'Cause it's not a fixie and never will be. I have to admit though that the whole race bike craze didn't leave me unaffected. I really did enjoy the speed and agility of these things while trying them out back in Germany. But still, I can neither relate to the lack of the freewheel mechanism nor to the lack of brakes. I guess I'm just too pragmatic when it comes to that and need/want both. That's why the Alta bike I'm gonna buy off of Bleed (but which is already in my possession, muahaha) has these two little 'extras' :) Now I just need to re-negotiate the price a little...

Last weekend one of many Norwegian festivals took place here in Oslo, so-called Oslo Live. Next to Øya, Hove, Quart and Norwegian Wood it's probably one of the most well known and popular festivals here. And it's cheap too! Only 99NOK/10EUR for a day pass. But despite class acts like Klaxons, Diplo, Does It Offend You Yeah!, 2ManyDJs or Kleerup I didn't really feel the urge to go there, even though it was so close, right next to the Oslo marina and the town hall.

Last Saturday Stian and I decided to give it a try nonetheless. Luckily we found out that we could watch the whole thing from a nice spot atop the Festningen – for free. Well not entirely, after meeting with Thor Viggo and Vegard for some quality park chilling, we were actually kicked out by the royal guards at around nine... Still, it was fun while it lasted :) Got to see some swedish hip hop acts and a little bit of Diplo.

After that I saw the women of my dreams, we had a couple of cold ones at Fisk og Vilt, which is a pretty cool location unfortunately just crawling with fashion hipsters, and I ended up at Johan, Simon and Victor's place for some Nachspiel Johnnie Walker shots. Good fight, good night :D

This event actually already lies two weeks back but thus far I just hadn't had the time or patience to write about it. I might not have mentioned it yet, but the Bleed bureau is more or less shut down the entire July. Some people are going to come in at the end of the month to get some work done but I had my official last day at the office last Friday. To be honest, for me personally that's not even remotely true as I have shitloads of work on my agenda, mostly private but also one project for Bleed still. But more about that some other time.

Anyways, as sort of a start-of-the-summer thing, Astrid and Erik had planned a little company picnic on Gressholmen, one of the many islands right outside the Oslo harbor. The two of them had been cooking and preparing delicious treats pretty much half the day. After work, everyone (almost, Katrine and Miriam unfortunately couldn't join) took a cab to the ferry station, waited in the boiling heat for half an hour – it had been abnormally warm with degrees in the 30ies these two weeks, now it's gray, rainy and cold – and eventually landed on the island. After a fifteen minute walk we arrived a pretty nice spot close to the water. A gin tonic and a quick feet dipping in the cold cold fjord later Erik and Astrid unveiled their gourmet goodies. Homemade antipasti and salads, marinated seafood, fresh bread and tender beef – fingerlicking good stuff. So we stuffed ourselves with food, drank, talked and spent an altogether nice evening 'at the beach' (including a little sleeping on my part) until we headed home at about 11.

Overall a very cool thing to do despite it also being a tiny bit sad – it felt a little like a goodbye-event too. So thank you Astrid and Erik for organizing all of this, and everyone else for being there. And by the way, it was in fact my first time on any of the islands, not counting Bygdøy as it's a peninsula, which is truly a shame.







Doesn't that last picture release a sudden urge in all of you guys to come visit me at the end of July for exploring the Norwegian back country ;D

As promised, another collection of happy faces of the people I 'mingle' with and who's names will continue to appear in a blog entry or two. Everyone until Kris are flatmates and ex-flatmates. Everyone until Thor Viggo are friends of theirs or friends of co-workers. Everyone after are the guys and girls from Bleed.




Anders (NOR) – Magnus (S) – Niklas (S) – Øystein (NOR) – Lina (S)
Fredrika (S) – Kari (NOR) – Moy (ISR) – Kris (NOR) – Johan (S)
Simon (S) – Victor (S) – Kenneth (NOR) – Peter (NOR) – Thor (NOR)
Nana (NOR) – Th. Viggo (NOR) – Astrid (AUT) – André (NOR) – Erik (S)
Fred (NOR) – Dag (NOR) – Svein (NOR) – Alex (USA) – Stian (NOR)
Alex (USA) – Åge (NOR) – Miriam (NOR) – Annika (NOR) – Yours (GER)

"Hey, if we plant it smack in the middle of the street, maybe no one will notice!" Clever approach seen about 5 minutes from my apartment.
Oh and by the way, after over three months I finally managed to put up a mixtape on Twisted Nuns again. For whoever cares.