Speed sledding at Korketrekkeren

This morning Adrian, Kjetil and I went snow toboganning from Frognerseteren to Midtstuen, this run is known as the Korketrekkeren toboggan run. It runs for 2 kilometres and the drop is 255 metres. It was super duper fun. We did it for close to 5 hours. That's a lot of toboganning. Right now my bum is as sore as anything.  Ouch.

You might want to watch this Korketrekkeren video on youtube, the track is the same track that we were on.  It's pretty fast downhill.  We raced downhill.  Kjetil won all the races between the 3 of us.  But I blame my tropical upbringing and Kjetil's inner Norwegian force on why he won all of them.

Other highlights...

• I crashed into a tree.
• I managed to run over the edge.
• At some point my helmet flew off too.
• Manage to do a 360 spin and go backwards.

I'm still alive though. :)

Here's some photos.

That's the holmenkollen ski jump in the background, the little one though.  There's a bigger one.

That's Oslo in the background.  This was taken outside the Frognerseteren restaurant.  We needed a break so we ate some food there.  I had a croissant, jam doughnut and some cinnamon chocolate bread.  Way too much sugar.  But it was good for my taste buds.

After this afternoon you could say I'm bummed out.  Fortunately Adrian's vehicle had seat warming so it was good therapy for our behinds.  So maybe we won't be as(s) sore tomorrow.

Haha I'm so funny with words tonight. :P

A 13 year old that I admire

I love to read articles like this.  It goes against every convention that's taught or drilled in everyone.  To go to school.  To get good grades.  That you need "experience" to start a business.  That you somehow need to be "smart".  That you need a business degree.  To me those excuses are the biggest blobs of bullshit that I hear about and frankly, just excuses for you not to start early.  I give credit to that kid for taking initiative and courage for just trying.  These are the type of people I truly admire.  I am not impressed by material things, what you own, what titles you have nor how much monopoly paper you make.  America needs more people like this kid if they are ever to be great again.  Not larger taxes, bigger government, or more regulation.  Not going to school to study for an eternity.  He is what I call a pie maker.  Think about the business as a pie, employees consume some part of the pie.  The one who makes the pie will always be worth a lot more than everyone else who eats it.  The mainstream always says jobs jobs jobs but it's never about jobs it's always about the pie.  It's never about money that's the problem it's always about something else within yourself.  The world is literally awash in money.  People have been so misled nowadays it's not even funny.  If it's anything I wish for anyone is that they would read more, learn more, and seek truth outside of your life and examine things around you, to question everything, to never stop learning.  Question even facts, what you take for granted.  What people tell you  for granted.  Learn to think and question!

Ok, time for bed.

A typical work day

What's a typical day at work like for me?  Here's a rundown working at a company that some people would dream to work for.

8:15 AM - Wake up, have breakfast, shower, and prepare to go to work

9:00 AM - Leave for work, I take a walk down two hills, often risking my life and limb.  No kidding.  There's a lot of ice and snow.  One slip and you could be crippled for life.  Of course you have the Norwegian social security system to support you so it would not be that bad but I would rather not have that happen.

9:30 AM - Arrive at work, or maybe a bit later depending on the weather.  More ice means I have to walk more slowly.  Will probably change during winter.

10:00 AM - Have our scrum meetings.  Each of us in the team take turns and we talk about what we did the day before.  We also talk about what we would be doing that day.

10:10 AM - Time for real work.  This can mean many things.  Some play foosball. ;)  I will be writing the codes for the machines.  Presently this is all WPF and C#.  I work with one architect at the moment and am given almost entire freedom to do what I want which is quite liberating.

11:00 AM - Lunch.  Norwegians have really early lunches.  Sometimes people will start walking before 11 am :)  The cafeteria is in a separate building, it takes about 5 minutes to get there.  Lunchtime is quite busy.  We have warm food served and a salad bar.  It's all buffett style.  Friday's lunch is sausages, and Wednesday is usually fish.  There's bread to choose from, and the salad bar has a variety of food ranging that includes lettuce, carrot, cucumber, jalapeno peppers, mushrooms, egg, tomatoes, olives, corn, dressing, pasta, prawns, etc.  It is pretty damn good.

11:30 AM - Back to work.  On Tuesday we have planning meetings, but this only happens every fortnight.  Between now and dinner time there's foosball involved, discussions about work/non work, possibly food involved (we have a freezer stocked with frozen microwave food, so if you're still hungry, go for it!), drinks (water, coke, pepsi, pepsi light) from the fridge, and fruit.  There's also cereal, bread, milk, juice, coffee, yoghurt and yeah.  A whole lotta stuff.  I often try to get up and walk around the office even if it's to get to the toilet.  Everyone in my office is Norwegian except for one person so often I am really clueless on what they talk about until someone deciphers it for me.

5:15 PM - Dinner time! (Or go home time!)  Mondays and Wednesdays we get served dinner cooked by an awesome chef.  Other days you're free to take meals from the freezer.  Most people usually go home around this time or before.  I usually leave between 5 to 6 but I've stayed till 8:30 PM before.

So that's my typical work day working in a Norwegian company.  Take note that some of the things that I mention isn't normal for a Norwegian company, it's just one of the perks we get as an employee.

Questions feel free to comment!

Signed up for my own doctor

Norway's health system works like this, at least this is my current understanding, you have to sign up for a doctor once you have your personal number.  To do that you must log in to www.nav.no, which is of course in Norwegian.  There are many useful links there unfortunately not many pages have English translations.  To sign up for a doctor you must go to this link, log in with your Min ID (which is an account that links your personal number to your contact details like email, mobile number and address) and after that you will be able to select your doctor from this list.  Select the area where you live and click Søk. You are allowed to change your GP twice a year.  I think you pay about 130 NOK here per visit just for the visit alone excluding medical costs.

In Singapore I just show up to my GP without any booking required and I only pay for the medicine.  And I can pick any GP I want.  It can cost up to maybe 88 NOK at most, assuming fever medicine.  This is for the visit and for the medicine.  Singapore has one of the lowest tax rates in the world.

In Australia it's pretty much the same, you can visit any GP you want.  It's more expensive though, private consultation would be about 170 NOK after deductions, and you still have to get medicine.  However if you visit a Medicare doctor then you pay nothing, just for the medicine.  Australia has high taxes too but not as high as Norway.

So even though you pay a lot of tax here you *still* have to pay to visit the doctor no matter what, I think there is some threshold of 2000 NOK or something after which it is "free" but if you have to pay that much then something must be really wrong with you.

Anyway the moral of the story is do not fall sick. :)