End of an Era

“It takes a long time to grow young.”
Pablo Picasso 

Zone 30 is definitely over.

Forward…

...And Down

I’ve just read an interesting article about Time zone: Russia's president yesterday decreed that in the interest of efficiency, the country was dropping two of its 11 time zones, going down to single digits like every other country in the world.

When we lived in Beijing it was hard to imagine being in such a large country with only one time zone (read it here).  Everybody was on Beijing time even when you lived 2,000 miles west of the capital. Your watch would say 12 o’clock but the sun was telling you another story, more like 10 o’clock.

Russia drops two time zones to boost economy
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia, the world's largest country, reduced the number of its time zones to nine from 11 on Sunday after President Dmitry Medvedev said this could make the giant nation more manageable to run and boost its economy.
Medvedev said in a state of the nation address last November that the sprawling nation which lies in both Europe and Asia ought to reduce the number of its time zones and that China and the United States ran efficiently with much fewer time zones.
Last week, Medvedev ordered the government to cut the number of time zones, saying "this can help to breathe new life into business activity."
As Russia adjusted its clocks forward one hour on Sunday morning to shift to summer time, its easternmost Chukotka and Kamchatka peninsulas, located near the U.S. state of Alaska, went from being nine hours ahead of Moscow to eight, joining the same time zone as the neighboring Magadan region.
The Samara region on the Volga river and Udmurtia in the Urals -- the European part of Russia -- lost their own time zone one hour ahead of Moscow and were brought into line with Moscow time.
Kemerovo, the only Siberian region four hours ahead of Moscow, joined a group of Siberian regions three hours ahead of the Russian capital.
Russia occupies some 17 million square km (6.6 million square miles), making it by far the largest nation in the world, and covers more than a ninth of the Earth's land area.
Medvedev has suggested that the number of Russia's time zones could eventually be reduced to just five.
He has also told government experts to study whether to continue the practice of shifting summer to winter time and back every year.

I’ve Been Robbed…

…An Hour Of My Vacation

Well in fact not really because Saint Barts doesn’t observe Daylight Saving. There is no such thing as “Spring Forward and Fall Back” to remember just like when we lived China, it’s always the same GMT.
But we’ll have to remember to set the clock forward when we land in Stavanger or the kids will get to school really early on the Tuesday morning.

Flickr

We Are...

...Over There

Back to the traditions of giving you a visual of where we are actually going.

So we are currently living here:

all the way there... in the North

and we are going there:

all the way down... in the Caribbean

What do you mean you don't see where we are going?... Ok let's zoom in a little

Roll your mouse over to have a visual aid

A little closer:

closer:

We Are Outta Here

...See Ya

Going to St Barts… see you in 12 days.

No woolly underwear needed!

What Do You Mean…

… We Are Not Flying AF

You know your kids might be taking planes too often when they have preferred Airlines Companies!!

Chloe asked me which airlines we were taking when we go on our trip in a couple of days (she was concerned about having individual TV set in the planes) and when I told her it’s was KLM she replied: “But why, we ALWAYS take Air France, I like Air France why did we change!”

Well baby if Maman could take a low cost airline for the first time ever when she went to Paris with her friends, I think you can tough it up and take KLM (which by the way is part of Air France!)

The good old days of Business Class travel

Spring Is Here...

...Really?

First sign in my garden:

spread little flower, spread...

Vendalism...

...in Stavanger

One interesting spot in Stavanger is the Tutt tree around Mostvanet Lake where children leave their pacifiers when they have “decided” they don’t need them anymore. Apparently a couple of days ago a woman took upon herself to save that very same tree from “asphyxia”. Eirill Bakketun took the matter in her own hands and started cutting down hundreds of teats hanging from the tree.

Photo: Kim Fredriksen

Might Need To Take Another Mortgage…

…If I Keep On Wanting To Relive My Beijing Days

Opportunities to go to lunch with friends keep coming my way; farewell lunches, old friend visit lunches, newcomers lunches, get-together lunches, etc, etc…

But I remember a time not so long ago where for the price of a sandwich in Stavanger I could lunch on a 3-course meal at one of Beijing best restaurant… life is so cruel some time!!

