Happy Christmas

... althought it's almost New Year now. Hope you all have had a great celebration and got lots of lovely presents. I certainly did. We left Oslo for Ålesund and the island Sula on "little Christmas Eve", and spent Christmas eve at my uncle's house eating lots of lovely food and unwrapping mad amounts of presents. With 11 people present, there were a lot of presents to open! Think we got everything we wanted.

Yesterday we drove to Lillehammer where we are now. Torkjel has spent the day cross country skiing whilst I went shopping with my mum. We have eaten lots of lovely food, and spent a fair bit of time relaxing. I'm just recovering from a boring cold, and hope I'll stopp coughing soon.

Only got 25 days to go to mye due date for the birth now too, so time is flying! Going for another check up at the health centre over New Year. I am certain the baby is in breech position, but on the last check the midwife reckoned he's turned. We'll have to see who's right I guess, but I'm not convinced. Obviously hoping he's turned though.

Got three days to go at work now, before my maternity leave. New Years eve is my last day of working. Guess I'm celebrating the start of my maternity leave with a New Year. We're off to Marianne and Russ' flat to celebrate which will be nice.

Knowing myself there won't be any more posts before New Years Eve now, so HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!

Tragedy

It's not been a great weekend here in Oslo. At least not night until Saturday. I got woken up at about 3.30 in the morning, hearing people shouting in the streets. I thought it was people on their way home drunk, making a lot of noise, so turned around and thought I'd go back to sleep. But it didn't stop, so after a couple of minutes I got up and had a look outside. I then saw some people across the street, crawling and jumping out of their window. After a few seconds, I realised the building was on fire, and several people turned up in the windows across the block of flats. There were more and more smoke coming out too.

After a couple of minutes, the fire engines turned up, and got their ladder up and helped people out from the windows on the higher levels. It was all really scary and I got pretty shaken up. Eventually there weren't any more people in the windows, they were all rescued out - I thought. I went back to bed after some time, and slept for a couple of hours. In the morning, when I watched the news, I found out six people died in the fire.

51 people were in the building, six died and another 12-13 were sent to hospital. Not much fun watching that, but I realised pretty quick that there weren't anything I could do to help. Now they're speculating whether someone started the fire deliberately. It started in the stairway, which is why people couldn't get out that way, and had to be rescued out the windows.

The picture attached, I took on Saturday afternoon after they'd closed most of the windows. But it shows how near I was. Really hope I never experience that ever again!

13 days until Christmas eve

Okay, it's 11th December today, and my last post was 2nd November. I'm officially becoming lazy when it comes to blogging. It's not that I haven't got anything to write about, just that my brain seems to have problems remembering to actually go into this site and tell the world what's going on.

It's now 13 days until Christmas Eve. Officially that's not long at all. Fortunately I've bought most of the Christmas presents I planned to, which I'm very happy about. The thought of fighting through busy Oslo shoppers nearer the big celebration is not particularly tempting with a growing tummy and feelings of almost fainting whilst queuing... So I've been pretty good for once.

I honestly can't remember everything that has happened since last time I wrote. Who would? I've not done as much travelling as before last time, but a few things has been going on in Oslo too. Last Sunday we went to Gamle Logen in Oslo to see "Piken med Svovelstikkene" (The Little Match Girl Passion). Torkjel's sister did the main act, and she was impressive as always. After the performance we went to Enebakk for dinner and a chat with T's mum.

There has also been girls evenings and other happenings in the last month. I've been busy doing stuff a lot of the time really. Guess I have to use my chances to do stuff like that now before the little one turns up. Less than six weeks to go until the due date now, so time is flying!

First of all it's Christmas though. We're flying to Ålesund (Langevåg) to celebrate there, but got to be back in Oslo to work from the 29th. Looking forward to Christmas now. Other than that my maternity leave starts 1st January. We're celebrating New Years at MO and Russ's which will be good. Sounds like a nice evening is in plan, so looking forward to that too!

Anyway, that's a mini update from my exciting life (or not?). Hopefully I'll remember to write some more before Christmas. If not, HAPPY CHRISTMAS to you all!

Busy with travelling

Once again I've been a lazy person when it comes to update this blog thingie.

