Climbing mountains

To counter all of the pics of the office in the last post, this time I thought I would post a bunch of pics from the mountains. Bergen is sometimes referred to as the city surrounded by seven mountains, so of course J and I see it as our duty to climb all seven of them. After our first month here, we conquered number one.


Of course we took the dogs with us and wow, didn't they just love being mountain dogs for a day!

Mina gave us a few heart starting moments though. She just loves the snow and has to roll in it everytime she comes across it. About half way up the mountain she found a good patch and started rolling in it and burying her head in it etc. Of course being on a mountain, there was a fair bit of a slope to the patch and at one stage she was sliding head first, on her back, down the mountain. Luckily she managed to stop herself from totally cascading down the snow slide but it was certainly a heart starter. On the way back down we took a slightly different route and Mina went charging across a large puddle of frozen water. As the ice did not look that thick and Mina does look rather thick, I was very concerned that she was going to fall straight through, but once again she managed to survive. We tried to take a nice 'family' shot on the top of Lovstakken but of course Moj ruined it somewhat by doing what dogs do...

The view from the top was of course totally amazing. This is a shot taken from just one perspective of the 360 degree spectacular that was on offer. It is taken back over the area where we live. The lake in the middle is one near our house that we regularly walk the dogs around.

Next is a zoomed shot of our neighbourhood. See if you can find our house - it is near the centre of the shot, is brown and has a little red car out the front. We of course live on the bottom storey and if you look closely, you can see that the bottom half of the house at the back is white, that it our part!

So this should give you another perspective on where we live. We had such a lovely day climbing our first mountain in Norway that hopefully you can read more blogs in the not too distant future describing our adventures climbing the other seven mountains surrounding Bergen. Sending love and signing off as your intrepid mountain adventurer... fernicle xxx

The Office

Hi peoples...so since it seems to be a trend that i begin posts with comments on the weather in Bergen let me first tell you that we have been blessed with some gorgeous spring weather in the last couple of days. Clear blue skies and beaming sunshine. It has really made J and I smile and we realise just how fabulous it will be here in summer. When it is sunny, everyone just gets out and enjoys it. The town square is packed with people, all the outside seats at pubs are full and the shores of the lakes are surrounded by lazy sunbakers. I even took half a day off work yesterday to hang out in our little sun swept garden with j and the hounds. Really beautiful. But...speaking of work, today I thought I would post some pics from the office so you can all get a sense of where I am spending almost all day everyday. Okay then, let's begin the tour with a photo of the office building from the angle it greets me on from my walk into work each morning. The windows you see in the roof are mine! It may seem strange to be in the attic, but the angle of the windows actually allows me to get sun nearly all day, which is awesome.

Then we have a shot of the entrance to my office. To get to it I walk through the office of the PhD student working on the project with me - the fabulous Kamilla. The notes on butchers paper that you see to the left of the frame are Norwegian phrases for me to learn, things like "I am sorry I don't understand" and "Have fun at..." (or what literally translates as "Have a cosy time at...") etc

The next shots are from within my office. It is hard to give the sense of space shooting from within but you get the idea nonetheless. The ferns on my meeting/creative space table were in the room the first day I arrived, placed there by my totally out there but lovely project manager Roger. Nice welcoming touch I thought.

The next shot is just the view out the window from my desk. The main mountain you see is the biggest in Bergen - Ulrikken...mmm...must climb one day!

This next shot is of the time plan for 2007 that I have been working out over the last couple of days. Note that each colour corresponds to a different part of the research project. I hope you can appreciate how much work will be involved in following this through and how much fun I had playing with coloured pencils for the hour or so it took me to draw this up!

The last photo I have for you today is one taken as I walk from the office to the bus stop. While I always walk into work, some days I am too tired to be bothered walking home and then I take one of the super mega fabulous Bergen buses. I never have to wait more than about 10 minutes for one to swing by and there are so many bus stops along the way, I can usually start walking and just catch one as it passes. The public transport here really puts the rail services in the gong to shame, although there is something far more romantic about a train than a bus. Lucky I have such a romantic view on my way to the bus stop!


