1.4.08
I'm going on holiday to King George Island!
I can't wait to see these little miracles of evolution in real life!
2.3.08
Friday's fishy feast at Fjord
On Friday, February 29th, we ate dinner out at Fjord, a new fish restaurant here in Oslo. Having only opened right before Christmas 2007, it's being touted as the best fish restaurant in Oslo. As we had an excuse to go out and do something interesting (ending one job to go to a new job), and as we love fish and seafood, we decided to check this place out...
We started with a glass of Franck Bonville Blanc de Blancs grand cru champagne and an amuse bouche platter. Let’s see, if I remember correctly... from the left it was potato with crème fraiche and roe, quail egg, gazpacho, salmon tartare, and something or other with avocado. All very nice and RoF-stimulating…
As for the courses:
1. Salmon sashimi with papaya salad, ginger and wasabi sorbet, and an interesting soy sauce with toasted sesame seeds. Served with Bourgogne Aligoté 2006 Saint Aubin. The sorbet was, um, different but tolerable for me (I can't really deal with wasabi or any other kind of horseradish). The fish was fresh and tasty...
2. Crab and scallop with apple purée, petit pois purée, and chorizo. Served with Schloss Lieser Riesling 2006. The scallop was absolutely perfectly prepared. The dots of apple and petit pois were a bit too small in my opinion. I would have liked more of those tastes...
3. Skrei (Lofoten cod) with mushroom soup, shitake mushrooms, and asparagus. Served with Domaine de la Sancesse 2006 (Côtes du Rhône). The fish was also cooked perfectly, and the soup was nice and creamy-foamy with lots of flavor...
4. King fish with lentils, chestnut purée, savoy cabbage, and anise and olive sauce. Served with Moulin à Vent Maison-Blanche 2006. Interesting combination of flavors, but the king fish was rich enough to tolerate them all. Yum yum...
5. Cheese with fig preserves, nut bread, and candied nuts. Served with two different wines - Andre Brunel (Rhône) and a sweet dessert wine - Henri Ramonteu 2004 Jurançon. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had roquefort on his cheese plate. As I'm allergic to that, I just got larger portions of the other cheeses...
This was followed by some chocolates, though we didn't have any coffee to go with it. I don't even think we were asked if we wanted any coffee...
Not having been asked if we wanted to order coffee is among the little annoyances about this place. The other annoyance was that I felt that they moved through the courses too quickly. Which I suppose they had to do if we were going to chow down in time for them to clear us out and clean up the table for the next seating. They have two different seatings - one at 17:30 and one at 21:00. I guess it's to get as many customers as possible, but they're both annoying times to eat dinner out, and I don't like being rushed...
Otherwise, the food itself was lovely and the atmosphere was lively. I don't think I'd call it the best fish restaurant in town, but it's not the worst...
We started with a glass of Franck Bonville Blanc de Blancs grand cru champagne and an amuse bouche platter. Let’s see, if I remember correctly... from the left it was potato with crème fraiche and roe, quail egg, gazpacho, salmon tartare, and something or other with avocado. All very nice and RoF-stimulating…
As for the courses:
1. Salmon sashimi with papaya salad, ginger and wasabi sorbet, and an interesting soy sauce with toasted sesame seeds. Served with Bourgogne Aligoté 2006 Saint Aubin. The sorbet was, um, different but tolerable for me (I can't really deal with wasabi or any other kind of horseradish). The fish was fresh and tasty...
2. Crab and scallop with apple purée, petit pois purée, and chorizo. Served with Schloss Lieser Riesling 2006. The scallop was absolutely perfectly prepared. The dots of apple and petit pois were a bit too small in my opinion. I would have liked more of those tastes...
3. Skrei (Lofoten cod) with mushroom soup, shitake mushrooms, and asparagus. Served with Domaine de la Sancesse 2006 (Côtes du Rhône). The fish was also cooked perfectly, and the soup was nice and creamy-foamy with lots of flavor...
