Designer's Challenge

How someone can look at a room and decide what should go where and what colour it is is beyond me... I'm as baffled and confused as a deer in headlights!!!

If its one thing that I looked forward to when I was young-ER was having my own house and dollzing it up to my heart's delight.  Now that I am actually in the position to do that, I find myself second guessing myself and wondering if I can actually pull it off and have a beautiful well put together home.

The current norm in Norway is the oppuss ( redo/ renovate) one's house at least every 3 years it feels. There is always someone giving something perfectly fine away. furniture, kitchens, appliances. And the one store that NEVER seems to go out of business is a interior store that is geared towards the whole concept of "Hygge" or " Kos" ... which in essence is the art of making your home feel and look super cosy .. as in .. why would u go anywhere else kinda feel.

Like the U.S, there are an enormous number of options to beautify your home.... Unlike in the U.S. things are very expensive... So its been hard to say YES to some things... cuz meh Trini broughtupsy bawling in meh ears.... Dey doh have a place like Chaguanus or Charlotte Street somewhere here?... Ah ... I have not found the Chinatown as yet... but there MUST be one right?.. Dey have Chinee people everywhere... and dey always meking some town.

Between deciding whether to have a shoe stand or a shoe box.. a coat hook or a hanger... I'm just not in my element.  Back in Trinidad we don't take off our shoes to walk into  people houses... and if we did .. we just "put" it dey.  There was no organised place to have ALL your shoes because they are not allowed into a house. 

You have any idea how embarrassing that would be for many Trinis??? I sure you does put on some holey socks sometimes.. or some worn out ones because yuh KNOW it staying in your shoe! .. Well not here Midearie.... yuh go feel the shame of yuh holey... been in church socks.... When yuh walk into someone house and see all the shoes line up dey and yuh KNOW yuh hadda tek off yuh shoes.  And I feeling sorry for dem people who does have sweaty and smelly feet... because yuh know back at home yuh can take it off and air it out... in someone house .. when yuh tek off yuh shoes.. everyone KNOW is yuh foot smelling like cannon ball fruit. Yuh cyah hide here! . no Sireey.

So .. I learnt very fast that the socks need to be in tip top shape and if your feet are smelly, they need to be baking soda shape . But I mean  i digress... the socks was just something that came up ... The lack of inspiration for the house (fear, uncertaintly, lack of imagination .. what ever you would like to call it)

But I am currently in a new phase in life where I am encouraging myself... with God's help I will accomplish things. The goal is to have a home that is both welcoming and Christ filled.
One that reflects me and my tastes ( and well a bit of my hubby's but not too much otherwish i would be living in a medieval palace ) but also is warm and inviting for anyone .... man woman or child.

It is a goal I intend to reach ... even if it might take me a whole lot longer than the average Norwegian.

17th May! Hip Hip Hurra!

The 17th of May Celebrations was something that was told to me time and time again. My husband was very anxious for me to celebrate it!
The first thing that struck me is his comment of ''What are you wearing?' almost 3 days before.
EH? Wha ah WEARING? ... Lemme see ... is 'spring' (uhh....doh mind it real HAIL and ting in de afternoon) but I was thinking .... er .. something warm? like a sweater and a jeans or something? ....
''Well I'm wearing my suit''  hm! I guess that means NO.....
eehhh heeeehhhh??? Suit? Well oui papa! ... Is celebrating watching a parade in REAL style deez people does do oui! ..
I think that MUST be a first? .. Where else in the world do people DRESS up to go watch a parade .... No one even THINKS about 'dressing up' to go watch the Independence day parade in Trinidad.... daiz real sweat marks in yuh nice Boss Suit!
No dearies .... I needed to look for my Spring best. And that was ?? .. Yea ... your guess is as good as mine! ... What is spring clothes ANYWAY? ... if spring clothes is what I see in the stores now ... that is NOT something I am prepared to wear in 10C weather! .. Unless the sun came out in FULL blast and glory I was going to look for something that would not leave me with my shoulders hunched up for the whole day ( how does hunching your shoulders make you warmer anyway? Is there a pychological reason for that?)
None the less the morning of the 17th of May I woke up to a dull blasting sound. Is that someone blasting rock? .. Hitting something? .. no ... those were the canons in Bergen heralding the beginning of the day!
I couldn't wait to put up the flag.  Yes 17th of May is the ONE day that perhaps EVERYONE who owns a flag pole in their yard is expected to put up a Norwegian Flag.  We had one too! :) And I was the eager beaver who woke up at 7 something just to put it out. 
Now if yuh know me .. just KNOWING that it was 10C outside is usually enough to make me a lady and let the guy do the cold work ... but I was enjoying my little childlike glee.