Quite a lot has been going on since last time I wrote, but there's no chance I'll remember it all, so I'll stick to the last two weekends.

Last weekend we went to Edinburgh for a long weekend and holiday. Left on the Thursday from Oslo and came back Sunday. Possibly a bit short, as we wanted to do more stuff than we did. We had a great time doing sightseeing of the castle, seeing the strange parliament building, visiting one of the hills in gale force winds, shopping and everything else tourists do. We did eat our fair share of nice food too.

This weekend we went to Kiel with Color Magic which was nice too. Friday night we had a six course dinner in the restaurant where my dad works. Always nice. Saturday was spent shopping for baby stuff (got a car seat) and some relaxing on the boat. In the evening we went to see showtime and had dinner in the a la carte restaurant. Once again we got lovely food! I don't really mind these weekends away. Not many weekends planned ahead though, apart from hopefully a trip to Sweden in the next few weeks to buy some more baby stuff.

Unfortunately I've got a full week of work ahead. Wouldn't mind some more holiday ;)

Back to normal

It's nice to be back to normal after a couple of weeks off work. I've got my energy back too, whehey! Ages since I last wrote anything here now. Not because there hasn't been anything to write about, just because I'm lazy.

The things that has happened is Lederløft, a scout weekend with leaders from all over Norway. Had a good time there meeting up with old friends as well as meeting new people. I have also been asked to be in charge of external press for the National scout camp in the summer. It took me some time to think about that, but I ended up saying yes. Gonna need someone to do a great job besides me though, as I'll have the little one to look after from January. (see pics)

I've also had a weekend in Åndalsnes meeting up with the committee that's organising the scout camp (www.landsleir.no and www.visitutopia.no) It was a busy weekend with a lot of meetings.

The weekend just gone I've been to Denmark with MO and two of her friends from Fredrikstad. We took the boat to Copenhagen, and spent one night there. Had a great relaxing weekend and really enjoyed it. As well as being social on the boat we did some shopping in Copenhagen, visited Tivoli and also Christiania. That was really interesting. Felt like we walked into a film set... No pics from there though as we weren't allowed to take any.

I'll attempt to update my blog a bit more often from now on :)

Not much fun....

... being back at work the week just gone. Would have been nice to have another week or two with holiday, but guess that wasn't gonna happen!

It's Sunday and we've spent the day being lazy at home. T went out last night, so he's been asleep most of it, and I've spent it in front of the TV and computer really.

Yesterday we went to Østmarka to pick blueberries. Found about two kilos, so now we're making some jam. Yummy :) Had pancackes with blueberry jam yesterday.

The week has gone fairly quickly, although it was boring being back at work. Just have to make the most out of today now, before another week starts. Anniken is coming for dinner tomorrow night though, so got something to look forward to :)

Mountain walking

Just got home after six days in the mountains and a couple of days relaxing at my parent's house in Lillehammer. I must admit it's nice to be sat on the sofa in front of the computer again, although we had a fantastic trip doing a lot of walking.

We set off to Lillehammer last Saturday after dinner at Torkjel's parents on the Friday. When we tried to book train tickets to Hjerkinn for Sunday or Monday the website said it was fully booked. Luckily Magne was going the same direction on Sunday and had offered us a lift, so we took him up on the offer.

Sunday: Day 1
Arrived at Hjerkinn at six ish in the evening, and walked in the rain down to Hageseter. About 3 kilometers to walk. Got to the cabin/campsite, and the rooms were fully booked. We put our tent up and slept there.

Monday: Day 2 Hageseter to Grimsdalshytta 15 kilometers
We set off after a burger with egg on bread breakfast about half ten in the morning. It was raining, so had to pack a wet tent before we set off. Leaving without waterproofs was not an option as the weather looked pretty wet. The trip started uphill for a few kilometers. I think we met two people the whole way that day. It was still really nice to walk, despite the constant rain. We used 6 hours on the trip, and didn't stop for lunch. It stopped raining for about 15 minutes all day. The best part of the trip was when we got down to a small stream to cross it, we saw something move. When we got closer we realised it was an Ermine (Røyskatt). We're not sure of it's behaviour, but it was constantly running around us, up and down the rocks. Looking at us, then running again. We watched it for about five minutes before we carried on walking. Torkjel was afraid it would have a heart attack because it kept running. When we got to Grimsdalshytta the rooms were fully booked, so we slept in the self service cabin with about ten other people. We got a bed and duvets though, which was nice :) It was lovely to sit inside that evening, as it had been a wet day. We had a three course dinner, before relaxing and going to bed early.

