Bergen-bound

24 June 2018

I woke up around 07:00 feeling surprisingly wide awake, so took the opportunity to get up and finish off that scrapbook. Very satisfying to have achieved that before 08:00 on a Sunday! Ian kindly retrieved my running kit from Bluebell so I headed out for a quick run. It was only short, but so good to stretch my legs out on the quiet, rolling hills of the countryside, after two long drives behind us and a third day ahead of us. We fly from Bergen tomorrow evening, and want to get as close to Ingvill and Ian’s (who live in Bergen and are guarding Bluebell in our absence!) as we can today.

Siri brought up breakfast: cornflakes for Cornelia, and yoghurt with peaches, rolls with cheeses and jams for us. Ian did just make the one Siri joke: Siri, do we have to do the washing up? (Which I fully appreciate isn’t funny when written like this, but made me chuckle at the time!)

We were packed and on our way by 10:30, although Ian took Cornelia for a quick play at the park nearby before we stuffed her back in her car seat again for the day. She had, once again, lost some time on her Fire Phone (two hours for two misdemeanours!) so we listened to more nursery rhymes and Heidi until I had to stop for a quick wee and Ian took over the driving. She was happy to be plugged in, giggling with delight at various times, while Ian and I enjoyed some tunes courtesy of Apple playlists and admired the stunning scenery we were passing: majestic mountains, smooth and winding roads, vast expanses of water, and colourful lodges dotted around the fields and hillsides.

The sat nav took us on a very odd route, on a route parallel to the motorway but on the other side of a lake, and although we were sure this was most definitely not the dynamic route it was programmed to give us, it was a worthwhile diversion, as we were treated to spectacular views of the still-snowy mountains ahead of us.

The hours whizzed by, although the miles were somewhat slower to pass.  The fastest road we’ve been on is 80km/hr, so it takes a very long time to get anywhere.  However, we made it to Ingvill and Ian’s at 18:30, having thoroughly enjoyed the road trip.  Cornelia was very excited to see them both, and especially pleased to meet Tashi and Socks. Socks was not quite so pleased to see her, woofing fiercely at her.  At first she laughed it off, but then it troubled her and she burst into tears every time he barked, mostly because it kept surprising her!  Ingvill took them both out into the garden, and Socks became more used to her, once he realised that his ball was being thrown for him by her!

When I’d asked Ingvill if it was okay if we arrived tonight instead of tomorrow, she’d replied that they were having pizza for tea, and she could make it stretch to feed us too.  I’d then said that I could pick up another one on the way, to which she replied that it was homemade pizza…. D’oh!!!  Together, Ingvill and Cornelia rolled the base out, topped them and baked them.  Utterly delicious, although Bugsy wasn’t too keen on the slightly spicy tomato sauce!

Ian then took Cornelia up for her shower, only to come back downstairs to say that the water had stopped mid-shower, and Cornelia’s head was covered in shampoo… Ian (to be known as IS for this blog to differentiate!) went to check the water pressure, only to discover that the whole thing had broken and there was no water to the house at all.  Every house around here has its own bore hole, and this house is served by one mined to a depth of 96 metres, which is where the pump is housed.  It was installed in the 70s, so it wasn’t totally beyond the realms of possibilities that it had just suddenly given up and died.  As you can imagine, this would be a very expensive repair!  Several worried phone calls later, and the local electrician who lives up the road said he would come down straight away to have a look.  Pretty good service for a Sunday night!  In the meantime, we did our best to rinse Cornelia’s hair with a bottle of water that Ingvill had in the store, and managed to get her to bed quite happily.

The electrician and IS went outside to look at the bore hole, and they were in and out, testing connections etc, until IS finally returned with two pieces of news.  The good news was that the pump hadn’t failed, and it was an electrics problem that the electrician would be able to fix that evening, thus returning the water supply.  The bad news was that IS had had a fight with a concrete slab, and the slab had won, smashing in his face.  He came in with his nose and eyebrow pouring with blood.

He quite quickly went into a state of shock, almost passing out as Ingvill and I cleaned the wounds and did our best to stop the bleeding and swelling – no easy task without a working tap in the house!  Once he was resting on the sofa and had been tidied up a bit, the electrician returned to say that it was all working now, and finally we had water again.  So, that was our excitement for the day!!  (Possibly not so exciting for IS and Ingvill!!)