God Jul & Godt Nyttår

....that's all 😄 x

 Jim, Kath Maisie og Ned

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....

One of our kind friends and neighbours in Norway sent us a lovely email today wishing us a Merry Christmas along with some photo's of the recent snowfall.

It's all about the base.......

So today ( now yesterday) I spent my lunchtime talking alpacas, but more importantly talking foundations with the regions premier structural engineer (and alpaca buff) Mr B.

For those who have been following progress ( and thank you for hanging in there so far) you'll know that the house is totally off grid at present, but it also has a few structural issues! 

Now, I guess one of the luxuries of being an architect when looking at old buildings is that you can see the potential and know that anything is possible and/or repairable, however, the downside is that architects are known for being rubbish with money and budgets ..so enthusiam has to be curbed by the bank balance! 

When we first visited the house back in July there where quite a few visible structural defects, like open cracks in the basement wall that you could see daylight through, and piles of stones on the floor  where the dry stone walling foundations  had just fallen away, but when I looked further under the structural framing i also found bits of joist that had just turned to powder! Now I'm no beetle expert, (nb although I do have a collection of some rare 7" from the Fab Four handed down from my late mum)  but these definatly weren't holes from woodworm, (or Liverpudlians (sp?) )but given it was only the joist ends that had been nibbled it was likely to be death watch Beetle. These critters are so named because of their late night penchant for nibbling damp ends of oak beams in church structures and you hear them munching at night time.   Now these bad boys like to bury deep inside the timber and nibble on the heartwood, and over a period of years turning it to dust whilst the outside remains in tact, save a few entry and after time exit holes.  So these needed some work! I drilled a couple of core samples in the basement to make sure the whole house wasn't supported on dust and it seemed that inside we were ok!

Also the drystone plinth which is almost 2 metres wide in places, had been subjected to some good old freeze thaw action causing the stones to come loose, move, and in the case of big barn go on holiday by looks of things.  

Luckily for me Mr b practically agreed with my diagnosis and offered some, as usual, practical advice and design guidance including 'it's better not to let it fall down'...... (Sorry Mr b taken out of context for a cheap laugh).

So Megan Trainor is quite right in her words of wisdom (ask your kids if youre radio 4 listener) and yes it is all about the bass / base.........

Ine and Hasse

Kath and I often get asked "how our norwegian is?" to which I would always love to reply in some great Norwegian phrase, but sadly my current spoken vocabulary is pretty limited to general conversation set pieces, or asking for food! Of course with the aid of google translate you can pretty much pull off most email conversations (as proven by managing to purchase the house!) but i have  had few woeful moments,  the worst of which was telling Arvid (the lovely man we bought the house from) that i was arriving in the morning (i morgen) at 10.30 which meant tomorrow at 10.30, when I actually meant in the morning at 10.30, but in about 4 weeks time.  Luckily we cleared that mishap up before he left home and embarked on 7 hour drive........oops.

We've got the obligatory Berlitz guides and i even found an 1970's guide called Instant Norwegian!(which was probably one of my better late night ebay purchases) and we've been following the NTNU free online course which is pretty good (but currently on hold due to never having enough time.......note to self,  create a free evening)

The best thing by far though are children's books! Not only can i usually understand them, but i can also read them to Ned and Maisie at bed time so no extra time required. To date we've tackled Krokodille Knut (aimed at very early years........so perfect for me) where I've learnt that when it's windy you fly a kite, and when its sunny you go to the beach :) and by far my favourite is Poka og Mina - Morgenstund which is a great story aimed at slightly older children.......say 4-5 ;) and about a a very sleepy dad and his daughter who tries to wake him up and then promptly nods off when dad is awake and they go out (sound familiar?)   The kids however have been truly represented (literally) in a lovely book called 'Gi Gass Ine'. ( which i think means 'give it some welly Ine! as in go faster!)

It's a beautifully illustrated book, where the story of a little girl called Ine and her younger brother Hasse, is told with amazing collages and is basically Ned and Maisie! The little girl is quite determined to cut down a tree and the young boy is obsessed by tractors. On their journey to the woods they meet a huge array of woodland animals and eventually a big tractor arrives to take them, their newly cut tree and the animals home - beautiful :)  Now if only I could find someone with a tractor who maybe lives in the farm next to ours........hmmmm if only...............

......and what of my witty come backs......well for now I can at least quote that famous crocodile when asked what have i got (Hva had du der).........mange glefsende tenner!

.....many snapping teeth :)

Warmth.....

I've often been at the receiving end of many a pisstake about my rubbish log burning skills ( you know who you are!) so you can imagine my sheer joy when on the first day when I lit the log burner when Maisie and I arrived at the house, that not only did I get it going with 1 match, but also without the aid of fire lighters, unlike one of my Norwegian neighbours we met today who happily tossed in a fire lighter pouch ( in fairness if I'd had one to hand I probably would have done the same thing ;) ) . 

