Så lenge Norge, dens blitt emosjonell, jeg elsker deg og ønsker å bo for alltid

Its been a while since my last blog, but then I have been a little busy, first of all, most of the clients this week have taken part in all of the activities and secondly I had a visit from my bestist buddies Sara, Tony and the Twins Callum & Ella... Hurricane Irene... Pah, nothing on those pair :)

The sun even poked its head out for a few minutes on Friday, enough to make the Osa Mountain trip enjoyable again, maybe the last time I go up there this year, who knows!. The evening cruise was more like crossing the channel in October, That was the first time Ive seen white water on the Fjords!

Sat in the Hotel garden on Friday evening watching the kids playing on the boats gave me a great idea, one that Dad will be holding his head in his hands and muttering "oh no not again" under his breath, when he reads this....

I fancy building a boat, not too sure yet whether to go for a Kayak / Canoe and somehow build a platform to hold an outboard or just get a crappy fiberglass hull and make a speedboat from it. Ebay seem to have a few 'old buckets' from a tenner so i'm still pondering that one. It need to have an engine so I can explore further AFjord and also small enough to go on/in/around the car and trailer. I figured if I come back here next year and I have all this water to play on (and no wind Dad, before you suggest one with sails) then what better toy to bring with me..... Ideas please :)

Time is running out in Norway now and things are starting to close, The Ulvik Hotel was the first to go and shut its doors on saturday. Folklore evenings are no more, Osa Mountain is no more, and even the nights are drawing in. (Yes I know, darkness in Norway!) Even Izzy has gone to Sweden...

I will certainly miss this place and all its quirkyness, I have some great new friends here now, but time wont stand still and my skiing muscles are starting to twitch... Lots of plans for the inter-season seeing as I didn't get one between winter and summer, although I think 6 - 8 weeks is too long, That said... I think I can now tell people what's happening this winter...

Inghams have offered me Resort Managers Position in Val D'Isere, I have accepted, contracts signed, bond paid, Job done. Think about it, No Pre Madonna Chefs to deal with, No drunken Chalet Girls oversleeping, No Chalets falling down or blowing up, No Maintenance men driving 2 hours to 'Look at the Job' and best of all... No pre season toilet scrubbing... Pure Bliss! ..... and a brand new resort to play in. That will be soooo weird having skied the 3 valleys for the last 9 winter seasons. Let hope i'm up to the job, Inghams are great to work for, I have thoroughly enjoyed it here (but then I think you have gathered that :)

All I have to do now is haul all of my stuff back through Scandinavia re-pack in Britain and drag it all to France again....

Barn's Boats & Beer

What a fantastic week, the weather has been great, well three days of sunshine so I guess thats the Norwegian summer over with. I've managed to pack in quite a bit this week, firstly I went to my first Folklore Evening... that was different!

I have booked the clients into 3 or 4 now but this week I decided to stay over in Ulvik for a couple of nights and this weeks event fell on a night I was there, to be fair, I only wanted to have a look at what it was all about so I could explain the event better to the clients, but once inside you can't just leave!

Anne-Marie the local school Marm' was hosting the show with half a dozen of her students, all dressed in the Norwegian National Costume, and dancing around in a barn! Before long we were all invited onto the dance floor to join in. like I said... Different!

The following morning was a trip up Osa mountain again, this time in sunshine too. Got some really great shots and ventured further into the wilderness... Truly stunning indeed.

That night I was aboard the Lady Anne for the evening cruise and then back to the girls pad for a pre party before descending on the Green Cafe once more for more debauchery and partying.

This time it was Karoline's leaving party and an even better turnout than before... I think we have started something now, the Cafe is becoming very popular on a Friday with all the young folk!.

Back to Voss this morning for some much needed sleep. Looks like I'm having some visitors in a week or two, so Norway just keeps getting better and better :)

Shame I only have about 6 weeks left....

06 August 2011 - Enige og troe, indtil Dovre falder

What is it with Norway this summer!!  I mean, before I came here, the last time anyone had heard from the Norwegians, some Viking ship had landed in Scotland... and within a month some nutter has bombed the capitol, shot up an island of school kids and now some mad arsed polar bear has gone round munching on some Brits up in the north!... Seriously, I had to look on a map when I got this job, just to see exactly where Norway was... Yeah we all know its in Scandinavia to the right of Britain somewhere, but to be fair I wasn't sure exactly where!

The Norwegians don't go around making much of a song and dance about anything, they just get on with their lives and live in peace. We see an occasional Norwegian emblem when the European cup starts but thats normally short lived, no disrespect, quite the opposite in fact, the Norwegians are a lovely bunch of people who, although are involved in the UN and other peace keeping forces, don't shout about it like the Americans or the British, hence we don't hear from them much. But over the last few weeks they seem to have been dominating the headlines.

I think it must be down to the demise of 'The News Of The World'.... With them gone, all the celeb's in Britain have been let off the hook and normal news is being reported instead. Whatever the reasoning, lets hope that the saying 'Things Always Come In Three's' is true and Norway has had its share of tragedy and bad luck for the next 100 years.

As the Norwegians would say "Enige og troe, indtil Dovre falder"  -  United until the mountains of Dovre crumble.

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03 August 2011 - Not Lost for Words, Lost for Time

Busy busy week this week, Just had 16 clients descend on me all at once, Smooth enough transfer day but with lost luggage and all, its been a long day...

I did manage to get a couple of 'Night Time' shots though.....

I'll be back blogging some more in a couple of days when it all settles down again... have some great news too...

Be back soon.....

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