While I’m typing this, the sun is shining in the North while light, fluffy snowflakes are falling down on the thick white layer on the ground. It’s a beautiful day, and even though two of the three kids have fallen with a stomach flu, we’re all doing well.
The month of January has been one with turmoil. M. had to drive to the NL for the annual car inspection (APK). We’re still driving with Dutch license plates and can only do this inspection in the NL, even though we hoped on a more convenient check in Sweden. (EU-memberstate) or even in Norway. The good thing was M. came back with a car loaded with Dutch goodies (all kinds of hagelslag (sprinkles for on bread), cheese, stroopwafels, Indonesian herbs, ontbijtkoek, wine, rookworst and even a crate of beer.) and unfortunately with the message the car didn’t make the inspection and we’ll have to come back for (cat) repairments…The cat wasn’t in stock and ordering was going to take a few days. Too long for M. to wait. Next week it’ll be my turn to go for the long way round. A good excuse to meet with friends and family and bring along more needed foodies we miss out here!
Last week, our landlord V. came to pick up her mail as an excuse to tell us an important message. She came in with many ’sorry’s’ and then told us she wants to sell the house we rent and we need to move out before the 1st of July. You might imagine how we reacted towards this bad news. V. was the one wanting to make sure we’d rent the place for at least one year, better even two. And we were content with that idea, as we were eager to settle in this new country and in need of some peace and quiet. Our first reaction was therefor unbelieve followed by anger… and the rest of the psychological cycle a human being goes through, having to swallow shocking news.
Having to move has so many consequences. We may have to move to another town, meaning the kids will have to get used to another school and barnehagen. The cost of moving and then the cost of renting a new place. The house we’re renting now has a perfect price and is fairly cheap compared to other 4 bedroom houses. Our house in the NL is still not sold, and even though we’re renting it out we still have dual costs. After weighing all these points we decided to look at it from a brighter side. The moving will give us an opportunity to move closer to Oslo and work, and the thought of moving to an even better house will make things happy and bearable too.
Having read the news above it’s not all doom and gloom. Recent good news is that the Norwegian state pays me a bit of Kroner for being unemployed and in search for work. Something we had not expected. A bit of the money is useful for taking Norwegian lessons. I’ve applied at a local school in December, but have not yet been enrolled due to a long illness of the person in charge. I’ve also connected with an account manager from a Dutch company trying to set foot in the Norwegian market. In a couple of weeks we’re going to meet and see what we can mean to one another. Even though I’ve decided to stay at home until the youngest will turn three years old, it’s always useful to network here and there and stand open for new opportunities.
So our motto, as you might’ve guessed from the header of this entry is ‘Nobody died. No one got hurt. Nothing can beat us!’ We will move towards an even better life!. We will keep you all posted on the challenges we’re going to meet on the way!




















