Spring

Every year after the long cold winter Norway throws little glimpses of spring our way and then swiftly takes them back and throws some snow at us. It's been doing this for the whole of April but on Saturday it threw a summers day our way and we took full advantage. No jackets, shoes without socks, toes dipped in the Oslo fjord, 15c, bright blue skies, ice cream and freckles on our faces.

English v Norwegian

When I'm shopping here in Norway I mainly speak norwegian but sometimes I cant be arsed so switch to english and it's really weird how differently you get treated depending on what language you are speaking. I buy a chicken from the same place every week and the first time I asked for a chicken in norwegian the guy simply replied, "ja" handed me the chicken and off I went. The next week the same guy served me but this time I spoke english and he replied in english,"Of course you can have a chicken! Would you liked it cutting?" and after handing it to me he smiled and said,"have a great day and a great weekend!! Good bye!"
Now if you have ever been to Norway you will know that this is not how shop assistants talk to you. They are people of few words with no idea how to be service minded (if they are friendly they are probably Swedes!) so I was wondering why this guy was so nice when I spoke english but cold when I spoke norwegian? hmmmmmm
I have to say that even after 2 1/2 years here I still find Norway really,really odd!! I will be escaping the oddness for 4 lovely days in England from Sunday onwards. Yippeeee!

P.s Please note: NO.SNOW.IN.THE.GARDEN!!!!!  (finally!)

Still winter

It's still winter here, you can still walk across the fjord (someone puts little fir trees on the ice to show you that it's safe, but I don't trust them!) Fleamarket season has kicked off and we went to two today but my heart was not in it, I have enough crap and now I just want to move house (and then maybe buy some more crap!) You know, when you buy a house here it happens fast, you can buy on a Monday and move in on the Friday!