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Bust days whizzing around.

Hm…I wanted to write more frequently, but suddenly I looked at the newspaper this morning and realized it’s already the 12th of January. I suppose “Happy New Year” is in order, eh.

It’s been a good year (it might seem optimistic to call 2008 a good year not even 2 weeks into it, but I think it is going to be a good one!). Let me see…

The second day of the year I hopped on a plane yet again (I have flown so much this past year I almost feel like a commuter, but not really) and went back up to Grimerud. It was great to participate in the national staff conference for YWAM, and even greater to meet up with the people I’d spent the latter part of 2007 with (although it was only 2 weeks since I’d said goodbye to them in December). My friend Elisabeth, who I worked together with in Fortaleza for about 6 years, also came which was really lovely. The conference started (I must admit 350 people is a bit too many people for me, so it was good to be staying in a house of “only” 16 for the conference) and ended.

Having thoroughly participated in the conference it was time to be a tourist for a bit. Elisabeth and I took a train down to Oslo for a few days to catch up with friends. We stayed at my youngest brother Magnus’ place, and were very well taken care of (homemade pizza, fresh rolls for breakfast, no complaints here!). To not go into too many details, our two full days in Oslo included: coffee and raisin buns at “United Bakeries”, coffee at “Stockfleths” (our lovely friend Silje had made a list of recommended places to go in Oslo, so we followed it to our best ability), cake at Deli de Luca with lovely Marta, loo-visit at the courthouse (we did feel quite lost in there), pizza at “Peppe’s Pizza” with lovely Anette, lunch in Torshov with Randi and Lena, smoothie and bagel at “Bagel and Juice” (pricey but scrumptious) with Magnus and his girlfriend Lene, brownies and tea at Ann Helen’s flat close to Bislett Stadion, and a few episodes of Sopranos courtesy of one of Magnus’ flatmates. So yes, it was a good few days, and quite busy also!

Wednesday I hopped on the train back home, and 8 hours later I was home again. Although it’s been great to see so many lovely people, it’s also nice to have less people around me.

Thursday I spent the day sorting stuff and pottering around before whizzing out to the airport to pick up my good friend Faith, flying in from the UK. We worked together in Fortaleza for about 4 years. It was so good to see her again. Yesterday (i.e. Friday) we had a long breakfast, and then we strolled around Sandnes town centre, looking in shops, drinking very sweet hot chocolate, and generally just hanging out. In the evening there was a huge show in Sandnes to mark the opening of Stavanger as the cultural capital of Europe 2008 (a bit confusing, but Stavanger is the neighbouring city to Sandnes), so we strolled down to watch that also. It was fun.

Today we take the train to Stavanger hopeful that there will be 13 other curious souls wanting to take the boat on a trip of “Lysefjorden” on of the most famous fjords in the area, which also goes past the famous “Pulpit”. That failing, there is a lot going on in Stavanger today, so we will not be in want of things to do and see. I hope it doesn’t rain.

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