Now you have been totally spoiled for photos so hopefully that will get you all through the weekend. I hope they have managed to give you a good sense of where I work - the fabulous Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities at the University of Bergen, Norway. Kisses til next time....

C?

So just a note on the weather before I begin the post in earnest...You will be happy to hear that the rain has cleared and that on the weekend we managed to have both snow and sunshine within hours of each other - truly fabulous. I love waking up on a Saturday morning, seeing snow cascading outside the bedroom window and knowing that I can just roll over and go back to sleep completely guilt free...mmmm lovely!

Now, I want to move on from the weather and talk about language again. This time though, I want to make an observation rather than request a translation. It seems as though the Norwegian language has almost no words that begin with the letter C. Strange but true I tell you!

As you can see from this shot, the total sum of C words does not even take up one page in a rather substantial dictionary. And if the resolution is good enough, you can see that the majority of these are actually english words anyway, words like camping, calypso, celluloid, champion and champagne. In contrast, words beginning with S take up over 70 pages! So tell me, what are some of your favourite C words (except that one peoples!) that I can use to convince the Norwegians of the value of starting words with the letter C??

rain

Yes so it is raining again. J has been recording the days it has been raining and we have hit the magic number of 10 days straight! Woohoo. Today I thought I would do the Norwegian thing and just walk home in it anyway. Need those rainproof pants they all wear though, I got saturated! And forget the umbrella idea, I had one and got soaked anyway, and you constantly battle it being blown inside out. When you are as wet as you can get though, it does start to become fun, well almost...The walk still felt like the longest yet.

Hooray for the ipod nano...see nanotechnology can solve all the world's ills! Well at least the ones related to the need for distraction from discomfort during trudges home in a downpour! As Roger my project manager told me yesterday though, you can't get around the depression brought on by the weather, you have to get through it! So please, write and remind me about all the good things about the rain - I need positive affirmations! Pics from the view out my window as i sit here and write....kisses til next time....

it's the little things...

So welcome to what I hope is a series of blog posts called 'it's the little things...'
The title comes from that fabulous piece of Pulp Fiction dialogue about the little differences in Europe (you remember Le BigMac etc). So today's post comments on two small differences in Norway, both related to food...

The first difference is the eggs. Have you ever seen such a pearly white egg? They simply glisten! Now maybe it is because I have been raised on a farm and therefore believe that eggs should really come covered in a little bit of shit and straw, but these Norwegian eggs seem surreally white even by Australian supermarket standards. They also don't come in shades of brown. Do they not have brown chickens in Norway? I must investigate. They are also incredibly fragile. It is almost impossible to crack one and have it come away shell free. Does someone scrub them until only the tiniest of outer crusts remains? I know not.

The next difference is peanut butter. You know how in Australia we are blessed with a range of peanut butter choices? Kraft, Dick Smith, homebrand etc. Well the stange thing is not that Norway does not offer those brands, but that there is abolutely no choice at all. If you are not eating Mills' grov type then you are not eating peanut butter. Not even a choice between crunchy and smooth for crying out loud. Their position on this seems to be to make the one type on offer a mix somewhere between the two, not totally smooth but not particularly crunchy either. We have even checked out various supermarkets to confirm the matter and all the evidence points to the existance of only one species of peanut butter in Norway. They do offer cashew butter though and my question to you is, is that enough?

Ahhh, you see, it's the little differences....

say what?

At work searching databases for articles relevant to my research and suddenly realised that I have fallen into a world that is both scary and close to incomprehensible. Since you were all so good with working out the Norwegian words I posted, I thought you might like a crack at translating some of these opening lines from articles relevant to my work. It sure would help me if you could work them out because I am sure as s?*t lost...and these are in english, believe it or not! So...

