The Arrival of Chilli

We are now the very proud owners a dog

We ended up getting a female rather than the male we looked at originally - the female was much more laid back and gentle than ‘Igneous’, who seemed to be intent on killing as many of the other puppys in the kennel as was possible.

Our dog is a beautiful female Staff called Chilli, and has been living with us for just over 3 weeks now. Shes coming up to 12 weeks old, and is a completely brilliant animal with bags of personality and energy. She switches between being incredibly affectionate and mellow to being stubborn as hell several times a day, and has completely taken over our lives.

Yesterday evening we let her off the lead for the first time during a walk, and it was just brilliant To see her free, running about and having a good time was so nice. Plus she got growled at by a couple of other dogs - its always good to give a potentially over confident dog like Chilli a bit of respect for others.

Really looking forward to the weather warming up, so we can take the Chills on longer trips into the mountains. Winter is doing its best to cling on at the moment - its still snowy and cold, although the sun isn’t setting until around 19:00 now. The switch over from dark winter days to light summer ones seems to happen so quickly. And the clocks are going back next weekend, which also helps

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Tales of mucus, music and snow

Well, feeling like a bucket of shite again. I’ve been plagued by a re-occurring cold for the past couple of months. This weekend it turned decidedly flu like. Been feeling like a pile of wank these last two days - cant breathe, and when i do my throat feels like I’ve just inhaled broken glass, and my body cant decide if i am overheating or getting hypothermia.

Its an exciting time though, despite the lergy. Joined a band recently - just realised I haven’t blogged about it yet. I’m playing bass for Infinite Loop, an alternative/indie band fronted by Spanish singer/songwriter Gorka de la Camara. Gorkas songs are excellent, and the other guys, Thor S on guitars and Arne H on drums, are really talented musicians and make me feel like a bit of a fraud. Been playing together for about a month now, and its really starting to sound good. Damn exciting.

Started my new job at Rubberduck Media Lab last week. Thats going well - nice people, and much more organised and professional than my previous job. Have lots to learn though, so aren’t feeling like i’m contributing much at the moment, but I suppose thats to be expected.

Went skiing last weekend. Sigurd and Marie treated us to a day on the slopes at Norefjell for my christmas pressy. Decided to try out snowblades (or wankerskis as my brother likes to call them). Had a seriously brilliant time, and am itching to get back on the slopes again now. Had planned on buying some snowblades yesterday, but what with the lergy it hasn’t happened yet. I’m really glad we bought a house opposite a ski slope now

And of course theres the arrival of Igneous, our wee puppy, in a few weeks, just in case things weren’t exciting enough.

But enough of exciting things.. I’m going back to bed, try and get some sleep and get myself well again. Don’t think sleep is gonna come easy tonight though….

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Dog

After dreaming about it for oh… around 5 years, we have finally got ourselves a wee dog

Hes a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Have been to visit Staffys, Whippets, Greyhounds and even a Shiba Inu, but we always came back to Staffys. Just couldn’t resist them - so much personality, and so affectionate.

Apologies to Marie, who will be disappointed that we didn’t get a soft fluffy dog, but we are just not soft fluffy dog people. We hope you will like him anyway.

We will be picking him up at the end of the month, so we have a wee bit of time to prepare.

First things first - a name. Ollie quite likes Slate. I also like Slate, but think Igneous is cool too. Votes for either (as well as suggestions of other names) can be left in the comments.

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Drunk in Dusseldorf

This post appears to be written by me while on a business trip to Germany last week. I just discovered it saved in the Wordpress app on my iPod, with only vague recollections of actually writing it. I thought it probably needed to be published, so here it is.

After a weekend in Amsterdam, Erik and I took the train back to Dusseldorf for a few days of teaching at E.on.

First time I’ve been to Germany.. so I’m not sure whether Dusseldorf is entirely representative of the country in general, but I kinda like it. It has a certain charm, if you are able to ignore all the concrete. In particular, the Dusseldorf office is much nicer than the Swedish one in Malmø, and most importantly the food is light years ahead. Mikael advised caution with regard to the food, but the low expectations made for a not unpleasant suprise. Not the best food in the world, but compared to the delights of E.on Malmø, it was gorgeous.

Went out for a few quiet beers tonight with Erik, played a game of darts before meeting up with a German, an Austrian and a Scot who challenged us to a game for a round of beers. I dutifully lost the first round, but Erik played like a daemon all night. How he managed to consistently hit triple 20s when he could barely stand up, I will never know. An excellent evening with decent people.

