Monday, June 27, 2011

The Summer Party

Last Friday (24th June) was the work summer party.  It kicked off at 6pm at Sara's Telt in the city.  Funny enough that was where the last New in Norway meeting was held, and prior to that the last beer mingle was at VU which was where I went to that last time for an Internations mingle.  Is work just using the same places that I visit, or is it just a dang coincidence?  There was a bus that drove us to the city, so we went after work.

What can I say.  Norwegians love to party.  This is unlike any work party that I've ever been to.  After drinks, everyone from managers to directors were dancing on the floor.  Okay not everyone, but people that I know by name were, and we work on the same floor.  My suspicion is they won't even remember come Monday.  It's a big eye opener. :)  Even my fellow co-worker who is usually serious at work was dancing.  At least he thinks he was. :)  Man!  I can't dance to save my life, but I did some anyway.  Thanks to Thomas.  Of course everyone was drinking, and most were smoking, I don't drink and I don't smoke, yes I'm quite straight edge.  When I say everyone I don't mean everyone just the ones I recognise. :)  I would put some pictures up but I didn't take any photos.  You will just have to take my word for it.  I didn't get home till 2am and when I left it was still going strong.  But most people (most married people that is) had left by then.  Unfortunately dinner wasn't very good, it was a cheap buffet dinner with hamburgers and okayish salad.

Walking to the train station I saw drunks wandering about and a man peeing in the bushes outside Nationaltheatret.  That wasn't a sight to remember.  I missed the last train so caught the bus instead.  Of course I couldn't get back home directly, the bus dropped me close to work and had to walk 45 minutes before I arrived home.

Well it is now time for sleep.  God natt.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Denmark, Sweden and back to Oslo

I'm now back in Oslo after returning from Copenhagen yesterday.  Let's try to summarise yesterday's events...

10am After breakfast, the long drive back to Oslo began.  The weather was sublime.


A lone house surrounded by acres upon acres of greenery.  All along the highway as far as the eye can see.  And occasionally, cows, horses and sheep.  This is a wet dream scene in the eyes of Singaporeans.  Possibly 5 levels deep like Inception.



Windmills along the E6

Between 10am and 6:30pm We went food shopping in Lidl, hdmi cable shopping in Giganten (I bought an iPad keyboard dock as well.  I hate buying stuff I don't need but this time I couldn't resist.) and more food shopping at Rema 1000 along the Norwegian Swedish border.  Just about every car/vehicle parked at Rema 1000 has a Norwegian license plate.  It's like Singaporeans going to Malaysia for shopping on the weekend.  I should've taken a picture of the food we bought, which was quite a bit.  I alone bought 12 litres of juice and 12 litres of UHT milk.  That's not including the other items I purchased.

That's pretty much it.  It was shopping and more shopping.

Now I have this song stuck in my head.  It's Swedish and I am obsessed with it.

Speaking of which, this month I will not have any salary because this is the month where you get paid your holiday pay which is calculated based on last year.  And since I hardly worked last year I get next to nothing.  The good thing is, if Steve Jobs can survive on an annual salary of $1 so can I. :)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Copenhagen, Denmark, Day 1 - Handball at Ballerup Super Arena, Rådhuspladsen, Gefion Fountain, Little Mermaid

Greetings from Copenhagen!


8am This morning we set off to Copenhagen from Oslo.  The 7 hour journey across 3 countries is roughly like this.


View Larger Map

It goes through Sweden and from Sweden across the Øresund Bridge to Copenhagen.  The Øresund Bridge is the longest road and rail bridge in Europe.  Along the way we stopped at a Swedish McDonald's to have lunch and also topped up the fuel tank at a Statoil in Malmo.  Sweden is beautiful and reminds me of Germany, lush and green with plenty of open space.  You can see wind mills along the E6 and more along the Danish coast close to Malmo.  A long time ago I had a Swedish penpal.  Makes me wish I kept in touch with her now, it would be so cool to visit her.  The roads were quite empty, it was a quiet Sunday morning.


Swedish McDonald's.  I had a chicken bacon onion burger which was called C.B.O


Going across the Øresund Bridge.