Article number 1: A fringe-pattern analysing interferometer with a resolution of 1 x 10(-9), stability of readings of about 0.1 nm, and an uncertainty owing to optical effects of less than 1 nm, has been used to study some systematic effects in gauge block length measurements…

Okay...Number 2: Based on the principle of measuring the property of micromechanics by means of nanoindentation, the authors clarify their views on the influence factors of type I and type 11 to measure-the property of micromechanics of materials by nanoindentation…

And number 3: The uncertainty in the measured fluorescence decay lifetimes of 30 nm particles of YAG:Ce was used to evaluate the predictions of a novel form of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle suggested by de Sabbata and Sivaram, DeltaTDeltat greater than or equal to (h) over bar /k…

Anyone? Anyone?

Comments??

Okay so I am not sure how I feel about this whole blog thing...On the one hand it is great, I get to leave messages for all my buddies so they know what I have been up to, and I get to leave pics so they can all see my new surroundings etc. What I don't like is that it is largely a one way passage of communication (the exception of course being you Kylie, a truly magnificent human being who I love, respect, appreciate and adore!) I know lots of you are visiting because you tell me you are, but what I would love, is if you could leave some kind of comment to show me that I am not doing all this for no one (except of course miss kylie who I love, respect, appreciate and adore!) Even if that note just says hi, I stopped by! I know I am sounding bossy and well, that is because I am bossy, but I am starved for news from home and love in this foreign country and want to hear from everyone! Anyway, that is my rant...

In news...I booked a flight today to spend three days in April in Phoenix Arizona. Seems a long way to go for 3 days I know but you can rest assured that it will be three hard days of smoozing. My job at this meeting is literally to network, I don't have to give a presentation or actually do anything other than impress US bigwigs in the social study of nanotechnology. Now that I think about it though, that seems like quite a task in itself, considering the size of my fish and my supremely limited knowledge about things nano...To indicate the importance of this meeting let me drop a few names,...other invited include Sheila Jasanoff and Jerry Ravetz (of funky rabbits fame). Jerry couldn't go so he invited Silvio Funtowicz, Silvio couldn't go so he invited me (because he is friends with my project manager and met me one time at band camp). This probably means nothing to anyone, but those in the STS know will understand why I might be freaking out slightly....

Anyway that is my big news for today. The pic is a shot of me in Bergen's town square, in the hope that seeing my face may guilt you all into leaving a comment :) ;) :) xxx

Norsk kurs

Okay here is one for all the smarty pants...since so many of you managed to work out that koselig effectively means cosy (although the director of my research centre explained it as 'cosy in a Jack Nicholson kind of way'), I thought I would post another word for you all to have a go at. So what do you think this means???

We had our first language class tonight, but unfortunately this word didn't come up. Poor J found it all a bit overwhelming but being the studious beaver I am I had done some preparation and found it not so difficult. I think already knowing German helps too. I will keep you up to date with our progress but I don't think we will be writing mountains of compelling novels in Norwegian any time soon.

Had a super chilly day today, coldest yet, with super strong winds nearly blowing me onto the road during my morning walk to work and some horizontal rain thrown in for good measure later in the day. Hopefully with spring on the way things can only get better...

Ha det bra til tomorrow!

the flat...

So I promised some people pics of our flat...This first photo shows the track leading down the side of the house that we have to take to get to our entrance. Not so exciting but should give you a sense of the outside of the house.

Next is a shot of the main bedroom. It still feels strangely empty without our pictures or personal effects (still making their way over here on the ship). What you can see from this shot though is the lovely scandinavian sauna look our bedrooms have...mmmm....saunas....the two little mats on the floor are our makeshift beds for the dogs. Of course the dogs are not stupid and when we are not home they make themselves comfortable on the real bed!

Finally I have included a shot of our second bedroom/study, and of J being cheesy! Through the window here you should get a glimpse of our view. Note again the lovely sauna effect. Fortunately the whole house is not decked out like this...most of it, but not all. I think it is to try and give you the allusion of warmth, and to remind you that you are in scandinavia.

So that is our little flat, not exactly modern, but certainly 'koselig' as the Norwegians would say. Anyone who can tell me what that means gets a big gold star!

one week...

