doings

May 2013

1 May - Pick up sticks. What ever is the lad doing here? Click photo, left, for explanation.

Happy Mayday! It's a bank holiday in Norway, celebrated not with Maypoles but traditionally with brass bands and speeches, though the day is not observed as much as it used to be.

Our day was a little unexpected, as Tim's car went on strike half-way up the hill out of the valley. The gearbox has been giving trouble all winter and the plan was to drive the car to London as soon as the snow had finally gone and get the gearbox re-built by a specialist company there. Unfortunately, the car took matters into its own wheels and had to leave the valley with assistance (see photo here). So tomorrow, when the garage is once more open, we'll find out whether it's viable to repair.

2 May - The snow that was forecast yesterday has come - up to several feet in depth on some roads and police are warning people not to drive if they have already changed from winter to summer tyres (which they're supposed to have done). Here at home it's just blustering and not lying deep (photos from this morning here) - as yet!

The owner of the garage near Vikeså rang this morning. "What's your car doing her, Tim?" Then, "well how are you going to get around? Look, I've got an old van you can borrow". So I'm waiting for his diagnosis and prognosis. In the meantime, I've got his van (photo here) - and I'm hoping not to be stopped for assistance whilst out and about.

3 May - Andrew called in at the garage on his way home and asked for news of the car. Apparently, when they lifted the car up and shook it, the gearbox tinkled to the floor in a gentle shower of cogs and small bits of metal. They've ordered a replacement gearbox, which should be here soon after the weekend. Andrew has kept a close eye on this process. When my car was being towed away, the recovery van was apparently forced to stop on the road out of Ørsdalen by a tractor parked in the middle of the road, with a teenager standing in the bucket. "Is it locked?", asked the teenager before jumping up onto the lorry, opening the car door, taking out a pair of shoes, jumping back into the tractor and driving off. We assume that the recovery-van driver returned, shaken, to his garage to describe to his disbelieving audience the perils of higwaymen on the road out of Ørsdalen.

5 May - Down by the river. After church, Katie and Tim took the dogs down to the river to give them a run on the beach. Despite the recent snow, spring is on its way and it felt pleasantly warm (i.e. above freezing!) on the beach, which led to certain legs being tempted towards the water (click photo, right, for several pictures).

6 May - Scents of spring - The weather may be ambivolent, but it certainly smells like spring, mainly due to activities at the neighbouring farms (photo here).

8 May - Tractor clutch - Not to be outdone by Tim's car and its gearbox, the clutch on Andrew's tractor decided that enough was enough and gave up last night. He's ordered a new clutch, but while it's on its way he will be busy splitting his tractor in two ready to fit it. So far he's just taken the roof off, but the process will continue tomorrow (click photo, left, for a series of six pictures documenting the entire process).

9 May - A rainy bank holiday, so Katie is baking buns, Andrew continuing to dismantle his tractor and we're about to start building a sauna in the bathroom.

Comments joanna - May 16th, 2013 How are the machines? Did the tractor ever get taken apart or was it Andrew who was taken apart for getting oil on the concrete? Has the weather warmed up with you yet? It hasn't here just 2 warm days at Bank Holiday!!! Tim - May 16th, 2013 Yes, sorry it's been a bit quiet here lately! Tractor is currently in two (I've added a couple of pictures this evening). 17th of May tomorrow - national day - so there'll be more comments by evening!

17 May - Norway's national day. Unlike last year, the weather was more traditional and people enjoyed themselves in the procession, church service and silly games/speeches/ice creams afterwards. Click photo, right, for a short picture sequence.

18 May - A gloriously-hot, sunny day. Spring never quite made it here - and from the house we can still see lots of patches of snow on the mountains - but summer arrived abruptly this morning. In bergen it was the hottest day ever recorded in May, and the same was probably true here. It's been 26° (79°F) in the shade and brilliant sunshine, so we've all taken advantage of the weather to spend every minute of the day outside doing maintenance on the house and gardening (who said anything about relaxation?), and for Andrew, further tractor dismantling with the help of our friend Nils-Olav. Click small picture, left, for short picture sequence.

19 May - Another beautiful, hot, sunny day - but last night we were woken suddenly at 2 in the morning. "I can hear a rushing wind", said Tracy. "That's OK - it's Pentecost today", said Tim. But then there were powerful crashings and bangings, which we thought at first were an avalanche, but then realised that it was a huge thunderstorm and heavy rain.

Andrew's tractor is back in one piece again, after hours of work. Still some way to go before it's completely re-assembled and driveable, but at least the end is in sight (and the middle no longer in sight).
Many hours later ... now nearly re-assembled and successfully test-driven! (Final picture now in place!). Andrew's done a fantastic job (and is quietly rather pleased with himself).

Tim's car is still being operated upon at the garage, but we hear rumours that the new gearbox has arrived and that work is progressing. Katie pointed out that "it's a good thing you've got the garage's van - it means that they'll hurry up with fixing the car so that they can get it back!"

