Shocking, just shocking

I haven´t watered my blog in some months and had in someway forgotten about it. Or tried to... But today I was googling Turtagrø Hotel (but spelt wrong as in Turtigrø) and found to my horror after the first few post the most predominant post was some rambling blog called Det Frosne Nord... With horror I read it, found loads of grammar and spelling mistakes but found the general idiosyncratic style quite good, even if I say so myself.... then it dawned on me... it was my forgotten blog. This is the new empire the hidden world of the internet. Behind the seemly innocent world order there is this sub class of almost spelt correctly names, which in turn leads to this sub class of blogs and webpages.

Anyway it reminded me I need to write more on my blog and keep up the ramblings, if anything to keep me up in the misspelt google empire...

Well I quit!

Well I quit! I have been banging on about quitting for quite some time and it seemed only fair to carry out my threats while my sanity was in a vague disorder to make myself presentable for another job, what ever that may be…

I resigned with dignity, well it should be as I downloaded a ready made resignation letter from the Open University in the UK. Tacked is always worth the extra effort, as I may need to ask the bastards for a reference and a job back if all goes pair shaped.

So what are the reasons, I suppose it depends were you stand or the way you look at it, but for starters working for a company that doesn’t know what it is doing is always hard to work for. No really!

Don’t get me started but to some it up on the last trip 3 trips I was still reporting the same faults in the system we use as I was 4 years ago! And the thought of starting another yeah with the same crap just drove me deeper into hole.

I was increasingly becoming lost and losing my compassion for fellow beings. This is not good and not the way I wish to lead my life. As some one much wiser than me said recently “Life is in real time”. So true.

Well typically, I sent my mail and my boss replied which is the first time he has replied so promptly ever. But I thought HR or other people might have mailed. You know asked for the keys back or something. But nothing… oh well what did I expect…

Platform Hipokrit

Statoil´s new platform Hipokrit, based offshore Lofoten is back in the spot light after a load of Baloney was once again thrown from its sides. A local spokesperson in Hastard was unavailable, again, seemingly endlessly unavailable until we sent a rather sarcastic email and received the following statement: “I am a sorry I have tried to get hold of the person responsible but they just wont return my calls”. We sent another email thanking them for there reply and received: I am out of the office until 28th November on another course. Luckily at the end of the day we were able to get hold of the superintendent of the Hipokrit, who said, he was on his off time, how about calling the rig direct. Which we did and received the following reply: I am out of the office until 28th November on another course. After this we gave up but spoke to a very nice person from Bellona, the body responsible for baloney casting from fixed instillation. There spoke person said: I can only tell you what I read in the local paper, but its true they have been throwing Baloney over the side of the rig again. She went on to say, actually this was not the first time she had read this in the local paper this year, and she recalled it was probable the third time baloney or potential baloney had been thrown from the side of the Hipokrit platform. She was sorry she could not give any more information as she was only temping from manpower.

A leaked report from Ballona about baloney casting has landed in our email box and it states clearly that Statoil had been told of the potential catastrophe that awaited them: Statoil replied: I am out of the office until 28th November on another course.

A local person who wishes to remain nameless said: We don´t need the oil industry in Lofoten, we have asylum seekers! Shortly after this he drove off in his 4x4 toyota! However the truth has been spoken as most communities in Lofoten when not selling dry fish generate capital by importing bewildered refugees.

Statoil HMS section was contacted again, and amazingly answered by saying: Sorry for the slow reply but we have been on a course again. We in Statoil boast and brag about openness, compassion and being a caring company, and this year we can proudly say our policy extend from the office into most of the car park. We replied again and received: I am out of the office until 28th November on another course.

Return to school and asylum

Since moving to Lødingen, which lies in the community called Ofoten, which just so happens to be east of the famous Lofoten I have returned to school, quite literally! Each day sees me nervously negotiating the teenage kids in the hallway to find the adult learning classroom within the secondary school of Lødingen. The kids seem very nice and occasionally say hello and giggle when I try and speak back. Returning to school to kick-start my Norwegian again has been a really interesting experience to say the least. There are two classes, one for people that have asylum, for which I am in and another class for asylum seekers who have been sent to Lødingen to wait for a decision to be made on there application. The class I attend is mainly made up of women, from Russia, Latvia, Poland, Cuba, Thailand and Brazil. There is also a couple from Palestine. Now and then there is a bit of friction between the girls, which is great to watch. One day we were asked to join the asylum seekers and prepare some food. They are mainly from Eritrea and Somalia. It’s a humbling experience and reminds me how fortunate I have been to grow up in two democratic countries. The group I joined was made up of a very quiet man from Eritrea and the other a younger lad from Afghanistan. The young lad spoke better Norwegian and so we struck up a broken conversation as we prepared potato salad. I wanted to ask so many questions but felt it was rude to ask, so the conversation drifted on. Afterwards when I was leaving he ran over and asked if we could speak English. We walked through the playground chatting and I asked why he had come to Norway. He just said someone told him it was a good place and that it was safe. He described how he had been smuggled through country after country before ending in Norway. I told him I thought it sounded so dangerous. He just smiled and said, sometimes you just don´t think your going to get out alive.

