Ooopps

Pressed send before I finished writing, can't quite get used tothis
iPhone!!!

So finised dinner cleared away the glasses and locked the lodge and
headed back to my cabin to see bartie and finnie. After a quick walk I
got into ned to watch finnie chasing my feet under the duvet! She was
barking at them and trying to Catch them! Silly puppy! Took a video of
her trying to eat the shower which I will upload tomorrow! We have the
bankers for lunch and a childrens hot tub party! So off to bed!!! Xxx

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Finnie chased my feet!

Well I had a really good night tonight, helped Pål and Cathrine with
supper, smoked salmon that he had caught in the alta river, rein stek
(reindeer steak) and Cathrines special desert of a cream and fruit
thing.... Was yummy as if get to help lay the plates which obviously
means I have to taste test it! We have a group of the mangers from one
of altas biggest banks here tonight and after dinner they invited me
to join them and I found out that Norwegians think George bush was
stupid, they love the cold and hate mosquitos, hunting is the only
activity to do any time of the year, my norwegian is going pretty
well, that Buckingham palace is the best tourist thing to do in
London, they are the main sponsera of the Finnmarksløpet (the race
pål us training the huskies for and I will be his hndler so bring on
the parties!) they know all British swear words and they promised to
set me up a great bank account! So it was really fun!

Night skies!

Well we don't have 24 hour sun anymore but we do have sunsets like
this... And they get better.....

Copy cat!

Just to give u proof how much finnie tries to copy bartie!!!!

Growing up!

Well firstly Finnie is growing up, you don't really notice it when you
are living with her all day however when I looked back at a puppy
photo of her I realised just how much she has grown!!! She is getting
so robust but is so well trained, and has stopped nibbleing peoples
hands thanks to Per Thore's training tactic of when she tried to chew
hi hand he simply squeeZed the back of her tounge until she squeaked
and she hasn't chew since! She then just lay with her head watching
him very queitly! Was very impressive.

I have another fashion update today. In my class is a girl from Russia
who decided to turn up to Uni (bear in mind I am a lufbra student
whoes uniform at Uni consisted of trackie bottoms, polo shirt of a
particular club, hall of residence, committee or sport) well she
arrived in a black satin skirt with slit to the thigh, a blue satin
very fitted bodice waistcoat with about 4 inches of skin between the
skirt and top and a least 5 inch platform heeled calf lentjt boots! Oh
and it is only 10 degrees!!!!

I'm getting better at Norwegian and have had a few conversations with
a few Norwegian people! I'm pretty sure mu pronunciation leaves a lot
to be desired, it's gettin to a point were last night I could even
talk to guests at the lodge!

Quite weekend with a few guests and a bit of laundry to do! Lou you'll
be please to know that having done 27 washes I think I only have 10 to
go ( this is in an industrial washing machine so probably 3 times the
capacity of home ones) and we have a broken dryer which is
entertaining!!!

Off to see some of the guests and get washing!!! Xxx

Training the Huskies!

We went out last night with the huskies on thier training run, and i took a few videos! You can check them out here....

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=141628620134&ref=mf

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=141602940134

2 conversations!

Well today i had 2, yes 2 conversations with two people who speak Norwegian and no English - I even managed to tell them a joke!!! I have started doing grammer in my norwegian classes, its very like french with male and female words!!! English is so much easier!

I also took out the huskies today and then i got to play with the quad bike! was very cool! I took a video of huskies tonight, which i will do tomorrow! it is very cool and they were very excited!!!

Translations!!!

Translation! 

In answers to the norwegian translations....

1)     hva mener du med at du ikke har hørt om loughborough?
2)     når er neste fly tilbake til england?
3)     viser dere rugbyen på tv?
4)     fem halvlitere slangebitt takk, barmann
5)     serverer dere noe annet enn elgepølse og flatbrød? 

1. What do you mean you haven’t heard of Loughborough?
2. When is the next flight back to England?
3. Is the rugby on TV?
4. Five pints of snakebite please barman
5. Do you serve anything apart from moose sausage and crisp-bread?

Time for bed in norway!

