lightning strikes

This picture by Hans K. Aspenberg is one of many that were taken just before midnight last night in and around Oslo. Mr. Snow was tucked up in bed as the winds whipped up. Everyone was on tenterhooks just waiting for the storm to burst… and burst it finally did.

From our kitchen window I watched the rain spatter down heavily onto the street, and the water gushing down off the roofs. Many of our neighbours were doing the same, each framed by their own warmly lit-up window. Every couple of minutes, in shocking contrast, everyone and everything was illuminated by lightning.

For once Oslo had a tropical downpour. I felt so at home.

aire de bardenas

Another excuse – if I ever needed one – to visit Spain. Close to the nature reserve of Bardenas Reales National Park in Navarra, Aire de Bardenas is a hotel of the sort I have only seen in desert dreamscapes. The stunning portraits evoke a dusty, hot silence. And with the kind of red wines there a native once introduced me to, surely it can only be good. One day…

bø!

As promised, a multimedia report on our weekend here which included a fair amount of:

But the crags we found on Sunday were blazing hot, so we cooled down (both evenings) here:

Travelling is never complete without meeting some locals (much to Little Climber’s horror):

And of course lots of singing/shouting along in the car as we sailed back into Oslo to this:

Thanks Climbers for a great visit!

marley and me

I don’t tear easily, but something about the tale this book told and the simple but honest language really did it for me. Of course, being an animal lover doesn’t hurt. But the last time I looked, even Little Climber (who isn’t particularly keen on dogs at best, and was horrified when Large Climber petted some local pigs at the weekend) was completely engrossed.

A light read but no less a loving tribute to the world’s worst dog, and its family. Go to the official Marley page to see more pics of the dog himself and to read an excerpt. If you’ve ever loved a furry friend yourself, this book will surely make you smile.

the happy painter

Over the last week, we’ve been experiencing a third blast of proper heat this summer. By the time Mr. Snow and the Climbers got down off the glaciers and back to me in the South, the sun had been blazing all week. I took the bus out of town where the rest picked me up on a lonely highway, and off we sped for our climbing weekend in Telemark.

A couple of map-reading errors later, we passed through Brevik, with its narrow winding roads and a very pretty little harbour of the type I didn’t even know existed in Norway. And just before we ended up in the sea, we arrived in Langesund where we met up with the Happy Painters for dinner, while Kurt serenaded us!

The Painters were also kind enough to loan us their garden to camp and the guest room for the night, despite the serious home decorating efforts that were taking place. You see one of the Painters above, and the view from their deck below. Not a bad place for evening coffee, or breakfast the next morning. Any of you who are jealous of the house or the view (you know who you are), I’m sorry to say it looks even better in real life. I think we’ll be inviting ourselves back more often!

Coming up next: the rest of the weekend report, including meeting some grunty locals, climbing some hot rocks and swimming in a cool lake. I’m off to picnic by the sea for now!

lucha libre

I watched Nacho Libre officially for the one and a halfth time last week. The halfth time was on a plane, giggling out loud while trying to keep my eyes open. Nothing to do with the film, just my plane-induced narcolepsy. Which is why I had to watch it again last week, just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything (as it turns out, I had).

In a word, brilliant. Jack Black, who I am not usually mad about, was just the business in this spoof about a monk who takes up Mexican wrestling (lucha libre) with his sidekick, Esqueleto (The Skeleton), ostensibly to earn money to feed the orphans, possibly also to gain Sister Incarnación’s heart, and most definitely for the opportunity to wear stretchy pants. Almost no one speaks Spanish here, preferring cheesy Mexican-accented English instead.

Every minute provided a giggle. But some of you living in London may have gotten lucha fever and gone to watch the luchadores from the movie live at Lucha Libre London, at the Roundhouse up in Chalk Farm. Or maybe not? Nacho was so good that I would have considered going!

brolly

Every time a storm hits the Netherlands, every public rubbish bin turns into a veritable umbrella graveyard. Some time last year I heard that some clever chappies at the Professor’s alma mater came up with an umbrella to solve all of that, the Senza, and a certain conscientious reader reminded me of it yesterday, when it was awarded a big prize for design.

No more flipping inside out or broken brollies, this umbrella is supposed to always turn itself into the best position such that you never have to battle the wind and stay nice and dry. I have never seen one in real life, but the awards and tests seem convincing enough. Even in winds of up to 130km/h (see video below), when surely the last thing you would be worried about is if your umbrella is going to survive! Anyone seen this in action live yet?

hyperwords

Hyperwords is the other browser add-on that has very quickly become part of my online life. It may be obvious or even old news to some, but I’m impressed… and hooked. The main idea is that you can highlight any word in a web page and right-click to access a pop-up menu that includes searches on Google, dictionaries, images, translating tools, and more.

The best feature I have found so far is that any online search that you use often can be incorporated into the menu. Just right click in the search box of that page and choose ‘Add to Hyperwords’ to customize your menu. That and the double enter to get your Google search result. There still seem to be a ton of other shortcuts that I’m still discovering…

Thanks Ades for the pic above.

animal’s people

Without a doubt the best book I have read so far this year. Animal is the storyteller who goes on all fours in this book about life, love and suffering in the imaginary city of Khaufpur, whose inhabitants are still suffering from the fallout of a huge chemicals factory accident some 20 years ago. But how he tells it! It’s been a long time since I read a voice that grabs you by the throat, drags you at breakneck speed through his story and doesn’t let you slip an inch until the very end.

Go here for excerpts, here for the story behind the book and here for the man who inspired crazy, hilarious, genius, beautiful Animal.

kung fu panda

On Friday, the Climbers kicked off our spate of visitors , bearing beautiful gifts such as our own copy of not just the first volume (which puzzled Mr. Snow somewhat when he came to the end) but the whole of this story. Without even reading this blog I guess my likes and dislikes are transparent to all! Mr. Snow has since gone off into the mountains with them (maybe he can be Mr. Rock for this week) and I’ll join them at the weekend for some outdoor living.

Before they left, we managed to fit in a visit to the cinema to see Kung Fu Panda. Both Little and Large Climber enjoy animation films, and this one was no exception for all of us. The story goes, a fat, lazy panda is chosen over five kung fu warriors to become the one to save the Valley of Peace from a feared enemy.

I don’t think I’ll really be spoiling any surprises (it’s a Dreamworks film after all) to say he manages in the end. The conclusion does take some suspension of belief, as far as is necessary for a cartoon panda film (Mr. Snow and I did find ourselves arguing about just how long Po the panda had in kung fu boot camp before the evil one showed up).

Worse was the disturbing take-home message about believing and being yourself allowing you to conquer all. It seems I am not the only cynic, go here for a nice alternative view. Kung Fu Panda is only a film, but if as according to Philip French, ‘(Wall-E)’s humane message and concern for ecology have been criticised in conservative quarters’, it’s a spooky world indeed, cartoon pandas or not.