Happy New Year!

Wow, what a year it has been! Our end-of-the-year letters still have not arrived in the U.S., but when they do, you all will be able to see what a crazy year it has been for us. If you want even more detail, just go back through the blog.




We ended the year this evening with a little bit of fun, as we found yet another use for the one piece snowsuits the kids here all wear. There is a hill close to our apartment I figured would make a good sledding hill, and I was right! There is enough ice and packed snow that you can easily go from top to bottom and also not worry about ending up in the street. We didn't bring Sidney's sled (she had pretty much outgrown it), so we just slid her down in her snowsuit. About a third of the way down, she sort of went sideways, but she enjoyed it anyway. Kimber and I also gave it a try, but without snowsuits we got a lot of snow in our pants.

We enjoyed a traditional German meal of jaeger schnitzel, raw fried potatoes, and brussel sprouts for dinner. Our lunch was a bit more eclectic - smoked salmon, reindeer cold cuts, pastrami, French sausages and cheese, crackers and bread, and a Norwegian caviar that is really quite good. Sidney likes it as well.

We also did a little travel planning for next year. Our current event schedule is as follows -

January - Ski trip with school
February - Dog Mushing in Tromso and the Northern Lights (hopefully)
March - Ski trip with Kimber's work
June - Svalbard cruise

For those that may not know about Svalbard, it is probably one of the furthest northern locations you can go to for a cruise. We will actually sail as far north as the polar ice sheet (above the 80th parallel.) We are really looking forward to getting to actually see polar bears in the wild!




The little island out in front of our apartment took on many personalities today. This is partly because the fjord (saltwater, by the way) is warmer than the air, and it steams. (It is also freezing in the areas where the water sits still, such as our marina.) The other thing that gave the island a different character was the full moon this evening.

We will probably sleep through the actual new year, if we can get to sleep with all the fireworks going off. They are pretty much constant and everywhere around us. Oh, well, at least they are pretty!

Elephants, Poike Pot, and Christmas By The Pool

After returning from Cape Town, we went the next day to the Elephant Sanctuary near Pretoria. We had tried to go previously, but didn't quite make it in time for the tour (see the previous post re: monkeys.) This time we made it with almost an hour to spare!


Upon arriving, we saw two little meerkats running around in the parking lot. I mention this because these are my favorite animals from Africa. We checked in at reception and went out to wait for the tour to start.


The reserve was set up to save elephants that are "problem" elephants, prior performing elephants and elephants that may have been nearly exported illegally. They currently have five elephants - two young males just entering sexual maturity, two females, one of which is 17 years old (the matriarch of the herd), and one bull elephant that is just being introduced to the herd.


The experience is designed to be very interactive with the elephants, as well as informative. Participants get to start by observing the elephants, then feeding them, then are presented with an informational program and tour of the facility. Everyone then goes out to the forest to really get in touch with these beautiful animals.




When I say "get in touch," I mean it. The guides take you to an elephant and you touch and observe almost every part of the animal. Participants are then treated to an "elephant kiss" as you can see by the photos of Kimber and Sidney.


Finally, everyone gets to go back and "walk" the elephants. The elephant latches onto your fingertips with the "finger" on the end of their trunk and follows you around the track. Some people ride the elephants, but that seemed just a little too cheesy.


One issue that was brought up is the difficulty in reintroducing the elephants into the wild. Populations have exploded, and each individual elephant requires a substantial amount of land to graze. Even the largest reserve in South Africa, Kruger Animal Reserve, is currently at almost double its capacity for elephants. Another issue is that elephants, being very intelligent animals, may not want to stay where they are taken and have been known to return to the place they came from within a few weeks.


We relaxed a bit the next day and did a little shopping in preparation for Christmas. Bill invited some friends over for an impromptu Christmas Eve party, and we prepared a poike pot by the fire. Poike pots are small cast iron cauldrons in which meat, veggies, wine, and almost anything else can be dumped in and set by an open fire for stew. Bill chose to add about 20 Thai chilies, so the stew was a little spicy, but very tasty. Sidney and Keti were playing in the pool, and as they got cold, they would go over and warm themselves by the fire.

We did the stuff everyone does for the kids on Christmas Eve after the kids went to bed, and Bill started smoking a pork shoulder roast for Christmas dinner. It smoked all night and part of the next morning, but more on that in a minute.


