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I had to wait five months (indeed, patience is a virtue! 😉 )…today is the day that the speed limit on the Oslo ring (a.k.a. ‘miljøfartsgrense’) ended, boosting up the speed from a zzzlow 60km/h to a stunning 80km/h…duh! 😉

It’s April 20 today, or 4/20…an important date for fans of the holy herb and since I am dutch, the rest of the world will put me in that ‘fan-box’, so; happy 420 y’all! 😉

Another YouTube clip, it’s turning out to be a YouTube weekend! 😉

This time a recording from the ‘Brittain’s Got Talent’ show last week Saturday…Susan Boyle takes the stage, she will blow you away!

I am a frequent flyer, my girlfriend is flight attendant, and still, both of us never experienced THIS on board of an aircraft…it would be cool though!!

My blogposts have always been cross-posted to Facebook via the Blog import option of the ‘Notes’ application.

It works quite ok, but there are some drawbacks; it normally takes quite some time before the application imports the post (I’m talking hours!), the post layout sometimes gets screwed up, the Facebook import is static, so any updates to the post will not be shown and last but not least, comments to the post end up at multiple places (on the blog and within Facebook).

I will therefore use a different method for cross-posting to Facebook; the Wordbook plugin for WordPress. This plugin creates a link to the original blogpost and puts it on my Facebook Wall…all drawbacks of the Notes-Blog import are gone! 😉

So, if everything went well, this post created a link on my Facebook Wall…did it??

UPDATE: IT DID! 😉

So, a structural problem for a lot of people in these hectic days is, how to keep up with your favorite TV shows, which are broadcasted at a fixed time every week? Of course you can record it on tape (uhh, what’s that?) or dvd. Some might have options in their digital set-top box, allowing one to watch programs at a later time (kind of Video on demand service), others schedule their life around their favorite show, or have other means.

But, if you’re not afraid of any potential legal consequences, and BitTorrent is no secret to you, then eztv.it might be your cup of tea! They claim to be ‘your one stop source for all your favorite TV shows’, and are basically ‘offering’ torrents for most tv shows out there…coolio! 😉

I tend to have less of a problem with the legality of this one compared to distributing/downloading music and movies via the BitTorrent network…after all, most of the time you already ‘purchased’ the content via your cable and satellite subscription, so you’re only changing the timing of the viewing and the medium your watching from, no problemo, right?

Well, I guess that statement is up for discussion… 😉

I found an interesting article, called ‘Sugar replacement battle has a new gun’, on John C. Dvorak’s blog…you might know the guy from the ‘No Agenda‘ podcast which he does together with Adam Curry! Listen to it, it’ll change your view on the bigger things in life!

dvorak uncensored: ‘For the last decade the big three — pink packets of saccharin, aspartame in blue and sucralose in yellow — have fought to a kind of stalemate. But now a new player, dressed in green, hopes to shift the balance of power, opening up the $1.2-billion-a-year world of fake sugar to all kinds of changes.’

Now that we know that we’ll have to move out of the house we’re renting in July, we’re moving FAST to investigate our options, mainly options to buy a house already this summer.

First things first, and money unfortunately always comes first when considering to buy a house…so, today we had a meeting to discuss mortgage options.

Well, getting a mortgage shouldn’t be ANY problem (sjeez, and a LOT I might add, I still don’t trust the banks… 😉 ), the only thing is that due to the ‘crisis’, we can’t get 100% financed and have to bring considerable cash, at least 10% orso…and, uhh, most of the cash ‘disappeared’ after we bought our car three months ago.

Hmm, a catch-22 if you ask me. I guess I have to find some serious cash under a tree, or work out other options (there are still some…).

Anyway, we’re IN the market for a house, it’ll be a nice experience to search (AND find!) a new Castle on a hill! 😉

Weather is absolutely stunning today, a great day to visit some of Oslo’s highlights. The Vigeland Park is first on the list…sun glasses on and all systems go!

Our friends Laurens and Mariska are visiting our Norwegian paradise this Easter weekend.

Laurens is an ex-colleague, who I really got to know when we went to Sierra Leone in 2004…an amazing trip, with a lot of hard work, and luckily still some time to explore the nightlife in Freetown. I wouldn’t mind going back there one day, good memories!

What better than to start the Easter holiday with a two-day visit to a Spa center? It’s an early surprise gift for my Birthday (two weeks from now)…I’m out; enjoying & relaxing!

And…it’s time for vacation again, yay!

That is the best thing about taking a week off just before the Easter holiday week; I came back in an empty office, allowing me to catch up (both on work and on sleep 😉 ), and after only three days of work it’s now time to relax again…Easter holiday starts early in Norway; the country will be officially closed from tomorrow! 😉

Life’s good, eh? (although I have to admit, I *LOVE* my job, so it won’t be too much of a problem to go back to work coming Tuesday!)

It’s sushi and karaoke night tonight at Willy & Katka’s place!

It will be great, as I know that the selfmade sushi (see below) will be DELICIOUS and with my stunning vocal pipes the evening will be funFunFUN! (hehe, I remember my straight win with Abba Singstar at the New Years party 😉 )

It’s always good to be back home, even though I would have loved to stay longer in Trysil with this amazing group of friends…thx dudes & dudettes for a more than PERFECT week!

The proof of all the fun is in the pictures and trust me, they are all great…all, uhh, 1872 of them!! Sjeez, how many pictures can one take in a week? Organizing them will keep me busy for another week, ha! 😉

Time flies when you’re having fun; today was already the last day on the slopes… 🙁
Fantastic weather and some nice runs to end a perfect week with friends! Most of us were a bit quiet today compared to the other days, I guess we were still suffering from the party last night. (which finished around 6am…rock on! 😉 )

Some days the sun gets in the way of boarding and you just have to party ‘Norwegian style’; an after-ski party….it has been a long time since I’ve seen people party like this, GREAT!! Life’s grand… 😉

Muriel and Marko celebrated their 10 year wedding anniversary with the other 12 happy Trysil dutchheads yesterday.
Kristel and I were masters of ceremony at their wedding a decade ago, so it was quite special to celebrate their 10th together again in Trysil. We made the day unforgetable, a sun-heavy day with the incredible dog sled trip and a nice dinner with my famous homemade semi-freddo to end it.
Most of us didn’t want to end the day and went to bed around 5am, a slow morning followed…;)

Everyday is a special day here in Trysil, and today was no different; we went dog sled riding…an AWESOME experience!!
It’s amazing to see these sled dogs being able to take two adults with high speed through the snowy lands, bringing us to parts of the mountains where no one has ever been before…well, today at least! 😉

I decided to take the snowboard today; the sun was out, fresh powder snow on the slopes, and enough friends around to catch me on cam while falling! 😉 (well, the last part didn’t happen 😉 ).
Hugo was my teacher for the day, and I’m now able to make full 360 turns, YAYYYY…HANG LOOSE!! 😉