Norway

Norway in December was everything I expected it to be.
After landing some 22 hours later than planned, Bear met me at the airport with a hotdog in his hand....Luckily for me he opted to let me eat the hotdog rather than him!! What a welcome!! The hotdogs are AMAZING!!

Delays due to the windy conditions (not mine!) I flew out of Leeds Bradford late and I missed my connecting flight out of Amsterdam. Me being a lazy arse and sleeping too long the following morning almost meant I missed my rescheduled flight... Luckily for me, it had already been cancelled and rearranged for later in the day, again due to weather.

Main thing is, I made it.

Eventually.

We exited the airport to snow on the ground, white fairy lights on trees. I almost felt festive. I didn't visit for festive cheer, I went to have a slight escape n support my friend... I also went to have a rustic reindeer dinner cooked n be shown how my lodger lives versus how I live.
It seems we have VERY different standards and live in VERY different worlds.

Let me just go off on a tangent briefly.

I live in a semi-constant state of chaos. Most of my storage is visual and clutter is familiar.  Every now and then when it drives me insane, I will attack it and make it tidy, but it soon falls back into disarray. Bear on the other hand, has a minimalist thing going on.  He is a bit untidy, but doesn’t have ‘stuff’ everywhere. The nature of his work means he could have to move at any time. He has a functional, minimalist wardrobe n his stuff is necessary n functional.

Not so long since, I somehow I found myself saying to Bear, well, there is a spare room if you ever need or want it (sorry Signe I know you baggsed it first) and he took me up on it…. It seems I now have to move all the ‘stuff’ that has been gathering dust in there and make room for his 'stuff' instead.
 
This is fine… I like Bears company.  But I am sooooo lazy…and when I want to expend energy, being organised n tidy isn’t high on my list of things to do.  Besides, most of the stuff stored visually, doesn’t actually have a home and never has had one, so I cant put it away…. which is why I have so much stuff stored in the way it is.

It will do me good to get rid of some of the stuff.  I have been meaning to do it for years.  Now I have a reason to do it.

Anyway, I digress. Sorry, back to Norway.

Norway is beautiful. Bear tells me he lives in the ugly bit... I hope to visit the pretty part one day. Then I may explode. What a way to die.

There is a strange mix of mountains, glorious country side with the odd fjord thrown in, combined with housing estates, ship yards and oil works. It sounds random... And it is, but somehow it works. The houses are stunning wooden cabins, all unique, all pretty to look at., all how I imagined.

It is glorious and peaceful. It smells of open fires, ski trips and happiness.

I understand why Bear has stayed there as long as he has. It welcomes you n invites you to feel at home. Other than Switzerland, this is the only place I have though ‘I could live here’.  Except for the cost of everything. I don’t like that. But it is relative. The country is rich, its main business is oil, the cost of living is high, but so is the quality of life. Local wages reflect this.

We have had a fab weekend, playing in the snow (I lost), playing on the Xbox (I lost even though I cheated at sprinting), swimming (I lost at sprinting - nothing new there - if I didn't know I wasn't built for speed before this weekend, I do now). We also spent time mooching round Stavanger in the snow. I found a crocodile by the side of the lake. We spent too long watching brilliant films on Youtube and I pulled too many amazed faces.

Things I have learned (in no particular order) are

1) Chocolate milk cures hic-coughs,
2) Reindeer is full of tasty goodness
3) I am a travelling nightmare and liability waiting to happen,
4) Training on Bears bike isn’t the best idea in the world.  I am an umpa lumpa.  He is not.
5) Some Bears have secret fetishes for cross dressing as zebra's and will steal unoccupied onesies where possible.
6) Public swimming in Norway is like the 7th layer of hell.

How interesting can public swimming be? Well, its a tiny pool for a start, prob not 3 full lanes wide. That's fine. but there are no lanes.

It is a free for all.

And the Norwegians don’t have any manners.

None. None at all.

After more pool time with Bear I have decided that brute force and ignorance is gonna be the way forward with his swim for Norseman. Bear has no style and no finesse when in the water…. but somehow he moves. Quite quickly at times. He appears to expend a lot of energy, but that’s about how he is built and the physical limitations of his shoulders and hip. There is work to be done.  

After swimming, we returned to have the nommy lump of Reindeer that Bear had roasted with beetroot, sweet potato and onion. This is now my lump of meat of choice. Specially served with JuleBrus (Christmas flavoured juice)

I learned a lot about Bear on this trip, having Bear move in with me has been interesting to say the least, I have lived on my own too long, but stepping into Bears world has really opened my eyes.
Bear earns in an hour what I earn in a day. What he earns in day, I earn in a couple of weeks.  He is frivolous, I am frugal.  He buys what he wants and thinks little of it. I only dream of doing this. His lifestyle is minimalistic yet abundant.

He can come across as being grumpy and depressive, but on some level, he is only happy when he is miserable.
He lives very much in isolation, which can mean weeks without 'intimate' human contact (friends, family etc) so quite often there is no touch or affection in his world.
Bear is very matter of fact, so much so, he can be abrupt to the point of being perceived as being rude/bad mannered. But if it needs saying, he will say it. He can be ridiculously playful, to the point of being child-like in his laughter.
He is feircly protective of those he cares about, yet has as distinct 'lack of emotion' - its not a complete lack, but he uses Bear to keep his feelings well protected and ensure they don't get exposed.

Behind the Bear is Paul, who happens to be quite a nice chap.
It is Bear who competes, Bear who pushes past physical limits, Bear who is determined and feirce. Luckily for me, I quite often get Paul... Yet still call him Bear most of the time although it is interchangeable.

Where Bear is based its a strange place to walk round, I went for a mooch on my own before flying home and obviously went out with Bear when he was at home.  The people don’t speak. On a night the streets are deserted.  There is no noise, very little traffic. Just silence. They are not social creatures, them there Norwegians, hence so much isolation.  But they are very beautiful to look at (most of them). And tall.

I hope to go back at some point – if only to see the pretty bit and have more of a chance to poke about in it and explore.
So much water and so many mountains.