So this happiness was only heightened about 30 minutes later when Maisie said the fire was making a strange whistling noise?! .....you mean I actually managed to get it hot enough to boil a kettle on top!! Indeed I did! 

In the house we have a log burner in every room, ranging from the utilitarian  jotul stove (the first lit!) through to some absolutely beautiful ornate stacked flue burners. 

I also found an old stove in the barn and 3 more stored in the basement so that makes a total of 10 wood burners! At least we will never get cold! ( provided I can get enough wood to feed them) 

The most ornate wood burner was located in the shoe making workshop which we are due to turn into 2 bedrooms, so we had to move it, which on turn meant dismantling it.....eek. Well I carefully prised the top section apart to not only discover 150 year old soot ( lots and lots of soot) but also the every section was made up of individual   pieces......help.....I think is what I cried as it started to collapse before my eyes, my well practised plan of numbering all the parts to remember where they went a long past ideal by this point. Suddenly, child hood memories of dismantling things like old clocks, watches and valve radios as a kid came flashing back as did the memory that I never actually managed to get any of them back together! Suffice to say, said wood burner is neatly stacked and was luckily photographed prior to its hasty demise and fortunately i am no longer sneezing out soot! 

 In our first week,we have been welcomed by the neighbours and everyone we have met!.........and that has been a warmth to rival that of my little wood burner. :). 

Back to the UK tonight..... 

Photo of the dismantled burner sat next to our bedroom upright burner (with a fox on the front and oven section on top!)

We made it. Just.

I billed our travelling day to Ned as a big adventure; car journey with Grandma, train to London, another train to the airport, plane to Oslo, plane to Trondheim and there we would see daddy and Maisie and we would drive to our new house!

He was Very Excited! as only small boys can be  (I think).  He told everyone (including those quite clearly not interested) about the 2 trains and the 2 planes (another thing only small people do).

The first part of the journey; getting to London was easy. The car journey was fine, the train to Paddington was easy,  although I did get stuck in the ticket barrier (I'll save that for another time but suffice to say it wasn't pretty) , and the Heathrow Express was great. However things started To Go Wrong once we got to the airport............

Ned and I caused chaos at the bag drop as our bag was either not registering or registering twice. Eventually a lady from SAS came over and explained that because we were transferring, the system was booking the bag in twice, oh and by the way you'll have to collect your bag and take it to the drop off in departures and go back through security. ......say what?

"Right" I said, "all in 45 minutes. With a 3 yr old?"  "Oh yes", came the reply, "SAS wouldn't sell you a ticket if it couldn't be done in that time" .   "So what happens if the flight is delayed and I miss my connection?"  (always thinking of the positives!), " I don't know, you'll have to ask at check in if you miss it."..........thanks......

So filling me with confidence (not) we set off through security, being told regularly that you can't take that bottle of water through! did you know you've got liquids in your bag?  I did refrain from shouting "Can't you spot a stressed mother when you see one?! "................How? Read the signs people......

For those of you who know Ned, this bit won't come as a surprise...........Whilst in the queue to go through security and x-ray, he started dicking about (technical term for toddler malpractice) which resulted in his falling over backwards and banging his head...........A lovely security lady offered to get a medic to look at it (sorry what), the lady in the queue was a nurse and also wanted to have a look - Ned became scared and didn't want anyone to look at him, and I did the most useful thing ever (for a stressed mum) and burst into tears (and I wasn't wearing waterproof mascara!)  They were very lovely and very kind, but Ned showed no after effects. (other than being irritating, I on the hand had panda eyes).

Then there was the lovely cleaning lady who had obviously heard our 'discussion' about Ned wearing pull ups on the plane, not pants. (as we wouldn't have time to go to the loo)  who asked Ned why was he crying. I don't know where she was from originally, but she had such a lovely accent, and she stopped him from crying - I wanted to hug her!

He cheered up even more when we saw the airplanes and the badger carts (baggage carts). On boarding, I overheard another mum talking to her little boy (possibly 7) about their connecting flight. It transpired that they too where heading to Trondheim, but she knew about the collecting hold baggage malarkey, armed with hand luggage only wished us luck!

Ned fell asleep which was the only good thing about the flight, as it arrived about 10/15 minutes late. For ease I'd taken off my watch, but it also meant that I had no idea what the time was and also meant I was continuously checking the time. I asked Neddy if he had his running feet on, and we were off!

