The Big Norwegian Humour Festival started last night.

Take a look at http://www.humorfestivalen.no and http://www.folken.no

It is an annual event and this is the 17th festival. But it is the first time that the students have been a part of the Festival.

There is a lot of stand-up comedy, cabaret and concerts both in our city, Sandnes and Egersund.

I was at “Folken” tonight, a house/stage where students had a show called “Nymalt”

Directly translated “Newly painted”.

Many artists have been discovered there, and who knows, there might have been some people in the audience looking for new talent. 

Fredrik Brimsø and 7 other students had a brilliant show! 

Well done!:-)

This is my favorite place for buying/ordering flowers!

The people working there are so creative and service minded. It is also a place to just be inspired by simple things as well as extraordinary items and flowers. Check out their webpage, http://www.solvberget-blomster.no and click on the word "Blogg", where you will find lots of nice photos.

It is based very central, just behind the Culture house.

Norway is a very long country, and people living up in the north woke up to a reasonable amount of SNOW this morning!

In Stavanger we have had non stop rain.

The days are getting shorter. It is time to start using woolen cloths, and test out my new Wellingtons....

Lots of lights, colorful candles, books to read, music and other good things necessary in the weeks to come....

The photo shows a glimpse of light coming through a window at the Cathedral.

Norwegian child labor.

Forget sending them up chimneys and so on, here we use them as pilots!

This is Mariéll age 10 and Hedda age 11 who were on their way to Oslo.

Okay, I took this photo inside the 737 Simulator at the "Historical Aviation Museum" near the airport.

Great excitement no matter what age.

In the summer the museum is open every day. The rest of the year it is open for the public on Sundays.

Companies sometimes use it for part of their team-building courses.

http://www.flymuseum-sola.no/sider/hoved.html

This is also Stavanger Daily Photo's 100th posting

This is CHARLOTTE from Kristiansund. (A city quite a distance further north in Norway.)

She had come to Stavanger and then taken the bus and boat journey to Sand, where she had picked up little CAESAR, a miniature Pinscher, only 8 weeks old and not more than 1,6 kilo's.

He was cute, excited and very happy!

They had spent many hours traveling, and late last night they were waiting for the last part of their journey, a flight back to Kristiansund.

All the best to both of you!! :-)

Who was surprised, me or them??

Luckily I had the little camera in my pocket....

Well, this is taken at Sørmarka, the largest wooded/outdoor area in Stavanger.

There are approximately 8 km. with paths that are also lit at night.

It is a nice place to go for walks, and those who are more sporty go cycling and jogging here.

There is a tower; “Ullandhaug”, that is 137m above sea level, and nearby this, there is a hill that is nice for skiing when and if we have snow in the winter.

I have only seen deer a few times. This photo was taken fairly close to houses in the Hinna / Vaulen area.

Today, I have picked a photo taken exactly one year ago. As you see,- the sky was BLUE.

My husband, together with three other men own this Cherokee light aircraft.

None of them work in the aviation industry. But when the weather is nice, not much is better than being up in the air.

I “work as a co-pilot” and have been to Haugesund, Stord, Bergen, Sandane, Kristiansand and to Aalborg in Denmark. To see the mountains, fjords, glaciers and landscape as it is on a sunny day, is just magic!!

Today i want to show you a small family run business,

based at Hillevaag,a short 5-minute drive from the centre of Stavanger.

They make some colorful and very nice carpets.

I met Fatemeh, who has been working in the company for 17 years.

Their webpage has more photos, where you can see some of the old machines dating back to 1880, as well as many of the products they make for companies, churches and private homes.

Their webpage is in Norwegian.

Do check out the photos.

http://www.veveri.no/

This is what used to be called THE market, where farmers and other people sold fruit, vegetables, flowers and some nice hand made products like jumpers and artistic jewelry etc.

People have been selling their products from a nearby place the last couple of years, where it is not so windy, but that is where all the buses are now passing.

Even in TODAYS newspaper, the market people, politicians and bureaurocrats are discussing with the public where the market should be.

Due to archaeology work, this nice place with the beautiful light colored and very expensive granite stone looked like a huge building site for a very very long time.

This photo was taken last Sunday.

I will show you a photo from last Friday, when it was nice and sunny.... (today we have RAIN !)

A young Polish man is painting the letters in a company name. (He spoke English so we managed to communicate.)

As you see, old wooden warehouses can look very nice with strong colors too.

Is this a sign that “Summer is over” ??

Walking into a little narrow back street, there was something sticking out of a bin that caught my eye...;

 “Summer Competition 2009”........

Who had managed to be the most smiling/ friendly service minded person in the company??

I do not know who the winner was, nor the prize he or she got, but hopefully they will have one more competition for the rest of the year! ;-)

It was quite crowded in the centre of Stavanger today. Nice weather and lots of activities.

Outside The Culture House, the library had a sale of old books and books they no longer wanted to keep. All the money from the sale goes to a fund to educate two Malawian student librarians, so they can pass their knowledge on to other people in their country where there are only 20 librarians to serve a population of 13 million.

An important job is to keep the city clean!

