A new Kromfohrländer friend!

Facebook is pretty darn useful, say what you will. :) Yesterday, I saw somebody proudly posting a photo of her new Kromfohrländer puppy, and the puppy happened to have just moved to Bergen (from Sweden)! And today we already met! :-) 

A lovely lady with two lovely dogs - and all our dogs got along very nicely! And the very best: the lady trains Rally obedience (Rally-TOKO) with her older dog (the puppy is still working on sit and come and don't pee inside... ;) ) and even goes to competitions! I can join her for training one day, to see whether I like the place where she trains. Yay! :-)

Meet (David) Bowie! :-D

An 11-weeks old, smooth-haired Kromfohrländer.

And an 8-year old Border Collie, whose name slipped my mind...

(wasn't as catchy as David Bowie)

I hope this will turn into a wonderful bromance!!! :-D

I proudly present:

My very own pipe installation! :-D

Beautiful, isn't it!? :-D

My washing machine had refused to work properly. A mechanic came over and gave me a very, very, very expensive lesson in basic physics. In short, I will remember "syphoning" for life now. So in the end, money well spend, I'd say! ;-)

Plus the mechanic was equally entertaining as he was expensive. :-D He was a short man from Iceland, telling me passionate diving stories (Bergen is a diving paradise, believe it or not!) and ranting over the stupid Norwegians and their stupid habits of doing things the wrong way and the stupid rain that never stops (we are currently having quite the rain streak...)... just to finish with the words: "I love Norway, I love Bergen, and I'll never move away from here!" :-D

(P.S.: And yes, I made damn sure there is no syphoning no more! ;-) )

fancy, fancy...

I received a letter - all written in Norwegian. It had something to do with the new car and the loan I took out for it. And politely enough, the letter started with an English sentence, stating that if I would like to know what the letter is all about, I should call a number... And when I did, a recorded voice explained to me - in English - the content of the letter and why I had received it! Now that's what I call foreigner-friendly!!! :-D

Farewell, beloved Yaris!

Yesterday, I had to say goodbye to a not-so-old friend... my Toyota Yaris, first car of mine, adventurous, reliable, and oh so economic! :-) You wouldn't believe how emotional saying goodbye to a T H I N G can be. :-D Must be all the good memories... 

Initially I was to stay in Norway for just one year. Hence, I could keep my car and its Finnish registration plates. But now that I stay here for longer, Norwegian authorities want money - LOTS OF IT. Cars don't count as property and need to be imported. For my 11 year-old and 271.960 km-driven Yaris that would have cost around 4000 Euro. Yep. A little insane. And as much as I love my Yaris, but I wouldn't bet this much money on it. ;-) So with a bleeding heart, I decided to give it away. Well, that's actually putting it nicely for "having it taken apart and demolished"... ;-(

And at the same time I went through a quick decision process and bought a new car! All Norwegian, including the registration plates! :-D Just imagine the emotional rollercoaster! :-D

On Monday, I went to Oslo (it was cheaper there), bought the car and drove it back to Bergen - feeling a little guilty, because I loved the new car so much already. ;-) And I think, my Yaris was not too pleased with me replacing him this quickly... Because with his last tankful, he drove me 878 km!!! A new record. And something the new car will never ever achieve... But my, it's pretty! :-D 

Today, I then forced myself to drive a little with the new car. :-D Until now it has only been parked in front of the house. I am so scared to scratch it. Or make it dirty. I usually don't care too much about these things - a car is a tool, eh!?! But with this new, shiny and expensive tool in the house I have re-evaluated my attitude. ;-) For now.

First proud picture of my Yaris in 2012

I only bought a car, because I was expecting a puppy. ;)

Last photo in 2017... ;)

Buying the new car gave me a nice chance to take a quick look at Oslo. I always wanted to visit "Vigelandsparken", a sculpture park. The weather wasn't optimal, but still I really liked it! It is so very impressive! I have to go visit this park again some day! The rest of Oslo... not worth mentioning. ;) But maybe I was just driving around the wrong ends of the City.

here a few impressions of Vigelandsparken:

Must bring luck to rub this boys hand! :-D

Snowy adventures

I always wondered, whether I could go hiking/skiing with the boys in deep snow, without any tracks. The answer is simply: yes, of course! They enjoy just about anything outdoors! :-)

Now the only thing missing are some fine fjellskis for me!! :)

Luxury goods?

I love flowers! And I used to pamper myself with cut flowers - just because. :) But then I moved to Finland, and flowers were suddenly so much more expensive... But because I do love flowers, I still kept buying seasonal flowers. Occasionally.

Now I live in Norway, and I think my dear self-pampering custom will come to an end. Because holy moly cut flowers are truly expensive here! A few days ago, I saw the first tulips and overjoyed I almost bought a bouquet - thankfully my subconsciousness made me take a second look at the price. 30 Euro for 15-20 tulips! Today, I saw my favourite flowers in the shop: ranunculus! :-) But I couldn't make myself buy a bouquet for 26-44 Euro! Norwegians were buying them quite a lot - which makes me think they must truly love somebody at home! ;-)

Or then do I remember the prices for flowers wrongly? Maybe these are just normal prices nowadays?? Because in that case, I'd go back to the shop and pamper myself with some ranunculus! :-D

Tulips were 'cheaper' in the shop today, though. Still...

As consolation, I bought this cool flower pot instead (lower one)! Only 12 Euro, but everlasting, if I don't kill it. And it has spider legs!!! I almost forgot about the ranunculus. Almost. :-D

Favorite Weekend

Last weekend couldn't have been any better: I was invited to a skiing holiday weekend. Perfection! :-) Nice people, nice cabin, nice location, nice weather... Nice, nice, nice! :-) I even went to sauna after a long break! And I could bring the boys with me, which is always the cherry on my icing! :-D And oh, how happy the boys were! Especially Charlie likes company so very much! It even took him again a few days after the trip to accept that he is again alone with me... in silence... poor boy. ;-)

I am now impatiently waiting for the winter sales. I can't wait to buy my own skies! And then I intend to become fully Norwegian... with hiking in summer time and skiing in winter time. And all the healthy lifestyle in between. (the latter being a bit of a problem...) ;-)

I am so happy that I live here now! I am surrounded by things I love. And on top of everything, I have met such wonderful new friends! If I were religious, I'd feel blessed - but I am not, so I feel very lucky instead! :-D

our cabin

The ear, the ear, the ear is on fire... ;-)

 There wasn't as much snow as in previous years, but enough for skiing anyways.

 This is in Hemsedal, in case anybody wants to go there as well. :)

There are sooo many tunnels in Norway,

they've got to add colour effects in order to make it not too boring! ;-)

The sunny days continued also in Bergen, and I got to admire a superb sunset. :-)