Challenged!

Maria has posted a number of "List of four", which she challenges me to continue. As it has been embarrassingly long since I last posted something, it was a good opportunity to reply. At the moment I'm trying to read, but I feel I'm a bit tired. Well, all in all it's been a productive day. So here goes...

Four jobs I have had:

Chemical Process Technician at FMC Biopolymer (earlier Pronova Biopolymer)

Chairman, Bjørgene II Co-operative housing organization (Now we're talking high class... Chairman, wow!)

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Assistant, Kosovo

Strategy Assistant at FMC Biopolymer

Four movies I can se over and over again:

Sin City

Pulp Fiction

Dr. Strangelove

The Godfather II (Close race with the Godfather I)

Four places I've lived:

Haugesund, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Camp Lebane by Pristina, Kosovo

London, England

Four TV-series I like to watch:

The Simpsons

The Family Guy

Lost

The neverending series of Premier League, England

Four favourite food dishes:

Pinnekjøtt (Stick Meat)

Homemade pizza

Tenderloin with gratinated potatoes

Cannibal toast (OK, it isn't as bad a it sounds... There's a place called Naboen (The Neighbour) in Bergen, Norway. In the basement they serve one of the most gastronomic meals I know. Simple, but incredibly tasty!)

Four websites I visit daily:

Haugesunds Avis (I wish it could improve, though...)

VG (Norwegian tabloid, but better than the British equivalent)

Cass Business School (Have to check my mail...)

Finn.no (Always looking for a job!)

Four things to do before I die:

Skydive!

Travel to Mauritius

Roadtrip in the US. Good idea, Maria! :D

Complete my master...

Four persons to pass this on to...:

Joakim

Ragnvald

Robert

Solvor

EDIT

Robert has added a twist to the challenge, by also making a list of the four songs he can listen to over and over again. Well, I hereby present mine:

Four song I could listen to over and over again:

Kissing the lipless - The Shins

Lover, you should've come over - Jeff Buckley

Age of Pamparius - Turbonegro

Everlong - Foo Fighters

Thanks, Robert. I just had to discard 400 songs I love. To all the songs I have let down: sorry!

The results are ticking in...

I received my two first results today, from the exams I had before christmas. In International Economics I got 72%, where over 70% gives the top mark. The best result was 77%, and I must say I`m thrilled over that one. The other one was in Managerial Accounting. This was the second half of the Accounting course, where I got 90 % on the first one. I knocked in 76%, which gives me 83% on average. Great! I'm relieved right now, I must say!
Tonight we're going on a reception at Radisson SAS Portman hotel, where the Young Professionals in the Norwegian-British Chamber of Commerce have their monthly Thursday drinks. Should be nice. I don't think we'll be sitting there all night, though. Too much happening at school at the moment... BUT: It will be a great opportunity to meet Norwegians working in London, to hear about their experiences, and maybe also make some new connections here. All weekend is tied up to school work, and forunately I am totally comfortable with it. Tomorrow we have our first lectures in Advanced Quantitative Methods, which basically will concentrate on multiple regression and forecasting. Also, International Commodity Trade begins tomorrow. That's gonna be very interesting as well!

Case closed

The weekend is over, and a new week awaits. Had a lecture in Shipping Finance today, it was quite good. The weekend was nice, we went to visit Robert in Docklands on Saturday evening. After a home-cooked, delicious pizza complemented by some Stella Artois, we decided to hit the streets and go to No. 5, the hip nightclub at Cavendish Square.



Nice main bar

Leif, Beate and myself drove in one cab, while Robert and Harald drove in another. Halfway there, Anders called (No, I'm no schizophrenic, Anders is a Danish guy who lives at Francis Rowley..) to let us know that the queue outside was alarming. We decided to go to Zeta bar (Hilton Park Lane) to see whether we could avoid 45 minutes in the crispy, cold London air. When we finally arrived with our taxi, Harald called. No. 5 wasn't packed at all, so we should regroup and leave Park Lane. Finally we decided to do so, to Beate's big frustration... So in a taxi again, and off we went.
We arrived at Cavendish Square and went to the nearest ATM. Since No. 5 is a place where a lot of Greeks go (Actually, it is owned by a sheik or something who lives on the top floor(s?). Leif decided to go for the popular phrase "Ela Malaka", which means something like "Hello, w**nker"... The Greek (...) in front of us in the ATM queue turned around, only to stare into three pairs of blue, Nordic eyes. He said to his girlfriend next by: "See, THEY learn themselves Greek!" Nice guy. When we were on our way to the club, Anders came out and said it was packed, way too crowded. Well, what else to do than to return to Francis Rowley... So we waited for an hour to get the bus, as all the taxis were busy... ack at Francis Rowley we got rid of some alcohol before I went to bed at 5.30... Credit to Robert and Anders who were the last men standing!



