Time flies fast

This eventful week started with a celebration of the end of the war (8 May 1945) and foundation of the Red Cross on Monday. A parade walked from the church to a memorial in a park and speeches (very long and kind of dry ones – just Norwegian – but you get used to it) were held, flags hissed, the hymn sung and food served afterwards. Unfortunately not too many people joined and it was obvious that the younger the generations get, the less interested people are in such things, which is sad. But it is just another chapter in a history book for them, not something of noticeable presence anymore. None of their close family was involved, in contrast to all the elderly people who joined the event. Anyway, we helped to prepare and tidy up everything and made sure everybody had a song text – learning the hymn by heart seems to get out of trend, even among senior citizens ;)

The week went on with a trip with Åse and Astrid (and two of her children) to Torheim on Wednesday morning, the place where Astrid’s family originally comes from. Her family/relatives own/s some buildings there and we had a picnic with a great view over the Nordfjord, surrounded by a beautiful garden in full bloom. It was amazing and we had a really good time enjoying the sun and of course the cake and ice Astrid brought along :D

After we came back, Barbara and me joined the knitting group as usual and went to the golf club afterwards. The all-day school took place there this time and we had a barbecue outside while playing golf. I rather watched people hitting the grass with plenty of enthusiasm. I just cannot share the fascination about this sport. For me it is by far too less action and no team sport either. Still it was nice to watch for a little while and actually very amusing ;)

On Thursday I proved my talent as a hairdresser for the first time. Barbara decided to cut her hair off - like, really off. Together with Ronja, a German girl living in Norway, and her Norwegian friend, Amalie, we fulfilled Barbara’s wish. We first started with a side cut, but then Barbara wanted to keep going and now all hair is gone. I think it is very brave to make such a decision, but it suits her very well and she is very happy. And the reactions of people who know her (but didn’t know about her decision before) are really funny. So be it :)

The last event in this week came along with the ESC 2017 on Saturday, after an amazing hike I went on that day. But there is not so much to tell about, just watch the beautiful pictures. So back to the ESC: We decided to watch it together at our place and invited Lena over. It was quite funny to have an international group watching an international contest. The opinions about the songs differed sometimes, but we mostly agreed and wrote our own tipping down. It wasn’t necessarily whom we wanted to be the winner. Just our suggestions who it might be. And we weren’t that bad – our top 5 candidates are in the actual top 5.  So congratulations to Portugal, you deserve the prize!

I am just happy that I feel more like I belong to Norway than I do to Germany right now – this performance was just embarrassing. It is a pity that my country of origin is one of the "Big Five" countries that are automatically qualified to the final due to being the largest financial contributors to the contest and the EBU. Otherwise Germany wouldn’t have passed the qualification. I just don’t understand why it can’t provide decent artists to represent it – I mean, Germany has plenty of them among 80 million people, but somehow they are not sent… But it is just a song contest anyway and despite some disappointments it was a very good one. I wonder with whom I am going to watch it next year – maybe I will visit Portugal with my crazy bunch of people I got to know here ;)

But that’s it for now – quite enough for one week, I guess. It is frightening how the time is running. It is already Sunday, but if feels like the week just started. And it will run even faster with all the events going on in the next time like the national holiday in Norway, which is a big deal here, and our trip to Solund, a little island at the west coast. Then May is almost over and my flight back comes closer and closer, even if don’t feel the urge to go back right now if it wouldn’t be for my friends and family (and maybe the food). But I still have some time left and some things ahead of me I look forward to, you’ll read it then :)

Ha ein fin dag alle saman,

Alisa