Moving with Cats

Yesterday we packed the animals in one car and all their stuff + the house plants in another. Lucy and the bird in his carrier crate in the back, Fenris was protected from draft, both by his carrier and on 3 sides by the back seat and side of the car and the crate with car stuff. The cats in their crates were lined up on the back seat, with a couple of boxes with kitchen stuff on top. Tucked next to the cocao and the instant coffee was Blubbulf the fish, in a jam jar, his half full bowl on the floor. Topsy curled up on the passenger side floor with my back pack and stuff on the seat.

At the new house we plugged in the cat feremone diffuser and waited an hour before opening the crates. Funky, who hates being crated and had been protesting loudly the whole time, and made frequent attempts to claw his way out, immediatly left his crate, and found a corner under a table where he could sit and regard his new surroundings. Piril came out, took a short walk of exploration and then went into Funky's crate to have a nap. Puseline just stayed inside her crate sleeping or looking out while we walked the dogs and husband assembled my new desk and hung up curtain rods. Piril and Puseline eventually started exploring after husband left, but Funky stayed put in his corner. Not until evening did he come out, loudly complaining and obviously looking for something. I lifted him onto the sink where I had put their food dishes and sure enouph, he was hungry.

At bedtime I made up my bed on two matresses with a dog bed at each end. I was immediatly joined by two happy cats: Piril and Funky, who settled down on my pillow and feet respectively. This lasted until midnight when I was woken by something landing in my bed: it was Topsy. Something had frightened her (possibly Puseline). That was it! I put the cats out of the bedroom, calmed the dogs back in their beds and tried to go back to sleep. For awhile I lay in bed listening to Piril scratching at the bedroom door, while Funky kept up a steam of loud complaints, until I'd had enough (didn't take very long). When I put all the cats out in the hall and closed the door, I finally had some peace.

Before the movers come I will put them back in their crates, and stack them, facing the wall in the bathroom.

Done Packing - Ready to Move

Puseline having some water laced with Rescue Remedy

I've been puttering about all day, packing up the kitchen, the food, every last minute thing. Actually I'm a bit of a veteran. Between 1989 and 1995 I moved 6 times! To tell the truth, I find it fun! Especially since we decided to pay someone to clean the house afterwards.

Husband just finds it stressfull. Not to speak of the critters. This morning when we took out a bunch of furniture that we are getting rid of, for Husband to burn (the new house is much smaller than our present home), the dogs just about went crazy. They see we are getting ready for a trip and they are afraid we are leaving them behind. The cats are reacting too, though that seems to be mainly because we closed off the cat door and aren't letting them out anymore. While the dogs had to be ordered into their bed / crate to keep them from running around attacking the cats and each other, the cats are spending a lot of time meowing in front of the door. I had to dig into the box at the bottom of which I had packed my Bach Flower Remedies to make up a bottle of rescue remedy with which to dose the animals and Husband.

Anyway, we are done now. After breakfast tomorrow we are packing the animals into one car and all their stuff pluss whatever we have room for in the other and are heading down to Østfold. I will stay at the new house. Husband will return. The movers are expected at 8 am on monday.

We don't know when we'll have our internet hooked up in the new house. Hopefully on monday, though I fear it might not be until the new year. I sincerely hope not. We gave the company about 2 months notice, but it would be typical. Anyway, I'll be back with a new post as soon as we have internet. Below: a picture of the kitty crates ready for the trip. I was hoping the cats would be curious and explore them, but so far, no luck.

Lucy posing in her crate, kitty crates stacked alongside.

Packing

Dancer beside the wedding tree

We've had 2 sparkling frosty clear days, with moon bright nights. I wish the moon would always shine in winter. Together with the snow, it really lightens things up!

Spent a quiet day packing (and dog training). We are pretty much caught up. There are a number of open boxes around, waiting for some final stuff before we close them up. We really are living out of boxes now.

