Saturday, June 27, 2009

Moving Day!


I am posting this after the fact, but i want to keep everything in order and SOOOO many things happen all the time. In this busy URBAN environment that we live in!

Here we are on moving day. No one that we know in Oslo has a car (or no one that we know well enough to bother) so that made moving pretty interesting. But a couple of very nice taxi guys later it was all done and we were schlepping it all upstairs.

We are on the Norwegian 3rd floor. The ground level is considered first floor and so on. So really it is only two twisty flights of steps up to our place.

Alladin was waiting for us. Thank goodness he was there to explain to us the in's and out's of the incomrehencible european washing machine. Millions of lights and options. No words. Now we have got it down however and our clothes come out practically dry from the spin cycle.

Almost no one in Norway has dryers. That IS a bit odd. But really once you get the hang of it, i like the idea that we arn't using energy for it and that my bathroom has 3 square feet more space. (it's a tiny bathroom!)

It didn't take us long to get everything unpacked. Toys everywhere and as you can see that all important first load of washing done. Yay!
We like our neighbourhood. We have a green grocer right in our building and another bigger grocery store across the corner. That is convenient! The tram that goes right through the center of town has a stop on our corner too. Yeah, i like.

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Friday, June 26, 2009

The Opera house


We had to go and see the latest addition to the Oslo skyline, or water line as it were. The New Opera house, finished a couple of years ago and considered to be a huge feather in the cap of the Norwegian National pride. I am lucky to have such a generous cousin, and got an invite to her work's summer party which was held on the roof. The second photo is from the party (finally going home at midnight, as you see the sun was just casting its final rays on the city)
Anywho it was stupendus at night. Really, The final photo i ripped off of Wikipedia so that you could see the whole thing together. Here is a blurb about it, also from Wikipedia...

The Opera House was finished in 2007 with the opening event held on 12 April 2008. King Harald V of Norway opened the Opera House that evening at a gala performance attended by national leaders and royalty, including President Tarja Halonen of Finland, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. The main stage is 16 meters wide, and can be made up to 40 meters deep.
The structure provides a total area of 38,500 m² and includes 1,100 rooms, one of which has 1,350 seats and another has up to 400 seats. Total expenditures for the building project were planned at 4.4 billion NOK, but finished ahead of schedule, and 300 million NOK under budget.
The Opera won the culture award at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona in October 2008. Jury member Sir Peter Cook said of the Opera House that it "...in its scale, ambition and quality has raised the bar for Norwegian architecture.


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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

But when the sun shines!!


The weather has broken and things are looking fabulous! The reason Norway is so full of beautiful forests and lush gardens is those 244 wet days a year. That is a bunch! Last weekend we we lucky enough to be invited to a lovely farm, ownerd by a friend of my cousin.
The farm is all bio-organic. All fertilizer is "made" by the animals, and no chemicals are used on any of the vegetables grown there (huge hot houses full) and the animals are all fat and happy. We ejoyed lovely tomatoes and fresh eggs from the farm and they were to die for!
Evita and August ran around all day, being chased by swans and chasing each other. And the day never ended, since the sun sets at 11:30 at night everybody stayed up late and had a great time!
The last photo is a Norse sea god. Surrounded by a garden with plants from all of the different climates of the country. It was an amazing place.


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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Our new apartment on an unpronounceable street in Oslo!
















.....................................
This will be our address here in Oslo:


Eva Robbins & Jim Garrity
Grønlandsleiret 46
0190 Oslo
Norway


Here is a link to more photos of the apartment that were on the local real estate website. finn.no.We used that to connect directly to the Landlord. It is a great system and more economical for everyone. Yay!


Sunday, June 14, 2009

How cold IS Norway


Hei Hei as they say over here! We have been in Norway for one week and have already worn all the clothes that we brought with us. The surprising thing is that we wear all of them every day! Ok, well maybe it isn't that chilly here, but this weather will most certainly take some getting used to (I'm just saying it is JUNE!!)

