Silver linings

So I finally get to Heathrow, make it through passport control and pick up my bag remarkably quickly. I find my coach stop back to Reading. I wait. An Italian man asks me about where to buy a ticket. I am very helpful and friendly to him. I wait some more. I realise the last two buses have not come. I call my man and the coach website says last coach went 15 minutes before I ever had a chance of getting to it. The Italian man never came back to tell me that I was waiting for a bus that would never come.

I check the London underground. None are working. There are buses into London, but no trains back out of London. Most people I know are out of London visiting family. There is no way for me to get home except by taxi.

I call my insurance people to ask if they'd pay for a cab. The people I need to speak to are not available until 8.30am tomorrow morning. They cannot help me. What is the point of Platinum cover if they are not there when I need them?

I feel discouraged. I speak to my man and he tells me he will drive three hours to come and get me. My heart lifts. I find a 24-hour cafe with leather sofas AND decaf tea AND soya milk. And, it would appear, wifi access, though somewhat pricey. I am not stranded after all, and I am sitting here with tea and chocolate cupcake. Shortly I will do some work I need to do before the end of this week.

Although none of what happened today is quite how I would have liked it to be, I am okay and I will be home by midnight or shortly after. Nothing disastrous has happened. I am just tired and slightly disgruntled. I am grateful that things are not as bad as they could be.

I am smiling. :-)

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…

First ever knitted scarf

And this is my present to myself. My first ever attempt at knitting - a scarf with tassels.

Norwegian Xmas hat

Courtesy of my brother's girlfriend. Very happy me!

Happy Christmas 2011

Happiness is...

...sitting in front of a deliciously warm wood burning stove, with a cup of tea, a bowl of dark chocolate mixed up with dried fruit and nuts, good company chilling out around me, and attempting to knit my own scarf.

Very meditative and peaceful. Happy Ninki.

Snow hair

So this is apparently what happens to breathed-on hair when it's below -15*C. You'll see the same happened to my scarf too. I found it absolutely fascinating. My nostrils kept sticking together as the same also happened to my nasal hairs and the cartilage felt as if it was ossifying - this was rather uncomfortable and unpleasant, I have to confess, but I loved the whole head-hair thing!

Anyway, my hair felt crispy as if it had been deep fried, yet turned wet when I held it as presumably the ice started to melt. Such a peculiar thing. The things you discover in different climates is just wonderful. Who'd have thought that hair could be so amazingly entertaining!

The happiness ripple

This was my thought for the day, which made me smile when it arrived in my inbox courtesy of Inner Space.

When you're happy, your happiness ripples out to other people - at work, at home, even to the strangers around you.

Your happiness gives others hope. It makes a difference. So spread the warmth of happiness.

Random Norwegian (and other) things

In no particular order, we came across a table of Norwegian gingerbread houses, made by local adults and children.

Little gingerbread houses

Little hungry woodpecker - for my Mama and Dad

And then me and my lovely brother wandered up to the local transformer (part of the hydroelectric station). Took some pictures of us, ice crystals, barbed wire and random metal things (aka the transformer).

Bro and me

Transformer

Ice crystals

Flying pigs

Night snow

On one of the last days of my lovely man's presence here in Norway, we went for a walk in the evening's very long twilight period. Here are some piccies from our walk.

Pretty tractor in snow and outdoor Christmas tree in more snow, with even more snow falling! 




Once we were almost home (but still in the woods) we had hot tea at a snow-covered picnic table and some very chilled (almost frozen) yoghurt.

I became quite mesmerised by the beautiful design of the snowflakes on my gloves and tried to get a good picture, but didn't quite manage to get what I wanted. This picture just about shows you what I was entranced by (see single flake in middle of picture).

Snowflake(s) - see central white blob in picture