PhD Course

Some of you might remember that a few weeks (was it even months??) ago I was involved in teaching a course for people doing their PhD in Norway in something nano related to get their ethics and philosophy of science credits. There is kind of a requirement here that all PhD students have to do a course in ethics and phil of sci at some point in their degree.

We held our week long PhD course at a lovely little place up in the mountains called Vatnahalsen and took one afternoon off teaching to walk with the students down the 20km track into the Flåm valley and up (ouch!) to a lovely eco/local food only farm for dinner, before catching the train back to the hotel/course location. It was a lovely time so I wanted to share some of the photos.

Front of hotel getting ready for the walk...yes notice the wet weather gear on most (all except our one philosophy student in the middle - he did not believe in the reality of rain) and man did we need it, we got drenched!!

This here be the beginning of the track down...

This is the tunnel of light - when we walked into the tunnel it was pouring and when we came out it was hot and sunny, very very strange!


Strolling after the tunnel of light

Farmers look away, there was no shortage of water here...



The killer uphill climb at the end of the day



Finally the great farm house and food at the top!

This was a lot of photos and there is a reason for this. I am thinking about making this my last blog. You see, with the facebook revolution, I am not sure how many people (except dear Kylie) are actually checking this blog. It is far too time consuming to post for no/one reader so if you like the blog, hate the facebook, let me know by leaving a comment and I might be persuaded to continue! xxx

Pics from Paris

I know it has been a long time between posts and for that I apologise. Those of you who know me will know why. I thought I would make it up to you though by posting some pics from my recent trip to Paris. Yes it was a business trip, I was there for a conference, but who says you can't see some of the sites at the same time ;) Hope you like them as much as I enjoyed being there. It really is a truly magnificent city.

Perfect Prague

Ahhhhh Prague! What a wonderful time we had and how sad it is to be back. Such a beautiful city and so cheap in comparison to Norway - we were in heaven. The beer was literally cheaper than water and the cocktail prices were laughably low. This meant everytime we felt the need to take a break from strolling the streets and seeing the sites to sit down in a cafe, we inevitably had to go for beer and cocktails.

I also think J ate a slab of meat every single night we were there. One night he even ordered the 600g pork knee, just to make sure his body got the flesh he so sorely misses in pricey Norway! The weather was also perfect - hot and sunny during the day and light rain on our roof when we were tucked up in bed at night. The ancient city, the dark history, and the rain on the roof also all made a perfect setting for reading the final Harry Potter book out loud to each other!

The only minor downfall was the sheer mass of people, which was simply unbelieveable (for example, check out the people on charles bridge below).

Somehow we adapted though, blissed out on cocktails perhaps, and in the end, not even the throng of tourists could detract from our joy. We strolled the castle and the maze of cobblestone streets, attended a classical concert in a spectacular venue, shopped ourselves silly and just generally had a magical time. It is such an interesting city, with an intriguing sense of a dark and disturbing history lurking just below the surface. We hope to return again sometime soon, but in winter next time so as to get to know the city when it is grey and cold and not so crowded. We hope you enjoy these photos from when it was coloured and sunny and packed to the max though! xxxx

Wenceslas Square

The red rooves of the city

The Rudolfinum where we saw a classical concert.

And Us - blissfully happy and radiating joy in the sunset!

Garden of Life

Hi All!
Sorry for the delay between posts. I have just returned from a totally exhausting and utterly exhilarating week hidden away in a hotel in the mountains. I was there teaching a course in ethics and nanotechnology to around 20 people working on PhDs in science. The students were all fantastic and we had an absolutely wonderful time, which was certainly a little unexpected given the nature of the undertaking! It was such a glorious location that I really wanted to post some pics on this blog but unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera (something about the leaving the house at 6am!) Some of the other people there took photos though so hopefully I can post some from them soon and tell you more about that adventure at that time.


