Would you like to vacuum with me?*

*Here’s hoping that isn’t a euphemism in Norway!

This year there have been two big musical projects here on Dønna and Herøy.

The first was back in June in Herøy where we performed “Petter” - a church play about Petter Dass. It took place in the church on Herøy day and marked the “unveling” of the 10 meter statue of him on a tiny island off Herøy. Dass’s father came from Dundee (what are the odds?) and he became a very important priest/ poet - apparently he was so well thought of that for 100 years after his death fishermen still had a black cloth as part of their sails. I like to think of him as Helgeland’s William Shakespeare.

There were a large number of performers taking part - soloists, choral scholars from Mosjøen, a small band and a large choir. You can see a short bit of it here: https://youtu.be/blfDibcMf2s?feature=shared

I have never had so much exercise at a single concert before - as well as piano and harmonium which I played as part of the band at the front I had to run up and down the stairs at the back to play the organ at various points. Fortunately there’s space down the sides of aisles that I could negotiate - I would have hated having to walk up and down the centre aisle. As the concert went on I became a bit more self conscious - I turn the pages on my iPad by winking at it and I suddenly became worried that the young ladies in the front row might think I meant something else…..

In October, we had Dønnesrosen up in Dønnes Kirke. I never actually saw Witches Blood in Dundee but it seemed to me to be along the same lines. A community project based on the history of Dønnes Kirke - the play was written by Jens (who kindly put me up in the guest house for a week or so when I was still a newbie here) and the music was written by Svein Ivar. Again lots of community involvement with Dønnahorn, the local Mannskor, children’s choir and local actors taking the various roles.

It was great to see the same play a few times as I picked up more and more of the story each time. I remember feeling chuffed at recognising the word for ghosts - not a word that I’ve ever had the chance to use since I got here. On the subject another word I had learnt was “snake” which again I;ve never had the occasion to use. I was delighted to discover that it was also the word for a tire’s inner tube which with the ongoing saga of my winter tires was much more useful. Spookily enough, the chap doing my tires not only was wearing a Star Wars hoodie (bonus points already) but he had lived in Dundee (and Edinburgh and St Andrews) for a while. Anyway, Dønnesrosen…..We performed it twice to a packed church and also opened the dress rehearsal to the public. Much to my shame I single handedly brought the dress rehearsal to a crashing halt in the penultimate song. Who’d have thunk that missing out a repeat sign could cause so much havoc? And that was after the embarrassment of one of the actors coming up to me before the rehearsal to say that he thought I had the wrong chord in one of his songs - again to my shame I had to explain, that no, it was the right chord, I had just failed to play it correctly every time. Suffice to say that both these moments subsequently had big red circles round them on my score so at least those errors weren’t repeated. No doubt I added some new ones in each time.

I braved my first all-Norwegian film - the story of the sinking of the German battleship Blücher at the start of the invasion of Norway. The story of the actual sinking is framed by the post-war commission into whether Birger Kristian Eriksen had surrended his fort too early. Thanks to the subtitles (in Norwegian) I was able to follow the story right up until the moment where the commission gave the result - sadly I had to consult Wikipedia as soon as I got out the cinema. Despite having been shown a number of times already, the cinema was quite (comparatively!) busy - well into double figures. I’ve taken quite badly to sharing the cinema with people - when I had gone to see Tron:Ares the week before I had the entire cinema to myself (“I’ll not give you a ticket, there’s no one else coming - sit where you want”). This time there were actual people in the same row as me!

For my sins I have failed to make any progress in painting the house this year - I’ve got as far as borrowing a colour chart from Sigrid. Next year… Thanks to the rally round of my sons, I’ve now got all my pictures here in Norway so hopefully over the winter I’ll get them up on the walls so that the place looks a bit more homely. Alas they took a bit of a battering on their way here so I’ll need to invest in a number of new frames as well. What I did manage to achieve though was finally getting on top of all the grass cutting. Summer 2024 I had conquered the area in front of the house but this summer I managed to bring the little hill round the side of the house under control. I’ve got a cheap and cheerful lawnmower so scything down the knee high grass on a 45° angle was quite hard work but we got there. I think Finrod was quite surprised when he no longer had to fight through the jungle to get out in the world. Was quite chuffed when Sigrid it was the first time about 7 years that the grass was cut :-)

After all the razzmatazz and buzz of Mosjøen (ie alone in a 400 seat cinema and nothing open till 10am), I had a craving for more excitement so booked myself a wee jaunt to London at the end of September. The plan was just to spend a few days myself in the big city but ended up being quite social - my friends Amy and Barbara from Dundee days happened to be visiting so was lovely to catch up with them. My eldest, Martin, said he’d come down which was very kind of him and the local funeral director also happened to be in London at the same time so we were able to catch up for a coffee.

I was unusually well prepared for arriving - I knew what tube, buses etc, to get. But despite the preparation it all went wrong immediately I arrived. I had forgotten to take into account that although may have the right line, it may not be going in the right direction. “Hmm, I don’t recognise the names of these stations…”

Foolishly I didn’t look at reviews of the hotel I was staying at until after I had booked it and became very apprehensive about it. The room itself was fine but the decor was well past its sell-by date and from the front it looked like an Indian restaurant. However, credit where credit is due I was pleased with its accessibility to the City and the staff were v friendly. Mind you I did feel threatened by the lady in charge of the breakfast bar - “You give us a good review? I know who you are!” At least I think that’s what she said. Just to be on the safe side, I gave them a 5 star review.

