The Flaming Queen

For those that don't know the Olympics is in London this year and it is also the Queens Diamond Jubilee, celebrating 60 years on the throne. Chester was particularly lucky to be a part of these experiences as the Queen visited Chester Zoo recently and yesterday a couple of friends and I witnessed they Olympic flame being run through the streets of this dear city (sadly I was unable to see the her maj)

Union Jacks are flying everywhere and as a patriot it gives me great pride to see the country coming together in such a way. There is of course the awareness that in 12 days time I will no longer be living in England. This could be seen as a negative I suppose, I think it would have been nice to see everyone get together in Olympic spirit but its not like I could afford to ever see events live anyway. So instead I'm just soaking up these last few dollops of British pride and taking them with me on my travels. It will also be a great excuse to watch loads of British tele to help ease me in.

We may be a crazy magpie, mongrel nation with influences from all over the world due to are being conquered and conquering but this is a blessing and something I embrace. I love the fact the Tea, and Fish and Chips are about as English as St George (which is not at all). I hope that team GB do us proud and the whole Olympics is a banging success and Long Live the Queen!

Here Comes the Sun!

Like every other blog I've seen I think I will have to do the obligatory celebration of Sun post. Safe to say the sun has got his hat on and it is lovely out there at a tidy 26 degrees C.  Hot weather is of course awesome and strolling around in shorts and t-shirt really is the way to live. Sadly though despite being described as olive skinned and Italian looking (Largely by customers at the Italian restaurant I worked at who were just wishfully hoping, o yer and a drunk dude outside a mexican themed cocktail bar) I am like many Englishman, a little dodgy in the sun and sun cream is a must as I become the worst kind of person if I get burned and can not fathom other peoples casual attitude to intense discomfort.

I must admit I was burnt a little in Bergen last year and was lucky to get away just unscathed after an hour or so sunbathing in a local park with my dear lady this morning and I was wearing sun cream. This is why I am now blogging rather than catching more rays. I shall not complain too much though as I have not been to a proper "hot" country with beaches and swimming pools for several years now and with emigration and inevitable unemployment looming that isnt likely to change any time soon so lets make the most of it! At least I can treat Norway as a holiday, for Marianne she is just going home!

So although slightly worrying and I feel I must almost be in constant fear of what this powerful star we call our sun may do to me I must say it does make one smile incredibly, how can you not feel joy when chilling in a pub garden or strolling through a park with an ice cream. This is how I have spent this week and how I hope to spend the rest of the summer, and I wont be letting any silly little things like responsibility and a complete lack of money stop me, although it may slow me down.

Hope everyone is enjoying the sun as much as I am!

Big fan of the Beatles (who isn't, really) and this is one of my favourite if very cliché summer tunes. 

A Vintage Performance in Chester

This weekend my brother came up for another visit and I decided to take him to a local vintage shop as a band I know was playing a gig there. I can quite honestly say it was an immense Saturday afternoon. Chilling enjoying a few beers listening to some quality local music surrounded my an abundance of interesting trinkets and such.

The one slight negative however is that  I and even more so Marianne I think, love this little shop. Full of some awesome vintage furniture and all sorts and if we were staying local we would definitely invest in some of it although given that I'm going to be lucky to get most of my clothes over I'm not even going to think about how I'd manage with cabinets. Still I would not let this detract from the pleasure I still get from enjoying such things in Chester. I have been very lucky to experience so many great things in Chester over 4 years and although I will miss it all dearly I have began to really appreciate all that Chester has. A plethora of fine pubs, bars and restaurants with collections of Real Ale, cocktail menus and quality food that make my mouth water just thinking about them. There are also many great shops and boutiques as well as a quality local music scene including; Folk, Indie, Rock, Jazz and more which more than make up for the low quality DJ's in the bars and clubs.

So with packing beginning, an exam still to do and lots of other things to organise I'm making very sure that I fully appreciate my last couple of weeks in this beautiful city that has been so good to me and although I shall miss many many things I shall leave with a smile content that I made the most of my time and I'm moving onto better things.

Shy and the Fight playing How to stop an Imploding man at Becnicks Wonder Emporium
(The original quality was awesome but sadly I've had to reduce it for upload, but do enjoy)

Hurra for 17. mai!

