Eating Pizza and Reading eBooks with Crickets on New Rugs.......!

Hi!

Well. Here we are, waaaay late but I guess that was expected............. am sorry. I've planned on checking in each weekend but the time just gets away from me sometimes. There just aren't enough hours in a weekend........! Anyways, we're here now - it's been a beautiful yet rainy and cool weekend, which is always a treat after six months of summer and knowing "winter" only lasts a month at the longest. The chores have all been done, laundry is all clean and happy and put away, the little apartment is tidy for another week of work. But, here we are now, got the always hip n' groovy jazz tunes, got a lovely glass of the new standby sparkling Prosecco, yes, life is good!

So, work. Yep. Was pretty quiet this past week, but that could also be another lull before a mountain

of work like the last couple of weeks have been. Quiet... quiet...... quiet...... then, bam! Mountain of work. But word on the street is the horrible project is coming back to darken my doorstep, although, am not sure why as the hours I put into editing their stuff the first time around was entirely ignored. I shudder to think of the state of it all now; I don't expect it to be much improved. Well, whatever, if they want to pay me to remind them what good technical writing should be, and then ignore my suggestions, so be it, it's their budget. Sigh. Ahhhh well, it is what it is and am always thankful and, errrrrr, 'happy' to have it - gainful employment that is!

And then there have been a few weekends in there........ They too have been pretty quiet....... Just the usual chores, and now that the weather has cooled off, much baking. I love baking - got a new baking cookbook and it's all I can do to just narrow one thing down to make! Have made a couple things with pretty good results so far! YUM! And then have been catching up on somewhat-neglected home computery things. Amazing how much time that can chew up. I spent the last few weekends fighting to get all my ebooks on and off my little tablet and into the e-library on my laptop - still haven't got there yet. I somehow have over 1,100 and lots of those are double and triple copies, not at all sure how that  happened. Wierd. But that takes hours and hours to play with. Anyways, weekends have been relaxing and quiet aside from baking up a storm and computer maintenancey stuff. It's tough staring at a computer for 8+ hours a day five days a week and then try to summon the will to do more of it in the evenings and weekends. Maybe I should start writing on big, yellow notepads and then transcribe it on the weekends - probably get more done that way! Old skool!

Otherwise, weather's been really really nice, tho a couple weekends ago it rained a lot, something we're not really used to here, especially in winter (the "Dry Season"). And we were threatened all the last few weeks that this weekend would be more of the same and it actually finally happened! Only took them a month of forecasting the same thing over and over again. Last weekend it was so nice I even took the car out for a spin and the debit card a workout. Ran errands I haven't run in ages - pet store, auto parts store - where the manager himself came out to check and run tests on my car's battery, which is in great shape if I say so myself, although low on a charge but that was because I'd just taken it out of the carport ten minutes earlier, and Pillow Talk (pillows, sheets, little rugs, etc). It was a good afternoon. Kittehs got a new scratching post and some crickets to chase and eat, the car got a little battery charger, and the bathrooms got new little rugs. Then, home and starving, I splurged and ordered pizza via Uber Eats. And y'know what, it was so totally worth the $$$$$ (which is to say, for what it is it's not actually that expensive). Ordered from local institution La Dolce Vita. Sooooo, so good. I'd actually been to the restaurant before but it's been yeeeeeears. Damn, it was good. I don't do it very often but when I do I make sure to get a few meals out of it, make it worth the effort. Heh, "effort". It's all done through your smart phone. The toughest thing is opening the front door and carrying the noms to the kitchen! And that has been pretty much the last few weekends - you haven't missed much as I'm sure you knew.

And that brings us to the next installment of the Big Nordic Adventure! So, up bright and early, I left Oslo for Kirkenes at the northern tippy top of Norway (with Russia just three miles away)! I arrived in the late morning and got to my hotel just in time to get a few amazing pictures of my view before the sun set for the day! It's a breathtakingly beautiful place. Tiny, tiny little town but it's right on the edge of fjords that lead out to the Barents Sea. It's also the last/first stop for the Hurtigruten coastal voyage that goes up and down the length of the Norwegian coast. I just rode it overnight from Kirkenes to Skjervoy, but I'd love to do the round-trip from Bergen and back, just not in winter next time!