Click on the picture to enlarge Click on the "Back" button of your browser to come back to this page

To top it off I read in one of the last RSS I receive from blog/magazines about China, this year Beijinger Restaurant Awards.

“Maison Boulud” won (Non-Chinese) Restaurant of the Year, Best French, Best Wine List, Best Romantic Meal, Best Service and Outstanding Décor.
A couple of my canteen restaurants (ie restaurants which were regularly on our weekly “Let’s Do Lunch” list) also won some of the awards: “Element Fresh” won Best American and outstanding Family Friendly and the Brunch award; “Mosto” won outstanding Wine List, Romantic Meal, Best Chef, Business lunch and Non-Chinese Restaurant of the Year (Salt being the 3rd prize). “Assagi” won outstanding Italian. “LAN” the restaurant decorated by Philippe Starck won not surprisingly Best Décor and outstanding For Impressing Visitor. In the twist of faith the 3 restaurants on the Best Business Lunch were some of our favorite (“Alameda” one of the first restaurant we tried and kept coming back, “Mosto” became one of our favorite (it was opened by one of the chef of Alameda) and “Salt”, a little out of our way and from the former owner of Alameda….I guess the 3 restaurants are kind of all linked to one another, and they sure know how to please the business wo/men!!). Some of our family favorite restaurants were also on the list: “Hatsune” (Sushi restaurant) won Best Japanese, and outstanding Décor. “Da Dong”, THE restaurant for Beijing KaoYa-北京烤鸭 (Peking Duck) won Best Chinese restaurant of the year, Contemporary Chinese and of course Best Beijing Duck and Best to Impress visitors (We preferred the less touristy “Duck de Chine” who won Outstanding Beijing Duck). Even Chloe’s favorite Hotpot (“Little Sheep”) and Vietnamese restaurant (“Va Va Voum”) won outstanding prize.

Quite an impressive list and not all our favorite restaurants are listed... We did have a lot of practice sampling restaurants in the 3 years we lived in Beijing!

I’ll Build My Own…

…Snowboard

With all this snow and our ski trip to the mountains, Jeremy’s been inspired and brought his “snowboard” to school today.

If you want something (done right), do it yourself.

"Fashionable...

...In Rainy Weather"

My my time flies, it’s already that time of the month when I present what’s available to you who might also live in rainy weather but yet want to stay 'fashionable'

First the boots… after last month red ‘cow girl’ boots for Valentine let’s go back to basic with black ones

look almost leathery

And with the nicer weather bound to come sooner and later, I might have to head back in town to do some shopping.   But how do you carry your multiple shopping bags and hold your umbrella at the same time? The Japanese have the answer:

Might not be that easy to use in crowded street

Wonder if she uses this umbrella:

Wonder(bra) indeed!

What’s That Green Thing…

….In My Garden?

I haven’t seen the grass in my garden since December 19 when we left for Sirdal and it started to snow in Stavanger. 3 months later and with the help of the rain in the last couple of days the snow is finally melting and the grass (as green as ever!) is making a come back.

Welcome back

School or…

…Mud wrestling?

One of the good thing about living in Norway it’s that kids wear raingear to go to school and on days like that it’s a blessing!

Before

You put it in the shower and voila:

After

International...

...Women's Day

International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.  (IWD)
In China, women usually have half-day off work. When I complained to my ‘management’, he mentioned that every day was Women’s day at Casa De Suiter!

I find it ‘interesting’ that IWD is a national holiday in only the following countries: China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

But back to Norway

Norway tops gender gap index, Yemen ranked worst.
Nordic countries provide the greatest equality for women when it comes to economics, education, politics and health. Equal pay, labor force participation rates, literacy rates, enrollment in tertiary education, female representation in parliament, life expectancy and sex ratios at birth are most equal in Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Female empowerment is embraced more today than any other time in world history. And in the global push for gender equality in everything from business to politics, education to health, it's Europe that has made the greatest strides to close the so-called gender gap.

The World Economic Forum, the nonprofit organization known for its annual economic summit in Davos Switzerland has been publishing an annual Global Gender Gap Report since 2006 that ranks countries by their gender performance.

Norway, Finland and Sweden are ranked the best countries for gender equality. Those Nordic countries and their Western European neighbors account for 16 of the top 30 countries with the greatest gender parity in the world.