So J and I have been here a whole week now and while discussing it last night J said that it felt like much much longer! Having spent the week working perhaps I agree. I am still not sure what it means to be researching the ethics of nanotechnology and am certainly not sure how one goes about such a task...most of the time I am just trying to look busy, highly unethical I am sure!! There is talk of sending me to the US for a meeting of bigwigs in the field next month - I would apparently be going as the European representative...are they joking?? (Coaly people you know the accent on this phrase!) Anyway it is great to feel important even if it is just a ruse....
Since I don't like to post without a pic here is one J took on his phone on one of our other walking tracks - around the local lake (frozen in this case). Note the blue sky though...very exciting!


Very much looking forward to the weekend so i can have a sleep in...working 8-4 5 days is tough, props to all those who have been doing it for so long!! J and I are having dinner with another Aussie expat here on Saturday so it will be nice to be able to say things like g'day, cobber and crickey again. Did I ever say cobber??? Kisses til next time and miss youse all....

the neighbourhood

Here is J with the dogs on our first walk in Bergen. We are in a park that is just a couple of minutes walk up the road from our house. The other shot is a little church that we pass on the way from the park to our house. Just a few pics of the neighbourhood to help you all get the sense of where it is we are living these days. So, how do you like it? Anyone what to come and visit yet?

New Adventures in Norway

So after 30 hours of travelling, J and I finally arrived for our new adventures in Norway. We landed to find the city of Bergen covered in a blanket of snow and looking spectacular. Somehow the cold is always so much more tolerable when snow has fallen to make things look pretty, and the city really does look like it has fallen out of a fairytale. Wooden houses with steeply pitched rooves, trimmed in white with twinkling evening lights.

The first photo is the view from the top of our driveway, the view I begin my 40 minute walk to work with. Don't you think it is delightful? It is even better in the early morning when everyone still has their little orange lights burning inside. The first morning we woke to snow falling and have had even more since. Today though we had the magic of a clear blue sky and sunshine lighting up the snowy white landscape, just divine.

After battling the jetlag of our first day we were really looking forward to the dogs arriving to join us. They were a little delayed and I was about to fly into a full blown panic when fortunately they arrived, very thirsty and tired but fine. Here they are with J, just to prove to you all that they are okay!

Beauty of life

Hi All,

I have recently been working on a "gift book" idea where I list all of the things that are wonderful about our world - e.g. butterflies and the melting change of sunsets. I would love to hear about all the things on earth that you think are worth getting out of bed for. I could then include them in my list and who knows, we may even be published one day, so come on, what motivates you to get out of bed, what are the things that make life worth living?

My Dogs

Silly me just realised that this blog is yet to contain a photo of my canine babies...criminal. So here it is, Mojo and Mina looking like they are the most attentive and well behaved dogs in the world. Did I mention they are sitting on the table? love my 2D's...photos of the their babies to follow one day.

I see...

I see that I am able to post pics from the uni so it must be my super slow home connection that is stopping me there. Hopefully I can find ways around that but in the meantime, enjoy these new postings my dedicated readers!

Kisses...

Trying to be good

So I am trying to be a good little blogger but I am having a great deal of trouble posting pictures from home. As a result of this I am trying a post from the super fast uni internet connection to see if that makes a difference. I only have old photos available on my thumbdrive though so you all get to see a shot from a fabulous walk I did not so long ago with my best walking buddies Mr David Winner and Stefan (in shot and with a last name I have no idea how to spell!). The photo was taken while trying a shortcut down Mount Mitchell. Stanwell Park beach is in the background. Who needs Norway when you have places like this at your doorstep?

Classical Music

J and I recently spent a fabulous night with the incredibly talented cellist Mr Julian Thompson. After applauding his performance with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (particularly excited by the special Jules touch of turning the cello into a drum during the rendition of a traditional Scottish folk tune) we all returned home to continue the celebration. This photo captures our night of classical music appreciation - thanks Jules!

I'm Baaack!

