Return from Dundee

It’s been a while since I’ve written so just a wee catch up on life since Portugal. Couple of reasons this has taken so long to write:

1/ I had promised a blog in Norwegian. That is still the plan but I’ve now refined it to being a little post about Dundee. Jen and I had a wee wander round the city before I left so got some lovely photos of the city (under the guidance of aforementioned Jen) which I will put up soon with some Norsk commentary

2/ I managed to find Blake’s 7 on my tele (thanks Jill) and I’ve been binge watching that. Takes me back to me piano lessons and arguing with my brother about who should go first so that we could catch the episode that was on. All joking aside about the quality of the special effects etc, it’s the only TV show I think I’ve seen where the end credits are set exactly in sync with the music.

But anyway….

It was great being back in Dundee for a few days to visit family and friends! Copious amounts of coffee were drunk at Costas (indeed was my first stop on Saturday morning in Edinburgh) and far too much rich food was consumed.

Was also nice to get back to St Mary’s and have a tootle on organ and catch up with the choir and perform some of the old classics.

Since I’ve arrived back work is starting to pick up again. As well as the normal Sunday services there have been funerals and weddings. Here in Norway there are lot of Wedding Marches - Brurermarsj fra “..” is a very common title. The most popular one so far appears to be from Lødingen and these traditional melodies remind very much of fiddle music back in Scotland.

On Sunday we had two services - a “normal” communion service in Herøy led by Ingrid and then in the evening she was installed as the new priest for Dønna. It was good to be pushed a bit more with the music - Ingrid likes to sing the liturgy and wants it accompanied and, very much singing from the same hymn sheet as me, likes it flow. This meant at one point she wanted me to extemporise a little bit after one of the hymns to move into the correct key for the responses. Not sure it was the greatest example of improvisation in the history of music but we got there (F major to f# minor if you’re interested).

The instillation service also marked the debut of our little church choir. As well as leading the hymns we also sang a short anthem - the ever green “Lead me, Lord” by Wesley. They sang it well and it seemed to go down well with the congregation. I was also chuffed (and I’m afraid this IS boasting) to get a rather large round of applause at the end of the last voluntary.

Just before the service, Jens came up to me and said “Happy Birthday” and popped a wee prezzie beside me. I could smell it before I opened - recognise that Costa blend anywhere :-)

There was a particularly generous kirkekafe at the end of the service with some fabulous food. When we went up for seconds (just before the speeches) I unintentionally got a particularly large slice of cake which I had to then keep manoeuvring out of shot from all the pictures that were taken. People here are always very kind to me and despite being (I think) the only person that requires them, Laila and Gudny made sure there was milk and sugar for me. As mentioned many times before, my reputation these things precedes me and I left the evening with 3 worrying large tubs of cakes for my freezer. Well, someone’s got to eat them I suppose.

I’m still working hard on my Norwegian and continuing to get a bit more confident in it - though it will be good to get back to my regular coffees with Laila to really practice. Shops are much less stressful now: I was able to have an entire conversation with one chap. I understood every word he said. Admittedly he was v grumpy and only said 2 words - “bag?” and “receipt?” but I was able to reply with a confident “nei”. In my local the lady was struggling to find the price for my purchase so thought I’d try out a word I’d just learned - “gratis?” Alas not.

I caused a bit of turmoil amongst the staff on Monday as I went in for my traditional cake and coffee in Sandnessjøen. I asked for the kannelbolller and there seemed to be bit of an argument between them about whether it was actually called that.

Next week is when it really starts to get busy again with regular services at the old folks’ homes on Dønna and Herøy, Kammerkor is resuming soon, Dønnahorn is up and running so looking forward to getting back into the swing of all these things again.

Thanks to Jen, Chantelle, Trine and Dave for some of the pictures.