’t that a great reason to visit Norway? 😉

Misha arrived back in Norway today after being in NL for 6 1/2 weeks (!!), ha I’d say that was long enough! It is great to hold the little boy in my arms again (that too has been 13 days already!)…yeah, he’d better be prepared for an overload of cuddling this weekend!

Look how the big little wonder has grown in the past weeks!

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I am driving the LEAF for 3 weeks now, and I am enjoying the experience tremendously, still!

Today I decided to see how accurate the battery capacity / range meter is; the car was fully charged when I left home this morning, it was cold (-14C) so the estimated driving range dropped from the documented 175km (in warmer weather) to 120km upon departure. I drove as uneconomical as I could (loud music, full airco, and I ‘might’ have speeded in the process 😉 ) and reached the office fast and warm.

I didn’t charge the car at work (on purpose) and drove back tonight (still cold, -15C). I added some km’s to my commute by visiting a friend for a lovely dinner and once again drove as uneconomical as I, uhh dared…the ‘distance to home’ was 5km less than the  remaining battery capacity, oof!

Well, luckily the range meter is very accurate, and I reached home with indeed 5km to spare (‘battery level low’), ha! 😉

Temperatures dropped to -17C (and descreasing, brrrr), which has a huge effect on the ‘fuel’ efficiency, so the LEAF is currently enjoying some juice from a power outlet!

(Kissy and Misha are ‘finally’ coming home tomorrow and the airport is a tad further than 5km 😉 )

Wow, this girl has some crazy skills!! She is able to repeat words thrown at her backwards in less than 3 seconds. And those words are not any simple ones nor palindromes like ‘race car’, ‘kayak’ or ‘rotator’ (that would be cheating, eh? 😉 ).

Nah, none of these, you should see her doing Kaleidoscope, Panama City Beach, Air Conditioning or mischievous…hO yM doG!

A couple of years ago I met a girl at the Lowlands festival who was able to count the number of letters in any word asked (within seconds!)…different yet still a crazy skill to have! 😉

(btw. ticket sales for the 2012 Lowlands edition start this Saturday!)

It is a new day of the month and the first thing I said this morning was ‘rabbit, rabbit‘ it means that I will receive good luck for the rest of February (including the additional day as 2012 is a leap year)…heyhey, that’s just what I need, yayyy! 😉