Great Things Come With...

...Living at The Top of The Hill

New Year wouldn’t be New Year without some fireworks. Unlike Beijing where fireworks were launch within feet of any person there are some regulations here with 6 official locations in the city.

Private launch outside of the prohibited zone is allowed with some safety rules such as only in open areas and towards the sea or water.

Since our house is overlooking the city and with a 180° view, we were at a prime location to see almost all six official locations from the comfort of our own balcony. Here are some pictures:

180° view of Stavanger's fireworks

Jeremy...

...or ???

I don't know about you but Jeremy and his "chouchon" as he calls his small blanky remind me of somebody.

Hover mouse over the image! *
Might not work on IE... but really, who still uses IE?!!

What Else?...

... Visiting the Oil Museum

Stavanger, commonly referred to as the Petroleum Capital of Norway, had to have the Norwegian Petroleum Museum. Its exhibits explain how oil and gas are created, discovered and produced, and what they are used for. The museum also provides information about technological advances and the way petroleum influences Norwegian society. Original objects, models, films and interactive exhibits illustrate everything from everyday life offshore to technology and dramatic incidents.

Oil and gas production accounts for more than a third of Norway’s government revenue and roughly half its export earning. It provides about a quarter of gross domestic product.

It all started with this (that's the first oil they found NOT Log Cabin Syrup):

They used this to get the above

World largest drill bit.  It weighs 1,700kg and measures 90cm in diameter

You'll have to live on this to use the above to find what's on the first picture:

This one is made of Lego but not the real ones in the North Sea  (well I really hope so)

If there is a problem on the above where you use the 2nd picture to find what's on the 1st picture, you'll need to jump into one of those and you get drop in the sea

Not for sea sick people (I'm out!)

And you'd better have one of those too if you live on the 3rd picture, using what's on the 2nd picture to find what's on the 1st picture.

I definitely need to write a post on fashion in Norway

The museum was designed by architects Lunde & Løvseth, and is an attraction in itself. Its architecture is a scenographic interpretation of the Norwegian bedrock, the open coastal landscape and the offshore oil installations. Architectural reviews have said that there is hardly a building in Norway which signals its function as obviously as the Norwegian Petroleum Museum. It was opened by HM King Harald in 1999.

Source Petroleum Museum 

Sorry I might have mislead you with the opening title of this post... George had nothing to do with the Oil Museum in Stavanger!

God Jul

圣诞快乐 (ShèngDàn KuàiLè)
Feliz Navidad
Buon Natale
Merry Christmas
Joyeux Noel

Light painting photography

Hope You’ve Been Good This Year…

...Otherwise It’s Kinda Too Late!!

Good... with a slice of naughtiness!!

Cookies… Checked

Milk Saft… checked

Santa can come, he will have food and Saft.  Saft is kind like a fruit sirup you add (warm or cold) water to it. We figure he's probably been drinking a lot of milk so we may as well give him something new to taste.

Here's a video and a few Comics that made me laugh:

Christmas Woven Heart

It’s the Christmas season and woven hearts are starting to appear everywhere. Jeremy made one in school from two different sheets of paper. Apparently those lovely ornaments are very popular in Scandinavia and are originally from Denmark. They were usually made of red and white paper and were designed to stimulate a sense of nationality. The first recorded paper heart was actually made back in 1861, by renowned Danish author and poet H.C. Andersen (he wrote "The Little Mermaid "and "The princess and the Pea" among others). The woven hearts are usually hanged in the Christmas trees and can be filled with candy.

Here’s a diagram if you want to have a go. They also make nice little favor bags for Valentine.

NB: Weave through the loops, not in-between the strips

Snowmen are SO...

...Last Year

The Igloo is the new snowman at Casa Suiter.

Chloe & her masterpiece

Turning into…

...An Insomniac

We’ve established the fact that winter days are short in Norway, with around 6 hours of day light you would think that I would turn into a marmot when in fact it’s quite the opposite; I think I’m turning into a vampire.

Let me state first that I’ve never been a morning person. I’m not, It’s not me, that’s it. I’ve had to wake up early to go to school, then work, then later on to care for my children, I did it and I would do it again. But if I follow my natural rhythm I’m a night person, always been and probably always will be. On a side note Jeffrey on the contrary is a morning person, I don’t even want to count the number of time I’ve watched the end (middle and quite frequently even the beginning –save the first 10 minutes) of a movie with a sleeping Jeffrey by my side (with both of our sleeping patterns we could almost cover an entire day with at any given time one of us being awake -one has to wonder how we ended up with two kids!). But I digress once again.

