Thanksgiving

Holy shit! Six Flags Airlines was spectacular this evening. The tickets are pretty expensive, but they give you bang for the buck. I've been a frequent customer for some years, but never experienced anything like the roller-coaster ride we got today.

The start was smooth and easy. At cruising altitude the captain started to tease us: "Weather is nice. Good landing conditions. Easterly winds, so we expect some turbulence when we approach for landing"

And turbulence we got! No kidding.

I could never imagined an airplane moving like that, up and down and sideways, bullying the laws of physics. Some people cried, and some puked (the smell can not be mistaken).

The plane made a downward move so rapid that not a single ass touched the seat, like we were weightless in outer space. A tall man, two rows in front of me, banged his head in the ceiling. I bet you tighten your seatbelt better next time, dude.

I think we were all pretty shaky and exhausted when we touched down on the runway.

These pilots really impress me. They know how to keep a Dash 8 flying. They're very experienced, flying up and down in the turbulence between the small and remote airports in the north, all day, all year. And they all retire happily at age 56.

It's Thanksgiving today, so I should probably say: "Thank you guys for bringing us down safely"

In Satan we trust >:O

Just another Thursday

That's it for today. In half an hour I leave our office in the north. Then I will go to the airport to get back home, flying Six Flags Airlines of course.

I just returned to my computer after a visit in the basement of our office building. I went down to look at some cores that the sedimentologists have put out on display. Cores means that it's samples of rocks taken out from the borehole when drilling a well into a oil reservoir. It's about a hundred meters of sandstones, similar to what you observe along the road in Western USA (I took the picture in Utah some years ago). However these cores have the familiar smell of oil. It's the stuff that we turn into petroleum for your cars.

Cool stuff, but I don't get to see these cores very often. That's the faith of a geophysicist. I spend most of my time with mathematics and computers, and hardly ever get to see the real stuff.

There's no thanksgiving celebration here. We don't have a tradition for that. I won't get any turkey with sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce, unfortunately. Maybe I'll take a hot dog while waiting in the airport.

I'll write another chapter for my so-called novel while waiting for my flight. It's gonna be the continuation on the previous chapter I wrote. Hay, that's gonna be exciting. I'm already looking forward to it.

We will see what I get. Here it's just another Thursday.

Tshabalala

I'm back in the land of the midnight sun. It's raining tonight, so it's not visible, but it will get better tomorrow.

I was watching Germany-Australia in the airport while waiting for Six Flags Airlines to take off. The play before the 1-0 goal was very nice.

I think the World Cup has been good so far. As usual the teams are careful in the first round. The fear of loosing is greater than the desire to win. It will get better and better.

To me, there are three highlights so far:

The TV production is the best I've ever seen in soccer. The variation between overview cams and close up cams is very good. The super-slow-motion replays, where you can see every detail of the action are fabulous.

Lionel Messi, the little Argentinian, the soccer wizard of Nou Camp in Barcelona, needed only one match to show that he's the best soccer player in the world. The way he advances with the ball in perfect control is art. He didn't score in the game against Nigeria, but it was very close.

Best of all so far, is South Africa's goal against Mexico in the opening game. Everything was great; the moves and passes leading to the goal, the left-foot shot from angle, the way they, Bafana Bafana, celebrated the goal. And the name of the scorer is almost like music - Tshabalala >:)

Epilogue

When we came to port, I went straight to the airport. I was able to catch the last plane out of the northernmost town in the world. A 45-minutes flight with Six Flags Airlines got me to the town known as the Paris of the North, due to its abundance of bars and pubs. It's the largest town north of the polar circle, and the gateway to the Arctic.

I checked into my hotel and went to a bar next door, where I met a lot of friends who where there for a geo-science conference. We had a couple of beers before I went to bed around 3 am.

From my hotel room I had a nice view to the Cathedral of the Arctic Sea.

Next morning I got on a plane to the south and made it home for the weekend, good to get home to my family and my drum kit. It's almost like summer today, and we have mowed the lawn, for the first time this year.

