Alagaesian

Alexander Rybak won the Eurovision 2009 Song Contest in Moscow for Norway with his song Fairytale.  It is a landslide victory (387 pts) with Iceland at 2nd place garnering 218 points.  It also made history as the first time breaking the 300 points barrier.  In the selection in Norway he also won by a never before seen landslide with a margin of 600,000 points to the 2nd placer.

Finals in Moscow was 16th May last night but the voting ended in the first few minutes of 17th May which coincidentally was also the National Day in Norway!  This meant that there were a lot of partying this weekend!  No complaints there!

That also means that next year will be crazy here in Norway during the month of May.  Looks like this is gonna be the schedule … 

16 May 2010 (Sunday) – always a big football game in the big cities.  

17 May 2010 (Monday) – National Day.  Lots of parades and parties.

18 May 2010 (Tuesday) – 1st Semis of Eurovision 2010

20 May 2010 (Thursday) – 2nd Semis 

22 May 2010 (Saturday) – Finals

Question now is… which city will host?  

Technorati Tags: Norway, Eurovision, 2009, Alexander, Rybak, Fairytale, 2010

Sunshine out (despite worries from a dull forecast). Seldom do we get these long Labor Day weekends which by luck happens to be perfect for an outdoor barbeque. So… spareribs it is tonight!

New development: trying to keep fit by jogging around the area.

The first few months of the year won’t be complete without going for a skiing trip or two.

In my case, two times is never enough. I was up at Geilo a few more times (totally depleted my bank account!) enjoying the slopes.

I found that my knees have already recovered for another skiing season after the accident last year. And I think I have improved quite a bit, thanks to some bit of lessons from my friends. By the end of the season, I am now able to go down the red slopes without any falls! woohoo!

Also gave cross country skiing another chance. It wasn’t so bad at all; thought it was actually good training. But the Monday after I can barely walk. Yep, forgot to stretch… or more like didn’t bother to. The couch and beer was too much of a temptation after a 3 hour skiing trip.

I could hear Mel Gibson shouting from Braveheart.

No actually it’s just me after finishing one and a half year of studying Maritime Law.  Finished my exams in the last Friday of February and been partying since then.  Well not actually partying but more like enjoying my new found freedom.  Which explains my prolonged absence from my blogsite.  

No results yet but it will come by June.  I think I did ok but I will be happy with just a pass.  The exam was 5 hours long where we have to answer 5 questions.  I think i used up almost 20 pages.  My hands were shaking after the exam but that didn’t stop me from partying that night.  

I’ll be back soon to put up some posts about my skiing trips this winter!

(videos below)

After a delayed holiday due to my skiing mishap last Easter, I finally got to Manila for 2 weeks to reconnect with family and friends for the holidays.  Overall impression – I’m no longer used to the hot and humid weather (even though most were complaining it has been a cold December) and I got sick for a couple of days – might have been the stress from the endless luncheons and dinners; traffic sucks running up to christmas but was excellent during the long holidays – thank Gloria (the Prez) for her holiday economics we had holidays from 25 december up to 4 january; Tagaytay’s still fantastic for a quick out of towner.  

The holiday was especially marked by a visit from my good friend Alex from Australia / Taiwan for Christmas for sort of a 5 year reunion from the Taiwan camp last 2003.  That kept me extremely occupied but it is all definitely good fun.  Down side was that the guy left without giving a huge tip to me for being an excellent tour guide!  Gan!  

A lot of time was spent on going to SM Mall of Asia (one of the world’s largest malls) I probably was there 15 out of 18 days. They have a good Imax theater where we watched ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’.  The Fort (good resto Abe’s and good wine at Cav – highly recommend a white Guewurtzstraminer), Makati’s Glorietta and Greenbelt which made huge developments for the past year and a half that I was absent, an excellent Intramuros tour by Carlos Celdran, the Chinatown Wok Tour by Old Manila Walks.  Also went to Tagaytay and had a fantastic organic dinner at Sonya’s Garden where we met Sonya herself!  

Should’ve frequented the spa more though…  only managed to have one excellent visit for a one-hour body scrub and one-hour body massage which would’ve costed a fortune in Norway!  

Also managed to gatecrash the wedding of my friend, Limarc’s, brother.  Thanks for the last minute invite!

On the bit more spiritual side of things aside from Christmas, also visited the Tzu Chi Chapter in Manila where I used to spend a huge amount of time doing charity.  We got to learn more of the work they have been doing lately and was pleasantly surprised how the chapter has grown with a very beautiful main office.

