Another successful weekend in Hemsedal..

Rik and Adam came to visit and ski and it was just fantastic!! We travelled 280 km east of Bergen to Hemsedal... a weekend that is predictable to the hour but is thoroughly enjoyable every second every time. Hemsedal is one of Scandanavias largest ski resorts and is accessible from all surrounding areas. To put it into some perpective, there are 43km of slopes, 810m of vertical drop, 49 slopes and 22 lifts. One of the great things is the long ski season - from mid November through to the end of April.

After a long trip via Amsterdam the boys arrive at Bergen Flesland at 5pm, just in time for me to finish work and pick them up. The car is already packed with skiis and food so we just throw their bags in boot, pick up John and head straight on the road. With a speed limit of 80km the journey takes a solid 4 hours with no stops but with a kebab break in Voss we take a little longer. First timers from the UK always marvel at the cost of everything and 30 pounds equivalent for 4 kebabs does not go unnoticed.

Saturday involves a full day skiing followed by a night in Hemsedal Cafe. This involves being pushed around by lots of drunk Norwegians who are jumping around the cafe to Rage against the Machine and throwing beer everywhere. One thing I have learnt with age and 'Cafe Hemsedal' experience is that it is more fun staying relatively sober as observing the locals is far too entertaining to be missed. The atmosphere is super charged and in any other European town fighting would have broken out hours ago but not in Norway. The next stop is Peppes Pizza.

Sunday usually sets of with a sluggish start (occasionally with someone losing their car keys) before another day skiing. The drive back to Bergen is like funeral procession of cars. The key is to avoid being caught my speed control who will fine you 300 pounds for travelling only 5km/hr over the limit. If you're lucky then a friend further down the line will text you back with the location of the police.

The boys were booked on the red eye to Amsterdam on Monday morning so a gruelling 4.30pm wakeup lay infront of us. We left Sotra in good time for the airport and we rocked up outside the terminal kl 05.35. The bags were unloaded from the car and Adam casually told me he had left his rucksack at the house that contained some charger leads, 'nothing to worry about' he said, just bring them back when you come home next. Then the reality of the situation unfolded... in front pocket of the rucksack was Adams passport. Eek.

Nothing like an adreneline rush at 05.45 am to get you going in the morning.

How much rain is needed to make a decent powder dump?

Weather forecasts commonly depict snow with a picture of a snowflake along with the amount of precipitation - as rainfall. This is all well and good but if you have a ski weekend booked then you just want to know how much powder to expect!

After some searching on the internet it seems that the generaly accepted 'ball park' ratio is around 1:7-8 but this can vary alot depending on the temperature..

When the temperature is close to freezing the ration of rain to snow is approx 1:10 but in drier colder regions the ratio can be as high as 1:30-40, here the snow is extremely dry and powdery and does not pack. Ideal for powder ski days. Wet snow can be as low as 1:4-7. The best way to investigate is to put a measuring device out in the garden when it's next snowing and then melt it down to find the ratio.

Lola the Norwegian Forest Cat

As I write this 'Lola the Norwegian Forest Cat' is perched on my lap purring furiously.. if she is typical for her breed and you love cats then I would recommend her type as a trusty and loyal companion.

I came upon Lola through a tip off from a friend/local vet who had seen her brother from the same litter. Two female kittens were still waiting patiently on the farm to be rehoused and if they were anything like the brother then they would be a fine addition to any home. To be honest it didn't really matter what they were like, we needed a moggy... or two... (Florence the sister was unfortunately lost to the road and now sits on the mantle peice in an urn waiting to become a rose this this spring).

I hadn't heard of a Norwegian Forest Cat (or skoggkatt in Norsk) before Lola and it was only by noticing her unique charcteristics that I delved a little deeper.

According to Wikipedia, Norwegian Forest Cats are an extremely old breed and occurred naturally as an adaptation to the cold climate of Scandanavia. Infact, they were not regarded as anything other than a standard house-cat until the late 1930s. References to Norwegian Forest Cats are found as far back as 7th-9th centuries in Norse mythology where Freya - the goddess of love, beauty and fertility rode a chariot drawn by 'two huge cats' which descriptions fit those of the Norwegian Forest Cat.

Lola certainly doesn't pull any chariots and she didn't come with any certificate but she does match perfectly with several distinguishing features of a Norwegain Forest cat as described on the web.

1. A dense wooly undercoat that is covered by long, glossy guard hairs that shed rain well.
2. Long and bushy tails that are the same length as the body (Lolas is 30 cm long)
3. Powerful body structure.
4. The development of a heavy mane in the winter for cold weather protection.
5. Large and heavily furred paws.
6. Heavy (Adult males weigh 14-16 pounds, while females are 8-12 pounds).... Lola comes in at 5 kilos (11 pounds)!!!!!!!
7. Expressive eyes, mostly commonly green-gold.
8. Tufts on the ends of their ears.

Most importantly, the Norwegian Forest Cat is renowned for its love of people and persitent affection. They are talkative and expressive and you will never be lonely when they are around.... whether you like it or not.

My first earthquake..

On our last morning in Japan I lay in my bed in Hotel Mystays in Tokyo with a slight hangover, though I am convinced this was mostly due to mixing cold and flu tablets with alcohol and not the amount of alcohol I had consumed. I stirred to the gentle rocking of the bed and the awkward movements of my body as it tried to move at the same rythm. In a sleepy and confused daze I wondered if I was in one of those vibrating beds you see in the movies in American motels. After all we were in Japan -the land of warm toilet seats and bullet trains so why not?

What I discoverd later was that I had experienced my first earthquake. It hit at 6:51 a.m. local time about 170 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, east of Japan at a depth of about 35 kilometers (21.7 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was magnitude 5.8 on the Richter Scale.

For thoses non-geologists (and geologists that have forgotten), the Richter magnitude scale ranges from 0 to 10 and quantifies the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake. It is a base-10 logarithmic scale which means that an earthquake that measures 6.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times greate than one that measures 4.0. According to the scale, an earthquake within the range of 5.0-5.9 (like that experienced on 1 Feb in Tokyo) is of moderate magnitude and can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small regions. At most slight damage to well-designed buildings. There are approximately 800 of these types of earthquakes every year. Luckily for us and all those living in Japan there were no reported damage from this quake.

Seismograph taken from Channelnewsasia.com