To Health and Happiness!

Hi there,

SO.....I started again.... to focus on my health and fitness when I am not working. When I was living in the Netherlands and especially in Utrecht and Amsterdam I saw hundreds if not more joggers out on the streets and when I was not out there with them I felt somewhat lazy if I am honest. But with my health having been a huge challenge the last 2 years I have had to cut down on the 10km runs and hours of gym fitness I used to manage just fine. 

Being back in Odda helps, I am taking the fitness quest on at my own rate. Nature lures me out and the motivation to get my health back on track slowly but surely. Come rain or shine I need to focus and keep sight of what is important to me right now. 

I started running a few weeks ago and walking the old dog of my brothers was a good start. Having hip dysplasia and being a oldie she was a good excuse to begin with slow and small walks. But 3 weeks ago I had my first run in a long time and it did not feel half bad even if it was just a few km. A week after that I upped the game and started on a 10km trail that leads to my dad's place. I could not run the whole 10km but did interval laps until I was at their place. It was bloody hot as well and I could have chosen a better time to go but hey I finished at it felt very good indeed. 

This week I am jogging a uphill and downhill trail from Hjøllo- Mannsåker- Hovden/Sandvind Lake- Tungebrekke and back to Hjøllo from there. It is a 7-8km route but more challenging and muscle building. This route also has a very beautiful scenery to take inn while on the go. I tend to meet familiar faces on the way as well and I have the potential to make the run longer as I progress to Jordal and Buer. 

For reasons unknown to doctors my health is very up and down for a while now and I am trying to slowly let my body heal with a combination of work- workouts-relaxation which believe it or not is a very hard combination to manage.  Especially with the hours I work I cannot always get the ratio of these elements I would have wished to have. Nevertheless I keep trying and I notice that my mind is calmer after the runs and if I get the late shifts at work I can do a run before work as well. 

In a very busy world it can be hard to fit it all into a plan. But when your health depends on it you just have to. Who would have guessed that what used to be an addiction now is crucial to keep me healthy? It is life's irony and it is kind of funny to be completely honest. For me I truly think that for my health, coming back to Norway was the best choice right now, not too much pressure here. Yet for my social life...well that is a TOTAL different story heheeheheh. But cheers to health and happiness which is all that matters right now ! 

Laters peeps ;)

x Viking

How strange and wonderful

Hi there,

Is it just me or is the world getting wackier by the day?

It sure feels like that, because there are so many things going on yet again. At times there are too many thoughts in my head, too many considerations and I shut down. Yet despite these moments everyday I am learning new things about myself. I see that as a positive side to all the craziness and the fact that I am learning to grow new bonds with people in my family. Sometimes when bad stuff happens around you it can have the great side-effect of drawing people together. It certainly feels like that is how it is like with my dad and his family. Sure we have our differences, but we are learning to understand and to communicate those differences as a whole family unit. I am glad I have them now and it feels like they are glad to have me here.

Whilst my head is busy it feels like they are my pillars of stability. Also happy that I have friends that despite the distance from the Netherlands to Norway keep in touch and stay supportive and helpful in their feedback. 

As I told my dear friend Jessie today, I am finding back to the core of myself now. Being single and back at square one does that to you. And let us face it, square one twice does not really happen BUT it is a feeling none-the-less ;) Whilst the work-situation has to change I would like to highlight that work is not all you are. Too many people forget how much of a trace they leave on the people surrounding them. The ring effects of oneself are often overlooked by the most humble. I would not call myself overly humble after living 5 years in NL yet I am not so good complimenting myself or my own achievements from within. I spoke a whole lot to my dad and his family about it. Shared some thoughts now and in the past, compared how I used handle things and how I handle them now. I realise that I changed a lot in social settings but that deep down certain things are still wild and unruly, terrifying and traumatised yet sharp and clear cut. I could have given up last year when my whole life felt like it was falling apart. I was writing a letter even to say sorry I give up this shit see u in space peeps! Yet somewhere inside me I found that wild child that would have none of that. I was so ready to give up and there she was, that spirit of mine that kicked inn every-time things got bad. I had to get angry to find the strength to carry on. I had to accept how depressing and shitty I felt and to get over it and find a solution. I still remember how embarrassed I was to ask for help. Really kudos on Jessie, Noelia, Robert, Jo, Yvette, my Dad and his lovely lady Jorun as well as Paul for being so strong and helpful when I was nothing but an angry, lost and wild shut down prune of a person. I needed to be a prune for a while, just get all the shit out of my system ;) 

I firmly believe we are too obsessed about showing a fake positivity as a society so we are preceived in a nice light on social media. After facebook and instragram people became more aware how one picture or sentence online can change how people look at you forever. This means of course that a moment in time with harsh times hanging over your head could mean a potential personal disaster ! I get that people are scared of this and I get that negativity can be overwhelming and unnecessary as a constant as well. Duh! I am not stupid! Of course we need happiness as well to shine. But why is it we are so scared to feel vulnerable and to show the purity of our emotions? Why is it so important to be so damb positive all the time even when it is untrue and actually a fake projection of how we wish to be? I mean would we really want to be anything else than human? A human is not perfect or happy all the time right? 