In the meantime though, I thought I would brighten this blog with some shots from our garden. While I loved watching this little snail slide around the flower, I do not enjoy Bergen's major slug problem! Apparently the species I see everywhere in the rain (so almost every day lately) is not native and is a major pest. I didn't post a picture of them because they don't deserve it! I spent quite a few weekends digging up and preparing a nice garden bed and then planting and tending vegeteable seeds in the hope of using all the rain and long daylight hours to grow some tasty treats. Of course after the constant rain of late and my inability to be vigilent while sleeping, the slugs have eaten everything! Grrrrrrr..... can I be a still be a treehugger and dislike slugs? I guess I am not a slughugger...



Enough ranting about slugs though! The good news is that on Tuesday I will jet out of Bergen again to rendezvous with J in Prague for a four day holiday...wooohooo! J is currently in Brno watching motorbikes go round and round and from all reports, is having a fabulous time. So I believe that my next post will not be for a while but should contain lots of pics of Prague when it arrives. After a week in the stunning Norwegian mountains and before I week in the sumptuous city of Prague, I feel fantastic, and I can only hope that all who read this are also happy, healthy and breathing deep with the wonder of life. XXX

Hurrah for Huts

I only have photos from the first day of our hike from hut to hut in the national park of Hardangervidda, because my camera ran out of battery power - doh! But in some ways that is okay because the landscape did not change that much over the three days - rocky mountains covered in snow patches for as far as the eye could see! Well of course that is not entirely true...there were lots of subtle changes. Some areas were covered in wild blueberry bushes that were like a form of ground cover rather than a bush. Unfortunately the berries were not ripe, which really was a shame. There were also patches of a local berry the Norwegians call cloudberries, also not ready unfortunately. In some very select places were also little fields of flowers.

The most dramatic change though was when we passed by a glacier, which is of course not captured at all well in this photo because that ghostly blue just does not show through.

The first day was actually a lovely walk. Relatively easy, lots of flowers, fields, snow, fjords, lakes, and a glacier.

The dogs of course loved the snow patches and everytime we crossed one would both have to stop and roll around in it for a while. After climbing some of the peaks I was tempted to join them myself on occasion! At the end of the first day we stayed in what is called a half service hut, tucked away in a mountain valley beside a rushing river. Basically this hut in the middle of nowhere had everything you need.

You get a bed, a pillow and a doona, just need to bring a sleeping sheet/sack. They have a kitchen full of gas appliances and cooking equipment, and even a pantry full of food. Any food you choose to use, you just add it to a list on your registration form, put down your credit card number and voila, your done! Great system. There was no running water at this hut though so you had to fetch it in buckets from the river, but thank goodness because otherwise it would not have felt much like a hiking trip!

It may be best if you don't ask me too much about the next day of hiking. It was a horror. To begin with, it rained all day. The map said it would be around 4 hours and it took us, without any breaks longer than 5 mintues, more like 6 and a half. The first four hours was slogging through mud and trying to find safe rocks to hop from one to the other. The mosquitos were as thick as I have ever seen them in my life and basically, it was just not much fun.

The most interesting part of the day was when the dogs had to cross a swing bridge over a river.
Mina did great (even if she did try and turn around and head back half way across!) but Mojo lay down at the beginning of the bridge and squealed like a girl! Somehow I managed to drag him across and they were perfect for the rest of the day, crossing really large strong flowing rivers with ease! Here they are relaxing at the first hut after a thoroughly enjoyable time back in their natural habitat. The only sad thing about taking them was they had to be on a lead the whole time - bad year for the reindeer apparently, and it must be because we didn't see any! - but they seemed to have a tops time anyway and having their pull going up the hills was fantastic!

Anyway, at the end of a long second day we arrived at a full service hut and when they say full service they mean it! Showers...ahhhh... a three course dinner with a bottle of wine, and a full buffet breakfast. Of course you pay for it, and being Norway you should never convert back to Australian dollars unless you want a heartattack, but Ireally appreciated it at the end of that day and didn't care what I had to pay.

I think the hut system here is really fantastic (certainly lightens pack loads) and only wish some of our national parks offered the same service. xxxx

Mountain Adventures

Last week, J and I were invited by my boss, Roger, and his family to spend some time with them in the Norwegian mountains. Like almost every Norwegian family, they have a cabin in the mountains that they retreat to in the holidays and we joined them there for a few days. After an interesting 3 hour train ride with the dogs through some of the spectacular countryside between Bergen and Oslo, we arrived at our location. On our first day, we all went for a hike in the mountains around the cabin. The following are some photos from that adventure.