Meanwhile, the US ranked at only No. 27, behind Lesotho (No. 16), Mozambique (No. 18) and Moldova (No. 20). The worst-ranked countries were sprinkled throughout the Middle East and Asia. Garden spots like Chad (129th), Saudi Arabia (128th) and Pakistan (127th) populated the bottom of the list. Yemen ranked absolutely worst at No. 130.

The Global Gender Gap Report measures the size of the gender gap (the disparity in opportunities available for men and women) for 130 countries in four critical areas:
- economic participation and opportunity
- health and survival
- educational attainment
- political empowerment.

Full article here. France (because I have to mention France!) ranked 15th. It’s interesting to see that while Norway score well in Economy Participation & Opportunity, it scores a lot worst for Health and Survival (53th) which is the exact opposite of France (53th in Economy Participation & Opportunity but 1st in Health & Survival and in Education)

So all this talk because a few weeks ago I happened to come across an article mentioning that Norwegian women must pay higher insurance premiums in the name of gender equality while most European women continue to get a better deal since they are less accident-prone and hence considered a lower risk than men.
“In a country that takes equality so seriously women must now pay the same insurance premiums as men in the name of equality. In 2003, the Norwegian Equality Ombudswoman ruled that preferential insurance rates based on gender were unlawful and gave insurers two years to justify such pricing practices.” 

Keeping Busy…

…And Trying A New Craft

Here’s another hobby I can add to my long list. True to myself and after trying Silver Jewelry making, I have now moved on a truly Norwegian craft; Felting. What is felting? Well one thing it is not is this! but it’s close enough since it involves wool and soapy warm water!

Wool, warm soapy water... I should be able to do it!

Living Large…

...Or Back to my Beijing lifestyle.

Living in cheap Beijing had its ups (you always remember the good days, not so much the bad days… and truth be told I didn’t have many bad ones) such as massage, pedicure/manicure, luncheons, tailors, etc, etc...  Since moving to Stavanger, my lifestyle and social life has been hit by the recession but today was one of those 'I live a privilege life' moment.

The day started with a coffee meeting at Café Français (not my suggestion!) with a group of ladies, followed by a private film screening (What happened to the Morgans?) and since we weren’t going to part just before lunch time we decided to eat at a Thai restaurant. Then I had to go back to my job (aka Mom-in-Chief) for a few hours but it turned out that I had a girls’ dinner planned for that very same day.

All in all not a bad day.

The Medal Count…

...All Over Again!

Is it 2008 all over again?

Winter Olympics 2010 Medal Count – USA Placed First

The Winter Olympics has been a mega event with full of sad and happy moments for different countries.
The United States of America won the record of having the most medals during the event. The States won 9 gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze medals which totals to 37. It is also the first time that the United States became the overall medal winner at the Winter Olympics Games History.
Germany grabbed the second spot by gaining 30 medals including 10 gold, 13 silver and 7 bronze.
While the host country, Canada placed third with 26 medals – 14 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze. The event finished on a good note for Canada because they won the last gold medal for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The sporting event made the athletes and people of Canada united because they were able to set a record for their country. The most medals that Canada won is around 14 and having 26 medals this year made them all proud.
On the other hand, Norway finished fourth with 9 gold medals equivalent to USA.

BUT the Olympic medals table was always listed on who won the most Golds, then Silver, then Bronze. The US media started to list medals count by most medals during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing when they were leading in overall medals but China was in the lead with Gold medals. So if you count by Gold medals, Canada came first (with 14), Germany was second with 10, followed by the USA and Norway with 9.

Let’s go a step further and see how well a country does in proportion to its population: Norway would lead with 4.82 medal per 1 million inhabitant, followed by Austria (1.91 medals/1M), Slovenia would come third (1.47 medals/1M) Sweden (1.19 medals/1M) and Switzerland (1.18 medals/1M) would round up the top 5., Canada would be 8th (0.78 medals/1M) and the USA 20th (0.12 medals/1M). France would be 17th 0.17 medals/1M (sources 1 & 2)

March...

...Photo Update

Ok it’s time for the Facebook Profile Picture update for all my friends who haven’t been converted since my last post!

Happy St Patrick's Day

And A Little Bit Of Culture..