Tuesday: Day 3 Grimsdalshytta to Haverdalssæter 10 kilometers
We got up in the morning and had breakfast before getting our stuff from the drying room. The weather looked a lot better, so we set off without waterproof trousers. We started off walking down to a river, before crossing it and setting off uphill. We had a slow uphill walk for the first few kilometers. About half way we sat down and had a lovely rest boiling water for "rett i koppen" and eating our sandwiches. The rest of the walk was very easy and we took it slow. We didn't meet a lot of people, just saw three people walking whilst we had our rest, and an elderly couple having a rest by the path as we walked past about two kilometers from Haverdalssæter. It was a lovely entrypoint to Haverdalssæter. We looked down on a house with a few older buildings surrounding it. It was furthest in in the valley of Haverdal. We got down and was met by a Thai woman who showed us to a bedroom and told us when dinner was to be served. We relaxed until then, and went down to eat sharing a table with the elderly couple we had seen earlier and another couple. It was nice food, including cream from local produce. The "farm" is known for a certain type of cheese they produce too. The rest of the evening we sat in the "peisestue" and talked to the other couples.

Wednesday: Day 4 Haverdalssæter to Dørålseter 11 kilometers
We discussed what to do that day, and initially planned a two day hike to Høvringen. Torkjel was more keen to walk to Dørålseter, so I tagged along. That turned out to be the most knackering but also the best day on the trip. To get to Dørålseter we had to walk over Dørålglupen which is a fantastic gorge (juv) that stretches several kilometers through the mountain. The highest point was about 1300 meters. The day started off very easy with flat terrain for the first six kilometers. Then we started walking uphill towards the gorge. It looked pretty impressive from the bottom, but that was nothing compared to what we could expect when we got up there. It was really steep on both sides, and very rocky with masses of big boulders we had to walk on. It was hard to find the path sometimes. Fortunately there were red T's to follow. After spending four hours passing the gorge, we got down to Dørålseter and got a room. We spent the evening there eating dinner with four other woman and relaxing in the peisestue.

Thursday: Day 5 Dørålseter to Rondvassbu 10 kilometers (18 for Torkjel)
The walk from Dørålseter was nice and easy. It was uphill the first seven kilometers, but not very noticeable. My last three kilometers was downhill, but one kilometer before my walking ended with a boat trip across Lake Rondevatnet, Torkjel and I went separate ways. He wanted to walk across the mountain, whilst I wanted to be lazy. I got the boat over to Rondvassbu (20 minutes ride) and Torkjel set off walking. When I got to the cabin we got the last twin room which was great :) T got there about three and a half hours later, soaking wet. He hadn't just walked across the mountain, but decided to go up one of the 2000 meter peaks too - Veslesmeden 2015 meters high. Crazy boy. He was really happy though. It has to be said he did carry his 13 kilo rucksack on his back most of that way too. The rest of the evening was spent eating dinner, sitting in the peisestue and going to bed early.

Friday: Day 6 Rondvassbu to Mysuseter 10 kilometers
Friday was our last day of the trip. We had two options to get to Lillehammer. There was a bus at 10.45 or 16.20. We decided to get on the first one. At eight we had finished packing and were ready to enter the world of mountain breakfast with another 50 hungry tourists. In 17 minutes we had breakfast, paid for the cabin, made our lunch and set off walking. We walked 10 kilometers (mainly dowhill on a road it has to be said) in about two hours! We got the bus, and then the train to Lillehammer where my mum picked us up. We were back in the sivilized world, and had a fantastic trip across the mountains. You can see some of the pics on here, and I think T will put the rest up on Facebook.