And seeing as it was mid-winter, hence why the sun set around 2pm, the place was covered in snow and ice, and while I gave it a good try, my snow boots, awesome as they are, weren't necessarily made for walking on slick, lumpy, icy sidewalks and streets. I made two tentative laps around the hotel before nearly ending up on my behind right in front of the main dining room before I called it a "night" and went back inside for a late lunch and a glass of wine. And I have to say, lunch was soooooooooooooooooo gooooooood! A type of fish soup that they do in Norway and it was The Best. Not a lot to it but my god it was good. I think I've said it before, I wasn't afraid of going hungry once on this trip - the food was so, so good. Not so good for strict vegetarians, but excellent for meat and fish eaters!

And then after lunch I wandered around the inside of the hotel for a bit before heading back to my room to relax and get a sinkful of laundry done. A little side-note, if you ever want to travel light and need to do hand washing along the way, I picked up this awesome little clothesline from good ol' Rick Steves' store and I have to say it was the best $10 bucks I spent for the trip. Got every dime out of it and then some! Highly recommend it. And then I watched a bit of TV, heh, watch is all I could do because my Norwegian wasn't up to scratch, and just decided to call it a night. It's wierd when the sun goes down that early, even tho it's only say, 3 in the afternoon, if you're from anywhere in the middle of the world as opposed to the very top or very bottom, your body clock says, 'right, bedtime!'

Next day I was up and down in time for breakfast. At every hotel I stayed, breakfast was included, and it wasn't just some sorry piles of cereal and yogurt, it was the whole nine yards - hot food, all the cold stuff, fruits and local meats and cheeses - so, so good. It was great. And the hours it's available are humane as well, usually 6.30 until 10.30am. Excellent for folks like me who like to sleep in, even while on vacation! Then it was up to my room to get myself together in time to meet the boat, the Kong Harald, at noon-ish for the next leg of the Adventure. But as I was getting my things together there was a knock on my door - it was my friend from here in Brisbane, Julian! Long story short, we were traveling sort of parallel to each others' itinerary, and I knew we'd meet up in Norway at some point but his plans kept shifting. But that morning while I was having breakfast, he messaged that he'd arrived with the boat that we were going back out on that day (the cruise turns around and heads south again) and wanted to meet up for a wander around town before getting on the boat. Cooooool! Pretty trippy to see a friend from home when you're so far from home! And thankfully, having mentioned how slick and icy things were up around there, he brought me a pair of slip-on spikes for mah boots! So, spikes donned, off we went to explore the little town of Kirkenes. And boy, those spikes were most excellent - highly recommend picking some up if you find yourself in that kind of environment - I didn't slip or skitter once!

What can I say about Kirkenes....... It's small but has everything you need - library, little stores and boutiques, pizza, bars, etc, and like in southern California, or anywhere along the border of Mexico, everything is in two languages - Norwegian and Russian, although everyone speaks perfect English. We had enough time to do, basically, two circles around the town center before we had to get back to board the boat. It's just a little place but they apparently have a local history museum, the Borderland Museum, worth checking out and the Gabba Reindeer Safari Park is also meant to be worth a look and a pat. Unfortunately, we had time for neither because they're out of town a little bit and we were running out of time. But if I were to go back (And I really, really hope I do) I'd love to check them out!

So, after I checked out of the hotel we made our way down to the boat. Julian had ridden it all the way up from Bergen so he was, basically, just on an extended shore visit. Once on the boat and after checking in (why do I always end up last, behind the big, Chinese tour groups???), I dumped my things in my little room (cabin?) and he gave me the tour. It was nice dumping bags and going for a wander as everyone else was settling into their rooms so we had most of the boat to ourselves. We stood out on the back deck and watched as we pulled away from port and sailed through the fjords - but we could only enjoy it for about half an hour as the sun had set!

After bidding Kirkenes farewell, we went in and explored some more, had a drink at the bar, then went to dinner. It was really nice, good food, and all the crew were so nice, friendly, and laid-back, very relaxed and always had time for a chat (Julian, having sailed with them for the last 6 days, knew every member of crew!). But it was during dinner that our waiter informed us that later that evening, as we rounded the tip of Norway headed south, we were in for some serious rough waters due to the meeting of the Barents and Norwegian seas. Yikes. We watched as the word spread through the dining room and folks practically dropped their forks and headed for their rooms and staff started to anchor things down or stowed it all away. We were hours from that yet so Julian, having brought along a bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum to celebrate both our Big Nordic/European Adventures, we headed back to his cabin for a little glass of rum before heading back out to the main deck to do laps - gotta get your exercise while trapped on a boat!