Thankfully its Eriks turn to take the class tomorrow, although after struggling to get him back to the hotel this evening, I wouldn’t be suprised if its me that ends up doing it.

Last business trip with Viz. Ends up being the most fun. Good one to end on.

Looking forward to getting back and getting on with the band now

I’m not entirely convinced by the conclusion I came to regarding Dusseldorf… a certain charm?! I suppose I was looking at it through a fairly hefty pair of beer googles at the time.

Erik did a remarkable job of not appearing hungover the following day, and happily took the class while I hid in the corner trying to stop my head from pounding. There were suggestions that a second trip to Dusseldorf might be needed this week, but thankfully (for my livers sake at least) this has been called off, and my final week at Viz is being spent in Oslo.

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Happy New Year!!!

After a good christmas back in the UK, Ollie and I are spending new years in.. um.. the UK.

We were due to fly back to Oslo on Monday, but managed to miss our flight. Alex and Tammy have been brilliant and have not only put us up for the week, but kept us fed and watered with bloody lovely roast dinners and lots of nice beer and wine.

We have booked another flight back to Oslo on Saturday morning (flights before this were either full or bloody expensive), so will be back just in time for Matts birthday

Hopefully going to catch up with Miles and Rie as well as my brother before we go back home, so missing that flight has worked out quite well for us.

Off to get myself a bottle of Landlord and welcome in the new year with Ollie, Alex and Tammy now.

I hope everyone has a happy and prosperous new year!!

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Photos from Croatia, and the arrival of Leonard

A selection of photos from our trip to Croatia the other week are up in the photos section. Will put some photos of our new house and Leonard up sometime this week.

Housey things are slowing getting sorted. We should be back on the internet on Monday, we´ve started hanging up our pictures and I even have some of my music equipment connected up again (I´m waiting for my new patchbay to arrive before I put everything back together properly). Theres still a load of boxes lying around though, and loads of small jobs to do around the place.

We were finally able to bring Leonard home yesterday. Picked him up from the garage, although he still hadn´t had his boot fixed - gotta take him back on Monday to get that sorted. For those that don´t know, Leonard is our new car - an estate / station wagon version of the Volkswagen Golf. He is a practical car - lots of room for kayaks, skiis and a mattress in the back, but he isn´t the pretties of vehicles, despite being purple. Looking forward to exploring our corner of Norway now, although the bigger trips might have to wait till Spring.

The arrival of Leonard means that we can start looking for places to train again. Have found a Tae Kwon Do club in Kolbotn, but it looks like we might have to travel quite a bit further if we want to train Kung Fu again.

Off out for a drive now

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Lots of news from Croatia

Sat writing this on my new iPod touch while enjoying a cold drink in a wee cafe overlooking dry stoney hills just north of Dubrovnic Arrived in Croatia yesterday and already my shoulders have dropped several centermeters. The weather is fantastc here - big blue skies, warm and sunny!

Had a busy and tiring but quite productive few days moving in to our new house last week. Leif and Astrid helped Ollie, Matt and myself with the move (thanks guys!), and so it only took us Monday to shift in. Getting everything unpacked took us the rest of the week and we’ve still only done downstairs. We bought our first washing machine, a fridge and a ton of stuff from Ikea, some of which still needs to be put together.
We are chuffed to bits with our house It has lower ceilings than our previous place (which was a flat in a building built in the 1880s), and this makes it feel a bit more warm and cosy. Our new furnature, all our plants, a fire roaring away in the fireplace and a brilliant view of nice sunsets from our living room also helps of course

The other big bit of news is that I have got a new job. It is with a small company called Rubberduck Media Lab and they develop software that streams TV and movies to mobile devices. I will be working in their R&D department doing Java development. Looks like a very cool place to work - nice people, exciting projects, plus it looks like I can install Linux on my laptop there Their offices are located right in the centre of town as well, on Karl Johans gata. Will be nice to be based in the main street, especially as we have just moved out of Oslo - the bus that goes from outside our new house will drop me off just round the corner from the offices. Will start there in Feburary next year.
Will be a shame to leave Viz though - will miss the people there.

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Cleaning, camper vans and Croatia

Its two weeks today that we move into our new house

Spent the weekend packing, cleaning and generally trying to organise things for the move. We have borrowed a steam cleaner thing off of Ollies folks, and Ollie spent hours steaming the kitchen and bathroom yesterday. The flat is gonna be ten times cleaner when we leave than it was when we moved in.