As it gets light at about 4am, I have worked out a way of stopping the dogs waking me up at 4am.... Draw the curtains! They didn't wake up until 10am today! I was able to shower and do my homework before they moved!
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Meet the Huskies!!!

Meet the Huskies!

If you want to meet the huskies (Lou requested!) click on this link...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=139497990134&ref=nf

How proud!

This is finnie very proud of herself having just chewed mu phone charger!!! She is getting bigger now, although she is still not big enough to jump on the bed, she did work out last night however that if she runs from the door when bartie is lying on the floor by the bed, she can use him as a vault and just gets on the bed!!! So so funny!!
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Down with the kids!

I have worked out today, if I stand a chance of being down with the kids here in a quite sunny alta, I need to invest in a few evidently essential accessories!

1. Leather jacket
2. Army style neck scarf
3. Crocs or converse all star trainers
4. Bum bag

Then I may just fit in fashion wise here! X
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Not quite lufbra students union(LSU staff will appreciate), oh and something very special!

Well tonight, cathrine took me to the Studenthuset City, the Hogskolen I Finnmark students union! It has one coffee bar, and a downstairs room! And tonight was their rock night for freshers!

For everyone at LSU (sorry for those who haven't worked there), the best way I can describe tonight is imagine having all the crew boys and girls drinking beer wandering around, with a band like the young knives or official secrets act when we had them, on a stage the size of Room 1, with lighting similar to a cheap dj's own set at a wedding and a few extra can lights chucked on stage for good measure. Add a sound desk similar in size and set up to the one we had for Feeder or Scouting for Girls... Oh yes and all of this happening in cognito, with Nunny sat on a wooden bench opposite the front door in trackie bottoms and a hoody, earpiece in drinking vodka from the bottle! No-one else had a radio visible so not sure who he was communicating with! Entry was 100krone (£10) for a paper wristband which never got checked and the special student drinks prices for one night only was 40% off so a bottle of bacardi breezer only cost 60krone tonight(yes that is £6!) However their cloakroom is free, there was no purple stains on my shoes and it was wicked!!! Just such fun and I loved it!!!

And the final act we saw tonight, imagine the boy band Hanson (of that classic Mmmm Bop fame!) With the same long blonde hair having just turned 17 playing rock! Just so so funny!!!

Anyway, after my first student experience, we headed home, past a restaurant with a bar and sauna, yes sauna... Can you imagine heading down to the local curry house, having a korma and pint of cobra before stripping off naked and heading into the sauna!!! Then popping back into the restaurant for a spot of coffee! Do you take a towel, wear casual clothes, or still go smart, do you ask for a shower, are drinks allowed in the sauna....???!!! Too many questions!

And now to something special, as we headed home, the midnight sun is now just starting to dip below the horizon at night, but looking out to sea, it is still like early dusk light, as we head in land back to Gargia, it gets a bit darker, and with that there is was, in the sky a shard of semi transparent lime green light dancing around above the road in between the stars. A totally clear night and with temperatures starting to drop, I had my first show of the northern lights for this trip. Looking like a feather, it flickered into a boomerang shape, then into a wiggle, and then 30 seconds later it was gone. The norwegians say they can turn the lights on and off(obviously not true but a romantic notion), and it was like someone had lent on the switch before they realised what had happened and turned them off!

Am now lying in bed with both dogs asleep with me after a truly unique and wicked night!!! Xxxxx
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Oh and to those in Osgathorpe

When you next see Graeme around Osagthorpe, can someone please explain to him why we couldnt go and see the Ice Hotel in the middle of Summer like he asked to!!!

Tractor eggs and can you guess the norwegian phrases?

Here is a photo to show just what I mean by tractor eggs!!

Have dinner of fresh prawns, king crab and fillets of a 10.5 kilo salmon! (Mum, that's converts to a hell of a lot on pounds and ounces!) It was only the left overs from dinner, but oh so good!

Had second Norwegian class today and learnt that u is pronounced like o, a is pronounced like e, e is pronounced like a and is it pronounced like all of them! Although very comically mark who graeme and I met skiing got the following phrases translated..

1)      hva mener du med at du ikke har hørt om loughborough?

