Guitar Hero-Party-Hangover-Deer Oct24-25, Day 2-3 Oslo

Birthday night was over, went to work early in the morning and worked pretty much the entire Friday, and the night was far from over. First Erik prepared some chicken wins for dinner. It was simple yet effective. And after that we played a bit of Guitar Hero while waiting for the next event. Erik's got a friend having a birthday party that night. Lene wasn't feeling good so she skipped. I didn't bring my camera to the clubs because I didn't want to lose anything. We first went to a very classy and preppy bar, everyone was dressed up and wearing suits, but I must say we didn't look too bad either that night. And then we moved to another opened air's pub, where Erik met some of his friends there(Erik's got a lot of friends!), and finally to the most exclusive club in Oslo, called La Belle Solle(http://www.labellesolle.no/). You need to pay 400 Norwegian Kr for cover charge. That's around 23Euros, or RM105... yes, not cheap at all. We came back at 2am, and one of us(not me) and I won't mention who, totally puked in the bathroom :) yes....ewww.

The following morning, they both had like massive hangover. I woke up early as usualy, and just relaxing. We didn't do much the entire day, watching videos and movies. But later in the evening, we went to Lars' house. His house is somewhere in Asker, a bit on the outskirt of Oslo, and very nice and quiet place. The place even reminds me of army camp which I grew up in Kuala Lumpur called Wardieburn camp(oh yeah, War-Die-BURN!) And we met Eskil(2 years old) and Lars' wife. Eskil was obviously under my spotlight because I've always liked kids ^^ He was just playing with his Legos and making louds noises with his wooden tools, and being ABSOLUTELY adorable. And then it was dinner time... Lars grilled deer meat for us, his wife and not too sure who else hunted it together, and it was so yummy! We had possibly the best homecooked dinner in Norway that night, and thanks to Lars and his warm hospitality. He later showed us around his house, which I find really lovely and just the warm feeling, and a lot of childhood memories just kept resurfacing.

This ends the series of pictures taken in Oslo in October 2008. I had a great time there because I was surrounded with really nice and warm hearted people there. Thanks you guys who's made this possible, it was my first birthday celebration in Norway, and by far the best trip there. ^^

Erik's chicken wings. See that glass of wine there? Yeah, later you'll see all those red showing on my face.

Simple and effective meal! Enough energy to get you through the long night.

Lene took a snapshot of me and Giacomo playing Guitar Hero, I suck at this game.

Okay, winning that was just luck.

Because I won, I got to play against the champion, ERIK! He's really good!

That's the hangover morning. Erik's preparing all healthy and yummy breakfast.

Yeah, super healthy. We had to wear gas masks the whole day after that.

Everyone meet Eskil! He's 2 and he's still shy in this picture. We just got there and he had to cope with this asian dude clicking away with his shiny camera....wahahahah.

Eskil loves his Lego.

Another snap shot. Like father like son, they totally share the same expression!

Dinner time! Oh yeah... I think Lars could be a Grill Master! He did all those by himself *clap clap clap*

With flash this time, showing the juice and how perfect the meat was.

With mushroom gravy, and potato salad... yummmmmm ^_______^

They're all eating already while me busy taking pictures.

Eskil's got the President's chair of course!

"Yay! Job well done daddy" - said Eskil. Okay, he couldn't say that yet, but that's what his face was telling us ^^

Birthday, Oct23 2008, Day 1 Oslo

So, it had been quite busy for me. I have not been updating the blog for 2-3 weeks now due to pure laziness. Hahaha! Anyway, here are the pictures taken when I was in Oslo the first night. It was hard traveling this time, because somehow me and Giacomo got the a connecting flight, from Dusseldorf to Oslo, and we had to stop in Heathrow. I mean, from Germany to Oslo is only 2 hours flight. Because of the stop-over, we added around 3 more hours in our journey. We started pretty early from Cologne, at around 7am, and got to Oslo at around 5pm. I am never going to do stop-over at Heathrow again >___<

But as soon as I reached Oslo, greeted by Erik and Lene with warmth as always, they said we'll eat out at TGI Friday! ^^ I've never been to TGI Friday even not in Malaysia, and we got tons of those in KL. But I was excited, just hoping that they didn't do anything 'silly'. It was raining and all, we were all starving, and we got there, a table reserved for us. Erik's always got everything figured out when he's around Lene :)

We started off with starter, Nacho's with cheese... we were so hungry the plate went clean in like seconds, it was scary :D Erik ordered Chicken with Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce, Lene ordered Chicken as well, Giacomo ordered Chicken Salad, and mine's Fajita Tower... should have ordered two and make that the Twin Towers...kekekeke. Food was great and all, glad that nothing 'silly' happened yet... well, not until suddenly 2 chipmunks singing Happy Birthday at the back and getting louder and louder >__< But it was so funny, the 2 Norwegian or Swedish waitress were using Helium balloons while singing it. If you don't know what Helium does, when you inhale lots of it, it makes your voice go Chipmunk style... and they brought special dessert for me, ice cream with lotsa cream and caramel. It was delicious, and very sweet. Still very glad that it wasn't all that 'SILLY' like the way we do it in Malaysia, forcing you to stand on the table while the whole restaurant sings to you... yeah, it was good ^^

It was a great night really. Tiring, and as soon as we got back, Erik and Lene handed over me presents... I mean, I am not 12 anymore, but it sure felt like it again, and it was really nice getting presents from them. Thanks Erik, thanks Lene, and thank you Lars for chipping in the present too. I will try to find some time to read the Terry Prachett book, and listen to the supposedly calm and soothing musics on the CD. It's not too bad getting the big THREE in the first digit of your age. Hungry wolves... but still able to smile ^^

Nacho's as starters.