My holiday was capped by shooting up fireworks on New Year’s Eve before I flew out the next day.  

One thing missing in this holiday was a trip to the beach… will have to do that some other time!  Alex what do you say??

Back in Bergen at -7 degrees C, dark, cold and snowing… took me a bit of time to adjust to being by myself once again.  I think I’m getting a bit homesick…

Technorati Tags: manila, philippines, tysonlan, sonya’s, tagaytay, tzu, chi, carlos, celdran, intramuros, ayala, greenbelt, glorietta

At last finished packing!  My luggage of course contains more of the Norwegian salmon than clothes.  

Will be flying out tomorrow for a 2 week holiday to Manila.  It won’t exactly be a work-free holiday – I imagine I will be poring over emails at least once a day, and probably be surprised by my mobile phone bill next month.  The wonders of technology – but the price you have to pay!

Coldplay tickets almost sold out an hour after it went on public sale!  Good thing I got mine early!  

When are you performing in Bergen???

Technorati Tags: Keane, Perfect, Symmetry

That’s from John Lennon’s Happy Christmas.  I’ve started playing my usual christmas tunes since advent.  It’s definitely a good holidays coming up and the signs of it have started showing themselves quite early into the season.

For one, I’ve finished my coursepaper earlier than expected and sent the paper out early last week.  I’ve been poring through my DVD collection and thought it was time to open up the still sealed DVDs.  Being a student is good, having term breaks are priceless!  

Also done my christmas shopping quite early this year as I’m holidaying to Manila quite soon!  So it’s gonna be quite a warm christmas this year.  No skiing… 8(  but that can wait til next year where I’ve tried to book the cottage up the mountains for some weekends.

It’s been some time since I last updated my blog.  I cannot have any better excuse than my studies.  Which is quite lame really as it would normally just take a couple of minutes to write an entry.  But that’s as good excuse as one can have.   And it’s christmas…

A nice surprise reading the papers today – found that Coldplay (19 August) and The Eagles (1 June) are coming to Bergen for concerts next summer!  Quite big names visiting this small town of Bergen?  Nah not really that small but size is relative.  Will definitely have to budget some funds for those tickets!

2008 has been quite an interesting year.  Skiing mishap, backpacking trip to Netherlands and Belgium, buying a flat, the financial market run.  What?  YES!  I managed to buy my very first flat.  And now I’m one of those proud bank debtors who watch the interest rates go haywire the previous months.  I have moved in November to a new flat and I was pleasantly surprised how well the moving went… thanks to my friends who helped out carrying, picking up furniture around Bergen and even unpacking!  I was literally settled down with boxes unpacked my first week here in the new place!  

The only challenge was that I had to call my friend to ask where they put some things now and then!  But it’s all good!  Can’t have done this without good friends here in Bergen.  Now I’m getting sentimental…  I should get them something nice for christmas…

Technorati Tags: bergen, norway, manila, coldplay, eagles, christmas

A month late but better late than never! 

Leiden, 1 – 3 August 2008.

Our guy’s getting married this weekend!  Woohoo!

Been a while since the last post!  Summer was summer-like for a change here in Bergen.  Best we’ve seen in recent years with the sunny days far far far out numbering the rainy or damp days.  

Summer for me was spent… of course studying (no summer break for that) which I finally finished my course paper this weekend.  So I am giving myself a week’s break before starting off again in the new modules.  

Summer won’t be summer without a holiday.  This year a weekend in Copenhagen plus 2 weeks backpacking in Netherlands (Amsterdam – Leiden – Delft) and Belgium (Antwerp – Ghent – Brugge – Brussels).  Apart from the touristy bit, it was great staying in hostels (not the whole time though as I still want a bit of luxury along the way) and getting to meet a whole lot of people from all over the world!  The center of Amsterdam totally smelled of weed and was totally crazy and insane!  Leiden and Delft were small university towns just perfect to take it easy after experiencing Amsterdam.  Antwerp and Brussels have a feel of a large metropolis (they actually are anyway). Ghent and Brugge are amazing and a must see.  I would definitely find my way back in Brugge!  Oh yea – the chocolates and the beers (ha! EUR 2 for a beer and we have to pay EUR 8 in Norway!).  Amazing!

I had a good time hanging out with a group of Dutch people when we had a bachelor’s party of a friend of mine.  Waterskiing was the highlight but unfortunately wasn’t brave enough to try it what with my freshly healed knees which I think is not yet strong enough.  A bit uneasy at first hanging out with a group of close friends (I was the foreign guest) but turned out to be the best way to immerse into the culture!