Gross, gross, gross.

I was going to write about the natural beauty of Norway, about how this time of year is so lovely because masses of wild flowers bloom by the roads and everyone's gardens are full of colour. (Loads of people, including us, have rhododendron bushes, which I find incredibly funny for some reason, like they shouldn't be in Norway, only in National Trust properties).

Anyway, ol' Mother Nature just spat on that. We have three huge windows in our sitting room that overlook the garden. And just as I logged on a bird flew in to one of them. Twice. No idea if it was the same bird twice or two birds once, but man it is a grim thunk. 

And the gross bit? The smear of I-have-no-idea-what bodily fluid and tiny feather left behind on the glass.

No pictures today.

Oh Hollywood, you silly sausage...

This is where we live...

Well, more or less, anyway - this is Tønsberg, the nearest biggish town to us.

According to you and your Captain America movie, this is Tønsberg..

Image from here.

Not even close, Hollywood, not even close.

OMG!! Squee!! JUSTIN BIEBER!!

Actually no joking about that little boy, he nearly broke Oslo.

Image from here.

Read this MTV article and you too can get all the details of how the over excited mob of tens of thousands of fans briefly crashed the mobile phone network. And how Mr Bieber had to tweet to calm the crowd. And how the mayor of Oslo had to hide behind a tree. Hilarious. The local news said that 'a number' of young girls needed medical attention due to hysterical crying. 

Image from here.

The poor wee things.


They even got in to boats to get closer.

Image from here.

I tell you, it all happens in Norway.

My heart belongs to: Bonkers Norway.

Yep, round these parts you can sail right up to a sticking out rocky bit and hammer a spike in and just tether your boat like a puppy. 

For all I know this may be normal in lots of countries.

Bonkers.

Hurray for the 17th May!

Today is Norway's National Day. Yeay. It celebrates the 1814 signing of the constitution that declared Norway to be an independent nation. (Should you wish to learn more, and I am sure you do, please do go to this informative Wikipedia article).

Anyway, it is a big day here - so hurrah for parades, sausages and national dress.

Yep, EVERYONE dresses up. 

This is my littlest stepson from a couple of years ago - all the schools meet up and walk with their classes. (Oh and let's not tell him I'm using this picture...).

Oh, and they let their gingers dress up and have a flag.

Yeay Norway!

A short musing on a veritable invasion.

Recently there has been a small but significant trickle of big old hollywood stars doing an ad in Norway. Presumably a pretty lucrative ad where they get some pretty big bucks and they aren't overexposed in an 'inappropriate' market.

Reese Witherspoon did an ad campaign for Lindex last autumn.

And now it is Gwyneth Paltrow's turn.

Lindex is a Swedish owned high street store, so it is a bit like them doing ads for Dorothy Perkins or Forever 21. Which probably wouldn't happen.. Fair play to the ladies though, why not, etc.

The best ad to have come out of this mini wave is this one for a Norwegian bank..

'Some people are lucky in life, for the rest of us saving up can be smart'.

I love the look on the woman's face, she looks delightfully shocked the whole way through and I rather suspect she wasn't acting too much.

Saturday Snapshot: in which you can all be jealous about how VERY pretty it is around here.

This is a place called the Worlds End.

You can kind of see why.