Month: February 2007

The picture shows why I have been home for the past three days, why Mia’s gymnastic weekend is postponed until April, why Gwen didn’t get to her riding lesson nor Mia to her violin and gym club and why Tony got back from Berlin a day late.

The view is directly from the garage looking out to the woodshed and bin from a fairly low angle. Our neighbour has not been round with his tractor yet as it has been snowing or drifting continuously.

I have also had a stinking cold over these exact same days so have not been sure whether I am working at home or off sick.

The temperature is forecast to rise over the weekend so we should be OK for going back to work and school on Monday. The cars by the way are waiting for us on the road at the end of the drive but until the road becomes passable there is no point hiking out to them.

I like this.

Don’t forget to scroll your cursor over key words as I have added some links and they are not visually obvious.

Back in one piece from our ski-ing holiday yesterday. That is only the girls were brave enough. Tony stayed behind to look after the cat (she is very demanding). If you go to the newsletter webpage you can click on a link to see a photomontage of our exploits.

We took the ferry from Frederikshavn to Oslo (not the same route as last year) and took a train from Oslo at 11.11 pm which arrived at Geilo at 3.25 am! Fortunately there was a group of aimiable drunks to tell us where the hotel was. It was very close to the station but the double glazing is so good and the trains so infrequent that we were not disturbed during the night.

Our destination was chosen in part because we knew what it looked like from the massively popular Danish film, ‘Min søsters børn i sneen’ We didn’t manage to stay in the hotel featured in the film, Dr Holmes, but our hotel the Norlandia Geilo was very attractive with the old Norwegian wooden style present everywhere. Gwen and Mia were happy because breakfast and dinner were buffet style. The picture shows the city of gingerbread houses delimiting the buffet area.

The ski-ing was no problem after last year’s one lesson but we did not venture beyond the easy slopes. There were no major injuries only sore backs, legs and thumbs. Geilo was much more interesting than Gautefall last year as it was a proper little town with shops and cafes.

We had a few hours in Oslo on the way back which we used to visit the Royal Palace and then it was back home on the ferry. I thought it showed a singular cheek or ignorance of geography when we arrived back at Frederikshavn and were greeted by a sign as we drove out of the harbour ‘Welcome to the continent’

The girls want to return to Geilo next year, but then again they wanted to return to Gautafell this year. The whole thing cost a fortune of course but I have not added it up yet.