This is a photo of J and I with the 'adults' of the family, Roger and Kjellrun at the top of the 1500m hillock we climbed. Of course the teenage girls, Idun and Eirill, were too cool to take part in this set up photo at the top of the mountain! While not a great shot, I thought some of you might be interested to see what my boss actually looks like...not sure this shot actually captures his 'uniqueness' very well though.
The next day I agreed to go horse riding with Eirill because she is a horse fanatic (riding at a riding school in Bergen 3 times a week) and no one else would go with her. Little did I know that it would be for 3 and a half hours and that I would be left with no skin between my butt cheeks afterwards! It was worth it though because we rode through some unbelieveably beautiful landscape, crossing multiple snowy rivers and ascending a mountain for a view that I doubt will ever be surpassed in my life. Unfortunately I did not get more than a mental photograph of that amazing view (too focussed on not falling off the horse!), but here is one I took from where we watered the horses at the bottom of the mountain. In the shot is our guide with both his and my horse (the dark one in front).

On the following day we just took a short walk and I tried to recover from the horse riding induced aches, pains, bruising and bum burn. Then J headed home on the train with Eirill and Idun, Roger and I headed off for three days of hiking through the landscape, staying at National Parks cabins along the way...but I think I will save news and pics of that for the next post! xxxx

Summer Holiday in Stavanger

Last weekend we took Cedric on our first weekend away - chasing sun, sand and surf in the southern city of Stavanger. The journey began with a ferry ride...

The landscape from the ferry was specatcular, although the weather was looking ominous.

We had two ferry rides on the way to Stavanger - one for about an hour and the other for 10 minutes. The ferries are very professional and well equipped with cafes, just ask J about the polse med brods. We left the dogs in the car during these voyages but they didn't seem to mind.

After the first ferry ride the rain began to fall.

And fall, and fall and fall. When we finally found our way through the city of Stavanger and to the recommended surf beach, we were happy to have arrived, but a little disappointed with the inaccuracy of the weather forecast (1-2m, offshore wind and sunny).

With no chance of surfing that day, we just took the dogs for a stroll and didn't they LOVE being free range on a beach again! Please note the mid-summer attire.

After a crazy night bunkered down in the van, swaying in the cyclonic wind and rain, we woke to blue skies...well a little blue sky anyway, or at least a piece, a fraction, a morsel, a hint, a suggestion, of blue sky :)

At least the surf had picked up...

So we moved location, to a beach out of the 'breeze' and after some wax off, wax on, J was ready to go. Again, please note the mid-summer surf attire.


On the positive side, J had the break to himself, although he did have to share it with a friendly seal at times. While not quite up to Coalcliff Australia standards, he seemed to have enjoyed himself and even claimed that the water was not as cold as he had expected. It must have been true because the dogs and I watched him from the shore for well over an hour.

All in all, it was a wonderful first adventure in Cedric, although the weather could certainly have been kinder - we were on the edge of the North sea though, so what did we really expect? XXXXX

J's Job

So it is with much sadness that I report the loss of my wonderful house husband. J has got a fulltime job here now, working at a window and door making establishment. You can never tell what that guy is going to do next I tell you! It is about half an hour out of the city at a place called Os. Last Saturday J took me out there to check the place out. Oh, and we went in the car we recently bought - Cedric the big red Chrysler Voyager.

Cedric is going to be our travelling van because he is big enough to sleep in the back of. The public transport is so good here we don't need to use him on a day to day basis, but we are hoping to use him to escape on weekends and see more of this gorgeous country. The trip to Os last weekend was our first venture in him and here are some pics of what we found! The first one being the massive building in which J works - only half of which actually fitted within the frame!

The second is Mina enjoying the view from Cedric...the dogs just love having the visual stimulation of car rides again!

This one is of the gorgeous fjord in Os - still snow on the mountains but also boats on the water.

Then there was the so called "fairytale trail"...

that lead us to the edge of the fjord - beautiful!

We are really looking forward to our next adventure in Cedric this weekend - camping at Stavanger looking for a surf...xxxx