Easter in Norway is a great time of year. Last year we stayed at home and Joel built the deck while I finished off painting the guest bedroom, so this year we were keen to join the rest of the norwegians and head to the mountains. Our friends Mari and Kev were spending the holiday with Mari's family up at Sauda, so we thought that sounded like a great idea and asked friends of ours Louise and Charles if they wanted to join us renting an apartment beside the ski field at Svandalen, a few minutes drive from Sauda.
Easter this year also coincided with my birthday, which was excellent timing. Thanks everyone for the messages and phone calls, it was fantastic to hear from you. We went out for dinner to the Sauda Fjord Hotel to celebrate with Charles, Louise, Mari, Kev and Mari's sister Ingvil. The skiing at Svandalen was good, unfortunately as Easter was quite late this year the weather was a little warm and the snow quite slushy, but we still had fun.
Joel, Kev and I were joined on a cross country trip with Mari's dad Alf-Gunnar which was beautiful, blue sky and sunshine, we couldn't get the grins off our faces even despite the fact it was bloody hard work getting up some of those hills (not to mention down them...!). It was good practice for Joel who is now off on a cross country skiing trip with 5 mates, they are trekking across mountains for 4 days, staying overnight in cabins along the way. It'll be a tough trip but I'm sure they'll be having a ball. The weather at least was on their side - we've had some beautiful sunny days over the weekend and looks pretty good for the next couple as well. Joel's out of phone contact which feels quite strange but Coobs and I have plenty to keep busy with while he's away. Enjoy the pics, you probably know the drill by now but click on the album to see them in a bigger size (select slideshow once you get to the picassa page).
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Snow Angel
I just had to share this photo of my snow angel… after about a million beers up at Røldal on a team building trip. This bedtime present was delivered by Ryan who was a little put out that Joel had headed to bed before the partying was over.
Emma.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Welcome to the World - LENNY IRELAND
We are so excited to welcome our beautiful nephew Leonard John Ireland, born on 26th March up in Bendigo. Lenny’s parents are Simon, Joel’s eldest brother and his wife Clare. We wish so much that we could be there to go and visit them and meet gorgeous Lenny, but can’t wait to see him in November. Here are some photos of our gorgeous nephew, we are a very proud aunt and uncle!
Spring in Stavanger
We have been enjoying a really lovely spring here in Stavanger. It’s amazing how quickly the days become longer and you emerge from the long dark winter and all of a sudden it’s springtime. The change of the seasons is so much more pronounced than in Australia, here there is genuine excitement when in February you start to see the little snow flowers grow, and tiny green buds start to form on branches and bushes.
We are lucky to have a beautiful forest area right on our doorstep, called Våland Skog. We take Coobs there for walks all the time. Joel has just bought a new lens for his digital camera, a 50mm prime F1.8 (whatever that means) and a tripod, so we tried it out in the forest the other day (and many days since).
What have we been up to? Well Joel had a trip up to the north of Norway to a place called Verdal, north of Trondheim for work. He was visiting a jacket up there, it’s 100m tall and it will be installed this year by a ship that can lift 14,000 tonnes. He seemed to think that was pretty impressive!
He has also been on a ‘teambuilding’ (read: junket) with work up to a beautiful place called Haukeli, and they also went downhill skiing in nearby Røldal. It’s about a 5 hour drive from Stavanger. He said that Haukeli is the kind of place you imagine when you think of winter in Norway. There is snow about 3m high, everything is absolutely white and they were spoilt with fantastic weather, blue sky and sunshine. I hope to get up there myself some time soon.
We were invited up to Joel’s work’s cabin for a weekend in Sirdal with Rob and his lovely girlfriend Inka. We had a great time up there cross country skiing.
We’re spoilt here in Norway with 5 days off over Easter (Thursday is a holiday) so we are going to head up to Sauda (about 100km north of Stavanger) for some skiing over the easter break. We’ve rented an apartment and will be joined by friends of ours Louise and Charles. He is Aussie, she is American and they lived together in London for the past 8 years or so before moving here. We’ll also be able to catch up with Mari, Kev and Oscar who will be staying with Mari’s family who live there.
We are lucky to have a beautiful forest area right on our doorstep, called Våland Skog. We take Coobs there for walks all the time. Joel has just bought a new lens for his digital camera, a 50mm prime F1.8 (whatever that means) and a tripod, so we tried it out in the forest the other day (and many days since).
What have we been up to? Well Joel had a trip up to the north of Norway to a place called Verdal, north of Trondheim for work. He was visiting a jacket up there, it’s 100m tall and it will be installed this year by a ship that can lift 14,000 tonnes. He seemed to think that was pretty impressive!
He has also been on a ‘teambuilding’ (read: junket) with work up to a beautiful place called Haukeli, and they also went downhill skiing in nearby Røldal. It’s about a 5 hour drive from Stavanger. He said that Haukeli is the kind of place you imagine when you think of winter in Norway. There is snow about 3m high, everything is absolutely white and they were spoilt with fantastic weather, blue sky and sunshine. I hope to get up there myself some time soon.
We were invited up to Joel’s work’s cabin for a weekend in Sirdal with Rob and his lovely girlfriend Inka. We had a great time up there cross country skiing.
We’re spoilt here in Norway with 5 days off over Easter (Thursday is a holiday) so we are going to head up to Sauda (about 100km north of Stavanger) for some skiing over the easter break. We’ve rented an apartment and will be joined by friends of ours Louise and Charles. He is Aussie, she is American and they lived together in London for the past 8 years or so before moving here. We’ll also be able to catch up with Mari, Kev and Oscar who will be staying with Mari’s family who live there.
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