Something a bit different - some me time in Norway!

I've been a bit rubbish at keeping up with blog lately, but definitely have something to write about that I want to have a record of, although it's nothing to do with home ed.

Although I have been away on my own overnight before, I'd never left the girls for longer than one night and never been in a different country from them!  Last summer I had to decide whether I wanted to go with my choir to Trondheim (our choirmaster lived there for six years, hence the connection).  I wasn't really sure for various reasons, but decided it was too good an opportunity to let pass me by, so signed up for it.  As well as being ambivalent about leaving K & M for 5 days, I was also unsure about spending so much time with people who I really don't know very well at all.  Choir is once a week (and I quite often miss it when A is away with work) for a couple of hours, most of which we are, as you'd expect, singing.  Many of those going on the trip are good friends with at least one or two other members outside of the choir and I don't know anyone else well at all.  I'm also considerably younger than the vast majority of the other members and therefore at a different stage in life, most of them have grown up children and many even grandchildren.  Finally, while I like people, I'm really not keen on them en masse!  As an introvert, spending time with a large group of people I don't really know is not generally top of my list of things to do.

In short, it was fantastic and I had been worrying for nothing.  Everybody was lovely, inclusive when we had free time but in no way pushy, so I could hole up in my hotel room to recharge when necessary.

On Wednesday 27th June, we met in the library carpark to go by coach to Manchester airport and on the way we were treated to pain au chocolat and bucks fizz, which was a nice surprise.  All went smoothly with the flights, first to Oslo and then on to Trondheim. 

Snow on the mountains between Oslo & Trondheim.

We were met at the airport by two of the members of the choir who were our hosts and taken to Hell!

It's the name of a place nearby.

We were then dropped at our hotel and left to settle in and then we went out in various groups to find somewhere for our evening meal. 

Thursday, we were taken for a sight-seeing tour around the town in a couple of coaches, getting off in a number of places to have a look around, hear about the history of the town (Trondheim used to the capital of Norway, so there's quite a lot to hear!) and in a couple of the places have a sing.

A view down over the city.

We also stopped for a very good lunch in a place down near the shore of the fjord.

The fjord - it's a big one!

We had a couple of hours back at the hotel, before being picked up again and taken to the venue of the concert that we were taking part in along with three Norwegian choirs, two of which are lead by choirmaster B, who is a good friend of our choirmaster, S, and who comes to do a workshop in Nottingham with us each year.  Before the concert, we were treated to a meal of 'sod' which is a traditional Norwegian mutton broth with meatballs and vegetables in, which was very good.

The concert went very well, and the fact that we had learned a song in Norwegian, one particular to Trondheim too, went down so well that some of the audience were moved to tears!  As well as the four individual choirs doing their own thing, we also all performed a couple of songs together, one Norwegian (but with the equivalent of tra-la-la instead of words) and Lean On Me.  It was quite an experience singing together with that many people.  I haven't got any photos of this, but you can have a look the public album on the choir's Facebook page here.  This one is a slightly blurry one of our choir and this one is just after we'd all sung together.

Friday we had most of free to explore ourselves and I spent most of it with two lovely ladies.  We went to a museum situated in the bishops palace grounds, which was the Armoury and Museum of the Resistance.  It was fascinating to find out about the Second World War from a perspective you don't usually hear about.  We then went to the National Museum of Decorative Arts, which had a wide variety of things to look at.

After a couple of hours recharging, our host choir came to meet us at the hotel and we walked through the town to the Gamle Bybro (Old Town Bridge) that we sing about in the Norwegian song we learned.  On the bridge we sang that and a few other songs, before going for a drink (and more singing) in a pub and then moving on to another pub for a meal, more drinking and more singing!

Saturday we sang at various places around the town, in a church, on the stage in the market square and in the main pedestrian shopping area.

My view in the shopping area.

After a pause for lunch, we regrouped outside the cathedral, where we went in for a short service when the organ was being played.  It's the biggest organ in Europe, recently renovated, and has 9600 pipes.  I am not generally a fan of organ music, but two out of the three pieces that were played were absolutely beautiful.  The first was a solo and the second with a chorister with the most amazing treble voice.  The third piece was more what I would expect of organ music, loud and crashy to the point that for me it just became noise.  I did later have a fascinating conversation with another member of the choir, who has synesthesia, about it though.  She sees colours when she hears music and for her, what for me is noise, is very clearly defined.

We also got to sing in the cathedral, which was apparently a great honour, I'm pretty sure it was a case of 'not what you know...'

The last evening was the party, which was great fun.  As well as some great food, there was, unsurprisingly, more singing.  Both choirs sang as well as some smaller groups from within the choirs.  When we sat down at the tables, we were asked to mix up with the Norwegians and I ended up on a table with B, the Norwegian choirmaster, among others.  He is such a lovely bloke, the twinkliest person, I've ever met and an absolutely brilliant conductor.

We headed back to the hotel at about 11 o'clock, with the sun just setting, although it didn't really get properly dark at all, which was a very strange experience.

View from the coach at 11.05pm.

Sunday it was an early start, with the coaches leaving the hotel to take us to the airport at 7 o'clock.  We arrived at the airport just in time for a fire alarm, then in Oslo were asked if anyone would like to wait for the next flight, as the flight was overbooked (none of our party took the airline up on the offer).  We arrived back home around 4pm, all rather tired, but very happy after a fantastic trip.  Oh and I spread the word about home education during it, as naturally it's something that comes up in conversation when you chat to people.

I arrived home to an empty house, as A and the girls had gone to Leicester for a korfball tournament, but was leapt upon with hugs the minute they got back.  As expected, they'd survived perfectly well without me!