Quiet time

Hope you all had a fantastic christmas! I love the time between christmas and new year, it's so relaxing and cozy, there are good things to eat (bubble and squeak from all the leftovers is possibly my favourite meal ever) and lots of feel good films to watch. I have been sick since boxing day with a sore throat,hacking cough and my asthma is shocking (I developed asthma when I was 19 and moved to London and it has been non existent since I moved to Norway,so it's horrid to have it back again...)

Seasons greetings!

My mum and stepdad are in Norway for the first time since we moved here (mum has a fear of flying so it's taken a while to get her here!) and we are looking forward to spending christmas with Henrik's folks. Thanks for visiting my blog this year, and all your comments. Merry Christmas! See you on the other side!

Gløgg&pepperkaker

The weather is my least favourite at the moment. We have snow which partly melted, iced over at night, melted again during the day and froze over again when the temps dropped at night causing the worst bumpy ice that is impossible to walk on and very stressful to a non norwegian who attempts to waddle like a penguin, taking baby steps whilst the norwegians expertly whizz past me!
I have a strong feeling that I'm going to hate this winter as I'm now being told that last years winter was perfect in the fact that we had dry snow because of the frigid temps which kept the ice at bay.hmph! At least our flat is warm and cozy, plus gløgg and pepperkaker make everything a little bit better....

We have butter! We shopped in Sweden last weekend and managed to track down 3 packs of the creamy goodness! Insane that the butter shortage still continues here.... Norway is a strange,strange land. People are now selling butter on Finn.no (a kind of norsk e bay) for 250kr (£27) per pack!
I'm off to England on Wednesday to stay with my best friend, do some christmas shopping and become blonde again (I'm not a fan of my natural dishwater blonde!) I can't wait!
God Helg!

It's here!

Winter arrived last night and it took just a few hours for us to be totally blanketed in the white stuff! I do love snow at first, but ask me again in 5 months and I'll say the opposite!
All this snow has got me wanting some christmas tunes- Im liking this.

pølse/pose/pause

My norwegian is improving now that I'm working but I'm still making the stupidest mistakes. Sometimes I lie in bed at night thinking about all the cringe-worthy things I said at the barnehage that day (whilst Henrik pisses himself laughing)
There are three words that I often mess up:
pølse (pronounced pulsa)= sausage
pose(pronounced poosa)=bag
pause(pronounced powsa)=break, as in half an hour break from your job etc
Now these three words are used frequently in my everyday life but I keep on muddling them up.
The busiest time at work is when we are getting 18 children ready to go and play outside. Norwegians take the weather very seriously and these children are dressed properly in any weather.On this particular day it was cold,wet and windy so we were dressing children in woolen trousers and tops,padded all in one suits,rain clothes on top,scarves,wellies,gloves and hats so it's a busy time. I needed a plastic bag to put some wet clothes in, so asked my lovely colleague, "Kan jeg få en pause?" to which she replied that we were really rather busy right now so it was not a good time to take a break!!!! I'd stupidly asked for a break rather than a bag!
Uff! I did not live this down for the rest off the day but I'm learning to accept that mistakes like this will continue to haunt me as I'm trying to nod off to sleep for the next few months.....

The weekend

I've been battling a crappy cold, aching body and sore throat for the last three days, so much of the weekend has been spent sleeping and watching the amazing series, "Breaking Bad" but late on Saturday afternoon we ventured out to the christmas market at Bærums Verk to get some christmas cheer (plus a delicious elk burger)
Winter seems to have gone away again and we are having lovely, mild weather compared to freezing temps and snow this time last year. Many people here are moaning cause they are keen to ski but I had enough snow last year to last me a lifetime so I'm more than thrilled with this mild November.
On another note, Norway has run out of butter just in time for christmas. There is not a pack of butter to be found in any supermarket which for me proves that it is ridiculous to have only one butter producing company in this entire country! It's about time Norway imported some decent butter from other countries..... (and just some good food in general!)

Wednesday

Trying to speak norwegian all day at work is the most exhausting thing I have ever done in my entire life, and to top it off I'm not sleeping well at the moment as I think my brain is having a hard time switching off at bed time and I'm finding myself wide awake at 3.37am. Uff!
Today it was so dark that it felt as though we never passed dawn which does not help with my tiredness. I need sun but until that returns I shall have to make do with a summery dinner, tea and brownies on the sofa watching the new series of Dexter.

Winter arrived this week and the mornings were -6c. We'd been pretty mild so it was a shock to the system at first but now I've accepted winter is here, unpacked all my winter gear and I'm embracing it!
My first week at my new job went very well, I'm loving being back at work. It's funny but I always quite fancied being a lady of leisure and not working, but in reality it's no fun. Having a job is important, so important. Being a kept woman is not all it's cracked up to be, in fact I hated it! I have worked since I was 19 so not having my own money has been pretty crap.
Living in the most expensive country in the world on one wage has not been easy but Henrik and I have managed brilliantly (mainly due to his great money management skills, not mine!)but we are now looking forward to being a two income house again (and the even better news is that my salary is 150% higher than it was in London!!!) Good times!
Enjoy the weekend!

Happy Monday

I woke up today and we have internet (we have been piggybacking off our landlords wi-fi, with permission and payment for the last 15 months but something changed and the signal stopped reaching down to our flat) Today it's on. Good, I missed it!
I switched my camera on yesterday and after 9 months of not working it came on and worked perfectly. Hmmmmm. What's going on? Am I having a bit of good luck? Job? yep! Internet? yes! camera working? ja!
Happy Monday indeed!
(Fathers day here yesterday and we treated Henriks folks to a seafood bonanza. It was delicious)

A catch up

We are still internet-less at home which is very irritating (there is only so much you can do on a small iphone screen..) so I'm now sitting in the library as I need to see things on a bigger screen!
So, whats been going on lately?
*Today was my last day on the norwegian course. I have finished 5 weeks early as, wait for it..... I have a job!!!! I shall begin working (for real money!) next week at the barnehage where I have been taking my språkpraksis. I am thrilled to be working there as it's such a nice place and everyone is so friendly! Result!
* After 15 months I have still not been granted family reunification, I'm still waiting to hear, only now it does not matter so much as by having a job I will finally be in the system here. It's been pretty scary to not really exist all this time, but now I'm a real person! woo hoo!
* We had a car crash the other week when a young boy came crashing into the back of the car, knocking off my super expensive new norwegian number plate! (I managed to salvage my most expensive purchase ever!)
*My english speaking is becoming bastardized by the norwegian language and I often find myself constructing an english sentence in a norwegian way (but strangely enough not the other way round, I'm still constructing a norwegian sentence in an english way.....ugh)
*It has been unseasonably warm for november and I'm hoping for a milder winter than last years shocker......
and Canal Digital if you are reading, please sort out our internet soon!

Bygdøy

My best friend has been here for a few days and as usual it has been soooooo nice to see her! My life in Norway would be just right if I could only convince her to move here.....
We are now in Gøteborg for a few days of better shopping, better food and friendly Swedes!
(My blogging is non existent at the moment due to a terrible internet connection which we are trying to change but if you are familiar with a norwegian working day you'll know that it's pretty hard to get anything done in a country where they don't like to work more than six hours a day!)

Autumn nights