The kids got up around 7 a.m. and started in on presents. Regina was very good to help us out in making sure Sidney was well represented with the other two kids. Sidney had a great time, as did Rielly and Keti and the adults, and the gifts were all well received. After filling themselves with junk food and breakfast, the kids went to play with their toys.


After much preparation by Regina and Bill, Christmas dinner was served on the patio. The weather was beautiful (as it was for our entire trip), the food was excellent, and the girls ate in their bathing suits! South Africa is definitely not the place to go if you want snow for Christmas!





Kimber and I spent the later part of the afternoon packing. The next morning, Bill and I took it easy with the kids while Kimber and Regina went for pedicures. Oh, yes - Sidney also had her first motorcycle ride! Bill took her for a ride around the block. The helmet was almost too heavy for her and she sort of just laid down on the gas tank for most of the ride, but she enjoyed it! In the afternoon, we finished the last minute preparations for our departure and headed to the airport.


It was very sad for us to leave our friends, and Sidney said she especially would miss Keti.

Our flight took off into a thunderstorm, and the lightning was very cool to see as we rose through the clouds. We flew all night to Frankfurt, where we spent our five hour layover in the business lounge eating and resting, then flew into Stavanger.


Imagine our surprise when we landed to this white landscape! It apparently snowed all day on the 23rd and part of the day on the 24th. It hasn't been warm enough to melt much, and the forecast doesn't have temperatures above freezing for the next week. I can feel my tan disappearing by the second!

Thanks to Bill, Regina, Rielly and Keti for their warm hospitality and friendship during our visit. We love you guys!

Penguins, Baboons and the Cape of Good Hope

We decided to add a trip to Cape Town to our itinerary after several South Africans we know recommended it. We stayed three days and two nights and packed as much into the time as possible (as is our style.) We still, however, had lots of time to relax and enjoy ourselves.

We started by heading to Table Mountain straight from the airport. Actually, let me back up a bit here. We had a very pleasant flight on South African Airlines from Johannesburg. It was about two hours, and the staff was very friendly and accommodating.


Okay, back to Table Mountain. It is a sandstone and quartz plateau that dominates the landscape of Cape Town. It is over 1000 meters high and is pretty flat on top, hence the name “Table Mountain.” There is a cable car running up the side of it, and this was how we got to the top. The cable car is rather advanced. The floor rotates and the bottom of the car can be filled with water to provide ballast on windy days and transfer water to the top of the mountain. Each car can hold several thousand liters and 65 people.



The ride up was quite nice with wonderful views from the car, but the views from the top were spectacular, especially since the weather was crystal clear. The ecosystem on top is unique, and there was an abundance of flora and fauna to view. There are several hikes on top, as well as hikes to the top and rock climbing, but we did not have appropriate shoes to do a lot. We still spent over an hour on top looking around. By the way, the cable car and Table Mountain are featured in the Sky News Sports commercials for the World Cup.

After Table Mountain, we drove down the Eastern coast of the Cape Peninsula to Simon’s Town. The drive was nice, with several old vacation homes and beach views along the way. There were also several towns with nice little boutiques and shops.


We arrived in Simon’s Town and checked in to our hotel, the Simon’s Town Quayside Hotel, and were very pleased with our room and the service. We were met with a glass of sherry upon our arrival, and a personalized letter and chocolates, as well as a French press for coffee were in our room. The hotel is pricier than many, but is quite reasonable compared to Norwegian standards. The hotel is also the home to Felix the Cat. Felix hangs out in the lobby area, but has no problems visiting your room to assure everything is up to his standards. He will go as far as climbing in through your window, if it is open, and joining you in bed.


Outside the hotel is a statue of a Great Dane named “Just Nuisance.” According to the local history provided, he was a dog that would greet sailors returning from sea during World War II. Many sailors considered him to be lucky, and others just fell in love with him. He became the town mascot, and the statue is erected in his honor. His grave is even a marked historical site. Each April 1st (his birthday), there is a dog parade in Simon’s Town in celebration and memory of Just Nuisance.

We relaxed a bit our first night and planned the remainder of our trip as we watched the sunset and sailboats from our balcony. Oh yes, and Sidney likes oysters on the half-shell. I let her try one of the half dozen I ordered at dinner, and she ended up eating half of my order!


On Monday, we had a full day, starting with a visit to the penguin colony at Boulder Beach. Yes, you read right – penguins in Africa. These little guys actually live here naturally and do quite well. We walked along a boardwalk and saw many nesting areas, then went onto Boulder Beach to “swim” with the penguins. We did more wading than swimming as the waters were a little cool since the South Atlantic current mixes with the Antarctic current here.


