Christmas 2010

Let it snow.....

Feeling Christmassy, playing Christmas songs on the ipal and wrapping pressies.  JC came home from Trondheim yesterday and we have snow which will probably stay for Christmas.

This week Mia performed with the other "aspiring" band members at the school band concert in the nearby church.  She was very good of course and we were so proud.

Ben had his juleball or Christmas dance at school last night.  He is head of the student committee so was helping set up and clear up.  Apparently it was "ok, same as last year" so I think he enjoyed himself.

Here is our pepperkakehus or gingerbread house.  Last year we had a whale on the roof and this time it's spooky eyes.....whatever next?

Also a picture of Mia's artwork from school.  Sooooo creative and cute don't you think?

Azalea

This year our Christmas azalea which Jarle chose, is the best we have ever had.  Loads of flowers.  Tip from Asta is to sit it in the sink in lukewarm water for 10 minutes every other day and never let it get dry in between.

Also a picture of our new painting.

Painter & decorators gone - yipee

Two full weeks of mess and inconvenience is finally over.  Bit of a struggle trying to communicate with them, turns out they were from Lithuania.  They arrived and left and different times EVERY day, never knew when they might turn up.  So pleased to get my house back.  They did a very good job though, very thorough and professional.

My pictures don't do it justice, but here goes anyway.

Countdown to Christmas

The weather is cold, the trees are bare and the shops are full of Christmas stuff.  It must be just around the corner.

Jarle and I had a great weekend in London recently.  Winetasting (of course) at the Landmark Hotel.  Shopping on Oxford Street and Regent Street (fab big Desigual shop on Regent Street.....).  We went to see the Queen musical "We will rock you".......... good fun.

M&D were here to look after the kids and dog, thanks so much.  Then this last weekend we had a visit from Silje who took care of Mia when we went out to a dinner with entertainment at Jarle's work.  Great food and super entertainment.

Painters in at the moment, hiding downstairs to keep out of their way.  Such a mess!!!!!! AGH!  It WILL be lovely when it's finished, I keep telling myself.

Last weekend at

the cabin.  We had a short trip to the cabin with Mia and her friend Rannveig.  The girls had lots of fun trying to catch crabs and giggling!

Whilst out walking with Zizou I saw several unusual birds that looked quite exotic.  Finally tracked down what they were and here is a picture (not one I took obviously).

It is a waxwing or sidensvans in Norwegian.

The weekend before last

we enjoyed a weekend in Bergen visiting family.

The weather was good.  We even had time to visit the aquarium.

Spanish design

Discovered "Desigual" clothes the other day and here is the website.  Expensive but really unusual and colourful stuff.  I particularly like the jackets.  Hint hint Jarle, Christmas coming up.......

http://www.desigual.com/desigual/index.jsp


p.s. snowing and sleeting today........2 degrees..........brrrrrr

Birthday

Jarle's birthday was yesterday and we enjoyed "bløtkake" roughly translated as soggy cake but really it's a cream cake.

Autumn holiday

in Antibes.

We are back from a week down south.  The weather was mostly good, nice to get a bit of sunshine to help us get through the long winter ahead.  Temperature was shockingly cold when we arrived back in Stavanger!  Dog very excited to be home, we missed him SOOOOOOO much.

Little town of La Turbie overlooking Monaco

Tropical gardens in medieval town of Eze

Weekend

Mia and I had a great weekend visiting family in Aberdeenshire!  We shopped and we ate and we played and we reminisced and we had a fab time!

Kids pretending to be bunnies.........

Nothing happening

and no new photos

sorry

so here is an old one

Mia's Birthday

Mia was 9 yesterday!

Tarts

Yumm.....

Back home

It was a late evening flight home but all went well and we even got collected from the airport by JC.

Lovely Mozarella salad we enjoyed at our new favourite restaurant in Antibes, Le Brulot.

Missing France........

Village Perches

Or hilltop villages.  There are several tiny villages built on hilltops for safety during medievel times around this area.  We have visited quite a few now, mostly within half an hours drive from the flat. 

Tourettes sur loup is very cute and is famous for violet products, especially ice cream, very good.

Eze has the most stunning views as it is perched on a cliff top 300 metres above the sea.  Lovely exotic gardens to visit there too.

Saint Paul is charming and cute too.

Biot is famous for glass and ceramic production so lots of shops selling local stuff.

Gourdon is the highest and has fantastic views over the valley and towards Nice.  The town is known for soap making.

Mougins is shaped like a spiral and crammed with art galleries.  There is also a good selection of restaurants.  Picasso lived here at the end of his life.

At the beach

For only the second time we went to the beach for a few hours instead of the pool and it was lots of fun.  The sea is as warm as the swimming pool and we all have our fab beach shoes so no problems walking on the pebbles.  We set up camp near a shower and a snack shack.  Sandwiches and chips for lunch.  We left when the waves were getting a bit out of hand......

Italy

Local wine and giant breadsticks at one of the lovely restaurants.