Showered and dressed I had one little summer dress (cuz I don't know the difference between spring and summer in dresses- they looked the same) with a sweater and a jacket over that and some flat boots for walking around.

The first thing that struck me is almost EVERYONE in the traditional bunad. Bunad is the traditional dress in Norway. They are made of wool and have beautiful embroidery on them.  There are many, many different types in Norway and they each represent a specific area in Norway.  So that makes for nearly 200 of more different types of Bunads there can be.... and I'm just guessing.

I was amazed at how the young and old even many young men were wearing the traditional dress.  Apparantly it has been something that was not always so popular. Bunads are very expensive things. Some bunads can take as many as 300 hours of hand embroidery for the complicated patterns on the women's dresses, and the headdress, gold or silver jewelry, broaches, purses, shoes etc must push the cost of owning one hand made for you to over $10,000kr! It makes for a very expensive 17th of May if you have too many kids .... yea ... ouch!

The parade itself, sorry Norway, was just interesting... not fantastic. It actually occured to me that it was more like a OLE MASS parade we have in Trinidad - placards and all! There was the normal stuff like what you would think - Police, Fire, Army, Marines, Marching bands, School Bands, War II Veterans  and all those great stuff in Uniform.  Then we had Pensioners with placards, Medical students with funny signs like 'Don't stop smoking, we need work', Veteran Vehicles (including an old fire truck) and convertibles (with the "wealthy" in it!!). Then they had schools -Primary and secondary schools, University students with something to say, Radio people, even a Jazz club.  Then at the end they had the Russ - Follow the link and read about it ... its graduation for school leaving students. It sounds like typical school leaving stuff .... great at that age ... questionable the year after!
They walked all along the road and sometimes having 2 sections walking past going in opposite directions ( i was not sure why).  Everyone stood on the side and cheered and waves flags in their beautiful bunads.

Afterwards, I'm told, people usually go to schools around where they live and have hot dogs and ice cream! It sounded like fun, but I'll wait until I actually HAVE to go to one before I wear myself out of the experience! LOL! ENT????

That was what was in the city. However, on our way out to the city we saw many of the children in the area (and parents too) all walking or driving over to the schools and barnehagens in the area to have their own parade in the streets followed by ice cream and hotdogs and a great ole May Fair time! ... That I will have to see later on.

So it sounds like a wonderful day! One to look forward to every year for kids and adults alike.

But now ... I'm jealous .... like I said the most beautiful thing was the traditional dress and the way everyone was a part of it ... I mean even the guys and old men looked sooo cute with their little 3\4 pants and stockings!!!
So another question.... Should I get one?  I'm from Trinidad .. and I thought it would be great to have a 'bunad' of my own .. one that could showcase Trinidad and the migration or something ... one that would blend .. but stand out with its own beauty .. and one that I can proudly wear to show my merging into the country ...
I looked at the Best Village Dresses and thought that might be a wonderful start!!! Including the headdress!!!
Whey yuh say?
All images of the Traditional dress are the copyright property of the photographers and/or TriniView.com, TriniSoca.com and TrinbagoPan.com

Gravol for Tunnels????

Every one knows that you get car sickness when you are being driven? ... Right? .. So how come mine comes along when I'm driving through Tunnels?.. Now, when I saw driving through tunnels.. I mean I AM the one driving.  YES I drove today! :)
Yes, boys and girls laddies and gallies .. I drove All the way home from church.  Don't I just feel like a brand new shilling! I was driving a Land Rover, so it was a bit bigger than I have ever driven (except in New Zealand when I drove an RV.) Sundays are great days to practice driving on the right side of the road - literally the right, since I'm accustomed to the left in Trinidad.  There are not as many people, no one is in a hurry .. and lucky for me it was a sunny day ... so people were like smoked bees.... calmer.

