The end of now

The last day of April came with blue sky and a few inches of fresh white snow, from last night's percipitation. I took my rando-skis and went to the top of the mountain. In fact, I was cheating a little bit, since I used the ski lifts as far as I could get, and then walked the rest of the way to the top.

Moving up the slope, step by step, with climbing skins under the skis, just me, alone. It's like time is slowing down. It's a moment for reflection over life, the universe and everything. Maybe diffraction is a better word than reflection. Whatever, by Huygen's principle it's not that much of a difference.

It always feels like time is running slow in the mountains. You can enjoy the moment, the present. Now is the transition between the past and the future. Now ends but always reappears. Now is always moving, and always forward.

The past will never come back. The past was good, and not so good. Anyway, it's nothing I can do about it. The future can still be shaped. Or maybe I canæt do that much about the future either. What happens will happen. Universum decides. I take it as it comes.

And then the skiing season has come to an end, for now. Six months from now, the white gold will be back >:)

(My rando-skis. Picture taken in the mountains today.)

Eat some snow

The spring-winter is here, the best time of the year. Sunny, slushy spring skiing. I was in the mountains skiing last weekend, as usual.

In the lift line I heard a conversation between a little boy and his father:

"Dad, I’m thirsty."

"Eat some snow."

That’s a great advice. But you don’t hear it very often. My father used to say it when I was a kid. I have said the same to my boys.

With plenty of snow around you won’t get dehydrated. Just eat it slowly, to avoid 'brain freeze', as we used to call it when we were kids.

And remember that  old Zappa song: don’t you eat that yellow snow; watch  out where the huskies go >:)

(Picture taken some time ago in the mountains.)

Four days in Reykjavík

I spent four days in Reykjavík this week. Just going to meetings this time, no time to enjoy the Icelandic nature. It was cloudy, windy and raining most of the time. So, it wasn’t a big sacrifice to stay indoor.

We made some plans for how to proceed with the geoscience in and near the well we drilled one and a half year ago. It was the deepest and hottest geothermal well ever drilled, reaching more than 500 degrees Celcius (930 Fahrenheit) at a depth of 4.5 km (2.8 miles). 

In the evening we enjoyed the local draft beers  in the pubs. Walking back to my hotel in the dark and rainy night, I thought that I’m quite impressed and fascinated by this country.  They have plenty of fish, and plenty of water, both hot and cold. Except from that, naural resources are scarce. There are no trees and the climate is too cold for farming anything but sheep and horses. With a population less than 350,000 people, the Icelanders are doing great in science and in sports. 

When the country went bankrupt in 2008, they restarted the country and got through it with a shrug of the shoulders (to say it somewhat simplified). And they did it without prayers.

Some time ago, I read an interesting poll from the Pew research institue. It was about belief in God by age groups. Like the rest of Northern Europe, Iceland is very secular. Among adults age 50 and older, about 15 percent believe in God. The sensation was, however, for age 25 and younger, the percentage believing in God was none, zero. Iceland is about to come the World's first Atheist country. That would be a great achievement. It would still be worthwhile to see the Hallgrim's Church in Rekjavik for the cool architecture. 

The last night in Reykjavík, we celebrated meetings finished mission completed. We had a great dinner in a downtown restaurant serving exotic local food. We had puffin for starter, and whale meat for the main course. The pale ales we drank were excellent too >:)

(Picture taken in downtown Reykjanes this week. In the background of the picture, you can see the tower of the Hallgrim's Church. The Icelanders still have cars, though not as big as the SUVs they drove before the financial crisis.)

Travel diary of 2017

I usually write when I’m out traveling. That’s when I get time and space to do it, on airplanes, and in hotel rooms. As I mention some posts ago, I lost my dear notebook last fall, which means I also lost everything I wrote on my trips to various places, my travel diaries, kind of.

So, now I want to write it down from my memory, before it’s too late, before I forget. It’s not very important. It won't make a difference to the world. I do it just for fun, while enjoying a weekend alone, and wasting my time on whatever I want.

Moscow, March. 

Five-day work trip. I’ve written about this before, here.

Moscow, April.

