Norway!

I arrived and didn't die a horrible screaming volcanic death!

Yay!

I must admit that when I saw on the in-flight planetracker thing that we were flying southeast of Iceland and northeast of England my palms started to sweat a little because you can definitely see a brown ashy haze out there somewhat obscuring the sunrise.

But we landed safely. Phew.

Just walking out of the terminal I noticed several giants.




I hopped on the super-efficient super-fast airport express train to downtown Oslo.




Followed signs toward the Freedom Forum HQ...





And arrived at my hotel...




All the event producers and coordinators were hard at work.





It's so nice to not really have to worry about anything and to just be able to wander around and capture candid shots. Event photography is fun because noone really has any major expectations except that you kind of just capture the event as it happens. It's kind of hard to mess up or do a crappy job. MUCH less pressure than shooting a wedding.

Today is kind of my day off before the event kicks off tomorrow.

I went to Ett Glass, the little restaurant next to my hotel.



Enjoyed a Pepsi Max.



And some homemade meatballs!



They were incredibly good.

And I was feeling so happy.

Until I saw the bill and it was 230 Kroners.

Which equals $38.90.

Almost $40 for Pepsi and meatballs. This wasn't even a "nice" restaurant.

NORWAY IS FREAKIN EXPENSIVE Y'ALL!!!

2 weeks from now...

Last day/night in HK

Zoe has been learning origami.

She made me a cat.



For dad's birthday, we went out for delicious dinner at Amaroni's Italian Restaurant.







Then I went up to LKF to meet up with the boys.




We were also joined by Miss Jessup.



Goodbye Hong Kong. I love you.

HK: Best. Ending. EVER.

So it was Felix and Anne's last night in Hong Kong.



We started with 40s walking along the waterfront.



Then headed to LKF where we stopped for mojitos and tequila shots.

The tequila shots are what did it. (You'll see what I mean by "it".)




Next came our favorite Russian vodka freezer bar.




Everyone was in great spirits.



We were joined by my childhood friend Kurtis (below) and his friend Dan.



People started ordering a lot of drinks...



The rest of LKF was a little quiet for a Saturday night...



Cal then showed up.

Clearly we were now where the party was at.



Along came some of Cal's friends...



...and a creepy Asian girl.





Kurtis's friend Dan clearly had the hots for Anne...




(But I mean, who wouldn't?)



...We all started getting kind of wastedface...










But Felix got especially wastedface.






The night concluded. We danced in the street.





And said our goodbyes...



And somehow...



...we made it home.

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Oh...but it doesn't end there...

...................

No no no...that...would be lame.

When you have a crazy/fun/hilarious adventure like we just did.

You need a crazy/fun/hilarious ending.

...................

And here we go...

...................

So I woke up at 5 am (I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the living room) to find Uncle Dick sitting on the couch watching TV really loud, with all the lights on, just kind of staring at me.

Groggily, and still drunk, I said, "Unnncle Dick? What are you doing...?"

He replied, "FELIX...is asleep IN MY BED."

Instantly I was wide awake.

I grabbed my camera and ran to Uncle Dick/Auntie Alice/Zoe's room:



So all of us were guilty of getting totally shithammered, but only Foolix will ever be forever accused of assaulting Auntie Alice.

See, we got home at like 3 o'clock and passed out in our respective beds. Felix went to the bathroom in the middle of the night around 3:30 in the shared bathroom between the computer room (where he was staying) and Uncle Dick/Auntie Alice/Zoe's room.

Afterwards, he i think must have been disoriented and stumbled out the wrong door, didn't realize it, crawled into bed with Auntie Alice (who, because Zoe kicks a lot in her sleep, was sleeping on the floor on the single-person air mattress), and passed out.

She woke up slightly and thought it was Uncle Dick at first, but then Zoe woke up and looked over and was like "Felix???", giggled, and went back to sleep. Auntie Alice then realized it was, in fact, Felix who was snuggled up next to her, and I think then figured out he was just super wasted, shrugged, and moved back onto the bed with Zoe and Uncle Dick.



They were just going to let him stay where he was, but Uncle Dick wasn't having any of it and shook Felix just the tiniest bit awake and was like "FELIX. YOU'RE IN THE WRONG BED."

Felix simply mumbled, "I know...." and continued sleeping.

Uncle Dick tried to wake him up a few more times but it was useless.

Finally Uncle Dick just left the room and watched tv in the living room for an hour and a half until I woke up.

I ended up dragging Felix off the air mattress by his foot and had him halfway across the room before he finally woke.

He was cranky and mumbled angrily at me for disturbing his slumber, promptly got up, walked to his own bedroom, and threw himself on his own bed and passed out again.



I told him what had happened this morning when he and Anne had to wake up to go to the airport.

He wouldn't believe me.

So I showed him the above pictures.

You should have seen his face.

There's mortified....and then there's MORTIFIED.

Felix was MORTIFIED.

...oh...the horror...immediately followed by shame and embarrassment.

Luckily he left for the airport when only the maids were awake. Mercy and Jo were rolling on the floor laughing when they came back from putting him in his cab. When she woke up, Auntie Alice (who by the way is the greatest person ever) too thought it was really funny and told Ma-Ma and my dad over breakfast. They couldn't stop laughing. Then we all went out to lunch with various other aunties and uncles and it was pretty much all anyone talked about.

Greatest ending to the greatest trip ever.

Nobody was mad. Only laughing.

Foolix, I love you. Annie I love you.

The End.