 

Through security (who analysed Ned even though his photo was taken when he was 8 months old so at 3 of course his photo isn't the bloody same!) Along a very long walk way, down an escalator, to baggage claim. Found the 'ugly' bag (borrowed my mums suitcase which is ugly so no one steals it!), through the arrivals hall, up the lift, out into departures, to the wrong bag drop off, back to the SAS bag drop off, who asked me what was special about my bag, as I was at the special baggage drop off, not normal bag drop off (I looked at the 2 men there and pleaded)  I've only got 15 mins to make my connecting flight, please take my bag I don't know where the normal drop off is.  Bless them, they recognised the desperation on my face... so I left my bag, shouted "Tusen Takk!" as we headed off for the family priority lane, as they were shouting which departure gate I needed.

 

Now the queue for security was long, but the family lane cuts out the waiting, although the man at the head of the queue was not going to let me in, but I was terribly rude and completely barged in. 

Through security, and then the bags got held up. I'd left the iPad in one bag and the portable DVD player in the other, and we also bumped into the lady off the Oslo flight who was also having a stress, but she did return Ned to me who had run off and I hadn't spotted as I was dealing with the security people!  She went off, with me asking her to hold the flight!

So we collected everything and then went for it.  The flight was flashing boarding, and we were at gate 30 needing to get to number 13. (Should I be worried)

Ned was a superstar, although his poor little legs were giving out, he managed to get to the gate without being carried. Got to the gate and a lady asked us if we were going to Haugesland, I said no, Trondheim! And another lady check in lady shouted Trondheim and waved us over! 

I cannot tell you how relieved we were.

We were the penultimate passengers on the plane, but by the skin of our teeth we made it! Best thing of the whole experience..........the little high five my boy gave me.

It's the white roof over there.....

Maisie and I are on our last night together before kath and ned join us for the rest of the week, and we then head back home again on Sunday and back to .....don't say the W word! 

So far this week I have undertaken the very important tasks of setting up the woodshed, by neatly stacking the wood I could find ( there is still about a tonne in the barn to shift), reinstalling the barn window which had blown out since we were last here in august ( when we viewed) and just generally tidying and sorting all the stuff in the house.  Not sure if I said before,  but we bought the house and all it's contents which includes everything from furniture and a 30 year old bag of coffee through to an amazing old loom and telegrams from a wedding in 1947! 

Anyhow, today I met my new best friend, Jan, ålens finest electrician, to discuss getting the house rewired and such things as the best location for the new distribution board. Given he doesn't speak much English (albeit infinitely better than my norwegian of course)  and my Norwegian is boarder line at best, we did pretty well and even had a joke together......at least I think we were laughing about the same thing! 

So after agreeing a plan, he told me I needed to strip the old electrics out so he could do the rewire, and that has been today's task. So I now have sore fingers, aching arms and a pile of old cable on the from garden / field. The old fittings were mostly Bakelite so exploded into pieces  when you tugged the wire hard enough! 

Anyhow,  when I said goodby to Jan, I asked him if he new anyone who could help me with the drainage and he gave me a couple of names including harald who is the farmer who cuts the field ( yet to speak to him! ). I asked jan if he knew Arvid. ( the person we bought the house off) and of course he did - his brother in law bought some land off arvid a few years back........brother in laws name - harald of course! So the joke we shared, I think , was the fact that ålen ( or maybe it's the whole of Norway as there are  so few people here, which is in the top10 highlights of this great place) is actually identical to north devon where everybody knows each other or is related......

And what of the white roof, well so far this week when I've asked whereabouts someone lives,  it seems to be normal to point out the persons  house on the valley side and say 'over there, next to the trees, with the white roof'. Who needs addresses anyway! 

Music to warm the heart

For those of you that don't know I'm a massive polar exploration fan.........and of the things I found out over the years is that earnest Shackleton insisted on one of his crew taking a banjo to brighten the long dark polar days.  Well I didn't pack my banjo, this time, but we did find a piano at our lodgings.....bye the banjo photo is actually the banjo that got taken to Antarctic by Shackleton ( it was on display at Falmouth maritime museum last year when we took the kids!) 

.....I found it.

.......So in a jar at the back of the woodshed I found the front door key........and boy what a key it is .

So here it is :)

So we have bought an old farm house, 2 barns and about an acre of land located on mountain side in the sor trondelag village of ålen in Norway  The house was built in 1880 by a family who made shoes and 8 children! 

It's a beautiful house which is a bit like a museum. It still contains all the old shoe making equipment and original features, such as the log burners and some hand made furniture including a bed with the children's names carved in. And in the barns there is all sorts of stuff from old vintage skis and sledges as well as the original horse carts! 

It's a listed house ( or the norwegian equivalent) and hasn't been lived in for almost 30 years ! We've had the pleasure of buying it from the great grandson of the original owner and what a project it is. Kind of grand designs meets no going back crossed with escape to the country...... And a bit of ice road truckers thrown in for good measure ;) some photo teasers. 

Booking a bloody flight - part 2.

Since I posted the first part of booking a flight, a number of things have come to light.