The pool at the hotel "Corte Gondina"

We are back in hot France after being in ever so slightly cooler Italy.  La Morra was even better than we remembered.  We tried two local restaurants recommended by our hotel and they were both fabulous.  The food and service were great at a very reasonable price, about the same as the average touristy place here.  Very good pasta of course and great breads and desserts and wine and well it was all yummy.  We visited a vineyard for tasting and a tour (Vajra in the wine area of Barolo).  Lovely friendly lady who showed us around and didn`t mind that we took Zizou.  We bought some wine of course and I am enjoying a Moscato d'Asti right now.  Low alcohol sweet ish sparkling wine, num num.

Dare I complain that it is too hot?

We have been here nearly one week already, time flies.  Been taking it easy, regular visits to the pool.  We have gone to the sea for evening swims a couple of times too.  Zizou is a bit scared of the waves so he has not actually swam yet.  Very wisely decided to buy beach shoes for swimming because the beach is very stony.  The temperature of the sea is just a couple of degrees lower than the pool, probably about 26 degrees.

We visited Jarle`s personnel manager Wenche and her husband Ralph at a nearby town called Frejus.  They have a lovely cottage with their own wee pool.  Zizou made himself at home!  Their garden was completely enclosed so he could run around freely.  We enjoyed a good lunch with local rose wine.

Discovered today that we need new number plates for the car!  We were supposed to change them when we moved the car down here.....oops.  Jarle went off to the Renault garage and VOILA that is done.  V.tempted to get air conditoning in the flat........

I will download some photos asap.

Sunny Antibes

Well, here we are, sweltering away.  We drove South from Paris on the busiest weekend of the summer and survived to tell the tale.  Actually it was not too bad as Jarle wisely got us on the road early on Saturday morning from Beaune (in Burgundy about 3 hours south of Paris where we spent Friday night in a lovely hotel) to try to beat the crowds.  It worked quite well and we were just delayed nearly two hours.  That sounds a lot but I think we got off lightly as it was getting worse as the day went on according to radio traffic reports.

Off tomorrow

tra la la la la

Plane to Paris where we meet up with Jarle then off to Burgundy for one night and onwards to the south coast and our lovely flat.  Yippee

Change of plan

Jarle is off to Paris today to attend a course.  We decided to change our plans and leave the same time as Ben on Friday and fly to Paris instead of Nice.  So we can all drive down together and stop at our old favourite places, i.e. Beaune in the Burgundy wine district.  Shorter flight for Zizou too.

Sunny again today.

We went down town yesterday and got rained on!!  Enormous cruise ship in the harbour and lots of tourists around.

Warm weather

It's been quite a warm and sunny week.  Super for the world sand volleyball competition going on in Stavanger right now.  Today we (me, Mia and Zizou) decided to have a picnic snack by the beach.  Very windy but very warm (by Norwegian standards) about 24 degrees!!!!

Lighthouse at Lindesnes, the Southernmost tip of Norway

Oil Museum

We had another lovely weekend at the cabin.  This week we are pottering about.  Today Mia and I went to the oil museum and then had lunch at the restaurant at the museum.

Officially Summer

School finishes today.  The sun is not shining but can't complain really as we have had no rain for a while. We had a lovely time at the cabin last weekend, except for a bit of drama with the boat!  The steering broke and then the engine would only run at a very slow speed so it was a bit tricky getting back to the harbour.

Anyway, we are planning on going down this weekend too, Jarle is going to take Friday off work so we can go Thursday evening.

Here is Zizou relaxing at the cabin.

Winding down

for the Summer holidays.

Mia and Ben are not doing much real work at school this week.  Lots of trips out and about and tidying the classroom.  Next week they have only 2 days of school then it is officially the holidays.

We are off to the cabin this weekend Friday to Sunday, fingers crossed for nice weather.

World Cup

Not really planning on watching much of the world cup but can't really avoid it.  So the first match.....what was that annoying sound like a huge swarm of bees ALL THE TIME?????  Turns out I am not the only one who noticed.  I "googled" it and found out it is a sort of horn called the vuvuzela which is very popular among South Africans especially at football matches.   Sooooooo annoying.

What would we do without Google?

Happy Birthday to

Zizou!

Our little puppy is one year old today.

Summer in Sørlandet

I think it is Summer now and we have to make the most of every ray of sunshine because it might just all go away......

Due to teacher strike, we could go down to the cabin on Thursday.  Had to come back today though as Mia has a birthday party.  Jarle took Friday off work but as you see from the photo he spent quite some time on the phone.

21 degrees down there, 13 here!!!!

Haircut

A proper Schnauzer again!

Strike

So it is just like being back in France.  Teachers, nurses and other council workers are on strike.  Oh actually the nurses are back to work today.  This is Mia's third day off school because all the teachers at her school are on strike.  Only selected schools are striking on behalf of all teachers and it happens to be Mia's school.  Ben is at school as normal, for the moment but they are talking about stepping up the strike action tomorrow.

Not taken any good photos lately so thought I would put one on that my friend Wendy took of me at her birthday party.

Quiet week

After busy times last week!

Mia's apple tree is blossoming.

17. mai / 17th May

The rain stopped!  Phew!!

Ben and Mia marched with their classes in the National Day parade.  Hot dogs, ice cream and fizzy juice.  Oh and more cake.....

Ben's Birthday

Ben was 15 on Sunday, hipp hurray!