4. King fish with lentils, chestnut purée, savoy cabbage, and anise and olive sauce. Served with Moulin à Vent Maison-Blanche 2006. Interesting combination of flavors, but the king fish was rich enough to tolerate them all. Yum yum...
5. Cheese with fig preserves, nut bread, and candied nuts. Served with two different wines - Andre Brunel (Rhône) and a sweet dessert wine - Henri Ramonteu 2004 Jurançon. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had roquefort on his cheese plate. As I'm allergic to that, I just got larger portions of the other cheeses...
This was followed by some chocolates, though we didn't have any coffee to go with it. I don't even think we were asked if we wanted any coffee...
Not having been asked if we wanted to order coffee is among the little annoyances about this place. The other annoyance was that I felt that they moved through the courses too quickly. Which I suppose they had to do if we were going to chow down in time for them to clear us out and clean up the table for the next seating. They have two different seatings - one at 17:30 and one at 21:00. I guess it's to get as many customers as possible, but they're both annoying times to eat dinner out, and I don't like being rushed...
Otherwise, the food itself was lovely and the atmosphere was lively. I don't think I'd call it the best fish restaurant in town, but it's not the worst...
7.2.08
the stick of pain
You know you're in for a training from hell when the instructor says that he's going to whack you with the stick of pain if your tempo (when doing drills) is too slow...
It was a good training though :-)
It was a good training though :-)
30.1.08
sure, give Norwegians another reason to hate foreigners...
This really pisses me off.
I need to calm down before I can write much more about my feelings about the matter. My guess is that the people who thinks this is a good thing are the "I'm from Oslo and therefore better than everyone else in Norway" elitist twatballs who want to force the Oslo dialect (a rather unpleasant dialect I must add), and it's a severe insult to everyone from anywhere else in Norway; this has historical roots.
Of course, they're going to make foreigners the scapegoat rather than the arrogant Oslo elite who think they're better than everyone else. And let's not ignore the fact that this makes foreigners look stupid and incompetent. Like that stupid Russian chick mentioned in the article. "Waaah waaaah waaaah, boo hoo hooooo, poor me I can't understand dialects, accommodate me!" Like that stupid journalist, who can barely translate Norwegian language articles to English. This hurts us more than it helps us, but I guess my cries fall on the deaf ears of the coddling crowd...
Also keep in mind that the kind of "people" bearing the arrogant "get rid of the dialects" mentality are also the same "people" who refused to let rooms to people from the districts, before the Pakistanis started showing up...
*grrrrrr*
I need to calm down before I can write much more about my feelings about the matter. My guess is that the people who thinks this is a good thing are the "I'm from Oslo and therefore better than everyone else in Norway" elitist twatballs who want to force the Oslo dialect (a rather unpleasant dialect I must add), and it's a severe insult to everyone from anywhere else in Norway; this has historical roots.
Of course, they're going to make foreigners the scapegoat rather than the arrogant Oslo elite who think they're better than everyone else. And let's not ignore the fact that this makes foreigners look stupid and incompetent. Like that stupid Russian chick mentioned in the article. "Waaah waaaah waaaah, boo hoo hooooo, poor me I can't understand dialects, accommodate me!" Like that stupid journalist, who can barely translate Norwegian language articles to English. This hurts us more than it helps us, but I guess my cries fall on the deaf ears of the coddling crowd...
Also keep in mind that the kind of "people" bearing the arrogant "get rid of the dialects" mentality are also the same "people" who refused to let rooms to people from the districts, before the Pakistanis started showing up...
*grrrrrr*
29.1.08
Sedentary life 'speeds up ageing'
One of those "no shit, Sherlock" articles, this time from the BBC. It's still rather interesting...
