Salutations from Norway|

We made it!!!!! The longest journey of my life, but the children behaved amazingly well considering they had to stay in one place for 10 hours at a time. Those of you who know my children will know that they generally struggle to stay in one place for more than a few minutes.... They did really well, and I didn't even have to use Phenergan.

Cathay Pacific was wonderful, but I declare Finnair to be particularly stingy since it's the first long haul flight I have made where you have to pay for any mid meal snacks...... No pot noodles or packets of chips for peckish little children (or grown-ups). They also required payment in Euros of which I had none, so ended up paying in HK dollars getting a terrible exchange rate. Live and learn. Will arm myself with a couple of packets of biscuits for the return journey. Biscuits are fortunately still allowed on the plane since nobody has found a way of making explosive ones yet.

So, one week or so into our holiday I am happy to report that we are having a good time. Turtle is being suspicious of any foods Norwegian (with the exception of lollies and chocolate which he has deemed safe). Shepherd's pie went down a treat as it was declared to be Australian despite all the ingredients being Norwegian. I am sure if you are 6 yrs old this makes sense!

TV watching is minimal due to the fact that there are only 2 TV channels to watch - one public and one commercial channel. The great thing is that the morning cartoons are completely uninterrupted by ads.... Advertising aimed at children is illegal in Norway, so no junk-food or toy ads. YAY!

The weather has been mostly good, although we had some spectacular rain for a couple of days. Australia could have done with some of it. The children are having a great time playing in the stream by the house and down by the seashore which is 15-20 mtrs away from the back door depending on the tide. The children are spending most of the time outside playing and I have trouble getting them inside for bed. It is hard to persuade them it really is bedtime when it is still bright daylight outside. At first they thought it was an evil scheme of mine to get them to bed early.

Onkel Knut had left a racetrack for the kids to play with. It was so big that the only place I could assemble it was in the barn. It took me 3 hours and the best of my engineering skills to assemble. Thomas was impressed and gave me a pat on the back for "doing a good job". A rare compliment and one that I treasure!

No photos yet because I have not found a way to upload. The internet is accessed at the local library which is beyond impressive!!! I am soooooo disappointed that my children do not read Norwegian because the choice of books here is phenomenal. I used to think Kuringgai library was ok...... but it fades by comparison.

Until next time - farvel!