It's nearly time

For snowboots!

And potential embarrassment at airport security. These beauties are lovely, but it has been known for it to take me up to 5 minutes to take them off.

Luckily Ned doesn't have the same issues!

Baggage allowance.

We're slowly accumulating things in the house, books, games, a few clothes and a light fitting we used to have in our last house ready to pack.

Jim got the bags out of the attic a few days ago and so we've packed 2 ski bags and 2 hold bags. 

We then realised that we might just need an extra hold bag, or Ned and I would be wearing some very .......... eclectic outfits!

So an extra hold bag has been duly added, and I can only say thank god we are also hiring a van, as I really don't know how we would get everything in the small car 😬

Jim and I will do the packing in a couple of days; the kids however are all packed.

Apparently. 

Although Ned did have to go and fetch snuggle, Magnus and Bear out before bed.

It's tricky......

The year we got married we also went on a 3 week holiday to America (it had been postponed, so not entirely down to poor planning!), and moved house, where the dining room ceiling promptly collapsed, and the cooker didn't work. By the time we got married we were both drugged up to the eyeballs on paracetamol having come down with severe colds. Someone said that we don't make life easy for ourselves. Little did they know (muttered darkly).

If you read Jim's last post, you'll know the fun we've got with delivery vans, low bridges and ikea delivery days.

We bought our kitchen, we'll sort of, it's been sitting in our virtual shopping basket for a few days until we got the right delivery date, after all it worked okay here, so what could possibly go wrong?

Ha!  Easter! That's what went wrong. Norway celebrate Easter on Thursday, and Friday, Sunday and Monday. Ikea don't do deliveries on Maundy Thursday. The only bloody Thursday we're there for!  It's okay, we thought, we can sort this out.

First issue - we have a smallish hire car, and we won't be able to fit everything and everybody in it! 

So. 

We all drive to Trondheim and buy what we need, Jim will drop me and a nominated child of his choice (ie Ned) at the station and see us at home. Right, there are only 2 trains a day (and I thought North devon was bad!), the last one being at 1.10pm. Will we be done in time?

So instead we'll stop at said store on our way past, make a note of what we want, and Jim will drive back another day to purchase everything and drive home. 

Doesn't really make for a fun day for anyone.

Jim then had a lightbulb moment. Hire A Van!

Now during all of this we've been reading the Ikea website, and we eventually came to realise that we can't actually buy the very lovely grey kitchen units I want in store. They gave to be ordered online & delivered to their warehouse or Henteterminal, by the fjord in Trondheim. So we go through the motions and get our delivery date - we could book the right date for our plan! Drive to the house, get it warm and settled. 2 days later return to Trondheim (@ 2 hr drive away), collect the van, collect our things from the henteterminal, all drive home (car and van as Jim will need help to unload), unload. Drive back to Trondheim, return van, then drive home. Again. As the Norwegians celebrateEaster on Maundy Thursday we can't return the van then, hence the ridiculous to-ing and fro-ing.

Except the kids will spend All Day in a vehicle.

So we had a cup of tea to think about it.

Then came my lightbulb moment (and its Genius!). 

Collect hire car at airport when we arrive, drive to other hire car depot to collect van, drive to the warehouse collect our stuff, drive home. Unload. Drive back the next day, return the van, visit Trondheim, and drive home.

Except the delivery date to have the kitchen delivered to this wretched warehouse has now changed. It will now be delivered After Easter. This is Not Good.

By this point I am now fed up of kitchens, ikea, delivery dates and vans and driving. (And reader, I expect you are too!).

So our final plan submitted is:

Drive to Gatwick. Fly to Trondheim. Stay overnight in the airport hotel. One parent and one child per room (guess who I've got!). Yummy hotel breakfast (as an aside when you come to visit, stay at the Radisson Blu hotel at the airport, they do very good breakfasts). Collect hire car from Sixt. Drive to other Sixt depot to collect hire van. Drive to ikea. Buy lights, curtains, oven, hob, kitchen units (not the Very Lovely Grey units I want, but ones that are in stock in store hopefully!) and a sofa bed (wait, what? When did we decide on a sofa bed?). Drive home, unload. Next day drive back in convoy to return the hire van, visit Trondheim (there is more than a certain Swedish home store there honest). Drive home. Collapse.

