Friends

To Preikestolen with one of my friends

As you may know I spent a few years living and working in Norway. The first few months were hard and I did lose weight as I didn't know what was good to eat and what wasn't. Once I had found out, the weight came back. 

However, it wasn't until my sister came for the second or third time that I learned about the great Bamsemums. Basically chocolate covered marshmallows in the shape of teddy bears. She loved them and soon got me hooked. Not too often, but on occasion I could eat a whole bag of them.

I bite the head off first!

Fast forward to last year. As my sister could not come and see us for the third time in a row, we decided to get her a December box. Basically an advent calendar that went on until December 31st. Containing lots of useful things like hankies, chocolates, ginger nuts, pens and several other things. Accompanied by short badly written poems.

There was however one thing I needed my Norwegian friends for: Bamsemums. So, I put out a plea to them and within ten minutes one of my friends had promised to send some. Half of which I duly sent on to my sister. 

Then yesterday a package arrived. Containing clothes that I had ordered. In a smaller size as I am losing weight you see. But next to that package was another one. Huh? Oh, it was from Norway! 

Yummmmmmmm

My friends and former colleagues in Norway had pooled together and bought lots of different Norwegian chocolate, including several more bags of Bamsemums. The chocolate is great, the friends even better!

And as my mum said: the clothes will keep! 

Loss

Training for the annual rowing race

Several weeks ago my great aunt died. I had never met her, but she was the last living sibling of my grandfather (who has long since passed away). It was sad, but she was in her nineties and at that age you can expect it somehow.

After the annual rowing race

Then only last week, an uncle passed away. He was in his eighties and suffering from Alzheimers. Again sad, but expected. 

Going fishing

This week I got a message from Norway: a colleague and friend had died. WHAT??? He was only in his early fifties. And whereas the passing of great aunt and uncle didn't really make any impact, this passing did. 

During a union meet

Because this was a friend. I had helped him out, he had helped me out (yesterday's photo showed us both doing silly faces when I was packing up to leave Norway).

Being a Viking during the Company Games

He will be missed, even at this distance!

Movember

Jump!

In Norway back in 2013

It's always nice to have friends coming over to stay and do things with. Even if it is only talking a lot over endless cups of tea. And I was really looking forward to this weekend: one of my friends was coming over for a few days. Brilliant! 

She booked the flight. I asked for time off. So far, so good. And then? Then she decided to do something that she had wanted to do for some time. Jumping on a trampoline! Which in itself isn't so bad, but in her case it did turn out to be so. Back aches, trouble walking and even though she rested a lot, it was a severe no-go. 

In the end she had to cancel her trip, due to her possibly having a hernia. This is the second time she has had to cancel her trip, which is a shame, because when I am in the Netherlands, we usually only see each other for a few hours. 

Don't worry: I have made other plans: ironing, hoovering, doing dishes, doing laundry, knitting and tomorrow I will be going shopping with my sister. 

I told my friend though: next time make sure no aunts or uncles are ill and do NOT jump on trampolines!

Goodbye Lindy

In September of 2011 I traveled to Canada to see first hand what my emigration country of choice actually looked like. During my first week in Alberta, I met up with a blog friend of mine, called Kay. We had met a couple of times before when she and her husband had been in the Netherlands, but this time I was on their turf.

Kay had invited me to stay with her and her dog in a hotel. I believe it was the first or one of the first times her dog had stayed in a hotel, but she loved every minute and behaved beautifully. On one day we traveled to Jasper and on the other day together, we saw the Badlands, which I loved. And Lindy (the dog) was there all the time.

Lindy was a rescue dog. Nobody knew exactly what her age was, but she was not a pup by any means. And during the last few years that showed. She started having some medical problems and then during the last week or so, she went off her food. Kay and her husband had to make the incredibly difficult decision to let Lindy go. 

My trip to Canada was a memorable one. And Lindy was part of that memory. All my love go to Kay and her husband. 

That walk

Pepperfly has made her way home by now, but when she was here last week, we went on a short walk together. When I wrote my blog, she hadn't sent me any of her photos yet, so I needed another post to get them in.

I was trying to photograph something under water, but the seaweed kept waving in. I did get it in the end though. See photo below.

Something went wrong. I think. Not sure. The hand in front of my face is an equivalent of rolling eyes in any case. Just so you know!

We found some bricks on the shore and this one had stamped text in it. I tried finding the other half, but alas, no such luck.

More sledding

I hardly showed you any of the photos and even little videos of me sledding yesterday. That has to be rectified of course, so here goes... 

I think the video speaks for itself. Lay on flat board, go down, face in snow... However, our first attempts had been while sitting down on the board. The icy slope was very uneven though and halfway through I fell off. Right with my shoulder on a hard piece of ice. It's colouring nicely as I write this, plus it's more painful than the knee. Ah well, sacrifices had to be made, but after that, I kept to my stomach.

Look at me go! Like lightning (ahem)! After several goes down that slope, the underground had actually become a bit smoother. Which in turn made it harder for me to walk up of course, so several times hands and knees were used. Especially the lowest bit, where there was less ice and more deep snow.

