Jack and the Beanstalk

The British Amateur Theater Society (BATS) production of the pantomime "Jack and the Beanstalk" is finally completed, and the performances were all quite memorable! We did four shows (one Thursday, one Friday, and a matinee and evening performance Saturday) and had total attendance of over 600 people. Not too bad for amateur theater!

For those that aren't familiar with the British pantomime tradition, it usually involves the humorous retelling of a classic fairy tale. There are usually some guys playing girls, girls playing guys, and people playing animals. There is a lot of singing, dancing, and audience participation. Kids are especially encouraged to get involved.


I played the Demon Pestblight, who is intent on causing the Good Fairy Evergreen's hopes for brave, young Jack to fail. I usually arrived on stage to the boos and hisses of the audience, which is to be expected. Most performances I even remembered the majority of my lines!

One item of note from our last performance - the cow (Daisy) had a bit with a song along with Dame Durden that involved getting the audience to sing. Just as the scene was starting, Daisy's head fell off. The Dame did some quick improv, accusing Daisy of getting so excited that she just lost her head, then called for a vet from the audience.


A new visitor to the neighborhood is the Dingxianghai cargo ship. It came in yesterday. Pretty impressive to see a ship this size docked next to our apartment!

Finally, it snowed again last night - about 4 inches. It is forecast to snow off and on for the next few days. And all this in a place they told us didn't get but just an inch or two of snow every year.

Our First Time Skiing

We went on our first ever ski trip last weekend with the British School. It was in Sirdal at the ski slope beside the Marathon cabin. We were fortunate enough to get the cabin for the weekend as well, so it made it very easy to get to the slope.

Sidney, Kimber and I all attended ski school. Sidney was in a separate class from us, which was a good thing. We probably would have spent most of our time telling her to stand up and stop eating snow rather than learn anything ourselves. Not that we learned a lot anyway, but more on that in a minute. Sidney did well in her class and seemed pretty comfortable on the skis. Her favorite parts of class were making a "pizza slice" (snowplowing) and the "Ski School Boogie" (a form of the "Hokie Pokie").

As far as the adult ski school, well, we hurt in places we haven't hurt in for a long time. I am convinced that learning to ski definitely gets harder with age. Kimber did better than I did, mostly because she figured out how to stop. I got the award for the most dramatic fall, but did not injure myself or anyone else in the process. I did learn how to turn, and the instructor reluctantly told me that since I couldn't seem to get myself stopped snowplowing, just to turn and stop instead. He said he had never told anyone that before, and I was glad I was able to give him a unique experience. After that, I was able to relax and enjoy it, and I didn't fall anymore. We will see how the ski trip in March goes. I still don't think we are ready to invest money in our own ski equipment.

Things are going well with my play practice. We have rehearsals tonight and tomorrow, and the first performance is Thursday night. I have most of my lines memorized, and feel like I should be okay by Thursday (I hope!)

For those that have been thinking about contributing to the Haiti Relief effort, I can suggest a way. A friend and classmate from nursing school, Melody Webster, is going down with a group called MercyWorks. Here is the link to the organization: www.worldwidevillage.org. If anything, please pray for them and their efforts, and for the people affected by this tragedy.

Finally, an update on our forecast. The snow that arrived just before Christmas is still here, though it has turned to ice in many places. We are forecast to get an inch or so of snow tonight, but the temperatures warm to a balmy 6C (43F) over the next couple of days, with about an inch of rain as well. Thursday is to be clear and breezy. Hopefully that will be enough to get rid of the snow. Since Stavanger Commune has gone through their next three years of budget for snow clearing (and the streets are still bad in places), I am sure everyone will be happy to see it gone!

The Apple

Sidney comes home from school every day with a book that she is to read that night. The books don't have words, just pictures. She is supposed to make up a story to go with the pictures. Thursday she came home with "The Apple". It is pictures of a family going apple picking. They can't reach the last apple. They use a stick with some unsafe shoulder standing to reach the last apple, only to have the dog catch it and eat it. However, if you will look at the scanned first page of the book, can you tell what gender the dog is? Oh the wide open world Sidney is getting exposed to. And this is an English (U.K.) book.

Next post will be details of our sliding down the hill, oh I mean skiing trip!!

Kimber, Kirk and Sidney

Still cold, but getting warmer!

The temperatures here have warmed up a little over the past week. We have actually had a few days when the mercury climbed above freezing, and it gave some of the road crews a chance to get things cleared up a bit. Sidewalks are still pretty slippery, so you do need to be careful of your footing when walking. Things apparently aren't like the U.S. where you either get a ticket for not having your sidewalk cleared no later than 48 hours after the snowfall, or you get sued by someone that slips on your walk.