The penguins are extremely tolerant of human presence and will walk or swim right past you as you hang out on the beach. This was Sidney’s favorite part of the day, mostly because she loves the beach, but also because she liked looking at the penguins. She also gathered “treasures” of shells and such to take home with us.

After swimming, we came back into Simon’s Town for lunch at “Spill the Beans” Coffee Shop. I highly recommend this place to anyone coming to or through Simon’s Town. The menu was diverse, the food was excellent, the service was great, and the atmosphere was relaxing. The staff are almost obsessive with their attention to detail with everything, all the way down to presenting the bill in an antique hand-carved tea caddy. The prices could not be beat, with our lunch of a pastrami sandwich with fries, a Thai chicken wrap, fruit salad, two iced coffees (delicious!) and a dessert coming to 118 Rand (about $16 US.) They are located two doors down from the British Hotel on the main street through town. Their email address is spillthebeans@gmail.com.




We left Simon’s Town and headed south to Cape of Good Hope National Park. Along the way we saw this sign, warning us to look put for baboons in the road. We didn’t quite believe it until we saw this one. Once we arrived in the park, we saw several more.



We visited the lighthouses at Cape Point first, taking the Lighthouse Keeper’s Stroll out to the end of the peninsula. Again, the weather was perfect and the views were spectacular. Watching the waves crash against the rocks gives you an idea why there were so many shipwrecks here. We then went over to the Cape of Good Hope, which is not the furthest southern point of Africa, as many believe, but is a very famous maritime landmark.



We drove around the rest of the park, taking side routes as often as possible. This strategy paid off for us, as we saw more baboons, Springbok, ostriches, a hawk, and even a couple of tortoises along the way. Again, the unique location and weather give rise to a diversity of flora and fauna.

We drove back to town afterwards and again enjoyed a relaxing evening with beautiful views from the balcony.


On our last day, we had a nice breakfast and did a little shopping downtown, purchasing some uniquely “African” gifts made of soda cans, a tribal mask from a reputable dealer (the ones on the street are usually reproductions or not of any collectible significance), and a couple of Christmas ornaments to add to our tree. We then took a beautiful drive over to the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula and up the coast toward Cape Town. We crossed Chapman’s Peak (well worth the small toll) and witnessed the clouds rolling over the tops of the mountains.

We ate lunch at a place called The Oven Door in Hout Bay and had tremendous portions, friendly service, reasonable prices and some of the best prawns I have ever tasted in my life! They were seriously as sweet as lobster! Sidney took the opportunity to play on a little playground next to the restaurant while waiting on our food, adding Africa as a continent where she has tested the playground equipment.

The Cape Peninsula was well worth the trip and we would recommend it to anyone coming to South Africa. Next posting – elephants!

A Warm Christmas Season

We are spending Christmas in South Africa with friends Bill, Regina and their kids and it is quite an amazing experience. We left Norway last Monday evening for a two hour flight from Stavanger to Frankfurt. We then flew for 10 ½ hours to Johannesburg, where we were met at the airport by Regina and Bill. We drove to their home in Pretoria and settled in nicely, though we were a bit tired from the journey (slight understatement here.) We relaxed a bit the first evening, letting Sidney play with Keti and Reilly and had a wonderful dinner of grilled meats and corn.


On Wednesday we drove out to a wild animal reserve and had a taste of the Africa many people envision. We saw several types of bucks, impalas, lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, ostriches, zebras, warthogs, crocodile, meerkats, buffalo, hippo, and tigers (though they aren’t African.) Sidney got to “play” with some lion cubs that were about two months old. Two of them were white lions, which are quite rare. They were very soft and pretty gentle with her.


We also saw a guy doing a little weed-eating. I must say, they couldn’t pay me enough to do this job. I am sure the lion appreciates it (as he licks his chops!)


On Thursday we visited another reserve very close to Regina and Bill’s house. There we saw more deer, bucks, etc., and got to see giraffes. There were some very cute baby zebras, which I will mention in a minute again. We also got to do some four-wheeling, though Regina didn’t want to push it too hard with the kids and us in the truck.

One note on the game reserves – the animals roam a natural area freely. The reserves that have predators generally keep them separated from the other animals. In the first reserve we visited, all the animals receive some feeding but in the second reserve, they forage naturally. The reserves act as a way to protect the animals from human encroachment and the humans from being eaten in their backyards.

