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

"Stuff" from the last few months.

Okay, back on the wagon again! I'm really excited that Kes has started posting, but it has made it even that much more obvious that I haven't been!

...well, that, and it makes it obvious that I leave myself logged into my google account at home, so that she ends up posting under my login. Huh.

So, many things have happened since I last wrote. Here are some highlights:

My parents were here in October - celebrating their anniversary with us. It was wonderful to have them here, so that they can see more about our life here than the little bit we can relate to them through a computer screen and a telephone. We met them for four days in Stavanger, first (again, location and date dictated by the rugby schedule), and then travelled home on our own, to meet up with them again for a second four days in Ulsteinvik. In the interim, they took boats (one to Bergen, one the rest of the way up to Ålesund) up the Norwegian coast.

I won't go into too much detail on that - suffice to say that we had a great time, and it was great to show them our life here.

The domestic rugby season concluded with a flurry of trips. All in all, my weekends since I got here have included four trips to Trondheim, two trips to Stavanger, one trip to Bergen, two trips to Fredrikstad, one trip to Tønsberg and six trips to Oslo. Oh, and one trip to Copenhagen. Wow. The best was last, though, refereeing the national club final between Oslo and Bergen. Oslo won, 20-13 in a pretty good game, though one played in chilly, slick conditions.

Still, the big prize is up next. FIRA, the European amateur rugby association, has seen fit to appoint me to referee an international game. Now, to be clear, this is pretty much the lowest level of international rugby on Earth. The match I've been appointed to referee is Bosnia & Hercegovnia vs. Azerbaijan, in Zenica, Bosnia. Bosnia & Hercegovnia are currently 89th (of 95) on the world rankings table, and Azerbaijan haven't yet played enough international matches to be ranked at all! Still, it's a fantastic opportunity, and I'm really excited. The match is on the 22nd of November - wish me luck!

Kes reported on our Hallowe'en party, which was a roaring success, and it has been both cause and effect of our social circle here in Ulsteinvik growing, particularly among other ex-pats. The other causes have been several, including two new Norwegian language courses (one Bokmål, one Nynorsk), our growing confidence, in general, in the language and, of course, Kes's fantastic social organizing skills. As just one example, we now have a Norwegian conversation group on Wednesdays from 7-8pm at a local café/bar. For that hour, we are only allowed to speak Norwegian. We had eight (from six countries) on our first night, and I think we'll have more this Wednesday. Funny how a beer or two sometimes improves one's language abilities...

A friend here berated me the other day for my blogging having failed to report on my other sporting involvement - Flø IL. Yes, I have finally given up and started playing soccer ("fotball"). I decided, over the summer break, when there wasn't much else going on, that it would be a good idea to do something to keep in shape, because I am not one for going to the gym on my own. Kes had met a fellow marine biologist here who plays with a local club, Flø, and he invited me to come out with them. Quickly, I proved to decrease the average ability on the club, and while everyone was very welcoming, I think they were secretly happy that I didn't expect to actually pull on a jersey on game day. Still, the club puts out two teams - an 11-a-side "serious" team, that competes in the local 6th division (two regional 6th div's feed one 5th, and so on up, until you reach the 1st divsion, which is a national division - that's the one that Hødd is in), but they also have a 7-a-side team, which is really just for laughs, and exists so that everyone gets a decent chance to run around.

Now, the type of guy who shows up for the 7-aside team doesn't want to play in goal. Really, the only reason he bothers to show up is to run around, kick the ball - maybe score, if things work out. So I showed up to my first 7-aside match, not dressed to play, and expecting to cheer, and maybe retreive stray balls. The guys sized me up, and none of them wanting to play goal, decided to put me there. I went along with the plan, and ended up playing there for the rest of the season - 4 games. Let me tell you - I am terrible. In my four matches, we lost by scores of 8-3 , 8-6, 7-6 and - wait for it - 20-13. That's right - twenty goals in a soccer match. It was a bit ridiculous. Still, the guys in the club have been great, and it's been really nice to have non-work links to people who actually live here, rather then just ex-pats and rugby players who live 500 km away. I'll practice this winter and see whether I can maybe lower my goals-against-average a bit next year - maybe even win a game.