Lately I have fallen into a very bad sleeping routine, I stay up way later than usual and when I finally make myself go to bed I toss and turn and end up back up. So of course I have an even harder time getting up in the morning. You would think that with complete darkness by 6pm, I would want to head to bed my 8pm or even 10pm, but no. I think the problem comes from the morning. You see my body tends to wake up when the sun rises (well more accurately a little after BUT never before the sun rises) so during the dark season the sun rising later, my body naturally wakes up after the sunrise which is currently pretty late (you really should have click on that link at the top of the post to check the sunrise and sunset time!). Even Jeffrey has a harder time getting up in the morning. It will be back to normal this summer when the sun rises way too early for my liking (In fact he used to play a round of golf before going to work at 7.30am when we lived in Aberdeen!). I now need to find a way to go back to MY natural rhythm because I don’t think I can wait until the sun decide to go to bed at more reasonable hours.

Gone in 60 seconds minutes

Merry Christmas...

...and Half-Tax

Even though Norway is one of the country with the highest income tax. December is the month of gift giving. All earning in November are taxed half the regular amount. The purpose of the tax break is to encourage Norwegians to shop for the holiday. Do you get a tax break from the tax man too? We sure don't!

(Source Stavanger Expats Website)

While In Norway…

…Do As The Norwegians Do - Part II

Here are some photos of our little trip to the Hytte.

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The Hytte

Hytte Life...

Ski slopes are not opened yet but sledding is sure fun

A cup of hot chocolate is always welcome

We went Dog Sledding.  Even the kids had a go at it.

The Huskies.

While In Norway…

...Do As The Norwegians Do

I’m preparing for our first trip to the Hytte and I’m already exhausted; before even leaving the house. Well let me explain the process of a weekend to the Norwegian equivalent of a summer/winter cabin.

While a long time ago, hytte were indeed cabins which were often built by one’s own hand, those hytte really only had the basics; i.e. no running water or electricity…so basically a roof and 4 walls. Nowadays the hytte are a little more upscale and the one we are currently going to this weekend (companies often have their own hytte they rent out for a minimal fee to their employees) has a bathroom (thank goodness), electricity (washing machine, stove, TV & fridge…Yeeha), heated floor and even a sauna. I wasn’t quite ready to rough it up and experience the full joy of the Norwegian cabins… baby steps, baby steps!

But a 2-day weekend turns out to be a 2-day master planning ahead for me. You see while you have the wall and the roof above your head (and in our case “luxury” of electricity & water) you need to think about every thing you’ll need while you are enjoying the surrounding beauty of the mountains. I’ve been moving for the past 12 years to 5 different countries so I know the logistics of moving around a family of 4 and going to the hytte for a weekend requires no less than a precise packing list.

You’ll first need to think about what you need in the house: sheets & pillow cases or sleeping bags, towels, games, etc… and let’s not forget my photography gear. Then everything you can remember for the kitchen: food (don’t forget the salt & pepper, butter, morning breakfast, lunches & dinners, etc..) and products to clean. All that and I haven’t even started with the most essential list: Clothing. So 4 pairs of skis (don’t forget the poles), 4 pairs of ski shoes, goggles, helmets, ski suits, hats, scarves, gloves, woolen socks and underwear (shirts and long johns), several fleeces to layer depending on the weather expected.

All those items will then need to be packed with a military precision in our car trunk and newly acquired Thule (a roof top; another prerequisite when you live in Norway it seems!). On the given day at the given hour everyone will find a place in the car (between pillow sand blankets) and we’ll be off to the mountains just like all of our neighbors who do this every weekend. Only to realize that once there everything need to be unloaded. I’m sure glad our parking space is just next to the Hytte and not way up high on the hill where we would have to haul all of our stuff on our back.

If only packing was that easy!

This photo was taken from the parking lot of all those Hytte, even the ones on the very top... And no there is no road to go up there only a foot path!

Fun day at the Hytte... the Norwegian way!

Sunrise...

...Sunset

Stavanger:

• Sunrise at 9.30am
• Sunset at 3.40pm

Yep that's 6 hours of day light.  As my friend Leah said: Stay Strong... Stay Strong.  It could be worse; we could be living in Trondheim: Sunrise @10:03am - Sunset @ 2:33pm!!

Sunrise

Sunset

A photo of Stavanger during the blue hour; that’s the hour just before sunrise or  after sunset, which isn’t too early or too late in Stavanger in the winter months!

Blue hour i.e around 5pm

And here’s another photo of my house taken at 1.30am. Don’t ask what I’m doing outside in the snow at this time of the night.