Movie night

So today, obviously I was really tired after getting home at 1 am and waking up at 6:45. I rarely sleep past 7 am. Really only if I am utterly alone at home and there is absolutely nothing clamoring to be done.

Spent the day packing up the bathroom, training and walking the dogs, shopping etc. Talked to Irene on skype. Husband went running for 4 hours and then to work, so by evening we were both tired.



Last week I had listened to the audio recording of THE HELP by Kathryn Stocket, and then downloaded the movie, so we watched it tonight. It was very good, though, as usual, the book was better.

Team admissions

They called me from work, just before I was leaving to catch the train for my 12 O'clock shift. Asked me to come for the evening shift at 3pm instead. Gave me 3 extra hours to do stuff here at home. Even if it meant I wouldn't be home until 1 pm. Right now, on the train home I can hardly keep my eyes open.

It turned out to be a busy shift. 3 team admissions. That's a lot in one shift. A surgical team is called for an MVC or other accident requiring trauma assessment, but also for unstable patients such as leaking aorta aneurisms etc. A medical team is called for unstable medical patients. We also have stroke teams for patients that are candidates for thrombolytic treatment, pediatric teams for critically sick children, and birth teams for patients entering the ER on the point of delivery. A team admission means that the relevant assisting physicians are present as well as interns and residents, anesthesia staff, and 2 experienced ER nurses. Depending on the team a surgical nurse (trauma), pediatric nurse (ped and birth) and midwife will be part of the team as well.

Tonight the teams were:
1. a motor vehicle accident: an 18 year old had slid off the road and the car overturned in the bad weather.

2. A 13 year old who had been kicked by a horse.

3. An elderly lady with difficulty breathing

Christmas shopping

We hadn't been to Løiten Lys in several years, so husband and I decided to do our christmas shopping there this year. They make the most beautiful candles! I mean, they are nice to look at anyway, but the real beauty is when they are lit. Løten Lys is in the old aquavit distillery. There is also a whole little indoor village of shops with home-made soaps, candys, antiques, used books, handwork, and a cafe. These akevit distilleries are to be found all over this area. It was a good area for growing potatoes, which is what the aquavit is made of: potato liquor, basically. Another piece of trivia about aquavit is that it hasn't been properly aged until it has crossed the equator. I quote from Wikipedia: "Peculiar to the Norwegian tradition are Linje Aquavits (such as "Løiten Linje"). Linje Aquavit is named after the tradition of sending oak barrels of aquavit with ships from Norway to Australia and back again, by that passing the equator twice before being bottled. The constant movement, high humidity and fluctuating temperature cause the spirit to extract more flavour and contributes to accelerated maturation."



Later I went to the post office to send packages and cards for Christmas. There's only one more which I am delivering by hand, and then our christmas present shopping will be officially concluded.

No more sleeping over

Last night I slept at the hospital for the last time. I won't miss it. Sleeping over has been expensive and the rooms are sterile and impersonal, but lacking the comforts of a hotel; ie no bedding, no internet, no towels. They claim that they don't provide bedding for reasons of hygiene. But there is no dishwasher in the kitchen either, and I picked up a stomach bug a few weeks ago, which I am prettysure came from insufficiently washed dishes. So much for hygiene! Anyway I look forward to sleeping at home from now on, in my own warm and comfy bed, with my husband to scratch my back, and my dog to lick my hand (her bed is on the floor by my side).

Madhouse

On mondays the ER tends to resemble a madhouse. It is the busyest evening in the week. Today was no exception. Hour after hour we had about 50 patients in the ER. That is a lot, considering that we have 15 regular admission rooms, pluss 2 trauma rooms (3 beds) and 3 observation rooms (10 beds between them).If we fill every possible corner with patients we can admitt about 30. The 10 in observation rooms do not have much privacy to present their problems, though it's better than the hallway and the triage area, which also has 3 observation bays. Still leaves about 20 patients on stretchers along the corridors, in the triage area, or sitting in the waiting room. Surprisingly, things moved along preetty well: nurses and doctors working efficiently. What made this monday different was the number of patients requiring isolation precautions. We had up to 9 rooms on isolation precautions at once. It got hard to find a bathroom for the patients that weren't isolated. Houskeeping were working their buts off! So that was a glimse of a typical monday at the ER.