It's getting very dark here, now. Sunrise is technically about 9am, but it "rises" behind a hill, so we don't see it until about 10. It sets again at 4 but, again, more like 3:30. Those times aren't that strange, having grown up in Bella Coola, because of the mountains that block the sun in the winter through so much of the Valley. Still, the sky is light through much more of the day there. This, now, is like Bella Coola on the darkest day of the year - and we've still got six weeks of "darkening" to go.

We're planning to go back to Bella Coola over Christmas. We will be gone from Ulsteinvik for two weeks, but with travel time, plus two nights in London and three in Vancouver (one coming, two going), we'll only be in Bella Coola for a week. Still, I'm really looking forward to it - my family, of course, but it's been a long time since I've been back to Bella Coola itself, as well.

Anyway, enough for now.

Cheers,

Ashley

Halloween in Ulsteinvik!

So we had a little Halloween party in Ulsteinvik, and invited all of our new friends. Norway hasn't really gotten into Halloween, and unfortunately many who observe the holiday here have adopted the negative aspects like pranks and throwing eggs at houses without much of the positivity. As a result, many Norwegians that we have talked to are actively against Halloween.

However, we were able to convince our new friends that it was a good idea, although it did take some explaining what we were going to "do" at a Halloween party. Getting a pumpkin was also a challenge, finally I found some that cost $4 a kilo. So two tiny pumpkins were about $16 each. I also made some "witches fingers" cookies, and I attempted to make a white chocolate "slime" but I don't have a double boiler so I burnt it. I had ordered some costumes from Ebay some time ago, and I also picked up a few extra masks at the Nille (expensive Norwegian version of a dollar store) for guests who might not have gotten masks but want to participate. Ashley carved the pumpkins and we discovered that Riker likes pumpkin. Who would've guessed?

The big night was a roaring success, with guests from 12 different countries :-) Everyone had a great time, we played some halloween games, mingled, and even people who weren't so sure at the beginning were very happy to have had their first halloween party. Then we went out to one of the local bars and I won best costume :-) Not that hard in Ulsteinvik, admittedly, but I did feel a sense of accomplishment nonetheless.

That's all for now, we're off to have tacos at our Venezuelan and German friends.

Kes

Snow!

Well I guess since this is technically a joint blog I ought to post once in a while. This is officially my first blog EVER so excuse me if I'm unaware of any blogger protocols....

Today we had our first snow in Ulsteinvik, which rapidly deposited between 5-10 cm in the course of 30 minutes. The cats were not particularly moved either way. I thought we would definitely hear some complaining, or they would be fascinated, but they don't seem to care at all. It was challenging getting the little VW polo up our hill with summer tires on snow, but luckily I have Newfoundland driving experience and no mere snowfall will defeat me.

All the best,

Kes

Bergen, for real this time.

Kes and I went to Bergen this weekend. Of course, the destination was picked by the rugby schedule - I didn't have a refereeing appointment this weekend, and the Trondheim club was short of players, so I jumped in with them and played a game. We won't discuss the score, but it was good to get out on the field in contact a bit.

It was our first real trip to Bergen (not counting my flying trip to have supper with Tricia.) Both Kes and I really liked Bergen. It's a great city, really, with many buildings several hundreds of years old, and lots of beautiful spaces in the downtown.

We drove down (about 6 and a half hours) on Friday night. We stayed with a member of the Bergen Rugby Club who happens to have a house only a few blocks from the waterfront downtown. The house seems like a bit of a "fixer-upper", but it's over 100 years old, so it's still really neat. With the game at 3:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, we wandered around town in the morning. First up was a trip up the "Fløibanen" cable car, which brings you from almost sea level up to near the top of Fløyfjellet (Fløy mountain) at 320m (a little over 1,000 feet). The view over Bergen is fantastic. Bergen has a great natural harbour, which was the reason why the Hanseatic League made it the primary trading city in Norway starting in about the 1300s. However, it is surrounded by steep hills and mountains, that form a bowl that the city sits in. Thus, the views are fantastic.

