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Friday 14th of august 2009 photo's

 

Tempus Fugit, Time flies, and how we realise that each time the holidays are over again and we stand before a new school year with all its challenges.

What has happened since the last blog?
Well Emy's eyes are better again, there will be another check-up later this month, but we presume everything will finally be back to as it was.
Martin started on a new route again, this time leaving early in the morning to Gardermoen (Near Oslo) sleeping there and driving back through the night, past Åndalsnes to Ålesund and back home later in the morning on the second day. Leaving again the next morning. Two times the one week, three times the other.
The big luxury here is, that he has been given a new truck to do the work, a lovely almost new Volvo, you can see the pictures here.

Emy travelled to the Netherlands just before Easter to visit some friends and family and had a really good time there. Sometimes the lack of friends and family here can be hard. But then, The Netherlands is only a ferry and two flights away.

Things at Emy's work are going fine, she started working 100% as a faith-education employee in the church. We're not sure if this is completely her thing, but working in the church is and others seem to presume she is the right person for the job, so we're going into this in prayer and are asking God to lead.

Confirmation season is past again, Emy was confirmation teacher for ca 55 teenagers this year, and having overall responsibility for the planning and organising bit for all 80 teenagers.

We've just returned from a holiday to the UK, where we had a very good relaxing time.

the 12th of July was our departure date. The day before was one of those stress days, things were under control mostly, but some small things went wrong, like the aerial of the car being damaged in the car wash. Not a garage in sight to be open here, like on any other Saturday. Likelihood of a garage in our village having a new aerial in stock were very small anyway. So Martin repaired it as good as he could and we decided to look for an aerial in the Netherlands or the UK.

We left Åndalsnes at 5 in the morning and managed to come all the way to Denmark that same evening. We camped in Rødby just before the ferry to Germany.

We took the ferry to Germany on the monday morning. We visited a supermarket, while the tent was drying and were on the ferry around 10.30.
We arrived in the Netherlands at our friends Bas and Saskia at about 7 in the evening, just in time for a typical fastfood meal with kroket, fricandel and patat oorlog. :-)

Tuesday morning we left at the same time as Bas and Saskia to visit a Dutch Supermarket, again, Dutch foods were stocked for the holiday. Things like drop, stroopwafels, droge worst, chocolademelk, and all kinds of other weirds things were bought before we could continue our way to the ferry in Dunkerque.

We arrived on English soil at 5 pm, after a calm crossing. Our aim was Oldbury Hill campsite near Seal, Sevenoaks and after some negotiating of the crazy traffic in Dover, we managed to get out onto the motorway and within no time to Seal.

We were invited for dinner and a visit to Bible study group with Caroline, the mother in the household where Emy used to work as au pair.
Caroline introduced us to her two youngest daughters, Philly also called Alex and Lucinda, both weren't born when Emy lived here.
Dinner was a lovely Shepherds pie, lovely lamb and vegetables. Dessert came at the Bible study group, which to Emy's surprise was led by Katie, a friend from long ago. It was a lovely meeting, first coffee and desserts, and Bible study and prayer to follow.

The next day we ventured around Sevenoaks. It was strange, so familiar and yet so unknown. There wasn't so much that had changed, yet at the same time it was so long ago that I lived here, that is was quite distant.

In the evening we met up with Charles, the father in the family Emy worked for. He lives in a lovely cottage in the woods, very nice old cosy place. He entertained us with hamburgers made by Philly and lovely ice cream as dessert.
It was good to meet up with both Caroline and Charles, to talk about times gone by and hearing how Victoria and Douglas were doing.
It was also late to come back at the campground, too late to come in, but we could leave the car in the overnight carpark and walk to the tent.

Thursday we had lunch with Anne, her daughter Agnes and son James, I had seen Anne a couple of times since leaving, but contacts disappear and it was lovely to take it up again.

The afternoon was spent at Hever castle, a lovely well kept castle nearby, Anne Boleijn lived here before she married king Henry the VIII. There were extensive gardens, with all kinds of lovely plants, flowers that would not survive in the dryer and rougher climate here in Norway. We could definitely come back here just to enjoy the gardens.

In the evening we made a surprise visit to Tim another friend Emy had long been in contact with. Lovely to see him, in his vegetable plot with views over the valley, and lovely to see his mum Jo again after all these years.
We managed to miss a big downpour with lightning as well, being inside.

And then it was time to leave Sevenoaks again, but not before we had had coffee with Caroline again.

It was busy around the M25, but Emy didn't notice until much later when Martin was stuck in a traffic que. We drove to Gloucestershire, to Winchcombe, to Brooklands Farm, another Camping & caravanning club site. We've found out that this organisation allows tents on most sites, and has sites all over the UK, they are easy to book and we can be overseas members for the summer. There are always site managers on site and they are helpful. And very important, the toilets are normally clean!

Even though it had been raining for a good couple of hours we found an almost dry spot. On the way we had done some shopping and dinner was Indian today. We love the choice of ready made meals in England. Especially when camping, we don't feel like making diner so much, so ready made meals that only need heating are a great invention.

Saturday we visited Oxford, we parked in the park and ride and took a buss to the centre. It was a busy day, graduation for many and lots of tourists as well. The old buildings and history in the city are fascinating. Even though a number of towns in Norway are just as old, the miss the old feeling and the culture. In Norway most houses are made of wood, so they don't age as well as stone buildings.

Martin bought an Oxford t-shirt, note, without university on it.. just Oxford. We had lunch at a grill restaurant and it was lovely, a shared bread and grill lunch.

We went back via Burford a beautiful Cotswold village, the light yellow of the stone, just makes the villages here in the Cotswolds so much more beautiful and cheerful. We bought a sign to hang on the house and a farmers ice cream.

On the Sunday morning we were up early to pack the tent, we wanted to go to church with some friends in Warwickshire and that service started already at 9.30, quite early for an Anglican service, but since the priest had 3 service after each other, not so surprising!
It was lovely to come in to church and hear Chris at the Organ, familiar and good quality. Alex came in in the choir, quite a familiar sight.
We had coffee with them after the service, before they had to cycle off to a wedding where they had to sing. Chris and Alex left The Hague a year after us, and we had had good contact with them before that.
Christ will be licensed as reader in the autumn, sadly we can't be with them for that joyous occasion.

After we left Chris and Alex, we moved on to Warwich, we had a look at the town and the big church, we didn't feel like visiting the castle, we'll do that another time, maybe with Chris and Alex?

We drove on to Leek in the Peak district. A lovely buy clay-y wet campground. We managed to find a dryish spot, but we couldn't walk fast on the campsite, because the water and mud kept on splashing up everywhere. So we changed over to slow dancelike footsteps on our way to the toiletblock.
The edges of the footprint weren't that well laid out this time, so we had to work a bit on the water inside, but that was soon solved. It wasn't til the third day on the campsite that the mud started to creep up through the seems of the footprint.

The peak district is very pretty. We decided to take the one single dry day that had been forcasted to drive around the peaks. Wonderful views, feelings of being on top of the world.

The next days were quite rainy, so we visited Liverpool, both the Albert Docks, with the Beatles Experience and the Liverpool FC stadium.
And the other day to Old Trafford to the Stadium there to by a new shirt for a friend of us and a visit to the Trafford Centre, a huge shopping centre. The shopping centre was quite boring actually, with mostly chainshops and very little exciting news, but the foodcourt was good, we lunched at TGI Fridays, and it was very very yummie!

On the way back from Manchester de rain eased a bit and we decided to visit the Donkey Village. All the donkeys were out, huddling together behind a little wood. They were very cute, but we presumed they were tired from all the visitors all days, as they were a little boring, just standing there as well.

As there wasn't any internet at the campsite, we found a modern pub, "the Engine Room" in Leek, where we could upload the website and photo's, as well as read email. The pub had some good food as well, and lovely puddings, so our evenings there were well spend!

On the thursday we moved to the Yorkshire Moors, to Pickering, well to the woods of Spiers house, a forestry campsite, not as clean and not as well organised and kept as the camping club sites, but nice anyway.
Quiet when we arrived on the thursday, getting more busy by the friday evening and quieter again on the sunday evening. We had som appaling neighbours, but well, what can you do about loud talking and discussing parents and unruly children (mostly because of the parents..) They were at exactly 6 meters from us, and we did get a bit annoyed.

We had a look at York on the friday, took part in the lunch communion service and had a look around the Minster afterwards.

York is a lovely old town, narrow alleyways and wide streets, old and bit modern. We had tea in a little teashop, lovely cake, homemade ones, like you can only buy in these kind of shops.
For lunch we had Cornish Pasties, not the right part of the country, but they were good and fresh anyway.

Saturday we drove over the top of the world, well it felt that way anyway, views 360 degrees around us. lots of sheep, moors and views out to the sea.
In Lythe we saw a little church, we discovered it was beautiful inside as well. St Oswalds is one of those churches that has been used throughout the centuries.

We drove on to Whitby, there we got lost for the hundreth time this holiday, the English are NOT good with signs. Too late, too old or hidden behind the overgrowth. But we did get there in the end.
Whitby Abbey is a ruine of an abbey, with lots of history. There was an audioguide, and luckily they had childrens info on it as well, so we followed Brother William through the Abbey.

After some lovely hours in the sunshine around the Abbey and the neighbouring St Mary's church, we drove on along the coast to Scarborough.
After a walk on the beach we drove back to Pickering, on the way we passed a birdsanctuary, and to our surprise it housed a new Greek/Turkish restaurant in the evenings. We had a lovely meal. Service wasn't completely in place, but they had only opened earlier that week.

Sundaymorning we managed to find the well hidden parish church of St Paul and St Peter. We had a lovely service there and felt very welcome.

In the afternoon we drove to Howard Castle, a lovely castle in beautiful surroundings. The castle though no longer in private hands, now in hands of a small organisation led by the original family that had lived and still lives in the castle.
In spite of a couple of huge downpours we managed to stay relatively dry.

Monday Morning we packed up the tent again and moved to The Lake District. It was raining most of the way, and in Keswick we found a thoroughly drenched campsite. With the help of one of the managers John, we managed to find a not so soaking site and we were provided with two big wooden boards to bridge the puddles in front of the tent.

We bought same food at the Booth supermarket just round the corner and went to the evening meeting from the Keswick Conference.
It was wonderful to meet with so many people. Stuart Townend and Lou Fellingham led the worship and there was a very good talk, from Hebrews, about how Moses lived through faith, and how that would make implications into our own lives.
A good talk, building on the knowledge already there, and practical enough that we could do something with it.
The Keswick conference is all about making Faith Work. Practical living faith.

Tuesday morning came with lots of rain, we actually woke in the middle of the night and heard ducks just outside the tent playing in water. As there was already about 5 centimeters of water on the grass, we were a bit concerned, but they just found a puddle to play in.

We used the morning to do some laundry and relax. Lunch was some sandwiches from Booths on the way into the centre of Keswick. There were still as many outdoorshops if not moor than last year.

Emy had a little afternoon nap and Martin went for a take-away pizza. After this we went to the evening meeting at the Keswick tent again. 
Again lovely worship, a good talk and prayers.
After the evening meeting, there was a special concert with Stuart Townend. Good music, which teaches.

During the evening a storm had blown up and we were getting a bit worried about the torrential rain in combination with the storm, but the tent was still standing strong.

We didn't sleep much, the  tent seemed to bow down over us and we felt water dripping on us with each blow from the wind.

We fell asleep when it quieted down, and suddenly woke around 4 am. There was no wind, no rain, an eerie silence. What we did hear were people talking, car doors and we got a bit concerned, maybe someones tent was damaged or something.

There was a hive of activity on the campsite. Someone was going around with a kettle, and Emy asked her if everything was alright. They were evacuating was the answer, and we soon found out, we had to evacuate as well.
The Derwent Lake, which was situated so nicely at the edge of the campsite, was growing by the hour, and the field we were standing on, was in danger of flooding, so everyone had to pack up.

We are so used to packing that is wasn't a real problem, the dark made things a little bit harder, as did all the water standing in the field. We had to take it quite easy, not to be splashing about too much.

It was just half past four when we were packed and we went to the receptiondesk to ask what to do next, and we were referred to an evacuation receptiondesk at the school.

So that was where we went. We didn't really know what to expect, but it sure wasn't a gym filled with about a 100 kids who were having a great exciting time.
We were offered a mattrass to sleep on, but didn't think that these not so tranquil surroundings would give us sleep. So we just asked for some tea and coffee, while we could make up our mind, what to do next.

After our drinks we decided to drive into Keswick again, we had a little look at the other side of the lake. We drove back to the campsite, as we could use the toilets there and we still had internet there as well. So we sat in the overnightcarpark trying to find out if there was a way to take an earlier ferry home. The telephonelines to the ferry didn't open 'til eight.

We drove over the campsite and saw that the field we were in, was now flooded, so it was good that we came out of there.

We managed to rebook our tickets on the ferry for that same night, so instead of putting up the tent somewhere else in the new forecasted rain and storm, we drove to Hull.

We had a lovely afternoon at the Aquarium, followed by a good meal at Frank and Benny's, We did the shopping we had to do and drove up to the ferry.

Because of the rebooking we ended up with an outside cabin, but a window isn't worth that much actually. One of the beds, which normally was a sofa was a bit crooked, but the sheets were clean and the shower lovely.

Emy didn't get seasick until she tried to get up in the morning for breakfast. So after three tries, Martin went to breakfast on his own.

We departed at nine pm English time and arrived 9 am Dutch time at Europoort, Rotterdam. After a short stop in Hoogvliet at Albert Heijn XL for our obligatory shopping we drove on to Hoogeveen, to Martin's father.

Josephine, Anton, Charlotte, Jorden and Juliette, Martin's sister, brother in law and three children came for a short visit as well, it was good to see them all.

We dried the tent in the backgarden and went out for a lovely Indonesian-Chinese meal with Martin's father.

Friday morning we left early to drive up north again. Everything went smooth, we already had tickets for the ferries, so we could sneak around the normal ques and almost straight onto the boats.
We wanted to drive all the way to the Norwegian border, but we didn't make it, after a kebab meal in Kode, we decided to find a campsite in Sweden, only ten minutes from the border, but still in Sweden.

Saturday morning we packed the tent, wet with dew, not rain, and drove home.

It was good to come home again, the house seemed huge! The catsitters had done a good job looking after the cats and the house.
The cats didn't seem to want to recognise us as we came in, but after an hour of ignoring, all three came for their cuddles.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday 12th of march 2009

11 weeks since the last English blogg, 11 weeks with docters visit, sickleave and frustration, but we are back!

Emy's eyes deteriorated incredibly quickly over the Christmas weekend, and after another weekend docters visit, we were referred to the Eye specialist in Molde hospital monday the 29th.

It was a uveit, a auto imune inflammation in the eye, well both eyes, twice in one of them as well. Why? Nobody knows, but after a couple of months of intense work, stress and more of it, the body probably tried to say stop, after ignoring some signs, the lights went out. Anyway a lot less visible. So no more computing, no more reading, and television was a frustration in itself. After a couple of weeks I could see enough to read a little, but enough to see TV again, couldn't read the bit where it said which channel it was, or the subtitles, but could follow most of the pictures. Now after 11 weeks, my vision is back to 100% and I have finally stopped all medication. Next checkup at the eyespecialist is in two weeks, so I hope that I will get the all clear.

I am partly back at work, doing 2 days at the moment, or something similar spread over several days, sometimes like last week I get a little over exited and do double that, but my body is giving very clear signs, that that is not the thing to do yet... So until the end of March I will be on the same amount of hours.
At the moment I am concentrating on the confirmationclasses and services that we have through March, April and the confirmations in May. It will be sad to see this years confirmationcandidates off, they are so lovely to work with!

Martin has had som changes at work as well. After several meetings and warnings that the amount of work was going down, he was offered one of the Oslo routes. This means he drives to Oslo two or three times a week, being away from 6 in the evening until 10 in the evening the next day, home daytime and out again the next evening.
It is a relaxing route. No loading and offloading, so he isn't too tired when he gets home either.
We don't know how long this route will last,,but for the moment he is driving, just like all his colleagues and we hope that there will be enough work for all of them, through these economically difficult times.

We have a new member in the family, Siri, mother of our two other cats has moved in with us. She and her children are working on building up a relationship again, as they didn't seem to remember each other, showing this with loads of hissing, spitting and hitting. They now only hiss, spitt and hit each other once a day on average, so we are improving.

We've been visiting a friendly "young" church in Ålesund a couple of times these last weeks. Both to worship without having "work" around and to meet some other people and take part in younger worship.

Otherwise there isn't too much to say about life here at the moment. A warm winter, with little snow, time flies, but is slow at the same time.
Emy will travel to the Netherlands at the end of March for a week of family and friends.

 

 

Saturday 27th of December 2008 photo's

Wow, december already, time flies when you are keeping busy. I have just had the busiest Christmas season ever!
10 services, both confirmationcandidates, schools, nursery's and the elderly, as well as the normal Christmas Eve and Christmas Day stuff. It has been busy, but good fun!
One little problem, I can't see much these days, the world is seen through a hazy fog. Quite a problem when the letters of your sermon notes are getting fuzzier and fuzzier for each day.
The opticien and the docter didn't know what is causing it, so I have an appointment at the eye specialist in Molde on Monday. Fortunately Martin is free, because I can't see myself driving like this.

I have been working a bit more than my 60%, in November and December I did a fill-inn for 40% in a faithbuildingproject. And on top of that there has been som filling in for a colleague that left just before Christmas.
So keeping busy.

Martin has been driving a number of different routes, in different cars and with different loads. We didn't like the week with night shifts, but with the recesion hitting Norway, we feel that it is just great that he has a job!

Martin has tagged along with a great number of the Christmas services, helping with organising things and these last weeks, helping as a personal driver.

Christmas day was supposed to be a day off, but since my collegue left, there was work to do. It did take some careful planning with Christmasday dinner, but we managed to get the turkey done while we were in Church. 
The Beukema's joined us on Christmas day, good conpany and we enjoyed the food! Cucumber rolls with salmon and dillsause, Turkey with Apricot chestnut stuffing, cranberrysause, vegetables and potatoes, sticky toffee pudding with home made icecream as desert and Christmas cake with coffee as a followup. Good Christmas food, but a little heavy! :-)

Peter, our german friend was released from hospital this last monday. His arm is healing slowly, he can just about move three fingers, and we hope that with some extra operations and lots of training, that he will at least get partial use back in his arm/hand. It is good for both him and the family that he has been able to come home again, 7 weeks in hospital with 2 til 3 operations each week has taken his toll on all of them.
It was wonderful just to be able to go round to see them in their own house! We keep praying for full recovery, as God is our best doctor!