Second Advent Sunday

While I was at work a friend / neighbor / former colleague / midwife student whom I've been mentoring for her final disertation, brought by some christmas cookies that she had baked for us by way of thanks. They were delicious! (some of the cookies in the picture I made the weekend after thanksgiving - they're quite good too). I hope she gets a good grade on her dissertation.

winter storms

We have had such a mild fall and early winter. Hardly any frost. No snow. In the past week storms along the coast of northern and western Norway have dominated news. High winds and giant waves crashing over houses, closing down ferry transport along the coast, airports and roads. Where we live, in the innland of Southern Norway, we have only had wind and rain. The wind rattles the windows, a few trees are blown down, providing new logs for Lucy to practice balancing on and jumping over. Today though, the temperature sank below freezing, the rain turned to wet snow, the roads became icy - especially the dirt roads. Husband nearly froze to death running home after returning the rental van in Hamar.

Visiting our new house

I've decided to try writing every day this month, only I'll have to do better about taking pictures. I forgot to take pictures both at the farm and at the dog park :(

Today we rented a large van, filled it with all our bicycles, a couple of matresses, my buckets of roots for next years flowers, curtains and Christmas decorations, and drove down to the new house. It was smaller than I remembered, lower cielings: really had a 300-year-old bake & brew house atmosphere. I think it will be quite cozy once we get moved in. Right now it is cold and empty, but once we have furnished it, heated the wood stove and moved in with all our critters we will be "snug as a bug in a rug".

The main purpose of the trip was to shop for a new bed, coffee table, and measure the rooms to see how we would furnish the house. Turns out my desk won't fit, and I had to buy a new one. The furniture store seemed only to sell big bulky pieces designed for spacious rooms, not a little old farm house. We finally found a bed we liked, for a decent price but it wasn't in stock. We'll have to either look in Stange or order it and sleep on matresses on the floor in the meantime.

We decided that instead of leaving them alone at home all day, we'd leave the dogs at a dog park that an agility friend of mine runs. I was a bit worried how it would go, but apparently they had a blast: Lucy ran with 4-5 other dogs in a large field. Topsy didn't like any of the other dogs; so she spent most of the day hanging out with Kari Mette in the house.

Advent

It is december first in the first week of advent. We are living surrounded by boxes. Only the advent candle on the table and the advent calendars to show that we are in the midst of the Christmas season.

Therefore the pictures are from work. Above the gingerbread village at the entrance to the pediatric department. I wish I could have captured the smell as well.

During the night shifts this week my colleagues set up an amazing advent tree. It is fastened with plastic garbage strips to an IV stand, and hung with brightly wrapped gifts and gold balls. We all put 50 kr in an envelope for the tree, and at each shift change one or more of the gifts will be drawn.

Visit to England - October 8th to 13th

On Saturday, October 8th I arrived at Byrnes Railway Station in south-east London to visit Ingvild and Irene. It was a long trip: first the train from Stange to Rygge, then Ryanair to Gatwick. Then the train to Byrnes Rail station with several changes along the way. On the plane I had the opportunity to be a good samaritan when one of the passengers fainted. A young man with wild eyes started calling "hey" a couple seats behind me so I got up to see what the problem was. A young woman, his fiance, was lying on the floor with her eyes closed. I talked to her, and though her eyes remained closed she responded by shaking her head so I knew she was resonsive. Her puls was strong and steady, her breathing a little fast, her skin warm and dry: just a fainting spell then. According to the fiance she had fainted before, just not on an airplane. Meantime the Ryanair staff had come running, they were definitly stressed out, and a man joined me, whom I assumed must be a doctor. The fiance held her legs up, the ryanair staff wondered if she needed sugar or anything. The doctor and I agreed she was most likely dehydrated. By this time she was opening her eyes and responding verbally. They gave her water and she went back to her seat. The doctor turned out to be a psychiatrist. I think he was quite happy to have an ER nurse on his team.