In dumping that sedentary lifestyle, keep in mind that low intensity aerobic exercise is NOT the way to go in the long run. You will get the best results, including significant anti-ageing results, from doing anaerobic exercise (weights) and high-intensity interval training as your cardio as your primary form of exercise. Krav Maga a few times a week doesn't hurt either. Well, yes it does, but in a different, more tantilizing way ;-)
So get off your lazy fat ass and move it, you old fart. Wait, you're younger than me? :-P
In dumping that sedentary lifestyle, keep in mind that low intensity aerobic exercise is NOT the way to go in the long run. You will get the best results, including significant anti-ageing results, from doing anaerobic exercise (weights) and high-intensity interval training as your cardio as your primary form of exercise. Krav Maga a few times a week doesn't hurt either. Well, yes it does, but in a different, more tantilizing way ;-)
So get off your lazy fat ass and move it, you old fart. Wait, you're younger than me? :-P
24.1.08
Yay! Krav Maga!
We just had our first training of 2008. Good fun :-D
At the end, we did this interesting variation of the bodyguard drill. The drill involves three people - the bodyguard, the atackee, and the attacker. Normally, the attacker attacks the atackee and the bodyguard tries to do anything to keep the attacker away from the atackee. This time, the bodyguard had to hold the attacker at the hips and prevent his/her movement that way. It kills the evil legs...
Heh, the instructors were also selling these Krav Maga calendars, and we bought one. I should take it with me to my new job when that starts ;-)
At the end, we did this interesting variation of the bodyguard drill. The drill involves three people - the bodyguard, the atackee, and the attacker. Normally, the attacker attacks the atackee and the bodyguard tries to do anything to keep the attacker away from the atackee. This time, the bodyguard had to hold the attacker at the hips and prevent his/her movement that way. It kills the evil legs...
Heh, the instructors were also selling these Krav Maga calendars, and we bought one. I should take it with me to my new job when that starts ;-)
22.1.08
toothaches and gym freaks
Well, it looks like I'm going to lose my root canal virginity tomorrow. Yay yippee yo. I want painkillers and I want them now...
After I was through with the evil dentist and booked the appointment for the root canal, I went to the gym to do the workout I was supposed to do this morning but didn't do due to lack of sleep because of the damn painful tooth. Anyway, it was mostly hardcore-looking bodybuilder types there this time, except for a few oddballs here and there...
The main Freako of the day was this older guy who was a bit too interested in watching me squat. I racked up 50 kg, and he was all like "why are you doing 50 kg?"
"Because for the time being, it's all I can do," I snapped back at him. Keep in mind I'm in pain, in a bad mood, and still recovering from an injury.
He said, sheepishly, "well, it's a lot." "Not really," I uttered. He then skulked away.
Then there were these two Freakettes who were yakking away, and eventually came up to the topic of British Airway's new carry-on luggage rule where you can take 23 kg as long as you can lift it into the overhead compartment yourself.
"It's unfair and sexist. Women can't lift that much weight over their heads..."
I said "uh, wanna bet?" and grabbed the 25 kg barbell (it's a smaller bar with weights already set up, not the regular bar) and lifted it over my head. "See?"
They both gaped at me, and then tried to lift the bar themselves but could barely do so, and then started mumbling about if it was some kind of "trick" apparatus... sheesh...
After I was through with the evil dentist and booked the appointment for the root canal, I went to the gym to do the workout I was supposed to do this morning but didn't do due to lack of sleep because of the damn painful tooth. Anyway, it was mostly hardcore-looking bodybuilder types there this time, except for a few oddballs here and there...
The main Freako of the day was this older guy who was a bit too interested in watching me squat. I racked up 50 kg, and he was all like "why are you doing 50 kg?"
"Because for the time being, it's all I can do," I snapped back at him. Keep in mind I'm in pain, in a bad mood, and still recovering from an injury.
He said, sheepishly, "well, it's a lot." "Not really," I uttered. He then skulked away.
Then there were these two Freakettes who were yakking away, and eventually came up to the topic of British Airway's new carry-on luggage rule where you can take 23 kg as long as you can lift it into the overhead compartment yourself.
"It's unfair and sexist. Women can't lift that much weight over their heads..."
I said "uh, wanna bet?" and grabbed the 25 kg barbell (it's a smaller bar with weights already set up, not the regular bar) and lifted it over my head. "See?"
They both gaped at me, and then tried to lift the bar themselves but could barely do so, and then started mumbling about if it was some kind of "trick" apparatus... sheesh...
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