 

 

 

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Saturday 15th of November 2008

2 months, oh, so often I wish time would go slower. Is this the sign of my age, that time just goes faster and faster? Or do we just have for many things on the agenda right now, that we don't have the time to let it sink in?

September was a month with presentation of confirmationcandidates. Oktober was the month for our confirmationweekendcamp. Again many weeks with overtime. It seems that I need to start planning a week off somewhere to take time back again.

And now we're in November, it seems like the usual, teaching, services, etc, but Christmas seems to be approaching fast and planning is required here.

Yesterday I lead a funeral with 157 in attendance, that was a very full church up in the dales. Normal sunday attendance is 8 to 10. The man who died was loved by all who knew him and young in comparison. He was 67, leaves behind a wife, 3 children and 10 grandchildren.
I am always amazed how people in these small hamlets stand up for each other when it needs.

Last month I had a funeral of an old single lady, who had had alzheimer for ten years. Here we had an attendance of 60. Quite impressive for someone who had really disappeared out of the community so many years before.

Last weekend was a free weekend, so we decided to take the journey down to Oslo for the 125th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of St Edmunds, Anglican church. It was just so good to be there. Somehow we feel very much at home in the church. It isn't just the liturgy, but the people and priests as well. This time the other two priests, from Trondheim and Stavanger were there as well as the bishop who celebrated in the service.
After the service there were many snacks and drinks and we spoke to a great number of people, including the bishop.

We haven't got the opportunity to be in Oslo each week, so somehow we have to make the most of it. As time is limited, choices have to be made. This time we gave priority to Bok & Media, a big Christian bookshop in the centre of Oslo. We managed to do our purchases just before closing time. Ikea is one of those familiefriendly shops that welcomes all in the late afternoon and evening, so we went there after checking in to our hotel.
At Ikea we extended our Billy collection a bit more and bought a light for our newly purchased second hand pine dresser.

We decided to eat out at the chinese restaurant situated under our hotel. Very good chinese food and good service. We have been there several times now. It beats our new local chinese in Åndalsnes by a long way.

Sundaymorning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet and checked out to make our way to the Anglican church. It is so good to be there. A bit like coming home. The worship is familiar, the way of preaching is practical and down to earth, the music is sound and good and the focuss is on God. To go to communion in this athmosphere is rich. These are small oasies in our busy Norwegian world.

This tuesday, we received another dramatic message.  Peter, a german colleague and friend had an accident at work. One of the containersdoors fell down on his arm, which was severely damaged.
I now looks like they have managed to keep his hand, the bloodcirculation is good enough and there is about 30% feeling in his hand left. Now the dermatologist and surgeon can work together to build up the damaged and disappeared muscle and skin tissue again. This will be a long stay in the hospital. We can only hope and pray that he can use his hand again, if even partly after this.
With a family with three barn and a new bought house, there is a lot of pressure on.
We are hoping to visit Peter tomorrow in the hospital in Ålesund, 2 hours from here, in between the two services in church.

 

 

 

Monday 15nd of September 2008

And here we are, 3 weeks have flown past again.

We have just come back from a visit to The Netherlands. 4 days travel, 6 days there! filled with family visits, and more family visits, some friends visits, a wedding and lots of shopping.

One of my best and longest friends, Brigitte married her big love last wednesday on the 10th of the 9th month of the 8th year. So no excuse for either of them to forget the wedding date!
Brigitte was an incredibly beautiful bride, she shone with love for her husband that day and with joy. We've put some pictures on the site, so feel free to go and take a look!

I put in a good deal of overtime before we left for the Netherlands, 50% more hours than I get paid for. Partly to make up for the fact that I wouldn't be there and partly because I said yes to too many things, and partly because of my misplaced sense of responsibility.

And when we came back on saturdayafternoon, there was the sermon for sunday to prepare. I had tried to do this before we left, but other things seemed to take priority, during the week in the Netherlands I didn't have the energy or time to sit down for it. Most of the sermon was already in my head, but I wasn't happy with it. After coming home I managed to concentrate, pray and get the words on paper.
The sunday was filled with two intense churchservices. Both had baptisms, presentation of this years confirmationcandidates and presentation of bibles to the 5th year kids. They were good services, lovely to have relatively full churches (100 and 70 in attendance), I could do with services like that every week!

It was only today on monday that I had some time to relax. Too much again, so what have I learned? Now I want to do things better!

I took today off, which was a good thing. I had already worked more than a full day yesterday and will be working tuesday and wednesday as well. There is only so much which I can do in the 22,5 hours I am paid for. So today was me and the house and the cats day! And I managed to enjoy it too!

Now I have to get myself disciplined enough to keep this up. This coming period is not the most intensive, so I should manage! A bit of overtime is OK, but not as much as before and no more than 4 days a week (including sundays)! Oh boy, quite a challenge that is!

 

 

Saturday 23rd of August2008

And here we are with the renewed version of the website. After hours of blood sweat and tears behind the screen last weekend are we proud to present this new look.

Do let us know in the guestbook what you think of it.

Emy has been given her own office in the churchoffice. So the time of borrowing other offices is over, now we have to start thinking of things to put on the wall. The walls are grey-blue, with grey curtains, and yes it is as dreary as it sounds.<
The room was used as an archive before, so it didn't need anything special, but now it is time for something colourful on the wall.

Martin is driving on a new shift now, he starts around 8 and finishes around nine. This meant we had to change our planning a bit. We still eat when Martin comes home, and we go to bed two hours later than before and come out of bed two hours later than before. QUite a change, so we are struggling to get used to it.
But everytime we think we have it under control, one of us has to get out of bed early again.

Emy had some busy weekends with churchservices and a funeral during the week, but now it is all focuss on confirmationclass planning. We have 75 teenagers that have send in their forms, so that takes a considerable planning!

Autumn is coming over us fast now, we have longer nights, de sun goes under at 9.17 and up again at 5.57. Over are the long nights and light mornings. It does make it easier to sleep, although the thought of winter being on his way, frightens me every now and then.

Saturday 2nd of August 2008

Check out the latest Norwegain log for the links to all our campsites and loads of outings in our  holiday.

 

 

Wednesdag 30th of July 2008 (pictures)

And there we are again, back from holiday and returned to our "normal" lives.

We had a lovely holiday!

We left the house early on saturday the 5th. The night before our housesitters had arrived and they slept through our packing and emptying of the house. As it was almost 8, we did say that we were leaving.

We drove through a quiet Romsdal up to Dombås, Emy took the first drivingstretch. When we drive long distances like now, we like to share the driving, and we swap seats about every three hours. 
When we came to the E6 (Main road to Oslo) the traffic did get a bit more busy, but no congestion all the way to Oslo. Just past Oslo we got into a traffic que, it was raining heavily and a trailer was lying upsite down on the site of the road, but nothing major. We drove til past 7 that evening and came south of Gøteborg. In Himle we found a good campsite. It was lovely to see the sun go down over the hills there.

Sunday morning we got up early and started driving again. We came to the ferry in Helsingborg just past 10 and could drive straight onto the ferry to Helsingør, after paying for our combitickets. 
Denmark was quiet at this time of day. We stopped around 12 for a danish pølser/hotdog. In Denmark they serve pickled cucumber slices, remouladesauce and roasted onions on top of the pølsers, and that was something we had been looking forward to. It is called Ristet pølser. But our danish isn't as good as it used to be, and with the first order at the petrol station, we ended up with just a sausage, no bread, no dressing, nothing. But our second try went a lot better, at the restaurant behind the petrol station, we managed to get our ristet pølser without any problems, using up our last danish money.

We drove up to Rødby, where we took the ferry to Puttgarden, Germany at quarter past two. That was a 40 minute crossing. We met another Norwegian family on the ferry, they sat on deck with a big map of Europe. As they weren't sure where they were going, all kinds of options came past, Paris, Berlin, Greece, Italy, Spain, etc. quite funny!

Germany is still a boring country to drive through. We were lucky as there weren't too many roadworks and other trafic delaying circumstances. We came over the border of the Netherlands around 7. 
We came of the motorway and found a little farmerscampsite to spend the night at.
As our Euro's were running out we needed to find a bank to pay for the campsite and as every country has it's special foods, we needed to find a snackbar, for fries with peanutsauce and a fricadel, a spicy sausage, again with a special sauce. 

While we were waiting for our food to be ready, someone started talking to us in Norwegian. It was an elderly man, he had lived in Norway for five years when he was younger and worked at the embassy in Oslo at that time. He saw our Norwegian numberplates and we had a nice talk about the country.

The next morning we managed to get the tent back in the car, just before it started raining. We drove to Schijndel, but on the way we stopped in Goor for a stop at a chemist there and in Heesch for a supermarket. We had to buy our favorite Dutch foods for this holiday and just some food for the day. In Schijndel we had a stop at a huge campingshop. We bought a new cooker, as the other one had given it up the day before and they couldn't supply oss with spareparts. The cooker was on sale, so that saved us some money.
We bought some tentpoles and a sleepingbag-bag as well and had our lunch there in the lunchshop.

From there on we drove straight to Calais. First we thought about finding a campsite there, but as the weather was quite bad, wind and rain, we decided to drive a little further.The open Normandian landscape isn't that welcoming in such weather.

We drove on to the eurotunnel train almost without waiting. With the bad wind, and Emy's seasicknes, a boattrip didn't appeal.
On the Folkestoneside, we bought a good AA map of the UK and tried to find a campsite. The first one didn't take any tents, the people weren't very positive about finding one that did, but it wasn't as hard as they implied. We found the campsite in St Mary's bay, near the nature reserve of Romney Marsh. The campsite had an incredible amount of rabbits running round. The showers and toiletbuildings were tatty, but clean.
We cooked a pasta meal on the site and had a little chat first with our Dutch neighbours and later with our Englisch neighbours.

The next morning we drove along the coastal road. First we visited Rye, lovely little town and we soon went on to Brighton. There we visited the pier and later the paviljon, one of the summerpalaces of a former British king. They had audioguides, really handy devices. You just push the number of the room where you are and get your own private guiding. It does take coordination if you are together, as you then can smile at the same jokes and point at the same things in the room.

The touristinformation in Brighton had given oss a list with campsites, there was only one the way we wanted to go, a little farmers campsite, without showers, but there was a good toilet. We were the only ones there, nice and quiet.

After a quiet night we had to pack our things in the rain, a bit of a disappointment, as we knew that we would be spending the next two nights with Julia, sleeping in her house and not setting the tent up again.
We drove to Southhampton where we went into a shoppingcentre, very big and almost impossible to find your way out of! But we managed! The weather was still hopeless when we came to Julia.
Julia is an old friend from Emy's, they both lived in The Hague about 15 years ago and became good friends there. Julia is now married and has a little son, Ollie, he is almost two. Her husband was away on a business trip, so poor Martin had to put up with Ollie, while the ladies nattered away.

We decided that it would be good for oss all to take a little walk. So we got our raincoats out and walked around a local park. We were all drenched when we came back to the house. But it was good to be outside. Ollie loved walking into all the puddles. Julia had cooked us a lovely meal, Chicken in a lemonsauce and sherry trifle as pudding. Julia is an incredibly good cook, so it is wonderful to eat there!

On the thursday the weather was a lot better, so we sat us in Julia's car and she drove us to Lyme-Regis, a lovely little coastal village.
Martin took care of Ollie while Julia and Emy took a look at some of the books in a second hand bookshop. But then we lost both Martin and Ollie! We found them again, sitting in the sand on the beach burying each others feet in the sand and having lots of fun!
After a walk along the beach ended we up at a little teashop, they served us with a good lunch. Ollie ate his whole toasted sandwiches and behaved really well for a one year old!
On the way back home we stopped for tea at Oathill farm, this is a farm owned by Les and Carol White. Les was best man at Julia and Jay's wedding and Emy was bridesmaid, so we had met before. Lovely to see them again. We had a cream tea and Ollie had a sandwich.

Ollie was exhausted but there was so much going on that he couldn't get into a good nap, although he and Martin did sleep in the car on the way home, it wasn't enough, so it took some convincing to get him to be cooperative again. Not strange after such an intense day for him.

The next morning it was time for us to leave again. The weather had changed back to being unpredictable, so while we visited Bath we were had to buy Martin a raincoat. He didn't have one anymore, and fleece jackets dry very slowly! Bath is a pretty town, we took a tour round the old bathhouses, the Romans built so many years ago. Again they had audioguides. The good thing was that they had special guiding for kids, that was much more interesting than the adult stuff, so we went on the lookout for the signs with the special kidsnumbers for guiding. We had our lunch in a pub. Martin wasn't that confident about pubs before, but it was a good experience, which was repeated many times this holiday.

On the way to Bath we found out that Martin had taken Julia's coat, as it was very like Emy's, we posted it back from the postoffice in Bath.

Our campsite for the night was in Slimbridge, on the edge of the Cotswold and besides a canal with narrowboats. They were very full, but could spare us a space for the night.
We bought a lovely meal at Tesco's. We found that there were so many ready meals for such low prices in the supermarkets that it wasn't necessary to go through any trouble in the evenings, just warm it up and eat. This time it was pasta with bacon and chicken. We were both very tired, but managed a walk to the canal before we went to our tent.

On the Saturday we drove up the A40 and A47, via Kilpeck Church and Ludlow to Shrewsbury, where we found a campsite for the weekend. 
Kilpeck church is an interesting little church, with some scandinavian influences. In Ludlow we looked around the town, one of those middleages wooltowns. 
After we had put up our tent and eaten some dinner, took we a ride into town. We walked through the centre, which lies in a delta of the river, we managed to find the abbey, but to find our way back came to be a little bit more difficult. We remembered that the car was parked beside the river... but there was river everywhere. Fortunately Martin had a good sense of direction, but it was on the complete opposite side of the centre from where we were.

The campsite we were staying at, Oxon campsite, had a part designated "adults only" this was something which was new to us, and we wondered what was going on there. We were given a space there, and found that is is really quite nice to have a quiet tranquil place, without balls crashing into the tent, and crying children. We still had the neighbours with the television in the awning, but well, you can't have it all!

On the Sunday morning we went to church in the Abbey in Shrewbury. A lovely service and we were warmly welcomed by the priest and members of the congregation. A good choir and good sermon topped it all.

The rest of the day was partly spent at Sainsbury's. not soo much for shopping, but mostly for looking. The other part was spent in the sun at the campsite. Lovely to relax with good weather.

In the evening we visited a pub again, we bought pudding and used the WiFi network. We did have some trouble finding internetaccess in this holiday. But then, we didn't "need" it anyway.

Monday morning the 14th, time flies when you're having fun!
It was time to pack up again, we were going to go towards the Lake District now.but first Manchester.

Our goal in Manchester was Old Trafford, the Manchester United Stadium. We booked a guided tour around the huge stadium and had a good look at the Museum of Manchester United and off course the fan shop!

Now it was time for some other culture, Football is culture, but so are shoppingmalls. The stafford Centre is huge, whether is was supposed to look like a ship with destinations all over the world, or just like the temple of the shopping god, we are not sure, but it was quite impressive.

Our next campsite was in Littleborough, on the edge of the Pennines, in the hills with their typical grey stone houses and lakes. It was a simple campsite, partly mobilehomes, but the toilets were clean, even though the doors wouldn't lock. The showers needed special coins and the reception had closed at 4.30, so the showers just had to wait til the next day.
We took a walk around the lake beside the campsite before we went to bed.

We woke up with rain again, drizzling rain, which held on till we came to the next campsite in Keswick, heart of the Lake District. We were lucky to get a space, as there was a big Christian conference, but then we arrived around 12, too early for most other travellers.

It had dried up a little, so we ate a lunch beside the tent, lovely Dutch tomato soup, the one Emy can dream about, "extra gevulde tomatensoep".

The car didn't move an inch in those two days we were in Keswick. The village itself was so near the campsite and all the parkingspaces in the village so full, that it was easier just to walk.

Keswick is a real outdoorplace. We have never seen so many outdoorshops in such a small village. We think there must have been more than 15 of those shops there. We are not sure if we have been into all of them though. On tuesday night we decided to eat out at the chinese, it was lovely food, very spicy, but good.

Wednesday we started off with the visiting of a beerbrewery, it was past eleven when we came in, but still quite early for a pint, but we had to try the product, didn't we?
After that we had a look at both the Catholic and the Anglican church in town and the Pencil museum, Derwick Pencils originally come from Keswick. 
Because of the Christian Convention there were some huge tents in the centre of town, one of them had a big book and CD shop. Emy found a number of books she could use for her job and Martin found some good CD's. We talked with some people as well. And were invited to come to the evening meeting. Actually to the whole convention. Apparently is was a 100 year old tradition to have the convention and it was open for everyone. It was big as well, with something for every agegroup.

After we had eaten our dinner, we went to find the main tent, not to hard to find with so many people going the same way in a small village. 
It was a lovely meeting, and gave us some good worship and a very good talk. How do you protect yourself from falling into sin, where do you set boundaries etc. The talk was given by a pastor from Nairoby, Kenya. They have a very good internet site: Keswick Ministries.

On the thursday morning we packed up again, a very wet tent again. Our new goal was the Trossacks in Scotland. Our route went via Gretna Green, the place just over the border in Scotland where English people could get married secretly and quietly. It is now a touristattraction with a kilt and food shop. We found Stroopwafels, toffeewaffels there. not typically scottish we thought, more Dutch, but Martin was happy with them anyway!

We stopped at Drumlanrig a pretty castle/landhouse in the Scottish Lowlands an area we liked a lot. We were guided around the castle which to our surprised housed a Rembrand (the reading lady) and several other dutch and flemish painters. We heard histories of kings and noblemen and it was good to know that the house is still used as a home, be it one of four. but still used as a residence regularly. We had a look at the gardens, we are amazed at all the flowers, it seems that the weather in Norway isn't that fitting for a lot of them, though the Scottish lowlands should get as cold as it does with us.

We drove up northwards and tried to find a campsite, no signs, so we rang the local toeristoffice, as we couldn't find that either. They told us that there weren't any campsites in the area, but pointed us to one which we had seen in our AA campsite guide. It was over half an hours ride, so we rang ahead to ask if they had spaces, which they had. On the way we actually saw several other campsites, but since we had called, we drove to the Culzeal castle campsite, which was on a national trust area, together with a castle.

After we had put up the tent and prepared some dinner, it was time for a walk to the castle, which was about a mile from the campsite. Lovely woods and an even lovelier castle. Of course we couldn't get in, as it was evening, but there was a pretty view over the coast and the isle of Arran. There were a number of lovely buildings.

The next morning we left in the rain again, aparently typical Scottish weather. We drove through the lovely lowlands to the Trossacks, the entrance to the highlands of Scotland. 
We were a bit disappointed when we came to the trossacks, it was so much like the boring parts of Sweden, we actually liked us better in the lowlands of Scotland. As the weather was still bad as well, we made the decision to drive on to the Edinburgh region, and stay there a little longer.