Another work trip to Putin’s empire. We had a big meeting on a Tuesday, and I needed a full work week to prepare. This means that I had to stay over a weekend in Moscow, finally. I’ve been to Russia 25 times over the last 5-6 years, but never spent a weekend there. Just worked. Flying out Monday morning, going home Friday afternoon. That’s crazy.

Most of the time I worked, as before. I walked to the office in the morning, a nice walk along the river. It was colder than usual, according to my Russian friends. No nice and warm spring weather. Then I spent 10-12 hours twisting equations and interpreting data. Around 9 in the evening I went back to the hotel, had a beer and ate some borsch. Not too exiting. Wednesday through Saturday passed like this.

Saturday night I went downtown, to eat dinner together with the boss and another guy, at Vysota 5642. It’s a Caucasian restaurant, named after the summit elevation of Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, though the French dispute it. We got some strange dishes. It was delicious. Going back to the hotel, we took an Uber taxi. It’s the best taxi service in Moscow, if you stick to drivers with a rating of 4.5 or more.

Sunday, I took a full day off. I travelled around Moscow on the metro. First, I went to see the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where Pussy Riot made their famous gig by the altar (the video is is on YouTube). It’s a strange church. It looks old, but is almost brand new, decorated with neon-light signs on the inside. The original church was demolished by Stalin. Jesus Christ wasn’t very popular in the Soviet Union. The church was rebuilt 1997-2000. No objections. Stalin is dead. Putin and the clerics are buddies.

I happened to visit the church in the middle of a mass. I went in to watch the show. Very interesting. The mass was run by Patriarch Kirill himself, assisted by an army of holy men, all of them dressed in red and gold robes, and funny hats. The women in the congregation wore scarves to cover their hairs. Everybody kept their arms crossed over the chest while receiving the communion. They all drank the wine from the same spoon. Alcohol, or God, kill the bacteria, I presume. No photos allowed inside.

Then I went down to the Kremlin, to see the inside of the fortress. I have tried before but gave it up because of the long lines. This time I had plenty of time, and was determined to get in. First there was a one-hour line to get a ticket, then half an hour to get through the security check. It was worth it. I skipped the Historical Museum and St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square. I’ve been there before.

Tuesday was the day for our big meeting, with bosses from Big Oil and Huge Oil (the biggest, and probably the most corrupt, oil company on Earth). It’s kind of odd the way they do it in Russia. The bosses sat around the table in the meeting room. The technical guys, including me, were placed on chairs in the back, along the walls. We were supposed to present our technical work, and then shut up. I took the freedom to speak up whenever I felt like I had something important to say. I come from a country with free speech. The meeting was run with simultaneous translation between Russian and English. It’s somewhat tiring, everything is said twice, but you get used to it.

In the evening, I went out to eat and drink beer with my Russian friends. The next morning, I overslept. I ran to the Paveletskaya Metro Station, with my suitcase. I jumped on to the ring line to Belorusskaya Station, and got on the airport train to Sheremetyevo. I didn’t miss my flight back home.

Iceland , June.

I went to Reykjavik with a couple colleagues, on a quick business trip. Just two days, to discuss upcoming geothermal projects. The meeting was in an old hydroelectric power station. Nice building, nice location by the river. After the meeting, we went on a quick road trip to see the geothermal area, with two power stations, near the Hengill volcano.

Iceland is full of tourists in the summer. The airport is crowded, and hotels are expensive. I paid $400 for one night in a downtown hotel. Breakfast not included. If you ever go to Iceland, don’t forget to buy the Icelandic licorice candy, probably not very healthy, but very good.

Amsterdam, June.

Weekend trip to Amsterdam with the boys. Canals, bicycles, and the smell of marihuana from the so-called coffee shops. That’s Amsterdam to me, a city full of sin. The Dutch are probably the most liberal people in the world. Very good.

We went to see the Rembrandt Museum and the van Gogh Museum. Great museums, both of them. Mad men. In the Moco Museum they had an interesting street-art exhibition, with works of Banksy. Nobody knows who he is. Lucky guy.

There's also a sex musemum and a torture museum, which we didn't visit. I,ve been there before. Bizarre stuff, the latter. 

