Julegaver!

Hello world! We are in preparations for our epic journey to Canada. Tomorrow, I will take the kitties to Pusenfryd (a play on the amusement park Tusenfryd, meaning "a thousand smiles") which will be an undertaking itself - two cats, 15 minutes in a car, a ferry, another 30 minutes drive.... I'm sure they are both very excited. Then we're taking the 14:50 hurtigbåt to the airport and flying to London via Oslo. Two days in London, where the most generous Mike Wood has lent us his flat, and then on to Vancouver via Toronto on Monday, overnight in Vancouver, and finally on the 23rd we will fly to Bella Coola. PHEW!

In the picture you can see the christmas gift from the Ulstein group to all of their employees, a beautiful woolen blanket. Mysteriously, it is not plastered with Ulstein all over it, and not a boat in site. Just fishies! Works for me. The cats love it too.

Our favourite restaurant and bar here in Ulsteinvik, Snorrebuda, has gone bankrupt and closed which meant our weekly Norwegian speaking group was held at our house instead, where we had delicious shortbread cookies from my grandma's recipe, courtesy of the fabulous mixer I purchased using Rene and John's birthday present. Thanks guys!

Anyhoo, I must get back to loads of laundry and packing, with a little work interspersed. I'm a little too excited about the trip to settle down to work!

All the best,

Kes

Yepp, that's 9 am in the morning and the beginning of suggestion of sunrise out our windows.

We have been very busy of late with the holiday season and my birthday. Last night was the company julebord - direct translation is "christmas table". Of course, it is more than the table! This is the company office party, which served a full dinner to 400 people last night. We arrived at 7 pm to a bunch of speeches which we caught some of, then were hustled into one of the three seating areas where we were served pinnekjøtt ("peen-uh-chuhtt" - Ashley) (dried salted lamb ribs), ribbe (pork rib served with the fat and skin on), mor (sheep sausage) and all the fixins'. Of course the main topic of conversation was whether or not we liked julemat (christmas food), which Norwegians are rightly very proud of. Luckily we didn't have to fib because we do like it!

Other than that, observations of the holiday party was that like any other christmas party around the world, the booze was flowing. However, as a difference, about 25% were not drinking, I presume due to a combination of principles and the very strict drinking and driving laws (one drink here is too many to drive). People were quite dressed up, and as my father reported from London, black is THE colour this season. After dinner people started dancing to a random assortment of music, but you will have to wait until Ashley wakes up for details of that because at that point, I went home. I've been fighting a cold for what seems like forever and I really want to be well by Friday when we TRAVEL HOME!!! YAY!!

Talk to you later,
Kes