2:53pm Checked in, dropped our things and headed off to the handball game between Denmark and Switzerland which started at 4:50pm.  The full time score was 34-29 to Denmark, half time was 20-12 to Denmark.  It's my first handball game that I've seen live and it was pretty good.  The Danish goalkeeper was especially impressive and saved many goalbound shots.




6:15pm After the game ended we contemplated going to watch the Euro Under 21s between Spain and England but then figured out by the time we get there it would've been after half time.  So instead we headed off to the city central to have some food and explore.

Along 2 Vester Voldgade there was a shop that was selling elephants.


It turns out these elephants on sale are souvenirs of the current Elephant Parade exhibition in Copenhagen which will be on display from June 1st to August 25th 2011.  There are a total of 102 of these baby fiberglass elephants all over Copenhagen.  When the exhibition is over, the elephants will be auctioned off by Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers, with the proceeds going to the preservation of the Asian elephant.  So the purpose of this exhibition is to raise awareness of the Asian elephant because it will be extinct within decades if nothing is done.


Rådhuspladsen, the public square in the centre of Copenhagen


Elephants along Rådhuspladsen


This is my favourite elephant ;)

Shortly after that we walked along Frederiksberggade and had dinner.  I had a kylling ret which was chicken with pita bread.  It was alright.


There was a Wonders of Europe exhibition that was open to the public along the same street so we spent some time exploring those.  It was photography of different landscapes and animals across Europe.


Another elephant


On first glance you might think this looks like ham... but read below


Yeah, it's semi-desert land!





Surviving and not eating food for 6 years.  Amazing.


The fountain at Frederiksberggade 2


Another elephant, they are everywhere

We proceeded to Gammel Strand where the canals are and took some photos here.  You can catch a canal tour too.




The building with the spire is called Børsen, it was built in 1619


Fountain near Højbro Plads





9:11pm Went in search of the Little Mermaid statue, which is built in 1913.  Prior to today I've only seen it in books from a long time ago.



St Alban's Anglican Church




Frederik IX


Another crazy looking elephant


Gefion Fountain


The Little Mermaid!

12:22am Time for shower and bed.  Today we'll be heading off back to Norway but stopping in Sweden to purchase food and other domestic things.  Walked 7500+ steps today.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Denmark, Prelude and the book "The World's Best Place: Norway and the Norwegians"

Tomorrow morning I'll be off to Glostrup a town close to Copenhagen.  The drive will be through Sweden.  Originally the plan was to travel to Trondheim unfortunately right now it's flooding in Norway, and the road between Oslo and Trondheim looks like a big Wet n' Wild ride.  Did the floods from Brisbane move to Norway?  Seems like it has.  It will be my first time in Denmark and Sweden.  This weekend is a long weekend, Monday's Pentecost hence the short getaway.

Yesterday I stumbled upon this book entitled "The World's Best Place: Norway and the Norwegians" and purchased it this morning, it's an ebook and well worth a read if you're interested in understanding why the UN thinks this country is the best place to live or if you want to live in Norway.  The author Solveig Torvik provides a public discussion which is well worth a watch and also talks about differences between Norway and the US.  Here's some things to think about.  The welfare system here is incredible but to me it's not worth what it is since I do not make use of it at all and do not plan to make use of any of the welfare anytime soon but if you have a family, the welfare system is a total boon.  Also there's a whole list of contradictions and hypocrisy, drilling oil as fast as possible (Norway even has obtained permission to drill in postwar Iraq!) while promoting to be green and peaceful, giving the impression that Norwegians treat everyone equal and yet publicising everyone's salary for everyone to see :)  Taxes range from 40% all the way up to 80%, other than income tax there's the hidden tax on food, sales tax, clothing tax, etc.  There is no individual accountability (which I have experienced first hand).  The average time Norwegians were absent from work not including vacations was 4.8 weeks in 2004.  That means on average they only work half a year including holidays.  By 2009 the number of workers calling in sick were even higher.  Norwegians are absent from work due to sickness every 14th workday (The welfare system has no incentive not to be sick :)).  As for the high salaries myth if you take into account actual purchasing power, KPMG ranks Scandinavians as the poorest in Western Europe when disposable income was adjusted for the cost of living and Norwegians ranked the second lowest in the Nordic countries.  That is certainly true, for me I'm not here for the salary but the experience.  I was far better off working in Australia.  Certainly there are good things too like Norwegians' concern for the common good, but you're just going to have to read the book if you want to know more!  I've read it once but will probably re-read it again.