Sao Miguel, July.

Vacation on Sao Miguel, the largest of the Azorean Islands. The islands are located on a plate boundary, just like Iceland. The Azores popped out of the sea where the Eurasian, American and African crustal plates meet in a triple junction. We rented a car to get around. Craters and crater lakes, hot springs and fumaroles. Very cool, and hot.

We stayed in Ponta Delgada, the biggest town and capital. The neighboring town of Ribera Grande, has a geothermal power plant, with wells drilled by the Icelanders. There’s a lot of interesting geoscience on the Azores. I couldn’t completely forget my job.

We went on a whale safari on the ocean, to watch sperm whales and dolphins. They don't hunt the whales in the Azores anymore. In Winterland, we do. Why shouldn't we. The meat is delicious. We ate it regulary for dinner when I was a kid. Now whale meat has become very expensive.

The best thing about vacation is getting plenty of time to read books. I read “Capital in the 21^st Century” by Thomas Piketty, 700 pages, great read. Recommended.

Iceland, August.

We went to Iceland to do some field work. We studied the geology of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and measured the magnetic field and the acceleration of gravity. The weather was nice and sunny. We were lucky. Good weather doesn’t come too often on Iceland. That's my experience.

Iceland has 300,000 inhabitants (almost all of them are Atheists), and 1.5 million tourists every year. Getting a hotel is difficult in the peak tourist season. The first 3 nights, we stayed in a motel in Keflavik, near the international airport.  It’s a weird place in many ways: It’s probably due to the US air force base that used to be there during the cold war. The base is closed down now, but still the town is like a piece of America. Going to a burger place in Keflavik, feels just like being in a Wendy’s restaurant in Colorado or Wyoming.  

We spent two days in the lava fields in the geothermal area close to the airport. Then we drove for an hour along the south coast, and checked in to a hotel in the town of Selfoss. The next two days we worked in the lavas near the Hellisheidi geothermal area. Again, we measured the magnetic field and the gravity. I walked around like a shepard with the magnetometer in my hand. Magnetism is mysterious. Gravity is real. Neither are magic. It's just science.

It’s the anomalies that are of interest to us, because that’s where the subsurface geological information is hidden. After we came home, I’ve spent weeks and months analyzing the data. I’ve been digging into some really cool science, and I’m currently working on a publication. My masterpiece. No, just joking.

Salt Lake City, October.

I went to Salt Lake City to attend my first ever conference on geothermal energy, and presented some of our recent research. It was a good week. My talk was well received. I got some challenging questions from a French professor. That's the way it should be. I learnt a lot more from going to my first geothermal conference than I would have done on my 20^th conference on petroleum geoscience.

Salt Lake City is an interesting city, but also somewhat bizarre, with the Mormon influence on everything. I admire the Mormons in many ways, but I also think it’s the most stupid of all religions. It’s so obviously fake. That’s the drawback of a new religion. All the bullshit is more easily revealed than for an ancient religion obscured by 1400 or 2000 years of history.

I spent hours at Temple Square, to see the Tabernacle, and the visitor centers (there are two of them). I had some interesting and entertaining discussions with the missionaries, a holy army of polite young men and women. The nice thing about the Mormons is that they’re tolerant, apparently. They accept that you have a different view on their religion (I think it’s pure nonsense), but they disagree of course. At least they are peaceful, and don’t chop your head off.

The last time I was in SLC, alcohol was allowed only in private clubs. Now I was happy to see that beer was available in all restaurants. I had some very good beers, with funny names, like Polygamy Porter, and Latter Day Stout. Cheers. Maybe the Mormons have a sense of humor, or more likely, the heathens are playing jokes on them >:)

(Some pictures taken on the various trips)

Winter games

I have heard there are some Olympic Winter Games going on. But I haven’t seen it. Apparently, nobody have. The Koreans who are hosting the games aren’t interested, except in short-track speed skating.  In Europe most of the competitions are at inconvenient hours due to the time difference.

So, I’m either sleeping or at work when the ski competitions take place. This week I’m in the mountains for winter vacation. I'm out skiing myself, rather than watching TV. Today was such a great day; sunny and no wind, a perfect day for the outdoors.