1. I don't have to catch the train from Tiverton at 7.30, meaning I don't have to get up at 5.30.

2. I don't have to go to terminal 5 and then go back to terminal 2!

3. Ned will love the train journey.

4. There is lots of time to check in, even if we are late.

5. We only have 45 minutes to catch our connecting flight in Oslo.

6. Oslo airport isn't as big as Gatwick or Heathrow, so hopefully we'll be okay.........

7. Ned is very excited about our 2 train trips and 2 flights!

I'll let you know how we get on.

Wimping out / self preservation....

So after spending the last couple of weeks speaking to the local electricity supplier in ålen and a lovely lady called Inge (who I think has had enough of me now), I have failed in my attempts to get the house reconnected to mains electricity :(.   

  Gauldal energi undertook a free inspection and basically confirmed that the electrics needed upgrading - not surprised - but I was hoping that we could at least get a temporary supply so we could get some lights in place for our stay.

  Since that news I have become an expert in small scale generators and been looking at buying a generator to get us some power, but as of yesterday and seeing that it will be potentially snowing (!) and only just Above freezing in the day time and down to -5 at night time, I decided to bite the bullet and book us somewhere to stay nearby instead.   Now you might think this wimping out (ahem) but I more consider it avoiding divorce.....  

Useful shopping tips btw.  Biltema.no.  Kind of like a monster version of screwfix direct meets halfiords. 

And off it goes.

So today I went into the bank and instigated an international money transfer for the purchase of our house, only it's not just a house, it's 2.5 years of planning, over 15 years of doing up houses ( which I have to say I'm still doing at this moment in time) and it's the start of a new chapter.  As cheesy as that sounds it really is and it's yet to write itself. So roll on 3 weeks and the day when we actually take possession and Maisie and I rock up to see what the new chapter brings.......now if you'll excuse I'm going to lie down...........

it's all finn......at least i think it is..... ( the practical stuff of house buying)

I thought it was about time that I shed a bit of light on the actual process of buying a house in Norway. 

On the practical side of things, when you buy property in Norway it's a bit like purchasing in other European countries, in that once you've made an offer it's legally binding. So the trick is to make sure you know what you're getting into! 

As a bit of background, after our very first house viewing encounter almost 2 years ago now, the person who's farm we visited put us onto a website called finn.no.  This site is basically a classified selling website for a collection of papers and agents and you can buy everything from houses and land to cars, holidays and they also list the majority of jobs available.  You have to bear in mind that in a country whose population is only 6 million  that 1 single website is actually perfect! 

On here you can search houses (boligs til salg) and you can search by area, when it was listed etc and list them by price or similar, as well as keeping a favourites list ( minn funn) which means you can track your house. 

In Norway all houses are listed as guide prices and usually with set visiting hours / open days. Anyone can visit ( and I was told by one person it can be a bit of a recreational pastime!) .  After you have visited you can then bid on the house if you actually like it. After the visit and before you bid,  it is your responsibility to make sure you have all the information you need to make a bid,  as once this is submitted and accepted then it is a legally binded contract. Usually the sellers agent will provide a building survey, land details and registration/ kommune  requirements, so unlike in the uk, you have the full package. I should point out that it goes without saying that you should also have your finances / mortgage offer in place ! 

As part of the bid you can stipulate your conditions such as obvious ones like price! But also moving in date, things like including bits of contents and in our case because we bought through a private seller, we referenced all of the conversations we had had to date with the seller about the property such as ongoing costs, rights of way, usage etc. and also how long the bid is valid for. ( if you use an agent then usually this stipulated at around 24 hours) we gave our chap 4 days as the seller was staying in his hut ( hytte) with no internet access! ( it's another norwegian pastime, and for another post )

Once you have made your bid it then gets notified to any other interested party and they are then able to make a counter offer and so it goes on until a winning bid is made.  Now this might seem unfair, but it is such a better system then in the uk where people make offers, then knock them down over time and then fanny around over seemingly endless tiny technicalities. 

So once your offer is accepted then that's it .....you sit and wait to move in! 

Now in our case I am using an agent to organise the legal side of things And money transfer etc. so far be it from sitting on my arse, I'm now currently translating building contracts, registration information and other things. Our agent, a really helpful man called Per speaks great English and has helped us throughout but of course the actual legal documents are in norwegian! ( and why wouldn't they be) oh and one final thing, you will need a d number if you own property on Norway which is basically a tax number, but this seems a relatively easy process to apply........(Again for another post) 

So I've just got back from the post office having posted the above mentioned signed contracts back to Norway...... I'm sure it wi be fine as I think it's to buy the house we saw  : / 

sorry - 3rd tester

...but this time with a picture.......

the lovely view over the valley looking south east.....

Booking a bloody flight!

I apologise I've been drinking gin.  I have been driven to it by tonight's flight booking shenanigans.