We were going to visit an elephant rehabilitation center on Friday but didn’t quite make it in time. Instead we visited the monkey rehabilitation center next door. There were several species from Africa and South America, as well as lemurs from Madagascar. The center has only been open about six months, and it is very nice. The animals are starting to socialize in groups and act like they would in a natural habitat, though some are a bit “friendlier” than others.

After the monkey center, we went for a spectacular lunch at a restaurant called Carnivore. We’ll give you one guess here as to what is served. We had chicken, pork, beef and lamb, as well as exotic meats like crocodile, kudu, and zebra. The zebra was probably the most surprising, being very tender, moist and flavorful. It made me think back to the baby zebras we’d seen the day before and view them in a little different light.

We went home and had a nice little swim, then decided to go to a drive-in movie. A mall near the house has a drive-in on the upper deck of the parking garage, and there was a double feature of “Old Dogs” and “2012.” I must say, it was a little surreal to think about watching movies at a drive-in under an African sky.

Saturday was more of a “relaxation” day. We visited a mall that would rival almost any “outdoor” style mall in the U.S. and had a very nice Italian lunch. On a side note here - Kimber and I are almost overwhelmed here by a) the prices and b) the “normalcy” of the shopping (according to our perceptions.) There are a lot of brands we find in the U.S., and it is refreshing after eight months in Norway to see them again.

After shopping, we came home and packed for Cape Town (our next blog post) and spent the evening in the pool. We played a little water volleyball, though our longest volley was only about six exchanges. It was fun, though, and it worked well to cool us off and wear the kids out. The evening ended with a relaxing thunderstorm as we went to sleep.

Next blog post – Cape Town!

Christmas Play

Here is the video of the British International School of Stavanger's production of "The Very Bossy King", starring Sidney as a sheep. She was one of the servants, but tended to wander a bit too much, so she was changed to a part where she had to sit still. Notice at about 11 minutes into the video, Sidney falls over into the kid's lap beside her because she was swaying too much.



This is our first attempt at a video posting on the blog, so hopefully it will work okay.

Kimber was in London, so she could not attend the play. She should be getting back any minute now.

We are getting ready for our big Christmas trip to South Africa. We will be spending most of the time with Bill, Regina and the kids in Pretoria, but we added a trip to Cape Town in at the last minute. Many of our friends and colleagues here that are from South Africa highly recommended it, so we researched the side trip and opted for two nights in Simon's Town. One of the highlights of the area is Boulder Beach, home to a colony of African penguins! We may also get to see some whales in the area, though the season for the big ones usually goes through November.

The highs in Stavanger are going to be below freezing just after we leave, and the highs in Johannesburg are going to be around 82 F. We will think about all of you suffering through winter in the northern hemisphere!

Have a break, have a Kit Kat...

Well, not exactly. In true Norwegian form, there is a Norwegian version of Kit Kat called a Kvikk Lunsj (Quick Lunch.) Now, not to say they don't taste good, but I would hardly think that a candy bar like this would really be considered a "lunch." But in an attempt to promote their product as being "healthy" the Freia chocolate company has teamed up with the Norwegian Hiking Association. Packages feature a biography of a famous Norwegian hiker and a description and map of their favorite hike. Maybe the marketing execs at Nestle should think about this. Or even better, how about if beer companies teamed up with famous cyclists, etc.


On another note, we celebrated a Christingle service at church this morning. It is a service based on an old Moravian tradition where decorated oranges with candles and sweets on them are passed out to attendees. The oranges are wrapped with a red ribbon to symbolize God's love wrapping around the world. The candles represent the light of Christ coming into the world, and the sweets are arranged on four toothpicks representing the seasons, and symbolizing that God provides for us all the time.


It was a very nice service, and the kids especially enjoyed eating the sweets off the Christingles before the final hymn was even sung. And none of the kids set themselves or anything else on fire, so double bonus.






Christmas trees are popping up all over town now as well. This one is on top of the bridge going over to the islands on the east side of Stavanger. I have no idea how it stands up to the gale force winds we are experiencing this time of year.






And finally, here is a bonus picture for the grandparents and all the other Sidney fans out there!

The Christmas Season

Marathon celebrated the season with their annual Christmas party for the Norway operation this past weekend. Having been to Marathon Christmas parties in two other locations besides here, I would say it was very nice and on par to the parties in the U.S.

The food was excellent, with a mix of local seafood and Norwegian traditional "Julemat" (Christmas food.) We got to try the pinnekjot and ribbe mentioned in a previous post, and they were very good. As we live on the coast, the seafood was excellent, though I did not venture for the lutefisk.