As is traditional when in London with an offspring, I took my Martin to see “The Play that Goes Wrong”. Going from a place where it’s not unusual to have the cinema to oneself to a packed out theatre was bit of a culture shock. And goodness me the people surrounding us were annoying. The chap beside Martin obviously didn’t want to be there as he was consulting property prices on his phone throughout. The group beside me obviously were there to support one of their friends in the cast and the lady to my left (despite having seen the show 7 times she declared to all and sundry) hooted in a very exaggerated manner throughout - presumably so that her friend on stage could hear her.

The next night we went to see Stranger Things - I haven’t seen all the TV show but it was a prequel and I figured that it would be quite the spectacle so worth going to see. I exceeded myself on my nerdiness - I’m sure Martin was impressed. When I lodged with Sigrid and Steffen across the road I needed help to change a lightbulb - but flash up “USS Eldridge” on a back cloth and you’re in my zone. “Now Martin, this was a very early conspiracy theory from WWII. The USS Eldridge was a destroyer in the American Navy and…..” I’m sure I made him proud.

As hoped it was a spectacular production and we both very much enjoyed it. Funnily enough, at one point of the show, there was a “stunt” similar to one in The Play that goes Wrong but heck of a lot more impressive. Though, TBF, one is played for comedy and this one wasn’t.

We also managed to fit in a number of museums - we went to the Science museum and Martin wanted to see what a “real” V and A museum was like. There was a small exhibition about The Mikado and I was able to point out the chap who is meant to have discovered my grandfather’s musical talent. Well, not the actual chap, a card with him on it in costume.

Before Martin arrived, I went to the Museum of Brands which was a wonderful nostalgia trip - certainly from the 1970s onward. I figured that Martin having been born in 1999 wouldn’t appreciate that one so went by myself. Was pleasantly surprised to discover a small Space:1999 and Thunderbirds exhibition.

I wangled myself a gig playing at a church on a Sunday morning - it was strange being able to follow an entire service without the need of the idiot guide that my colleagues kindly provide for me each week. An added bonus was the lady cantor who stood up to lead all the singing - always excellent to have a visual clue about when to play! Two things I noticed were that a/ it was very busy for not being the main service of the day and b/ unusually I was one of the older people. As appears to be common these days, I played the congregational stuff well enough but ham-fisted my way through the postlude alas. On the plus side, the congregation were very much not listening to me as they yacked their way out the church. Here on Dønna and Herøy the congregation are told “we will now sit and listen to the postludium”. Poor sods. I tried a different tack these last few weeks - I have a YouTube channel where I try and put most of the music I play. I thought that instead of recording the pieces in the weeks following the services, maybe if I recorded them before I’d be in the zone on the Sunday. Alas, this has so far not paid off. I thought I had maybe turned a corner last week when I played a Bach piece better than I had played it before but alas yesterday… I actually stopped in the middle of a bar while I considered my life choices, sorry, I mean what I was meant to do next. Ah well, maybe the Christmas music...

I met up with Martin after the service for a final cuppa before headed back up the road. While we were drinking, who should walk past outside but Eilish McColgan - only one of Dundee’s most famous daughters. As I explained to my friends here in Norway, there are probably 2 international stars from Dundee - Eilish and Brian Cox (modesty prevents me from including myself haha)

After Martin had gone, I pottered off to see ABBA Voyage. Until a few weeks before, I had had no interest in going to see it, much as I love the music. However, I read of an interview with Bjørn and something he said struck a chord with me so ticket was duly purchased. At the arena one has a basic choice between sitting or dance zone - didn’t take me long to choose between them but even so, you are warned that even the seated people might be dancing (no danger in my case). The technology was absolutely amazing - for a moment, I thought the real ABBA had appeared on the stage at the end. The only thing that doesn’t work, and indeed was a bit cringe inducing is the between song banter. But that’s forgivable. Every so often in the seated zones some staff would wander through with signs saying “dance” or something like that which fortunately did not induce much participation where I was. I actually remember thinking “you know, I might get away with this”, completely forgetting that they hadn’t played Dancing Queen yet. Course the place went bananas at that point. Fortunately I was not the only grumpy old bxxxer in my zone so was not alone staying in my seat.

For my last night, I had decided for a bit of “proper culture”. I had seen an advert for a play about Shakespeare and Marlowe starring an ex-Doctor Who. That was literally all I knew but I thought it sounded interesting and it certainly was an entertaining evening. Course, not being the sharpest tool in the tool box it took me about 10 minutes to work out that Doctor Who was in fact playing Marlowe not Shakespeare like I had assumed. The plot made more sense from that point onwards.

I like to think Finrod missed me, he seemed a bit reluctant to spend too much time outside after I came back - I like to think he was checking that I was still here. Bless him. I can’t say that continued to feel that warmth towards me after I took him to the vet for his annual vaccination. Even refused his Dreamies when we came back. At least for a while! On the other hand, I was chuffed to have understood everything the vet had said in Norwegian to me so one of us was in a good mood.