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 auspiciously - while sitting in Herøy church, I thought it'd be a cunning idea to check-in for my flight nice and promptly. Suffice to say, this turned out to be not one of my more inspired ideas. I had booked my tickets with my passport and foolishly I tried to use my Norwegian ID to check in. My attempts crashed and burned - I couldn't convince the system that I was a/ not Norwegian and b/ born in November 2022. I suspect that my "old" self from say two years ago would have then gone into crisis mode but Graeme 2.0 is much more confident - a bit of time on Sunday evening was spent trying to figure out what to say at the airport in the morning and all went well when I got there. I was able to explain in Norwegian about the problem and to the person at the check-in desk and of course to apologise to the queue building up behind me and all was eventually sorted out. That being said, my baggage had an easier time than me - my case got all the way to Scotland while I had to check in again at Bergen. And on top of that, I managed to put my linguistic skills to even more use before heading off by to phoning and booking an appointment for my car in the garage in Herøy. Always feel a bit of pride when I pull these things off in Norsk!
I had a lovely time at home catching up with people - a busy schedule of family and friends and visits to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Without wanting to offend anyone I met, the highlight was undoubtedly watching Martin, my eldest son, graduate with his MSc (with Distinction) at Strathclyde University. A very proud moment and I have to say something seemed to get into my eye as he crossed the stage in the Barony Hall. I had a lovely meal with Martin the evening before his graduation and the next morning spent a bit of time with Amy before the ceremony. I had the pleasure of watching, with my brother, my youngest playing football for his team, Ferry Athletic. If I've picked it up correctly, the league they were playing in disbanded and so they joined a more senior one. The players in the opposing team were all much older and it seemed a throwback to the old days when at half time, a number of the opposition were seen dragging on cigarettes with a pall of smoke above the team huddle. Despite the age difference, Ferry Athletic won comfortably (9 - 1 or 2) and indeed Jonathan scored. He also missed a "sitter" but he very quickly informed us that it had bobbled just before he it so....
And speaking of academic achievements, I can't believe in my first draft of this post that I forgot to brag about my own one. I arrived back at the flat here in Norway one afternoon to discover an envelope waiting for me containing the results of my Norwegian test. For whatever reason I found it a lot harder (mentally, not physically!) to open than any previous results. I sat looking at it for at least 3 hours and even when I did open it, the paper was v slowly extricated so that I could read one result at a time. I sat the A1/A2 test which is all at a fairly basic level and indeed passed at listening, writing and talking. However, I was unbelievably chuffed to achieve B1 in reading. I was buzzing for days after.
As mentioned in a previous post I had got in touch with my French teacher who had had the "pleasure" of teaching me nearly 40 years ago in Harris Academy. We met up for a coffee and after suspicions that she had confused me with someone else ("you could have done higher French") the adjective "obnoxious" came up so was reassured that she did indeed remember me. Lovely time was had and much coffee and scones were consumed.
My family were very kind to me while I was over - lovely time spent catching up with my brother and Aunt and Uncle in Edinburgh and spent the weekends with my dad and his wife Sue. I was fed extremely well and I'm still trying to lose the weight I put on.
The Aussie Pink Floyd very kindly put on a concert in the Caird Hall while I was there and it was absolutely fabulous. It's the 3rd time I've seen them and they never disappoint. I really object to the extra fees that are put on ticket prices these days so shout out to Jen who kindly saved me £1.50 or something by buying my ticket in person. 'Twas much appreciated,
A couple of nights later I was back in the Caird Hall with Dad and Sue for a Silent Movie night with live organ accompaniment. They've done it for a few years now but I'd always been busy (or, TBF, in Norway) so it was great to finally get along and it was well worth the wait.
It was lovely to see so many people while being back and looking forward to seeing them/you next year sometime.
My last day was tinged with a bit of sadness as it would have been my mum's and Uncle Nigel's 80th birthdays so on the way back up to Aberdeen Jen v kindly took me via Liff so I could put flowers on the grave.
If one was to devise a word cloud for this blog I suspect the word that would stand out in the middle would inevitably be "cake" so I fully intend to make this the last mention of that beloved subject. My birthday was on a Sunday this year and it so happened that that particular day I had 3 services to play for: the islands of Husvær and Sandvær and then back up the road to Nordvik. On this day I discovered that it was indeed possible to have too much cake. After the service in Husvær (during which I played a rather nice Harmonium) there were sandwiches, waffles, cake and coffee. Next was the service in Sandvær and for Kirkekaffe there, there were coffee, waffles and five, count 'em, FIVE different cakes. Out of sheer politeness I never refused when offered but goodness me I was stuffed by the end. The ferry took us back to Herøy where I had about a 20 minute walk to where I had left my car. Then zoomed up the road for the last service of the day. And after that service there was coffee and ..... fish soup. I have never been so glad in all my days to see a savoury dish!
Before I came back to Scotland Laila and Åsmund tried to blow me up on their boat. Sorry, I mean invited me out for a fishing trip. The weather was forecast to be lovely on the Wednesday so I was very kindly invited along for the ride. Lots of modern technology such as radar for finding the fish - all v impressive. However things took a dark turn when it was time for coffee and hot dogs. The current gas cylinder seemed to be out of gas so was changed over and when attempting to light it again some of the gas must have leaked out and all of suddenly there were flames everywhere (well, slight exaggeration there haha). I'm sure you'll all know me as man of action and deciveness so I did what you'd expect- stood there looking stupefied. Åsmund on the other hand took firm control and lobbed the cooker out into the ocean, no doubt surprising some of the fish as it sank past them.
I played a couple of concerts with the local Multikor and Dønnahorn, both directed by Sabine - one was in the church in Leirfjord and the second one here on Dønna, in Solfjellsjøen. I was even promoted to "gokenspiel 1" for one of the band pieces. However, the next night I asked permission to resign from the position for the 2nd concert as I was right in the front and only had about 8 bars to play for the first 4 or 5 numbers and I didn't want to either a/ stand up and take bows for pieces I didn't play in or b/ be the only person sitting while everyone else was bowing. Fortunately Sabine was v understanding and frankly I doubt anyone noticed the difference when I wasn't there.
Shortly after I got back from Scotland I had a lovely evening (one of many it has to be said) up at Solveig's and Einar's. As Scotland were playing Norway they v kindly invited me up for a meal and to watch the game afterwards. The fact it ended in a score draw was quite a nice way to finish the evening!
The completely black picture below is not a mistake - it's the view that we enjoy from the top of Røsdalsfjellet during our Tirsdagturs :-)
