Christine Currie

We’re now back in Oslo after two weeks touring Norway’s fjords and mountains. We were blessed with excellent weather for the first 10 days, when we travelled across the Hardangervidda, Hardangerfjord, saw the sights of Bergen and then Sogneford. Unfortunately, the bad weather set in when we arrived in the Jotunheimen, where we spent a couple of frustrating days trying and failing to get up a couple of mountains. Thankfully all ended well as we stopped off to visit some Norwegian friends in their cabin just south of the Jotunheimen and they took us up a mountain this morning. Success at last!

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I’ve decided to password protect the articles that I write specifically about Emma. These are designed for friends and family to read and not really for general consumption. I don’t have any grand ideas about the number of people who read my blog (I suspect I could count them all on the fingers of one hand!) but I thought I’d play it safe, although it doesn’t make the site look all that good.

I’ve backtracked and protected a few of the old ones and I’ll be protecting more of the new ones from now on. Anyone who wants the password can send me an e-mail and if I know you I’ll be happy to pass it on
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I was given the evening off on Thursday to go out with Jayne. As we’d failed to find a suitable lake to swim in all day, we headed to Sognsvann first for a quick dip. There weren’t many other people swimming but the water was lovely once we got in and worth the 40 min walk. Even better, the cabin was open and selling waffles, so we could indulge in another Norwegian tradition while waiting for the T-bane into town.

By the time we got into town, the sun seemed to have got a bit lower and a breeze had picked up. We’d hoped to have a drink outside at Aker Brygge but sadly all of the bars and restaurants there are in the shade in the evening so it was far too cold. Instead we ended up in Zahra’s Telt on the main street. Given everything was so expensive, we opted for a cocktail each, which we spun out for the rest of the evening.

Sadly, by the time we got home I was feeling a bit dodgy and I threw up a few times in the middle of the night, which left me confined to the flat for the whole of the next day. I think it was food poisoning but haven’t worked out what was to blame. Luckily no one else seemed to suffer and Jayne was heading off to Bergen that morning so didn’t need entertaining. Dave did some babysitting and is working now to make up for it! I don’t think last week’s marathon was the best preparation for recovering from food poisoning but after a day of eating normally I’m almost feeling back to normal.

I’ve been a closet knitter for nearly two years now, since I found out I was expecting Emma. Unfortunately for her, I honed my skills on a cardigan and some bootees for her, which she might have worn once. Both her grandmothers are excellent and prolific knitters so after that I thought I’d concentrate on knitting for other people’s babies instead.

My latest project has been a teddy bear for some Czech friends’ baby boy. It looked easy in the pattern book but took me months and months - it’s only just finished and he’s nearly 3 months old. It’s probably the best thing I’ve ever made, which isn’t saying much as I’m not really very good with my hands. Despite some frustration, it was very satisfying to finish it off and parcel it up. I’ve yet to hear what the baby thought of it though!
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We finally made it to Norway a few weeks ago, although Emma and I have already been back to the UK for a few days. Nonetheless, life has settled down into some kind of normality and we’ve settled into our flat very easily. It’s great living somewhere without the clutter that Dave and I seem to collect. I have grand plans for a clear out on our return!

So far, it feels like a holiday as we’ve had little interaction with the locals. Dave’s much better on that front as he’s out at work most of the day and has made it along to a few running and orienteering events. We’ll be able to start those next week.

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I stumbled across the UK mushroom growers site the other day and they have some very attractive recipes on offer. We tried the creamy quinoa mushroom risotto, partly as I’ve been wanting to try out quinoa since its recent coronation as a superfood, and partly because I like mushrooms. It was easy to cook and tasted great, even without the dried mushrooms. I’m not sure whether the quinoa was an improvement on risotto rice, but it made a change and is apparently very good for you.

Continuing with the domestic theme, I planted some courgette seeds a couple of weeks ago and have been amazed by how big they’ve grown and how quickly they’ve done it. I planted some flower seeds out of a shredded wheat packet at the same time and they’re barely noticeable as they’re so small. Let’s hope we get a good crop out of them over the summer!

After a pretty bad night’s sleep I was never going to achieve a huge amount today and I felt that the afternoon would probably be most profitably spent doing some baking. The ulterior motive was to end up with something nice to eat and to continue my quest to cook more than one thing out of each recipe book I own. I’ve been buying a lot of bagels from Asda lately and thought I’d have a go at baking my own. Baking is good fun but it’s also a very visual way of seeing how healthy the food that you normally eat is - much clearer than a list of ingredients. So, thanks to Nigella Lawson and her How to be a Domestic Goddess book we now have some really delicious bagels, and they didn’t take me all afternoon to prepare either!

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Spending less time exercising can have its benefits. Last Sunday I found the time to make some gorgeous muffins.

They will definitely go on the (growing) list of things that I’ll make again. The recipe came from a book Dave gave me for Christmas called Apples: more than 70 inspiring recipes. It’s a nice little book with savoury as well as sweet recipes in it and was worth the money just for the muffins recipe!

In an attempt to keep to my strict, self-imposed rules we recently went to the Nuffield Theatre. I had booked the tickets some time ago for a preview night of Salome, a play by Oscar Wilde about the beheading of John the Baptist. This was my first trip to the Nuffield Theatre, which is rather embarrassing given how long we have lived in Southampton. By booking early we had the best seats in the house and this may well have helped us both enjoy the evening.

The scenery used was redolent of a modern day arsenal, with the soldiers sitting on what looked like rockets and watching King Herod’s dinner on large screens set into the wall of their guard room. John the Baptist was meanwhile emprisoned under the stage but audible and visible quite a lot of the time.

Despite it being a preview night, we detected no fluffing of lines and we both really got into the story, which is a rather dark tale. Salome was excellent and the effects, especially the screens, worked really well. I’d definitely recommend it to a friend (in fact, I have already, several times) and it’s encouraged us to go back again. I think we’ll try to find a comedy next time, and possibly a showing where there are slightly more people as the theatre was a bit empty at our showing!