20 May - Family day at Tracy's church (click wet sponge, right, for photos).

26 May - Leaving "do" for Matt at his church, prior to his move to Bodø. It was a lovely event, with lots of people turning out to wish him well, say nice things about him and his cooking (yes, that one caught us by surprise, too) and to watch him, together with two friends, performing as blundering ballerinas to Swan Lake - the funniest thing we've seen for ages.

27 May - "We'll see whether we get there or not - we'll improvise", said the cheerful flight attendent on the little plane at Tromsø. I'm supposed to be playing a concert at North Cape this evening, but at 3am a text message arrived from the airline to say that Honningsvåg airport (where I was supposed to be landing) was going to be closed and so my flight would be cancelled - or at best replaced by a 9-hour bus-ride from Tromsø which would arrive well after the concert was due to be over. Another message at 5am said that it might be all right after all. I turned up at the airport at 5.30 for the first leg of my journey, due to leave at 6.10, and went straight to the Widerøe office to ask what the chances were of getting to North Cape today. "I've no idea", said the lady. "Is there a problem?" She tapped away at her computer for a while. "Mm. See what you mean. The airport's open again, but I don't know whether they'll manage to get a plane into Tromsø to fly you there. Tell you what. Why don't you fly to Oslo. They can probably tell you more there. And I'll be able to get back to my coffee before it gets cold". She didn't actually say that last bit, but it's what she meant. So I flew to Oslo, where the Widerøe people told me that everything was now sorted and I would get to Honningsvåg if I jumped on the next plane to Tromsø. Tromsø was bathed in sunshine - there were people sunbathing on the beach as we flew in over the brilliant-blue sea. It was 25° C, apparently - as warm as anywhere in Europe. According to the news it was "warmer in Alta than in Malta" [Alta is a town inland from Tromsø]. It was lovely - and good to be back up north, amongst more familiar accents. My flight onwards from Tromsø was due to call in at Hammerfest and then go on to Honningsvåg, but the departures board only listed Hammerfest, which was disconcerting. "No, we're not sure whether we can get you to Honningsvåg or not", they said. "But jump on anyway, and we'll have a word with the captain and see". They said.

At Hammerfest the plane emptied, leaving just the cheerful stewardess (the one who had promised to "improvise"), myself, a Swedish walker and, improbably, a man from Farnham in Surrey who delivered boats for a living. I know this because the cheerful stewardess asked us all who we were and what we were doing, before selecting the English boat-deliverer to chat up. She gave him her phone number, too, which seemed to disappoint the Swede, who wasn't offered it. She announced to the three of us that the captain was going to "go for it", checked that we weren't interested in hearing the safety announcements again, gave us a complimentary chocolate each as a reward and called through to the pilot to get going. Just as the plane started to move it stopped again. "Can you all spare five minutes?", asked the captain. "The airport's just radioed to say that someone else has just arrived and wants to go to Honningsvåg, so we may as well wait for him". The steps were lowered again and a fourth passenger jumped on board - this time an Italian. "You've been on this plane before, haven't you?" asked the stewardess, in English. "Yes", said the Italian in surprise. "Yes I thought I recognised you. You remember all the safety stuff, yes? Here, have a chocolate". And so we were off and arrived in time for the concert after all.

28 May - This morning we had a meeting to discuss various issues about a new organ for the church and then I set off for home. The flight to Hammerfest and Tromsø passed without incident except that on landing in Hammerfest the stewardess wished the three of us welcome to Honningsvåg and told us that there would be a short stopover in Honningsvåg before we continued. I suggested to her that we might actually now be in Hammerfest. "Why, so we are!", she said. But we've been in Honningsvåg, anyway, and they all begin with an 'H'". From Tromsø I took a flight to Bodø - to where Matt is moving in a few weeks. We flew in over the Lofoten islands and all the beautiful coastline, and Bodø looked spectacular with the spring colours and sunshine. From Bodø I flew to Trondheim. From Trondheim I flew to Bergen. You start getting fed up of flights by this stage. And from Bergen I flew to Stavanger, where it was pouring down. Welcome home! Back in Ørsdalen it wasn't raining, but a heavy mist hung over the valley (click photo, right, for enlargement).

Floods - it's been perfectly all right here, but further east in Norway they've been having serious flooding due to heavy rain coinciding with a long, cold winter suddenly turning into warm weather and melting all the snow at once. The Met Office often speaks of a "5-year flood" which, as they point out, doesn't mean that it will last for 5 years or that they occur every fifth year, but that it's the kind of flood you wouldn't expect to get on average more than twice a decade. This one has been a "50-year flood". The newspapers are full of pictures of whole villages being swept away, vast areas of the eastern valleys lying under water, of bridges in the act of falling into raging rivers and of vehicles and caravans being swept over waterfalls (see a few pictures here).

31 May - Matt has today left his flat in Bru and moved in at home for the summer, before moving to Bodø in July. (So his former address in Bru is now defunct). Welcome home!