I took the following pictures during our cooking class. I asked permission of every single person before taking his or her picture. They have also been published on the community website.

Its been awhile...

I haven´t written anything on the blog for ages... I don´t have any excuses but I really just have not had the inclination, i´ll throw some pictures upp to give a slight overview of life in the Arctic circle.

New challenges, failing, getting spanked and success.

As some of you know this year has not been the easiest mentally for me and not to go on too much about (which I have) the road to recovery has truly been found. One of the interesting aspects of the whole process has been to confront issues that hold me back. The biggest challenge for me has been to accept failure, see it as a challenge and see the positive of the failure learning process. Not easy, considering I just found out I have a sort of failure complex going on in my head. Anyway, I have been challenging myself through... wait for it.... yes climbing to over come this failure complex.

Every time I go climbing, just before I start I get this image of failure, or for that matter anything I do, so its easy not to put yourself in those situations, just ignore this aspect of your life, but this just means you end up sliding round this and that, and before you know it life is just being bypassed due to the fear of failing at every turn. Same with climbing, to compete the climb, there is always an risk that you will fail. In climbing this might just mean you fall, or in my case I just give up way before this point. I have therefore been putting myself in positions that I do fail, and even practice failing. The result has been quite unexpected. For the last few years on sport routes I have been just about climbing -6 but this year I have lead some -7, and on trad routes I have climbed -6 and guided on 9 multi pitch routes, 2 of which were ice climbs. I still feel the same fear of failing, and still struggle with those little mind monkeys that dance in my head drinking fizzy pop, but have decided to ignore them or push them aside and continue.

Well anyway boasters corner this week! Ever since I stated climbing on Sotra, especially Laifjell I have walked past Liafjell Syd and seen this expanse of granite that just looked sparse of anything. The central section held a route called "Python eminentia". The route holds a mythical status for me, as every time I pass, I would think I wonder... So one day I decided to give it a go. Mate Perry, former E5 British climb tried a route on this cliff years a go, I think it was called Den nakne egg, and said, Nails! No gear, down climbed ran away! So when I stepped onto Python eminentia, I was a little apprehensive, especially as the guide said, difficult securing possibilities in the lower section! I headed off, Keith belaying; it was hot, almost to hot for slabs. Straight up at first, good gear, then the traverse left, easy, awkward but good gear. They I tried to follow the curving overlap, but the granite slab just felt so gritty and the hot sun was melting my smears away. I saw some chalk, lots of chalk from another persons attempt, but it’s just suddenly stopped at the point I could not continue. I reversed, faffed, talked myself out of the howl things, ignored it all, and took an alternative traverse to a crack that broke in to the upper slabs. Good gear at first, then a micro cam under a bulge brought me to a good ledge, but no real confidence inspiring gear. I spent at least 15 mins on the ledge arranging gear, testing, failing, and retesting. Eventually I clipped an old rust bolt, and back with a couple of micro wires, and slowly moved up, easy-ish climbing, but rockovers above small micro wires isn’t fun. Again no wires, more bulges with blind moves, small wires and eventually a good hold. I arrange three bits of gear in seconds, traversed madly right and set up a belay. Keith followed. The next pitch looked really great and not to hard. A crack! Good gear, and so I headed off to find it was nails! One move was way harder than anything we had climbed before. Thin fingers crack, with a hidden foot hold to foot smears! I was amazed I got on the smears, and then shot up jubilant to the top, to be met by the glorious evening sun!

Appurtenances of the industry of coffee making!

So there we were, Siri and I strolling through the deserted streets of Mosjoen, the town in the middle of nowhere! When suddenly we saw a sign on this shop door staying, Coffee tasting session, free between 13-15 today. So we went in, and found this slightly crazy norwegian artist installed behind a semi clean counter, covered in appurtenances of the industry of coffee making! He immediately set to, without an introduction in high speed norwegian to explain the dizzy delights of some colombian blended bean in different apparatus that lay strewn about the coffee shop / gallery. I just wanted a coffee, but new my naivety of asking would result in me being thrown into the street, and probable in a very none Norwegian way, cuffed in the process. So for once I kept my mouth shut, and just accepted the small coffee placed in front of me. It tasted good, and then another one presented, followed by a whirlwind of explanation and the correct apparatus and more importantly the correct scientific making process! The making of the coffee was the methodology of the scientist, scale, thermometers and apparatus, all presented with this nonstop drivel, questions without waiting for answers. Just rhetoric, or just ignored answers. We drank more coffee, about 5 super charged small cups, and then headed back into the streets of Mosjoen, the city in the middle of space and time, high as a kite in search of pizza.