What I think about my Polar Pulse monitor…

Last summer I spent about 1100 NOK buying a Polar Pulse monitor/wrist watch when I was on holiday in Germany. It’s a great thing to have to make sure you keep up the pace when training. And it was great, for about half a year. Then in January it started “acting up” on me. It either wouldn’t show my heart rate at all, or it would show a way to high heart rate. So I sent it to the service office in Oslo, and got it back about a week later with the message that it works fine and that I needed to make sure I clean it properly every time I use it!

I have made sure to clean it properly every time I’ve used it, since the time I bought it. And it still doesn’t work properly. Every time I use it, sometimes it still has trouble monitoring my heart rate or it shows a heart rate of about 220. Since I know for a fact that my max heart rate is 189, this is just not possible – it certainly isn’t possible when I even stop my training when this happens, sit down and wait for the monitor to be “normal” again – this sometimes takes several minutes – or suddenly it drops to 0!

Now I’m thinking maybe I should just donate the damned thing to Polar, along with a message saying that as I’m either about to die from my heart exploding (which it must be when I can have a heart rate of about 220 for 5 – 10 minutes at a time) or actually am dead already(which I must be when the pulse monitor can go on showing 0 heart beats for 5 – 10 minutes at a time) – I thought that they could perhaps find a new home for this Polar pulse monitor – that according to them, works just fine!!!

Here I go again!

Since the weather in the Eastern parts of Norway, well, sucks these days – and staying too long in Solör at a time is a bit, oh well, boring, me and a friend booked another trip to more southern parts of the world today. We’re going back to Playa Del Ingles, for one week from Friday the 9th of June. The flights are really cheap. We still haven’t booked a hotel, but there are plenty of those, and cheap too so shouldn’t be a problem. There might actually also be two other girls coming with us, they’re deciding on Friday. Should be great, I know it was last time – and I always think it’s important to have something to look forward too. And when you have something you look forward to a lot (like moving to England to be a student for example) it’s important to find things to do whilst waiting so the time passes faster.

Other than this? Really I couldn’t possibly have news to beat this could I? I’m working on my online course, doing my writing stuff, feeling bad about all the things I haven’t done that I should’ve, but I don’t think that’s particular to me, most people have those kinds of things in their lives. When my life is not concerned with writing and reading, it’s mostly concerned with where I’m going to travel next. Right now I wish I could also say that there were plans for a trip to Germany in the near future. There was for a while, but they got some how cancelled, and now there aren’t, and I’ve got friends there too that I miss a lot. Well, hopefully, if I can manage to get to Gran Canaria twice in two months, it certainly should be possible to make a short trip to Germany as well, soon!

Finland – winner of Eurovision!

Wow – My favourite – Finland and Lordi won this year’s Eurovision song contest! Finally, one of the few really good songs made it to the top!

Congratulations Finland – their first victory in Eurovision ever!

Will they ever rule the world?

We’ve got cats. We used to have 6, now we’ve only got 3. And I just love cats. They very often make me curious about just how much of the world they do understand.

This evening I was watching our male cat, Darwin (he’s 11 years old in June), sleeping actually, and suddenly I started thinking. I know us humans used to be not so awfully clever once upon a time, but that we’ve evolved into whatever creatures we are today, somewhat more clever than we used to be. If the world goes on some what in the same fashion as today, for another 3 – 4000 years, will cats evolve too? Not that I think that they will start talking and reason like us humans do today, but will they become smarter? Or will they, because they are domestic and taken care of in all aspects of life, just stay the same, because they don’t have to fend for themselves?

As I really love cats, I’d like to think that they will evolve and will become smarter than they are today, but what if they’re already smarter than we give them credit for – then what, if they indeed to become even smarter? Will future humans one day wake up and have their cat standing by their bed shouting at them: “hey, lazy, I’m used to getting my breakfast at 6 in the morning. I know this is a Saturday, but that’s no need for you to not make me my breakfast on time” or something like that…..

Happy Birthday!

For those of you who might not know, today on the 17th of May is Norway's national day. We celebrate it in remembrance of 17th of May 1814 when we got our constitution. All over the country people, especially children, will be putting on their best clothes, walking in parades with the Norwegian flag in their hand and shouting Hurray!

Me? Oh, I'll be watching it all on TV, and later on today I think we're probably off on a trip to... Sweden. But don't mention it to anyone; I'm not even sure if someone who is Norwegian is supposed to leave the country on such a day!!! :-)

But, hey, happy birthday everybody!

Another booze cruise!!

I’m off for a couple of days.

Today I’m heading to Son to stay with my aunt till tomorrow, and then together with a friend of hers we’re off on another booze cruise with Stenaline. It’s actually a booze cruise with a theme: Eurovision song contest! Yeah, I know it does sound kind of…. you know, I think it may be a great party though. Amongst the artists that are going to be there are Mr Eurovision himself Johnny Logan, and a Norwegian drag group Queentastic (they participated in the Norwegian Eurovision finals this year, didn’t win though).

On Saturday when the ship gets back to Oslo I’m staying with a friend till Sunday when I will at some time or the other go back to Solör.

