Christmas Message 2009

2009 started with our final 2 months on shared parental. We took this opportunity to get Mari's overseas period out the way while we could do this as a family. I was left in charge of Une in a rented house in Hatfield, while Mari did a 6 weeks at the Royal Veterinary College in London.

Une began full time in Kindergaden in Late Feb, with both of us back at work full time. We didn't get a place in the nearest kindergarten, but were so pleased with the place he is in that we decided not to move when the chance came in September. He really loves it and we're really have no complaints at all.

Combining two full time jobs and a toddler is a challenge. Especially when we both travel at times and Mari has to leave at 6a.m. the days she is in the office, although she does try to have home office a couple of days each week.

Une is growing and developing rapidly. Towards the end of this year he is learning new words every day, some in Norwegian and some in English. It's now easier to play with hin (he is becoming more constructive and less destructive!). Amazingly he is remarkably tidy and likes to keep all his toys in there respective places.

Mari is now nearly half way through her PhD, she is finding it pretty tough but enjoyable. She also took and passed 2 more courses towards her RVC Masters, leaving 2 final course which we are hoping to get out the way in 2010.

I am still enjoying my work and have a fairly acceptable amount of travel. I had another trip to India in May and had a few trips to Spain during the Summer. I'll be off to Columbia early in 2010 for a couple of weeks, after then there's no more travel plans on the horizon.

Project priorities at home and on the farm have shifted somewhat but there has been some progress. It's been difficult to find time to do anything other than essential work on Vehicles, so the Spitfire, Landrover and Tractors have been a little negleted. Various toddler related modifications have been made, including a sand pit for the summer days that barely happened. Thanks to help from my parents, half of the outside of the house is now painted, we hope to finish that in 2010. We're also working in one half of the basement, which is now fully insulated. Next step is to dig out the floor and replace it with a new one including damp proofing and insulation.

All in all, life is tiring but mostly enjoyable and we are starting to not only adapt but also feel that we can cope and succeed with our new family life.

Here's wishing you all a (slightly belated) Happy Christmas and the very best for 2010.

Mar-Apr 2009

March began by parting with what will most likely be the final Starsprung kittens (at least for a good while). These three from Starsprung Skiddaw, daughter of Asia and Vegas. The two pictured had become great friends with FBS, they tolerated lots of "handling" and really played when he waved a cat toy (quite violently) in their general directon. It was sad to see them go, leaving us with our 4 "retired" Bengals, Gaylee Anitra, Tuhina Vegas, Ozalet TuhinaAsia and Starsprung Amazing.

In April we started what will be a long process to hopefully get a new coffee table by taking a chainsaw to the pear tree, more on this in a seperate post (one day!). It had some sort of Fungus that came every year and it gave nearly no fruit. It's been replace by a garden arch to hold the clematis. This will be the entrance to the kitchen garden one of these days.


FBS's 1st Birthday was celebrated with a delicious (if I say so myself) North African Lamb Stew, which he really enjoyed, stuffing himself as normal.

It was a family affair, with MorFar, MorMor and Aunt, uncle and Cousin present. HE got loads of great presents, perfect for long afternoons playing together with Daddy! For the rest of this post, pictures speak louder than words!

Jan - Feb 2009

OK, I've been requested to do a photo summary of 2009 as a way of ressurecting the blog, so here goes.

Most of January and Febuary were spent in Hatfield with Mrs VL doing a 6 week placement with the Royal Veterinary College. Other than Kid sister relieving me for 1 week, I was left in charge of first born son. We had a fair few visitors, t'was good to see you all. Here are some mostly baby related photo's from the time in Engalnd.

Many thanks to N,F and P for the loan of the cot, high chair and quite a few other bits and bobs, toys and so on. FBS was very happy with it all.

Daddy was not always as cheerfull as his son, especially when his main form of transport got a puncture and he didn't have a spare.....

With the Galleria shopping outlet centre just across the road and very little else worth mentioning in Hatfield, there was plenty of shopping trips.

London Son was very kind to turn up with his wheels every so often (and rent a car seat for a period). Here they are flying on a trip to the highly reckomended RAF Hendon Museum.

The other big news early in the year was the arrival of a new (Norwegian) Cousin for FBS, here he is with cousin and the happy new mum.

And finally, a summary of Jan and Feb wouldn't be complete without a photo of FBS, Mrs VL and Peggy in the Snow (back in Norway)

Kris-Kindle 2009

I've been requested by various family members to get my finger out of my proverbial and ressurect the blog to get started on this year's round of Kris Kindle hints.