We found a campsite in Wilkieston, Linwater campsite. a lovely campsite with an amazing owner, the lady was smiling all the time and very helpful. Our very wet tent had another chance to dry.

On the Saturday morning we drove to the Park and Ride and took the bus into Edinburgh. The weather looked a lot better, so shorts and sandals had come out. Unfortunately it started to poor again. But we now both  had new raincoats that fit in our bags, so we stayed relatively dry underneath. When we came up to Edinburgh Castle it started to dry up again. Again we went round with audioguides, the castle is huge, so it took us several hours to see most of it.
Edinburgh is a nice city, it is situated on a hill so views over the surrounding areas from the castle are marvelous.

We went back via a shoppingcentre in Islington. There was a super Asda there. AS we will be going to a wedding in september, we have a little clothes problem. Martin hasn't had a dress since his wedding, and that one he hasn't fit in since then either. Emy needs clothes as well. Martin's clothes problem is solved. Asda has very nice suits, shirts and ties. The only thing we need now is a belt.

Emy just loved the big hypermarkets and can spend a lot of time there, given the chance. Martin fell for all the meals and rather wanted to eat from the supermarket then in a restaurant.

Sunday morning we went to a local Episcopal Church. Again a wonderful service. The priest was very strong in his liturgical expression, making a baptism to a special occasion. We stayed for coffee after the service and talked to some of the people around.

In the afternoon we took a dive in a nearby swimmingpool. After so many cold nights on the airbed, our bodies needed some movement, and the water is an excellent place to be.
Afterwards we went onto the internet at the drive-inn McDonalds and out for a pubdiner afterwards.

On the Monday we packed up again, this time in the direction of the borders again, but now on the east side of the country.

We toured around a number of ruined abbeys in the borders, these had been thriving up til the reformation. We went into Melrose and Kelsoo abbey. both with benedicten moncs. On the way down to Lindisfarne we came past Scots View, the place where sir Walter Scott always paused on his way. And indeed a lovely view, worth stopping for.

We found a campsite near Lindisfarne, Holy Island. it was the Old Mill Site in Fenwick, two small fields in the middle of hills and lovely old farmbuildings. There was a magnificent view over to the sea from the hill next to the campsite, so we went up there twice, both in the evening and in the morning. Before we went to bed, we drove down to the causeway to Holy Island, it was now covered with water, as it is twice a day at high tide. Beautiful views over the waters, weird to think that we would be driving across this water the next day.

But we did. wihtout problems at 9.20 the road was all clear again, just a couple of puddles here and there, otherwise asphalt.
Holy Island is a special place, closed of from the rest of the world. The priory, started of st Aiden and continued by St Cuthbert and visited by sit Bede is now a ruin, but the history behind it, build in 7th century, raided in the 9th by the vikings, build up again soon afterwards and left behind in the 13th century, but still a holy place with the shrine of st Cuthbert present for a while, and still today a place for pilgrims.

We walked from the ruins of the priory to the castle, partly built with stones from the ruins as a lookout and powder house and partly restored by a dutch or flemish architect as a summer residence at the beginning of the 20th century, it looks out over sea as a queen on her throne. set on a rock at the edge of the island, almost in the sea.

Late in the afternoon we drove on to Hexham, where we found an old campsite on the racegrounds there. It needed a lot of work done there, both on the grounds, as it was difficult to find an even bit to set the tent up as well as in the toiletbuilding, which needed both cleaning and paint. But as it is the highest raceground in the UK, again the views over the surrounding areas was excellent.
Our niehgbours invited us for beer and wodka, but we had to decline, as we were too tired and not interested in soo much alcohol, they had already had enough we thought. But they didn't bother us in any way, so that was good.

Our last whole day in the UK was spent looking around the area of Hadrian's wall. the Roman Emperor Hadrian had built this wall in 120 a.d. and parts were still to be seen, mostly ruins, but it showed the technical insight of the romans, with their bathhouses and organised armyplaces. In a little museum all kinds of stones were exhibited, all the different Roman gods represented, but also stones to say when something was build, commemoration stones etc. very impressing.

On thursdaymorning the 24th we had to pack again, this time to leave the country, quite sad actually, as we both had had a really good time and felt at home in the UK.

We did another round at Tesco's buying a slowcooker, and some other bits and pieces. To Waitrose to buy Stroopwafels again, this time of Welsh origin and then on towards Newcastle. A little visit to the Ikea in Gateshead to buy new flasks and a tunnel for the cats and then on to North Shields, from where the ferry would leave.

We arrived at the ferry just past one, and went through all the controls before 2. the didn't start loading til half past two and it was all a little slow, making the ferry leave about an hour too late.

We had an inside cabin and made ourselves at home there, with coolbox, laptop and all the things you need for 27 hours.

Our dinner was booked for 6.15, so we had a couple of hours to look around the ship and relax from the driving. Dinner was a buffet dinner, with good food, both cold and warm and dessert. 

We booked a film for 9, "I am legend" a very good film, but one of those where Emy would preferably dive under the sofa, which you can't in the auditoriums of a ship. Do go and see the film, on DVD is you are easily scared.

While Emy's seasicknes had been under control the day before, the next morning, with an empty stomach and different waves, it did come up, but after some new tablets a good breakfast and a liedown, things were better. It probably had something to do with that we had reached the coast and were now sailing between small islands along the coast. 
The ferry docked at Stavanger and later at Haugesund. We had lovely warm weather, so we were outside on deck a lot during the day.
Finally at 6 we came to Bergen, where we drove off an hour later.

We had planned to drive past Voss, and around nine we stopped at Myrdalen, just before the Vik mountainpass. 
While we hadn't had any problems with musquitoes in England where we both bit at least ten times, before  we had had an hour at  the campsite. But we had enough antimusquito stuff left and after-bite, so time for those two.
We had been at this campsite 6 or 7 years before and it was already old then. They had started work on it, but a lot more needed to be done, especially the toiletbuilding needed updating. But knowing we would be home the next day meant we didn't need to do that much there.

Saturday morning we left the campsite just before eight and drove home, where we arrived just past four in the afternoon. Wonderful to see the cats again!! They seemed to have much more fur, but were happy to see us as well!
The house looked lovely after our tent travel and our housesitters had left it nice and clean, we only had to change the bedding and everything was there for us again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 4th july 2008  (pictures)

It's finally summer and we are going on holiday!

These last weeks it's been a building place here. We've shifted our roof and it looks wonderful! look at the june pictures.

 

 

Sunday 15th june 2008

Martin's father and his girlfriend have just visited us, we have taken some trips to Molde and Trollstigen, Geiranger. 

The week before we were in Geiranger and on the Trollstigen as well so there are a load of new pictures on the site.

There is a YOUTUBE film about Rauma, the community where we live. It shows the beauty of our mountains and fjords, do have a look here.

It is really nice to have guests, but it does make me a bit sad when they leave. Always that longing for the known friendly faces. We don't have guests that often. It is a long way from the rest of the world, and people are busy with their own lives. And there is the problem that I don't seem to be very good at keeping in contact. Whenever I think about taking the phone, I feel guilty about all the other people I haven't kept in contact with, and drop this phonecall as well. Or I am afraid what they would say about me not contacting anyone. I am afraid I don't know what to say, or that I say the wrong things. So the result is that the only people I keep in contact with are parents and 2 or 3 close friends. The rest gets equal treatment, that is no contact. Maybe I should just start somewhere and dive into it. It is better to phone once a year than not at all. 
After three years here, our contacts in the Netherlands have been reduced to Christmascards. Martin's birthday last week resulted in three cards. I did hope that one or two more would take the trouble to sent a postcard, but nothing.. (I am not blaming anyone here, just stating the truth) 

But is it just my lack of perseverance? Or is the other side just as much to blame? I don't know. Our website gets good coverage, on average 800 hits a day. 54% from the Netherlands, 24% from Norway. So I feel in a way that I am giving enough chance to others to keep up with us. But even in our family, it is difficult to keep up. How are Martin's nephews and nieces doing. We don't seem to hear much about them. But then, Martin has been back one time, these three years. I guess we could make more of an effort to travel to the Netherlands and visit people. Maybe this september?

Again with our visits I have the same problem as I have with calling. If we visit one, we have to visit them all. And so it is easier not to visit at all, but it actually makes me feel just as bad. 

 

 

 

Wednesday 4. june 2008

I am ashamed.. I should have updated here a long time ago, but the flow of life seems to go too fast sometimes, to stop and think.

It has been a hectic five months, but maybe things will calm down sometime soon? I will try to update you here,

On Martins side, things haven't changed much. He still enjoys drving round with his two containers here in the county and comes home at a reasonable hour each day. He is his own calm self, except when he tries to fight the mechanic, who doesn't repare his car, or when the planners don't do their work as they should, but that doesn't happen very often. 
Martin has been working on different DIY techniques, like sanding, painting, repairing, gardening, woodcutting and cloving for the fireplace and emergency reparations on the fence. Those things become a necessity when you own a house. 

I have been thrown in headfirst in my new job as lay-reader/substitute priest. Quite a number of churchservices, baptism preparations and I presided for the first time at Holy Communion last week. With the Norwegian Church being so different from the Anglican, I am allowed to do all this, without any formal preparation. Fortunately my boss, and the others in the diocese have decided that some form of preparation would be good, so we have our first lay- meeting in august.
It looks like my temporary job will continue til some time in the autumn. Then hopefully go over in a longterm contract as a youth worker here. 
I will then still have responsibility for confirmationclasses and family services, like I have now. It will be pretty exciting as we will be developing new activities as well. I am hoping that the flow of money as it has been announced now, will lead to a colleague that can help me in this field.

My confirmationclasses are done for this academic year, all have been confirmed and I am preparing for next years groups. I have been round to the schools to talk to the 8. grade students and we are hoping to have 80 confirmationcandidates next year.

These last weeks I have had some training in funeralpreparations and funerals. But somehow people don't die as much as when other colleagues are on duty. 1 person in three weeks, instead of 1 or 2 each week. Don't get me wrong, I don't want people to die, but to practise while I can be together with a very experienced colleague would be nice, before I am self thrown out into it, all alone.

It is exciting to preach and lead services, I like family-services where I try to involve the kids, but a normal mass is great too! I had the honour to lead and preach at our national day, the 17th of Mai. People came in local folkwear and the children in  their Sunday best, to honour freedom in Christ and thank God for leading a country is very special. I am glad there are so many that still want to embrace God and his church on these days too!

My mum came to visit us in that time as well, unfortunately the weather was extremely bad that week, rain with 4 degrees celcius. And that while the week before and the week after were sunny with 20+ degrees.
But she got to see where we live, where I work and why we like it so much here. 
Sadly my stepfather was taken into intensive care the night she arrived, but they got to come back home on the same day a week later. This did mean a certain amount of stress, but thanks to mobile phones we got to go out and visit some touristattractions. To top it all up some of the national airports closed because of strike, but we managed to book the return flights from Ålesund instead of Molde.

Last week Trollstigen opened again, after the long winterclosure, so we were up there the same evening, wonderful to be up there again. Trollstigen will have a special place in our hearts forever. It is a shame though that they are building some ugly features there on the top, it will now loose a great deal of character.

We are coming up to the summerholidays. Martin's dad is visiting us next week with his girlfriend for a couple of days, and we will be going on holiday to England in July. 
While we are on holiday there will be a family living at the house, so they will look after our house and cats.

Right now we are enjoying some tropical temperatures, sun with a lovely breaze. 

Do have a look at all our pictures, to see what I haven't told you, and if you have any questions, just ask!

 

 

Saturday 5th of january 2008

And there came the new year... Happy new year to everyone!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas, spent four days with friends who stayed at a cabin 400 m from here. We had our afternoons and evenings together. Wonderful to catch up and enjoy meals.

And now that the Christmas decorations have been packed, can we start at the new year. Trying to get back to the swing of things. Well never sure what the swing of things will be now actually, but never mind, we'll get in there. 
Emy will be working as a confirmationclass teacher 40% and layreader 20% at our local deanery. It will be quite a challenge to preach and lead services in Norwegian, but 2 and half years practice with the confirmationclasses is a big help. Otherwise there will be the help from colleagues, and surely from her new boss, the new Priest in Charge/Archdeacon. So that will be at leass some security in income til the end of may. 

Emy couldn't continue truckdriving, as her kneeproblems have deteriorated such that she can't load and unload. So we had to find some other work. Those who have followed us since we moved to Norway, know that there isn't a big choice in careers here. So we will just go with the flow, pray and trust God to provide. He has provided for us til now, so we can be sure he will in the future as well.

Martin is still enjoying his driving in the county. 

The kittens are growing quickly, the are stil as loving as always. They love to keep us awake at night, just so we can cuddle them. So they are not allowed on the loose on weeknights, just weekends. Abel is very good at running after the ball and returning it to us, while Eva, who is the more intelligent of the two refuses to run for us. Both of them love the bathroom with floor heating, and Abeltje has found a great place to play with her ball in the bath, it keeps rolling back to her. She isn't very good at throwing yet, so often it ends up in the shower or the basin and we find a soaking wet ball in our bed, when she wants us to play ball with her.
Eva has no favorite toy, but she loves sleeping on our sheepskin and under our jumpers and cardigans. Weird animals!
They had a meeting with a dog this Christmas. That was not a success. Abel decided that the safest place was behind the curtains in front of the window and Eva decided that the top of the boiler was a good place. Both of them in a room which was closed of from the dog. Abeltje refused to look at the dogowner, when she came again, but without the dog this time. 

Right now we have just survived a big storm. our roof which will be shifted next year lost some of its shingles and the fence, which is a little rotten at places missed two meter, but so long that seems to be the worst of it. The house seemed to shudder on its foundations and many trees collapsed, but we came out fine. It is quite a difference from our concrete flat in Zoetermeer to our wooden house on the edge of the woods at the end of a long valley. The positive side of this place is all the animals, badger, fox, stoat/ermine, lots of birds and deer nearby. So we will learn to live with our occasional winterstorm.

Now that we have two guestrooms, we hope to welcome many visitors here. We have some regular guests, from Youth with a mission, but we hope to welcome other friends and relatives too! 

 

 

 

Saturday 27th October 2007

Last weekend was confirmation camp. We had a weekend away with 80 teenagers, 8 teenage leaders and 6 adult leaders. We had a wonderful weekend together. The program was great, quite tight up till Saturday afternoon, and just as the teenagers started to get tired they got more breaks to relax.

On the Saturday we had the most teaching. I got to teach them about Jesus as our savior. It was wonderful to look at all those faces, all those unique creations and tell them how much God loves them!

We pray that the message this weekend, that God loves them and that they are worthy will take it's rightful place in their hearts.

 

Saturday 6th of October 2007

Just have to share this, we had an amazing venison stew this evening, I concocted my own recipy, with red wine in it, the meat was so soft, it felt like butter, just wonderful!!!

We are planning a venison roast for Sunday, I hope that one goes just as well as this one.

Otherwise, this week has been good for Martin and long for me. I changed GP and the next one has the first opening on the 22.d of October, so the waiting game is still on. Just hope that this one is better than the last, otherwise it will be a long, long winter.

 

 

Friday 28th of September 2007 (pictures of the cats)

And again it has been too long since I wrote my things here. 

We moved at the end of July, only a month after getting the key, so not bad. There are still enough things to do, but the house is lovely, living and bedroom are as they should be.
Kitchen cupboard doors need straightening, bathrooms need updating, doors need painting and we want to build a sauna in the house, but nothing urgent. The house is very livable and we are happy with it. It is wonderful not having to share a front door with other people. Although there are some scary bits as well, especially upkeep of the house. We have now renewed the glass in  of the 16 windows, we are waiting for the new roof to be put on, just the outside layer of tiles, so not too extreme there. The house was last painted in 2001, which means that we have another 4 years before that becomes urgent. The garden is a little bare, but we will be planting 230 bulbs this weekend, so that should make things bright in spring. We bought a plum tree which will be planted as well and Martin loves lavender, which he planted in front of the living room windows.

We extended our family with two small kittens, Abel and Ewa. they were born 2nd of july and arrived in our house the 9th of September. They are such a fine addition to our daily lives. They are good active and naughty kittens. Ewa knows what she wants, how she wants it and when she wants it. Abel is a lot easier, but he doesn't seem to think about what he is doing.

They both end up in different situations. I found Ewa in the toilet this morning, she is quite curious and must have missed her balance. She managed to come out and race the house, before I could catch her wash and dry her again. She was very angry! I hope she has now learned never to do that again. But just in case, we should learn to close the lid and the door.

Abel is very good at laundry climbing, she climbs with her little feet on the small rack, like it was a normal flight of stairs and then when she is at the top walks frivolous like it was a catwalk.. (which in a way it is)

When we went out to collect the kittens we heard at Ewa was a girl and Abel a boy, so much to our surprise at the vet's this Wednesday we had to come to terms with the sex change of our little Abel, who turns out to be a little girl after all. Actually this makes our life much easier, with regards to castration and pregnancy risks. 

They have a climbing frame in the living room which they love, they almost fly in and out of it, and love to sleep on the top of it. But at nights they sleep in the laundry room, on top of the laundry basket. At this time, they are too young to stay alone in the living room, Even when we are there, they try to catch curtains, because the move and climb up the sofa sideways with their nails. So once they learn the rules and calm down a bit, we can try how it goes without supervision.

Emy had a knee operation last week. She had problems with her knee since April, which had only gotten worse. After some months they found it as a meniscus damage on an MRIscan. Then came the referral to a private hospital for a keyhole surgery. This was done last week. She is now training up her knee again. Unfortunately there is nothing they can do, they have found damage on the meniscus, but because there is also extensive arthritis in the knee, which they discovered in the same operation, it was best to let the meniscus in there for support. even though it could cause some problems.
It doesn't look like she will be back at work in the truck in the near future.

Doctors in this country are not the best in giving information. We feel there should be options, besides the loosing of weight which is obvious, but we are not getting through it feels. We have now changed doctors and next week we'll be starting a new search. Even help with dieting would be good. I do have to say I got an offer for help with dieting, it consisted of pills (reductil) and the following advice, you should quit drinking soft drinks, eating chocolate and sweets and cakes. Anyone who knows Emy and knows how much weight should come off, could understand that this was a bit of an understatement.
And besides we do not think pills are the answer here either. Especially not without a proper follow up in diet and exercise. But we are not giving up. Right now we have started on a different food pattern, and the rest will follow.

Besides that our summer has been a little strange anyway. As in the rest of Europe, the weather has been weird. For us it resulted in very little sunshine and a lot of rain and cold weather. August and September have both been the wettest months in many years and we had snow on the mountains and closed roads already in august! 