However, the top bit was very steep and unless I made a toe-hold every single time, I would just slip down. So hands and knees it was there as well.

You can see the difference between the icy bits and the snow bits. The snow is lovely and smooth and pristine. The icy snow was actually shoveled over the side of the slope to clear the parking lot and that was much harder.

I was standing up in the snow here and it came well up to my knees. On the right you can see where we tried to go down further, but it was just impossible: 2 feet of fresh snow with a heavy person on top just means that the person goes down and down and down. Into the snow!

Pepperfly was filming and taking photographs from the bottom up and now you can see very clearly the amount of snow I bit in every time. I couldn't seem to lift the front of the board in time, so I had several faces full. This was the worst it got. Mainly because I stopped after this, since everything was wet and/or frozen!

Good thing I wore a scarf as well. That way I could dry off to some degree. 

All in all, it was a perfect day and I haven't even shown you some of the other photos we took of the surroundings and the way to and from. Those are for another day!

Sedate 40+?

According to some, once you have passed a certain age, you need to behave a certain way. I don't really buy that. Just because I am 45 doesn't mean I don't like certain things. And today me and Pepperfly did something I last did in the winter of 1992, when I was only 20. 

Going doooooooooown...

This morning I picked her up early and then we drove for nearly two hours to Sauda, a small community inland where, according to colleagues who live and work there, there was plenty of snow. There we met two of them. One lent us some snazzy looking flat boards and the other showed where it would be perfect to actually use those flat boards. He drove in front of us for nearly half an hour until we were deep into silent snowy country. It was gorgeous!

Pepperfly almost running up the hill again

We got dressed for the snow and then we took the boards for our very first attempt in a couple of years of sledding down a hill! It was brilliant. It was painful. It was cold. It was deep!! But it was so much fun. After our first attempt of trying to sled on 2 feet deep snow, we gave that up and only used the frozen over bit, which was still deep, but easier to sled on, since it didn't give way.

I trudged

After a bit of lunch, we gave it another go. And another and another. In between goes, we lay on our boards, enjoying the sun and its warmth and the quiet. It was so lovely there. We knew however it was over two hours back and we still wanted to take several photos underway as well. 

I may be 45 and Pepperfly a similar age, but we had a great day of 'childish' fun. Of course, a day of fun and activity would not be complete without a fall and while getting our gear back to the car (10 meters, if that), I slipped, fell and hurt my knee on some ice. But the day was great and nobody can take that away...

The video is of my last run down. The photo with me flipping my scarf over my shoulder is taken right after I cleared my face of snow. The scarf was soaking, as were my gloves and the inside of my coat. 

Plans

As you may have realised by now, my friend Pepperfly has made her way over to Norway and is spending a week here. Not with me, but we do see each other on occasion. Yesterday she had asked whether I wanted to come to Utsira, an island in the ocean, about 75 minutes by ferry. Since I needed to go to the dentist first and didn't know how long that would take (10 minutes as it turned out), I wasn't saying yay or nay. 

This morning however, I thought I would much rather go to that island when the temperatures are a bit higher, ie the summer, so my answer was nay. She then texted me back that the ferry seemed to be having problems and that she was thinking of going for a walk instead and did I want to come. We went on a walk.

It is a walk I have been on before with a friend, so it was nice to be able to show it to somebody else this time. We walked, we talked, we ate and we took photos. The weather was perfect, the ground quite soggy in some areas, the finish (pizza for her, burger for me) was yum. A good day.

Spending time with friends

Even though I just had a short break to see my Mum and Dad, I have a holiday coming up as well. Because I am getting visitors. Well, I say visitors, but unfortunately one of them had to cancel due to illness in her family, so visitor.

The cancelling visitor was due to come and stay with me and I had it all planned. She could help me with the remainder of the boxes downstairs, we could go on shorter and longer hikes, perhaps go to an eat-all-you-can-buffet and of course we would have chocolate and wine and chats and whathaveyou. Instead she will be taking care of an elderly uncle and aunt and their dogs. 

The other visitor is due to come and stay in a hotel. Not so much planning going on there. We will probably meet up at several points and do things together, but nothing definite yet. Mind you, Pepperfly (yes, she) has been to this neck of the woods before and makes her own plan anyway. She did say one thing though: if I wanted, I could work and we could still meet up! 

Really? After looking forward to my holiday for several months? Give up said holiday for work? As if!!! So, tomorrow is my last day, well half day really and then bliss. No alarm. No work. 

If you're in the area...

Fort McMurray

Now, you may know this, but before I made my move to Norway three and a half years ago, I was planning on moving to Canada. I had done a lot of research and found that the only province that would be likely to have me was the province of Alberta. But alas, the job could not be bus driver, but had to be something else. Something more flexible. Like hotel receptionist. Which I had done like a lifetime ago and never really liked that much.