Ollie and Matt also ripped Ollies old desk apart, scattering splinters of wood into every corner of the flat while trying not to get unseen nails embedded in feet or hands in the process. I on the other hand busied myself with the far more dangerous job of packing my music stuff into boxes and tidying up all the leads.

Been going through a bad patch with the indigestion lately, and as I tend to get it at night, usually being woken up with it at 3am, it means I don’t get enough sleep and end up being tired and grumpy during the day. Why I can’t get it during the day when I’m awake enough to stand up, take tablets or whatever, I don’t know. Instead I end up dreaming about being stabbed in the chest, then have to spend half the night standing up and eating lots of calcium carbonate. Arse.

We’ve also been shopping for cars. We wanted a camper - a kayaking friend of ours spends most weekends driving up and down the country to go paddling, so he has a really nice van with a fridge and cooker, and bed in which to sleep. We thought that sounded brilliant, but of course they are also bloody expensive (3-4 times the price of a normal car - at least the ones we were looking at), and we worked out that if we bought a car, we could use the money we save to stay in nice cabins (the money we save would allow us to stay in cabins every weekend for almost 2 years!!!). Of course, we loose the flexibility of having a camper - not being restricted to where / when you go, not having to plan and book places in advance etc. - but we will get something that’s easier to drive and a bit more practical generally.

That took us on to an argument about what sort of car we should buy. Ollie wanted something safe, something that would handle well in the snow and ice. I wanted one of the old style Mini coopers with the soft roof and the stripes down the bonnet. It goes without saying that Ollie won that argument.

So we have taken the first week in November off so we can move in to our new house.

We have taken the second week in November off so we can go on holiday - Ollie booked us a week in Croatia

Its gonna be so nice after weeks of packing, cleaning and moving to just bugger off for a week of reading, going for walks and maybe some diving. Can’t wait

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The Ministry of Truth

Damn, second political post in a row. But this is just so wrong.

Taken from Slashdot:

“The Communications Data Bill (2008) will lead to the creation of a single, centralized database containing records of all e-mails sent, websites visited and mobile phones used by UK citizens. In a carnivore-on-steroids programme, as all vestiges of communication privacy are stripped away, The BBC reports that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith says this is a ‘necessity’.”

Brilliant. 1984 here we come.

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Shark Fin Sales in Tesco

Received the following mail this morning from Mik Jennings, a dive colleague of my brother working out in Asia. I really would appreciate if you take the time to read it completely and take a look at the links. Besides posting it here, I have as well sent a request for immediate action to Tesco headquarters, would be great if you would take 2 minutes to do the same.

Hello All,

The pictures I have attached to this message were taken in Tesco Phuket (where I live….in Phuket, not Tesco’s) on the 6th October 2008 and show, for those who don’t open attachments willy nilly, 500g packets of Shark Fin freely available in the freezer cabinet. For anyone not from the UK, Tesco is the largest supermarket chain in the UK.

Wondering what the big deal is? OK, first thing to do is open the following link and watch to the end so that you can see how shark fin is obtained (and be talked through things by award winning director Ang Lee)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkxoRPv4ugE&feature=related

As you can see, this is not exactly the most humane of processes, and I had to root around a bit to find a relatively tame video!! But before you fin them, you have to catch them, right? The vast majority of sharks are caught by long lining. Now, I’m sure that most of you buy tinned tuna that is ‘dolphin friendly’, i.e. not caught on long lines, as there was a massive public outcry that the by-catch on these lines (that are generally in excess of 20km in length) such as turtles, dolphins, sea birds and so on was a disgrace. Companies listened, as profits were taking a big hit, and lo and behold tuna is now generally obtained from non-long lining sources. But the long lining continues in order to catch sharks, and so the ‘useless by-catch’ is still being caught. Oh, and by the way, the lines have to be baited (and 20km+ requires a lot of bait)….but what to use? One of the most common baits is illegally caught dolphin. Getting angry yet?

OK, back to the sharks. Once the sharks are on the long line, one of two things happens. Either they struggle, get caught up in the line and suffocate as they can’t move around to move water through their gills, or they get dragged aboard the boat alive, have their fins removed, and are thrown back in the water alive where they sink to the bottom and die. Slowly. At this point you may be wondering a couple of things.

Firstly…why do they throw away the shark? Well, shark meat doesn’t store well and is worth comparatively nothing compared to the fins. Also, it takes up lots of space on a fishing boat that could be taken up with lots more valuable shark fin.