After coming back down, we wandered around Bryggen, the UNESCO world site that preserves the old market centre of Bergen. There was a food festival on, so we checked that out. There were all sorts of different items on display, with a heavy emphasis on ecological products from local farms. Then there was the game, and the post-game celebrations, but we explored again a bit on Sunday with the aquarium our primary destination. The aquarium turned out to be fantastic, almost a zoo in their tropical exhibits, including crocodiles and monkeys. We had a great time - Kes especially (easy way to make points with your marine biologist wife - take her to an aquarium).

Anyway, off to bed.

Cheers.

One Month Later...

Wow - a month since I last wrote. Sorry.

With Kes home, my social calendar has suddenly become full. Of course, I do mean time with her, but somehow we now have people over for dinners and drinks, and we go over to people's houses, as well.

Huh.

I think I had somewhat fallen comfortably into bachelorhood while she was away - Sure I cleaned the place (not as often) and cooked for myself (frozen pizza & spaghetti), but the calendar just wasn't as full, and I hadn't noticed. Oh well, I'm excited she's back, and it is great to be doing so much.

Since I last wrote, I went to Fredrikstad for the Scandinavian U-20 rugby tournament, Copenhagen for the Copenhagen 7's, Oslo for a friendly game that the Oslo club had set up, Trondheim for the national 10-aside tournament, and back to Oslo for a regular season game just last weekend. I can definitely say that jumping in with both feet to the Norwegian rugby community has paid fantastic travel dividends! Kes has been coming with me on all the trips, and we've been exploring the country.

Some random items, and then I think I'll sign off - I don't have that much time, but I really wanted to get "back on the wagon" of writing this, to update friends and family.

-My boat is now officially "under construction" - we were emailed photos of some random-looking pieces of cut steel from Poland at the beginning of April. They will, one day, become a part of the boat I'm spending all my time on. It's really exciting.

-The yard will be actually be providing a Norwegian language course on-site this fall, and they've been sure to invite Kes - I'm really happy. It will be very convenient, and apparently it will be Bokmål. I am still somewhat divided on which version of Norwegian I would like to speak, but Kes, with her academic aspirations, is pretty confirmed that she would like to learn Bokmål.

-Though the days are still relatively (to southern Norway, or Canada) long here, now, they're so much shorter than my mental images of this place. Since my first six months here will have been the longest-daylight six months, I suspect I will always think of the summer twilight nights when I think of the weather here. (Though we'll see after I've lived through six months of long nights!) It certainly was odd to drive down the main road here the other night, and realize that I had never driven in Ulsteinvik in the dark before then!

-I discovered that I can get the Daily Show with Jon Stewart here! It seems to be a few days behind, but good nonetheless - it's on NRK 2, in prime time - I think it goes over really well here.

-I've managed to get Kes and I registered to vote in Canada. I discovered that for the first five years we live overseas, we retain the right to vote in federal elections in Canada.

-There are two new members of our "ex-pat world" here in Ulsteinvik, an Australian guy who has moved here to join Ulstein Design and a Chinese woman who has joined Ulstein International (both are spin-off companies from the original shipyard business, but still housed on the same grounds). We really are a United Nations, with people just in our close friend circle (people who've sat on our couch) from Germany, Romania, Venezuela, New Zealand, Australia, England, Canada, China and, of course, Norway. All under 30. All moving to Ulsteinvik because of the opportunities. What a success story.

-Like much of the world, the economy is slowing in Norway. However, it's tough to see that from this vantage point. We're signing contracts here, there and everywhere; the company just announced the invention of yet another new feature for offshore vessels that will probably continue to shunt business in our direction that might otherwise have gone to cheaper labour destinations; we continue to have more work than people (a fact which is becoming more evident to me the more we get into the "real work" on my boat); and BMWs and baby strollers are still in strong evidence on the streets of Ulsteinvik. It feels a bit surreal, particularly with all the doom and gloom economic news from around the world.

-The American election is big news here, of course, but I think the start-up of the English soccer season is getting more press than that (or any other news topic).

Anyway, must run.

Cheers,

Ashley