Today I met this team, Eliann, May Elisabeth and Karsten from INVIVO.

They work from 8.30 to 14.30 cleaning up what some just dump in the streets and parks!!

Yesterday, I used a photo from my archive. I came home from a very nice long weekend in Berlin, last week.  Thanks to the company my husband works for, the annual company trip was full of nice experiences with lots to see and do. But I seriously think I want to go back and explore more of the big city Berlin in the not too distant future.

Here in Stavanger we have had a sunny day, This afternoon I crossed the old market place, and had a quick look at the ART from http://www.nuart.no. KILROY is in Stavanger.

Underneath, there was a group of people from a church named IMI. They were praying for sick people.

Well, I guess some people might find that comforting. 

I asked a young girl why they did this, but I can't remember if I actually received an answer to that question, but she did say that they did this every Thursday afternoon.....

September and sunrise over the nearby area.  -  On our way to Berlin for a few days.

I always try to get a window seat. Well, I wanted you to see the landscape and the nearby agricultural area together with the mountains and woods.

Todays photo.... is of a window in the centre of Stavanger. 

I noticed some English speaking tourists smiling while taking a photo towards some buildings.

I did not notice what made them smile, until I saw "the window" on the way back.....

Re: Yesterdays post, "And the winner is ": Jens Stoltenberg, our PM, who is a Social-Democrat and the leader of Arbeiderpartiet (Labour party). 

He will continue his government together with other politicians on the left wing.

The parties on the Left got 86 of the mandates (or seats) and the Conservative parties got 83 of the mandates.

This is our Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. He might be the one who continues after the votes have been counted, or he might see that someone else takes over?

The photo, I took about two years ago here in Stavanger.

More info. about our PM here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Stoltenberg

or at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8253849.stm

Yes, I have voted.:-)

I will let you know more about the election results tomorrow.

What a nice day, sunny and +17C.

We had a car-trip south of Stavanger this afternoon, and have been visiting  a few galleries. 

At the last stop I saw a group having their photograph taken, and I used the opportunity to take a couple of photos myself. I found out afterwards that they were from the local Stavanger area, Russian Cultural Organisation "Troika", and the choir "Kalinka" had entertained at the place: Hå Gamle Prestegård (Hå Old Vicarage, Hå is the name of the area), where they also have an exhibition called "From Viking Raid To Oil Barrel."

The "Norwegian Parliamentary Election 2009" is happening on Monday. This particular election happens every 4th. year.

I have not made up my mind yet who I will vote for, so I guess I have a lot of thinking to do over the next two days. There were lots of stands in town today, and lots of enthusiastic politicians who were giving out brochures and trying to find out who people were going to vote for.

The blue tent belonged to Høyre (Conservative), and the young man holds a brochure with a photo of their candidate for prime minister.... in case they do very well in the election.

We will probably know the result early Tuesday morning.

My husband says that I should vote for whichever party advocates funding research into improving memory. This is based on the ground that there might be a better chance of them actually remembering what it was that they promised "before" the election.

More about the election you can read on this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_parliamentary_election,_2009

NUART 2009 started yesterday.

It is an annual international street art festival, with a very informative webpage, that also includes many nice photographs. Please take a look at http://www.nuart.no

Today I passed this newly decorated house.

Quite unique and artistic. 

Choe and DVS are the artists.

This is a photo taken earlier in the summer.....

To make it short, - I just wanted to share "my memory" with you.

Stavanger (harbor) seen in a different way....

Josephines cafe, is in an old building in Stavanger. Several informal business meetings take place here. Ok food and coffees to an ok price for most people.

(This photo is taken 06.40 in the morning..... )

As at Pisa in Italy, we have our own "leaning tower" here in Stavanger, well, a suburb called Hinna.

The tower is 50 meters high, and it leans three times as much as the famous Italian one.

I have only been up there once.

It was built as part of the oil industry, to prove the technology for building large columns at an angle and with different thicknesses.....

These days there is a lot of building activity going on in the area near to the tower.

Many new flats are being built on the right hand side, and many people have already moved in.

Some have a nice view, and some probably can't see more than straight in to their neighbours flat.

Sunday, and this time another detail from outside the Cathedral.

Just the way every Saturday morning in the summer should be.

The photo is taken outside the culture house.

This is another photo from the most colorful little street in Stavanger.

I have really enjoyed all the baskets with flowers all over the city.

Have a nice weekend!

A statue in Stavanger.

Seriously, I didn't take any notice of this statue until one day some years back, when I saw several foreign sailors lined up around it, who were going to have a group photo taken.

I must have been asleep at school!? But now I know the story behind it, and the best way to let you get the information  is to follow this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Cruys

I suddenly thought that I should show some real Norwegian products. 

Today I took a photo in Stavanger, at the shop "Oleana". Colorful  clothes etc. with the same name.

This is a company that has been in the market for 16 years, and has become quite international too.

They have a nice and informative webpage, so please check it out.

http://www.oleana.no

This is just a part of a tug boat...

I liked the lines, details and colors...

And COLORS are especially important for me on a day when the weather is grey and rainy.