We're going out in October, as it stands Jim and Maisie are going earlier than me and Ned. Our flights home have already been booked, along with their outward flights.  I needed to work out how much holiday I have before booking anything.

Went to book flights.

Lots of decisions required. Not least how Ned and I are going to actually get to London, as we don't want to have both the car and van there, and since I'm absolutely paranoid about someone pinching my bag on the train, I've ruled it out.

So brainwave today - fly with Flybe from Exeter (nearest airport) to Gatwick. gatwick to Trondheim, depending on flight arrival time, Jim might collect us, or we stay in a hotel.

Flybe don't go to Gatwick from Exeter, they go to London City. Transferring with bags and a small boy not ideal. So require plan B.

Plan B. Fly from Newquay to Gatwick. Requires taxi service courtesy of my mum, arrive late in Trondheim, hotel stay with Ned. Works out to be quite expensive. Plan C now required.

Plan C. Coach to Gatwick.  Not bloody likely - it takes 7 1/2 hrs. I would be stir crazy. Plan D now needed.

Plan D. Train (sob) to Gatwick, fly to Trondheim, arrive early evening (yay), Jim collects and drives us home. Not really sold on this one.

Plan E. Train to Gatwick. Flight to Oslo. Train to Røros. Ned would be happy, but we would spend a total of 9 hours on trains. I would go mad.

Plan F. Fly from a different airport.  Genius.

So plan F it is. Ned and I are flying from Heathrow with SAS to Trondheim, via Oslo. Train to Heathrow. Simple yes?

No!

I have to get the train to Paddington, then the Heathrow express to terminal 5, then get another train to terminal 2. Of course whilst I was trying to book the flights, Jim was trying to book the train tickets and only discovered this out mid way through booking, so we stopped booking to work out how easy it is to get from terminal 5 to 2, and if I wanted to do it, or should I just go back to the lovely Norwegian Airlines.

So the upshot is I'm now a bit drunk and no longer care. Oh and I've missed Great British Bake Off too.

Night night x

lets see if this works........

well its about time i tried get Facebook and our 2 year old (blimey!) blog working together......

Air of despondency

Today is our last full day on holiday. Tomorrow we pack up our little camp and head to Roscoff for the ferry.

This could well be our last holiday in France for some time and it makes me sad. Both Jim and I were very fortunate that our parents, and grandparents in my case, bought us on holiday to France as kids.

My first holiday to France, I think I was 7, my sister Row was 15 months old, we caught the midnight ferry from Dover to Boulogne append slept somewhere in France in the car, then drove to the outskirts of Paris to see some family friends. Then we drove the Champagne region, near a little town called Bar sur Aube. We also had the most comforting knowledge that the in the next village to us was a prison. This was where a lot of the most dangerous criminals in France where held, and also where the local phone box was!

When we arrived that first year, the weather was amazing, but we were told by the gîtes owner that it had rained for months before we arrived, so they were very pleased that we'd bought the sunshine!

We stayed there a week, before moving to another little hamlet, this one closer to the nuclear power station, and the flood water was still high and on one of our cycling routes we had to go across boardwalks. Sometimes we were the only ones, other times the local lorries would be there too. 

We worked out a system, if they were coming through, we would wait. If however we were coming across and they arrived, they would go dead slow so not to swamp us. 

We were a novelty act on the those first few trips, as we had a tandem for me and my dad; my sister and I were both really blonde, and there weren't many visitors to the Champagne region, or the Loire.

We had elderly men thanking my grandfather for fighting in the Second World War, and giving me and Row chocolate in thanks!  We rode our bikes everywhere; made friends with the locals, were given permission to help ourselves to people's orchards - with usually me ended up at the very top of the tree tying to find the last of the cherries/apricots/plums that my grandmother could see.

I have 11 years of memories, most good, and I hope that we've given Maisie a few years of good memories. Ned, well, Ned is Ned and although he is too little to remember much about the holiday, for me and Jim this will be our lasting memory.

When mummy is sleeping!

I've not slept well the last few nights, last night as the worst. I woke up at 5.30, and after an hour finally decided to the loo and stay up.

It was a trifle chilly at that time with the sun not up, so I wrapped myself in blankets and waited. A nap evaded me, but along with the hedgehog and toad we saw last night, I met a cat. Or rather it walked in thought the back of the awning and looked at me. I don't know who was more scared - I wasn't wearing glasses or contacts so couldn't make out what it was initially! 

Then the dawn chorus came and with it I listened to a pair of wood pigeons gently cooing to each other, before everyone woke up.

After a cup of tea I was persuaded back to bed and slept for over an hour, and upon waking again Jim told me that he was taking the kids to the beach,  so after a shower I wandered down.

This is what happnes when mummy is sleeping!

