Month: March 2015

Monday 23rd March

Flo and Christina go off to visit the “reining lady” with Sonny and Knighty.  So after we’ve done the stable chores, me, Daz and Ion I continue with the circular saw.  We have discovered that if I run the saw whilst people are in the house using the cooker etc that we keep blowing fuses.  So far in about 4 sawing sessions we’ve blown about 15 fuses in total so now I only run the saw if no-one’s in the house.  I do about 2.5 hours of sawing which is hard work – lifting the large logs up into the saw but my original pile is slowly decreasing in size so it’s rather satisfying.  Meanwhile Daz is building a table so it’s quite difficult to get him to do anything else.  He’s googled it and found a model to copy and he’s very excited about it all.

In the afternoon we tidy the shed next door to our cabin – it’s where we store the wood for our wood burner but apart from a small stack of wood there’s barely any spare room.  As we empty it we discover that most of it is old cardboard boxes and horse feed bags kept to start fires.  There’s so much that we have a small fire to get rid of it all and actually the majority of the other stuff is consigned to the rubbish tip.  We’re going to do a “tip” run on Thursday I think.

 

Tuesday 24th March

Today I do some planting with Christina – we plant sunflowers, salad leaves, peppers and cucumber seeds.  I’m looking forward to the results and replanting them in the greenhouse.

Work on the greenhouse continues – now that the foundations are done Ion is busy finding wood and cutting it to size and making the roof A frame.  Mucking out today is a bit of a disaster – we’ve kept several horses in  because we’re expecting the “hoof” man at 11am.

He’s going to trim the hooves of 5 of the horses – Christina can do it and has done the ponies and several mares but she says the “boys” will take too much of her time.  Christina and Flo have got 2 horses ready to ride – Suaga and Wichita but then realise that in the front paddock there’s a ‘real fight’ between Knighty and Lucky.  There’s often some rather robust horse play amongst the stallions but this is something else.  Lucky is practically on his knees with Knighty on top.  It looks really nasty and Christina manages to separate them and brings Lucky into the stables.  The poor lad is covered in bites and Knighty has drawn blood in a large number of places.  Christina puts on some ointment.  Knighty was having his hooves done and Lucky was in Knighty’s stall waiting his turn for the “hoof man” and there were several mares around the stable too, Wichita, Suaga and Peanut.  The proximity to the mares got Knighty a bit “hot under the collar” and so when they were returned to the field Knighty was overexcited and took out his ‘hormonal exuberance’ on poor Lucky.  As a result Lucky is kept in the stables for the remainder of the day and won’t be returned to the “boys” field until he’s healed and Christina can check how Knighty acts on his return.

In the afternoon I spread chalk on the lawn.  It’s supposed to stop the moss growing.

In the evening Flo leaves, she’s catching the 6pm train from Floby back to Gotenburg.  We’re hoping to see her again either in Gotenburg or here at the farm if she comes for the weekend.

During the evening Daz is lying on the sofa and kicks our Notebook off the arm of the sofa.  It hits the floor and when we check we discover the screen has many cracks and it only has limited functionality.

 

Wednesday 25th March

Christina is going to work today.  After we’ve done the stables I return to the wood pile task, Ion continues with preparation of the greenhouse frame and Daz with the table making.

We send the Notebook with Christina so she can find out if the screen can be replaced but apparently it’ll be stupidly expensive and cheaper to replace.  Daz is initially repentant but soon is overcome with the joy of the opportunity of spending money on something new.

 

Thusday 26th March

Today it’s really wet with a cold wind.  We won’t be doing much work outside today.  We take the horses out and do our normal stable chores and then we all end up indoors.  The rain just gets heavier and heavier.  In the afternoon Christina picks up a new volunteer from Floby. She’s Heather from New Zealand and she’s studying Environmental Science for a semester in Sweden.

