About Us

I was hoping to take a new family portrait at Christmas, but it didn't work out. We'll try again at Easter when Ann-Louise comes home.

We are a small family of 4. If you count our dog, Ringo, we are 5 so our domain should really be 5roald.org. :)

In 1997 we moved to Kongsberg, which continues to be our home. It's a fairly small town with a population of a little over 25,000. Kongsberg has a rich history, and is particularly known for its silver mines dating back to 1623 and lasting until 1957. After silver output started to decline, mining was complimented by the government establishing a defense industry in 1814. In 1987, the state-owned Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (English: Kongsberg Weapons Factory) fell on hard times and was eventually spilt into several smaller units and sold partly to private investors. Today, the separate firms thrive as one of Norway's main high-tech industrial clusters, centering on the defence and maritime company Kongsberg Gruppen (KOG). KOG consists of four business areas: Kongsberg Defence Systems (KDS), Kongsberg Protech Systems (KPS), Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies (KOGT) and Kongsberg Maritime (KM). Bjørn is a systems engineer at Kongsberg Defence Systems.

Kongsberg is also rich in culture, with Kongsberg Church being one of the main focal points. Although there are many concerts and other cultural events throughout the year, the annual jazz festival, Kongsberg Jazzfestival, is definetely one of the highlights of the year. 

Like most other cities and towns around the world, we love sports. Kongsberg is known for many great ski jumpers, including Birger Ruud and his brothers. We are, however, big basketball fans where both Ann-Louise and Bjørn-Eirik have put in many hours of play for BK Basket - Kongsberg Miners (BK stands for "Bergkameratene", which in English translates to Berg or Mountain Mates).  Until  fall 2014 Bjørn was the coordinator for Bjørn-Eirik's team and is presently the head of the club's Materials and Equipment Committee. Diana is the webmaster for the club home page. 

The kids have never been that interested in our home page, as they are more interested in Facebook. As a result, I have included links to their Facebook accounts where you might be able to find out what they are up to.  Hopefully, I will be able to add new content more often than I have in the past. ENJOY!