Here's Harald, drinking white wine like a redneck... :D

We had a coursework that was due today, and I had the pleasant job to join the different parts of it together in the end and make a complete paper of it. On Sunday I woke up around 12, and my plan for the day was to see Man Utd crush Liverpool and complete the coursework. They won 1-0, which is just enough for me... In the afternoon I did my laundry and the dishes, before I started with the coursework around 23.30. Kinda late I must admit, and I was struck by the bloody Pareto principle again. To put a long story short, I went to bed around 5, and got up at 8 to reach the lecture.
Last night I chatted with Toralf, he had finally gotten internet in his apartment in Washington. After I while I remembed that I could call him if he had land-line, as I have one of those 0800 terrorist-sponsored phone cards which price a phone call to 3.2 p from London to the US. Nice! He gave me his number, and I rang. But who answered? "Hello, this is Ellen Vollebæk speaking?" "Oh, sorry! I was trying to reach Toralf." was my response, not quite prepared for the Ambassador wife to answer the phone... Toralf had given me the wrong number by mistake... Well, she seemed like a nice person! (For those who want to know...)
While reading this I checked the website of No 5, and found out they have a Cigar Bar as well! Here, I can sit down with a nice Montecristo or a Hoyo de Monterrey and drink a glass (25 ml) of whisky from 1937, to the cheap price £1,100... Oh, what the heck! I'll take the bottle. After all, what is £31,000!
This evening I have relaxed a bit, seen a movie (A night at the Roxbury's) and tried to be blind IT-support... Not an easy job. As I've written earlier, City University wouldn't allow me to use an IP telephone to phone home (You hear me, E.T.?) for free. Therefore, I sent it back home. Or more precise, Joakim and Karl Kristian brought it with them back to Norway. Thanks! Anyway, there seems to be a problem connecting it back home. I tried to solve it by phone, but it is really not that easy. Hopefully we'll sort it out!
Right now I'm happy I'm using a laptop. I'm sitting in the dark, as the lights just went out. Well, I'm going to sleep anyway! No worries! I saw Joakim had updated his blog about their visit here. Good thing, Joakim! We had a really good time, and I found this picture of Karl "Firm Handshake" Kristian:



Charisma. Pure, simple charisma...

Job: Translator

I am currently writing a CV and application in English why Statoil of course should hire me as a Corporate Trainee this summer. While translating my Norwegian CV, I had problems with translating one of the bullet points.

In Norwegian:

Styreleder Bjørgene Borettslag II

In English:

Chairman, Bjørgene II Co-operative housing organization

Hmm, I'm more and more impressed by English titles! I'm also more and more convinced that the trainee job I'm most interested in is made for me. At least when concidering my proud years as a chemical process technician (There you go again!). Should be a perfect match...
We had the first lecture in Corporate Finance today, and I got the feeling at once that the teacher is really gonna put pressure on us. Great! We will have group presentations, and the groups should be inter-gender, inter-nationality and inter-background oriented. That will be interesting and challenging! tomorrow is the first lecture in Shipping investment & finance, a subject I look forward to!
I'm otherwise quite impressed by the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund, or Lånekassen as it is called in Norway. In order to receive this year's loan and scholarship, I had to return an answer sheet. Because I had changed bank since the last time I sent my best regards to the fund, I also had to add a form with my new bank account number. This week I was informed that they hadn't received the answer sheet, which I sent in December. Miraculously however, they have updated my account number on their web pages, information which was sent in the same letter... And since it's not possible to send this answer form abroad, time goes by. So slowly. (Get it, get it?!)

Weekend update

It's Saturday morning, and I've had healthy 6 hours of sleep. Today, my globetrotter friends and myself are going to Camden Markets, followed by Fulham-Newcastle. Yesterday we did some sightseeing, but I was shocked to discover that St Paul's Cathedral have started with 8 pound tickets. I guess they need some for renovation, but hopefully they haven't missed one of the basics in supply and demand. If you double the price, you don't necessarily get twice the income...
It was nice, although our plan to take it easy yesterday backfired over a heap of Mojitos. We also went to Canary Wharf, a place I really like. The architecture is really nice, and the history about the development of the area since the 80s is amazing. To read more about the history of Docklands and Canary Wharf, click here.
Well, gotta go. To sleepyheads at King's Cross are about to get a wake up call in person..

Bird Flu

No, I'm not infected. I just wonder whether journalists are aware of the fact that ALL flus that arrive in our home countries from time to time are bird flus. So the fact that a bird flu is closing in on us is a bit silly. However, the effect of the different ones are varying, and the one this winter, H5N1, is maybe not that healthy for us.



To look behind the paperselling headlines in tabloid newspapers, check this Wikipedia article. I know it's not an encyclopedia to trust 100%, but it gives you a good starting point if you read it with scepticism.
I read a VERY American page to day:



I get the feeling Michael Moore has some good points in Bowling for Columbine, with the media creating a fear and all that... Let me quote:

"The looting in New Orleans is an example of what happens when governments and individuals don’t adequately prepare for a potential crisis."

Right, tell that the poor lot in New Orleans, who never had a home to secure... Sorry, you just prepared badly!

Closer..

