Category Archives: News

Many guys wrong

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Google mistranslation of an NRK webpage

50% of the population know this already ;)

Sorry to disappoint you, but this is not a salacious article about the quality of Norwegian men (with tips as to how to get an unruly one under control with two blocks of wood), but rather an amusing example of how Google Translate gets it wrong. The mis-translation is not so surprising given that the Norwegian title of the article is “Mange fyrer* feil” .

I am sure that there are probably quite a few ladies out there who would have benefitted from an article as to how to use their man effectively. Although, in many cases, one article might not have been enough…

The article actually gives some useful tips as to how to use a wood burning stove effectively. Which is very important to know at this time of year. You can read the Norglish auto translation of the article here.

*Fyrer is the verb ‘fire’ as in ‘set fire to’ (sette fyr på) or to fire a shot, and as a noun, the plural of the word for ‘bloke’.

Ten billion trees

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According to research carried out by Aksel Granhus of the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute there are more than ten billion trees in Norway. That works out at fifteen thousand trees per head of population. The estimate including all saplings and seedlings is around eighty billion trees.

Well that will give us something to aim for with our new chainsaw!

Reported in the Hallingdølen 22/11/2012

The whole fjord was boiling with dolphins

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The NRK has a series of pictures from Sortlandssundet in Vesteralen taken by a local journalist. She managed to get the coastguards to take her out into the sound on a boat where she took her photos. The coastguard said that while he had seen dolphins close to his boat before, he had never seen such activity in one place before.

Click here to see the pictures and the article in Norwegian.

Click here to read the article in Norglish.

Newsflash: power cut in Gol

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We’ve just had a power cut here in Gol. At first I thought it was just our building, but then I noticed that there were no lights on in the Kommunehus next to us. We still had net access here at work thanks to a small Wifi router that has a large backup battery. I checked our webcam and discovered that it stopped transmitting pictures just after eight thirty this morning. So don’t expect any webcam updates until I get the chance to restart the Mac mini.

It made me think back to the 1970’s in Britain: those grim years of the energy crisis and the three day week, when oil prices were driven up dramatically by OPEC. In Britain, workers went on strike and the power industry workers joined in. I remember family evenings huddled round a tiny Russian built portable telly connected to a car battery, watching the BBC, eating dinner by candlelight and bathing in a bucket. Such happy memories.

The mayor is dead, long live the mayor

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I came into work yesterday to find two emails, both sent on Sunday, both informing council employees of the death of our mayor. Olaug Grønseth Granli had been fighting cancer for some time and finally died in her sleep on Sunday.

I don’t remember meeting her in person and also don’t know the details of her illness. However, there are many of my collegues who did know her personally and who are now in mourning for their friend, collegue, political opponent and relative. It has been very quiet here in the council offices in the last couple of days.

It is a strange situation for me to be in, not being personally affected in any way, yet being surrounded by people who are. It makes me think of the Heinrich Böll short story entitled “My Sad Face” for some reason.

The funeral will take place on Friday this week.

The mayor is dead, long live the mayor.