Me and Marianne outside our local with home made Norwegian flags

How could I have a blog about Norway without talking about 17th of May. It is the Norwegian National day and by all accounts, a very big deal. I have been fortunate enough to experience two of these already with Marianne in England and I'm really looking forward to being in Norway for it next year.

So how have we celebrated Norway day? Well firstly its very important to eat rømmegrøt, which is a sour cream porridge. Very similar to risengrynsgrøt which I have posted about before only more sour and gloopy. Quite strange but I've already built up a slight soft spot for it and done right with lots of sugar, cinnamon and some mutton on the side it does the trick. On 17th May last year I had my first Gul Kaka (yellow cake). Also rather strange, it looks like it should taste of lemon or white chocolate or something but really it just tastes of sugar. Which as a cake is a perfectly acceptable attribute I guess.

I think it would be wrong of me to just focus on the food of this day as its really all about pride and celebration. From what I've seen Norwegians are a very proud and patriotic people, everyone dresses up very smart, waves their flag with pride and has parades to celebrate this most special day., I think this is great and I envy it. As most English will know St Georges Day which is meant to be England's national day to celebrate our patron saint is almost not at all celebrated it seems. For some reason in England we fail to separate national pride from racism and hooliganism. A crying shame but a topic for another day.

I shall end then saying 17 May is a great great day and I cant wait to properly immerse myself in it next year. Norwegians have a lot to be proud of, HURRA!!

Expat-Blog, Finishing Uni and the next adventure

I have made a great discovery. www.expat-blog.com. Really happy I've found this site and annoyed I didnt find it sooner. blogs from expats all over the world. There is many Norway Blogs even a few with people based in Bergen which is where I'm heading and flicking through the forums there seems to be a lot of nice chat. so I'm really look forward to working my way through some of my fellow emigrators to Bergen blogs. I have also added mine to this list so people can hear my experiences. Since doing so my viewing rates have massively increased so feeling the pressure to be interesting, I'll do my best.

Yesterday as well as being the Norwegian national day (I shall make a separate post about this) Was the day I handed in my very last university assignment. A very amazing feeling and with just one exam remaining I can now start dedicating more of my time to preparation for the move without that horrible guilty feeling that I should be doing Uni work. To be frank ever since the whole moving to Norway thing really picked up steam and became a reality its been occupying most my thoughts and I just cant wait to go and start that next chapter of my life making University largely a nuisance. Despite this I am also very pleased to have an idea about what I am doing. I always said that when I finished Uni I would move somewhere new, never knew where, was up for anywhere in the world, just something new and exciting. That is now exactly what I'm doing and I consider myself very fortunate to have that option and to be sharing it with my perfect companion.

Suffice to say I'm feeling very positive about things indeed and as the time draws ever closer I think less of the fears and more of the fun and I have no doubt that it will live up to my expectations. Bring on the adventure!

250 Views, but who are you?

Opening with a lie is probably not a good way to start, I've actually had 249 views on my blog but I'm hoping this post will entice one more. 250 is quite a lot isnt it? seems like it, even when you take out my girlfriend and my mother its still not bad. Nearly 100 in fact are from outside England and Norway and I have absolutely no idea who these people are. Fascinating really!

Sadly though my followers has not increased. Nor have I received a comment from anyone but Marianne and her sister, not even from my mother although I know she has tried but has been unable to work it out yet. I can therefore assume that none of these strangers out there in cyber space who have stumbled upon my humble blog are yet to be enticed. This was always to be expected and as this was largely aimed as something for those close to me to enjoy as an incite into my thoughts it doesn't bother me too much. 

But what should I do differently? More comedy, more facts, more about Norway, more about other stuff, more photos I have no idea. Shorter posts is probably a start but that is something I struggle with as a natural rambler. So while I hope my nearest and dearest continue to enjoy my random thoughts I call upon those stumbling by to throw in their 2 pence also. The final move is drawing closer, lets hope by then I can have a little more of an audience. 

Me and my two biggest fans!

Getting stuff to Norway (the boring stuff followed by some deep thinking)

Right so getting stuff to Norway, it has been very tedious to say the least. Firstly I really wanted to take my motorbike with me. I'd put a fair bit of money and a lot of love into it and it would have been a nice little piece of freedom and familiarity in my strange new world.