..to completing term 1, by doing the exam on Thursday. The Finance exam went OK, but some administrative blunders didn't quite make my day. Well, we'll se what happens there. It's strange how empty I feel after ding an exam. I spend so much energy in those few hours, and the body seems to need some hours to reload the batteries. Today is Wednesday, and I have the last exam tomorrow. After the exam yesterday I just surfed the internet, spoke with friends on MSN and saw two crappy movies. Daredevil and Transporter 2. Not Bellini or von Trier, just some primitive actionmovies with plots and acting so thin you could see right through them. Perfect for a day like that.
I guess I'll be heading over to Leif (which has now become Leif & Beate, since she has returned from Norway) to pound in the last few thoughts before the exam tomorrow. I think I needed a day off after the exam (considering the fact that it ended 16.30 makes it half a day) and now I'm ready to absorb knowledge! Again.
Other news, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, when Karl Kristian and Joakim will arrive, intending to show me how to sightsee a whole weekend in London without using the tube. Bring good shoes, boys! :) I once heard that there only lives 5,000 persons in the City, while 700,000 work there. Talk about commuting! And talk about tubing...

Music tip of the day: Iron & Wine - Cinder And Smoke

Another football post?

Well, sort of. However, I'll try to refrain from commenting to much on events in the matches. Even though Leif and myself was sitting and reading today, we had a pizza break which happened to be at the same time as Leicester-Tottenham. We didn't see that much of the game, the interesting thing was that it was the 3rd round in the FA Cup. That means clashes between teams from lower divisions and Premier League teams.
And there I reach my topic of this post. This is the essence of why the FA Cup is a classic. You have David versus Goliath, amateur players get the opportunity to play against football mega stars. One of the matches today was Burton Albion versus Man Utd. Through heroic fighting during the entire match, they secured a repaly match at Old Trafford. The match ended 0-0, and think of the confidence boost the Burton team must have felt. The goalkeeper kept a clean sheet, against world class strikers such as Ronaldo, Rooney and Solskjær...
After the match, players and the coach of Burton was interviewed. On BBC. The definition of 15 minutes of fame. Pictures from the wardrobe with players celebrating with champagne and a premade (!) banner depicting "WE'RE GOING TO OLD TRAFFORD!" A routine day at the job for the Man Utd players, a memory for life for Burton. And think of the feeling when entering Old Trafford, the largest football stadium in England, and you are about to play a match there...



Also, another funny thing to observe was how important different managers thought the match was. Premiership and Championship managers were interviewed in sweaters, while the managers from lower divisions was dressed up in their finest suits, preferably with the tie in the club colors. Of course, it was a big day for them as well. The Essence.

One day closer...

To the exams waiting in the horizon. Another productive day in Matisse Court (Leif's place) working with Shipping Economics. I'm starting to get the feeling that I have successfully managed to put a lot of information inside my head without it exiting. For now... Now, the challenge is to systemize the knowledge and be able to get the right information out on the exams... time will show!
My return to Haugesund during Easter is bought from Ryanair, more precise I'll be visiting jolly, good old Norway April 12-18. Looking forward to it! However, I have a curricular mountain to climb in the meantime. I may be masochistic, but I look forward to it! Music tip for the day:

The Long Winters - Blue Diamonds

Still going strong!

The weather is grey outside, but I don't care. After all, it's nothing compared to the winter on the Norwegian West Coast. (OK, I'll stop talking about the weather). Leif Olav and myself have spent two whole days working with Shipping Economics, and I feel we have a quite good grasp of the entire curriculum. Today we'll try to sum things up a bit and answer some previous exams along with reading fresh market reports and outlooks to get a grasp what have been and what will be going on.
I wrote a post a couple of days ago, but it miracously disappeared. It was about Christmas and New Year's Eve, and it was of course the best piece of material I have ever written. At least that's what I can say now... Anyway, I'll try to give a short version. First of all, the Christmas holiday had one flaw. It was over WAY too fast. I had a great time with Elisabeth, family and friends, and the food was ten notches above my everyday meals in London. I was well taken care of!
New Year's Eve was celebrated at Anna and Tommy, it was a great party. Although I had seen many of my friends earlier in the holiday, I was fortunate so see all of the that night! I have some great pictures, but due to the fact that I left the camera in Haugesund, none of them will be posted at the moment..
Next weekend, after the exams, Joakim and Karl Kristian will pay me a visit. I suppose I'm required to give them a tour of London, so maybe I'll get tickets on one of those sightseeing buses.. For them of course... On Saturday we're going to Craven Cottage to see Fulham vs Newcastle, and as that stadium is located directly by the Thames, I suggest you bring warm clothes, boys! Karl Kristian is destined to see Camden as well, so beware Gyldenpris! More obscure t-shirts and shorts will arrive shortly!



Sildajazz 2005 when Karl Kristian and myself decided to supply our hawaii shorts with fresh air.

Also, I'm applying for a trainee job in Statoil nowadays as well. It's gonna be a very hectic semester with lectures (which require a LOT of reading before and after each), group and individual assignments along with applying for jobs. What can I say? I LOVE it!