2)      når er neste fly tilbake til england?

3)      viser dere rugbyen på tv?

4)      fem halvlitere slangebitt takk, barmann

5)      serverer dere noe annet enn elgepølse og flatbrød?

Comment if u can guess any, and ill put the real answers on tomorrow!!!
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Oh and....

Reindeer's antlers are furry!!! They are so so cute and soft!

Hogsloken i Finnmark!!

Well i have just got back from my first day at school and the overriding impression is Norwegian is a bloody hard language! I think it didn't help that most of the class had lived in Norway for over 6 months so already knew how to say Hello, Goodbye, What is your name and where do you live!!! So i was a bit behind! But i'm sure i will catch up! 

My class had about 20 people in it, I was the only English person, we had people from Russia, Chinese, Ukrain, Phillapenes, Kurdistan, Ghana and a mother a daughter from Latvia (the daughter is totally gorgeous which im sure the Osgathorpe boys will be happy to know!) The University is pretty tiny so quite funny! They have Fadder's - norwegian for God Father - that helps you around the university and Tommey was my Fadder for the day! So i got my student card which allows me cheaper beer! Very important is Norway as the prices are so so much!

I have two options tonight! I can either go to the Norwegian Students Air Guitar Championships tonight at the Studenthusent. Or I have Paul Young (apparently a world famous fishing presenter from the discovery channel!) coming to Gargia tonight as he is filming a programme for the Discovery Channel about Salmon Fishing in the Alta River and he is filming Pal cooking a 3kilo salmon that he caught last week! I think i may stay home and eat freshly cooked Salmon, not that air guitar doesnt sound very very funny!

My other funny story i have to tell you is that in Norway they have two ways of farming the straw and hay, the old fashioned way is they build woodern fences in the fields and hang the hay over the top to dry out, or they wrap it in bright white cling film and leave the hay bails in the fields to be collected, however until they are collected they are called Tractor Eggs - and apparently they get taken to the barns over winter and in spring next year they produce lots of baby tractors! Not very real but i cant wait to tell children who come and visit that is what they are!

Har det bra! 

First day back at school!

Well I've just walked the dogs in a balmy 6oC this morning! Alta had an amazing heatwave last week up to 29 until I arrived! Oh well!

The bag is packed and I'm off to uni! Graeme and I went to have a look on monday and it is like a high school from an early 90s american tv show like saved by the bell! Comedy!

Cathrine has been taking me for Norwegian culture session! First to alta for their amazing chocolate pudding! Yes it was all we ate for lunch however she is pregnant and my boss so I had to eat it! She also gets a new car today with room for the baby so very exciting!

I took the dogs out for the first time, 7 dogs attached to a quad for 12kms at 1030 at night! It is however still near daylight here then! Pal has 8 huskies, Princess, Anelka, Emblar, Usk, Thor, Edward, Tommy and Smok. Although Smok is too old to pull so just runs loose besides the other dogs! Princess is his main lead dog and the clever one, and Thor is a puppy now hopefully to become a lead dog too!

Off to study now!

Har det bra!
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Reindeer!

Just on the way to the vets and these huge reindeer were blocking the road! They stood iin front of the car with the tip of the antlers easily taller than the car! A quick beep of the horn and off they went! Not too sure how clear the photos are but they were beautiful!
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Airport

Just dropped graeme off at the airport and found the only english magazine they have is hello! But at £4 I'm not sure jordans break up with peter is worth it!
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Shopping!

We headed into alta shopping today to get a phone sorted and head into the university!

The university was lovely and we found the language lab where I start on wednesday! The welcome pack is all in norwegian again so I have no idea what is going on! Although cathrine translated it for me!

Then we headed into alta and found some very interesting stuff! I could buy a poster of big ben and a london bus and graeme put a beaver on his head!!!!

We headed to the vets as finnie and bartie have to have some jabs within a week of arriving in the country so they go tomorrow to a really nice vets!!

Graeme is now helping Pal make the salmon as Pal is practising because we have a film crew here filming with Paul Young (apparently a famous british fishing man) about salmon fishing in the alta river so he is using the salmon we caught to practice showing them how to cook salmon norway style!