It dawned on me when I went through what felt like hell and back that people did not accept the depressed version of me at all. At least not most people. To find a comfort when all else seems dark and unlivable is hard and I was darn lucky to have Noelia and Jo at that point in my life. What happened to people just giving each other a hug or glass of wine and room to heal ? Has facebook and other social media made us less capable of physical and actual communication? What happened to dragging your depressed friend out on a movie night with friends or just offering a shoulder so one could mourn a  loss of a loved one or to contemplate what to do next? We should be better and I am also referring to myself in this. I wish I was as good with my words in person as I can be in writing. It is not so I am afraid and right now, I am learning this the hard way. 

We are all humans, however due to these advances in technology and our absorption of it we really need to be reminded of it sometimes. We are such a social species dependent on actual contact with actual humans so fear of making mistakes or seeming imperfect should not stop us. Those are the very things that make us better, make us learn about ourselves.

You could argue it is just me and not the world that is getting wackier of course;)

xo

Viking

The Hometown Metaphor

Hello dear readers,

The days are passing here in Odda as if nothing ever happened. It has given me a lot and maybe even too much time to reflect on certain moments in my life. It has also given me shitloads of time to spend with my family. The sane part of it that is ;)

I am learning that they have changed as well as one would do through the years. Young sisters have a family, older brothers as well. Younger siblings are turning into young adults with their own character and personality helping define their paths.

I always joke that nothing changes in Odda, that people stay more or less the same and that the world around it just moves whilst Odda remains the same. As a sort of Hobbiton  if you will.

It is of course  just a metaphor like the one Tolkien made in his book, a metaphor of his home. The feeling hometowns gives of not changing might just be us hoping it will not subconsciously. Yet even in the books of Tolkien as well as other authors that have these vivid metaphors for their hometowns show us just how much i changed in the end of their book if not sooner. It very often has a dramatic flare to it and a melancholic aftertaste of sorts. Whilst I think changes in Odda is a good thing I certainly do not find them dramatic. I guess the funny twist to my story is that coming back to this town makes me feel like I stood still all this time. That might be a dramatic flare from my side I suppose or just me feeling I have not done enough in my time. It is relatively easy to feel like you are standing still in a world that moves so fast around you and let´s not forget. It is more than possible to feel like a random mistake when everyone else seem to have it all sorted out.

Yesterday I made a first step in a huge decision, it is still not set in stone yet but if I go through with it next year I know it will change my life forever. Though I am not going to tell what it is right now it does make me feel rather happy to think about making this step. It has nothing to do with a man at all, it is something completely different and more importantly I am making the step for myself and nobody else. All I can say is that even though it is something that is more probable to happen in the course of next year it is something that feel strangely natural and very rewarding and the journey starts here.

Photo uploaded from Google Images

Also thinking of taking some extra courses when there is time and stability for it. I am looking at the option of moving to Stavanger now after September because if I could find myself a management job or tech.support job there it would be perfect for what I plan to do. If that latter does not happen I will have another look at the UK and the Netherlands options again. It is about time to figure stuff out because Odda is beautiful and it is where I grew up but it will not do much for me since I do not intend to work at the factory for a living. I wanna do grand things, i wanna use my brain as much as possible and I wanna see new things and go places. I wanna feel like every freaking day will be a different adventure and though Odda is nice in lots of ways, it certainly does not leave me with that feeling. It might be a place to come back to for when I need to gather myself when I have fallen, but it is not a place I find myself growing and developing my life further.

Xx Viking

Tourism and Trolltunga

Dear readers,

I have been back in Norway and my hometown Odda for about a month now and being a real ¨Oddabu¨ I realize that what to me makes common sense might not to tourists.

Daily people visit the diner I currently work part-time at, not only to eat but to ask for bus times, directions, taxi, shop opening hours, how to get to their hotel and asking how long it takes to get to Trolltunga. Some tourists are aware it is a long hike to Trolltunga (between 7-10 hours hike back and forth depending on condition). It is not possible to get there by car just to take a photo and wearing good hiking gear is a must. 

