This article in Reuters is not too surprising to me and my colleagues:
After 14 years ranked as the most expensive city in the world for expatriates, Tokyo has been knocked off the top spot by Norway’s capital Oslo, a survey showed on Tuesday.
Just for the fun of it, I’ll list some random items and their price tags as experienced by yours truly.
All prices in local currency (Norwegian Krone).
Hot dogs (10): 40-50NOK
Beer (0,33 liter): 10-15NOK
Cigarettes: 61-75NOK
Coke (0.5 liter): 11,50NOK
Grandiosa (frozen pizza for 1): 25NOK
Chicken filet (0.4 kilos): 40-50NOK
Smirnoff Red (0.7 liter): 254NOK
Anything fresh, meat or containing alcohol: Expensivo
If you don’t use Mac OS X Tiger and thus may not have a brilliant currency converter at your fingertips, here’s what Google offered at #1.
February 1st, 2006
<rant>
The other day I came home to find that this years phone books have arrived.
A lovely gesture, and I must say, exactly what I need: A big chunk of a dead tree filled with static information that I don’t need plastered with ads. And because I have a back door, I got two copies. Talk about a waste of paper and production resources.
Last time I used a phone book was in January 2005. I remember because we had just moved offices and I put under my screen to achieve better viewing altitude. Its companion was “The Internet Yellow Pages”. Even thicker, equally ugly, but extinct. Just like Lil’ Phone Book will be one day.
Now it’s not that I don’t like paper. I just try to avoid its use whenever I can. Bills, bank statements, airline tickets et al should all come to me in digital form, but some unfortunately don’t (yet).
I try to protest against the waste of paper and money by declining to receive junk snail mail. If I really want to check out this week’s specials, I’ll download the PDF.
I wish I could opt not to receive phone books in the same way. Perhaps I should create a sticker to put on my door saying “I use the in-ter-net. It’s this newfangled thing that let’s you do all sorts of stuff, including looking up phone numbers!”
Mr. Man With Hat of Paper, I’m looking in your direction. Here’s a lollypop, now stop the press already.
</rant>
January 30th, 2006
This summer, Oslo Road Services had do to some digging in the middle of a crossing which I walk through on my way to work. The work was done without blocking traffic by setting up concrete blocks in a circle around the work area, effectively creating a roundabout.
The work lasted for several weeks, and in this time I actually got to work a bit faster because I didn’t have to wait for the light to turn green. And in stead of hundred meter long queues during rush hour, the traffic simply flowed in all four directions.
To my surprise, the roundabout was made back into a crossing once the work was done. Now, I’m back to waiting for the green light, and watching out for cars racing across to make it before the red light (which they don’t always do).
I realize that this project must have been planned and paid for before the roundabout showed its benefits. But it’s sad to see this backwards step from a faster, more secure and more convenient solution.
January 29th, 2006
Sometimes it’s annoying that you can’t carry your iBook (and PowerBook/MacBook Pro I must assume) around in “clamshell” mode; that is with the lid closed, but not in sleep mode. When I wish to carry my iBook from e.g. my desk to a meeting room, I close the lid as much as possible without putting the iBook to sleep. I found out that the difference between too little and too much is the equivalent of the width of my thumb. Try it: Let your thumb rest (sideways) on the edge of the hand rest, then pull the lid down until it touches your thumb–my thumb has the perfect size, but your milage may vary. That’s it!
When I set up my blog, I created a category called “Tips & Tricks”. The idea was to supply exactly what the name says. This was very trivial but it’s a start and I hope someone can use it.
January 29th, 2006
Sitting on an airplane just now, flying home from the Faroe Islands. My neighbours are an empty seat and a jet engine. The view is nice, yet cloudy. It’s getting dark.
For a short while, I’ve been out of touch with the world and in touch with my family. Those of you who don’t know me probably don’t get what I mean. I guess now would be as good a time as any to put a little background into the person behind these words.
The day after tomorrow, it’s been 23 years since I was born. This happened in Tórshavn, the capital of a small island nation aptly named the Faroe Islands.
At age 10 I tore up my roots and moved with my family to Denmark and lived there until Monday September 13th, 2004; the day I moved to Norway to work for Opera Software.
Now, that little piece of background information is necessary to explain the mixed feelings I’m having right now. On one hand, I’m looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow. But I also wish I could severely extend my vacation so I could spend more time with my family, which is now scattered in two countries in which I do not live. But that’s life and it would be stupid to not make the best of it. I think I’ve done that over the last three weeks. In the eleven days I spent in Denmark, I visited my closest family and managed to spend time with five dear friends. After that I flew off to the Faroes where roughly 90% of my family lives. In the eight days spent there I visited almost everyone. It was great catching up with family members that I haven’t seen for years; some I hadn’t seen in over a decade! But the greatest thing of all was the night of January 6th when a great party was held to celebrate my grandparents’ diamond wedding anniversary–that’s 60 years of love and marriage, ladies and gentlemen.
