Norwegians can be funny!

Hello! The film festival is currently going on in town and I am delighted to announce that I have made a new discovery, Norwegians it seems can be funny after all! After all of those bleak, depressing (though excellent) crime shows to come out of Scandinavia the comedy 'Chasing Berlusconi'  really bucks thee trend, It is the story of Bjarte, a harness racer who has lost his winning touch and comes upon bad times financially, The final  straw seems to be when he is issued the horse 'Blackie' a pathetic looking horse that consistently finds itself at the back of the pack. Keeping his cool, Bjartie hatches a plan to resurrect his career and finances, He is  going to drug Berlusconi - the favourite for the big race, put his blind faith in the 2nd favourite and reap the financial rewards. Things don't go quite to plan however, as when his partners in crime go to drug Berlusconi, the horse falls backwards, sitting on and trapping the hapless criminal! Things really go downhill from there for Bjarte and the end sequences had us in absolute fits, I am still chuckling to myself now, 3 days later! I was going to include the trailer for you to watch but I can only find it in Norwegian with no subtitles however if you ever happen to be in Norway or come across this movie I highly recommend it :)

Here is a picture of Bjarte the harness racer

It has gotten really cold again, it had been warming  up nicely but yesterday the temperature dropped to -8!! Mustn't grumble however, as Wednesday will be a high of 15 degrees, how are you supposed to arrange to do anything when the weather is so changeable? I suspect all of April will be  like this then in may we can finally start relaxing in the long overdue sunshine :)

Cleveland is a beautiful city to visit however for the longest time has been the butt of jokes among the American media and public - not helped by the terrible sports teams and that bright and sunny morning of June 22nd 1969 when Clevelanders awoke to find all the oil and debris that had collected on the surface of  the Cuyahoga river as it meandered through Cleveland alight in a blazing inferno. just checkout this picture, I love the way the picture combines the old with the new. Environmental progress really has come a long way since 1969  and many people say the river fire was the event that triggered a national change of conscience towards environmental issues. Maybe we could do with another river fire now!

Anyway it seems that finally Cleveland is getting some decent national press and I though I would share a recent article published in the Boston Globe, the content is a little expensive for my taste, but I like the pictures and the positive vibe the city receives.

Cleveland in the Boston Globe

For Christmas this year I was delighted to win a certificate in the raffle at work for a free weekend stay at a hotel in Cincinnati, however my enthusiasm for the place is slowly starting to disintegrate and collapse under the weight of the amount of entirely one way correspondence it has taken to attempt to get it booked!!! I have now called up 7 times, each time to be told the same thing, that the department manager has to confirm the weekend and that he will get back to me later that day. It has been over two weeks since my first call and I have left the manager 5 voice-mails yet I am confident that the tides may finally be changing, Yesterday I actually had a missed call from them, I was cycling to work, heard my phone ringing pulled over to answer it, saw it was a Cincinnati number and got super excited by which time it had stopped ringing. it rang once and no voice-mail was left. I don't undrstand what the problem is, why is this guy incapable of making a 10 second phone call? Anyway he has until tomorrow morning when I shall escalate the situation so if you are reading this My Dooley the reservations manager please give me a call back today... or else! :)

I am off to work now but I shall keep you informed with  the Cincinnati hotel debacle and we shall catch up soon no doubt!

P.S Don't forget to vote on Britains National Bird!

Vote for your favourite bird!