The Organist's Socks

I live in a little village called Bjørn on the island of Dønna (total population of island c. 1400). A short ferry ride away is the town of Sandnessjøen which I frequently visit for my weekly swim/ the cinema etc (population c. 6000). At the end of August, I decided that I needed to see some bright lights and enjoy some big city excitement so I booked a wee jaunt to the nearest “big” city which is Mosjøen (population a massive 10,000). The main reason for the visit was to ti

As I left the funeral, I was full of conflicting emotions. We had had 3 funerals in a very short space of time and I found 2 of them in...

My overriding emotion as I pottered round to the school for my Social Studies test was one of extremely irrational grumpiness. And if...

I had it in mind to make this the last blog post - after 3 years I feel that that the stories are getting a bit repetitive/ boring and it...

Work wise January was a very quiet month. The highlights are always the Three King festivals that we put on in the 2 care centres here on...

The services on the first Sunday in Advent are always a bit of fun. As well as the lighting of the first Advent candle at the start of...

In Norway, the first Saturday in November is “National Cinema Day”. Various methods are used to entice cinema goers over the thresholds...

Weather update - I have never known so much rain. At least back in Scotland there seemed to be the odd break for some dry weather but it...

A quiz. What was 0% in January 2022, 0.07% in January 2023 and 0.21% in September 2024? The answer is, amazingly enough, the percentage...

As I write this post, I’m sitting up at Sabine’s house “ cat sitting”. Margot is rubbing up against my iPad (presumably to make it clear...

In the highly improbable event that someone in the dim and distant future writes my life story, the aforementioned biographer can note...

June was full of fun things - the highlight of course being back in Scotland to see my daughter graduate at the University of Glasgow....

It’s been slightly longer than I anticipated since I last posted but better late than never. May started with the Mayday holiday and...

March 2024 marked 2 years since I arrived in Norway. I still look back with a certain amount of amazement to the fact that I turned up at...

Obviously the highlight of February was the visit of Jen - it's always nice to have a friend from Dundee visiting and the joy of not...

One of my New Year resolutions was to try and update the blog a bit more regularly ie monthly so it should mean shorter but more regular...

Although this was my second Christmas on Dønna, this was the first one I was really able to take part in after missing a number of events...

At the start of November I was able to nip back to Scotland for a couple of weeks to visit family and friends. My trip did not start...

Two weeks ago I sat my first language exam since ooh, 1985? My teacher at the school had forewarned me that she thought I might be ready...

Three simple words but they brought a disproportionate amount of joy to my life. My Duolingo course seemed to go through a massive...