It was pretty cool that the hubby asked me if I wanted to drive when we were heading back home, since just that morning while I was having Caviar and Sliced Hardboiled eggs for my Breakfast ... (Caviar come in a tube ... how un-fancy) I was thinking that it would be nice to get to practice my driving more often.
I'm very proud of how I did, considering that I was driving a larger car, on the right hand side, and a manual car to boot. 
There was no sweating, no animals coming forth, no wild crazy thoughts... just the constant tugging in my head that I had to impress this man who is a crazy Formula 1 fan; who loves to drive fast and who, as with any sports car owner, was once embarassed when I was driving his Sports car "too slow" so that a truck passed us. hmpf!
Why then, if this day was going so beautifully well, did I start dreading the first tunnel we came upon.  I knew that as a passenger, I  close my eyes in the tunnels.  It is something about the lights and how it passes quickly and feels like a hypnotic light flashing that makes my stomach go upside down. The trick this time? I had to keep them open .. no matter what!.
Into the first one and I started to feel slightly whoosie...
Note: In Norway you are not allowed to pull over to the side of a 60+ speed zone road.  You can get a fine.  I remembered everything that I was supposed to rules wise on the road. But this rule was becoming more and more ridiculous to me.  After the 3rd tunnel I started  to will my eyes to stay open in the tunnel.
I started wondering if this was a temporary thing, or will I have to deal with this through every tunnel that I would have to drive through? Would I have to drug myself up on Gravol each time? ... Maybe some deep breathing every time I pass through a tunnel would help ... Maybe a air refreshner with citrus in it? Maybe just a beacon on top the car to shine the whole tunnel to block out the flashing lights?
Almost home. The last tunnel pretty much did me.  As we came out of it we had to curve around a feed off road.  "Um .. hon.... What happens if I have to puke?" where can I pull over?" ...
"If you want to puke tell me before you do so I'll drive"
"So does that mean I pull over into the rock?" I asked eyeing the rock right next to the road. 
This is not a road of shoulders where you can pull over and have a carib on the side of the road .. or pull out de ole Royal Oak. The road next to me stops because it has to... there is a rock that has been blasted away  to make it.  Not certain of what I mean?  yuh know when u coming from San Juan heading to Maracas? Yuh know just where the road turns right to join the Maracas Road and you go through a narrow pass of road that has rock on either side of it? ... yea ... its That close .... pretty much all the way.
No dearies ... this is the land of " yuh better keep pressing on, crash into a rock or go over a cliff."

Happily though, with one final urge from the hubby of " Its an 80 Zone!" .. I ex-ed my way to our final turn off ... swished through the narrow one lane twisty road in our neighbourhood, and confidently and gracefully cut off the car just before I park it.....  
Well if that isn't good timing ... I don't know what is! Whey yuh say?

.... What's the capital of Organisation???...

Maybe its the Fact that I've not really been oober organised in my life .. or from the fact that I can be PAINFULLY organised when I want to.. either way.. I've turned into an organisation freekazoid.  This of course has nothing to do with Norway .. only the fact that I'm playing housewife... ok not playing .. but I Am.  So I've been researching all that I can anytime something comes up that I think needs to be organised.
Take for e.g. The House.  The Laundry room is not that big but its a separate room, which is awesome in itself ... how do I organise it? Where do I put the shelves ... She heads to the Internet.
The Plastic bags ... that are growing into a huge pile ... How to I make it look neat?? How do I fold them? What do I do with them all? ... Hmm.. the best Answer so far! Japanese folding and the Tissue box!! ... Nyyysssee!!!! My mind started going all crazy on me ... So... If I can fold Plastic bags so wonderfully .. can you imagine what else I can fold nicely? ..

