Well, here we are, one year after I left Scotland and started afresh in Norway. To mark the occasion I've taken the ferry across to Sandnessjøen and plonked myself in my favourite cafe and compose some thoughts. Some of which I've probably had before but hey ho...
The people have been spectacularly friendly and made me feel very welcome. They're all very patient with my slow and lugubrious road to speaking Norwegian. I like to think I'm streets ahead of where I was when I first arrived - indeed one of the baristas in this cafe has compliment me on my Norwegian. All I was saying was can I have a latte with a bun but I can say that very fluently now. In my head I can have some fantastic conversations entirely in Norwegian - it's just when I meet real people that I struggle. That being said, if they speak slowly to give me a chance to compute each phrase I think I'm getting there. Part of the problem is my questionable grasp of English grammar. When one doesn't understand one's home language's grammar what chance has one in a new language? And then there's occasions where there doesn't appear to be a direct translation of some words - still not entirely sure when I should use "oss", "seg" etc etc ....
A great day on Monday at school though when I was given the next book in the course - now about to being A2 so taking it even more seriously now.Every day I try and learn a few more verbs in all their tenses.
On the subject of language, a few weeks back I thought it might be fun to track down one of my old language teachers. I thought she might be quite tickled at the thought that someone who was fairly useless at modern language has taken it upon himself to learn a new language in his fifties. At one point I worried that (and apologies if she's reading this) she might be absolutely ancient as one's perception of age is different when you're young. I didn't have any joy at first as I tried to find her but one morning her Christian name popped into my head and voila found her v quickly. So I dropped her a note to say hello and it was lovely to quite quicky hear back from her. She claims to remember me but thinks I could have gone on to do Higher French which makes me suspect she's thinking of someone else, haha :-)
Over the last year I've tried to say "yes" to as many new experiences as possible. I've tried yoga, I've gone up hills (and much to my surprise made it down again), joined a trip to see the Northen Lights, lots of musical things obviously, eaten strange things and looking ahead there are still things I'd like to try out. There appears to a be a kamikaze zip line in Mosjøen which I feel I should attempt, I've climbed one of the 7 sisters so 6 more to go, there's a local challenge to climb local peaks on Dønna which if you complete you get a mug so I'm up for that.
Musically I've been much busier than I expected. There's plenty playing at the churches with services, funerals, weddings etc but also out in the community in the 2 care centres. I still remember day one with Bård taking me around all the churches and my head spinning. One of the great things about all these different churches is the amount of repertoire one has to learn - I have to chose specific music for each one. Nordvik - I can pretty much play anything; Dønnes - no pedals and only 4 octaves; Herøy- 2 manuals and pedals but no real registration aids and Hestad - the Johannes One so no pedals but wider range than Donnes. And then of course there's the islands - Lokta has an organ that probably sits between Herøy and Nordvik and the others have harmoniums which is a good work out for the legs.
Outside of church I have been amazed by the musical opportunities that have been afforded to me. I've taken part in the Kammerkor, Operapub, a students concert in the Peter Dass museum, Dønnahorn and various concerts. I played a concert in Nordvik with Sabine at the end of February which was a lot of fun. All modesty aside, when I went in by myself to rehearse before the concert I played stunningly well. Sadly when people came along to actually listen my playing went downhill quite badly in places but fortunately Sabine's clarinet playing covered up most of the hashed up bits.
There are various performances to look forward to over the coming weeks - playing once again for Sabine at a concert at the end of this month, I've got my own concert in Alstahaug Church at the start of April, farewell concerts with the Kammerkor at the end of April and tinkling ivories for Chris Eva again at the start of May.
The downside of course of upping sticks and moving to Norway is leaving family and friends behind. I've been v touched by people keeping in contact and am always v grateful when people write to me. It's also been great having people to come and visit - I've had fabulous times with Jen when she's been out and am looking toward to greeting Amy when she arrives on Friday.
The weather report: goodness me it snows a lot. I've had to dig the car out so many times this year so far and as I type this I can see yet more snow fall. The kids where I stay have a small goalpost in the garden - it is frequently buried under the snow, it's that deep. The Norwegians are all prepared for this: even my tiny little lane had been ploughed before I left for church one Sunday morning. When I say plough of course what happens is that the lane itself is clear but the snow is now forming a little wall separating my car from the aforementioned lane.
I'll just finish by saying thank you once again to everybody here in Norway for making me so welcome and to those of you back home (and Australia) who have very kindly kept in touch. Here's looking forward to year two.