Over 200 people attended the party, which in any case is a lot. But consider the fact that many people my, in average, 83.5 year old grandparents know aren’t around any more. I think it shows how much respect these two wonderful people have gained throughout the years. And they deserve every little bit of it. I simply do not know anyone kinder than them.
The title of this post is after the album I’m listening to right now called “Poetry & Aeroplanes” by the wonderful Faroese artist Teitur Lassen. It’s a great reminder of the past week’s events as well as a cheerful help in the time to come where I no doubt will miss my loved ones more than ever.
January 11th, 2006
I wish my friends, family, colleagues and readers a very happy 2006. Thank you for the year gone by and best wishes for the next iteration of your lives 
January 1st, 2006
Fond memories emerge of going to your house for Christmas–I especially remember that Playmobil pirate ship I got one Christmas eve when I must have been 5 or 6.
I don’t know why we where at your place almost every year. Maybe because of my mom, being your only sister and you her oldest brother. You don’t pay that much attention to “why” when you are a kid. All you care about is the moment you are in. Looking back, you wish you enjoyed it even more. But why is that? A kid is always enjoying the moment to its fullest; the way every person should. It doesn’t matter now.
Arriving in the dark of December with the white streets outside. Running up that seemingly unending staircase. The warm feeling of the house. The couch with the curved wooden arm rests. The doors with the mosaic glass and white handles. The wavy cheese-cutter in your kitchen. They will never be the same without you.
Rest in peace, dear uncle. My thoughts are with you always.
Axel Haraldsen, 1946-2005.
December 5th, 2005
I haven’t dedicated time to my blog lately, being busy with other things. Too bad really, when too much happens and you don’t have the time to put it down in words.
One of the big happenings lately at casa Joen & Co. was the cookathon, which took place on Sunday, October 23rd. I won’t go into the details of what went down, as Charles has already covered it well in his blog entry. However, I did promise half a dozen people to blog my chocolate cake recipe. As promised, here it is.
Joen’s Chocolate Cake for the Craving (JC3 for short–hey, geeks need acronyms!)
Ingredients:
- 200 grams of good chocolate (use bad chocolate at your own risk!)
- 200 grams of butter
- 4 eggs
- 2 deciliters of sugar
- 2.5 deciliters of flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Making the cake:
- Turn on the oven at 200℃.
- Throw the chocolate and the butter in a saucepan and melt them at a low temperature. Break the chocolate up into pieces to let it melt easier. Once everything has melted, take it off the heat. It will take a few minutes, so carry on meanwhile.
- Break the eggs up and pour their contents into a bowl.
- Throw the sugar in with the eggs and mix them well. Using an electrical mixer is highly recommended, not only because it’s less work, but also because the cake will come out fluffier and better looking.
- The chocolate/butter yum-yum should be done by now. Pour it in a little at a time and stir gently with a large spoon or other utensil of choice.
- Mix the baking powder with the flour, then repeat the process for the yum-yum in step 5.
- Smear a round form with a little butter and cover it with a thin layer of flour. You don’t want the cake to stick to the form.
- Pour the content of aforementioned bowl into the form.
- If you have some chocolate left, break it up into small pieces and scatter them on top.
- Put the cake in the oven and leave it there for about 15 minutes.
- Once the cake is beginning to show burn marks on top, it’s ready. Take it out and leave it to cool down for an hour. Sprinkle powdered sugar on and serve.
Notes:
Preparation time: Approximately 15 minutes.
Cooking time: 15 minutes, or until it’s getting burned on top.
The units used are easy to convert to whatever you prefer (it’s the metric system, dude). Precision isn’t paramount in this process, though.
November 5th, 2005
Yes, we’ve been busy at Opera; two releases in one day! This one is a technical preview (alpha quality) of Opera 9, which has been dubbed “Merlin” internally. This release really is a milestone in terms of Opera releases, as it includes a new version of the rendering engine.
We’ve been working on Merlin for quite some time now, and it is great to finally be able to show the world where we are headed. This technical preview is a baby step towards the final release, but will still make many web developers happy with its many bug fixes and likewise users for its new features. Just look at the changelog!
As you probably have figured out by now, it’s rough around the edges in this early stage. Nevertheless, it is my pleasure–nay–privilege to say: welcome aboard.
October 20th, 2005
Opera Mini was today officially made available in all of the Nordic countries (press release).
It was originally only available in Norway, but now our Scandinavian neighbours can enjoy it as well. It’s just a matter of time before it is available world-wide.
While it is still in beta, it is highly stable and usable. If you live in one of the listed countries, I suggest you give it a spin!
October 20th, 2005
Next Posts
Previous Posts