We installed an air conditioner/heater in August, this warms up the house, even when we are not there and apparently is cheaper than a panel heater on the wall. We also have a wood burner, but that is a lot of work, both in preparing the wood as well as in getting it in the house and burning it. We ordered three pallets with wood from a Dutch farmer nearby and hope that is enough to get us through extreme cold winter days where the air conditioner cannot cope (-10).

Emy started her confirmation classes again, 28 lovely teenagers this time. We've had two classes now and will have a camp/house party in October, that will be exciting.

Emy has to reconsider her future plans AGAIN, now that truck driving seems less of an option, this is very draining. every time we think we have found the right direction, things go wrong. But well, we will persist. Have thought a bit about giving up, but that didn't seem the right thing to do either. So we continue to struggle.

 

Wednesday 25th of July

I can't imagine that is has been 4 months, since I last updated this page. Life has been really hectic but I should have remembered to write here every now and then.

Well a lot has happened these last months. Emy started driving her own truck, one day a week and often some extra days because of holidays of sickness. She still has to take her trailer permit, but well, we hope to get that done in September.

Confirmation classes start again in August/September time as well, so we will be nicely busy again.

Martin is still enjoying his route, as he likes his life steady, he doesn't need any change. Now in the summertime he gets to drive different routes, but he doesn't really like that. So he is longing for summer to be over and life to be normal.

We had a three week holiday in Canada this summer. Initially when we booked it, we planned to look at Canada as an option to live. But with everything happening here, we decided it was best to settle here in Åndalsnes, at least for the next couple of years. If you want to see the pictures click here. 

But the biggest news is certainly that we bought a house. We got our bid confirmed while we were in the middle of New Brunswick, Canada. Within a week after our holiday we had house loan and house contract organised and we got the key on the 28th of June, exactly one month later on the 28th of July (This Saturday) we will be moving our stuff with the help of some friends.

Here are the pictures of the house as it was when we bought it, and here are the picture of what it is like ready for us to move in.

We are looking forward to the move, finally independent again. no nosy neighbours, no shared front door. Finally we get to cut our own grass and paint our own walls. We can hammer and screw things on the walls wherever we want, with however many nails or screws we want, without anyone falling over it. Those are the drawbacks of renting. But well, it wasn't that bad, we were glad to have a place to live, but now we are ready to move out!

We will have room for guests in this new house, with two spare bedrooms and we are hoping to make good use of them. So let us know if you are planning to come over, so we can book you a room!

 

 

 

Wednesday 28th of March 2007

Life is just full of extremes. The one week I was having fun here with Robyn and the next thing you know, someone dies.

It makes you wonder about life, it makes you realise things end. Life is not endless and harmless and without pain.
Life hurts, and we better enjoy it before it is over. But then, what is it that ends, when our life ends. In faith, we know that there is more to life than this life alone.

Rolf van Casand, almost 40, Dutch truck driver and enjoyer of life. Died last Monday when he made a bad fall from his trailer. His wife Bianca and daughter Kelly are left behind. 
Can you imagine, having just moved to a new country, things were starting to settle down and your husband dies. Suddenly you have to decide where you want to bury him. If you bury him here, you would be almost obliged to stay here. If you had him buried in The Netherlands, you wouldn't be anywhere near the grave and it would cost more than you could pay for.

Rolf will be buried next Monday, here in Åndalsnes in the presence of his near relatives and some friends. At the same time his friends in the Netherlands will meet to remember him there.

Rolf and Bianca were certain about the fact that God and prayer led them here to Åndalsnes. Just like Martin and I felt led here. But how do you respond to such a loss? Where is the purpose in it? 
We did pray while they tried to operate and save his life. Didn't you listen God? Why did you let it happen? It is so unfair!
What happens to our prayers? I know that some things just happen in this fallen world and that God knows our sorrows and pains. I know we are all sinners and deserve to die. And I so much want to meet my friend again in heaven. But right now I just want to pounce my fist against God's chest and burst out crying in his arms.

 

 

Saturday 17th of March 2007

Time flies, when you're having fun, and we must be having a lot of fun, because time never stops flying.

Emy has joined Martin in the truck on average 3 days a week. This means very long days and weeks as she works for the church on the other days. Her driving is improving by the day, so she is planning to take her trailer drivers license soon. But as it is with most things in Norway, it takes time. Time to get information, time to get an appointment and time to get the follow-up of the appointment. 
Emy did a lift-truck theory course early January, the practical part still hasn't been organised. Frustrating at times....

But well, otherwise we seem to be doing well, we are still making new plans for the future, so we haven't settled yet. But we are sure that will come, one day before we retire...
There is so much to do, so much to find out and we have the opportunity to take chances. As soon as we know more, we will publish it here!

 

 

 

 

Monday 18th of December 2006

Yes!! Emy managed to get her truck drivers license. No trailer yet, but we are hoping that will come in spring. It's been a very intense five weeks in training, but she managed to come through and pass the test! Theory wasn't the biggest problem, but the actual driving felt very slow. But when we take in mind that she has only had her normal drivers license since March, she must be a natural to get it so fast!

Emy passed the test on Thursday and started driving with Martin on Friday. That was a challenge in itself, with a completely different gear system and a completely different car. Backing up was something she hadn't really learned in the course, so that gave Martin a chance to fill in the gaps with his knowledge and experience.

We are now in the run up to Christmas, the days are short and dark, and though we have snow today, it might melt and give us a green Christmas, we'll wait and see.

 

Saturday 25th of November 2006

Life never stops being hectic it seems. Martin works his long days week in week out, and Emy has found something else to occupy her.

Emy started truck driver training two weeks ago. At a boarding school, she has loads of theory and little practical training. It is much fun, but also very intense.
Sometimes it seems we never get out of the stress of daily life. Emy is getting frustrated with the lack of time and energy to do other things than the daily chores, but so far we just have to trudge onward.

Before she started the driving course, she had to quit her jobs at the school and the daycare. That was tough. It was nice to work there, although the diversity of all the different jobs was hard to deal with sometimes. But we have moved on to the next stage in life.

Winter hasn't started yet, it should have done, but we have only had one week with snow and afterwards we came back to 6-10 degrees. With much rain and wind, it is far to warm, but we hope snow and winter comes soon!

The days have shortened as well. It is light between quarter past nine till quarter past three. 14 hours less daylight than we had in June.

So as you can hear, life isn't always easy, but we are dealing with things slowly. But especially the frustration of not holding contact with friends is great.

Emy's mother has been very sick, she is stable again right now, but with only 50% heart capacity. We had a number of months with waiting for tests and a lot of uncertainty. At those times it is hard to be so long from each other. We can phone, but not be there physically for each other.

It did mean as well that the phone wasn't much used for other things than ringing to mum, because we wanted to keep the line free, in case something happened.

And right now, with Emy at boarding school, there isn't the option to ring much, to ring from a mobile just costs to much.

 

Tuesday 17th of October 2006

Life just flies by, every time we get surprised by the seasons. Autumn is truly with us now, with rain and colder weather, but sometimes we get those beautiful autumn days as well. The colours in the mountains are wonderful, orange, brown, yellow. But we haven't been able to take many pictures, as the weather has been very wet as well.

We did however climb a very nice mountain here nearby again. Lillefjellet, a lovely little climb with a great view over the whole valley. (take a look at the pictures of september)

Life is very hectic here at the moment, but things are likely to change soon! 

We visited a big truckshow near Lillehammer, early September. We really enjoyed the trucks and the atmosphere there. As I (Emy) was so stressed with my three to four jobs, we started looking for a solution to this problem. And we think we have found the solution. I will go and take a course to learn to drive heavy vehicles, like trucks and busses. 

With the busy schedule I have, it was difficult to plan free, but the solution was to quit all the jobs without a contract and to reschedule my confirmation classes. This means I can take the course from the 13th of November until mid December. I am very excited, but it is a little daunting too! Just me a little (as in not very tall) girl sitting in such a big truck and keeping it completely under control!!
I did take my chances these last weeks to join Martin on a number of days, when I was free and he was working. even studied some theory books in his truck.

 

 

 

Saturday 26. August 2006

Julia and Jay have a son!!! Finally, he was born last weekend 8.15 am (GMT) We are happy that after all the trials they finally could hold their son and be a family!
We know that Julia's life wish had now come into being! Being a mum!!

Martin broke the dreariness of everyday life this week, by starting a fight with a big container. He lost and broke his finger in a clash with the door. So now he is off work for a week and taking things easy at home.

 

Saturday 12th of August 2006

It's been a busy summer, but wonderful and great fun!

Robyn and Carola came to stay the second week in July. Emy went to Oslo to pick them up there, and they spent a lovely day in Oslo. They visited several museums on the museum island Bygdøy. And of course had dinner, in a great Indian restaurant. Whenever you are in Oslo, go to Mr. India, very good food!

On the Sunday they drove back up to Åndalsnes (a good day tour) to be welcomed by Martin with dinner and drinks. Martin hadn't forgotten how to brew a good cup of English tea!

We spent the week climbing mountains, (with or without staircases) and enjoying ourselves mainly outside. We visited Ålesund, Geiranger and of course the Trollstigen. We even saw some trolls during a river walk on the Saturday!

On the Sunday morning it was time to say goodbye again, Robyn and Carola took the train to Oslo and flew home from there. They caught the 9.30 am train and we went home directly after the train left, to start packing our own stuff.

We left the house at 1 pm, with the car and its roof loaded with our camping gear. Almost three weeks we spent on holiday, glacier climbing, mountain climbing, rafting, kayaking, canoeing and lots more, a very active holiday.
Check the pictures here.

And now it is back to the abnormal life we normally lead, and that is a tough transition again!

 

Thursday 6th of July 2006

It's finally summer holiday, For Emy that is, Martin wil have to work another week or so.

The school year is over, so Emy's jobs are over as well. We now know that she will be doing the same next year. 
We have to think about the long term future though, because these three jobs have been interesting and good experience, but with only one short term contract, and the other ones on a freelance basis, there isn't much to count on there.

We are planning a summer holiday to northern Norway, just the thought of getting out is wonderful, living in the tent, driving a bit each day, great!

The weather has changed to real summer now as well, but that was only last week.
up till then, we had rain and cold weather.

Emy will be driving up to Oslo tomorrow to spend a day there with Robyn and Carola, before driving them back to Åndalsnes for a week here with us. It is the week of the mountain festival, so we will get out on the mountains a lot!

 

 

Monday 22nd May 2006

It's been a while since I've written something here, but life has been very hectic. The youth are all ready for confirmations, half of them has already been confirmed these last two weekends. Ascension day and the Sunday after the last 18 will be confirmed.

We have had some very good confirmation services, Emy was involved in all of them and it has been wonderful to see all the youngsters in their local dress (see pictures May). 
A little sad but very satisfied after a long winter with 65 young people, and now we need to get ready for next years group. Planning and visiting schools. But soon it will be two months of rest from all confirmation candidates.

The skiing season is now definitely over, we are getting ready for walking trips again now. But we have enjoyed some very good ski days this late winter, and looking forward to next year!

The weather has been warm and cold over the past couple of weeks, some days burning hot and then suddenly snow again. The days are long again, light when we go to bed and light when we get up.

Martin seems to be getting regular days of now, like one a week, but it is a lottery trying to predict which day it will be. But well, right now we have ferry strikes, so his working days are a little bit boring with much waiting and waiting. 

Emy has been doing some extra shifts at the day-care, which has been fun, as well as the regular hours there. It looks like this will continue next season, we just have to wait and see how many hours it will be.

My English is going downhill, so I'm glad that Robyn and Carola are coming over in July, so I can practise again. I will be picking them up from the airport (6 hrs drive) and we will be in Oslo two nights before we drive up here again. When they leave we will be going on Holiday to North Norway.

Meanwhile we are looking at houses. Maybe building, maybe buying, we'll see what God wants for us. For we know He has plans...  but we are getting a little impatient to find out, what kind of plans He has...

I've found out that it is much easier to write a weekly journal then a monthly one, for so many things seem trivial over a month, while on a weekly basis they are important enough to write about, but time is limited, so I suggest you just learn Dutch and read that one!

 

Monday 24th of April 2006

Life just rushes by sometimes. But I'll try to keep this log going once a month.

We've just had Easter. Here in Norway that means a complete stop for the whole country from Wednesday till Easter Monday. So we enjoyed a five days holiday. We had an agreement that we wouldn't just lounge around the whole time, but actually do something. So on the Thursday we did some skiing in Isterdalen, a nice flat snowy area nearby. For those who know the area, at the bottom of the Trollstigen.

Friday we drove to Trondheim, for a nice night in a hotel, a good dinner at Egon's and a Saturday morning visit to Ikea. We needed a new duvet, new duvet covers (the new duvet has a new size) and a simple guest bed. Ikea is the same in each and every country. Only the price tags are in a different currency and language. But even the menu in the restaurant is the same. And the restaurant is at the same place, over the entrance lobby.

We drove back again on the Saturday. As Emy has her drivers license, she was allowed to drive most of the way up, most of the city driving in Trondheim, but on the way back she was getting a little tired of driving, so Martin took over again. It was noticeable that he hadn't driven so much in a normal car, mainly in the big truck, so his driving was a little different to begin with, but got better as he drove more.

Easter Monday was more skiing, this time on Skorgedalen, our local skicentre with ski lift and all. We asked the red cross people a route for new beginners.. and we suspect they hadn't had enough casualties over the Easter period, as there were some interesting descents in the route, which were quite difficult (read: too difficult). But we survived and vowed not to return there before we worked on our braking techniques.

Last Wednesday was another free day for Martin, as the industry hadn't really started up again after Easter and after I finished a meeting about my confirmation activities, there was a surprise. Martin took me to the sportshop, so we could buy new ski's for both of us. Martin had borrowed a pair of Ski's and shoes, but they had to be returned and I was given a pair from a colleague, but needed better shoes. So now we got everything new.
Of course we had to try them as well, so we took everything in our little car and drove to Bjorli. Bjorli is a big skicentre about 50 minutes from here, with a big choice of løypes, routes to take on ski.

We don't do alpine skiing, but the touring kind. So a little up and down, but no ski lift or other help. Just out in nature. It is wonderful to be out on the mountains, enjoy the views and the silence of the snow.

This last week we managed to do two whole routes, before we did only parts of routes, but now we have managed to come to the next stage. Both on Wednesday as on Sunday have we done an 8km route. 
As spring is coming in fast, this might have been the last weekend out in the snow, but we are hoping for one more!

The confirmation candidates have come to the end of their preparation, we have one big thing to do, that is the youthmass, where they answer questions about faith, church and God. They will work with the questions two sessions and will get everything written out in the actual service, but we hope it makes them think.

So we are on our way to summer, Emy will be in the Netherlands for a couple of days in June, and Martin's father, uncle and aunt will be here later in June. Robyn and Carola in July and we hope to get our holiday late July, early August.

 

 

Saturday 25th of March

Emy passed her driving test yesterday! After months of practice, she managed to get it in one go. The theory test was taken a month ago and the practical on Friday.
It is a relieve that that is now done!

Martin got stuck in the snow on Tuesday. We thought the weather was improving and almost all the snow was gone last Saturday. But so it began to snow again and again and again, a meter in one day. And there was Martin, on a hillside, on the middle of the road.. stuck. He put the snow chains on and fortunately managed to get going again! But it is quite stressful to stand there and feel your truck even slips down a little!

Emy had her driving lessons in a snowstorm on Monday, and while it kept snowing all week, it was sunny on Friday, when she had her test. The test was taken on icy and snowy roads, which can be a danger in themselves. But she passed and can start to drive alone now, which is a little scary!

 

 

Friday 17th March 2006

We completely forgot something, Emy took a big Norwegian exam in January. We got the results early March. The maximum amount of points was 700, Emy got 550 average. Reading and listening skills were way up to 674 and 678, so that was pretty good. We now have to keep on working on the writing and grammar.

And after that, she passed her driving theory as well. So now just up to practical test.

Last weekend we went out on skies for the first time. It was wonderful to be out in the fresh air snow and sunshine. We did get some muscle pain afterwards, better said, Emy did get a lot of muscle pain. Martin takes things really careful and relaxed. Emy just takes it as fast as it goes. With all the consequences of muscle ache.

Martin has a free day every now and then, which is nice, as we can do things together, just a shame that it is mostly on the days that Emy works, but sometimes we actually have a free day together. 

We try to do things together at the weekend, take is easy, relax and go out a bit. But like tomorrow Emy has to work on the Saturday, so that means we don't have much time. Hopefully Martin will have a day off on another day soon.

 

Saturday 4th March 2006

Another couple of months have flown by since Christmas, and life is completely back on the road again. 

Martin is now very experienced in driving in snow. He has managed to steer away from accidents and is generally a safe driver, which is a good feeling for Emy.
He does manage to get himself incredibly dirty every now and then, but then we have a washing machine for that. 
In February Martin took over some nightshifts from sick colleagues, which meant a change of routine and a route over some very snowy mountains to the middle of the country to change container.
The containers from Oslo come up to Åndalsnes by train, but those from other cities come by truck. For the first time this winter, they experienced problems with the train transport. This week  some of the trains were delayed over 8 hours, which is a long time if you are waiting for them. But fortunately Martin lives close by, so he just came back home to join Emy in bed for a couple of hours, before returning to work again.

Emy is still enjoying her work. The confirmation candidates are preparing themselves for some big church services, which can be exciting.
At the daycare things remain the same, but Emy might be working as a replacement every now and then. At school things have changed. Besides being a support in the classroom has she started with some individual sessions with the little Dutch girl, to practice words and repeat things done in class. It is fun to see the development of all these youngsters, both the young ones as the teenagers.

Emy is making good progress with her driving lessons and she might go up for her test before the end of this month. Then a time of freedom will introduce itself by the use of the car.
The driving lessons are very interesting, besides all the usual are there obligatory parts like, driving on slippy underground (on a track), driving in the dark, safety on the road. To learn to overtake, you have a lesson with two cars at the same time, and you get a 70 km stretch to overtake each other as often as you can. And there is also the map reading lesson, where you drive a 110km stretch with the help of a map and you predict ferry times and all that. So far Emy has only driven on icy and snowy roads, so the summer will be very interesting! She will be on a dry road with sunshine.. imagine how she will drive there...
We are practicing very often, Emy drives mostly at the weekends and often long stretches to Ålesund and surroundings.

We are enjoying being part of the Pentecostal biblestudygroup and help with a youth café which they have founded. It is great to have the fellowship with other Christians.

At the end of January celebrated we Emy's birthday, first with a little group of Dutch people, afterwards with some Norwegians. It was fun, but definitely different from how we did it before. 

We are considering buying a house, but as there are currently none for sale, there is not much to look at, I guess we will just have to make that trip to the bank and see what they can do for us.