Secondly…why the fins? Shark fin soup is a popular (and expensive) Chinese delicacy. It is sold in huge numbers in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Taiwan, Seoul, and Tokyo among many others. In fact, have a look in your local yellow pages and you’ll probably find restaurants selling it not too far away from your home, wherever you live. It is often seen as a status symbol but is also popular in Chinese medicine as sharks are seen as strong creatures. Eat the strong creature and become strong yourself. Quite. Interestingly, shark fin is boiled and bleached before use to remove it’s natural (apparently unpleasant) taste and so shark fin soup will generally taste of the broth it is cooked in, usually pork or chicken.

Thirdly…is this legal? Well, yes and no. Any country with a coastline is responsible for laws and regulations pertaining to fishing in their waters, and only 17 of these countries have currently outlawed shark finning. Some countries have implemented legislation against it, but they have not outlawed it completely.

But back to Tesco for a moment. It’s worth noting here that regardless of the legality of the practice, shark finning is contrary to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) International Plan for the Conservation and Management of Sharks. Here’s a quote from Tesco’s website for you. “We are playing our part in seeking to maintain a viable and long-term future for wild fish and shellfish populations. We seek to buy all our seafood from responsibly managed fisheries. We use the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries as our sourcing reference.” Interesting. Maybe they fell asleep before they got to the bit about sharks.

I could go on and on about this subject all day, and probably through the night and into tomorrow, but I realise that some of you may not be particularly interested so I’ll quit while I’m ahead. But that said, please check out the following links and make your own decisions….

www.stopsharkfinning.net
www.sharkwater.com/education.htm (and watch the movie, it’s heart-breaking and inspiring in equal measure)
www.bite-back.com/sharks.htm

These were just chosen at random from a myriad of large anti-shark finning organisations.

Want to do something about it? Contact Tesco, their e-mail address is customer.service@tesco.co.uk. I’ve already mailed them about the issue and am awaiting a response. They also have a ‘Corporate Responsibility Team’, although these guys may live in the middle ages as they have neither e-mail or a phone number. If you want to write an old fashioned letter (or maybe send a carrier pigeon), their address is…

Corporate Responsibility Team
Tesco PLC
New Tesco House
Delamare Road
Cheshunt
Hertfordshire
England EN8 9SL

If you’re now half and half as to whether to do anything, I’ve attached a text file to this e-mail. It’s a copy of the mail I sent to Tesco (with minor changes, after all I’m sure they won’t believe everyone on this list was in Tesco Phuket on yesterday), and all you have to do is cut and paste it into a new mail and send it to the e-mail address above. Don’t forget to put your name at the bottom. This will take only two minutes of your time.

And I have two final things to say. For anyone who has read this and is thinking that sharks are evil tooth filled killing machines, here’s a little fact…

Sharks kill on average 5 people every year, which is less than are killed by either soft drinks dispensers or chairs (seriously). It is also significantly less than the 130 people killed by Americas biggest ‘man-killer’ every year. The deer.

Is it worth the 11000 sharks killed hourly around the globe? Please help to stop this abhorrent trade and forward this mail to anyone you think may care.

Many thanks,

Mik.

I have copied in the email he sent below for people to use:

Dear Sir,

It has come to my attention that Tesco in Thailand is selling Shark Fin in the freezer department. As you may or may not be aware, the process of shark finning in the vast majority of cases involves the shark being caught on a long line (a terrible practice in itself) and dragged aboard the fishing boat where it has its fins cut off while alive before being thrown back in the water. If you are in any doubt about the process please go to the link below where Wild Aid and Ang Lee will explain the process…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkxoRPv4ugE&feature=related

I understand that Tesco UK may not be entirely responsible for Tesco in Thailand, but the store is very much under your banner and so representative of you in Asia, where as you will appreciate, there are many non-Asian holiday makers and expatriates who (as you will be aware) are more and more aware of environmental and conservation issues.

On your website you state that “We are playing our part in seeking to maintain a viable and long-term future for wild fish and shellfish populations. We seek to buy all our seafood from responsibly managed fisheries. We use the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries as our sourcing reference.”

In response to that quote, shark populations world wide have NO future if finning continues at the current rate, and more importantly shark finning is contrary to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) International Plan for the Conservation and Management of Sharks. Maybe you should read their documentation more thoroughly in the future.
I would like some kind of satisfactory response to this e-mail and would hope that this will lead to the swift removal of shark fin products from the shelves of Tesco Lotus in Thailand. As I know that my solo e-mail is likely to have very little impact I will be passing this on to as many people as I can as well as to all major wild life conservation and anti-shark finning organisations as I can think of in order to exert the pressure required to help in this matter.

Awaiting your response,

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