Lazy Sunday

It's Sunday again, and it has been pooring it down with rain outside all day. Due to this, we have had a lazy day in front of a computer each. At least I've been a little bit productive, making 16 pages of the Greece picture book we're making from our holiday.

Yesterday was a bit busier. We had a relaxing morning, before going to the Opera to see T's sister and her boyfriend perform. She was singing soprano and he was playing the grand piano. There were about 200 people I reckon, and there were no free chairs and people standing. It was really good. They're looked upon as some of Norways biggest young music talents. Afterwards we went for lunch with them in the restaurant outside the opera house.

In the afternoon we went to the cinema and saw the new Narnia film, Prince Caspian. I really liked it. It was worth watching.

The week gone has mainly been spent working and watching the development of the new water pipes in the kitchen. It is all done now, and I think they've only got left to do some paint work tomorrow. Due to this we have been eating out all week, which in theory is great :) Means I don't have to cook. On thursday Lene came to Oslo with me after work and we went to eat sushi and did some shopping. Had a really good time.

Another week starts tomorrow. It looks like the rain is disappearing and we're getting summer again! Yay!

Busy July

Wow, it's 16th July already! Time flies! So far July has been a pretty busy month, enjoying the nice weather and seeing friends. Think I can count on one hand the amount of nights we've just had at home in front of the computer.

The last week has been the busiest. We were pretty active climbing and doing outdoor stuff. Last Tuesday we went indoor climbing, which we have consistently done on Tuesdays now.

Thursday was time for our first outdoor climbing session of the year. Russ, Torkjel, MO and I set off from Storo to Grefsenåsen to find the crag. It was easier said than done. You can read the full story on Russ' blog www.eatmymonkeydust.com. Well worth the read! We had a BBQ on a lovely viewpoint before we finally found the crag and did three routes before the sun set.

Friday I went to the cinema to see Sex and the City with Irene, which was a good laugh. We spent most of the film laughing at the people around us though. They were really engaging their lives in the film.

On Saturday me and Torkjel set off to Sværsvann to go walking in Østmarka. We had a great sunny walk on Saturday afternoon, passing Sandbakken and saying hello to the tame sheep at Vangen before finding a nice deserted "odde" by a lake in the middle of the forrest. We enjoyed a quiet evening watching the animal life and even getting to see a Beaver swimming in the water! We spent the night in our little tunnel tent, before setting off again on Sunday morning. Unfortunately it started to rain, but that didn't stop us. We walked from the lake to Mønevann and Losby, before ending the trip in Finstadlia having to run to catch the bus! We made it though. When we got home, we were knackered, but had a great trip!

Another week has now started, and it's still as busy as it has been. Monday I met Katrin and MO for a meal at Lompa (Olympen). That was the first time the three of us have done anything together since 2002! Can't believe it's been that long!

Yesterday was climbing time again, and today I'm working late. We've been thrown out of our kitchen this week, as all the water pipes in there are being changed. Means eating out every day, but I'm not complaining about that :) It's interesting being able to look all the way down to the basement through a hole in the floor though... Specially since the basement is 5 floors down...

Summer?

Nah, more like autumn really... When you need a waterproof jacket, umbrella and sunglasses in your bag when leaving for work, something is a bit odd... That would be the weather...

Been back for more than a week now. The weekend we spent fairly relaxed. Friday we went for sushi after work, and Saturday we slept in. Went for a meal at T's parents house in the evening, celebrating his upcoming 30th Birthday. Sunday we decided to go for a walk. Took T-banen up to Frognerseteren, and as soon as we stepped outside the door, the rain started. Typical! Despite that, we walked to Skjennungstua and back, and found one geocache on the way too.

Another week has started, and it's a pretty busy one. Went climbing last night, and today we had my side of the family over for coffee and cake. It was nice to see them. The rest of the week will be spent making cakes and celebrating Torkjel. Someone doesn't want to admit it, but he will be 30! :p

Back to normal

Well, it's five days since we got back from holiday, and life has settled back into its normal routine again.

The holiday was great! After spending a few days on Rhodes, we went to the two small islands Tilos and Nissyros for five and four nights. People were really friendly there, and we did a fair bit of walking and sunbathing. We also visited the massive vulcano craters of Nissyros. They were really impressive! See pics.