But for now we are enjoying life here more and more, but we still need to learn to ski!

 

 

 

Saturday 24th December, Christmas' Eve

We've just had the Christmas preparations, we are not quite as ready as the Norwegians, but we are trying!

Here in Norway are there traditions that say, you should be ready for Christmas at the 13th of December, the feast of Lucia. And in the daycare where I work, they have this song "I have washed the floors and carried in the wood, cleaned everything and now we can enjoy Christmas" So that made us feel a little guilty, because up to this last Wednesday we had not prepared a thing, besides a shopping list.
Christmas' Eve is already a Christmas day here, but we as Dutch people, use it to prepare for the first and second day of Christmas.
Wednesday Emy started with cooking some food, and doing some shopping. On Friday, she baked wonderful things with a friend. The Norwegians have seven different kinds of cookies and cakes, so we had to make a whole variety. Together with some bought sweets, we now have our seven different kinds!

Martin has had his first collision with a deer, it was a big one, and a scare for that. Fortunately not too much damage on the truck and the deer disappeared into the woods. Besides that deer are there many other hazards on the road, ice, snow and other traffic. But Martin is coping very well! 
Emy went along with him on Monday. It was wonderful to spent the day together in spite of the ice, rain and snow. Just to see what it is that Martin does during the day. He does work very long hours, from half past four in the morning until eight in the evening most often. In between he does get some breaks, but still it is very tough!

Oh yes, good news, we finally received our bankcards, so we can pay again! And use up some of our money. There is still a little mistake somewhere in the bank's computer, as we seem to get things sent to a wrong address.. but well, that is the next thing to sort out after Christmas. 

Emy has a holiday right now, no work until January. Things need to be prepared, but nothing definite in the agenda. Hopefully some time to study for the Norwegian test in January and for the theory exam for her drivers license.

We've met some really nice Christians, with whom we meet up on Tuesday evenings. Time to reflect, read the Bible and pray together. Don't get me wrong, we've met other wonderful Christians too before, but with this little group we can actually pray out loud and share in a different way. It is difficult for many Christians to get past the point of casting the fear of praying together and sharing together in God's love. But then we are all different, and have different gifts and different needs.

This Christmas' Eve Emy will be an angel bringing the Christmas message in the middle of the sermon. That will be interesting and fun! The service starts at four pm, quite early for us, but late for Norwegians, who like it at two pm, so they can be home in time for a huge supper.

We will have some luxurious food, but not as much as the Norwegians have, we have tried all the traditional food at different meals with church and work, and now we have our own food. Chicken prepared according to a recipy from Emy's family and meringue as a tradition from Martin's family.
And we will be enjoying a couple of days at home together, with hopefully some dry weather to go out in.

From here we will be wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas!

 

Monday 12th of December 2005

Life in Norway can be very interesting. Over the last three months we've had ongoing contact with the bank over our new bankcards. We opened a savings account and changed our social security numbers (Fødselsnummeret). We asked for cards for both our accounts, as we only had cards to the regular account, but with the old fødselsnummeret on it. Bankcards are used as ID here, so we need to get the info right. We've now moved three months on and these are the results:

First they forgot to order the cards
then we received a card for Martin (without code) and a code for Emy (without card)
Then something else went wrong and at the next order nothing came in
so we ordered again, received four codes and a card to the savings account for Emy
they blocked the old cards to the regular account (at the weekend, bit embarrassing in the supermarket)
Emy lost her temper at the bank and we were invited at 9 pm in the evening so the bank could set straight their mistakes and apologize to us twenty times.
we received another bankcard for Emy
we are waiting for the new cards for Martin expecting them in the next two days.

But we still believe there must be a system behind all this. So we count on the system to spit out two new cards for Martin.

The snow we had (lots of it) has melted over the last weekend, we've had so much rain again, that there are parts of the country with weather alarm and evacuations for fear of mud avalanches.
It is nice to be out of the slippery ice and snow for a little bit, but the pouring rain isn't exactly inspiring either. So we are hoping for a white Christmas.

But the snow isn't all good. Emy sat in a school bus that crashed into the side of the road, taking down a lantern post. No one was injured, but it was just another one of those "new" experiences. The taxi that took her and a little girl back into the village, took a little d-tour into a valley, on a narrow road, only to be recognised by the snow poles on the side of the road. Very slippery and steep on the sides. Just what we needed to feel comfortable again on the road.
But the driving lessons are continuing, even on snow and ice. Good time of year to learn to drive, as after this, a person can drive just anywhere in all circumstances.

Martin is learning to drive in all this snow now too, he is getting experienced in keeping the truck on the road and loading and unloading the truck while getting as little snow as possible in the containers. He does keep on bashing his head under containers though, which leaves a not so very nice mark on his forehead. If he does this one time again, he will get a helmet to wear at work!

The other aspect of snow and rain is the work in the day-care centre. Norwegians think it is very good for children to be outside a lot, so children in the day-care play outside from 12 til 4 each afternoon, and those who work with them, stand in the cold, rain and snow for the same amount of time. Right now Emy is very happy with her thermals and the fact that she only works until 2 pm.

Two weeks ago we had an afternoon from the adult learning centre, a lot of foreigners together. For a small community like ours, there are many foreigners here. A lot of women from Thailand, Philippines, Russia, Latvia, all married to Norwegians. Some Germans, English and Dutch. It was a very nice afternoon, with good food and fellowship.

Oh the Christmas season has started. First Sunday in Advent, the world changes. the neighbors all have red curtains, stars and lights everywhere and the shops are filled with biscuits, as all Norwegian households have seven different kinds of biscuits for Christmas. 
But no Christmas tree for sale here in the village, I guess we just have to go into the woods and find one!

Yesterday we had our first Julebord (Christmas buffet) interesting food. Grayish meat on bones, grayish meat without bones and lots of fat. Yellowy stuff with strange sauerkraut, reddish cabbage, sausages, gray and red. But it was traditional Norwegian food, and it tasted better than it looked. But caused a lot of gass.
Next weekend we will have Julebord with Martin's work in a fancy hotel here in town. We are not expecting more too much there, just the same food and drunken people. 

Last week we went to Ålesund, we bought Christmas presents for each other and took the printer in for repair. We saw so many Christmas things, that we took the boxes with our own Christmas things from the attic and we too have a Christmas house now!
Martin has made some lovely things again!

If you are wondering why we haven't put up any new pictures, that's because the days are so short now, that there isn't much light to take pictures. It get's light around 9.30 AM and dark around 3 pm. And today it is raining, so it doesn't seem to get light at all.

 

Saturday 26th of November 2005

OK, we've neglected the English log again, we'll try to update you about happenings.

Emy is continuing with learning to drive. Martin is letting her drive wherever we go, so that means quite some practice at the weekends. For several reasons there have not been that many driving lessons with the driving school. 
But together have we driven to Ålesund, Molde, Bjorli, Røros and up Trollstigen, who can put that on the list of practising hours!

We have both had a cold, Emy was home for about a week and Martin is still coughing away. But as we now both have electric blankets, we are nice and snug at night in our warm beds.

Emy has another job added to the list, working as a translator for a 6 year old at a primary school. School is fun here for kids, 9-16 pupils in a class, with a teacher and one or two assistants (personal attention for all). Children are allowed to dance on the table and in general have a very short attention span (5-10 minutes)
Wit this added job, she has 18 hours work each week, combined with two days with Norwegian lessons, that seems to be more than enough at the moment.

We've had some interesting times with the confirmation candidates. An evening with all 94 from the community. and meetings in the different groups to prepare a church service.
Maybe this generation is just completely different from how we were when we were that age, but there is a huge difference.

Emy has been interviewed as a truckers-wife for a Dutch magazine, it should come out end of the month.

We've had a whole week with lots of snow, but this part of the country is prepared for that. Most cars have spikes or very good winter tires. The roads get cleaned very well and people now how to act in traffic.
Check the pictures for some nice snowy places!

But one good thing, it wasn't cold when we had snow, on average 2 degrees. The last week has been a little warmer with lots of rain, so we have lost some of the snow, but not all! and maybe we will get some new snow next week.

 

 

Tuesday 1st November 2005

new photo's

We have come back from our miniholiday to Røros. Four days away!

Last week was weird weather again, first very cold and we could see it snow on the mountains. Then on Thursday the föhnwinds started and the thermometer jumped to 15-17 degrees here in Åndalsnes.
It felt a bit like our wedding day six years ago, when we had the warmest October days of the century!

On Tuesday night or was it Wednesday? We had some unexpected visitors. A Dutch couple had applied for a job with Martin's company. They wanted to talk about life and work here. We had a very nice evening, they had an 11 year old daughter and I was surprised about the knowledge I had build up about schools here in the community.
They were having to deal with the tough decisions now, do we move now, or are we going to leave it a bit longer?  
Yesterday we heard they were not going to move at the moment, the daughter will finish primary school and they will learn some Norwegian first. Good decision I would say.

And as all Norwegian hosts with unexpected visitors we made waffles! so we will be turning into real Norwegians soon!

Friday morning we left for Røros, with a lot of wind pushing us.
Emy drove the first part up to the E6 and a little on that. The E6 is the nearest big main road through the country, but traffic was lacking? So Emy was disappointed, but she could drive 90 k/h which is almost as fast as anyone can go here.
But we did get snow, first on a parking lot along the E6 where we tried to skid, but much to Martin's disappointment, didn't manage that. We love spikes on our tires!
Here we realised we had lost the learners plate at the back of the car somewhere on the way, probably wind and all, so Emy wasn't allowed to drive again till we bought a new one.

In the middle of the Dovre mountains we had to take a right turn onto road 29, this isn't a big road, so we found ourselves on a road covered with ice and snow. At this point Martin was getting to be thankful for our spikes, the other option was summer tires and ending besides the road.

We stopped in Tolga, to see the worlds biggest Spark, a kind of sledge. And from there Emy was allowed to drive with a new learners plate on the car.

As we came nearer to Røros, the snow started to disappear, but the wind stayed, but it was not the nice warm wind we had home, but not as cold as it could have been. We heard later it had snowed in Røros that same day, but it had been blown away by the wind again.

We had a lovely luxurious hotel, with a bad for Emy and a television with more then 3 channels for Martin! And for both of us, there was a lot of wonderful food!
Friday a buffet, Saturday a wonderful four course dinner with salmon and reindeer and on Sunday a dinner of our choice in the nearby restaurant.

We spent much of the weekend walking around town, on Saturday morning we had a guided walk, which told us a lot about the history. On Sunday we looked at the history in the museum, which was lovely. 

Saturday we celebrated our wedding anniversary, as we got married on a Saturday and we couldn't wait for the presents, we thought that would be a good day. But actually both the Saturday as well as the Sunday we celebrated!

Sunday night we went to our first shared cinema visit in our history! Finally Emy managed to get Martin into the cinema! A lovely Norwegian film, "Elsker deg i morgen" (Elling III)

Monday morning we had to pack up again and return to Åndalsnes.

Now we are back to our normal lives with trucks, toddlers and teenagers.

 

Monday 24th October,

And again the English log has been left behind a bit. Well what is happening at the moment?

Emy has started her driving. Martin has to give up the driverseat and be a patient passenger wherever we go together. But it is going well so far, no collisions, no big fights.. just little disagreements. "NO I DO NOT WANT TO GO ROUND THE ROUNDABOUT A 16th TIME!!!"
"you might see that the car three cars ahead of us is breaking, but I am trying to get to terms with the first traffic light I meet here as a driver and the car in front of me is as far ahead as I can see right now"
On our first driving day we went on gravelroads, mainroads, roundabouts, and we met a deer, who came on to the road but decided to turn around half way. We went on small roads, wide roads and into the centre of town. Quite a lot for a first day!

Last week Emy had her first driving school lesson in a car with a clutch, as our car has an automatic gear. Quite a difference from our little Ford Fiesta into that big Volvo V40 with six gears and gadgets all over the place.

 Emy also started another intermediate job as a translator for two little girls in a day care centre, two days a week for a couple of hours. Quite fun and another taste of Norwegian life.

The confirmation candidates are quite a handful at times, most groups are OK, but today was another tough one. As a reserve Emy had a group from the minister on the other side of the community, and those kids make a person loose all faith for the future. (theirs and ours)

Martin keeps on driving his truck, now also on winter tires, a necessity as the weather did a dip on us and is around zero. It is expected to go up to around twenty later this week again, but we'll have to see that to believe it!

We spent a week at Gjerset while Ronald and Marja were away, looking after cats, a dog, some chickens and the cabins. Only one guest the whole week, but still someone needs to be there.

It was good that it was autumn holiday and Emy had no Norwegian classes or work, so there wasn't too much traveling around the community. And Martin had a day off in the middle of the week, which we used for some driving and a little outing to Molde.

 

 

Saturday 1st October 2005

It's October already, time just flies, with the days getting darker, it really feels like winter is coming. Early mornings are cold again. (Maybe I shouldn't go out without a coat)

We had a fair last Saturday, Romsdalsmartnan, the biggest event in the region this time of year. We went with some friends and had a great time listening to a concert of some over aged rockers (very popular with 7-13 yr olds) and seeing teenagers getting drunk.

After getting home quite late we had a nice relax start on the Sunday and decided it would be nice to get out. We had several things to choose from, Skorgedalen, Trollstigen, Bjorli. In the end we chose the last two.
So we went up Trollstigen, but instead of driving the same way down, we decided to drive down at the other end. There in stead of driving back, we decided to do a longer tour round the mountain, but then there was that ferry to Geiranger, and we got completely distracted, and took it... That meant that in Geiranger we had new decisions to make, return, or drive the longer way home.... Well in the end it was the longer way home.
We got home somewhere in the evening, after having seen the most awesome autumn colours, yellow, red, orange, the rare "indian" summer, we get here some days in September and on the way back home we came past Bjorli, which completed our Sunday trip. (nine hours)

On Monday and Wednesday Emy had to work and a workshop in Molde on the Thursday, so enough to do.

On Tuesday night we visited a couple from the Bedehus(church). They have been missionaries in Ethiopia, with a huge experience and a strong faith. Wonderful people!

Emy isn't allowed to drive the car yet, as the very important letter from the traffic centre didn't come in. But she did start Norwegian classes, in order to go for a kind of certificate to show her abilities.

On Friday they shot another Muskusox here in the region, it has been ten years since they shot one in the street here, but they have shot five around here in the last couple of years. 
They are cast out of the troop about 100 km from here, wander off and end up here at the edge of the fjord, or as they did this time, at the steps of a house near the fjord. As they do, they shoot them, these oxen are too dangerous to have wandering around. So Rauma (our community) made the main news headlines again.

 

 

Saturday 24. September 2005

Six months after:

We have a house
we both have a job (Emy only a small one though)
we are starting to build up a social life
we know enough of the language to be able to talk to most people about the weirdest things
We still can't manage to cycle into the centre without loosing our breath
we still can't ski, but haven't had snow to practice on either
Martin has some Norwegian gadgets on the car
Emy will be starting to drive next week
We still miss everyone (and that won't change, not necessarily a bad thing either...)

Things are slowly getting into a routine, Martin is doing well at work, enjoying almost everyday. Emy is learning her way with the confirmation candidates, maybe we just have to accept we won't reach 'm all! 
Emy has started her traffic ground course so she can start her driving lessons next week or hit the road with our own car with Martin next to her and L-plates on the back of the car.

This next weekend it's fair in town, Romsdalsmartnan, big local thing, everyone is thinking about it and planning when to go, or to go all four days. The newspaper has a special edition and all other newspapers talk about it. So it is a BIG thing here!

In the mean time Emy finally got paid for her summer job and a contract for the new job, so she can pay for her driving lessons.

We are planning a long weekend away at the end of October to Røros to celebrate our anniversary and to get out a bit, as we haven't had a summer holiday, these little getaways are important for us.

Emy is having interesting adventures with the confirmation candidates, some are interested, some try their best, in spite of concentration problems and some just don't want to try. For the sake of the first two groups Emy does try hard. But it isn't easy.

Emy started at the Rauma Gospel Choir this week, good music, great director and a good atmosphere, also two confirmation candidates, one who happened to be sick earlier that day during classes???
First concert at the end of November

Martin has been free the last two Mondays, which meant he could come along to a painting session with the confirmation class candidates and last Monday we were up LilleFjellet, the mountain that Emy and Robyn tried to concur in rain and storm, this time we had lovely weather. Good views, do look at our photoalbum (see link at the top!!)

We've also had our first snow, over 600 meters, most of it has melted again, as we had some lovely sunny days this week, but it did look good!

Last Saturday we went to Ålesund again, bought extra lights for the car, new winter coats for both of us and other things which we can't get in town here. (visit to Lidl for vitamin tablets and washing liquid...) We had to go over the Orskog mountains, Martin claims he runs into sheep and cows there regularly, but Emy has never seen any of them. So either Martin needs a new mobile, with camera, or he is seeing things, which aren't there!

Emy was part of different Sunday services again, and we had a good time meeting new people there.

We've applied for long term residence permits, as Martin now has a long term contract. This meant Emy getting into a bit of a bad mood because of our wonderful Police officer Mr Rognerud, who as last time had his facts muddled up AGAIN..... But well the forms have been handed in and we just hope for the best!

Oh really good thing too, we received an email from a lovely Christian couple Emy met on Trollstigen over the summer, a real encouragement!

 

 

Saturday 10th of September 2005

Last Saturday was a wonderfully relaxing day, which we all needed, especially Robyn after driving for two days!
We took Robyn on a tour around the village, lunch at the harbour with a view over fjord and mountains. In the evening we had a barbeque, the first one in the season. Martin had been given the bbq on his birthday early June. It was great weather sunshine and warm. We had loads of meat and fish as well as fruit to eat. (fresh plums from the tree in the garden)

On Sunday we had to get up on time to get to church. In the morning to Innfjorden, and in the evening in Grytten (Åndalsnes). Emy was introduced to the churches and she at her turn could introduce the confirmation candidates to the church.
Emy was widow in the dramatic Bible reading in the morning. Robyn didn't go to church in the evening, instead she went running to get ready for the Dam tot Dam loop next week. 

On Monday, Robyn and Emy went to Ålesund, first to the Jugendstil museum, after that a tour around some of the beautiful buildings in town and a good Chinese lunch. After the rain dried up we decided to climb the local mountain with viewpoint, Aksla, all 418 steps to the top, wonderful view as always.
Ålesund wouldn't be Ålesund without a visit to the Stormoa, the huge shopping mall, where we spent another couple of hours.
Robyn had already found a wonderful Norwegian cardigan, see for that the pictures on the link above.

Emy had to full in for a sick colleague on Tuesday, but the morning was still free, so she and Robyn went op Nebbeaksla, the mountain behind the house. Quite a climb, especially going down was tricky, without all the tree hugging, we would probably have sledded down.

