Christmas and New Year

Aro in the snow

Originally uploaded by Sølvi MK

I looked at my blog and realised it’s a long time since my last post. Have I been busy? I don’t know. I beliewe we’ve just jused a long time getting used to having Aro in our family.

There are new routines and having a puppy means some work. Things are going better now. He does not wet inside anymore, which means we don’t need all the litle trips outside. Now we can consentrate on walks instead.

Today Gørild an I took Aro on a 2 hour walk in the wood. We had a good time, Gørild had her skis on. It is more than enough snow for skiing.

We had a white Christmas and New Year. It must be almost 10 years since that happened last. The temperatures were around minus 6 degrees Celsius. We all enjoyed it.

Aro is home

Aro tar ein pust i bakken

Originally uploaded by Sølvi MK

We went back to Kvinnherad August 1st to choose our puppy and bring him back home. Here he is, Aro. He is 10 weeks old now, having stayed with us for 2 weeks. We are starting getting used to eachother now.

It is both fun and a load of work to have this litle dog to take care of. We all love him.

The children is loving it so far, I wonder what they say when they realise it is hard work and not just the fun. So far everything is fun.

Beside of the dog I still have time to play some golf and Torstein still take care of his steam locomotive. The vacation is over and we still have some painting to finish in Mostraum. We are hoping for the weekend to bring good weather for painting.

Visiting Norwegian elkhound-puppies

På kvalpebesøk hjå Svart Elghund

Originally uploaded by Stril

Today we went to Kvinnherad to visit seven one month old puppies.

They are so cute. Gørild fell in love with number 7 (I cannot tell wich one is number 7). Yes, we plan to buy one of them. They are Norwegian elkhounds, black.

It was great fun to meet them but it will be hard to decide wich one we will have, they were so alike.

A good week for golf

Golfgruppa på tur til Meland

Originally uploaded by Stril

Hello everyone.

I’ve had a busy week . The children just finished school and I’ve managed three trips to the golf course. Sunday Gørild and Magnar went with their aunt Hildegun and uncle Olav to see horses let loose. Torstein was busy with his steem locomotive, so I used the free time to go to Bjørnefjorden golf course for a round of golf. I turned out to be a good day, playing 33 points. Quite OK. Monday some colleagues (picture) and I tok the afternoon off and went to Meland for 18 holes. We had a wonderful day with beautiful weather and a very good golf course. We really enjoyed the day. We all played quite OK. I finished 36 points. For me a very good score at Meland golf. Wednesday we again played Bjørnefjorden (Ladies day at the course). We had another good round, a bit slow but we had good company. Who could ask for more?

The Sausage dogs

I started a new life this fall. Now I am a listener of audio books. I am searching Bergen public library for audio-books. It all started last summer listening through the first two books of Philip Pullmans trilogy “His Dark Materials”. The last one we never got started on so I desided to bring it with me on the bus every morning. Now I listen to audio books to and from work almost every day. Some are good, some  interesting, some I dont understand and some makes me giggle all the way. Thank you so much for audio books, they make my bus-trip a whole lot shorter!

This last one I heard was “The finer points of sausage dogs” by Alexander McCall Smith. It is a story about a german professor of Portugese irregular verbs. Well worth listening to. (The book is read in english and everything the professor says are with an german accent). If you find it in your local library it is fun listening to.

7 things you don’t really need to know about me.

It is time to reveal those 7 things Eva challenged me to tell you.

Here they come. First in Norwegian then in English (for my english speaking readers).

1. Eg har ein gong prestert det kunststykket å skru av skråstaget på ei hylle utan først å fjerne alle gjenstandane som befant seg i hylla. Resultatet vart, då hylla tok til å krenge, at TV-en datt ned og for hoppande bortetter golvet. Då Eva, som vitna det heile, og eg tok TV-en oppatt og prøvde den, virka den like fint (flaks!)
2. Det er 2 bøker eg berre har måtta gje opp, eg kjem aller igjøno dei. Det er John Le Carre, Nattportieren og Jan Guillou, Veien til Jerusalem (Tempelridder-serien). Forfattarane får ha meg unnskyldt, eg klarte det berre ikkje.
3. Eg elskar blåmuggostar av alle slag!
4. Sommaren 2008, på Herdla, fekk eg hole in one på eit veldig provisorisk hol.
5. Eva var med på denne og….Ein gong i vår ungdom var me til bydn i pappas bil. Vel tilbake til bilen oppdaga me at parkeringshuset var lukka og låst for natta. Me klarte å redda bilen ut og eg får trøste meg med at sidan den gongen sjekkar eg alltid opningstidene i parkeringshusa.
6. Har ein gong måtta måka heile oppkjørselen vår for å få bilen opp til huset (takk for snøfresaren og … kor e mannfolka når du treng dei???) Resultatet vart ein flott oppkjørsel – bilen fauk opp; og frykteleg ilt i armane.
7. Eg tar bussen på arbeid!