So I was not sure that I would continue this blog after returning to the fair shores of Australia but I am back due to popular demand...well a couple of people told me they were still checking the site so I decided to continue. I also recently purchased a fancy new digital camera that allows me to be creative in how I attempt to capture the beauty of everyday life and I thought that I could use the site to post some of my photos, and share the love so to speak.
So here is a shot of the old slow combustion stove in our kitchen...

I have been trying to attach more but the connection seems useless so maybe more will follow in later posts. I have however changed the setting so anyone should be able to comment now, so please, feel free to let me know if you are reading. Kisses...

Signing off

So this will be my final post from Norway...for the time being anyway! As the final post I thought it should contain the obligatory self portrait. If you are wondering about the wrapped head, the snow in the background may give some indication as to the answer. When I left my temperature controlled hotel room that morning, the gulf stream was keepin Bergen at a toasty 8 degrees and I told myself that there was no way I would need a beanie...silly silly girl, you are hovering around the north pole don't you know! Anyway, hope you have all enjoyed the photos as much as I have enjoyed visiting the places. Can't wait to see you all and lie in the warm Australian sun. Kisses...Fern

Beyond Bergen

Yesterday I spent the day going beyond Bergen. I took various train/boat/bus combinations and did a big loop through the countryside, across one of the fjords and back to Bergen. It was really spectacular and totally fabulous! Although I quickly learnt that the Gulf Stream really does keep Bergen's temperatures above average for Norway because as soon as I started to head inland I began to see snow. Initially I will thrilled to see it scattered across the mountain tops, but the further I went, the lower it got until when I got off the first train at a place called Mrydal it was a complete whiteout, inches thick on the trees and the ground and actually snowing at the time! That is where this first photo is from. It was fabulous to hear it crunching under foot and feel it lying on my eyelashes. In this area I also saw the totally amazing Fjosgossen waterfall - a little different fom the tender trickle through greenery in an earlier post.

After winding our way down through gorgeous grey and white mountains and green river valleys, we arrived at the start of one of the fjords.

From the boat it was amazing to see how the cool mountain air combined with the warmer air off the water to form a crisp cloud division. Simply stunning. I kept having random moments of realisation where I would say to myself, I am cruising along a Norwegian fjord, and I just couldn't stop smiling. Hope the pics make you smile too. Kisses...

Something pretty

Okay so I thought the whale meat was rather disgusting and that perhaps you might like a pretty image to help wash it down. This is what they call a stave church, with stave referring to the style of wooden roof tiling. It is in a little forested area on the outskirts of the city and it has a rather long and complicated history that I won't go into but which involves being burnt by death metal musicians at one point. Anyway, I thought it was really beautiful and very Viking like...perhaps you will forgive me for the whale meat shot now?

You are what you eat

So I promised you a photo of food and here it is - frozen whale meat! Yes, it is true, the Norwegians actually eat whale. The black blood colour of it alone would be enough to turn me off. An American academic who was here for the seminar ate whale sashimi (yes that means raw) on his first night - brave or stupid, I'll let you decide.

View from above

This is the view over Bergen from the top of Mt. Floyen. Of course you would not see any of it today as I am experiencing what I expect to be typical Bergen weather - cold and very wet! Of course it doesn't really matter to me so much as I sit in the perfectly temperature controlled office typing notes on nanotechnology, although the plans of walking into town for lunch are looking less and less likely. On the issue of food, I should tell you that I tried a typical Norwegian dish the other day - how do you think the fish pudding tastes this time of year??? Rubbery and rather bland would be my answer...but maybe I will post more on food tomorrow because I have a great photo for that. Kisses til then...

Forest for the trees

I have just completed the three days of my first seminar on the 'societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology' and I have to say that my brain is now rather fried...not because it was all so complicated but more because I had to endure so many hours of boredom! That is not entirely true, some of it was very interesting and I am sure that I can spend two years of my life researching it quite happily, but as many of us know, academics are not always able to talk about and present material in an interesting and relevant manner. Of course I like to exclude myself from that category! This may be put to the test tomorrow though when I give my own seminar introducing my research to all here at the centre. Anyway, the photo for the blog today is meant to represent the busy (yet somehow beautiful) current state of my mind. Weak justification for a photo of trees perhaps but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless...