Months of June-July-August are so busy you might have to wait in line to get a picture of yourself on the rock and it makes no sense to me that so many people want to hike that far and stand in a que that long either but then I guess we did not have a tower to visit so a 10 hour hike was the next best ;). 

A few days ago I had an guy from India asking how to get to Sjeggedal (the starting point of the Trolltunga hike). He got annoyed when I told him he could take a taxi if no one could drive him, his hotel was also in that area and so his only option to get back to Sjeggedal was by taxi or to ask someone for a ride. Now I am no expert on travelling or anything , but if I go travelling I make sure I can get back and forth to my hotel without problems. And if someone helps me along the way I am grateful not annoyed. I had no idea so many people choose not to plan stuff like this. To me it makes common sense really. I enjoy living in cities that are international or influenced by ¨globalism¨. Yet sometimes I have to sigh at certain people´s ability to push responsibility over on other people when they clearly did not plan the most important features of their trip. Sure some things are not really necessary to plan and in many ways that is what makes a journey an adventure. Yet transport , flights and a place to stay etc. are kind of a must to plan if you ask me. 

Not too long ago a Swiss lady pushed her head into our kitchen at the diner ,  she asked how much a ferry would cost from Utne. I told her she should call the number stated on the board outside since I had no clue and urged her to ask tourist information if this did not work. After all I was just helping in the kitchen of a bar which has nothing to do with ferry times. The lady did not take no for an answer and pushed her annoying self into my space and insisted she needed the price. I repeated myself when one of my male colleagues got annoyed and asked her kindly to step out of the kitchen area and that she needed to call the number on the ferry board and he emphasised we were not the tourist information. I had to giggle to myself while prepping the garlic dressings, because the kitchen staff can be very blunt compared to me and sometimes it turns out a good thing.

    Photo by: Me- ODDA and it's surrounding mountains in all it's glory :)

Tourism is good for Odda and most times I choose to think people would wanna know which kind of country they are going to and what to watch out for. Might be I am a bit bitchy when it comes to helplessness. Maybe that is due to my strong belief in evolution or just the fact that such helplessness picks away at my patience. It might just be my personal preference to feel independent and not feel helpless in these situations. Even so, this world does not favour helplessness so some people should just toughen up and plan more from where I am standing ;) Welcome to Norway peeps, the land of the Vikings the land of kind but though people:P

xx Viking

The People You Meet

Hi there peeps,

Not too active these days. Mostly keeping busy with work and such things and as planned that is pretty much claiming most of my time. It feels good to do something again even if I did not go to university to serve people there is a goal in trying to start over fresh. Most days I just want to jump on a plane or a bus and get away, but then I meet some nice tourists at work which brings that nomadic feel back that I always long for when I am restless. A hint of the travelling spirit and dreaming of where to go next keeps me focused somehow. Strange but true indeed that I need some sort of adventure in my life. Another brilliant newsflash is that a really good friend of mine will visit me in July. Another Dutchie to make the city of Odda a dangerous place is just what I needed ! ;) 

The people I meet are really so important in a sense, these impulses are very much needed to feel alive and to evolve. Does that sound strange? You see, in my experience that is what many people need in their lives (to a certain extent that is). In order to feel life and to get a sense of inspiration to our humanity we need people around. New acquaintances as well as old ones are important because they help shape us. I spoke to a new friend of mine the other day, she told me how annoying people tended to ruin her day. Of course it can be annoying when people are rude and inconsiderate, but it also gives and innate reminder to us how we wish to be treated, experienced and who we wish be in this world and our communities. It reminds us what we are not willing to do or become when we see something we consider as inappropriate behaviour.

The other more pleasant scenario is that we meet someone who seem very kind and warm. Someone who in a positive manner manage to want you to aspire to become more like them or just improve yourself. Those people are the kind that leaves a nice footprint on your soul and they put a smile to your face just because of who they are. They inspire in a whole different way and they give us energy just because they are the way they are.  

The people we meet are important, I learned this a long time ago and right now it is important to keep that in my mind whilst I ruminate on how I wish to proceed with my life. What is my next  endeavour and how much time do I need to spend working in my hometown to get there?  Of course I have ideas, many in fact yet I ponder how viable some of them are and I would like to have an answer to this before I continue on my journey. I honestly have no clue where I will go to next, my life truly feels like blank sheet of paper where I am the artist with the quivering hand trying to make something beautiful and pleasing to the imaginative mind.

xo Viking

    Photo by Me: Sandvind Lake in Odda 2016