Gol to Oslo

Well, that was on the negative side of what I would call 'exciting'. I must be getting old, but last minute journeying is not my idea of fun. I am sure it is exacerbated by my Croatian genes, which require me to ideally be ready to get on a train, plane or boat at least four hours in advance of it leaving.

Anyway, I was praying to anyone who might be up there to get me to the airport on time and to preferably delay my flight. It turned out the flight was not only fully on time, but actually all ready to leave (and arrive) early except for one thing: I wasn't on it. I even had the embarrassment of having my name called out at the airport – telling me to hurry up. I have to confess that the last remnants of 'nice Nina' left me at that point and I wanted to shout at them and tell them that it wasn't my fault a Norwegian hurricane took down the Norwegian power lines and made my Norwegian train late, such that my short little English-Croatian legs had to run through the Norwegian airport with no Norwegian travelators to speed my journey, in order that I might get to their gate on time. I will also confess that once the gate was in sight and it was not yet the official latest time to board, I stopped to ask a kind bar lady to fill up my water bottle, which she did. There was no need for them to shout for me. I was right next to them.

Anyway, I finally boarded to face a full plane of intermittently bored and sympathetic faces. The relief I felt was phenomenal. The pilot happily told us that we were still ahead of time and so we sat and waited to take off…and then we sat and waited some more. It turned out that it wasn't just me slowing things down – the tow truck was stuck to the side of the plane and they couldn't get if off! As it was, we only left 10 minutes late, but I really didn't care. I was grateful to be on the plane at all.

I had a beautiful holiday in Norway with my wonderful brother and my generous and easy-going second sister. I felt very sad to be leaving them, knowing that they are now living further away than they once did and not knowing when I will be sharing a physical space with them again. I guess that’s the downside of loving people that are spread around the world. I feel their absence wherever I am.

But then I stop and think of the silver lining. I might feel the absence of loved ones wherever I am, but I also feel the presence of loved ones in many places across the world. I am, in that respect, a very lucky person. Despite being sad to leave my brother and second sister, I am happy to be going home to a country where I understand the implications of the varied yet somehow predictable weather.

Off I go again tomorrow on a hopefully more relaxing trip into London to see my 'first' sister. Just let me get home first and lay my head on my own pillow…