We're just over a month into the new year and suffice to say that my new year resolution of "eat less cake" crashed and burned very rapidly. A couple of weeks ago my colleagues and I were at a conference thingy in Sandnessjøen and were fed very royally. Afterwards the Dønna section of my colleagues headed up to Solfjellsjøen for a church council thingy and again were fed extremely well. I even enjoyed the spicy fish soup. Admittedly I didn't have to go up twice for cake but that was entirelyTrine's fault - being a gentleman I couldn't possibly let her walk all the way to the cake by herself. The following day we had a funeral, staff meeting and service at the old folks' centre. Again , there was cake at all three. Not only that, much to my own personal excitement I was finally able to take part in the bingo after paying for myself now that I've got a Norwegian Bank-ID and the Vipps app.
Of course I then went and won a rather large pack of Paprika flavoured crisps so working on the principle of getting the massive calorie hit over in one go....
While it has been reasonably busy during the weeks, I've had a number of Sundays off in January so took the opportunity to nip back to Scotland for a few days to catch up with family and friends. I set myself 2 objectives - a picture with the kids and a visit to what had been my local chipper when I lived on Riverside Drive. To my shame I only achieved one of those and it wasn't family related.
I decided to book myself an appartment for for most of the week and my father kindly put me up for a couple of nights at the end of the week. Possibly for the first time, I actually made a list of things to pack for my travels: working on the basis that I was staying somewhere with a washing machine I brought enough clothes to get me to Thursday. Do a wash during the day and voila, enough clothes to get me back to Norway. Suffice to say, that crashed and burned as well and I had to visit Primark to stock up on the necessary.
Jen v kindly picked me up from the airport and took me to Apartment A. I'd always had an ominous feeling about this and it came to pass that there were no keys. We got in touch the owner and he seemed to be under the impression that I had already moved in. Transpired that the place had been double booked. "But not to worry" quoth he "I have another appartment which you can have ar least till Wednesday". Off we pottered again to a slightly less salubrious area. We found the apartment which was next to a couple of chaps smoking what I think we can politely describe as "a questionable substance". It was a nice place but it was cold and didn't look like it was warming up anytime soon so with a bit of research I booked myself into a hotel instead. I had problems actually confirming it and it only went through about 30 seconds before we arrived at check in. On the plus side I appeared to have been given a free upgrade.
As can be imagined I spent a fair amount of time at the local Costas but alas I couldn't convince my Costa app I was in the same country despite it showing me clearly on its map that I was in Dundee. So no free coffees coming my way anytime soon.
I had a lovely time catching up with people and ate way too much food / drank too much coffee! Also took advantage of being back in the country by scheduling appointments with dentist and hairdresser. My dentist definitely has issues about my new coffee and cake lifestyle and my hairdresser failed to recognise me (didn't think I'd put on THAT much weight!)
My last full day in Dundee revolved around lunch with my family - was great to spend time with all the kids again particularly I hadn't seen Martin (in person) since before I moved to Norway. This was my opportunity to get a photo with the kids but much to my annoyance completely forgot. In the end I had to resort to taking a picture of a picture that was hanging up in my dad's house.
The Helgeland Kammerkor has resumed rehearsals but sadly they are for their farewell concerts that will take place in Mosjøen and Alstahaug. I really noticed how more I was able to understand - both from the director and reading the texts. The concert is a lovely collection of shorter pieces, many of which I knew from Dundee and include classics like Locus Iste and The Long Day Closes. Chris, the director, led us through all our warm ups, again many of which I was familiar with but I wasn't expecting to have to dance with a colleague at one point. However, when in Norway, do as the Norwegians do...
On the subject of Norway and Norwegian - useful phrases I've been able to add to my vocabulary include: "there is a man with a knife standing behind the curtains", "Dad, why are you hoovering the refrigerator?" and "the lawyer is hoovering the carpet today". Unsurprisingly haven't had to use them yet but all mocking aside, I now know the words for carpet and curtains v thoroughly. It's also fun learning song titles - "She came in through the bathroom window" and "welcome to my nightmare"
We actually had a written test in school on Monday - bit of a shock to the system at 8am I can tell you. I'm a lot better at reading than I am at speaking and listening so was able to get through it all ok - of course I say that now but I may have done catastrophically badly.... time will tell I suppose.
Sadly, the last couple of weeks here have been marred by sad news. Our wonderful priest in Herøy, Jørg, has had to return to Trondheim and he will be sadly missed. I really enjoyed working with him - he patiently went through every service with me to check I knew where things were to happen and very clearly said "we will now sing" at all the appropriate moments so I knew when the hymns would be.
And v tragically and unexpectedly, Dønnahorn have lost one of their percussion section, Bjørn Arne. Obviously I didn't know him that well but at all the rehearsals and concerts I attended he always had a smile on his face and I really enjoyed working beside him. I've posted the picture of the percussion section again - he is sitting on the left looking at the photo. RIP Bjørn Arne :-(