It's a very large fire breathing dragon - in case you were wondering!

Things I have learnt. # 107

Ned will eat his sandwiches if he can put crisps in them.

This is an important discovery. 

Reality Bites

Even though we're on holiday (having now moved north to Brittany for week 2) we're making mental lists of what needs doing at the house in Ålen.

Now I realise we haven't actually said very much about it.  It is up a private road which is already pitted, so goodness only knows what it'll be like in the winter, it has no running water or drainage / sewerage, there is no bathroom, or electricity or roofing insulation. Only the downstairs windows have secondary glazing, the steps up the veranda are rickety as is the main staircase, and I'm terrified that one of the children will fall down down them! And it only has 3 bedrooms, so I'm not sure where visitors will stay!

However, it has character - bag fills of the stuff, it has an amazing view along the valley in both directions; the rooms are huge with log burners in every one. The kitchen such as it is, is lovely and a good size.

And once it is finished it will be beautiful and make a great family home in the long term, and short term a great holiday home.

We've also just booked flights to go out in October to do the paperwork things and register the house. Well sort of. As it stands Jim and Maisie are flying out together, as I don't have enough holiday to take the whole week off (and someone else has some time booked the same week) but all 4 of us are flying home together.

The plan is that Ned and I fly out later in the week. To pitfalls of living in the south west and needing to be near a large airport are becoming increasingly obvious. No matter how I look at things it's not going to be an easy journey. Late night drives and early starts, or early starts and late night train journeys. You probably all think I'm a wuss, and in a sense you're probably right. But the last few times we've flown from Gatwick, the journey has been hideous and I'd need to leave as early as possible to make sure I got there on time and oh I won't go on, but I'm stressed thinking about it and it's making me grumpy.

Jim has gone out for a run with promises of hot chocolate and cake goodies we bought from an artisan baker earlier, much to Maisie's upset as they didn't get anything! Well Ned can't as all the lovely cakes and pastries are made with butter, and we tell Maisie that everything else is made with caramel as she doesn't like it! She was a proper grumkins - wish I'd had a photo!

Night night.

Things I have learnt # 104

Ikea kids lamps, without the shades, make good camping lights.

Camp Gardner

We made it!

After leaving home at 4.30 am Sunday morning we arrived in Royan at 4.30 Monday afternoon. We had a little stopover in Carhaix on Sunday night, which was welcome as I don't think Jim or I could have gone much further!

However it did rain. Boy did it rain!

When we were planning this trip we (meaning me!) thought it would be a good thing to go further south than Brittany, although we love it, the last few times we've been, the weather hasn't been much better than Devon.

So you can imagine the comments when we drove down here in the rain.

Still the sun shone as we arrived, and although we had a slight detour, we eventfully found our campsite; set up our camp; cooked dinner; had a walk; kids to bed we are now settling down with chocolate.

Big sighs of relief all round.

French France

So today we are on our way to France for our long awaited summer holiday.

Jim and I have gone from being very giddy and excited, to slightly, over awed which a fair helping of WTF have we done!

This is the second time Ned has been to France, and last time he was too little, so was easily contained. This time he is nearly 3 and in to everything, so I have had a few interrupted nights sleep panicking that he will fall over the side of the boat. 

We were pretty much one of the first vehicles onto the ferry this morning which normally is a good thing, as you tend to be first off.  Not today.

Today we were directed to the very bowels of the ferry with other T4 & 5's into a smallish space with only one way in and out, next to a table tennis table.  We were then escorted to a lift in the service area. Of course this means that not only are we going to have to perform vehicle gymnastics trying to get our long wheel base van out, but we will be the very last people off the ferry!

Thankfully we don't have too far to go tonight! 

Some news!

We got the house.

We've just bought a house in Norway!

Oh my goodness!!

I feel slightly sick now.

Need a lie down.....

Toll Road

This is the toll road that goes across the mountains from Ålen to 

It's amazing, even in the rain! 

Houses

So the whole purpose of our trip to Norway this weekend is to look at some houses.

If I may I will tell you about the second one first.  The estate agent was busy and couldn't show up around, so he said he would ask the owners to leave the keys hanging up for us.

We drove around a beautiful lake where we could hear the gently singing of some huskies, which believe are trained by Mel Andrews, who competes in the Femund Dog Sled race which starts down the road near Røros. 

We found the house which was a little uninspiring, very open and straight onto a busy main road which wouldn't be great for the kids.

The house itself was a bit bigger than the the first house (more later), but as there were no keys anywhere we couldn't really see. Bit disappointed, and very pleased that we didn't come all the way to see that one house. The agent will be getting a bit of an earful on Monday morning!

I think it's safe to say that, even despite me wearing my 'sensible hat', that Jim and I have both fallen hard for the first house we saw.