Now off to eat it! X
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TAke A TOUR!!!!!

If you want to see where i will am living, check out my video tour on this link...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=136284195134

A few photos!

I have uploaded to facebook a few of the photos from the trip up here! Some of the most amazing views!!! 

Check them out on facebook or copy this link!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=131963&id=500825134&l=ef706ecf8e

Sunday!

Well as most places are closed in Norway on a sunday there was only one option today, for me to unpack and graeme to go out with the huskys!!! Pal showed him how to harness the dogs, who were very excited to be going out! Then off they went out on the quad bike with the 7 dogs all harnessed up! He came back having loved it! We are now off the walk our dogs down the trails and take them swimming!!!


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My first night in norway!

Well its not a bad start to my year in norway! No I can't take credit for catching that, Pal caught it while I was taking the dogs swimming! This is a small fish for the river apparently!!! We are now sat round a camp fire cooking sausages and waiting for pal to catch another!!
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Today!

Just been shopping in alta and a shop in england I would have expected to be £60 was £160!!! So norway is expensive yes!!! And the supermarket is only allowed to sell beer as wine and spirits is sold by the government!!! They are the only people allowed to sell it!

Pal and cathrine who own the cabin fancied going fishing tonight so have invited me and graeme down to the river with the dogs to build a bonfire and go fishing!!! Oh and they want to take the dogs as cathrine is totally in love with finnie (I think she might try and steal her!) They are getting 2 husky puppies which are 2 weeks old and arrive in 4 weeks so finnie will get play mates! Pal thinks bartie will be good to run behind the husky sleds each day so bartie is going to get mega fit! Also finnie can do some running behind the sled with the other puppies but when they get tired, they will go in the sleds!!!!
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Gargia!

We are here! After 29 hours driving we arrived in gargia! And went to sleep straight away! Gargia is totally in the middle of nowhere and gorgeous! My cabin is bigger than I remembered with 1 double and 1 single bed! I think the single bed is about to become the sofa and home for the dogs! The photos show the cabin! Its very cute and with the sofa bed there, plenty of room for visitors!!!!!!
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Midnight sun!

Just to show, its nearly half past 11 at night and still this light!!!
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Nearly there!

We are coming over the last massive mountain only 100kms away from alta! The mountain pass we drive over is over 1000metres above the fjords and the view with the sun setting is just amazing, the photo hopefully shows it a bit as well as one of the glaciers leading down to the fjord! It is some of the most breathtaking scenery we have ever seen with these huge giant like mountains surrounding the huge open expanse of each fjord! About 2 hours to go then we are there 12 hours ahead of schedule(not sleeping helped!) Xxx
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Update!

Well we just saw the first sign to alta 482kms to go! We are taking it in turns to sleep then drive as if we make it late tonight it gives us 3 full days in gargia before graeme goes home (boo!)

Its a very strange feeling now as there has been so much work simply to plan this huge trip that it feels really nervewracking that I am actually here and have to start studying and living in norway and as graeme goes on tuesday morning it will just be me and the dogs! Scary and so exciting at the same time!
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Ferry!

We are on the ferry from bognes to somewhere begining with S! The drive from oslo to gargia of over 1800 kms is just one road! So navigating is easy! The scenery is amazing with these huge glacier formed peaks and flat valleys!

And lou will be pleased to hear bartie is now jumping in the car, and annie yes there water bowl is really useful thankyou!
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Arctic circle!!!

We made it to the arctic circle about 30 mins ago!

Where you cross the circle is a little tourism centre with a war memorial and a massive statue on the exact line of the arctic circle. It is so barren up here, a bit like the yorkshire dales, but with the odd reindeer crossing the road! Its very pretty at the circle line as there are hundred of way markers (little piles of stones) that visitors have made there own. There are literally hundreds!

Although the most popular feature were the dogs! Everyone wanted to cuddle bartie and finnie! And great news is the sun has come out! Only 500 miles to go!

Ps - anyone who ever goes to norway, don't buy fanta zero- it tastes of state water!!! Rubbish!!!!
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Fjords!

We have been driving nearly all the way along stunning coastal fjords! This one in the photo we have been driving around for 25 minutes!
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Morning!

