A romantic Norwegian guy has gone out on a limb to get back in touch with a young woman he met in Bondi on Thursday.

The man was taken by the woman who met while crossing Old South Head Road in the popular beach side suburb of Sydney.

But he seemingly missed an opportunity to get the woman’s number in person so posted a hand written note on the traffic pole next to the road where they met.

‘Seeking Brazilian girl with ankle tattoo, met here on Thursday 23rd, message me,’ the man wrote.

He scrawled down his mobile number before signing off with ‘Norwegian guy’.
Just hours after the note was fixed to the pole – with fluro yellow tape so it couldn’t be missed someone had posted it online.

‘We all know that Brazilians are the best but what is this,’ the post on a Bondi group read.

The romantic gesture received reactions online from more than 500 people in less than five hours.

Comments ranged from supportive to comical.

‘The difference between whether this is romantic or stalking lies with how good looking the bloke is,’ Ron Berg said.

‘I hope she has watched Vikings for some background research,’ David Nolan added.
‘That must be a pretty cool ankle tattoo if he’s that desperate to see it again,’ Jase Sun said.

While others wished the man well.

‘That is fantastic.. hope he gets lots of Brazilians with ankle tattoos messaging him.’
Daily Mail Australia have contacted the mystery Norwegian man for comment.

(dailymail)

A Norwegian travel agency has received around 1500 cancelations of trips between Norway and Iceland scheduled next summer according to a RUV report.

The managing director sais that cancelations are more frequent than they’ve ever been before, first and foremost because of the strengthening of the currency, the Icelandic Krona, ISK.

IceNews reported about the lifting of currency restrictions last week. The ISK has been gradually strengthening in relations to other currencies in recent months and this affects export from Iceland and the tourist industry greatly.

Boking companies have booked trips in advance and as the ISK strengthens the premises of the bookings change as well, so the strengthening of the ISK now hits them hard.

The currency is still finding balance from the crash of 2008 and fluctuations are expected. The week ISK in the wake of the crash created boundless opportunities in the tourist industry and the strengthening now is diminishing those opportunities greatly.

(icenews)

Norway has been judged to be the happiest country in the world, in the United Nations’ latest World Happiness Report, released Monday.

The Scandinavian nation, which was ranked fourth in last year’s report, jumped to the top this year on the basis of several key calculations for measuring social happiness, among them levels of caring, freedom to make life decisions, generosity, good governance, honesty, health and income.

Other factors by which 155 countries were measured in the annual World Happiness Report are: employment, income inequality, life expectancy, GDP per capita, public trust (i.e., a lack of corruption in government and business), and social support.

Denmark, last year’s Happiest Country, was ranked second on this year’s list, followed by Iceland and Switzerland.

The United States, meanwhile, has slid in the rankings, from 13th place last year to 14.

The bottom five countries on the list were Rwanda, Syria, Tanzania, Burundi, and Central African Republic.

Among the notable findings in this year’s report:

Happiness is falling in America, thanks primarily to a drop in four key indicators — access to social support, a sense of reduced personal freedom, lower donations, and a perceived increase in corruption — rather than economic causes.

Unemployment, or the quality of the work they have, is a major factor in people’s happiness. A rise in unemployment, in fact, affects the happiness of everyone, even those with jobs. And while higher pay clearly makes workers happier, work-life balance, job security, health and safety, social capital and autonomy are also predictive of a higher state of happiness on the job.

Despite China’s momentous rise in GDP over the past quarter-century, the subjective well-being of the Chinese has fallen, because of unemployment, changes in social safety nets, and periodic drops in life expectancy during that period.

In wealthier Western countries, mental health was considered a more important determinant in personal happiness than income, employment or physical health. In all countries, misery would be reduced more by eliminating depression and anxiety disorders than by reducing poverty, low education, unemployment, physical illness or a lack of social support.

Sluggish development in Africa following the end of colonial rule has led many Africans to express greater disappointment and lower levels of happiness compared to the aspirations expressed when they were first surveyed in the 1960s, though the report notes that Africans continue to express optimism about the future.

Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and a co-author of the report, says attention must be drawn to the importance of creating sound policy for what matters most to people: their well-being.

“As demonstrated by many countries, this report gives evidence that happiness is a result of creating strong social foundations,” Sachs said. “It’s time to build social trust and healthy lives, not guns or walls. Let’s hold our leaders to this fact.”

(cbsnews)

Four trumpets, four trombones, a horn and a tuba. All of them played by women. That’s the unusual formula adopted by tenThing, a group of Norwegians who brought their particular brand of entertainment to Minneapolis’ Aria on Thursday evening for a Schubert Club concert.

For those who think that classical concerts are stuffy affairs, hooked on staid formality, tenThing is a stream of living water. The prelude from Grieg’s Holberg Suite burbled with vivacity, the repeated note patterns revealing a group of players with technical chops to die for.

Another treat? They moved around the platform, ringing the visual changes in response to musical mood shifts. In Grieg’s “Gjendine’s Lullaby,” two of the players knelt as though serenading a slumbering baby.

For Grieg’s “March of the Trolls,” they rotated in circles, using the full depth of the platform to create distancing effects, making the eventual rip and snort of trombone trolling all the more effective.

TenThing is led, but in no way dominated by, internationally renowned trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, who founded the ensemble in Norway 10 years ago. Although Helseth mainly operates in the band as first among equals, she inevitably gets her solo moments. Two in particular stood out. In “Summer” from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” she brought a jazzy, New Orleans-style swagger to the opening movement, hitting a bluesy vibe for the central Adagio.

Vivaldi’s music took on fascinating new refractions, its overfamiliarity dissolving like morning mist. The bright gleam of brass instruments snapped the composer’s daring and inventiveness into pristine focus.

Helseth’s other main moment came in Astor Piazzolla’s “Oblivion.” She soloed in both verses of the famous tango — once with mute attached to her trumpet, once without. Her performance, rapt and deeply melancholy, temporarily suspended the sense of time passing, and held a packed audience enraptured.

Choreography kicked in again in tenThing’s giddy romp through Bizet’s opera “Carmen.” Strutting across the stage, pointing their instruments at different angles, the players pushed the tempos to the verge of parody, and had you blinking at their collective virtuosity.

A word about the arrangements: They are all done by Norwegian guitarist Jarle Storløkken, and all are bursting with wit and individuality.

Somehow, too, Storløkken’s arrangements manage to bring out the femininity of tenThing’s playing. To put it simply, this particular group of 10 players does not sound the way 10 male brass players would. Ten­Thing’s is a nimbler, more balletic style of brass playing, softer and more collegial in the players’ interactions.

These qualities made the band’s roguish take on Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca” (another slam-dunk Storløkken arrangement) a thing of unadulterated pleasure.

I had a French horn honking in my ear for most of it as players mingled with the audience at floor level, and enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Terry Blain writes about classical music and theater.

(startribune)