We are supposed to go for our ski lessons this weekend at the resort where the cabin is located. We have not had an update on snow levels there recently, so hopefully things have gotten a little better and they have gotten some natural snow there. The forecast is not looking great for the area for the weekend, though, with temps forecast to be -12C (about 10F) for the weekend. I have been told that sometimes it is too cold to ski (though I am a little surprised by this!)






















The part of our fjord where our marina is has thawed, and the swans and ducks seem happier. The fjord on the other side of the peninsula does seem to have more ice on it, though. I took these pictures tonight at the "Sword Beach". This is a monument commemorating the bringing together of the three waring clans to form Norway about 1000 years ago. There is also a nice beach there that is usually pretty crowded in the summer time. Sidney is the one that deemed it to be the "Sword Beach."

One other item of note I had forgotten to mention before - the commuter train is up and running again between Sandnes (the town just south of us) and Stavanger. Our train station at Viking Stadium is between the two towns, so the train is about a 7 minute ride to either town, as opposed to a 20-30 minute drive, depending on traffic, and paying for parking once we are there. Sandnes has a very nice pedestrian shopping area downtown, and the train ride to either town is quite scenic as the tracks run directly along the edge of the fjord.

I am doing better on my lines for the pantomime, though I still don't have them completely memorized. Oh, well. I still have about 12 days before the first performance!

Dealing with the Cold

So even though we live almost as far north as the Arctic Circle, the temperatures here aren't normally extremely cold during the winter. Except this year. Many people that have lived here for over 35 years have told us that this is the coldest it has ever been here for the longest period of time. Temperatures have held around -12 to -14 Celsius (7-10 degrees Fahrenheit) for the past three weeks. The snow that came just before Christmas has still not melted, and the Norwegians are actually complaining that it is cold. Even our saltwater fjord is freezing.

Someone came up to me the other day and said "I bet you wish you hadn't moved to Norway with all this cold weather, huh?!?" I responded "This would be a warm winter in Ohio!"


Still, there is one issue with it being this cold - it is too cold in the mountains for natural snowfall to occur. We are supposed to go skiing in two weeks, and there isn't much natural snow at the ski area we are going to. I do understand they are trying to run the snow-making machines, though, so there is some hope. At least Sidney has all her ski-wear ready.

The first week back at school for Sidney and I has gone well. Sidney needs to get off her own pace and onto the pace of the rest of the class, but that will come. The student I work with is integrating into the classroom now and has done very well with the other students, so I am able to help with some of the other kids as well. I think the boys find it pretty cool to have a man in the classroom with them now.

I am also trying to learn my lines for a pantomime I was recruited into participating in. I play the Demon Pestblight in a panto version of Jack and the Beanstalk being performed by the British Amateur Theater Society here in Stavanger. The performance is at the end of January. Hopefully I will have my lines down by then! I am sure there will be lots of great pictures to come from that!

The First Post of 2010

Our New Year rang in quite well as more fireworks than we could ever have imagined were fired off around us. As we stood on our front and back balconies, we could see fireworks literally everywhere. There seemed to be a mix of individuals and semi-professional displays. There was even one really nice set going off right outside our building!











One other thing that has been nice in the recent nights has been watching the moon. The moon was full on New Year's Eve, and it comes up over the mountains across the fjord. It gives a striking lighting and background as it shimmers on the water.

We have a stable and horse pasture near our apartment which we can see from our dining room. Kimber runs by there during the summer, and we often walk by and say hello to the horses. Kimber's favorite horse is a beige horse with a black stripe down the middle of his mane. She nicknamed him "Fat Boy" but we found out his real name today - Obelix. We like Fat Boy better. He is a very large horse, and is so relaxed he seems lazy. His owner invited Sidney to ride on a sled behind him today. She enjoyed the ride, and he was kind enough not to drop any horse apples on her.

Kimber is back at work tomorrow in the new office. Many of her coworkers have not been there yet as they were away for the holidays, so we will see how it goes. Sidney and I start back to school on Tuesday, so we will be getting a little bit more housework done tomorrow. We still have to take down the Christmas tree, but we will get that done tonight.

One more thing on Sidney's sliding on our little hill. Two days ago she went down and managed to hit her face on the ground. So a little sled rash. Then she went down again and hit her head. So a little headache. She went again on Sunday with more success managing to have fun again. Oh the trials of growing up.