A rather rainy morning in norway and over night we've done over 500miles driving! Dogs are good and g and I are swapping driving and sleeping! The scenery is stunning, we are travelling along windy roads along massive gorges with forest covered mountains and clear water rivers! Unfortunately with the rain, photos are rubbish!

We are about 300kms from the arctic circle now! Will definitely photo that as we cross the line!!!

Xxxx
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Lilliehammer!

We have already reached lilliehammer on our journey to the arctic circle!!! Lilliehammer is famous for hosting the 1994 winter olympics all the road signs keep telling us! Not sure how clear the photo is but on the right hand side is the ski jump they used in the games!

And as norway is called the land of the midnight sun, we are being treated to gorgeous sunset of blues and reds in the sky!!!
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Oslo and dogs!

We have arrived! After a bit of an effort to find the dogs, went through customs who didn't even check their passports!!!(That was 300 pounds at the vets well spent!!!) Just on a bit of grass feeding them outside the airport waiting for graeme to come and pick us up!!! We r in norway!!! Xxx
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The calm before the storm!

The puppies had a big mud filled walk last night and snuggled up together for their last night in the uk! Graeme is now on the ferry to oslo in his luxury cabin, while I am on a plane with 2 dogs in a crate! Its alright for some!!!
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Heathrow!

Well the dogs r checked in and in their crates! Bartie would not go in his and took all my body weight to push him in! They are now sat in the tea room of the scandinavian airlines handling services watching all the men drink coffee!!!

They get put on the flight first in their crates, so hopefully they will calm down and not be too dirty!!!

Just having coffee now as I have a while to wait!!! Xxx
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Puppies and there crates!

As we fly tomorrow, we are feeding the puppies in their crates to try and get them used to them, however they keep swapping crates and trying to eat each others food! And with the size of barties crate, he struggles to get in to hers!!!
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Leaving

I'm on my way! The car is all packed up, my trusty jeep is totally stuffed full!!!! After what felt like a mamouth 3 months, trying to get bits done in time, sorting out car insurance, visas (still in the process!!!) And dog travel, I left a sunny osgathorpe to start to norway!

Possibly more complicated was the 9 leaving events I had! Girls dinner, black tie dinner, party, and that one drink on a sunday afternoon that turned into 6 hours later! Thanks lou and fiona!!!

I will definitely miss osgathorpe and all of the special people, well not all- there are some very "special" people- I can send back some norwegian bottle tops to throw into certain people's gardens!!! It is a very different village, upholding the traditional values of a true community. Lots of my none osga friends ask what it is like, well... I have a few memories of osga and here they are...

1. Late night pub kareoke, where couples profess their undying love
2. Stealing crisps at the bishops
3. Going to the pub for 1, and being there hammered 6 hours later
4. Dog walking
5. Glass of wine\tea at the farm along with girly gossip
6. Lots of girly chats along with serious wine consumption!
7. Laughter- tummy aching, neighbours complaining, unable to walk laughing!

It is a brilliant place, and very hard to leave with many tears shed.

Graeme left my parents early this morning, off to the eurotunnel then a marathon effort driving up to fredriskhaven in denmark tonight. He gets the ferry tomorrow where the dogs and I fly into tomorrow night. It is then a 3\4 day drive up to Gargia! The drive takes us along the coast of norway which I'm told with the fjords, glaciers, norwegian sea, whales and much more is supposed to be totally stunning!

They we reach the small town of alta, and about 30mins outside is gargia! Alta is where the university is, Hogskolen i Finnmark where my course starts a week today! I am going to be living and working with Pal and Katryna in Gargia and I'm not totally sure what ill be doing yet, I think a bit of everything to help run the hotel and train the huskys!

Anyway, I'm off to wake up the puppies and take them for a walk! Finnie is now quiet through the night which is heaven although she is growing fast and won't be the little puppy in the photo much longer!!

Finally, back to osgathorpe, I have a very strong memory of some of the best friends a girl could want, coming to my birthday, and at 12.30pm, one of the last songs was played by the amazing band Indio Black, and it was this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW-U68Bun7Y

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