Svalbard-tillegg

There´s a phenomena called Svalbard-tillegget, which I suppose can be translated to "the Svalbard-supplement". It could have been the name of some extra social benefit, but I´m afraid in this case it´s not - it´s the kind of supplement that gathers around the waist....

The snow-mobile is to blame, I think - and the cheap alcohol, and the long polar-night - and good ol´ laziness too, of course.

So far I think I´ve managed to avoid this particular accumulation, as I´ve been exercising a lot more during the last 5 months than I´ve ever done before (which is not saying much, I´m afraid). However, we´ve just been through christmas, and it feels like I´ve been doing nothing else for three weeks, than sitting down and stuffing my face (I´m afraid the snowmobile-trip to Barentsburg doesn´t count as exercise, because we were, in fact, sitting down on the whole trip).

Luckily, we have an excellent public sports center here in Longyearbyen, Svalbardhallen, with several smaller exercise-rooms and a swimming pool which towns on the mainland should be envious of. There are facilities for football, badminton, bandy, climbing, gymnastics - and aerobic groups, step, spinning... you name it. It´s really good - and cheap too.

So that´s why I´ve been exercising so much - and I´m determined to keep up the good work. So today, for the first time in 2008, I went for a swim. An excellent start!


The pool was almost empty ...


... and the sports hall completely empty. Am I the only one with new year´s resolutions?