Straight out of the Camera. NO adjustment

“Fashionable...

...In Rainy Weather" IV

It’s already time for Part Four of my series of Fashion tips in un-sunny weather!  Following last month post on the ‘it’ rain boots, I’m presenting the ‘it’ of the ‘it’ welly boots.

THE Jimmy Choo* Hunter Rain boots (only $395)

And since we are kind of short of daylight nowadays in Stavanger, here’s the solution:

Umbrella light

* If you don't know who Jimmy Choo is, well there is not much I can do for you (but really, google it!)

Advice Needed

Strange Light

“Between 7:50 and 8:00 a.m. local time, there was a strange light in the sky. It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in color to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end. This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to the earth.” According to press reports, this could be seen all over northern Norway and must therefore have been very high up in the atmosphere to be seen hundreds of km apart.

According to some reports, the unexplained light may have been caused by the failure of a new Russian anti-submarine-based intercontinental missile which was being tested across the Norwegian-Russian border.

Little Red House…

…On Top Of The Hill

Posting the photo-reportage a couple of days ago reminded me of a photo montage I did a couple of weeks ago. I photographed a 360° panorama of our house and surroundings then made it as a little planet. So here is it: Celine’s world!

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One Week…

…Twenty-Five Photography

My friend Sharon wrote this comment on my Facebook wall

Ok Celine, I'm putting my foot down, you've been there long enough now, Thanksgiving is over, you haven't taken up knitting (Tac told me) so don't you think you have enough time to go out and take a few bloody snapshots of Stavanger, the kids, whom we miss, you and Jeff, your apartment etc...and change your profile pic... to something more Norwegian...with your talent as a photographer i'd have thought you'd be spoiled for choice of things to shoot...consider it your project for next week...a photo-reportage of your life in Stav...;-)

After reminding her that I now held two jobs; i.e Ayi and Mr Wang and she needed to give me a break I decided I had to do something about it. I could have taken a few snapshots of the family, the house, the city, etc… but that wouldn’t be much of a challenge.   I went for a photo-reportage describing my daily life.

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We’re Going Back…

… to Nature

As I said in a previous post, Christmas is just around the corner and a Christmas tree needs to be decorated. This year, being in Norway, we decided to appeal to our primitive side… we are going to cut our own tree; albeit at a Christmas tree farm… we are not that rebellious!

No such thing as picking a tree in the parking lot of a supermarket, this year:

We are going to earn it the hard way:

First you need to choose the ONE for you:

Then you need to cut it:

Done:

Haul it:

Wrap it:

Trim it:

Voila!

Egersund...

...Julebyen

Christmas is in less than 3 weeks and we started our Christmas season with a visit to Egersund, a town a couple of hours south of Stavanger famous of its Julebyen or Christmas Markets. Around 50 wooden stalls sell all kind of Christmas items and one of the most courted is the hot gløgg sold by singing monks.

The stars of the event are Julenissen and his local assistant Nisser.

Apparently Santa can speak Norwegian too!

Little Trivia: (aka I love Wikipedia!)

• Egersund was amongst the first towns in Norway occupied by the Germans during World War II (April 9 1940). Egersund was important to the Germans because of its good harbour and the telegraph line between Norway and England.
• In 1905 Egersund is the first town in the county of Rogaland to get electrical lighting.
• Priscilla Presley, ex-wife of Elvis Presley. Her Grandfather was born in Egersund in 1896.
• Øystein Aarseth (1968–1993) Lead Guitarist and founder of pioneering Black Metal band Mayhem

Are you Poisoned?...

...I mean Married?

On today post I wanted to update you on my Norwegian learning. In the last few weeks since I started my classes at the Centre Culturel Franco-Norvégien  I’ve learned quite a few things, notably all the important verbs that are now part of my life: å vaske opp, å gjøre rent, å vaske klær*!

I also learned that there is not really a word for “Please”… which answered so many questions I had about cultural differences in Norway. Well to be fair they have the “word” Vær så snill (which literally means “be so kind”) but it’s never ever used as it is very formal. They do indeed have a word for “Thank You” (“Takk”); not that they used it a lot either. But to be frank this shouldn’t bother me much since “Please” and “Thank You” were not a big part of the Chinese language either. Ayi told me one day that I said “Please” and “Thank You” too much; she was doing her job and it made her uncomfortable to be thanked all the time (sorry… I mean not sorry?!). One that grasped the concept of not saying Thank You was Jeremy. One day as I reprimanded him for not thanking Ayi he replied "Oh no she doesn’t want me to say thank you”!! . And we thought China & Norway were a world apart; in fact not ,there are so many little things that are so close from one culture to the other. Who would have thought?