 

Friday 27th March

I go with Christina to the ‘reining lady’.  Today she rides Sunny but also rides Knighty and he does really well for his first time.  Back at the farm we discover that a chicken has been killed – Ion thinks it was killed by a rooster or the other chickens but Christina says she has never heard of such a thing and thinks it was killed by weasel.  In the afternoon I saw some more wood, Daz sands his table and fixes one of the bikes and Ion continues work on his greenhouse frame.  Then I help Heather with Wichita and Suaga so she and Christina can ride when Christina gets back from Falkoping.

Saturday 28th March

Today we go to Skovde to purchase a new Notebook.  First we put the horses out and then Christina is going to give us a lift to Floby so we can get the train but then she realises that she doesn’t need the car today so she lends it to us.  So we drive to Skovde and visit a couple of shopping malls. Daz is so happy – things for sale.  He buys a new Notebook, a kettle and some herbs.  He’s one happy chappy.  Then we visit the town centre and have Thai for lunch.  It’s a lovely day and great to be out and about.  We sit in a bar overlooking the town square – Daz playing with his new purchases whilst I read my Kindle.  We get back to the farm at 7pm.  Christina,  Ion and Heather have only just come back from riding.

 

 

Sunday 29th March

Today we miss the clocks going forward and don’t get up until 10am and the horses are already out.  I stay in bed reading my book and leave Daz to do the work.  Then we have a lazy day

Monday 16th March

Today Tiho gives us a lesson in chainsaw maintenance so we know how to look after the chainsaws properly and then we plan to have 2 days of tree chopping frenzy to maximise tree chopping potential before Tiho leaves.  We do 6 trailer loads so we’re all pretty pooped by the end of the day and then we have a lovely roast pork dinner cooked by Daz to finish the day.

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Tuesday 17th March.

More tree cutting but today we only manage 4 trailer loads before we decide enough is enough.  Then I’m supposed to go riding; taking Sonny at a gallop so that the 2 ponies, Sparky and Pinnochio, are encouraged into a gallop too because they’re a bit lazy and it’s hard to get them going.  However, I chicken out and send Daz in my place.  He’s already ridden Sonny a number of times so knows what to expect.  Daz returns having had a good ride.  Tonight is Merle and Tiho’s last night.  We feast on chocolate and cookies.  It’s so sad to see them go.

  

 

Wednesday 18th March

Merle and Tiho left at 5.30 this morning so it’s just the 3 of us putting the horses out and mucking out.  Once that’s done Ion is off to continue work on the greenhouse – this is his pet project of the moment and he’s been working on it everyday since we finished the concrete foundations and has been laying a layer of breeze blocks which will be the base of the wooden framework walls.

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 Whilst Ion works on this Daz and I fill the planters in the conservatory – this is where Christina will grow tomatoes.

     

Then in the afternoon I help Christina with Sonny and Nighty.  We’re taking them to a farm where Sonny will be ridden by an experienced ‘reining’ horse rider (it’s the western riding equivalent to dressage).  After the riding session we take Nighty and Sonny to Falkoping for a spot of shopping.  Well actually Christina goes shopping whilst I keep an eye on the horses.

 

 

Thursday 19th March

Today we use a the soil/pebble mix that Daz loaded into the tractor trailer yesterday afternoon to fill in the holes in the drive to the farm.  Unfortunately Daz manages to snap the spade handle because he’s using the back of the spade to tamp down the mixture in the holes.

    

We also do a bit of gardening, sharpen the axe, look at the bicycles and ‘sit-on’ mower which won’t start.  It’s a beautiful day; warm like a summer’s day.  We have been so lucky with the weather – 3 weeks and only one day with some rain although tomorrow it’s due to rain.  The vet comes and castrates Korea, checks Silky’s teeth and checks Peanut over; she’s pregnant.

 

Friday 20th March

After doing the stable chores my mission is to turn the wood pile in the middle of the yard into logs using the circular saw.