After a few laps around the boat the seas started to get really rough. Well, at that point it was more the wind than anything else. We were the only ones out on any of the decks and didn't think things were too bad, until we rounded the front of the boat and the combination of wind and a few waves (and maybe one too many nips of rum) and I was blown back onto the deck! I held onto the rail as the wind knocked me down but lordy, the wind and waves made it tricky to get back up. Anyways, I got back up while Julian laughed at me and we powered on, commenting how rough things were getting and maybe we should think about calling it a night. Earlier in the evening the Captain had made an announcement that we'd start to enter rough seas around 11.30, midnight, and at that point it was only around 9.30, 10pm. We came around the corner and nearly ran smack into two of the biggest Viking sailors you'd ever seen. Apparently, the Captain had seen us blowing around out on the decks and angrily demanded we be brought in, that it was too rough for folks to be out there. We felt like little kids and straightened up and followed the one Viking in with the other trailing to lock the door behind us. Busted! We found out the next morning just how pissed the Captain was at us from Julian's crew-member friends. Gulp. I felt bad but Julian just shrugged it off. It was sure fun tho!

Anyways, after I wandered back to my room, the seas did get super rough and I think I got maybe an hour or two of sleep. I wasn't sick but was sure wobbly. I alternated between sleeping on the floor of my little room and the bed - I couldn't decide which felt more stable! It was only when we drifted back into the shelter of the fjords when the rocking back and forth stopped and I could get some sleep. But, next thing I knew it was morning and Julian and I were meant to meet to go explore Hammerfest when the boat docked. Having slept through the breakfast service (damn!) I quickly got ready and rushed down to meet him. We had a nice, brisk wander through town and up along a road/cliff just to see the view. And then had to hustle back down to get back to the boat on time. Hammerfest is a pretty little place with a really, really cool Polar Bear Society Museum right near where the boat docks that I only got to spend about five minutes in. It'd be a nice little town to explore......... Again, will have to make another visit!

And then we were back on the boat for most of the day/evening until we arrived at our respective departure ports, me at Skjervoy and Julian at Tromso, where our paths split until we met up again in northern Sweden a week or so later................. Which is where I will give you a break and pick up the next chapter next week (no really, next week, honest.....)!

So, aside from taking forever and a day to check in, all is well down here. Busy with the usual stuff, work, home, chores, baking, fighting with the computer, errands, the usual! I hope you've all been well up there? I see summer is settling in some parts of the country - stay strong folks, splurge and use the a/c and drink lots of water! Or, if you need a break, we'll have glorious weather until November-ish, so, c'mon down!!!!!

BYE!

~ J!

 

Productive Easter Break with Opera Off Ski Jumps Into Sculpture Parks!

Hi!

Well. Here we are. Late again. But I have good reasons, honest! Like, last weekend I was nearly finished writing when the internet slowed to a crawl and I had to give up. So, rather than bore you from scratch (because this weekend was a lot like last weekend minus the two extra days), I present to you what I'd already written!

Anyways, here we are on this exceedingly relaxing four-day weekend - hooray for Easter! Got a lot of those little jobs done around the place that had stacked up after a couple of months, if not more. And got the chores done, laundry's all done, floors are all happily vacuumed, rugs shaken out and flapping in the breeze, kittehs are guarding the place from out on the balcony and here in the spare room, under the bed - they're so good at this they do it lying down with their eyes closed! Good guard kittehs. Outside it's a beautiful autumn day, but really feels more like any season not summer. Clouds have arrived and look threatening but I know they're full of nothin' - ever since Cyclone Debbie came through, when she left she took summer (YAY!) and all the rain with her and we haven't had a drop since, or, well, nothing to write home about (har har har). Ahh well, it is the Dry Season now anyways....... And of course we have some groovy jazz tunes - I went back to check out my first favorite internet radio station to see if they calmed down with all the ads, and they have! I can actually listen most of the day with only one or two station IDs! EX-cellent. Before, it was a series of about four ads (and two were the same) after every three or so songs. Pretty annoying. But I see they've calmed down and I can listen again. Now I've jinxed it for sure. And of course, we have a very nice, chilled, new stand-by sparkling, Zilzie Prosecco - yes, life is good!