...For Celine

After having a great time in the mountains skiing; it was time for some city outing. The main purpose of the trips was to renew Chloe’s 3 passports: French, USA and Argentina. For me it was back to civilization.

Chloe’s passport renewal was not as eventful as Jeremy’s last year and there were no melodrama with the passport photo either but when you don’t live in the country capital, you not only miss out on the diverse cultural exhibitions but you also need to make the trip for everything that has to do with administration (Chloe will even have to go back to Oslo to pick up her French passport in person!).

Oslo was cold and snowy… colder than Stavanger and snowier than Stavanger (What am I complaining about in Stavanger?!) but it was nice to be back in a big city (bigish… it’s about 590,000 inhabitants!).

So apart from 3 Embassies we went to the Viking Ship Museum (Vikingskipshuset), home of 2 of the world’s best-preserved Viking vessels from the 9th century and sections of a third one. The ships are considered to be among Norway’s greatest cultural treasures

Gokstad ship excavated in 1880, the 24m (79ft) long ship has 16 pieces of planking on each side compared to the Oseberg’s 12 pieces

Oseberg ship 90 per cent of the 22m (72ft) long ship is of original wood

Norsk Folkemuseum, an open-air museum featuring 150 reconstructed townhouses, farm buildings and churches from Norway’s past.

The National Gallery (Nasjonalgalleriet) to see the Scream (Skirk) painted by Edvard Munch in 1893. We even made a pit stop at the geology museum (wonder whose idea this was?!!) and stroll around the city center with a quick look of the royal palace from outside

Not my idea!

the Rodhust (City Hall)

and the Nobel Peace Center

Fresh from Obama's visit

We also managed to go see the granite sculptures at the Vigelandsparken. It is Oslo’s largest park and has 212 sculptures depicting humanity in all its forms. The focal point is the 17-m (56-ft) tall Monolith, comprising 121 human figures, supporting and holding onto each other.

Not too bad for a 3-day trip. We’ll have to come back in the spring or summer at some point since I would like to see Oslo under nicer weather.


Little anecdote I read somewhere about the stairs leading to the Royal Palace often referred as Eli-Trappa (Eli Stairs). (well you cannot see them under the snow on this picture!)

Eli-trappa

Eli is the wife of a prominent politician in Norway. One day (in 2001) she had to drop off her husband at the royal palace in Oslo for a government dinner. She had been to the palace grounds many times before but had never driven. Not sure where to go, Eli headed straight for the main road… down the palace stairs. She had driven off the palace circle road, past the Karl Johan statue and right over the mouth of the stairs. A little embarrassed, she drove straight home. When her husband called to see if she was all right she wouldn’t answer the phone. In fact, she didn’t answer the phone the whole night even though it was ringing off the hook. The media had gotten word of her ‘little embarrassment’ and were now camped outside her house pushing for an interview, a comment, a picture – anything!
Today, the palace stairs, Eli-trappa (the Eli stairs), has become a house-hold name.

A Little Bit of Nature...

...For Jeffrey

It’s school holidays again and we are going to Fidjeland. It sounds exotic, doesn’t it? Well dream on because it’s not where you think… it’s Fidje NOT Fiji (oh I wish).

After our first trip to a company hytte and surviving it (oh how I miss my former life of 5* hotels in some far away paradise!) we found out a couple of weeks ago that the Management hytte was available (THE management hytte, how exciting!) so we once again packed everything we could think of (bed sheets, sleeping bag, salt/pepper, dish washer powder, woolly underpants, etc…!!!) and embarked on another trip to the mountains.

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for Jeremy’s first time on the ski slopes. It was also Chloe’s first time on the real ski slopes; her first try at skiing was another one of China’s experience! Jeffrey tried to remember his snowboard techniques and I was reminded that I’m not 20 years old anymore (well at least my knees let me know it!).

While I skied about twice a week in the 70s (I’m from the French Alps, home of the best ski and I skied for free then) to about once a week in the 80s then once a month in the early 90s (Au pair in Colorado has its advantages!), the last time I skied was in August 1999 just north of Santiago de Chile. While the technique was still there, my lack of exercise was cruelly showing!!!.

On a side note, while Jeremy can be the laziest person when I’m around; he picked up his skis and climb the slope when the baby Poma stood still for too long… there’s nothing like a girl to impress to make him do thing!