Oslo Half Marathon

Don't ask...maybe a moment of madness, but i've entered the Oslo half marathon. I literally haven't ran a step since the Tokyo marathon in February, and swore i wouldnt actually do something like this again, but this is only a half this time (13 miles/21 km). Only problem being that it is exactly 1 month away...really not enough time to train, but will give me something to focus on. The route itself looks great, along the sea front in the middle of Oslo, and actually passes by my house in Skoyen (just left is the city centre, click on the map for an enlarged size).

I guess i couldnt be in oslo on that day and just cheer other people on, id want to be there doing it, or avoid it all together...maybe i should have chosen to go to the mountains for the day...

Go Flea!

Swear to god, this was taken from the BBC website today...(so must be true)...find it hard to believe, or work out why...but this is a totally true. Was taken from the Quotes of the Day section, and is a quote from Flea...whilst live on stage at the Reading Festival....WTF????

For those not in the know, Red Hot Chilli Peppers are one of the biggest bands in the world, and come from California...and to my knowledge, have never even been to sheffield!... still cant get my head around this...

Home & Away

sheffield united were actually on tv here on saturday, on normal norwegian terrestial tv!...which was pretty weird to say the least, especially with the norwegian commentary. Dunno, i always find it weird to see or hear about home when im away, and for some reason i feel more passionate about my home town when im not there. strange. AND, we won, plus i think my neighbours learned a few new 'colourful' english words/phrases in the process, so everyone's a winner.

ps matt, if youre reading this... west brom were awful, but ill save any smugness til the end of the season. oh, and sheffield wednesday went from leading 2-0 to losing 3-2...so a good day all round :-)

Weekend

This was literally it... star-fished, sunbathing and sleeping in frogner park...all weekend. (plus 2 bbq's, but that didn't begin with 'S' so i didn't include it). It was sooo hot this weekend!

Sunset in Frogner/Vigeland sculpture park

these were taken in the park behind my flat at sunset on the way home from the ride. unfortunately, my camera really didnt do justice to the scene

What goes up...

Er...top

I think the pained 'non smiling' face is from riding from sea level up to the top...at least i hope it is. many traditional norwegian houses have grass roofs, as it is generally believed that this gives the best insulation in winter. the other photo is the mouth of the oslo fjord...there is a small passage through there which goes into the open sea (how educational is this eh???!)

Frognerseteren

This restaurant lies at the very top of the hill/mountain overlooking oslo, such a beautiful place. We sat overlooking oslo and the oslo fjord with a cold cold beer...bliss

mum/neil...am looking into whether they do christmas lunch or not...

Church at the top

Oslo fjord

about 3/4 of the way up

Same same...

We've been having such gorgeous weather here this week, i decided to go on a mountain bike ride after work last night (thursday). the plan was to take the train up to holmenkollen, where the ski jump is, and ride through the forest back down to oslo...but in a moment of madness, we (myself and morten) decided to ride up. It was such a beautiful evening, the views were stunning. Most of these photos are similar to previous ones...but what the hell...
(if you click on the photos, i think you can get a larger version of them)

The morning after the night before...and the night before that

Also went out into town on saturday night with a few friends, woke up with the usual empty wallet and sore head, so decided to spend the day on the sofa with tea and biscuits...that was until i was invited for a walk around a lake/forest with dave and clare. Thing is, i feel terribly guilty about staying indoors when theres things to see and do...so went along. It was raining a bit, but was beautiful as ever. We went about 10 minutes drive outside of the city centre, and most oslo residents seemed to have the same idea, most of them running, or mountain biking...and some even swimming in the lake...very wholesome these norwegians...

Saturday

Saturday was glorious in Oslo, really sunny and hot. Theres a jazz festival here also, as well as the students freshers fair, so oslo was buzzing with people on saturday, it was such a good atmosphere in town, bands playing everywhere, the whole city was packed...

The wierd shaped flat building is the contemporary art gallery in oslo...and lo and behold is free entry! free..in oslo! obviously couldnt pass that opportunity up

Play

Later in Hammersons...

Party Animals

Flat Warming Party

Rather belatedly, I had my flatwarming party on Friday night... As Norway is so expensive in bars, what usually happens is that people congregate at someones house for drinks before going out into town. This is called Forspille, which actually translates as fore-play (no, it wasnt that kind of party), then after you've hit the bars, its back to someones house again for nachspille (after-play).

Anyway, a few pics of the party

Stabaek F.C.

