Well, the last couple days have been a) busy b) touristy

One of the Shipnet fellows took myself and Lorenzo out to see the sites! It was great! We walked Arke Brygge, which is a ocean front area for eating, sitting out in the sun and watching all the boats go by. And there really are a lot of boats going by. When it doesn't really get dark until 11pm, if you leave the wharf at 6pm you still have plenty of time for a good long trip!

Then it was up to Vigelendsparken (sp?) which is a great big park full of statues. The story goes this one fellow made all these statues and they really had no where to put them, so they created this park on the outskirts of town. It's pretty amazing you, kind of have to see it.

Then up to Holmenkollen, the ski jump! This is one big ski jump! Its also on top of a hill to begin with, so the view from the top is tremendous! The jump is massive and the guys the jump off of it must have to been partly crazy, You wouldn't catch me making that jump. Interestingly, one of the previous kings of Norway was quite the outdoorsman, and he used to use the jump from time to time! Way to go King!

Wow! I had a great dinner last night!!

The fish here is great! Lorenzo and I went out to this restaurant up by Vigelendsparken, (took the tram! Yea, Norwegian public transit!), we arrived at this hole in the wall restaurant, that wasn't too busy, and had a very friendly cook, who came out and gave us the full information about what they had for dinner that night. It was great to go out on Friday night, after all the training was done, nothing to think about for tomorrow, just enjoy the evening!

The cook had those checkered pants that you sometimes see cooks wearing, I am not sure if that means anything officially, but given my experience at this restaurant, if you see checkered pants, then just ask them, what they would order and get that! No fooling around!

I can't really describe the dinner, except to say it was a Grenadier family of fish, and was caught at 1300 meters deep off those Norwegian islands that are WAY up North. A picture really wouldn't do the meal justice, but the taste was great! Norwegians, (or at least this fellow) can really cook fish!

Lorenzo and I caught the tram, back into to town and walked through the main section of town, taking in the atmosphere. It is really a busy downtown, lots of people out and about. Street performers all over the place. We watched a fellow do a hip-hop through the ages, dnace routine, that was fun. Then had the customary taste of Aquavit, and said parted company! It has been great to be here with someone who is also away from their home, its nice to compare notes on the people and the culture with someone who also has an outsiders view.

Did I mention the Viking museum, what about the Fram museum and the Kon Tiki Museum? Wow! They were awesome!

Well... was a hot fairly uneventful day. I went and fell asleep in front of the King's house, the flag was up, which indicates he was home. I wonder if he saw me out there? Luckily I didn't manage to get a sun burn which seems like it wouldbe very easy to do with so much sunshine!

Then I went wandering and tried to find something real local to do. So I went and had a pizza at this out of the way pizza joint, just past St. Olav's church. It was great, I watched Portugal play England, (Portugal winning in a shootout, while an Indian fellow was making pizzas in the back.

I didn't realize that the France vs Brazil game was on directly after that, so I just went home. After hearing chanting outside my window for a little while, I finally put it together, there was a nother game! When I realized this, I thought, "Oh man... I should get down to the central park where they have the big screen" Apparently many people in Oslo had the same idea and security wasn't letting any more people in to see the game. RATS! So I just stood in line outside the gates... You could still see the game okay from there. When the game was over I went to the main walking section of downtown, Karl Johan's gate and just walked about with the crowds. It's midnight and the streets are still teaming! Actually I think it is busier then midday!

Making a skimboard for the flats First thing to note; this is really not that hard! There are a ton of different designs for skimboards. You can make them out of plywood, foam, and probably any kind of wood that is flattish. The easiest material to work with is plywood, 3/8 inch plywood is perfect, although you can definitely use thicker, The only trouble with thicker wood is the obvious fact that it is going to be heavier and more clunky to ride on. Once a piece of wood has been selected the next trick is shaping it. The shape of your board is entirely up to you, there are some basic principles that will help you decide what shape of board you will want. The more round that your board is the easier it is to do spins on it, some people go so far as to make their board circular, theonly draw back is that they are impossible to actually steer, and therefore limit the rider in what he can do. The other extreme is to have a long narrow board, these boards lend themselves well to carving turns in therds lend themselves well to carving turns in the water and really long rides. The longer boards are harder to spin, but it is still possible to pull off a 720 on one of these longer boards with some practice. I personally recommend a longer narrower board, they do take a little longer to get the hang of but in the long run you get more bang for your buck out of a longer board. Basic length and width for a narrow board would be 4 feet long and 2 feet wide, that is pretty rough just go with what is pleasing to the eye. And try for symmetry between sides. The rocker of a board is another important feature, (rocker is the actual bend that the board has). But you say "Our wood is flat and strong it will not bend!" And I say "Then get out your sander and sand it down!" You don't really need to sand off much just a few millimeters. I have heard it said that if you just sand the corners down so they are round that is optimum but my gut feeling is to sand off a little more than that. Sand off some all the way around and make the board good and smooth to the your feet don't turn into a bloody mess if you accidently kick the board while running. The last and most important thing is to make the bottom SMOOTH