The draw, untraditionally, was made in Garfunkels Cafe on Trafalgar Square, with surprisingly all Kris-Kindle couples represented. This draw is normally undertaken by a neutral party, which makes ensuring that you don't get either yourself or who you had last year somewhat easier than when you pull the names out of the hat. After about 15 attempts everyone was happy (apart from TOCO, who after getting a name that he was happy with first time round, announced he had a plane to catch and sodded off).

So, same rules as last year and it seems that Kris-Kindle has neither been hit by inflation or the financial crises. Presents are still to be to the value of 100Euros or as near as possible, with Kid Sis and London Son, who are still classed as a couple, getting a 50Eur pesent each. I haven't quite worked out if the strong Norwegian krone works in our favour or not...... As ever, who is buying for who is secret.

So Kris-Kindle members and interested parties, fire up those internet lines and get hinting, suggesting, abusing, wise-cracking, composing or whatever else comes to mind. I'm getting my brain in gear to make sure I get a head start on my wife........

Winter Challenges #1

With the spring sun warming and melting the snow, I should be outside trying to get the David Brown out of the Barn, charging the battery on the Spitfire or otherwise preparing for the fast approaching spring/summer.

However, I'm stuck inside, drugged up, with a rather nasty ear infection, so I'll blog about the winter instead.

It's been a pretty heavy winter. There's been a lot of snow and although it's warming up now, there's still a fair bit left. One of the serious problems that the country faces with heavy snow fall is the weight on the roofs. Most sloped roofs are designed to withstand many tons and, with a little bit of warmth, what's up there slides off (presenting it's own danger). Half of the old barn just up from us has collasped recently.

"What's up there" did all slide off our roof, and all in one go. Not only filling the not long cleared path to the front door with tonnes of heavy and compact snow, but also landing on top of the already heavy car port roof. Something had to be done, it was amazing that it took the impact and additional weight and we couldn't risk any more on top of what was already there.

So, yours truly had no option but to get up there and dig it all off.

Getting up there was more getting out there as the snow was up to the level of the guest room window.

The snow was pretty hard packed so it needed breaking up before it could be pushed/shovelled off.

It wasn't long before I had no more problems retrieving any equipment that happenned to slide off. It was pretty easy to get back up without going through the house!

I can tell you that this was an enourmous, unplanned and physical job. First time in 4 winters that I've had to do it though.

Top Hat

The problem of a wet and moldy roof came to light with the installation of 3 double florescent tubes in the loft. In Norwegain houses, because of prolonged freezing temperatures, the sewer pipe and vent is internal and not external as it is in England.

Our vent, as you can see from this picture, stopped just under the roof in the loft. This, during the cold weather led to large amounts of condensation on the wooden boards that are the base of the roof and also explained the smell in the loft!

The solution to this problem is to feed the vent pipe through the roof and insulate the extra pipe in the roof. We decided to go for the "top hat" option, and quite a large one at that. This will give us space for air ducts from planned ventilation fans in the bathroom and toilet, both badly needed.

Our neighbour, The Real Farmer and also a joiner by trade, had offered to fit this for us as part of our continuous competances exchange policy (this time I paid by a complete re-install on his sons very sick computer). Rather him than me, especially on a cold Sunday in January.

If I'd done it we'd probably ended up with a hole in our roof for weeks,

but he completed the job in a couple of hours leaving for me to simply buy the neccesary pipe and fittings and install them

The pipe is now also insulated but still held up by a bit of rope, awaiting a more permanant installation when I install the ventillation for the bath and the toilet.

The roof is also looking a lot better now that it's dried out a bit, looks like we've caught it in time. Once it warms up a bit we'll paint a coat of anti mould on it and it should survive for many years to come.

"Aaaaasia"

Sorry about the abscence, there's been plenty to write about, plenty of photos to post (mostly of the cute baby variety) and some progress on projects although the downstairs floor is still not insulated. I'm sure there's an excuse and I promise to make it up!

Anyway, to the point. Those of you in the know will know that Asia is one of our Bengal cats, and those of you very much in the know will know that if there's trouble going on it's most likely Asia that's behind it. During FBSs early days I jokingly said that his first word would be Asia or more likely "AAAAAsia" which is how you say it when she's doing something she shouldn't!

It seems that I wasn't that wrong. He does, already, make a good attempt at "Mamma", "Daddy" and "ello" and you get a kind of a "ank oo" when you give him something, but today, he came out with a very clear (in a baby clear sort of way) "Asia" whilst he was waving a cat toy in front of her nose.