El Zen

I’ve picked the best’un. She’s absolutely amazing and the communication we have about my issues is so constructive and mature, I am in complete awe about it all and I already love her to bits. Spent the whole of last week visiting her family, which went brilliantly, and I can’t wait to introduce her to my son and the rest of my family. She really is the best.

Hey now, we don’t want the people of Bergen to get any cockier than they already are.

Very much so. (Literally 1100 meters up yesterday )

Very cool! I’ll leave regional rivalries aside and admit Bergen is a beautiful city. If you can make it work, I’d strongly consider it if I were you. Norway is a very good country to live and work in, not to mention raising children in. Let me know if you have any questions, buddy. My picture was taken on the way up from Arnafjord to the Stølsheimen landscape. Spent the day hiking with my GF yesterday and spending the whole week visiting her family in Sogn. It’s literally all mountains, fjords and waterfalls. Bergen is in the same county as this, Vestland county (West coast.) I grew up and still live in the Oslo area, and I’ll forever say Oslo is the best damn city in the world, but if you move to Bergen, I’m sure you’ll love it.

The Arnafjord branch of Sognefjorden.

This f***ing country of mine. It is absolutely stunning, isn’t it?

I haven’t. But the story obviously has cinematic potential, so perhaps I’ll give it a look.

And make no mistake, plenty of members (myself included) are actively trying to get Trøim out. I absolutely agree he uses his financial stranglehold to exert illegal and disruptive influence and control over matters he shouldn’t interfere with at all. But, he isn’t the club and he isn’t representative of the club’s membership and fanbase. Lyn actually have the exact same operating model as we do, just that the shares are owned by more than one individual. I repeat, we were given the land on which the stadium was built, and financed the stadium. Not that being given anything by the city makes you any less working class, so I’m not really sure what your point is. In fact, nothing about ownership and finances really says anything about the socio-cultural identity of the club’s fanbase. Of course we have celeb fans, and wealthy fans. We’re by far the biggest club in the nation’s capital. But again, they are not representative of the club’s membership and fanbase. Vålerenga is historically and currently a predominantly working class club based on the historically and currently predominantly working class eastside of Oslo. You can’t rewrite that or deny that - yeah, we have fans outside our traditional base, but go to any game in the home end, or any members meeting, or to the hockey, or to any of our pubs, and tell me this isn’t an overwhelmingly working class club. But, of course, it’s also a modern, professional football club, and overwhelmingly the biggest in the most populous region in the country: Of course our fanbase will be heterogenous. Lyn are west side, and even the quickest glance at their (small) core will tell you it’s rather homogenously white, upper middle class. Nothing is ever black and white, of course some of their fans are «normal» people, but just as obviously, their core fanbase is posher than ours. And that’s fine, but you can’t deny it’s a fact. Not really sure why you’re barking up this particular tree, buddy.

Well, f*** this shit. What the actual is that moron doing?

- Trøim can f*** off. The club belongs to the members and he can take his money and illegal influence and get in the sea. He is a cancer to the club. - The land was a gift from the city, the stadium was self-financed. Nothing wrong with that. - We are literally from east Oslo, and predominantly working class, both past and present. How is that storytelling? - Us, Brann and RBK are pretty even in terms of hools. - I know you’re trying to wind me up, and it clearly worked

Won 0-5 at Stjørdal, leaving plenty of time to catch the last flight home. Paparazzis found me again (second row, right.)

Good. I hope they sell the rest too. Multi club ownership stinks, and I don’t want my club to be associated with it in any form.

I haven’t been as switched on to the baseball in 2023, for different reasons, but I can’t not mention Domingo German’s perfect game at Oakland last night. Didn’t watch it live, but even watching the highlights I felt the suspsense before the final out. A perfecto is such an insane feat.

Absolutely where I’m at. Taking it off Mings was nuts, but the way Captain Meatball has stepped up under Emery, he might as well keep it now.

Time flies. Both Vålerenga and Rosenborg have sacked their managers (Dag-Eilev Fagermo and Kjetil Rekdal respectively.) Vålerenga are yet to land a full time replacement but Rosenborg have installed an interim coach from the academy to spend the rest of the year trying to implement the attacking 433 style football of their glory days. He lost his first game in charge 0-3 at home. It’s been a while since our last game, but on Wednesday I’m making the 1000km roundtrip to Stjørdal for the fourth round cup tie against level three side Stjørdals-Blink (literally Stjørdal’s Target.) If the game goes to extra time, I’ll miss it, as the last plane back to Oslo leaves an hour after the end of 90 mins

I can’t get the round badge to work for me. The shape is bland and boring, and the lion facing the other way looks weird. On the shirt, it almost looks like the lion is trying to run away. I’d love to see something more simplistic and modern.

Not a fan. Shoulders look tacky, overall it looks like a Burnley shirt, the sponsor logo is absolutely hideous and I don’t think the badge works very well at all. And I say this as someone who’s not normally that bothered with this stuff. F*** it. Focus on the football, try again from scratch next year with a better looking badge and hopefully do something about that crappy sponsor.

It all stinks. Football is f***ed.

I’ve had my ID3 for a little while now, and it’s great. Very roomy and comfortable, very smooth ride (lane assist aside, it is complete rubbish on the motorway and is best just to switch off completely,) big enough to fit my son’s bike with the back seats down if I need to, and I really only have to charge it a couple of times a week overnight for my commute. And it saves me a fortune every month compared to the lease and fuel expense on my Octavia.

Gaming sadism ftw

I’ve told my ex now, so I guess I can tell you I have a new GF and it’s going very well, my anxiety and trauma aside. She’s incredibly understanding and patient and we communicate very openly about my issues.

No, it’s a new term for ‘I’ll happily execute the royal family, but let’s be humane about the methods.’

I consider myself moderately radical, if that helps.

Noooooo! I’m going to see Springsteen in Oslo. I hope the smell isn’t too bad. The Norwegian Krone is so weak at the moment, the pints probably won’t be more than a tenner

I’m reaaaaaally struggling to find any sort of enthusiasm for this game, or any Norway game for that matter. Internationals bore the crap out of me most of the time.