Finding it very hard to find a job, I decided on coming back from my one and only holiday in Canada, that I would switch my view to Norway. I got hold of a language course, booked a holiday to Oslo, booked another one to Bergen and by the time I was offered a job as a bus driver in the town I now live in, it was a year later. 

And then I got an email. From my Dutch/Canadian contact. He could easily get me a job, he said. Just say the word and I could be working as a hotel receptionist, he said. There were plenty wanted, he said. In Fort McMurray, he said.

Now, you all know about my latest troubles, but they pale in significance when you hear about Fort McMurray. All eighty three thousand residents have been evacuated. Most of the town has gone up or is going up in flames. All due to massive forest fires. 

I did make some Canadian friends several years ago. I met them in the Netherlands and I met one of them again in Canada. In fact, she showed me the coulees and the hoodoos. They live in the South of the province. However, he was in Fort McMurray and was one of those thousands of evacuees. He is doing fine and so far, all those other evacuees are fine as well. It's just a case of finding them a new home now. 

I could have been one of those evacuees. Could have been one of those people without a thing to my name. Instead I live in Norway. In a lovely apartment with a fantastic kitty cat. 

Get home safely Richard and give Kay a big kiss and Lindy a big hug!!!

Pea-gate

Remember that lovely pea soup I made a few weeks ago? The one that ended up in the bin (well, compost heap really)? Well, my friend Pepperfly said she could help me out and send me some dried split peas. With which I could then make proper pea soup. 

On February 1st, she went to the post office with a package containing said peas. That very night, the package was sorted into the Norway pile and then went on its way. The next day, before 11am, the package was sent to Norway. A week later (!), the package was received in Norway and customs checked it out. Six hours after that, they cleared it and sent it on its way. The next day, February 10th, the package was in a depot. And then.... nothing!

I didn't know until last Monday when she had sent the package, but when I got to see all the movements, I realised it took a long time to get from the depot to me! Had it been lost in transit? Had it been stolen and the peas been used in Norwegian pea soup? Had it decided to wander off on its own and hitchhike across the country? Or, which was a bit more likely, did the notice that the package had arrived blow away in the wind? After all, it is quite windy here at times and the mailbox does clang a bit. One little gust and woosh.... gone with the wind so to say.

In the end I decided to pay my local post office thingy a little visit. I explained, they looked and ten seconds later I held a heavy box! After three weeks my peas had finally arrived. On arriving home however, I realised it didn't just contain peas. Oh no, it held speculaas mixture as well (yum) and it held more sock wool! Because (according to Pepperfly) you can NEVER have too much wool! And there was a darling little key chain as well. 

Anyway, this weekend will be pea soup. Come rain or high water, come fever or cough, I will have me some pea soup!!! Thank you Pepperfly!

My personal assistant

The way to spend our evenings

Yes yes, I know. Normally there would have been a post here called Photo on Sunday. And yesterday there would have been a little story written by the beautiful Miss Oswin. Plus all the other posts I could have written about my friend Pepperfly staying here (she arrived on Wednesday). I didn't! Busy with work (even with Pepperfly staying) and my research (even with Pepperfly staying) and all that. 

Selfie of the Treehugger and Pepperfly

So, what did we do? Since I had to work the first three days, not much. Yesterday we were supposed to go to that climbing park I took my family to two weeks ago, but checking the weather forecast beforehand, we decided a bit of second hand shopping would be in order. So, we came away with new and mostly unnecessary stuff, like beads (she) and felt (me). Mind you, she felt she needed the beads and I felt I needed the felt.

SCARY!

This morning however the weather looked good and we were both raring to go. So a little after nine we made our way to the park in Nedstrand (about an hour's drive) to start our little climbing expedition. We got kitted out and we went through the training course again. As you may remember, last time it was very hard to make it onto the platform again. This time? It was as hard. But fortunately I had my friend with me and she just grabbed hold of my leg and started heaving me up! Time to start the proper course!!

Barrelling along!!

We were doing the light green course first. It is the low family course, which means that everything is low: the wires to hold on to, the wires to crawl under to get from one end to the next. At times it was hard to find out how to do that, other times I just stayed on my knees! There were two ziplines and for both I needed help getting on the platform again. 

It mightn't look that high, but believe me:
 IT WAS!!!

It was high, it was scary at times, there was a lot of movement, but I did make it to the end! I was so pleased with myself. We then had a lovely picknick lunch we had taken from home. Get some strength back before our second course: the dark green one, or the high family one.

The second course was a bit easier to get through: the wires were higher, so I felt a bit safer. However, by then fatigue had begun to set in and I was getting a bit shakey. Unfortunately I would still have to do 4 parts before there was a chance to get down, but I made it through, albeit with quite jittery legs. I then got the camera off Pepperfly to take some photos of her in action, since most of the photos up til then had been of me (not complaining mind). She completed the whole course.

Pepperfly on the last zipping stretch!!

However, even if I didn't complete the whole second course, I still feel like I achieved something. I knew it was time to stop and trying to finish it would have been madness. I would most likely have frozen up at some point, which I didn't think would be wise at all. 

So, been there, done that and I did get the t-shirt as well!!!