The thoughts and life of me

Due to my cold I was tired after a great night of relaxing with friends. So I decided to start the day a bit slow. I went to my parents house for lunch with my brother, two of my cousins, one with her boyfriend and their two year-old son. When I was there I decided I might as well stay for dinner. For most of the day the TV was on. What dominated the Norwegian TV today was, as far as I could tell 3 things. If you’ve seen the headline you can probably guess what they are.

1. The fact that the winter sport season has begun. Biathlon opening at Sjusjøen (East in Norway) was on. Norwegians really like watching people ski on TV during the winter. I admit I enjoy watching the competitions and cheering for the Norwegians as much as anyone.

2. The Chess World Championship. As you might have noticed Magnus Carlsen from Norway is participating in the Championship in India and he has now won two of twelve matches and two of the matches has gone to remiss, which is a draw. This is very good and due to this our country has gone a bit “chess crazy”. I must admit that even if I think it is I huge achievement for a 22-year-old to do this good and I really want him to win. Watching chess matches really is not my thing. Watching the recap after is more than enough for me.

3. Hilde. Hilde is a common name for Norwegian girls. But in this case the media attention was not about a girl but a storm.  The part of Norway where I live looks like we’re getting off really easy. But other parts of Norway are not that lucky. Yesterday, the city where I went to university, Bergen was flooded (yes, Bergen is known for its rain, but this was more than usual). Today it hit a bit further north. Platforms were evacuated, people are without electricity, roads are collapsing, houses are loosing their roofs and more. And it looks like it could get worse.

When I see disasters like the one in the Philippines, it’s easy to think that something like that won’t happen here, in safe little Norway. And well this storm might not be anything near as bad as things got over there, by far. But all natural disasters no matter the impact always remind me how fragile everything is. When it comes there is noting to do, but take your precautions and hope it will be over soon. And I really do hope this storm will blow over as soon as possible.