This is important I once made a board that wouldn't skim 15 feet on because the bottom wasn't smooth. Now that board is holding a tarp down on top of the woodpile. The best is to give the wood a sanding to get the humps out of it and then put a layer or two of fiberglass resin on the bottom. Failing that paint is okay too. If you can't do any of those things then at least make an effort to sand the bottom good and smooth otherwise you are not going to have much fun! Every bit counts to make your rides longer, turning and spinning easier and your smile bigger. Remember that every day is a great day for skimboarding! It is easy to start thinking that it si too cold or not sunny enough but once you are out there "yahoo" is it ever fun! You're running so much that there is no possibility of getting cold. Getting tired... now that is a different story happens all too often but don't worry about getting cold.

Anyone who has been keeping up with me here, might be wondering. Well... Did he make it home? What about all those pictures from Norway, where can I see those? And most of all, was there any good adventures on the flight back??

All these questions and more will be answered in this entry.

1) Yes, I made it home 2) the pictures you can see at Jeff's Oslo Gallery 3) The flight back was a long day, it was Monday July 3rd for 33 hours! Sheesh! Getting through London was a breeze this time and I even managed to jump of the tube, and run up to Buckingham Palace to grab a couple quick shots of the building before grabbing the train to Gatwick Airport. My advice if you go to London is - take the train.

And after working my way through security and check in and all that, who should I see taking my airplane but my old neighbor Heather McLeod and her friend Brett. Unbelievable! So, we had a great reunion and chatted about the upcoming wedding (Matt and Yarrow in 10 days, woohoo). The flight itself was LLLLOOOOONNNNNNGG, 4 movie flight. Brutal, why don't they show three hour movies on those kind of flights, rather then 1.5 hour movies where you finish and hope 2 hours has gone by only to be gypped a half an hour.

And as a surprise Joanna met me at the airport! That was really nice, having a travelling companion is great! Yea! We travelled back to Victoria together and at 11pm I was home. Just 27 hours after being in my hotel room in Oslo.

This ends my Oslo saga, I hope to keep updating this page with my goings on and thoughts. It's good to be home.

Hear ye, Hear ye, as of Friday July 7th 2006, Joanna and Jeff are promised to be married to one another!! We hope to talk to you all soon and can't wait to share our joy with you.

It all started with an innocent plan for a night of camping out on the Juan de Fuca trail. I spent the morning pacing around the houswe waiting for the ring to arrive (It was mailed to me from the Jeweller, Hovan's Sister - Natasha). After the ring arrived approximately 45 minutes before we were slated to leave I started to relax a little.

Then the walk, 9km out to Bear Beach, normally its a long walk, but when you are trying to think of what you're going to say when you propose, well... it gets even a little longer. It was a beautiful walk and we arrived at the campsite probably around 7:30 pm. We set up the tent and got the food out for dinner. We walked down the beach a little ways and sat on the driftwood looking over the Olympic penninsula sun going down over the ocean.

And, well... I think I'll just leave the rest of the details to your imagination.

Looking forward to the big party!! Jeff and Joanna

It should be easy to keep updating this blog, and yet...

Anyways, rather then lament I am just going to go straight for the throat and try and tell what I've been doing since I got engaged. It has been busy.

Matt and Yarrow got married. Joanna went to Ontario. The College and Career group went camping on Salt Spring, Jo and I set a date for our wedding and started making arrangements. Jo and I went to Port Alberni for my Dad's birthday. And somewhere in there I am still trying to hold down a job. Not necessarily in that order.

This week has been mucho busy-o, I seem to have a tendency to try and do as much as humanly possible, and that means extending myself across as many projects as possible. Why do I do that!? I just want to be involved!!

Anyways, this week I worked with Matt and Dean trying to get these underwater ocean glider operating, the idea is really cool, move through the ocean sampling for various scientific data without a propellor just being propelled by the wings on a glider that is going up and down using changes of pitch and bouyancy.

But alas, in spite of our best efforts we weren't able to get everything working properly. Nuts...

In other news Jo and I just about have the invitations done and ready to send out!