There were some entertaining presentations, as well as some awards given out. The office had a competition to see which team could have the most minutes of exercise daily (averaged) this past summer. Kimber's team won, and they were each given a medal and a bottle of champagne. As Kimber does not like bubbles, I thanked her for her hard work as she presented the bottle to me. As I was there participating in many of the bike rides and hikes that gave her the minutes (her team averaged 65 minutes a day), I did help to earn it.


We put up our Christmas tree this weekend. We did not bring our tree from home with us, as it is pre-lit and would not work with the electrical system here. We bought an unlit artificial tree and some lights, then had to go back to the store three times to get the correct lights for the tree. Unlike light sets in the U.S. that all have the same plug on the end and all work on the same voltage, lights here are “systems” and vary in plug sizes and voltages. Oh, and our two 100-LED light strings cost around $60 (after the 40% off sale.) But the tree is up and decorated! We used our ornaments we brought with us as well as some local ornaments purchased here that we will add to our growing collection.


The sun is rising much later and setting much earlier here. Sunrise occurs after 9 a.m. and sunset is before 4 p.m. We are losing about 3 minutes a day right now, and by December 21st, we will have 6 hours and 11 minutes of sunlight during the day. The sun also is pretty low in the sky, not getting any higher than about “10 o’clock” and staying southerly the whole time. This panorama was of a lake this past weekend, and was taken about 3:30 p.m. You can see how dark it seems.


The temperatures have also dropped quite a bit in the last few days. I noticed the mountains in the distance on the other side of the fjord are snow-capped now. The Tuesday temperature is not supposed to get above freezing, and Thursday calls for near-gale winds.

Wind is another thing that involves some interesting translation. All wind below near-gale force is called a “breeze"- gentle, fresh, moderate or strong. I don’t think we would have identified a 30 mph wind as a “breeze” back home!





Finally, we went to Kongeparken last night for their annual children’s Christmas party. For those that didn’t see the previous Kongeparken post, it is a local amusement park, similar to Six Flags in idea but more on scale with a good county fair. There were several activities, including building a bird feeder, making some Christmas decorations and decorating a big gingerbread cookie. There was also an all-you-can-eat buffet, which in Norway is well worth the $25 admission fee! Some rides were open, such as the bumper cars (seen here), but the temperatures were at or below freezing (which is why we are all bundled up!) It was a nice treat and certainly a little taste of local Norwegian Christmas culture.

The New Office and Windows

Those of you who have been following the blog know that Kimber will be moving into a new office building in a few weeks. She has also mentioned that it is close to home. In the pictures below, note the "leaning tower" on the left hand side of the pictures. That is the same leaning tower we can see from one of our balconies. That is how close Kimber will be. Very nice. The shortest commute she has ever had or probably ever will have.




So now a little about the leaning tower and the area that we live and Kimber will work. It is called Jattavagen (or Jatta Bay). It is one of the many planned areas in Stavanger. Only this one is actually moving mostly according to plan. Many of the other planned areas have stalled. The central focus of the area is the "leaning tower". The area around the tower was a construction site for concrete structures, similar to the tower. The first was Ekofisk in 1971 and followed by 14 other Condeep platforms. The last platform was Troll in 1995. Stavanger decided in 1998 to make Jattavagen an urban district with houses, industry and services through a project run by Hinna Park AS. So the area has been filled in from previous construction and is being developed with:
- modern area for high tech and international businesses (5000 to 8000 work places),
- a futuristic and attractive housing areas (1500 houses),
- a pilot project for high density and ecofriendly development, and
- a recreational area by the sea.

This all started with the building of the Viking football club and Stadion and a commercial center. The commercial canter has one of the area's best grocery stores. It continued with the building of the multiple apartment blocks, including the one we live in, and the new rail station. Finally, the work on various office buildings continues. Additionally there is a new secondary school in the area. At the end of 2007 there were 600 dwellings and 1500 work places.

A thank you to Stavanger Past, Present and Future by the Stavanger Municipality Department of Culture and Urban Development 2009 for the details in this posting.

And a last note. We have 24 windows in our apartment plus the balconies are glass. I think we might have more square feet of glass than floor. We washed all of the glass this weekend. Kirk did the outsides of many and I did inside and out of the ones that open. It took over two hours. But here is the best part. You know you have been in Norway too long if it is 45F and sunny and you think it is great weather for window washing. It was cold!!