Memos From the Cube

The more I stay here, the more I realize that, as an Australian, I don’t know how to drink. My Nepalese roommate knows how to eat like there’s no tomorrow, but Norwegians know how to make you really wish there wasn’t one.

A few nights ago I went to a New Year’s Eve party along with Glen, my co worker, and Saurab, my housemate. It was a small group of nine or so Atmel employees (it seems the Atmel employees choose to date each other – no idea if this is due to the similar interests, or the fact that the place is sub-zero most of the time and going outside in it to meet new people sucks) including myself, and held in a rather nice apartment downtown.

However, somewhere between the beer, champagne, white wine, red wine, brandy, more beer and more champagne my memory got a little fuzzy. Here’s what actually went on (more photos here):

And here’s a rough approximation of what I remember:

Well, truthfully, I remember most of the night, right up until just before midnight when we had to go outside and watch the fireworks. Between the Christmas Party and the New Years Eve parties I’ve decided to self moderate a little more – I have only ever been that drunk once in my life before coming here, and now I’ve got two crazy evenings in as many weeks. Never again, or I won’t be able to show my face around the office. That said, it was another great night and I’m still rather amazed at how friendly and hospitable everyone in Norway is; not just my (great) Atmel co-workers, but the people here in general.

It was nice to eat a meal full of the familiars – it turns out Paal likes to cook, and I mean REALLY cook. Entree was delicious prawns, followed by homemade spaghetti with cream sauce and cured ham, then a tender roast before a baked custard dessert. A home I may have been in, but an upmarket restaurant it was for the evening.

One of the real perks of the night (sorry everyone else!) was finally getting the chance to meet and talk to Eivind for a while before degenerating into a complete mess. Eivind is the former site administrator of the AVRFreaks.net website, where I’ve been posting and talking about AVRs for over six years now. Despite being in a different role now – you might remember him instead as the face of Atmel’s “Atmel TV” videos on YouTube – he still manages bits of AVRFreaks from time to time. Eivind is one of the key reasons I wanted to turn up here in the first place, so spending an evening with him at the party was both an exciting and scary opportunity for me.

So farewell 2010, bring on 2011!