Wonder where the sun went though? Since we got back home it's pretty much been either overcast or raining. As long as it rains while I'm at work I don't mind though.

Another weekend is coming up, and apart from dinner at T's parents on Saturday, we have not got any plans yet.

Holidayblog from Rhodes island

It's all Greek! Well, my blogging page was when I entered it anyway. Good thing I know where the login link is. Got it back in a language I understand now :)

Well, here we are, sat on a roadside cafe in Rhodes. We have spent the day in Lindos, which is about 40k from Rhodes town. Great little town, but really really hot. Also met up with Sharon from The Outdoor Group in England for a drink. Haven't seen her since before I moved back to Norway, so it was great to catch up! We have also been down to the beach here in Rhodes town, testing out the seawater. No complaints there!

Yesterday we had a look around the old town, and if you ever come here, I advice you to go there. Nice town with narrow streets. must be a nightmare in the tourist season though, with the shop owners trying to drag you into every single shop, and lots of tourists bumping into you. But it was great now, not too busy.

Before that we spent a day in Iraklio on Crete and on knossos. Iraklio is ok for a day, but not that much to do, so move on after that. Knossos was good, but very hot.

Tomorrow we've got the day here in Rhodes town again, to catch up on some of the stuff we've missed, before we catch the boat i the evening to the small island Tilos. Looking forward to a few relaxing days there on desert beaches and walking around in the countryside of the island, before we probably move on the the vulcano island Nissyros.

Really not missing work. This is great! :D

Greece!

My bag is packed and I'm ready to get on a plane to Greece. We're leaving tomorrow mid-day, and I can't wait. It was great to leave work for two weeks today!

Been a busy week preparing for holiday and working. Also went on a webcourse Thursday night to learn how to update our coming website for the scout district. It was nice and easy, and soon we will have a new website!

I'll be gone for a while now, but will be back with holiday stories and pictures when we get home.

17. mai

Another week has seen two days gone already, and it is 11 days left until we're on a flight to Crete looking forward to two weeks of island hopping. Would be nice if time went slightly quicker if you ask me...

The weekend just gone we celebrated 17th May. For the ones that have managed to avoid hearing about this day, it's Norway's constitution day. The constitution was signed 17th May 1814. The day is celebrated with children parades, Russ (not the Russ you know, but the ones about to finish school!) running about and generally being Norwegian whilst waving our flag.

We had champagne breakfast for Russ, Mo and two others at our house, before we left the house to join the rest of Norway in the streets of Oslo. Unfortunately it was a very cold day, with the thermometer showing +1 degrees in the morning. Brrrr! After walking around the streets watching people in Bunad (Norwegian national dresses) and eating icecream, we went back to ours for more cake and champagne. Later on we invaded Kaia's flat, and had dinner there. BBQ was kinda out of the question as it was freezing!

Monday nigh we had a girls night again, with only three of us this time. It was a nice quiet night with a lot of chatting :)

Sula

It's Tuesday today, and Witsun (Pinse in Norwegian) is over. We had a long weekend with a day off work on Monday too. We went to Langevågen on Sula by Ålesund for the weekend. A lot of my family lives there, and we spent time at my grandmothers and my uncle and aunts house. We also did a few walks around the island. On Saturday we arrived and went for a walk around a lake. Sunday we spent walking up a mountain, starting at 0 meters and got to 540 at the highest. In the evening we were invited for dinner at my Uncle's house which was nice :) Monday was lovely weather, and we did a couple of walks along the sea.

A taste of summer...

The sun has been out pretty much all weekend which has been great! We have spent the weekend doing quite a lot of active stuff, which has been good. Saturday morning we got up early and got the bus to Enebakk. After checking one of our caches and doing some maintenance on it, we stopped by T's parents house to make a packed lunch. We then headed off towards Høgåsen (high hill) to place a cache there. On the way we stopped to eat our lunch and enjoy the lovely sunny weather! In the evening we had a BBQ with T's mum which was very lovely!