It's in a village called Ålen, up a private road, with an amazing view. It needs work, quite a bit in some instances, but it is lovely.

This is a view from the little veranda.

Whistling nostrils

Sorry, I have to share this.

About 2 weeks after we moved into our new house I woken up by a strange noise. It sounded like a smoke alarm battery running down - you know that kind of incessant high pitch noise - it had me crawling around the floor at 2 in the morning trying to find it before it woke anyone else up. 

Eventually I found d the noise.

Jim's nostrils.

I am sitting in Trondheim airport waiting for our flight home and Jim is napping.  And again his nostrils are making the most amazing sound! 

No one else seems to have noticed; or they are very well mannered Norwegians who are turning a blind eye, or ear I suppose!

My lovely running shoes

 So Friday morning was a whirlwind of, well, just stuff to do before Jim and I headed off to gatwick.

My to do list looked a bit like this:

1 - dogs to Stuart and Gina's house

2 - quick trip to supermarket to get cash and lunch

3 - register at new doctors surgery

4 - get Ned's prescription filled

5 - peg out washing as tumble dryer thermostat has died

6 - finish my packing

7 - finish sorting out lunch for the kids

8 - drop kids off at Ruth's

9 - take drill to Jim's office

10 - collect Jim

11 - drive to gatwick.

12 - park at gatwick, check in, have some food and go duty free shopping.

At no point did my list include retrieve charging iPad from home after driving to Jim's office and delivering drill, or again later when we were just about to go through security. Fail!

Thankfully we were parked in the short stay car park at the airport, and I was wearing my lovely running shoes (which glow in the dark!) so I didn't have to run too far!

Was knackered though by the end! And I added on an extra 40 minutes to our journey, which would have been fine had the traffic not been bad on the Link Road, the M3, the A358, the A303 or the M25!

My lovely running shoes.

2 weeks in both directions.....

Well it's been 2 weeks since we moved house.  Week one was all about the bedroom, strip wall paper, undercoat, top costs, woodwork and lay new carpet. Followed by a new bed......bordering on bariatric ......and then rest.  We spent most of the first week sleeping on a blow up mattress in the living room and I can't tell you how good it felt to sleeping a brand bed bed, with new mattress, duvet and covers etc....the later few items required due to its gargantuan size as the previous ones would have looked like a fig leaf in comparison. 

Then week 2 and all 63 boxes now empty have been returned :) and almost feels like home.  The kids are currently laying in  a £2 paddling pool I bought in b and q, kaths snoozing and well I'm........supervising activity.  

Now in 2 weeks time we are off to Trondheim and back to Roros and ålen, having just booked a sneaky house hunting trip for the weekend and the lovely Ruth agreeing to child sit for us - love you - so maybe in the next 2 weeks we might well be on our way to our next new home! Scary thought. ...,,

Waiting.......

It's funny really, that after two and half years our journey is yet again reduced to sitting around waiting.  Now I could get all grumpy all about it but instead have found 2 positives;

1 it's time to sit and do nothing and when was the last time either of us got to do that. 

2.  I get to write a much needed blog post! 

So today we move house......only within the uk.....but it's still a massive step forward.  

We've sold our biggish house to release a load of capital so we can now go shopping in Norway.  The plan being we can then hopefully rent our new uk place out whilst we start things up over there and then it gives us a bit of a safety net against rising uk house prices and a base if things go pear shaped........ You know ......prepare for the worst, hope for the best!

We've come out of a 4 bed 2 living room place and are moving into a 2 bed terrace. And here is where the problems now start.  Having had the week from hell on the house selling front, we finally exchanged today and I'm now sat in braunton car park waiting to compete.  

With the week from hell almost over this actually seems strangely relaxing. Sat around in the sun, listening to the skate boarders and gulls I feel a great sense of calm. Now I can't work out if it's because  I've gone past caring and am cream crackered or if it's actually because we are on our way! Either way I know it's going to need lots more hard work but I also still have faith that it will happen and good things come to those who wait..... ........ Hopefully......... Eventually ........one day.  

Birthday!

It was my birthday recently.

I was given a beautiful Skeppshult bike by my family.  She is Swedish, and in the spirit of naming inanimate objects I asked Ned (who sits on the back) what we should call her.

Say hello to Neta (he can't say Agnetha)!

Pests and poultry

Post has nothing to do with anything really, except I am angry and need to vent.

We inherited some ducks and chickens when we moved into our current home and despite various fox attacks we've always managed to remain philosophical about things.

Until now.

I was given 3 white runner ducks a few months ago, they were lovely and funny. Then one day they disappeared. We told the kids they'd 'gone for a walk'. It's a reason we use lots!

Just over 2 months ago I was given 2 more ducks - Aylesburys I think. Maisie named them Sarah and Abigail.