Hmm found one for socks. I'm on a mission now to flatten every single sock that I see ... And all of a sudden I'm getting a wicked gleam of organising evil in my eye!.  and his little Aussie accent was cute too.  Imagine tho that guys will impress the girls with that? .. Hardly likely .. maybe the neat freaks .. but other than that... which guy will take the time?
Then remember the 2 sec folding jersey thing? Well I found one that actually TAUGHT you the thing .. instead of baffling you about it! ...  Yup ... and now I was getting a little Bazodee...
I thought I had the folding bras, underwear,(Although this guy needs some help with his washing.. very funny.. LOL).
The Make up draw needs some organising .... I'll get to that soon.
Who said that we couldn't learn to be an expert housewife by reading a book? .. Well since there is no BOOK about it ..( is there?) ... I'll just keep looking on the net...

How about .. how a dishwasher works?  It helps to know what's going on inside your dishwasher so that you know HOW to load it and how NOT to load it. Of course at the time I was wondering how to load the top cutlery tray since it was not a basket but a tray.. I found my own way though... without the use of the Internet... and only some common sense. lol

How about how to organise your closet? There were waaaay too many ... and who will organise their closet by Colour anywhoos? If you do give me a holla!!!

Oh gorm .. I must be spent about an hour just looking at things to do and how to organise things and what to keep and what not to keep to help you organise things.
My favourite by far tho is the plastic bags... I've just emptied all the plastic bags I have and I'm going to triangle fold everything!
but anyhoos ... you thought this blog was just about how I'm flaying my arms in Norway didya?

Whey yuh say? I bet we do have some organisation freaks out there tho! ... Send me a holla if you are!

Norwegian preparation

It has been a short time in the making ... this migration. A decision was made and in 4 months we (my norwegian husband and I a trinidadian girl) made our way to Bergen. It was 2 months of waiting for a visa and hoping that it would come through... and then exactly 3 weeks of mad rush selling everything we owned, telling people and telling my parents; admitantly the hardest thing I've had to do in a very long while.
We got a car sold on the very last day that we were in the Island of Trinidad but still have not sold a weight bench (if you are interested please let me know!)
The trip to Norway was not without its hickups of course.
After willing myself not to cry, I succeeded only to burst into tears as the plane taxiied down the runway in Tobago and I saw my father's Hotel, The Golden Thistle Hotel zooming past the window.
I suddenly remembered everything with crystal clear vividness.
I remembered my Younger brother as he walked away from us eating lunch, My dad's expression as I walked up the Departure stairs, my mom as she came up to us at the departure gate and hugged us as much as she could, the last time I saw my good friends, liming ( a trini slang word meaning hang out) with them in my old bedroom talking about boys... the difficulty with which I stood in front of my church to encourage them and how they have all made such an impact on my life.
There is much that Tobago has taught me. It has given me the confidence to be my own person, to have my own opinions and form my own ideas. It was the first time I was a manager - A grossly difficult task - handling people.

Needless to say, crying and thinking about these things the poor girl next to me must have felt uncomfortable, while my husband was trying to to comfort me on the other side, feeling a little embarassed I'm sure.

Before the trip I did ship some stuff ... yes I did... however things just kept popping up .. I swear!! .. I found myself with 5 suitcases between us both. No.... 3 belonged to my husband ... I had 2 ... don't mind the 2 suitcases was still too much for the Virgin Atlantic Flight since they have reduced free checked to only 1 ... yup... the joys of Airline extra charges. We tried to help them out some more with over weight charges. I'm sure we are in their good books for next time we travel.

Norwegian Airlines however, could not find our booking once we reached to London and waited for a 12 hour layover, since someone must have been playing farmville on FB while at work and messed up the Bergen Flight. That made checking in 5 suitcases (when you get NONE free) a little more exciting. We are also on their happy books with the over weight payments.

Ah .... Bergen ... 10C ... warm and lovely .... yea right! .... an empty house greeted us ... tomorrow we start to unpack and I start to enjoy my lovely new life in Bergen with my husband.

Let's see how long it takes me to get into the right Time Zone. So far I'm doing terribly, since it is 12:32 am and anyone who knows me.. knows that the last thing I am is nocturnal.

Everything is going Great! .. What more can I ask for? ... a Perfect Husband, my own home to decorate and coo over ... and a brand new wardrobe at some point in time!
Whey Yuh Say Bergen ? HERE I COME!