Today we got up pretty early again as a result of going to bed pretty early last night. We went out and had breakfast in a cafe, sat outside enjoying it in the sun. I've also been on the Royal Icing course with Cacas today, which was good. I now know how to make icing decorations for cakes.

Another week at work starts tomorrow.... Not sure I am ready for it...

Mayday

Mayday mayday! Hmm... sounds like I'm in a plane that's about to go down, or in a burning boat. Well, I'm neither. It's 1st May today, hence the title. I've had the day off work which has been great. It's been spent climbing with Torkjel and Russ and putting photos in a photo album mainly.

The week has gone pretty quick so far. Monday I was working late, and Tuesday we spent the evening at Irene's. The twins celebrated their 1st Birthday, and we were invited. It was a great evening with happy kids, and nice people. Some of BE's friends were there too, and we sat for a while talking and eating lovely home made chocolate and marsipan cakes.

I realised yesterday that we've not eaten dinner at home for a long time. I've been working evenings and eating at work, or been away. Pretty much the same with Torkjel. Once in a while we've been eating out because of lack of time to do anything else. Best do something about that shortly!

There's only one day left at work now before the weekend. Looking forward to another two days off!

Geocaching - great fun and highly frustrating!

It's Sunday and dull weather, so we decided to take a walk around Oslo to find some geocaches. I spent a bit of time this morning finding the ones we wanted to take, and we set off, with the intention to be back home in time for a climbing session in the afternoon/evening.

Well, how wrong can it go? The first one we got to we couldn't find, followed by two easy ones. After that we got to the new Opera house. No luck there either, due to stupid amounts of people, or mugglers in geocaching language... Once again we had to mark as not found.

The next one was once again stupidly easy, and I found it straight away. We then went to Stortinget, where we looked for the cache for some time without any luck. The next one we knew was not going to be easy, so we had prepared ourselves looking at logs etc, but still no luck! Think we spent 45 minutes looking for it!

The last one of today we've tried to find before, and we actually managed today! So in total we found four out of eight caches. I've added a screen shot of todays walk. It might not have helped that the GPS wasn't cooperating.... The yellow dots/line shows where we have walked. And as you can see, we have become very good at jumping far! Hehe.

So that's todays update about geocaching. I'm sure this isn't interesting for the majority of you, but if you fancy taking a look at what this thing is, see www.geocaching.com or www.gcinfo.no in Norwegian.

Where did the sun go?

The weekend finally arrived, and the sun packed its bags and left! Typical! Saying that, I have had the opportunity to get a little bit out of the nice weather over the few days though. On Tuesday I spent the day with my dad in the nice sunny weather. Wednesday I had the morning off work, so I did some shopping and walked around in the sunny weather outside :) Somehow I got inspired to buy a new waterproof jacket whilst walking in the sun! I desperately needed one as last time I used mine, I was more soaked inside the jacket than on the outside.

Thursday I met MO after work. We went to Aker Brygge for some coffee (well, I still don't drink that stuff, so had a hot chocolate), and sat outside in the sun. A bit later we met T and had dinner at Friday's which was nice.

Friday and Saturday I've been working. It was nice weather when I left for work today, but it stopped being nice about half way through the day, and on my way home I needed to find my umbrella.

I've now spent the evening watching the last few episodes of The OC, and now there's nothing more to watch! I need something else to watch, suggestions please!

Time to breathe

Over the last couple of days I have finally had time to sit down and breathe. The last two weeks have been really busy with fun stuff, which means not a lot of time to update my blog, tidy the flat or anything else sensible for that matter...

We have been climbing a few times, went to a cabaret to see T's sister perform, been out for a meal at Baltazar, seeing friends, working and more work...

I have also made my first cake using the stuff I learnt from the cake decorating course. See picture! :)

The weekend just gone I spent at a gathering for District Commisionaries for the Norwegian Scout Association. We discussed a load of things and walked up a ravine/gorge on Saturday afternoon, getting soaking wet. But it was great fun!

The lovely hot weather has finally hit us, and yesterday we took our first bike trip of the year. We cycled to Bygdøy, and found five geocaches on the way too. I've spent my day off today with my dad, looking at cruise ships, shopping at IKEA and generally walking around Oslo in the gorgeous sunny weather!