Which is what we'll do.

That's a big ten four rubber ducky.

Broadsword calling Danny boy....

So we're in the process of prepping up for a 10 day visit over the easter holiday period which is only two and half weeks away and I currently having feelings of yay and eek. (Yay and eek should be characters from a mid nineties morning breakfast show....). So on the yay side, the ski slopes will be open, there should be plenty of snow on the ground to still frolick in and it will also be the first time we've stayed at the house. On the eek side, it's the first time we've stayed at the house and it's the first time we've stayed at the house!  

Now your probably thinking....and? so what? (Good point in fairness but as ive committed to blog writing I have to keep it going plus it gets better, I promise (in my opinion)). 

Well on the last work weekend of light and heating fitting I, at least made the house habitable to some extent, albeit the sanitary arrangements are some what below par to say the least, with a composting loo in the barn and running water courtesy of Imsdal (Norway's equivalent of Volvic but with cooler bottles). Which reminds me to talk about pants.....

So before I get back to the point in hand,  one of Norways great little traits is its penchant for Pant. Pant I hear you ask? That's right Pant...the fact that you when you buy a drink in a plastic bottle you pay a surcharge (pant) and then when you take it back to the recycling machine you get your Pant back in the form of a printed receipt which is effectively a money off voucher from your next shop - genius! And of course the best thing if you're a kid is that if your parents save up your bottles and do them a in one go then there's usually enough pant for sweetie buying - kind of like a pants for sweets deal - oops did I really just write that because that sounds so very dodgy!  Anyhow the point I was trying to make is that in Norway they actively (by charging) encourage good recycling practice and make the bottles more durable, but over here we stuff them in a green plastic tubs in our kitchen cupboards and then leave them in the alley where a large lorry drives up and collects them etc etc. ( good us of taxpayer money ...Hmmm) anyhow enough of pants.  Where the hell was I ...

So back to habitable houses....one of things I'm trying to sort out is the basic cooking arrangements. Other than camping stove we have and log burners. So I've been looking into getting a cooker or even pushing the boat out and starting to plan out the kitchen. So I found an online appliance company, found a cooker and vent hood and then embarked on looking at deliveries and placing orders and here is where my problems started. The actual delivery dates were fairly well set ( Thursday's in our neck of the woods) but I suddenly remembered what about bridge?  If you've ever watched grand designs and thought 'stupid fools' why didn't they think of that then be prepared for de Ja vu.....because whilst having the railway line and station to the village is great and provides us with access to the main line between Oslo and Trondheim it comes at a price, and in our case the price is the low bridge that splits our road from the the main road....oh and yes means lorry access is restricted -doh (if déjà vu is hitting then quite right).  We did realise it was there but hadn't fully comprehended the full extent of the problem until the cooker company said they could meet us in the village and we could then drive the stuff up to the house! Now in the case of a cooker that that might be fine but  thinking if we ever need a cement mixer then I'm not sure the hires cars boot is the best form of secondary transport....... looks like I might need to buy a tractor after all....

On a further eek point kath and I are sooooo excited to be welcoming our first guests in the summer for a short week of glamping at the house (just without the the glam bit ...we have warned them...so it's just ping) and whilst when I started to write this I had thought Broadsword calling Danny boy was from a Bridge Too Far (which if you've managed to stay with me so far would have made sense ) it is of course from 'Where Eagles dare' (or where Eagles date as my autocorrect churned out which is surely going to make a great film as well) and is the great call signs Richard Burton uses when he needs help from his colleagues back home..........so Edd if your reading this  -you guys enjoy your stay with us in the summer ;) 

Life in Norway.....

The blog has made it into this weeks newsletter of living in Norway (www.livinginnorway.net). Thanks David.

Welcome / vilkommen to any new followers. 

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Takk. ;)