Any takers?

Waddaya mean where i've been, bit of hiatus in posting to I&I, that doesn't mean to say i've been sat on my skinny bottom doing nothing.. oooohhh no. The computer is packed down along with almost everything else which makes up the material things in my life, so contact with the outside world without the internet is, as you can imagne, very limited.
The flat that has been our home for the last 8 years and 6 months will soon be up for sale, and we had to get it presentable so that mr and mrs potential buyer don't get put off by smelly nappies and the such. So here it is for the whole world to see - our flat.
So if you just happen to know of anybody on the lookout for a top floor flat 15 minutes walk from the centre of Oslo, this is the place. Come on down.

I hate this kind of thing really, presenting the place where nobody except the most crazed minimalist could function, everybody knows that it is all just some big show, but if it gets me more money in my sweaty little hands i'm in.
Still erasing every last trace of Mauds existence just for the satisfaction of others doesn't sit well in my head, but the market dictates what needs to be done...so be it.

clean

clean

Grown up stuff

Time is a whizzin' by as usual, plenty to be thinking about atm. We get the keys to the new flat next tuesday so we've been filling our time with estate agent meetings and bank loan arrangements. Unfortunately we have hit a bad time to be selling, the market has pretty much stopped up compared to how it has been the last 5 years or so. We do however have a sought after location so that will probably ensure that we pull through without dropping the price too much. Pretty manic selling process compared to that of the UK, not unusual that flats like ours go on the market and 7 days later it's all done and dusted, certainly was like this when we bought.

Pireus the cat has been living on borrowed time in recent months we are really unable to take him with us when we move so we have been hoping to find someone willing to adopt him just like we did 8 years ago, but who wants a 12 year old poorly cat?
Luckily one of our neighbours has saved his skin, for the time being at least. He has now been in his new home for a little over a week and seems to be doing OK. We still get him popping in for a visit every now and again but when he is unable to find his food, water, bed or litter tray he slowly seems to be getting the idea that he doesn't live here anymore.

Of course we still manage to find a bit of time for cuddly old Maud ;-)
As usual i'm playing catch up on the blogging of photos - here are some from Mauds Easter hols.


Maud the piano teacher



Telly addicts, Nora and Maud get sucked into TV world.



That's my girl, at the wheel of a classic car.



Cold easter weather calls for extreme measures.



Maud and her cousins tuck in, maybe next year Maud will have grown into her balaclava.

Snow go

Well the best laid plans - had hoped to have a good few things finished and then push off down to Flekkefjord to join the others.
Don't get me wrong got plenty done, the tiles are finally up in the kitchen but not grouted yet (I can't take the credit for this as i decided to get somebody in to finish it off for me, oh the shame.) Plenty more packed and done so the idea was to hire a little car and set off down to Flekkefjord early friday, one problem is that it decided to snow overnight. Ah how bad can it be? - set off and after an hour of driving at 60kmph i decided to turn back.
Norway more or less closes down for 5 days over Easter and it seems that the snow clearing men were no exception, at best the drive to Flekkefjord is 6 hours, i didn't fancy 8 hours of driving in 20cm of snow.





Hire car on the right, TFW on the left.

Package holiday on the banana boat

Easter hols.... and while Silje and Maud have headed off down to mormor and morfar in Flekkefjord i have stayed behind in Oslo to pack the contents of our flat into boxes and move it up to my workshop.
Sounds easy eh.... been in this place over 8 years now and it is astounding what gets stuffed away in every available space in that time and if the packing isn't bad enough the 4 flights of stairs down can be a real killer on my ageing knees.
There in lies the beauty of the banana box.
Now let me tell you..... you just won't find a better box to do your moving with.
For starters they are free, they are strong, they come ready assembled, have built in handles, they're not too big so you can fill 'em up and even my spaghetti arms can still lift them,
what more do you want?

Over Christmas when TFW didn't move for almost a whole month i wondered why on earth i bought this thing, well now i know, TFW, in conjunction with banana boxes, is, well, the dogs do-das of a moving car.
Take out the rear seat bases and fold the backs down and you have a van and thanks to the hydraulic SLS (self levelling suspension) it takes all the weight without pointing the headlights to the stars and still retains it's silky smooth Mercedes ride. Ha!





You only realise how much stuff you have when you have to pack it all up and carry it down some stairs pack it in the car and un-pack it at the other end.
This is a drop in the ocean of what is to come.
Less than half of my collection of bb's is shown here, still i think i better get some more.

Green traveller

Last weekend was the annual ski trip with my work. Has to be said that for us it wasn't really the success that last years was.
We decided that Maud was big enough to travel on the coach this year, but with it being a 4 hour journey up to Geilo from Oslo it was always going to be a long trip.
All started well enough but as we started winding our way through the hills Maud went ominously quiet. I suspected that she wasn't feeling so good and sure enough about half way into the trip she lost her lunch in a big way. Didn't quite manage to catch the first eruption so I got a lap and a hand full of puke along with some of it finding it's way to the heater by my feet, ahhh can't beat that heated up sick smell.
After the driver found somewhere suitable to stop we had a quick wash and mop up and were soon on our way again, after a couple more rounds of the same Maud was empty and settled back to enjoy the last hour of the journey.

The calm before the storm.



Not too sure about this balcony lark are you sure these thin planks can hold my weight?


Fully recovered from the previous evenings goings on Maud sets about pelting me with snowballs.
I have to add here that it was Maud herself who wanted her sunglasses on her head.