It's been a while since I've written so time to update. It will seem a tad daft but one of the reasons it has taken so long to update the blog is lack of a title. If I've been on an exciting trip or I can think of a quote, it inspires me to write as I tend to find the first words are always the hardest. Still think my greatest title was "Nice Rs Graeme". But anyway....
As far as the practical part of my job here in Norway is concerned, it's now in a very settle routine - regular services in the old-folks' homes on both islands and 2 services most Sunday's.
We've had a couple of jaunts out to the smaller islands in recent weeks - one was my first return visit to Lokta. This was the island where I took part in my first service a couple of days after I arrived. Trine and I were given duff information about ferry times ( I didn't think they were right but who am I to question the natives!) so we ended up catching the 8.55 ferry from Bjørn to Sandnessjøen which promptly brought us back to Bjørn again before then heading to Lokta. Worse for Trine as she had to drive up from Herøy.
It was a beautiful day and after the service we got a chance to drive around the island. After the coffee and cake of course. There was another fund raising lottery during the refreshments and I was lucky enough to win a prize (see pics).
Speaking of coffee and cake I decided I should do some proper exercise to compensate. The way to find out what is happening here in Norway is through various Facebook pages and I spotted an advert for a badminton club down in the school hall in Herøy. I played a bit "back in the day" so dropped them a note asking if it'd be ok if I came along. Of course I had no appropriate wear for this so a trip across the water was called for and a visit to the sports shop. Really not my natural environment but nonetheless needs must. Normally I try and avoid any contact with anybody in these places but not having scooby about what I was looking for I tried to look hopeless and lost (wasn't too hard to be fair) in the hope an assistant would come and help me. Eventually a v kind lady came across to help and in my best Norsk I tried to explain what I was looking for. I was probably a dream customer as she then took me around the shop showing me all the various clothing items I'd need.
The badminton was on Thursday at 7 and the only other thing in the diary was a funeral at Hestad at 11am and was wondering how to kill a few hours between work and badminton. And then up on Facebook up pops an advert for yoga so I thought excellent that fits perfectly timing wise. An hour of yoga a wee break and then a potter along to the badminton. Of course I should have noticed that the advert was on the "What's happening in Dønna" page as opposed to the badminton which was on the "What's happening in Herøy" page. This didn't occur to me until I'd arrived at the office in Herøy and as I'd committed to the yoga...
There is a lovely little Yoga studio in what I assumed is a converted barn up in Stavseng, quite close to where I first stayed. I asked if I could go near the back as I wanted to be seen by as few people as possible. A mixture of ages turned up - hope I'm not insulting anyone by saying that I wasn't the oldest but I certainly wasn't the youngest and I was the only bloke.
The last five minutes were fabulous - just lying back in the warmth listening to some New Age music in a dimly lit studio. The previous 55? Ooof. I remember glancing at my watch at one point thinking it must be nearly finished to discover only 20 minutes had passed. A number times I almost burst out laughing at the absurdity of me being there. Some of the exercises involved bending over and while everybody else is down there touching their toes, I'm just tickling my knees. However, as is my approach with everything right now, I want to try as many things as possible so I take these opportunities as they come along.
I don't have church tomorrow so was looking at what's on in the cinema in Sandnessjøen. They're having a Swim-in Cinema and what better movie to watch while you're in the water thanJaws! If I hadn't already committed myself to something else...
Anyway back to the yoga... there was tea afterwards but I apologised for shooting off as I had badminton. So I tanked down to Herøy only to discover that because it was a holiday no other adults had turned up so it was cancelled :-( Nonetheless there was a session the following night. I'd spent a fortune on all my gear so went along to that instead. As well as some serious training on one of the courts for a young chap, there were some kids playing and there 2 other adults and a teenager so we had a round robin series of games. I started off against the teen and her poor heart must have sunk when my first 2 attempts at hitting the shuttlecock came of the rim and straight onto the net. Delighted to say that my playing did improve and I ended up having 3 quite reasonable games with some good rallies. Obviously I didn't win many points but it was good exercises and I can walk today so wins all around I think!
Last weekend there was indoor hockey up in Solfjellsjøen and Gudny invited me to one up and watch. I think it was a series of cup games (or something) and there were a number of matches over the 2 days. Was great fun to watch and the Dønna teams both won on the Sunday.
A couple of weeks ago the Church team attended the biennial (I think) Diocesan conference up in Bodø. As mentioned many times before, I hadn't done vast amounts of research before coming to Norway (or indeed since I came, see above Yoga story) but I did know that there was a rather fine WWII aeroplane collection in a museum there.
Between the various seminars/ talks etc, Bjørn and I found time to visit and I was not disappointed. In the off-chance any readers are interested, they had planes such as a Catalina, a Mosquito, a Vampire, FW 190 etc. A very pleasant time was had. Literally bought the T-shirt. Medium as it happened and was delighted that despite all the cakes it fitted.
Obviously despite my ever increasing vocabulary (I can now do Shakespeare: "å være eller å være, det er spørsmãlet", Mary Antoinette (allegedly) "la dem spise kake" and of course Mccartney "se på alle de ensomme menneskene') I was completely out of my depth at the conference. There are some words that I can recognise as well as any English word but then there are some where it will take me a moment (or three) to work out what they mean and of course there are many where I've not a scooby. I'm writing this the day after Robbie Coltrane died and one of the videos that came up is the video of him as Samuel Johnson being introduced to Prince George in Blackadder 3. The reaction of Prince George quite neatly sums up me in Norway when people talk too fast. If they speak in short phrases to give me time to process I do not too badly but otherwise....
There were some services/ concerts up at Bodø Domkirke - a particular highlight was the girls choir that sang as a support act to the concert on the second night. Fabulous sound.
The food was delicious (and seemingly never ending) and a nice touch at the end of conference meal was cards on the table with suggested topics of conversation if one was stuck. I didn't realise at first that was the point of these cards and was distressed to see one that said, according to google translate, "I'm bad at cooking this food" - I thought it was a secret warning from one of the chefs or something. Trine once again came to the rescue and explained the purpose of the cards.
My weekly Norwegian lessons continue by zoom and the dreaded question "talk about your first love" was finally broached. I'd given this a lot of thought and decided the best way to approach this was to say "Star Wars". I didn't get very far with that before my tutor clarified that it was to be about a person. "Oh" says I. Cue a few garbled sentences about "my first love" while trying to think of what to say with the words that I know.
Laila continues to be very generous with her time (and coffee and cake) and I had a pleasant time up in Farmor Huset. My Norsk has improved to such an extent that I now know that mean's grandmother's house rather than farmer's house.... It was lovely to be back there and sitting on the sofa brought back some warm feelings.
Next week I'm off to Tromsø for a few days on a course for Foreign organists working in Norway which I'm looking forward to and no doubt will write about in due course.