No ferry exists between Norway and England any more. There was once a Newcastle to Bergen rout but it is sadly no more. We did read articles suggesting it would be back for the summer but alas it was not too be and more expensive options would have to be explored.

Firstly I semi seriously looked into the idea of driving a huge van with someone. It is a days worth of driving not including sleeping but I was still tempted as a cool road trip. No company I could find though lets you do one way van renting. Why these huge world wide rental companies cant arrange that I will never know but still that was the fact, and besides petrol ect would probably cost a bomb anyway.

Next idea was a container and have it shipped. One company I checked offered a container for £1500, thanks but no thanks. Another haulage company was around the thousand mark also so we knocked that one on the head pretty sharpish. After all this we then also found out that Import tax on my bike would be about £1000. I couldnt believe it, I was totally wounded and looking at prices over their you can see why the tax is so high. All their bikes are all more than twice the price that they are here. The heartbreaking truth is then I could neither get my bike their nor even sell it and buy another one as I'd still be about a grand short. Tragic, but it was what it was and nothing anyone could do about it (short of giving me £1000 but no one seemed up for it).

Anyway there was still other things we'd like to take over, my nice tele for example and all our belongings. I found out that I could ship ten tea chests (these are about 2/3 times the size of a large suitcase) for £750, once again not an option for us.

So as it can be seen the whole ordeal has been one big cock up from start to finish and finally the solution we have gone for is pay extra to take two suitcases over. This is costing about £50. That should sort all our clothes at a push but basically nothing else. Laptop is a must but my Xbox and projector are doubts and TV of corse a no no, along with all my other positions, guitar, ornaments ect. These will hopefully all be stored with family and then brought over, over time as people visit or we come back and forth.

So there we have it. If your emigrating to Norway and your very low on cash, my experiences suggest your in for bad times. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about all this to be honest. The bike is tragic, as is my lovely TV and I think it will generally be very strange to just not have any of my possessions around me. I suppose I always thought that some of the things I had I would have until I could afford to upgrade them. It is kind of disheartening to just lose so many assets and be left with just a suitcase full of clothes I need to diet to fit back into.

That is being very negative about it I know. I will be fine I have no doubt and these are all things that can be replaced eventually. I dont actually consider myself to be that materialistic, but it can be hard to tell I think. Either way I know it is what it is and nothing can be done and I will manage as there is so many other good things to look forward. I never lose sight of why I am doing this, which is because I believe Marianne and I can build a life over there. The transition wont be easy, but it will all be worth it in the end.

One way ticket!

Firstly I should explain that this massive one month gap between blogs will not happen again. I have been getting absolutely destroyed with Uni work as I come to the final few weeks of a long four years. My dissertation was handed in yesterday for which I couldnt be happier as I can finally be myself again and have fun. I still have a couple more pieces to do and one exam but all is looking good. (As always I'm painfully aware I have no regular followers apart from those who are already fully aware of this but you never know who may one day take an interest in little old me)

So apart from University work what has happened? Answer, LOADS! As much as I'd like to list it all I fear boring the world so instead I'll dive strait in at the most important. Marianne and I have booked our one way tickets to Norway! June 11th is the magical date and yes, it was a very weird thing to do and of coarse yes I am also a little bit terrified while also insanely excited.

As time passes and now that we have a date two very contrasting things are happening. The first is rubbish and that is worrying about moving, packing blah blah blah all VERY tedious and boring and quite frankly its all so mind numbing I dont want to talk about it right now so thankfully you dont have to listen. The second and much more great thing is dates are now being set for leaving parties. AWESOME!

I love parties, any excuse for a massive get together and celebration should be taken full advantage of if you ask me and I quite literally dont understand those that think otherwise. So far I have a two main Soirées organised. One in Chester on the 2nd with all my old work (I left last week due to too having too much work to do and leaving soon anyway) and my Uni budies. Then of corse the obligatory massive family and close friend party for the following weekend just a couple days before we leave back in my home town of Basingstoke. I am very much looking forward to this and people are showing real enthusiasm and I'm sure its going to be great and probably also a little emotional.

I will attempt to once again post regularly and I will even touch on the boring moving stuff  a bit for anyone who reads this blog for advice on emigrating. The other blogs I have found so far have not been particular helpful in that regard so I plan on filling this gap in the market. Until then, thanks for reading and its good to be back!