Next week there is a Kizz concert in town. You know, that band from the 70's with face paint and crazy outfit. It was one my favorite bands when I was a kid. Later I have realized that musically, it's a less than average band, but anyway, it will be cool to see them live >:)

To the northernmost town in the world

First one and a half hours with a big passenger jet going northward. Then another 45 minutes further to the north with Six Flags Airlines. Here I am, in the northernmost town in the world, at 70 degrees north. Travel around the world at this latitude, and you will find ... snow and ice.

The town is nice, at least in the summer, but cold, 5 degrees Celcius (40 Fahrenheit) only. Trees don't grow here, it's too cold. Now it’s light all the time. That's nice. Last sunrise was two weeks ago, next sunset is in the last week of July.

Tonight I have just been looking around. I put on all my clothes and walked around the town centre, It takes only five minutes. There is a harbor with some fishing boats, and they have a church of course. God is everywhere, even in remote arctic towns. What the Hell is he doing here?

I know what I’m doing here. But the work doesn’t start until tomorrow >:)

Black metal at town square

Tonight I was at a black metal concert, at town square. Good music, good beer, with good friends. This is one of the things I really like about the town I live in; outdoor extreme metal concerts, on light summer nights. There were all kinds of people in the audience; hard core headbangers, officially straight people like me, even parents with kids.

The headliner bands were Keep of Kalessin and Mayhem. It was great to hear and see Mayhem live. This is one of the pioneer bands within black metal, founded in the late 80's.

Next week I will turn my blog into a voyage diary, for a couple of weeks. I'm going to the northern seas on a seismic survey.The plans are as follows:

o Monday: I fly up to the town known as the northernmost town in the world, flying Six Flags Airlines the last part of the trip, of course. It's the only airline flying to these remote small-towns in the north,

o Tuesday: Prepatory meeting, with offshore crew and onshore support team.

o Wednesday: A helicopter will take us out to the seismic vessel, which is already en route to the survey area >:)

Here we go again

Here we go again, at least I hope so. The ash cloads from Eyjafjallajökull have taken a break; Six Flags Airlines is apparently flying again.

I'm on the way to the north of Winterland, as usual. I went straight from the slopes to the airport this evening. My old lady was grumpy because I didn't postpone it till tomorrow morning. But I really hate getting up at 5 am to catch an early plane.

The very first sign of spring has shown up in our garden; the kids trampoline is up and in use. There are no signs of green leaves on the trees yes, but in one or two weeks, it will be.

Today we had our last day of skiing, for a while. There is still dry cold snow at high elevations, but really slushy and wet down at the base lift stations. It's spring, the winter is over for this time. Sad but true. Another year, another snow; then we're back on the slopes.

And we have the glacier skiing in the summer of course; the first week of kids' summer vacation. The kids are already looking forward to it. They have started planning already. Just for fun, here is a little video made by the boys, from the glacier skiing last summer:

http://www.vimeo.com/5376061

Whatever, it’s still another 40 minutes till my flight. I'm just writing this crap while I'm waiting. Maybe I can find some interesting blogs to read … >:)

The sun is coming back to the North

I’m going back to the North, again, flying Six Flags Airlines, as usual. I’m waiting in the airport. The plane is three hours delayed, technical problems. It will be a long night. Expected take-off is at midnight, then one hour and forty minutes flight. Not much to do about it, just sit and wait. I’m going 200 km (130 miles) North of the polar circle. Take a walk around the globe at that latitude, what places do you find? Point Hope, Inuvik, King William Island, Baffin Island, Harstad, Narvik, Kautokeino, Kiruna, Murmansk, Snezhnogorsk, Norilsk, Belaya Gora, Chersky. One of these places is my destination. I’m coming back to the town where my friend Foggy lives. The sun is coming back too, after eight weeks of polar darkness; first shining only on the mountain tops, later appearing above the horizon. The days are getting longer, rapidly, six minutes more daylight every day, almost an hour in a week. It’s amazing. Like a woman spreading her thighs, to reveal her delights; you know what you will see, what you will get, but still so exciting, so arousing, every time.