Irene and Ingvild came to meet me a the station and we walked to Ingvild's university to dump my stuff before heading back into the city to take in a show. I had discovered on my last visit that I had seriously neglected their education by not introducing them to "the wizard of Oz" stories when they were children. We made up for it by going to see the musical. It was really great with a real live ToTo!


Sunday Irene had to go back to Cornwall, where I was to join her on Monday night. In the meantime though I would have 24 hours alone with Ingvild. We took the bus to Paddington with Irene. First you cross this Bridge into the part of London called Hammersmith, where we had to change busses. From there the bus winds on until it eventually arrives in Paddington.

On the way back to Roehampton we went shopping at the Whole Foods Market. Both girls have embraced a vegan lifestyle and this is a fantastic market, full of organic goodness.




There is even a bin where you can throw away your traditional toiletries before buying the healthfull ones sold at the whole foods market.
We got up early on monday, and were just sitting down to breakfast when the fire alarm went off. Ingvild's first reaction was "just ignore it". Then she looked out the window and said: "I guess we have to go down". Slowly but surely all the students came out of the dorms, most of them in their pyjamas. It turned out to be just a drill. An official looking person thanked us all for eventually showing up before dismissing us to go back inside.


Above is the area where everyone gathered for the fire drill, the blue doors are the entrance to Ingvilds dorm house. She lives on the third floor on the right hand in a flat that she shares with several other students.
Below is the Sociology building where she has a lot of classes.


We took a long walk around the campus on monday morning before I went back to Byrnes station to take the train to Cornwall, where I would be visiting Irene on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Irene met me at the train station and we walked to her house. There was a birthday party going on for one of her housemates. Below is the front door to her house in Falmouth



Irene has 3 housemates: 2 guys and Krissi. I met them all. They seem really nice. The picture below is of Krissi and Irene in the Kitchen.

Irene studying in her bedroom. They have a guest room too, but while Irene was at class on tuesday I sat in her bedroom doing reasearch on lifestyle and diet for menopause.



I also spent some time on tuesday morning wandering around in Falmouth, shopping, and getting my hair cut. I bought some delicious cornish fudge at the farmers market below.

Lunch was an organic cornish pasty eaten at the harbor while listening to a street musician play the classical guitar.

Wednesday, Irene had more time off and we walked up to the castle that you can see from the town. In the evening she took me to a poetry reading. Some of the poetry was really quite good. Then thursday morning at the crack of dawn I had to get back on the train to London. Food didn't used to be something I particularly went to England for, but this time I have found some favorites. The bagel factory (a chain) at Paddington Station sells the yummiest bagels with melted cheese! And of course there is Starbucks. Anyway, I took a Brittish Airways flight home, noticing that they are much better prepared for emergencys with 2 overhead compartments dedicated to first aid equipment and an AED (defibrillator). I can only assume that the staff recieve appropriate training as well. I still like Ryanair though.

Trondheim - September 23rd to 25th

On the last weekend of September I visited Audun and Annina in Trondheim. I took Lucy. It was her first time riding the train and I wondered how she would take to the movement, the noise, being surrounded by strangers etc. But she behaved extremely well, lying under the table at our assigned spot. When I went to the bathroom she would look after me with a slightly worried expression, but the arrival of 2 more passengers in our courner, as the train filled up in Lillehammer didn't faze her in the least.

Annina met me at the station and we walked up to their house. After 5 hours on the train, Lucy needed a walk so the first thing we did was go to the park behind their house. It is a wooded hill with a fort on top, and a great view over the city.

The path goes through woods up the hill.