Emy had to work again on wednesday, but as yesterday, the morning was free, so it was a walk to the Ullvarefabrikk. (wolfactory) This time Emy bought a Norwegian cardigan. Robyn went running again in the afternoon, once again in the pouring rain. But if that is what it takes to run in 10 days time, that is what needs to be done.

Thursday was a very rainy day, but as the weatherforcast predicted better weather for the afternoon (better as in still rainy, but less water) Robyn and Emy decided to go up Lille Fjellet after all. Everyone around has said, that that was the easiest climb up a mountain around, but we guess they've never done it in the pouring rain and blowing wind.
But well we made the top, saw how good the view could be on a clear day, and managed to get down again with the help of hands and feet as well as walking stick and rocks.
After we got down, we did a quick visit to Klungness and Gjerset, but as we were both drenched we went home pretty quickly to shower and get dry clothes on again.

Friday was reserved for souvenir shopping in town. Robyn found a waffle iron, and it looks like her car will be full again on the way home!
Robyn went running again in the afternoon, while Emy baked a cake (verdens beste/kvæfjordkake).
Suddenly the mountains appeared again from under the clouds and we were surprised by snowy mountaintops, beautiful view, except that the clouds didn't move long enough to see it well.

On Saturday morning we got up early to wave goodbye to Robyn. Always tough to say goodbye, but it is not forever, we all had a wonderful week, so good memories. Robyn will have to drive for two days, but we are sure she will be fine!

The rest of the day we took it easy, went into town, bought a fireplaceset and a woodbasket, so it is time to light the fireplace!
After a week of rain, the weather changed just for the day, so we had the afternoon and dinner in the garden, after which it got cold and we went in, with a lighted fireplace, lovely!
Right now we have 6 hours and 45 minutes less daylight than we had in June. The sun was up at 6.43 and set at 20.30 (Tuesday it will sett at 20.00!)

 

Saturday 3rd September 2005

Last Sunday, we finished the work on Trollstigen, after all the rain and fog in the last week, we were glad to leave it all behind. Handed in the cash, the administration and cleared up the shop, now it is waiting for the pay.

On Monday "normal" life started again, Emy had four days booked with church work, Monday 32 confirmation candidates, on Wednesday  11, Tuesday and Thursday were booked with meetings. 
In between she found time to open a bank account and go to the hairdressers.

The confirmation candidates are wonderful teenagers, full of surprises and sometimes little tricks. The group here in Åndalsnes has 34 in total and will be split in two. The other groups are a good size with 11 and 18.

On Tuesday Martin could sign his long-term contract at work. It is wonderful that he is enjoying his work so much, and that he can continue to do it at the same company.

Emy traveled down to Hamar on Friday to meet up with Robyn who left the Netherlands on Thursday morning, to travel back to Åndalsnes together. Robyn will be staying here for the week, and we are looking forward to a good time together.

Tomorrow we have two church services that Emy has to "work" in, a busy Sunday, but she enjoys the work, so that is the main thing!

 

Tuesday 30th August 2005

Little extra news, Martin has been given a long- term contract, it gives us a sense of security, even though the other contract was till the end of October.

We have finally finished on Trollstigen and Emy started her first confirmation class yesterday, everyone survived!

 

Saturday 20th August 2005

It has been another week with bad weather, only Thursday and Friday it was a little better with especially Friday some sunshine.
Now we are back to wind, rain and cold weather. We still haven't decided which is the best, pouring rain or thick fog, both don't encourage sales.
But Sunday morning did give some beautiful photo opportunities.

The car needed new brakes on the front wheels, it's been a tough summer for our little fiesta, going up and down Trollstigen, sometimes everyday. It has an automatic gearbox, so going down we do it on the brakes and not on low gear as you would with a manual gearbox.
But yesterday it's been to the garage, so we can go up to Trollstigen with the car again today.

Today it is Åndalsnes dagene, special day in the centre, but with the rain, it might not be so special. Martin will go and check it out, while Emy goes up Trollstigen the usual time.

Emy received a phone call from priest Gerd on Tuesday, had a meeting with her on Wednesday and dates for confirmation classes have been planned in, as well as a parents meeting next Thursday. There was another meeting this Thursday, but there were also two cruise boats in Åndalsnes, and their passengers were coming up Trollstigen, so that was more important than the meeting, as we have taken up the job on Trollstigen, before the Confirmation classes.

The confirmation classes start straight on the Monday after the last day on Trollstigen, maybe a bit soon after each other, but the first church service where we will introduce the confirmation candidates is the Sunday after.

Only eight more days on Trollstigen after today, then we can start to build up a normal rhythm. Emy has a list of things she wants to do, hairdresser, building up the administration, shopping, doctor etc.
Martin just looks forward to having a normal day off.

 

Saturday 13th August 2005

After a week with horrible fog and rainy weather it doesn't look like it is going to change... So the Trollstigen is cold and wet and customers don't buy. It is only two weeks till the end of season, but it doesn't look like the icecream freezer will be empty by the end of season.

From today it is only 15 more days, after that it is counting the things, and cleaning up. We hope the weather will make it's change, so we can actually sell things these last weeks and can leave the thermals at home again.
Funny thing is that the weather is much better on the other side of the mountain, they actually had some summer. 
Even in Åndalsnes it has been the driest July month in fifty years, it seems they are making up for that by raining all day on the Trollstigen. 
But there is good news too! The toilet has been repaired, that saves Emy from embarrassing phone calls to colleagues at the restaurant.

Emy can now drive up with the personnel car again, and maybe soon down again as well.

Martin was free on thursday, so he came up on the mountain to keep Emy company, much better on these rainy days to have someone else there to talk to, and we can actually plan some things for after the summer.

On Friday it was Martin's first go solo with a trailer, he did very well!

 

Monday 8. August 2005

After our free weekend it was tough to get back to work, but that is all part of the packet.

Martin noticed that the fellesferie (joined holiday for companies) is over for the first part, companies are starting up again and he doesn't have to wait all day for work.
Other side of that is that he is later back from work and can't always pick up Emy from the mountain.
The past week he has had some misunderstandings with sheep on the Orskogmountain which he passes every day. He missed them fortunately but it was a close one! He did kill some birds and a mouse with his "monster" truck. (quite an accomplishment to hit a mouse though!) He does get the company from very little birds when he stops or slows down, they eat the flies from the front of his truck.

At Trollstigen it has been mostly bad weather, rain, fog, or just clouds on the mountain. Only Tuesday was nice weather, yesterday we actually got our thermals out again. The northern wind was blowing straight in the window. As it goes with bad weather it has also been fairly quiet, in spite of the fact that many people are still on holiday.

We are getting used to Norwegian products in the shops, especially the pizza's are very good, we have become addicted to the Petter Solberg Rally supreme pizza from Big One. We now eat it every Friday night after shopping.
Emy bought some big shrimps, they can be bought in any supermarket here, the problem we have now is what to do with them.....So any advice is welcome! mail us

The most exciting thing at Trollstigen at the moment is the whereabouts of the cows. Normally they walk in the dales under Trollstigen. Wednesday night we saw some of the older ones being taken back to the vicinity of the stables. But the younger ones are very adventurous, Thursday they were already in bent 5, Friday at the bridge and Saturday morning they had made it to the top, now they have gone down a little to the one but last bent. 

Emy meets her Polish Colleague Magdalena from the other kiosk in the bus every day, their most important subjects in talk are "how tired we both are" "how bad the weather will be today" and " where are the cows". Magdalena is on one of the newer pictures with cows on Trollstigen.

Well that was the news so far, have a look at our new pictures (see link at the top).

 

Sunday 31st July

We have been experiencing some server trouble in the last couple of weeks, but it seems we are back online and updated. We hope that will stay this way. Do have a look at the recent pictures!

We now have a forum, where you can place your opinions and things. Click on the banner on the top of the page to return to the website.

It was another intense week, the weather was cold, foggy and changing at the Trollstigen, we still hope that summer will come, because two weeks with each two and a half days of sitting in the clouds is not good for customers, nor for the mood.

In the mean time the toilet in the kiosk was obstructed with 30 years of human waste. It has been cleared up, but Emy is not allowed to use it anymore, so we have to find a way she can get some help from the restaurant on Trollstigen to give her a restroom break. It does make life in the shop more difficult. But it is only 28 more days!

On Wednesday Ronald and Marja came to visit Emy at the Trollstigen. Good to have company, especially on miserable weather days.

Martin was free on Thursday, so he came to help Emy on the mountain after he had done some chores in the house and in the village. Wil came to visit us too, she is a Dutch friend looking to move back to the Netherlands. A colleague from the restaurant came as well, so we had a great time, in spite of the fog hanging around the kiosk.

Emy wasn't feeling well at all most of the week, probably a result of 53 days work without a break, so we decided to see if someone else could take over for this weekend. And we managed to get the lady who did it for thirty years.

We got up on time on the Saturday morning, hang the laundry out and drove towards Ålesund at nine. There is a huge mall in Ålesund, that was our target for our shopping, we both needed some new cloths and a new printer. We managed to buy all the necessities in the hour, so hang around for some lunch and drove towards the centre of town.

On the way we stopped to look at a Scooter moped, we have now set our eyes on a Daelim S5, nice sporty model, with a great engine according to the sales person, who advised that one above a much more expensive one..

In the afternoon we went into the centre of Ålesund, a beautiful Jugendstil town. We climbed Aksla, the viewpoint on a mountain over the city, 418 steps, quite a climb, but worth it! We drank some coffee and tea before we made our way down again and just relaxed with a breathtaking view.

Around five we wanted to get the car again, from the parking, but as we are not used to big city parkings, we actually lost it, after some searching from another entrance, we did find it again fortunately.

We ate pizza in our favorite pizzarestaurant, Peppes Pizza. In an adjacent coffeehouse we hung on the sofa for a while with our coffee and tea, before we took the one and a half hour trip home again.

Today we managed to get the website working again, went to church and set up the new printer.

Later on we will pick up Emy's replacement from the mountain, pay her and take her down again. Emy won't get paid until the end of September.

Well so much for now!

 

Saturday 23rd Juli 2005

A very mixed week, some very warm days over the weekend and Monday, the ice freezer in the shop was almost empty! We had to disappoint many people on Tuesday, as the iceman didn't come till Tuesday evening. 
Martin had Tuesday off, so we had a good time up there together. We had fog/clouds on the mountain from Wednesday to Saturday, so bad that we could see less than 10 meters. Everything was wet and humid, the cards and cuddly animals had to be dried in front of the heater, fortunately it cleared up today and everything could go out again.
Any idea what a wet reindeer skin smells like?
Only five weeks to go now!
Sales are reasonable seeing the weather, but too low compared to other years.

On Friday, Peter, Yvon and the kids came to visit, this is her brother in laws brother and family, quite a surprise!

Martin started driving in a new truck, number 10 this week, a little newer than the old number 3, and a little different. Great driving!
This truck does not have a special place for his glasses, so on Wednesday morning Martin phoned Emy with the wonderful message that he sat on his glasses.....
He managed to buy new ones the same day, and fortunately he always carries his reserve pair to work!

 

Saturday 16th July 2005

We are halfway the summer, only six weeks left on the mountain and hopefully our normal lives will pick up again after that! Emy only slept on the mountain for a week, but that proved to be too much, and as there are no customers early in the morning, she is back to sleeping at home and taking the bus up and down every day. In a way a lot more relaxing, but also long days, leaving the house at eight, coming in again at quarter past nine. Martin normally leaves around half past four in the morning and comes back around eight, so we see each other for one hour in the evenings and Martin still comes up to the mountain at weekends. 

Last Wednesday Emy was invited in a life broadcast on the radio, to talk about the weather on Trollstigen, and do a little PR. Quite frightening, but fun as well!

Emy's father and his wife were here in the past week, quite hectic, but lovely to share what we have here, with people from back in the Netherlands. 
That is one of the difficult things sometimes, we seem to have an old life and a new life, and they don't mix... but with Dad and Meta here we have made the first step in getting our lives together again.
They were supposed to come at the end of the season in August, but due to some work related things they could only come now. But it was great to have them nearby!

We shared meals and had coffee together almost everyday after our long working hours, and on Sunday Martin took over in the shop so Emy could have a couple of hours out to Geiranger.

We are thinking how we can arrange some replacement on the mountain, for Emy to be free for a couple of days, but as the main two weeks of the season are ahead of us, there seems to be priority for that first. Our sales seemed to go up with some good weather, but then we had rain again, so we are down again, but well maybe the next couple of weeks will bring some money in.

Martin has it really quiet at work as it is fellesferie, a kind of whole country holiday for three weeks at the same time, so he had Thursday off.

 

Sunday 3rd July 2005

Time flies right now, 
Martin had the day off on Wednesday and this was the first day of good weather on Trollstigen, hardly any wind, sunshine, happy tourists, a big difference.
Thursday it was good weather too, but a little bit more wind, so Emy couldn't have the outside door open to sit in the sun.
From Friday the weather went back to very windy, cold wind... a regularly down poor and the sun hidden behind clouds.
While Martin 850 meters lower had to find his air conditioning and find places with shadow with his truck in order to sleep a little. What a difference a mountain makes

Emy started her long days (8.30-20.00) on Thursday and spent her first night alone on the Trollstigen, a little strange for both of us. 
Fortunately there is someone in the kiosk on the other side of the path and the electricity is on till midnight and from 7 in the morning (generator).

We have to get used to this new rhythm for the next six weeks, at the weekends up the mountain at 8 in the morning, Emy op the mountain during the week and a quiet house for Martin in the village.

Our contact with the rest of the world, will be a little bit less for the coming while, hopefully we can write here on a weekly basis.

 

Saturday 25 June 2005

It's now been three months since we moved here, on the one hand it seems much shorter, on the other hand, much longer, as so much has happened in that time.

We both have the feeling we are really settling in. We are getting into details with the language and culture, and getting to know the manager of the supermarket and the likes.

Martin took some pictures of his work this past week, and they are on the photopage now. recent pictures2005 There you can also find the pictures of Emy's work at the Trollstigen.

This past week the weather was very cold for the start of summer, down in the village between13-17 centigrade, on the mountain about ten degrees less, with a lot of wind, rain and fog. In the kiosk it's very cold, so we still need thermals! The sales are behind, but who knows what the summer will bring?

From next week onwards are the opening times of the kiosk a lot longer, this means Emy won't be home as much, as she will sleep on the mountain most weekdays.

 

Saturday 18th June 2005

It has been a busy week, with both of us working long days, and in the mean time repairing things in the house, so the housekeeping has been under some strain, as in not done....

Now it is weekend again, Emy is almost ready to drive up the mountain with a colleague, Martin is enjoying a lie-in in bed and will do some house chores and relaxing before coming up to the mountain.

The work on Trollstigen in itself is not tough, but the fact that the "weekend" is all of a sudden non-existent is hard. Days seem longer when you know there is no weekend to come, so Emy has to learn to relax at work. Next month will be tougher, with longer opening hours and sleeping up on the mountain several nights a week. 

In the mean time are sales, very low, far too low for the season, but there is still a road closed which we depend upon, as well as horrible weather, the summer is very late in coming, so there isn't much money coming in, but those are the risks of a provision income.
It is still very cold and often wet on the mountain, but today looks like it will at least be dry and the Norwegian Holidays are starting today. Though most Norwegians don't go on holiday till later in July, we might get some day or weekend tourists.

Emy had an interview with two of the priests here on Thursday night and with permission of the bishop, it looks like she has a 30% (part-time) job as a confirmation candidate teacher!! So from September there is some work coming, but first there will be a little holiday in September, before the new work starts.

 

Tuesday 14th June 2005 

We're back online!!!!

Emy started her job at the Trollstigen last week, rather intense to start with, but closed today because there was too much wind and she lost several moose and a rubbish bin in the river!

Martin is still enjoying work en is doing well there.

It was Martin's birthday on Saturday, which we celebrated with our friends here at home, which was nice. Martin was given a BBQ for his birthday, so he can start his pyromania!

Last week we had the exhaust of the car falling down and the washing machine giving problems, but that's all been taken care of now!

 

Sunday 5th May 2005

Today we happened to run into Svein Kroken, our boss, he phoned later today and we heard that Emy is starting on Tuesday on the Trollstigen, she will get some help from a woman who used to run the shop for thirty years. All the basic souvenirs are in and things are moving now. 
The road opened on Wednesday morning and we went up on Wednesday evening. We were met by a lot of snow and cold, but as it is melting, it should warm up, up there soon as well.

Suddenly we need to think about everything we need to do in the house, because there is a big chance that Emy's working days will be as long as Martin's. That means we might not be home till nine at night.

This coming Saturday is Martin's birthday (33), fortunately his presents are already in the house, now we need to take care of food and cake, but we are only expecting some friends to visit.

Yesterday we went to Ålesund, we wanted to make it a nice day out, but the rain made it into a shopping day, in search of that special bathroom cupboard with mirror we wanted. But we didn't find it. As the bathroom light fall apart, we needed to look for something, so we ended up with the same bathroomlight, and will make do with the mirror we have, until we can do a little tour to an Ikea (nearest one 3 1/2 hrs drive).

We went to another Bedehusmøte today, it was a nice church fellowship, the speaker had a difficult Romsdals dialect, but we are learning fast!

In the mean time have we managed to get the house set up as we want it and are the computer, the stereo and all connected. Any left over boxes will probably not unpacked, but stored until needed.

 

Tuesday 31. May 2005

We moved! Last Saturday, we moved with the help of several friends. It is wonderful to be in our new house, with all our own stuff around us again. It was a big surprise to open boxes and find things we knew we had. Even though it has only been boxed for two months, we already packed a lot before we moved. There are the obligatory things which will be lost for the next year, like the little thing to pump up Martins bike, or that one essential kitchen utensil.

We also received our residence permits last saturday. Martin's permit is missing a registration number, but according to our wonderful policeofficer here, that is nothing to worry about. We should be supplied with so called "birth numbers" in stead of the temporary tax numbers, but that could take some time.

On Thursday the cooker was delivered, without the phone call to me, which they promised at the consumer helpdesk. The same with the electricity. We are lucky to have a landlord and lady who are home when these people come by.

Our order for ADSL was cancelled for some kind of weird reason. The helpdesk said that as we were foreigners we would have to pay in advance, but that she would send us an email to explain everything, but then we received this email that our order was cancelled. Just one day before our move. So now it is another three week waiting time for the other company to come in. By then Emy will be working on the Trollstigen, and Martin is normally on his truck all day, but we'll cover that one when it comes.

The new place is becoming a home. The living room is mostly done, the kitchen is clear of boxes. The bedroom is a mess. As we didn't get round to setting up the wardrobes this weekend, and it takes two to do it, we are stuck with loads of boxes there. Well next weekend, new chances.

