I love the world

Lunch

Yummy yummy. I hardly ever eat salad, but this is just nice.

European Alcohol Policy Conference

Some quotes from the conference in Barcelona last week:

"I don't want to put you on the spot, but I will." (Deborah Davies, intelligent-question-chair-lady, to Jamie Fortescue, representative of EuropeanSpirits)

"Who needs information about alcohol? We know about alcohol!" (Sally Casswell, clever woman, on advertising.)

"I think we need to listen to young people when it comes to discussing what young people should be exposed to, and not look to scientists who write reports on rats being exposed to pictures of beer cans." (Nick Sheron, clever man)

"It seems that the general public these days are as sceptical towards scientists as they are towards politicians." (Nick Sheron, clever man)

The congress was wery interesting, I learned a lot and I also learned that I knew a lot of this already, which was a relief.
And I learned that our drinking matters, no matter how much -or little- alcohol one drinks, it is not good for your health. A pint of beer contains on average 2,5 units of alcohol, and a small glass of red wine (14%)(125ml) contains 1,75units, which means that the "one glass of red wine a day is good for me" (which originally was 1 unit) is now twice as strong, and it is not good for you.
Go for a walk. That is good for you.

Budapest

Driving from the airport to the city was quite exciting, as the driver seemed to have half the Hungarian mafia on his tail and was eager to escape. I doubt this was the truth, but he was driving very fast. I have a tendency to trust taxi drivers and other professional chauffeurs when i get a lift, believing they know what they are doing. This is of course not true, according to Seinfeldt at least.
The city is vast -and lots of beautiful buildings. I had just admired a large square with huge, lit buildings around it, when we crossed a few streets and arrived along the Danube. It was a wonderful sight. It looked like there was at least three castles around the river, and so many beautiful buildings -i can't wait until I get to go out tomorrow to see the city before the meeting.
I am here for a meeting but it will not start until tomorrow afternoon so I do have some time to see the city.

Happy Easter times

This is what Easter should be like.... and how it was this year. The Easter bunny didn't look as good as it did last year, but this was mostly due to the fact that when we made it last Thursday, the snow was very dry and wouldn't stick very well.
In one day it snowed 42cm (Thursday, while my cousin and I made the bunny).

We played boardgames, went snowboarding, made waffles in -10 degrees, drove the parents for their cross-country-skiing adventure, and spent time with my family. I wish it was Easter again. I loooove winter.

An excursion into the unknown

Travelling to a board meeting in Brussels can be quite exciting. My flight was late from Bergen, thus not making it in time to catch the connecting flight in Copenhagen. But I was not afraid I was equipped with my paperback and laptop. That said, I did miss an apparently fancy dinner with all the nice people I was meeting the following day.

After finally arriving at Brussels airport, walked the greatest distance ever to pick up my pretty red suitcase (Brussels airport have great distances. I think the developers had a conversation like this (in French or Dutch, of course):

Developer 1: Gates go here, tax-free-area over there, and arrival area right here.
Developer 2: I do like it. Fabulouso. But you know, what is silly, when you go travelling? Waiting for your luggage. It takes forever.
D1: Jaaa…. You said it.
D2: So, what if we put the arrival area way over here? Like, far away?
D1: Your reasoning would be?
D2: It’ll take the passengers forever to walk this distance! They can walk instead of wait!
D1: ‘Tis but a brilliant idea.

And so it was, that Brussels airport ended up being about as long as the distance between my nose and Ulriken.)

Getting on the train to Brussels was not as easy as I have experienced on previous travels. It might be connected to the fact that I arrived late in the evening, because all the ticket offices for the trains were closed. I decided to go for it anyhow, and try to buy a ticket onboard if it was possible. It was not possible, as no-one showed up to check my ticket, and I went off at Brussels North, as instructed, found my way to a tram that told me it should go to Rogier, but I did not pay enough attention at the time as I was on the phone, so I ended up going the wrong direction. This affected me in little degree, as I still had my paperback, and my “HELP card” as a bookmark.
The “HELP card” would have been useful, had it been for Brussels, but it was from our exchange in Bergen, so it did not help much further than a bookmark usually is helpful.

So I went off the tram, continued to read, waited for the tram going the other direction, got on the tram –this was still without tickets as the ticket machines on Brussels North didn’t accept my credit cards and I did not have any coins, and finally got to Rogier and then on the metro to Simonis.
At Simonis I was a bit lost again. This is not usual for me, I am always prepared with maps and information on where to go. And I did this time too, all though it was dark and almost midnight and walking where I thought I was going did not seem like the likely way to go, so I decided to go into a restaurant –more like a fast food joint actually- and ask for directions.
And even though I have had French lectures in asking for directions, my brain automatically switches to English.

Me: Hi! I’m a bit lost, could you please help me find this street? *points on map*
Waiter 1: ‘Ello. Tu parle Francais?
Me: Am….. je parle un peu Francais.. not that that is relevant as I will speak English for the rest of this conversation.
W1: I do not know this street, pardon.
W2: *finds their street on the map* Ok….. tu est ici. Tournez a droit, tous droit, et tournez a gauche. Oki?
Me: *suddenly discovers my French skills is not as bad as I thought* Merci! You are such lovely boys!

Me: *on the outskirts of the park* So how clever of me would it be to walk through this park when the hour is close to midnight and the park happens to be in Brussels, where friends that live here (In Brussels, not in park) have told me Brussels is not safe at night?
Man: ‘Ello! La flu flu flu flu bla bla.
Me: Ahm.... parle vous Anglais?
Man: Ouais, un peu. Are you lost?
Me: Not really….. but is it safe to walk through this park at this time?
Man: Where are you going?
Me: Je suis ici *points on map* et je vendre ici *points on map*
Man: I can drive you. Sur ma voiture.
Me: *Eyes the man up and down*
Man: *looks kind enough*
Me: This is very kind but I do not think I should get a lift with strangers.
Man: *is totally understandable and goes to the car to find his GPS*
Me and man: *studies the GPS to make sure I will go the correct direction*

So after thanking the man a hundred times and wishing luck to him and his future children, I walk through the never-ending park, which have probably been designed by the same people designing Brussels airport. They seem to like it long. (Hm….)
But nothing bad happened to me, and I found the hotel, and my roommates, and all was well.

The meeting was good, very busy, and we did not see anything of Brussels as we were sitting in the NBV office all weekend, but we got to know the NBV office quite well. And the vice president promised to order a laptop for me –with my money, of course. I will get it in one week and it will be so pretty! Yai!

Spirits in the sky

I fall for the beauty of snow every year. I wish I could have stayed for longer -it is just beautiful. It's about one and a half meter of snow at Geilo now, and I was up there this weekend celebrating my aunt's 50' anniversary.

When taking the train to Bergen again I wanted to stop every minute to capture some of the beauty with my camera. Sadly I did not bring my camera, but with a moving train it is difficult to get a picture good enough to live up to the real thing. But just imagine; snow on the trees, clear blue skies, bright white snow... true beauty.
It truly makes me happy.