Stavanger, sweet Stavanger

I have been in Stavanger for almost a week now, and it feels SO good!
It was incredible to see my boyfriend again, and then also get a warm welcome back from the orchestra made it all even better.
I had the most fascinating travel over here on Monday. Early morning train, quite a lot of people - even in the "comfort" wagon, luggage (one bag with wheels), normal bag and two - 2 - cellos. One modern and one baroque. I felt like a very demanding traveler.
The instant I boarded the train, I was blocking the way for someone who had to walk past me. After that I didn't know how to organize myself and all my luggage. A very helpful man came to my rescue. He turned out to be the head of "Hove festival" (a huge rock-festival in the south of Norway). Apparently he had seen forlorn musicians travel before...
When the train was at its final station - in this case Stavanger - I had equal problems getting off the train. I didn't want to leave any luggage in the train, but on the other hand I didn't want to put any of the cellos, or my luggage, on the platform unattended either. Yet again I got help from a kind soul. This time a sweet girl who was getting home for a week of rest in her studies.
And then Robi came, and it was all ok.

Ah, I was thinking the weather in Stavanger was almost only wet during fall, but this morning we had to scrape the car-windows free from ice. Winter is coming! Feels great, but - oh so cold!

Location: Robis place in Hillevag
Mood: Exhausted after todays practice
Drinking: Nada, should have some water...
Listening to: The silence of the clock on the wall

Autumn colors

Mum, Eivind and I were having our weekly walk, when it struck me how incredibly colorful it all was around us. Sadly enough I only had my phone with me. (My brother, studying photography at the moment, was of course carrying his pro camera with him... Looking forward to see his pictures soon!)



Location: Home, in the "office"
Drinking: Coffee (I'm cold)
Mood: Happy

Just a small thing...

but nevertheless incredibly sweet!
Just look at this postcard that a friend of mine sent me:



Thank you!!
I'm still smiling :)

Gardening

My mums garden needs maintenance - it's old and it's not very well kept. One of our old apple trees fell down this summer (very sad, it was a Åkerø-tree) and now we need to cut it down properly. We don't have a motor saw, so we used the little one we have. I'm sure my arms will hurt tomorrow!!




And then we realized we had a lot of illegal plants too, so mum cut the dry remains of them down and I burned them in mums outdoors fireplace. Unfortunately, it smoked A LOT. Don't think the firemen or police would have approved, but hey - we got rid of some nasty plants! (Gullris and Lupiner) And just last year we all thought they were just very pretty looking flowers...




Otherwise it has been a very nice Sunday - practice, family dinner and calm music from the radio. Just missing Eivind and Robi.

Colours!

Almost forgot...
When Dad and I was at the bus the other day (after a performance, so it was a little late) we saw this:



Fantastic, don't you think??

In Kristiansand

...and it rains here too! It feels like it has been raining for weeks - constantly. The good thing is that we're picked up at the hotel by a maxi-Taxi every morning. (We get the ride back again too, luckily.)
But you need the raincoat anyway. And the hangars at work are quite exclusive!


And I'm so glad - there are lots of other freelancers in the orchestra this week so we have our own little club at breakfast, lunch and for coffee...
And this fellow is my former violaplayer (in the Swedish Quartet "Hebe")



We found a very nice-looking, smelly (yes, it smelled - not very pleasantly - of too much incense) Indian restaurant with very good tasting food. Spicy'n yummy! (Although, we'll not recommend the garlic-fish dish.)

Ooo, should try to practice some in my tiny little hotel room now. The neighbor was playing guitar just now so I should take the opportunity to make a real war! Mwoahahahaaa