The study/guest bedroom is still boxed up/in as everything that doesn't fit in the other rooms goes there. In the whole move only one wineglass and one photo frame were broken, so that is quite good!

Today we tried out the washing machine, it isn't quite level yet, so we have to work on that one, but that is down in the basement, so not in sight the whole time.

Emy signed her contract for the job last wednesday, but as the road up to Trollstigen is still closed we are wondering when she will be able to start. just wait and see!

Martin is still enjoying work, he is having two very late days, yesterday and today, as there are work meetings. So he is having fried chicken wings as a special treat!

Emy is trying out her bike in the surroundings. She has already found out that wherever you go, you need to go up a hill, but in a way it is a good exercise as well!

 

Monday 23rd May 2005

Another week has gone by, and we are settling into Norwegian ways more and more. Idols finals, Grandprix (European Song contest, very important here).

Martin only had to work 3 days this last week, because of the special days, so that was good, we were able to spent some time together.

The weather is beginning to lighten up again, in the sun it is actually very nice, and I think the washing will dry pretty quick today.

Saturday we spent looking for a bathroom cupboard with mirror, it seems they don't do them here... fortunately we will have a spare mirror in the new house, so Martin at least can shave himself.

We went to church in the Bedehus again on Sunday which was very good. Although the majority is older, we find other Christians around us, who are active in their faith!

Martin went fishing yesterday with Hans, but no luck, but at least they enjoyed the sunshine on the water!

This week will be clearing up and packing again week, today the Norwegian administration was set up. In a couple of months we can close the Dutch admin and put it in the archives.... 

The Trollstigen (the mountain on which Emy is going to work) should open the 27th of May, but because there was another 2 meters of snow last weekend will the opening be postponed, so we are waiting to see whether Emy can start her work there on the 6th of June. They are waiting for some avalanches which should have already fallen.

Only 5 more days till our move!

 

Tuesday 17th May 2005

Today is national independence day in Norway (syttende mai), independence from Sweden since 1914. so a day off for Martin and a holiday for all!

Yesterday Susanne and Hans arrived from the Netherlands, they drove in one go here, with only 3 hours sleep on the way.

Yesterday evening we went to a bedehusmøte, a sort of church service in Åndalsnes bedehus, it was wonderful to meet other Christians, active in their faith, caring for the rest of the world. Many things happening in the churches here are exterior things, like baptism and confirmation, seem to be a "must-do" but this was living their faith Christians. Of course there was the official kaffe med kake, and we were asked to come forward to introduce ourselves, very scary!

This morning, I did some baking for syttende mai, while it was raining and snowing outside.
Around twelve we joined Ronald and Marja to go to the Grendahus, community hall in Torvik. Around 1 pm we had a procession in the pouring rain through Torvik, because of the weather we had the shortened version, with the brassband up front. After that we had to sing the National Anthem, which we seemed to know just as well as the locals!

We went back to Gjerset to have our own Kaffe med kake with all of us, Ronald, Marja, Ilona, Susanne, Hand and us. Marja baked some waffles, and we had Kransekake, chocolate cake and strawberry cake, so more then enough!

We have our typical Norwegian after the party feeling, full with cake and not in need of an evening meal.

 

Monday 16th May 2005

We woke up with snow again! Yesterday it still melted, but this morning there was a small layer of snow again! strange country, 5 degrees above Celsius and there is a snowboarder at 20 meters over sea.

It's an extra long weekend, with the Whitsun bank holiday as well as the 17th of May, the national day here in Norway.

Last weekend we went to Molde, this time the long way around, not with the ferry and the toll tunnel, but via Eidsvåg, a beautiful route over mountains and around fjords.

In Molde we walked in the sun without coats and enjoyed a wonderful spring day. We bought new curtains for the living room and the hanging system for them. It seems we've got almost everything for the new house, besides the cooker, but that one will be bought over the internet and can only be ordered a week in advance. 

On Sunday we celebrated Ronald's birthday a day early, he was given an "oter" a bit of wood with ten fishinglines on it, so you "could" catch more. Martin and Ronald tried it out that same afternoon, but no luck, so no trout for supper, maybe next time they go!

Martin had a long week at work, most days from 5 am til 8 or 9 pm, so late dinner and quickly to bed.

Emy made a leaflet about the surroundings of Gjerset-Turistsenter for Ronald, again, because Word decided to scramble up the first version of it! On Thursday Emy did some lawn/hillside mowing with the hand mower, quite a tough job, with the added blisters! With all the rain, the grass grows quicker then anything else and mosquitoes already decided to reside in the grass, so it was needed, especially around the cottage. On Saturday Martin and Emy finished the job, after mowing around the play-ground and Martin using the strimmer for the finishing edges.

Emy went to Åndalsnes on Friday, first to the library, later on official business to the insurance man, to get insurance on the new house. The insurance man, who lives locally knew where we were going to move to.... his brother lived there 20 years ago... Small towns.
Getting a tax card was a little more complicated, the lady felt moved to explain to me that I was not allowed to work for more then three months without a work permit, I felt moved to explain to her that as an EU citizen, I was allowed to work here as much and as long as I wanted without any permit at all. The only thing stopping me from doing that was my residence permit, without which I would not be allowed to reside here, therefore it would be difficult to work here. Well she agreed with me, and the tax card will be send to us at the new address. Although this was the lady in charge of the register of residents, she could not change our address until we formally had been given a residence permit, that can take another 3 to 6 months, oh well the police know our new address.

Emy went to the police to get a prove that she was alive for the pension insurance. It was quite funny to ask for it, fortunately the police officer thought it was funny too.

Saturday morning we did our weekly shopping, it was busy everywhere as it was the day before Whitsun and the national day, some shops even opened till midnight on the Friday!

Martin is so used to having his sleeps during the day, so we had a nap in the afternoon, after which we did some more mowing.

Sunday morning (whitsun/Pentecost) we went to church. After church we were invited to a very nice couples house for after church coffee. Ivar and Mette live just outside the village. It was nice to meet some Norwegians again, and we will be seeing them at the church.

We've been here for seven weeks now, time flies, although sometimes it doesn't seem to move at all.

 

Friday  6th May 2005

BREAKING NEWS:

Emy has a summer job as a souvenir shop holder at the top of Trollstigen, one of the most famous hairpin bend mountains in Norway. www.trollstigen.com

Martin's boss called about the job today, after Emy had applied for it earlier this week. She will probably have to sleep up there regularly in the main season, but it will be lots of fun and a great experience. Martin is allowed to sleep there too....

As the mountain road is still closed we can't go up to see, but yesterday evening we went to the bottom of the mountain, as Martin had this sudden urge "to go see Trollstigen". Funny how we did that yesterday and I got the job today!

Yesterday we went to church, Marja came with us, as it was a confirmation service, confirmation is like a step to adulthood here, more a tradition then a step in faith I believe. But the service was good, except for the wailing baby in the back. Good sermon, lots of people in local dress, looked good!
We had a Dutch pew, with the Dutch husband of the priest joining us. He is a very nice man, a photographer and his wife is lovely. She preaches good sermons as well!

Last week we took the measurements of the house again, to see what we could do with our furniture, well we seem to have made a nice plan now. The only problem being the curtains now, as they have these weird hanging systems here. But we will find a solution to that.

We already applied for ADSL and broadband phone. De electricity company will come round as well, as the electricity is completely cut at the moment due to a new system in the house.

Next week we have a four day weekend as it is Pentecost with an extra free Monday and national holiday on Tuesday. 
Martin makes long hours at work, so it will be great to have some time together.

 

Tuesday 26th April 2005

It has been one full weekend. Martin was placed as reserve on Friday, which ended up being a day off, well deserved after his intense week. So we took it easy, library, shopping and looking at our new house/apartment.
We have a contract for an ground floor apartment in Åndalsnes from the first of June. Finally permanent accommodation. It is a lovely white house with red roof. We have a spacious kitchen, living room and bedroom, a tiny guestroom and a nice bathroom. Use of a cellar room and one in the attic. Lovely view of the mountains and near all conveniences.

Friday evening we helped friends pack a removal truck, which Martin drove for 6 hours to it's almost destination, a harbor in Florø.  From there they had to ship there things to an island out in the Atlantic.
Martin and I drove back that day and managed to get halfway before he ran out of driving hours. We got to Nordfjordeid, and parked the truck next to the fjord, we spent the night in the truck, a new way of living.. give me that campervan any day now!
We got back home around noon the next day and had some time to slapp av (relax).

 

Thursday 21st April 2005

We did it! The car has been imported, and we have our d-number, we exist, though we are not registered at an address, we do exist.
Monday afternoon we found out that without a d-number we couldn't import the car. It took at least 8 phone calls, but we had our d-number, had it faxed to the car control center and managed to do all that in time for closing (normally 3 pm here).

Tuesday we had the car check. After about an hour and a half we were able to go home with new license plates and all the other necessary papers. The only thing we need to do now is place little side blinkers on the car, then go back and have them checked. But we have the license plates UF 25314. A real Norwegian car, and Martin can do those little lights.

Martin also has his tax card, so we can get his salary on our new bank account. The bankcards are being printed right now!

We don't have the residence permit, not even the request, as the policeman in charge of that is on holiday...... we can come back 2nd may when he is back from Spain. Good old Norwegian bureaucracy.

Today was our news ad for a house/apartment and we got the first (and only so far) call at 8.15, just as Emy wanted to have a lie-inn. We'll wait, pray and see!

 

Monday 18th april 2005

We went from gray weather, to snow, back to gray weather and now back to big sunshine. A little too much wind for shorts, but good enough for t-shirts on the terrace.

Last week Martin had a couple of very long days at work. His first solo day was quite exhausting and nerve wracking. Martin managed to come to work, see his truck, but no trailer or containers, so a little difficult to start work. He managed to find both the trailer and the containers within the hour. His colleagues were helpful pointing him to three places, where they could be, and also phoned him afterwards to ask him how he got along.
Friday was another interesting day. There had been a broken down train so all the containers were 6 hours delayed. Fortunately he wasn't too late in coming home (2100)

The newspaper story was still showing its effects this week. In the Tuesday newspaper was a sent in letter from Gert Rietman, organiser of the project and another one of his followers. Which resulted in a letter to the editor from Ronald in the Thursday newspaper, and a little piece with a comment from Emy.
The Saturday newspaper actually had the whole editorial about the project and all the comments and ended saying that they were happy to see such involved new inhabitants in the community.

Emy finished the leaflet about Gjerset-Turistsenter and set up a financial plan for the restaurant, in case the bank will help towards the setup costs.

Importing the car has had some further delays. A phone call to Statens Vegvesen told us that we needed to make a special appointment for their part of the story. The nearest traffic station is Molde, but they couldn't make it until the 3rd of May, Ålesund was able to make it for the 19th. So Ronald is coming with Emy to organise that bit. And with all that going on, the car started being difficult this Sunday, suddenly wouldn't start, ended up being a safety feature (who knew that 13 yr old cars had safety features??) that closed the petrol tank. A little push on a button that was hidden in the car solved the problem fortunately.

On Friday night Marja, Ilona and Emy went to the Kvinnekveld, women's evening in Eidsbygda, theme Dutch food. A good and relaxed way to meet some other women! And the Dutch Boterkoek which Marja made, received it's well deserved praise! And maybe we'll end up in the Tuesday paper with it.

Saturday we used to relax together, do some weekly shopping and relax on the terrace outside, wonderful after another long week.

Marja and Ronald have this fantastic Jukebox in storage (use) for friends who are moving. The thing is for sale, it is a two of a kind still working in the world and looks like the back side of a car, very flashy! just too pricey for us € 8000 excl transport costs. There were the five of us admiring the thing, real superb to listen to!

Sunday we went for an outing to the neighbours, up the hill and further up. A couple of lambs were just born. wonderful to see. The lady is a glassworker outside her normal day job as a teacher and she showed us her workplace. She showed us her house as well, 19th century. With some lovely modern but also some old features, just the kind of house for an article in a magazine.

After that we went to a møte (meeting) in Isfjorden Bedehus, a kind of church hall. It was a great talk which was kept on prayer, pilgrimage and being still with God.
In the notice it said that you should take middagsmat (afternoon food) . Middag is here de warm meal around 4 pm, so we brought a salad, well that was almost right, everyone else brought sweet stuff, cakes, brownies, cookies, etc... Well we'll know for next time.

Oh we are trying to update the pictures regularly so keep an eye on them

 

Tuesday 12 April 2005

It's been an intense week.
Martin is doing well at work, he had his first day on his own yesterday, lost his trailer, and a container, but that was solved soon enough, so he's now more confident about the future again.
He does come home full of bruises, but that was the same as when he just started his last job.
He mostly starts at 4 or 5 am, but as soon as they have dropped the first load they have between 1 and 3 hours to rest (sleep) and often if they wait for a ferry, they can take a little snooze, so no worries about his lack of sleep. Last week was a little bit miserable weather wise, a mix of gray rainy weather, with some sun in between, a temperature between -1 and +5 C. until Friday, when it suddenly snowed all day, from sunrise till the next morning. Fortunately Martin came home late enough not to make the drive way up, so he left the car at the roadside, which was good as that meant we could do the shopping for everyone here, as we were the only ones with a car which was capable of coming out of the snow to the road. Ronald had his car next to the house, and Michel even higher up the hill, he was stuck till today, Ronald would have been able to make it again Sunday afternoon if he had needed to.
Emy was snow ploughing the path to the cottage that we are in on Saturday morning 8 am, as the lovely big stones up to the house are a little dangerous covered by snow. During the night we had woken up for a little as we heard a loud "whoosh" we both thought wind, but the next morning we realised it was all the snow from the roof which had come down to the terrace. Fortunately there was a little opening left to open the door enough to get out. The terras was filled to the waist with snow... quite interesting. (something to think about when looking for a house. Is there a covering in front of the door, and if not, does the door open into the house, or out of it) Oh we made the newspaper http://www.isfjordenkro.com/andalsnesavis-20050409.pdf there should be a copy of the newspaper with Emy on the front! It's about a project here in the community to get foreigners to come in to the community. The project is led by a Dutch couple. As they have not helped us, and we came down on our own accord, we don't think we are part of the project and they should not get any money for us. It is community money and quite a bit of it that they are getting. There has already been a big discussion going on  norsk.nl a Dutch forum, which has now been removed by the Dutch couple in charge of the project, they now also decided to cut off the project... Bit of a childish reaction. 

Apparently in spite of an email of the woman in charge of the project, we are now not part of the project, but, we'll wait till we hear from them. But at least we made the newspaper!

In the mean time we are still waiting for our d-numbers, with which we can open a bank account and apply for a residence permit.

Getting the car imported is getting more difficult by the week, but we think we should get it done by appointment next Tuesday.

We are looking around for more permanent housing in the neighbourhood now. We love it here and would like to stay as close as possible to Gjerset.

Last Saturday we gave each other a digital camera as a present, a Nicon coolpix, great fun, we had borrowed Ronalds camera for a little, but it is easier to have your own. The only problem is our lack of internet for ourselves, so it is a little difficult to share. But here are some of our pictures:

We are still enjoying the view, which has changed slowly with the melting of the ice on the lake, the coming of the snow and now the melting of the snow. The lake is now almost completely defrosted.  

Buying the camera was an adventure in itself. We met the local photographer for the first time two years ago, at soggebru camping near here. He is very non-norwegian in his behaviour, very easy talker, sometimes a little strange in a pleasant way and he gave us a good discount and advice. He is one of those people that knows everyone and everything, so we did let him know that we are looking for a place to live and hope that he will drop that here and there.
He loves to talk about his work and he comes up the road here every morning on his way to work and on that Saturday morning he had taken a lovely picture of Gjerset in the snow, which he printed for us.

Fortunately the snow is now almost completely gone, leaving some soggy underground. It is also a little warmer. Also in the house, as Ronald has given us a little extra heater, to heat the living room just that tiny little bit extra, so we don't need the blanket all the time.

We really have to get used to keeping the wood fire going, but when we go to bed in the evening the attic where we sleep is nice and cosy, as the chimney goes through there and radiates warmth there.

Sometimes I feel a little locked in here, but as soon as I have taken the buss a couple of times that feeling will seize I am sure. And with the snow gone again for the most, I can take walks again.

We have a tiny little greenhouse, which is now springing up with little green heads from the salad and tomato plants, Martin loves it, he is very enthousiastic.

Last Sunday we went to church again, three baptisms this time and a very good sermon! De service was led by the prost, he is the main priest out of three in the chaplaincy. He will call us soon to make an appointment, as we are now official members of the Norwegian church. It took some searching for baptism certificats, but they came out of a box.

If getting our d-number would go as quickly as this we would already have a residencepermit!

There are many deer here in the surroundings, some moose (what is the plural of moos??) as well. We often take Luka for a walk, Ronald and Marja's dog, and he loves the smell.

During the weekends we try to make time for each other and go for at least one shorter or longer walk, to talk, be together and have some time to relax together. And as walking makes tired, we have an afternoon nap.

Well as you can hear, beginnings are never easy, but we are having good times as well!

 

Monday 4th of April 2005

We've now been in Norway a week, and what a week it has been...

Friday was a long day! After we had everything in the car, Emy's dad left and we were waved away by Martin's sister and Robyn, a very close friend. Then we went to Barneveld to Emy's mum. her stepfather wasn’t very well, so we thought it extra important to go there, this was his third pneumonia in a short time, and he isn’t very well physically. Makes you aware of the things that can happen when you are far away, but then they can happen when you are nearby as well.

We had supper with Martin’s dad, pizza&#133;. A relaxing evening, we were both so tired that we went to bed on time.

At four o clock the alarm went and we left the house at half past&#133; only realizing somewhere in Germany that Martin had forgotten to shave himself and left his breakfast drink behind. So we stopped at a rastatte and he shaved, while Emy put her contacts in.

We had a good journey, all ferries just stood there waiting for us to get on and go, so we actually made it to the Norwegian border around 6.30 pm a record time, but then it was Easter Saturday and most of the traffic had been on the Thursday and Friday.

At customs we had to declare our car, we came in, not a soul there, except for the customs man, but we had to get a number before he could help us. Then they had lost all the forms so that took about twenty interesting minutes to wait for that. Then we got the first big question. “Hva er fødselsnummeren din?” what is your birthnumber/taxnumber? Of course we didn’t have one&#133; so..

Well he looked out to the parking lot where there were only two cars, probably ours and his&#133; so you want to import that blue car? Well you have to fill in this form&#133;.

So we filled in the form, he called us back to the desk. (no one else in, in that whole time) he put our information from the form in the computer, in the mean time asking us the same questions all over again&#133; but we got our form for the customs office in Ålesund where we could do the real importing thing.