 

Now, in english

1. Once I managed to remove the cross at the back of my bookshelf without taking all my things out  first. That resultet in, when the shelf started falling sideways, that the Television fell off the shelf end went bouncing across the living room. When Eva (who witnessed it all) and I took it back up and tried it, it still worked (What a good luck!)
2. There are two books I’ve started on which I never finiched. It is John le Carré, The Night Manager and    Jan Guillou, The Road to Jerusalem. Sorry authors, I just could not manage to read them.
3. I just love all kinds of blue cheeses!
4. In the summer of 2008, at Herdla Golf-course, I played a Hole in one on a VERY provisional hole.
5. This one Eva was a part of too! …Once, in our youth we were in Bergen, driving dads car. When we came back to the car we found that the parking-garage vas locked for the night. We managed to “save” the car and since then I always check the parking-garages opening hours. 
6. Once I had to clear our drive-way from snow before driving the car up to the house (Thank you so much for snowblowers and… where are the men when you really need them???). The result.. a great drive-way – the car ”flew” up;.. and pain in both my arms.
7. I take the bus to work.

I have to give this challenge to someone else (at least Eva say so). Here it comes Helge, see what you can make out of it.

Sunday

Today it has been snowing and raining. This morning we all went out to help clearing away the snow. We worked all morning. No need for extra exercise today.

Gørild had a friend sleep over from Friday to Saturday. That ment a wery quiet evening for the parents. The girls spent almost all evening at Gørilds room playing. Even Magnar got to play with them a while. Saturday the girls had a handball-match to play. Torstein drove them so I had som time at Vestkanten shopping. Long time since last time I’ve been shopping on my own. I even managed to buy something!

Back

Boy, this was long….. I have not been writing for ever so long. I dont think I’ve spent too much time by the computer either. Well, now I’ll try to put in some information about my doings a bit more often.

First, Eva gave  me a challenge to tell you all 7 things about myself there is no need for you to know. I have to think on that one. I’ll be back soon I hope. A shame to let a challenge like that go away….

But for tonight I think I’ll just tuck in and good night…

July 2008, Denmark and Germany

It has been a long time since I wrote last.

We’ve just arrived back from our holiday in Denmark and Germany. Took M/F Bergensfjord (a ferry) from Bergen to Hanstholm last Monday (18 hours onboard) and stayed in Denmark until Sunday. Visited the fregatte Jylland (the world longest wooden ship), Legoland off course (a long day for the parents but the children could have stayed longer). We also bought some kites to try on the beach. One with two strings attached. We all had fun trying to get them flying. (The parents the most I think).

We also managed to play some golf. Because the children still not have their “green card” we need to find pay and play courses to play on. Most golfcourses in Denmark seems to have a pay an play course in addition to their regular 18 hole course. We played the pay and play course at Alssund golfklub at the island Als. They had a 6 hole par 3 course.

Then we headed for Germany. In Hamburg Magnar and Torstein visited a model railroad exchibition (Wonderland) while the girls (Gørild and I) went to the zoo and did some shopping. We returned home by taking the M/F Color Fantasy (another ferry) from Kiel to Oslo on tuesday (20 hours on the ship!). Yesterday, wednesday we arrived in Oslo and headed stright home. That was our longest drive this vacation (10 hours).

The ferries are almost like cruise ships. With shops, restaurants and bars. On Color Fantacy they also have Casino and Aqualand (swimming pools). We did not visit the casino but could not avoid Aqualand .

Now we are back home with still some vacation left. We’ll stay home and just enjoy the days – I think.

Things

I am looking at a paper where my daughter is trying to spell Pipp Lotta, no comments……..

I thing Gørild need to work a bit on her spelling. My english is not the best but her Norwegian?

Well, we have a good time. Time is moving fast it seems, I guess it means we are busy. We have even started the cockie production for christmas. Gørild wants to take a house to the Pepper-cake city in Bergen. Now we have made all the parts and can soon start working on the decoration. Putting the house together is my job, I am not letting any childrens hands into hot sugar!

Besides family life I’ve been playing some golf and squash since I wrote last. Also spent some time with friends and family. Job has also been keeping me busy.

I am also planning on writing my christmas-letter, hopefully I finish Before christmas this year. I’m looking forward to christmas-time. This year it gives us many days out of work. It will be good to spend some days together again, mybe see some good friends and enjoy time with family. Today we had lutefisk for dinner, mybe we are starting christmas a bit early this year.

To Eva, Yes there will be some bad language here, I know, please forgive me………