    

 Whilst I do that Daz is using the chainsaw to cut up some trunks that are too big for my saw.  I make a fair dent in the pile but there’s still a lot of work left.

 

We finish about 3pm and slob out in front of the telly.  At 9pm we go out to bring the horses in and it’s sleeting.  We were expecting this weather much earlier and already the paths that were drying out nicely have turned into a quagmire – fortunately Daz and I are both proud owners of ‘hand-me down’ wellies. Result!

 

Saturday 21st March

Damn the weather.  This morning it’s snowing.  We were all going to go geocaching but we’re not going in this weather.  Christina has to work today and we’ve got a German volunteer coming from Gothenburg today, Florina.

She’s just coming for 4 days to see if she likes it and to come for longer in her summer break.  Florina arrives and we show her around the farm.  Later Daz and I slob out in front of the TV whilst Christina, Florina and Ion go riding.

 

Sunday 22nd March

Christina has already left for work when we get up.  By 11.30 all the chores are done and we’re planning another lazy day.  But Florina is full of beans and wants to do something.  She starts talking about going for a walk but that seems a shame to let her go alone so we find some geocaches we haven’t done and go out for a few hours.  Then we resume our position in front of the TV whilst Flo bakes a cake.

Monday 9th March

Tiho didn’t return from Gothenburg.  Apparently he’s going to dog sit there for a week. Daz and Merle ran this morning but I couldn’t be bothered even though I was awake.  We did the usual chores and then our task was to turn the logs from the trees we cut down last week into useable fire wood.  First we have to use the disc saw so cut logs so no greater than 50 cm long and then split them using the log splitter.  Then pile them.  This wood still needs to dry before use next winter.

Tuesday 10th March

Today we created another log pile.  Bigger than yesterday’s too. Unfortunately, we’ve discovered that the birch sawdust sets off Daz’s hayfever.  Yesterday he had a rash around his neck and chest from all the sawdust from the circular saw and today within about an hour his eyes are itchy and his nose is running and he’s sneezing.  He goes off to take piriton and we swap jobs. But the piriton must have affected his balance as he topples the wheelbarrow full of logs twice!  Soon we have enough logs cut and move onto the splitter, this works with hydraulics and makes splitting the logs into four very easy, then all we need to do is move the split logs to our new drying storage area.

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Whilst we have been doing this Ion and Merle have been sorting out the foundations for the new greenhouse, digging out and putting some shuttering in place ready for us to make some concrete up.  We will all probably work on finishing this tomorrow.

 

Wednesday 11th March

Today we all work on the foundations for the greenhouse.  We collect rocks from all over the farm to use as hard core and then Daz and Ion mix cement and start laying it and tamping it down.  All of which is bent over back breaking work, but its something different and with a finished product at the end quite satisfying.

Thursday 12th March

More work concreting, Daz and Ion go with Christina to get more sand and cement and then later when Ion goes for a swim at a local lake (does he not realise it’s still Baltic!)

 

Daz let’s me mix some cement and even pour the water in!  I can see now where he gets all his excitement from… NOT!  But by the time Ion is back we are nearly finished and it only takes one more mix to finish the foundations.  In the afternoon we manage to get a card game of Hand and Foot going during the lunch break and Merle soon proves to be very good… Fortunately the first hand was a practice, so her score doesn’t count!!!

 

We watch an action film in the evening (John Wick, all cars, guns and violence!) and then Tiho arrives back from Göteborg and he says he has had a good time in the Croatian bars, apparently there are over 9000 Croats living there! He also has a job interview lined up for a bar manager assistant in Ireland, so depending on how that goes he may be off for good.

 

Friday 13th March

It now looks like Tiho is off for good as he has booked a flight to Cork on March 18, which means he’s leaving and so is Merle, leaving just me, Daz and Ion but rumour is another volunteer is arriving sometime in April.  It’s a slow day today, quite windy and we can’t do much work on the new greenhouse as we have to wait for the concrete to set.  We cut up some more logs but that’s about it.  Although the days are slower here it gives us time to relax and do our admin.  We all go riding in the late afternoon.  I still don’t feel in control but hopefully it will come in time.

Saturday 14th March

We have a lie in which is lovely.  Just reading and dosing.  Merle and Ion take the horses out and we join them for breakfast.  We were thinking of going to Gothenburg today but decide that because we’re so late getting up that we’ll do Gothenburg another weekend and instead we decide to cycle to Floby and check out the sights and do some geocaching.  It’s a lovely sunny day but the wind is cold.  My bike is pretty good but poor Daz is on a mountain bike which is far too small for him and has a buckled front wheel.  We find a couple of nice geocaches and look around Floby. It has a supermarket, a pizzeria and not much else.   The pizzas are great.  I have a Mexicana – Yummy but Daz has a Lambada – chicken, peanuts, banana and curry powder – weird!

After our cycle ride we spend a few hours relaxing on the sofa.  Tiho seems to be going for the ‘golden duvet’ award as he spends all afternoon gently snoring away.   We thought we might be reunited with Seb, the volunteer we met in Finland from Belgium.  Christina asks us to email him, hoping that he can replace Tiho.  Unfortunately he’s just arranged a new job in Portugal.

 

Sunday 15th March

Today we put the horses out and do the stable chores because we had a day off yesterday.  In the afternoon we visit Hornborgasjon lake. It’s a huge lake around 7km long that attracts loads of bird life.  At the moment it’s still fairly quiet but by the end of the month there will be up to 25,000 cranes there.  We will visit again to see the bird life in their full glory.  Then in the late afternoon we go to Falkoping bowling.

 

So all in all it’s been a quiet week with some hard work but plenty of relaxation time.  We will see how it goes once Merle and Tiho leave on Wednesday; it’ll be the same work but fewer people to do it!

 

Monday 2nd March

We don’t need to start work until 9am and we’re awake early so we go for a run.  My first run in months and actually it’s not too bad and I manage just over 4 miles.   And now I have my route for the next couple of weeks.  After our run the horses are fed and put out in the fields.   Then we come in for breakfast and then we muck out the stables, change the horses’ water and refresh hay bags.  Once that’s done we go into the forest with Ion and Tiho and cut down some trees, chop them up for logs and then fill the tractor trailer.

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We both get a chance to drive the tractor and I have a go with the chainsaw.  Brilliant!  That keeps us busy until 3pm, with a quick break for lunch.

It’s great here – when we’re not working we have a comfy sofa and TV ( yah!!! Moving pictures) and there’s wifi too!!

Late afternoon we remember the ‘boys’ paddock needs hay.  This takes Tiho and Daz in the tractor carrying the hay bale and Merle and Ion to move the circular frame work to drier ground.  I can’t get near because they are mid calf in mud and they have wellies and I only have boots.  Even the tractor has problems in the muddy field.

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After dinner we watch a movie – Vice with Bruce Willis (what a terrible movie!!) and then the last chore of the day is to bring the horses for the night at 9pm.  This is no fun!  It’s raining, dark and very, very muddy and we need to pick a sensible route to the horses so we don’t end up thigh deep in mud.  Finally it’s done and we go to bed.  We assume Merle is watching another movie but we find out that she and Ion spent an hour and a half helping an owner get their shetland pony, Yum Yum inside.  He’s very nervous and a lot of patience is required.

 

Tuesday 3rd March

We are up early and do another run and then it’s usual morning chores: feed the horses and take them out to the paddocks.  Muck out stables and change the water.  Once this is done we help Ion dismantle the old greenhouse, salvaging as much as possible.  Much of it is rotten and the plan is to build another one on brick foundations so it’s more durable. That takes the rest of the morning and in the afternoon because the weather is clear we take the horses out.  We’re riding western style (like the cowboys!), with longer stirrups and loose reins.  It’s not what we’re use to.  We’re out for about an hour but it’s not my finest hour.  Both of us are told to give a looser rein and relax and do everything slowly and gently.  I finish my ride (well 2 minutes from end) by falling off but I’ve struggled to control Suega during the trot and each time she has run away with me.  She is an Arabian mare so definitely not the type of horse I’m used to. Hopefully there’s room for improvement.

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Wednesday 4th March

Another run and Merle comes with us and as a result I go out faster than usual and so I’m fading massively on the home leg.  But already there’s an improvement and we’re only on day 3.  After the run it’s the usual farm chores.  We’re now beginning to recognise some of the horses and know most of the routine.  After the farm chores it’s another session of tractors and chainsaws and wood collection.  The aim is to cut down sufficient birch trees to fill 3 trailer loads for 10 days without dropping trees on fences, tractors or volunteers!.   So basically 30 trailer loads and we’re not including the wood already cut.  This should be enough for next winter.

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About 3pm everyone goes off to Falkoping for shopping and to have a look round.  Daz and I finish off the trailer load we’re on and then finish for the day – only the 9 pm bringing in the horses still to do.

 

Thursday 5th March

No run today.  We have a lie in and start at 8am by taking the horses out.  We fill the rest of the morning by mucking out the horses, the usual stable chores and then off into the woods to cut down more trees but the chainsaw seems to be blunt.  So we need another chore so we use the industrial circular saw to cut down the seasoned wood into small logs which are for the wood burner in our cabin.

After lunch everyone’s feeling lazy and it’s a lovely sunny day so we all have some downtime after lunch but this just means playing cards because Ion and Merle seem addicted to ‘Noms’.  We’ve been playing for 3 days and Daz is leading but Merle is close on his heels.  Daz wants to teach them Hand and Foot (thanks Woo Allen) but we can’t persuade them!

At 3pm it’s time to take the horses out for a hack.  After my sad performance on Suega the other day, I’m riding Wichita and my riding is better than the other day.  Ion is on Suega and initially his more relaxed approach is working well but again once in the trot she just wants to go and does so overtaking the rest of us.  He does much better to control her but I’m glad I’m not on her!! We return safe and sound.

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Friday 6th March

Daz’s birthday and of course this means multiple comments during the day like , “I’m getting old”- all a bit tedious when he’s only 46 so has 3 years on me!!!!  For his birthday – well what do you buy when you don’t want to acquire anything new to carry and there isn’t anything he really wants (although bless him Daz is a reformed shopaholic and whenever he gets near shops the ‘need’ to buy something new starts to overwhelm him, ” I think I might need more socks/ new boots / better gloves / oh and look at this merino top blah blah blah” is a typical Daz refrain and he must be able to feel the money starting to burn a hole in his pocket!!). So I bought him wine, beer and chocolate and Merle bought him his favourite chocolate – with salted liquorice.

Today we run do our usual chores and then tidy away the various elements from the old greenhouse we dismantled the other day.

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 We also dig up a few rows of old strawberries and replace with younger plants.  In the afternoon we introduce Merle and Ion to geocaching – Tiho doesn’t want to join in and Christina is at work today, Saturday and Sunday. She works with the autistic and mentally impaired, she gets on really well with Daz!!

There are just 6 caches near to the farm and despite the hint being in Swedish we find them all.  And they’re all off the main footpaths etc but the coordinates are really accurate and Merle and Ion enjoy it but the 2 dogs are pretty pooped at the end.

. Chip cooling off.

Ion, Merle and Hels ( left to right) and Chip in the foreground.

I also make an interesting discovery whilst out geocaching.  I’d noticed that Merle is uber competitive at cards and is obviously card counting and calculating the odds (just like Darren but he’s much quicker at it and therefore it’s not obvious) and she’s desperate to close the gap he has in Noms.  But she also walks like him (hands clasped behind back in true officer style); similar build physically (both tall and slim) and of course they’re both Pisceans.  So Merle is now ‘Mini Me’ to Daz and she has additional brownie points because she bought him his favourite chocolate for his birthday and I

A.  Didn’t know it was his favourite and even if I had probably wouldn’t have bought it

B.  Know he loves crisps above and beyond all else on earth and didn’t bother to get him any of those either!

 

Saturday 7th March

Tiho is getting a lift off Christina to Falkoping and then he’s getting the train to Gothenburg.  He’s spending the weekend there with a friend.  We were going to cycle to Floby, get the train to

Falkoping and then do some geocaching but there aren’t any locks for the bikes so we can’t take them but we can get a lift with Christina too.  So that’s what we do and we’re in Falkoping by 8.30 and then in a cafe by 8.50 ordering breakfast.

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 After brekkie we look round the city centre and once we’ve fulfilled Daz’s need to spend money (today it’s just a pair of bootlaces), we start geocaching.  The first is ‘shop 2’ (well the Swedish equivalent) and it takes us to a jewellers. We then proceed to walk up and down scouring the area for 45 minutes!! I refuse to give in because it was only found a week ago.  I even send Daz into jewellers to get the logs and description translated but no further clues are forthcoming and finally I agree to give up.  Then it’s off to Mossberg park for the next cache and another 15 minutes and still no cache.  So we head to the cache by the pond and it’s another failure.  So we decide to attempt another series so off we go walking through the woods up a hill for 3km with me bleating most of the way.  We end up 35m away but we’re at the foot of a cliff.

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 So now it’s ‘extreme geocaching’ but at the top Daz is practically on top of the cache and it’s the first of a really imaginative series which we really enjoy.

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We finally get back into town for 4 (we’ve been walking since 10 and not eaten since brekkie) so we’re both very tired and hungry (and this is supposed to be a day off!).  We’ve got 2 hours until the train to Floby and Daz wants to spend it in O’Leary’s.     

He’s so happy – burger and chips, Kilkenny on tap and 11 TVs in his view showing football.  Unfortunately it’s only QPR v Tottenham, if only it were Derby County he’d think he’d died and gone to heaven!! However it’s soon time for the train back to Floby, it’s only an 8 minute train journey but did I mention it’s a 6km walk from the station to the farm?  More walking, and now it’s pitch black but fortunately it’s back roads and there’s not much traffic, just darkness, dark woods, strange sounds and Darren to keep me company!!! Fab!!! We get back about 1930hrs just in time for some of Ion’s home made fruit sponge cake yum!!

 

Sunday 8th March

After feeding and putting the horses out, Ion and Merle go off exploring and geocaching.   Daz and I muck out etc and then we just relax in front of the TV and watch a couple of movies including ’71.  It’s lovely to relax and have such a lazy day.

Sunday 1st March

Today we’re off to Floby, Sweden to our next workaway host.  So for the last 15 days we’ve been ‘on holiday’ seeing Norway and during this time we’ve spent 7 nights with ‘couchsurfers’ but it’s still been expensive:

(Prices for 2)

6 day cruise £1100

Excursions £600

Hotels £340

Train tickets £220

Plus food, bus and tram fares, and beer.

 

So an expensive deviation from our plan and only possible because we still had full pay at the end of December and January.  We know it’s not repeatable and this has really led us to question our plans.  We had planned a workaway in Norway in June for 6 weeks and then Iceland for 6 weeks taking us to the beginning of September.  But our Norway workaway cancelled and Daz thinks we’ve “done” Norway.  So Denmark or Iceland after Sweden?   Chatting with Cato (our last C/S host) about his cycling plans has also fired up our excitement over our own cycling plans.  So we’ll wait and see how Sweden works out before deciding where to go next.

The farm, the kitchen and the dining room

We arrive at Floby and Christina picks us up and takes us to the farm.  We meet the other volunteers Merle (German), Ion (Moldovan) and Tiho (Croatian).  We are in a separate cabin to the house (no bathroom!!!! No TOILET!!) and we’re sharing with Merle.  We unpack and settle in.

 

Wednesday 25th February

It’s raining quite heavily in Flam as we catch the Flam valley railway back to Myrdal.  But as gain height in the valley this changes to heavy snow fall ruining our view some what!  At Myrdal we change to the Oslo train and once again the view is mostly obscured by snow.  At Finse (altitude 1222metres) we pass the highest point and can see the blue ice of Hardangerjokul glacier glittering in the southwest (well we should according to the guide book but of course we can’t). So we’re supposed to be enjoying the scenery but instead I’m trying to muffle my sobbing as I read ‘the last days of Rabbit Hayes’ and Daz is reading and occasionally guffawing at my red eyes and snotty face.  Well he’s reading it next but he only sobs at animal stories like ‘Marley and me’ and despite the title of this book isn’t about a rabbit!  At Lysaker we get off the train.  It’s 2.30pm and our couch surfing hosts won’t be home until 5pm so we sit in a cafe for a few hours.

We catch a bus and we’re soon with our couchsurfing hosts.  Mona and Erik and their 2 gorgeous dogs Amanda and Sylva (2 Shetland sheepdogs) – so cute!

Thursday 26th February

Another cold and overcast day.  We take the dogs geocaching with us.

We walk to the Oslo Fjord, through the boat yard and past the Art museum.

Erik has big band rehearsals tonight and the cleaner is coming, so we all (including dogs) pile into Mona’s car for a mini tour.  We visit Sandvik, where Mona grew up, and walk around the town centre with the dogs. We also see the bridge that features in many of Monet’s paintings.

Friday 27th February

We say goodbye to our lovely host and her cute dogs and get the bus into Oslo.  We dump our bags in left luggage and we’re off sight seeing.  After seeing some sights we have some scoff (food) in the trendy foodhall and then we’re off geocaching.  We do 4 before we need to meet our host but our 3rd find is preceded  by 30 minutes wandering around a church and grave yard.  Daz wants to give up but i’m not leaving- someone found this cache yesterday!!!! Finally we think we have a result but it’s a decoy!! A couple more minutes and Daz finds it!!!! Brilliant – one of the most ingenious caches we’ve ever found!!!

 Hels with the cache, very good find as it was made to look like part of the roof timbers but stuck on with magnets!

We meet our host, Cato.  Back to his place, chat relax then out to meet his mate Tom.  We have a brilliant evening including a ‘crepe’ dinner on swings (see photo) and then onto a pub.   Tom and Cato are a really entertaining double act and we have a thoroughly good night.  Thanks guys! Cato is planning a big bike tour and it’s good to hear about his plans, preparation and buying frenzies.  We hope we will see him on the road again someday.

 

Saturday 28th February

Last day of February and last day of our holiday.  Daz and I go off to see some more sights of Oslo and do some geocaching but neither is that stimulating.  The weather is pants and the geocaches are run of the mill.  Finally we end up in a pub (shock).  From outside Daz told me they were showing 6 Nations rugby but it’s football.  Man U vs Sunderland.  Deep joy!  Daz is happy and it’s warm in here.  Good beer and packed.  Apparently the Norwegians love English football especially Man U and Liverpool.

After the match Cato texts to say he will cook for us tonight, so we hop on the bus and head back to his apartment. Wow, he can cook, we have meatballs with a creamy meaty sauce served with mashed potato and sweet potato and accompanied by a nut, green bean and apple salad with home made marinade, yum yum! Whilst he is cooking we find MasterChef on the TV and enjoy Greg Wallace stuffing his face!  Later we all sit about laughing at Fawlty Towers, classic!! Tomorrow we say goodbye to Oslo and are catching the bus to Göteborg Sweden then the train to Floby, to meet our new workaway hosts.  We are looking forward to some time in Floby land, but hope Noel Edmonds has left!!!