So, work. Yep. Got super busy for a bit there and then it dropped right off. I've put my hand up to go help another project but he ignores me and wants me to go help the useless project, which I won't. So, for now, I just wait for something interesting to come my way.......... We're in the process of being poolified - collecting us all on a neat and tidy org chart and putting us all in a pool of technical writers, illustrators and the one editor, me - that's sure smart of them. It's funny, but not really, how the folks that love the idea of a pool don't ever have to work from within one. Hmm. Anyways, am just happy to have the job at all, so, I shall wear my sunscreen and hope for the best!

And then there have been a few weekends in there....... Well. The last two weekends were spent doing an online course to become a Justice of the Peace (Qualified)! Not sure why I think it's such a good idea but it just seemed the right thing to do. But first you have to do a course before you apply to the state to become one for reals. The course took two full weekends with time spent over the week chipping away at the homework assignments. My teacher told me most folks do the course in four days but that some have done it in two. I am not at all sure how they managed to do it in four let alone two unless those folks don't have full-time jobs and lives to maintain during those hours because I was flat-out. Even the chores were neglected so I could devote all my time to it. Two days, my butt. Anyways, all that hard work paid off and I passed! My teacher mailed to me my "Statement of Attainment" kit with the certificate I need and instructions how to apply to make it all official and stuff (so many little hurdles to jump). So there you go - if you have any Australian Commonwealth or Queensland documents you need an official witness for, I'm your JP (Qual)!!!! Well, I will be soon, anyways.

And then there was this weekend....... Pretty relaxing and somewhat productive. Got the chores and little jobs done, with one of those little jobs being pretty gratifying - going through the closet and dresser and taking anything I haven't worn in ages to give to H & M to recycle. For every bag of "textiles" you bring in you get a 15% off coupon (for one item, but still) - I have nine bags! I mean, we're not talking Hefty bag size, just little plastic grocery bag size, and they're not stuffed to the gills - I made that mistake my first time donating - I thought you got a coupon for 15% off your total bill - nope. That's 15% off one item. Ahhhhhh. Anyways, it's pretty cool what H & M do - they'll take any textile - old bras to old sheets, curtains, socks and everything in between as long as it's a fabric, they do whatever they do to it - sell it second-hand if it can be re-worn or shred it and spin it into stuff like insulation or new clothes. Pretty cool I think, considering they're part of the worst offenders club of folks who produce lots and lots of cheap, throwaway fashion that usually ends up in garbage dumps. Cooooooool. And I have a tidier closet and dresser!

And speaking of mass-produced, cheap, throwaway Swedish stuff, I really had to take the poor neglected car out for a spin so we went down to my old favorite, Ikealand! And I'm proud to say I made a list and stuck to it, more or less, and got out of there for under $140 bucks! Go me! Either I'm getting old or Ikea hasn't been putting out cool stuff because over these last few years I've noticed their selection hasn't been all that great, nor is it as prolific as it used to be. It seemed like before they had tons of choices and styles for everything, but now, it doesn't seem as diverse. Like, when you wander through the bathroom section, the "design your own bathroom" desk takes up half the area, where before it was just full of stuff to give you ideas - you could do it yourself with no hand-holding. Hmmm. Maybe I'm just over them? But who doesn't love 100 tea lights for $4.99 and the odd $39 throw rug?! While I was wandering around it occurred to me that I hadn't been there since the end of December of last year (and not this past Dec, the one before)......... Go me! And I have to say, every time I leave I feel a little disappointed that they just didn't have cooler stuff. I used to get alllll kinds of ideas wandering through there. Maybe it's living in my "newer" apartment (it was built in 1990) and not such a tiny, old (1940+/-) dumpy one with zero storage. Dunno. I should just be happy I don't need stuff I guess! Tho I do have my eye on two of their big, comfy chairs to replace my sofa....... Hmm. Oh, and a new bed would be good..................! Well, either way, I now have at least 350 tea lights to get me through the not very dark Queensland winter!

