3 Feb - You really have to be a skier if you want to be a national hero in Norway. Having said that, chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen managed to dominate Norwegian headines by becoming world champion at chess during the warm season; even our local shop is now stocking books called "Learn chess with Magnus Carlsen". But with the Winter Olympics about to start, most other things will come to a halt in Norway. When Katie came home from school yesterday, she mentioned that she'll need to take a few snacks to school on the day of the Men's Relay, because the class will be spending the day at the teacher's house. Most of the pupils will be joining him in front of the television; the few that are not that interested can play cards in the kitchen. They really know how to do school in Norway.

It's a good job the Winter Olympics are not here this year, though. The January gales ended abruptly last night and we woke up this morning to a strange and unexpected silence. We went outside and nearly fell over because we've grown so used to leaning into the wind. The temperature has also shot up by 20 degrees or so, which means that the wind has been replaced by a new sound -- falling rocks dislodged by the thaw. Driving out of Ørsdalen, I had to stop a couple of times to drag large rocks off the road (looking nervously up all the time in case more were on the way) before I could drive on, while the biggest danger in the tunnel is that one of the huge icicles will suddenly decide to drop off and impale you like something out of "The Omen". According to this morning's news, one of the main roads in southern Norway is currently closed because of half a dozen such icicles dangling from a rocky outcrop above the road. The Highways Authority is on their way with rifles in order to shoot them down (which somehow sounds more like a fun solution than a practical one, but never mind). Now there's an idea for the ski shooting next time the Winter Olympics are in Norway.

Comments joanna - February 3rd, 2014 Hi there, its great to be back on line after 9 days without!!!!! I love the Feb photo. I am a bit confused though is it sun set or sun rise!? We have been having some spectacular red sun rises recently, something to do with stormy weather I think God Bless to you all JO Tim - February 3rd, 2014 Good to be back with you! There were some periods of blog hibernation in January, I'm afraid ... the sunset over Ørsdalen lake (seen from just over the fields from the house) is hopefully not symbolic! Tim

4 Feb - "We were just watching Derrick on the television, and when we looked behind us there were three faces at the window, all watching the programme". It's a while since we had a moose story, so I thought we should include this complaint from Fagernes regarding moose standing in people's gardens to watch telly and - as seen on this photo - to eat the food they've put out for the birds.

Thank you, Pat, for sorting out NMS (who a few days ago were looking for a right hand). She's found one, formerly the property of St Vincent and now in Valencia Cathedral (photo here), so it has perfect ecclesiastical and foreign-church-experience qualifications. All sorted!

6 Feb - Today's news story, courtesy of Andrew, will require a bit of careful translating, but I think it's worth it. You know Lapland, in north-east Norway? The people who live there used to be called Laps ("Lapper" in Norwegian), but that's now regarded as a disparaging term and therefore politically incorrect, so they're now called Samene (which is the correct name in the Sami language). Just file that information away, and come with me to southern Norway, where - entirely unrelated and coincidentally - the dialect word for something similar to Scotch pancakes is ... "lapper". Now we put those two bits of information together. The cafe menu at a university in southern Norway today carried a special offer (photo, left): to celebrate the national day of the Sami people - freshly made "Lapper" with jam. When incredulous passers-by pointed it out, the cantine hastily took it down. "Pure accident", they said, "we didn't mean it".

7 Feb - Happy 14th birthday to Katie!

Comments joanna - February 7th, 2014 Yes Katie a very happy 14th Birthday, gosh time does fly at least for me, I hope you have a lovely day and weekend God bless. Katie - February 7th, 2014 Thanks Joanna!

Andrew's spent the week digging - see two photos of his digger.

8 Feb - Swimming competition today in Egersund (photo, right - click for enlargement). Katie won her 50m freestyle (crawl) by a long way and put in creditable performances in both 100m breast stroke and 50m back stroke (new personal best in both).

Comments Jon - February 8th, 2014 Gold in the Egersund Olympics - well done Katie! Katie - February 9th, 2014 Thank you, I must have looked a sight, sitting between races with my group by the poolside with my goggles on my forehead and my glasses on my nose, doing a rubiks cube.

I (Tim) help out a little at the swimming club's training sessions on Mondays - mostly just watching to make sure no-one sinks, but also as an an apprentice shouter ("kick your legs properly!" or "One arm at a time!"). The benefit of doing this is that during the competition I was able to sit some of the time in the pool attendent's glass-fronted poolside office. The pool attendent was lamenting over his coffee (he always offers me one, too, which is another perk) that a politician had accidently been allowed to notice that the handrail on the edge of the spectator balcony was lower than regulation height. The balcony was closed for a few days and a temporary extra rail added to provide the necessary extra couple of inches. But it all needs taking down and doing properly - also in the adjacent sports hall which has an identical system. "It'll cost a million kroner", he said gloomily, "it's very expensive glass". Between races I went into the sports hall (which was cooler and less crowded and noisy than the swimming-pool area). At the front of the hall there's a climbing frame fastened to the wall - the sort of thing we used to have at school, but higher. Twenty feet up, there's a narrow ledge, from which diagonal concrete beams slope up into the roof at about 45°. From those beams came a happy "whee!" sound. A little gaggle of seven-or-eight-year-old girls had also found their way into the sports hall, climbed the climbing frame up to the ledge and were now having great fun on the "slide". A much more Norwegian attitude to health-and-safety regulations. Happily I was saved from having to decide whether to be a spoilsport and fetch them down by the arrival of some parents (who may or may not have been the parents of the girls, but I chose to believe that they were) who took the whole thing as entirely normal. So I went back to the little office for the next race.

