We've arrived at mid-January before managing to get anything at all onto the blog. I'm sorry.
The later part of last year was a time of loss of various kinds, ranging from the death of Don and down in significance through the death of Tune and even of Tim's car.
The new year seemed like a good time to draw a line under it all and move on.
It nearly worked, but we have to add two other things to the list.
Fudge — Tracy's unique, loving and laid-back labradoodle — died last week. We're all missing him in our different ways (as Thomas said, "it doesn't feel right to come to the front door without a brown furry face peering out of the window at me") and the house suddenly feels very empty.
For some years, Katie's life has largely revolved around swimming, with training four or five times a week as well as competitions. A chlorine sensitivity has rapidly evolved into a full-blown allergy. No more swimming pools for Katie. This has also left a gaping hole. Katie is looking for a new sport, but as she says, it will be hard to find a good replacement and hard to gain the same sort of proficiency at it.
So this is where we draw that line. In fact, we'll even make it a line in the sand.
No more disasters.
15 Jan - Of course, the favourite topic of Norwegian ridicule is always the Swedes.
In all fairness, they do provide a fair bit of scope.
The Norwegian news is therefore joyfully reporting from a national televised debate between the leaders of the main political parties in Sweden.
Swedish television gave the event live coverage.
According to the Norwegian news (I'm stressing this because in my view it all seems too good to be true),
Swedish television managed to get their lines crossed and switched over the subtitles with those from the children's television channel.
So while Andy Pandy was singing about refugee quotas and making promises about social housing,
the Prime Minister was sharing his most cherished ambitions "it's such a pity that there isn't such a thing as a train that can travel underwater without rails",
the leader of the Green Party (who incidentally introduced her address with "Greetings, Earthlings")
confided (not entirely surprisingly, except for the colour scheme) that she had "two pairs of wellies. One red pair and one yellow pair"
and the leader of the Liberal Party brandished an impressive-looking document while promising "I will build the best sandcastle in the galaxy".
You see what I mean about it all seeming too good to be true?
Bit too well choreographed, somehow.
Lovely story, though.
18 Jan -
Lots of snow and brilliant sunshine on the mountains (photo of Ørsdalen, right - click for enlargement),
together with healthy cold temperatures (-13° on the way to church yesterday),
so we're at last enjoying a bit of real winter.
The ski centre has now opened, so lots of tourists getting their cars stuck on the road is the only problem.
Not quite the only problem, if truth be told. The work that closed the tunnel for the later part of last year was supposed to be finished before Christmas, but the tunnel was abruptly closed again a week ago and will remain so until the end of January. The highways authority say that the work is behind schedule because when planning the project they hadn't reckoned on having to let the school bus in and out each day (they hadn't envisioned anyone actually having to leave the valley for three months). We'll take it as a compliment that they regard Ørsdalen as so idyllic that no-one would ever feel the need to leave it ...
I ordered a little packet on Thursday — a computer part — from Amazon Europe, which was despatched at 9 o'clock on Thursday on overnight delivery with DHL. It was very impressive to be able to track "real-time, detailed progress as your shipment speeds through the DHL network" and sure enough by 9am on Friday it had arrived at DHL's office in Stavanger. It's still there, of course (now long after closing time on Monday evening), while they presumably argue over who should have the job of bringing it out to Ørsdalen. Wonder whether it will make it here this week?
19 Jan - On Tuesday afternoon DHL rang and offered to bring the package ... as far as the Statoil station at Vikeså. As it happens I was in Sandnes at the time, so I said that they could choose between getting it to me in Sandnes within the next half hour or bringing it to Ørsdalen tomorrow. They were at Sandnes Church within 10 minutes.
A chilly day. It was -17° even on the main road on the way to Sandnes; quite a bit colder in the surrounding area.
That's not at all special by Norwegian standards, but here on the south-west coast it's enough to remark on.
The local news on the radio said that a power failure had closed a stretch of the main west-coast line between Egersund and Stavanger.
Unfortunately, NSB (the state railways) had not managed to organise alternative bus transport for passengers, so they were encouraged to find their own way by public transport. Regrettably, NSB was not aware of any public transport operating in that area and asked any members of the public who could make a useful suggestion to do so.
Perhaps the most useful comment is that even those unfortunate passengers were better off than the driver of
this car, which earlier today very successfully reversed the boat down the aptly-named slipway just a few miles from here.
Comments
|
23 Jan - cardigan -
Tracy has been working on a cardigan project this week (for those in the know, it's in 3-ply cashmere/alpacca) - just finished!
(Photo, right - click for enlargement).
Comments
|
29 Jan - yes, you shall go to the ball -
School ball this evening; great event for this year's school leavers like Katie.
Unsurprisingly spurning the pink and flouncy, her dress is very stylish vegan leather.
After the ball, she's off to Stavanger for a weekend's church youth event.
Sun and summer - During the last two or three days, the sun is supposed to have returned to our house in the early afternoon after its mid-winter absence. I say "supposed to", as we've not actually seen it behind a layer of cloud. The cloud does however mark a rise in temperature — a rise of some 20° in the space of a couple of days makes it suddenly feel like summer even though there's still snow on the ground.
... and Freedom - As we pointed out earlier, the Highways Agency turned up again a few weeks ago and abruptly closed the tunnel again because they hadn't managed to finish whatever it is they're doing there before Christmas. On the day that the temperature fell to -17° we came home to find that the workmen had vanished. Frankly, we were a bit irritated, even though it meant that the tunnel was open, because we assumed that they'd gone home due to cold fingers and toes and that this would prolong their project into February, extending the chaos even longer. They've been gone all week. On the one hand it's convenient — the tunnel has been open, even though we have to keep popping out to check that they've not turned up again — but on the other hand, it makes it impossible to plan ahead. The curious thing is that the machinery and effects have been disappearing — yesterday when we came back to the valley, everything had gone, apart from one abandonned machine half-way through the tunnel. Then we noticed that even the "road closed" signs have been taken down. The Highways Agency's official "roads closed" website had belatedly listed the closure of the road to Ørsdalen and according to that, the road was still closed. But all indications are that they've melted away just like the snow is doing today. We seem to be open again. We think.
Hurricane - Tens of thousands of people are without power this evening as Hurricane Tor is bringing the highest windspeeds ever measured on mainland Norway (139 mph, which is almost exactly double the official speed of a hurricane). All ferries are cancelled, schoolchildren were sent home early from school, the world's biggest offshore ship has broken loose and is drifting, steel containers are flying around and smashing up buildings. And Ørsdalen? The gentlest of slight breezes. The wind is blowing south to North, so once again we're enjoying the shelter of mountains in front and behind the house.
Comments
|