I thought I was master of it. I left Ireland over 15 years ago and lived in London for almost 13 years. I thought I had done it before, this whole integrating in to a new country and environment. We Irish have always believed that we are fundamentally very different from the …
I can’t believe I have written so many posts already and haven’t really touched on one of my favourite topics, FOOD. Every country has its own version of traditional food and the Norwegian one is as interesting as any other. Less meat and more fish is how I would describe …
I have such a vivid memory of being down by the river near Big Ben in London on New Year’s Eve and we wanted to get in to Parliament Square for the upcoming fireworks as we had done in previous years. It was an amazing place to be. We got …
You know sometimes you have this great idea, you just can’t help yourself. You have to go with it and anyone around you who is in the firing line gets roped in. And in these moments, you don’t really think about what you do or don’t understand about a nation or humour, …
I have already told you about the first overnight stay at the barnehage (kindergarten) for our 5 year old. Things moved swiftly from there. After that, he had en orrleiktur which was an overnight trip to the wilds to see grouse or orrleik. For those of you who don’t know, orrleik are very …
I wasn’t one of those people who went to bed one night speaking one language and woke up with 4. I had learned German years ago in a classroom and that’s now kept alive through the lovely German arm of the family. Learning Norwegian in situ was a different ballgame …
My reference points are mainly shaped by my upbringing in Ireland and living in London for over 10 years. So my past experiences shape the version of normal that I know, how I expect people to behave, or not, as the case may be. It takes a while to create a …
