It has been a crazy busy past couple weeks since I last posted. In that time I've made a 6 person Thanksgiving dinner, gone skiing at Hemsedal again, moved to a new apartment and gone to London (and gotten stranded there) for work. Aaaand now I'm sick, so probably gonna take a sick day tomorrow.
I'm gonna start with pics from turkey day, the highlights being my now legendary (yes, legendary) apple and pumpkin pies.
They turned out oh so well and were well received by all my Norwegian officemate guests. By the by, this was the first such American holiday for all of them and they embraced it entirely, who wouldn't? Much wine and food was had and I surprisingly handled everything properly regarding proportions and timing. The turkey was the easiest part and that also come out pleasantly.
Before...
...after
Delish! Clementine was not impressed:
Although she was pleased when I gave her leftovers. Unlike Zimmer, she is an avid carnivore and is constantly trying to skim scraps off my plate. This time around there was definitely enough to go around.
The group:
From left to right: Bjorn Inge, Jorgen, Stig, Kjersti, and Stefan. A great crew for dinner if ever I saw one!
Two last pics of the setup and the aftermath:
Next up the London trip which was the epitome of yin and yang. The British are apparently the most pathetic people when it comes to dealing with snow, a couples inches of accumulation and the whole country goes to pieces. It was hard enough to get into the country but getting out proved to be more than the UK airline system could handle. I was supposed to get back on Friday morning and ended up being stranded there the entire weekend.
On the plus side, the work meetings were awesome as did the dinner for clients and the drinks that followed. And then there was the after drinks drinks where me and a few officemates explored the London bar scene. Somehow we ended up at a place with go-go dancers like so:
So yeah, yay work! Eventually I made it back alive but I wouldn't be remiss if another UK trip doesn't pop up on the radar any time in the near future.
Lastly I went skiing again the weekend after Thanksgiving, this time with a different group and a different cabin.
We also made the trip up in a slightly more cozy vehicle, i.e. a tiny-ass Peugeot.
Very cozy. The conditions were a little worse this time around as they hadn't gotten snow in a while, but there was a new lift open so we got the chance to scour a new part of the mountain. We got pretty aggressive too as despite the low snow levels we spent most of our time off-piste trying to hit any patch of fresh snow we could identify. We also did up the Hemsedal after-ski scene a lot more and it was a great time, even though it's still early season.
Arne Olav, the man, the myth, the legend
From right to left: Karolina, Dag, and random photo-bomber
Lively crowd, note the half naked chick in the bottom left...
I leave you with a portrait of a master; intrepid skiier and Nordic adventurer Sebastian Mankowski