But what made me laugh in class today is that the Norwegian word “gift” is the translation for the English word "Married" AND "Poison"??!!!. Not that I should draw any conclusions on the marital relationships in Norway from this.

Indeed "New in Norway"

* for the ones who are too lazy to Google translate it , the verbs means “do the dishes”, “clean”, “do the laundry”.

A Few Things…

...You Need To Know

There are a few things you need to know about living in Norway. It rains a lot, but we’ve established that already. The fashion is quite different and I will talk about it in another post but it’s linked to the previous statement. But on today post I’m going to talk about the challenges of driving with a sunset and sunrise within hours of each other.

After buying a car (for the price of a small apartment anywhere else in the world thanks to the lovely Norwegian taxes) and getting your Norwegian driving license (which I didn’t have to take because I have one from the big European Union, yeah) you get to drive on the open roads (well not as open as you might think… it seems that they almost always end up in a cul-de-sac thanks to the numerous fjords scattered here and there but that’s another issue). So as I was saying you get to drive and Norwegians take it seriously.

For example speed limit*. Speed limit is speed limit… no margin. Go 5km/h over the speed limit and you’ll get a 600kr fine. 15km/h and it goes to 2900kr, 4200kr for 20 over and when your speedometer reaches 25km/h over the speed limit you’ll get to be 6500kr poorer. All fines have to be paid on the spot. One has to know that the highest speed one can go is 90km/h and that’s on the motorway**. Which prompt me to explain to you that I have nothing against speed limits at all but please (Norwegian) people can you get your act together. For example during the 7-minute trip from my house to the kids’ school there are almost 10 different speed limits. First it’s the 30km/h zone, then I reach the 40km/h about 200m later I get to drive at 50km/h then I have a stretch of about a couple kilometers at 70km/h (woohoo but usually there’s traffic jam around 3.30pm from all the people going back home after work!!) then 60km/h, back to 40 then 50, a few hundred meters at 60 then back to 40.

Another thing they take really seriously it’s the pedestrian crossing. Again I am all for safety. But one has to understand that I just moved from a country (China in case you just happened to stumble upon my blog because regular readers would know, I talk and link back to my previous life A LOT!) where pedestrians were the lowest on the food traffic chain. It went a little bit like this: big truck, smaller truck, big bus, smaller bus, big car, smaller car, motorcycle, electric bike, bike then pedestrian. My technique to cross any given road in Beijing was to sandwich myself between 2 locals and pray the entire time!. Here pedestrians won’t even LOOK before crossing they just go and you’d better be the one to pay attention which you should of course but come on people, look before you cross please!

Last but not least (and probably not really last either but I’ve got to wrap this post) is the right of way. For you readers that might not be aware of this rule is that every car that comes from your right has, you guess it, the right of way (well except when you are at a roundabout and this is also another story because they don’t know what to do with all their tax money so I suspect that somebody in the government opens a big map of Norway every year and plays pin the tail on the donkey pick a place and build a roundabout) oh and  by the way there is no concept of minor and major roads, every cars coming from your right, no matter how small that road is will zoom by you without stopping. So the right of way; again nothing really against it even if I think a stop or a yield stop make a little more sense and help the process. I’ve witnessed so many helpless Norwegian drivers at a 3-point road not knowing what to do since every drivers had a car on their right hand side that they needed to let go first. Well unless I’m in the equation (or any other foreigners) and I will make the process go faster by taking it upon myself to “break” the rules.

One last thing they take VERY seriously, before going on the real subject of my post, it’s drinking and driving. Anything over 0.02 per cent (that’s less than a glass of wine -in comparison it's 0.05% in France and 0.08% in the UK and the USA!!)  and you will face at least 1 day in jail, a hefty fine and the lost of your license. On the other hand they are not supposed to telephone while driving but I have an easier time counting the numbers of people NOT phoning and driving then the ones phoning and driving.

So the challenges of driving with a sunrise and sunset within hours (yes, yes that the subject of the post, go back to the top and it’s mentioned in the first paragraph!). When you get a late sunrise and early sunset, the sun doesn’t have the time to go up high in the sky but stay just above the horizon which tend to look like this when you drive (of course you might have a nice husband that wash your car more often then mine hence have a cleaner windshield):

Photo taken in the middle of the day

For some obscure reason, it seems that I always drive to the East in the morning and West in the afternoon so I always have the sun right into my face. The sun plus the obligation for all vehicles to drive with their headlights at all time (even on the brightest summer day) makes the challenges of the pedestrian crossing and the right of way feel like an obstacle course.



