Unni's Blog

I have joined a choir where male and female singers from different choirs have come together for only one reason, i.e. to give a tribute to Simon&Garfunkel. After 2 weekends of rehearsals (I only participated in the first one) and a couple of extra rehearsals, we will give a “best of”-concert on April 2nd. If you are in or around Oslo about that time, please come and see/hear us:

Now it’s final! I handed in my keys yesterday and took the courageous step out of the clinic that has been my “work home” for the past 3,5 years. On Monday Nov 1st I will step into a new world with new colleagues and challenges. Exciting but also a bit scary. I am still gonna be a counselor/therapist within the mental health care system for children and adolescents, but from now on in a neighboring municipality to Oslo.

I had a few days of vacation left, so now I chill out at home. The first day I spent in the kitchen, baking rolls. If the weather clears up, I  might go shopping tomorrow. At least I have an hairdresser appointment…:)

Another day at the Oslofjord with my kayak, paddling and struggling against wind and rough sea. We had a nice break at Bygdøy (just outside the Norwegian Maritime Museum) – on a bench in the sun with coffee and chocolate chip cookies.

My fingers were frozen as we started the return trip despite the coffee and the sunshine. With water temperatures below 15 degrees celcius I have to purchase paddle gloves or mitts if I’m supposed to keep on paddling this fall. The route might not seem very impressive, but with rough sea we really had a hard time getting across to Bygdøy and back home. I can feel it in my latissimus dorsi muscle as well as in my neck …

After almost 3 years in our new house, we have finally started to explore the green hills and forests surrounding the south-eastern parts of Oslo. Two sundays in a row we have been hiking in the woods. As a girl from the westcoast, I try to accustome myself to walking and never reaching a mountain top with a spectacular view. The so-called Oslomarka is a wonderful place for outdoor activities, though. This city is so fortune, it is surrounded by spacious forest areas including hundreds of lakes. We stopped by one or two of them today. Last Sunday we were soaking wet as we got back home, today we were walking in sunshine (or at least we could spot blue sky above our heads and the treetops).

With hot chocolate and sweet rolls as energizers, I can go on forever….

A rest by the lake to catch some rays

Most people that we met in the woods were looking for mushrooms. Since we don’t have a clue which are “safe” or not, we keep our fingers away and take pictures instead:

Some collect mushrooms, others collect frogs

We try to go on kayak tours on weekends, especially when the weather is nice. Yesterday we had a terrific tour in splendid weather, nice temperatures above (approx. 27C) as well as below (approx. 20C) the water surface, but we had to struggle hard against the wind to get across the fjord. On fine-weather-days the Oslofjord is also quite crowded. We must always look up for speedboats, huge sailboats or luxury yachts. Musclepower against enginepower – I guess, we will never win the race.  Still, my biceps and triceps got some good exercise yesterday. Michael also installed some kind of GPS tracking system on his cell phone, so that we can have a look at all the interesting statistics after each kayak tour.

Kayakking around Skjælholmene