Whatever, the Olympics are not that important. The most important sports events are later this year; the Soccer World Cup in June, and the Chess World Championship in November.

In the mean time I have my own winter games. I enjoy the skiing and the great weather in the mountains, and tonight it's Champions League on TV.

There's  not much to complain about, really.  Just missing my best friend.

(I took this picture of myself today. Maybe it's the best part of me, the part which is free, or maybe it's just the shadow of the man I should have been)

Thursday night

I was out eating tonight, and drinking beer. I was with good friends and colleagues, men and women. Some of them (maybe one or two) are sexy, most of them are not. That's another story. Maybe i will write more about this later.

We were in the old brewery. They've got rid of all the  bulk volume pale lager productions. It's been moved to a big modern brewery in the south. That's good. Now they're making more interesting craft beers. Test brews, some of them very good. I had four beers, enjoyed them all.

When we left, I decided to walk back home, It's not very far, maybe 1/2 hour. I walked through town, and I realized we're really living in a small town. It's advantageous in many ways, no traffic jam and short commutes. I also realized that the town center is quite dead at night on the week days.

I passed by empty restaurants and almost empty bars, just a few people drinking beer and watching the Europa League football in the sports bars. That's life. Not much happening, we're stuck in our caves. I need to do something about this, before it's too late. Get out. Get away.

(Picture taken while walking back home tonight. The cabin cruisers look a little bit weird next to the snow-covered streets, I think. Many things are weird tonight.)

Advantages and disadvantages of being sick

I've been a little bit sick the last couple of days. It's not my mental dysfunctions I'm talking about. They are permanent. I've got a flu or something similar, infected by little boy, I think.

Yesterday, I worked from home, to avoid bothering my colleagues in the office landscape with my sneezing, and to not infect them. I canceled the meetings, and just worked on what I wanted to do.

I spent some time on an interesting math problem, and then worked on a paper, about my recent research on magnetic inversion. I hope I can get it submitted before Easter. It's still a lot of work to o before it's finished. Then I had a Skype chat with a friend about rock magnetization. Very interesting and enlightening. Magnetism is a complicated subject.

Today, I rejected a couple of activities I would normally join. I always find it hard to say no to other peoples wishes. Today it was easy. I don't want to go shopping, and I don't want to see the art exhibition downtown. I don't want to go cross country skiing in the forest either. Sorry, I'm still sick. Convenient excuse.

So, now I'm at home alone, for a couple of hours, enjoying my sickness and solitude.

My throat is somewhat soar, I'm coughing and sneezing, and have a little bit headache. That's the disadvantages of being sick. Not much to complain about, and a some paracetamol helps.

(Some math notes from my recent investigations in the field of magnetic inversion. Very entertaining, and it even seems to work ... )

Coffee of the day for me too

Yesterday, I walked downtown to get a haircut at my favorite hairdresser. Machine cut as usual; quick, cheap and easy. Later I went to a coffee shop nearby (not the Amsterdam-type of coffee shop, but a place that just sells coffee).

The girl in front of me in the line ordered the coffee of the day, a blend of Ethiopian and Kenyan beans. “One for me too”, I said.

I picked up a newspaper from the shelf by the counter. It was the Saturday issue of what used to be the paper of the Marxist-Leninist party. It's still quite, and still quite good. However, they have given up the idea of armed revolution. Very good; I dislike everything armed.

I sat down by a small table and started to read. I read about a drunk 39-year old female politician. She fucked an even more drunk 17 year old boy in a farm field at a wedding party. Voluntary sex, no victim, no problem. I read about a male left-party politician accused of sexual harassment of women. “We always believe the victims”, says the party. “No need to hear the man's version, no need to investigate anything. He's guilty, no doubt.”

I had chosen a bad table, by the door between the outer and inner room of the shop. It was annoying when people passed through the narrow door. I happened to touch the big butt of a chubby woman. She had a nice ass, but it wasn’t my fault. She rubbed her chunky ass against my hand, probably not on purpose. I hope this will not be a #metoo, because anyone who claims to be a victim is always right. That’s the new law of the land.

(Picture taken yesterday while walking down to town)