The fort on top of the hill.

View of the City from one of the many viewpoints in the park.

When Audun got off work, we walked downtown to pick him up. On the way we passed this pretty church (Trondheim seems to be full of pretty churches).


Audun works on the third floor of the building on the left. We went shopping in the building on the right, with Lucy lying nicely outside waiting for us by the bicicle parking.

Here is Audun in front of their house. They have the corner appartment on the first floor. Small but airy, with high ceilings. A cozy little nest for the two of them.


We spent a pleasant evening. Annina cooked and we watched a movie. The next day we went on a long walk along the coast. Lucy could run free most of the way.






After several km we came the this hole in the cliff. It is the entrance to a tunnel of about 200 m cut into the rock. Tea lights stood here and there along the whole way, but they were not lit. We had brought flashlights as Audun and Annina had been here before. Lucy did not want to come in, but once inside went along nicely.






Here Lucy has become friendly with Annina at a goat statue as we reenter town at the end of our walk. I was only in Trondheim for that Saturday. I had brought them our raclett maker and we had raclett for dinner and played Carcazonne, a fun game that Annina has. It was a lovely visit and I hope to visit them again in the spring.

Early Sunday morning Lucy and I got back on the train for home. We were to compete in a club agility trial in the afternoon. In spite of all the traveling Lucy got a third place on the class one agility course and a fourth place on the open jumpers course, as well as taking and passing her bronze medal test.

Thanksgiving 2011

Audun and Annina

Once a year (at least) it is good to reflect on what I have to be thankfull about:

1. I am gratefull for my job at the ER at AHUS. I love it. I love the variety, the new disiplines I have learned, the way we work in teams of 2 and all I learn from my colleagues, as well as the respect, and validation I enjoy from them. I love the challenges, and being able to make a difference.

2. I am gratefull that the girls, my daughters have caused me to focus on my diet in a positive way. I like the results of drastically reducing the amount of refined and processed sugar, grains and fats has had on my weight and my teeth. And I am gratefull to them for having made me more aware of animal welfare.

3. I am gratefull that we found an affordable place to live as well as as job for Husband on Holden Farm. That it is in the country. I am also greatfull that we were able to sell the property in Stange so easily, and for this opportunity to go through all our belongings and get rid of what we no longer need. I look forward to the move. To have a smaller house to keep up, to be free of the responsibility that comes with owning property. To getting to know a different part of Norway.

4. I am gratefull that I became aquainted with Susan Garrett's dog training philosophy, for the fun and new persectives it has brought to dog training, and for the difference it has made to Lucy and Topsy.

Audun

5. I am gratefull for the people I have known who have passed away this year, especially Mother-in-law. I am gratefull for the lesson that I must not allow myself to be blinded by prejudice, or prevented by previous experiences from seeing the good in another person or in reaching out a hand of reconciliation, support and kindness to those who might need it.

6. I am gratefull for the direction my children seem to have found in their lives and for their ongoing and unvavering love. I am gratefull that both daughters have found subjects that inspire them: that Youngest Daughter is enthusiastic about her sociology studies, and that Oldest Daughter has found found a path she wants to take after her bachelors, where she can explore her interest in healing through nutrition. I am thankfull that youngest son has chosen a path where he can cultivate his physical strenghth and find excitement while learning to help others, and that Oldest son has found this lovely girl to share his life with and for their visit to celebrate thanksgiving last weekend.

7. Finally I am greatfull for Husband, because he took the initiative for us to learn better ways of communicating and problem solving, for the experiences we have together: the trip on Hurtigruten and the days in the mountains, and that he has made it possible for me to commute to my job and to visit my girls twice this year by taking care of everything at home while I am gone.

8. I still need to mention the other things in my life that I am greatfull for: reasonably good health, the good conversations I have had with Mother, Sister and Younger Brother throughout the year, and my friends: they are not many, but their support and friendship is invaluable.

MaryAnn and Lucy