This photo is of us arriving in town from the airport on our first day here (150 US$! taxi ride). It was pouring rain and chilly and August was thrilled: his only pre-arrival wish was for cold and rainy weather. He will be ecstatic when it sleets!

The second photo is from the little house here at my cousin's place. It is available to all of the owners here in the building. Barbro booked it for us for 2 weeks. It has lovely heating cables in the floor!

Since our arrival we have seen three apartments and are waiting to hear from the renter who's apartment we liked the best. But, as the were literally dozens of other folks looking at it, and as we don't have a Norwegian credit rating (!?) we are not as sanguine as we might otherwise be. We have also been to the botanical gardens, the Natural History museum & Ramme Gaard. All fun and elightening activities!

We have had lots of yummy cheese and bread, and our share of marzipan and chocolate too. Now I'm making myself hungry ....

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Thursday, June 04, 2009

A visit from Wendy and Dave


Wendy and Dave guests from Eden ended up in East Tennessee at the same time that we were there visiting my parents. Serendipity is a wonderful thing! They stopped by for the weekend and we had a lovely visit! My brother was there too with his kids, so it was really one BIG happy family.
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Dwayne Eric May 1961 - 2009


This is the saddest post that I have ever made. On Friday, May 29th, Dwayne passed away in Troncones. He did not suffer. Dwayne leaves behind a huge following of friends and fans. Christian hosted a memorial last night at Cafe Sol and it was attended by many of Dwayne's friends, locals and expatriates alike. There was not a dry eye in the house.

Dwayne was the heart, in the true sense of the word, at La Cocina del Sol. He made sure that all of his team was happy and taken care of, he also cared for his many clients and friends that came to enjoy his cooking and TLC. He rarely missed work and would come in on his days off to make sure that everything was as it should be. Dwayne's BBQ day was the most popular in all of Mexico, he always said that it was his favorite day of the week.

Dwayne, was a sweet man and a good person. He never failed to give August and Evita treats, and made sure that Estrella was so fat during the season that it took her all summer every summer to trim down. He never complained and was never judgemental or prejudiced in any way: a lovely friend and an integral part of the Eden family

The following is written by Christian:

Dwayne Eric May was born October 28th 1961 in Berkeley, CA. He attended Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, Ca. He went on to Santa Rosa Junior College and then received a scholarship for football to Texas Christian University. Dwayne was a two year letterman in football, playing a wide receiver, at TCU and graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice in 1985.

After College Dwayne began working in Forth Worth, TX, area restaurants. He was an apprentice to Phillipe Lecoq at the Restaurant Le Chardonnay, where he received his first formal training in 1989.

Later Dwayne moved to Hartford, CT where he was a restaurant Chef. The next stop was Los Angeles, CA where he worked for notable Chefs: Michel Richard, Mary Sue Milliken, Susan Feniger and Kazuto Matsusaka. Starting 1999 he was the Chef of NFL football player Keyshawn Johnson's highly regarded restaurant Reign.

In 2002 he moved to Troncones, Mexico and became the Chef of his longtime best friend, Christian Schirmer's restaurant La Cocina del Sol. It was here, that Dwayne became an icon and well known locals and visitors alike. His Sunday BBQ-s were known world wide. His time here was spent doing what he loved and enjoying the community. Dwayne was never married and had no children. He is survived by his parents, John Edward and Rose May of Santa Rosa, CA, as well as his brother Darrin May of Sacramento, CA and his sister Melanie.

Jim has chosen this poem:

The corn is sown again, it grows;
The stars burn out, the darkness goes;
The rhythms change, they do not close.

They change, and we, who pass like foam,
Like dust blown through the streets of Rome,
Change ever, too; we have no home,

But gathering as we stray, a sense
Of Life, so lovely and intense,
It lingers when we wander hence,

That those who follow feel behind
Their backs, when all before is blind,
Our joy, a rampart to the mind.

from The Passing Strange by John Masefield
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