There's also a page on facebook discussing if Norwegians are cold.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Kent Beck in Oslo

Today Kent Beck came over to give a presentation to a classroom of us.  For everyone who doesn't know, Kent Beck is the inventor of the eXtreme Programming methodology and one of the original signatories of the Agile manifesto.  Basically everyone who has done or is planning to do (which is a lot of people) agile development has to thank him for it.  I guess you could say he is a programming rockstar.  If that doesn't make sense to you, well imagine you're an artist and you get to see Leonardo Da Vinci, that's how big he is.  I studied what he preached back in the university days and it's what I did at a former workplace, pair programming, scrums and all that, all of that comes from Agile methodology.  So it's really really cool to see him present in person where I work.



Learn - Measure - Build, he talks about it here.

Later this afternoon, Kent did some peer programming with some of the other engineers on a different team.  I'm not part of the team but sure would've liked him to suggest on some code that I'm currently working on, or rather wish I wasn't working on because it's bad code and not maintainable.  Writing code is like writing a book with multiple endings (remember those?) that live on for a long time, so you want to make sure your words and sentences are understandable and changeable.  Unfortunately that is often not the case.  The code I'm working on is written by someone very experienced so I was a bit surprised that it is what it is.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

How to get a job in Norway

This morning I woke up and felt like doing something non productive, so I have created the following simple easy to understand image for anyone seeking a job in Norway.  This guide is for 2011, effectively immediately and into the foreseeable future.  If anyone asks you the common question "How do I get a job in Norway?", please refer them to this image.  This image will save time for people who need to reply, explain how to get a job, clicking buttons, wasted saliva, energy and hair pulling frustration.  It could also save your life if you did not know the answer and you were held at gun point.  All of that can be solved by referring them to this image.

If you cannot view the image clearly, just click on it for a larger version that can be printed and displayed on the job seeker's wall to keep said job seeker motivated.

Big hint!  You may want to consider learning Norwegian if you are serious about moving here.  If you do not speak Norwegian you will not be able to get a job here, no matter what your qualifications are.

So I can't say it enough.  Learn Norwegian!

Jerry Seinfeld in Telenor Arena

This evening I went to watch Jerry Seinfeld with Sunil at the Telenor Arena.  The Telenor Arena is close to work so I just walked to the stadium, took me about 50 minutes.  It's also home to Stabekk football club.



Cashed up Norwegians waiting to get into the stadium.  This was about 6pm.   Tickets start at 730 nok each (128 Australian) and go up to over 1000 nok (175 Australian).  We got tickets for 385 nok each, bought them from a guy who couldn't go.

The ticket said the show was supposed to start at 6:30pm.  Turns out that was the entrance time.  They didn't stop letting people in until 8:30pm that was the actual start time.  The act started off with George Wallace which probably took an hour and Jerry's act was an hour.  So it finished at 10:30pm.  In between 6:30pm and 8:30pm was a lot of people watching, counting the number of pølse, and trivial small talk like how much a person holding the row signs make (If you really want to know, it's 220 nok per hour for light labour and 350 nok for hard labour).  Another trivial fact, norwegians consume 100 kilos of pølse per person each year and in fact, Norway is the biggest sausage eating country per capita in the world.


7pm.. waiting


8:18pm.. more waiting


9:23pm.  There's Mr Seinfeld on stage.  Taken with the extremely non high quality phone camera.

When I was younger with black hair and no face fuzz I used to watch Seinfeld on TV quite often to free myself from the tedious burden of studying.  I would've never imagined myself seeing him live on stage at any point in my life.  I suppose that's a good thing.  He's still quite funny and George Wallace was funny too.

First world problem complaint.  I didn't have dinner until close to midnight.  And since I had no frozen pizza I had to make dinner from scratch which wasn't too bad but it would've been nice to come back and not cook after another 50 minute walk.