Shaken but not stirred.

We never thought this should happen here. We had just arrived home after a short week at Inger and Peder's (Ingunn's parents) cabin. Unpacked the car, switched on the TV to get an update on Tour de France, sat down in front of the PC to check mail, see if Word Press had published as supposed, which they had not.

There was a boom. I heard it, thought it came from some construction work, Ingunn thought it was thunder since it had rained heavily all the way home.

A few minutes later the Tour de France commentators announced there had been an explosion downtown Oslo, but info was somewhat inaccurate.

Then the first TV pictures came, showed there had been a huge blast, on a plaza surrounded by all the government buildings.

There was glass and other debris all over the place. Looked like a war scene or after a hurricane.

Was it a bomb, was it a gas explosion? We don't use a lot of gas in this country so it was quickly ruled out. Then came all the questions; who was responsible? Some Islamist forces? Who would take responsibility? Some speculations of course. Some injured reported, but no dead. Then the report of the first dead came. This bomb went off after office hours on a Friday, many finish work a bit early especially during summer time, and July is the holiday month. Seemed like this bomb was meant to make damage, not so much take lives.

Then came this tiny news flash strip you know so well saying shooting reported at Utøya. And I thought, what's this?

Utøya is an island in a lake about a hour's drive from Oslo, where the Labour party's youth organization has a summer camp every year. Kids from 13 to 20 years of age. Camping. From all over the country.

We went to bed well after midnight Friday with seven people reported dead from the blast in Oslo and 10 shot dead at Utøya and one person had been arrested..

We woke up Saturday morning to 84 people shot dead at Utøya. Beyond imagination. A whole nation in shock.

Norway is an open society where politicians can walk down a street without any security guards around.

Will this change our society? These things are sent to try us and we shall probably emerge as nobler souls from the experience. It may sound harsh and it was not this kind of experience we needed to bring us forward and closer. We are so few, only about 5 million people, we don't have any to lose.

And he who did it. A white ethnic Norwegian, Christian fundamentalist, anti islamic. Been planning this, i.e. his revolution, for nine years. Been writing on a manifesto for 9 years, 1500 pages of which the last few sentences were written a few minutes before the misdeed, as he published it on the Internet.

He has admitted he did it, see nothing wrongful in that, though, in his mind this was a necessary action to take.

We will move forward. Norway is recognizable tomorrow, Monday, but it has done something with us. Shaken but not stirred.