Comments Norah, 2 January I hear you are having a heat wave in Norway so it seems inappropriate to wish you all a Happy New Year - but I will anyway! Tim, 2 January Yes, extraordinary that Åndalsnes this morning broke the all-time Norwegian record for January temperatures (18.6 degrees) - though it only held the record for half an hour before being beaten by a nearby town. Heatwave indeed! Happy New Year to you too!

1 January - New year in the wind - It's a funny thing, but last year — January 2019 — started with a bang. 1 January there were really strong winds — up to hurricane strength — which reminded us all too well of 1 January 1992, when the roof of the house in which we were living in Måndalen abruptly left us and sailed away and we made an extraordinary escape across the fields, dodging flying henhouses. Our roof here is made of stronger stuff, but even so we lost a few tiles, had the barn door damaged and a few other odds and ends, which the insurance company kindly paid for. So it was déjà vu all over again when January 2020 started with a bang, with really strong winds — up to hurricane strength — which did no favours to one of our windows (photo, right: click for enlargement). As mentioned earlier, 1 January 2021 we're intending to be away ...

Going underground - We celebrated new year underground. Not actually in a bunker, hiding from the storms, although it is true that we chose not to have our usual new year's beach walk because of the weather. No, the reason for our descent was simply the opening of a new tunnel — the world's longest underwater road tunnel — from Stavanger to ... well, to the other side of the fjord from Stavanger. We're not actually quite sure why they've done it because there isn't a lot across there, apart from the famous Pulpit Rock. Norway has become very good at imposing road tolls — it now costs about £150 one-way in tolls alone to drive to Oslo from here — and it will shortly be prohibitively expensive to drive through this new tunnel, but we managed to get through before they opened the paying facility. It's a very fancy tunnel. Like the even longer (but not underwater) Lærdalen tunnel a little north of here (which is actually the longest road tunnel in the world), it has fancy coloured lighting and occasional caves with artificial sunrise lighting to keep you awake and interested while driving through it. The first day it was open, people were apparently so awake and interested while driving through it that the tunnel's breakdown alarm kept going off due to drivers stopping to take selfies, so the police had to issue a warning not to do it. We got through the tunnel, experienced a bit of "other-side-of-the-fjord"-ness, bought an ice cream at the petrol-station-at-the-other-side-of-the-fjord and drove back again.

12 January - blue moon, green washroom - Once in a blue moon we get a free weekend together, where we don't have Saturday weddings or Sunday services. We generally try to go somewhere on such occasions (so that they can't ring and say "so-and-so is ill; could you possibly just ...?") and this weekend we had thought to visit Thomas Andrew. He was hard at work, however, so we decided to decorate the washroom instead: painting, tiling, window varnishing (just the door still to varnish and a couple of details to do before we've finished). We really know how to enjoy our weekends off. One corner of the results of our labours here.

13 January - Any idea what this man's job is?

Tracy is off to Farflungistan again on Wednesday; the first of the year's mission trips. Only a week and a half, with visits to India and Bangkok.

16 January - Norwegian maritime agency tells seafarers not to plunder Irish monasteries - It's over two-and-a-half years since we reported (here) that this replica Viking ship was stranded high and dry by the Norwegian maritime agency, who refused permission to let it carry tourists on trips round the harbour because it didn't have signs indicating the emergency exits. The maritime agency has evidently been working full speed ahead on the problem, because according to today's national news they are introducing new rules on 1 February to drop this requirement. They are also dropping rules that would have required the Viking longboat to have engines and that would have required the crew to be trained to deal with pirates. In return they want an assurance that the longboat won't be taken to Ireland to plunder monasteries. No such assurance seems to have been given for England, Scotland or Wales, however, so if you're worried, I suggest you put some pirates on standby (the crew haven't been trained for that).

Hot property - As mentioned in the comments at the top of this page, Åndalsnes — of all places — briefly held the all-time Norwegian record for January temperatures (18.6 degrees). A few days later, temperatures were even higher in the multi-storey car park at Stavanger airport (where our car had been not long before). It burned down and partially collapsed (photo here) when some unfortunate person returning from a holiday tried to start their Zafira. The whole airport and adjoining hotel had to be evacuted, of course, and all flights cancelled for the day, so it was a real party. They're still trying to decide whether they can get any of the surviving cars out of the car park, but the current theory is that it will have to be demolished with all £30 million worth of cars still inside. We have space booked in the same car park in February and April; I think I feel a change of plan coming on.

26 January - Crime and punishment - Today's police log records no less than two crimes today — one in Stavanger (normal) and one (very rare) in our own local authority district, Bjerkreim. The Stavanger report reads:

Just after 5am the police received a report that a taxi driver's glasses had been stolen. A man stole them from the driver's nose in a petrol station. What the culprit intended to do with a random pair of progressive glasses is unknown.

The Bjerkreim report reads:

At 1am a drunken man in his 30s stole a taxi from Bjerkreim Road. The taxi driver had got out of his car for a moment to adjust some seats when the culprit took the opportunity to make off with the car. Another taxi stopped the car immediately afterwards on Odland Road. The man ran into the forest, but a police dog caught up with him. The man refused to stop, which resulted in him being bitten on the bottom by the dog. The man was examined by a doctor, who also took blood to check for alcohol. His driving license was confiscated.

It's actually that final comment that I love. What's the punishment for stealing a taxi? Yes, of course, confiscation of driving license (the bitten bottom was perhaps also intended to stop him getting into a driving seat in the near future).

Our question a couple of weeks ago (13 January) yielded no suggestions about the man's job. The answer is that the picture shows the Professor of Snow at Trondheim University peering into a snow laboratory.