It’s cold

I could have started this post with ‘I’m bored, I’m bored, I’m bored’, because I am, but I will not ?. In stead I will say I am cold, I am cold, I am really cold. At time of writing we have -9 here, in our summer house it’s down to -17. Last night we were down to -13 here, -20 up in the summerhouse. I say, climate changes, come back. This is insane, unbearable.

Last week we were taken into another lockdown, more strict than any before. Not that we have a lot of covid cases, last day only 218 cases and just 564 deaths so far at all. However, what they found was a mutation, the so-called British variant and they are scared to death of having it. This is understandable. I just watched the news, death tolls in England have passed 106 000 so far. Compare this to the 564 we have. My dear English friends, my feelings go with you. You are suffering a lot, more than we can understand.

So far we do not have a curfew, the authorities do not dare to impose it. Remember we are a peace loving nation. Curfew is something we connect with being invaded during the last world war.

During this last lockdown, all is closed except food stores, gas stations, and chemists. Even the government controlled liquor stores they closed. When we had the sms informing about the lockdown, we drove directly down to the nearest liquor store, and thank god, they were slow closing down. We managed to get what’s needed for a few weeks (maybe just one).

When this lockdown was thread down over our heads, dare I say I’m fed up, we are not allowed to pass the borders out of our municipality. This is not easy as we live 250 meters from the border, and all our walking paths go across it.

Therefore, on Friday we drove down to a place by the Oslo fjord, called Svartskog, for a walk. This small village has the home of Roald Amundsen, the first man on the South Pole. He won the rase against the English Robert Scott, who unfortunately deceased during the rase.

Amundsen is also most likely the first man on then north pole, although not proven. Try to imagine, during winters, Amundsen sat in his study with windows open to harden himself for the harsh climate of Antarctica.

It was a lovely walk. From this place they have had Sherpas from Nepal making a foot path along the fjord with stone stairs. We also managed a close encounter with a deer. However, it happened so fast I did not manage to get my mobile out.

The climate this winter has been real strange. As every year, the lake by our summerhouse starts to freeze in by the turn of the month November to December. Then a month later, it was still the same. Just after new year, it changed. We had a real bad cold period. We were up in the summerhouse, far away from the pandemic. After 2 days of -16 we decided to evacuate and go home. Luckily we did, the car wouldn’t made one day more. A 6 year old diesel car was not a lucky vehicle, never been so close to a flat battery before. After about 2 minutes I managed to start the engine. Coming homer, a few days later the temperature increased and we had about 30 cm of snow making it a winter wonder land. Imagine a country comletely white and innocent. Wonderful.

The temperature then increased even more, above the freezing point and there was rain. All snow just disappeared. A few days later again the temperature dropped, had a bit of snow, just so everything was covered with a few centimeters, and now it has really dropped. The weather forecast for the upcoming week shows now mercy to us. It will be cold, and may be colder. In the same time, we have the reports of storms and torrential rain in Cyprus. It’s a strange world.

Our only pleasure at the moment is sitting in by the log fire with a glass of wine or whisky. Not totally bad.

However, I do miss my friends, truly.