Mr Fox came last week, took 3 cockerels, 3 chickens and the lovely Sarah and Abigail. Gutted. Me, and them.

Then on Thursday Jim procured 2 free cockerels - they reminded me of Foghorn Leghorn.

Which brings me to this evening. Jim found our remaining 3 chickens on the garden table, so shooed them home and discovered the cockerels were dead. 

Then moments after putting the kids to bed (7.15 and still very light), a hen sounded the alarm.

Rushed through the house, nearly fell over each other and the dogs (very excited by all the activity!) in our haste to get out - we found one little bantam hen going mad on the pergola.

Our other 2 chickens are no more.

Here's the only photo I gave of the cockerels. Maisie hadn't even met them yet.

PS - Jim went to feed our solitary chicken, named Polito after El Macho's chicken in Despicable Me 2, he found that the other 2 had returned!

Big smiles this morning.

....And we're off..... Grand national weekend

Well we have a decent house offer - yay - and this week we've also sorted out a small investment property to buy in braunton - double yay. 

I feel slightly nervous though, as unlike in norway when you make a bid on a house it's legally binding, in this country you can dick about or be be dicked about right up to exchange. So although this should be a 'it started with a minion' moment it's currently more of 'jim on telemark skis' moment. It should be cool but somehow isn't - no whether it's due to a lack of technique, ageing knees, or inabity just to be cool, who knows but one thing is for certain we're going to keep trying :). 

Fingers crossed for us please people .

As an aside  a 25-1 outsider trained by a dr won the national today. So you see with enough effort and bit of luck you be successful at anything you put your mind to.......now bend zee knee and tele, bend zee knee tele......

Hemsedal

We went to Hemsedal in February for our winter holiday. Jim and I first went there back in 2007, pre children! 

We took Maisie there in 2010, and then Neddy got to join in the fun too.

Not having skied for a good few years, I think we were both slightly scared about the prospect, but thankfully had the perfect excuse for not going all the way up the mountain straight away, as Maisie was having ski lessons so we wanted to be close, you know, just in case.

Thankfully she didn't need us and took to skiing really well, and skied with us for a bit after her lessons which was lovely.

Neddy meanwhile was at the fab childcare facility being looked after by some lovely girls. So he was a happy boy.

The weather was good to us - sunshine, snow, temperature not too bitingly cold, although we did ski through the cloud one day.

We had lunch one day in one of the little huts with an amazing fire, which we cooked our sausages over. Having been to Scandinavia before it's one thing we try to do, and this trip Jim proved his fire making skills are as good as any Scandinavian (especially as quite a few of them borrowed our matches!)

Of course the drive back to Gardemoen airport was fraught; Maisie was travel sick; we were rapidly running out of time to drop the hire car off; the car hire man pounced on us before we could tidy up and get out; we missed the floor on the lift for departures; a lovely lady directed us to the family security check lane where Neddy didn't like the customs chap and so wouldn't walk throughout the metal detector on his own; and then there was the very long long walk to get to international departures and the debate over whether or not to go through the very final security check to the gate.

Still we made it.

Daytime telly

Urgh!

We went to Norway in August for our summer holiday and Jim was quite poorly.

We went to Norway in February for our winter holiday and I was ill, Ned was ill and Jim was very ill.

It's now a month since we returned and I'm ill again!  So in between bouts of napping I've also been watching lots of crappy daytime telly.

I have come to the following conclusions:

1) Millionaire Matchmaker is hilarious and I like Patty;

2) Real Housewives of Vancouver is better than Real Housewives of New Jersey;

3) Whilst Kirstie (Allsop) needs Phil (Spencer); Phil does not need Kirstie;

4) Allo Allo is still funny.

Jeg kan ikke help deg

It's about one of the only Norwegian phrases I can remember.

I can not help you.

It might not be one of the most helpful phrases when our adventure gets going. I mean it might be something people say to us a lot, but it won't get the electricity or wifi connected will it.

Think we need to up the ante really.

New Nordic Noir

How did we miss the brilliant series The Killing? 

Having run out of Nordic drama on the tv, I bought the box set of series one of The Killing to take on our recent Norwegian trip. 

20 episodes 5 disks and 1100 minutes of telly!

I was only going to take the first disk after all the Winter Olympics were on, and it being Norway there'd be lots of it on tv.

Jim persuaded me to take all of them. Glad I did, as after the first episode we were hooked.  We managed to watch 11 episodes whilst on holiday!

Haven't got the next 2 box sets; need a bit of time off traumatising Nordic dramas...... Although there is a new drama called Mammon starting soon........

Nordic noir.

Series 2 of The Bridge finishes tonight.

There will be no more Borgen.

Am waiting for the new Scandi dramas to start on BBC4 - Crimes of Passion and 1864.

Haha - have just read that Sidse Babett Knudsen is on board for a forth series.

In about 10 years though!