Books - One of the things we've enjoyed for the past few years has been that Amazon UK has sent books to Norway with free delivery. Sadly, they've stopped doing this - leading to a reduction in our orders! We've just found another online bookshop this does offer this service, however (and given that there's no VAT or import duty to pay on imported books, it's very handy) - www.bookdepository.co.uk. Highly recommended for getting books to Norway (or other countries)!

10 Feb - The job of "right hand" was sorted by Pat, so I'll mention a new job advertised in today's paper which requires twice as many hands, and a couple of feet to boot - they want an organist. It's not a place that would naturally appeal to Tracy, so we won't be going, but I'm sure someone will want it - it's extremely well paid (over £60 000 p.a.), free furnished house and car provided and a very low tax rate. Required qualifications include driving licence classes B (car) ... and S (snow scooter). Location? see map.

Comments joanna - February 11th, 2014 Tim who are the congregation? Polar bears!!! Tim - February 11th, 2014 I have been to that church, and you're not far off the mark. This is the town (Longyearbyen - click photo, right, for enlargement) where Matt and I visited the school and innocently asked the teacher why in such a peaceful place the school had to be surrounded by a secure, high wire fence with security gate. "So that the kids don't get eaten by polar bears at playtime", he said. And the law says that if you set foot beyond the last house in the village you are required to carry a loaded rifle - and know how to use it. This is what the housing looks like where our friend the teacher used to live; note the vehicle parking but also that the houses are well above the ground - there has be an air gap between ground level and the floor of the house because of the ground frost - and (although you can't see it on the picture) all pipework (water, drains and so on) is above ground level for the same reason. A place with challenges. But interesting ...

11 Feb - Carnival time in Ørsdalen! Katie decided to be a giant panda, but her head was in great demand (head-hunted) - no wonder they're a threatened species! Click photo, left, for enlargements.

Comments Jon - February 12th, 2014 Apparently Svalbard is even more dangerous than we thought, due to an outbreak of rabies. Mind you, I can't imagine how you would test to find out if a rabid polar bear is any more dangerous than a healthy polar bear (or maybe they had to install the school fence to prevent the scientists carrying out their study?!). And what about rabid pandas? Tim - February 12th, 2014 I'll do a rabies check on Katie at once: I thought it was only the maths homework that was making her foam at the mouth yesterday.

12 Feb - It's important to wear a hat when coming home from school in the snow. See photos.

13 Feb - This page is only about life as it is seen from the seclusion of Ørsdalen. But just occasionally we take a peep over the mountains at the world outside. At the moment - even on the Norwegian news - we can't miss the stories of floods and storms around Britain, and we hope all our friends and relations there are keeping safe. I can't resist quoting from this morning's BBC news, in which Phil Davies, network services manager for Western Power Distribution (a Welsh electricity company), says: "We've got staff out there. We came in first thing this morning, but it's difficult, some of our guys can't get out of their vehicles let alone get up a pole to fix it. But we're bringing in guys from other areas." Are the non-locals more dispensable, we wonder, or just heavier?

Comments joanna - February 13th, 2014 Hi luckily we are fine at the moment in our corner, mind you because London is flooded we never hear the end of it. Wales seems to have taken a battering especially along the coast! It looks as if we can blame all this weather on the horrendous typhoons in the Phillipines, it upset the air patterns in the Pacific and so the snows and cold in North America and that is pushing the jet stream much faster across the 'pond' so the storms don't have time to dissipate Its all back to the butterfly in the Amazon!!!! Or even to Katies bare legs in the snow!!!!!

18 Feb - Another half term. Another English test. Another story. Click picture (left) to read it: unless you're Matthew, in which case you'd better not. It's all about the legendary mountain-navigating skills of Katie's brother. For the purposes of the test, the first three sentences were provided ("I was just about to blow out the gas light when I saw something close to the canvas of the tent. A large looming shadow. I felt my heart start to beat faster.")

Comments joanna - February 18th, 2014 Katie you get better and better when are you going to write a book!! I loved the whole story but the end was a classic 100 out of 10 Katie - February 19th, 2014 When I do write a book I'll make sure you get a copy! Matt - February 19th, 2014 It wasn't my fault, the mountain was a mobius strip joanna - February 20th, 2014 Thanks Katie, please make sure you sign it as well!!! Matt that's the weakest excuse I have ever met. Good job I know you!!! Tim - February 20th, 2014 I loved the mobius strip - that one has class! joanna - February 27th, 2014 Matt re story and your excuse I ought to have put weirdest not weakest. I assume you have all made mobius strips!!!!! Norah - February 23rd, 2014 I have only now started to read your February news. I am so glad you are not going to live in Longyearben. Katie, your story is excellent and the more so for me as I could imagine your route- and the landing site! Keep on writing. Tim - February 23rd, 2014 But Norah, wouldn't you just love to visit a new and exciting place? So glad that the storms are calming down in Caernarfon - and that you've survived them intact.