Odd homecoming

Writing that title immediately reminded me that the word odd is not to be taken lightly here, at least not when capitalized. Not only is it a place and a Norwegian Premier League football team, it is also a man’s name – as is Even, which never fails to amuse. While English speakers may chuckle at meeting Odd and Even, Norwegians snicker at finding a Bruce – which sounds exactly like the word here for ‘soda pop’.

But I digress. I was coming back from London when something very strange was going on at Torp Airport. Perhaps elsewhere as well. After going through immigration,

On the road – the routine

The plan was to blog about London while in London, but I don’t want to totally neglect this one now that it is up and running. Once a month I make the trip over, to just soak up the city and pursue my fascination with stand-up comedy. Being able to fly over so regularly is possible thanks to Ryanair. They may be the most reviled airline in the world, but – and I say this not to attract attention to this blog – I think they’re fantastic.

Defending that stance will take more instalments, but

You are what you eat

In order to understand bits of this blog fully, you have to have a sense of daily life in Norway. And there are few ways to get a real feel for a culture than to eat their food. And I have mentioned before, not only is Norway renowned for its most frightening dishes, Norwegians revel in trumping their wobbling jelly-like lutefisk with a grinning smoked sheep’s head.

But dishes like those

And the winner is …

Norway hasn’t just been named the best place to live and the spot with the best place to visit. The country has also topped the European chart in a surprising category, the nation with the greatest … amount of confiscated amphetamine.

Spells police

Norwegian police have noted two alarming statistics in recent years

Nice place to live, but -

Reviving a blog at year’s end is the perfect excuse to roll out delayed topics and claim they are part of a typical year in review. Here are a few of the highlights mentioned last time, including various ‘awards’ recognizing Norway’s greatness, as well as the usual glance at its weirdness.

I’m not sure how many times it’s happened, but often enough that it now gets announced in the media as

A little piece of Norway

Today’s news brought the shocking end of a unique bit of everyday Norwegian life, in a manner of speaking. Newspaper Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen reported the bankruptcy of a national institution, the firm of Thor Bjørklund & Sons, the inventors of the ostehøvel, literally ‘cheese planer’.

RIP - the original Bjørklund ostehøvel

Excuses, excuses

Just when I thought I was ready to show some disciplined blogging, I neglect them again. Starting two blogs was asking for trouble. I will write yet another entry here that apparently forces me to follow up quickly, and see if it works now.

The only real explanation is a lack of aforementioned discipline, but instead I will indulge in a range of excuses. This is after all an election year, and soon, thankfully, we will be put out of our misery and a vote will take place. Anything to put an end to months of evasion, excuses, lying and bickering. Norwegian politics never used to be like this, it has clearly learned from more experienced countries – this is not just my opinion, but one based on a rigorous sampling of friends and neighbors.

Speak of the devil

No sooner have I mentioned the intention of tackling the hopefully provocative subject of ‘maddening Norway‘ than a perfect example pops up in the media. Much to my surprise and delight, the latest illustration of the theme came over the radio in the form of NRK’s ‘Morgenkåseri’ – a short bit of morning musing by someone who is supposed to deal with a random topic, preferably with insight and wit.

This morning an immigrant, English I believe, but I have not yet tracked down more info about him, filled the slot with part one of his observations about a long life in Norway. His series shows great promise as the first installment

Wear your moose with pride

I’ve been traveling through the Torp Sandefjord airport quite a bit lately, since my London habit receives tremendous support from Ryanair’s consistently incredible offers on that particular stretch and Sandefjord is the city that Ryanair pretends is Oslo. With some planning it is quite easy to make the trip at a tenth of the cost (I have even seen a twentieth) of their competitors here. One thing I have noticed is that the tiny souvenir shop at Torp has an excellent selection of unusual items.

From a report in the online version of the northern Norwegian newspaper Bladet Tromsø, we learn that this year Norway- and moose-themed underpants

Immigrant blues

I have a long list of topics that are perfect for blogging, related to daily life here and how it may strike or irk the non-Norwegian. They are perfect because they allow for free-form red-faced venting. Because life somewhere else can be extremely frustrating and infuriating, no matter how nice the place is. And I’m not saying that just because this is an election year here, and no one can stay calm for long when politicians are making noise all the time.

I also have some problems with trying to add some easy controversy into my blog. You may have noticed that I said above ‘no matter how nice the place is’. I have a very annoying habit