What do we say to the god of death?

Let it not be said that Duolingo doesn't prepare you for your average day to day conversation in Norway. You would not believe how many times over the last year when I've been toiling away with "The ant likes spring" or "Her children are wolves" when what I've really been wanting to learn is stuff that I can contribute/use in our staff meeting. And finally it happened. 8.34am on the 11th May. Graeme - translate this sentence: "what do we say to the god of death?". Really??? In case you ever come to Norway and feel the need to use the phrase, the translation is "Hva sier vi til dødsguden?"

I'm now well into my second year in Norway so at the stage where I'm getting a repeat attempt at things. Course it would help if I had a better memory - I very often to struggle remember accidentals all the way through a bar and that's what I'm meant to be good at.

I now regularly go on a walk now with Sabine, Solveig and Stein up the Røsdalsfjellet, generally on a Tuesday evening. I was very chuffed to finally be able to climb a tree - admittedly the branches were cut so that it was more of a ladder but was still chuffed.

My timings may be a bit off but if memory serves, the "standard time" to the top and back was about 1 hour and 20 minutes - last Tuesday Solveig (with the encouragement of Stein) set off at a blistering space and we completed the whole thing in 49 minutes. My body is really generally bit of a shambles - I have the flexibility of a slab on concrete - but the one plus, presumably due to many years as a choirboy, was that I have a good set of lungs so was able to cope with this massive increase of pace.

It was en emotional weekend at the end of April as the Helgeland Kammerkor gave their final concerts. We had 2 concerts on one day - the first one in Mo i Rana and the second one in Alstahaug church. We drove up to Mo i Rana Friday afternoon for a rehearsal in the church and stayed in a hotel over night. I know I've said it before but you've got to love Norwegian hotels where food is included - breakfast, evening meal and the ever important coffee and cake. Alas I've never been able to take advantage of the coffee and cake part of my various hotel stays but I live in hope.

I've now got into the habit of getting up early (at least much earlier than I used to) so after breakfast I went for a wee explore of the local area. Fortunately Jen had told me about the Anthony Gormley statue at the waterfront so pottered down there after a wander round the town. I was initially a bit annoyed about the damn seagull standing on the head of the statue but I've come to regard it as quite charming and adding to the ambience.

The church itself was a lovely building, originally built in 1724 and recently restored. Apparently there had been big discussions about the colour for the outside - it was originally red but by one vote they decided to keep it white.

During the Second World War, Mo I Rana was occupied by Commenwealth troops on 4th May, 1940 and they held it until the Nazis entered on May 18. There are no Commonwealth Cemeteries in Norway but in the churchyard there are 8 graves of soldiers who died defending the town. I took a moment in the morning there to pay my respects. A number of them were from the Scots Guards - back in the 19th century the Stevensons regularly served in the Scot Guards so I did feel little bit of a connection to them.

It was hard work doing 2 concerts in one day - particularly with a 2 hour plus drive in between. It wasn't so bad for social people like me who fell alseep in the back of the car but it must have been hard work for people who had to drive eg Solveig.

The concerts themselves were a lot of fun. It was a lovely programme covering music from madrigals of the 16th century to music that was first performed last year. A particular favourite of mine was of course "The Heavens are Telling" a favourite since my time as a choir boy. Over the weekend I came to regard THAT as the musical equivalent of dessert. Like almost every other choir, the Kammerkor were short of tenors so I volunteered to try and make up the numbers. I've got a limited number of top notes that I can reach (and of course some that I never can) so as the concert goes on my range drops somewhat. However, in the same way that there's always room for dessert after a sumptuous main course, one always has the notes for THAT and can soar up nice and high. That being said, never did manage to reach the top A in bar 164. That would have caused a medical incident so working on the basis of discretion being the better part of valour ....

Obviously I've been doing work things as well. Something which I don't recall doing last year was the Tårnagentklubb up in Dønnes Kirk. Some local school children came up for a day in the church - learning about the history and exploring the church. There were various mysteries they had to solve as they went around - hence the secret agent aspect. I was "Agent 07" and Trine, already appreciating my sophistication and maturity, wrote an extra "0" on my card so that I could go "The name's Stevenson, Graeme Stevenson". TBC, I only said that to her, never in front of the kids.