The only thing bugging me about leaving today is that the sun is still shining and I definitely should have been outside working on my tan, but hey, I’ve been doing that for a week now and I don’t seem to get any darker in my colour than I am now (and that’s not much!!) – so today I’m choosing a couple of hours with shopping in Oslo, and then pizza and beer at the pub/restaurant Oliven in Son this evening. Doesn’t sound half bad, does it?

Have a nice weekend all!

Confession

I must once again admit that I’m not doing very much useful these days, that is, when it comes to my writing. And I blame it all on the weather: SUMMER IS HERE! And knowing Norway and Norwegian weather, I know it hasn’t come to last, because it is way too early for that. So this means that for a couple of days, perhaps even a week, us frozen pale Vikings get a small taste of summer – and I just have to enjoy it as much as I can. I simply can’t stay inside working on my studies or on my writing, I have to be outside, doing things in the sun, like gardening or going for long walks or trying out the bicycle, or, anything that is sun related, I can’t be inside these four walls in my not very dark but still a bit chill (and I like it that way because it’s nice when I go to sleep at night!) basement flat. That’s why I’m not writing or doing any of the other things I should be doing. The forecast has said something about rain and colder days come next weekend, so I guess that will have to be when I catch up with... stuff….

Another thing with this weather is that I find myself waking up a lot earlier in the morning (in my case, a lot earlier means around 0830 – 0900) and this means that I also gets sleepy at earlier times in the evening, so believe it or not – now I’m actually off to bed!

Sharing a moment

The very last night in Playa Del Ingles was a sad one, of course it was, we knew we were leaving the next day, at the same moment it was a happy one: I told my friend "we can't allow ourselves to be sad today just because we know tomorrow will be sad. What if tomorrow never comes, then we've spoilt our last day on Earth being sad, when really we should've enjoyed this evening and everything it's bringing to us" - or something like that, I guess I was in a philosophical mood. This kind of mixture of emotions always inspires me, I want to save the very moment for later so that I can bring it back clearly in my mind and remember how good I felt at that moment, and I want to share it, because I want other people to feel as well as I did just then. I sat in the Irish bar "Dunes&Tunes" that last evening and actually tried to put together a couple of poems that would describe how I felt just there and then. I wouldn't say I was very successfull. It's always so incredibly hard to paint pictures of moments with words so that others understand them as well. I do think I kind of succeeded in painting the moment to myself though, so that when I read this poem years from now, I'll still remember the happy feelings and the sadness and that evening and everything, and just because of that, I think it's worth sharing:

Dunes&Tunes

THIS
great singer
people passing me by
anyway…
how can
Those old country roads
take me home?

when

THIS
is now – and real
and where is home
when being here
between sand
and songs
is as good
as the last day on Earth?

So this is my moment, sitting in an Irish bar in Playa Del Ingles on the late evening of Tuesday the 25th of April 2005, feeling the wind from the ocean but still feeling warm, hearing the great singer and just watching the people passing by - and feeling so sad I have to leave but still so happy that I got to experience THIS moment.

1st of May – Labour Day

Being a Social Democrat of the Norwegian Labour party, I sort of feel compelled to write at least something about this day. But it is hard finding something to write about this day, because (and DO prepare to be shocked!!!) it has sort of lost its’ significance. I don’t really see what we gain by parading in the streets with poster demanding this or that, or saying something about… something…. for one day. There are so many wrongs in our society, and there are so many good causes to fight for – but to bring them all together, on one day, in one long parade, one demonstration, to me that just mean that none of them gets noticed at all.

Maybe it would’ve been better if there had been just one case, of big issue, that was demonstrated for all over Norway, and then those who really felt strongly about this one thing could go out and join the parade – perhaps then it would’ve had some significance, but as it is now…. no……I did actually walk in the parade in Oslo last year, together with the trade union school, but that was just to sort of have done it you know, to have participated in the parade in Oslo one year as well. I have been in the parade here in Solör a couple of times, when I was a bit younger (and perhaps a bit more idealistic), but really it is so small and so insignificant – who’ll ever notice? I think that in our society of today there are so many other ways of making your voice heard that are far more effective than joining the parade on 1st of May, and for me, it seems like at least some of those participating in the parade do this just to sort of show off what good social democrats they are, and there’s got to be plenty of other ways to do that, 364 other days of the year.

Having said that, I still feel it’s wrong that there are now more and more places of work that keep open on 1st of May. As this still is a National holiday, and it does traditionally have a significant meaning to most people of the working class, there should be some respect for that, and it seems so unnecessary for stores that sell plants (Plantasjen) to keep open on such a day when there are so many other days of the year that they get to sell their plants. To me it just seems like a provocation, and I just can’t see the reason to do that.

So, those are, I think my thoughts about 1st of May, I probably should “know better”, I mean with my political background and schooling from trade union school. And I really do recognize the importance of this day, historically, and I think it is important to remember those who have fought to gain the rights and privileges we have in our work life of today. But when fighting for our rights, here and now, I just don’t believe this is the way to do it.

And I’ll stop here, but leave you on this day with a photo from the parade that I DID participate in last year.