The land of the cinnamon bun

Anyone who knows me, knows I can never be more than 3 feet away from a Starbucks Cinnamon Swirl (actually just Starbucks in general). Imagine my delight then, to find that I've moved to a country that seems to run on kaffe and cinnabons!! Ruth will be somewhat disturbed/amused to hear that I've abandoned my long-standing chicken caesar salad research in a bid to find the best cinnamon bun in Stavanger. Several different types have been sampled thus far, a full and final report will follow in due course.

It's been a foodie week all round, thanks to Gladmat (above). We ate our way round the harbour and came home with a ton of cheese, bread and best of all some Klippfisk from Lofoten. Klippfisk is a Norwegian delicacy and is essentially various grades of salted cod with 'line caught' reckoned to be the best. Mr R has pledged to cook me a dish called Bacalao this weekend, using Klippfisk, fired with enthusiasm from his recent visit to Nick Nairn's Cook School. Like the Orkney version, it needs to be soaked for 24 hours prior to cooking...cue a smelly ming'ing house!

Meanwhile, the Mulder boy is waging war on the neighbourhood cats who have thus far (we suspect) not welcomed him with open paws. Safe to say they're not happy with the current immigration policy and aren't taking it lying down! Thankfully our boy has donned his brave pants, stepped up to the plate and is giving as good as he gets. We can only hope the resultant rise in noise levels during the night don't result in an eviction order...

We had another breakthrough on the technology front last night...after 2 weeks of trying and failing to get the Arcam dvd to play through the tv, Mr R finally got it working. All of which means we're now immersed in Nordic Noir and a thing called The Bridge. If you've watched it, you'll know what I mean. Addictive and somewhat appropriate given our location.

The driving's going well and I'm happy to report that, for those who follow Top Gear and their views on Audi drivers, they're exactly the same here. James May was right! Next up are the language lessons, can't put it off any longer if only because I feel like a right ignorant so-and-so speaking English (ok...Aiberdonian/Orcadian) in a foreign country.

Oh and while we were at Gladmat, we finally spotted "our boat"...the one at the back, called Utopia. Must just go and check the size of that mooring...

Tid for en annen cinnabon!

Trolls and other creatures

So, today I've discovered that we live on Troll Street...apparently that's the local translation for Jøtulveien ('veien' meaning street). Haven't spotted any so far but I guess they could be of the internet variety...

What I have spotted is a large furry black cat in my living room...NOT Mulder! An imposter, making himself/herself quite at home. Took off like the proverbial 'scalded' when I appeared through from the study, finally caught up with it in the garden. We may have found a replacement for Chloe, our neighbour's cat in Banchory-Devenick who decided to adopt us as a second home. For that, read somewhere to go when it was raining and she couldn't get into her own house! For reasons best known to themselves, her and Mulder were joined at the hip and it's fair to say he's missing her big style. :-(

It's been a roasting hot week of weather...27 deg at its peak and very humid. For some reason, I didn't expect that...next to the sea, this far north...really? Cue lots of light gardening activities punctuated with cycle rides along the fjord. I fear Mr R may have missed the best week of the summer. He's home tomorrow night so we're heading into Stavanger on Saturday morning to pay a visit to the annual food festival - Gladmat. It's apparently a 4-day extravaganza of all things foodie, the biggest in Scandinavia by all accounts. That'll be the kitchen closed then!

Meanwhile I'm resisting all attempts to drag me back into the land of the gainfully employed. The agency I work through seem hell bent on bombarding me with job offers for Project Controls people, despite the fact that these particular skills are nowhere to be seen on my CV.

In the pic below, Mike's the one on the left and we're not sure who the guy on the right (with the staff) is. Suffice to say he looked like he meant business.

The only other big news is that I'm planning a trip to Ikea tomorrow.....if (and it's a big 'if') I'm brave enough to get in the car and go for it. Not the most confident drivers at the best of times so by this time tomorrow, I could well be locked up. Stay tuned...

Hade!

TGIF!!

How come the 'Friday feeling' never leaves you, no matter where you are or what you're doing? A legacy of 30+ years of working I reckon! I can't claim to have contributed much to society in general this week but the house is looking a lot more like home. Does that count? Clutching at straws, I know.

The resident mog has finally found his feet and seems to be putting himself about the neighbourhood. Spent all day outside Mon/Tues/Wed, only reappearing at teatime, but then took to his bed all day yesterday - clearly overdid it. He's failed to grasp the Norwegian way of doing things (offshore at least) i.e. 3 days on and 1 off? Should that not be 2 on and 4 off?? Anyway, on the sleeping front, he's out from under the bed as you can see...not sure if that's progress or not!

Apparently we're set for a lovely weekend of weather - 20+ deg - time to break out the bikes and go for a cycle around the fjord. Gary and Anne's wedding is bearing down on us alarmingly quickly, so a few pounds off wouldn't be a bad idea lest I end up shoe-horned into my dress....breathe IN!!

