My Opera15 July, 2006
Saturday, July 15, 2006 10:13:07 AM
Back again. Being disconnected from e-mail, with no telephone (other than mobile), and no cable TV makes you feel like you're not in the know.
Moved out of hotel and into the house. Loaner furniture and initial goods shipment came on Friday. Did a little food shopping. No problems with our shipment--all was there. The house has some problems with electrical I think mostly due to age. There are a very few places you can plug a transformer into without blowing the fuse. This will limit placement and arrangement of electronics.
On the good side, computers can go dual-voltage, and I bought several of the European plug in cords as our 3-prong cords don't fit into the simple, cheap US-European converter plug attachments. Both TVs that came with the shipment can go dual voltage, but none of the DVD players. I bought a cheap (79 dollar) DVD player that goes dual voltage at the shoppette, and I have the new one we got in Washington (DVD recorder) running off a transformer.
House is very cool temperature-wise, so was cold (and I have a cold)last night even with a blanket. Broke down and went to Ikea (where all Norwegians in the know shop) and bought a duck-down comforter thing. Spent about 200 dollars, but this one is supposedly multi-season--apparently some of the ducks fly away in the Summer, but come back to the comforter in the winter? I think it's a layer thing that you attach or don't.
Empty house with time on my hands makes me wonder if I made a good choice--kitchen isn't as clean as I thought--stove is a bit older and pretty dirty. Not surprising as landlord was sweeping/cleaning still on the afternoon prior to his flight to the states. Have been in contact with him since, and got permission to paint the small "closet" room on the ground floor and take off the kind of tacky flower wallpaper border. Might go with basic white next weekend. Lots of finishing details kind of halfway done throughout the house. On the good side, I think the kids bedrooms' though small, will be O.K. for them. Each now has a "loaner" bed, a desk and a chair. The one I picked for Becca has the door to the small balcony, as I thought she'd be likeliest to go out there on a sunny day (one of the 13 they're allotted here in Stavanger) and read a book. The room I picked for Timothy might be the smallest, but it has kind of a dormer on it so it doesn't slant downward as radically, thus for his height maybe more headroom. Right now I'm staying in the "study" on the ground floor, which I think is workable for a master bedroom. We can figure out what we want to do once our second shipment comes in. That leaves the second floor master bedroom vacant. With two big built-in closets, my thought is that it could become kid closet storage and guestroom. Of course, I defer to my lovely bride's opinion once she gets here.
Tried like crazy to get the satellite dish/receiver thing to work with no success. Would be nice to have CNN/BBC. Ah well, will give me a technological challenge to work through. Don't think I'll have regular phone/internet until mid-August, but my work mobile works well for receiving an incoming call.
Will try to post from work as opportunity arises. All for now . . .
Moved out of hotel and into the house. Loaner furniture and initial goods shipment came on Friday. Did a little food shopping. No problems with our shipment--all was there. The house has some problems with electrical I think mostly due to age. There are a very few places you can plug a transformer into without blowing the fuse. This will limit placement and arrangement of electronics.
On the good side, computers can go dual-voltage, and I bought several of the European plug in cords as our 3-prong cords don't fit into the simple, cheap US-European converter plug attachments. Both TVs that came with the shipment can go dual voltage, but none of the DVD players. I bought a cheap (79 dollar) DVD player that goes dual voltage at the shoppette, and I have the new one we got in Washington (DVD recorder) running off a transformer.
House is very cool temperature-wise, so was cold (and I have a cold)last night even with a blanket. Broke down and went to Ikea (where all Norwegians in the know shop) and bought a duck-down comforter thing. Spent about 200 dollars, but this one is supposedly multi-season--apparently some of the ducks fly away in the Summer, but come back to the comforter in the winter? I think it's a layer thing that you attach or don't.
Empty house with time on my hands makes me wonder if I made a good choice--kitchen isn't as clean as I thought--stove is a bit older and pretty dirty. Not surprising as landlord was sweeping/cleaning still on the afternoon prior to his flight to the states. Have been in contact with him since, and got permission to paint the small "closet" room on the ground floor and take off the kind of tacky flower wallpaper border. Might go with basic white next weekend. Lots of finishing details kind of halfway done throughout the house. On the good side, I think the kids bedrooms' though small, will be O.K. for them. Each now has a "loaner" bed, a desk and a chair. The one I picked for Becca has the door to the small balcony, as I thought she'd be likeliest to go out there on a sunny day (one of the 13 they're allotted here in Stavanger) and read a book. The room I picked for Timothy might be the smallest, but it has kind of a dormer on it so it doesn't slant downward as radically, thus for his height maybe more headroom. Right now I'm staying in the "study" on the ground floor, which I think is workable for a master bedroom. We can figure out what we want to do once our second shipment comes in. That leaves the second floor master bedroom vacant. With two big built-in closets, my thought is that it could become kid closet storage and guestroom. Of course, I defer to my lovely bride's opinion once she gets here.
Tried like crazy to get the satellite dish/receiver thing to work with no success. Would be nice to have CNN/BBC. Ah well, will give me a technological challenge to work through. Don't think I'll have regular phone/internet until mid-August, but my work mobile works well for receiving an incoming call.
Will try to post from work as opportunity arises. All for now . . .
