Christmas Message

To all of those who have been directed to this post from our Christmas Cards, and perhaps are new to this blog, welcome and again we would like to wish you a very happy festive season. To those of you who did not receive Christmas cards but are regulars of the blog, sorry, we ran out of stamps... but a very happy Christmas to you too.

So in good Christmas card tradition here is all our news from a very eventful year.

At the start of 2005, after our big move to Norway in September 2004 I was still living in Mari's uncles flat outside Bergen. Mari finished her temporary work at the Vet school in Oslo before our Christmas holiday in Ireland and moved to Bergen early in the new year to join me and the Animals. I continued at Norwegian classes until the end of February and Mari found herself with more and more work helping a local vet.

In early march, I began working for Scanship, in Tønsberg located on Oslofjord in the South east of the Country. Whilst the official company language is English (all customers are outside Norway), it had been decided that everyone was to continue to use Norwegian in everyday work and not to resort to English. This was very tough to begin with, but now, I manage without too many problems day to day and I am very grateful for this experience.

From March until May we lived apart again, with Mari continuing with her work for a local vet on the West coast. What was meant to be a couple of days a week ended up as a very intensive period of long days, working both with small animals and having a heavy involvement in the Lambing season.

We needed all the money that she had worked hard for and the money that I had saved by living in a flat kindly provided by my work when we took the plunge and bought our beautiful and peaceful smallholding, up in the Norwegian Countryside, in May. The housing market here, and the popularity of the property dictated that we must purchase it only 2 days after I had been for a viewing. Mari first saw our new house around 2 weeks after all was done and dusted!! Very luckily it was to her satisfaction. With 2 acres of land, a large barn, 2 tractors and so on, I was always going to be happy!! It cost more than we had planned to spend but most of the Small holding in the area required major renovations to either the farm buildings, the house or both. This, we have been spared. It's not all perfect but it is structurally sound and there is no major work required.

So, since May we have enjoyed our new country life. Having good success with vegetables and a great result with our first 2 pigs. We are very fortunate that our only neighbours , the farmer, his wife and 2 sons are very friendly and have become good friends. This wouldn't have happened if I could not speak the language, as our neighbours English is very limited.
On the whole, we have not been lonely. We have had many visits from friends and family, including a really fun house warming weekend when no less that 5 people made the effort to come over from England just for the Weekend.

Since July, Mari, has been working in a clinic in Sandefjord and now continues to work there 4 days a week, with 1 day a week in the local clinic in Revetal. Whilst the work is good and there is pretty much guaranteed work for the coming year, none of this is permanent, so it is not entirely satisfactory. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon situation for vets in the local area.

My work sees me traveling to Finland where Scanship is installing equipment onboard "Freedom of the Seas" which is to be the largest cruise ship in the world when it begins service in late April. As the project is in it's final phase I have had, and will have quite a few weeks away. With all the projects and plans that I have in my life, it is not always easy, but we manage.

Now we are in the midst of frantic final preparations for a Christmas visit from the whole of my family. We are really looking forward to it, but with 15 people in the house, it requires a little bit of planning to organise the inevitable chaos.

So, on a final note, please fell free to leave your Christmas greetings, comments, questions and so on in the comments page. For those of you who are new to this, there is no need to sign up for an account, simply select other or anonymous.

Again, Best wishes for Christmas and the new year.
Andy and Mari

Virgin Birth

Unbelievable News!

It's been nearly 3 Years since we first started to try to get Anitra, our first Bengal, pregnant. She's been with three different men through numerous seasons to no avail.

After purchasing our own Stud cat in a hope to remove the stress of traveling to stud from the equation we quickly found out the problem. It seems that everything functions correctly but as the boy makes his final move, she puts her tail in the way and flops over on her side. What a tease!!!

We are confident that to this day she remains pure and virginous, and yet she is expecting a child (well, at least two actually). What's more is that 9 weeks after the immaculate conception lands neatly on Christmas Day (This was not planned)..... In all reality we expect the kittens a couple of days after the 25th, but if it did happen it would be a tale to be told again and again!!!

Of course, this is not the work of some divine body, this is done by our own hands. My dear wife, the resident vet, after some research, devised our own equipment and method for artificial insemination of cats. Something which it appears is not very common (as there is not often a need, I suppose). This was our second attempt and without out the aid of hormones, she has ovulated and we have been successful. We had taken the decision that she would have one more season and one more attempt before we neuter her, so this is just in time.

During TRV's research, she came across a lady in Sweden and someone in Italy with limited experience of this. To date we have not found documented evidence of this happening before in Norway. So, could be wrong, but it is just possible that we are the first.

Road Kill

My dear wife never ceases to amase me.

On her way home from a meeting last night, she hit an animal whilst travelling at 90 Km/hr.

Fearing that it was dog or a cat, she turn around to check the situation. The animal was infact a hare and I don't believe her vast veterinary knowledge and experience was required to decide that it was, well and truly, dead.

Did she throw it to the side of the road, out of the way of following vehicles, oh no. Thinking of my desires to eat the fruits of the land, she chucked it in the car, with a nice stew in mind......

So, I was presented with this animal as she arrived home, shortly before 11p.m yesterday evening. A quick trip to the neighbours to ask advise, which consisted of a quick description of the gutting and skinning procedure followed by "If it was me I chuck it away in the forest, especially at this time of night!".

Of course, instead of listning to these words of wisdom, we took ourselves down in the basement, skinned, gutted and cleaned up the carcass, which is now hanging in the frige.

So, tommorrow night our weekend guest, Nikster, if he is up for it, will be enjoying some form of Hare Stew. No doubt The River Cottage Cookbook will be used as a reference.