* Please note that taxi seem to think the rules (especially the speed and telephone) don’t apply to them.

**Did you know that The Isle of Man and Autobahns or roads with more than one lane for every direction in Germany are the only places in the world that do not have a general speed limit?

Can You Dance?...

...Yes Wii Can!

Well if Jeremy cannot play in the NBA or work in the Government, maybe it can make it in Hollywood!

A future in a boy band?

Thanks...

...Giving

This year I’ve decided to cook my first (all by myself without any help) thanksgiving dinner.
We played it safe and invited British people (and made sure they never enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner before!!) to share our feast.

The Cook and a partially set table

On the menu:

• Green Beans with Lemon Butter
• Whiskey Glazed Carrots
• Sweet Potatoes à la Celine
• Traditional Cranberry "sauce" (special request from Jeffrey)

Main Course

I’m totally aware that a nice crisp brown turkey would have made a much nicer photograph…if only I had taken the picture!!

• Turkey with Cider Gravy

Before shot (After shot has not been shot!)

The Pecan Pie was actually made with walnuts (could not find Pecans in Stavanger to save my life ). As for the Pumpkin Pie it’s not my favorite but Jeffrey put his foot down and said that it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it.  So being the caring wife that I am, I oblige!

"Pecan" Pie & Pumpkin Pie

On a separate note, here an email forwarded to me from an article by Mitch Albom. 


“The best holiday of 'em all”

I'll take Thanksgiving.

You can have Halloween, New Year's, Christmas, Fourth of July, Easter, Hanukkah and any day dedicated to presidents.

You can stack them all up on one side, and the turkey on the other, and I will stand on the other.

I'll take Thanksgiving. It is, to me, exactly what a holiday should be.

For one thing, there are no gifts. You never have to worry about what to get someone for Thanksgiving or how much to spend. There are no lectures about "greed" or "commercialization" or how we're "forgetting the spirit" of Thanksgiving. No way. The spirit of Thanksgiving is eating. Who could forget that?

Secondly, it comes with football. What other holiday does that? New Year's Day? But at least with Thanksgiving, you don't have a hangover.

Also, there is no "right" place to go on Thanksgiving - except home. There is no church or synagogue. No graves that must be visited. No trekking out to watch fireworks.

You just sit on the couch, or sit at the table, and you laugh and eat and laugh and burp and - ta-da! - you are credited with knowing the "true meaning" of the holiday. Also, it comes with a parade.

Did I mention the dressing? Not the turkey dressing. The human dressing. There isn't any! Oh, sure, maybe you put on a nice pair of pants. Maybe. But who really dresses up for Thanksgiving? You can celebrate in a sweatshirt. Can you say that about New Year's Eve? Not unless you're a lonely, pathetic loser.

And Thanksgiving doesn't require some smarty-pants history known only by your geeky cousin from Baltimore. Uh-uh. There's no quoting Lincoln or Washington. No reading from the Declaration of Independence.

What do you need to know about Thanksgiving? The Pilgrims and the Indians had dinner. Pass the gravy.

Thanksgiving never moves. It is always on a Thursday, strategically placed so that you might as well take off Friday as well, since Saturday and Sunday are next, and, while you're at it, maybe half of Wednesday just to pick up everyone from the airport. Thanksgiving gets you half a week off.

What does Labor Day get you? Monday?

And there is no shopping on Thanksgiving, unlike Memorial Day or Presidents Day. Sure, there are Thanksgiving sales, but you do them on FRIDAY! How cool is that?

Also, there are no masks. You don't beg for candy from strangers. And nobody eggs your house.

Have I mentioned stuffing?

There is no more celebratory food - short of dessert – than stuffing. Be honest. When you were young, you couldn't get enough of it, right? Maybe you hated cranberry sauce, but all kids loved stuffing. It was everything great about bread and pudding and hot, mushy food wrapped into one. Tell me you don't still feel that.

Tell me there's anything better than a meal that goes all night, that doesn't have an event tied to it, that doesn't come with a bill at the end.

Tell me there's anything better than only having to catch up with your aunts, uncles and cousins to feel like you did the holiday proud.

Tell me there's anything easier than passing plates. Tell me there's any better place to appreciate what you have than in a kitchen filled with good smells.

Tell me there's a better invention than "the kids' table."

And what holiday not only condones but pretty much expects you to fall asleep on the couch?

So let's sum up. No costumes, no presents, no services, no tuxedoes, no time limit, no guilt trips, and all the food, naps and football you want.

I'll take Thanksgiving. After all, no one tries to sit on the turkey's lap and ask for an X-box.