After the hype, and ultimate disappointment of saturdays football, it was with excited curiosity that i went with neil and morten to my first ever live norwegian football game. My 'chosen' team is called Stabaek, who play just outside of oslo city centre. Stabaek are a smallish side, but miraculously were top of the top league in norway after the first half of the season...unfortunately...literally since i started supporting them a couple of months ago...they haven't won a single league game...the Parkes Jinx strikes again...

the 'stadium' was packed last night with 6000 people, which is about the maximum the ground can hold. We were playing the team at the bottom of the table...ergo, the crappiest team in the league...needless to say, despite warning morten on many occasion that i was a jinx, we eaked out a crappy 1-1 draw, and were lucky not to lose. Upon leaving the stadium, i heard morten mutter 'explain why youre my friend again?...'

The standard is obviously not as good as in england, but the atmosphere was pretty good, they are pretty fanatical about their team over here, and was fun to watch...more so that the stoic supporters in japan.

once again though morten, i apologise...

Weekend

Pretty exhausting weekend back in the UK. Flew in friday and back on sunday (via amsterdam both times). Didn't managed to do anything that i planned to ie house stuff, but had a great time. Saw lots of people, although not as many as id like, went to the football and caught up on the trials, dramas and happy events of many friends.

Looking forward to a peaceful weekend in oslo this weekend...

Ben, Ryan, me and Jasmine

Ryan me and Crag

3 members of the mighty Weeble....

...Crag obviously didn't understand the rules of the 'see who has the widest mouth' contest

The twins

Becky and Lucy

Saturday night

Went for dinner with my good good friends ryan and lucy on saturday. Such a good night, and were blessed and surprised when other friends came into the pub by chance. The pub in the photo is called the Trip to Jerusalem...and claims to be the oldest pub in the uk. its actually built into the rock, and the rooms inside are actual caves, sitting on top of the rock and just visible in the picture is the beautiful nottingham castle...see robin hood films. beautiful place

Reality

Now, most people who don't follow football have only heard of the big teams like manchester united, liverpool, arsenal, chelsea etc...these teams win every week, they win everything, their supporters moan if they dont win more than 4 trophies a year....now, supporting sheffield united...well...its not like that at all...you have to put up with years of gloom, for a tiny speck of joy...today however was one of those specks....well, momentarily. our fierce rivals sheffield wednesday (yes i know, stupid name) were getting hammered 4-0, our other rivals leeds were losing 1-0, and then bathed in sunshine, right in front of us, we scored...this is like a perfect storm, when all our rivals are losing, and we are winning, its like a pure happy sensation, all is right in the world, i have beer in hand, the sun is shining, my voice has gone due to shouting and singing, wednesday are losing 38 seconds into the season..and we are winning...delerium...however...this is where we differ from the manchester uniteds of the world...after we scored, and we celebrated..i literally, and i mean literally hadnt sat down...when colchester equalised...i mean, they kicked off, and within 45 seconds had scored...disbelief.

anyway...we went on to score again with 8 minutes left...so all was good again. life was pefect again...until with 84 seconds left (of a 90 minutes match)...84 sodding seconds later...colchester equalised again....gutted gutted gutted...somedays i hate football

Beautiful downtown Bramall Lane

quite possibly my favourite place on earth...(somedays)

The most exciting day of the year!

Not my birthday, nor even Christmas anymore...but for me, the most exciting day of the year (when im in the uk) is the first match of the football season. Despite being relagated by a solitary goal last season, the first day always comes with a sense of optimism, of better things to come, of glory and that chance that this season...THIS season we will succeed! Ironically, this time last year we played the mighty Liverpool on the first game...this year...due to our relagation, we played the less than mighty Colchester United...'who are they'?..exactly. its always a hot sunny day on the opening game as well, and this was no different. so i bought my and neil (my brother) the new home shirts, and sat in the sunshine, with 26,000 other eagerly optomistic blades fans, in our gorgeous new look stadium, with a beer and awaited the new season...now cheesy as it seems, sheffield united come onto the pitch to the star wars theme tune...always always gives me goosebumps...this is probably the most exciting point of the year.

Home

Went home to the UK for the weekend...mainly to sort a few things out with my house, ie buy a kitchen and stuff...popped up to sheffield, from nottingham, to see my mum...we sat outside in the sunshine having brunch with my big bro. very nice

Haugesund

Have been on a business trip to the west coast of Norway over the past few days, to a city/town called Haugesund. Haugesund is 40 minutes flight from Oslo. I was surprised to learn that the internal flight was a boeing 737...which was full, plus i only managed to get a hotel room due to a late cancellation...the reason? i was landing right at the start of a the world famous Haugesund jazz festival. It was a nice trip as the weather was amazing, the town was beautiful, and i managed to catch a couple of bands...anyway...a few photos