And speaking of winter, that leads me to the next installment of the Big Nordic Adventure - Norway! So, I bid Kerry and Iceland a fond farewell and set off for Oslo next, where I spent the next six days wandering around - I don't think I realized how much time I was actually going to spend there.... But it was more fun and interesting than Copenhagen I have to say, even if the weather was lots crappier! The first three days were my "free days" before I started my big 15-day tour of Norway and Sweden, which included three days in Oslo. Anyways, the city itself was cool, small-ish, and like I said, only one of those six days had nice weather, the rest of the time it was damp, foggy and coooooold (hooray for the best winter coat ever!)! But it was beautiful, they have a lovely harbor where sits one of the coolest opera houses outside of Sydney. The day I went it was absolutely blanketed in fog (and a thin layer of snow and ice) but it just made it even cooler and kind of sinister (maybe I'd seen too many Norwegian crime shows?). After walking, carefully, up and down the slick, icy stairs I got up to the roof and chickened out (either that or it was roped off so idiots don't slide off the edge), but up there had the neatest, foggy views - it must be beautiful in nicer weather. Then I headed inside to check the place out and to defrost for a bit over a glass of champagne, along with a wander through their gift shop. It's a pretty cool building and if I'd thought ahead I really would've liked to've done the tour or seen a show there. Oh well, another time!

          

        

On another day I took myself to check out the really interesting sculpture park, the Vigeland Park. Now, I've never really been a sculpture kinda person, even after millions of trips to the Met in NYC I was just never that buzzed by it, but this stuff was pretty neat, especially in the dead of winter, which I think made it way more interesting. I managed to spend a fair few hours wandering up one end and down the other. So if sculpture is your thing, I highly recommend it!

    

 

On yet another day I took myself out to the end of one of the local train lines, Holmenkollen, and its local ski jump and museum. Again, I'm not a skier so needless to say I didn't go inside the museum, even if it was the only thing open up there the day I went because the day I picked to go, why, it was foggy and snowing!!! That was OK, it was still super neat to see, well, what I could see, and what I did see scared the ever living crap out of me - as the jump descended it completely vanished into fog and snow. Lord, there isn't enough money in the world would make me go down one of those. Oh, hell no. But in saying that, if the zipline had been running when I visited, I might very well have done that............! So, all up I wandered around there maybe an hour, and that included the pretty good trek from the train station and back. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one making the trip that day, there were loads of folks out to see this ski jump in crappy weather! So I didn't feel so bad. In fact, a fair few of the folks that got off the train at the same time I did got back on at the same time - we'd all seen all there was to be seen in the short time it took to see it!

Then, when I got back into town, seeing as I still had the better part of a day to explore, I took some advice from good ol' Rick Steves and headed over to the pretty impressive City Hall. Wow. You can wander all over in there and no one chases you off the floor or out of the rooms. And the Xmas tree was yuuuuuge! And detailed murals all over the place. It was amazing, a monument to successful Scandinavian socialism. I spent an excellent afternoon there. Then, getting hungry, I wandered over to the newly revitalized waterfront area, Aker Brygge, and settled on, not the Big Horn Steakhouse as you'd expect, but a little place across from it called Jacob Aall Brasserie and Bar. And as expected they all had revitalized waterfront prices. So I just had the kid's cheeseburger and a teeny little bowl of fries, and a couple of the local beers. And y'know, it was really good (either that or I was starving). It was a pretty swish-looking place but the staff were friendly and zippy and didn't mind that I had a kid's meal, they were happy I spent my money on their beer! And by the time I'd finished it was around 4.30pm and the sun had truly set. Somehow, for not knowing where I was really, I had a good wander through that part of town I hadn't been, picked up a few little things in the gift shops and found my way back to my hotel. That was a good day.

                 

Then, bright and early the next morning I was off to the northernmost tippy top of the country, Kirkenes - which I will save for next week (errrrr, next week, fer sure, honest)!!! In the meantime, if you guys need a new TV show to watch, I highly recommend Occupied, a Norwegian crime-drama, where a bit of it takes place around Kirkenes (and Oslo)......!

Overall, I quite liked Oslo, would go again just wouldn't spend so much time in the city, and it'd be nice to get over to see Bergen..... And y'know, I didn't even really mind it in the winter, tho it would be neat to see in summer - it'd be an almost different city!

So, I hope you're all well up there. Am sorry, again, for the delays checking in, first I was, well, away, then come back to have the internet crap out, then get it back (more or less) only to do that course, then got lazy, etc. Will try to check in more often, honest! Anyways, I suppose the weather up there has finally gotten to a point where life is bearable again, but when it shifts to the furnace of summer, or not - looking at you Portland and Seattle, feel free to c'mon down where it'll be winter here and I can bore you to death with alllllll the photos from mah big Nordic Adventure! Just kidding, I'll bore you to death only half the time - the rest we'll chase kangaroos and pat koalas!

BYE!
J ~