Mr R's had a trip up to Haugesund this week to witness the sailaway of the Gudrun platform. He's back in Aberdeen all of next week for (wait for it) a course on Norwegian safety law...in Westhill! You couldn't make this stuff up. So I guess it's party time for me and Mulder in Jøtulveien. We've spotted what we think is one of those Norwegian Forest Cats next door......it's blooming enormous! Probably more fur than anything else but nevertheless. If I were Mulder, I'd be keeping in with it. Might ask it round...

Been very brave on the driving front...made it up to the nearest shopping centre at a place called Madla. It was worth the angst though because, as luck would have it, they have a "Vinmonopolet" there. For the uninitiated, that's where people like me go to buy their wine (you can't get it in the supermarkets here), they also have a Coop...same as at home but without the hyphen! Takes me ages to do the shopping, by the time I figure out what everything is. Bought some "fiske kaker" for tea the other night...not one of my better purchases...let's just say the second word best described it (yikes).

Can't believe how long it stays light here at night, must be on a par with Orkney. You could easily be out and about doing stuff at 10.30pm.....if you weren't parked on the sofa watching old American movies that is!

Ha en god helg!

Sunday at the shore

Normality has broken out in the Robertson household! The furniture has landed and we've spent the last 2 days unpacking 100 boxes...only 37 to go. Who knew you could accumulate so much bruck in a 2-bedroom house? We were most impressed at how the truck/container managed to manoeuvre its way in.

The techno-freak in the house (not me) has even managed to access a bunch of excellent tv channels like HBO as well as some BBC ones. Something called Apple tv allows us to play downloaded stuff off the iPad too. Never seen so many cables/connectors/digiboxes/remote controls in my life but it works a treat...provided Mike's at the controls!

The big news on the Mulder front is that he's getting more settled by the day and has had two reconnaissance missions outside today. Went round to visit a couple of the neighbours and managed to find his way back eventually, looking only mildly freaked out. He's now parked at the window, watching next door's white doves flit about...sizing up tomorrow's lunch in other words. Little does he know that he's off to the vets tomorrow for the last piece of his "passport" requirements. As luck would have it, there's a vets and a pet shop at the top of our road. Even I can manage to drive up there...albeit all the while repeating the mantra in my head "keep to the right"...an invaluable tip from Mike's Uncle Sandy.

My most used Norwegian phrase to date has been "snakker du engelsk"?? Thankfully the answer so far has always been "yes"!!

Just been out a walk along the shore of the fjord, lots of boats/moorings/boathouses/nousts (not surprisingly). Our landlord who's also our neighbour and the owner of the white doves (gulp) has kindly offered us a mooring since we're only 100m from the shore but we can't agree on a type of boat. I'm thinking a dinghy and oars whereas Mike is leaning more towards two large Yamahas. Hmmm...maybe not! One thing's for sure, we'd need plenty of distress flares onboard.

The photo below (assuming I've managed to attach it correctly) is taken just below the house. We've got our very own Sand o' Green! That wont mean anything to anyone who's not from Eday.

Ha det bra!

Day 1 of a new life

Well technically it's Day 2 but let's just say yesterday is probably best forgotten. We left Little Banchory with tears in our eyes and immense sadness in our hearts. If anyone had seen us, they would never have guessed we were willingly setting off on the adventure of a lifetime and a new life in Norway.

The Mulder cat was despatched to his own personal check-in at the crack of dawn and got picked up at SAS Cargo in Stavanger about 5 hours later. A 50 minute flight + a bunch of over-the-top bureaucracy. No surprise then that a seriously traumatised mog appeared at the other end. He was so bad that it took him a minute to realise who we were. SO bad that he willingly let me pick him up so that Customs could scan his microchip! In Mulder-world, that's pretty bad.

But we arrived to the most beautiful sunny day and a short drive later rolled up at our new home in an area called Hestnes, just outside Stavanger. Safely inside, we opened the "flight crate"...out came Mulder and promptly made for the only point of safety he could see - the far corner of the bedroom, under the bedside table - where he stayed for a good few hours. Ultimately the lure of food would prove too strong (he's a man after all!) and he managed to extricate himself for a bit of tea.

An early night and 3 emotionally exhausted creatures slept like logs. It's another lovely day and as I type this, I'm looking at a very Orkney'esque view over Hafrsfjord. Beautiful in other words. The house is a tad sparse on furniture thanks to the ineptitude of the removal company but our "stuff" arrives tomorrow morning and we're looking forward to populating the place with some familiar items.

As for Mulder, well he managed to explore/sniff every corner of the house to within an inch of its life this morning. Showing no sign of wanting outside (phew!), in fact very wary of pretty much every outside noise. But he's had his normal breakfast so I know for sure he'll be fine! As we speak, he's back under the bed. Small steps.

Mike's gotten a reprieve from work until Monday, so we can all spend some time settling in. We've managed to tune in to Radio 2 via an "app" called TuneIn Radio...not quite ready to let go of Steve Wright just yet!

So that's it - we're here! Fair to say still a bit shell-shocked by the enormity of what we've done but also very excited about the future. Every day is sure to bring another adventure...stay tuned for the next instalment!

Vi ses!