"...the first snow of the season..."

well...this is Tryvann!!! my local ski resort. its about 20 minute drive from my house, and is just behind holmenkollen, where the big ski jump is. and it opened this weekend!!! well... one slope did, and is the second earliest ever its opened...well..they did cheat a bit, it hasnt snowed here yet, so the snow is actually man made (using the blowers on one of the photos). its actually very icy to board on...and hurts like hell when you fall...which i did many times in the first few runs. i think i had totally forgotten how to board...i was woeful! however, i think the trick is to stick your ipod on...that seemed to help loads, and by the end, i had just about remembered how to master it...which is 10x more fun. am a little sore today from crashing a few times, but hey...the season has started!

on a down side, did remind me lots of japan, and made me miss my boarding buddies an awful lot, especially my best boarding buddy Kat. big kisses to you, and fingers crossed for snow in hiroshima soon! xx

ps photos are a bit crappy as they were taken with my phone

Stavanger

photos from the Ash night out, and centre of Stavanger. Also, this is dave's new house that he's just bought (getting old mate!), a stunning listed building in the centre of stavanger...amazing house, and am totally jealous. Also, the largest fridge in the universe...and probably the heaviest as my back would confirm this morning after helping lug it up those steps. totally totally awesome house though

ASH!

my flight schedule this week was: oslo - milan - oslo, oslo - aberdeen - bristol - amsterdam - oslo, oslo - stavanger - oslo, all in 7 days, and am knackered!

all i wanted was to chill out on friday night, but had previously bought tickets to see one of my favourite bands called 'Ash', who were playing in stavanger, on the west coast of norway, and where a few mates from oslo have moved to. again, weird gig, was a small venue (Ash headlined one of the uk's bigest music festivals last year), weeble have even played bigger venues. was a pretty subgued affair, well, it got going after a while....but again, norwegian crowds are just weird, its all hand clapping and fist punching, with no real...oh i dont know, maybe enthusiasm is the word, theres no real 'mosh pit' to speak of...people just stand there and watch, and dont really get involved.

good gig though none the less, and was really cool to catch up with dave, neil and steve (who was down from bergen)

Busy busy...

had a pretty busy week for reasons that shall be explained...one day. flew to aberdeen (scotland) on tuesday, and bristol (england) thursday and back to oslo via amsterdam on thursday, which meant a 4am start, and a 20 hour day in total...absolutely shattered. got back after midnight on thursday to temperatures of -5 celcius....now thats bloomin cold...especially when you forget your jacket. my car was buried under frost. oh, and for saying on wednesday night to my boss that ive never lost a bag in 10 years flying for work...lo and behold, my bag ends up in amsterdam when i get to oslo. note...amsterdam is the worst airport in the world ever! bags always go missing there

Milan

Due to everyone i know in oslo being out of the city the weekend previous, i decided to take matters into my own hands and go somewhere this weekend. Long story short, but a very very old friend of mine, who i havent seen in many years recently moved to italy, and invited me over for a weekend. This, plus the fact that Ryanair do mega cheap flights from oslo to milan, made up my mind.

I've only ever been to milan briefly before, and had forgotten how beautiful it was. The weather was incredible, blue skies all the time (except the night obviously). It was pretty chilly though. We did the usual touristy stuff, photos of which are below.

It was good to catch up with gwyn again after many years, and is kinda weird trying to describe your past few years, and justify what you have been doing, who's with who now, who went where etc...

One thing about moving around a lot, especially internationally, is that you lose contact with many friends, and people you know, have only known you for a short period of time, so it was refreshing to speak to someone who knew me a long time ago, and can see how much ive changed (for the better i hope)

anyway, was a fantastic weekend

Trip home

Milan central station at sunrise

Finally

After 2 wrong subway stops, 3 wrong roads..we eventually found the best (only) sri lankan restaurant in milan

If this was a painting, it would be called 'sunset over Milan, from hotel roof terrace'

Castello Sforzesco

its a big castle

Central Milan

Gwyn has also spent quite a time in Asia, living in bangkok for a couple of years, and one thing we agreed on, is that you totally miss architecture like this over there...it was stunning

Duomo

THe Duomo cathedral lies in the centre of milan, and took over 600 years to build! Its a sad fact, but nothing like this will ever be built again...600 years!