Pancake Pioneer

I have learnt some interesting things since I have been in Norway, but by far the saddest so far is that this nation has been missing out on Shrove Tuesday. The day before the Christian festival of lent begins was traditionally a time for indulging in rich and fatty (read: delicious!) treats for one last night before the ritual fasting period. And I have to say, I like the way our ancestors were thinking- what better foodstuff for the job of "last hurrah" than the pancake. Understandably it has become more colloquially known as "Pancake day" in the UK and unsurprisingly the non-religious masses have also taken up the tradition.

And who can blame them, who would want to miss out on a day dedicated to pancake flipping and greediness.

The pancake "pålegg" buffet

Normally I would stick to lemon and sugar, or a swirl of warm chocolate sauce if I were feeling wild. However, as a pancake day pioneer in this land, I may have gone overboard presenting the case for this most delicious day. I prepared a selection of pancake "pålegg":

Strawberry compote and whipped cream

Banana and chocolate sauce

Apples with brown sugar and cinammon

and of course, the British classic: lemon and sugar

I made everyone try the lemon and sugar and the majority were converted- one in particular. I quote "This is really good, I mean good...like, tell my grandma good".

Those with keen eyes might notice a block of brown cheese at the end of the table. I didn't grace it with a label for it doesn't deserve it. I bought it by accident in a tired stupor and had hoped that this evening would provide an opportunity to dispose of it. Unfortunately there is quite a lot left- but I have some other ideas after reading about a recent tunnel closing, brown cheese fueled fire that burned for 5 days! No fire lighters needed on my next camping trip.

Loch Ness Leaving Cake

One of my colleagues is leaving for a new post in Scotland. I made her a chocolate cake with a loch ness monster on top as a nod to her new home.

It was really simple, I should have used fondant icing to make the monster, as he wouldn't have cracked if I had. However, I used icing sugar with water and a little vegetable oil to make a moulding paste. I coloured it with a dark green gel food colouring. You can use a liquid colour, but you won't get the vivid colour without sacrificing the correct consistency. If you want to make one, I will give you one tip- to keep his nicely rounded shape set him up to dry out a bit draped over some curved objects- the barrell from a (clean!) garlic crusher, a piping tip...whatever works!

I have decided that cheaping out and not buying fondant worked in my favour, the cracking is my interpretation of scales!

Office with a view

So this is what is taunting me whilst I slave away at my thesis. This country is stunningly beautiful at the best of times, but in the sunshine it's truly delightful!

The view from my desk!

Every few days we get a beautiful one like this, but inevitably it turns nasty. Each time this happens several people will make the same joke:

 "Did you enjoy summer?"

 This is usually accompanied by a self indulgent chortle, but the Norwegian summer appears resilient to me as it keeps fighting back!

Nuances of Norway

I thought it might be fun to do a series on the cultural differences I encounter. So many times now I have been really shocked (usually in a good way!) by some ways of life here- I thought it would be fun to document them.

The "sharp intake of breath"- at my interview, I was giving a ten minute presentation and every few minutes a man on the panel would inhale sharply as if, to my mind, he was about to say something. I would stop my presentation and look at him expectantly for a few seconds, decide he wasn't going to say anything and then continue. This happened a few times until I decided to just ignore him! Turns out this is a popular way of agreeing with a point, saying "okay" or generally being the norwegian version of the "uh huh". Lot's of people do it and it's quite difficult to get used to.

Forspillet- I was out with some new friends one evening, enjoying some drinks, when a girl asked me if I wanted to come to foreplay at her house the following Saturday. I was a bit gobsmacked and had no idea how to respond when a fellow Brit jumped in and saved me, all the while crying with laughter. Forspillet is used to mean "pre-drinks/party", where you congregate at someones house and have a few drinks before going out to a club. However the literal translation of "forspillet" is "foreplay"!

Hot alcoholic drinks- it's pretty normal to drink irish coffee with whisky or baileys, or this horrific mint liquor I forget the name of with hot water as a tea at said forspillet. I am not used to drinking hot alcohol at this sort of social gathering. Christmas- yes. After a nice meal out- sure. Pre-drinks!? I'm not sure I'll get used to that one.

Eating lunch at 11am- just what it says on the tin. I got used to this remarkably quickly, I am starving by 10:30.

Saying it's an hour later then it actually is- e.g. It's 20:30 when it's actually 19:30- I don't fully understand this one yet, I just know it's not accidental. I'll get back to you!

Cake Friday- if it's your week and you forget, there are serious consequences!

Office hours- many people, including myself, work 08:00 to 16:00- it's great because you get the full evening to yourself. Last Thursday, making the most of the good weather, I was climbing till 23:00!


That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure there will be many more as the days go by!

