Who is the Long Lost Viking in Africa?

We are living in very exciting times, some will call it very scary, very dangerous, very uncertain times, but I chose to see them as exciting. Please do understand I feel for those that are experiencing foreclosures and losing their jobs, it is never good and does shake the foundations of many families, even breaks some. But as I mentioned I see exciting times, interesting times, times for learning and growing not just as a person but also as families and communities.

I will confess I also have stretched finances at this point, struggling to make all the payments and obligations that I have to all my creditors. I could most likely blame this on the sudden death of my wife or the economy or the South African interest rates (which was at 15%), but that wouldn’t solve anything, would it now. But instead of placing blame, which I did, I am focused taking actions to resolve my financial ‘issues’ through taking daily actions, and it is showing even though it all seems overwhelming at times. I believe that if I daily take steps I will move from where I am now to where I want to be, because with every step I will be one step closer than what I would have been had I not taken one.

Enough about that, most likely a post in the future will go into detail about how I went from denial to focus on solutions and not problems. Now back to what this post is about, who is this Long Lost Viking is.

I currently live in South Africa in a small town called Middelburg, but I was born and raised in Norway in the town called Kongsberg. Funny thing though is that Kongsberg was a silver mining town, while Middelburg is a mining town. Anyways I went to University in the USA at Washington State University Pullman and also spent 6 months at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. So I have travelled and lived all over the world, and had many amazing experiences and tales to tell, but all in due time.

I am a software consultant by profession, focusing on fixing broken systems. I love spending hours, days, and even weeks identifying and rectifying a problem in the software. Most programmers hate this part of the work, it is tedious, it is complex, it is insane driving coding, but I love it. I am a geek and nerd, or whatever you would call it and I am darn proud of it too.

I am a family father by passion; my two daughters are living with me at home, while my son has left the nest and started his own family, with my second grandchild on the way. Nothing makes a father more proud or a grandfather more proud than to see the steps his children and grandchildren are taking daily in our world. I am truly a blessed man.

Well I guess that was the short version of who the Long Lost Viking is; I hope to see you around here often, as more news, more ideas, more thoughts will be coming out of Africa from the Long Lost Viking.