Graeme of Sunhill(t)own(n)

I’m writing this in sunny Porto. Well at least I assume it’s sunny, I can’t see the sun due to the mist. I’m down here for a few days with my friend Amy for Sonia’s and David’s wedding.

It was a fairly long journey to get here as you can imagine - Dønna isn’t exactly on any of the main routes. A few weeks ago I booked my flights from Oslo and left off the issue of how to get from Dønna to Oslo to a later date. I settled on the train but then put off actually booking the tickets. And of course by the time I got round to booking the tickets there were none left. Panic! I had visions of driving down to Oslo in my electric car (and all the stops for recharging that would require) then arriving back in Mosjoen after the holiday, catching the train back down to Oslo and driving back up again. I ended up getting flights from Sandnessjøen airport which is fantastically convenient (a 15 min bus side) but very like Dundee airport so very small and very quiet.

Being very nervous of flying I have been (of course) an avid watcher in the past of Air Crash Investigation. Imagine my horror on one of the flights yesterday when we were told that despite all the empty seats in the middle of the plane we had to sit in our given placesbacuse of the weight. Immediate flash back to season 5 episode 5 “Dead weight”. (No, while I do remember the episode, I didn't remember that specific info). The plane takes off, retracts its wheels and then due to the shift of the centre of gravity plummets to the ground because of weight imbalance). I can tell you that the first few minutes of that flight were extremely nerve wracking.

Back to normality….

I’ve been once again playing on various islands around the community - the last 2 Sundays have seen visits to 2 new ones Gåsvær and Sandvær.

Gåsvær doesn’t have a working instrument so we needed to lug the Johannus One keyboard from the ferry. There are no roads on the islands and as we climbed up a few rocky steps from the ferry to the grass path I briefly got a flash back to Lovund (shudder). There’s no electricity at the church hall so the keyboard (and more importantly the kettles) are powered by a little generator outside.

Sandvær similarly did not appear to have any roads but there was a working harmonium so I just pumped away with my feet quite happily and all seemed to go well.

I was very taken with the sign at the dock which gave an exact location of where you were. I thought it was really fun to text my kids and be able to say that if you go to google maps you can see exactly where I’m standing right now.

I never get tired of the various ferry rides we take to these places. Quite often it’s a private boat that takes us there and we get the public ones back. These ferries are always smaller than the one that I regularly use to get back and forth to the mainland. Even when I’m not actually using the ferry I enjoy just watching it. I sometimes go for a walk down to Bjørnsøya to sit and read and I’ve watching the ferry approach the dock and it lifting it’s nose (technical nautical term there) to allow the vehicles/passengers on and off.

One of the pluses about these services on the islands that there is always coffee and cake afterwards - do enjoy that though I do still try and keep my distance a bit from the conversation being very aware of my limitations with my language. I try and listen to see what I can pick up and I like to think I’m understanding a bit more. My daily duolingo is becoming every more useful and it’s now at the stage where I can roughly understand everything that is said to me in a shop - to finally know that I was being asked if I wanted a bag or a receipt was quite a thrill. Previously I’d just answered “no” to any questions I was asked and just hoped I wasn’t arrested as I left the shop.

As well as the regular Sunday services and the little recitals I’ve been given in Nordvik for “Open church” there have been a number of funerals and weddings to play for. There seem to be a couple of wedding marches that are traditionally used here - Brusmarj far Lødingen is particularly popular. I’ve played it 3 times in July - twice with a singer and a guitarist and once by myself. And played it 3 different ways. 1st time was in Nordvik and I cheated and used the transpose function on the organ. 2nd time I played it on the piano, again with a singer and a guitarist (and a percussionist) so wrote out the transposed chords on to the music. 3rd time I played it as an organ solo and inevitably got confused with all the different chords I had written out so there one or 2 questionable harmonies at the start. Fabulous little tune though.

At a funeral last week, Kjerstin was singing a few solos during the service so we met early to rehearse. Afterwards, while enjoying a traditional coffee and a rather delicious cheesecake I discovered to my horror that it was traditional for the organist to play for the 15 minutes before the service. Oh the shame! I had an early opportunity to make amends for this as I had my first “away” gig in Leirfjord. The organist there had caught covid so was unable to play. Kjerstin was to again sing so she suggested that I be asked. The downside of course is that I am at the beck and call of the ferries so ended up having to get the 7.30am ferry which meant I arrived far too early. But better far too early than a little too late.

The church is in a beautiful setting over looking the water and it was lovely to sit out afterwards and enjoy the sun. I’m not a great one for understanding the technical aspects of the organ but I did know there was such a thing as a crescendo pedal. This device does exactly what it says on the tin. The organ here had one of these but instead of a pedal (which I understand) this was on a roller. This struck me as having the potential for some catastrophe of some sort so I kicked what I assumed was the off button and resisted the temptation to pretend I was balance on a ball and spinning it under my feet.

I like to think of myself as a fairly sceptical person - not someone who is taken in easily. But Jens seems to have the measure of me and I have no idea whether he’s winding me up or not at any given time. The first time I met him he said he was from Blairgowrie and I was all for saying, oh my grandfather used to play there….

I took Laila up to Dønnagard for our coffee/cake/conversation as I wanted to treat her for a change as she’s always so kind to me. He came and chatted to us for a while and at one point he said he’d order some Costa coffee as he’d heard that I was missing it. At first I got all excited before then thinking, oh wait, this is Jens…. But a few days later a picture of the afore mentioned coffee appears on Facebook :-)

And the title of this post?

As some of you may know, I’ve been known in the past to be a bit partial to the music of Yes. With all the driving I do on the island (feeling quite virtuous because the car is electric) I’ve got plenty of time to listen to podcasts. I can’t listen in bed because I fall asleep too quickly. On one of these podcasts, the discussion was of Jon Anderson’s first solo album from 1976. Olias of Sunhillow. It occurred to me then that a very loose translation (forgive me, any Norwegian readers) of the town where my main office is, would in fact be Sunhilltown. Spooky!

After a few days here in Porto I’m looking forward to being back in Scotland for a fleeting visit. I need to resist the automatic impulse of going back to the flat! But looking forward to seeing the family again and of course reacquainting myself with the staff of the various Costas :-)