Well I had a lovely time in Norway last week. The weather was beautiful, scorchingly hot but Norway bathed in bright sunlight is utterly gorgeous. I recommend everybody visit at least once, it’s definitely worth seeing. I of course don’t go for the landscape, though it is a nice bonus - I went to have, and of course ended up having, a wonderful time with Fredrik.
He showed me around the sprawling farmland on Rennesøy, the island his parents grew up on; the farmhouse his mum grew up in, the jetty where as a child he would sit fishing for tiny black fish, the rolling hills and fields full of cows and sheep spreading out to the horizon. On the island is a tiny cemetery where his grandparents are buried, we went in so he could water the flowers and we looked around at all the similar names there, how every family seemed blended into the others. It is clearly a very close community with families going back for generations.
On his birthday we lazed around for the morning, then went to visit his sister’s grave. He took some flowers for his mum, and she accompanied us to the cemetery. Fredrik had brought a bouquet, and they had to move some flowers over to make room for them. Thirty years on her resting-spot still shines among the other sites, with bright flowers attracting honeybees which I watched as Fredrik and his mum went to visit the grave of a family member. I had brought a small pink butterfly, on a thin metal stick which poked into the ground. The honeybees loved the flowers growing there, the bouquets that family members had brought, and my little butterfly. The cemetery is beautiful and behind each row of headstones is a small hedgerow, giving privacy to the resting and their visiting families. It was lovely, and both humbling and a great honour to accompany him on the visit.
We visited his parents the day before his birthday too, as it was his nephew’s eleventh birthday. There wwere his parents and us, his nephew and niece and their dad (Fredrik’s brother-in-law), his brother-in-law’s brother with his baby daughter, and the brother-in-law’s mother. Quite a confusing family gathering that one, because I kept forgetting who was related to who and how. They were all lovely though; Fredrik’s parents made fun of my new haircut as expected, and the brothers made the effort to speak to me in English after realising how terribly I speak Norwegian, for which I was utterly grateful as it meant I wasn’t completely left out of the conversation!
Aside from visiting cemeteries and family we spent a lot of time going out for ‘brain coolers’, a Norwegian version of Slush Puppies, and Fredrik started teaching me to drive. This is a scary thought for anyone who knows me well. My anxiety disorder and OCD make it very hard for me to even travel in a car, let alone sit behind the wheel of one. However Fredrik is a very intuitive and patient teacher and before long he had me going round and round in car parks, taught me how the gears work, showed me how to satisfactorily bring the car into motion and then to a standstill, parking between the lines and even a little reversing (though that is very, very difficult). We went for a couple of walks, watched trashy TV, ate a lot of takeaway and generally had a great time.
His moving date is now set for October. He hadn’t told me, but he has in fact handed in his notice at work. He needs to work the three month notice period, by which time it will only be a month until the cats can get the second sticker on their Pet Passports which means they can travel to the UK with him (a prerequisite of the Pet Passport scheme is a rabies vaccination which takes four months between vaccination and antibody test). So, barring some outrageous tragedy or ‘act of god’ he will be here by Samhain. How totally awesome is that?
Well of course eventually I had to come home, but that is always an awesome thing because though I have to leave Fredrik, it means I get to be back with Orion again! Orion seemed fairly happy to see me, but he was totally ecstatic to see Ginge. I try not to take it too personally; after all, Uncle Ginge is way cooler than boring old Mummy! ;o)
And now I must shoot off and clear up the debris before therapy and picking Orion up from nursery.
