Today, 21st January, is soldagen (the sun day) when the sun officially returns to Tromsø (for about 2mins over the mountains).  It can be seen from the centre of town, on the top of the island and on the south shore.  If the sun can’t be seen due to clouds then the celebrations are held [...]

Firstly, I’d like to say, how wonderful the UiT danseklubb performers were last night.  The dancers were beginner-amateurs of Swing and have only had a handful of Swing lessons before signing up to be performers.  Even though they weren’t professional dancers, the audience was none-the-wiser. Being a trained/educated stage manager, I tend to have very [...]

Everyone understands the ‘lost in translation’ concept when people of two different languages communicate. However, another dimension of this concept is Chinese-whispers. For convenience, a translator appears in the middle (usually your other half) who relays shorter, faster information for everyone’s convenience. This is the literal side of lost in translation. In Norway, the ‘provider’ [...]

On Thursday evening the national newspaper Aftenposten was ‘tipped’ to a picture posted on a forum that targeted Kongsbakken High School in Tromsø as a site for a massacre.  Aftenposten contacted the school Principal who then contacted the police. Today students arrived to school with a guarded welcome by the local police.  All students were [...]