Salmon fishing in the...Melhus

About 30 people from my department quit work early and headed in convoy to a river just outside of Melhus, approximately 30 minutes drive from Trondheim. When we arrived some of the keenos (including the big boss) had already set up and started fishing- there was an enormous, bleeding salmon hanging from a make shift teepee. It was impressive and revolting all at the same time. I was really surprised they had red blood for some reason. I'm still not sure whether it was actually caught or bought and strung to provide hope as they didn't catch any last year.

One of two fish caught. The other was 6.2kg!

There were waders, wellies and rods galore. I had a mortifying exchange with one man. He gave some lame excuse for not catching a fish and I said sarcastically "oh yehhhh, you didn't catch a fish because the water is too deep" he laughed and gave one in return and then bam...I knew it was bad as I was saying it but couldn't stop myself "and your rod's not long enough!" This is one time I really hope the language barrier wasn't overcome.

Downstream. Imagine this with men spaced 10m apart all the way down. They were eating when I took this.

We had BBQ fish (purchased, the supply from such a group is not dependable!)- everyone took a piece of aluminium foil, put a piece of fish in with whatever vegetables and seasonings you wanted, you sealed it up- a bit like a french poisson en papillotte and then watched it like a hawk on the BBQ to avoid picking up one of the other 30 identical packages 17 minutes later. It was delicious with some sour cream.

The 6,2kg catch! And my ride home is holding it. Unfortunately this made him very enthusiastic and the evening stretched much longer than what I would consider optimum "standing in the cold, watching men fish" time.

I chose the wrong car to go in though- suddenly everyone was gone and it was just me and some serious fisherman. Everyone evaporated- otherwise i would have bagged a lift back earlier, as it was I didn't get home till 20:30.

All in all a great Norwegian experience!

Mulkholmen (M)adventure

Munkholmen is a small island a short boat ride from Trondheim harbour- it is a former prison, fort and monastery. When I told my colleagues over lunch that I was going at the weekend- they competed to be the person who had lived here longest and not been. It didn't exactly set it up to be a brilliant day out...

The view of Trondheim from the boat

However, it was quite a surprise. We did a little tour of the tower there, which was way bigger than I expected. It was a jigsaw of rooms built to accommodate the islands various uses. The cellar was initially used as a gunpowder storage room- but it was too wet for this, so it became a mass cell. Only prisoners that it was never intended would leave the island alive were ever sent down there. An English doctor was one of them- he got sick of listening to his maid whinge so he cut off her head.

All the seats and gears etc. are still inside...I imagine the crucial parts are safely removed.

It was lovely and sunny, but pretty windy- the garden of the cafe/restaurant was walled though so it was a great sun trap for ice-creams and wine.

A mish mash group of visitors, summer students, employees and Alice and I.

We headed back to the mainland as no one fancied the "Pølser"  It's on the list of "must trys", but I think I'll spread them out. Reallllly far apart. We picniced by the river.

The boys are their bankrupting Burger King.

Later we had the same gang around for drinks and the football- it was 5 Frenchies/French speakers to three non-french so there was a good atmosphere.

As an aside, Alice who has diligently been looking for a second hand bike on the online second hand market everyday found one and bought it- and it turns out they had another perfect for me. Jammy or what, no searching required. It is a pile of junk but it will do for the few weeks pre first salary. I am borrowing our mystery occupants helmet- (his/her stuff is everywhere in the flat, but we have decided we haven't broken into someones apartment, however it was an edgy few minutes coming to that decision when we first moved in!). My pile of rust is bright red, and will not be stolen. Bonus!

xox

Arrived in Trondheim!

The view from the "Gamle Bybru"- the old city bridge!

We have arrived! Our apartment is in the building on the right hand side, it's the yellow one just past the middle. It's a huge apartment, 3 bedrooms, a total of 30 chairs (we counted them all!) a big TV and an xbox included. There is other peoples stuff randomly distributed about the place...economics textbooks etc. It's an excellent location, that photo is the classic Trondheim postcard.

Our living room. Note our duty free on the bottom right, we spent way too long choosing and re-purposing a piece of furniture to keep it in.

Went to get supplies from the supermarket and that's a laugh on it's own. Classic Norwegian delights of brown cheese, rotfiske and aquavit all await me- for the moment, we bought loads of fish. My favorite thing was the prawn freezer- you just scoop up as many as you want. Meat is too expensive, but salmon is great value! And potatoes- they're the only vegetable you can't import because it's pretty much the only thing they grow here and they're fiercely protective and proud of them!

The prawns were my favourite until it came time to prepare them...they're covered in eggs and the faff to flavour ratio is way off.

So far so good!

"Farvel" for now!

xox