Those Crazy Norwegians

Okay so this picture is one I took while walking in the mountains behind Bergen. There in the middle of the forest, in a seemingly random location, there was this group of decorated clumps of grass. They had hats and eyes and stick like arms. I found them rather amusing and perhaps representative of the Norwegian sense of humour. After spending two days locked in a room with a group of people, who were primarily Norwegian, discussing the ethics of nanotechnology, I can attest to the fact that they actually do have a sense of humour - even in academic settings discussing something as dry and obscure as nanotechnology. This is a relief after experiencing the German sense of humour which has always been completely obscure to me. Although if decorated clumps of grass randomly appearing in a forest is something I find rather amusing, perhaps it is me with the obscure sense of humour?

In the mountains

So I finally managed to escape the city and the office on the weekend and can now post a picture from the mountains. Actually, it is from a mountain just behind the city. I took a furnicular to the top and then walked down the mountain. Of course all those crazy Norwegians were walking up the mountain! It was really beautiful and amazing to think that it was so close to the city. Apparently you can ski up there in winter but in rainy autumn you can just take pictures of little waterfalls...Kisses.

The Office

So here is the university building in Bergen where you find the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities - i.e. the centre I now work for. Basically, this is where my office is! Just thought you might all like to see where I am spending my days - so glad it is not a boring brick box. Do we even have yellow buildings in Australia? Apart from the giant pineapple and banana of course...Since it is the weekend tomorrow though I am hoping not to be anywhere near this building and hopefully I can take some shots of the countryside for you. Har det bra til next time!

On the street

So here is what I have learnt today...gumboots are fashion items in Norway. I have been complaining for years that they do not make interesting gumboots for adults but let me tell you, that is only because I had never been to Bergen. Here they come in all shapes and sizes, are sold in all good shoe stores and normal everyday people actually wear them out on the streets like any other shoe. I think the lace up hot pink ones were the most outrageous I have seen so far. I was, however, very seriously tempted to purchase the knee high white ones covered in butterflies! I couldn't take a picture of all the different varieties of gumboots, people would think I was strange, so you get a picture of the street instead, because that is not strange at all! Kisses...

Down by the water

Another glorious day in Bergen and another pretty photo for you all. This one is of a really old area of the city called Bryggen. It is down by the water where all the ferries for the fjords leave and where the famous (?) fish market is. The buildings are all full of tourist souvenier shops, of course, and if you are all good, you may just get something from there. Viking hat anyone....?

Greetings from Bergen

So here is the first post coming to you from Bergen Norway! The photo is from a park right in the centre of town and as you can see, it is a classically beautiful European city. It may be cold and wet but it is lovely to see a city painted in colour, with many of the fabulous old buildings glittering in the rain in gorgeous shades of pink, yellow and green. I spent my first day here just roaming the streets and getting a feel for the city, while the evening was spent eating Thai (it really is the new chinese, internationally it seems!) and discussing moral philosophy with university boffins over red wine. Today I am in my office at the University busily blogging as a form of procrastination from preparing for the nanotechnology seminar!

Fern is Ferty

It's my party and I'll sing and dance if I want to!

Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit

J and I getting close in the kitchen

The night after and the night before

After a cracker of a 30th birthday party I am currently preparing for the flight to Norway tomorrow and thought I should practice using my blogspot before I go, especially since I plan to use it as a way to keep family and friends in touch while I am away. For those who couldn't attend the event, the party was a huge success, with family enjoying the garden, games and croquet in the afternoon and friends taking over the second shift at dusk and partying on into the wee hours of the morning. I was thrilled to see people embrace the Alice in Wonderland theme, especially Mum and Uncle Ian for making fabulous commemorative t-shirts for everyone and the Winner family for their outstanding costumes! It was a most wonderful way to begin the adventures of my 30s and I can not wait to begin the first adventure by heading to Bergen Norway tomorrow. Stay tuned for party photos and Norway news...
Butterfly kisses, Fern