The Wild Berry Phenomena

The Tropical islands spoil the locals into believing all sorts of crazy stuff when it comes to fruit that don't or won't grow there... like apples, grapes, pears, kiwi and berries.
Back in Trinidad, the only berry we used to get, really, were Strawberries (and they were almost always not very good).... there were no blueberries, Raspberries, blackberries.
The first time I went to a farm in Canada to pick strawberries it was such a Memory for me. I couldn't believe that I was doing it ... it seemed so .... well .. weird... normally its picked from a market stand! But there I was picking apples and strawberries. I have never forgot what that felt like.
So today I'm running up the mountain ( alone and yes I am getting fitter and I'm soooo happy about it!.) and I choose to take the long way around the mountain, since my husband and I are on a calorie burning race each week ( one that I will naturally lose if I don't do TWICE as much as he does.... literally women ... don't feel bad about the weight.... cuz I checked it! My husband and I do the SAME work out and he consistently burns Twice As much calories as I do .. even when I'm bringing all the p90X that I got! So either work out twice as much as he does or eat 1\2 as much - sorry)
Anyhoos, I'm walking in this mountain, enjoying the seriously, amazingly, beautiful scenery with marsh and planks for me to walk on over them, tracks that are tread alot, showing that Norwegians love a little nature walk, and lo and behold I come upon am oldish man bending down and picking something. Naturally I'm curious but I don't want to see overly so. I continue walking towards him and notice that he is holding a container half way filled  with blue things..... Blue berries is the only thing that popped into my mind.   But there was no tree, or shrub or vine or anything close to him .... where was he getting it from? Perhaps from above? As I passed him, I noticed the decidedly blue purple tell tale of blue berry just nestled on some ...... grass...... it was grass ok.!!!.. Blue berries grow on something so short you can squish it under your feet as you walk by!
I was astounded! The more I walked I could just see loads and loads of blueberries!! All over the floor!. I bent to pick one up and then hesitated. Suppose this was some poisonous thing that the man was picking??? I wished my hubz was with me to let me know ... then ... I smelt it... Nah it smells fine. I popped it into my mouth!.

GOOD GRIEF!! They WERE Blue Berries ... of course now, like us trinis when we see a 'free for all' mango tree, I was picking them up as I continued walking and told my self that I must bring a container for the next time!

Berries are of course full of vitamins, calcium, magnesium, foliate, potassium and even photochemical as well as flavonoids that may help to prevent some forms of cancer and prevent bladder infections. The pigments that give berries their beautiful blue and red hues are also good for your health and gathering them out in the nature is definitely good for your soul.

.  So Amazing!! .. Honestly! Berries on the ground beneath you?? Whey yuh say?

The Beauty of Norway - Askvoll

Norway is a beautiful country.  Its wild and rugged mountains, Glaciers and Wild life is nothing compared to many countries.  Whatever you might want to do... you can do it in Norway.

This past day, my hubby and I drove up to Askvoll. Not only was it only a 4.5 hr drive from Bergen, but it also covered some of the most amazing scenery from your ca!  Imagine as you drive past rugged mountains you can look up to see glacier mountains, past fields of calm sheep, cows and the occasional shy deer if you are lucky. 

Surprisingly, the roads in Norway leave little to the imagination of what it must have been like years and years before....   simply put .. dey bad.... real pothole and ting all over.  But needless to say I understand how it could be so.  It is dreadfully expensive to put down a road since ... hardly likely would a road from Bergen to Tronheim be flat ... or straight. More than likely, it would have be blasted through Numerous Mountains.  Blasting through mountains can be as speedy as 5 meters per day and can be as long as 24.5 km (the longest tunnel in Norway) and costed 125 MILLION US dollars. I can't fault them for not building better roads.  The Main road that joins the west coast big cities is about as comfortable as the road to Maracas !!! ... and between the ferries and frequent one laner areas ... with Motor Homes and Foreigners driving frequently, I would actually say that the trecherousity increases by 100%.  Still it is a beautiful drive.  Unfortunately, it is not as easy, simple or wise to stop all along the way to take pictures... So pictures usually should be taken in sport mode ... or better yet... cycle the road.  This option is actually a big attraction, especially in summer. 

Askvoll Center

The Askvoll Fjordhotellwe stayed at was simple and comfortable with a smell of 100 years in the lobby with a traditional Norwegian Breakfast buffet....

Sognefjord

and i saw another black guy ..speaking Norwegian ..sorry as terrible and close minded as that sounds, I can't understand how people can live all the way in here .... there perhaps isn't even a cinema.... and the next town is miles away along winding roads.  But the charm is definitely here... I can see myself coming up to do white water rafting, Glacier climbing, Mountain Biking, Canoeing, and just plain fishing ... If you don't mind a little bit of rain (ok .. alot of rain), and a little chill, a trip to Askvoll can definitely be worth your while!

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?

Skype meh up

letters and postcards, write emails, texts, Calls, Skype

If its one thing that is blatantly apparant here .. is that I'm far away from home... no kidding. Tell me something I don't know.  It's been an interesting battle so far to keep in contact with family, friends, foes and the farm back home. But its entirely an up hill battle.
The main culprit - the Time Difference.

Right now I am 6 hours ahead of the social life (because let's me honest with ourselves... I ain't gots one here) so that means that when everyone is alive and kicking  ... at around 8 am .. its 2pm here .. and when the social life becomes a buzz .. around 3 pm its 9pm and I'm fighting to stay awake.

In order to keep in touch with the mother, I've had to set a time to talk with her ... since .. she has a more bubbling social life than I do right now. It's set at 6am her time....it was the only time I could get an appointment apparantly! My dad .. ditto... its more like 4 am in the morning for him since he runs a hotel back in Tobago.
I talk to my best friend any time after 4 pm my time.  That one is quite difficult ... but managable, since by that time the hubz is home and one has to be a good housewifey!
The Thing that I use is Skype. This is by far the best tool.  Even when it was not as great quality as it is now back in 2004 and 5 when I religiously used it for my LDRs (yea .. unfortunately that was an 's'!)
If you have loved ones abroad and a computer, this is something that is VITAL.  As long a telephone call takes, a skype video call is 20 times the quality for the time.  You get to see the person, see their facial expressions and it just feels like you are right there! I highly recommend it. 
On top of that Skype keeps improving itself over the years.. constantly.  You can share your screen, play games with the person, and even talk to as many as 23 other persons at the same time... yes 24 people jabbering in your head.  That's a wedding people!

!!! Take dat in yuh put ung put ung pung TSTT!

 ON top of all that, Skype computer to skype Computer is FREE .. ABSOLUTELY free.  There are things you have to pay for .. like calling a cell phone, a land line, sending txt msgs etc.
It really is an amazing little tool.
Facebook of course is there when you want to keep in touch or maco really, then for the ones who like to have more tangible memories, there are letters and postcards. 
But if its ONE thing that I want you to get from this is SKYPE.... no I'm not advertising for them... they did not pay me .... but SKYPE! .. its an AWESOME tool ... Why don't all my friends just sign up? ITS freeeeeeeee.....
ok .... Whey yuh say? Give it a try? and hail me out :) skype id - jaemie.c  :)

.... 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!