It was really interesting to go round the church and see bits that I hadn't seen yet - up high in the tower etc and also into the mausoleum. I also gave a short demonstration of the organ - my new target is for the next time to try and talk a bit about the organ in Norwegian. After asking them if they know what to say to the god of death obviously.

I was delighted that Jen came out to visit last week. We spent a couple of days here on Dønna/ Herøy before heading down to Trondheim for a few days. Despite my having work we still managed to fit in a few things here before heading down south. Trine invited us round for a rather fabulous chicken soup and then took us on a wee jaunt to show us places that I hadn't been to before. A hill with a rather fabulous out look and a lovely beach that I was previously unaware of. While I was playing for a funeral Jen chatted away with Tina and Stig and got a few suggestions for places to visit when we were in Trondheim.

We managed to pack a lot into our few days in Trondheim - at least 4 museums, 4 concerts, most of a Street Art tour as well as copious amounts of coffee shops. We did so much walking that by Saturday afternoon I needed to retire for a wee nap in the afternoon. I had actually hoped that with all the walking that I might have lost a bit of weight by the end of the trip but alas not. A few extra pounds were found to have been added. I'm sure this was completely unrelated to my copious visits to the breakfast bar.

The concerts we went to covered a wide spectrum of styles : it was Jazz Festival time so we thought we should make the effort so we went to see "Dirty Loops" They're a Swedish band whose arrangements "borrow from jazz and jazz fusion, gospel, funk, electronica, pop and disco". I'm sure it's unrelated to my age but goodness me it was loud.

After out visit to the Ringve museum (where we were treated to a private tour of normally off limits places) we returned in the evening to hear a couple of male voice choirs. It's fabulous to listen to 70 plus men singing in harmony.

Other highlights included the Organ Meditation in Nidaros Cathedral - almost entirely a JS Bach programme with a bit of CPE thrown in the start. An excellent way to spend an hour.

After the organ concert we had time for a quick coffee before our next concert which was in Vår Frue church and entitled "Reimaginings". There were 3 performers - a pianist, a violinist and a vibraphone player. It was exactly as you'd imagine, they re-interpreted olde works - I think Debussy's orchestral work La Mer was one of them and performed them as a trio. I really enjoyed it.

As recommended by my colleagues, we had our last evening meal up Egon Tårnet - a revolving restaurant up a tower. Fabulous views (apart from the quarry bit obviously). I should point out that in the picture I look very fat but if you look closely it's my left arm giving that effect. Well, some of that effect maybe.

As mentioned above we packed a lot into a short time and on our last morning we actually just sat in the sun in the courtyard of the Archbishop's Palace and Jen tried to teach me the name of the various birds flying around.

While there, I came up Graeme's Costa Price Index for working out how expensive things are. Jen was delighted to have this explained to her a number of times. In no way is it scientifically accurate but it gives me a way of judging how expensive things are.

"Briefly" it goes like this:

I know exactly how much my coffee and cake cost when I go across to Sandnessjøen and a wee shout out here to the gentleman who serves me. I'm proud to say that my language has improved to such an extent that we even talked about the weather last time I was there :-)

Anyway... so I equate the amount I pay here with the cost of a Costa coffee and slice of tiffin in Dundee. It's slightly unfair as I tend to also get a Coke Zero when I'm here but... I then work out in this system how many Costas it would cost to buy the intended purchase. So for example in this system, a hotel room in Syv Søstre would cost the equivalent of 10 Costas. Therefore a good deal. Earlier this week I decided that what was really missing in my life was a garlic press. I found one in the AMFI shopping centre. Putting the cost through the CPI it came out as nearly 4 Costas which struck me as a bit steep so my life continues to be empty.

While in Trondheim, a few minutes after telling Jen that I was looking for a lighter causal jacket to wear we came across Dressman with a stand outside with exactly what I was looking for. On this occasion, the CPI came up as 1 jacket = 1 Costa so spectacularly good deal. In reality it was such a good deal that they wouldn't let you bring it back if you changed your mind - "I won't give you a receipt cos you can't bring it back"