Finally summer again...

More great moments of life...

Once again I have had the pleasure of visiting the Maldives, specifically the Hilton Conrad Rangali resort which is a real treat and a genuine paradise in the sun, not only are the two small islands filled with sunshine and white soft sand and you walking everywhere barefoot, but it is serviced with smiling servants and tourists who appears all to enjoy their moments in the sunshine or in the sea, either scuba-diving (as I did and experienced a close encounter with the great Manta ray) or simply snorkling, enjoying the rich marine life on the reefs....

... and as in most paradises, the tranquility and beuty of sun-rises and sun-sets are as wonderful as ever...

X-mas 2008

Lucky me who had both Mia, Neil and lovely Luca on X-mas visit. As Neil had never been to Oslo, we had to take a small tour around Oslo seeing both the Vigeland statue park:



























-- and the new Opera in splendid sunset:

Oslo new opera house

The new opera house is really fantastic, the white architecture is simply splendid and the "open" concept of letting people walk all around the building, even on the roof, is simply genius - so is the various surfaces on the marble and the "digital" impression on the top "curtain" tower:

No wonder this amazing architecture is about to be the no 1 tourist attraction in Oslo:

Mindstorms

Finally I have managed to upgrade my Lego Mindstorms Robotics to NXT - and it is really worth it, new excitng sensors and a complete new programming platform. Folllowing is my latest contraption, based on the Lego TriBot, but extended with the capability of finding the ball on its own:

Summer in Oslo

This summer in Oslo has, so far, been fantastic! Lots of nice weather and our 'traditional' visits to Hovedøya (a protected island within the Oslo harbor) has so far given great value in swimming, relaxing and a very beautiful swallowtail - this is only the second time in my life I have spotted the beauty, let alone taken a photo:

Also, maybe not as big as the swallowtail, but never the less equally beautiful, the common blue:

Two small additions to the family

Only with three months appart I got two small grandkids into my family, Pelle is already a "big" boy and now Luca, born 6 weeks prematurely, but he is coming along just fine: