Ceci n'est pas un blog

OK, I didn't plan to take so much time off from blogging but, well, work and laziness and my utter lack of routine have conspired to keep me away. My job responsibilities have been expanding and the challenges along with them but it's all good and my team are amusing and excellent folks.

Spring has transitioned into Summer. Tulips have given way to pansies and the lush parks have become filled with hordes of bikini'd sunbathers and groups of friends grilling and playing Kubb in the park. I learned that the higher the magpies nest, the sooner Winter will end the more mild Summer will be. We had one week of high temperatures that broke 90 one day. Without a/c this seemed horrible but before we could stage a protest, Summer returned to sanity and temperatures in the 70s. I don't miss Summer in Texas. At all.

It's wonderful to be in a country that takes May Day (Labor Day) seriously. I didn't have to explain the importance of the labor movement to anyone Interestingly, there are at least two Unions here for high tech workers. We had a lovely brunch with friends complete with a custom, slightly tongue in cheek, soundtrack of the Internationale and Cuban anti-American songs. We were the only non-Norwegians there and it was a lot of fun having waffles, brown cheese, and savory treats. H played with a young boy, each of them patiently explaning in their own language what they wanted the other one to do. I also had some fun putting together a fun-things-to-do-in-Texas list for a young radical communist from work who went to the States for his holiday.

Also in May is the National Day, see Fjordward for pics, which we really enjoyed. It was surprisingly easy to get down to the Palace, wave at the royals, and see all the people in their traditional Bunad and suits. In most countries they parade their tanks and military might on their national day but Norway parades their children. It's really lovely. Fortunately the weather held and we had a very good time.

We had a bit of a shock recently. After signing a 3 year lease, our landlords asked for their apartment back. Their business surpringly relocated them back to Oslo from Stockholm. But, again, see Fjordward for pics, we were able to find a great place to move to. It's a short lease and more expensive but the place is perfect "us". And the owners are so nice, with two small kids of their own. The first time we met them, the lady of the house was wearing Che Guevarra socks and taught H to say "heart" in Norwegian. Coincidentally, our Bohemian neighbor, whom we adore, just moved after 8 years in various apartments in our current building.

The other day we noticed that Seamus was chewing his side raw. After a bit of research we found out that there is a drop-in clinic at the veterinary school not even half a kilometer away. It's a beautiful school, very old and ivy-league looking with old buildings and large lawns. It turned out to be nothing serious but he did have to wear the cone of shame for a week. And of you think a gigantic 145 pound dog gets attention, stick a satellite dish around his neck. People constantly would come over to gawk and offer their commiserations. Small dogs just bark and hide behind their owners.

We took H to see Swan Lake at the old Opera House, a 1950s building inside a mall downtown. H was great. She really engaged the plot, which we had told her many times and had seen on TV. So she knew all about the evil magician and the prince and the bad princess. Of course, being 4, she also would blurt out random observations like, "they're wearing tights" and "four swans holding hands". But she would also say things like, "he sat next to the Queen! that's bad!" She really liked it. During the intermission she was able to have a bit of chocolate cake and expend some energy playing, making the second half easy. We left before the final confrontation, which was great because the evil black swan is really the highlight and we saw that. So now we have a princess ballerina who still turns into WonderWoman to battle dragons.

Today is Father's Day. I am full of waffles and coffee. The sun which seems never to set these days (we have over 20 hours of sunlight that begins spilling into the living room and pooling on the floor arounf 3:30 in the morning) is hidden behind the rainy day clouds. I got two Murakami books from H for the day, maybe I'll start them during her nap after we walk the puppies and jump in puddles.

Here is bunch of my team posing in my office. We are marking the departure of Hans, who is going to Telemark to get married and then off to Trondheim for married life and a new career. Yes, someone asked if people there are called Telemarketers. Yes, someone asked if he would have to get married with one foot slightly further forward than the other.

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Our lovely miss H, who turns 4 next week, has a way with words and phrases.

She likes to announce very emphatically that "There is no such thing as a Yeti!"

A couple days ago she said to her mother: "I am small. But you can't put me in your pocket. I'm not tiny, I am big."
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A long long long time ago, my dear bride ordered me a winter jacket from a US company for delivery to me here in Oslo.

It never came.

<insert long and boring tale of confusion and misunderstanding here including the package getting sent back and forth several times>

The company we ordered it from was finally going to treat it as a return but had sympathy and re-placed the order from scratch and sent it on and all went well. When I got notice that the package was in the country but Posten needed some customs info, we were on our way.

Yesterday we went down to the post office in the rain. H walked, hopped, and jumped in every puddle in the downtown area. The good news is that after almost 4 months of sending the box back and forth and re-initiating the order and so on and so forth ad nauseum, it's here BUT turns out there's stupid tariff fees and taxes to the tune of almost 50% the value of the coat and socks. Aargh.

So now we know. Do not have non-book goods shipped in from non-Norwegian companies. Sigh.

I was asking generally why so much of Oslo appears to date from the late 1800s, why there is such a uniformity to the central city without the mix of the very old buildings you might expect in a city of this age.

Apparently there was a huge boom in the 1890's fueled by lumber trade with Europe. This, in turn, led to overbuilding and a huge bust in the housing market in the early part of the 20th century. Housing prices dropped 50% in less than a month.

A lot of the apartments are built according to what was then the latest in urban planning. A German notion of building apartments with a courtyard, those that faced the street were designed for upscale professionals and those at the back for working class, creating areas with a social mix.

And then just today I received an expat newsletter with a little blurb about how development in the 1890s spread Westward with new technology such as elevators and central heating going into these new affluent Western neighborhoods. The blurb also talks about the highly stratified class system in place at the time and how common it was for urban city dwellers to keep small livestock such as chickens and pigs on whatever small plots they could afford.