We found ourselves a lovely hotel near the border, where we had a good nights sleep and a great breakfast buffet, before we headed off again.

Martin got his famous Hydrotexaco mug with free refills for the rest of the year, so that made him happy! Emy as always slept most of the way with fits and starts.

We arrived at Gjerset around four o’clock and our little house was already waiting for us. A little empty, but even with the stuff from the car, we managed to cheer it up a bit. Marja and Ronald had dinner ready for us, together with their daughter Ilona and Michel a guest who has come to work a bit to help out.

On Easter Monday we went to church, as there are so many churches in this parish and they want to offer services on these occasions to the most of them, there are services both Easter days. We were welcomed by a lovely priest and her Dutch husband, we had met them before over the summer and they remembered us, so that was very pleasant. The afternoon we spent enjoying some sunshine on our deck.

Tuesday was our big day, we drove to ålesund (2 hours) to the customs office, who told us that we were not allowed to drive our car till the 14^th of april until we got the new number plates&#133; fortunately they realized we wouldn’t be getting anywhere without the car, so they didn’t take our number plates, and while we have the Dutch number plates we have the normal insurance, so we can continue to drive. Also there first question was if we had a fødselsnummer or a d-number which is the temporary fødselsnummer. Well they used our Dutch Sofinummer, but we were allowed to pay the import taxes there and then.. hooray! That is the most we are going to pay for anything in the next months&#133;(I hope)

After that we went to a big shoppingmall in the town before we went back home. Marja came with us on the trip and we had a great time.

Wednesday we decided to try to get our residencepermits and d-number. We had heard that we had to go to the taxoffice, from there to the townhall and back to the taxoffice, but we also heard about the shortcut, going to the bank and asking a bankaccount&#133; So we went for that one. The bank requested our d-numbers and so we only have to wait a couple of weeks.

We went to the police station, but then they needed an international prove of our marriage, our weddingbooklet wasn’t good enough, though the policeman loved it and showed it to all his colleagues. We cannot request our residence permits till then... so that is a change of plan again.

We went to the taxoffice, as it also counts as a register of residence, but they don’t want to see us till we get the d-number, they same story with the employment office, till I get the d-number they won’t do anything, and even then, they didn’t seem to be very willing, I did get a lovely copy of how to make your CV&#133; but I am not expecting much help from there.

We also went to Martin’s new boss, got his contract, and got him to fill in the police forms that the policeman wanted. His new boss was also very good, as we expected the removalvan on friday he told Martin to start work on monday the 4^th instead of friday.

Thursday we took it really easy. I decided it would be a good idea to phone the removal company to check our when they would be coming, as there was a small chance it would be friday. So I phoned the company, where our contact person promised to phone us back as soon as he knew.

Wonderful communication, as they in the afternoon suddenly phoned where they had to be.. I had written a detailed route description, which wasn’t too hard, as we are just of the mainroad.. but they hadn’t got that. When the truck arrived we realized they had quite roughly put our stuff from the one truck into the other, everything was dusty and a little dirty and the writings on the inside of the truck ("leak" with arrow up several times) made me wonder what things would have looked like if it had rained.

They unpacked the truck in about two hours and suddenly our little house was filled with boxes as was the restaurant where our stuff is stored. we spent the rest of the evening unpacking and realizing how definitive it all was, but well, we’ll get over it, we are sure.

We now have a little house which is ours (for the moment anyway) it has our stuff in it, our own duvet, and I can tell you that that makes a difference (in warmth both as in the at home feeling).

Downstairs we have our own fridge and bookcase, and of course the computer standing around as well. I’ll try to put some pictures of the house on the internet, You’ll find out.

The view is wonderful, the lake is still frozen (no fishing for Martin yet) and there were deer passing over the lake in the early evening. I think they will have to stop doing that, as the ice has become thinner over the last couple of days. We have been up the mountain for as far as the snow allowed us.

Down here the snow disappeared quite quickly with the lovely weather we had, but when we go up next to the waterfall there is still enough snow to go knee deep if you want.

On Saturday we had the laurdagskafeen in the local village hall with lottery, we seem to know half the village by face already, which gives a nice at home feeling.

We’ve tried to register with the Norwegian church, but they needed our baptism certificate. We have Martin’s. But as the church Emy was baptised in no longer exists, we have a baptism date, but no place where it occurred&#133; Hope they’ll go for it. But the local priest is very nice and speaks very clearly. Actually we don’t run into many language problems at all here (so far) we managed to talk to bank managers, shop owners, customs employees, employment office people etc.. The locals are the biggest problem, as they are keen on their dialect.

As future plans for Emy are concerned, we  don’t know yet. We have to pray about it and see what God wants.

 

Friday 25th of March 2005

Our last nights sleep, wasn't much of sleep, apparently more emotions come up then you think!

The farewell at Emy's work was fantastic, great input from colleagues, presents, a stepper, dumbbells, a memory book and a lovely birthday calendar with personalised pictures of all my colleagues in the team.

At home Martin and his dad were packing in all the rooms in one go.. not a very handy way to go about it, but after having organised that we realised that we had too much stuff... it seems to be coming out of the walls.

Yesterday evening we went to church. We have had a momentous lent. Within these fourty days, our whole move to Norway was arranged, from getting the job just after Ash Wednesday to moving on Good Friday and arriving in Norway for our "new life" on Easter. All very symbolic.

The saying goodbyes are now all very vivid, and we have to remember that in this modern world we are not far away and appliances like phones and e-mail can make a big difference!

Via this channel we want to thank everyone for all the trouble they went through to make our move such a momentous occasion.

 

Thursday 24th of March 2005

! more nights sleep and we are going. In the mean time we have had most of the official goodbyes, today for us both at work and then it is really time to go. Get written out of council records, and from Norway request the last official papers.

Saturday we had our goodbye at Emy's father's and on Sunday we had an open house. A very full open house, family from all over the country, actually all corners of the country. Our memory book is taking on good proportions and will be a good memoriam of our Dutch roots.

Last weekend we had our goodbyes at church, which was very impressive, they had created a moving presentation with pictures from last weekend in the Ardennes and beautiful music in the background by Ronan Keating (this is your song). After Church, Chris and Alex seemed to have arranged a wonderful display of bites and drinks and in a speech from Chris and Carola( a rare occasion) we were offered a beautiful picture of the church, which will get a prominent place in our new house.

 

 

Wednesday 17th of March 2005

Only nine more nights sleep before they will come and empty our house. It is getting really serious now. 
Emy managed to get sick (nasty bad cold) so we are using the occasion to sort out sox's, as packing cases is a little too much for her.

Martin is showing the routines to his new colleague, which means he doesn't have to drive anymore, so he comes home well rested these days.

Last Wednesday Emy's dad and his wife Meta came to help pack, they were so enthousiastic, they packed all the china, glasswork and half the bookcases, they had to be stopped before they packed the things we are still needing.
It made a big change all the work they did, we really appreciate that!

We are only allowed 5 plants, 50 packets of seeds and some bulbs, as we already have reached our 5 plants, we just hope no one will give us any more plants or big presents for that matter, as we are running out of boxes

We've had the official goodbye dinner with Emy's mum and Martin's dad and those belonging to those families. This coming weekend we will have our Goodbye dinner at Emy's dad's and on Sunday they official open for everyone reception between 10 and 15. We haven't got a clue how many people are coming, but it should be a fun time, though it is hard to say all those goodbyes.

In the mean time our first mail arrived in Norway and our name is on the letterbox! So they know we exist!

Last weekend we spent in the Ardennes with thirty other people from church, walking in the snow, having great fellowship and a generally relaxing time.

 

 

Saturday 26th of Februari 2005

We are going to move!!!!!!

It's only just over a week since Martin was offered a job as a truckdriver in Norway. He will be starting his work for Lars Kroken A.S. a big containertransport company at the 1st of April.

From the 8th-16th Februari we had a weeks holiday with friends in Norway. This was in the area we had chosen about two and a half year ago as one of the best places to move to.
Before our holiday Martin applied to several companies around the town and he was invited by two of them for a job interview.

And...... he was employed by Lars Kroken A.S. and can start the 1st of April, and that is not a joke.

Our friends offered us temporary housing, so the removaltruck can come. We've actually planned the packers to come on Good Friday and will be travelling to Norway ourselves over the Easter weekend.

Right now we are in the middle of emigrating stress, it's all very exciting, many bags of rubbish find their way out and the charities thrive. In the mean time there is enough left to come with us.

This also meant it was time to redo the website, though much remains untouched.

 

Sunday 30th of January 2005

It has been a strange time again. Paulus, our cockatiel died this week. He has been a member of the family for the past 8 years, so quite a while. We miss his screaming, but also his gentle chirping, so it seems very quiet in the house all the time. I just went out for a short time to come back and find him dead.

We have both been spoiled with birthday visitors and gifts, Although Martin's birthday was several months ago, we hadn't celebrated it yet, so now we celebrated it together with mine, which happened to be today. So for the next couple of months, we're the same age.

 

Sunday 16th January 2005

We now have a prayerpage on the site, you can send us your prayerrequests by mail

After a very hectic time, we are hoping to have some rest. The holidays were a busy time, not too easy, and Martin has been home for two weeks after having hurt his back, but now we are trying to get back to normal life.

In two weeks time we will jointly celebrate our birthdays and in February we will be going to Norway for a week (hopefully for some job interviews as well!)

Emy started leading worship in church every three or so weeks, which is exciting, scary, but she's growing in knowledge.

 

Friday 10th December 2004

With great sadness we have to let you know that Martin's mum lost her 5 week fight against cancer on the 7th of December.

Trusting she is now in God's safe hands we have to let her go.

Far too young, far too soon.

 

Sunday 17th october

Autumn really started now with rain and storms, but in the house it is cosy and warm (most of the time). We did some updating on the photopage, Böning family day in Austerlitz, birthday Daphne, BIrtday martin's dad and a weekend away to the ardennes with friends from church.

Martin is now driving in "his own" truck, with regular routes, which is good for the homefront. He is still very happy about his change of career.

Emy started doing fitness in a gym and is enjoying herself there.

Not really much more to comment on. Except that we will have been married for five years at the 30th of October!

 

Wednesday 1st September

From now on we have our own domain, www.hososs.net , hos oss means with us. Welkommen hos oss means welcome to our place/home. And you are very welcome!
Not that much has changed, but we have a new email address which goes with the domain. If we want to swap providers we won't need to change email addresses all over the world. After 7 years of our old webaddress it is a little sad to let go, but that is part and parcel of every move.

Emy's page has also been updated today!

 

Sunday 25th July

Today we updated Martin's page on the website. Martin started working for an Italian delicatessen distributor on the first of July and is thoroughly enjoying himself there.

This weekend we used to paint one of the walls in the living green, so that it looks very fresh and different. In spite of the fact that we don't want to live here for much longer, we still want to have a beautiful and happy home.
We also bought ourselves some new toys yesterday. Martin a new mobile and Emy a new MP3/WMA player, so as you can imagine, we are quite content at the moment.

Friday 9 th July 2004

We have been back at work for a week after a wonderful month in Norway. Most of the time was spent with our friends Marja and Ronald in Gjerset. Gjerset is a small spread in the vicinity of Åndalsnes (trollstigen).
Martin has spent his day in blue working trousers mowing down acres of grassland and has learned to fish, gained even his own fishing rod. Emy got her Nordic-Walking sticks and is happy to walk with those. (though sometimes a little embarrassed because of the lacking the ski's feeling.)

In between we spent four days with Cor and Beate our friends in Bergen, we had some of the city feel and many deep conversations. While Cor and Martin watched the Euro match in orange clothing (lost from the tjechs) while Beate and Emy went to a church meeting.

Our Norwegian language is now enough to have intelligent conversations with people and we see enough opportunities for a future in Norway.

Do go and look at our pictures of Norway!

 

Wednesday 25th May 2004

Finally another upgrade and refreshing look on the website. After we had only changed the colours, we received complaints that it wasn't really different, well now it is!

Our photo site has been completely updated, this autumn we will start working on our Norwegian pictures, maybe display them theme wise or something of the kind.

Last week we went Camping in the south of the Netherlands with my dad and sister, the pictures are there on photo's 2004!

The week before that some of our nieces and a nephew walked a fashion show, those pictures will also be found in photo's 2004.

It will soon be time for our summer holiday, after that Martin will start his new career as a truck driver in a new job!

Keep an eye on the site, more news soon!

 

Monday 12th April 2004

It has been a little while, but we are back!

After some deep and long considerations we decided that it would be a good idea for Martin to change his profession. Of course he was trained as a car mechanic, but that was too long ago without any recent experience to be something to count on. As Martin had had a dream to be a truck driver for years, we decided that the (big) investment would be worth it.

Martin started late September with his C license and truck drivers certificate which consisted of three different theory subjects; traffic, technical aspects and administration. 13th December he passed his  truck drivers certificate with flying colours, 3rd of February he passed his C license and as he hadn't had enough he decided to go for his ADR (toxic and dangerous goods certificate) and E behind C license. He is now a real truck driver, and all that in hardly six months!!!!! Emy is really proud of him! All of that and a tough job as well.

We now hope for some peace and quiet on the home front, without all those lessons. And another positive thing, the savings account will show a rising line from now on again!

Emy has become active on the theology course again and should finish this module on "worship" before the summer. It helps to have a tutor and someone in the church to guide her and her fellow student through the work.

Over Easter Emy has been active in baking all  kinds of creative sweets and cakes, pictures will follow. 

And now it has become time again to prepare our holiday to Norway. We finished this seasons Norwegian lessons. We are already certain that we will visit friends in Åndalsnes, whove bought a tourist center there http://www.gjerset-turistsenter.com The rest we still have to think about.

 

 

 

Wednesday 20th August 2003

The links have been updated today.

Last weekend we went to Flevo festival with two friends. Martin had been before, but not Emy. We had a great day, good weather, fine music and a relaxed atmosphere. of course we bought a number cd's and dvd's 

Right now Emy is really impressed with the music of Andrew Peterson, whom she saw at Flevo, he has biblical lyrics with a nice ballad sound.

Next year we might go all four days to Flevo, but first this november we try to go to winterwonderrock.

 

Saturday 9th August 2003

We finally managed to transfer all pictures from Norway 2003 on to the site today. Norway 2001 and 2002 have been back to the drawing board and are looking good. Just as are the wedding pictures in their new format. Some older pictures have been or will be soon removed.

Emy's personal page has been updated with the latest info and we are hoping to update our links in the near future.

 

Wednesday 9th July 2003

We have just returned from 3½ weeks holiday in Norway, we have relaxed and rested and seen wonderful nature.

Martin had been incredibly busy in the months running up to this holiday, he was working 55 -60 hrs aweek and that on top of the stress of the new job meant it was time for a much needed holiday.

We drove the following route:

Hirtshals (DK) - Kristiansand (No) - Arendal - Porsgrunn/Skieen - Etne - Haugesund - Bergen - Leikanger - Fjærland - Runde - Ålesund - Molde - Åndalsnes - Dovrefjell - Hamar - Moss - Oslo - Hirthals(Dk)

One of the  most fantastic places we saw this summer, was Runde Island. There you can come real close to puffins and many other seabirds.

This was the first year we understood most of the Norwegian. We managed to have some good conversations which was great. Our Norwegian language classes are paying off.

Our new tent only gave problems once, after days of heavy torrential rains, we had some leakage on the seams, but the rest of the time it was the best tent we have ever had.

 

 

Saturday 5th of April 2003 

It has been quite a while since we have given some news here, well not much has happened since then. 

We are nearing the end of our second year or Norwegian language classes, by now we can read newspapers and understand part of the news on television. We hope we can understand the Norwegians in Norway too this summer.

We are both doing well at work. Martin started in a new job last week, same boss, just other job description with more managing skills and a car!
Emy has trained some one on a years work-experience and is now coaching a new colleague into the fine art of Social Services. In this time of economic downfall and rise in unemployment there is always enough work for Social Services Financial Department.

We are now busy planning our next summer holiday, only a couple of months and we will be on our way to Norway again. But first we need to buy a new tent, which we will do later this month, we have decided to go for a Eureka Tunnel vision CV model 2003.

 

Wednesday 24 July 2002

We have returned from a wonderful holiday in Norway. Three weeks of daily rain and some very cold nights, but also beautiful nature and being outside. Look at our pictures.

We reasonably managed to speak the language, but it was hard to understand the Norwegian dialects.

We have both returned to our jobs, Martin with Budget rent-a-car and Emy in a new job with the social services in Zoetermeer.

We tried our new dark room before the holidays with good results.

 

Saturday 27th of April 2002

We have had a number of exiting things happening over the past few weeks.
Two weeks ago my dad and his wife celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary, We had a good party.

Last week we both finished our beginners course in Norwegian with a certificate, now we have to wait till we go to Norway in a few weeks to practice the language.

Budget rent-a-car (Martin's employer) has a new owner. It looks like most of the job cutting has been done, so there is some rest back on the work floor.

Emy has found a new job with a consultancy for social benefits social workers and job mediators, she will start after the summer holidays. So immigration services with their production line for academics will soon be in the past.

Our new hobby will be the developing of photographs in our own dark room! Opa (grandpa) will be giving us his equipment, he considers himself to old (at 87) to develop his own photographs, so we are the next generation to take over. WATCH this space for updates on that!

 

Saturday 16th march 2002

These last two weeks have been very intense, Martin had to await the results
of the reorganization of his job, and Emy has started looking for another
job and was totally overtaken by de possibilities on the job market these
days.

We went to the open day of the Norwegian church in Rotterdam, where we
enjoyed looking at information about Norway and practiced our Norwegian
language, well Emy a little more than Martin that is.

During the weekend we enjoyed watching Crufts on the BBC and started
dreaming about the kind of dog we would like to have one day, we will
probably end up with about four of them,  a dachshund, an Airedale terrier, a
wire fox and a welshterrier.

We played Settlers of Catan with some friends, the game that Emy was given
for her birthday and we would encourage others to buy the game too!

Emy has done a course of time management, and now knows how she should be
managing her time. (putting it into practice is a totally different matter)

 

 

Saturday 2nd of March 2002

Time to change our website looks once again, so after the necessary shopping (cd's The newest Rebecca st James-worship God, and Oslo Gospel Choir-Gloria) we went home had some lunch and Emy spent most of the afternoon working on the website.

Martin did some of those boring household chores that have to be done anyway, but it is much appreciated work.

We have finally finished our CV's again, with thanks to Robyn and Sandra who gave us the necessary technical info on the English side.

Yesterday Emy cleared out the wardrobes, and two big rubbish bags were filled with old, no longer warn cloths, one heading straight to the rubbish department and the other one waiting for charity. The wardrobes are ready for summer now!

 

© Benjamins 2005