Not waiting another second longer!

Erik's chicken with the touch of Jack Daniel

Lene's yummy looking chicken.

Giacomo's supposedly healthy salad chicken.

And my Fajitas towering above the rest...bwahahahaha!

After eating, now everyone looks a lot more happier ^^ except for the italian mafia.

Oh yeah, I think you could tell that I was tired.

This is after the girls singing, it was hilarious! They said it was the 5th that night. And even before we left, they had to sing another time. So 6th birthdays!!! Gotta get some of those damn balloons!

Yep, healthy dessert!

It was so sweet it felt like after eating, your teeth's just gonna stay there.

So before leaving, we tried asking one of the friendly waiter to take a picture for us, and he took a picture of his boyfriend first -_____-

So, with full stomach, we're all satisfied.

Another one here just to make sure!

Those are my presents! Nicely wrapped too.

Yep, will read and listen.

In Landesbergen

I was on a road trip to one of the plant we just 'took over' in a small remote town called Landesbergen. It's about 4 hours drive from Cologne(it'd be around 3 and half hours drive if you drive 200kmph very often with 17liter/100km fuel consumption with a brand new Ford Focus like my co-worker did). We even got a speed ticket for it, and the camera caught us off guard at the 70kmph speed limit zone when we're off the Autobahn and on the country roads. The country road is not what I am more used to like those in Malaysia, single lane roads each sides, without shoulders, with lots of potholes and uneven patches, super windy for great cornering and most fun of all.... NO STREET LIGHTS! ^^ But over there, the roads are very civilized, and pretty much felt like it was explored.
Anyhow, we got there at night, stayed in our hotel rooms, watched Rambo:The First Blood(that's the reason why we were speeding, trying to catch the show -___-;;) And the next morning we just had breakfast and off to our plant.
It's a very old plant. Year built : 1973. Plant Capacity 445MW. Upgrades: Biomass Plant burning husks from farms...pretty much all over where your eyes could lay on ^^ I'll try to see if we could get the picture of us taken by the speed camera once my friend got the ticket and possibly the picture. That'd be funny :D

So this is my room. It's bigger than my apartment -__- Even the TV is bigger! Grrr

The bed's bigger, it has more table lamps... wait, I don't have a table lamp in my apartment.

Okay! I win here... I got 2 closets! :) And bigger sofa!

The bathroom is of course bigger than mine as well.

Look!!! A real full-sized SCYTHE!!! ^^ I couldn't help thinking about one with a black dark robe carrying this around at night...stalking....walking.... *chillssss*

Some other farming tools displayed all around the walls.

It's a warm hotel, compact but actually with lots of rooms. Not a lot of guests though, I think there were only two of us. In such a place, we couldn't stop thinking about people here being weird and eat tourists for dinner... and plus I'm a Chinese, and one of the cook could be saying like.. "Tonight...my fellow townsmen...we're having ORIENTALS!!!" >_<

This one I've just gotta explain. We were driving through the town at around 10pm... it was totally quiet! No people... and we saw a guy taking out trash and were a bit startled actually.. and joking about this town being like the one in "The Waxhouse" movie, and everything is just fake and mechanical. So we finally took a turn into a darker street, and this telephone booth was lit, and there was a person inside..and I was like "Look... real people!" and as we looked... IT WASN'T A REAL PERSON >___<>

Here comes the less interesting part. Biomass plant.

This chimney is probably around 150meters (not 80meters, thanks Leonard) high. I am not too sure. It'd be a pain to have to climb up there just to replace a light bulb, and half way through... oh, nice, you forgot a tool!

Steam turbine, all out open design like the good ol' days. I guess land wasn't that expensive or scarce back then.

This is a small gas turbine, Silo burner, nothing to should about.

Cut-away picture of the Steam Turbine again. And below is how the plant used to look like. Look at the surroundings... totally flat ^^

Wakeboard Championship : German Open 2008 (27-28Sept)

It's a great weekend. The weather is fair, clear sky with sun, and 19DegC. It's perfect for wakeboarding! Of course, I don't do it ^^ But just so happen that German Open was happening somewhere near the northern part of Cologne, called Fühlinger See(which is a lake), and beautiful park for people to spend time sunbathing, cycling, inline skating, running, kayaking... all kinds of activities! I didn't watch the whole thing which started since Saturday as early as 9am. But I was there on Sunday for the finals at around 3pm, and just enough to watch the finalists doing performing some amazing jumps before the prize giving ceremony at 5:30pm. I don't think I'll ever wakeboard since I don't like water very much. Maybe someday I might try it just for fun, but you'll never know. ^^

Lotsa people, entrance is pretty much free, except for the 2.50Euro parking fee.

You can tell that it's not so cold, but people still brought sweaters just in case. The sun did its job well keeping us all warm.

That's the announcement stand, with a Land Rover carrying the loudspeakers, and of course bearing the sponsor's mark everywhere it goes.
DJ stand, and I think that's probably the coolest baby OrangUtan you can ever see. Check out the bling-bling.

This would be the boat towing those stuntpeople around.

I think this one is probably on sale, or just for display. It looks like a very cool boat!

Oh yeah, the cockpit's not bad too.

Here are some pictures of those wakeboarders doing Double-Up jumps.

Prize giving ceremony for boys' category.

And the ladies.

And these are the Champions for the Men's category.

Look at the dog ^^ It was following it's master who won the 2nd place in one of the events.

This is one scary-looking but very friendly Doberman. Look at all the muscles, and the legs are enormous!

This one just look like a walking carpet, or just bigfoot's cousin. ^^