Currently a debate ranges among Osloensers about whether to allow skyscrapers in the city center. It's clear from the block housing going up everywhere that the city has no policy encouraging new development to complement the existing design or even to contribute to the city by providing mixed use space in accordance with a master plan. It is a lovely city on the whole but there are well funded developers committing crimes against aesthetics (as well rational urban planning) all around us.

Last weekend was the Lunar Year and we are now several days into the year of the Gold Pig on the Chinese Calendar. This was the first year in a while that we have not marked the occasion but the only events we could find here were a bit expensive and held by the Chinese Embassy, limiting the amount of information in English.

For a couple years we joined the Families with Children from China for their Ne Years feast but ultimately I, at least, found these to be clique-ish and frankly a bit odd -- to have so many people with no first hand knowledge or experience trying to celebrate a tradition they have only read about. Depending on the group, it can feel a bit appropriating and cloying. Basically there are bunches of people who have almost nothing in common except for being adoptive families. The events that we have found to be more fun are when the Asian community centers have had festivals of food, dancing, music, and art celebrating their traditions. This has seemed like a more genuine expression of cultural pride and heritage for our wee one to experience.

Oslo is interesting in that it has a huge immigrant population but no Chinatown or Little Lebanon, etc. There are areas with a more dense immigrant population than others but none of the clearly demarked "you are now entering a separate zone" feel that you get in New York, Victoria, D.C., San Francisco, etc. I think on the whole this is a good thing. But it is different.
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This was the warmest January on record for Oslo. We were getting spoiled by the light snow and no real Nordic cold. A couple Sundays ago, we walked to the market that our neighbor runs and dropped to -14 (C). The river was frozen over, ducks walked across leaving footprints in the snow across the top. H cried from the cold on her toes and fingers. There is a point at about -7 when a normal jacket and light gloves no longer cut it and we realized the limits of our outerwear that day. But then the thaw came.

Snow melted into water running down all the paths in the park, ice and snow slid dangerously from roofs onto the sidewalk below, the little brook in the park started to appear from under the snow and ice that had hidden it for the weeks prior. The frosted trees and white lawns turned to grey and brown, the rain turned the snow into the consistency of a slushy but grey and dirty.

Today at last, we are back below freezing and had a lovely dusting of snow in the morning. >The city begins to look pretty again but it is far more treacherous. The frozen run-off turned into slick ice sheets is now hiding under a thin gauze of snow, the slippery indistinguishable from the stable. Tosca dog stepped on an ordinary looking patch that turned out to be a lightly frosted sheet of thin ice over a deep dark puddle. I had several unexpected slips and slides but fortunately no spills or tumbles.
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For the past few years we have taken our dogs over to our friend's house and let our dogs romp together during Westminster dog show. We root against the tiny dogs and lament the endless line up of terriers. Akitas, Pyrs, Newfies, Mastiffs, Wolfhounds, and the occasional amazing smaller dog all get our cheers. S calls her sister as soon as the corgies come on. But this year the time difference meant we could not share in the live event even over Skype. However, we caught up with other dog lovers the next day via email and chat and praised the lovely and amazing winners and booed the miniatures and the silly poodles (yes, there are non-silly poodles).

At about this time, I met a woman in the park who I had met once before right around Christmas. She walks a 10 year old Bedlington terrier and I was introduced to them by the very nice lady who walked an older standard schnauzer named Rufun. It seems that on New Years Rufun's people were talking about how lucky they were that he was so healthy but then just days later Rufun had an epileptic style seizure and passed. They were incredibly nice and shared our walking schedule. A few minutes chat with Rufun and his owner were a fixture of most of our walks but without a dog to walk, Rufun's person is no longer out in the park at midnight or just after sunrise as we are and I have not been able to express our condolences.

Lately we seem to be sharing the same schedule as a young woman and her Australian shepherd mix named Jesse. Jesse loves Tosca and Seamus and runs circles around them while they play. Jesse is never far from a stick and loves to play fetch. Her owner, although raised in Norway, has Scottish(?) parents and therefore speaks English with a thick accent acquired from her folks rather than the standard slight Norwegian accent over American pronounciation that is so common here.

Well it looks like it's been a good news week for us.

We received a reasonable offer on our house ... finally. So hopefully the bidder will sell their condo quickly and we can cast off the shackles of double housing costs.

Our belongings arrived, those that weren't stored or sold. It sure is nice to have additional wardrobe and silverware options

Susan's birthday present arrived at long last, only a month later than I expected.

Lots of work and unpacking to do but overall things are well here.

I'm headed to Linköping Sweden for work next week, should be interesting, apparently the offices there have the feeling of an old house. It's a college town south west of Stockholm featuring a church from the 1300s. We've conscripted an American dog-owner who happens to live on our block to help with the dog walks while I'm away. The meat, wine, and cheese in Sweden is enough cheaper that many Norwegians go there just to stock up. The default response to, "I'm going to Sweden" is "what are you going to bring back".

Started Norwegian classes. So far it is going well enough but I can see where it could get overwhelming very quickly. At the moment class is comprised of 2 Bulgarians, 3 Russians, 1 Pole, 1 Canadian, 2 Chinese, a Brit, a Spaniard from the Canary Isles, and me. An interesting mix. At 38, I'm easily the oldest person in the class, which also reflects the demographics of the company.

We eagerly await the next snow.

Fjordward and I are planning a movie date soon. Maybe next weekend. It will be nice to have a date. H is adopting our friends and will happily spend the evening with them, it may even be difficult to pry her away.