A cinnamon celebration

We were offered a very nice mortgage on Friday which I am super proud of as we have saved like demons in the last year so we celebrated not with champagne but with cinnamon buns!
It's the one thing that we've applied for in Norway that's actually gone in our favour without a  fight. Now we just need to find our dream house (we found it already but it was just outside our budget and the bidding just keeps on going up and up)  I'm no longer allowed to buy expensive Marimekko cups and probably won't be able to for the next ten years!
Temperatures are slowly rising around here and the days becoming longer which is muuuuuuuuch needed. This winter has made me extra tired and I am no longer able to stay up later than 10.30pm during the week so I am really looking forward to those light summer evenings where you forget it's so late and end up rolling into bed at 1am. Ah, summer, I'm ready for you....

I just came home from work and inhaled a few cinnamon buns which my workmate Johanna made for me. We made a bet last time England and Sweden played football (back in June?) that the loser had to bake something from their country for the winner and Sweden lost so (better late than never) today I recieved a lovely bag of sugary,cinnamony Swedish goodness.Yum.
In other news,it's still snowing heavily here, we fell in love with a house at the weekend and a huge moose (at least 7ft) walked past our living room window and I almost shit myself at the sheer size of that beast :)

We are house hunting at the moment which is taking up most of our time at the weekend (and depressing me slightly that we can't get exactly what we want in the right place!)
We have found lots of great houses in not so great locations and lots of great locations with not so great houses. We are willing to move further away from Oslo but not so far that Henrik can't travel in for work every day, and it can't be too high up as driving up hill in deep snow scares the shit out of me (I think I'd really benefit from a winter driving course as my technique is not really working for me at the moment!!) I'd also live to live somewhere where wolves have not been spotted in the area ;)

Making it through the winter

I did not know what winter was til I moved to Norway. Thirty four winters in England and two in America could not have possibly prepared me for a long, harsh Nordic winter.
The first year I muddled through with a crap coat and even crappier shoes. I honestly though I could muddle through with my Converse and thick socks like I did every winter in London. ha ha ha hahaaaa!
I'm an expert now. I can do winter just like a nowegian. There is indeed no such thing as bad weather,only bad clothing. I no longer slip and slide on the ice as I wear spikes that I just slide over my super warm and cosy Duckfeet boots. I no longer need lots of layers as I splashed out on a warm coat (if I'm totally honest it's too warm and is hell when I'm going in and out of heated shops...)
I use nice stuff on my face thats not water based (this is the trick for your skin not turning into a chalky sore disaster) and I cope with the long,dark days by making our home as cosy as possible with shit-loads of candles.
That said, I've now had enough. We've had snow on the ground for 6 weeks now. Some of it piled 8 feet high which could possibly take until April to melt and then you have the horror of it all melting during the day and refreezing at night turning your world into a scary ice-rink. I can also no longer see out of our living room window without standing on a stool. If we are lucky it will be gone in 8 weeks and we can count down to Spring.....

p.s That little bird feeder on my window is no longer a bird feeder, it's now a mouse feeder! Bless

Where I want to be...

During the week we rush off to work every morning and at the weekend we are also up and out pretty early but when I woke up this morning to a heavy overnight snowfall I decided we were not leaving the house today. We have plenty of good food, flat is warm and cosy and there is nowhere we need to be. Just here on the sofa in our pj's.
The weather has hovered between -15 and -21c all week and I spend at least 2 hours everyday playing outside at work so a day on the sofa watching the snowfall is much needed :)
Oh, and this week after a wait of 28 months I have finally been granted temporary residency in Norway after taking our battle with the Udi to the next level, the UNE have looked thoroughly into our case and we got a lovely letter this week telling us about all the fuck ups the Udi made with me.
My next fight is to get all the money back that I payed for norwegian lessons (they would have been free if my permit came through straight away like it should have!) You can read my Udi story here
Have a good weekend folks!

the big chill

This weekend has been bitterly,frigidly frigging freezing. The coldest temperatures I have experienced since moving to Norway and the one day that my reliable little car decided not to start due to it being -22c. Even the tips of my hair froze!

2013

What a crappy blogger I am, not even checking in to wish everyone a happy new year. I was hoping to get my blogging mojo back but that has not happened and instead I'm addicted to The Sopranos.
Happy 2013. I'll be back soon.

We are back from England and enjoying the gorgeous weather,fresh snow,long walks and trying to detox after all the crap eaten over the last few days :)
I love these lazy days between christmas and new year.....

Merry Christmas!

Have a good one everybody! See you on the other side :)

Hello December!

When we woke up this morning the thermometer outside our bedroom window read -17c at 7am so we got up early,bundled up and got out in the cold sunshine. Days like this have to be taken advantage of so we headed off to the christmas market at the Norskfolkmuseum and did what we normally do at this kind of thing-eat and drink!
After 2 hours the cold got the best of us (well of my bottom half anyway, that daddy of a jacket is keeping the top half very warm and toasty!) and we headed home to an afternoon of Homeland, Mad men, roast dinner and gløgg.

Missing the sun

Pictures taken last Sunday which was the last time the sun made an appearance around these parts.
November has been grim, rainy and very dark. I'm ready for snow now if this is all winter has to offer. Give me freezing temps and blue skies. At least snow makes everywhere look brighter :)
We also discovered Mathallen in Oslo which is a mini version (ish) of Borough Market in London and it certainly makes the grim food situation her in Norway a little bit brighter :)

Cosy

We have experienced every possible type of weather this past week but the worst was a hail storm whilst I was at work which melted slightly,froze over only to be covered over in snow within the next few hours causing me to call Henrik to come and walk me home from work as I could not get up a slope as I'd forgotten to bring studs for my shoes! You forget during the summer just how hard winter can be here.
For the moment I'm enjoying the cosiness of winter, the candles,wrapping up warm, the amazing sunrises and sunsets. I'm learning to embrace it :)