A new week

We had a very nice relaxing weekend with all the udi stuff behind us (I'll enjoy it whilst it lasts because I know it won't be long before Norway pisses me off again!)
We wandered round Oslo, ate a nice lunch in a very nice cafe,had leisurely breakfasts and long lie ins. We watched the wonderful "The Killing" even though the danish is very distracting for me as now I can speak norwegian the danish language sounds like a norwegian who is drunk with a potato stuck in their throat! (no offence intended to all my lovely danish readers!) I can read danish but cannot understand it at all when I hear it (and I'm a little disappointed as I thought I was getting 3 languages for the price of one when I started learning norwegian!)
We are almost in February now and I'm not quite sure where January went....

Udi 0-lisa 1

After a very stressful week things are back to normal. The Udi have well and truly fucked up as far as my case is concerned, they still have not fixed things but things are less uncertain now.
After Sunday's article came out (along with a follow up on Monday) the Udi went into crisis mode making excuses in the press and in a TV debate. They apologized in the press but I'd rather like a letter.It was all pretty exciting. As an organization they are an absolute joke (I'm afraid to say that I fear Norway is an absolute joke also, in so many ways)
I have now been contacted and told that I'm entitled to stay in Norway (I always thought this was the case) no matter how much Henrik earned in 2010. We were badly advised when I first registered here and we never should have applied for family reunification in the first place. Here's an idea, Udi, when I applied why not write back to me and tell me that I'm applying for the wrong thing? Just a thought? Could have saved us all a lot of trouble.
I now,after 16 months will finally have a personal number rather than a temp number and being from the EU means I'm allowed to live/work/whatever as long as I'm not draining Norway of resources. This is what I always thought was the case. 16 months of fannying about for nothing.
The sad thing is that there are too many people in Norway being ripped apart because of the Udi. We are the lucky ones. During this process of uncertainty I had to think about packing up and us heading back to England and I must admit I did not like the idea at all. Norway is the oddest place I have ever lived, I don't quite fit in (and I never will!) and there are soooo many things here that make me want to pull my hair out/punch someone but it's become my home. I love my job, I can speak this strange language pretty well and there is just something about this strange land that I'm not ready to leave.....

Waging a war with Udi

It is something I have not talked about on my blog before but for the last 16 months we have been fighting a battle with the norwegian immigration department, UDI.
We have been turned down twice for family reunification based on the fact that Henrik earned too little in London in 2010. Our fight is that surely it does not matter what Henrik earned in London, surely what counts is what Henrik is earning now, here in Norway. You are required to be payscale 8 which Henrik was slightly below in England. He is now payscale 50 (quite a jump, huh?) but the UDI says that Henrik did not earn enough in London to support us both here in Norway. Crazy huh? They don't take into account that I'm now working and I am earning a very nice wage. We have both more than doubled our salaries here. We have a nice life in Norway, a lovely home,a car, no debts, a fridge full of good food,and enough spare cash to enjoy ourselves.
Those of you who regularly read my blog can see we are not living in poverty (as the UDI seems to think!)Life is good, yet once again we have been turned down for family reunification. It stinks.
After 2 lawyers and countless trips to many government offices I had had enough so I went to Aftenposten, Norways best and most reliable newspaper. Today our story came out along with many other couples who are having exactly the same problem as us. We will also have a follow up story tomorrow in the same paper. I'm hoping it helps with our struggle. We are now in the dark regarding our future in Norway.

Monday

I finished work today and felt the need to bake (now I'm working I never seem to find the time or have the energy) I made no knead bread which was super easy and amazingly delicious. Jam thimbles were next and these too were simple to make and oh,so yummy!
Whilst i was making these there was a hotpot in the oven, but not your ordinary hotpot of the Lancashire (where I grew up) variety but more of an "Oslo hotpot" with reindeer instead of lamb. Also good. We have eaten like kings today and are now on the sofa, slumped in a carb fueled haze about to enjoy an evening of the best TV show ever, Breaking bad.
p.s New polar bear print from Alice Potter. Love it

Sånn er det

Often when I question things here in Norway I do not get a proper answer. More often than not the answer is, "Sånn er det" which means "thats the way it is"
So when I ask "why is everything closed on Sunday?", "Why is everything so expensive?" "Why don't norwegians use their indicators or car horns?" "Why do norwegians all eat taco's on Friday?" "Why is there a crap choice of food in the supermarkets here?" the usual answer is "Sånn er det" which really gets on my nerves, so when I'm asked a question I always try to avoid saying those three little words and give an answer explaining why something is the way it is. That is until Friday at work when a 5 year old asked me, "Hvorfor er dine pupper så store?" (why are your boobs so big?) and the only reply I could give was...... "Sånn er det!"

Winter

This is my street at 3.15pm today. That is sheet ice and it's a bugger to walk on. This winter is crap. Wet,icy,dangerous. Give me last winter instead. Snowy,friggin freezing, but dry (and it's the dryness that makes the difference)
Sunrise:9.19am
Sunset:3.21pm
There are on average 20 weeks til we have some warmth here, and I am counting down!

changes

Back to work today. This day last year I began norwegian lessons and now I'm fluent enough to function in norwegian society (well, in my own funny little British way) and have a job. I'm pretty proud. I don't actually like speaking norwegian and spoke very little over the christmas holidays (which suits me just fine) so today was pretty difficult to switch the norwegian back on, especially when we attended a course today which was conducted entirely in Swedish! My colleagues thought it was hilarious that I understood barely 5% and luckily my boss told me to go home early as she realised the whole thing was pretty pointless for me! Oh, how my life has changed.....

Happy new year!

We woke on this first day of 2012 with huge amounts of snow and no hangovers!
We spent the last day of the year in a costly Oslo clinic with me having costly throat swabs done only to be sent away with super strong antibiotics and a case of Pharyngitis and told not to drink alchohol!
So we celebrated NYE on the sofa,watching lots of good films,drinking Pink Lemonade (me) and eating Panettone.
Henrik has now woken on the first day of the year feeling exactly the same as I have felt for the last week. Happy new year!
p.s that red building is our storage with 27 unpacked boxes in it. One day when we buy a bigger place I can finally unpack everything.....